P1 - How we know Jesus claimed Himself to be Messiah and God-Incarnate - Jesus as authoritative as God

Matthew 5:18-19 "For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 19 Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven."

Introduction:
Did Jesus understand Himself to be the Messiah and revelation of God in human flesh? This two-fold question is important to answer, since many today claim that Jesus never understood Himself to be neither. In conversations that I've had over the years with people of differing worldviews, religions and even-skeptics - the charge has been that Jesus never claimed to be the Messiah nor God's decisive revelation of Himself in true humanity. Scholar Michael J. Wilkins notes this challenge in a chapter, "Who Did Jesus Think He Was?" from the book "Contending with Christianity's Critics" (Edited by William Lane Craig and Paul Copan, B&H Publishing 2009): "Modern Critics read the data of the New Testament differently by consistently making a distinction between what they refer to as the 'Jesus of History' and 'the Christ of faith'." Wilkins later notes: "But they contend that He never explicitly called Himself Messiah, He silenced those who tried to give Him messianic status (Mark 1:2-25; 8:29-30), and He declared that He was different from His heavenly Father, who knew things about the future that He himself did not know (Mark 13:32). Jesus knew He was a special agent of God, but He did not claim that He was anything other than a prophet like those of the Old Testament."

Dr. Wilkin's observations of the critics is important, since if it is the case that Jesus did not understand Himself to be the Messiah nor God incarnate, then His mission clearly had different aims than presented in the rest of the New Testament. Moreover, what pastors preach on Sunday morning and Christians have clung to about Jesus throughout the centuries has been at best a delusion. The Jesus I worship and preach and that Bible believing Christians have staked their trust in must surely be more than another "prophet" or mere "holy-man". This series of posts will aim to explore whether or not Jesus understood Himself (by way of his words and actions) to not only be the Messiah or deliverer of His people, but also God in human flesh, the Savior of the world and other truths that are unfolded in the New Testament.

A quick word about the sources for Jesus' ministry and life
To begin, when understanding the sources for Jesus' life and ministry, one must consider the Gospels, Acts and Epistles not as "one source", but rather several independent ancient sources. Certainly the Gospels, Acts, Epistles (and Revelation) are Divinely inspired to be sure, however when assessing claims made by Jesus, we approach them as historically reliable sources that speak and report about what Jesus said and did. Each book of the Bible was individually written under Divine inspiration, with the books later on collected and regarded together as the "Canon" or "rule and standard of faith". Hence, though our Bibles today do comprise "The Book" we call "The Bible", when understanding the life and ministry of Jesus, each Gospel is counted as "one source". 

Exploring Jesus' self-understanding by His words and actions, or what is called "implicit Christology"
With that caveat out of the way, we can turn to the Gospel records to discern how Jesus understood His life and ministry. Such an approach is designated in New Testament studies as: "Implicit Christology", meaning the message Jesus preaches and acts out relative to the in-breaking of the kingdom of God, and He being king over it. Dr. William Lane Craig comments on this approach in his book "Reasonable Faith" (Crossway, 2008) - "But we may gain additional insight into Jesus' self-understanding by examining His teaching and behavior." Craig later notes: "In other words, the titles serve only to express 'explictly' what Jesus is in his teaching and behavior had already expressed about himself 'implicitly'."

Jesus understood Himself to be as authoritative as God
In the opening verses of this post, we find Jesus commenting on how the words of the Old Testament (which is all that existed in His day) would never pass way. For millennia, Christians everywhere have rightly understood these passages to be bedrock for establishing the authority and preservation of God's word down through the ages. As Jesus goes on though, it is abundantly clear that in His teaching, He also viewed Himself on equal par with the Old Testament scriptures, and more specifically the first five books or what are termed "Torah" (which means "Law" or "that which guides". Jesus states in Matthew 5:20-22 “For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. 21 “You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘You shall not commit murder’ and ‘Whoever commits murder shall beliable to the court.’ 22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell."

Twice Jesus uses the phrase: “but I say”. Oftentimes throughout scripture we will find the formula "it is written" or "thus says the Lord" to indicate the Divine authority of God as expressed by the scriptures. Truly what Jesus said - or more to the point - how He said it - tells us that He in effect viewed Himself as the Divine Son of God speaking forth as God to the people. No other prophet in the Old Testament ever speaks in this fashion. Furthermore, when Jesus remarked about "you have heard it said" or something to that effect, He was contrasting the Jewish tradition of His day that had built up around the Old Testament. Such tradition was comprised of centuries of various teachings by teachers called "Rabbis". What Jesus was doing was not only setting Himself in equal par to the Torah, but also over and against the traditions of men.

