“Developing Resistance”
Luke 4:1-13
A little boy named Bobby desperately wanted a new bicycle. His plan was to save his nickels, dimes and quarters until he finally could buy a new 10-speed. Each night, he knelt beside his bed, and prayed, "Dear Lord, please help me save my money for a new bike; and please, Lord, don't let the ice cream man come down the street again tomorrow." (1) We all have our ‘ice cream trucks’ of temptation. There is something within us that wants to give in to our personal ice cream. Legendary star Mae West was on target when she said, “I generally avoid temptation, unless I can’t resist it.” Every one is tempted. If you are alive you are tempted; if you are living on planet earth, you are tempted. So it’s really no surprise that we find Jesus, fully human, facing temptation. Just how did He resist?
First, let’s dissect THE WISDOM OF THE TEMPTER. His primary targets are those who are most committed to Christ. In fact, he’s not worried about those not committed to Christ, or those with a lukewarm commitment. It’s the dedicated, serious followers who are the tempter’s target. The more deeply we commit ourselves to Jesus Christ the more the devil steps up his attacks against us. He is a real, true person or force, which can call all the hosts and forces of evil against us. So beware – if you choose to be more devoted to Jesus, or make a stronger commitment to Him in some area of your life, you will be tempted, perhaps as never before. And notice verse 13 – Luke wrote that when the devil was done, “He left Jesus until an opportune time.” He knows not only when to strike –he’ll also always return.
Satan always wisely CHOOSES OPPORTUNE TIMES. In Luke 4 Jesus had just been baptized and the Spirit of His Father had descended upon Him. His ministry was about to begin, so He went away by himself to prepare. It was a time of intense examination, preparation, soul-searching and struggle. For 40 days the tempter, the devil, attacked Jesus. What a great time for him to do so! The devil knew Jesus was coming down from a high moment and would be wrestling and praying; he knew this was an opportunity to get into Jesus’ heart. It was Jesus versus the devil. We, too, are vulnerable immediately after highly spiritual moments, or right after times of success. Such moments sap our physical and emotional strength, opening the door to weakness. Satan is often more aware of such moments than we are. That’s why Peter says Satan prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. (1 Pt. 5:8)
Note, too, that the devil ENCOURAGES DOUBTS. He taunted Jesus, “If you are the Son of God…” It was a brazen attempt to try to create doubt in Jesus’ mind. It was a repeat of the Garden of Eden, where this same tempter said to Eve, “You will not surely die.” In the same way he still taunts us: “Is this really true? Can you prove it? Would God really do this? Why? How can God do such a thing and still be a loving God?”
The devil also wisely UTILIZES THE GOOD. The three things he asked Jesus to do were, in themselves, not necessarily bad or wrong – and they were all things Jesus was capable of doing. The devil knows most of us would never agree to do something grossly or clearly evil. So he stays in the realm of the good and within our capabilities, and works on our motives. He tempts us to do good things for bad reasons.
Notice also THE TACTICS OF THE TEMPTER. Satan’s attack was gracious. He offered Jesus gifts. He knows what flavor ice cream we crave! Knowing most of us are greedy, selfish, and driven by pleasure he tempts us in those areas. The definition of temptation, in fact, is “the act of enticement to do wrong, by promise of pleasure or gain.” So the devil OFFERS A SUBSTITUTE FOR OUR SECURITY. Jesus was hungry and tired – it had been 40 days without food – so the devil challenged him to meet his own need: “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” “That’s why you have the power. After all, people are going to claim that you are the source of life – so be the source of your own life.” It was a plea to use his power selfishly for his own wants. In other words, Satan OFFERED JESUS INDEPENDENCE FROM GOD. The bread was, for Jesus, a symbol of the providential care of God. So the devil was taunting Jesus, “Do you really trust your Father’s care?”
