We don't need to pray. If we name him Lord, notice that touching his human nature, he saw his need to pray. And what a witness against us who can't find a way to ever utter a single word of prayer. And then God says, you are my son whom I love with you. I am well pleased. Now let me define what this is. This is what Bible scholars call a cluster quote, cluster quote, because it's actually three short portions of other passages of the Bible that are, in a sense, strung together in an abbreviated way. I want a chart now that should be behind me. The phrase, you are my son, the broader context from which that arises is the second Psalm. There's a particular verse there, verse 7. Whom I love, again, the context comes from a story, a well-known story, in Genesis chapter 22, where Moses, where Abraham is told by God, take your son, Your only son, the one whom you love, and take him to the mountain called Moriah and sacrifice him there. And the third phrase, with you I am well pleased, comes from Isaiah chapter 42 verse 1. Now, what is the purpose of the cluster quote? Well, a cluster quote is a way of expressing many big ideas in a very abbreviated way. In fact, you and I, as readers, are invited to investigate the larger context from which these small portions come. Actually, I am going to tell you something, and I want to say it twice for emphasis. You will never understand what God is saying about His Son. until you look at that chart and you take the time to go look at those passages, because there's a sense in which God is not saying anything new about his son that he hasn't already said before. Now, I'm telling you again, because this is such a long passage today, we will not have a chance to go to all those passages. That's a sermon in and of itself. You will not understand what God is saying about his son Jesus until you go to those passages and reflect on the deeper and the broader meaning from which those little snippets come from. Now, if I were going to reduce it down, because we have to cover so much today, I would answer the question, why is God delighted with Jesus at that particular moment? It's not the fact that he's only been baptized. Well, there's a portion of that. There's a sense in which God is delighted with the previous 30 years of the incarnation. There couldn't be a doubt of that. There's a sense in which God is delighted in an anticipatory way with what Jesus will begin to do in the next month, in the next six months, in the next three years, and in the next centuries after that, and then millenniums after that, and all the way into eternity future, God is delighted with his son. But I understand this, that there's a sense in which, and this is how the early church understood it, In the fullest sense, there's a sense in which God has always, eternally been delighted in His Son. Because when God the Father looks at His eternal Son, He sees in His Son the full panorama of everything that is found perfectly in Him. The Son is the exact representation of the Father's nature. Do you know, people, that it is an absolute delight of all delights to be God? Because He is the sum of all desirable qualities. There's a sense in which God is beautiful, and it goes beyond the meaning of the word beautiful. And when the Father looks at His Son, He sees everything that He is, taken to the level of infinitude. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4-6 that the glory of God is seen in the face of Christ. Colossians 2-9 says the fullness, all that is deity is found in bodily form in Christ. Hebrews 1, the sun is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being. So God is delighted. that all the richness that he is, is reflected back to him when he cast his gaze upon his son. For his son is, and always has been, light of light, God of God, very God of very God. And unless you understand how rich God is, you will never understand the Father's delight in his son. Because in every single respect, without any iota of deficit or diminution, the Son is the fullness of the Godhead. Now, in the Old Testament, Moses received some signs of divine attestation. So did the prophets, so did John the Baptist, but no one, no one. That's why this story is unique in all the Bible. That's why it's hard to find parallels. I sense when I read the commentaries that the Bible scholars are groping. What is the background to the meaning of the dove? Well, there's a sense in which there is no background because there's never been. A witness from heaven to somebody like this. He is absolutely unique and he gets an endorsement. He gives an endorsement for the son that delights him and whom he loves. And he has always delighted him and he has always loved him. So the first way we we now see Jesus is anointed is because simply put, heaven says so. And heaven says so without any qualification. There's a richness in what God is saying. I can't even actually put it any better than John the Baptist because, you know, John the Baptist is the one who witnessed this firsthand. I didn't see it firsthand. I just read it like you did. But John saw it firsthand. And here's what he said he saw that day. This comes from the end of the Gospel of John, first chapter. And then John gave this testimony. I, he said, I saw the spirit come down from heaven as a dove. and remain on him. I would not have known him except that the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, the man upon whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit. And I have seen, and I do testify, that this is the Son of God." divine attestation, far surpassing anybody previous. So the answer to the first question, how do we know that this man has the right to speak and act on behalf of heaven itself? Because in an exuberant way, in an intensely personal way, heaven itself says so. The next, point two on your