Trials and Temptations
Introduction
John Wimber, the US pastor and pioneer of the Vineyard movement, had a huge influence on the church around the world. He died at the age of sixty-three. Life had often been extremely difficult for him.
He had been subject to an outrageous amount of criticism. I remember him once saying to me, ‘Notoriety is fun for a short time, but after that it is just hassle.’ But perhaps what broke his heart more than anything was the fact that three of the men who were closest to him, whom he loved and treated as his sons, all fell into temptation and moral failure.
God used John Wimber in extraordinary ways, but he and his team faced many trials and temptations. This is how life is, and the Bible is not at all naïve about it. Usually, as we emerge from one battle, there is another one around the corner. This is the challenge of life.
Psalm 71:1-6
1 In you, Lord, I have taken refuge;
let me never be put to shame.
2 In your righteousness, rescue me and deliver me;
turn your ear to me and save me.
3 Be my rock of refuge,
to which I can always go...
5 For you have been my hope, Sovereign LORD,
my confidence since my youth.
6 From my birth I have relied on you;
you brought me forth from my mother’s womb.
I will ever praise you.
Commentary
Take confidence in the Lord
This psalm is full of indications of difficulty and opposition. Yet through it all, the writer says, ‘From my birth I have relied on you’ (v.6). In the psalm we see three key aspects of what that reliance on God involves:
1. Prayer
Here is a prayer that you can pray: ‘I run for dear life to God… get me out of this mess’ (vv.1–2, MSG).
2. Patience
Once you have cried out for help and cast your burdens on the Lord, the next step is to hope in him with confidence (v.5): ‘You keep me going when times are tough... I’ve hung on you’ (vv.5–6, MSG).
3. Praise
You can praise God before, during and after battles you face: ‘I’ll never run out of praise’ (v.6, MSG).
Prayer
Acts 4:1-20
The priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people. 2 They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people, proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. 3 They seized Peter and John and, because it was evening, they put them in jail…
5 The next day the rulers, the elders and the teachers of the law met in Jerusalem. … 7 They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: ‘By what power or what name did you do this?’
8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: ‘Rulers and elders of the people! 9 If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, 10 then know this, you and all the people of Israel: it is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed.’
11 ‘Jesus is
‘“the stone you builders rejected,
which has become the cornerstone.”
12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to humankind by which we must be saved.’
13 When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realised that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.
14 But since they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say.
18 Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. 19 But Peter and John replied, ‘Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to him? You be the judges! 20 As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.’
Commentary
Take courage from being with Jesus
Authentic Christianity is bound to lead to opposition and trials of one sort or another. Here, the disciples have been put in jail and literally on trial. Effectively, they were charged with the crime of being Christians (though they didn’t go by that name at the time). There has not been a single period in church history when Christians have not been tried for this offence somewhere in the world.
It was not disputed that the man had been healed. In the Gospels it is Jesus who does the miracles; in Acts ordinary people do miracles in his name. When asked, ‘By what power or what name did you do this?’ (v.7), filled with the Holy Spirit, Peter replied, ‘It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead’ (v.10). Today, you can pray in this same powerful way.
Peter had the audacity to tell his judges that they were guilty of crucifying the Saviour of the world. They had rejected and crucified Jesus. Peter had been frightened to admit to a servant girl that he even knew Jesus. Now, he is a changed person. He publicly proclaims Jesus and the resurrection, in the court where Jesus was tried and 500 yards from where he was crucified.
The key was that Peter had encountered the risen Jesus and was ‘filled with the Holy Spirit’ (v.8). He now knew what Jesus had come to do and, through the Holy Spirit, Jesus was with him and helping him.
Peter continues, ‘salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved’ (v.12).
It is not surprising that ‘They couldn’t take their eyes off them – Peter and John standing there so confident, so sure of themselves! Their fascination deepened when they realized these two were laymen with no training in Scripture or formal education. They recognized them as companions of Jesus’ (v.13, MSG).
Peter and John may not have had much formal education, but they had been to ‘school with Jesus’. They were his disciples. They had been to the ‘College of God’s Word’. And now they were studying at the ‘University of the Holy Spirit’. Many of the people used greatly by God have had little formal education.
