March 4, 2001 Luke 4:1-13
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, 2 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. 3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” 4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone.’” 5 The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6 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. 7 So if you worship me, it will all be yours.” 8 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’” 9 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. 10 For it is written: ”‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; 11 they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” 12 Jesus answered, “It says: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” 13 When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.
There are some who say that history repeats itself. There are some facts that seem to support this theory. Take for instance this eerie comparison to Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy:
Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846. John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.
Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860. John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960.
The names Lincoln and Kennedy each contain seven letters.
Both were particularly concerned with civil rights.
Both Presidents were shot on a Friday. Both Presidents were shot in the head.
Lincoln’s secretary was named Kennedy. Kennedy’s secretary was named Lincoln.
Both were assassinated by Southerners. Both were succeeded by Southerners.
Both successors were named Johnson.
Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808. Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908.
John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln, was born in 1839. Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy, was born in 1939.
Both assassins were known by their three names. Both names are comprised of fifteen letters.
Lincoln was shot at the theater named ’Ford.’ Kennedy was shot in a car called a ’Ford (Lincoln.)’
Booth ran from the theater and was caught in a warehouse. Oswald ran from a warehouse and was caught in a theater.
Booth and Oswald were assassinated before their trials.
From this example alone it would appear obvious that history does repeat itself. This can be proven from a multitude of other examples as well. If this premise is true, it means that we can learn from examining the way that the devil attacked Jesus - and how Jesus overcame the devil. So today we will examine the way that the devil attacks as we consider the theme -
The Devil Has a Diabolical Design for Disaster
I. Do it yourself
“Didn’t I tell you to wash the dishes?”, the father says to his son.
The son replies, “I was going to!”
“WHEN? Next year?” Asks the father.
Then the mother chimes in, “I would really prefer you let me do the dishes!”
The father replies, “why is that?”
His wife says, “Because you guys don’t know how to wash dishes - you leave food on them half the time!”
Have you ever had conversations such as that within your household? Ever been frustrated because someone doesn’t do something by your time table or up to your standards? Imagine then, having gone 40 days without being given ANYTHING to eat - and Luke says, “Jesus was HUNGRY!” So the devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” It sounds innocent enough - doesn’t it? You could almost sense the innocense in the devil’s temptation - just make these stones into bread - what’s the big deal? If you’re the Son of God - just do it. There is no law against turning stones into bread! It won’t hurt anything.
The devil was right in implying that there is nothing wrong in and of itself in turning stones into bread. But since the Holy Spirit led him into the desert - then Jesus was operating with the understanding and promise that GOD would take care of Him in this desert. And so Jesus replied - “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone.’” This was a quote of Deuteronomy 8:3, describing why God fed the Israelites with Manna in the desert - to prove to them that HE would provide for them with His WORD! If God could take care of over two million people in the desert for 40 years, then God could certainly take care of one man for 40 DAYS in the desert. It would have been a sin of a lack of TRUST for Jesus to turn these stones into bread in His OWN time. It would have been equivalent to telling God, “why aren’t you feeding me already? Isn’t 40 days enough! I’ll do it myself!”
Another sin would have been that Jesus would have been using his power for his own self serving purpose - when God’s Word says to do ALL THINGS to the GLORY OF God! Whenever Jesus did miracles - He did it to help strengthen faith or confirm those in the faith who trusted in Him. This miracle would not have glorified God in any way! It certainly wouldn’t have given the devil any real faith. He was only confirmed in his apostasy!
We can learn from this temptation - for the devil uses the same diabolical design for our disaster yet today! For instance - there is nothing wrong with getting a second job in and of itself. There is no law that says, “thou shalt not work 60 hours a week!” If the bills get tight, we might find a good logic in working overtime. You may say to yourself, “God helps those who help themselves - I need to do something!” But when we buy into the concept that the only way I can survive is if I DO IT MYSELF - then it is a sin. When we work overtime because we feel that God isn’t providing for us the way He should - then we are committing the sin of not trusting in God to work in His own way! Or when we get a second job to try and PROVE OURSELVES to our parents or our friends, then this is self glorifying and it is wrong! As the dish example illustrates - that is like saying to God - “WHEN are you going to do it?” or “Since you aren’t taking care of me the way I think you should, I’ll do it MYSELF!” God’s Law says - thou shalt have no other gods! If you think that YOU are the master of your destiny - then you’ve committed this sin! And who of us can say that we haven’t bought into that logic? We’ve never even considered the fact that our seemingly innocent actions or attitude may actually be reflecting a lack of trust in God! The devil has designed this world to believe that if you want something done you need to do it YOURSELF - not trust in God! The minute we even think this way is the minute we are headed for disaster! But Jesus didn’t buy it.
