Luke 4:1-13
Living With Purpose
The temptation of Jesus was for the purpose of distracting him from his ultimate goal and purpose in life. And that goal, that destiny, was to go to the cross as the atoning sacrifice for humanity. Satan’s intent in the wilderness was to defeat God’s purpose for Jesus and the means he would use was temptation.
The very name, "Satan", means the Adversary, or the One Who Opposes.
Just as God had a specific goal and purpose for Jesus, he has a specific goal and purpose for his Church and for each individual Christian. Satan’s intention is to cause the Church and the individual Christian to deviate from that destiny and, in so doing, to thwart the will and design of God.
The goal for your life and my life is two-fold: (1) To be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ in this life. And (2) to be brought safely into the God’s kingdom at the end of this life.
The first goal is summed up in popular Christian culture by those little bracelets that bear the inscription "WWJD" — What Would Jesus Do?. God wants our lives to be lived so that we reflect the ACTIONS and PERSONALITY of Jesus Christ. Romans 8:29a For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son...
The second goal is summed up in Paul’s second letter to Timothy: For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day... (2 Tim 4:6-8a)
The destiny that every Christian shares is to cross the finish line of death with those words of Paul on our lips: I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith!
Anything that has the power to lure us away or distract us from that GOAL is temptation. Or to put it another way: Temptation is the persuasive attraction that would cause us to center our lives on something other than God and God’s purpose for our lives. And if we surrender to that attraction the result is SIN and RUIN.
John Wesley asked his mother, the saintly Susanna Wesley, "How do you define sin?" Her reply was perhaps more penetrating that many formal theologians could develop: "If anything weakens your reasoning, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God or takes away your relish for spiritual things; in short if anything increases the power or authority of the flesh over the Spirit — that for you becomes sin however good it is in itself."
Satan employed three types of temptation to seek to derail Christ in his purpose. We can expect similar temptations. Thus, if we are going to be prepared for this attack we need to look at how Jesus overcame temptation.
1. The first avenue that Satan used to tempt Jesus was that of physical appetite. Luke 4:3 The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread."
Jesus’ purpose was to go to the Cross. If he had begun to give into his appetites at the beginning of his ministry he would have NEVER HAD THE SELF-DENIAL REQUIRED TO FACE THE ULTIMATE TORMENT OF THE CROSS! He would have lost the goal of his incarnation!
The most powerful temptation that any of us faces still come to us through our appetites. The appetites are God-given incentives that sustain life. Appetites for sex, food, sleep, etc. all come from God. But the temptation and sin come when those appetites shift our focus away from the goal of our existence.
January/February issue of the Christian computing magazine, Computing Today: "There are over 72,000 [pornographic] sites on the Internet, many of them illegally depicting incest, bestiality, and mutilation. This is a fraction of the total number of Internet sites (60 million)..." Nevertheless, "Pornography is responsible for the largest volume of sales on the Internet." "More than half the men surveyed at a 1996 Promise Keepers stadium event confessed to using pornography during the prior week." Some have said that over ½ of the traffic on the Internet is porn related.
The problem of pornography is that it lures those involved in it away from the goal of life. YOU CANNOT REFLECT THE PURITY OF CHRIST WHILE BEING INVOLVED IN PORNOGRAPHY
If left unchecked it destroys the ability to reflect Christ in one’s life and ultimately it will destroy your soul. It will so distract you from your life’s ultimate purpose and goal that you will miss heaven completely. In part, the very purpose of the Book of Revelation was to warn individual Christians of the potential for APOSTASY!
Rev 21:8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars--their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death."
2. The second temptation is to take moral shortcuts. Luke 4:5-7 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."
It was Jesus’ destiny to one day rule over all the kingdoms of the earth. But the way to glory and power led through the Cross. After the resurrection Jesus appeared to two disciples on the road to Emmaus and there reminded them: Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?" Luke 24:26
Satan says to Jesus, "You don’t have to go to the cross! Look I’ll give it all to you right now." He says the same thing to us. He lures us with the belief that we can attain our God-given goals through ungodly shortcuts. He still offers a life without a cross. BUT THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS CROSS-LESS CHRISTIANITY.
