Title: The Cross of Temptation
Text: Mark 1:9-15 (Matthew 4:1-11 and Luke 4:1-14)
Thesis: When we understand the nature of temptation we can fully appreciate and share in the suffering of Christ.
Lenten Season: The Season of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and culminates with the celebration of the resurrection of Christ on Easter. It is traditionally a season of penitential preparation in the life of the Christian that heightens our awareness of the suffering of Christ and His death on the cross. Easter Sunday then is essentially a celebration as we also experience Christ’s victory over sin and death.
In the Season of Lent we have an opportunity to experience what it means to be a follower of Christ as we consciously take up our crosses and follow Him. “Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross, and follow me.” Mathew 16:24
The series of messages during this Lenten Season will expand on the idea of what it means to carry one’s cross.
Lenten Series: The Crosses of Lent
Then beyond the idea of carrying one’s own cross is the understanding that in doing so we may come to know Christ more clearly.
Series Key Verse: I want to know Christ and experience the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His suffering, becoming like Him in His death, and so somehow, to attain the resurrection from the dead. Philippians 3:10-11
Introduction
Picture it: rural area, Sunday morning, church is packed and the devil decides to pay a visit.
The doors burst open, and a rolling black cloud rolls in with the devil in its midst. People jump out of the pews and run outdoors, screaming - all except for two. One is the Pastor, the other is an elderly farmer.
Satan is a bit perplexed. He points to the Pastor and says, "You! I can understand why you didn't run away, you are in your Lord's house, you preach against me every day and you aren't afraid of me. But YOU (points to the farmer), why didn't you run out scared like everyone else?"
The farmer crosses one leg over the other and drawls, "Well Devil, you don’t scare me one bit...I've been married to your sister for 36 years!"
We often blame the devil for our actions. Recently Bonnie came home with a new dress. She was pleased with her purchase and wanted to model it for me to see what I thought and I agreed it was very flattering. Then she told me it was kind of expensive and then she told me just how expensive it was. She explained that she tried to resist buying it but said, “the Devil made me do it.” I asked her, “Bonnie, why didn’t you just say, “Get thee behind me Satan” and put it back on the rack. Bonnie said I did but he said, “It looks good from the back too.”
This morning I want to preface my remarks by saying that temptation and the testing of our faith is very real. It was real in the life of Christ and it is real in our lives as well. We may joke about it but in reality it is very serious and may be thought of as one of the crosses people bear.
It was certainly one of the crosses Jesus bore. The temptations and the testings were real. Everything that the Devil threw at Jesus hit home. Speaking of Jesus, in Hebrews 4:15-16 the bible says, “This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all the same temptations we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it.”
So just as Jesus identifies with us in every aspect of our humanity, we can also indentify with Him in his humanity. And one of the ways we may know Christ is through knowing and identifying with his experiences.
I want to unpack a series of principles relating to temptation and testing. The first principle is that temptation seizes the opportune moment.
I. Temptation strikes at opportune times.
And the voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, and I am fully pleased with him.” Then Jesus was led out into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit to be tempted there by the Devil. Matthew 3:17-4:1
You’ve heard the idiom about striking while the iron is hot. This saying refers to the blacksmith who works with iron. First he heats the iron until it is red hot and soft. Then he immediately hits the iron with his hammer to change its shape. If he waits, the iron becomes cold and hard again, and he cannot shape it.
Opportune times are when we want to strike while the iron is hot. By striking while the iron is hot we mean to seize the opportunity! When we have the chance to do something, we should do it immediately. Otherwise it will be too late. That’s the way temptation works.
Recently our daughter and her husband decided to trade cars. They found what they were looking for at a dealership about an hour away. The worked with the salesman over the phone and by email and hammered out a deal. The plan was to drive down the following day and complete the transaction. But before they ended their conversation the salesman said, “I need to step out and I’ll call you right back.” In a couple of minutes the phone rang again and he explained, “I couldn’t say anything in the office but I did overhear another salesman say he has a couple coming to look at that car this afternoon, so I can’t guarantee it will still be here tomorrow. Would you give me a deposit so I can hold the car for you?” In other words, “You need to strike while the iron is hot or you might not get this great deal tomorrow.”
Satan struck Jesus while the iron was hot. Jesus was riding high. The Gospel of Mark account of Jesus’ baptism states the voice from heaven said to Jesus, “You are my beloved Son and I am fully pleased with you.” How good is that? Jesus emerged from the waters of baptism, was filled with God’s Spirit and heard the voice of God himself affirming him as the Son of God.
Temptation and testing often comes off the coattails of good times. It often catches us off-guard.
A second principle is that temptation will inevitably strike at a point of vulnerability.
II. Temptation strikes our areas of vulnerability.
• The lust of the flesh… to do!
• The lust of the eyes… to have!
