May 10, 2026 - The Gospel of Luke - Week 3 - Affirmed and Tested

Highland Christian Church - Asheville, NC

Communicator - Jason Garris

Luke 3:21-23, 4:1-13 - "This is my SON!" Announcement and affirming. "Jesus led into the wilderness" The Son of God is declared – and immediately driven into the battle… and VICTORIOUS. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

So now the question becomes, if Jesus really is one of us, will he fail like one of us? We've all seen the promise of leaders telling us I'll fix it. I'll be the one. So by the time Jesus shows up, the question isn't, is he the Messiah? The question is, what kind of messiah will he be? Will he also let us down? Welcome in everyone. My name is Jason, and I'm one of the pastors at Highland Christian Church. And on behalf of our team, I just wanted to say thanks for taking some time to journey with us through the scripture. Our hope is that these words would cause you to think carefully about this Jesus we proclaim and that you would choose to trust him in your day-to-day. And as always, if you're in the Asheville area, whether you live here or you're visiting, we'd love for you to come join us at the corner of Livingston and Depot Street in person at the Dr. Wesley Grant Senior Southside Center. Our prayer is that God's words would equip you for every good work that He's prepared for you to do today. If I was to tell you, you know, uh Israel was always looking for the Messiah, that may not make sense to all of us. We may be like, I don't care. I'm not living in first century Israel. It doesn't matter that they were looking for a Messiah. Essentially, what they were looking for was someone or something to save them. There's where it becomes personal. Every single one of you in this room, whatever you chase, however you chase it, you believe it's going to save you. Every single one of us is on this self-salvation plan. For those of you that you're like, well, my looks will save me from getting made fun of. So you spend time looking in the mirror. My prestige in this academic world will get me, I won't be made fun of, or I won't be called stupid. So you spend all this time looking into the education that trying to gain more knowledge. For those of you that are like, well, you know what? If I have the perfect family, it'll save me. So you spend all of your time making sure everything looks perfect. Salvation, right? So when I say to you, all of Israel is looking for the Messiah, it means something to us today. You have to be able to be honest with what you think is gonna save you. Right? If you're drowning in something, your thought is, who will save me? Identities, stories, whatever it is, there is something you are chasing to save you or you are waiting on to save you. Israel just happened to have a physical king they were waiting on. We may not be waiting on a physical king, but some of y'all are waiting on a local politician. Some of you are waiting on a national politician, the next person in line. Well, if they get in, then they'll save us. You know it's been repeated for thousands of years. Everybody says it. Some of you are waiting on that next job. You're waiting on something to save you. The question is, what thing can save? What is that savior like? Is it cruel? Is it harsh? Is it good? Is it eternal? Will it last forever or will it break? So when I ask, who is the Messiah, as the nation of Israel might be asking it, you wouldn't land on just one obvious person. You'd start to see a pattern forming, and Mr. Reen started to allude to it. Adam was called the son of God, but he fails. Israel, also called God's son, fails in the wilderness. Kings, prophets, judges, they all raise up. Each one looks promising. You know, right? I'm like Deborah, Gideon, Samson. You're all like, man, my money's on one of those people. They all fail. And then the promises begin to get a little clearer. This rescue will be like a king like David, a prophet like Moses, a suffering servant, a son of man who would reign forever. You're getting all of these clues and these question marks that pop up because you're going, is that the guy? Is that the guy? Is that the person? Is that the person? And here's the tension. When you look in the Old Testament, no one person fulfills all those things. You'd essentially need a team of Power Rangers to be all of those things. But that's not what you have here. When you're in the Old Testament, it's like watching the trailer for a movie, and then you see a different trailer and you see glimpses of the hero. They don't actually show you the hero, and you never see a full picture. So by the time you get to the Old Testament, you're not just looking for someone, you're thinking that's a lot for one person to be. Can one person actually be this thing that we're looking for? You're looking for someone greater than anyone who has ever come. The expectations are very high. And at the Jordan River, God Himself interrupts this search. You can stop looking now. This is my son. Luke 3, verse 21. One day when the crowds were being baptized, Jesus Himself was baptized. As he was praying, the heavens opened, and the Holy Spirit, in bodily form, descended on him like a dove, and a voice from heaven says, You are my dearly loved son, and you bring me great joy. Sometimes we give so much attention to the detailed background of the Old Testament promises about what the Messiah was supposed to look like. Like we dig into it. We like, we love to know, like we like to see the connection points in the Old Testament that point us to Jesus. But