II. Take the easy road
The devil failed at this first temptation. But he wasn’t done yet. He used a different kind of logic for his second temptation - the logic that says the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Verse 5 says, The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6 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. 7 So if you worship me, it will all be yours.” The devil knew that Jesus had come to try and win back the world - to re-establish His relationship with the world of sinners. So the devil’s second temptation was - “why go through all of this suffering and temptation?” By this point Jesus had already been tempted by Satan for 40 days straight in the desert! It was hard work. Jesus was working so hard, that he hadn’t even thought about food up to this point! So the devil said, “let’s get out of the desert right now!” In the flash of a second he showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and said, “I’ll give you all these kingdoms that I was given control of - all if you just worship me!” Just as these people love me, they’ll love you without your suffering and fighting me! He was offering Jesus a SHORT CUT!
It reminds me of a paper I had to give in college once. I had already written a paper for English class on the life of Mark Twain. Two years later, our Philosophy professor assigned a paper of our choice. So I thought, “I know a short cut!” I simply handed in my Mark Twain paper and renamed it - “A Philosophical Analysis of Mark Twain’s Life.” I even paid a guy ten bucks to type it out for me! No problem! My heart just about jumped out of my skin when I received my paper back saying, “I would like to talk with you after class.” It wasn’t good. That’s how short cuts usually work. The short cut takes us into dangerous territory that is not permitted.
Such was the case with Satan. He was offering Jesus the “easy road.” The glory without the cross! Think about what a temptation this would have been for Jesus. No more hungry stomach! No more ridicule! No more fear of having God’s wrath come crashing down on Him!
But notice Satan’s version of grace - it had an IF clause attached to it. This reminds me of the many ploys out there today - get 400 dollars of free merchandise - IF you sign up for MSN for three years. No money down - no interest for 12 months - you can own a new car NOW! But all you have to do is make payments for the next five years! It’s not exactly as free as you thought! Satan said, “I’ll give you ALL these kingdoms, if you bow down and worship me!”
Jesus realized the devil’s temptation for what it was once again. It was actually a trap to try and take all of the kingdoms from Jesus’ hands. This would be an obvious violation of God’s first command to have NO other gods. The devil’s shortcut reminds me of a husbands version of a short cut - where the wife is saying, “are you sure you know where you’re going?” The man confidently answers, “oh, yes!” The short cut ends up getting them completely lost. That’s where this “short cut” would have left Jesus - if he had fallen for it - He would have lost the very thing he had been working for - the salvation of the world. So Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’”
History repeats itself. Satan does the same thing today. The idea is - why wait for heaven when you can have it RIGHT NOW on earth! The devil plants this mind set in Americans, who believe that the sole purpose of life is to EAT, DRINK, and BE MERRY! He whispers in your ear, “Why sacrifice your first fruits when you can spend your money on a nice outdoor spa? Why spend the rest of your life with the same woman! Go out and play the field - you only live ONCE! You deserve a break TODAY!” What is the result? We are living in the middle of a country of children whose lives revolve around video games. Our middle age people are scheduling themselves around concerts and sporting events. If they aren’t doing that, many are hoarding their riches and investing it, eagerly anticipating retirement where they can sit around and do nothing besides travel the world and enjoy themselves. We are putting much thought into how to retire as millionaires or how to save up for new video games or clothes.
You ask, “pastor, what’s wrong with enjoying yourself?” God wants us to enjoy life. But when your life REVOLVES around those things - you have forgotten what Jesus warned about in Luke 8:14 The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. And so Jesus said in Matthew 16 If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Do you think Jesus lived for enjoyment in this life? Do you think Paul enjoyed being whipped and stoned? The glory is to come AFTER the cross! If we expect to have heaven on earth - then the devil’s diabolical design has taken effect on us - and this will be the only HEAVEN we will get. How many of us HAVEN’T gotten caught up in this mind set - that life is just to enjoy! God doesn’t give us our gifts just to enjoy life. He gives them to us to use to HIS glory! He also wants us to remember that we have crosses to bear in this life - it’s not just about enjoyment.
III. Don’t believe it til you see it
Satan was 0 for 2. So he gave it one more try. 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. 10 For it is written: ”‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; 11 they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” Did you notice that earlier Jesus wouldn’t turn the stone into bread because He trusted in God. So Satan tried a spiritual reverse nelson wrestling move on him - he said, “ok, you used a stone to prove your trust in God. If you really trust in God - let’s see you throw yourself down from here. God promises in Psalm 91 that He won’t let your foot strike against a stone. Do you really trust him? Will he really protect you? Are you really the Son of God that you claim you are? It’s easy to say that - but let’s see if God protects you!”
