The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.—Mark 1:12–13

Introduction: The Devil’s Ditches

Today’s text of Scripture forces us to consider not only the person and work of Christ, but the person and work of Satan. There are a couple of big ditches I want to steer clear of right at the start. In the left ditch, there are people who underestimate the influence of the devil (or even his existence—they see him nowhere). In the right ditch, there are people who overestimate the influence of the devil (they see him everywhere and blame him for everything).

Underestimating the devil is deadly. One of his greatest tricks is to get people to ignore him altogether. He does some of his best work in the shadows. The greatest deception is one in which you can’t even detect the deception (you can’t see it until the end when it is too late).

Overestimating the devil is also a ditch. The devil is not God, not even close. He is not Almighty. He is not all-knowing. He is not omnipresent (able to be everywhere at once). He needs an well-organized army of demons to do his dirty work because he is limited. But he is a mastermind. He reminds me of what Sherlock Holmes says about professor Moriarty—he stands behind a web of crime without being directly detected— but most everything criminal that happens in London—he stands in the background. Holmes says he is the “organizer of half that is evil and of nearly all that is undetected in this great city (Sherlock Holmes, “The Final Problem”). 

Dear friends, it is hard to stay on the straight and narrow on this issue. If we are in one ditch, my guess is that we are much more likely to underestimate his impact and influence than underestimate. The scope of his power and impact is startling. Moriarty is like a common shoplifter compared to Satan. Listen to the scope of his power.

 “We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.”—1 John 5:19

The Bible goes so far as to call Satan the “ruler of this world” or the “god of this age.”

“Jesus answered, ‘This voice has come for your sake, not mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.’”—John 12:30–32

“And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”—2 Corinthians 4:3–4

“And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and said to him, ‘To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.’”—Luke 4:5–7

The devil is the father of lies, but he is not lying about the fallen world belonging to him at some level. The Bible calls this age the “present evil age” (Galatians 1:4) because “the evil one” is the “god of this age.” When was it “delivered to him”? The answer is that Adam (the first man) was the first ruler of the world as God’s vice-regent. Satan deceived Adam and Eve and the world was plunged into the present evil age with Satan as the “new ruler.” The question is when will he be deposed and dethroned. Make no mistake. Jesus has come to do just that.

I love the comprehensive totality of how opposed Jesus is to Satan. Why did Jesus come? Just to save us? It is more cosmic and all-encompassing. First John 3:8 declares that “the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.” In a sense, the temptation narrative is the first offensive in that mission and the battleground is the wilderness. The text divides between telling us how he got there (v. 12) and why he went there (v. 13). Both verses establish the truth (the main point) that the Temptation narrative is a Trinitarian Triumph. That is my two-word summary of these two verses.

Outline

1. How He Got There (v. 12)
2. Why He Went There (v. 13)

1. How He Got There (v. 12)

The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.

It is so important here to pay attention to the subject of the sentence. Mark does not say, “After the baptism, Jesus went out into the wilderness.” That is technically true. His feet went there, but why is he there? He is propelled by the Spirit’s power. He is there because he is led by the Father’s plan in the power of the Spirit. The word choice here is so strong and so emphatic for what the Spirit does. The verb means to “cast out” or “drive out.” It is the word used later for what Jesus does with the demons (cast them out).

Why does Mark make such a big deal of this point? Jesus was not acting independently. Jesus was not acting independently, but submissively and obediently as the Son. He is the beloved Son who always obeys the Father. He never went rogue. Never. The Trinitarian picture present at the baptism continues now in the temptation. The Son submits to the Father as one carried along by the propelling power of the Spirit. The Father planned it; the Spirit empowers it, and Jesus obediently and completely submitted to it.

Jesus is on God’s mission to go wherever God leads in perfect dependence upon the propelling power of the Spirit. This is a Trinitarian Triumph. That point in verse 12 now sets the stage for verse 13. We know how he got there, but why is he there?

2. Why He Went There (v. 13)

And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.

This verse is like walking into an echo chamber. Have you ever had that experience? You say “echo” and you hear the reverberation back many times: “echo, echo, echo.” I believe there are three such connections.

