The Intensity of His Walk . . . OR . . . Not My Will But Yours Be Done

Sabbath School Class—Life as Discovery and Hope
May 24, 2008
Larry R Evans

Quiz for Reflection

1. The struggle for Jesus in the wilderness temptation was intense because He was so hungry. [Mt 4:1-3; Jn 4:31-34; Mt 16:21-23] True or False?

2. Christ came to this earth to be an example. [1Pet 2:21; 1 Cor 11:1; Jn 1:29; Gn 22:6-14; Rev 5:12] True or False?

3. If we always live within the atmosphere of prayer we need not set apart specific times for prayer. [Mt 14:23; Lk 6:12; Jn 17] True or False?

4. Satan used the intensity Jesus felt for His mission as the grounds for temptation. [Jn 12:12-27; Lk 22:39-51; Mt 16:21-23] True or False?

Introductory Reflections

Intensity can be described as showing exceptional concentration or focus of activity thought or feeling. This Jesus had. What made His ministry so unique was not that he prayed, quoted Scripture or cast out demons. His uniqueness was the intensity by which He sought to know the Father’s will and His eagerness for it to be carried throughout His entire life. Jesus was intense. Unlike the kind of intensity He showed, we often become so task oriented that people matter less than our “To Do List.” Jesus was different. Jesus was kind and considerate. He was compassionate. The depth of His care was deeper than simply placating others with profound platitudes. While His disciples pushed an agenda, Jesus took time to speak and listen to the children, dine with the tax collectors and to spend major portions of each day talking with His Father. They were not add-ons. They were His agenda. Yes, Jesus was intense but His mission included loving those whom He came to save. It began in His childhood and it never wavered even during his dying moments. “And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.” ( Luke 2:52) Today we will explore a few areas where His intensity made a real difference to Him, His ultimate Mission and those to whom He ministered.

Reflective Quiz

1. The struggle for Jesus in the wilderness temptation was intense because He was so hungry. [Mt 4:1-3; Jn 4:31-34; Mt 16:21-23] False

I would like to draw your attention to three biblical passages as we think about Christ’s temptation. The first is found in Philippians 2:5-8 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

6 Who, being in very nature God,

did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,

7 but made himself nothing,(emptied himself)

taking the very nature of a servant,

being made in human likeness.

8 And being found in appearance as a man,

he humbled himself

and became obedient to death-

even death on a cross! (NIV)

Paul seems to be saying that Christ voluntarily gave up his divine attributes and submitted to all the conditions of human life. Jesus remained God, but voluntarily chose not to use His divine power on His own behalf. At the foundation of His temptations was this voluntary action to remain emptied. “He was not merely tempted as we are, but He was tempted far beyond the point where ordinary humans can ever be, since He actually had the power of God’ in (rather than “at”) His fingertips. The great struggle of Christ was to stay emptied. Satan’s forceful temptations were to get Him to ‘un-empty’” (George Knight in The Cross of Christ, p.83)

The second passage is found in Mt 4:1-3,

4:1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread." (NIV)

Satan tempted Jesus at the very point of his divinity “If you are the Son of God . . .” With this in mind let’s turn to John 4:28-36

28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 "Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?" 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

31 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, "Rabbi, eat something."
32 But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about."
33 Then his disciples said to each other, "Could someone have brought him food?"
34 "My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35 Do you not say, 'Four months more and then the harvest'? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36 Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. (NIV)

No question, Jesus was intense about His mission. While you and I may be tempted to call Him a work-alcoholic, doing so misses the point. Some of the most severe kinds of temptations that ever confronted Jesus were the subtle invitations to abandon or compromise His mission—sometimes for good reasons at least on the surface. His disciples were ignorantly encouraging Him to abandon His mission (which they did not understand) when they told Him to leave the people He was talking with and eat. Jesus words should also speak to us: "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Then he explained what that work was: Having just heard the testimony of the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus said: “I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.” This was no evangelistic numbers count. This was an intensity for reaching out to the lost. The intensity of Jesus came because He saw opportunities that even His own disciples did not see!

