Luke 4:1-13
Battling Temptation
One time four Christian friends were spending a couple of days hunting together. Back at the cabin one night they decided to tell each other their biggest temptation. The first said, “Well, it's kind of embarrassing, but I struggle with pornography. I keep having to fight it.” “My temptation is worse,” said the second fellow. “It's gambling. I keep getting this urge to place online bets.” “Mine is worse still,” said the third guy. “I sometimes just can’t stop drinking.” The fourth fellow was quiet. “Guys, I hate to say this,” he said, “but my temptation is worst of all. I love to gossip, and if you’ll excuse me, I need to make some phone calls!”
Maybe you think your particular temptation is worst of all. Oscar Wilde said, “I can resist anything but temptation.” Everyone is tempted. Even Jesus was tempted while on earth. Hebrews 4:15 says he was tempted in every way common to humanity but never sinned.
So what is temptation? Temptation is the enticement to sin, the proposal of Satan to go beyond God’s boundaries. James 1:14-15 says, “Each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.” It’s not a sin in itself to be tempted. Even Jesus was tempted, as we said. It only becomes a sin when you act upon it. But there’s a fine line here. In his famous Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) Jesus said if you look at a beautiful woman long enough, you commit adultery in your mind. If you harbor angry feelings for a person long enough, you commit murder in your mind. So watch out when you’re close to that line. Get back! Be like Joseph in Egypt, and run for your life!
What is interesting is that temptation is usually rooted in a God-given desire or need, but the temptation is to fill that need in a way not pleasing to God. For instance, sexual temptation is to meet a God-given need for intimacy but in a way beyond God’s boundaries for sexuality. And the temptation to gossip is to meet a need for strong self-esteem but in a way that damages others and displeases God.
Various scriptures tell us God never tempts us, but God does allow us to go through temptation to depend on him and to strengthen us. Just look at the story of Job or today’s story of Jesus in the wilderness.
1 Corinthians 10:13 has a great promise with regards to temptation: “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 endure it.” The Greek word for “way out” is the word from which we get our word “exit.” So when I think of this verse, I think of the green lit-up exit sign above exterior doors. When you find yourself in the midst of temptation, look for that exit sign God has promised, and he will show you the way out. I have seen God do this for me, literally. I’ll catch myself wanting to gossip, and when I look for the exit sign, the urge is gone, and I feel a new compassion for the person I just wanted to trash.
When it comes to temptation, Satan is clever. He will tempt each of us in ways unique to us. We won’t be tempted like Jesus was, to turn stones into bread or jump off cliffs believing that angels will save us. Those were designed specifically for the God-man Jesus. Satan will tailor your temptation to your weak areas.
I remember hearing about one pastor who loved to play golf. He was out there every Monday on his day off, but sometimes he would overhear other golfers talk about how beautiful it was on early Sunday mornings, when the retirees were sleeping in or off to church. He kept thinking about this, wondering how he could get time off from church on a Sunday. One beautiful Sunday morning he gave into the temptation and called his assistant and said, “I just don’t feel good this morning. You’re going to have to preach.” He drove to the course with an excitement of a little kid. Hardly anyone was there. It was a pristine morning.
Meanwhile, God and his angels are watching from heaven. The head angel says, “You’re not going to let him get away with this, are you?” God says, “Don’t worry; I’ve got it all under control.” Well, the pastor tees up, and amazingly hits a hole-in-one! The angel says, “God, you’ve got to do something here!” God again says, “Don’t worry.” On the second hole the pastor does it again, and on and on until he completes 18 holes, each one a hole-in-one! He can’t believe it. As he’s walking off the course in glee, the angel says, “God, what have you done?” God smiles and says, “Think about it; who’s he going to tell?”
Yes, Satan designs temptation uniquely for us, but generally temptation falls into three basic categories. 1 John 2:16 lists them as the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. The lust of the flesh is the temptation to meet that desire in your own way, contrary to God’s way. For Jesus, it was a need for food after his long fast. Satan tempted him to perform a little miracle for himself instead of reserving miracles to point people to God. With our first parents, Adam and Eve, they noticed that the tree was “good for food.” Thy honed in on the one forbidden tree when they had every other tree available, the lust of the flesh.
