St. Luke’s Evangelical Lutheran Church – Watertown, WI
Pastor Mark Gartner
Sermon for February 13^th, 2005 -- Lent 1

Dear Children who walk in danger all the time,

The story goes like this. You get an e-mail from a wealthy person who lives in the country of Nigeria. The letter goes on to state that he needs a Christian person to help him get his money safely out of Nigeria. The letter proceeds to say that if you help him out you will get a percentage of the total amount for begin such a nice and caring person. But he needs you to send him a small amount of money to pay the processing fees and shipping to get this money to you. It is such a small amount of money, and the person sounds like such a nice person – a person who really needs your Christian help. If you happened to read this month’s issue of Reader’s Digest you will recognize this as one of the oldest and most alluring of almost all the scams there are going. As you might guess, people do send money and people do lose their money and there is not a large percentage of money waiting for you. What leads people to fall for scams like this? What would lead people t! o think that scams like this or any of the many others that are out there are really true? The answer falls under the heading of being misled or tempted to think that there really is easy money out there. The answer falls under being misled or tempted to throw aside your common sense and to trust anyone or anything that you are told. I’m sure that there are many of us who have in one way or another been tempted by a foolish scam.

As we look at our text, we soon realize that there is a scam artist that is craftier and more tricky than any person on this earth. This person knows all the tricks and all the right words to get people to follow his lies. This person will stop at nothing to lead people to follow him and his ways. We know this person as the devil. Our text for this morning is a wonderful opportunity for us to learn from the Master how to spot the schemes and lies of the devil. But more importantly we will learn from Jesus how to resist the devil and his deceitful ways. Our theme will be based on the words of our text:

The first thing that we need to remember as we look at this very familiar text is that this text is more than just good advice for sinful people like you and me. This account gives us a glimpse of what our Savior came into this world to do. Jesus successfully resisted the devil’s temptations as our substitute to bring righteousness and salvation to all people. What we see in this text shows us that Jesus’ perfect life in our place brought us eternal life. So what is most important about this text is this: Jesus as the Savior of mankind sinlessly resisted all of the temptations brought to him by the devil to win man’s salvation from sin, Satan and hell.

"Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry." Have you ever been on a diet or tried to lose weight? I think that almost everyone here can relate to those urges and temptations that you get when you are so hungry and the snacks are looking so good. It seems like the food is looking twice as good as normal when you are on a diet. The smells from the refrigerator seem so enticing. Hunger is a very difficult thing to overcome. As our text says, the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness. This was all part of his Father’s plan. Scripture plainly teaches that Jesus had come to do his Father’s will by redeeming sinners. Therefore since it was his Father’s will that he should be tempted by the devil to redeem fallen mankind, Jesus himself willingly went out to fight that battle with the tempter.

But Jesus did not fight that battle by using his divine power, which he possessed. He fought the devil armed only with the full armor of God available to all God’s people, particularly with the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. The humanness with which Jesus entered into this struggle with the devil is brought out by the fact that he fasted and then became hungry as any human would after forty days.

The devil mean’s "slanderer." It is an appropriate name for him who does not hold to the truth and who is the father of lies. In this text the devil recognized Jesus to be God’s Messiah, the One first promised to Adam and Eve. The devil had been victorious over Adam, now he sought to defeat this Second Adam who had come to crush his head and destroy his evil work. He sought to defeat him at the very outset of his redemptive work. By cunning trickery and temptations he attempted to prevent him from doing God’s will. If he were to prevent Jesus from doing God’s will just once, he would have the victory.

So listen to this first temptation. "The temper came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread." It is impossible to determine in what manner or form he approached Jesus. But the purpose of his coming to Jesus is clear: it was to tempt Jesus to avoid suffering and to stop trusting in his heavenly Father. The devil began the temptation as he had done with Eve by questioning and seeking to raise certain suspicions. In this case he questioned Jesus’ being true God and suggested there actually was no reason for him to suffer physical hunger, if he was indeed the Son of God. He did not have to wait for his heavenly Father to provide him with life-giving food. He himself could simply turn those stones into bread. For surely all things were possible for him, if he was in fact God’s Son. The devil posed an insidious temptation. For if Jesus were to answer the dev! il’s challenge to use his divine power to satisfy his hunger, he would not be trusting in his Father’s care. He would have to act contrary to his Father’s will for himself.

As we go through life the devil makes things look so good and enticing. What we need to remember is that the devil is never going come up to us and say, "Hi, I am the devil and I’m going to say some false things, please listen to them." The devil is going to try and try and try to get us to doubt who we are as children of God and lead us to lose track of what is improiant.