I would encourage the reader to look at the following scripture references in the Gospels to witness how Jesus' understood Himself to be Divinely authoritative through His statements of "but I say" (Matt 5:22,28,31-32, 44; 7:28-29; 12:6; 17:22; 26:29; Mk 10:2-12; Lk 4:25; 6:27; 9:27; John 5:34).

This brief study today has skimmed the surface in establishing the first line of evidence concerning Jesus' claim to Messiahship and being God-incarnate. By claiming Himself to be on par with the Torah and claiming to be as authoritative as God Himself in His teachings - we find that Jesus did understand Himself to be the Messiah and Son of God. Tomorrow we will consider another set of Jesus' actions and words (implicit Christology) that demonstrates Jesus' claim as Messiah and God-incarnate.

How The Holy Spirit Empowers Christians To Be Effective In the Workplace

Colossians 3:23-24 "Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men,24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve."

Introduction:

God gives three callings to the believer in Jesus Christ: the calling of salvation, sanctification (i.e holiness) and vocation (i.e work). Today's post will aim to dive a little bit further into the subject of vocation. Certainly what Paul has to write here in Colossians 3:22-4:1 deals with the matter of the work place. How one functions as a Christian in the everyday workplace is covered under the discussion of "vocation". One area that is important to include in such a discussion is the matter of "the anointing of the Holy Spirit".

The anointing of the Holy Spirit 

Operating as an employee who is a Christian is as spiritual of a consideration as thinking upon heeding the call to pastoring or missionary work. The types of work may be different and the callings God gives for each might be distinct, yet the value each has in contributing to the overall accomplishment of God's purposes can be used equally by God. God certainly has used preachers and pastors in times past to initiate might movements of God, but so has He used business men to do the same work. The gifting and calling of God is certainly greater than any man, however God is greater than them all and will use each as he sees fit to accomplish His purpose. 

The Bible uses the language of "anointing" to communicate this idea of spiritual authority. The anointing of the Holy Spirit is that ministry He does while indwelling the Christian. Such ministry results in Christians having empowerment and insight to function and serve the Lord. At least two types of anointing are spelled out in scripture. 

The first is what I call an "outward" anointing. This has to do primarily with offices of every sort, whether family, govermental or within the church. God grants grace and ability to achieve that particular office. Clearly unbelievers or believers occupy positions or stations in families (parents) and in the culture (politics, doctors, police officers, teachers, etc). For example, in the Old Testament we see godly King David and a Pagan King named Cyrus both referred to as "God's anointed" (Psalm 2 and Isaiah 45). Only Christian men are specifically assigned by God to occupy the Pastoral/Elder and Deacon offices of Christ's church. (1 Timothy 3:1-14 and Titus 1) and believers in general are called by God with graces that accompany other areas such as teaching, administrating. All authority comes from God. Period. 

The second type of anointing, what we will deem "inner anointing", refers to that spiritual authority that only comes through saving faith in Jesus Christ. 1 John 2:20 and 2:27 describes the indwelling Holy Spirit as being the Christian's "anointing", meaning the source of delegated authority from God to discern and live out the Christian life. 2 Corinthians 1:21-22 also describes this second type of anointing: "Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, 22 who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge."  Every Christian has the indwelling Spirit, and thus possess this inner anointing. Though all Christians have the inner anointing, each Christian will operate in different measure based upon how much they have taken in the scripture and have obediently yielded themselves to the Spirit's filling or influence. (Ephesians 5:18; Galatians 5:1,16). The anointing of the Holy Spirit is simply the empowerment and insight the Christian has from the indwelling Holy Spirit at work in and through their lives.

How so-called Christians are anointed by God to do extraordinary things
How can a Christian, working in an otherwise non-Christian environment, affect change? Certainly whatever station one is at in life, whether a parent, a doctor, a teacher, a laborer, a pastor or whatever the case may be, God has created the boundaries and abilities that come with each one. God has called and placed every believer where He wants them so they can be used by Him to impact others. 

