Temptation

Book Context: Luke wrote the Gospel of Luke. He wrote these things to make sure that we might be certain about the things that have been written about Jesus.

Prior Context: John just baptized Jesus in the water and God said, “you are my beloved son, with you and I am well-pleased”.

M.O.T: Evangelistic

C.I.T: Jesus is the Son of God and had power over Satan and Sin.

Thesis: Jesus is the Son of God and overcame Sin and Satan for us.

“Temptation” He is the Son of God!

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Introduction:

1. When you really want something and there is a way to get it, it doesn’t take much convincing for you to take that opportunity does it? I mean when you really want something, and you’re tempted to take it, you will do just about anything to get it. How many of you in here drive? In Texas where we lived most of the highways were easy to access from the access roads. I am talking about without using an on ramp or off ramp. And there were some days depending on the time or if there was a wreck or not, that traffic was so bad it was backed up for miles. It is illegal in Texas to get off of the highway without using an exit ramp. But there were times when I was sitting there in traffic board and mad, looking at other cars driving in the ditch and out to the access road free! I would watch them, and the traffic would slowly move closer to where they had found their exit. I was so tempted every car that went to follow right behind them and get off the highway. I would think to myself; this is illegal I shouldn’t do it. But it’ll be faster, and I’ll help the other cars by getting out of their way. Almost every time I would be tempted and resist for a while, but before I knew it I was putting my foot on the gas and driving in the ditch out of the traffic. Why? I didn’t want to wait anymore, and I gave in to temptation. When I was a kid I would do just about anything to skip football practice, I hated it. I hated running, I hated the pain of being hit, and so I would try to find an opportunity to get out of it. This could mean I would act sick, get hurt physically so that I could skip out on practice. Pretend to be asleep and miss practice, whatever I could do. All throughout the morning into the afternoon I was tempted to quit and skip practice. Practice was at 6:00pm to 8:00pm in the heat of the day, and when the time got closer to 5:30pm when I knew my dad would pick me up for practice, I was tempted every day to skip somehow. Have you ever been tempted and given in? The answer is yes you have! Everyone has.

2. Jesus was tempted more heavily than we were and are, Jesus did not desire the things he was tempted with that were sinful. But he was tempted in a way that you and I could never imagine.

#1 Needs (Lust of the Flesh)

1. What is temptation? Temptation is meeting a legitimate need in an illegitimate way. It is meeting a Godly desire in an ungodly way. Jesus had been in the desert now for 40 days without food. He is hungry! And Satan sees this as an opportunity to capitalize on Jesus’ human limitations. You see Satan’s hope was to get Jesus to sin, to fail, to give into temptation and become just like him. Knowing that Jesus is a man, knowing that he is hungry from fasting, his first temptation is to get Jesus to eat. Now why would this be a sin? If it is sinful to eat then you and I sin at least three times a day, some of us at least 12 times a day. Eating is not sinful, but if Jesus ate it would have been. This is because it wasn’t God’s will for Jesus to eat yet. Jesus had been in the wilderness 40 days; this I believe is a representation of when the Israelites were in the wilderness for 40 years. They disobeyed and rebelled against God, but Jesus was going to be obedient. And Jesus wasn’t willed by the father to eat yet. Jesus said, "Truly I tell you, the Son is not able to do anything on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, the Son likewise does these things.” () It clearly wasn’t God’s will for him to have bread, that is why Satan tempts him to turn the stones into bread and provide food for himself. Satan’s message to Jesus was, “God hasn’t fed you yet, so take care of yourself and feed yourself! Be self-sufficient! Don’t rely or trust in God!”. Could Jesus turn stones into bread? Yes. But again, it wasn’t the will of God in that moment for him to eat. Satan was trying to get Jesus to hurry the timing of God and get what he needed then rather than waiting on God’s timing. He was trying to get Jesus to need something more than God. Trying to trick him into thinking that bread was more important than obeying God. The World, Satan, and our flesh use the same tactic today to tempt us to sin, by convincing us that we need something more than God.

