Lent 2

Good morning everyone and welcome to church, if you’re listening online, welcome! This last week we officially began the church season of Lent with Ash Wednesday. Last week we talked about how it is possible for us to misuse these season of the church by doing things in order to appear righteous to others. If we are going to participate in fasting and spiritual disciplines throughout Lent it is good for us to do so with the right heart. We are doing it to grow closer to God, not so that we can brag to our family and friends about what we are supposedly doing “For the Lord.”

This morning, we are going to look at Luke 4, this is the passage that helped form Lent into the 40 day period that it is. This is where we see Jesus go off into the wilderness for 40 days and is tempted by Satan. Let’s read the passage together then pray together.

Luke 4:1–13 NIV

1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. 3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” 4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’” 5 The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6 And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7 If you worship me, it will all be yours.” 8 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’” 9 The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. 10 For it is written: “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; 11 they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” 12 Jesus answered, “It is said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” 13 When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.

Prayer

Engage / Tension

One of the largest freshwater turtles is the alligator snapping turtle. Found primarily in the southeastern United States, these massive turtles have been known to weigh close to 250 pounds. They are carnivorous, and while their diet is primarily fish, they have been known to eat almost anything else they can find in the water—even in a few cases small alligators! The alligator snapping turtle relies on a deceitful method of eating fish.

The turtle will lie completely still on the floor of a lake or river with its mouth wide open. At the end of the turtle’s tongue is a small, pink, worm-shaped part of their tongue. The turtle wiggles the end of its tongue so that it looks like a worm moving through the water. When a fish comes to eat the worm, the turtle’s jaws rapidly close, trapping the fish so that it cannot escape.

The way that the turtle catches the fish is by tempting it. It waves that worm like bit of it’s tongue out in the open and tries to convince fish that it would be pleasurable to eat, it would be good for them. This is what temptation is for all of us. Temptation is often presented to us as something that is desirable, but it always brings about pain and destruction because of it. If, hypothetically, you could have a conversation with a fish about the snapping turtle, you could show them a video of what ends up happening if they try to eat the “worm” that they think looks so good. My guess would be that they would no longer want it anymore.

Yet for us, we do often know what will happen if we give in to temptation. We know it won’t end well, but we still try to convince ourselves otherwise. In our passage today we will see that Jesus himself was tempted and see how that can affect our lives today. This is generally about temptations in general. We could spend the next 20 minutes talking about what tempts us, but instead I want to focus on how Jesus faced his temptation. And chances are I don’t have to name temptations for you to know what things in life are temptations for you. You likely already have that thing in mind just hearing the word temptation. So, let’s look and see how Jesus fights against temptation and how we can apply it in our own life.

Luke 4:1–2 NIV

Two points that I want us to look at in these opening verses about the temptation of Jesus. First, it is important that we see the completeness of the incarnation of Jesus. What I mean, is that when it says Jesus was tempted, it was a very real temptation for him because he was fully man. Sometimes we might think that Jesus was fully man only in his appearance, but his mind was not prone to human weakness. We might think, “How could God have a human mind and be God? Surely that wasn’t the case.” But that line of thinking is actually more in line with Gnosticism, where they think that Jesus was not a real human and as a result it only looked like he suffered. Jesus didn’t only seem like a man, he was fully human in every way that we are.

Hebrews 2:17 NIV

17 For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.

Philippians 2:7 NIV

7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

The difference between Jesus and us, is that he was without sin though. He faces all of the temptations that Satan throws at him as a real man.

Hebrews 2:18 NIV

18 Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

This was no cake walk for Jesus, it is important that we remember that. We need to remember that because we can read about his temptation and think, “Well, this has no bearing on my life because that’s Jesus. Jesus didn’t actually face temptation, he doesn’t feel the same pull that we feel.” Hebrews tells us that isn’t the case. Jesus feels the temptation and suffered as a result of it. So don’t just brush this passage off and think, well that’s Jesus, it doesn’t really apply to me.

The second thing to take note of is the length of time that Jesus is out in the wilderness. It’s a parallel with Israel’s 40 years out in the wilderness. The difference between Israel and Jesus though, is that Israel routinely fails in their wilderness journey. They are constantly messing up, giving in to temptations, but Jesus does not fail in his wilderness journey. In fact, Jesus using passages from Deuteronomy that talk about Israel’s tests and failures when he faces his own temptation.

So Jesus is fully man as he faces these temptations and he handles them perfectly unlike the people of Israel.

The First Temptation

Luke 4:3–4 NIV

The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’”

This first temptation, while it might appear short, had to be extremely difficult. Jesus was out in the wilderness for 40 days fasting, going without food. One of the first things that might pop in your head, “Is that even possible?” Can someone actually go that long without eating? The short answer is yes. While there aren’t a lot of studies done on this (because it is pretty wrong ethically to force someone not to eat just so we can have data, there are people who have done this willingly or because of an emergency. For example, there was a Canadian couple in 2011 who were driving to a show in Las Vegas when their van got stuck out in a back road. They had been following the GPS and it sent them down a road they shouldn’t have gone. After being stuck for three days, the husband, Albert, went to try to get help, while his wife, Rita, stayed in the van. Days literally turned into weeks, and after 48 days of being stranded, a group of hunters found the van and found Rita alive inside. There was a spring nearby which gave her water, and she just had a small package of trail mix for food.

