The Temptation of Christ - Learning How To Fight
Written by John Maulella
Sunday, 17 May 2009 09:00
Due to a technical glitch, the last minute or so of the sermon is not available.
Sermon Notes
Today's Passage: Luke 4:1-13
The Temptation of Jesus
1Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, 2where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.
3The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread."
4Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone.'"
5The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6And he said to him, "I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7So if you worship me, it will all be yours."
8Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.'"
9The 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. 10For it is written:
" 'He will command his angels concerning you
to guard you carefully;
11they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'"12Jesus answered, "It says: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"
13When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.
Let’s rewind here for a few minutes for context. We're at the very start of Jesus earthly ministry; Jesus has just been baptized in the Jordan in obedience to his father, the voice from heaven calls Jesus “you are my son, whom I love, with you I am well pleased.” and then Luke has given us this incredible genealogy (which I'm sure most of you skip over when you read the gospels) going all the way back to Adam. He's established Jesus' credentials for ministry.
But the resume is not quite complete.
So we find Jesus, led by the Spirit, into the desert. And Mark here is raw – the Spirit didn't just lead him into the desert. The Greek word Mark uses is the same word used in the gospels when demons are cast out of people: ekballo. Jesus ekballoed the unclean spirit – here it is Jesus being ekballoed – he threw him there!
And the purpose is clear. The Holy Spirit cast Jesus into the Desert to be tempted.
Two issues that need to be addressed right away:
Why is Jesus being tempted?
Now immediately you should have an issue with that. Why is Jesus being tempted? Does the bible say that God tempts people? A point to be made is again, the Greek word underlying the English can mean “test” when God is the subject and 'tempt' when the devil is the subject, so we have a double connotation here of test and tempt.
Who is this devil?
Another issue to be addressed is – who exactly is this devil? The bible is very sketchy on details, probably because so many of us could easily develop an unhealthy fascination with the subject. But what it tells us is this—we are not talking about the man with horns and a pitchfork, we actually have no physical description whatsoever. Satan (which means, the accuser) is the spiritual force opposed to the purposes of god. He is immensely cunning and cruel, he may masquerade as angel of light, his hobby is cruelty, and his native language is falsehood.
The Greek word for Devil – Diabolos – comes from a word that means 'to split'. His aim is to split us off from God's word and God's work. And I would add, to split you off from your true self.
Jesus was led into the wilderness, not into temptation.
And just to point out, the Spirit led Jesus not into temptation, but into the desert or wilderness. We know about this. Some of you are in a wilderness of your own, maybe you're being stretched financially, or you've hit a dead spot in your marriage, or you've suffered deep disappointment in your career, in a friendship, you are sick and you can't get well. Maybe you put yourself there but maybe you didn't. I have wondered for a few years if this church is in a wilderness...we can't grow, things don't work like they should, we had such hopes...we just drag on.
In God's story, it is a place of testing “You shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.” (Deuteronomy 8:2)
Strengthening for the battle and the “Fair Fight” principle: God never calls you to a fair fight
So let's paint the picture so far: we have Jesus, alone, hungry facing the diabolos. That's not our idea of how to strengthen ourselves for battle! I can't even think straight on an empty stomach. And let's take the Jesus 'on his own' thing. If we know we're in a fight what do we do? We get as many people on our side and we go to war!
Some of you know I work for DHS Homeland Security. What did the government do after 9-11? We expanded, hired thousands of people, and spent billions. But God does things differently. He sends Jesus into the desert alone and without food to battle the devil. Here we see an example of what I call the 'fair fight' principle. God never calls you to a fair fight. We see this all thru scripture—Gideon is led to take on the Midianites, already outnumbered 4 to 1 , God says you have too many people, let anyone too scared to fight go home, you still have too many—God whittled his army down to 300...vs 135,000 of the enemy. Do the math—it's 450 to 1! And God gave Gideon the victory.
Elijah before he calls down fire from heaven on the altar he has made takes water and douses the sacrifice three times, he soaks it and makes it almost fireproof – and 1 Kings 18:38 tells us then the fire of the LORD fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench.
Why would God send us into a fight with one hand tied behind our back. Does he like seeing us squirm? No, there is something else at work here 2 Corinthians 1:
8We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. 9Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. 10He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us.
Luke and Matthew both record three temptations, we can't say that these were the only temptations which Jesus suffered through, but for us they can serve as archetypes or categories. Diabolos—Splitter – that's the Grand Strategy. What we're going to do in looking at these are tactics, and Jesus' counter tactics.
Temptation #1: striking at Jesus’ identity
Well back in the desert. After 40 days, Jesus was hungry. He was weak, and this is when we are vulnerable. Our author, the good doctor Luke, probably knew even in his first century knowledge of the body that if you don't eat for a few weeks all fat stores will be used up and your body will eventually begin to eat itself. It was a legitimate need of Jesus to eat! So why not do a little hocus pocus and whip up some matzoh?