Now we see the temptation that the devil brought before Jesus, but how did he resist it? "Jesus answered, "It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’" Jesus made it very clear to the devil and to us that the only way to resist the devil is with God’s Word. That is what Jesus did as he spoke the words that man doesn't live on bread alone. Jesus demonstrated his complete trust in his Father to keep his body and life safe. There was no need for him to use his divine power at the devil’s temptation to avoid suffering the hunger that was his Father’s will for him at that time. His Father would take care of him no matter what was happening around him.

What a great reminder for us. How often do we forget to look our Father when we are being tempted? How often do we forget that our heavenly Father will take care of us. He will provide, even when the devil says that he won’t. Not all the things in the world can satisfy us, if we don’t trust in our Father who provides what we rally need.

But the devil was not done yet, "Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him no stand on the highest point of the temple. "If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down. For it is written: ‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone." The devil took Jesus along to the temple in Jerusalem. From that high place the devil told Jesus to throw himself down. Once again the devil’s temptation began by trying to create doubt. If Jesus was indeed the true Son of God, certainly his Father loved him and would protect him. The tempter’s train of thought was: "You believe your Father will care for you and prolong your life. So throw yourself down," he commanded. "Prove it!" What is terrible about this temptation is how the devil actually uses scripture itself to try and deceive Jesus. He actually used wo! rds from the bible in Psalm 91:11,12! How can the devil be wrong if he used Bible words. He told Jesus that his Father will command his angels to protect you from harm and danger. So throw yourself down! For you have nothing to fear — if you do believe your Father will protect you."

What a perfect teaching tool for believers of all ages. Just because someone uses God’s Word, this doesn’t mean that it is OK to follow. There are people all around the world who are being misled by the devil as he twists and manipulates the Bible to say wrong things. All the devil wants is for people to doubt God or to follow something that sounds like God. All of these things will hurt our faith and lead us further from God.

"Jesus answered him, "It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’" The devil had quoted Scripture to persuade Jesus there was scriptural proof for throwing himself down. But Satan had misapplied the passage. He had torn it out of its context in order to incite Jesus to put his Father’s promised protection to the test. However, our Lord correctly interpreted the misapplied passage with another passage. Once again Jesus used God’s Word to remain firm. He said "Do not put the Lord your God to the test." It is not our job or place to test God. It is not our job to see how powerful God is or what he will do to save me. God wants us to know scripture so well that we are not led astray by the false interpretations of god’s Word. He wants us to dig deeper into his word so that our faith and trust in him is growing stronger each and every day.

Here we go one more time, "Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. "All this I will give you," he said, "if you will bow down and worship me." If Jesus were to worship him, he would give Jesus all those kingdoms with their splendor. Whether or not he would in fact give those kingdoms to Jesus depended upon what Jesus would do next. In a way this temptation was most inviting. This temptation presented a shortcut to his goal as the suffering Savior. He could shortcut his Father’s will and obtain the kingdoms of the world, which he had come for. He could accomplish that goal in Satan’s way without the suffering. All Jesus had to do was worship the devil that one time. But the truth is this. If Jesus had worshipped him he would have come under Satan’s power. Then all the kingdoms would still have been the devils. Instead of receiving the kingdoms as t! he devil had promised, Jesus would have become his slave. Satan’s temptations offer much. But in the end they give nothing like what was promised — only sin, misery and death. Satan is the master of vain hope and empty promises.

As we live in this sinful world, we need to realize how deceitful the devil is. He will stop at nothing to get us to fall away from Jesus. His one goal is to lead us further from God and further from eternal life. This final temptation is one that the devil loves to use. It is one that sounds so good, but is hollow. It is a promise that is mean to be broken. It is a promise that he never intends to keep. If it sounds too good to be true, then it is.

Jesus puts this final temptation to rest by once again focusing on God’s Word. "Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’" Jesus knew and obeyed the First Commandment, which forbids the worship of false gods. Satan was indeed a false god — the chief, ultimate false god. For all the idols of the world are really tools of the devil and for this reason Jesus would not commit such an idolatrous act.

With the sword of the Spirit Jesus deflected the temptation. He said, "For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’ It was God’s command that only he, the true God, be worshipped and served. Once again Jesus demonstrated his faithfulness to his heavenly Father and his willingness to follow his Father’s will. He would not try to skirt his Father’s will to win mankind’s salvation through suffering. The cross lay three years before him. But he would walk the straight path his Father had set before him which led to that cross. For he had come to do his Father’s will.

AS we walk on this earth, we soon realize that it is not going be an easy journey. The devil will be by our side for much of the way. He will use every tool in his arsenal to lead us astray. It is my prayer that we will realize how the Lord came and won the victory over all of these sins by living a perfect life and dying a perfect death. I also pray that each and every one of us will realize that the only way to resist any of the devil’s attacks is to put all of our trust in Jesus to help us. Through his Holy Word he gives us to the strength and ammunition to defeat the devil and all his wicked ways. Amen