Luke 4:1-13-21 (EHV) Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from
the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, 2where he was tempted
by the Devil for forty days. He did not eat anything during those days. When
they came to an end, he was hungry. 3The Devil said to him, “If you are the Son
of God, tell this stone to become bread.” 4Jesus answered him, “It is written:
‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’” 5The Devil led
him up to a high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a
moment of time. 6The Devil told him, “I will give you all this power and the
glory of these kingdoms, because it has been entrusted to me, and I can give it
to anyone I want. 7So, if you worship me, it will all be yours.” 8Jesus
answered him, “It is written: ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and serve
him only.’” 9The Devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the pinnacle
of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from
here, 10because it is written: He will command his angels concerning you, to
protect you. 11And, they will lift you up with their hands, so that you will
not strike your foot against a stone.” 12Jesus answered him, “It says: ‘You
shall not test the Lord your God.’” 13When the Devil had finished every
temptation, he left him until an opportune time.
Our student teachers from Martin Luther College
are getting close to the time when they will finish up their time with us here
at St. Jacobi Lutheran School. I
remember one of the projects we did with the student teacher my school had back
in 2nd or 3rd grade.
We made a drawing of Goliath. It
was huge because Goliath was huge. The
Philistine from Gath was over 9 feet almost 10 feet tall. As tall as the basketball hoop. The point of the spear his carried weighed 16
pounds and the suit of armor he wore weighed 125 pounds. He was so huge and capable that the Bible
tells us that he came out every morning and challenged the army of Israel to
send out an opponent to fight him. If
Goliath won the fight, the country of Israel would belong to the
Philistines. If Goliath’s opponent won,
then the Philistines would serve the Israelites. Seems like everything was on the line when
David stepped onto the battlefield with Goliath.
Today we
see Jesus step onto the battlefield against our opponent who hates us and wants
to see us dead forever. Everything is on
the line. Though he doesn’t wear any
armor or carry a heavy spear, Jesus comes out as our Champion. Jesus is our Champion who knows the devil’s
tricks and uses God’s word to defeat Satan.
With
the color of the altar cloths changing to purple in the season of Lent we think
of the bruises on Jesus’ face as he paid for our sins. As important as Jesus work of paying for our
sins was, there was another equally important part of Jesus’ mission. God’s
plan also called for Jesus to lead a perfect life in our place, keeping all of
God's Commandments perfectly. God's word
today concentrates on that part of Jesus’ mission as it shows is that Jesus is
our champion. A big part of leading a perfect life for us with the devil right
there trying to trip him up was recognizing the dirty tricks that the devil
uses.
I
suppose one of the dirty tricks the devil uses would have to be trying to get
Jesus to procrastinate on this mission of saving us. You know how easy it is to
put off something that is not easy to do.
Sometimes that is even true of spiritual tasks. We might try to put things off as long as
possible. I’ll think more about the end of my life in this world when I’m
older. That pet sin has to be rooted
out…tomorrow, next week, next year. But
that was not the way Jesus thought. He
didn’t put fighting the devil. “Jesus,
full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in
the wilderness, where he was tempted by the Devil for forty days.” Jesus was eager to fulfill his mission. But the Devil was also very eager to try to
ruin that mission. With his temptations, the Devil tried to land a first round
knockout punch to Jesus and his ministry. If he could get Jesus to sin just
once then God's plan for saving us would be ruined.
It is difficult for us to understand all of
that the God- man did, but we take the Bible
at its word. Jesus did not eat
for 40 days as he fasted and prayed in the desert for those 40 days. God took
care of him. Now, at the end of those days Jesus is hungry.
The Devil tries a dirty trick to try to get Jesus to distrust His heavenly
father, who had just miraculously taken care of him. But Jesus was your Champion by recognizing
the Devils dirty tricks.
The
devil is an expert at raising a cloud of doubt when it comes to his
temptations. That's what he did in the garden of Eden when he came to Eve and
said , “ did God really say you must not be from any tree in the garden?” The Devil tries to fight Jesus in the same
way. The Devil said to him, “if you are the son of God tell the stone to become
bread.” There are really 2 dirty tricks in this first temptation first of all, Satan
calls into question whether or not Jesus really is the Son of God. Remember that
at the baptism of Jesus God, the Father spoke from the cloud and said,”this is
my Son, whom I love with him. With Him I am well pleased.” Satan begins his temptation of Jesus by
raising doubt about that word of God. “If you really are the Son of God. Why
are you out here with nothing to eat?” Secondly, Satan raises doubts about
whether Jesus can really depend on is heavenly Father to take care of his
need. Instead of relying on God, Satan
urges Jesus to take matters into his own hands and provide some bread for
himself-in a way trying to get Jesus to focus on the bread and take his eyes
off of his heavenly Father, who supplied the bread. “Jesus answered. It is written man does not
live on bread alone.” Jesus response is
one of humble, trust in God. Jesus points
out that it is not bread, but God, who keeps a person alive by providing for
his every need in the time that he knows is right and it is God who nourishes
the soul with the good news of life eternal in heaven. There is your Champion.
Satan
sometimes raises the same dust clouds of doubt in our minds. He tries to make
us think that God doesn't care about us. He whispers in our ear, “If you are a
child of God, why does God let you get sick and suffer like this? Or why is
there so much pain in your life?” Or Satan
tries to get us to think that God is not moving fast enough to protect you if
you are a child of God. “He tempts us to
say, I need money right now and instead two more big bills came in this
week.” “Lord I need good health right
now and yet you sent me another bad report from the doctor.” When Satan comes with those lies sniff out
those dirty tricks. Cling to the
promises of the one who defeated the Devil-the one who said, “I am the Good
Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”
When the
devil tempted Eve he stirred up the dust of doubt and then threw out a
lie. The Devil plays the same cards with the
temptation of Jesus. Unsuccessful in his
first attempt to stir up doubt, he now resorts to outright lying. By promising
something that was not his to even give, Satan tries to get Jesus to go against
His Fathers plan of Salvation, but Jesus recognized those dirty tricks.
