Be Like Christ: Facing Temptations

INTRODUCTION

ILLUS: There’s this story of a missionary who went to a foreign land, where the natives were just being introduced to the Gospel. The missionary did his duty and began teaching them of the Jesus from the Bible. The Jesus who walked up to the outcasts. The Jesus who healed the sick, and gave sight to the blind. He told the natives of the Jesus who washed His disciples feet. The one who foretold of His gruesome death and miraculous resurrection. Through the telling of the person and deity of Jesus the natives were listening, with nothing capable of distracting them. At the end of his presentation, the missionary asked, “Do you know this Jesus?” One of the natives quickly spoke up and said, “Yes, we know this man he visited with us last week.”

The missionary was a little bewildered, but later learned that another missionary came and greatly helped the local people. He helped them build some of their homes. He helped them with the sick and old. He helped prepare meals for them. He was the hands and feet of Jesus to this village. He was so much like Christ that the natives, upon hearing about Jesus, thought Jesus Himself came and visited with them. This is the testimony we should strive to have, to speak and act like Christ in such a way that people can hardly tell the difference.

If you call yourself a Christian, then you should be willing to portray the characteristics of Christ. Yet, we see individuals abandoning what it means to be a centered on Christ, to live like Christ, to be like Christ.

We say we have a deep seeded faith in God to provide our needs, but our impulses kick in when we get tired of waiting of God. Our feelings typically trump what we claim to proclaim, and then we complain when we are engulfed by temptations when we see no way out.

We proclaim absolute, unchanging truth in the Word of God, but our actions state we believe more in the moral relativism of the world.

We proclaim that we wield the armor of God and are ready for spiritual battle, but when the battle get long and hard we find that the armor we have is broken and in ruins.

Jesus did not let the impulses of humanity drive His decisions at any time on this earth.

He was hungry in the wilderness, but continued to trust in the provisions of God.

He was constantly attacked by the Pharisees, yet He still proclaimed the truth of God.

He was arrested, beaten, and nailed to a cross, yet He endured the full wrath of God to provide us with a path to salvation.

Satan may have tempted, but Christ overcame.

I. Satan the Tempter

General MacArthur is noted as writing an article titled, “Requisites for Military Success.” Within this article he mentioned there are four ingredients necessary to win any battle: Morale, Strength, Supply, and Knowledge of the Enemy. He stated, “The greater the knowledge of the enemy, the greater the potential victory.” The day we come into the flock of Jesus is the day the tides of war begin against us.

How can we go into war with an enemy we know nothing about? How can we resists against an adversary when we do not know their tactics?

The Bible states in 1 Peter 5:8 that the devil:

1 Peter 5:8 ESV

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

We push talks about the devil off to the side because he is the father of lies, the anointed cherub that fell, the tempter, the adversary. However, we dilute the message of scripture when we never talk about the uncomfortable and unpopular.

We should know that in our human power we are easily crushed by Satan and his evil forces.

We should know that Satan twisted the Word of God from the very beginning of man.

We should understand that Satan is not God’s equal, He is yet another created being under the sovereign control of God.

And this leads us to understand that Satan knows he cannot overpower God, and he cannot win.

In thirteen verses we can see who the Devil is and the tactics he employs to try to sway us away from the one, true God.

Satan promises the best, but pays with the worst; He promises honor and pays with disgrace; He promises pleasure and pays with pain; He promises profit and pays with loss; He promises life and pays with death. [Thomas Brooks]

We read that Satan tempted Jesus for the full forty days in verse 2. Then when Christ was at His physical weakest, after He fasted and was what we may call starving, Satan decided to deploy some of his strongest attacks.

This is when we are the most vulnerable

When we are physically hungry, to the point we may not think we can continue.

When we are emotionally drained, when all we want to do is lay in bed and sleep.

When we have drifted so far from out Savior spiritually, we feel as if we have no hope or purpose.

