Jesus Was Purged

1987

In Luke chapter 4 we have Jesus being led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted.

“And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert where for forty days, he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days and at the end of them was hungry.

“The devil said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.’

“Jesus answered, ‘It is written: “Man does not live on bread alone.”’

“The devil took him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world and said to him, ‘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. If you worship me, it will all be yours.’

“Jesus answered, ‘It is written, “Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.”’

“The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple, ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, “He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.”’

“And Jesus answered him, ‘It is said: “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”’ When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.”

One of the other Gospels says that the angels came and ministered to Him at this point.

Verse 14, “Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.

“He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

“‘The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’ “Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, ‘Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.’”

Now you can see so far in Jesus’ life, what’s happened to Him. He’s spent thirty years, and apparently He hasn’t had massive trouble with satan, and I think that’s probably the case. Because a lot of times our wars aren’t with satan, it’s with the sinful nature, as Paul said in Galatians 5. He even lists witchcraft there as being the sinful nature. We blame a lot of things on satan that really aren’t satan. He’s not omnipresent like God. And it’s a little bit arrogant to think he’s going to be picking on me out of 4.7 billion people on earth since he can only be one place at one time.

So much of what happens to us isn’t really satan, it’s the sinful nature. Like I said, even witchcraft. That really astounded me when I read that. Witchcraft is an act of the sinful nature. Certainly satan drops lures for us, but by and large, it’s not actually satan himself that’s pummeling us. It’s good to know that because if you think it’s satan pummeling you, and you don’t have a good understanding of who you are in Christ, you’re liable to be very intimidated about that. When you realize it’s probably not him at all, that he’s not omnipresent like God is, then it gives you a little freedom to stand up and realize that you’re only battling with your own mind and flesh and bones and so on.

So Jesus, for thirty years, probably didn’t have that much trouble with satan. But now He’s baptized, a dove descends on Him, He’s full of the Holy Spirit, and now is when satan begins to put his barrage of problems on Jesus. Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted, to be tried, to be purged. In the course of these next several days and weeks Jesus is tried, and satan tests Him with His ability to withstand the needs of the flesh. Will you need sleep? Will you need food? “Turn this stone into bread.”

Jesus had to be purged in order for the Father to use Him. He had to be purged of His need to be driven by external things like food and sleep and water and so on. Not that we don’t need those. It says in Matthew 6 that our Father knows we need those things. But don’t run after them like the pagans do. Trust God for the deliverance of those things. Your Father will never let you be tried beyond that which you can bear. Therefore, do not run after these things like the pagans do. So Jesus yielded that, and when tempted to pursue the flesh He didn’t.

Jesus was tempted to throw Himself down that an angel would catch Him, and that’s a common temptation in the 20th century, is putting God to the test. “God, do this for me. Do this for me.” Jesus said, “No. It’s not My job to put God on display, to put Him to the test, to try to use God in some kind of way. I won’t do it. I won’t flex my muscles with My relationship with God in order to impress you. I’ll do it for His glory but not to impress you or anybody else.”

Then satan spoke of giving Him authority over nations, and in that Jesus had to be purged of His need for recognition, His need for power and authority. So now a man full of the Holy Spirit still had to be purged of all those external things. Now turn to Luke chapter 4, and you see He returned to Galilee after being purged in the power of the Spirit and He says,

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news... He sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners.”

Verse 21, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Thirty years old and it was “Today,” that day in time that He was sent and appointed and anointed by God. There was this purging that had to take place, and now He was a genuine threat to satan, as He underwent the purging and stood tall in spite of that. And now the Father has sent Him to do a work that couldn’t have been done without all that preparatory work.