Peter and John were threatened and told not to speak about Jesus. But they replied, ‘We cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard’ (v.20).
As they faced their judges, they were hugely helped by the fact that everyone could see what an amazing miracle had taken place. The forty-year-old healed man was standing there as living testimony to the power of Jesus (vv.14–21).
Prayer
2 Samuel 11:26-27, 12:1-7
26 When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. 27 After the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing David had done displeased the Lord.
12 The Lord sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, ‘There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. 2 The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, 3 but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb that he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.
4 ‘Now a traveller came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveller who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.’
5 David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die! 6 He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.’
7 Then Nathan said to David, ‘You are the man!
Commentary
Take care to please God
In contemporary culture, the words ‘You are the man!’ (12:7) might be words of admiration! But these are among the most haunting words in the whole Bible. David had been found out. He had been tempted and had fallen into sin. He did it in secret and thought he had got away with it. But God sees everything. In one of the supreme understatements of the Bible we are told, ‘the thing David had done displeased the Lord’ (11:27).
Where did it all go wrong?
The point is often made that David’s first mistake was to remain in Jerusalem (v.1). If he had been out there fighting the battle with his people, he would have been less prone to temptation than sitting at home with rather too little to do. John Wimber often used to say, ‘It’s hard to sit still and be good.’ We are much less likely to fall into temptation when we are fully occupied and in the right place.
David gradually slipped. He saw a ‘stunningly beautiful woman’ bathing (v.2, MSG). There was no sin yet, only temptation. However, he must have given in to lustful adulterous thoughts because he made a plan, sent for her to sleep with him and sinned greatly.
Although by the standards of his day it was nothing compared to what other kings would have done, he then planned a cover-up that did not work. Eventually, it ended in the murder of Uriah. As often happens, sin led to more sin – and the cover-up was worse than the original sin.
David must have felt absolutely crushed at Nathan’s words: ‘You are the man! This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: “I anointed you… I delivered you… I gave you… And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes?”’ (12:7–9). Not only had David messed up badly, but he was also someone who should have known better.
Amazingly, God forgave David even this enormous sin (v.13). There is no sin or failing that is too great for God to forgive, and no situation into which God’s grace cannot reach. No matter what you have done, God can forgive you.
The key to receiving that forgiveness is admitting our guilt and repenting of what we have done. This is the great difference between David (whom God forgave when he sinned) and Saul (whom God did not). Whereas Saul tried to justify himself (see 1 Samuel 15), David simply admitted everything. He said, ‘I have sinned against the Lord’ (2 Samuel 12:13). In effect he just said, ‘I’m so sorry!’
Forgiveness does not take away the consequences of our actions though. For David, the consequences were huge. His baby son died as a result (vv.13–14), and God warned him that, because of his violent actions, ‘the sword shall never depart from your house’ (v.10). The consequences of David’s sin were long lasting.
Nevertheless, this was not the end for David. God did not abandon him. Although his son died, there is hope. One day they will be reunited: ‘I will go to him, but he will not return to me’ (v.23). Not only that, but God gave to David another son, Solomon, and ‘The Lord loved him’ (v.24).
This account is a warning and an encouragement. It is a warning to us to take responsibility for our lives, to put in boundaries, to get help early and to watch and pray that we do not fall into temptation.
If you have fallen, like David admit your sin, confess, repent, grieve if necessary and then get on with your life looking forward to what God has in store for you. We all mess up from time to time. God forgives. He restores. He blesses us again.
Prayer
Pippa adds
In 2 Samuel chapters 11-12, we see the story of David and Bathsheba and what strikes me is that we can try to cover up our failings, but God sees it all.
Verse of the Day
Psalm 71:5-6, MSG
‘You keep me going when times are tough... I’ve hung on you’
Thought for the Day
We all mess up from time to time. God forgives. He restores. He blesses us again.
Action for the Day
Pray for the courage to speak up about Jesus, whatever opposition you may face.
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References
Unless otherwise stated, Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version Anglicised, Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 Biblica, formerly International Bible Society. Used by permission of Hodder & Stoughton Publishers, an Hachette UK company. All rights reserved. ‘NIV’ is a registered trademark of Biblica. UK trademark number 1448790.
Scripture marked (MSG) taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.
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