Here Jesus is tempted to meet legitimate physical needs through illegitimate means. Jesus was relying on his father to sustain him and nourish him, even if he was hungry.
And we all have these needs—food, sleep, affection, sexuality. We are tempted to stuff ourselves with junk food, watch pornography, get into unhealthy relationships—but what is the main issue? Here it is in “If you are the Son of God” – the main strike here is about Jesus identity, really about what kind of Son of God he should be – Didn't you create the world Genesis 1:1 with a word, didn't you send down bread for the Israelites, this is EXACTLY what you would do as the Son of God. Here we have the devil trying to define Jesus. And he will do the same to you. In a way all of these temptations will be about identity—how you see yourself, because out of your identity will flow your reactions to these temptations.
Jesus’ Response: The Truth
How does Jesus respond to this? He speaks. But its not what the tempter wanted him to say. He quotes the book of Deuteronomy. Notice what he doesn't say. He doesn't say—Hey great idea, look I'm really not that hungry, I'll eat when I get home—No he was starving!!! What Jesus does is tell the truth—Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that pours forth from the mouth of God. Eating bread—that's a good thing! Taking care of my physical needs—that's a good thing—unless I do it illegitimately, seeking my purpose and pleasure apart from God. Jesus told the truth that doing God's business and relying on him is higher on the scale than me just taking care of my own needs.
This sounds strange! What do you mean, make God my highest priority and trust him to take care of my needs—(look I've got a family to raise, I've got a job. All good. But they have to come after putting God first.) The truth can sound strange to us, and here's why.
Some years ago there was a movie Escape from New York, one of those futuristic B movies, the Island of Manhattan is a gigantic maximum security prison—the whole island! Once you get on, you don't leave. The world is like that—not a prison per se, but more like a gigantic lunatic asylum! And we're all crazy! And all day long we hear lies about ourselves, and about God—lies like:
My worth as a human being is from how I look, how much money I make, how big or done up my house is, how young I am. You young people—my parents only love me because of the grades I get, or its more important to fit in than to do what's right. Lies about God—god is mean. God is distant. If I follow God nothing bad will happen to me. God is not real. God is not relevant. Turn on the TV and listen to what is said about God. You'll probably hear NOTHING. The assumption is that God is not real, and if he is real he is not relevant. And that's the matrix that we're in. If you don't believe me, try this at the next neighborhood barbeque—instead of talking about sports, or the kids music lessons, or your new ipod start off with 'Hey, what do you all think about God' I guarantee you that some people, not all, but some people will react the same way they would have if you had just farted.
We're stuck in this matrix, this gigantic lunatic asylum—but someone came from outside this matrix, parachuted in, and what do you think we did to him when he started to tell us the truth? We killed him.
Temptation #2: False Worship
Here Jesus is led up from the desert floor to Luke says a high place False Worship.
The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6And he said to him, "I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7So if you worship me, it will all be yours."
Diabolos takes Jesus up to a high place--and they survey the kingdoms of the world – the splendor of Rome, the Parthians in the East, the Han dynasty in China, the Abyssinia Axum, the Yamoto kingdom – and he says to Jesus I can give them all to you – one condition, and its really a bargain! All you have to do is worship me.
Now let's drill into this one. We understand why a starving Jesus would be tempted to turn stone into bread, but Jesus isn't power hungry! How could seeing the kingdoms of the world draw him into temptation? Why did he feel this one? The key thing here is in the means of temptation – Diabolos doesn't tell him this temptation, he shows it to him. This is 20/20 idolatry or what the apostle John calls 'the lust of the eyes'.
We see something, we want it. I always dreaded watching TV around Christmas time with the kids, because commercials would come on for the dumbest toys, and my kids would say 'I want that'. And we have entire industries devoted to showing you stuff and making you want it! How else do you explain the Chia Pet???
This is the temptation of transaction. This is the Devil as email scammer. I am a wealthy man and I need to deposit money in your bank, please send me your bank account and I will pay you 100000 dollars. This is the Bernie Madoff of the soul, the ponzi scheme master. Bow down. Worship me, Jesus. Whatever you give your ultimate allegiance to, that's what you worship! Whatever you give your ultimate time energy and money towards, that's what you worship! Whatever lies at the core, the fuel for your life—that what you worship. Notice the physicality here—Bow down, misuse your body which was created to be God's vehicle, God's own body, and worship me.
Don't miss the false promise here--the lie that is at the heart of every temptation--look at what I can give you! Look at what you'll miss out on if you don't act now! young people I will bet money that in the next five years most if not all of you will be put in a position where you will be tempted to violate your conscience and do something which you know is wrong--in the areas of alcohol and drugs, sex, cheating, loyalty to your family, being a christian. What are you going to do? You can't say 'I'll decide when I get there'. I hope that with the help of God you'll see thru the lie and be able to say its not worth it.
