Sermons/Discussions

"The First Temptations of Christ"

Sermon: The 1st Sunday of Lent year A

The Rev. Matt Kennedy

The Church of the Good Shepherd

We meet up with Jesus this morning at the very beginning of his ministry after he has been baptized by John in the Jordan river. It’s 40 days later in fact, and he’s had no food. He's in the last hours of a 40 day/40 night fast. And, as is his wont, Satan arrives on the scene just at the moment of Jesus' greatest hunger.

Satan has come to test him.

You might be thinking that’s pretty stupid. Satan has to know that Jesus is God incarnate. How would or could Jesus ever be led into sin? But Satan’s chief weakness, if you’ll remember, is Pride. He used to be the highest, most powerful, most beautiful angel in God's Heaven, but he began to love himself more than God and even worse; Satan began to think that he would fill the role of God better than God.

Pride has the capacity to blind you to reality; to make you think so highly of yourself that you discount the gifts and abilities of the people around you. That’s why being around a proud person is so annoying. They’re so self-focused that they can’t see the truth about themselves or anybody else.

Satan grew so proud that in his mind he truly believed that he could become God. Here, even though he knows who Jesus is, he’s so very deceived that he thinks that he has what it takes to overthrow him.

And, to be fair, Satan is on something of a winning streak. He’s already succeeded in tempting the first human beings, all of humanity in fact, away from God as we heard in the first reading this morning so he likely believes he can do the same with Jesus.

But in stark contrast to his success with Adam and Eve, Satan fails miserably with Jesus. Jesus knocks all three of Satan’s pitches out of the park. It’s not even close. I want to spend our time together this morning discussing the three temptations Jesus faces here and then, if we have time, how Jesus overcomes them. What is it that Jesus does in this encounter with the ancient serpent that Adam and Eve failed to do?

You might be saying to yourselves that this is an unfair comparison seeing as how Jesus is God and Adam and Eve were not. But that’s beside the point. While Jesus’ life and death serve first and foremost to save believers from the eternal consequence of sin, the events of his life have also been recorded (under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit) to serve as a model for our lives. You and I and everyone who believes in Jesus Christ are called to live our lives based on the model of Jesus' life as it is given to us in the bible. So when we come across an account of Jesus being tested and tempted by things that we are tempted by every day (and, as we'll see, the tempations he faces here are quite familiar) we should pay special attention to the what he does and how he handles the situation so we can take what he models and apply it when we are faced with similar tests.

So, let’s begin by taking a look at the temptations themselves first and then, if we have time, we’ll look at the way Jesus overcomes them. Turn with me if you will to Matthew chapter 4.

Beginning in verse 3 Satan says“ If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” In other words Satan is essentially saying, “C’mon Jesus. You’re hungry, you’ve fasted for FORTY DAYS. That’s long enough. It’s not as if there’s no food around. These stones can be bread if you like. Here just take a bite.”

As I said and as you know, that’s generally when Satan comes.

Men, you go away on business, you’re away from your wives for a few weeks. You have attractive colleagues you work with...or you have pay-per view in your hotel room…

This first temptation Jesus faces is that kind of temptation.

The temptation not just about the desire to eat when famished, it represents physical desire in general.

The temptation is to seek physical pleasure (a good thing) in something or someone that is forbidden to you by God's law (seeking a good thing in a bad way). Satan wanted Jesus and he wants you to take God's gift of physical pleasure/satisfaction and twist it, warp it, use it in a way that will displease God and ultimately harm your soul.

Women face this temptation as well as men. I didn't mean to single men out, I just used men because I am one.

The tempation could be to misuse food and become gluttonous. It could be to  misuse rest and become slothful or lazy. It could be to misuse sex and become adulterous. It could be to use anything that brings you pleasure in a way that will ultimately bring you harm and rupture your relationship with God.

Whatever Satan can use to lure you he’ll use and he’ll do it just when you’re at the point of your greatest hunger. Food, drink, rest, sex are not bad. But Satan wants you to use these good things in the wrong way, outside the boundaries God has set.

That is precisely how Satan lured Adam and Eve, “Doesn’t this fruit look pleasant? Wouldn’t it be nice to take a bite? Just one? C’mon enjoy yourself, you only live once." And it worked. "When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye and also desirable for gaining wisdom she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it.“(Genesis 3:7)

How many marriages have been ruined by thinking like this? How many friendships shattered? How many faithful men and women have fallen? How many lives ruined?

So the first temptation Satan offered Jesus was the temptation of physical pleasure.

