How to Fight Temptation Part 1
Notes
Transcript
For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.
For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.
Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,
and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”
How To Fight Temptation Part 1
How To Fight Temptation Part 1
As we head a little closer to Holy Week, with Palm Sunday next week and Easter in two weeks, it was in God’s timing that we find ourselves in Luke 4. Now, it seems that we would study from the end of Luke as we head into these important dates on the church calendar, but I think we will find that these passages in Luke 4, that mark the beginning of the earthly ministry of Jesus are wonderful reminders that become all the richer for their correlation to those events near the end of his earthly ministry, namely the Passion week.
Lord willing, today and next Sunday, we will be examining the temptation of Jesus as told by Luke in 4:1-13. Then for Easter Sunday we will find ourselves looking at how Jesus began to reveal himself to the Jews, and this began with that wonderful proclamation that the prophesy of Isaiah was fulfilled in the hearing of those he spoke to in the synagogue, and the aftermath of that, which was the first recorded attempt to take the life of Jesus by an outraged crowd, who could not accept what Jesus said about who was helped by the prophets Elijah and Elisha.
This morning we are going to focus on Jesus being led by the Spirit into the wilderness, his fast, and his temptation to turn the stones into bread. We will read the whole temptation account, though, so we can have the context and also to see where we are headed next Sunday.
Our big Idea this morning will be:
We need the Spirit and the Word to fight temptations
Deprivation can increase temptation
Memorization can help application
God’s commission requires submission.
And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness
for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry.
The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.”
And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’ ”
And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time,
and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will.
If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.”
And Jesus answered him, “It is written, “ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.’ ”
And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here,
for it is written, “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,’
and “ ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’ ”
And Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ”
And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.
Let’s begin with verse 1: Luk4.1
And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness
Jesus, full of the Spirit. As we discussed in the baptism account, Jesus was always filled with the Spirit;
how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.
Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit always. Now Luke records that he returned from the Jordan. So even though we had the family tree of Jesus in between, Luke is continuing the narrative from the baptism of Jesus. The impression we get, then, is that the desert account happened right after the baptism account. The wording in the original language gives us a sense of immediacy. That is to say there was no significant time between these two events.
So Jesus was baptized by John and then immediately he returned from the Jordan where he was baptized and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness. He was there...
for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry.
Forty days in scripture is a recurring theme. The flood lasted 40 days: Gen7.4
For in seven days I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.”
Moses was on the mountain forty days:
Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain.
The glory of the Lord dwelt on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. And on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud.
Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel.
Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
When Elijah was fleeing Jezebel he was miraculously fed for forty days:
But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he asked that he might die, saying, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”
And he lay down and slept under a broom tree. And behold, an angel touched him and said to him, “Arise and eat.”
And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. And he ate and drank and lay down again.
And the angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said, “Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.”
And he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God.
And when Jonah finally preached in Ninevah, his warning was that Nineveh had 40 days until destruction, which was prevented by their repentance.
Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”
So we see this theme of forty days often. And we can see something in each of these I mentioned that can in some way be considered alongside the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness. During the 40 days of rain, Noah and his family were preserved from destruction, protected by the God who by His Spirit sealed the door of the ark. Noah’s faith and obedience to God was his salvation, just as Jesus’ faith and obedience to God got him through the 40 day fast.
Moses spent 40 days on the mountain communing with God and learning his moral law. Jesus spent 40 days being tempted, but with the Spirit to lead Him.
Elijah spent 40 days being sustained and strengthened by the provision of cake and water.
Nineveh had 40 days to respond to Jonah’s warning, and Jesus had 40 days to fight the same temptations that had caused Nineveh to be subject to the wrath of God.
