Luke 4:4-13 Sermon Jesus Temptation

Transcription

1 Luke 4:4-13 Sermon Jesus Temptation Intro: Haribo add We all get tempted in many ways. Temptations are all around us. Some temptations that we give into will not have a dramatic effect on our lives. Like eating some gummie bears. Some temptations that we are presented with however can have a massive effect on our lives if we follow what they are tempting us to do. The kids who ate the gummie bears, missed out on something better. Temptations can mean we miss out on something far better than gummie bears. We could miss out on heaven. As we will see today, the temptation of Jesus was necessary for us to be saved and for us to be able to enter heaven. The bible begins with Adam and Eve being tempted and failing the test. Today we will see that Jesus was tempted, but unlike Adam, he did not fail the test. Jesus passed the test. Pray: Context: Over the last few weeks, we have looked at some events in Jesus life that show his humanity, but also that he is God s son. We have looked at Jesus birth, the time that he went to the temple instead of going home with his parents and we have looked at his baptism. The passage that we are looking at today is the last event in Jesus life before he begins his Public ministry. Jesus temptation shows that he has the credentials to begin his public ministry. Jesus was raised being taught the Old Testament, even the teachers in the temple were amazed at his understanding when he was a 12 year old boy. Jesus was baptized by John, he received the Holy Spirit and God spoke, declaring that Jesus was his son. So the last credential for his public ministry that Luke records for us is Jesus temptation. These credentials prove that Jesus is the one true promised saviour. Jesus public ministry finished at the cross. Jesus was obedient to the father. He resisted the temptation to take himself off the cross, so that people can be saved. One of the first things that we read in the Bible, in Genesis chapter 3, is when Adam and Eve were tempted by satan. They failed the test. They chose to do what they were tempted to do. As we see in Luke 4, Jesus did pass the test. Jesus passing the test is vitally important to our salvation. Jesus could pass the test, because although he was human, he was also fully God. If Jesus had fallen into temptation, he would be just like any other man and therefore could not be the perfect sacrifice to pay the price of our sins. Jesus had to be tempted to prove that he was sinless. Jesus temptation was not just satan asking him three questions. It was a much bigger struggle than that. It cost Jesus, he would have suffered, both physically and spiritually. We need to look closely at what Luke 4:1-13 tells us. In sentence 2, we see that Jesus was tempted for 40 days by the devil, that he did not eat for 40 days and he was hungry. 40 days is a long time! I am sure that if any of us were continually tempted with something for that long, we would have given in. I know that if I don t eat for a few hours I can get really hungry. Jesus didn t eat for 40 days. He would have been physically weak. It would have been really tempting to listen to satan, but Jesus didn t. Also this temptation occurred in the wilderness. The wilderness that Jesus had been in for the 40 days was an extremely harsh environment. Look at some of these pictures of the wilderness area. Jesus had

2 been baptized in the Jordan River and to the east of the Jordan River was an area of wilderness. As you can see, this area is barren; there is little protection from the sun and the wind. It would have been really hot during the day and freezing at nighttime. (talk about pictures as they come up) So along with being in this harsh environment for 40 days, Jesus was being tempted by Satan. During this time of temptation, Jesus would have suffered. Luke 4, sentence 2 tells us Jesus was hungry This is a massive understatement of what the experience would have been like for Jesus. So this brings us to the temptations that satan tempted Jesus with. The three temptations in Mathew 4 were the culmination of the 40 days of temptations that Jesus had experienced. We see Jesus is tempted with 3 things: A basic human need of food The human want for power and glory To test God the Father So lets look at each one of the temptations. Temptation 1: The first temptation that satan offers Jesus is to turn a stone into some bread. Jesus had not eaten for 40 days, so satan hits him with a temptation for a basic human need for food. In sentence three, satan asks Jesus: If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread. There are a few important things to note about satan s question. Firstly, he starts off his question with: if you are the Son of God. Satan is questioning God s provision and care for Jesus. He is saying that if you are the Son of God, why would God want you to go hungry? God wouldn t want you to starve in the desert. Satan is tempting Jesus to supply his physical need with his own power. Satan is challenging Jesus to be independent of the Father. This kind of independence can lead to weakness and failure. All of Jesus answers to the temptations come from the book of Deuteronomy. The book of Deuteronomy is the 5 th book in the Bible and is basically a sermon about God s laws for his people. Moses delivered the sermon to the Israelites just before he died and the Israelites crossed the Jordan River into the Promised Land. All of Jesus answers to satan s temptations quote God s word. Jesus uses the ultimate authority to respond to satan. Jesus reply to this first temptation from satan comes from Deuteronomy 8:3: man does not live on bread alone. Jesus is arguing that life is sustained by more than just food. Life is not defined by physical food. Instead life is defined by dependence on God for all our needs. If you flick back in your bibles to Deuteronomy 8 and read all of sentence 3, the second half of it says that: man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Jesus is saying here that the most important thing is every word that comes from the mouth of God. God s people need to be sustained by Gods word. Jesus is not saying here that we should stop eating physical food. Physical food does sustain us and is needed to keep us alive. But our vision needs to not be looking at our stomachs, but up to the end goal of heaven. Spiritual food is what helps us to follow God. As Christians, we need to be reading God s word regularly, or we will spiritually starve. When I used to lead youth group at a previous church, we used to run a segment called breakfast. The segment would usually involve someone eating something that could be eaten for breakfast.

