Bethel CRC Lacombe

September 28, 2025 The Holy Spirit: Guide and Sustainer | Matthew 3:13-4:11

Bethel CRC Season 1 Episode 37

Today, we will reflect on Matthew 3:13-4:11, The Holy Spirit: Guide and Sustainer. This passage shows the relationship between Jesus, the Father, and the Holy Spirit. The Holy comes down on Jesus at his baptism and then leads Jesus into the wilderness, where he is tempted by the devil. The Holy Spirit is given to us and guides us, sometimes into places we’re not expecting, in order to prepare us for what lies ahead of us. The wilderness was the place Israel went in order to encounter God, to listen to God, and to be shaped by God 

The Holy Spirit: Guide and Sustainer

Matthew 3:13-4:11

This morning we’re looking at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry and how the Holy Spirit guides him in his preparation for the years of ministry that lay ahead of him. we don’t often connect Jesus’ baptism with his time in the wilderness, part of the weakness of how we read the Bible is small parts, instead of reading it like a book, article, or letter from someone. 

Jesus seeks out his cousin John to be baptized by him. John is humble and wise enough to realize that he’s the one needing to be baptized by Jesus rather than the other way around. But Jesus insists, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” This phrase of Jesus has created a lot of discussion among scholars through the years. Righteousness is about a correct relationship to the will of God as reflected in his covenantal relationship with Israel. Righteous actions are those acts that flow out of God’s choosing Israel to be his people and the laws and ways God gave them to live by. This is connected to our salvation because God is righteous and so the saviour of his people. Isaiah 61:10 reflects this, “I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.” 

As I was reading Dallas Willard, he writes about salvation and I saw how Jesus and the Holy Spirit work out our salvation, “Salvation includes three things that are available to us: Forgiveness of sins. Through the work of Christ and his substitutionary stand before God on our behalf, our sins are forgiven through the mercy of God. Transformation of character into the image of Jesus Christ. We are meant to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ (Romans 8:29). This is a work of grace just as much as the forgiveness of sins. And there is nowhere any indication that this is something that is supposed to happen after we die. A significant degree of power over evil, both in our own lives and in the life of the church of which we are essentially a part.” It made me think about what Jesus is talking about here in fulfilling all righteousness with the images of Isaiah 61 through being our saviour, transforming our character in the image of Jesus, and giving us power over evil’s influence and temptations. It starts here with Jesus’ baptism and consecration to God’s will and plan.

Right after the Holy Spirit comes on Jesus and God announces his pleasure in Jesus, the Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. This is all about being prepared for this new stage in Jesus’ coming to earth as a human, and as our messiah. A number of cultures have young men going out by themselves to prepare for manhood. Here in Canada, First Nations young men would go out on vision quests to seek a spirit guide, something similar happens among many African tribes. They seek out guidance from the spirit world, missing out on the Spirit of God, the Spirit who hovered over creation at the beginning, bringing life. Jesus went into the wilderness, not seeking out a spiritual guide, but guided by the Holy Spirit. A generation ago, it was common for people to take time to travel and find themselves, a similar thing, but again, not realizing that the way to finding their identity lay in Jesus rather than in themselves. 

The wilderness for Israel was the place they saw where they could encounter God in order to be shaped by God more deeply into who God has called them to be. The Spirit is leading Jesus to learn what being the Son of God actually means and looks like, what the nature of being God’s son is. In the coming temptations, the test will be to do his ministry in his own power, or to trust in his Father and in the anointing power and guidance of the Holy Spirit. 

Throughout Scripture, we see the Spirit guide the people, or cries for the Spirit’s guidance. Ps 78:52 “But he brought his people out like a flock; he led them like sheep through the wilderness,” Isa 49:10 “They will neither hunger nor thirst, nor will the desert heat or the sun beat down on them. He who has compassion on them will guide them and lead them beside springs of water.” Isaiah 11:1–3 points ahead to the Spirit guiding the coming Messiah, “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord—and he will delight in the fear of the Lord. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears.” 

This echoes forward to the Spirit being given to us, to be a guide to us, a guide into places and times to shape and form us, given to point us to Jesus and remind us of who Jesus is and what he taught. In Ezekiel 36:26–28 we’re given a glimpse of how the Spirit will guide us, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God.” Here we see the Spirit is not only given to guide us, but to sustain us, “You will live in the land I gave your ancestors,” and we see this when Israel wanders through the wilderness, the Spirit led them to places where there was water, into places of safety and provided food through the forty years. 

Now Jesus is in the wilderness, fasting for 40 days and nights to be open to the leading and instruction from his Father through the Spirit. The Spirit doesn’t leave Jesus as he enters the wilderness, just as the Spirit didn’t leave Israel when they were taken into exile, as Ezekiel shows us when the Spirit leaves the temple and goes east with the people as they are taken to Babylon, just as the Spirit doesn’t leave us when he guides us into new directions, places, and times. This is why Mikenna is able to go to a different part of the world with YWAM in strength and confidence, knowing the Spirit is with her the entire time. 

After 40 days and nights of fasting, the devil appears and 3 times the devil tries to tempt Jesus to walk a different path in being the Son of God then God gives, and 3 times Jesus responds with the words God had given Israel earlier to live on God’s words, to trust God in all things, and to serve and worship God alone. This echoes ahead to John 14:26 when Jesus promises his disciples the Holy Spirit, “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you,” just as the Spirit reminds Jesus of God’s word in response to the devil. 

The Holy Spirit protects and sustains God’s people. In Job we hear the Lord say in Job 1:12, “The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your power, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.” Then Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.” Then in Job 2:6, “The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, he is in your hands; but you must spare his life.” Here the Lord restricts Satan’s power and influence as part of he sustains Job during this time of trial and temptation. Louis Berkhof writes about common grace and how “divine punishments and rewards serve to encourage moral goodness in the world. The Spirit restrains sin in the lives of people and nations and sin is not permitted to complete its destructive work: punishments often check the sinful deeds of men, and the rewards spur them on to do what is good and right.” With all the evil and violence happening in our world today, we know that the Holy Spirit working, making sure that evil is restrained from taking over, ensuring that we know that no matter what happens, the Holy Spirit’s with us and will guide us to remain true to Jesus, to be salt and light in even the darkest time. 

This is why Jesus is able to tell us in Matthew 5:44–45, “But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” This is why I love following Jesus, because he gives us his Spirit to guide, to be with us, and to give us what we need so we can travel through life well, knowing who I am, who I belong to, and giving me what I need to be able to be a blessing. I pray you embrace Jesus and his Spirit in your hearts.