Good morning. Welcome to Church of the Advent. If you are new here, my name is Dan Bielman. I'm an associate pastor here.
Our senior pastor, Tommy Hinson, is in town this weekend, but he is somewhere else.
He and two other members of our congregation belong to the Institute for Cross-Cultural Ministry.
They belong to a cohort which is exploring ways to better welcome our neighbor, to love those different than us.
So you can be praying for the three of them this weekend. They're hard at work.
This morning, we are continuing in the book of Luke. Did you know we were in the book of Luke? We're in the book of Luke.
We started actually at the Lessons in Carol service with the nativity passages from the book of Luke.
And we're continuing through the life of Jesus according to St. Luke.
And we come to quite the epic passage.
And before we dive into this passage that depicts the battle, that recounts the battle between Jesus and our great enemy, Satan, in the wilderness,
I'd like to prepare us in two ways.
The first thing I'd like to do is to show you an icon.
This icon is called the Christ Pantocrator, or Christ Almighty.
It is one of those common religious images in Orthodox Christianity.
And it's one of the oldest.
And this particular painting, this particular version of this icon,
is the oldest surviving example of the Christ Pantocrator.
It's found at St. Catherine's Monastery in the Sinai Desert.
You'll notice the Gospels in his left hand, and the sign of teaching made by his right.
Now, a curious feature of this icon is the face, which we can zoom in to.
You'll notice the asymmetry there.
One half representing the divine nature of Jesus, and the other half the human nature.
Now, icons are meant to teach, to instill virtue, and to remind people looking at them of various things.
This icon reminds us of Christ's two natures.
He is both fully God and fully man.
We must remember this when we read about this epic battle between Satan and Jesus that we heard about in the book of Luke.
Now, it's easy to write off these temptations as really being temptations.
I mean, they couldn't have been all that difficult.
Jesus is fully God, after all.
There's no way he was going to sin.
But he's also and completely, fully man.
The writer of Hebrews states that he had to be made like his brothers in every way.
He didn't merely resemble humankind.
He was, in every way, in all things, in all respects, fully human.
With a fully human mind, and a fully human body, and fully human desires.
Yet, without sin.
So, when we read that he was tempted, he really was.
Truly.
Tempted.
The second thing I'd like to do is some imaginative work.
Not imagine, like, things that aren't, like, fairy tales and fantasies and such.
But the kind of imagination you use when you try and remember what color is your mother's eyes, right?
Human beings have the gift of imagination.
Being able to see things with our mind's eye that we can't with our physical eyes.
So, let's do that.
Because Jesus was fully man, the writer to the Hebrews writes that we do not have a high priest who was unable to sympathize with our weaknesses.
But one who, in every respect, has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
So, if he can sympathize with us, I'd like to suggest that because he was fully human, we can sympathize with him, too.
In other words, because he was fully human, he probably stubbed his toe or banged his shin.
He definitely got hungry.
We can sympathize with those things.
We can sympathize with missing a meal, right?
Or missing a day of meals.
That's reasonable.
We can sympathize with maybe three days.
How far can we extend that sympathy?
So, if you're comfortable with this, I'd like you to close your eyes.
And just try and remember the hungriest you have ever been.
Or a moment you were just really hungry.
Perhaps you were on an intentional fast.
Perhaps you just skipped a couple of meals.
How did you feel?
Do you remember feeling weak?
Did you have a headache?
Did you have any cravings you found difficult to resist?
Do you remember feeling impatient or moody?
Do you remember it being very difficult to say no to something?
Did you find it difficult to be good?
Now imagine an extreme version of that.
Jesus fasted 40 days.
It is rare but possible for a human to survive that long.
He would have literally been dying, crippled by both hunger and the difficulty of saying no to temptation.
Do you ever remember having difficulty saying no to something while your body was weak?
So he wasn't, you can open your eyes.
He wasn't immune to temptation.
But quite the opposite.
C.S. Lewis writes,
A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means.
This is an obvious lie.
Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is.
A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later.
This is why bad people in one sense know very little about badness.
They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in.
We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it.
And Christ, because he was the only man who never yielded to temptation,
is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means.
So let's dive in.
As we look at this passage,
instead of looking at each temptation separately,
and it's broken down quite nicely for a three-part sermon, right?
Three temptations.
I will resist that temptation to do it that way.
