The Wrestling Match
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
These 40 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday gives us as believers plenty of time to look thoughtfully at what Christ has done for us.
This time of contemplation allows us to look inward and self-examine ourselves with the help of Holy Spirit.
We need to understand that we are in need of HELP and the only one who can help us is Jesus Christ.
We need to be repentant more than being sorrowful and shame.
Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness after His baptism without food or water. This was a time of preparation be for the starting of His ministry. During the 40 days that Jesus was in the wilderness He wrestled with temptation.
Israelites spent 40 years in the wilderness as preparation for their entering Canaan the Promise Land. The Israelites also wrestled with temptation during their 40 years in the wilderness. They wrestled with their dependence on God. They wrestled with their need for a deliverer. They wrestled with their need for rest.
Main Point:
Message
Read Luke 4:1-14
1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness 2 for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days, and when they had ended, He became hungry. 3 And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” 4 And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’ ” 5 And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6 And the devil said to Him, “I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. 7 “Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours.” 8 Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’ ” 9 And he led Him to Jerusalem and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here; 10 for it is written, ‘He will command His angels concerning You to guard You,’ 11 and, ‘On their hands they will bear You up, So that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.’ ” 12 And Jesus answered and said to him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ” 13 When the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time. 14 And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread through all the surrounding district.
This passage gives us a good example of God’s statement after Jesus’s baptism. Luke 3:22
22 and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came out of heaven, “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.”
While the Israelites and us are not perfect we do fall into sin through temptation.
Wrestling with Love
Wrestling with Love
Luke 4:2-4
2 for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days, and when they had ended, He became hungry. 3 And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” 4 And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’ ”
“If you are the Son of God. . .” -
The structure of this is not as much asking with doubt but make a statement of fact.
The devil never doubted that Jesus was the Son of God.
the devil did however want to make Jesus in His humanness doubt God.
Jesus was hungry - Luke 4:2
2 for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days, and when they had ended, He became hungry.
If God really loved Jesus then He would provide for Jesus’s hunger - His physical need.
We have read that Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit and yet was hungry for bread or empty of food.
So often for us it is just the opposite. We are full of food and empty of the Holy Spirit.
Lust of the Flesh
turning stone in to bread
Jesus using His supernatural powers for fleshly matters.
Wrestling with Hope
Wrestling with Hope
Luke 4:5-8
5 And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6 And the devil said to Him, “I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. 7 “Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours.” 8 Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’ ”
“I will give You all this domain and its glory . . .”
Satan had the authority to give all of this Jesus.
At this point in time Satan was the ruler of this world. John 12:31
31 “Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out.
I want you to notice that Satan mentioned “worship” but did not mention service. Luke 4:7
7 “Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours.”
This is part of the tricky nature of Satan. He does not tell you everything to trick you.
Jesus knew that what ever you worship you will serve.
Lust of the eyes.
The temptation was for Jesus to go a head and have everything that was His but just out of order.
There must be suffering first the reward
What Jesus could have given up the cross and suffering and recieved the dominion and glory now.
Removing the hope and receiving it all now.
Wrestling with Faith
Wrestling with Faith
Luke 4:9-12
9 And he led Him to Jerusalem and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here; 10 for it is written, ‘He will command His angels concerning You to guard You,’ 11 and, ‘On their hands they will bear You up, So that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.’ ” 12 And Jesus answered and said to him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ”
“He will command His angels concerning You to Guard You . . .”
Would God be faithful and honor His Word. Psalms 91:11-12
11 For He will give His angels charge concerning you, To guard you in all your ways. 12 They will bear you up in their hands, That you do not strike your foot against a stone.
Satan was tempting Jesus to temp God to see if God would do what He said He would do.
Even the Israelite did this in their rebellion Exodus 17:1-7
1 Then all the congregation of the sons of Israel journeyed by stages from the wilderness of Sin, according to the command of the Lord, and camped at Rephidim, and there was no water for the people to drink. 2 Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water that we may drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” 3 But the people thirsted there for water; and they grumbled against Moses and said, “Why, now, have you brought us up from Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” 4 So Moses cried out to the Lord, saying, “What shall I do to this people? A little more and they will stone me.” 5 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Pass before the people and take with you some of the elders of Israel; and take in your hand your staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 “Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink.” And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 He named the place Massah and Meribah because of the quarrel of the sons of Israel, and because they tested the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us, or not?”
Once again we find Satan not telling the whole truth.
Satan said in Luke 4:10 to guard you.
10 for it is written, ‘He will command His angels concerning You to guard You,’
The Scripture that Satan is quoting actually said “to guard you in all your ways” Psalm 91:11
11 For He will give His angels charge concerning you, To guard you in all your ways.
Satan had left the part about “all your ways” out. Knowing that there is a difference between Christian walk and the worldly walk.
Lust of the pride of life.
If Jesus would have jumped off the pinnacle of the temple just to show that God would rescue Him, would have been asking for God to show favoritism towards Him.
God will protect His people but if we willing put ourselves in harms way and expect Him to just jump in and save us is tempting God.
Conclusion
These three temptation were not just random temptations there very precise.
Satan attacked the three basic qualities of the Christian Life
Faith
Hope
Love
The 40 days Jesus was in the wilderness He was being prepared for His earthly ministry.
During Jesus’s 40 days in the wilderness He was tempted by Satan and had to wrestle with the issues presented to Him.
We have seen that Jesus has been tempted by Satan in every way.
The Lust of the Flesh
The Lust of the Eyes
The Lust of Pride
Jesus had to wrestle with
Did God really Love Him.
Would God give Him His Dominion and Glory without suffering.
Would God be FAITHFUL to His Word.
We are temped through Satan through the same ways.
The Lust of the Flesh
The Lust of the Eyes
The Lust of Pride
We must also wrestle with these ideas
Does God really Love Me. (Provide for me)
Would God give Him His Dominion and Glory without suffering.
Will God be FAITHFUL to His Word. (Protect Me)
Notice that Jesus used Scripture to fight Satan and He won.
Satan left but was not finished. Luke 4:13
13 When the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time.
One theologian wrote, “Jesus came out of the wilderness a victor, but Satan did not give up. He watched for other opportunities to tempt the Saviour away from the Father’s will.” - (Warren Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary: New Testament: Volume 1 Matthew - Galatians p. 184.)
I to encourage each of you to take serious the opportunity we have before us.
May we take the next 5 weeks leading up to Easter and truly wrestle within ourselves the very questions.
We must keep our focus on Christ and our need for Help.
Andrew Bonar a minister in Scotland in the 19th century stated “Let us be as watchful after the victory as before the battle.”