March 5, 2023 | by Pastor Peter

In our media-crazed age, we often focus on ensuring more people hear about Jesus. But we don’t think it’s as important that when the world sees Jesus’ people, those people are faithfully following Jesus’ commands. From the church, Jesus needs Faithfulness over Exposure.

When Satan attempts to tempt Jesus to throw himself off the temple (and affect a miraculous rescue) Jesus has an opportunity to silence his critics, who would be forced to admit that he is the Messiah. Yet Jesus opts for Faithfulness over Exposure. He chooses the harder road, but it is the one God has ordained for him.

Satan is tempting Jesus to go his own way, ‘forcing’ God to rescue him and in the process manipulating God with his own promises. This would mean putting God to the test. Jesus could rationalize such a test if he resorted to ends-justify-the-means thinking. But Jesus shows us that our job is to trust that God will bring about his own kingdom if we conduct ourselves faithfully.