For May 17

Sermon: Testing As A Good Thing

Intro: A very common reaction when things go wrong is,“Why me, Lord?” We might think of ourselves being punished for something, or even as the devil at work. For those of us who have experienced Jesus’ Saving Grace, we have been set aside, or sanctified, by His Sanctifying Grace, which John Wesley identifies as the ‘path to perfection’. Wesley didn’t think of perfection as sinless, but rather a completeness, or wholeness in our faith in Christ. Left alone on that path, without testing or discipline, we might never come even close to such wholeness. It would be like going through high school without ever having to take a test, or receiving ‘guidance’.

 

I. Testing Is....

A. Constructive testing should help us identify our weaknesses and our strengths, to help us improve our physical, mental, and  spiritual development on our path forward. But testing can also be destructive. Destructive testing identifies the breaking point of a material. Pouring concrete in construction requires several sample cylinders also be taken from the pour, and each cylinder will be tested, subjected to pressure after specified intervals, 7days, 28 days, etc. until it breaks to determine how much strength it has gained as it hardens. Those tests determine if the poured concrete meets or exceeds the requirements for safe use.

B. But on our path of sanctification, we are often tested and disciplined, not to determine our breaking points, but to show us where we are on our faith walk. It may not always seem pleasant, but intended to keep us on His path. There are times we feel we’ve reached our breaking point, but find that God’s testing had a purpose, helping us to grow on His path.

C. This morning, we’re going to see Job being tested in the OT. and even Jesus being tested in the NT, and what came from each. Job’s testing covers the 42 chapters of the Book of Job. Job may, or may not have been an actual person, but in either case, a character to provide specific teaching, such as suffering, and the sovereignty of God. The name "Job" implies "persecution" foreshadowing the trials he will face. No genealogy is even given, suggesting his story is timeless and applicable to all. We’re only told he’s from the land of Uz, believed to be located in Edom, the country southeast of Israel, setting the stage for a story not confined to Israel, indicating the broader nature of the presented themes. So whether Job was a real person doesn’t affect the wisdom his testing reveals.

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II. Job 1:6-12

A. In our Scripture reading, the sons of God, or the heavenly angels, have come to a formal meeting before God. Satan also shows up. The Hebrew term, Satan, means "adversary" or "accuser," As if He doesn’t already know, God asks Satan where he had come from. Satan says he had been roaming the earth, suggesting his continuing search for opportunities to challenge and accuse humanity. In 1 Peter 5:8, Satan is described as prowling around like a roaring lion for someone to devour.

B. God asks Satan if he had noticed Job in his roaming, a man God describes as blameless and upright, who feared God and shunned evil,indicating His divine approval. "Blameless and upright" referred to Job’s moral integrity and righteousness. His sincere devotion to God was a model of ethical behavior, actively avoiding evil. But while he is religious, Job’s relationship with God is somewhat impersonal. He refers to God using the Hebrew Elohim, a generic name for God. However, by the final chapter, he refers to God as “the Lord”, a name acknowledging God’s sovereignty, even a confession of his previous lack of respect for God. He would come  to know God through his testing that brought him to confronting God, and knowing Him through such personal interaction.

C. Satan, as the accuser, responds to God’s praise of Job, saying ‘who wouldn’t be if You put a hedge of protection around them’ referring to Job’s prosperity with 7 sons and 3 daughters, 7000 sheep, 3000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 donkeys, and a large number of servants, making him the greatest man among all the people of the East. Then Satan further challenges that, if You take away his prosperity, You’d see he wouldn’t be so faithful. God, trusting Job, then gives Satan permission to do that, but, without touching Job. And the testing begins.

D. First, an enemy attacks, taking his oxen and donkeys, and killing the tending servants. Then a messenger tells Job that raiding parties had taken his camels, and killed the servants. Then the worst news: his sons and daughter had been together, when a mighty wind collapsed the house around them and killed them all.

E. A typical response would have been to cry out, “Why, Lord? Why me?”  But, as distraught as Job was, he falls down in worship, acknowledging that he had come into the world with nothing, and would depart this life with nothing, recognizing all he had was given to him by God, and did not sin by blaming God. Then Satan returns and further challenges God, “OK, but strike his life, his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse You to Your face.”  God agrees to further testing, but limits Satan by forbidding him to take Job’s life. Satan then inflicts him with what sounds like shingles from his head to his feet. Anyone who’s had shingles, knows how painful that was. His wife even belittles his integrity, telling him he’d be better off if he simply cursed God and died. As tempting as that might have seemed, Job calls her foolish, asking, “Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?”

F. What was initially a blessing, became more testing as three friends come to comfort him. They hardly recognized him, and wept aloud in their sorrow. Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights without saying a word to him, seeing how great his suffering was. At this point, they were true friends. Sometimes, when we don’t really know what to say, just being there, showing love and support is the most meaningful thing we can do.

