What is the greatest temptation that we can face in this life? If we wanted to be technical about it, nit-picky, we could say there is not one answer to that question. Because we are all different from each other: Be it either by difference of circumstance or by virtue of a different – inherent – psychological make-up, at any particular time, each one of us will have a different weakness. Can’t you imagine yourself ever being desperate enough to risk stealing?
But that, we all can understand.
Solomon himself pointed that out:
Proverbs 6:30 (NIV) People do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his hunger when he is starving.
And although in the next verse he points out that the penalty required by Law will still be imposed (in that case a sevenfold restitution), this verdict stands in stark contrast with the real subject of that passage in Proverbs:
Proverbs 6:32-35 (NIV) But a man who commits adultery has no sense; whoever does so destroys himself. Blows and disgrace are his lot, and his shame will never be wiped away. For jealousy arouses a husband’s fury, and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge. He will not accept any compensation; he will refuse a bribe, however great it is.
You see, in Solomon’s eyes, everyone understands that hunger is the very real voice of an overpowering human need. Breaking the “social contract”, or even one of the Ten Commandments, under its influence, for the sake of survival, may be formally wrong but it is understandable… maybe even justifiable.
However, there is no overpowering human need to steal someone else’s wife.
But that is not the subject of today’s post… Because based on that conclusion, that kind of temptation cannot be the greatest temptation we can ever face.
Power: the ultimate temptation.
I think the greatest temptation has always been for power. It has been that way from the beginning. It was the temptation that brought down Satan.
In the Book of Ezekiel, the Lord has Ezekiel prophesy against the leader of the kingdom of Tyre, in a passage that begins this way:
Ezekiel 28: 1-2…6-7 (NASB) The word of the Lord came again to me, saying, “Son of man, say to the leader of Tyre, ‘The Lord God says this: “Because your heart is haughty and you have said, ‘I am a god, I sit in the seat of gods in the heart of the seas’; Yet you are a mortal and not God…Therefore this is what the Lord God says: “Because you have made your heart like the heart of God, therefore, behold, I am going to bring strangers against you…”
And so, he declares the ultimate destruction of the kingdom of Tyre. But immediately after that, the Lord has Ezekiel also prophesy against the real king of Tyre, the supernatural force behind that kingdom.
Ezekiel 28:11-17 (NASB) Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Son of man, take up a song of mourning over the king of Tyre and say to him, ‘This is what the Lord God says:
“You had the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering: the ruby, the topaz and the diamond; The beryl, the onyx and the jasper; The lapis lazuli, the turquoise and the emerald; and the gold, the workmanship of your settings and sockets, was in you.
“On the day that you were created they were prepared. You were the anointed cherub who covers, and I placed you there. You were on the holy mountain of God; you walked in the midst of the stones of fire. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created until unrighteousness was found in you.
“By the abundance of your trade you were internally filled with violence, and you sinned; therefore I have cast you as profane from the mountain of God. and I have destroyed you, you covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.
“Your heart was haughty because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor. I threw you to the ground…”
Who was this anointed cherub, who apparently was created to cover the Mercy Seat? What was his sin, what was that haughtiness that filled him with violence? Isaiah tells us the answer in his prophecy against the king of Babylon.
Isaiah 14:12-14 (NASB) “How you have fallen from heaven, you star of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, you who defeated the nations!
But you said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, and I will sit on the mount of assembly In the recesses of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’
That cherub was Lucifer (star of the morning), apparently the greatest angel created by God; who decided that all the worship that God was receiving from His creation (the “trade” that somehow Lucifer was mediating) ought to be his own. He decided he would make a better God than the God who created everything and, so, he tried to take over His throne.
He craved power… absolute power. And notice how that naturally led to him being filled with violence.
Now stop and consider the “kings” of our world, past and present. Especially think of those who attained absolute power over their people or who did their utmost to attain that power. Did that power ever lead to a kingdom filled with goodness and peace? Did it ever lead to a kingdom where every child created by God who happened to be living in that land was treated with fairness and kindness and mercy?
Isn’t it the case otherwise? Isn’t it the case that such human power invariably leads to violence? Instead of fostering love between people, most of the time such power is maintained by allowing the king’s favorite people to do whatever they want against those not in his favor. It works, because it makes those people whom the king favors feel like they too are getting a share of that power…
Power is the ultimate temptation. It has been so from the very beginning…
Genesis 3:4-5 (NASB) The serpent said to the woman, “You certainly will not die! For God knows that on the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will become like God, knowing good and evil.”
If power is so dangerous, how can we even dare to pursue it?
In Acts, chapter 1, when the disciples gather around Jesus, just before His ascension, Jesus told them to stay in Jerusalem until they receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Now, by this point, all the teaching of Jesus about the role of the Holy Spirit, that we saw in the Gospel of John, has already taken place. Every other instance of the work of the Spirit in the other Gospels has already happened. If we go back to all that, what would we think the baptism of the Holy Spirit meant?
I mean, yes, John the Baptizer talked about Jesus being the One that would baptize us with the Spirit and fire… But what did that mean?
