To do His work efficiently and effectively, the Servant of the Lord needed training and equipment, and He needed to choose to whose authority He would bow. No servant is thrown into an important task without knowing what to do.

Luke 2:51-52 NLT
[51] Then he returned to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. And his mother stored all these things in her heart. [52] Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and all the people.

His training lasted for 30 years under the watchful eye of His heavenly Father. Mark said nothing about those years but the Father did…. In His verbal and audible affirmation at His Son’s baptism, the Father owned His Son with love and pleasure.

Mark 1:11 NIV
[11] “And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

To fulfill His commission, Jesus needed a motive and a modus operandi.

There couid be no greater preparation for so enormous a task than the Father’s threefold blessing…providing His Son with the motivation to carry out His mission faithfully with the Father’s approval. No matter how difficult the task, how much opposition He faced, and how severe the temptation to compromise, quit, or act on His own, Jesus never faltered in His purpose because the Father trusted Him and accompanied Him throughout every moment of His journey. Even though His human companions would forsake Him, He was assured that the Father would never abandon Him.

John 16:32 NIV
[32] “A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.”

Without this assurance, Jesus could easily have given up and gone home…but He did not! Knowing that He was not alone, that He was loved, affirmed, and trusted to finish what He came to do, He endured the suffering and the cross for the reward the Father had promised Him.

His motive was clear. Love and loyalty to the Father would steady and steer Him though every obstacle, both His own humanity and the ferocious opposition of He enemies, to and through the cross, to ultimate victory.

His modus operandi was equally tested and determined before He ever set out on His public ministry. Without this pre-planned and tested method, He would have been driven by circumstances rather than by principles.

The test was severe. He was pitted against His most lethal adversary to defend His most sacred relationship, in the most unforgiving terrain, during His most vulnerable human condition, to test His unwavering commitment to unity with His Father.

The first Adam’s test was child’s play, in the most comfortable and conducive of environments, the Garden of Eden, compared with what Jesus, the last Adam, was up against…and he failed. Jesus, was tested, at the limit of His endurance after forty days of deprivation…and He passed the test with flying colours!

So, what was the test?

Under what authority, would He do the work the Father had assigned Him? Whose word would He obey?

Again, the first Adam was given the same option…whose word would he follow? He chose to follow the deceiver, and the outcome was chaos. Jesus, the last Adam, was offered the same choice.

First test…

Matthew 4:3 NIV
[3] “The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

Since you are the Son of God, test YOUR word to see if it works.

How real was this test?

Satan started with the physical, the “flesh”, Jesus’ weakest point at that moment. He was starving…forty days without food! “Check the power of your own word.” How easy it would have been to do a little miracle with no one watching…

… but what was the real issue?

Whose word will you heed, Jesus, mine or God’s? To do the little thing, the obscure, unimportant thing like making a little bread to ease your hunger without the Father’s approval, or to do the big thing, protect your unity with the Father despite gnawing hunger, no matter the cost!

The bottom line…who is in charge…who is Lord? Whose word counts? Satan’s word or God’s word?

Jesus made His choice.

Matthew 4:4 NIV
[4] “Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

” It is written… ” How simple yet how decisive!

Second test…

Matthew 4:5-6 NIV
[5] “Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. [6] “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

With what defiance the devil mimiced Jesus’ stance! “So… It is written! Now test it. You have chosen God’s Word, now use it!”

Luke 4:12 NIV
[12] Jesus answered, “It is said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

Satan taunted, “You test God’s Word.” What arrogance! Jesus responded, “It is not my place to test God’s Word but to obey it!” What humility!

Third test…

Luke 4:5-7 NLT
[5] Then the devil took him up and revealed to him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. [6] “I will give you the glory of these kingdoms and authority over them,” the devil said, “because they are mine to give to anyone I please. [7] I will give it all to you if you will worship me.”

Satan threw down the gauntlet. “I will give you everything you want if you give me what I want most…worship.” So, that’s what these tests were really about. “If you do what I say, you will show me who is really Lord and who will take ownership of the universe.”

The first Adam conceded to the devil his God-given right to manage the earth. Jesus, the last Adam, did not!

Luke 4:8 NIV
[8] “Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.”

Armed with His victory, His modus operandi… to do the Father’s will no matter what the cost… Jesus returned from forty gruelling days in the wilderness, as Luke records, “… In the power of the Holy Spirit,” to function under divine protection, divine authority, and divine power, to usher in God’s kingdom and to make possible the reconciliation of God and man by His own blood.