Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

[0] Introduce me.

Twins 16 today, driving just around the corner.

A little terrifying.

Growing empathy for my dad who taught me.

Understand now, grabbing the wheel - though at the time I was hurt that he didn’t trust me!

[1] Exploring these ideas: trust / grabbing the wheel; Continuing our walk through Luke’s biography of Jesus.

Jesus passes the test all others failed: perfect trusting obedience

Context

Context: baptism; genealogy; the main phase of his ministry about to begin.

Led by the Spirit (this is God’s plan) [2:30]

Reading

A stretching story

Is it a real test?

The devil certainly seems to think there’s a possibility of Jesus failing.

[4] Need to be upfront this is a stretching story.

(Luke’s beginning full of these.)

A mano-a-mano confrontation with the Enemy himself.

Unusual in the Bible to find the Enemy out of the shadows.

Not going to focus on him, much as he would like that.

Dangers of too much/too little attention (more likely).

But there are more important things to learn here from Jesus and these tests.

Three tests, one root

Is it a real test?

The devil certainly seems to think there’s a possibility of Jesus failing.

[5:30] Three different tests.

What’s being tested?

Three different focuses on the surface: Provision.

Power.

Control.

Common root: trust; Grabbing the wheel vs trusting God.

But let’s take a look at these three tests and three responses a little more closely before we zoom out.

What are the tests?

Common root: trust; Grabbing the wheel vs trusting God.

Putting yourself at the centre of the story rather than playing your part in telling God’s story.

[6:30] Grab the wheel or trust God?

First test is about bread on the surface.

About food - and remember Jesus is hungry.

Is this just a diet question, you know, is Jesus on some low-carb diet and bread is out?

Or is there something fundamentally wrong with supernatural food creation?

Conservation of bread?

Later on Jesus will get up to this sort of thing, feeding the five thousand and the like.

[6:30] Grab the wheel or trust God?

First test looks just to be about bread on the surface.

About food - and remember Jesus is hungry.

Is this just a diet question, you know, is Jesus on some low-carb diet and bread is out?

Or is there something fundamentally wrong with supernatural food creation?

Conservation of bread?

But later on Jesus will get up to exactly this sort of thing, feeding the five thousand and the like.

So why is this called “temptation”?

What’s the temptation?

Why would a little stone-to-bread action be wrong?

Jesus’ answer shows us - but we’ll have to dig a bit.

“it is written ‘man shall not live on bread alone’” he says.

So we need water to live on too?

No.

We need to see he’s not just plucking some words out of the air here.

“it is written,” Jesus says; that’s a standard phrase people would use when quoting from the Old Testament, the first half of the bible.

Jesus is quoting the bible - and he’s picked a very particular section of the bible.

Here it is:

He doesn’t just pluck some words out of the air here, “it is written,” Jesus says; Jesus is quoting from the Old Testament, the first half of the bible.

And he’s picked a very particular section of the bible to quote from.

Here it is:

Man does not live on bread alone.

What’s Jesus’ point?

Well, this passage comes towards the end of the long story of God’s people’s wanderings in the wilderness after they were brought out of Egypt through those ten famous plagues, walking on dry land through the sea.

They spent forty years in the wilderness and here God explains why: He was trying to teach them something - something they struggled to learn, but something Jesus already knows: life, real life, comes through trusting and obeying God, through seeking Him and following Him.

It’s not simply a matter of food.

Yes, Jesus could have “grabbed the wheel”, turned that stone into bread right there, and no longer been hungry.

But there are far bigger things at stake than just hunger here.

The temptation is to take matters into his own hands.

The trial is to trust God and follow His path - even though it leads through difficulty.

To trust that God is going to look after us in the midst of that, that it will be right, ultimately good, even, to have walked in his way.

In this case, the difficulty Jesus has to walk through is hunger but there’s far bigger things ahead.

Is he going to obey, to trust God and walk God’s harder path, believe it’s right and best, or “grab the wheel”?

[9:30] What about the second temptation?

The devil shows Jesus all the kingdoms of the world.

And then,

What’s the temptation here?

Simply power or riches?

On the surface, yes: it’s the authority over, and splendour of, all the kingdoms of the world that Jesus is being offered.

But that’s not the whole story again.

where he’s quoting from very carefully.

, and he doesn’t jTemptation is to think “life”, satisfaction, for “life” somewhere other than God, anywhere other than God.

Life, real life, truly living, isn’t simply a matter of food, Jesus says.

In Matthew’s telling of this encounter Jesus extends his answer

Jesus: no shortcuts; true life is more than just provision; it only comes from obeying God (quote continuation)

· Grab the wheel or trust God’s provision?

Jesus: no shortcuts; true life is more than just provision; it only comes from obeying God (quote continuation)

You see, Jesus already has this sort of power and authority, this sort of splendour and greatness ahead of him, promised to him.

speaks about Jesus and there he’s told by God, “Ask me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession.”

looks ahead and foretells Jesus would be given authority, glory and sovereign power; an everlasting dominion, a kingdom that will never be destroyed.

and I will make the nations your inheritance,

So it’s not question of whether Jesus will get this power and splendour, it’s a question of when and how.

And again, the temptation is for Jesus to take matters into his own hands, to “grab the wheel” and take it all here and now.

And the trial is to trust God and follow His path to that destination, even though it leads through difficulty.

To trust that it will be right, ultimately good, even, to have walked there God’s way.

the ends of the earth your possession.

[11:30] And the final temptation?

Well this one’s really sneaky.