3 Something like dry weet bix. Which most people can t finish. But the point of the segment was not to eat food, it was to get the kids to share what they had read from the Bible during the week. So we would get a few kids to share what they had been reading about and learning. The segment was a reminder to the kids that they needed spiritual food to help them to follow God. It is the same for us, we need spiritual food, along with physical food for survival. I think that it can be very easy to satisfy our physical hunger, but we often suppress our spiritual hunger. We can starve ourselves spiritually. So if you don t spend time regularly reading the Bible, I encourage you to get started. If you don t have a Bible, the black bibles on the seats are free for you to take. Temptation 2: The second temptation that satan offers Jesus is recorded for us in sentences 5-8. These sentences say: 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. There are a few problems with satan s offer in this temptation. For starters, he really does not have the power to give Jesus all the kingdoms of the world. God limits Satan s power. He is like a dog on a leash. Often we think of satan having lots of power, possibly almost as much as God. But he doesn t. He is still very dangerous, but God has him under control. Satan s offer to Jesus is also a quick fix. Jesus could be in charge of the world. He wouldn t have to go through the pain and suffering of being crucified. It is like satan is offering Jesus a shortcut to his inheritance. Shortcuts always sound good, but they can be costly. This temptation is all about worshiping satan instead of God the Father. Jesus could have everything, if he worships satan. Jesus is being tempted to say stuff you to his father. Satan offers Jesus an earthly kingdom. Satan is tapping into the human want for power and glory for ourselves. Jesus does not give satan s temptation a second thought. He replies to satan by quoting Deuteronomy 6:13. Deuteronomy 6:13 says: 13 Fear the Lord your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name. Again Jesus goes back to the point of authority, that is God s word. There is only one being who should be receiving worship and that is God. There is only one person who we should be serving God. Jesus knows who he needs to be serving and worshiping and that is not satan. Temptation 3: Satan has tried appealing to Jesus physical need for food and to worship and serve satan instead of God. So for the third temptation, he tries something different. Satan tempts Jesus to test God. Lets look back at what the passage says: 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.

