Sunday Sermon
Morning Service 2nd March
Matthew 26:41 41 "Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak."
I want to return to this verse this morning so that we can have a closer look at the teaching that the Lord gives.
You remember the context:
Jesus is preparing for the event of the Cross that is about to happen.
He is preparing through prayer. He has taken along his disciples to pray with him and help him in his hours of greatest need.
Yet his disciples cannot stay awake long enough to offer any real support.
And so to them Jesus offers these great words.
1) What is temptation?
Temptation has 2 sides to it:
A) temptation is outward enticement to sin: e.g. Eve’s temptation Gen3, Jesus temptation Mat4
B) temptation is inner enticement to sin: e.g. Heb 2v14-18, Jesus felt this inner pressure of temptation; James 1v13-15 - our inner desires.
So temptation then is anything that will lead us to sin, whether from outward circumstances or from inner weaknesses.
Note: the thing that may lead us to sin may not be sinful in and of itself. The Devil came to Jesus with the very words of scripture to tempt Him!
Our natural desires and instincts are good, but they can be manipulated for evil.
More often than not the temptation comes to us in these more subtle forms because that is much more effective.
Take Eve. The Devil did not come and force her to eat the fruit. He simply gave her an idea. The idea was that she would become like God.
Thus the prayer; “lead us not into temptation,” is very wide ranging.
So many situations in life could lead to temptation, from illnesses to birthday parties. When we pray that prayer we are asking that God would not allow us to go through anything that would lead us to sin, that would lead us to give up faith and trust.
Thus it is a very important prayer. We need to pray it often and with full understanding.
2) What do we need to do to combat temptation?
“watch and pray”
It is no sin to be tempted. The sin is when we fall into the temptation.
So how do we prevent that happening? Is it possible to resist temptation?
When it comes to us in so many ways, from the outside and the inside, the World, the Flesh and the Devil!
Jesus says Watch and Pray!
A) “Watch” maybe a better translation is “keep alert”
This instruction takes seriously the fact that we are physical beings. Our bodies can either help or hinder in our battle against temptation. So for example, the disciples could not engage in the prayer that was needed on this occasion because their bodies were in control making them go to sleep!
A more modern day example is the “lusting & coveting culture” that we live in. Advertising, TV and Cinema, for the most part is training our bodies to look and lust! With powerful images that create in us desires that lead us to sin.
And eventually our bodies are in control of us so that we cannot help but look and lust and covet!
To this Jesus says “be alert”. Don’t let your bodies rule over you.
Don’t give into your desires all the time.
Let some of your physical desires go unsatisfied.
Then when the time of temptation comes it will be easier to resist because you have been in training for it.
Training - not trying: importance of training.
Note: this “be alert” comes in the form of a command. There is no take it or leave it option!
B) “pray”
This too is a command. Watching goes hand in hand with praying. Indeed praying can only really be done properly by the person who is in control of his or her body.
An obvious example is the drug addict cannot properly pray. They are out of control. Their bodies are controlling their desires and their desire is for the next hit, not for prayer. The disciples were out of control, sleeping, not praying.
For the most part we are not dealing with these extremes. What are we dealing with?
We are dealing with too much to do and not enough time to do it in!
Our busy lifestyle (again the use of our bodies) prohibit our prayer lives.
But Jesus commands us to pray. What are we to do then?
Take steps to pray. Prayer generally speaking will not just happen!
Why not? Because it takes time! Thus we need to make time to pray.
Training - set up a prayer regime.
3) Why we need to do that:
“the spirit is willing, but the body is weak”
We need to take these steps of watching and praying so that our bodies fall into line with our spirits.
The Christian is someone who has been transformed from within by New Birth.
But the body is still fallen and needs to catch up with the new creation inside.
This is the Christian battle, we battle against the flesh, or the fallen nature:Romans 7:22-25
22 For in my inner being I
delight in God's law; 23 but I see another law at work in the
members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and
making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my
members. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from
this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ
our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law,
but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
We have a battle to fight and we have the Lords guidance on how to fight:
all that is left is for us to put it into practice.
evening Service John 1v1-14
Our aim in going now to Johns gospel is to have another look at Jesus.
