The Pastor’s Corner

The term bible comes from the Greek word biblion, which means book or roll. It was used to describe writings on papyrus. Eventually the plural form of the word (biblia) was used by Latin Christians to refer to the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments. The major theme of the Bible is the person and work of Jesus Christ, God’s promised Messiah. Floyd Barackman states

“The dominant theme of the Scriptures is the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s promised Conqueror-Savior (Gen 3:15; Luke 24:27, 44; John 1:45, 5:39). The Lord’s Messianic work was announced in the Old Testament by prophecy (Gen 3:15; Isaiah 11, 49:1-12; 52:13-53:12) and was portrayed by the OT ritual sacrifices (Heb 7-10); it was established in the Gospels by His public ministry, death and resurrection (Matt. 27-28); it was preached and applied in the Acts of the Apostles to those who trusted in Him and His atoning work (Acts 16:31-34); it was doctrinally stated and explained in the Epistles (Rom 1:1-6); and its consummation was anticipated in the visions of Revelation (Rev 19:11-21; chapters 20-22), which revealed His second coming to earth, defeating His enemies, rewarding His people, and ruling over the earth for one thousand years.” (Barackman, Practical Christian Theology)

With this said, we see a most interesting question about the Scriptures, though it is comprised of 66 books, written by 40 authors, over a period of 1500 years, yet it remains consistent and without contradiction. How did this happen? Paul Enns states,

“It quickly becomes apparent that no human being(s) could have orchestrated the harmony of the teachings of the Scripture. The divine authorship of the Bible is the only answer.” (Enns, Moody, Handbook of Theology)

^{Would you consider yourself an ambitious person? Do you want to move up in your job setting? Do you have high goals that you would like to see accomplished? Ambition can be a real help in many different ways, but did you know that ambition could also move us away from God. Notice the temptation Satan brings to Christ in Matthew 4:8-10}

^{8 Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ “}

^{Satan’s temptation is one of calling Christ to give in and turn away from God so that He can have all the world right now. This may seem a silly temptation to some, as Christ owns the whole universe and will one day fully rule over all. But, one the other hand, are the temptations that Satan comes to us with much different. He offers us peace and happiness and satisfaction if we only give in to the things of the world, when God tells us those things are ours in relationship with Him. Ambition towards any one thing can draw you away from the Lord, so make sure your ambition is not what is driving you, but let God lead the charge.}

What type of temptation did you face this week? Did you struggle with desires to let your felt needs overrule your commitment to Christ? Did you instead struggle with desires to draw attention to yourself? Both of these temptations were placed before Christ by the Devil himself. Last week we learned that physical needs shouldn’t be allowed to overrule our commitment to Christ. This week we look at Matthew 4:5-7: Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, ⁶ and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’ and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’ ” ⁷ Jesus said to him, “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the LORD your God’” The second lesson in temptation is that desires for recognition should not trump our desire to glorify God. Satan tempted Christ to do the spectacular, throw yourself off this high building and the angels will catch you! This would have been an amazing feat and all would have been impressed with Christ, but no, Christ’s desire was to fulfill the will of the father, which would glorify Him. Don’t let a desire for respect and acknowledgement take you away from glorifying God.

Temptation is faced daily by all men and women every, but victory over temptation is not as prevalent. What can we learn about dealing with temptation from the temptation of our Savior in Matthew 4? Matthew 4:1-4 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. ² And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. ³ Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.⁴ But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ” Over the next 3 weeks I would like to share with you 3 principles to guide you in the midst of temptation. The first comes from these four verses. Jesus was led by the spirit into the wilderness and spent 40 literal days without food. The body can go this long without food but not much longer. It is at this point that we begin to learn the first principle: though His body was in great need of nourishment, Jesus’ physical needs did not trump His spiritual commitment to Holiness. Let me restate the principle: Physical needs do not trump our spiritual allegiances. Essentially, this becomes a battle between the flesh and the Spirit of God. In the midst of temptation, your flesh tells you it has needs, it may need food, respect, honor, happiness, sexual desires, retribution, etc; but all of these so called needs must be trumped by our commitment to walking in the Spirit. Each one of these needs can be very real, but they are not to be met at the expense of sin! Allow God to meet your physical needs in due time and continue to obey even when your flesh says otherwise.