Advent: Join the Triumph預覽

The Scripture:

"The Holy Spirit led Jesus into the desert. There the devil tempted him" (Matthew 4:1, NIRV).

The Story:

We have talked a lot about victory and defeat in our time together. We have talked about how Jesus is the Only Way to Victory through His Death and Resurrection. But did you know that Jesus had to go through what you go through? No, I don’t mean He lived your life and read Diary of a Wimpy Kid. I mean that Jesus was tempted to give up on God and Satan tried to defeat Him.

Our Scripture today tells us that Jesus was led into a desert by the Holy Spirit and there, the devil tempted Him. Now the devil, or Satan, is a real person. He is evil and wants people to follow evil instead of following God. So Satan sees that Jesus is in the desert and attacks Jesus. Except these attacks are not physical, they are simply invitations.

You see, we all love being invited to things. Whether it’s a pool party, ice cream party, or Christmas party, we all love being invited. The Good News of the Bible is we are invited into Friendship with God because of Jesus’ Death and Resurrection. But there are also evil invitations around us. Invitations to disobey our parents, to lie, and to reject God. Every day, the world throws these invitations at us. But here we see that Satan shows up in person and invites Jesus to reject God.

What Jesus does is amazing! He knows that the devil is a liar, so Jesus relies on Truth, the Bible. The Bible is 100% true and brings Peace to our souls. When the world says lying is okay, or we can watch whatever we want, or say whatever we want, we can look to the Bible to bring Truth. So, with every invitation that Satan throws at Jesus to reject God, Jesus quotes the Bible. He beats lies with Truth. He defeats evil with Goodness. He defeats darkness with Light. Jesus gives us one of the greatest weapons in the battle against evil, the Bible.

Now the Bible is not a weapon to hurt people, but it is a Light in the darkness that shows how Jesus is Lord and how evil is a liar. You can win against temptation when you cling to God and His Word and watch Light beat the darkness.

The Triumph:

Did you know that people heard about Jesus hundreds of years before He was born? Many Bible verses tell that one day there will be a Savior. Then, hundreds of years later, Jesus kept those Promises and was born. We can trust the Bible because the Bible tells of God’s Promises and God keeps every one of them.