I think we sometimes miss what's actually being said in this moment. Jesus, this poor, completely unknown, ignored, and overlooked man from Nazareth is in fact the Son of God. That's what's being declared in this moment. The one that nobody cared about or cared to know is the Messiah. Before Jesus does anything, before he teaches, before he performs a miracle, the Father declares everything. Jesus doesn't have to earn this standing, it just is. I love the order of what we're going to talk about this morning. Baptism first, temptation second. See, in religious minds, the temptation would be first, and if he qualified or accomplished it, then he could be baptized and be announced. That's not what we see here. We see baptism first, temptation second, identity first, everything flows from that. This is my son, loved, approved, delighting in him. And don't miss this. It wasn't just whispered. Right? Like it would have been so great, you know. Hey Jesus, you're my son, I love you. Just don't tell anybody, okay? I don't want anybody else to know. It wasn't that. Like we all love when somebody affirms us, we love it a little more when we're publicly affirmed. Right? We're like, yeah, I'm glad that you said that, but you're my dad, you have to say things like that. But in front of people, we love it. There's just something more to that, and God does that to his son right in front of everyone. God is saying to all of Israel, all those who standing at this place, following John's teachings, you can stop looking. You can stop trying to save yourself, you can stop trying to dig into all the scriptures and find out who the Messiah is. He is standing right here with you. And this was not the first time Jesus knew he was unique. Some people argue and they say, Well, when the Holy Spirit comes unto Jesus, that's when he knows. That's not what the gospels tell us. The gospels tell us that Jesus always knew, and so did Mary and Joseph. It was hard for people to believe because he grew up in such poverty. What is happening here is a public declaration of what has always been an official start, just as Mr. Rean said. The gun is going off. Verse 23, Luke says this. I'm not gonna read it. You're welcome, okay? And it's easy to skip over genealogies, but these matter. Luke traces Jesus' family line all the way back to Adam. And I know when you're going through your Bible reading plan, you get to a genealogy, you're like, and I skip forward five chapters, right? I get it. Maybe next time you skip over genealogy, just say a quick God, thank you for the detailed records. Just thank you for that. Thank you that it's not just hazy and fuzzy. Thank you that people cared about where they came from. Thank you that you cared enough to record for these people who would go into exile not knowing who they are, but because you took such detailed care of the records and their genealogies, they could know where they came from. Thank you that you care enough about the lineages of people and you promised a savior through a lineage that was not just made up on the spot, but for thousands of years you worked despite sinful people, and your son came about through these lines that you said they would. Luke goes all the way back and he does two things. He makes sure people understand that Jesus comes from the line of David. Yes, David, King David. So he belongs on a throne, but he also takes it all the way back to Adam because he belongs with us. Jesus isn't just sent from God, he stands with humanity. He is a part of our story. So now the question becomes: if Jesus really is one of us, will he fail like one of us? We've all seen the promise of leaders telling us, I'll fix it. I'll be the one, right? Israel was used to false Messiah claims, kings saying, I'm gonna be king, and then they're dead, and then they're killed, or then they do something bad. I mean, you can go overseas, and in any third world country, they'll tell you you go look on one side, you see the police. You look on the other side, you see the gangsters, and everybody says they're just the same people in different in different uniforms. They're all doing the same thing, they're all trying to take control, they're all telling us that they can promise they can fix this, that, or the other, and it's just so underwhelming. Because everyone's looking for a savior, everyone's looking for these messiahs, and they keep letting people down. So by the time Jesus shows up, the question isn't, is he the Messiah? The question is, what kind of Messiah will he be? Will he also let us down? Verse 1 of Luke chapter 4. Then Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan River. He was led by the Spirit in the wilderness where he was tempted by the devil for forty days. Jesus ate nothing all that time and became very hungry. Jesus is full of the Spirit, and he is led by the Spirit into the wilderness. Those are important details for you and for me. This is not an accident. This isn't the devil showing up, surprising Jesus. This is intentional. And in the Bible, the wilderness is known as a place of testing, but it is also a place of revealing. And listen to the pattern. Adam tested in the garden, failed. Israel tested in the wilderness, failed. Jesus tested in the wilderness, what will happen? Israel has heard this story before. They've seen elements of it all through their history. Fasting today has become been described as a time to simply fill yourself with God's word. We like to fast from social media, we like to fast from uh video games, our phone, anything but food, really, because