We're going to look at what these temptations had in common.
We're going to see how Jesus resisted temptation.
And we're going to learn something about Jesus.
So we're going to look at temptation, resisting temptation, and the person of Jesus Christ.
Let's pray.
O Lord God, grant your people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil.
And with pure hearts and minds,
to follow you, the only God,
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God,
now and forever.
Amen.
Okay, let's look first at what all these temptations have in common.
There's a few running threads.
What is so tempting about temptation?
The first thing we notice is that Jesus was tempted to doubt God's word.
Just before this account in chapter 3, verse 22, we read,
the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus in bodily form like a dove,
and a voice came from heaven.
You are my beloved son.
With you I am well pleased.
Jesus wastes, excuse me,
and Satan wastes no time questioning those words.
Chapter 4, verse 3,
if you are the son of God.
Did God really say that?
Jesus, did the Father really say that to you?
Did he really mean it?
Can you trust him?
Are you sure you're the son of God?
And Jesus heard this temptation all the way to the cross.
One of the criminals who hanged by him said,
are you not the Christ?
Save yourself and us.
Are you not the son of God?
Are you not the Christ?
Those around the cross said,
are you not the Christ?
Save yourself if you're saving everybody else.
And now you get this too, don't you?
You doubt God's words.
You doubt what God says about you.
I do.
Dan, are you really a child of God?
Does he really delight in you?
Does he really love him?
Does he really love you?
I mean, you really trust him?
You trust what he says?
Did he really say he'll never cast you away?
And this has been the tempter's strategy
from the very beginning of time.
To doubt God's word.
In the Garden of Eden, he asks Eve,
did God actually say,
you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?
Do you really trust God, Eve?
Now, if the tempter's not getting us
to doubt God at his words,
he's tempting us to misuse
or mishear his words.
And the third temptation,
we read in verse nine,
and he took him to Jerusalem
and set him on the pinnacle of the temple
and said to him,
if you are the son of God,
throw yourself down from here,
for it is written,
and then Satan quotes Psalm 91,
he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you.
And on their hands,
they will bear you up
lest you strike your foot against a stone.
Satan lays the groundwork for temptation
by getting us to doubt the words of God
or by twisting the words of God.
And then he tempts Jesus
to ignore the will of the Father.
Ignoring the will of the Father.
Then he tells Jesus,
turn these stones to bread.
Remember how hungry Jesus is, right?
Dying.
Literally,
dying of hunger.
In and of itself,
it would not have been wrong
to transform the stones to bread.
Elseward,
Jesus transforms water to wine.
But here,
Satan is tempting Jesus
to forego trusting in God
for his provision.
And to use his divine power
to serve himself.
The temptation appeared innocent,
as it usually does,
but it was in fact
a spiritual temptation to sin
because as the incarnate Son of God,
Christ had come to do
the will of the Father
and God's will alone.
Nothing else.
Christ was tempted
to provide for his own material needs
apart from the will of the Father.
Furthermore,
Jesus is tempted
to force the will of the Father.
In the third temptation,
he was to throw himself down
and have God command his angels
to bear him up.
And Jesus responds
by using the words of God
in response,
you shall not put the Lord,
your God,
to the test.
In other words,
temptation is like that, right?
We put ourselves
in precarious positions
and expect God
to rescue us.
I mean,
an obvious example
would be an alcoholic
who walks through a liquor store
and asks God
for the strength
to resist
buying liquor.
He should not have been
anywhere near the liquor store,
right?
A few people got together
last night.
I wasn't there.
My wife was there
celebrating Andre
Vander Westhoesen
earning his master's degree
and Ellen Vest
told a pretty great story
about a boa constrictor.
A woman who
got a boa constrictor
from a little baby boa
and nurtured the boa,
felt a connection
to the boa constrictor
and would sleep
next to the boa constrictor
and the woman
know that the snake
was, you know,
feeling the feels too
because it would like,
you know,
stretch out,
you know,
and cuddle up to her.
You know,
over time,
like,
the snake got bigger
and bigger
and things didn't change
and the woman
talked to,
I believe,
a veterinarian
or a zoologist
or some kind
of animal expert
and told the person
about the snake
and the zoologist said,
you have to get rid
of that snake
immediately.
