There is a saying, “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.”
This is the first Sunday of the Lenten Season.
Lent is a non-essential.
Lent is not a Biblical doctrine nor is it a Scripturally mandated activity.
On the other hand it is not sinful nor does it break the Word of God in any way that I can determine.
Although some folks would have you believe that the observation of Lent originated with the apostles there is no evidence of this in the Bible and the tradition has undergone various configurations since it was originally observed around AD 600.
Many of you who were out and about on Wednesday probably noticed some folks walking around with dark smudges on their foreheads. That is because it was Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent.
In the ritual of Ash Wednesday ashes are applied to the foreheads of those seeking to repent, as in sackcloth and ashes, or, as a sign of their impending mortality and the need for righteousness. This ritual was instituted near the end of the first millennium after Christ.
Now, the first day of Lent originally fell on a Tuesday providing for forty days before Resurrection Sunday, however, eventually Sundays were declared to be feast days and were excluded from the Lenten fast so the date had to be pushed back to the preceding Wednesday.
All of this was very interesting to me but if we individually decide to participate in the tradition of fasting for Lent we need to be sure that we do so out of a desire to grow closer to God and not out of a desire to follow a tradition for the sake of the tradition.
Remember, when God sees us fasting He looks at the heart to see why we are fasting. When God looks at us He doesn’t check to see if we have a black smudge of ashes on our forehead, He checks to see if we have spiritually clean hands and a pure heart.
My friends, the attitude of Ash Wednesday and of the Lenten season should be our continual attitude; day in and day out, week in an week out, year in and year out until He calls us home.
God, search my heart, show me my sin, and by Your grace help me to turn away from my sin and to never turn back! Help me to make that my lifelong attitude! Help me to be pleasing to You and obedient to Your holy will!
In the same way that Lent is observed for 40 days there are many 40 day periods in the Bible.
In the great flood the rain fell for 40 days and 40 nights.
When Moses went up on the mountain to receive the 10 commandments from the Lord he stayed up there for 40 days.
Elijah was able to travel for 40 days with just the food that the angel brought to him at the start of the journey.
And, Jesus was tempted in the wilderness for 40 days at the start of His ministry. But, before we look at that Scripture let’s just flash back to God’s endorsement of Christ Himself.
It is the very beginning of Christ’s ministry on earth! Jesus is now thirty years old and is thought by many to be a son born out of wedlock to Joseph and Mary. This, of course, was a completely understandable assumption since it would be nearly impossible to believe Mary’s story of the angel and the miraculous conception of the Child by the Holy Spirit.
Jesus had just come from His baptism where God had sent the Holy Spirit from heaven to Jesus in the visible form of a dove and had spoken from heaven in a voice audible to all present as it says in Luke 3:21b-23
“As He was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on Him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: ‘You are My Son, whom I love; with You I am well pleased.’”
Now, that’s not a bad endorsement, is it? But, what happens next?
Luke 4:1-13
“Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, 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.
“The devil said to Him, ‘If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.’
Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone.’”
“The devil led Him up to a high place and showed Him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 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’
“So if you worship me, it will all be Yours.’
“Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’”
“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.
“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.’
“Jesus answered, ‘It says: “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”’
When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left Him until an opportune time.”
What do we see here? Jesus went through a time of testing and tempting more intense than we will ever face! And, it would have been so easy for Him to avoid the suffering. It was true that Jesus could turn stones into loaves of bread just by speaking it into existence.
Can you imagine having the power to turn stones into bread or other food? If I had that power I’d weigh 500 pounds. Just imagine if we had that power sitting down for the evening with a pile of stones next to the recliner. At the first commercial we might say, “Stone, be changed into a big slice of hot pizza with lots of cheese and sausage and pepperoni and pineapple, no, not pineapple … but anyway, a great big slice of delicious pizza.”
Then at the next commercial we might say, “Stone, be changed into a banana split or some huge ice cream sundae like you would get at Friendlies, and, by the way just eliminate all future commercials.”
