Sermon Tone Analysis

intro me

We’re continuing our journey through the eyewitness story of Jesus’ life found in the gospel of Matthew in the Bible.

Today we have a pretty extraordinary section following hot on the heels of Jesus’ baptism which Pat took us through last week.

At his baptism, we saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on Jesus, and we heard the voice from heaven declaring Jesus to be God’s son who he loves, with whom God is well pleased.

Jesus is empowered and acclaimed by God.

What do you imagine might come next?

The crowds rushing to see who this is that triggers something so epic, eager to listen to every word he says?

Jesus climbing out of the waters and heading straight for Jerusalem, the religious epicentre, or Rome, the seat of world power at the time, to take over?

Well, surprise!

God’s plan is not one we would imagine.

Listen with me to the remarkable story of what happens next.

We’re in Matthew and we’re starting at chapter 4. If you have one of these blue bibles, that’s page 967 and look for the big 4. Matthew chapter 4, page 967, and Cameron is reading for us today.

This is a passage that raises lots of questions, right?

Lots of things to wonder about here, where I’d like to know more - but I want to focus instead on the things that are clear rather than those which aren’t.

Our passage begins with Jesus being led by the Spirit into this.

So it’s absolutely clear this is God’s plan, God’s path for Jesus, not an unfortunate accident or a nasty surprise.

This is no wondering-monster encounter following an unlucky dice-roll, D&D fans.

Right as Jesus begins the main part of his ministry, God’s plan is for him to be tested, to be tempted - the word means both things.

And God is using the devil for this, allowing God’s enemy this opportunity to try and take Jesus out - or worse still, to “turn” him.

We might picture something like a star-wars style conversion to the dark side.

Christians believe this devil is a real, personal, supernatural being.

God’s enemy from the very beginning of the Bible’s story, one whom God, for his own reasons, gives significant power to within this world.

Normally this enemy is working from behind the scenes, in stealth mode, but now and then he’s seen out in the open.

In the garden of Eden, right at the start of the story.

In the book of Job, trying to destroy a man.

Here and there elsewhere, but mostly behind the scenes.

Jesus comes face to face with him.

And even though Jesus is empowered and acclaimed right before this, so you could imagine he might be feeling ready for a fight, it’s no Marvel-style superhero battle, with two ridiculously overpowered foes smashing at one another, destroying everything around them in the process.

Instead, after Jesus voluntarily weakens himself by fasting, the devil just shows up and makes a series of invitations for Jesus to act.

It’s a battle of wills, for the soul.

When I first read this section, I read the temptations in my mind as the devil trying to get Jesus to question his identity - you know, “if you’re really the Son of God, you could do this, or that.

Do you really think you are?” Like the temptation was to disbelieve what God had just said over Jesus, the battle was over whether Jesus would really hold on to that identity or not.

But as I’ve looked closer, that’s not the case.

In English there are lots of different ways of putting words together which carry tone and expectations and the like.

Think about these two:

if it was actually sunny then we’d like Scotland - true, but that doesn’t necessarily tell you anything about the weather here.

if it rains again today, we’re leaving - and yes, it probably will.

bye now.

Greek, the original language of this part of the bible, has ways of doing exactly the same thing, making it clear what you think about your “if”.

This “if you are the Son of God” isn’t saying “if you were really the Son of God...”, doubtful tone.

Instead it’s more like “so, if you’re actually the Son of God, then...”, an assuming tone.

The devil isn’t questioning Jesus’ identity; he’s assuming it, almost agreeing it, and pushing at what Jesus’ identity means, at what he can do, what he should do as a result.

It’s not about whether he is the Son, it’s about what kind of Son he will be.

This first temptation, “tell the stones to become bread”.

What’s the issue here?

There’s no “conservation of bread” style problem where if he makes bread here, there’ll be less bread over there, nicked off someone’s plate.

Jesus can and will make bread - we’ll see him feed 5000 in the wilderness as we stick with the story.

As God the Son, he absolutely has that power.

So why would it be wrong?

Because it is not God’s path, God’s plan, for him to feed himself in the wilderness just now, but for him to humble himself, fasting and hungering, and to wait for God’s provision.

That’s the point of Jesus’ response.

Jesus is quoting words from the old testament, from a moment in Israel’s history that’s like a flashback, an echo of his own time of testing.

Here they are with a tiny bit more context so you can see the thought, the story, he has in mind with his quote - see if you can spot the parallels:

The test is whether Jesus will learn what Israel wouldn’t: life is in obedient submission to God.

What kind of Son will Jesus be?

One who rejects God and his plan?

Or one who trust and obeys?

The second temptation is like it: “You’re the Son - Jump off - God will send his angels to catch you.”

Think about this: Jesus’ life has already been saved by angels - think back to Dustin’s talk a few weeks ago, where an angel directs his nighttime escape.

Jesus knows he can call angels to help him - he’ll tell Peter exactly that in the Garden of Gethsemane in Mt 26:53.

It’s an angel that rolls the stone away from his tomb at the end of the book.

Skydiving with angel backup sounds pretty cool - so what’s the problem?

Jesus responds by quoting words from the old testament again - and if we zoom out just a tiny bit there’s another link to a moment in Israel’s own wilderness testing.

Deut 6:16

What happened at Massah?

I had to look it up but you can read about it in Exodus chapter 17.

Israel find themselves without water and doubt God will provide for them, doubt obeying God’s plan will work out.

Instead they demand He act.

That’s what Jesus’ jumping would be doing.

The test is whether Jesus will trust where Israel doubted.

Life is in trusting obedience.

What kind of Son will Jesus be?

One who rejects God and his plan?

Or one who trusts and obeys?

Third temptation?

spoiler: it’s about obedience to God again - this time, openly.

Satan offers Jesus the world, straight up.

One teeny weeny catch not at all hidden in the small print: he must worship and obey the devil.

Thing is, God has promised the world to Jesus already - Psalm 2:7-8

And it will all be his.

Just not this way.

The test is whether Jesus will obey where Israel rebelled.

What kind of Son will Jesus be?

One who rejects God and his plan?

Or one who trusts and obeys?

That’s the root, the common thread to all three temptations.

And by the end of our passage, we have our answer: Jesus will be the Son who trusts and obeys.

And as we follow his story, we’ll see he trusts and obeys God’s plan all the way to the bitter end of the cross.

That’s cool.

But if you’ve been around Hope City a while, you know we love to ask the big question: so what?

Why does this matter for you and me, here and now?

What are we to take away?

There are lots of threads we could pull on here:

We could talk about the reality that we have an enemy, one who wanted to steal our salvation, turn our saviour away from it.

one who wants to destroy us as individuals, as a church, as God’s people.

One God gives a degree of freedom and power to.

That’s all true so we could think about his methods and our defences.

We could reflect on the fact that Jesus faced temptation, real, actual temptation, not just a sham.

That knowing it first-hand, he empathises with us when we face it.

We could look at the bible’s wider teaching on temptation: it’s limits, our responses.