Before we see them, let me give a pastoral word here about the Bible. You don’t have to make these three connections for this text to make sense. One can understand it as it stands (Mark is writing for Gentiles who may have completely missed the Old Testament connections we will see). But they would be discipled to see these things through the lens of the Old Testament. It is a little bit like a New Orleans barbecue sauce I made for shrimp a week ago. I have never had a sauce that had such depth and texture of flavor. The flavor profile was so rich because it brought so many flavors into one sauce. The more of these connections one makes, the richer and deeper and more satisfying the verse becomes to your spiritual palette. You don’t have to see all of this to enjoy the verse, but seeing more will cause you to enjoy it more and love the fact that with the Bible we keep coming back to it again and again because there is always more to see. 

First, the first echo takes us back to Israel in the wilderness. The combination of the two terms “wilderness and forty” cannot help but bring back to mind the wandering of Israel in the wilderness for 40 years. The combination of these two words highlights Jesus’ identification with his people again. Remember last week we saw that Jesus submitted to a baptism of repentance for sin because he is identifying with the people he came to save. That is what his name means: “call his name ‘Jesus’ because he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). The identification with the people here takes the form of Jesus as the “new Israel.” The new beginning of the last passage continues because Jesus is the true Israel and later he will call 12 disciples to be like the 12 tribes.

The combination of “wilderness, forty, and temptation” makes the connection even stronger between Israel and Jesus. Remember that Israel is called God’s “son.” But Israel was not an obedient “son,” but disobedient. That is what stands out about their wilderness wandering. God himself offers the definitive interpretation of all that he was doing during the time of wilderness wandering.

And you shall remember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, [i.e., Jesus was led into the wilderness for forty days] that he might humble you, testing you [i.e., Jesus faced testing or tempting there] to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. Your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years. Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the LORD your God disciplines you [i.e., this is Fatherly discipline]—Deuteronomy 8:2–5

Second, the echo chamber also takes us back past Israel all the way back to Adam. The combination of “temptation and Satan” establishes that connection. Satan did not make an explicit appearance with Israel in the wilderness—we are talking about the original temptation—back to the beginning. Adam was supposed to guard the garden, and he failed to do so against Satan in his serpent form. Remember that Eve saw that the fruit was pleasing to the eye and desirable to make one wise like God so she took some of the fruit and gave some of it to Adam who was with her. Adam did nothing. Rather than stop the rebellion against God; he joined it.

Jesus, the last Adam, will obey where the first Adam failed. That is why the temptation is taking place in the wilderness and not a garden paradise. Adam’s failure got humanity cast out of paradise, but Jesus left the heavenly paradise to seek us in the wilderness in order to bring us back to paradise.

The third echo in the echo chamber requires us to look at the wild animals and the angels together. Let us unpack the wilderness experience a little bit more as a test of faith. Think about the difference between Paradise (Adam’s experience) and the Wilderness (Jesus’ experience). Trust is not difficult in Paradise because all the provisions needed to sustain life are present (they could eat from all the trees except one). The wilderness is life-threatening because the things needed to sustain life are missing. None of them are there—no fruits and no trees. Either you need to bring provisions into the wilderness (Jesus didn’t stockpile supplies on camels—no caravan is following him), or get everything needed for existence directly from the Father. (Satan tempted Jesus to act independently and make a meal for himself by turning stones into bread.)

But it is worse here. The wilderness is life-threatening at a whole new level because there are life-taking threats here. Adam did not have wild animals there against him—they were all at peace with him. But not so for Jesus—they were wild. So look at the participants in this drama: Satan, the murderer from the beginning, is here and so are the wild animals that can attack and take away life. But Mark notes that there are sides and that Jesus was not left totally alone. Satan and the wild animals are on one side (threats), while the Angels are on the other side (life-giving provision from the Father).

Satan

I don’t want to assume that we are all on the same page when we talk about Satan. In the introduction of the sermon, we looked briefly at what the Bible says about his impact upon the world or work in the world. Let us now say something briefly about his person or identity.

Satan is often presented as a dangerous wild animal. He is a cunning serpent who strikes (Genesis 3), a ravenous lion always on the prowl (1 Peter 5), a raging red dragon who devours (Revelation 12). Jesus also calls him a murderer and a liar. Those things are part of his essential character.

He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.—John 8:44

He is not like God in any way. He is certainly not all-powerful, or all-present, or all-wise. In terms of his character, he is exactly the opposite of God. We are told God cannot lie and is the source of all truth, but Satan lies out of his native character as the father of lies. He is often called the “evil one.” What does that mean? God is the Holy one. He is the evil one in comparison to the way that God is the holy One. God is completely holy with no darkness at all. Satan is completely evil with no light at all. He is evil personified and concentrated in a person—the head of evil and the mastermind behind the spread of evil. Paul tells us that he is the spirit at work in the sons of disobedience (Ephesians 2:2) and that he holds people (unwittingly) captive to do his will (2 Timothy 2:24).

