Eden’s Gospel, What Following God’s Will Looks Like

Text: Mark 1: 12-15

Proposition: As Jesus begins the Messianic Age He experiences the effects of Adams disobedience, the wilderness, the agent of Adam’s fall, Satan and now the will of God is secured in Him, redemptions obedience.

Introduction: Being tested, it’s a phrase that can refer to some kind screening for a disease, it can refer to a trial of some kind to determine a persons readiness, it can even indicate approval and qualification. Anyone in emergency services or Armed Forces knows the process of testing, anyone who has spent years in education knows what it can feel like but greater than all these is the way God sometimes tests us, proves us, readies us. This morning we’re going to look at a passage where Jesus was tested. It was a pressure test directed by the Holy Spirit that would both prove and ready Jesus. Have a look at Mark 1:12-15.

I. The Test Proves Readiness By Proving Obedience.                                                      

The Baptism of Jesus has just taken place, it was the inauguration of the Messiah and the beginning of the Messianic Age. Jesus is identified by the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Him and was declared the ready sacrifice, the Lamb Who takes away the sin of the world by the voice of the Father saying to Him, “You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” That was the presenting of the Messiah, now comes the testing or proving of His credentials to be the new Adam. I say this because in the first Adam came temptation and disobedience and fall and sin and death. The Messiah was come not just to make the world a wonderful place to live, not just to create security and prosperity especially for Israel. All that would have been a very short sighted understanding of Who the Messiah is. If the Messiah had come only to do that for Israel it would be like taking a dying man to the circus and buying him cotton candy as if somehow changing the outside would remedy the ruin on the inside. The Messiah came to reverse what the first Adam released. The Messiah came to reverse death by reversing sin, by reversing the fall by reversing the victory of the Tempter by reversing the disobedience.                                                                                                    

So what does the Holy Spirit do, He compels, He drives Jesus into the wilderness, into the fallen state of Eden. Just to be clear this language does not suggest that Jesus was unwilling to go, rather it suggests an urgency on the part of the Spirit in the person of Jesus to begin again where Adam had fallen. If you think this is a stretch to think of the temptation in the wilderness in this way just consider Romans 5:18,19, “Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.” To reverse the consequences of the fall Jesus needed to become our new head, the One from whom would inherit everlasting life. The proof of Jesus readiness to do this required the humanity of Christ to be proven obedient to the will of God. The deity of Christ was unwavering in that God cannot sin. It was the humanity of Christ as our new Adam that was being tested.

II. The Test Revisits the Place of Failure and Rewrites It.                                                  

The place of failure for Adam was Eden, the place of the temptation of Eve and Adam to take what didn’t belong to them. You remember the tactic of Satan, he tells them that disobedience has no consequence, ‘You will not die”. He tells them that they can be like God, having the knowledge that God has and thus the ability to choose for themselves. Look at Eve’s response to this pitch, Gen. 3:6 “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.” Satan pitches the world at them, offering it as a replacement for obedience to God. Do you remember the words of 1 John 2:6, “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.” That was the place of failure. Jesus revisits that place and rewrites it. For forty days, a number associated with judgment, Jesus is tempted and tried. What were the temptations Satan used? Luke 4 describes them: turn these stones to bread, receive all the riches of the world, show that you can test God and get away with it… what do they amount to… the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life. It’s the same pitch he used on Adam and this time Jesus rewrites the answers, “…man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.; Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.; Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.”                                                                                                 

Have a look again at Mark 1:13, “And He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan, and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to Him.” The reference to wild beasts reminds us that not only was this what Israel looked like in those days with jackals and lions roaming what it tells us even more is that they did not harm Him. Does it remind you a little of the way Danial was not touched by lions, does it remind you of what Isaiah wrote of millennial rule of Christ in Isa. 11:6, “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.” The Messiah is going to restore the fall of all creation, the reversal of death is also the reversal of the carnivore. What about that reference in Mark to the angels ministering to Jesus at the end of testing. What did the end of Adams testing look like? Angels guarded the way so that Adam could no longer get back into Eden. Now in Christ our new Adam, angels supply and support Him. The test revisits the place of failure and rewrites it.                                                                               

III. Eden’s Gospel… Redemption is Here, Christ’s Cross is The Tree of Life.                    

Jesus returns to Galilee from the time of testing, of being proved obedient. Mark 1:14,15 says, “Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” The gospels as we know had not yet been written so what do you think this gospel was that Jesus preached. I would submit to you that it was like His inaugural address, His declaration of the Fathers plan and His recognition of the will of God that He would follow unswervingly. The time is fulfilled means the kingdom of God which was long promised has now come in a fullness as never before. This kingdom has four aspects to it:

1. God’s Kingship rule, God is sovereign, His will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

2. Complete salvation, when God’s sovereignty rules in your life His redemption invites your will to receive Him and His provision of forgiveness of sin and reconciliation of relationship.

3. The significance of the church as the only recognized citizens of the kingdom of God. The King has a kingdom.

4. The Kingdom of God extends even to the extent of a redeemed universe, a new earth and a new heaven in all their glory.

This was the gospel Jesus preached, that God is sovereign, that we must repent of sin and take shelter in His love and grace, that He is building a company of the Redeemed which also means there will be many who do not choose to repent and believe in His salvation. The gospel Jesus preached talked about a new heaven and new earth, it preached to a longing that God has placed in every soul for more, more hope, more peace, more life. Why do we long for more if there is not more. That is the kingdom of God.    

So what would an application of this look like? Well for Jesus it meant several things:             

1. To follow God’s will means I will be proved or made ready in a variety of ways. It means that what God seeks in me is not so much perfection (be ye perfect as I am perfect Matt 5:48) as it is obedience. Readiness proves obedience.                                                             

2. To follow God’s will may mean to stop living in the shadow of failure and to rewrite it in Christ. There is forgiveness, receive it.                                                                                             

3. To follow after God’s will means choosing Him as your King, under His sovereign rule, in the kingdom. It means repenting from sin, not just a feeling but an action. It means faith in Christ, knowing and believing in His gospel, the gospel of Eden.

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