Withstanding Temptation

Introduction

As most of you know, we went through a very difficult time in 2018. I found that time very confronting, much like the wilderness Jesus went into in the Bible passage. There was a lot of conflict from within our previous church. When that sort of thing happens, it’s very natural to question God. After all, these are God’s people who are being so hurtful. I was tempted to blame God for being ineffectual at transforming his people properly, or failing to protect them from the temptation to hurt one another in various ways. But, of course, God is not the sort of God who forces people to obey him. He pleads for us to return to him. He strives to win us over. He comes to us and he dies for us, but he doesn’t control or manipulate us. It was this knowledge, which I had built up from God’s word over the years, that encouraged me to keep trusting in God and not to doubt his goodness.

Later, when we were looking at starting up Renew, it seemed like the team of pastors I had so enjoyed being a part of was falling to pieces. God seemed to be actively involved in this, unlike the previous troubles, and I was tempted to doubt God’s good plans for me and what became Renew. Fortunately, I knew, from God’s word, that he works all things together for the good of those who love him,

Romans 8:28 ESV

28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

and so I clung to him and trusted him to work things out. And he did!

This wilderness experience taught me again how faithful God is, and how wise his ways are. It gave me the confidence and strength to serve Renew without reservation.

But many times it is harder than this, and we need to really dig deep. How did Jesus manage this when he was tempted? Let’s look at that now.

The wilderness

To understand these three temptations, we need to be aware of their context. Remember that Jesus went out from his baptism into the wilderness east of Jerusalem, between it and the Jordan River, which looks like this. This wilderness had, over the years, come to represent, in Jewish thought, that wilderness of God’s absence, such as the disorder of Genesis 1:2 before God began ordering creation, or the chaos of the ocean, or the chaos of pagan nations living in rebellion against God. And this sort of wilderness had come to represent God’s power, because the inevitable progression of any story about God and wilderness involved God bringing order to the formless void. The emptiness of the wilderness had even been internalised in Jesus’ body by his refraining from eating. Even his body is empty and desolate.

The temptations

The first temptation

So at the end of forty days of eating nothing and being tempted by the devil, Luke says Jesus “was hungry.” Considering that most of us struggle to manage a forty hour fast, I think we can all agree that Luke is the master of understatement here. Jesus must have been weak with hunger, ravenous to the point of almost not caring.

And it was then that the devil struck. The devil, by the way, is a real entity. He plays an active role in opposing Jesus’ kingdom, and he is still at work opposing our part in Jesus’ kingdom. The devil’s first temptation offered Jesus a way to deal with that consuming hunger: to use his Messianic power to feed himself. There is no doubt that Jesus had the capacity at any time to turn a stone into bread. Later in his ministry he turned a few small loaves into hundreds. So, how is this tempting Jesus?

In response Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 8:3, which recounts God’s faithful care of the Israelites in their trek through the wilderness. The people of Israel had constantly tried to take matters into their own hands, justifying it by their complaints about God’s provisions. Given Jesus’ response, it seems clear that Satan was tempting Jesus to take control of his own situation, instead of trusting in God’s provision. Jesus’ obedience here demonstrates his goodness, in contrast to our constant rebellion, which he can then gift to us.

This sort of temptation, to take control, is particularly powerful when we are going through a “wilderness”—a time of need and struggle. Perhaps we’re lonely, or lacking money or time or other resources. Perhaps we’re being persecuted or our relationship with God is dry and empty. In these times, Satan comes to us and says, “Why don’t you try this?” Some self-help activity rooted in pagan spirituality, perhaps. Or maybe an affair or some other indulgence that temporarily makes us feel better. The apostle Paul seems to be very much aware of this sort of temptation when he warns husbands and wives in Corinth:

1 Corinthians 7:5 NLT

5 Do not deprive each other of sexual relations, unless you both agree to refrain from sexual intimacy for a limited time so you can give yourselves more completely to prayer. Afterward, you should come together again so that Satan won’t be able to tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

Whenever you are feeling a lack of something, be on guard against impulses to make yourself feel better through some sinful indulgence. I must confess that I really struggle with this, and often succumb to these sorts of temptations. Instead, we must remember that we are not merely physical creatures who need bread, but also spiritual creatures who need to feed on God’s word in obedience. Lord, please strengthen us.

The second temptation

In the next temptation in Luke’s account, the devil offered Jesus a shortcut. Jesus had come as the king, to lay the foundations for his eternal reign, and Satan offered Jesus authority over all the kingdoms of the world so long as Jesus gave Satan authority over Jesus himself. This way Jesus could avoid all the pain and suffering of the cross!

Jesus’ response once again comes from Deuteronomy, this time from

Deuteronomy 6:13 NLT

13 You must fear the Lord your God and serve him. When you take an oath, you must use only his name.

Jesus saw the problem with Satan’s temptation: the ends never justifies the means. If you have to place something above God, then it doesn’t matter how good the results are, they won’t work out well for anyone.