It is this must remember: The weakest times in out life is when we are the most vulnerable to the attacks of Satan.

These are the times we begin to drift away from God

These are the times we stop fighting

These are the times we look to anything that can provide some kind of temporary relief.

The solution to our problem is always focused on alleviating the problem in the easiest and fastest ways. We tend to not care about the correct way, we only want the easiest path.

Christ did not focus on the quick solution, He focused on who would provide the correct solution. When tempted to supply His needs on His own strength, He resisted and pointed towards scripture reaffirming his trust in God.

Satan's tactics really haven't changed over time. He tries to appeal to physical desires. He successfully done this in the garden when tempting Eve, and "she saw that the tree was good for food, and it was pleasant to the eyes".

He attempted this with Jesus, when hunger set in and tempted Christ with a possibility of bread. Verse 3, Satan said [Since] you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread As one individual mentioned: The devil essentially said, "You may; you can; it will be pleasant, [so] why not?"

Satan also attempts to appeal to our other desires and needs. He attempted to circumvent God's plan for Jesus by offering Christ what was already His.

The Bible states the kingdoms of the world ultimately Christ's; however, if Jesus would have gave in and said, "I accept the offer, give me the authority over these kingdoms" He would not have remained perfect. He would have idolized what the devil claimed to have, and He would have bypassed the treacherous and life-saving path to the cross.

If Christ would have given in here, we would have never had hope, joy, or a chance at redemption. Satan knows scripture, and he likely knows it better than most of us. He knows how to twist it to make his offer sound appealing

Do not be ignorant of Satan because he is cunning. He is the master of manipulation, and he will distort scripture to suit his needs.

II. Christ the Savior

With temptations constantly being pushed in front of us. It is important to constantly strive to be more like Christ.

Jesus was fully God, yet He was fully human. He faced the same physical and emotional needs we do. He was attacked by Satan and tempted, much like we are today.

What is the difference then?

We have the same Holy Spirit within us that Christ was full of, as mentioned in verse 2.

We hunger for food and physical sustenance, much like Christ during these temptations.

The difference comes down to how we act and respond. After 40 days of not eating Jesus was physically hungry. The physical toll this would take would be immense. His human body would be weak, desiring something to regain strength.

Satan reminded Him of His godship, and tempted Jesus to uses His power to supply physical comfort. After all, He was fully God, filled with the Spirit He had the power to do something about His situation. He had the power to fill His belly. He had the power to provide Himself comfort. But, instead of quickly acting out of impulse and impatience, He stood His ground and trusted in God to provide for Him.

Be like Christ, and place your trust in the Father than on impulse of the flesh. Like Christ we must rely on God the Father and Holy Spirit to guide us on the path set before us, and give us the faith and patience required to persevere.

Scripture declares that Christ is the eventual ruler of the kingdoms of this world. He was already on a path to being over all.

What would have happened then, if Jesus gave in to Satan's exaggerated claims and accepted the authority this deceiver promised? If He had accepted these deceptions then there would have been no agony on the cross The perfect plan of God would have been upended. Jesus would have idolized Satan. Without the cross and the perfect sacrifice of Christ we would have been left hopeless, joyless. and no atonement for our sin would be possible.

God's timing and plan are perfect. For us, it can seem slow. It can seem painful It can seem like we have been forgotten about

We tend to get impatient when something does not happen in the timing we demand. Our culture continuously says we are first, we can have what we want when we generally want it and this is what we live by Because we are impulsive.

Christ took that human impulse, the human desire, the me-first mindset and rejected it. He had to take the path God set before Him, even though it was filled with rejection, loneliness, pain, and betrayal.

A shortcut to the destination would have placed greed and human desire above the perfect will of God. A path around the Cross, which is what the Devil was ready to provide, would be a path without salvation.

Do we have enough faith to stay on the path God directed for us?

