Mat 4:1-11; Having the Time of God’s Life.

Class Outline:

Sunday January 28, 2024

 

What is the meaning of life? What is human life really?

 

These moments are used by God to call to people. Ultimately, the answer is in the one life that is the life of man - Jesus Christ.

 

JOH 1:4

In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.

 

He is the light of the world and has shined forth to the world. The problem was not that He was stingy with it.

 

JOH 1:5

The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

 

What has been lost in the modern and post-modern world is the understanding and dread of the alternative to eternal life.

 

The temptation from Satan sets the stage for Christ to tell the world what is the meaning of human life and its purpose.

 

MAT 4:1-4

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry. 3 And the tempter came and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread." 4 But He answered and said, "It is written, 'MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.'"

 

Life is physically living. That’s a no brainer. What is not intuitive to the world is that true human life is lived in the soul, in thinking.

 

“I’m having the time of my life,” or

“I’m having the time of [click in line and God’s] God’s life?”

 

Man lives by the Word of God. Why does he? The easy answer is that it is God’s will. But why is a physical life lived without the Word of God, called by God, not life, but a sort of living death? The reason is because the Word of God alone creates a divine soul, a soul that breathes in the manner of God, and that divine soul manifests itself in the person’s outward life. That is why it is God’s will.

 

Jesus is quoting DEU 8:3, and so this is not only a NT concept.

 

That the only life meant for man is lived by the Word of God is a universal and timeless truth.

 

Abraham, Moses, David, and all the prophets knew this (Heb 11).

 

All that we see emanates from God’s Word.

 

HEB 11:1-3

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 For by it the men of old gained approval.

3 By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.

 

The Word, as we know it, has a lot in it, and not all of it is of the same type.

 

Different types of literature reveal that a divine soul is not one-note.

 

Commandments = blessing.

Promises / covenants = hope and confidence.

Inspiration - Psalms.

Wisdom - Proverbs, Job, Ecc.

Example / warning - narrative.

 

The best life, the divine life is not one note, which is why there are so many kinds of Scripture.

 

Summary: The Word alters the mind / soul from: 

1. 1. 1. 1. Lost to knowing right and wrong. 
         2. Fear to hope
         3. Dull to inspired. 
         4. Stupid to wise. 
         5. Ineffective to able. 

 

How else can such changes happen than by God’s Word?

 

JOH 4:31-34

Meanwhile the disciples were urging Him, saying, "Rabbi, eat." 32 But He said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about."  33 So the disciples were saying to one another, "No one brought Him anything to eat, did he?" 34 Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.

 

The divine soul is much more than food.

 

In addition to the Word of the OT, we now have the Word of the NT, somethings new and somethings that make the Old more clear. We also have the Word about Christ. The actual life of man as God has always willed it to be.

 

Having Christ and the whole of God’s word, we will never thirst or hunger again, JOH 4:13-15; 6:32-35.

 

The Word now rises to the level of complete satisfaction. 

 

JOH 4:13-14, Never thirst. 

 

JOH 4:14

whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life."

 

What is the woman’s reply?

 

JOH 4:15

The woman said to Him, "Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw."

 

She doesn’t get it. But she will.

 

JOH 6:32-33, 35: Never hunger. 

 

JOH 6:35

Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.

 

What is this crowd’s reply?

 

JOH 6:33-34

"For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world."  34 Then they said to Him, "Lord, always give us this bread."

 

They didn’t get it. And they won’t.

 

Building takes time: There is a lack of understanding in us all that must be corrected through a process of humility, patience, and grace. Samarian gets it, the crowd does not (try to make Him king).

 

Why does building take time? Born and anchored to the natural. We must be ripped away. 

 

Satan knows the fallen human soul and tempts in a variety (opposition minefield): Material / class: Marxism. Sexual: Freud. Strength: Darwin. No need for moral authority of God: Rousseau. 

 

God helps us with trial.

 

Trial, testing, reveals if the soul is satisfied, or if it is hungry and thirsty.

 

God helps the process of understanding with trial, JAM 1:2-17; 2CO 12:7-10; 1PE 4:12-13. 

 

Is not God good?

 

The soul that finds the living water and the bread of life will be satisfied (MAT 5:7). 

 

The true life / soul must be characterized by virtue. 

Virtue cannot be had without authority of commandments heard from God, with doubt, with false application, with shortcuts (the temptations of Satan in the wilderness). 

 

Man lives by the Word of God because it creates in Him a divine soul which is also manifested in his outward, physical life.

 

The Word of God made Jesus the man that He was, JOH 17:4.

 

JOH 17:4-5

“I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do.  5 "Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.”

 

He also tells us in His prayer what life really is. What is human life, its purpose, and its meaning?

 

JOH 17:3

“This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”

 

You have this life at your fingertips.

 

The Word of God is your life, the knowledge of the Father and Son. And life’s ups and downs, especially trials, are given to us by God to enhance our understanding of true life - God’s Word.