During these 40 days, Jesus ate nothing. He was fasting, and this is an extreme fast. John Calvin warned that Christians ought not to try and do a similar fast for 40 days, for they are not Christ, and not filled in the same measure with the spirit. We don’t have the fortitude of Jesus. We don’t have the prayer life of Jesus. Nor can we expect to be sustained in the same way as Jesus was, since his was a unique situation. You may recall that I have used the following words before that we should consider when we read a passage like this. Is it descriptive or prescriptive? Descriptive is simply telling us what happened. There should be something we learn from and are edified by in every passage of scripture, but that is not the same as saying that the thing being presented is somehow a rule for believers. Some narratives in scripture are simply descriptive, telling us what happened. Others are prescriptive and give us a direct application.
Prescriptive means it is intended that the believer follow it. Just as the doctor expects you to follow his prescription, some passages of scripture point us to a rule to follow or a statute to obey. But this passage is not prescriptive. Luke is not teaching that we should make 40 day fasts a part of our religious life. For one thing, most of us would not survive it. It may be a great weight loss plan, but all of your organs and your brain itself would be failing or near failure if you were to try this.
Neither are we to take a sort of “Word of Faith” approach, and say, yes, I understand that the human body cannot take this sort of abuse, but yet I will do it to prove my faith or allegiance in Christ! No, I think I agree with Calvin that to do this would be to make a mockery of Christ’s fast by attempting to somehow complete the same.
Calvin was especially concerned with those who considered such extreme fasts and other acts of penance to have some sort of saving grace attached to them or that one who fasts achieves some sort of extra merit. Salvation is in faith alone, not in the keeping of Sabbaths or fasts or anything like this:
Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.
These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.
now, this is not to say that no one should ever fast. Perhaps there may be a time that you feel it helpful to undergo some type of fast to focus on prayer and bible reading and spiritual growth. But be careful with this. It is very easy to convince ourselves that somehow the fast itself is the most important thing, rather than the prayer and meditation on God’s Word.
So the fast of Jesus for forty days here is descriptive, not prescriptive. However, what Luke says next is sort of obvious. He ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. Well, of course he was hungry, but was he really hungry? One may ask whether Jesus felt hunger in the same way as we did, since He was God and we are not. Did he somehow have a lighter sentence of hunger than the average human would have after not having eaten for forty days?
Well, I think scripture makes clear to us that Jesus suffered all of the difficult issues of the human condition, including hunger. In Hebrews, the author is making a strong point about Jesus being sufficient for us, as a superior being to Moses, as one who fulfills the law, one who helps us in weakness, and one who sympathizes with us in our weakness. Why? Because he suffered as he was tempted, and he was tempted as we are, yet without sin. If He was tempted as we are, then his hunger certainly was just a painful as it would have been for any other human.
For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
Jesus had real hunger. At other times he had real thirst. John4.6-7
Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.
A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.”
On the cross, our Lord was thirsty: John19.28
After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.”
Jesus had real hunger and felt it, and for some of us who get a bit crabby after just 6 hours of not eating, we must realize that Jesus’ hunger was downright painful. He would have felt it with a ferociousness. He may have been weakened to the point of stumbling. He may has gotten dizzy. His hunger was not a sin. He had a real need for food, and this text tells us that this was now at the end of those days, and he was hungry. If it was the end of those days, I am assuming that he was free to end his fast.
It may be noted, then, that these temptations took place at the end, after Jesus was weakened by the fasting. Temptation often increases when we are hungry, angry, lonely, or tired. For some people struggling with a sin, they are given this acronym, HALT. Hungry, angry, lonely, tired. When we are hungry, angry, lonely, or tired, what do we want? comfort. to be snuggled perhaps. but when it comes to sin, we need to struggle against it, not snuggle up to it.
HALT: We are tempted more when we are:
Hungry
Angry
Lonely
Tired
He was hungry, that is quite the understatement by Luke. And now comes the devil with the temptation. Again, let us be careful to not make this a sort of prescriptive thing. People often associate all the temptations they have to the Devil. “The Devil made me do it”, they say. You may feel like the devil has personally assaulted you or personally tempted you. I hate to tell you, you probably are not that special as to warrant the personal attention of the devil. The reason I know this is because unlike God, the devil is not omnipotent, that means all-powerful, nor is he omniscient, that means present everywhere. God is everywhere at all times, seeing every act of every human being simultaneously. And God has power to carry out his will in the case of every human and every human action.