We want to see him in all his glory so that we can love him more.
So what do we see of Jesus in the famous opening of Johns Gospel?
In opening up his Gospel John is addressing one question: Who is Jesus.
This is fundamental. We need to get the answer to that question right or all else will fall apart. Who is Jesus?
Before we look at what John says we need to remember one thing. No matter how well we know this chapter of the bible it is still to be approached with reverence and awe.
We are coming upon mystery here. There is so much that we will never comprehend. This is revelation to be trusted and to lead us to worship.
1) the first thing we see the Word simply is! V1-2
John 1:1-2 John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning.
John lays it down as a matter of fact. “in the beginning was the Word.”
Just as Gen1v1 “in the beginning God”. There is no debate, God is! And that is that.
All else flows from this one fact. the Word is.
Thus, if he was from the beginning then it follows that:
“The Word was with God and the Word was God.”
V 1 then plainly states that the Word is God eternal.
V2 adds another dimension to that by underlining this point about “with God”
So yes, the Word was God, but the Word was also “with” God.
This is new revelation. If it was not true it was abominable blasphemy.
So the picture is being built up: who is the Word? He is God, he is the one who was “with” God, he is the one who was from the beginning.
We are entering into revelation about the nature of God’s being.
God is one in nature but here we are being told about this Word, this other dimension. This other Person, who is God but was with God!
2) added to this picture is v3: the Word is the Creator.
John 1:3 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
This again throws us back to Gen 1v1. God is named as the Maker of Heaven and earth. A fuller understanding of that is God the Word made the world!
The whole created universe has been made by this Word! Who is the Word ? He is none other than the Creator! He is the originator of everything created at the beginning.
In the beginning, through the agency of the Word, God made the world.
John wants to get it clear from the start: this Word - He is none other that God, the Maker of Heaven and earth!
3) then v4-5.
John 1:4-5 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood {Or darkness, and the darkness has not overcome} it.
Who is the Word? He is the life, and the life giver.
We have just seen that he has created all things but John adds to that.
He is not just the Creator of life, he is the Source of Life.
He is the Light - chasing away the darkness.
Life flows from him! He is the source, the centre, the spring from which all life comes.
4) v6-13
These verses seem to interrupt the flow. John is revealing who this Word is, but then he turns abruptly to John! Why?
To explain in very brief form how people reacted to this Light that came into the world: some rejected Him, but others believed.
- and this though a seeming interruption to the flow give the whole reason why the Word became flesh: so that those who simply believed would be miraculously saved.
5) v14
After the interruption in the flow we come back to the Word.
And we come to something extraordinary. Something holy. Astonishing. Something unheard of.
“the Word Became!”
Before we saw the Word who was and is. God the same yesterday today and forever. God who simply is! The great I Am - Yahweh.
Now we see the Word became - the Word, changed, transformed!
Became what? “flesh” one of us! “the Word became flesh”
This is the whole point. This is what John is driving at.
He starts off with this great glorious revelation about the Word.
Who he is - God, and what he has done - created the world.
The Word is Divine, the Word is God.
But now, the Word has become Human!
What did the Word do as a human being? He lived with us!
All along God wanted to show his people that he favoured them, that he wanted to be with them - in the tent, in the tabernacle.
But there was still always a distance:
You can’t throw your arms around a tent in love and celebration!
You can’t fall into the arms of a tabernacle and feel it cry with you in your sorrow!
But now, in the Word, all has changed. God has made himself completely accessible. God is open, God is receiving applicants and none will be turned away.
“change your way of thinking for the kingdom of heaven is now open!”
What was Johns summary of Jesus - the Word made flesh.
John says he has seen his glory. He has seen what he is like. What is God like?
He is “full of grace and truth” or “full of unfailing love and faithfulness”.
This is Jesus. God made flesh, full of unfailing love and faithfulness.
John opens his gospel wanting us to know from the start: this Word is Jesus, believe it!