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0:20 The wilderness of Judea on a mountain. 0:23 There's a man standing at the top who hasn't eaten in forty days and forty nights. 0:27 Behind him stands the great deceiver, Satan. 0:30 Satan shows this man every kingdom on earth. 0:34 All the great kingdoms. 0:35 Persia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, India, all of them. 0:40 He showed this man all the glory that Alexander the Great bled for in order to spread out his kingdom. 0:47 And Satan gave this man just one condition in order to receive it all. 0:52 Bow down. 0:54 Guys, we're glad to have you back. 0:56 As we wrap up this week, we've been contrasting the life of Alexander the Great with the lives of historical figures from the Bible. 1:02 We've looked at how Alexander sought personal glory and wealth, whereas these biblical figures sought out the glory of God. 1:09 So let's actually go back to the year 327 BC. 1:12 Alexander the Great tried to force his own generals to fall on their faces before him. 1:18 You know, even though he was a Greek, this was a very Persian thing to do, to think of yourself as some sort of a god man, a god king. 1:25 But some of the Macedonians actually refused. 1:28 And it nearly split the army at that very moment and almost ended the future campaigns of Alexander. 1:34 Alexander demanded worship from his men. 1:37 But now let's go back to the mountaintop and see what happens when the whole world is offered to the one who actually deserves it. 1:43 We see this in Matthew 4, verses 8 through 10. 1:45 Again the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 1:50 And he said to him, All these I will give you if you will fall down and worship me. 1:55 Then Jesus said to him, Be gone, Satan, for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve. 2:04 Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him. 2:09 Now guys, let's pretend it wasn't Satan and Jesus on this mountaintop, but instead Satan and Alexander the Great. 2:15 Alexander would have taken this deal before Satan had even finished offering it, right? 2:21 But Jesus said no outright. 2:24 Now you might be thinking, Well, aren't those kingdoms already Jesus' to begin with? 2:28 Yes, but Jesus had not yet finished the rescue mission that God sent him down to earth to do. 2:34 And in order to do that, he had to empty himself. 2:37 We see this in Philippians 2, verses 6 through 8. 2:40 Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 2:57 So this is literally the photo negative of Alexander. 3:02 Alexander was a man who grasped at the opportunity to be seen and referred to as a God. 3:09 Jesus was God and yet refused to grasp and instead became a man. 3:15 I mean, and because of his hunger for glory, Alexander devoured the world. 3:20 But Jesus gave himself up to it. 3:23 Remember, this is my body which is given for you. 3:26 And here's an interesting little tidbit. 3:28 Both Jesus and Alexander died in their early 30s. 3:32 Now, reportedly, Alexander's last words to his generals who were curious about who was going to be taking over his kingdom were to the strongest. 3:40 So even in death, Alexander was grasping onto temporal earthly power. 3:47 But what were Jesus' last words? 3:50 From the cross, right before he gave up his spirit, he said, It is finished. 3:56 But if we go all the way back to Monday, where I read that poem from Lucan, there is a turn in this poem about Alexander. 4:04 But he was still human, and death stood firm. 4:08 Death stood firm. 4:11 And yes, Jesus was fully God, but he was also fully man. 4:15 He felt, he bled, he died. 4:18 Death came for him in the same way that it did for Alexander. 4:21 But death could not grasp Jesus, and the grave could not hold him down. 4:26 Acts 2 24, God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. 4:34 The thing that stopped the greatest conqueror that the world had ever known could not hold Jesus Christ for three days. 4:41 And look, the tomb of Alexander is lost to history. 4:45 We have no idea where it is. 4:46 No one knows where his bones are right now. 4:48 But the tomb of Jesus is pretty easy to describe because it's empty. 4:53 There are no bones to find. 4:55 And many of you listening to this today have staked your eternity on that reality. 5:01 You know that Jesus was a real person that died on a Roman cross and was placed in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, only to walk out of that tomb very much alive three days later. 5:11 And you know that he did that in order to pay in full the sins of humanity. 5:15 And you believe that it's somehow, in some way, that it all counted for you. 5:21 But there are still some of you listening to this that know stuff about Jesus. 5:25 You can rattle off some historical facts about Jesus. 5:28 You might even believe that he rose from the dead, but you yourself have not placed your faith in the reality that it counted for you. 5:36 That Jesus' death on the cross wiped out the sin debt that you owe to a holy and just Father God. 5:43 And if you have not crossed over from knowledge to belief yet, I compel you to do so. 5:49 Do it right now. 5:51 Place the full weight of your trust in the finished work of Christ at the cross at Golgotha. 5:56 Jesus is the greatest. 5:59 The cross was God's plan A, and we can trust Him with our eternity. 6:04 Thank you all for your attention this week. 6:06 Stay sharp.