That tempts us as well. We are insecure and anxious about many things. That’s why we often seek our security in what we can see, taste, touch, and smell –independent of Jesus. We equate security with achievement, status, acceptance, popularity, affirmation; it’s why we give in to peer pressure. We just really don’t fully trust God. William Willimon, in his book What's Right with the Church (Harper & Row), tells about leading a Sunday school class that was studying the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. After careful study and explanation of each of the three temptations, Dr. Willimon asked, "How are we tempted today?" A young salesman was the first to speak. "Temptation is when your boss calls you in, as mine did yesterday, and says, 'I'm going to give you a real opportunity. I'm going to give you a bigger sales territory. We believe you are going places, young man.'"But I don't want a bigger sales territory," the young salesman told his boss. "I'm already away from home four nights a week. It wouldn't be fair to my wife and daughter." "Look," his boss replied, "we're asking you to do this for your wife and daughter. Don't you want to be a good father? It takes money to support a family these days. Sure, your little girl doesn't take much money now, but think of the future. Think of her future. I'm only asking you to do this for them," the boss said. The young man told the class, "Now, that's temptation." Satan wants to kill our trust.(2)
Secondly, Satan FEEDS OUR PRIDE. He took Jesus up to a high place and showed him the kingdoms of the world. And he said to Jesus, “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. So if you worship me, it will all be yours.” Clever! Satan OFFERED JESUS POWER. “Go ahead Jesus – win the world for God! This is what you were sent and commissioned to do! You’re entitled to the world – so claim it! Take it now! You deserve it! Jesus – you can avoid the cross! You can avoid all the suffering! And you can have it all now!”
This approach simply feeds our ambition to take what we believe is rightfully ours. After all, God has given us everything! If what Jesus has belongs to us, then take it! What’s wrong with a little short cut? Since we live in a culture that values power - power to control our own lives, our choices, our rewards it’s precisely what Satan offers. But notice the price – worship Satan; drop our loyalty to and worship of Jesus. IT IS POSSIBLE TO GET THE RIGHT THING IN THE WRONG WAY! Much of our misery comes not from making the wrong goals but from taking the wrong roads to good goals! We take short cuts to get now what Jesus is fully prepared to give us later. The ends do not justify the means! We are not to stoop to the level of the world but to raise the level of the world.
Thirdly, the Tempter ENCOURAGES COMPROMISE. (Verse 9): “If you are the Son of God…throw yourself down from here. For it is written: ‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.” The devil called on Jesus’ special status, by asking Jesus to simply display sensationally who He was. He OFFERED JESUS FREEDOM to miraculously convince the world He was truly God’s Son. “You know how special you are – your Father just affirmed you. Surely He won’t let you down. Test Him and be sure!”
Testing God is tempting, isn’t it? “Surely, if I’m a Christian, God will do this for me. I’ve lived a good life, I’ve worked hard for God, I’ve been faithful at church – surely God will heal me. I’ve given a lot of money to the cause of the Kingdom – certainly God will answer my prayer. He owes me.” That’s the world’s view; compromise your trust for your own gain.
But how do we keep from giving in, from yielding to temptation? How do we develop RESISTANCE TO THE TEMPTER? What’s the vaccine that builds our resistance? CONSIDER JESUS AS OUR VACCINE. He understood that He had a choice – give in or resist. “Temptation is the tempter looking through the keyhole into the room where you are living; sin is your drawing back the bolt and making it possible for him to enter.” We must not put ourselves in tempting situations, thereby challenging God to spare us from giving in. Jesus did not go to the wilderness to be tempted by the devil; the devil went there to tempt Jesus because Jesus was there. As the Biblical commentator William Barclay wrote: “… (it is) no good in putting (yourself) deliberately into a threatening situation, needlessly and recklessly, and the expecting God to rescue you from it. God expects (us) to take risks in order to be true to Him, but not to enhance (our) own prestige … God’s rescuing power is not something to be played and experimented with; it is something to be quietly trusted in the life of everyday.” Temptation is not a sin, but playing with temptation invites sin. Former General Secretary to the United Nations Dag Hammarskjold said, “You cannot play with the animal in you without becoming wholly animal, play with falsehood without forfeiting your right to truth, play with cruelty without losing your sensitivity of mind. He who wants to keep his garden tidy doesn’t reserve a plot for weeds.” So Jesus practiced what He had preached: “Seek first the kingdom of God, and these things will be given to you as well.” (Lk. 12:31) He inoculated Himself with the vaccine of God’s will.
