The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1945-01-12
JESUS BEGINS HIS MINISTRY

LESSON TEXT--Matthew 3:l3 All.
GOLDEN TExT-Thou shalt worship the
Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou
serve.-Matthew 4:10.
Ready for service--this LIZ the
next scene from our Lords life
which comes before us in Matthew.
Thirty years had passed since His
birth, but these are hidden In
silence, save for the one glimpse
of Him in the temple which is given
only by Luke.
These were not years of idleness or
luxury. He was obedient to Joseph
and Mary. He worked In the carpen-
ter shop. He fellowshiped with Gods
people, and best of all, with His
heavenly Father. He showed obedi-
ence and faithfulness in life's ordi-
nary things. And then, all at once,
the day of His public ministry was at
hand.
His baptism and temptation were
q part, the opening event, Of that
ministry. We find Him:
I. Identified With Sinners (3:13-15).
John, the fiery forerunner of Jesus,
had come with burning message
Of repentance, and sinners were
coming to him to be baptized as q
sign of their contrition.
Suddenly Jesus appeared. John
pointed to Him as the Lamb Of
God which taketh away the sin Of
the world" John 1920. When He
offered Himself for baptism, John
demurred. There was no sin in
Jesus that He should need baptism.
There was no occasion for Him to
express in a special act His obedi-
ence, for He always did the will Of
God. (Heb. 10:O.
Why then was Jesus baptized? We
find the answer in the central pur-
pose for which He came into the
world, namely, to save sinners. Here
at His official entrance upon that
work He, who though He knew no
sin was to become sin for us, took
the sinners place in baptism. It was
not because He had Himself sinned,
but because He was to become the
substitute for the sinner. What mar
velous condescension and gracel
III. Approved Of God (3:16, ~.
The Holy Spirit, like dove, rested
upon Him. The dove is one of the
symbols of the Spirit, and speaks of
gentleness, meekness, purity, peace
and love.
Out of the eternal dwelling places
in heaven came the voice of the
eternal Father expressing His APP
prevail and pleasure in His son.
The person and work of Christ bear
their own commentator Of Him to
us as divine. Here we have the Faith
er's word, and the Holy Spirits COM
ing. Thus we have here the entire
Trinity.
iii. Tempted by Satan (4:1-11).
A time of testing was ahead. Jesus
did not fear it, but notice that He
did not seek it either. He was led
by the Spirit into this great conflict.
We may learn that we must not
seek nor put ourselves in the way Of
temptation, but when it comes we
may meet it without fear. God is
with us.
He was tempted as the Messiah,
and the Son Of God, and 1t was real
testing, one from which we need to
learn what to do when tempted. It
was threefold: physical, spiritual
and vocational.
1. The Physical Temptation.
Forty days of conflict with Satan
made His body hungry. Under such
circumstances it was a terrific
temptation to use His divine power
to make bread. He could have done
it, but He did not. One doesn't have
to live, but one does have to obey
and honor God.
Note how effectively Christ used
Scripture (from Deuteronomy-have
you read it lately?). It Is the only
sure answer to Satan's temptations,
but you must learn it If you are
going to use it.
2. The Spiritual Temptation.
Here Satan asked Him to presume
on the grace of God. If he cannot
get yOu to abandon your faith, he
will urge you to 60 to some fanatical
and mnscriptural extreme in using
it.
God always cares for His own
when they are in the place where
He wants them to be, but He does
not deliver US from foolhardy and
unnecessary risks which we want to
call "faith."
8. The Vocational Temptation.
Christ had come into this world to
wrest from Satan, the usurper (who
is now the prince Of this world
John 12:SD, the kingdoms of this
world. Satan suggested to Him that
He could accomplish this by simply
bowling down to hirn-thus escaping
Calvary's cross.
Satan Is busy urging men to take
spiritual bypaths. He has his own
leaders who skillfully evade and
avoid the cross. They have religion
without the offense of the cross, but,
mark it well, it is not Christianity,
even though it bears that name.
Jesus met and defeated Satan by