we're like, oh, that's too much. That's legalism. I can't fast from food. I gotta fast from social media. No. See, here's the deal. Yes, fasting is about replacement and us spending time intentionally seeking after God, but through history, fasting has also been used to reveal something about us. As you got hungry, you got weaker. And as you get weaker, you get realer. Fasting and going without really reveals what we are all about. You ever been hangry before? There's a reason. Going without reveals the real you. Without your flesh being strong, you are able to surrender, or you can fight it and take up even more control. Fasting reveals the real us. Luke makes sure to let us know that Jesus is in a weakened state. So no one could say that Jesus is some kind of hidden superman, which there's weird Christian thoughts that Jesus was kind of like a Superman character. That's not what we see here in the scripture. The flesh is starving. Will the Messiah depend on God's spirit, or will he do something else? And in this weakened state, the enemy shows up. Just a side note, please pay attention to how testing and temptation often show up when we are weak. If you have been away from Christian community or scripture or prayer, or you're just exhausted and you're busy because you're trying to define your identity by how busy you are, weakness is an opportunity for the flesh, the world, and the enemy to start making more sense to you. So when you are weak, do not be surprised if you start to have the same thoughts Jesus will wrestle with through the temptation. Demonic, worldly, and even our flesh love to take control in weakened states. Be mindful at the way the opposition works. Verse 3, then the devil said to Jesus, If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become a loaf of bread. Now, you have to nerd out with me for just a moment. In the Greek, there are three types of if scenarios. So that we see that begins with the word if. There's if then, there's if then not, and then there's if we don't know. The wording used in the enemy's challenge here to Jesus is not an if not, or we're not sure. It's an if then. Some of your translations, if you have the ESV, it says, since you are the Son of God, is what you may see. Since you are the Son of God. The devil isn't necessarily trying to get Jesus to doubt his identity. He's actually trying to get Jesus to doubt God's goodness here. I mean, since you are God's son, there's no way he'd want you starving. You shouldn't be hungry. Go ahead and eat something, right? If you are who you are, then there's no way God would let you suffer on an empty stomach. Go ahead, take some control, grab that bread, turn that rock into bread. If you ever made a bad decision when you're hungry or you're tired, now imagine taking that for 40 days. Jesus is physically depleted, and in that moment, the temptation is don't trust God, take control.

SPEAKER_01 15:58

And when we are weak, boy, does that sound really good.

SPEAKER_00 16:03

When we're tired or we're hungry or we're craving and we can't seem to get that craving satisfied, man, is that the time to take control? And here we see Jesus challenged. The devil knows Jesus knows that he's God's son. He knows. So it only makes sense that he would exploit that relationship. You know, if you're so close to God, use it for your own good, bro. Do do what you want, make it yours. Satisfy your own need and take control. Verse 4, but Jesus told him, No. The scriptures say people do not live by bread alone. Jesus refuses to take matters into his own hands. Where Adam grabbed at the fruit, where Israel complained, Jesus trusts. Verse 5, then the devil took him up and revealed to him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. I will give you the glory of these kingdoms and authority over them. The devil said, Because they are mine to give to anyone I please, I will give it all to you if you will worship me. Since we know there isn't a place tall enough to get a view of all the world's empires and kingdoms in Israel, I mean, maybe the devil is a flat earther. I don't know. Maybe he is. And since it was done in a moment of time, chances are the enemy is playing with Jesus' mind. Man, he loves to grind ideas of power and glory into our head. Right? If I could just have the power, if I could just have the glory, if I could just have a little bit of the glory, right? Like you think through, that's all we want. Just a little bit, just a tiny portion. Now, what the devil is offering Jesus is real. Okay? When he's saying all the kingdoms of the earth are mine, he's not lying. It's a real promise. His authority is real, but it's limited. He is the prince of the air and can in fact reward those who serve him. Even Jesus acknowledges that. In John chapter 12, Jesus says, the time for judging this world has come when Satan, what does he call him? The ruler of this world, will be cast out. Repeatedly, Jesus calls Satan the ruler of this world, and his time is coming. So the promise that the devil is making is real, but it's limited. Luke has made it clear that Jesus' mission is to the whole world. So of course, the opposition would tell him, you can have the whole world if you'll just worship me. So it only makes sense that there's going to be conflict between these two. Before Jesus starts his ministry, he has a chance to confront the leader of the opposition. And Jesus must confront the unseen background to all of the struggles he will face from this point forward. Behind every human opposition stands an even more threatening, dark, supernatural