outline, the next way in which Jesus is clearly laid out as God's anointed is a genealogy, a rather odd way of saying that he is anointed. But it is nevertheless, it's a yardstick. It's the second yardstick. And I want you to take a look now at Luke chapter 3 and verse 23. Luke 3 23. Now Jesus himself was about 30 years old when he began his ministry. He was the son. Now look at these words very carefully. He was the son. So it was thought of Joseph. the son of Heli, the son of Mathath, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the son of Jani, the son of Joseph, the son of Mattathias, the son of Amos, the son of Nahum, the son of Esli, the son of Nagai, the son of Maath, the son of Mattathias, the son of Samion, the son of Joseph, the son of Jodah, the son of Jonah, the son of Resha, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Sheltiel, Neri, Melchi, Adi, Kosem. Okay, I have to take a breather. Let's just jump down to verse 31. the son of Malia, the son of Menna, the son of Meretha, the son of Nathan, the son of David. Oh, now there is a point. There's a point. Now, this is like a cluster quote in the sense, not a cluster quote, but it's like a cluster quote. And that hidden in here are little nuggets of gold. You know, the vast majority of the names I read really quickly there and butchered a few of them. They don't have any significance. They're never mentioned any other place in the Bible. But this one is. If you know your Old Testament, if you know the promises of God, you know this man counts for a lot. He and his seed. Because Jesus is linked to this man is a key thing. And then it goes on, of course, then David's father, the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, whose wife, by the way, was Boaz? Oh yeah, that mongrel woman became wrong ancestry and everything, Ruth. Son of Salmon, the son of Nashun, the son of Aminadab, the son of Ram, Hezron, Perez, Judah. Ooh, Judah. Promises made to him about his offspring and that when the throne and the ruler's staff came, it would belong in his household forever. Then he keep going, the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham. Oh, there's another man. Great promises made to him. Now let's go down to verse 37. The son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahaliel, the son of Canaan, the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God. All right. It's a long genealogy. I'm aware that there are differences also. In fact, I wouldn't even bring up this, but just like I had to bring up something like why was Jesus baptized in the first place, now I'm going to have to bring up a sort of a perennial issue on the genealogies. I wouldn't even bring it up. I would skip it, except I've had too many people over the years ask me questions, and the question is simply this. Why did the genealogies in Luke differ so much from the genealogy of Jesus? Same person. Why did the genealogies differ at for at least good portions of the two genealogies. There are differences, and here are the major differences. Number one, Matthew's genealogy only goes back as far as Abraham. The one I just read went all the way back to Adam. Another difference is that Luke and Matthew's lists have significant differences, especially in the portion from Jesus to David. that first one-third roughly, there's where the majority of the differences are. Now there have been many attempts to try to answer why there are so many differences, especially from Jesus to David in the two accounts, and to try to harmonize those differences. But I'm going to tell you something, that every account, every way to harmonize them, in some way, shape, or form is built upon at least a presumption or a conjecture at some point. The arguments always make sense if you will grant the initial presumption. The records of both genealogies are pretty clear that they are based on the Old Testament in the Old Testament portions, but they are also based on genealogical records for which we don't have them anymore. We can't refer to them. The Jewish historian Josephus, in a work that is entitled in Latin, Bella Judaica, which just means The War of the Jews, he chronicles the years from 66 AD to about 71. Jerusalem fell in roughly August, early September of 70 AD. And the lower city where this genealogical building was located, it was a very well-known building, I don't know if it was even the Romans, I think it was the Zealots themselves because they were having intra... they were fighting among themselves and they torched the building. Now, if we had all those old family records, we might be able to verify and see that one genealogy traces Jesus' legal heritage. Now, Joseph is not his biological father, but it is clear that legally He is Jesus' father. So one of these genealogies from Jesus to J. David may track Joseph's line. The other one may follow the biological line through Mary. Or we might have seen that there was such a thing, and this again was something that was practiced in those days, that if one of the heirs of Jesus died before he gave, this is very similar to the story of Ruth. If one of the men that was one of the heirs of Jesus died before he gave birth to a legal heir, then something called the Leveret marriage took place where one of his brothers came in and he fathered an heir, not for himself, but for his dead brother. Now that would mean that again there would be an opportunity for the genealogies to go two directions. One would follow the biological line, one would follow the legal line. Those are all good theories. Actually, that the genealogies are slightly different reinforce what Alex has been teaching you right from the very beginning. We have a man here that is virgin born. That means he doesn't have the normal biological lineage, he has some biological lineage, but there's also a legal lineage then also. And