What the snake is doing
is sizing you up
and every day of its life
it's been sizing you up
to see if it can eat you
or not
and one day
it's going to be big enough
and it will
and this is what we do
with temptation,
right?
We cuddle up to it.
Now Snopes says,
and Ellen pointed this out
to me too,
that that's not exactly
a reptilian behavior
but it is the behavior
of temptation.
Like,
we cuddle up to it,
right,
ignoring our peril
and then when it's too late
it devours us.
It devours us.
We tempt God,
we test Him
by getting too close
to temptation,
too close to the guardrail
instead of staying
as far away as we can.
So lastly,
after twisting the word
of God
and tempting Jesus
not to follow His Father's
will exclusively
or to force the Father
to act,
Jesus was tempted
by idolatry.
Now what do we know
about idolatry?
We know that
we attempt
to
derive
value
and pleasure
and worth
and meaning
and fulfillment
from created things
instead of our Creator.
This is what
Jesus was being tempted
to do.
He was being tempted
by the great life,
by all the kingdoms
of the world
and all their glories
and all He had to do
was to bow down.
You know,
I don't know why
He would have been
tempted.
First,
the kingdoms really
do ultimately
belong to Him
and second,
why would He bow down
to Satan?
But we know
because it says so
that He was tempted.
Satan probably
appearing as
a beautiful
giver of gifts.
Jesus tempted
to idolatry
but He resisted.
He resisted
unlike the nation
of Israel.
He resisted
idolatry.
And how did He resist?
So how did He resist
temptation
after being set up
by the twisting
of God's Word,
the temptation
to do His own will
rather than the Father's
and the temptation
to idolatry?
Well,
we see from the outset
and from start to finish
that Jesus relied
on the Holy Spirit.
We read in chapter 3
that the Holy Spirit
descended on Him
in bodily form
like a dove.
And then in chapter 4,
Jesus,
full of the Holy Spirit,
returned from the Jordan
and was led by the Spirit
in the wilderness
for 40 days.
Then after the temptations,
Jesus returned
in the power
of the Spirit
to Galilee.
It's instructive, right?
That the Son of God
would rely on God.
If He who was God
relied on God,
then how much more
should we?
Yet how much
do we rely
on ourselves?
When things get
really hard,
we, yeah,
we rely on God.
We have to.
But all the rest
of the time,
we do rely on ourselves.
I do.
So much of what I do
feels manageable.
Getting up,
out of bed,
making breakfast,
managing children,
and greeting my wife,
driving to work.
everything seems,
feels manageable,
but I don't rely
on the Holy Spirit.
When I get nervous
about playing music
in public,
and I do,
every week,
how much do I rely
on my training
or my instincts
or my abilities
instead of praying?
How about that?
How much do I pray,
Holy Spirit,
would you guide me?
Would you help me?
Yeah, I understand
as we are all understanding
that so much needs
to be done
about justice
when it comes to race
and injustice.
And I feel like
I need to conjure up
the right things to say
and the right things
to do.
And I'm concerned
about how I appear
on this issue
instead of just saying,
Holy Spirit,
make me into the person
that can have
this conversation.
Holy Spirit,
give me the kind
of heart
that listens.
Holy Spirit,
come.
We see that Jesus
relied on the Holy Spirit
and he relied
on the words
that the Holy Spirit
inspired.
He didn't try
to out-clever Satan.
He went right
to Scripture
and so should we.
It's okay to ask
what would Jesus do.
Memorize Scripture,
the more the better.
The church
throughout its history
has recognized
the need
to respond
to temptation
with the words
of God.
St. Ambrose
wrote,
Therefore,
the Lord
first remitted
the debt
of the ancient wrong
in order
that having shaken
off the yoke
of captivity,
we may learn
to overcome
our faults
with the help
of the Scriptures.
Isaac Watts
wrote that Scripture
is the judge
that ends
all strife
where wit
and reason fail.
Scripture
is the guide
to everlasting life
through all
this gloomy veil.
O may thy counsels,
thy Scripture,
mighty God,
my roving feet
command,
nor I forsake
that happy road
that leads
to thy right hand.
So we looked
at temptation,
how Satan
twists
the words of God
and how
he gets us
to do our own will
and not the will
of the Father's.
And we learned
about how
to resist temptation,
about yielding
to the Holy Spirit,
relying on the words
of Scripture.
So let's look
at Jesus himself.