force. Will Jesus accept all the glory and the authority that the devil can give him, or will he choose something else? Will he take a shortcut? Glory without suffering, a crown without a cross. Verse 8, Jesus replies, The scriptures say you must worship the Lord your God and serve only him. Listeners who had a Jewish background would hear the words of Israel's journey as Moses spoke to them in the wilderness in Deuteronomy chapter 6. They had been complaining, they had been whining. And Moses says, Be careful not to forget the Lord who rescued you from slavery in the land of Egypt. You must fear the Lord your God and serve him. When you take an oath, you must use only his name. You must not worship any of the gods of the neighboring nations. Israel's status as the people of God depended on them refusing the attractions of other gods when they got to the promised land. They spent years in the wilderness being shaped by and provided for by God. Yet they failed, just like Adam and Eve failed. Jesus does not. Where humanity has always chased power, Jesus chose surrender. And it is a picture you will see over and over. Verse 9 then the devil took him to Jerusalem, Jesus, to the highest point of the temple and said, If you are the Son of God, jump off. I mean, he's just kind of the t the temptations are getting sillier, right? You don't want to go to this high spot. Jump off, for the scriptures say he will order his angels to protect and guard you, and they will hold you up with their hands so you won't hurt your foot on a stone. The Jewish historian Josephus tells us that before the temple was destroyed, the temple portico that overhung the Kidron Valley, and if you're at the temple, you can actually see the wall that kind of hangs, it's here, and then there's a valley that just comes out from underneath it. So it even looks lower. But before it was destroyed, it would have been about 165 feet tall, which is about the same as standing in a 15-story building looking down. The tallest building in Asheville is 18 stories tall. The BBT, the former BBT building. So it was not some small jump that the devil was suggesting Jesus make. And he was actually. What's fascinating about this is we're introduced to a tactic of the enemy. He can quote scripture too. Yay! Scripture, scripture, Bible, Bible. We're all talking about it, right? We're all using it. We're all putting it on our Instagram, in our profile. We're we're we're posting a story, quoting scripture, quoting scripture. We can all do it. Even the devil can. And he's actually quoting Psalm 91 for he will order his angels to protect you wherever you go. They will hold you up with their hands so you won't even. Hurt your foot on a stone. I mean, since you're God's son, go ahead and do this. It'll show the world and it'll prove that God really does care about you. You won't hurt your foot. So why not just go for it? In verse 12, Jesus responded, the scriptures also say you must not test the Lord your God. If Jesus had jumped, God probably would have saved him, but that trust relationship would have been shattered. I don't know if you've ever thought if Jesus had caved in these in this wilderness, that would destroy the fabric of the space-time continuum. Like my mind would be blown. Like all hell would be continually unleashed and it would be worse. Like I cannot even fathom the God of all creation being willing to worship some tiny God. Can you imagine it? I can't. Like I tried to sit in it for a little bit this week. I was like, what would it have been like if God had just said yes to worshiping some insignificant demonic force because he was so desperate to not go through suffering? What would have happened to all of humanity? Like this is like cool discussion stuff. I know we'll ever get to the bottom of it, but like it's a desperate thought. How hopeless things would have actually been. Jesus, quotes, straight out of Israel's experience in the wilderness when they were complaining about not having food or not having enough water and how they hated Moses and how they were hating on the Lord. And Moses struck the rock to give the people water. God gave the people what they wanted in that moment, but their relationship was severed. You can hear it in Exodus. Moses named the place Masah, which means test and Meribah, which means arguing, because the people of Israel argued with Moses and tested the Lord by saying, Is the Lord here with us or not? I mean, how hard can hearts be? We all like to say, well, if I was back then, I probably would never have, I would have, I would have seen the miracles. My heart would never have been that hard. We're seeing the case. All of us. Same thing. True trust in God is not in a constant state of, God, you better show me. Yesterday, God proved himself faithful. I wake up tomorrow, God, you better show me. Yesterday he proved himself faithful. God, you better show me. Like if that's our attitude towards him, that's not trust. It's not that God's asking us to blindly trust him because he has been faithful. And how do we know? We look at the cross. We look at that point in history when he said, I will take care of you. And he did. And you have a decision to make if that's going to be enough for you to trust him for your tomorrow. That's how it works. We're very forgetful people. We're just like Israel. We're just like Adam and Eve. We're all grasping at power. And the way we release is knowing that he has all the power. He is all powerful and chose to come close. When the devil quoted Psalm 91, remember, because the