Do we trust our God enough to lead us through rejection, hurts, betrayals, and anything else that may come due to our commitment to Him?

Do we have the patience to wait for what God has provided?

ILLUS: David showcased immense faith and patience. He went out into a battlefield, underprepared in the human mind, and immobilized a giant with a rock in a sling. He was promised the kingship at a young age, even before the vast majority of people knew he was destined to be king. He suffered at the hand of Saul's persecution with multiple attempts on his life. He even had the chance to take the throne by killing Saul in the dark of a cave, but didn’t because Saul was “the LORD’s annoited”. Then after 22 years David finally received the throne of Israel as promised by God.

We then look at Christ. The embodiment of perfection. The physical incarnation of God. The atonement of our crimes, and as Isaiah said, "He was pierced for our transgressions." Christ was the perfect sacrifice the Israelites waited centuries for, and He even waited 33 years before He was arrested, beaten, executed, and ultimately ripped the veil in two.

We cannot let our lack of patience overpower our faith and trust in God. All we can do is fully rely on God, and remain on the path set before us.

Proverbs 3:5-6 sums this up as:

Proverbs 3:5–6 (ESV)

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

III. Use and Reliance of Scripture

We have something today that many early Christians did not have. We have the Bible, the word of God, breathed and inspired by our Creator. It is a there for us to study, to absorb, to learn from, to use in spiritual battles.

Is this not what we see Christ doing to combat the temptations of Satan?

He was physically and emotionally drained, but He also knew the scriptures and was full of the Holy Spirit.

He did not rely on His own strength, knowledge, or power.

Instead He rested in the knowledge of God. We must understand that we can not resist the temptations of the Devil unless we have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us.

Instead of using His own strength, knowledge, or power to counteract Satan, He relied on the words of God.

Jesus didn't wallow in self-pity and doubt. He didn't mope around feeling bad for Himself. He didn't sit there saying, "I hope" , "I feel", "I think" He had full faith in the Father, and He counteracted Satan by saying, "It is written. Three times we read, "It is written."

It is written, "Man shall not live by bread alone." (verse 4)

It is written, "You shall worship the LORD your God, and him only shall you serve" (verse 8)

It is written, "You shall not put the LORD your God to the test." (verse12)

Without a doubt Jesus knew the author, authority, and power of scripture. The Word of God is the sword we use to cut down the attacks from the Devil, as Paul phrased it:

Ephesians 6:12 ESV

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

We cannot defend ourselves from the attacks if we are not equipped with our sword.

We cannot wield a sword we do not read.

We cannot effectively swing the sword we do not study.

We cannot win the war with a sword we barely recognize.

Our temptations must be met, like Christ met His, full of the Holy Spirit and equipped with the Word of God ready to cut down every lie and twisted word that is used to get us to stumble and fall.

CONCLUSION

So, how do you react when you are faced with a temptation? When you are angry, do you act impulsively and lash out; or do you remember

Proverbs 16:32 that says:

Proverbs 16:32 (ESV)

Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.

Some people have a hard time saving money because their money burns a hole in their pocket, they impulsively find things to spend their money on.

Some people impulsively find comfort in certain types of food based on their emotions, and this impulse driven action is why some find it difficult to manage their weight

Through His tempting Christ perfectly displayed that our human impulses can be overcome and rejected, and we can have victory over temptation.

He even knew the path set before Him, ending in a gruesome, humiliating death, and yet He overcame every temptation that offered Him a way around the cross. Many of us, in that situation, would have thrown in the towel and taken the easy way out.

We must be reliant on the One who created us.

Who else would be capable of protecting us?

Who else would be able to easily extinguish the "fiery arrows" of the evil spirits?

Who else would love us enough to offer up His son as a perfect sacrifice? Our devotion to God is what will get us through any trials on this earth.

As James 4:7 puts it:

James 4:7 ESV

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Let us be like Christ, in full submission to God, and then we may be able to resist the attacks of the devil.