• The pride of life… to be!
In I John 2 God’s Word says, “Stop loving this evil world and all that it offers you. For when you love the world, you show that you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only the lust of the flesh or pleasure, the lust of the eyes or possessions, and the pride of life or power. These are not from the Father. They are from this evil world.” I John 2:15-17
This year I watched some football on TV and tried to keep up from day to day and week to week by reading the sports section of the paper. One of the things I noticed this year… in fact, it seemed to stand out more than usual given the number of injuries this year. It was not uncommon to hear commentators talking about an experienced injured player being replaced by a rookie player. And… inevitably the opposing team would try to exploit that position. One strategy in a football game is to attack the other team’s weakness. And that is what Satan did with Jesus and that is what Satan does with us.
The first area of vulnerability mentioned in I John 2 and illustrated in the experience of Jesus is the temptation to do for oneself.
A. We will be tempted to do something… think pleasure!
For 40 days and nights Jesus ate nothing and became very hungry. Then the Devil came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, change these stones into loaves of bread.” But Jesus told him, “No!” Matthew 4:2-4
It is important that we know that this was the real deal for Jesus. Having not eaten for forty days and nights, Jesus was hungry. Jesus could have used his power to feed himself and could have “Won the West” by taking a shortcut, bypassing the cross and making bread for the world… Jesus could have coined Herbert Hoover’s 1928 Presidential Campaign promise of follow me and there will be a “chicken in every pot and a car in every garage.” Follow me and I will see that you have your every pleasure.
Resisting temptation isn’t easy. When I was in high school I was a delivery boy boy for Johnson’s Food Market in my home town. It was a nice hometown grocery. Sometimes a bag of chips might get inadvertently opened or a cartoon of cookies broke open and we would have to eat them but save the damaged bag for the vendor to pick up. So you an imagine a little boy shopping in the grocery store with his mother and happening upon an opened bag of peanut butter cookies. Then you can imagine Mr. Johnson walking up to the lad and asking, “Well son, what are you up to?” The boy shuffles his feet and says, “Nothin’.” Then Mr. Johnson, who was also the burley butcher said, “Nothin’! It looks like you up to trying to take a cookie.” Then the boy said, “You’re wrong sir, I’m up to tryin’ not to take a cookie.”
There is absolutely nothing wrong with eating some bread or a cookie. There is nothing wrong with any of the natural inclinations we have in life. There is nothing wrong with being satisfied… it’s what you are willing to do to be satisfied. Sometimes you have to try hard not to take a cookie.
For Jesus it was a matter of compromising with regard to the voice he wished to obey. Jesus understands what it is like to be enticed or lured or baited by the Devil to compromise his beliefs and values.. And we too get it. So it primarily about what we are willing to do and the compromises we are willing to make in order the satisfy the urges in our physical bodies.
The second area of vulnerability is the desire to be.
B. We will be tempted to desire to be someone… think power!
Then the Devil took him to the highest point of the temple and said, “If you are the Son of God, jump off!” But Jesus responded, “Do not test the Lord your God.” Matthew 4:5-7
Someone once said, “We all want to be great, but we don’t want folks to know we want to be great.” (Phil Lineberger, Leadership, Vol. 10, No. 2)
Once again Satan appealed to Jesus’ newfound identity as the, one and only, great, Son of God. This time he did not appeal to the Son of God’s ability to satisfy his own needs and those of the world. He appealed to his pride. What Satan was asking Jesus to do was something so mindboggling and sensational that everyone would be absolutely amazed. Everyone would know, without a doubt, that Jesus was the Son of God for sure when angels swooped down from the heavens and saved him from splatting all over the temple courtyard. Satan’s appeal was to do something really sensational that would get Jesus a boat load of self-serving media attention.
There is a car commercial ad playing these days. It features the developmental states of a young man. First we see him about to buy his first bicycle. He asks the kid selling the bike, “Is it fast?” And the kid says, “It has 10-speeds.” The he is a bit older and about to purchase a motorized scooter and he asks, “Is it fast?” And the kid selling it says, “It’s got a lightning bolt on it doesn’t it?” Next we see him as a teenager shopping for his first car. He is in the used car lot looking at a beat-up and blown-out old muscle car and he asks the salesman, “Is it fast?” And the salesman says, “Oh it’s fast. I don’t even know if this thing is street-legal.” In the last frame the young man is a young father and he is looking at a new car and he asks, “Is it safe? And the salesman says, “Oh yeh, it’s a Volkswagen.”
In each case the person selling knew what buttons to push. First it was the need for speed and then the need for safety. Satan, like the salesmen knew what buttons to push in order to make a sale.
Being recognized as the Son of God is not a bad thing but doing something twisted to get that recognition is suspect. We cannot do something bad in order to accomplish something good. Jesus was not going to compromise his convictions or the will of God in order to prove to the world that he was the Son of God.
