Tempting
Notes
Transcript
Claim: Jesus is, for us, perfect righteousness resisting all evil and trusting wholly in God alone
Focus: Jesus, under extreme circumstances and future suffering, resists all temptation for he is holy and loves us.
Function: To marvel at the holiness and love of Jesus.
Pray
I feel we’re overdue for a ‘When I was in Africa‘story.
I often had to get to Remote and inaccessible parts of the mountainous kingdom of Lesotho for our mission work.
So naturally being British - and to the disgust of many there who preferred Toyota‘s we used a Land Rover defender.
In all my journeys - I only once have needed to use a winch and cable when i got stuck in a river bed Trying to get up the bank.
I knew there was a winch - it was a great reassurance to know it was there in remote areas with no other vehicles.
Here’s a rather poor picture of the situation..
So, We let out the cab;e and put it round a large tree.
We stared the winch, to try and pull the vehicle up the bank.
The cable tightened, the Landy strained,
the wheels turned gently to try and help,
the tree stood firm,
smoke poured out the winch and that was the end of it!
We then spent the next hour digging a ramp out in the bank - when i say we...
HAving a winch was good to know, but until it was tested in the real world - it might be pointless.
Last week in chapter 3 - Jesus was declared as the Son of God, by the voice of God the Father, and anointed for his ministry through the Holy Spirit depending on him like a dove
It’s a full house of heavenly heavy weights
The trinity declares who Jesus is,
He is the perfect son of God - fully human, fully God,
come to perfectly obey his Father and deliver humanity from their sin.
But can he do what he has come to do.,
He needs a real world test to accomplish his mission.
to put it another way
It’s easy enough to stand in a murky river and be baptised with voices and doves from heaven -
it’s quite another to face what we’ll see to be immense temptation and yet resist without question.
And if Jesus failed in his perfecting just once in his entire life - all hope for humanity to be reconciled to God is lost.
v1 then..
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
It is God’s will that Jesus is tempted - let me be clear - it is not god’s will that anyone should fall into temptation
- but just as he allows Job to be tempted in the OT to prove his faithfulness to God - so now,
Jesus is to be tempted to prove his faithfulness.
to demonstrate for us What he has been declared to be.
- so now let us turn our attention to these 3 temptations...
1 - Living by God’s Word.
1 - Living by God’s Word.
After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.
You don’t say! -He’s hungry all right
I’d struggle to fast for more that 40 minutes - 40 days is quite an achievement!
It’s generally considered pretty much the limit for human survival - he’d have been drinking water - but much more without food and he’ll die.
He must have been physically, mentally and you would think spiritually on his knees.
How often does Satan pick those moments for us as well,
The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
The thought of a little bread!
After 40 days!
How desperate he must have been for food.
We might wonder why it would be so bad for Jesus to turn stone into bread .
But the clue as to why this was a temptation is in Jesus answer.
Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
Here Jesus quotes part of Deut 8v3.
The context of that original quote is significant.
Deuteronomy 8:1–3 (NIV)
Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors. Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
When the Israelites escaped Egypt they had to trust God’s Word.
They had to trust that What God had promised their ancestor Abraham - that his people the Israelites would inherit a promised land flowing with milk and honey - that His word would come true.
It’s pretty easy to trust God’s word when everything is easy and handed on a plate,
it’s quite another when life is hard, and when you cant see a way forward.
So God humbles them through hunger -
Will you trust my word - even though you cannot see a way forward in your own strength?
It is in hunger and pain and maybe fear and uncertainty -
when we are humbled and weak - that our trust in the word of God is tested.
it is when we don’t have enough bread - that we demonstrate that we need the word of God to live.
For us we also anticipate a promised land - not of Israel but of eternal life with Jesus.
When the going get’s tough - what are we living by - bread (earthly and temporary solutions) or the word of God
What’s extraordinary about Jesus’ situation is that he too is led by God into the wilderness
- to demonstrate his humility in living by the word of God! - not his own human strength.
If the Word of god is good enough for the son of God - how good it is for us!
The reason it is wrong for Jesus to eat in this instance is because it challenges the Word of God,
Satan wants Jesu to prooveSatan gouading Jesus to prove who he he is the son of God instead of trusting God’s promise of it.
’ If you’re the son of God - prove it.
You need some food - have a little - or maybe you can’t - maybe you’re not the son of God afterall.
But What has God’s ‘word’ literally just told Jesus in our previous account?
And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
You can’t question my Sonship - For God’s word declares it
Jesus has committed these 40 days to humbling himself and seeking God the Father’s will.
To dwell on his Word!
To need proof beyond what God has promised in his word would to be to fail and show doubt in the word of God for all that is before Jesus!
He trusted God’s word - far above any worldly or physical need,
Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
How many times have we spent just 40 minutes studying God’s word and gotten completely distracted by fleshly desires.
How many times have we turned to the worlds solutions before God’s word.
Doubting God’s word because of the problem before us?
Jesus is literally dying of hunger - but he will not turn from his commitment to living by God’s word.
We should learn to turn to the bible in temptation and need,
We should seek to humble ourselevs as Jesus did and and accept the loving work of God that brings us to our knees,
We should pray and read the Word rather than the look to the world,
But mostly
we marvel at Jesus.
who humbled himself to become a man.
Accepted God’s leading into 40 days of humility and utter dependance on the Word of God.
And even after all that - doesn’t doubt an utterance from God’s word.
How we marvel at Jesus.
But
We are not done - and nor is Satan!