In understanding the nature of one's vocation to do a certain task (again we will tie this to the term "outward anointing"), the Christian uniquely has that second anointing, that "inner anointing" or indwelling Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit indwells the child of God to compell them work hard and love their neighbor as themselves. So how do these two anointings work together?

Over time, a Christian who has regularly given themselves to the scriptures and prayer will to the unsuspecting co-worker gain respect. As the Christian learns their place and accepts what they are doing as a call from God, their ability to be used of God can only increase. 

Closing Thoughts Just knowing that where you are is ordained by God (outward anointing) and that all that you need to do your job is supplied by the Holy Spirit of God indwelling you (i.e inward anointing) supplies the basis for Christian spiritual authority. Such authority must  not be viewed as imposing one's will on someone else but rather serving the Lord by loving one's neighbor for Jesus sake and doing one's job for God's glory. As Paul writes in Romans 14:7-8 "For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself;8 for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s."

Christians should forbear one another because of God's forbearance

Romans 2:4  "Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?"

In yesterday's post we considered God's forbearance and why it is that we ought to be thankful for it. Forbearance is that quality of God whereby He chooses beforehand to "bear with" His people. Even when we at times fail God, He won't deny us, since He won't deny Himself (2 Timothy 2:13). 

Today we want to understand why it is necessary for God's people to excercise this quality with one another. In Christian theology, God's characteristics or attirbutes are sometimes described in one of two ways: incommunicable and communicable attributes. I'm sure you have heard the term "communicable disease", meaning an illness that can be transmitted from one person to another. Communicability is that property that results in similar symptoms between the infected person and the carrier of the disease. The opposite of this word is incommunicable - referring to a characteristic that cannot be passed on or mimicked in another person. 

With God, there are incommunicable attributes (such as omniscience, omnipotence, etc.), meaning that no other being in the universe shares such qualities. With God, there are also communicable attributes (love, mercy, forbearance, etc.) that creatures mimic with respect to their Maker. Hence, God's people love one another because God first loved them (1 John 4:19). The basis for all ethical behavior is rooted in the Goodness of God, being that such an attribute is communicated and expressed in a creaturely way by the creature. 

Now why this little theological discussion? Simply put, Christians are commanded to forebear one another based upon God's forbearance of them. Ephesians 4:1-2 reads: "I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, 2 With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love." What rationale is there for following through with this command? God forbeared us. Colossians 3:13 states: "Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye." 

Only when I am relying upon God's character already resident in me by the Holy Spirit will I then forbear others. Since this constitutes on of God's communicable attributes, then this means that forbearance is reliant upon God to work through me, and me with Him. We must pray for God's forbearance to work forth in our lives while aiming to yield ourselves to His influence. Psalm 36:10 reminds us: "O continue thy lovingkindness unto them that know thee; and thy righteousness to the upright in heart."

So may all who are Christians reading this post - remember that by forbearing other believers, you are in effect acting as Jesus would. If you are not a Christian and are reading this post, let me close with this verse, Romans 3:24-25 "Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God".

Thank the Lord for His Forbearance

Nehemiah 9:30 "Yet many years didst thou forbear them, and testifiedst against them by thy spirit in thy prophets: yet would they not give ear: therefore gavest thou them into the hand of the people of the lands."

Romans 2:4 "Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?"

Romans 3:25 "Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God".

Today's post is about a wonderful quality of God's character that the King James translates as His 'forbearance'. To forbear someone is described in the Oxford English Dictionary as: "enduring with, bearing up with, controlling oneself in the absence of a desired thing, patiently retraining oneself from doing something." Hence, when God is described as being "forbearing", He is preventing Himself from exercising what otherwise would be well-deserved justice. Oftentimes God's forbearance will be connected to His mercy, with the distinction being that God is choosing to continually extend His mercy beyond what may seem to be a long-than-expected period of time.

The above passages highlight this quality of God. For God to continue with His people for 40 years in the desert despite their grumbling is an example of how He chooses to love and show mercy, despite the fact they deserved to be wiped out. Such behavior by God can only be described by His forbearance. 

The two passages in Romans highlight how God's forbearance leads us to repentance and functioned as the backdrop for Jesus' work on the cross. Imagine what would had occurred if God had not exercised forbearance? There would be no grace of repentance nor cross. For God to be forbearing meant that the quality had to be resident in His very being. The cross did not arise as a reaction to our plight, but rather resulted from God's eternal forbearing decision to bring about the cross in spite of our well-deserved condemnation. 