An acquaintance of mine by the name of Ralph (not his real name) took moral shortcuts in planting a new church in NC a few years ago. In order to make the church more attractive he did not maintain sound teaching — he avoided telling people at the outset what discipleship meant and instead offered them cheap grace. He avoided the rigors of financial accountability. He refused to postpone purchases and urged the church to take on more and more debt. Eventually all that he sowed ripened to a harvest of destruction and his ministry collapsed. Ralph left the ministry in disgrace because he wanted to take moral shortcuts.
3. Thirdly, in the disguise of religion Christ is tempted to focus attention to himself rather than on God. Luke 4:9-11 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.’"
The appeal is to gather a following through by doing something spectacular to impress and influence people. It is actually unbelief masquerading as faith that says: The only way to accomplish my spiritual purpose is to appeal to people’s cravings for spectacle and entertainment.
If there is one temptation faced by the church of Jesus Christ today in N. America I would have to say that this is it. Instead of fulfilling our purpose to make disciples of all nations through the message of JESUS CHRIST AND HIM CRUCIFIED we have elected to compete in the arena of entertainment. Whatever the secular world has we can offer you the baptized version of it.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I think that its fine for the church to offer times of fellowship or team sports or fun activities for the whole family.
But the problem is that we have capitulated to the entertainment culture. We have decided that we will reach people through the message of entertainment and then offer them Jesus, rather than offering them the message of Jesus first and above all. Thus those attracted to this entertainment message display loyalty to whoever provides the best SPECTACLE and whatever has the best production values rather than to the person of Jesus Christ.
Neil Postman summed up the entertainment culture in his book Amusing Ourselves to Death:
What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny "failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions." In 1984, Huxley added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.
I suggest that for the Church in N. America the danger is not that we will cease to exist due to persecution. The Church is in danger of entertaining itself out of existence.
4. How, then, are we to practically counter the temptations that we face on a daily basis? Jesus dealt with each of these temptations by reorienting his life on God through God’s Word. Temptation focuses us on the immediate moment and not the ultimate consequences. Temptation is Satan’s way of blinding us to God’s goal by blotting out everything except the NOW. How will this give me pleasure NOW? How will this satisfy me NOW? God’s Word refocuses us on our ultimate purpose and goal.
Soren Kirkegaard said: "I have learned to define my life backwards and live it forwards." That means that he defined his life by the goal and then moved towards it.
Jesus, the conqueror of temptation, lives in each Christian so that we now have a supernatural means of resisting the voice of temptation.
CONCLUSION: Have you lost your focus on the goal? Have you forgotten your destiny?
Has the satisfying of your appetites derailed your focus on God?
Has the temptation to take moral short-cuts removed your focus from God in your business life or in your relationships? Have you had the honeymoon before the wedding?
Have you been swallowed up by the focus of our culture on spectacle and entertainment. Is your loyalty to Jesus and his Church contingent on Christ’s ability to hold your attention as well as your favorite sit-com or computer game or sporting event?
In the movie of the true account of the Bridge Over the River Kwai a British colonel and his men are captured by the Japanese in WWII. The Japanese commandant of the prison camp required Colonel Nicholson and his troops to build a railroad bridge over the River Kwai. Colonel Nicholson refused help the Japanese because they were violating the Geneva Convention that declared officers would not be required to do manual labor.
Ultimate Nicholson wins this point. And then he throws himself into the construction of this bridge that will ultimately link the Japanese forces to Rangoon. His soldiers can’t understand what he’s doing and begin to ask, "Has the Colonel lost his mind?"
In the movie, Nicholson and the Japanese commander are walking along the bridge. Both men proud and pleased with themselves. The water has gone down and on the pilings and timbers Nicholson sees the wires that his own men have strung to charges set to destroy the bridge.
He climbs down and begins to cut the wires leading to the explosives and his own men try to stab him and stop him. In the course of the struggle the man is knifed and with his last breath asks Nicholson if he’s out of his mind. Nicholson, mortally wounded seems to have a moment of clarity and asks "My God, What have I done?". And he slumps over the detonator, destroying the bridge.
He had lost his focus. He had forgotten the ultimate purpose of why he was a soldier and why he was fighting this war.
Have you lost your purpose?