And on and on it would go and by the end of the night we’d have to have someone to roll us off to bed because we wouldn’t be able to walk. Can you imagine that?
Well, here is Jesus with all of the power of the universe at His fingertips. Now, remember that Jesus, the Messiah is 100% God and 100% human, one of the greatest mysteries known to humanity. So, He has all of the power of the omnipotent God and at the same time He has all of the bodily cravings of a human!
Talk about torment!
And, here’s something that is easy to overlook. It’s easy to think that at the end of the forty days Jesus was tempted three times by the devil but the Scripture actually says that Jesus was tempted for the entire forty days and that these three temptations we read about were just the three final temptations. These were the big hitters that had been reserved for when Jesus would be at His weakest and most vulnerable. But, it’s not true that He was only tempted at the end of the forty days! He was tempted for the entire forty days!
You see in verses 1 and 2 it says,
“Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, where for forty days He was tempted by the devil.”
Now, that is a long temptation!
In the first temptation Jesus was tempted to take the easy way out. He was hungry and He is God! He didn’t need to go into town and find a bakery. He could just say the word and command the stones to become bread and He would be able to satisfy His hunger immediately! No one would ever know, that is, except His enemy and our enemy, the deceiver, and God the Father.
Are you ever tempted to take the easy way out?
We’ve all heard the stories about the sinking of the Titanic; a terrible tragedy. There was a man on board, Rev. John Harper, a Scottish preacher who was traveling to Chicago to preach. After the ship struck the iceberg he was on the deck of the ship in plenty of time to make it into one of the lifeboats but he ran through the ship yelling, "Women, children and unsaved into the lifeboats!"
Eventually he ended up in the freezing water where he gave his lifejacket to someone who did not have one. Then, as he clung to a piece of floating wreckage, he swam from one person to another leading them to faith in Christ.
He could have taken the easy way out and gotten into a life boat with his wife.
Now, think about Jesus. He is being tempted for an entire 40 days with all the weaknesses of humanity. At the same time He is fully God and with one simple word He could have banished the devil from His presence forever! Now, that would be taking the easy way out, but, that’s not Jesus! Jesus had a plan for our salvation and it included being tempted in every way, just as we are—yet without sin.
From the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry He was in battle with evil. From the day He entered the wilderness for His 40 days of testing until the end of His ministry on earth He was engaged in battle for your soul and mine. He did not take the easy way out and it cost Him His very life!
Living the Christian life, I mean REALLY living the Christian life, will not allow you to take the easy way out. Jesus did not take the form of a human, live a life of meager existence, suffer for us, die for us so that we could sit in our recliners and wait for His return.
A. W. Tozer said, “The idea that this world is a playground instead of a battleground has now been accepted in practice by the vast majority of Christians.”
What about us? How do we see the world, as a playground for our pleasure or as a battleground for our King and His kingdom?
My friends, the battle in which Christ calls us to be engaged is more daunting than anything ever experienced on earth. We see wars will millions of people dying. Most of them in their 20s and 30s. Each of them losing possibly 50 or 60 years of their lives. They were alive and now they are dead. This is horrifying and it should be.
However, the battle in which we are engaged billions are dying and it is more than life and death, it is a matter of eternal, glorious life with Christ bought with His precious blood or a matter of eternal dying, not eternal death, eternal dying, never ending death.
The price has been paid by our commander, Jesus, the King of kings. We have our weapons of loving God and loving others, the Holy Scriptures and the Holy Spirit living within us, but, many of us are off dallying at some trivial pursuit or another or asleep when we should be on duty. God help us!
As we move over these next five Sundays and arrive on Resurrection Sunday we’ll be taking a look at some of the battles Jesus fought during His three year journey to the ultimate battle on the Cross of Calvary and the defeat of death at the resurrection.
At the same time, let’s all examine ourselves to see.
1) Are we even a soldier in the army of the Lord or just pretending
2) If we are a solder in the army of the Lord are we fit for duty
3) Are we willing to give up our lives to bring others to the saving knowledge of Christ?
