WestGate Church Teaching

In the third and final temptation of Jesus, the Devil offers Jesus “all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.” There is just one catch: Jesus has to bow down to worship Satan. Jesus refuses. As we look at this story, we see some common threads between all three temptations. In some ways, the tactics the Tempter uses against Jesus are not uncommon to the ones he uses against us, trying to get us to doubt God's love and provision and goodness. And by seeing these patterns, we can get traction in our life when temptation inevitably comes.

Jay and Dave talk through the second temptation of Jesus, where Jesus says that it’s wrong to “put God to the test.” We get it: don’t climb out on a tree branch and saw off the limb you’re sitting on, assuming God will turn you into Superman. But wait. Why is it wrong to test God? What about the story of Gideon, when he puts out two fleeces? Isn’t that testing God? What about Malachi 3, when God actually invites people to test Him to see if He’s good or not? How is this different than the Hebrew people needing water in the wilderness? Dave and Jay explore this, as well as answer pressing questions about the origin of Jay’s children’s names, the price of gas and whether or not Satan sang, “I Believe I Can Fly” to get Jesus to jump off the top of the temple (Jay says “no”).

After passing the first temptation, Satan tries to get Jesus to “prove” He’s the Son of God by throwing himself off the heights of the temple, implying that God will *have* to have Him, since He’s God’s son. Jesus responds by quoting Deuteronomy 6, where Moses references a story that happened in Exodus 17 when the Israelites were without water in the desert, and grumbled and quarreled and tested God, saying "Is God even with us." Apparently, when things don't go our way or if they aren't easy, we quickly begin to wonder if God is even with us. Jesus' response to Satan is instructive. And this part of Matthew's story reminds us that our sinful, broken world is - and will remain – a wilderness. And God’s protection doesn’t always look like immediate comfort. But God’s protection does always lead to eternal certainty.

In Matthew 4, a supernatural, evil, corporeal being referred to as “The Tempter” shows up to trick and trap Jesus. There’s no red suit and horns, but that’s Satan. How do we modern people make sense of this? Also, we talk about the method that Jesus uses to “pass the test” in the wilderness - referring to and believing the Scriptures. Do most modern Christians have too low a view of the value of the Scriptures? Dana Clifford stops by to chat about those questions, and shares how the Bible and its truths helped her in some of her darkest moments.

Immediately after Jesus is baptized, Matthew writes that He is led into the desert wilderness to be “tested” by God. But wait. Isn’t a test a bad thing? Is a “test” the same thing as “tempt” - which kind of means to trap or trick? And how can a test be a good thing? We’ll explore this intense episode where Jesus faces the same test that the people of Israel faced in the wilderness - and the same test we often face in our own wildernesses. We can either trust that God is there, that God sees us and that God will provide for us out of His love and care for us - or take matters into our own hands. And in this case, Jesus shows us how to pass this most difficult of tests.

In Matthew 3, Jesus tells John the Baptizer that the reason He should be baptized is not because He has done something wrong (He has not), but because “it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). This phrase “fullfill all righteousness” is really confusing (we don’t use that term in everyday life). Jay and Andy stop by to talk about what it means and why the baptism of Jesus is good news for you, for me, and for our suddenly war-torn world. We also pause to pray for Ukraine. And Andy’s attempt to freestyle rap is so bad, we stop the podcast and issue apologies to our listeners and to music itself.

To the Jewish mind, the idea of “water” was dual. Being a people located near a desert, water was seen as life. But as a non-sea-faring people, water was also seen as a place of death and chaos. As Matthew tells the story of Jesus’ baptism, though, we see a pattern continuing - God intervening in human history to lead His people through the chaotic waters of death into newness and life. And just like the stories of Noah from the Flood, Moses and the Red Sea and the tribes of Israel crossing the Jordan, Jesus’ baptism shows us that God is still leading people from death to life, if we’ll just follow Him.

The poet WH Auden once wrote that “we would rather be ruined than changed.” This, perhaps, is because often we’re afraid being changed *would* ruin us. And yet, the opening pages of Matthew has a man prophet named John the Baptizer telling people to change (repent) and says that somehow, God is involved in this change process. Steve Clifford and Corinna Girard stop by to talk about that. We also explore what it means to be “baptized in the Spirit.” Also, John the Baptizer says that Jesus will baptize people “with fire.” That sounds uber painful. That’s a bad thing, right?

Immediately after telling the amazing story of the birth of Jesus, Matthew jumps ahead nearly 30 years, fast-forwarding to the opening moments of Jesus’ time in the public eye. Jesus’ story intersects with His cousin, a wild-eyed prophet named John the Baptizer who attracts a ton of attention by telling people they need to “repent” because the Kingdom of God is very, very close. But this prophet also has some strong words for some religious leaders, and he makes some promises about Jesus that are perplexing, audacious, beautiful and terrifying - sometimes all at the same time.

This past weekend, WestGate Church celebrated the installation of Jay Kim as the new lead pastor of WestGate Church. These kinds of leadership transitions are not only tricky, but a lot of time they don’t go well - and yet, this one went remarkably well. David sits down with Jay and Steve to talk about the behind-the-scenes story of this process, and what it meant for both Jay and Steve, and how this process grew them both.