Forbearance refers to God holding out, delaying wrath and ever extending His mercy to those He calls; so that in turn, they may respond, believe, repent and be saved. Forbearance is the sprint of mercy operating in a marathon. God ever waits, retrains and patiently moves towards sinners He is desiring to affect, love and change for His glory. Would it be that we not take for granted God's forbearance. 

Interpreting Mark 1:13-14 and life applications of how Jesus never forgets us

Mark 1:13-14 "And He was in the wilderness forty days being tempted by Satan; and He was with the wild beasts, and the angels were ministering to Him.
14 Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God."

Introduction

Have you ever met someone who is starting something new? Whether that person or ourselves, the beginning of a job, a new phase in life or ministry may appear to be sudden to outsiders, however there is always a background. Whenever we read Mark 1:13-14, we find what appears to be an abrupt transition from Jesus' time in the wilderness to the start of His public ministry. Mark 1:14 begins with this statement: "After John was put in prison". Now we know there was a major event, involving a major figure that appeared to be quite negative. As in real life, transitions are anything but smooth. Jesus is going to be hitting the ground running while poor old John the Baptist is incarcerated. Thankfully, the backstory of what occurs between Mark 1:13-14 is found elsewhere in the Gospels. Anytime we read Jesus' life as recorded in the Gospels, we must first read each Gospel on its own merit, since each writer had purposes and aims. We then attempt to reconstruct the events of Jesus' life as portrayed in each of the Gospels so as to get a clear and whole picture. So how can studying the other three Gospels in concert with Mark 1:13-14 help us better understand the text? Let's explore!

An attempt to put together what happened between Mark 1:13-14

Whenever you scan Matthew's Gospel in Matthew 4:11-12, it too reads much like Mark. Many scholars throughout church history have tried to understand how the first three Gospels relate to one another. I won't go into depth here, since our main goal is to understand Mark 1:13-14. However, in seeing the commonality that exists between Matthew and Mark, though authored by different people (Matthew and Mark), Mark appears to be getting it's structure from Matthew. Ancient church history tells us that Mark recorded Peter's preaching of Jesus as Peter had before him both the scrolls of Matthew and a newly penned Gospel of Luke. Thus the similarity between Mark and Matthew would make sense.

Matthew's Gospel records later on in Matthew 14:1-12 what happened to John the Baptist that led to his incarceration and death. Such a "by-the-way" mention answers the question at least in Matthew's Gospel as to what happened to John, and how that event operated in relationship to Jesus' public ministry. We find that Jesus' ministry never occurred apart from intertwining itself in the plight and problems of people. Jesus was very well in tune with what had happened to John the Baptist, even though it may had seemed like He wasn't. John the Baptist himself had sent a message to Jesus from prison in Matthew 11:1-2 "Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?" John's momentary crisis of faith led Jesus' to testify publicly about John the Baptist's faithfulness and role in His Father's plans. Matthew's portrayal of John's imprisonment and John the Baptist's words from that prison remind us of the fact that God's seeming absence in John's life did not mean God was absent-minded about John's plight. Far from it! Jesus as God in human flesh was very much in tune with what had occurred, thus resulting in the hastening of the pace of His own ministry.

So what about Luke's Gospel? Luke's Gospel does not have the phrase "after John was put in prison" like Matthew and Mark have it following Jesus' temptation. Luke only mentions John's imprisonment in Luke 7:18-35. Interestingly Luke's recounting of John the Baptist's struggle and Jesus' testimony about him mirrors very closely with Matthew 11. If again we heed the writings of the ancient church fathers who would had been pupils of the Apostles, Luke's Gospel had recorded the preaching of the Apostle Paul on the life of Jesus. The fact that Luke's Gospel recorded near similar details about this even of John's imprisonment and Jesus' testimony as that of Matthew bespeaks of a common oral source at least (which I would contend would had been the Apostle's preaching). At anyrate, Luke's Gospel demonstrates the reliability and consistency of the early apostolic preaching of Jesus shared between Matthew's Gospel, Paul and Peter's preaching and the final products of Mark and Luke's Gospel.

