March 06, Luke 4:1-13 – Jesus is tempted in the wilderness
O Almighty and eternal
God, we implore You to direct, sanctify, and govern our hearts and bodies in
the ways of Your laws and the works of Your commandments that through Your
mighty protection, both now and ever, we may be preserved in body and soul;
through Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy
Spirit, One God, now and forever.[2]
In this season of Lent, we are on a forty-day spiritual
journey where we will walk with Jesus as we face the issues of life. Each of us
need to face life as it is with Jesus for without Him we cannot stand, but with
Him, we will be able take life as it comes to us. Today, as we face life with
Jesus- we face temptation.
When the Devil was defeated in the wilderness, he did not
give up. He waited for another opportunity. Jesus was never free from
temptations. It is true with Christians as well. The closer you get to Christ
the more you are going to be tempted. The Devil never quits unless you
surrender or you die. This calls for you and me to be constantly on the watch,
ever to be prepared. Let us consider several things we need to know about the
Devil.
1. The first thing we
learn about the Devil is that He is real. Listen again to verses 1-2 of our text for today: “And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned
from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit for forty days in the wilderness,
tempted by the devil.” The Holy Spirit led Jesus for a specific purpose to
be tempted by a specific person. That person was the devil. The problem with
temptation, for certain people, is that they do not come to realize that
temptation comes from a specific source. Temptation comes from a certain person
and that person is the devil.
The devil is not someone made up in the minds and the
imagination of people. He is a real person with real motives and real causes.
He has a plan of attack. He has a certain procedure in which he operates.
Created good he opposed the Lord and fell. In the book of Revelation,
we are told: ‘And there was a war in
heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. And the dragon and
his angels waged war, and they were not strong enough, and there was no longer
a place found for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, the
serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan who deceives the whole world;
he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.”
(Revelation 12:7-9) The devil is a real person. A fallen angel who opposes all
that is good. He has lost his home in heaven and now prowls upon this earth.
Transition: Not only is the Devil a real person we also see from our text the source of temptation.
2. The source of
temptation. Jesus
was tempted by the Devil. Not only is the Devil a real person he is one who has
come to seduce, entice and lure us away from the LORD as he tempts us. This is
his strategy. He plan is to wage war on the Father through you. Having lost the
war in heaven and having lost his place in heaven the Devil now lives upon this
earth choosing to pick on God’s children.
Quite clearly, we can see that the Devil is nothing but a big
bully. What do we say about such people? They prey upon the weak. They cannot
defeat someone their own size so they lie in wait for one weaker and more
vulnerable.
Transition: This is a picture of the Devil. He is real. He is a real
person. His strategy is the dilution and the destruction of the Father’s
children and all others that fall victim to his prey. But how does he operate?
He attacks with half-truths.
3. He attacks with half-truths. On three different occasions the
devil tempted Jesus by saying two little worlds if and you. “If you are the Son of God command this tome
to be bread…”
To you I will give all this authority and their glory - it
has been delivered to me and I give it to whom I will if you, then, will
worship me, it shall be yours.
”If you are the Son of
God throw yourself down from here…” What the devil has to say was true.
Jesus was the Son of God. The devil put that truth into his temptations but he
used the truth with a smattering of lies to make any of the truth, which he
spoke, a half-truth. This is the tactic of the evil ho puts a little truth in
every lie to make it sound like truth. And with that half-truth, he deceives
and leads astray all who would listen to him.
The only way for us to confound and defeat the devil is to
gird ourselves with God’s truth. Every time Jesus was tempted by the devil the
only weapon that He used with the Scriptures – the Word of God. Without being
armed the Scriptures, we are lost and we will not be able to stand up to the
devil. To be forewarned is to be forearmed. Arm yourself with God’s Word. It is
the only tool we have to fight off the temptations of the devil. This is what
Jesus used to fight temptation. If that was the only weapon that Jesus used can
we try any other?
Transition: Our own efforts cannot work against temptation. Only God’s
Word will work in defeating Satan and his cunning ways.
4. The Devil never
quits. He is
persistent. On three different occasions, Jesus was tempted. Each time there
was a different approach. The Devil came to Jesus repeatedly with one
temptation after the other to wear Him down and draw Him out. The Devil came when
Jesus was weak after having fasted for 40 days. So also, when we are weak and
vulnerable that is the time we are most susceptible to be lead astray by the
Devil’s lies. And after Jesus stood the testing this time, we are told that the
Devil left Him but only until another opportune time. Repeatedly, Jesus was
tempted. So likewise, the Devil will be persistent in his temptations seeking
to entrap us and lead us astray in any way that he can,
Conclusion: We battle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and rulers in spiritual places. The devil is someone that we should take seriously. Jesus took him seriously by defeating him in the desert and at the cross. As we live our life facing temptation may we look to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith who has resisted the Devil and promised to give us His Word and his grace to face temptation. This is how you and I face life with Jesus. This is how we face temptation when it happens and when it comes. Look to Him to fight the Devil for us. In Jesus’ Holy Name. Amen
Passive Sentences – 7%
Readability –78.5%
Reading Level – 5.7
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