The British medical journal has written that people can survive that long without food, but death can occur around 45- 60 days. Granted this is with pretty good conditions and being able to drink water. So yes, going that long without food is possible. Knowing that, think about how great of a temptation this had to be for Jesus. The devil is pointing out to him that if he really is the son of God, he doesn’t have to suffer the feelings of hunger. Just tell the rocks to become bread. But Jesus responds by quoting Deuteronomy 8:3

Deuteronomy 8:3 NIV

3 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.

Jesus is responding in a way that we can’t even imagine doing if we were in that same situation. Jesus is not trusting in just physical food, he is trusting in God the Father. Most of us, if we went a day without food we would be rather hangry. That’s the word for hungry and angry that Amy and I use around the house, I’m sure you know what I mean. When you are so hungry that it actually affects your mood. Many of us, if placed in Jesus’ shoes here, would have turned those stones to bread by day 3. In fact, while our temptations today might not be to turn stones to bread, we do give in to the temptation of going around God’s word to satisfy what we want. We might know that doing something is wrong, but if it might benefit us, if it would make life easier, we so often give in. Instead of relying upon God and his word, we rely on ourselves and our own strength.

The Second Temptation

Luke 4:5–8 NIV

The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. If you worship me, it will all be yours.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’”

In the second temptation, we see the devil try a different tactic. Instead of appealing to what Jesus is feeling at the moment, he tries to appeal to what Jesus knows is going to happen. Here, Satan presents Jesus with a fantasy like world, where the nations, everyone that Jesus was sent to save, would follow him. All of the nations in the world, Israel, Rome, all of them would open the doors to Jesus’ leadership. This was possible for Satan to try to tempt Jesus with because he did have power, although limited, over the world. Jesus calls Satan the prince of this world, Paul calls him the ruler of the kingdom of air and the god of this age. He really could have given that to Jesus. But why would he? Why would Satan want Jesus to take him up on this? He wanted it because to have the son of God bow down to him was everything he wanted and needed. No matter what happened after this, Satan would always have the truth that Jesus, the son of God, recognized him as authority over him. This was a temptation for Jesus because he knew what was coming. He knew that the path to becoming the savior of the world was going to be include a lot of suffering. What Satan offers him here is to become a “shortcut Savior.” Don’t go through the pain of the cross, bow down to me and have the world. Author Kent Hughes describes what it would be like if Jesus had given in to this temptation.

Luke, Vol. 1—That You May Know the Truth The Devil Speaks

Of course, the effects of the fleeting bow would be disastrous. A breach with the Father, with whom the Son had known nothing but eternal intimacy; a slap at the Father’s moral governance of the universe; a split second of idolatry that would eternally thunder through the universe; a shallow, fleeting political salvation instead of eternal soul salvation. No atonement. No real forgiveness. No righteousness.

Thank God that Jesus resisted this temptation and we once again see him do so by quoting scripture from Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy 6:13 NIV

13 Fear the Lord your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name.

We all face similar temptations in our lives, to take the easy, pain free route. We so often want to avoid pain, avoid being uncomfortable, that we are prone to go against God if that is what we have to do. We do this in small things as well as bigger moments in life. Is it easier to lie to someone so that you don’t have to explain something you did? You can simply tell a lie and get out of an uncomfortable situation, or you can be faithful to God’s word and be honest. The call to follow Jesus is not a call to an easy life.

Matthew 16:24–25 NIV

24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.

A few years ago Daniel Embley was talking about the cost of following Jesus at church camp and he said it like this. Jesus doesn’t tell you to pick up your recliner and tv and follow him, its a call to pick up your cross. Following Jesus may not always be the easiest choice, but it is the right choice.

(Working on home projects, ask Dad what I should do, “What’s the right thing?”)

Jesus did the right thing, he stood strong against the temptation that Satan was offering him so that we would have forgiveness and eternity with God.

The Third Temptation

Luke 4:9–12 NIV

The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. For it is written: “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” Jesus answered, “It is said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

In this third temptation, Satan switches up his tactics. He has seen how Jesus responded to the previous temptations with scripture and so Satan tries to use it against him. He quotes Psalm 91, thinking that he can fool Jesus into doing something by twisting scripture.

Yet Jesus, once again, resists the temptation. Jesus could have given in and the people would have likely recognized Jesus for who he was. It’s not every day that you see a guy fall off the temple and angels rescue him. People would have been more willing to believe Jesus was the Messiah. But Jesus knows that it is not good to try to force God the father to act.

The application for us, is that we shouldn’t take huge jumps and yell at God to do something as we do it. When we take leaps of faith, it is important that we know God is calling us to take that leap and we aren’t doing it to try to force God’s hand. Don’t misuse scripture to try to fit your own selfish desire either like what Satan tried to do. Leaping to try to force God’s hand and doing so by misapplying scripture will only lead to disobedience and pain.

Action

In general, for all of us, as we look at these temptations of Jesus we see him do something in all of them. Jesus lives in submission to what God the father wants and desires of him. Jesus’ desire was to do what the Father commanded of him. By giving into these temptations, he would have been going against the Father’s will.

So in short, how do we overcome temptation? All of us are tempted hundreds of times a day, how on earth are we supposed to overcome them? We overcome them by submitting to Christ and to his will for us. Is it in line with what Jesus wants from us? On our own we cannot overcome these temptations. But when we are filled with the Spirit, when we trust in God instead of ourselves, and when we submit to Christ’s lordship over our lives, we are better able to overcome the temptations that we are faced with in our lives.