But the devil does not have this power. So if the devil cannot be present in more than one place at a time, what are the chances he is spending every waking minute tempting you? No, this is not what is happening. It was the case with Jesus, and we can certainly understand that. Satan would have loved to tempt Jesus, to trip him up, to cause his mission of salvation to fail. But I doubt that any of us are so important to the devil that he is personally spending all his time with us personally. Perhaps his minions are somehow involved, and we know that we are constantly in spiritual warfare, but the devil likely does not give you and I personal attention.
Perhaps the demons tempt us. But they don’t need to. We are quite capable of tempting ourselves. Our desires are temptation enough to get us into trouble. So the devil does not even need to give us his personal attention for us to get ourselves into trouble. I refer again to Calvin, who reminds us that not all temptation come from Satan; often it comes from our own lower nature. This is confirmed by Scripture: James1.14-15
But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.
Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.
So really, the devil doesn’t need to tempt us. We are lured and enticed by our own desires. Even though our own desires bring the majority of our temptations, Jesus did have an advantage in this respect. He was full of the Holy Spirit. A fullness, or a full measure of the Spirit. He was perfect and his own desires were always to do the Father’s will. Yet somehow, in his pride, the devil thought he would be able to tempt Jesus into sin.
We need the Spirit and the Word to fight temptations
Deprivation can increase temptation
Memorization can help application
God’s commission requires submission.
We see the deprivation of Jesus. In this case, 40 days without food. This can increase temptation. The temptation is real, the hunger was real. In a sense, then, Jesus was truly tempted. But in another sense, he was never in danger. And that was because Jesus modeled for us submission. He was fully God, and yet humbled himself to be a servant. His desire was to always come under compliance to the Father’s will. “Not my will, but yours”
We are all called to various positions in life where we are called to submit. We are called to submit to governing authorities:
Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.
Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.
This includes civil authorities in the government, authorities over us in certain work environments, authority over us in the church as well. All people in the church are to be submitted and subject to the order of authority God gave to his church.
Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.
The world will push back on these ideas. Anarchy is practically built into our society. You can’t tell me what to do! You can’t tell me what I am! You can’t tell me to submit! And here is one that causes great controversy:
For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged,
and the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets.
For God is not a God of confusion but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints,
the women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the Law also says.
If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.
Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness.
I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.
This is a very unpopular idea, and many churches have decided this part of scripture is not the inerrant word of God, but that it must be in error. Why is it so unpopular? Many reasons, and that could be its own sermon. But I have a couple suggestions. First off, part of the consequences of the curse on the earth due to the sin of our first parents is that God told Eve, Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, and he shall rule over you. Many theologians take this to mean that the desire of women will be to take the place of authority that God has given to men. Again, I am completely aware of how unpopular saying this is. I’m aware that some people listening right now might have your neck burning in anger at the scriptures I just read.
In fact, in many churches they will never ever read those passages of scripture, and many, if they do read them, attempt to explain them away so as not to offend those who do not want to hear it. Those who would either ignore uncomfortable passages of scripture or who would try to explain them away do so to their own shame.
But they are scriptures. I did not put them in the bible. God gives us each certain roles. No one is less important or valuable than another, but we are given different roles in his design.
Now, men are often accused of using these passages in a wrong way. Some men have twisted these passages for their own sick control games. However, God did give roles to men and women, so how can a woman possibly accept this, and submit to the plan of God, when her desire is to have the position of leadership that God has not prescribed? She can learn from the example of Christ. How can men learn to submit to their bosses, or the church leadership, or the laws that the government has put into place? By learning from the example of Christ. How can children learn to submit to their parents, as scripture commands? By learning from the example of Christ.