This vaccine consists of three elements, three disciplines. One is to DEPEND ON THE WORD. Jesus repeatedly claimed He had come to do the will of the Father – He had come to be obedient to the Father’s Word. Jesus knew who He was, knew where He was going, and how to get there. Jesus knew the Word. And He used that Word against all tree tactics of Satan. And it is no different for us – we must both LEARN AND OBEY THE WORD. I once saw a drawing – a young man was standing at a fork in the road. The sign at the fork labeled each road. One arrow pointed left and said “Your way.” The other arrow pointed right and said “Yahweh.” Clever, but true. Yet we can only follow God’s way when we know His way, which we know through His Word. His Word alone has power to help us. God has made it clear. (Jer. 1:12) “The LORD said to me, “You have seen correctly, for I am watching to see that my word is fulfilled.”” (Is. 55:10-11) “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” (1 Cor.10:12-13) “So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”
The second discipline is to DEEPEN YOUR PRAYER LIFE. As Jesus wrestled with the will of His Father on the night of His betrayal, He prayed at Gethsemane and asked His disciples to join Him in prayer. But they fell asleep. Matthew records (26: 40-41) “Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”” PRAYER RELEASES POWER AGAINST TEMPTATION.
Professional football player Troy Polamalu, a three-time Pro Bowl strong safety for the Pittsburgh Steelers, has worked hard to maintain his Christian character since joining the NFL in 2003. Before winning his second Super Bowl championship with the Steelers in 2009, Polamalu agreed to an interview for the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN). "Pride is tough," Polamalu said to the interviewer. "You go to high school, and it's pride, courage. It's all these types of words that we use to motivate us. I don't think there's anywhere in the Scriptures … where pride was ever a positive characteristic of anybody. That kind of egotism is a really tough struggle—especially in this business. … It's a big struggle of mine." Polamalu went on to say that it's not the obvious things that are the hardest to deal with in his life. "It's … the big things that are the easiest to turn away from. It's … the accumulation of small things [that are hard]. … People know adultery's bad and murder's bad. I'm not going to go out and sleep with the first girl I see. But when your eyes start wandering, [and you become] a little more jealous and envious, and these passions start rising up inside of you—that's when it really becomes dangerous. Because the Devil doesn't work that way. His strategy is always to be very subtle and continue to build on top of that evil seed that he planted." Then Polamalu said prayer keeps him rooted. "As your prayer life becomes more and more fine tuned, and your conscience becomes more and more fine tuned, you're able to start plucking away at these things. [You're] like, 'Wow…this is not good.'" (3)
It’s this obedience that enables us to, thirdly, DISCOVER THE POWER TO SAY, “NO!” Trust God to strengthen and protect you through the personal ministry of His Spirit. Jesus has already defeated Satan. And at the name of Jesus Satan gets weak knees and runs before He falls again. The Bible (Hebrews 2:18) states, “Because (Jesus) suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.” So RELY ON HIS HOLY SPIRIT. The Holy Spirit is our comforter, our guide, our strength. That’s why John reminded us that He who is within us is greater than he who is in the world. (1 Jn.4:4) All you need is Jesus’ gift of the Holy Spirit. So focus on Jesus. It’s Jesus who promised that out Father in Heaven will not refuse the Holy Spirit to anyone who asks Him. So focus on Jesus; rely on His Holy Spirit. You’ll be amazed at how your appetite for your ice cream disappears! It might even melt right before your eyes! To that end, let us pray.
(1) Lee Griess, Taking the Risk out of Dying)(Preaching Magazine Online)
(2) William Willimon, (adapted by King Duncan, www.sermons.com) From Preaching Now, 3/3/08
(3) "Steelers Safety Troy Polamalu: Put Pride Aside," www.cbn.com