2 - Do Not Test the Lord
2 - Do Not Test the Lord
Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:
“ ‘He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”
Whether physically, or perhaps more likely in a vision similar to other great visions surrounding significant changes in God’s covenant history with his people,
Jesus and his sonship is in questions again - on top of the highest point of the temple
Ok says Satan with a twist of truth as always on the front of his lips..
You may live by the word of God
well then
let then me give you the word of God myself - and prove your sonship this way.
“If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:
“ ‘He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”
It’s foolish to think temptations are obvious
Satan hardly stands at the entrance to our churches, horns on head and pitchfork in hand!
No, He’s in the pulpits,
he’s in the friend quoting scripture at us,
no wonder the NT is so full of warnings against false teachers from with in the church!
Satan quotes the word of God - And so Jesus responds again with a quote again from Deut.
This time Deut 6v16
Do not put the Lord your God to the test as you did at Massah.
Massah was the place the Israelites grumbled in the dessert that they would rather be back as slaves in Egypt than thirstily travelling though the wilderness to the promised land.
Israel, so sinful that they desired slavery than to trust God’s Word that they would have a great nation and inheritance before them- and so they test him!
Give us water or we wont follow Moses any longer - we’d rather die!
Why god - why have you led me this way - I preferred my old life!
The irony is painful to see.
And familiar to our own ears..
Why God?
Why is my life like this?
I preferred my life before I knew you - now I just seem called to humility and sacrifice for you!
I’d rather do x, y or z, than go to church, or get to home group, or read God’s word, or pray, or humble ourselves,,,
Have we forgotten the promise before us of eternal life?
pause
How we need the saviour in these moments!
How we need a saviour like Jesus!
For Jesus’s previous life (unlike ours) was one of glory and majesty in the heavens -
and yet he does not grumble at His Father’s request for him to give it all up
- he becomes a man and ultimately dies - for us!
If anyone had a better life before it was without question Jesus - and yet!
He will not test the Lord.
He will trust and live by God’s word.
He will not elevate his own importance by forcing God’s hand into serving him by throwing himself from this height!
He will not respond to the taints of Satan to prove again he is the son of God.
How we too must learn to accept a humble life before God..
We too must not test God, or force his hand in prayer,
We must not demand he serves us in some way - as if we deserve it
We ought not to begrudge God’s leading into difficult times,
How often we fail. and test God, force his hand ‘do this God or else!’
But our Lord Jesus - our saviour - does not fail.
How We marvel again at Jesus.
Who faced the same temptations -
only his were truly tempting -
the glory of heaven was behind him and death on a cross was ahead of him,
Surely a little test of God was in order - the stakes are huge...
Yet he would not test God’s plans and ways.
He would not elevate himself and force God’s hands!
He succeeded in a scale beyond our reconning so that we may benefit from his perfect life.
How we marvel at Jesus.
But we are not done - and nor is Satan.
3 - Living the Road Marked by Suffering
3 - Living the Road Marked by Suffering
We’ve seen Jesus accept humility rather than elevation at every step.
For he lives by the word of God,
He will not test God, or force his hand to prove God is Faithful,
And of course knowing the OT scriptures,
Jesus knows that what is before him
is a life marked by terrible suffering,
persecution,
betray by his friends,
assassination attempts,
murder plots,
no where to call home,
Friends who will fall asleep on him as he faces death in the eyes.
And ultimately a cruel death on a tree at the hands of the very people he came to save.
It’s a humbling, exruciationgs,
painful suffering servants life that awaits Jesus over the next 3 years before he dies -
He knows it - for he knows the word of God and the promises of this life in the OT.
He knows it for he co-authoured this salavtion plan with God the Father and God the Spirit.
But now in his full humanity - he must face the greatest temptation..
A shortcut to glory -
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”
Of course - as always with the temptations we face there is a twisted truth in here.
Bow to me says Satan and I will make you prince of this world.
God’s salvation plan would have failed and Satan would have apparently won
- and the rule of this world and this age at least could be Satan’s to give to Jesus!
Easy - quick - power, majesty, glory restored.
No death, no suffering servant and life.
Without God at work in our lives each of us would choose the easy route - we would choose Satan’s twisted truths.
As so many in our world do.
But not the perfectly humble Jesus
His response is so simple
Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”
Again, back to Deuteronomy 6 as the Israelites receive the precious law of God the headline message of both the 10 commandments and the law and principles around them are just this.
‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”
I choose suffering says Jesus becasue it pleases the Father God whom I worship.
It is the way God has chosen to demonstrate his great love for his people.
Every mistake Israel made I make right through these temptations!
Every mistake anyone from this day forward makes I make right in these temptations.
Every rebelion,
every sin,
every temptation that is given into - from Adam and Eve to the last baby born when Jesus returns
- For them says Jesus -
For you - here in 2022 in Worcester Park says Jesus
I choose humility to live by the word of God, for the glory of God.
I accept the path before me without testing, and I choose suffering and death for I worship the one true God of eternal love.
not the decieving devil of who every other human has fallen for before now!
How we marvel at JEsus and need him!
pause
For now Jesus’ work is done.
He is ready to begin his ministry..
It’s been declared who he is
And now it’s been demonstrated who he is.
And so the angles attend to him, he is restored to strength and it is time,
,as we’ll see next week - he will preach - the Word of God.
Let us marvel at the perfect humble suffering saviour Jesus!
Let us see him before us as we face temptation s to sin.
Let us copy his example in trustuing the word of God,
in choosing humilty in all things,
But most of all -
let us accept the perfect life of Jesus in our place,
through belief, repentance and humility
For he has conquered sin and evil,
died for us in our place,
Promised in God’s word - he is our salavtion and promised eternal land.
Let us marvel at Jesus.
Pray