There is nothing wrong with being someone of importance… it’s what you are willing to do be important that matters.
The savvy Christian knows that sometimes Satan pushes a pleasure button to satisfy a desire to do. Sometimes Satan pushes a power button to satisfy our desire to be. And sometimes Satan pushes a possession button to satisfy our desire to have.
The third area of vulnerability has to do with the desire to have or possess.
C. We will be tempted to desire to have things… think possessions!
Next the Devil took Jesus to the peak of a very high mountain and showed him the nations of the world and all their glory. “I will give it all to you,” he said, “if you will only kneel down and worship me.” But Jesus said, “Get out of here Satan, for the scriptures say, ‘You must worship the Lord your God; serve only him.’” Matthew 4:8-10
This is an interesting temptation. It is a temptation designed to get Jesus to worship Satan in order to have rule over all the kingdoms of the world. The bible says that Jesus created everything that was created. The bible says that one day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. It already belongs to Jesus… why would Jesus make that kind of compromise? Why would Jesus surrender his title, so to speak, to Satan so Satan could give it back to him?
Satan was pushing the possession button. Can you imagine how wonderful our world would be today if we did not have to wait for the coming Kingdom of Christ? Can you imagine if Jesus had taken the bait what it would be like to have Jesus in possession of and ruling over Bahrain, Cyprus, Eygpt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Saudia Arabia, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emiraes and Yemen?
Can you imagine what Jesus could have done with the wealth that has been pumped out of the ground? Can you imagine what the world would be like today if the love of Christ permeated Middle Eastern culture today? When Jesus stood on that high mountain with the devil and the devil offered him a short-cut to his kingdom, that had to be somewhat tempting… especially if it meant skipping the dying on the cross part.
I think materialism is a problem in our country and the world. I’ve read that among young adults: 61 % have no concerns about materialism or mass consumerism. 30% have concerns but have made no adjustments in the personal lifestyles and the remaining 9% are taking steps to live more simply.
Overall, 65 percent of young adults said that shopping and buying things gives them lots of pleasure. The researchers conclude: Most [young adults] seemed quite consumed with consumerism. Shopping, buying, and consuming is thus presupposed by most emerging young adults, and owning some of the nicer things in life is a natural part of the purpose of life. (Christian Smith, Lost in Transition (Oxford University Press, 2011), pp. 70-109)
If Americans have an idol it is materialism. The desire to have things is powerful in our culture. And to that Jesus says, “You must worship only the Lord your God; serve only him.”
This week I had a conversation with a young father who had a job opportunity with a start-up company with a very promising future and prospects of making a lot of money. He made it through the interviewing process and was thinking seriously about accepting the offer. But it was apparent that fourteen to sixteen hour days was hardly conducive to being the kind of husband and father wanted to be. Time with and for his family was more important to him than more money. He made a good choice that reflected his heartfelt, family values.
There is nothing wrong with being successful and having things… it’s the inordinate desire for things and what you are willing to do to get them that may be selfishly twisted.
Conclusion
When it came to temptation and tresting Jesus refused to compromise. Compromising begins so subtly.
You’ve heard the story. One night a Bedouin crossing the desert with his camel made camp for the night. In the middle of the night the camel stuck his head into the tent and said, “It’s really cold out here, would you mind if I slipped my legs into the tent to keep warm?” The driver agreed. A bit later the camel woke him again and asked, “Would you mind if I just slipped my head into the tent too?” The driver agreed. In the middle of the night he woke up and found that the entire camel had moved into his tent. Alarmed he woke the camel and told the camel that there simply was not enough room for both of them in the tent. And the camel said, “Perhaps you might want to leave.”
When we let the desire to do in order to satisfy an appetite for pleasure or we let the desire to be in order to satisfy our need for power or we let the desire to have in order to satisfy our need for possessions… we’ve let the camel inch his way into our lives.
And just as it was Satan’s goal to push God out of Jesus’ life, Satan tries to move into our lives hoping maybe that Jesus will get forced out of our lives.
It is a subtle process and we have to be resolute in our refusal to let the camel in the tent.
If you have raised kids you have heard a brother or a sister telling a sibling to do something they do not want to do. And finally the sibling being pressured will say, “You’re not the boss of me” And sometimes they will add, “Mom is the boss of me!” Or “Dad is the boss of me.”
That is essentially what Jesus said at the end of our story today. When he had heard the third temptation Jesus said, “Get out of here, Satan, you’re not the boss of me! You must worship the Lord your God; serve only him.”
Maybe that can be the catch phrase we take with us today as we make our way with Jesus through the Lenten Season?
“Get out of here, Satan, you’re not the boss of me! You must worship the Lord your God.”
Then the Devil went away and the angels came and cared for Jesus. Matthew 4:10-11