G. But then his friends begin to speak, only adding to his misery. They, like Job, are unaware of God knowing Job’s righteousness, or of Satan’s testing to prove Job would be unfaithful. In the passages of volleying dialog over the next chapters, each friend shares conventional wisdom of those times about suffering, with Job’s defensive responses. That his suffering was because of a secret sin. Confess it, Job, and God will relent. Another friend is bold enough to suggest that his children were killed because they had sinned. The ensuing chapters of dialog continue to offer remedies for Job to convince God to restore him to health and prosperity, based on the assumption that Job’s suffering was the result of God’s disfavor resulting from Job’s sin. But Job vehemently defends his lack of such sin-causing disfavor, growing so distraught that he finally challenges God to let him have his day in court to defend his righteousness, even though seeing God face to face would mean his death. But Job would rather die than accept his virtue being questioned.

H. God grants Job’s day in court, speaking to him out of a storm, but before allowing Job to speak, gives a full account of His mighty power and the wonders of His creation. Finally, he sternly asks, as if daring Job to answer, “Where were you, when I created the earth?”, defiantly challenging “Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct Him?”

I. Job hadn’t lost his faith in God. Even in the midst of his troubles, he states, “I know that my redeemer lives and that in the end he will stand on the earth”. But now he realizes his great error in questioning God. He “replies “to the Lord” (notice the shift from the previous generic ‘God’, to the ‘the Lord’)  saying “I am unworthy—how can I reply to you?  Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.”

J. Job had undergone Satan’s testing, not as God’s punishment, not to determine his breaking point, but to prove Himself to Job. Job had confronted God, and seen himself in proper perspective. He was then able to develop a deeper, more personal relationship than ever before with his Lord God.

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III. Luke 4:1-13

A. Jesus’ 40 days of testing was somewhat different, but still involving God trusting Jesus’ faith, letting Satan attempt to prove his power over Jesus, using all his powers, falsely confident Jesus would break. Satan first exploits Jesus’ vulnerability to human hunger after having fasted for 40 days following His baptism with the taunt,  "If You are the Son of God, turn these stones to bread.”  Turning stones into bread would demonstrate Jesus' divine power, but would be a misuse of it for  personal gain, contrary to His fasting as self-sacrifice and reliance on God. Jesus resists with Scripture, quoting Deuteronomy that “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from God’, emphasizing the importance of spiritual nourishment over physical need.

B. Satan takes Jesus to a high mountaintop and shows him a vision of the world stretching before Him, promising he would give him power and authority over the whole world if Jesus would just bow down to him. The implication, “if you are”, might have provoked Jesus to prove He was the Son of God, and the human desire for power a powerful temptation, but the promise of worldly power contrasts with the spiritual nature of Christ's kingdom. Jesus' purpose on earth was to establish His kingdom through obedience to the Father. Satan’s temptation would have meant disobeying the Scriptural command to worship only God. Furthermore, Jesus’ power over sin and death would only be gained through His ultimate sacrificial death, and subsequent resurrection, not through Satan’s false promise.

C. In his final attempt, Satan takes Jesus to the highest point of the Temple where he challenges Jesus to jump, misquoting Psalm 91, which speaks of God's angels protecting His faithful. The temptation to command angels, acting in behalf of God, reflected the belief in a spiritual realm actively involved in the affairs of humanity. The promise of protection here, suggests a vigilant, attentive safeguarding by the angels. But God’s guarding implies not just physical protection, but also spiritual and moral guidance. Jesus quotes Scripture that we are not to tempt God, rejecting Satan’s challenge, a presumptuous act of demanding a miraculous sign from God. This highlights our trusting God's faithfulness without requiring Him to prove Himself through extraordinary means.

D. The final outcome of Jesus’ testing was that Satan then left until a more opportune time. Jesus had shown Satan had no power over Him, proving His Father’s confidence and trust in Him. He was prepared to now begin the ministry that would not just resist sin’s temptation, but would ultimately defeat sin and death. Satan would continue to test the human Jesus to find a weakness, but without success. Satan’s final, destructive testing would come at the Crucifixion, that only the sinless Jesus, as God’s faithful, obedient Son could have endured, overcoming all Satan’s powers to prevent its sure victory.

E. Jesus’ use of Scripture testifies to the authority and sufficiency of God's Word in spiritual warfare. But proving that to us, is not the same as having the ability to be as masterful as Jesus was. We need to look to Jesus, see how He relied on the promises and instructions of  Scripture to defeat Satan, then develop such tools to be victors in our spiritual warfare against Satan and the powers of darkness.  Trusting Him through those tests, and, as in our Call to Worship, based on Proverbs 3:4-5, lean not on our own understanding, but submit to Him to make our paths straight, continuing to discover His power working in our lives.

 

Conclusion:  Job, through his testing  learned that trying to find the answer ro his suffering was really futile, but, as a result of his trials, he had come to know God, the Lord, personally. Throughout his trials, although questioning God on what he felt was injustice, he never lost faith in God, stating emphatically, I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. 

   So, when we find ourselves in the midst of trials, we can know that His testing is not to find our breaking point, not to be destructive, but to help us to develop our faith, strengthen us in our spiritual warfare, and through our trials, come to better know Jesus. Following His example and teachings, as His disciples, trusting Him through His constructive testing, For we know we have a Redeemer, and we will see Him stand on this earth when He comes again. Amen