Let's see Jesus
here.
We're going to see
three things
about Jesus.
The first
is that
Jesus
is the true
Israel.
Just as
Israel
was led
out of
captivity
through
the waters
of the Red Sea
and followed
the pillar
of fire
and was led
by the pillar
for 40 years
in the wilderness.
So Jesus
was led
through the waters
of baptism,
led by the Holy Spirit
for 40 days
in the desert.
Israel
complained
to God
about God's
provision
of manna,
but Jesus
trusted God
to provide
for him.
Israel
wasted no time
committing idolatry
in the desert,
fashioning a golden
calf and bowing
down to it,
but Jesus
forsook
the kingdoms
and glories
of the world
to obey
his Father
alone.
Israel
tested God
demanding the Lord
provide water
at Massa
and Moriah,
but Jesus
would not put
his Father
to the test.
You see,
Jesus succeeded
where Israel
failed.
Jesus
is the true
Israel.
We learn
that Jesus
is the true
Messiah.
The Messiah
in Jesus' day
was expected
to turn
manna
into bread,
just as Jesus
was tempted
to do.
The Messiah
was expected
to bring
the kingdoms
of the world
under Israel's
subjection,
just as Jesus
was tempted
to do.
And the Messiah
was expected
to perform
a wonder,
like flying around
like Neo
from the Matrix
through the streets
of Jerusalem,
just as Jesus
was tempted
to do,
but Jesus
knew that
his road
as Messiah
was not that
bringing glory
to himself,
but first
walking the road
of suffering
all the way
to the cross.
This was the road
of the true Messiah.
And we learn
that Jesus
is the true
Son of God.
The very first
Son of God,
Adam,
he failed
in the garden.
But Jesus
resisted
temptation
in the wilderness.
The good news
for us
is that
though we inherit
the guilt
of the first Adam,
we are imputed
the righteousness
of the second Adam,
Jesus.
Listen,
perhaps this sounds
like really academic
at this point.
It is beautiful,
I think,
how all these
threads of Scripture
just dramatically
come together
in this passage
about Jesus
and Satan
in the wilderness.
But this means
something for us
very personally.
We've talked a lot
about temptation,
how to resist it,
and you might be thinking,
oh, I'm the guy
from the C.S. Lewis quote
that gives in
after five minutes.
Actually,
that would be giving me
a lot of credit,
usually five seconds.
And does God
really love me?
I give in
all the time.
Surely,
he's given up
on me.
Well,
on one hand,
it's worse
than you think.
You are actually
more sinful
than you could
ever possibly
imagine,
more given
to temptation
than you could
ever
fear.
The good news
is that
the Father
loves you
more than
you can
dare to dream.
Because he was
the true Adam,
because he was
the second Adam
and the true
Son of God,
all of that
obedience he did
in the desert,
resisting
for 40 days,
resisting Satan,
all the suffering,
all the righteousness
that he had,
all the favor
that he got
from the Father
when the Father
pronounced,
you are my son,
with you I am
well pleased.
He gives to you.
It is yours
through union
with him.
So when he looks
on you,
he says,
you are my daughter,
with you I am
well pleased.
You are my son,
with you I am
well pleased.
Yeah,
you gave in
after five seconds.
You are my son,
with whom I am
well pleased.
And he went
to the cross
so all the
punishment
and sin
that is yours
is now given
to Jesus.
He takes that
on himself
as one who
was fully God,
able to bear
the sins of the
world on his
back.
For you,
Jesus,
fully obeyed
the will of his
Father.
For you,
Jesus chose
the road of
suffering
and the cross.
And for you,
Jesus rose from
the dead.
And he gives
new life
and he gives
you the
Holy Spirit
that you can
now live
for him.
In the name
of the Father
and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Let's pray.
Lord, we do
confess,
we give in
so quickly,
so easily.
Lord, we need
your Holy Spirit.
Lord, we need
your Holy Spirit.
So Holy Spirit,
come.
Holy Spirit,
fill us.
Holy Spirit,
give us your power
to resist,
to say no
to the things
that tempt us,
to say yes
to our Father.
Holy Spirit,
would you please
do as you
are promised
to do
and remind us
today
as we come
to your table
that we indeed
are your adopted,
the Father's adopted
sons and daughters.
Jesus,
thank you for
obeying for us.
thank you.
Amen.