Satan was originally an angel. He was, in fact, one of the greatest, most powerful angels. But he was proud and was not content with being higher than the rest of creation; he wanted to be higher than the Creator. So he left his proper place of submission and tried to grab and steal the scepter away from the King eternal. Revelation 12 talks about Satan’s rebellion and the war in heaven and how a third of the angels joined Satan, but they were decisively defeated (it wasn’t even close). They were cast down to earth and the inhabitants of earth are warned about Satan’s rage in Revelation 12:12. “But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!” That is why you get demons who ask what Jesus is doing there and whether he has come to destroy them before the time. There is not a shred of doubt about the final outcome.

The Wild Animals

So we have connected Jesus with Israel in the wilderness (new Israel) and Adam facing Satan (the last Adam). Now Mark alone tells us about the presence of the wild animals. He is explicit that these animals are wild. This is part of the danger of the scene. Why does Mark mention them? If you scan the commentaries, the discussion comes down to two primary options: (1) they are an echo of Nero, (2) they are an echo of Eden.

The first view says that Mark wants to make a connection with Christians in Rome who are suffering under Nero. They are being thrown to the wild animals in the coliseum for sport. Mark’s readers would be comforted to see that Jesus faced the same threats that they face.

The second view would say that Jesus is the fulfillment of Old Testament texts (Isaiah 11:6–9) that prophesy about the restoration to come that will extend to the animal kingdom as well. The wild animals will be at peace with humanity and no longer kill or harm “on my holy mountain” because the root of Jesse has come. Jesus’ presence in this moment is the presence of the future. This is hinting back to the 1st Adam who was at peace with all the animals before the fall into sin. (He named them and they were companions not attackers.)

Which view do I take? I don’t fully align with either view. I don’t date Mark’s Gospel late enough to be in the time of Nero (and I think it is overly speculative to say it has to be at that time because of one word in Greek that is translated “wild animal”). The second view certainly has some things to commend it, but my difficulty is that I don’t think the wild animals are an echo of Eden, I think they are a contrast of Eden. The temptation Jesus faced was greater in every way than the one Adam and Eve faced. So what is the third echo? I am going to leave you hanging until we see one more piece of the puzzle.

The Angels

I have emphasized that Satan and the wild animals stand on one side as threats to Jesus, while the angels are helps to Jesus. They are ministering to him. This is not as odd as it sounds at first if you have ears tuned to biblical history. Think back to the story of Elijah when he faced a difficult time in the wilderness in 1 Kings 19:1–8. Elijah had triumphed over the false prophets of Baal and then Jezebel threatened his life, so he went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He sat down in dejection and asked the Lord that he might die. He slept and then an angel came and woke him up.

And behold, an angel touched him and said to him, “Arise and eat.” And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. And he ate and drank and lay down again. And the angel of the LORD came again a second time and touched him and said, “Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.” And he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God.—1 Kings 19:5–8

Matthew seems to present the angels as the ICU unit that came to help Jesus after this supernatural fast: “Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him” (Matthew 4:11).

So let us now make our third and last connection. We have Jesus connected with Israel, Adam, and now the picture of faith in Psalm 91. I believe that Mark brings the wild animals and the angels into the picture because he is connecting Jesus’ experience to dwelling in the shelter of his Father. This is the one place that brings the angels and the wild animals together in times of distress and you discover that “he who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the LORD, My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust” (Psalm 91:1–2). God will deliver from the hunter’s snare, deadly diseases, and arrows flying all around you, and thousands falling at your side. How can anyone survive such treacherous times?

For he will command his angels concerning you
     to guard you in all your ways.
On their hands they will bear you up,
     est you strike your foot against a stone.
You will tread on the lion and the adder;
     the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.—Psalm 91:11–13

This Psalm is certainly true of Jesus. He has made his Father his dwelling place. He is resting safely and securely in the presence of danger all around him. Yes, there once was a harmony between nature and humanity in Eden. And yes, one day Jesus will bring the culmination of the new creation when the lion will lay down with the lamb and the child can play by the hole of the cobra and swim with the crocodile. Jesus wasn’t there on that holy mountain. It was not an Eden experience. It was more like a Daniel in the Lion’s Den experience. With danger all around, Jesus made the Father his dwelling place and in the heat of the desert he rested in the shadow of the Almighty. God delivered him from the devil and the wild animals. God shut the mouths of the wild animals like he shut the mouths of the lions in the experience of Daniel. Jesus is the Genesis 3:15 Savior who trampled the tempter and the serpent underfoot. It was the Father’s plan, the Spirit’s power, and the Son’s submission. That is the victory. The main point of the passage is that the Temptation is a Trinitarian Victory. Jesus overcame the tempter by trusting the will of the Father in the power of the Spirit.