2. The lust of the flesh leads you to think you can fulfill your desires and needs outside of God’s Will. You need companionship with friends, therefore if it takes you cussing like everyone else, then that’s okay you just need to. You need to go to that party and if that means disobeying your parents then so what, you need to go. You need to go too far with that person sexually, you need to show them you love them, and this is the way. You need the next phone. You need to dress provocatively to fit in, you need to watch this movie or TV show to be cool. You need to look like the world, act like the world. You don’t need to wait for God’s timing to find the right person and save yourself for them in marriage. You need love, find it wherever you can. But Jesus responds with “man must not live by bread alone”. In Matthews account he tells us Jesus said, “but by every Word of God”. We cannot allow our needs as Christians to become something we are willing to get at the cost of sinning against God. You need money to live in this world but stealing to get it is sin. Having conversation with people is a need but gossiping and crude language is sinful. You need to eat, but gluttony is a sin. Sex is God’s gift in marriage between one man and one woman in a covenant marriage, anything outside of this is sexual immorality its sin. Don’t let the lust of your flesh cause you to sin.

#2 Worship (Lust of the Eyes)

1. Satan offers Jesus the world on a silver platter. I mean think of everything the world has to offer right now. It has gold and silver, rivers and trees, mountains and deserts, clouds and oceans, it is filled with wonderful things. It is filled with people who inhabit it, great nations. And Satan is offering this to Jesus to be his with authority right now! But what does this mean? Jesus is supposed to have all of this one day, it says one day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Jesus is the King of kings, and Lord of lords. Why was this offer Satan made tempting? Because it wouldn’t require any suffering for Jesus. Satan knew the Bible like Jesus; he knew that Jesus was supposed to suffer gruesomely for the sins of mankind. He knew that said, “punishment for our peace was on him”. He knew it said the Lord had crushed him for the iniquities of us all in verse 6. And after Jesus suffered, he would then receive the kingdom and power and authority. But Satan was trying to offer it to him without Jesus going to the cross. He was offering him the crown, without the cross. He is saying, “You can have all of this at no price! Just worship me. You can have the kingdoms and be king of the world! You don’t have to die, you don’t have to suffer, you don’t have to pay for their sins, just worship me and it is yours”. But what did Jesus do? Thank God he did this, thank God he refused and said, “Worship the Lord you God, and serve him only”. Because if he would have taken the offer then we would be without hope, because Jesus wouldn’t have gone to the cross for our sins.

2. How does this relate to us? We get the same offer today just on a smaller scale. Live for fame, for Instagram likes. Live for money and houses. Live for attractiveness, worship fitness. Live for video games, movies and TV. Live for everything and put God second on the list. Live for sports and games, if you have to miss Church it’s okay as long as you’re happy. Listen, when you put anything before God you are worshipping that as an Idol, and it is sinful and you need to repent and turn from that back to God. You say I would never give in to what Satan said, and plus no one is offering me the world right now anyway. You’re right no one is offering you the world, but you can, and others have given into temptation a whole lot less that than. Think about it!

a. Adam and Eve Sold out for some fruit

b. Esau sold out for a bowl of soup

c. Samson sold out for a woman

d. Judas gave up Jesus for 30 pieces of silver

3. Don’t think because your parents have been taking you to Church your whole life that you’re fine and you’ll never give up Jesus for anything. I have seen people give up Jesus for a better paying Job, for a football game, a woman, a man, I have seen teens give up Jesus for fun, for their hobbies or sports. Don’t give into the worlds tactic on your flesh to worship something other than the Lord. When I was in high school sports was my idol. I worshipped football and many times I would skip Church on Wednesdays for football or working out. This became more of a priority that Jesus, and I was lost but still. Because anything you give your time and mind over to beyond the Lord Jesus is an Idol and sin. Some of you need to hear this, I know I do. I asked my sister one time if she idolized her kids. She told me a couple months later that she really thought about that and it convicted her and got her to the point of trusting in Christ. She examined her heart, everything she did focused on her kids. She wouldn’t take them to church because she was afraid something would happen to them while she was in service. She took pictures of them every day, wrote about them on social media about every day. She talked about them every time you got around her, life was about her kids. They were an Idol, above the Lord. Don’t think that worship is bowing on your knees and singing a song to an object. Worship is a devotion to something other than God.