We, too struggle with this temptation. I faced this temptation years ago when I was offered a partnership in what would probably be a lucrative company. I recognised that I would be ceding control to my non-Christian partners and thus losing my ability to always follow God. Later God offered me the same opportunity but without the need to potentially give up on God. This sort of temptation is what Paul has in mind in

2 Corinthians 6:14 ESV

14 Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?

As Christians we need to keep ourselves free to serve God, and not be enslaved by things that appear good. There are so many examples of this in our society, so many goods that demand our all, and so steal us away from God, that we could have a whole series of sermons on this. The key is to watch for things that want to control us—God is our Lord, nothing should compete with him.

The third temptation

In the third temptation in Luke’s account, Satan took Jesus to the highest point in the temple, and quoted scripture to him, asking Jesus to test God. This is an interesting temptation, because Satan took Jesus’ defensive tactic of using Scripture and turned it against him. We will often encounter people using Scripture to tempt us. How can we defend ourselves against this? Well, Scripture is not merely a bunch of words which can be used in any which way. The fact that Satan used this tactic here has made me very wary of people who take scripture out of context and use it however they feel, even when the purposes they are using it for are good ones (remember the second temptation—to let the ends justify the means).

Scripture is God’s word, and he has spoken it for a specific purpose with a specific meaning. These are not the prophecies of Nostradamus, to be fitted against our current situation like some sort of literary puzzle. So, when Satan quotes from Psalm 91, and tempts Jesus to test God’s promise of protection, he is taking that promise out of context. Now Jesus is, himself, God’s word, made flesh. So we would expect him to have a firm grasp of the Bible. But what about us? How can we be expected to withstand this temptation? Well, we need to understand some simple principles about interpreting the Bible. In last year’s “How to Read the Bible” study, we talked about three principles of interpretation: context, context and context.

With that in mind, if we look at Psalm 91, we’ll see in verse 1 and 2 of Psalm 91:

Psalm 91:1–2 ESV

1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. 2 I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”

The rest of the Psalm is an explanation of how God treats people who relate to him in such a way. Now notice the attitude that the Psalmist has to God in verse 2: he trusts in God. Such a person doesn’t need to test God’s faithfulness, because they dwell in it—they rest, confidently, in God’s secure love. And so Jesus rejects Satan’s temptation by, again, quoting Deuteronomy 6, this time from three verses on:

Deuteronomy 6:16 NLT

16 You must not test the Lord your God as you did when you complained at Massah.

This reference to Massah points us to the time the Israelites grumbled against Moses, accusing him, and God, of bringing them out of Egypt to kill them, because they were running out of water. Instead of trusting God’s intentions, the people tested him, and he called the place where he provided them water, despite their complaints, Massah, which means testing.

The real danger of a life spent in distrusting God is that we can never do anything beyond our own, limited capacity. If we doubt God’s good intentions for us, we can never receive the blessings he wants to grant us when we move beyond our own weakness. Imagine how limited life would be for a child who refused to trust their parents’ cooking, or the strength of their grip when they helped them stand or walk! And yet I know that I, and many other Christians, really struggle to trust God’s intentions for us, especially when the going gets tough.

Jesus, on the other hand, knows that an attitude of scepticism towards God is completely incompatible with making your home in God’s kingdom, and so he rejected Satan outright.

The result?

Now, how does the story end? Did Jesus merely win a debate with Satan, and so take home the debate champion’s cup? No, not at all. Jesus’ victory over Satan allowed him to move into his ministry with power. This wilderness experience allowed Jesus to move from his previous life of faithful work into his ministry of teaching and, ultimately, salvation. The wilderness demonstrated to Jesus, perhaps, the nature of the temptations that he would face through his ministry, and helped him clarify the most potent way to resist each temptation. In the wilderness Jesus moved from faithful carpenter to the Son of God.

Jesus rejected Satan’s three temptation to 1) take control for himself, 2) give control to someone other than God, and 3) distrust God’s faithful, good purposes for us. Jesus responded to these temptations by insisting that 1) God’s word is the most important input into our lives; 2) God must be above all else in our lives; and 3) we must trust God absolutely. Having rejected those temptations, Jesus left the wilderness filled with power that drove his ministry:

Luke 4:14 ESV

14 And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country.

I want you to think for a couple of minutes about the sorts of temptations that you face this year that fall into these three categories, and to imagine how rejecting those temptations will allow you to partner with God in his great rescue mission to the world:

1) to take control for ourselves, 2) to give control to someone other than God, and 3) to distrust God’s faithful, good purposes for us

Now, as we finish, a word of encouragement: we, like Jesus, can be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit when we give God control and trust him completely.

Let’s pray.