Do you ever feel like you’re wearing one of these (a target)? Maybe it’s that you feel like you’re being blamed for everything that is going wrong in other people’s lives, even when it’s not your fault. Maybe it’s more of the personal attacks that are being fired in your direction because of what you’ve said, what you’ve done, or even what you believe. Living with a target on your back is not a real fun experience. So, do you ever feel that you are being targeted by the devil? There just seems to be one temptation after another, the devil seemingly wanting to make your life as difficult as possible as you are just trying to live your Christian life. You feel like you are constantly living in the crosshairs of the devil. Well, if you’ve ever felt like that, you’re not alone. Jesus knew what it was like to live in the crosshairs of the devil, and rightfully so. If there was one person in all of history that the devil wanted to sin just once, wouldn’t it be Jesus? With a single sin, the devil could permanently derail God’s plan for the world’s salvation. So, you can only imagine that the devil would put every ounce of effort into getting Jesus to sin.
Today, we’re going to look at three of those attacks that the devil launched against Jesus. As we look at these three temptations, let’s learn from his glorious struggle against sin, and see how it helps us in our fight against temptation.
Last week, the account of Jesus’ transfiguration took us to the end of Jesus’ ministry. This week we are taken to the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, three years earlier. Jesus spent 40 days out in the wilderness, away from others and without food. Throughout those 40 days, we’re told, “…he [Jesus] was tempted by the devil” (Luke 4:2). For nearly 6 weeks, Jesus was the target of the devil’s repeated attacks. The three temptations that the Bible records for us seem to take place at the conclusion of those 40 days. By that point in time, Jesus was certainly weak with hunger, and spiritual worn out. What a perfect time, the devil thought, to attack Jesus once again.
The devil comes to Jesus and says, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread” (Luke 4:3). How appealing it must have been to think of a nice warm piece of bread after not eating for 40 days! But this temptation was much more than Jesus using his divine power to meet his own needs. At the heart of this temptation was really the question, “Can you trust God? Can you trust God’s promise to provide for you, or do you need to take things into your own hands?” Jesus immediately sees through the devil’s challenge and replies, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone’” (Luke 4:4). Jesus turns to the words of the Old Testament, where God’s people were reminded that God was faithful to all he said as he had repeatedly given evidence of.
Has the devil ever targeted you with this type of temptation? Has the devil ever come and questioned, “Can you really trust God to do what he has said?” I don’t think that the question is really has the devil ever, but how often does the devil come and tempt us to doubt what God has promised. Whether it is God’s promise to provide for all our needs when we are struggling to make ends meet, or the promise that God uses all things for our good, when life feels far from good. How quickly we begin to doubt whether God is really going to do what he has promised or if we need to start looking for other options, take things into our own hands.
The third temptation that Jesus faced is closely connected to that first one, so let’s look at that one next. The devil takes Jesus to highest point of the temple and then says to Jesus, “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 again a stone’” (Luke 4:9-11). The devil is no dummy. He heard Jesus quote the Bible before and probably thought, “Two can play at that game,” and quotes the Bible himself. In essence the devil says to Jesus, “Hasn’t God made the promise to protect you? Well, you say that you trust God to do what he says, prove it! Jump and let’s see if God will really send his angels to protect you.” Again, Jesus sees through the devil’s lies and manipulation of God’s Word and says, “It is said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test’” (Luke 4:12). Jesus tells the devil that trust in God is not demanding that God do what he has said when YOU choose. That’s not trusting God, that’s abusing Gods’ promises and faithfulness.
Has the devil ever targeted you with this type of temptation? Sure he does! How often does the devil come and tries to convince us, “Doesn’t the Bible say that God has promised that he will forgive all your sins? Well, then go ahead and jump into that sin, God will forgive you, right?” Or, “Doesn’t the Bible say that God loves all people? Well then, how could God ever punish you for doing something that plenty of other people are doing and doesn’t really feel wrong? God loves everyone, right?” Once again, this temptation really comes back to trust. Trusting God is not twisting his Words to demand that he do whatever you want, whenever you want. That is not trusting God, that’s tempting God, doubting that he’ll do what he said.
The second temptation that Jesus faced may have also been the most appealing. The devil shows him all the kingdoms of the world and says, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. If you worship me, it will all be yours” (Luke 4:6,7). This seems so obviously sinful, doesn’t it? Devil worship? Why would I say that this would even be slightly appealing to Jesus? But think about it. If Jesus continued to trust his Father and follow God’s will, what would that mean for Jesus? That would mean that he would need to continue to struggle against temptation, suffer and eventually die a horrible death – all for people who didn’t even appreciate him or what he was doing for them! However, if Jesus followed the devil, he could avoid all of that suffering and death stuff, and make use of the glory and power that was rightfully his from all of eternity. Once again, Jesus reveals the empty promises of the devil, as he says, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only’” (Luke 4:8). Jesus’ love for his Father and his love for us was far greater than his desire to avoid the suffering and death that God’s plan for our salvation would require of him. Jesus trusted God his Father completely, fully, even when God’s plans included suffering.
Again, has the devil targeted you with this type of temptation? The devil is good at getting us to question whether the struggles and sacrifice that goes along with living a Christina life is really worth it. The devil whispers in our ear, “If you just followed me, life would be so much easier. Avoid the struggles against sexual sins. Avoid the difficulties of disciplining your child. Avoid the tiredness of getting up on a Sunday morning or staying awake on a Monday evening for church. Avoid them all, just by following me. YOU could be in control of YOUR life.”
Yes, there is no doubt that Christians live with a target on their back, constantly in the crosshairs of the devil. And when we think about those temptations that the devil daily launches in our direction, we have been far less successful than Jesus. We have fallen, failed, deviated, doubted and compromised more often than we would like to admit and probably even know of. But that’s why it’s so good for us to see Jesus in this glorious struggle against the devil. Yes, we can certainly learn from Jesus to take temptation seriously, knowing that the devil’s intent with every temptation is to destroy trust and faith in God. We can see the importance of knowing the truth of God’s Word so that we are not deceived by the devil’s lies. Absolutely. And those are important and valuable lessons for us to take away from this account. But even greater than what we can LEARN from Jesus, is what this account reminds us we have RECEIVED from Jesus.
Jesus is battling the devil for us. Jesus is taking on temptation, over and over again, for us who have failed over and over again. Jesus is determined to defeat every one of the devil’s temptations, all so that he can give that victory to you. With that victory of Jesus, there is no sin, no failure, no doubt. You are perfect. And that glorious struggle that Jesus performed on our behalf strengthens us then in our struggles against temptation. It is a glorious struggle, not easy, but glorious because we see that our struggles against sin is a way for us to honor the Savior who did everything, whatever it would take, for our soul’s eternal salvation. We see our struggles as a way for us to witness to the world who Jesus has made us, that this world has nothing that can compare to the glory of heaven that Christ our Savior has won for us and given to us through faith. And finally, the struggles become bearable because we know that they are only temporary, to be followed by the freedom from every struggle that the devil causes in our lives here, free from every temptation, free to serve our Savior in love forever.
Dear friends, that is the glorious struggle of the Christian as we daily live in the crosshairs of the devil. It is a struggle that Christ knows well, that Christ has done perfectly, a struggle that will one day be over when we see the full glory that Christ’s struggle has won for us. Amen.
