Sermon #1,128: St. Matthew 4:1-11 (Historic Gospel) 2-22-15 (Invocavit, Lent 1), Bethany-Princeton MN Hymns: 281, 252, 251; communion 302, 431, 249 TEMPTATIONS LEAD US TO THE WORD OF GOD AND PRAYER The Text, St. Matthew 4:1-11 (v. 1-3). Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, If You are the Son of God Lord, this is Your Word and these are Your words. Sanctify us by the truth. Your Word is truth. O blessed Redeemer, we thank You that You deigned to be tempted even as we are, yet without sin. We thank You for Your deep humiliation in prayer. Be with us, we humbly ask You, in the hour of temptation, and teach us to pray, that we may overcome the Tempter and obtain the victory in Your power, for You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. (From a collect on Hebrews 4:14-16, in The Lutheran Liturgy) Fellow redeemed in Christ, in whose name we overcome Satan: Grace be unto you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. You can t think of temptations without thinking of the tempter, and of course that s the way the devil is identified here. It says, when the tempter came to Him God certainly tempts no one to sin. Temptations come from Satan. He is the tempter. Even though the word tempt is not used in Genesis 3, that is what he did when he spoke to Eve. The Fall into sin came when Adam and Eve yielded to Satan s temptation in the Garden of Eden (ELS Catechism #95, 122). There is a lot more tempting that the devil did to Jesus than we hear in this gospel lesson. The three famous temptations came only at the end of Jesus 40 days in the wilderness. In Luke it says He was tempted by the devil for 40 days throughout this time. After 40 days, when Jesus was weak not only from hunger but all the saying no to temptation, only then came the three temptations. We naturally focus on what, specifically, the devil tempted Jesus to do. The first one, command that these stones become bread, was the temptation to take care of His extreme hunger, so under this fall all the ways the devil 1
tempts us with physical and material needs self-serving wants and desires. The second one, to throw Yourself down from the pinnacle of the temple, was a temptation to demonstrate His power, so under this comes our desire to be praised, it s whatever pride and selfish ambition lead us to do. The third one, that if Jesus fulfilled a condition he would be given all the kingdoms of the world and their [worldly] glory, speaks to our preoccupation with success. So if we focus on the what of these temptations we have quite a list. They are obviously not limited to the three kinds of temptations Satan gave Jesus. If you go through the Ten Commandments one by one, you come up with quite a list of possible temptations to sin. If you go by age group, from toddler to childhood to pre-teen to teen-ager to young adult and on up, there are temptations for each stage of life that are different. An earnest Christian wants to stay ahead of the devil s temptations. But doesn t it wear you out, like Jesus was worn out? You could say this is the devil s goal. The tempting is really only the first stage of his attack. It s the frontal assault. It s not where he ultimately wins the victory. It is after he gets you to sin that he really goes to work. After he has gotten you to yield to the temptation, he accuses you. That is what the last book in the Bible calls him, the accuser who accuses them day and night (Rev 12:10). His goal is to accuse in the conscience, and for you to listen to his accusations, even if they re lies, so you will despair. If you read this gospel lesson carefully, you see that while the devil s goal is to get Jesus to sin, at the same time he is working on something much more nefarious. He is working Jesus toward despair. Jesus had come here straight from His baptism, when He heard God say: This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. The very next words after Jesus baptism are today s verse 1: Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. This is happening to Jesus, but reveals what happens to you. In baptism you were named by God Himself His own 2
child whom He loves. He put His name on you. Baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. You now went into the world as an in-the-name-of. This is how we start every church service: in the name of... This is how He listens to your prayers, because they come to Him in Jesus name. You went into the world, after your baptism, as a little in-his-name. A Christian. Bearing the name of Christ. Having His name signed with the cross on your forehead and on your breast. This is the sign which Satan s legions fear and angels bow their faces to revere. But you don t seem to intimidate the devil much. Temptations come to you. Troubles and trials unnumbered. What s this about? Jesus temptation in the wilderness tells you. As He was led into the wilderness to be tempted, He had the baptism words, the name-of-god words, ringing in His ears: This is My beloved Son. Then the devil put something else into His ears: three times he said, If You are the Son of God Trying to make Him uncertain, taking the name-of-god stuff out of the picture. The devil was