Luke 4:1-13
If You Are…
Pastors & Missionaries Conference
March 13, 2007
Introduction
I am so excited to be given the opportunity to preach today. As I thought and prayed about what I might preach, so many things came to mind. This being a pastors and missionaries conference, do I preach about us being mission minded? About being missional? About starting new churches? Something to fire us up? I considered a message about the emerging church movement and its efforts to reach our postmodern culture, but I’m not sure I fully understand what it means to be emergent.
There are countless issues we might consider relevant to pastoral ministry. The bookstores are littered with all the issues, from Rob Bell’s new book, Sex God to Steve Doocy’s Mr. & Mrs. Happy. Pastors and the congregations to whom they minister are drowning in debt, falling to pornography, wrestling with affairs, rotting with indifference and apathy and have lost sight of the most important things in life. We’re in a culture war, but don’t get caught up in the battle to preserve a bygone culture that we weren’t commanded to preserve. The culture war we’re in is our commission to make the kingdom of God a reality in the hearts and minds of a world in darkness – to reach our world with the gospel of Christ and to lead those people to become lovers and followers of Him!
In the words of Mordecai, I believe brethren that you and I have been called for such a time as this that we are living in. If we’re honest we don’t always feel equipped or adequate. We don’t always know just exactly what to do. We can be plagued with doubts and paralyzed by our fears. We can get discouraged when the lost don’t listen and when the saved don’t have faith, and like Peter there are times when all of us just want to go back to fishing.
But brethren, God is on the throne! He knows what He’s doing and He knows why He called you. He alone knows His plans for you and has called each of you for this time, to take your place in His work, to fulfill His calling on your life, to be the hero of the story that He has already written on your hearts.
Read Luke 4:1-13 I believe it is imperative that we realize who and what we are in Christ and recognize that few things delight the devil so much as distorting and destroying, not our identities in Christ, but how we view our identities in Christ as the men of God.
In the text we have read we jump into one of the opening chapters in the great epic God wrote on the pages of history through the life of Christ. You’ve seen or studied some of the great epics. The stories like Braveheart or Gladiator, the Alamo or the landing at Normandy, or a story so entertaining as Superman or Spiderman or Star Wars. In all the great epics the story is the same…you have the good guys and the bad guys and a need for someone to be the hero. Some crisis boils to the surface and the hero, often some unassuming individual, emerges to save the day or set a world on fire.
When you and I watch or read the great epics, we all want to play the lead roles. Who watches a movie and wants to be the villain or traitor or the moral weakling? None of us! When I was a boy I wanted to run like Jim Thorpe with my Davy Crocket coonskin hat, my plastic Jim Bowie knife, my Lone Ranger six-shooter with my red Superman cape. Those great epics stir our hearts and move us! Even when we watch a movie like “The Passion of Christ” that same wave of emotion comes over us; not just because of God’s love, but because there is something in us that wishes we had that kind of strength and courage.
Jesus emerges as the hero of the story after His time of temptation with Satan and sets His face to the cross of Calvary. Christ’s journey seems to officially begin after this account, but first there must be this battle over His own identity.
Brethren, I want to suggest to you today that irregardless of where you live or the ministries you find yourselves laboring in, each of you is living out your own epic tale. Our lives and work and families may be as varied as the movies we watch and the books we read, but the story is always the same. There is great darkness in the world, but God has chosen you to follow Christ as the lead character in your epic. God has chosen you to glorify Him. That means taking up your cross and following Him and following Him into the great unknown – walking with Him in the journey of a life.
But we are mistaken to think that all is peace and love and joy when we take up our cross. More often than not our desire to follow Christ leads us first into the wilderness. Jesus didn’t stumble into the wilderness. Satan didn’t lure Him there. The Spirit of God led Jesus, compelled Him to go there. Yet it is in the wilderness where we learn about ourselves, where we will either falter or come out the victor.
The wilderness may look different for each of us, but it is always going to be a place in our hearts and minds where we wrestle over obedience to the call of God on our lives. We preach all the time about the wilderness and how God doesn’t want us there. We ought to be living in Canaan, not the wilderness. But things grow in the valley brethren. The mountaintop offers wondrous vision, but things grow down in the valley, in the wilderness. So whenever you find yourselves there…and you may feel that you are there right now…maybe you even came this week hoping God would stir you out of that wilderness…listen, whatever it might look like for you, don’t forget this one thing: the Spirit of God led Jesus into the wilderness and He may have led you there too so you might learn something of yourself and of Him for the journey ahead.
God told Jesus at the Jordan, “You are my beloved Son; in you I am well pleased.” Satan came along only days later and said to Him, “If you really are the Son of God…” Satan always works to make you question what God has affirmed, be it your salvation or your calling.