so the fact that the genealogies tend to go at, in portions, in different directions, in a sense reinforces what Luke is already saying. This is a very unique man, and therefore there is both a biological and a legal basis upon which to build a genealogy. Well, we just don't know which genealogy is tracking what. Now, there are good theories. My own personal belief, just so you know, is that one tracks Joseph and one tracks Mary's lineage. But I couldn't tell you which gospel does it because I don't have the supporting evidence anymore. It's all been destroyed. Now, I hope that answers the question. In other words, the question will never be ultimately answered. But it doesn't conflict with the evidence that Luke has given before this, that Jesus is a very unique man with both a legal and a biological ancestry. Now how does this genealogy in Luke's Gospel give us a yardstick of Jesus' heavenly authorization? So now I'm going to go back to Luke's point. Why did Luke put this whole genealogy in there? Well, it's the key names and the promises of God associated with those names that are in the text. That's the key element. With David, you have the Davidic covenant. With Abraham, you have the Abrahamic covenant. With Judah, you have the promises made in Genesis chapter 50, where Jacob gives his sons all unique blessings. With Adam, he's the one who established our need for redemption in the first place. And some of the earliest promises of redemption are given to Adam's wife. Interesting, they're given to Adam's wife. This genealogy is a way of saying that Jesus' anointing is historical, that Messiah is in an afterthought, that all these meticulous, and sometimes for new people that are not familiar with the Bible, it's so hard to put these all things in your mind, but God has worked through a historical process. He has always said that someone is coming and he will fulfill the promises given to these specific individuals, and you have to be with Related to that individual, you have to be their offspring in a very literal sense to be the fulfillment of them. So it is going to be a son of David that is the one who fulfills the promises given to David in like 2 Samuel chapter 7, or Psalm 89, or Psalm 110, or Psalm 132. Those are all Messianic Davidic Psalms. 110, 132, 89. Jesus has to be the one. If there is one coming, Genesis chapter 22, Abraham was told that one would come from his own body, that the world would be blessed. The whole world would be blessed, but it would be his offspring that would do it. Genesis chapter 22. is where it's stated. But you have to be rightly related to Abraham if you're going to fulfill that promise. Jesus is born of a Jewess. That means he's born under the law. And as a son of Torah, he has to obey the law. Now, obey the law in what sense? Not in the sense of the Pharisees in those days. He had to obey the law from the heart, where only God could see whether he was obeying the law. But the man who does it Deuteronomy chapter 28 says that the man who does it, all sorts of great blessings are going to kick in, not the least of which is if one man will obey God's law from the heart. God will take that man and set him up in authority over all the nations. Deuteronomy chapter 28. Finally, in this genealogy, you see Jesus is tied all the way back to Adam, who was the son of God, who became the devil's pawn. The devil wrecked him, yet it is Adam's wife that is promised that her seed will one day triumph over the one that wrecked them. Now, it is also probably the mention of Adam that probably sets us up for the last yardstick of Jesus' anointment or the three verifiable evidences of Jesus' authorization. The final sign or testimony of heaven's authorization is that Jesus passed the test. Now, we've all taken tests. We know how hard tests are, but none of us have taken a test like this. I thought in the eighth grade that my algebra final exam, which I flunked, was the hardest test I've ever taken. It wasn't the hardest test. And I flunked it. That was the last time I took math, by the way. Well, that's the last time. Last time I took algebra. Adam and Eve, remember in the beginning, Adam and Eve were comfortable with God in the garden. Comfortable. Comfortable in fellowship with God. Where is this one who is related to Adam? He's in the desolation. He is in the wilderness. Adam and Eve had everything they wanted to eat. Jesus will not eat for almost six weeks. Adam faced a test and temptation in the garden. Jesus is going to face a test and a temptation in the wilderness. Adam failed, but Christ won't fail. This is the third way in which Luke is verifying to our ears, but also to Theophilus, that this man is uniquely qualified to move now into ministry. Let's take a look and read the last portion of our passage today from Luke chapter 4, verse 1. Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit. Notice that. There is the confluence here of both the intentions of the spirit and the intentions of the satanic. But don't miss, don't forget, that God himself is driving, that's what Mark's gospel says, driving Jesus. Why? Because God wants to prove something. God wants to prove Jesus. So, and he was led by the spirit. in the desert, where for 40 days he was tempted by the devil. How long did the temptations last? Were there only three? No. Many temptations. Many temptations. Week after week, and each week, the physical energies of this one, who is a son of David, and a son of Judah, and a son of Abraham, and a son of Adam, each week he's getting physically weaker. The advantage is gradually shifting from the son of Adam to the fallen angel, Satan. And Satan can feel that the momentum is swinging towards him. And it is the final three. Not all of them. There might have been hundreds of temptations. It's a long test. Almost six weeks long. And the final three