4 Satan takes Jesus to Jerusalem, to the temple. Most probably, the highest point where they were standing was actually on the edge of a cliff. The temple was built on top of a mountain, it could be seen from most places in Jerusalem. Here is a picture of the temple. The corner of the temple that you can see in the bottom middle of the screen is possibly where this temptation took place. So Jesus and satan are standing on top of the temple, looking over the edge, straight down a cliff, probably over 100 meters down. There is no way if anyone fell over the edge that they would survive. The only way Jesus could survive if he followed satan s advice would have been for some divine intervention, possibly from angels. In this temptation satan also tries something different. Jesus has repelled each of his previous temptations by quoting scripture. So satan here tries quoting scripture at Jesus. Satan is quoting Psalm 91. Psalm 91 is all about God offering protection and refuge for his people. I m not going to read it now, but I encourage you to read it during the week. Jesus response to satan s temptation also quotes scripture. Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy 6:16 6 Do not put the Lord your God to the test For us the readers, we can ask who should we believe? Both Satan and Jesus have quoted God s word. The answer as to who we should believe comes from Jesus mission. Jesus was not sent by God to fall of a cliff and have angels save him. Jesus was sent to suffer and die to pay the price for our sins. So Jesus does not deny the promises from Psalm 91 that satan had quoted to him. What Jesus does deny is that those promises apply to him. Satan s quotation of Psalm 91 was meant to distract Jesus from his end goal. So Jesus refuses to test God. Application: So, what does this passage of scripture mean for us today? The add we watched at the start of the sermon showed a situation where the children were promised something better more gummie bears if they didn t eat the ones in front of them. They had a choice for instant gratification or something better, something that lasts longer. In a lot of ways it is the same for us when we are tempted. We can give into the temptation and get something that we want or something that we will feel better about, but if we do that we are missing out on something better. It is all about perspective. A temptation to not follow God and to run your life your way leads to eternal separation from God, in hell. The instant gratification disqualifies you from something that doesn t just last longer, but for all eternity. How can we resist temptation, so that we can get something better? Our response when temptations come our way should be to turn to God. This means that we need to pray and read the Bible. Some temptations are fairly straightforward to work out if we should do them or not. If it goes against what is in the Bible, then don t do it. This is where knowing what is in the Bible is important. If you don t read this regularly, then it is going to be a lot harder for you to discern when temptations come your way. Jesus used God s word against satan. We need to do the same. We shouldn t rely on words from people, we need to rely on God s word. Prayer is also vital in resisting temptations. If you are a Christian, then you have the Holy Spirit living inside you. If you ask for help in resisting temptation, the Holy Spirit is there, willing and able. 1 Corinthians 10:13 tells us: 13 No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. We have a promise from God to help us when we are tempted. It doesn t get any better than that! We know that he is faithful. There are many instances here at the refuge, that prove to us God is faithful.

5 He has provided this great place to meet. He has provided JAM with a classroom to meet in. There are many, many more examples. God will help us when we are tempted; all we have to do is ask. The first temptation was about the physical need of food. It can be a great temptation to feed ourselves with the basic things of life. Things like material possessions. It can be very easy to forget about God and the spiritual food that we need in our lives. Lets not let ourselves be distracted from the live saving food that is found in the words of the Bible. The second temptation that satan tempted Jesus with was all about who should be worshiped. We need to be careful that we do not fall into the temptation of worshiping something or someone other than God. These temptations are often very subtle. Are you putting money towards material possessions, rather than giving to God? Do you spend time watching TV or playing sports instead of reading your Bible regularly? Do you worship your job? Your possessions? Your status? Or your family? These are all good things in life, but if they are more important than God, then you are not worshipping god, but a poorer substitute. The third temptation was about testing God. I don t think that any of us here would try what satan suggested Jesus should do. But what I think people can often do is set up tests to see if God is for us or against us. I know I have prayed something similar to this before: If you care for me God, then this situation will turn out this way. It is an attempt to control God and to tell him what he should do. That is not how it works. I know from my experiences, that God usually has other ideas to me and my telling God what to do has failed. We should defiantly ask God about all things, but we need to let him set the agenda, rather than us. God does care immensely for us and is faithful and trustworthy. We need to keep that in mind when we ask God for things. It is also important to note how Jesus responded to satan s temptations. He responded straight away with God s word. Often the more we think about a temptation, the more likely we are to do. We can start justifying the action in our heads. Once we start on that slippery slope, it is hard to stop. So we need to respond quickly to temptations by saying no and by going to God s word and to prayer. Jesus victory over satan s temptations clearly demonstrate to us that Jesus could resist greater temptations. When Jesus was hanging on the cross, bearing the cost of our sins, I am sure that he would have been tempted to get himself off the cross. But he didn t. Jesus had to be tempted and he chose obedience to God the father so that we can be saved from our sins. He was the sinless sacrifice for our sins. Time to fill in cards Lets take a few minutes to fill out the response cards. Lets respond to what we have looked at from God s word. We are now going to sing in response to God s word. Benediction: Hebrews 4: Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are yet he did not sin. 16 Let us then approach God s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Jesus had to be tempted in order to prove that he was sinless. That sinless man took all our sins to the cross and rose again so that we can have eternal life. We can walk out of here today, knowing that we have an all powerful God on our side when we are tempted. Jesus has defeated the power sin by not succumbing to satan. Lets do the same!