Application: Make Much of Jesus

This text is here to help us make much of Jesus. Jesus was tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin. I had people when I was a professor that would come to me and say that they could not relate to Jesus because he never sinned. What does he really know of the power of temptation if he never gave into it?

Paul Tripp has the best word picture in answer to this confusion. Imagine a strong man bending an iron bar at a fair. The first bar is thin and weak and he bends it to a 90-degree angle and it snaps in half. The second bar is much thicker and stronger. Even though the strong man exerts all his strength, it bends until the ends touch, but it never breaks. Which bar endured more pressure? The second! It absorbed the full force of the man’s strength, but didn’t break. “On earth, Jesus was like that second bar. Because he never gave in, because he did not run away, because he never went where temptation would lead, but stood strong until that moment of temptation was over, he endured the full power of temptation. Christ endured stress, pain, suffering, sacrifice of an intensity that we will never face because he did not break. He stood against sin for us. He endured everything the world could throw against him (Paul Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands).

Here is what happens when we catch the echo of Psalm 91. We have greater confirmation in answering the question “How did Jesus withstand all that that fallen world could throw at him?” Answer: Love! The relationship between Father and Son that is still on display from verses 10–11. Jesus is the beloved Son at his baptism and the Father still loves him as he sends him into the wilderness. Jesus loves the Father and trusts him. The Father and the Son share a love and a delight that cannot be broken by anything—no wilderness, no wild animals, and no devil! This is the exact fulfillment of the picture at the end of Psalm 91.

“Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him;
     I will protect him, because he knows my name. 
When he calls to me, I will answer him;
     I will be with him in trouble;
     I will rescue him and honor him.
With long life I will satisfy him
     and show him my salvation.”— Psalm 91:14–15

This is not the last time Jesus faces Satan’s temptation. It will happen again in the Garden of Gethsemane. How does Jesus endure the awful temptation as he is sweating drops of blood? Listen to Jesus gives the explanation in John 14:30–31 on that dark night:

I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me, but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here.

The Father’s delight and acceptance and holding fast to Jesus is what enables him to endure the threats and terrors of the temptation. Adam and Eve failed to trust God’s character and trusted Satan’s words. But the beloved Son knows the character of both the Father and Satan. The Father is perfectly and purely true and trustworthy; Satan has no truth in him. The Son defends the character of the Father. He says, “not my will, but Yours be done.” And he goes to the cross for us and our salvation and to vindicate the Father’s character and glory!

Don’t miss this, dear friends. Every time we have sinned we have essentially said, “God, not Your will, but mine be done.” Jesus the Savior for sinners said, “Not my will, but Yours be done.” The Father and Son are in perfect harmony and perfect alignment with no variation … ever. That is amazing. That is what obedient humanity was supposed to be. Now for the first time we see it. Mine eyes have seen the glory of full obedience, perfect alignment with the Father’s will. Marvel at your Savior. He can fully sympathize because he understands temptation, but he can also fully save because he overcame temptation.

In Mark 15, Jesus submits to the Father’s plan of salvation. The One who never sinned, now suffers on the cross as our substitute, bearing what we deserved, to be forsaken by God and bear the wrath of God. Why? Why did he do it? So that those who deserve to be forsaken never will. Satan has no claim on Christians because of what Jesus has done, his Father is now our Father. There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. The Father receives us like He does His Son because we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ. In him, we will never be forsaken and cast away, but always held fast. Even better than Psalm 91 says at the end, God satisfies us with long (greater and eternal) life and shows us his salvation (Psalm 91:16).

Conclusion: What to Do When Tempted in the Wilderness?

Our battle is not against flesh and blood. So look to Jesus first and take heart. He has overcome the world. He has taken down the ruler of the world. Take heart that Jesus also modeled faith for us and what to do in temptation. Remember this point. Jesus operated within the confines of his humanity when he battled temptation. He did not reach beyond full humanity. When he was tempted, it was as a human (his divine nature was not tempted—God can’t be tempted by evil). Jesus’ victory over temptation was possible through relying upon the same resources that are available to any child of God today.