are all that it is recorded. This is the test of all tests. And the devil said to him, in verse 3, if you are the son of God, notice the if, if you are the son of God, tell this stone to become bread. And Jesus answered, it is written, man does not live on bread alone. Next test. And the devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. Do you know, do you want to know what Jesus dreamed about as a young man in those silent years in Nazareth? He dreamed about kingdoms because that's exactly what Satan is tempting him about. I will give you, he said, I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me and I can give it to anyone I want to. So if you worship me, it will be yours. And Jesus answered, it is written, worship the Lord your God and serve him only. And then the devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. If you are the son of God, he said, throw yourself down from here, for it is written. And now it's not just Jesus that's quoting scripture, now Satan himself is quoting scripture. He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully. They will lift you up in their hands so that you will not even strike your foot against the stone. Anybody ever stub their toe? It's a bloody mess, isn't it? There's a promise in Psalm 91 that the Messiah wouldn't even stub his toe. And Jesus answered. It says, Do not put the Lord your God to the test. And when the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him and never returned again. No, no, no. Until an opportune time. Jerusalem is the place of the climax of Jesus ministry. But for Jesus, it will be a place. It's a climax, but it'll be a place of sorrow and ignominy. And Satan is saying, especially in this last temptation, Jesus, Jerusalem doesn't have to be that way for you. You have an opportunity to go to Jerusalem, and you can awe them. You can win the faith, if that's what you want, the admiration, if that's what you want, the loyalty, if that's what you want. Do something on the scale of a Las Vegas magic act. Be a razzle-dazzle man. You'll win them all, I guarantee it. The last temptation is the most key of all, because what is being tempted, I hope you see, is that you can have what you want without the cross. Charles Ryrie, the author of the Ryrie Study Bible, which I know many of you use, said in his book entitled Basic Theology this, the principle tactics Satan uses to attack God and his program in general is to offer a counterfeit kingdom and program. This was evident when he originally sinned by wanting to be like, not unlike God, and that's a reference to the prophet Isaiah. The counterfeit was first attempted on mankind when Satan offered Eve the chance to be like God, knowing both good and evil. Genesis chapter 3. Now listen to this next statement. The temptation of Christ is also an attempt at a counterfeit. A counterfeit is like the genuine as much as possible, only without some vital feature. Satan's offer to our Lord was have the glory do him without the essential feature of his death Ladies and gentlemen, there is just one repetitive element that are in these temptations and it doesn't end here It just goes right on through the Gospels and Jesus is being promised something like this You've been dreaming of a kingdom all your life good and well fine. I understand you're the anointed one. I'm impressed I'm impressed You can be the anointed one. You can have all these things. But all that stuff about the man of sorrows and being numbered with the transgressors and bearing the sin of many and being cut off from the land of the living, Isaiah 53, that stuff is not necessary. That's the fallacy of what you believe. That's his temptation. In Matthew chapter 16 verse 23, Jesus tells his disciples as he came off a great mountain, this is at the end of his ministry, he's going to Jerusalem for one last visit, and it isn't for perking privilege. He says this, I will suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the law, and I must be killed. And Peter says, no, master, no. And what does Jesus say? He smells the sulfur. Get behind me, Satan. Even when Jesus is on the cross. Now get this, people. He is freshly crucified. What is the taunt? What is the temptation? What is the test? Even while He's in the cross, before He slips into the darkest hour of the cross, when He's abandoned by His Father. People start coming up to Him and promising Him that they will give Him what they didn't give Him before, if He will come down off the cross. The common man came up and said, Oh, you who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, come down off the cross. if you are the Son of God. And then the religious leaders went up to him and said, let him come down now from his cross, and then we will believe in him. You see the temptation? Always the counterfeit, that there is such a thing as a kingdom without a cross, and the loyalty of people without a cross, and glory without the cross. Brothers and sisters, this is why we know Jesus is anointed for his rather unique task, representing the human race. Because when the debt is stacked in favor of the greatest and the deadliest and the shrewdest and the most diabolical trickster and deceiver of the world, Jesus is at that moment, at six weeks without food, you are already, in a very physical sense, you are already dying. Your body is feeding off itself for its sustenance and there isn't much left. And as hunger and weakness wracked him, he never took the bait. He never said, this calls for a major life reassessment. He never did that. He never decided his mission wasn't worth it. He never traded his inheritance for a bowl of anything. When the thing is over and done, he just says this, worship the Lord your God and serve him only. Do not put the Lord your God to the test and man does not live by bread alone. And the great Scottish