Every instance we find in the gospels of the power of the Spirit, couches it in terms of supernatural power for a supernatural purpose. It is through that power that we are born again. It is through that power that demons are cast out. It is through that power the gospel is proclaimed and hearts are opened to listen to it. Every instance we read is perfectly compatible with Jesus’ attitude before Pilate:
John 18:36 Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world; if my kingdom were of this world, my servants had fought that I might not be delivered up to the Jews; but now my kingdom is not from hence.
Which was foreshadowed by His rebuke of Peter at the Garden of Gethsemane.
Matthew 26:51-54 And behold, one of those with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword, and smiting the bondman of the high priest took off his ear. Then saith Jesus to him, Return thy sword to its place; for all who take the sword shall perish by the sword. Or thinkest thou that I cannot now call upon my Father, and he will furnish me more than twelve legions of angels?
How then should the scriptures be fulfilled that thus it must be?
To Jesus, what matters is His Father’s Plan of Salvation. That is the Mission. That is the purpose for any working of power by and through the Holy Spirit. As Jesus told Peter, what matters is what the Scriptures have declared that must be… the Will of God. It never has anything to do with power in the kingdom of this world.
This being so, doesn’t the disciples’ first reaction to Jesus’ departing message strike you as strange?
Acts 1:6 (NIV) Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
Wow… Haven’t we been listening to Him these past three years?
Preconceptions and human desires are hard to let go, aren’t they? An oppressed people will always yearn for deliverance. Here they are hoping that the power He is bequeathing on them will finally give them victory in this world.
But Jesus told them time and time again that the deliverance He came to give humanity is greater than any human, political, deliverance. He came to deliver us from the power of the kingdom of the world, the kingdom of darkness… to move us from the death eternal life.
So, Jesus immediately set them straight:
Acts 1:7 (NIV) He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority…
In other words, “that is none of your business. That is not why I gathered you here…”
Acts 1:8 (NIV) “…But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
“…Instead, you need to understand that I am sending you power from on High for a very specific purpose: to be my witnesses.”
Again, it bears repeating: Yes, the baptism of the Holy Spirit is going to bring us power… BUT it is power for a very speciifc purpose. And that’s it!
The power that it gives us is not there to distinguish us, or to prove that we are right with God.
It gives us no right to any benefits in this world, no higher standing, and no guarantee that what we want to happen ought to happen.
Because all that matter is what God wants to happen.
And that is not too hard to figure out. All we need to do is to study the life of Jesus and walk in His steps… wherever that leads us and however that fulfills God’s Master Plan.
That is the way John the Baptizer lived
When he appeared on the scene, filled with the Spirit, there was no doubt in the peoples’ mind that He was one of the prophets. Yes, most of the Pharisees and Sadducees doubted, but we know that that was because their hearts were already turned away from God.
Those open to hearing the Voice of God knew because the Spirit made it plain. And that is why John had such a powerful ministry that even Roman soldiers asked him what righteousness required of them (Luke 3:14). I don’t think anyone would have been surprised if John had called down fire from heaven like Elijah had done.
In fact, Jesus declared that John had been chosen to be the Elijah that was to come; the prophesied Herald that would usher in the apocalyptic Day of the Lord. But, you see, even though that Day of the Lord had been promised, in God’s Plan it was not the right time. The world was not ready because the chosen people were not ready…
Matthew 11:11-15 (NIV) Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence, and violent people have been raiding it. For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come. Whoever has ears, let them hear.
Matthew 17:10-13 (NIV) The disciples asked him, “Why then do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?” Jesus replied, “To be sure, Elijah comes and will restore all things. But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but have done to him everything they wished. In the same way the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.” Then the disciples understood that he was talking to them about John the Baptist.
The world was not ready and, so, God the Father proceeded with His perfect “Plan B”; the Plan gthat He had put into m otion before the world began: the Plan of Salvation, to pour Mercy and Grace on His children. A plan that accomplished Victory in a way the world could never understand… Victory won on a cross.
John the Baptizer understood, and he accepted that way because he knew it was God’s will. With all the power of the Holy Spirit he had at his disposal, he chose to walk the path assigned to Him by the Father.
He understood this early on, even before he knew that he too was going to give his life for the sake of the Plan. One time his disciples came to him to complain that Jesus was getting bigger crowds than him…
John 3:26-30 And they came to John and said to him, Rabbi, he who was with thee beyond the Jordan, to whom thou barest witness, behold, he baptises, and all come to him. John answered and said, A man can receive nothing unless it be given him out of heaven. Ye yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but, that I am sent before him. He that has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices in heart because of the voice of the bridegroom: this my joy then is fulfilled.
He must increase, but I must decrease.
Oh, that we too would desire to walk that way.
This is my bottom line today: If we are desiring the baptism of the Holy Spirit because it is going to bring us Power (and by that I mean that we are thinking of the sound of the mighty rushing wind on Pentecost, or the ability to shock the bystanders around us by speaking in a multitude of tongues, or the anointing that would give a handkerchief that touches us the sbility to heal someone’s disease) then I think we are missing the point. I think we are being tempted away from our path by the worldly obsession with personal power.
The Power that we need, the Power that Jesus has promised to put into our lives, is the Power that He has determined that we need so that we can carry out our mission in our world today.