Surviving Temptation

Matthew 26:40

I love a good survivor story where the person or persons endure a harrowing ordeal and they live to tell about it. I think of the young man who had to cut off his own arm with a pocket knife in order to survive his hike in the hills. Or the man who survived the attack of a shark off the coast of California. Or what about the couple who survived the blizzard in the mountains of California and after several days he walked out and got help back to his wife and baby. Or what about the person who survived a cancer ordeal. you know what I like about these kinds of stories? They all learned something about themselves, about life and what is truly important. They learned that life can take a tragic turn at any moment. You can be going through life minding your own business and suddenly find yourself in the midst of your own survivor story.

We find ourselves reading about one in our text today. One, that we can also learn some valuable lessons from to enable us to be ready when temptation slams into us. The context is the garden of Gethsemane. It is Jesus and the disciples, which he pares down to just Peter, James and John. Jesus is about to include them in His own survivor story.

Jesus had told them to keep watch. To watch for what? What were they to be doing in their watch? Watch for the betrayer? They were to stay awake that is clear but to what intent? As body guards for Jesus? He needed them not. v.41 adds that He intended them to be in prayer that they wouldn't enter into temptation. That they wouldn't wander into the minefield of temptation without knowing they were in danger.(the Message) That is, that they wouldn't succomb to the temptation of denying/rejecting Him.

Notice that He said, "watch with me" thus indicating that He wished them to do as He was doing. that their watching would mimic His. That they would be able to ward off the temptation to give in as Jesus warded off the temptation to not go to the cross. I twas to be a joint effort.

But the disciples went to sleep.

The word sleep refers to being sound asleep. They weren't dozing, or nodding off. They weren't in the middle haze of being asleep and yet not asleep. They were out cold. They were fullly engulfed in sleep. A bomb could have went off and they wouldn't have heard it.

But remember they had been up all day, maybe longer, they had eaten the passover and were full and now were out in the garden, in the night, quiet, stillness, and they were sitting down and being still. The combination of food, sleep deprivation, and quiet from all the hubub of the day, along with the darkness of night in combination with there sitting down was a prescription for sleep. What would most of us do, no matter our desire to pray or read? We would go into our trance too. I am in no way justifying their going to sleep when Jesus had asked them to watch and pray. But you see how instinctive, how natural it was for them to drop off to sleep.

That is just it. If we are going to survive temptation we have to be willing to do the unnatural.

As Jesus was asking them to do. And we need the power of the Holy Spirit to do the unnatural.

The spiritual side of their physical sleep may be akin to being asleep spiritually. Not really aware of the maginitude of what is about to happen. This may be a metaphor for spiritual dullness, or carelessness due to lack of spiritual acuity. They should have been in tune to the spiritual danger that lurked ahead of them, but they were somewhat unawares. They were about to meet Satan personified and they slept.

Most of them fled at his coming, and Peter denied the Lord 3 x.

Often we are unaware of what spiritual dangers await us, either because of our ignorance or because we haven't been paying attention to what is happening around us or we are in unbelief. This leads to being more concerned about our flesh than our spirit. It leads to being so unaware that we are overtaken by the temptation and swiftly defeated. In other words, our spiritual laziness leads us to be unprepared for the temptation when it comes.

Is it possible that Jesus was trying to teach them a lesson about how easy it is to slip into temptation if we are not diligent?

A couple of lessons Jesus could have been teaching here in a practical way:

1. Surviving temptation takes personal discipline.

You can't expect to stay awake if you have just done everything necessary to put yourself to sleep - have a full belly, go long period without sleep, darkness, quiet, sitting down relaxed, etc.

Why didn't they stand up and move around to watch? It is not like they were trying to be secretive or hide their whereabouts. Judas had no trouble finding them.

And so you cannot hope to overcome temptation if you put yourself into a position where you will be tempted.

Recently, this truth was driven home to me when my wife and I were possibly looking for another car, although we didn't want to go into debt at this time. However, I can't pray asking the Lord to help me not be tempted to buy a car if I keep looking in the paper, or internet for a car. It is better to avoid those sections and to avoid the car lots.

When He teaches them to pray in Matt. 6:13 He tells them to pray and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil . . . The implication is that they would not place themselves purposely into situations of temptation. God won't answer that kind of prayer.

If you are struggling with alcohol, or pornography or gluttony, you have to avoid those places and people, with whom and where you are most apt to be tempted.

Why does Jesus address Peter specifically, but not James or John? It may have been because of Peter's boast to not be like the others and deny Him or leave Him. It could be that because Peter seems to be the leader of the pack that he is addressed. While Jesus speaks directly to Peter, He does speak to James and John as well by using the plural. Or it might be that Peter is the one who woke up and the others remained asleep. I think He spoke to Peter specifically, because of his boast. He would soon be tempted and would fail again. So this was a further warning to be on your toes Peter so that you will be able to deal with the temptation to deny and turn away from Jesus.

If we are to avoid or deal with temptation no one else can do it for us. We have to take responsibility for ourselves and make every effort to obey the Lord's instructions.

"resist the devil and he will flee from you'

'flee youthful lusts'

It is yours and my responsibility to stay alert and awake to the spiritual dangers ahead so that we can successfully deal with them.

However, we are not alone in this. And that is the second lesson I want us to learn from this passage about dealing with temptation.

2. Surviving temptation takes a team effort.

We need each other to help us avoid temptations specific to us. We need someone to shake us awake when we start to nod off. We need someone to talk to us and to talk to in order to stay awake. The same is true with regards to temptation.

Why didn't they help each other to stay awake and pray?

