Sermon Tone Analysis

The Victorious King

The Importance of Winning

Matthew 4:1-11

 

1.

Today, we celebrate the greatest day in history.

All other days pale in comparison.

2.      This one day altered the course of history more than any other day.

3.

Before we get too far into today’s message, find the top ten sheet in your bulletin.

What are some things that are important to you about your life right now?

What is meaningful to you in your life?

Take a minute right now to make a top ten list of what’s most important or meaningful to you about life as you experience it.

4.      From a historic perspective it’s hard to underestimate all that was at stake when powerful kings went to war.

Why did citizens rally to their flags when danger ensued?

It’s because they knew that to the victor belonged the spoils.

5.      If your side was defeated, it wasn’t just your ruler or military who suffered.

Everyone did.

Your city would be burned or damaged in some other way, usually razed to the ground.

Your property was confiscated, your treasures looted, your men killed or sent off to work in mines, or as a foot soldier for the new ruler.

Your attractive women were raped.

Your children were shipped off, and surviving relatives weren’t provided information as to what was done with them or why.

Fathers never saw their sons or daughters again, or wives their husbands.

If you escaped with your life you probably should have been grateful.

Simply put, civility in warfare is a modern invention.

For most of history, there were no rules to govern warfare or the disposition of noncombatants.

6.      Before we go to our passage, we have to look into the Old Testament for some background to how critically urgent it was that Jesus wins this ultimate battle.

7.      Jeremiah paints us a picture of what it was like to live in a city that had fallen to an invading army.

Here are some of his sad words after Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians, who lived in what we now call Iraq.

8.      The book of Lamentations gives us some very clear illustrations of what happens when a city falls to an enemy.

This passage is graphic and accurately depicts the situation in Jerusalem during Jeremiah’s day.

/9.      //Lamentations 1:1 (KJV) //1// How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people!

how is she become as a widow!

she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary!/

/10.

//Lamentations 1:4 (KJV) //4// The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness./

/11.

//Lamentations 1:5 (KJV) //5// Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper; for the LORD hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: her children are gone into captivity before the enemy./

/12.

//Lamentations 1:7 (KJV) //7// Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old, when her people fell into the hand of the enemy, and none did help her: the adversaries saw her, and did mock at her sabbaths./

/13.

//Lamentations 1:10 (KJV) //10// The adversary hath spread out his hand upon all her pleasant things: for she hath seen that the heathen entered into her sanctuary, whom thou didst command that they should not enter into thy congregation./

/14.

//Lamentations 1:16 (KJV) //16// For these things I weep; mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water, because the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me: my children are desolate, because the enemy prevailed.

/

/15.

//Lamentations 1:20 (KJV) //20// Behold, O LORD; for I am in distress: my bowels are troubled; mine heart is turned within me; for I have grievously rebelled: abroad the sword bereaveth, at home there is as death./

/16.

//Lamentations 2:9 (KJV) //9// Her gates are sunk into the ground; he hath destroyed and broken her bars: her king and her princes are among the Gentiles: the law is no more; her prophets also find no vision from the LORD./

/17.

//Lamentations 4:4-5 (KJV) //4// The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst: the young children ask bread, and no man breaketh it unto them.

5 They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets: they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills./

/18.

//Lamentations 4:9-10 (KJV) //9// They that be slain with the sword are better than they that be slain with hunger: for these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field.

10 The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people./

/19.

//Lamentations 5:11-15 (KJV) //11// They ravished the women in Zion, and the maids in the cities of Judah.

12 Princes are hanged up by their hand: the faces of elders were not honoured.

13 They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood.

14 The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their musick.

15 The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning./

20.

Losing a war was not fun and games.

As Americans, we don’t identify with the idea losing a war at home.

Yes, there were many battles fought on our turf in the early days of our country.

The Civil War claimed over half a million lives.

But that conflict ended in 1865—142 years ago.

Before the attacks on 9~/11, the last generation to experience an attack at home was the WWII generation.

Remember Pearl Harbor?

21.

The Armed Forces have fought in places, like Cuba in Teddy Roosevelt’s time, numerous foreign countries during the First and Second World Wars, and then in Korea, Viet Nam, and now the Middle East.

But as a nation we have not experienced what being the ultimate loser is like.

22.

The premise today is that this world would be vastly different, if in the battle of the Super Powers Jesus had lost!

By the Battle of the Super Powers, I’m referring to Good versus Evil, Light versus Darkness, Life versus Death, and our great King versus the Prince of the Power of the Air.

23.

This war is of greater significance than any other warfare in history.

This is the battle for the souls of mankind.

This battle raises the bar beyond simple borders or mineral rights.

This battle is truly for the eternal world.

24.

Today, we are celebrating the victory of Christ over death and the grave as He rose from the dead.

This was the final blow in the war.

This battle had to be won.

However, as we think about that battle, we are going to shift our focus on the very first battle in this war between good and evil.

We’re going back to the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry.

Let’s go back to the wilderness, to a time when two supernatural beings did battle.

We’ll be in Matthew 4 today.

25.  */Today, as we celebrate the victory of Jesus Christ, we have to recognize the benefits of His victory./*

I.                   Victory Over Appetites.

1.      Look at verses 1-4.

2.      Before we get too far into this, we have to look at how Jesus prepared for this battle.

3.      *ILL*: Army training before an event…

4.      Jesus did not spend hours learning tactics and techniques.

He did not check and re-check His gear.

He did not build His endurance with increasingly difficult exercise.

He fasted.

5.      As the battle is joined, what does Satan do?

He goes after the weakest part of Jesus’ defenses.

He attacks Him with the one thing that Jesus hasn’t had in 40 days.

He presents Him with food.

6.      Jesus easily deflects this attack by placing the Word of God in its correct, perfect place, which is above everything else in the world.

7.

This victory allows us to have victory over our own appetites.

Can we say it this way?

We have victory over our sinful desires.

Under other circumstances, Jesus eats bread.

He liked bread.

He ate it with religious people and He ate it with sinners.

He ate with His friends and He ate with enemies.

8.      It is clear that Jesus was not able to break His fast under those circumstances and so to eat would have been a fleshly, sinful desire.

9.      His refusal to bend to Satan here means that we can have victory over our own sinful desires.

10.  Jesus declared that the Word of God gives us authority over our sinful desires.

11.

The Psalmist gives us some help here.

/12.  //Psalm 119:9-16 (KJV) //9// BETH.

Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.

10 With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments.

11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.

12 Blessed art thou, O LORD: teach me thy statutes.

13 With my lips have I declared all the judgments of thy mouth.