1st Week in Lent

Luke 4:1-13 The Danger of Shortcuts

This is the first official Sunday in Lent

Lent is a season that is not typically celebrated in many Evangelical churches

However, over the last few years we have participated in community Lenten services each week during the season of Lent, and it has driven home to me the importance of recognizing this season

Lent is a period of 40 days, not counting Sundays, before Easter. It starts on what we know as Ash Wednesday and goes until just before Easter

The number 40 has some significance in Scripture

Two well known events around the number 40 are the 40 years that Israel wandered in the wilderness after they left Egypt and the 40 days that Jesus fasted in the wilderness after His baptism

The 40 days of Lent are to coincide with the 40 days of fasting that Jesus did

During Lent we are asked to focus on prayer, penance (asking forgiveness for our sins), repentance (turning away from our sins), almsgiving (giving to those in need), and self denial (fasting).

So, this year I wanted to do a sermon series during the Lenten season based around these things

Our passage for today is found in Luke chater 4

Before we jump into it I wanted to point out that in the story line Jesus had just been baptized by John the Baptist and was ready to fulfill His purpose

But before He began His ministry something else had to take place

This is where we pick up our story

Luke 4:1-13 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, 2  where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. 3  The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread." 4  Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone.'" 5  The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6  And he said to him, "I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7  So if you worship me, it will all be yours." 8  Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.'" 9  The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. "If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down from here. 10  For it is written: "'He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; 11  they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'" 12  Jesus answered, "It says: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'" 13  When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.  

This is a very familiar story to those of us who know our Bibles and is, in my opinion, a perfect way to start our Lenten sermon series

What we have here is that immediately after Jesus’ baptism He goes into the desert and fasts – or goes without food – for 40 days

However Jesus wasn’t alone during this time – verse 2 tells us that He was tempted by the devil

Why would the devil want to tempt Jesus?

In order for Jesus to fulfill His mission of redemption He had to remain sinless – if the devil could

get Jesus to sin, then Jesus could not fulfill His mission

In this passage of Scripture we read about three temptations that Jesus faced

I have no idea if there were more, but Scripture only records three

-        Turn rocks into bread

-        Worship Satan

-        Jump off the temple roof

I must admit that when I first read about these temptations I thought that they were not really a big deal

With all the temptations that are in the world why in the world would the devil choose these three?

If you really look at these three temptations there is some serious significance behind them

Let’s take a look at them and how they relate to us

First Temptation

3 The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread."

As we look at the practical side of this temptation this is one that actually makes sense

Jesus had been fasting for 40 days – that’s 40 days without food – needless to say He was pretty hungry!

In fact, after 40 days Jesus was literally starving!

Research shows that humans can go about 8 weeks without food as long as they have water

That’s 56 days and your body starts getting permanent damage long before then

40 days is about as long as you would want to go without risking some serious health related side effects

So at 40 days without food the Devil says to Jesus "If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread."

When the devil said “if you are the Son of God” he was not questioning Jesus’ deity – he very well knew that Jesus was the Son of God

What was happening was that the devil was issuing a challenge – “turn this stone into bread”

Could Jesus have done it? Without a doubt.

But there was more to this challenge than bread

Certainly Jesus was very hungry, but the significance of this temptation was not food, but flesh

What do I mean by that?

The temptation was focusing on the short term satisfaction of the moment rather than the long term benefits of the future

Jesus knew that His fast was temporary, that there was an end in sight

In fact, that end was pretty close

Yet He still was quite hungry! I know I certainly would be after 40 days with no food!

The devil was saying “aw come on, You’re the Son of God, there’s no need for you to be hungry! Just turn these stones into bread and you can eat! It’s just You and me here, no one else will know! Besides, what’s the big deal about ending your fast early?”

The devil wanted Jesus to ignore the God-ordained fast that He was currently in - which would give great long term benefits - to temporarily satisfy His hunger in that moment

What was Jesus’ response?

4 Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone.'"

This is a quotation from Deuteronomy 8:3

For whatever reason the Gospel of Luke does not record the whole quotation while the same story in Matthew 4:4 does

We see the importance of this quote in Matthew 4:4

Matthew 4:4 Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"

Notice Jesus answered “Man does not live on bread alone”

In other words, yes we do need to take care of our physical needs – it would be stupid not to

However to be totally healthy we cannot focus on the physical alone

We also need to take care of our spiritual nature

If we ignore the physical we will not survive long

The same thing applies to our spiritual nature

We must take care of ourselves spiritually if we hope to live the kind of life we’ve been called to live

Second Temptation

5 The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6 And he said to him, "I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7 So if you worship me, it will all be yours."

I don’t know about you, but I found some of this a little confusing at first

The Devil takes Jesus to a high place and somehow shows Jesus all the kingdoms of the world in an instant

How does the Devil do this?  I have no idea and Scripture doesn’t tell us

I do know that the Devil is a powerful being and has plenty of ability to do things like that

However he did it, the Devil showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world

That, in and of itself, doesn’t really freak me out at all – what does freak me out is what happens next

After showing Jesus all the kingdoms of the earth the Devil looks at Jesus and says “I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7 So if you worship me, it will all be yours.”

Say what?  What in the world is the devil talking about?

Have all the kingdoms of the world really been given to the devil?