preacher George Morrison said this of that moment. He says, our Lord's sinlessness was not an endowment from heaven, but rather it was an unparalleled achievement. Now, I know that some of you may think, because you don't understand what the church is teaching about Jesus Christ. That's why Alex, three weeks ago, gave you a lesson on classic Christology. Two natures coalescing in one person without division and without any kind of mutation. It's not like the divine overpowered the human. It's not like the human somehow humanized the divine. No, two distinct natures coalescing in one person. Unless you understand that, then you don't understand. You probably view that there was no real valid test here. But the testimony of the church universal is that the sinlessness of Christ at this moment is not a gift from heaven. It was an accomplishment. Touching his human nature, he was really weak. He was really tempted to take those shortcuts. people and a loyalty and the faith of all nations without the cross what an idea a Kingdom that spanned the globe and and the reconciliation of all the frustrations and creation I can have all that without the cross that was a temptation and It was a temptation that had it hit him at his weakest moment And unless you understand, though, that it's not just Satan that's there, the Spirit of God also is there. This is a very unique human, I mean, satanic and divine confluence. One is proving Jesus. The other one is trying to solicit evil out of Jesus. They're both there, but they have entirely different motives. And unless you understand that, you'll never really see that the temptation story is God's third way of showing Jesus is qualified. He is authorized to act on behalf of heaven and act on behalf of you and me. He's absolutely unique. And now with these three stories, Luke feels it's sufficient now to move in to when he takes his first step, beginning his saviorhood duties, his prophetic teaching duties, his priestly duties, and as he begins his kingly duties. But I want you to understand that before Jesus even gets out of this starting box, if you understand the nature of these three stories, he has already progressed beyond anybody before him. He is greater than Adam. but he is related to Adam. He is greater than Judah, but he is related. He is greater than Abraham, but he is related. He is greater than David, but he is related. Every one of those men fell at some point in their lives. Everybody succumbs to the wiles and the craftiness of the devil in this room and in history. There's only one person that hasn't. And he was tested in a situation that was a lot different than that day in the eighth grade when I took my algebra final exam. I wasn't hungry. I wasn't starving. My body's biological functions were not feeding on my own muscle tissues to survive. We're going to embark on a story about a man, and the ministry part now begins, that is absolutely so unique that I want to remind you that the Bible says that the angels long to look into these things. and that the wise men and the prophets of the Old Testament also, they long to see what we see today and to hear what we hear today. There never has been a man like Jesus. Almost everything Alex has preached and everything that I have covered today is to set this man apart. He is different than all other men. He is already, he's not even in his public ministry yet, but he is already a light year ahead of all men. I hope you see that more clearly today than you ever, ever have before, because he is your representative before God. He speaks to God on your behalf. And there's no tinge of guilt in the back of his mind that that one time he might have been more loyal to God. Every time, you know, every time I pray on behalf of people in this church or my own family, there are times when guilt is there in my mind. I'm praying for something that I have not even that strong about. And I'm saying, please make Alex's hair grow. But I'm losing my hair. And in the moral realm, it's the same thing. Please give this man strength to overcome these terrible frustrations and temptations. But then in the back of my mind, I remember, I'm not clear. My record isn't totally clear. My hands aren't clean in those areas also. Oh, I'm forgiven. I'm not saying that. But you know, there's never been a prayer like that from Jesus that was tinged even with the slightest shadow of turning. He is absolutely a perfect representative on your behalf. And that's how Luke is setting him up right here at the very beginning of the gospel. I hope you see that, like I said, in a way you've never seen it before. And your admiration and your appreciation for Jesus Christ should grow because of that. He should be the most precious thing in your life. He is in mine. And the more I understand the gospel of Luke and all the gospels, he is precious beyond comparison in a manly kind of way. Precious beyond comparison. All right, my time is up. Let's stand for a closing prayer. Our father, we. Just pause now as we've heard the word of Luke's gospel preached to us this morning and we think of the emphasis that's been placed on Jesus qualification to become a priest and to act as a king and to act as a prophet and a teacher and to be a redeemer and a Messiah and all these other things. And we see that really. Heaven has witnessed to him in a very unique way. His genealogy exactly lines him up with everything written in the Old Testament. And he and he endured successfully, in fact, with flying colors, a test that none of us, none of us here and nobody in history could ever withstand. He is he is exactly what you say he is. He is your son whom you love, in whom you take. Absolute delight. May that be our hearts also this morning. Give us traveling mercies as we leave now and we pray these things in our Savior's name. Amen. And you are dismissed.