What
would you say to a man who told you that they had this great deal for you? Let’s say they offered you the Colosseum in
Rome for $500? You would say that's a
ridiculous offer because the Roman Colosseum is not his to sell. The Devil
tries to pull that dirty trick in the second temptation of Jesus. “The Devil
led him up to a high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a
moment of time. The Devil told him, “I will give you all this power and the
glory of these kingdoms, because it has been entrusted to me, and I can give it
to anyone I want. So, if you worship me, it will all be yours.” Jesus answered
him, “It is written: ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and serve him only.” The Devil took Jesus on an instantaneous work
tour of the world and then offered it all to Jesus. If Jesus would only bow
down and worship Satan.
One of
Satan’s dirty tricks is that he sometimes downplays his wicked strength when he
is trying to get close to us. “It’s just
little old me wearing my red pajamas,” he seems to say when he is trying to get
close to us. But then in the next breath
he lies about his power, like he does here. He says that the world is his to give. And he would give it to Jesus if he just
bowed down to him. Satan is offering
Jesus the path of least resistance. Look at what was ahead for the Savior,
according to the heavenly fathers plan. The pain and shame and unspeakable horror of having the sins of the whole world on his
shoulders was waiting. The devil’s
temptation to Jesus was that all of this could be avoided- If only Jesus with bow
down and worship him.
Take
the easy way out. The devil uses that
one with us too doesn’t he? “Following
Jesus is too hard. Forget about
him! You can have all kinds of joy and
pleasure now. Look at the all the people
who aren’t thinking so much about God and the things he says. They sure seem to
have it all!”
Jesus
again takes up the sword of the spirit and bonks the Devil right on the head
with it. “Jesus answered him, “It is written: ‘You shall worship the Lord your
God and serve him only.” Jesus makes it clear God and only God is to be the one
and only object of our worship. To
worship anything or anything else is to commit idolatry. With his answer, Jesus made it clear that he
was going to follow the will of is heavenly father.
Satan has
some more tricks up his sleeve. He tries
to get Jesus to put his Heavenly Father, whom he trusts, to a foolish test. But Jesus is your Champion.
“The
Devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the pinnacle of the temple. “If
you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here, because it is
written: He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you. And, they
will lift you up with their hands, so that you will not strike your foot
against a stone.” Did you notice
that? The devil is using Scripture but
he is twisting it. Let's just see if God
is as reliable as he says. God says he
will protect you. Throw yourself off the
temple top and let’s see. Psalm 91 does
say that God will protect you with his angels but the devil twisted God’s word
by leaving out some important words, “in all your ways.” Throwing himself off the temple just to see
if the angels assigned to Him were awake could hardly be considered part of
Jesus’ way of life. Where does the Bible
say that God will protect us when we foolishly expose ourselves to all kinds of
danger? To be sure by His grace God has
protected us many times when we have done foolish reckless things, but that
doesn’t mean it is OK for us to do foolish and reckless things. Our Champion points to another scripture
passage, which helps us to understand the passage which the devil quoted. Jesus
answered, “It says do not put the Lord Your God the test.” In
other words, don't take a gracious promise of God and use it to test God by
doing something that is contrary to his will.
“When the Devil had finished every temptation,
he left him until an opportune time.” With
these 3 strikes against him. The devil was out.
Jesus was not taken in by the devil’s tricks. However, if Jesus not listening to the devil’s
temptations was all there was to the story we would really just be able to say,
“Good for Jesus.” If our Champion Jesus
were only our example for how to defeat the devil we would still be in
trouble. We have a long record of being taken
in by the devil’s dirty tricks and odds are overwhelming that we will be taken
in again. But Jesus is our Champion who
means so much more to us. “For just as
through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also
through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.” Our Champion’s victory over the devil is our
victory.
Now to
say thank you to our champion we don’t want to be taken in any more by the
devil’s dirty tricks. Jesus gives us
God’s Word, the Sword of the Spirit, to slice through the devil’s
temptations. In order to use that sword
of the Spirit, you and I need to be familiar with it and practice putting it
into use. Maybe during Lent we could
make it our goal that by God’s grace, at the end of these forty days we know
God’s word better than before. Some of
the ways to do that might be making a plan to read a chapter or two of the
Bible every day. Maybe our plan might be
to use Meditations. A way to practice
using that sword of the spirit might be to think through what this part of
God’s word is saying to you and why the Holy Spirit would bring you into
contact with that part of his living word today.
The
rules committee for the NFL meets during the off season to talk about which
rules of the game to change. I wish they would make a rule against players
pumping their chests and jumping up and down when they simply do what they are
supposed to do or when they flaunt themselves when their team is losing
42-0. Notice how different our Champion
is. He wins a great victory for us and
then he is on to the next thing. What a
great champion our Savior is! Are you
feeling foolish and guilty because the devil has tricked you? Jesus is your Champion. He won’t let the Devil do a touchdown dance
on your head. He paid for our sinful
foolishness. Are you facing a temptation?
He gives us His Word to use against that temptation- the word that reminds us
that Jesus won the victory for us. Amen.
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