And what is Jesus response—It is written again, Worship God and serve him only. No one else is worthy of you.
Temptation #3: Testing God
The next temptation takes place in Jerusalem, the holy city, the city of destiny. Darrell Bock in his commentary on Luke believes that this is the 'royal porch' on the temple's southeast corner, which was basically a cliff hanging over the Kidron Valley, 450 feet below. And again it begins with “Since you are the Son of God—do a bungee jump (without the bungee cord)--god won't let you get hurt!” and here diabolos shows his religious side.
Jesus quoted scripture at him, he quotes it back! Diabolos takes Psalm 91 and butchers it, rips it totally out of context—Jesus, throw yourself down God won't let you get hurt! What a show that'll be! Wow, it'll be a miracle! The people will cheer for you “Look the messiah, he's just like we thought he would be he's invincible!!!”
This is the temptation of instant success. The temptation for Jesus was to bypass the road that God had planned for him—a road marked with suffering, and rejection, and death on a cross. How is this testing God? I think that religious people are much more susceptible to this than others. Here's why—we get into a time of testing—money, mental or physical health problems, and we doubt God's goodness. Instead of seeing our circumstances from God's perspective, we judge God's character based on our circumstances. We engage in the original sin—doubting the character of God. I need to say something about this.
Testing God is not the same as being disappointed with God. It is not the same as being angry with God. There may be times in your life when you need to have it out with God, and you might find yourself quoting Teresa of Avila, “If this is how you treat your friends, no wonder you have so few of them” this is biblical faith. But to squeeze God into our mold, and when he refuses to perform as we expect, when he doesn't rescue us immediately, when he seems totally uninterested in my personal comfort, are you going to judge him? Are you going to question his goodness.
Jesus says it better than I can—Don't put God to the test.
Now if all you heard me say in this sermon was “be like Jesus, do like Jesus did” you'd be only half right.
Now for the punchline.
Well this was Jesus, we say to ourselves. I'm not Jesus. Of course he took on the devil and beat him. But I'm not him! Prepare yourself for an odd thought. Jesus Christ, who we rightly worship, the second person of the Trinity, Who was with God and was God--we sing songs to, we pray to—when he walked this earth, the bible says that he emptied himself of his divinity—all of the power and majesty of being Lord—and walked as a human. What makes all the difference—Luke says it in the beginning of this passage Jesus, full of the holy spirit—wait, is this the same Holy Spirit who fills us? Yes, the same spirit! John, are you saying that all the resources available to Jesus while he was on earth—all of the power, all of the love, compassion, healing—are you saying that the same resources are available to us in the Holy Spirit? Yes, you've hit the main artery of this message! When Jesus went to battle against Diabolos, he did not fight as Lord of Hosts, Master and Commander— Instead he took off his divinity, put on a man suit faced him down, and stomped him! He did it as a spirit filled human being. And he calls us to do the same.
Now I would be remiss if I ended here because what I've done is lifted this section out of scripture and given us a lesson, without showing this fits into the rest of scripture. Some of you caught the clues when we read the scripture—40 days, in the desert, bread, temptation. The context of Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy is Israel in the desert. We know how that story went, you've seen the ten commandments—the people grumbling at God because they were hungry-- “did he bring us out into the desert so that we could die???” the golden calf. It is fair to say, Israel failed. All of the original refugees from Egypt except for a few, died in the 40 year wandering in the desert because they didn't listen. What Jesus did was take on the role of Israel and relive their experience in the desert—and this time do it right in obedience.
Adam-----------People of God (Israel)----2nd Adam----New People of God
Disobeyed------Disobeyed-----------------Obeyed-----Obedience
You are the 2nd Wave, you are called to walk this out as we learn to speak the truth to ourselves and each other, and rely on the Holy Spirit.
Now What? Our Homework
This week take some time, get quiet before God, take a few deep breaths, and name your poison: Where am I tempted the most? I want you to own it before God. Knowledge is power, you have to know yourself. Then I want you to open the book and immerse yourself in God's story, and find the specific antidote for your brand of poison, and speak that against your temptation.
Let's say you are tempted to be anxious – read Phil 4:6 out loud to yourself, write it on an index card, and carry it in your pocket. And read it to yourself when you see the anxiety coming.
So name your poison, find an antidote in the book, read it out loud, write it down, and begin to let God massage the truth into your soul.
I want you to do one other thing—this is hard for most of you. I want you to name your poison to someone else. Tell someone else about what tempts you.
This is not quite the same thing as confessing your sins, because temptation is not sin. This is telling somebody who you trust... “hey sometimes after a bad day at work I really want to go home and drink all the booze in the house,” or “when I travel on business I really want to visit the red light district,” or “on Saturdays I really want to just watch TV all day,” or whatever it is. You want to drain the power out of that thing? Let it out in the open with a trusted friend.
So Name your poison, Take the antidote, and tell someone!