So we have the events of John's imprisonment clearly in view. The question is - when would this had taken place and how long of time would had passed between Mark 1:13-14? This is where we turn to John's Gospel in John 1:19-3:36. In John's Gospel, we find Jesus' calling his first disciples in John 1:19-51, with not all of them sticking with him (i.e Peter, James, John, Andrew). We know that those four men had come to Jesus only out of curiosity because in Mark's Gospel (1:14-20) we find Jesus' calling forth these same men - with their response being to forsake their lives to follow Him.  We secondly find Jesus performing his first miracles in John 2, followed by key conversations with Nicodemas (John 3) and the woman at the well (John 4:1-44). 

We can summarize then Jesus' activities in John 1:19-4:44 as having to do with callings, miracles and conversations. With John's Gospel, as well as the information we gained from Matthew and Luke, we can place the beginning of John's imprisonment right at the time prior to Jesus' first ministry in Galilee as recorded in Mark 1:14. Moreover, according to one source, John's incarceration by Herod may had occurred right around the time Jesus was ministering in Samaria to the woman at the well. At anyrate, we are talking of only two weeks between Mark 1:13-14.

Practical Applications of today's post

Inasmuch this post was all about better understanding Mark 1:13-14, there are undoubtedly life-practical applications that can be gleaned from this study of the relationship between John's imprisonment and the beginnings of Jesus' public ministry in Mark 1:14. 

1). Jesus never forgets where you and I are at. He didn't forget John

2). Christ's character and His word are the lenses for faith, not our circumstances, our emotions or even other people. Emotions, circumstances and people can fail you, but Jesus and His word will never fail.

3). Christ's activity in the world includes our trials and sufferings. Someone texted me the other day: "When life is not a bed of Roses, remember who wore the thorns."

A 35 minute challenge: I dare you to read Mark's Gospel

Mark 1:14-15 "Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

Introduction:

Today I would like to issue forth a challenge to readers of this post. We have been in recent posts aiming to know Jesus Christ through the Gospel of Mark. In the course of writing and preparing these posts, I felt compelled to read through Mark's Gospel just to see how long it would take in one sitting. On average, a person can read Mark's Gospel in roughly 35 minutes from beginning to end. This got me to thinking about how one could add Mark's Gospel to their spiritual regiment this upcoming New Year. 

Thus I issue a 35-minute challenge to readers to take Mark's Gospel and simply read it from beginning to end. This may entail doing so in one sitting, or over the course of a month. If you were to read Mark's Gospel for 90 seconds everyday, you could complete it in one month. Or, if you decided to just take 5 minutes every day, you could read Mark's Gospel in one week. However you choose to take up the challenge, the more important thing is that you're getting exposed to the Person and work of Jesus Christ. Try the challenge and see how you do.

How Mark draws us closer to Jesus through Jesus' triumph over Satan - Mark 1:12-13

Mark 1:12-13 "Immediately the Spirit impelled Him to go out into the wilderness. 13 And He was in the wilderness forty days being tempted by Satan; and He was with the wild beasts, and the angels were ministering to Him."

Introduction:

In the last week or so we have taken the time to walk our way through the opening verses of Mark's Gospel. We have aimed to approach Mark in such a way as to meet Jesus for the first time. The suddenness with which Mark thrusts the reader into the adult life and public ministry of Jesus gives the sense of giving us a first encounter with Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 

We began by first of all getting to know Jesus by way of the titles listed in Mark 1:1. As His primary name "Jesus" suggests, Jesus came as a true human being to save His people from their sins. However, it does not take long in the course of Mark's Gospel to see that this Jesus, though being truly man, was more than just a mere human being. The second title in Mark 1:1 - "Christ", heightens the identity of Jesus by asserting Him as the "chosen, anointed One" of Old Testament prophetic anticipation. Having multiple layers of meaning, Jesus as the Messiah is the Spirit anointed man, King, Priest and decisive revelation of God in human flesh. The third title "Son of God" certifies that our initial understanding of the other two titles is accurate. This particular title is also said of Jesus at His crucifixion by the Roman Centurion in Mark 15:39. Hence we met Jesus by way of His titles.

We then saw secondly the various testimonies of this Jesus. Mark quotes passages from Isaiah (and possibly Malachi) in Mark 1:2-3 to give us the prophetic testimony of Jesus. These quotations serve to demonstrate Jesus' continuity in both the life and prophetic identity of God with His people. Then we see the Personal testimony of John the Baptist in Mark 1:4-9 and 1:10-11. Then as we saw yesterday, the Divine testimony of Jesus in Mark 1:10-11 certifies that this Jesus is both commended for being truly Divine in his true humanity while being accepted as man who is also God at the same time.