Do you realize how often we struggle with our identities? Does God really approve of me or not? He must not. Does God really accept me? He can not. How could God accept someone like me? My own struggles with sin and obedience have made me wonder before how God could have possibly chosen me! How could God possibly be pleased with me? God must be disappointed in me. Have you looked at my life lately? God could never use me. Then there are those times when no matter how intently we try to walk with God and do the right thing He can seem so far away. Did we do something wrong?
Satan delights in feeding you full of this sort of propaganda and intimidation. He takes great delight in stealing away at our hearts and minds, men God has chosen to be the leaders of His work, the heroes of these epics we are living. He prides himself on his ability to cause you to falter in the wilderness. Thousands of Israelites died in the wilderness because they faltered when the testing of their identity came. When they grew hungry and thirsty and then later saw the giants in the land they longed to be Egyptians – but they were the people of the living God!
Thousands are dying around us every day. But Albert Schweitzer said that the tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives. I know thousands are dying around me every day, but somehow it hits closer to home when one of God’s men, one of God’s heroes falls in the wilderness; when from our own ranks something inside us dies. The thief comes to steal, to kill and to destroy. He wants you to falter in the wilderness, to drop your cross and run. He wants to steal your desire to live for God. He wants to destroy any hopes you might have of following Christ. He wants kill your passion so you might go through your ministry merely existing. The three temptations of Christ in our text reveal how he causes us to do so.
We Turn to Self-Sufficiency
That’s what the first test was really about. “If you are who you think you are, then turn these stones into bread.” Listen to the temptation. If you really are a man of God…if you really are a preacher, a pastor, a missionary, then turn these stones into bread.
We don’t need God to do church work. We know the Word of God. We can outline it, exegete it, tear it apart and put it back together in alliterated form for the masses. We’ve been doing church so long the same way we can pick our songs, take our offerings, and preach our sermons and never bat an eye. In our finer moments we pray and beg and plead God for wisdom and insight and to intervene in the services, but when things get hectic and when we get tired and hungry and are not inspired by the mountaintop, but instead are struggling in the mundane of the valley we just do it and hope that God will somehow bless. “If you really are the man of God, turn these stones into bread.”
He says this to us in a million ways, each custom tailored for our own areas of pride and weakness. Some days I get to thinking that if God would get out of my way I’d get His work done. I’d not try to guess all the ways you might turn to self-sufficiency, but whenever you see the slightest hint of it in your life – recognize it for what it is and stand on the truth that your true identity cannot be found in independence, but in absolute dependence on God. Your identity is wrapped up in knowing that without Him you can do nothing!
We Accept Counterfeits of God’s Blessings
Satan promised the kingdoms of this world to Christ, but to accept them would be to place Himself under the authority of Satan. Christ would have to go to the cross to rule the kingdoms of the earth – anything less than the cross was a counterfeit. Think of all the ways we accept counterfeits from Satan.
Pornography is a counterfeit to true intimacy that so many people have fallen to. One out of every four pastors is wrestling with pornography, even some of you. But it is a counterfeit – true intimacy with God and with your wife will cost you your life. Gambling is a counterfeit, recreation can be a counterfeit, work, money, position all can be counterfeits in your life where Satan promises you glory he cannot pay.
One of the greatest counterfeits is religion. The flesh loves it, worships it, and bows at its feet. And I want to remind you that your ministry: the preaching and teaching and witnessing and baptizing…the work you do for God may be the most intoxicating counterfeit of them all. We might never admit it to one another, but it is far too easy to sell out intimacy with Christ for busyness in the ministry. And when we do we are accepting one of the countless counterfeits offered by the deceiver himself. The only true satisfaction for the soul though: God’s greatest blessing is found in a relationship that begins at the foot of the cross.
We Make God Serve Us
The last thing Satan said to Jesus was “If you really are the Son of God, then jump. God will catch you.” Have you ever made God serve you? “God is the great Provider. He’s going to get me out of debt.” “God hates divorce. He’s not going to let this marriage fall apart.” “He’ll heal my son.” “He’ll protect my job.” “If God really cared about me He would _________________.” You fill in the blank.
I’ve read the stories about men of God who wanted out of the ministry and would pray something like, “God, if you want me to keep preaching then let 3 people get saved today.” God may do it, but what if He doesn’t? What about when He doesn’t answer your prayer? What about when it feels like God has gone for a walk?
Whether you thought about it before you walked in the door or not, every day of your life you’re in the fight of your life over your true identity. Every confrontation with Satan is fundamentally that – a testing of your identity in Christ. Will you complain about who or what God has called you to be? When you get thirsty or hungry or discouraged will you long to return to some bygone day that’s really only a figment of your imagination?