I want to close by thinking with you about what you should do when you find yourself in the wilderness (Lloyd-Jones, The Christian Warfare, 86). First, watch for the fiery darts of doubt to be fired against you:

Do not conclude, then, that because you are assailed by doubts you are not a Christian. It is the devil that is at work. He will hurl doubts at you. The Apostle describes them as ‘the fiery darts of the wicked one.’ They come at you from every direction. He will suggest all sorts of difficulties and doubts, anything to stop men believing in God. There is nothing more important than that we should differentiate between the temptation to doubt and the act of doubting itself.

Satan will use any advantage he can get. But here is his most devastating deceit when we are in the wilderness—and we find ourselves there because God brought us there. Here is the temptation. Satan can get us to doubt the very thing that sustains us in the wilderness: God’s love. He can tempt us to think that the trials are proof that we are not children of God and that God does not care for us. God does not seem to be concerned enough about our trial to take it away or put an end to it when we think we have had enough.

The greatest answer to Satan’s temptation to doubt whether we are children of God because we suffer is to turn the argument on its head. Martyn Lloyd-Jones makes much of the fact that the author of Hebrews says we suffer discipline because we are the children of God. God’s children should not grow weary when disciplined by God precisely because “the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives” (Hebrews 12:6).

To the Unbelievers
Dear friends, have you ever considered why you have refused to receive Jesus? Some people believe that they refuse Jesus because they are smarter or less gullible and less easy to deceive than the masses in the world who are easy to trick into religious belief. Here is the irony. If you refuse to embrace the gospel today it is not because you are a scientist or philosopher with a much larger brain than the rest of us. It is not because you are sharper and harder to deceive than gullible Christians. You are refusing to embrace Jesus, not because you are so hard to deceive, but because you are so easy to deceive. It is not because you see so clearly, it is because you are blinded so thoroughly. If you are refusing to embrace Jesus, you may think it is because you refuse to be chained to righteous requirements because you are so free and you want to flaunt your freedom and call Christians the captives to rules and regulations. You may think you are rejecting Jesus because you are so free from a religious ball and chain, but the Bible says you are caught in the snare of the devil, “having been held captive by him to do his will” (2 Timothy 2:26). What you call freedom is actually captivity to the will of the evil one.

To the Believers
Let us not drive into the ditches of being flippant toward Satan or fearful of Satan, but watchful. We are told, “resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” We will overcome him by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony (Revelation 12:11). You are meant to see that the Christian life is a great battle. It would not be very impressive last year to beat the Philadelphia 76ers (they were 10-72). But it would be something to be the Cleveland Cavaliers and Lebron James. Christians must realize that we will overcome the most powerful created adversary possible, but only because God is greater by far. If our God is for us, who can be against us? We will overcome because “Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4).

Martin Luther saw this world in these terms: “though this world with devils filled.” He would sometimes dispel the fog of Satan’s deceptions by preaching the truth of God to himself. Sometimes he would even throw things at Satan (the ink well). “The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him. His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure. One little word will fell him.”

Closing Song: "A Mighty Fortress"
 

Sermon Discussion Questions 

Outline

1. How He Got There (v. 12)
2. Why He Went There (v. 13)

Main Point: The temptation is a Trinitarian victory. Jesus overcame the tempter by trusting the will of the Father in the power of the Spirit.

Discussion Questions 

• What does the Bible say about the person and work of Satan?
• Why does Mark stress the powerful role of the Spirit in driving Jesus into the wilderness?
• What are the three biblical echoes found in verse 13? How do they add depth, texture, and vivid color to the account of the battle between Jesus and Satan? 

Application Questions

• How can we make much of Jesus in the temptation narrative? How would you respond to the accusation that Jesus can’t relate to us in our temptations because he does not know what it is to feel temptation like we do—because he never gave in? 
• How can you distinguish between the temptation to doubt and the act of doubting? Why does that matter? What temptation does Satan most often bring in the wilderness? How can we fight it in the same way that Jesus fought it?
• How can you avoid the ditches of being flippant or fearful toward Satan, but stay on the path of being watchful?

Prayer Focus
Pray for a grace to celebrate the Trinitarian victory over Satan at the temptation—a victory for us and our salvation. Pray for a grace to stand against temptation in the full armor of God.

For Further Reflection: See Pastor Jason's Biblearc of Mark 1:12–13.