Sort of

Before we get into what I mean we need to realize who we are dealing with

According to John 8:44 the Devil is a liar and the father of all lies

You cannot take anything the devil says at face value

One of the problems with the devil’s lies is that there is usually just enough of the truth in them to make them believable

That’s exactly what we’re seeing here

So, what is the truth of the situation?

Scripture tells us that the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it (Ps 22:28, Ps 24:1, Isa 37:16, 1 Cor 10:26)

It all belongs to God, however, at the same time the devil has been given temporary authority over it

John 12, John 14, John 16, 2 Corinthians 4 and Ephesians 6 all speak of the devil being the “ruler of this world”

So how can God own it all yet Satan be the ruler?

Let me give you an example that may help clarify things

Could I give your car to someone else?

No – it’s not mine to give

However, if you loaned me your car for an extended period of time I would have authority over it

It would not be mine, but technically I would be in charge of it while it remained on my possession

When you came to get the car back my authority over it would end

This is kind of like what’s going on here – the earth is the Lords – everything belongs to God

However, since sin entered the world back in Genesis 3 the devil has temporary authority over the earth

So, could Satan have given Jesus authority over the kingdoms of the earth?

Yes – even though Jesus, as God, owns it all it is currently under the authority of Satan

So, what was Satan trying to accomplish?

There was a very definite purpose behind this situation

The thing we can never forget is that Satan knows Scripture better than we ever will

He was fully aware of Jesus’ purpose – namely to die for the sins of mankind

The devil also knew that all he had to do was get Jesus to fail just once

One sin was all it would take for Jesus to not be able to fulfill His purpose

This then begs the question -

Why would this have been a temptation for Jesus?

I can understand why turning stone into bread would be a temptation

But this temptation always confused me

Personally I could think of about 5,000 other things that would seem more tempting

Think about it for a moment – how many things tempt you on a regular basis?

Lots

Has any of those temptations ever been to fall down and worship the devil?

My guess would be that the vast majority of us have never been tempted to do that

So why was this a big deal for Jesus?

It was a big deal because of what Satan was offing

What was Jesus’ main message?

“The Kingdom of God is near!”

We have been trying to build the Kingdom of God for 2,000 years - Satan was offering Jesus a worldwide kingdom in an instant

All Jesus had to do was fall down and worship Satan

Just once.  And nobody else was even around!

No one else would have to know

I don’t know what Jesus’ reaction to this temptation was but my thought is that if it was an easy thing to resist it wouldn’t really have been a temptation would it?

It’s very possible that Jesus briefly considered Satan’s offer

It’s also very evident that Jesus wasn’t very interested in the Devil’s offer

Jesus replied with a Scripture straight out of Deuteronomy 6

8 Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.'"

Satan’s plan for this temptation obviously fell apart

Third Temptation

9 The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. "If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down from here. 10 For it is written: "'He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; 11 they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'"

In this final temptation Satan takes Jesus to the top of the temple and had Him stand at its highest point

The temple spoken of here is what’s called the second temple - picture

The original temple was built by Solomon and was destroyed during the Babylonian conquest of Judah around 586 BC.

The temple was rebuilt sometime around 518 BC

Around 19 BC King Herod remodeled the temple as an act of favor with the Jewish community

The temple was a big deal – it was the focal point of the Jewish faith and religion

While the devil and Jesus were standing on the top of the temple the devil tells Jesus to throw himself down

In fact, I find it interesting how the devil tries to convince Jesus to do it

He quotes from Psalm 91:11,12 “'He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; 11 they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.”

Why was this a temptation for Jesus?

I don’t know about you but I’ve never been tempted to jump off the top of a tall building!

Maybe I would be if I was bungee jumping or base jumping, but certainly not without some kind of safety mechanism!

What was going on here?

Remember that the temple was the center for the Jewish faith and it was located in Jerusalem, the most important city in Israel

Needless to say there were a lot of people hanging around!

Now what do you think would happen if Jesus did throw Himself off the temple roof and get caught by angels?

Do you think He would maybe generate a little attention?

Of course He would!

I know that if I saw someone jump off a roof and get caught by angels that they would have my undivided attention

In fact, I can pretty much guarantee that if I were a first century Jew that I would want to set this person in place as the Messiah

While this might seem like a short cut similar to the last temptation – and I guess it partially is – the focus of this temptation is not in the shortcut

Take a look at Jesus’ response

12 Jesus answered, "It says: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"

So, what is the devil doing in all these temptations?

He’s offering Jesus a shortcut

He was offering a kingdom without a cross

He was offering Jesus power without pain

Do not think for a moment that the cross was easy for Jesus

It was the most agonizing and excruciating thing that anyone could possibly imagine

Jesus knew what lay before Him – He knew the pain and torture that were coming just 3 short years away

And Satan was offering Jesus a way to gain authority without going through all of that

The danger of shortcuts

There are no shortcuts in the life of faith

There is no product without the process

When these temptations were over the devil was not done

13 When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.

The devil will do the same to us – the temptations will never stop, we must always be on our guard

When Jesus was resisting temptation how did He do it?

By quoting Scripture

Notice that He didn’t pull out His concordance or look at the topical index in His Bible

He quoted it off the top of His head

He already knew it

If you ever hope to defeat the devil, if you ever hope to live a spiritually healthy life, you must know your Bible

Yes, it takes effort

Yes, it takes time

But it’s well worth it!

There are a million excuses as to why you do not get into Scripture every day, but no valid reasons