The second category is the lust of the eyes. Our eyes can get us in trouble, as we imagine having what is not ours. For Jesus, Satan tempted him with seeing all the kingdoms of the earth, basically short-circuiting the plan of the cross and going straight to a benevolent dictatorship on earth. For Eve, it was noticing that the tree was “pleasing to the eyes.” We even have a word for that now: eye candy. It describes something appealing to our eyes. We should pay attention to that old Sunday school song: “Be careful little eyes what you see.”
The third category—perhaps the one that grows in potential in our later years—is the pride of life. We can grow quite proud of what we’ve accomplished; of who we have become. I love the people here who take no note of their prior senior rank in the military. They are just servant leaders for Jesus. In our story today, Jesus was tempted to act on his role as the Son of God and receive lots of attention with a dramatic angelic rescue. For Eve, it was noticing that the tree was desirable to make one wise.
In the battle of temptation, Adam and Eve didn’t hold up so well, but Jesus did. Adam and Eve trusted their own desires even when they conflicted with God’s clearly expressed word. Jesus trusted God’s word even when it conflicted with his own desires. And that’s the crux of the matter for every temptation: will we do it God’s way or our way? Will we trust God’s word or ourselves?
The good news is we can say no to temptation. Usually we think of temptation very negatively, as an opportunity to fail, to give into sin, to blow it. But temptation is also an opportunity to succeed, to be victorious in trusting God to provide, and to allow him to build our faith muscles.
Jesus gained victory over temptation by citing the word of God. Three times he quoted from the Bible book of Deuteronomy. Notice he did not argue or reason with Satan. He simply quoted scripture. Now Satan quotes scripture, too. In his third temptation, he quoted scripture to Jesus, but he didn’t quote it completely. He just took the part that suited his purpose and twisted its meaning. So we need to use scripture correctly, in context, true to God’s intent.
And we need to know it before we need it. Jesus wasn’t carrying any scrolls around with him in the wilderness. So how could he quote scripture? He memorized it! Psalm 119:11 says, "Thy Word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee." Have you hidden God’s word in your heart? The psalmist says that’s the key to stop sinning.
Are you familiar with the Bible? If not, start reading it daily. Come to Bible study twice a month. Don’t worry. We don’t call on anyone there, so you can be as quiet as you’d like. Read ahead the scriptures for next Sunday’s sermon.
You can’t draw water out of an empty well. If you never read the Bible, if you never memorize a verse, you’re not giving the Holy Spirit any ammunition to work with in your time of need. You run into temptation, you need a scripture to combat it and get you back on course, and there’s nothing there! Not good!
The nice thing is, you don’t need to memorize the whole Bible. Since we all have our own unique hotspots, choose a scripture to match your temptation. If you tend to overeat, memorize when Paul says, “Your god is your stomach.” If you gossip, memorize James 3 about your tongue being like a wildfire. Find a scripture to match your temptation. If you’re not sure how to find one, look in a topical Bible, or ask a friend familiar with scripture, or do an internet search. If you’re not a big fan of the internet, have your grandchild or great-grandchild help you. If you’re embarrassed, tell them it’s for a friend. That will fool them for sure!
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could rise to a certain spiritual maturity level to be finally free of temptation once and for all? But it isn’t to be. Otherwise, we would not need God anymore. Even Jesus did not escape temptation. Notice verse 13 in today’s passage: “When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.” Satan would return later, at a more opportune time. And he returns to us as well. But the good news is, “The one who is in you [God’s Holy Spirit] is greater than the one who is in the world [the devil]” (1 John 4:4). All we need to do is ask. All we need to do is look for the promised exit sign (1 Corinthians 10:13). And God is more than willing to help. Let us pray…
Father in Heaven, you know how weak we are. We like to fool others into thinking we are strong. Sometimes we even fool ourselves, but we can’t fool you. You know our weaknesses. And it seems like the devil does, too, because he messes with us. Please help us. Help us to want to learn your word, and to choose you and your word above that tempting desire when it comes. We will lean hard on your Holy Spirit in that moment. We ask this in the name of Jesus who died for that sin, amen.
