LUKE 4:1-13

Lent 1, 2024

+In the Name of Jesus+

Opening Prayer: 0 Jesus, faithful Savior, who once fought a difficult and hard battle on our behalf, we now consider that battle from your precious Word.    Let it be, we pray, to the salvation of our souls and let your believers among us be mightily strengthened by it in their faith.    0 Dear Lord, you alone know those among us who still lie in the power of darkness.    We pray, make the dead alive, make the despondent happy, give the faint courage and zeal, and conquer today among us through your holy Word.      A-men.

 

Precious redeemed, what do you do when you are tempted?     A popular question among the Reformed and Evangelicals asks, “What would Jesus do?”   The premise suggests that if we ask ourselves this question in the hour of temptation, we will think of the choices Jesus would make and in turn make the right choices.   Let’s test that for a moment.

 

• What do you do when that arrow of sexual lust strikes your heart?  Do you just turn your eyes away?
• What do you do when that moment of hatred or revenge burns a hole in your stomach?   Do you just utter, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do?”
• What do you do when you are tempted to give in to that little lie to protect your self-interest and reputation?   Do you always tell the truth in every situation?

 

A moment ago, we read the account of the Fall into sin.   We see the tragedy of the Fall played out with each death, with each temptation, with every disease and sickness.   Many today deny the existence of the devil.

Please understand this, if one denies the existence of the devil, you must also deny the fall of man into sin, original sin, therefore also the atonement, Christ, your baptism, yes, the whole Gospel.

But Satan is real, and so are his evil ways and hellish temptations.     In our lesson we observe Satan using these evil ways and hellish temptations against God’s own Son.    This lesson remains for our comfort and encouragement in the midst of our temptations and even more importantly in the midst of the axiom, “All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.”   Under the guidance of the Gospel text, let’s center our thoughts on:

 

In Christ, the sinner is already a conqueror over temptation and sin.

Our lesson begins: “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness.”    For our comfort, we note that Christ’s battle was not something accidental.   The heavenly Father Himself arranged this confrontation between the Lamb of God and the prince of darkness.    All this happened according to God’s eternal, gracious counsel.

Jesus was willing to undertake this battle.     If Christ had not wanted to do battle on our behalf with Satan, Satan would not have been permitted to appear before Him, let alone tempt and assail Him.    Our comfort in this battle remains that God is totally in control.

 

In the Old Testament, we find a beautiful prototype of this battle of Christ.    Under the rule of King Saul, the army of Israel stood opposite the army of the Philistines.    The battle about to begin, a giant of a man stepped out, ridiculed the people of God, and made the proposal that he was ready to engage any Israelite soldier one-on-one.    Frightened and intimidated by this giant everyone fell back, anxiously awaiting the final outcome.     For 40 days the giant repeated his challenge – but no one volunteered for this dangerous fight.

A shepherd boy, not a trained, seasoned soldier, but a shepherd boy perhaps the age of 15, finally came forward.     This young shepherd boy said, “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?     Let no man’s heart fail because of him; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.”    This young shepherd boy, David, went out to this giant Goliath and said:

You come to me with a sword and a spear and with a javelin; but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, whom you have defiled.   This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand… that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.”

We all know the outcome of this story from our Sunday School instruction, how young David slung a stone at the giant’s forehead, and how Goliath fell bleeding to the ground.    With this one victory all of Israel was at once and immediately rescued and the Israelites slew the fleeing enemy.

Dear precious souls of Christ, if we want to understand the battle that took place between Christ and Satan in the wilderness properly, we must imagine the whole human race gathered in the wilderness on the one side, and on the other, the whole army of the spirits of hell, with the devil, the giant or Goliath of hell at its head.

We must imagine that Satan challenged the human race to a duel; but there was no one who dared to attempt the frightening struggle for us.     All sinners must quake and flee in fear before his strength; they could expect nothing except to be and remain the eternal slaves and bond servants of Satan.    But suddenly, the Son of God comes forward, the real David of Bethlehem, like a shepherd boy ready to do battle.

Nothing less than the eternal freedom of all men was at stake at the temptation of Jesus — whether we should remain Satan’s subjects and inherit hell or again become citizens of the heavenly kingdom and God’s children.    Everything we lost in the fall in Paradise — Christ won for us again in the wilderness.

 

• Man ate of the forbidden tree; for that Christ hungered 40 days and 40 nights.
• Man wanted to be like God!    For that the Son of God endured Satan skeptically and mockingly calling to Him: “If you are the Son of God!”
• In the Garden of Eden the serpent said to man: “Did God really say?” and misled man by twisting God’s Word.

Here Satan tries to do that to Christ, but Jesus stood fast and said in the face of each temptation without wavering: “It is written.”   In the garden of Eden, the serpent seduced man to pride and presumption by alluringly saying to him: “When you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”     Here Satan tempts Christ to pride when he said: “All these I will give You, if You will fall down and worship me.”    Adam and Eve crumbled before the trickery and temptation of Satan, but Christ triumphed!   Satan left utterly defeated, and the angels came and ministered to Him.

 

This lesson is not here merely to suggest the question, “What would Jesus do?”    This text reveals to sinners like us what our Savior has done.   This lesson stands as God’s proof that Satan has already been defeated in Christ.     It remains one of the most beautiful gospel gems of the Bible.     If you want an eternal blessing from this battle of your Savior nothing more is asked of you and of all humanity than you act as believing spectators.

Unfortunately, this lesson has been misapplied and abused supposedly to show people how to fight against Satan, “Just do what Jesus did!”    It might surprise you to hear me say this.       It is utterly misapplied when it is used as a sanctification text: “Follow these steps, and you too may defeat. the devil.”

The first, the most necessary, the most important is that you learn to believe that Jesus Christ, God’s Son fought for you, in your place, for your freedom and salvation.    And He won victoriously!  Again I will repeat, it is not “What would Jesus do?”   The temptation of Jesus shows us what Jesus has done for all sinners.

 

Oh, dear precious soul, no matter how deeply you have fallen, even if you have asked the favor of Satan; God invites you to hide behind the Good Shepherd.   With Christ you are a conqueror over sin and hell and temptation, and so Christ will share with you the booty of His battle — the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation and the eternal mansions of heaven.

Those of you who still serve sin joyfully, who despise the victory of your heavenly King and willfully remain with the infamous, defeated enemy, God bids that you leave the army of the Philistines.    Their fate is not merely slaughter but hell-fire.   Come to the believing Israel under the Shepherd’s staff of the true David, the Cross, where victory, life, and salvation remain.

You who do not wish to remain in sin, yet remain timid and ashamed of your poor battle against sin and fear to come to the Good Shepherd, do you not see the hellish giant lying on the battlefield in a pool of blood — slain by the Almighty stone-throw of the Good Shepherd in the cross?

On the Cross, Jesus cut off the head of Satan.   Of what are you now afraid?    Jesus invites you to place your self–your body and soul under the banner of His cross.    No matter how weak you are, you will be standing on the side of the conquerors.

I began this sermon with the question, “What do you do when you are tempted.”    If you were expecting specific directions, or a 12-step plan to defeat Satan’s temptations in your life, this sermon may have left you flat and very disappointed.

I direct you, not to yourself and your feeble efforts, but to Jesus Christ and Him Crucified, and the battlefield of the wilderness where our victory over all temptation was secured for all eternity.   Because of the victory there we can say with St. Paul, “But thanks be to God who continues to give us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”   Go in peace.   A-men.

               Soli Deo Gloria