#3 Recognition (Pride of Life)

1. Satan does something really interesting here. It is the most bizarre temptation at first glance. Jump off a roof. He tells Jesus to go to the highest part of the temple and jump off of it. This is also the most exposed point; everyone would have seen Jesus jump off if he did it. What was Satan tempting Jesus with? Pride. You see if Jesus jumped off the temple the angels would come and rescue him. They would swoop down there and make sure he landed on 500 temper pedic cushions. Everyone would have seen this happen and they would have said this must be the Son of God because angels just rescued him. He really is somebody! Satan tempted him with showing off the pride of life. Notice how he does it too! He uses scripture on this one. He takes some verses from which is about those who trust in the Lord! Testing God by jumping off a building would not be trusting in the Lord but rather arrogant! Side note to this text, don’t just listen to any ye whoo who quotes a couple scriptures and says it’s truth from the Word of God. People manipulate scripture, that’s why I want you to bring your bibles so you can look at it and make sure I am teaching things rightly. Be careful to who you listen to. The bible can be used to lead people astray.

How can we combat temptation? There are 3 quick ways I want to show you from this passage that go together.

1. Filled with the Spirit. Jesus was led by the Spirit and filled with the Spirit as he was it the wilderness. You cannot be filled by the Spirit if you are not saved. If you haven’t repented and trusted in Jesus Christ then you cannot be saved, which means you will not and cannot have the Holy Spirit. How can you be filled by the Spirit?

2. You must know the Word. How did Jesus battle against the temptation of Satan? He righty understood what the Bible teaches and remembered it. He quoted it three times in this temptation for every temptation. The Bible is good for all things we encounter and are tempted with. The argument could be I struggle with dishonoring my parents, so I only need to know what the Bible says about that, no! You need to be familiar with the Bible and what it has to say on all areas of life. says that the bible is the sword of the spirit. This is how you are filled with the holy spirit of God, by knowing and spending time in the Word of God. If you aren’t, don’t expect to have power over temptation. (Ask Students) You must know the Bible, not know how to work google. In the midst of temptation google can’t help you.

3. Think about the Future. Jesus knew that God had promised in the OT that the messiah would suffer and then enter into his glory. He tells that to the disciples on the Emmaus rode. Think about what will happen in the future if you do this. If I give in to this and do this with this person, what is it going to cost me. It will never be worth it for you to give in to temptation. Sin always overpromises and never delivers; it is not worth it. Sin destroys. Many of you know it too. We have all been in that situation when we knew we weren’t supposed to do something but did it anyway, it may have been fun in the moment but afterwards it’s awful. You’re teacher wants you to do homework but you decide not to. I always hated that, because she would call on people to answer questions and I didn’t have the answer because I didn’t do it and it was embarrassing. I hated that feeling. We may not be able to know the future, but you can know according to what God says. God warns us about sin, so think about what it will cost you and then avoid it! Remember God’s promises through Jesus and it will help you steer clear from sin.

Jesus overcame temptation and never once gave in his whole life. He never sinned. He never lusted. He never stole. He never lied. He was perfect and sinless. Jesus didn’t even give in to temptation that would allow him to skip going to the cross, like Satan offered, he endured the cross for you and me. Remember in the garden of Gethsemane when Jesus was praying to God and asking him if there was another way for sinners to be forgiven. He said, “if it is possible, let this cup pass from me”. In other words, he said if there is a way I don’t have to die with their sins and suffer your wrath o God let it be so. But then he said some very important and gracious words after, “yet not my will, but thy will be done”. Jesus was willing fo suffer and die for you and me even though it would be painful and the most terrifying and gruesome experience ever for anyone for all time. Jesus endured the penalty of my sin and your sin. He was punished as if he was a rapist, as if he was a killer, as if he was a pedophile, as if he was a pornography addict, as if he was a liar, as if he was a thief, as if he was an adulterer, as if he was a sinner, as if he was Noah Corse, as if he was you. Each and every one of us have failed in all of these areas of temptation and sin. But here is the good news, Jesus paid for our sins on the cross to forgive us and set us free. The way you can have this gift of forgiveness is through turning from your sin and calling out to Jesus in faith, trusting in Jesus to save you and not save yourself. Would you call out to Jesus tonight? And Christian, be filled with the spirit, by being in the Word, and thinking about the future to resist temptation. Why? Because Jesus died for you and rose again for you.