2. Christ came to this earth to be an example. [1Pet 2:21; 1 Cor 11:1; Jn 1:29; Gn 22:6-14; Rev 5:12] True but . . .

Note 1 Peter 2:21,

To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. (NIV)

Does this suggest that we should all die on a cross? If not how do we know that? The context!! In this passage Jesus stood firm in obedience to His Father and the mission they had together accepted. Jesus was certainly an example for living a life of faith and commitment. However, we must not stop there. The atonement provided by Jesus is a whole process by which sinners are reconciled to God. Jesus did not save by simply being a perfect “moral influence.” It takes more than that. John the Baptist recognized that when he proclaimed, “Behold the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29)

Rev 5:11-12

11 Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. 12 In a loud voice they sang:

"Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain,

to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength

and honor and glory and praise!" (NIV)

3. If we always live within the atmosphere of prayer we need not set apart specific times for prayer. [Mt 14:23; Lk 6:12; Jn 17] False

Matthew introduces an interesting, or should I say profound, sequence of events in the life of Jesus in chapter 14.
· In verses 1-14 Matthew tells us the story of John the Baptist being beheaded and John’s disciples tell Jesus
· Jesus withdraws to a solitary place.
· Crowds followed Jesus and He “had compassion on them and healed their sick.” (v.14)

· He feeds the 5,000

· He sends His disciples ahead by boat

· He “went up on a mountainside by himself to pray.”

Jesus sought out time to pray. He knew there was no substitute. He lived within the atmosphere of prayer but He also sought very specific times to be in prayer. The whole of John 17 is a specific prayer experience of Jesus.

4. Satan used the intensity Jesus felt for His mission as the grounds for temptation. [Jn 12:12-27; Lk 22:39-51; Mt 16:21-23] True

Even good, noble things can be used by Satan to divert us from the will of the Father. This was especially true for Jesus. In John 12 we find Jesus being anointed for ministry by a pardoned adulteress, Mary Magdalene. As she bathed His feet with costly perfume she symbolized the fulfillment of the mission entrusted to Jesus. It is followed by His own acknowledgment that His mission would lead to His own death (Jn 12:7) It is immediately after this “anointing” that Jesus enters is given the “triumphal entry” to Jerusalem with shouts proclaiming “Blessed is the King of Israel.” (Jn 12:13) The Pharisees had it right when they exclaimed, “Look the whole world has gone after him!” (Jn 12:19) We often casually read the following verses in which Jesus is confronted by the Greeks who plead, “Sir, we would like to see Jesus.” (Jn 12:21). Encased within this evangelist plea is a temptation for Jesus to leave and travel to a whole different nation and thus avoid the cross. Jesus was not an itinerant preacher/evangelist. He was to be the Saviour, the Lamb of God. Nothing can speak more powerfully to the sympathetic heart than these kinds of pleas, yet for Jesus it was a temptation that must have slashed at His heart. So the compassionate intensity Jesus felt for the lost was used against Him. It was much more subtle than turning stones into bread or casting Himself down from the top of a the temple. Even good things, noble things, can deter us from the mission of God and Jesus knew this. For Jesus there could be no mission substitute. A lesson we too must bear in mind.

Reflective Review

We can easily miss the point of this week’s lesson if we conclude that we aren’t doing enough for God. More activity for God isn’t the kind of intensity the Bible is talking about. While it may happen, that is not the point. In brief, God wants us to so adjust our lives to Him so that He can do through us what He wants to do! “Understanding what God is about to do where you are is more important than telling God what you want to do for Him. . . . All the way through the Scripture, God takes the initiative. When He comes to a person, He always reveals Himself and His activity. That revelation is always an invitation for the individual to adjust his life to God. None of the people God ever encountered could remain the same after the encounter. They had to make major adjustments in their lives in order to walk obediently with God.” (Henry T Blackaby and Claude V. King in Experiencing God, p.68, 69) Ellen White presents an insightful understanding of how Enoch “walked with God.” “Enoch walked with God three hundred years previous to his translation to heaven, and the state of the world was not then more favorable for the perfection of Christian character than it is today. And how did Enoch walk with God? He educated his mind and heart to ever feel that he was in the presence of God, and when in perplexity his prayers would ascend to God to keep him. He refused to take any course that would offend his God. He kept the Lord continually before him. He would pray, “Teach me Thy way, that I may not err. What is Thy pleasure concerning me? What shall I do to honor Thee, my God?”. (Ellen White in Christ Triumphant, p.43

The focus of Jesus was always to do His Father’s will. That was His mission. In order to know what that was Jesus’ needed to be in communion with His Father. Two dominant qualities of Jesus stand out and they are critical for us as well if we are to walk as He did. First, we must be moldable and second we must be available. Both are a natural outcome resulting from an abiding and trusting relationship with our Heavenly Father.