He uses the second person plural verb you when He questions and then instructs them.

The word could -is a word that refers to strength. It refers to power or physical strength, ability,even military power. Peter being the strong one, or at least making that boast might be the reason he is on the end of this discussion.

I think first of all this shows us that in their own strength they did not have the capability to resist temptation to go to sleep. neither are you able to resist temptation in your own strength. We need each other for this.

We see this principle of teamwork when Jesus sent His disciples our 2 x 2 to preach in the villages.

Paul had his Barnabus, and then Silas to encourage and spur each other on in their journeys.

So we need each other too.

Look around you. Someone here is going to give in to some temptation, a jab with the tongue, drunkenness, drugs, gluttony, pornography. Is that person you? Think about this, you may be able to help that person avoid giving in to temptation by being there for them, accountability, or prayer, intervention, etc. It may be you are struggling with some temptation. Seek out someone toask to help hold you accountable on a regular basis.

A third lesson that flows out of this is this:

3. Surviving temptation takes the power of the Holy Spirit.

We need the Holy Spirit to enable/empower us to desire to resist and to actually resist the temptations we face. We need the power of the Holy Spirit in order to stay awake.

Don't miss the contrasts -

Jesus was probably just as exhausted as His disciples were. Maybe more so. He was in the same boat with them. But what makes the difference?

Remember when they were all in the same boat on the Sea of Galilee and a storm came up quickly. Jesus this time was sleeping in the storm and the disciples were awake and frantic. He understood they were in no real danger. They didn't and were also incredulous that Jesus could sleep at such a time when they needed all hands awake.

In this situation the disciples were asleep in the midst of the storm in Jesus soul, and Jesus was awake and praying. He understood the spiritual danger with Satan just over the hill. He was incredulous they were sleeping when they should be awake and praying and watching and that they didn't understand the danger though He had told them on several occassions. Yet it went over their heads. They didn't even flinch.

In both case the disciples had it wrong. They were awake and frantic when they should have been sleeping in the boat incident. They were sleeping when they should have been awake and praying in the second incident, our text.

So, what made the difference?

-- Jesus was filled and anointed by the Holy Spirit for this task - His disciples had not yet been filled or anointed. That didn't come til Pentecost.

--Jesus stayed awake and prayed -- the disciples went to sleep.

--Jesus knew what was ahead of Him - the disciples though they had been told remained oblivious to the danger.

--Jesus was facing His own death -- the disciples were not facing their own death yet.

So another thing that makes a difference is how important or near the issue is to you that you face. I spend time in prayer for people that are in the hospital facing surgery. But if that was me or if that was one of my chilldren or grandchildren my prayer time would most likely go up exponentially as the nearness of the situation to my heart goes up.

Now fast forward in the life of Peter. When Peter was chained between two Roman Soldiers awaiting execution the next morning, he was fast asleep. The angel had to wake him up (Acts 12). What was the difference between the garden and the prison? The presence of the Holy Spirit in his life that helped him to find His rest in God?

How do you get the Holy Spirit?

Ask- When Jesus teaches about prayer, He uses the illustration of a son asking his father for bread or a fish. His father will give him what he asks for. And so will God the Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask.

We are indwelt at salvation (Acts 2). We are to be continuously filled daily to live life (Eph. 5:18). We are to be anointed for special tasks and so when we are facing temptation we are to ask for the help of the Holy Spirit who indwells, fills and anoints us to overcome it.

Thus, we see that to resist temptation is our responsibility, we need to help each other and we need the Holy Spirit. There is one other issue here that will help us to overcome temptation and that is the realization that

4. Surviving temptation takes remembering that Temptation is temporary.

Now one hour- doesn't seem like such a long time.

One hour when you are driving for 16 hours isn't long at all. One hour of a 12 hour work day doesn't seem like alot. Or One hour in a week or a day doesn't seem like alot. What makes the difference is which hour you are talking about? The last hour of the 24 or the 16 hour drive may seem like a long time. The hour before a surgery or seeing the dentist flies by. But One hour when you are waiting on the phone to talk to a computer tech is a long time. The last hour of the work day always drags by. Or take 8 seconds on a bull named 'Fu Manchu' or 30 seconds waiting for your computer to come on line. Now that seems like an eternity. You see it is perspective and placement in the day that makes the difference as to how long 3600 back to back seconds are.

When I was in the Corps, I endured two days of survival training in the jungles of Northern Okinawa. After some serious, in depth training on how to survive in the jungle they dropped our platoon off in an area that had already been ravaged by previous units doing survival training. So there was not much natural food. I tried to cook bamboo shoots, but couldn’t get them soft enough to eat. A buddy of mine and I rigged a net using our t-shirts and went to the stream and caught a minnow. That minnow was the extent of the food we had to eat for the entire ordeal. Thankfully, we knew we were coming out the next day. We knew it was short and we could handle the temporary famine we were enduring.

The point is that temptation when it comes is temporary. If you will refuse it for a long enough time it will go away. O' it will be back, but you will have a respite from it. The disciples wouldn't always struggle with the desire to sleep instead of watch and pray. But the truth is, you don't need to resist temptation if it is not there at the time. The time when you need to resist is at the time of temptation. But we always need to be on guard for it.

Conclusion

Surviving temptation is not an easy task. It takes spiritual discipline, we need each other, we need the power of the Holy Spirit. And if we will remember that temptation is only temporary we can get through it to the other side. Jesus succeeded and the disciples failed. But on the other side of the cross and resurrection, after they were filled with the Holy Spirit, they succeeded.

You can too. Let’s be survivors.