Let's hold off talking about how Jesus responded until later for now let's go on to the second temptation.

Satan took him to the top of the tallest building in Jerusalem and said, “If you’re the Son of God, throw yourself down.” He could have gone on..."I mean if you are really God's Son he‘ll protect you...won‘t he? He says he will. Or may you're not really who you say you are? Maybe you're just full of it? Maybe this is all a big fat lie? You say you’re the Son of God? Well, if you’re so hot prove it. Let’s go big man. You talk the talk now walk the walk.”

How much of your daily behavior stems from a desire to protect or project an image of yourself that either you have or you want others to have?

We want to be thought of in a good way by other people. We want to be liked and we want to be noticed and praised and many times we’re willing to do whatever it takes to win that praise.

If your self-worth is found in the opinions of other people then you’ll go to extremes to keep that good opinion. You may even find yourself willing to deny your faith like Peter did or disregard God’s law like Adam and Eve so that you can “be somebody.” Or, in Satan’s words to Eve, to “be like God.”

The problem is that when you live like this, you don’t become a god to the people you are hoping to please or impress. Instead their opinions become your God and your self-worth is found in them rather than in Him.

This second temptation is the temptation of vanity; the desire we all have to greater or lesser degrees to be noticed and praised by other people. Like physical pleasure this can be a good thing. You should want to please your parents, your bosses, your spouses and friends, but when that desire becomes the primary motivating factor of your life, that’s when Satan is happy because you’ve become so preoccupied with how you look to others that you no longer worry about pleasing God.

The second temptation then is vanity, let's go on to the third.

Running out of ammunition Satan offers Jesus the world if only he’ll fall down and worship him.

This is the big one.

If God is not first in your life then something or somebody else is.

Satan was betting that for Jesus it would be POWER because that is what it was for him.

What is it for you? Everyone has something. What is it that has the capacity to make you throw your faith overboard? Is it power like Satan? Is it Success? Popularity? A pleasure of some sort?

Is it your family?

a friend?

a relationship?

is it your own self?

If you bow to any of these things, if you put any of these things before your allegiance and love for God, then in truth are bowing to Satan. That is what Adam and Eve did. They thought they’d found a special fruit that would take them to the top, to be like God. In reality they became slaves to sin and death.

That thing, that fruit in your life may not be and probably isn’t bad in itself, but Satan will use it in the same way he used all of the kingdoms in the world to tempt Jesus. He’ll use it to turn you away from God and toward himself; not in a conscious way, you won’t think you are bowing to Satan, but subtly and deceitfully when you bow to any of these things, you are in truth bowing to the enemy.

Jesus recognized that and wasn’t about to fall for it.

These three temptations taken together pretty much account for all the temptations that any human being faces; pleasure, vanity, pride, power, idolatry, everything that might draw you away from God can be placed under the general category of one of these three temptations.

Falling for any of them, failing any of these tests that we all meet every day, can potentially ruin your life and your faith and do great harm to your soul. Nothing would please Satan more. As Peter says, Satan “roams the world like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

If you’re a believer and have accepted Jesus Christ into your heart, then you have been saved by his blood and you have the Holy Spirit living in you and Satan can’t take your soul. You’re going to heaven on the basis of the promise of God and the righteousness of Jesus Christ, not your own. But while Satan can’t take you to hell he can and will do everything in his power to lead you into thoughts words and deeds that if unresisted will make your life and living hell. So it’s vital for believers to know how to resist him.

Since we are out of time I’ll take up this “how” question next week. For now, to give a hint at where we’re going look back at each verbal exchange between Satan and Jesus, specifically verses 4, 7, and 10. What 3 words does Jesus repeat in each exchange? “It is written.” So what’s he appealing too? Right, the bible, God’s Word. In each and every exchange between Satan and Jesus, Jesus responds with a passage of scripture. He responds using the power of the word of God. That’s the model of resistance Jesus has left us.

And now let me ask you.

Do you have the knowledge to do the same?

Does God’s word live in you to such an extent, have you spent the time studying it, that when you’re making a decision or thinking through a moral dilemma the Holy Spirit can draw on that reservoir and bring to your mind scriptural words or passages that apply to your decision?

If so, good. If not, well then it could be that God is using this passage this morning to encourage you to begin the serious study of his word. God has provided you in the Scriptures all the equipment you need to resist any and every temptation and he’s given you the Holy Spirit who lives in you and can and will help you use and apply that equipment powerfully and victoriously when faced with even the most potent and addictive snares that the Devil sets in your path. Next Sunday we’ll talk about how.

Amen