The Word versus the Mission

In Matthew 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-13, and Luke 4:1-13, the temptation of the Lord Jesus is recorded. Matthew and Luke record three particular parts of His temptation, three direct attacks by the devil.

In the first, the devil appealed to the ego of Jesus, that is, His awareness of His being, His identity. “If/since a son you are of God, say that these stones bread should become.” The devil appealed to the fact that by His identity Jesus was the Word by which all things exist. Surely He should have no reason to be hungry when by merely speaking it the bread would come forth from the stones.

But Jesus had been led into the desert to be hungry and to endure our temptations. He went out to prove not Himself, but rather, what His identity means for mankind. He is mankind’s bread of life. He is mankind’s sufficiency.

The devil has used this same temptation in the churches, and they largely have turned to their own identities for their confidence rather than the identity of the Lord Jesus. They have turned their hearts to the earthly and fleshly provisions rather than counting “every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” to be their source of life and hope and peace and joy and sustenance.

In the second approach the devil appealed to the act of believing and trusting God’s promises. Surely Jesus would not deny what the prophets had written. Surely Jesus would want to demonstrate that what was written about Him is true. Surely it must be meet, right, and salutary to step forward in faith and show the world the faithfulness of God’s promises recorded in the Holy Scriptures.

But Jesus was not born to act according to His own determination. He came to fulfill that which was already planned from eternity. He came to do the Father’s will. God is His Father and He was sent to the world by the Father. Even though He and the Father are one, even though He is the Word by which all that God does is made to be, nevertheless, “Again it is written, “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.”

Again the devil has effectively tempted the churches with this same temptation, and largely the churches have chosen to decide what God would have them to do in His name. They have set forth to build God’s Church for Him and have tempted the Lord their God. Rather than walking in the way that He has prepared and declared, they have chosen to make improvements by choosing what mighty things to do in His name.

Finally the devil held before the Lord Jesus the mission that He had come to the world to accomplish. The devil showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and all the glory or people of them. According to the devil’s offer, Jesus would increase the numbers of those who were brought into the Church. In fact, the devil promised that all of the kingdoms and all of the people would come to Jesus by this one simple alteration.

But Jesus did not come to alter anything. He came to restore what had been altered. He came to restore people to worship the Lord their God purely and solely. He did not come to establish a church that included everyone according to various ways of worship. He came to reestablish the one true worship of God in the unity of God’s Word.

Again, the devil has presented this same offer to the churches, and largely they have chosen to make the worship alterations that appeal to the masses. Their alterations have worked, for now the churches have become one with all of the kingdoms and they share in the glory of those kingdoms.

The devil has been quite happy to let the churches keep their identities as Christians. In fact, they basically all identify with each other, even allowing that they each have “enough of the Gospel” to be called Church.

The devil has been quite happy to let the churches keep their Scriptures. In fact they have the Scriptures in more translations than can be easily counted. And they each hold to the Scriptures according to their own interpretations and applications. Yet they all speak of the Scriptures as the basis for faith, and nevertheless they never agree on what that faith really is. Or do they?

Finally, the devil has been delighted to allow and even to encourage the churches to become more and more mission minded. He has encouraged them to focus their energies on making disciples of all nations. And the churches have made this their primary focus. All else can be set aside if necessary, so long as they are continuing in pursuing the fulfillment of the mission.

The Lord Jesus, on the other hand, never took His eyes off of the way of the cross.

It certainly presents an interesting contrast when one considers the Mission of the Word versus the Word of the Mission.