What was the temptation here? Again - it revolved around that little two letter word - “if.” It was actually the same temptation as the first one - a lack of trust - but from a different angle. Jesus knew that God loved Him and that God would take care of Him. But Satan was trying to get Jesus to DOUBT that love - to demand God to prove it to him. Faith is being sure of what we DO NOT SEE. So if Jesus were to throw Himself down from the temple, this would again be equivalent to saying to God - “I won’t believe in you until I see you SHOW it to me by MY terms.” Jesus recognized the temptation for what it was right away - and so Jesus answered, “It says: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
Again - the devil has the same diabolical design for our disaster. By throwing scientific formulas and theories in front of our eyes, he gets us to question - “did God really create the world in six days?” By flooding us with so called evidence of cavemen and missing links, he gets us to wonder, “maybe we did evolve from monkeys?” And then the devil puts on his spiritual wrestling tights and puts on some weight - moving up to the heavy weight position - by taking on the form of religious professors at big universities. These so called “experts” in religion - question whether there ever was a flood - whether there ever were miracles such as the 10 plagues. And now he has the religious world running hin and yon trying to find the ark up in the remains of the ark to PROVE that it existed!
Do you see what he is doing? He is diabolically designing the disaster of our faith. When we start to demand to SEE things to believe them - then we lose the very ESSENCE of what FAITH is. Think about the very essence of saving faith - it is based on something we can’t see. It isn’t based on anything we do. It’s based on what one man and God did 2,000 years ago. It’s based on something we’ve never seen and something we’ve never done! But Satan wants us to demand for proof from God!
And how many of us, again, have fallen into this disaster! Maybe we don’t buy into the design outright. But it’s those subtle ways that we test God’s love for us. We may not jump from temples - but we do it in other ways. When we don’t pray as often as we should - we’re saying to God - “let’s see if you take care of me anyway?” When we don’t put our coming to worship as a 1st priority in our lives - and we still expect God to keep our family lives straight - we’re testing God’s love for us. When we hang out with children that we know are not respectful to their parents or their teachers, and we still expect to be able to resist falling into the temptations - we’re testing God. When our young adults go on dates and decide to test the boundaries of intimacy, we’re testing God. God says, “here’s the line”, and we say - “how close can I get to it?” Then we’re surprised when our family lives fall apart, when we get in trouble at school, or when someone ends up pregnant? Then we blame God? But this happens because we TEST God.
The devil is not dumb. He knows our weaknesses. He knew what would get under Jesus’ skin. “IF you are the Son of God,” he kept saying. But he was making a mistake. He was appealing to a sinful pride that Jesus didn’t have. He was trying to get Jesus to throw His pearls before his schweinhund. He wanted Jesus to prove that he was the Christ by ACTIONS. But Jesus proved Himself by His WORDS. Out of all of the thousands of people ever born - Jesus resisted and overcame the devil’s temptation - not by what He did, but by what He SAID -with the Word of God. Only the Son of God could put the devil in His place - and Jesus did that. For FORTY DAYS the devil tried different spiritual wrestling tricks, and then when that was done - the devil even was allowed three MORE strikes - even trying to use GOD’S Word - and He still got SOUNDLY DEFEATED!
What good news this is for us! Remember, it wasn’t only Jesus who was defeating the devil - it was you and me. When Jesus defeated the devil - WE defeated the devil. Jesus was fighting the devil as our SUBSTITUTE! And so we can now stand before God and say to him with a straight face - “I NEVER fell for the devil’s diabolical design for my disaster. I never bought into that idea that I have to do it myself. I never took the easy road. I never demanded to see it to believe it. Not I, Lord, but YOU did this in my place!” What a wonderful message this is for the beginning of Lent. As we sorrow over what our sins led Jesus into, we also rejoice in our forgiveness!
There’s an interesting story in the Second Kings chapter 6 about a King of Aram who continued to set traps for the Israelites. He would strategically place his troops and wait for the Israelites to ambush them. But every time he did this, God warned Elisha of the trap. And so the Israelites would take a different route. Finally vs. 11 says, This enraged the king of Aram. He summoned his officers and demanded of them, “Will you not tell me which of us is on the side of the king of Israel?” 12 “None of us, my lord the king,” said one of his officers, “but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the very words you speak in your bedroom.” It was really quite comical. It was like fighting a battle with a secret weapon - knowing every move your enemy is going to make!
My friends, that is the advantage WE HAVE. The devil is still trying to assassinate your soul - just as he tried to destroy Jesus. Time and time again - history has repeated itself, as his diabolical design has destroyed millions of souls. And now, he is coming after YOU! He uses the same temptation as he did not Jesus - and they’re difficult to fight! But don’t fret! You know what his design is. You know what kind of weapons he is using! But you have a powerful weapon in the Word of God - just like Jesus did - to fight Him. And most importantly - you have Jesus Himself as your bodyguard! Because of that - through faith in Christ - his assassination attempts for your disaster have been defeated! With Jesus in your corner, there will be no assassinations of our soul. The only history that will be repeating itself will be Satan cowering in defeat. Amen.