So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy,
complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.
Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
He did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself. Jesus gave up his own will in order to demonstrate to us the humility we should have, and the willingness we should have to submit to the roles that God has given to each of us. We must submit to the government and our leaders. We must submit to the leadership in the church. I have leadership over me, our church has an elder board, and the church needs to submit to that leadership.
Scripture also tell us that wives are to submit to their husbands. Now, in all of these ideas of submission, may I strongly say this: In cases of abuse, whether physical or emotional abuse, no one should submit to being treated like a punching bag or allow constant emotional mistreatment. Submission to leadership, whether in the home or the church or at work, comes with the high responsibility of those in leadership to serve well, in keeping with God’s good Word and His guidance in human relationships.
To the wife, scripture says submit to the husband, but to the husband, he says love her like I love the church. I have asked women this before, if your husband perfectly modeled Christ-likeness, would submission really be a problem? Not for a believing wife. For an unbelieving wife, no matter how good the husband is, she will never completely and joyfully or cheerfully submit because she can’t. But for a believing wife, she can at least have the desire to, because she can look to Christ as he example and choose to honor Jesus in her marriage. All of us fall short in joyful submission to some extent or to different degrees. The husband has not only the responsibility to lead and care for his family, he also must model Christ.
And in the church, leaders are not to lord over others, but to serve them as Christ would. Sometimes that means correcting people in a spirit of gentleness, sometimes it means using the keys of the kingdom, that is, church discipline, in order to biblically restore, if possible, the backslidden.
We need the Spirit and the Word to fight temptations
Deprivation can increase temptation
Memorization can help application
God’s commission requires submission.
Why have I spent so much time speaking of submission? Because it is one of the keys to understanding how Jesus fought these temptations. He was completely submitted to the will of the Father, so he would only do what the Father willed. So when the devil said Luke4.3
The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.”
Remember what happened right before this. At the Baptism of Jesus, the Father spoke to him. Luk3.22
and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
Now the devil says if you are the Son of God. The devil likes to question what God has said. “Did God really say?”. Would Jesus have been wrong to use his creative power to make bread from Rocks? Later he would multiply bread and fish, what could be so wrong to do this for his own legitimate need? Answer: It wasn’t in the Father’s will, or he would have. He had the absolute sense of self that was committed fully to the will of God.
And now he quotes from Deuteronomy. Luke4.4
And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’ ”
Here we must let scripture interpret scripture. So what was Jesus really saying here? What was He quoting from Deuteronomy? He was quoting from a passage where Moses is reminding the people about God’s guidance and provision and protection in the wilderness.
And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
The Bible Knowledge Commentary said “If it was not God’s will for them to live they certainly would have died; therefore they did not live by bread alone” In other words, even if bread were your only food, you would only have it if it were God’s will.
So Jesus knew scripture and he was full of the Spirit, and he was submitted to the Father.
We need the Spirit and the Word to fight temptations
Deprivation can increase temptation
Memorization can help application
God’s commission requires submission.
After our service, we are going to have a wonderful meal together. As we do, let us keep in mind our church vision statement, which is Deuteronomy6.4-9
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.
You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.
You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.
You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
So during our lunch today, let us discuss what we are learning together. Things from D6, from the bible studies, from the sermons. As you eat together, do not let the opportunity slip by to have a discussion about these things.
We need the Spirit and the Word to fight temptations: Ask each other this: How will you be endeavoring to better rely on the Spirit and the Word when it comes to fighting temptations?
Deprivation can increase temptation: Discuss how hunger, anger, loneliness, and being tired make it more difficult for you to fight against temptation.
Memorization can help application: Share a story of how the Lord brought his Word to your mind and used it to bring you out of a difficult time
God’s commission requires submission. Confess to one another areas where you struggle with submission to proper authority and how you can re-frame your mindset to have one like Christ’s as found in Philippians 2.