Today's post aims to get us even closer to Jesus by pointing out His major triumph over Satan.

Jesus' temptation and triumph in the wilderness by Satan, and what it means to you

Mark's record of Jesus' temptation is startlingly brief. Mark 1:12-13 records these words - "Immediately the Spirit *impelled Him to go out into the wilderness. 13 And He was in the wilderness forty days being tempted by Satan; and He was with the wild beasts, and the angels were ministering to Him." The verses begin with the term "immediately", a word that one finds in almost 40 places in Mark's Gospel. What is surprising is the fact that the Holy Spirit Who came to anoint and empower Jesus at the baptism is the same Holy Spirit Who, in Mark's words, "impells" or "drives" Jesus in to the wilderness. This tells us that before Jesus could even begin to address the needs of fallen man, he first of all had to defeat the one who had led man astray in the first place - Satan. 

Now Mark and Luke's Gospel record this scene in more detail. Matthew's account has Satan tempting Jesus with regards to the lust of the flesh (Matthew 4:1-4); pride of life (Matthew 4:5-7) and lust of the eyes (Matthew 4:8-11). The Devil's inability to overcome Jesus results in him leaving Jesus until "an opportune time" (Matthew 4:11). Luke's version has Satan tempting Jesus with the same three types of temptation, with the distinction from Matthew being that the lust of the eyes or showing Jesus all the kingdoms of the world consistutes the second temptation in Luke 4:5-8 (third temptation in Matthew 4:8-11) and the pride of life being the third temptation in Luke 4:9-12 (the second temptation in Matthew 4:5-7). Both these differences can be easily explained as understanding that Satan was contastantly barraging Jesus throughout the 40 day period of time. It is certain Satan changed up the ordering of the temptations to attack Jesus' in his humanity at different spots. Luke's version then closes out with angels ministering to Jesus.

So with Mark's version being rather short, it seems that since he was recording Peter's preaching about Jesus (according to reliable reports from ancient church history), Peter's usage of a then early copy of Matthew and newly penned Gospel of Luke coupled with is own recollections of Jesus resulted in a simple summary of this temptation account. 

Why would Mark include this record of Jesus' life? In light of Matthew and Luke's Gospels, it is clear that Jesus came to not only provide salvation from sin, but also destroy the works of the Devil (see Hebrews 2:14-15; 1 John 3:8). As we meet Jesus for the first time, we are finding out how powerful He truly is. No man who had ever face Satan toe-to-toe ever triumphed. Adam failed. David gave into temptation. Without God's grace, Job would had totally caved into the deepest despair. Yet in Mark's account we get the sense that as Jesus was being tempted, He was walking in victory and not succuming to the Devil's schemes. He had angelic assistance for sure - however, those angels came to minister after the fact (compare Luke). Jesus achieved a work never before accomplished - defeating the Devil in the worst of circumstances. 

Now why is this triumph so important to you and me as Christians? Whatever Jesus experienced and achieved in His humanity meant that as redeemed human beings, we too could overcome the lust of the eyes, the flesh and pride of life (see this three-fold listing in 1 John 2:15-17). In-as-much as we are saved by Jesus' death - we are also saved by His life. Jesus saves believers from their sins because of His substitutionary death and saves them to live a possible life of victory over their sins due to His perfect life in them. This doesn't mean that as Christians we will end up achieving sinless perfection in this life (see Paul's statements in Romans 7). But what it does mean is that despite our occassional failures to trust God and choose sin, Jesus' credited righteousness covers the believer and empowers the believer by the Spirit to say "no" rather than "yes" the next time they are tempted. 

I'm convinced Satan's temptation of Jesus was continual, non-stop in not only those 40 days of wilderness experience, but also throughout the confrontations Jesus had with Satan's demonic emmisaries. Clearly Satan appealed through Peter for Jesus to skip the cross in Matthew 16 and used Judas to betray Jesus on the eve of His crucifixion. Yet, the New Testament is replete with the truth of Jesus' triumph over Satan being the foundation for all we need by the Holy Spirit to live empowered Christian lives in this dark world. 

May we aim to truly get to know Jesus as if it were our first time meeting Him. Mark's Gospel is exciting and I hope you dear reader have been blessed these last several days as we have aimed to get to know Jesus better.