devil loves to do that too. There's this part about a promise being made to those who surrender to God's will in the very first part of Psalm 91. Verse 1 Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. This I declare about the Lord. He alone is my refuge, my place of safety. He is my God, and I trust him. Those who trust the Lord, he will keep from their foot hitting the rock. Those who put their trust in the Lord, those who surrender. Devil conveniently did not quote that. He just said, just throw yourself off. Go for it. You'll be fine. That is not what we see here. Jesus submits himself to God even in his weakest state. He has come through the wilderness victorious. Jesus refuses to manipulate his father. He trusts him. The enemy isn't trying to stop Jesus from being the Messiah. He's trying to redefine what the Messiah is supposed to be like. Meet your needs your way. Take power without suffering or sacrifice. Force God's hand. And at every turn, Jesus refuses. Verse 13 when the devil had finished tempting Jesus, he left him until the next opportunity came. As the man comes, the devil leaves, but not forever. This will not be the last battle. While Jesus has privately accomplished what Adam could not, what Israel could not, the danger has not gone away permanently. Jesus will be confronted by demonic forces, people, and situations that will place his relationship with his father under great strain. The garden, his arrest, false trial, and even his execution. But for now, Luke has revealed before Jesus takes a step in public ministry, privately, his heart is set on doing the Father's will, the Father's way. Jesus doesn't just win this battle to show us how to fight. And I know so many people use this as a recipe or a formula for fighting Christian temptation. Obviously, there's some things we can learn. But the real gift of this passage is that he wins it for us. The real gift of Luke chapter 4, verses 1 through 13 is not that there's a strategy against the devil's schemes. There's a strategy and a victory that has been done for you. For me. The words to Adam and Eve. You remember the words to Adam and Eve? The Lord blessed them and looked over all he had made and he saw that it was very good, right? He started with a blessing with them. The words to Israel, the Lord did not choose you because you were great. Rather, it was because he loves you. The words for Jesus, you are my dearly loved son, you bring me great joy. Adam was tested in the garden, failed. Israel, power of God with them, fails. Jesus tested in a fallen and desolated wilderness, led by the Spirit, filled by the Spirit, standing in his identity, where Adam failed, where Israel failed, where we fail, Jesus obeys. So what do you do with temptation? I know we all want that practical nugget. When you are tempted or when you find yourself caving to temptation, it's not about beating yourself up. It's not about trying harder, it's not about hating yourself into holiness, because none of those things work. You and I fight temptation by remembering Christ has already won. And I know that seems so contradictory to the way the world works. Right? We think if I have victory in the wilderness, then I get baptized. No. Baptism, approval first. From there, you walk in the wilderness. It's like stepping into a game where the final score is already decided. I mean, how many times would you walk out onto a basketball court if you knew you were gonna the game was already over? It's a hundred to forty, you've won, and now you play the game. That sounds so crazy, right? You know the outcome of the game. You walk out, and the games are the scores already there, and they're just like, oh no, just play. It's so weird. But for us, that's what's happened. You're not playing for the victory or that scoreboard. The victory is already there. You're playing from victory. That's how we deal with temptation in a Christian's life. At the Jordan River, God says, This is my son. In the wilderness, Jesus shows us what kind of son he is, and instead of grasping for power and control like we do, he chooses trust and obedience. And in every test, temptation, or trial that you face, you're gonna be faced with the same thoughts. Even though God has given me life and breath and he holds the universe and he's called me his child, will I trust him in the wilderness? Every day. Every day. But we don't ask that question alone. Jesus was confronted with that challenge, and we can stand on his faithfulness. Did you know that Paul actually writes about us putting our faith in Christ's faith? I don't think we think about that. We think about it's our faith. My faith? My faith is what saves me. No, actually, it was the faithfulness of Christ that saved you. Because the faithfulness of Christ where we are faithless, he remains faithful. So a believer, in essence, is going, I put my trust in Christ's faithfulness because my faith fails me every single day. That is how you walk through temptation. Because God's given me the victory. Luke lets us in on some big news. God's approved son is the Messiah. We need that for victory. From this moment on, Luke's audience perks up. Their attention is now in the life of Jesus. The ministry that you begin. Let's pray. We just wanted to say thank you for listening to the Highland Christian Church podcast today. And if you ever want to connect with us, send prayer requests, ask questions, or for any other reason, you can visit our website, www.highlandchristian.com, or you can send us an email at info at highlandchristian.com. God bless you guys.