Brethren, I said before that I believe God has called us for this time. Whether God has made clear to you yet or not, He has called some of you to do bold things for Him. Perhaps He has written on your hearts the longing to start new churches or reach some people group that others have forgotten. Perhaps God has called you to pastor some church that no one else would pastor and to love a people that are unlovable. God may have placed you in some situation that requires no bold moves, no grand plans, but the simple willingness to faithfully fulfill your ministry in some quiet, forgotten place where your name will never be in lights. God has called you to be the hero of that story, to take up that cross, for I believe that the cross you have to carry is simply God’s will for your life. Will you take up that cross and be what God has called you to be for this time in that place? If so, again, from these temptations, there are three challenges you must accept.
Let the Word of God Sustain You
Jesus said in verse 4, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.” In this instance, Jesus was tempted with food because He was starving after 40 days of fasting, but food is only one of many things with which Satan tempts you. Every one of us has in inner longing for bread: a decent home, some environment, some need that we long to have met. You may be starving for affection or attention or approval. The human heart cries out to be fed, to be satisfied, but it cannot be with that sort of bread.
Do not mistake what Jesus is saying here. He does not say that when you feel hungry to read your Bible for a little while. He does not say when you are compelled to fulfill a carnal desire that you ought to have a little Bible study. What He says is that the answer for our greatest hungers in life is spiritual and nothing else. I would go so far as to say that you can make the Bible a little “g” god and then come up empty and confused again when it too does not satisfy.
The Word of God is Jesus Christ Himself. He is the Bread of life! He alone can meet your every need. When Satan comes to question your identity and cause you to doubt God’s affirmation of you and your calling, your deep relationship with Christ must sustain you. Do not leave here confused about what I’m saying. You need to read and study your Bibles. You need to be a person of prayer. But when you strip it all down, you must not replace intimacy with Christ with those things. The challenge is to nurture intimacy with Christ through those things.
Allow the Worship of God to Compel You
When Satan offered the kingdoms of the world to Christ, Jesus said in verse 8, “Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” Along the journey you will be tempted to take shortcuts. That cross you’ve been invited to carry is going to get heavy some days. The hell Satan will put you through is going to make you want to quit; give up, and accept counterfeits.
Satan promises you all sorts of things in this life. He promises that if you were single again you’d have freedom, but he pays with bondage. He promises you if you’d work more you’d get ahead; but he pays with a wrecked family. I don’t know what he whispers in your ears, but I like the way one writer put it:
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.
God on the other hand makes good on His promises. Worship is really about allowing your life to be consumed with being in the presence of God. It’s about abiding in Him; recognizing His great worth. It is the submission of all our nature to God – adoring Him, being absolutely consumed by a desire to bring glory to His holy name. Make that your life’s pursuit and you’ll enjoy the blessings of God like never before. Lay down your cross and accept the counterfeits of Satan and you’ll lose every time.
See That the Will of God Guides You
In verse 12 Jesus finally said to Satan, “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” Satan wanted Jesus to jump off the highest point of the temple. God will save you. Is that true?
I worked a job for a couple of years as a steel fitter where I spent a lot of time off the ground. I was a young Christian and was brash enough to take off walking across these beams 50 feet in the air. My boots were wider than some of the beams. My coworkers told me to quit, but I told them, “If God wants me to die today then He’ll kill me. If today’s not my day then it doesn’t matter what I do.” Of course I didn’t fall, and of course what I had said was fundamentally true, but what I was doing was tempting God.
I was making Him serve me rather than letting His will guide me. I was not really trusting God, nor are you when you do or say things like that. “God will get me out of debt,” is not trust, it is foolishness more often than not. “If God loves me He will do this or that,” is not trust at all; it is flinging a challenge in the face of God and forcing His hand.
The will of God must always guide us. We must say no to the tempter and no to the base desires of our carnal self that has a sensationalistic spirit about it. The will of man is for God to blaze across the skies and do some big thing. The will of man is to have an experience, to feel something. Every freak act of nature and every out of the ordinary incident is interpreted as God speaking and leading. God certainly can speak and lead that way, but more often than not He simply leads through the still small voice of the Holy Spirit and it will always be in harmony with His written Word.
Conclusion
Brethren, the days in which we live are dark and dangerous – but at the same time they are exciting and filled with great opportunities to share the greatest news known to man. God could have chosen any number of ways to share that news, but He has chosen the likes of you and me.
Think it not strange when you find yourselves in the wilderness: alone and hungry and tired. And do not forget that while we’d all like to go down in our own histories with the likes of Moses and David and Elijah and Paul and many others, each of them went through their own times of wilderness before God used them to change their world.
God knew full well when He called you that you would be tempted to turn to self-sufficiency. He knew that you would be tempted to accept counterfeits of Him. He knew that it wouldn’t be long before you’d be making Him serve you rather than you serving Him. But brothers, He called you anyway because He knew that as you were sustained by the Word of God, compelled by the worship of God, guided by the will of God – that you would be transformed into the wonderful likeness of Jesus Christ for such a time as this.
