First Sunday in Lent (2024)
Notes
Transcript
Rethinking Trials and Temptations
GOSPEL – Mark 1:12-15
THEME: Jesus overcomes Satan and rescues people from the devil’s dominion by His Gospel.
GOAL:
That the hearers realize that the decisive battle against Satan has been fought and won.
MALADY:
We are such easy prey for Satan. We think we must overcome on our own.
MEANS
to the goal is the Gospel message itself, which drives Satan out as it brings Jesus in.
“If God loves us, why doesn’t he remove all the trials and tests and temptations that we face?” That question demonstrates the religious assumption that those things are bad. They aren’t. In the hands of a loving God, they are tools by which he refines our faith.
He uses tests as a way to compel us to be less self-reliant, and instead trust in his strength.
He uses trials to teach us that this broken world is not our true home. God even takes Satan’s temptations and uses them for our good.
Trials, tests, and temptations are not exceptions to God’s love. That’s a false assumption! These are examples of God’s love. Proof is that God allowed his beloved Son Jesus to face trials and temptations, so that he might be our perfect savior and substitute.
In this season of Lent, we are Rethinking Religion, because so many people have an opinion about Religion—Christianity—that is not accurate, when compared to what God’s Word—the Bible—tells us. So, we are going to look at the accounts of our Lord to understanding the reality of Christianity.
In today’s installment of rethinking religion we witness a battle as Jesus takes our place in his passion. This week the battleground is temptation.
We know temptation. While we’ve never been asked to sacrifice a child—like Abraham—to see if we trust God and place him first in our hearts, we’ve failed much milder tests.
Living in climate-controlled comfort, clothed and well-fed, the setting for our temptations is more like Eden. There, our first parents chose fruit they didn’t need after all, God had given them everything. Too often the temptations in front of us are misusing or wrongly prioritizing God’s blessings.
Enter the One who fought for us in our place. Today’s Gospel shows him battling Satan’s temptations in a much bleaker setting. But he won. Then he calls us to turn to him in repentance.
Our Second Reading from Romans, Paul applies Jesus’ victory over Satan’s temptations to us. No matter the challenge, no matter the temptation God is with us, and we have the victory.
Therefore today, we celebrate the “Mighty Fortress” we have even in the darkest trials. Jesus has overcome Satan and all his temptations in the battle for us. And so, as we Rethink Trials and Temptations we do so in the full knowledge that TO THE VICTOR BELONGS THE SPOILS
Jesus is the Victor
Jesus is the Victor
12 Immediately the Spirit impelled Him to go out into the wilderness. 13 And He was in the wilderness forty days being tempted by Satan; and He was with the wild beasts, and the angels were ministering to Him.
We sinners are not and never will be without Him. He has promised.
In our own experience.
When we are tempted, we play around with sin for a while instead of offering immediate resistance.
Soon we find ourselves taking short cuts around God’s will. We do not do what we want (Rom.7:15-20).
Yesterday I found myself in this situation. I knew better, and yet there I was doing what I did not want to do.— This happens to all of us, which is our collective experience.
We are never without our Lord Jesus!
In the struggle between Satan and God.
The stakes are much higher than a few moral or immoral acts. Satan wants us. He is the enemy.
Lurking behind every temptation is the temptation to unbelief — Satan wants us to doubt —
He wants us to doubt that maybe Jesus hasn’t really taken care of all sin,
Or, Jesus has done His part, but we have failed to do our part. And, if we fail, then maybe Jesus isn’t who we thought He was.
This is a lie from the pit of hell. This is a seed of doubt that the devil plants in our head and heart. And when doubt rises it drives us to not believe. And when we do not believe, Satan has us.
Repent, and believe in the Gospel! — Repent means to confess your sin and hear our Lord’s announcement, “If you confess your sin, I will forgive you your sin and cleanse you from all unrighteousness.”
Jesus was the Victor from the very beginning of His ministry.
You see, in Christ, God took the initiative to confront Satan Mark 1:11-12
Mark 1:11–12 (NASB95)
11 and a voice came out of the heavens: “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.” 12 Immediately the Spirit impelled [that is, drove] Him to go out into the wilderness.
And Jesus withstood being tempted (v. 13).
To disobey the will of God (Mark 8:11; 10:2; 12:15).
To take a less costly way (cf. Mark 8:32–33 “And He was stating the matter plainly. And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. But turning around and seeing His disciples, He rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind Me, Satan; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.”
Mark 14:32-42 (in the Garden of Gethsemane).
The way He took led to the cross Mark 10:45 “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
Christ Jesus put Satan in his place. From Mark 1:13 [wild beasts and angels] on, Jesus was clearly in charge of every encounter He had with the demonic, just as He had the last word over His own death (Mark 16:6-7).
Like the college president who grabs faculty attention by firing two staff people in his first month, Jesus let Satan know right away that He was in charge. But He exercises His subsequent rule by His work of grace.
He claims His spoils
He claims His spoils
14 Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
He preaches the Gospel (v.14).
The Gospel is synonymous with Christ Himself (Mark 8:35; 10:29; 14:9), just as Christ was the focus of John’s preaching (Mark 1:7).
In the Gospel, Christ brings His Satan-defeating power to people. The preached-Gospel is the “one little word’’ that can fell the devil.
His message
Mark 1:15 “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
The kairos is fulfilled. After the era of Messianic expectation, He is finally on the scene to bind Satan.
The kingdom of God is near-because Jesus and the Gospel are near. He snatches us away from Satan’s rule (Large Catechism III 51-56; also LC II 27,31).
Repent and believe the Gospel—That is constantly, for turning from sin to forgiveness, which is the heartbeat of an ongoing relationship with Jesus:
31 What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
People are easily led. Walk into a room full of strangers and announce that you are in charge—it’s amazing how far you can get. But Jesus, the Victor, is truly in charge, as opposed to Satan and all human thought. His Gospel is not an empty claim. It extends His work to us and makes us His. To the Victor belongs the spoils!
In the Name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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During this Lenten season you will find a basket at the foot of the lenten cross behind me, which is there for your use. If there is a particular sin that is besetting you, know that it was nailed to the cross with Christ. You may find it helpful to write down that sin on those slips of paper, then place it in the basket at the foot of the cross, to remind yourself that it was nailed to the cross with Christ. Then walk away in the full knowledge that Jesus has taken care of that sin too.