attacking a certain part of Jesus flesh. As the Athanasian Creed says, Jesus has a rational soul and human flesh. The devil attacked Jesus human reason, His ability to reason things out. The devil reasoned with Jesus not to believe the spoken Word. What spoken Word? Why, the Word the Father spoke at Jesus baptism. This would be dishonoring God s name. God s name is not just what we call God. His name is where He reveals who He is and what His will is. God s name is His Word. Remember how Jesus answered those three If-You-are-the- Son-of-God bullets. He said, It is written It is written It is written. He went back to the Word of God, where God reveals who He is and what His will is, and what did it reveal? That the voice saying if You are the Son of God was lying. The devil was directing Jesus to look at how He was suffering and doing without, to look around and listen to the if, to despair, to give up on the path of suffering essential to being Savior. That is, not to listen to the Word 3
that was spoken, especially the this is My beloved Son, name-of-god part. The devil was trying to work Jesus away from making use of the name of God. Because the devil knows that the name of God has power over him. In all the casting-out of devils by the apostles, it s in the name of Jesus. When Jesus cast out devils He forbade them from speaking His name. In some cases He forced them to say, You are the Son of God and bow down to Him, they would say it against their will. Satan and all the devils know very well He is the Son of God. It is the love of His name, the love of His Word, His name and His Word being used in faith, that they want to prevent. If the devil can keep you from using His name and His Word in faith then you will despair. That is his real goal. You might have heard people say, If you say that you are a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you? I can hardly think of a more Satanic question. The devil wants the temptations to lead you to ask questions like that. He wants you to only use the Law, to look at your life and conclude: There isn t much evidence that I am a child of God. What he does not want is for you to use your baptism and see the name of God, signed with the cross on your forehead and breast. What he does not want is for you to use the saving Gospel, the saving name of God, the name of Christ, as an answer to the Law s accusations. What he does not want is for you to pray, to pray in Jesus name, to call upon the name of the Lord to help and protect you against Satan. You see, the question in temptations is not whether we can be like Jesus and successfully defeat every temptation that comes our way. Only Jesus defeated the devil on His own authority, only Jesus perfectly withstood all temptations. He has put His name upon you so that you can use it, for defense and protection. The first way we use His name is to actually use His Word against the temptations and what they do to us. The temptations, and what you do in giving in to temptations and sinning, should not lead you to conclude that all is lost. 4
They should lead you to His Word, to hear what God says to all the fallen children of Adam and Eve. The central message of His Word is that He loves sinners. If you have a sin, then the message of the Bible is that God loves you. Not because you sinned, but because He has forgiveness for you. Martin Luther wrote a letter to a friend of his, Jerome Weller, who suffered from fits of depression. This is what I was saying before; the devil wants people to despair of God s mercy, and think God cannot love them. Luther pictures how to use God s name, His Word, against the devil: When the devil throws our sins up to us and declares that we deserve death and hell, we ought to speak thus, I admit that I deserve death and hell. What of it? Does this mean that I shall be sentenced to eternal damnation? By no means! For I know One who suffered and made satisfaction in my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Where He is, I shall be also. The second way we use His name in the face of temptations is to pray. When you know that you need help, you ask for it. That s all prayer is: asking. Sometimes you don t know what to ask. You just know that you are miserable, you are weak, you ve had it, you are oppressed by guilt, you can t think good thoughts, you can t think or speak well of yourself, you can t believe or trust. Your baptism seems so long ago. Calling upon His name in prayer, speaking to Him in Jesus name, is coming to Him as one of His little in-his-names, His baptized child. When you pray often you feel weak. But it is the strongest thing. You are using His name by calling upon it. Then the devil cannot win. This is the prayer of faith, even weak faith, and it is a potent weapon against Satan. So when the devil s temptations lead you to use the Word of God and prayer, his temptations have the opposite effect. Although they take you down in sin, they lead you by the Holy Spirit s work to be strengthened. It is the Spirit who leads you, not to be tempted, but to use your experience in temptations to run to the Lord, to call upon His name, and it s: Away with you, Satan! Amen! 5