Living Illustration
Before the sermon, arrange for a helper to make several calls to you as you begin to speak. Carry a cordless phone to the stage, and answer it when it rings. Prepare to ad lib the dialogue as it would relate to dealing with telemarketer calls.
Begin the sermon by briefly stating the title of the message and relating it to the TV series Survivor. As you begin, have the helper begin making a series of three or four annoying calls to you. Deal with calls about a new lower mortgage rate, cheaper telephone service, and vinyl siding for your house. Tell each “telemarketer” that you’re really busy and you aren’t interested in what they are selling. On the fourth call, just let it ring once, answer it, then hang up immediately.
(Idea taken from Creative Sermon Starters, Group Publishing (2000), p. 53.)
Debrief Living Illustration
You know, those frequent and annoying telemarketer calls are a lot like the temptations that Satan constantly throws our way. The calls are so annoying. They come at some of the worst times. And they are sometimes so hard to get rid of … just like our temptations. This morning, those calls kept me from being able to begin this message. They broke my focus and my concentration. They kept me from doing what I am here to do. Temptations work the same way. They distract us, make us lose our focus on Christ, and keep us from accomplishing the good works that God has planned for us.
We all experience temptation. But many of us just don’t know how to deal with it. One old southern preacher had some pretty good advice for dealing with temptation. He said, “When you’re passing by your neighbor’s watermelon patch, it’s hard to keep your mouth from watering, but don’t have to stop and eat!”
Another preacher once said that temptation is a lot like gravy. It looks good, but you don’t always know what’s underneath it.
Transition
In keeping with our SURVIVOR theme, I like to compare temptation to an event on the TV show called an immunity challenge. On each episode, the tribes compete against one another in an immunity challenge. The team that stays focused, uses all of its resources, and does the best planning always wins that challenge. And by winning it, their tribe does not have to vote a member off that night.
But the team that is least focused and weaker loses the immunity challenge, and someone from that team goes home. They lose a member. And their weakness deepens. They grow further and further away from their ultimate goal, which is to win the big money.
Friends, that is what the process of temptation can do to our spiritual lives … to our walk with Christ. The weaker we are, the less focused upon Jesus that we are, and the less prepared we are to do spiritual battle can all lead us to fail our immunity challenge … to fail in our fight against temptation. Now, don’t misunderstand me. We don’t lose our place in the family of God when we fail against temptation … but we do find ourselves distanced from the relationship that God really wants to have with us.
Bible Background
Today we are going to look at an event in the life of Jesus. As we follow the Scriptures, we see that He has just been baptized in the Jordan River by John the Baptist, and He is prepared to begin His three-year ministry. But before that ministry begins, Jesus must first deal with the process of temptation.
Now, many people do not understand how Jesus could be tempted. Many have asked, “Isn’t Jesus the Son of God? Isn’t He fully God as well as fully man? So, how could God be tempted?” Maybe you have wondered about those same things.
Well, those are good questions. And perhaps there are no simple answers. But you must understand a couple of things to have a theologically sound understanding of these events.
The first thing we need to understand is this … Jesus is the Son of God. He was fully God as well as fully man. I don’t really understand how that works. But that is the truth of Scripture, so we accept it … knowing that none of us are smart enough to understand everything. And that’s okay.
So, being fully God, Jesus had available to Him the supernatural power to resist all temptation. But Jesus voluntarily laid that power aside in order to live and experience life as a man. If he had invoked His Godly power to simply turn temptation away, it would have invalidated His role as Savior … as that perfect, sinless bridge of salvation between sinful man and a holy God. So, Jesus had to experience life as man. He had to be tempted. Hebrews 4:15, speaking about Jesus, tells us, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.”
Jesus’ victory over temptation … His perfect, sinless life … made Him uniquely qualified to be our Savior. Now, we need to remember that the only ones who experienced the events of this temptation were Jesus and Satan. No one else was there. So, Jesus told His disciples about these events for a reason. He told of these events so that we might see in Him a pattern for human victory over temptation and sin. He showed us how He did it, so that we can do the same things … understand and react in the same ways and with the same success.
So, let’s study the temptation of Jesus together and see how we can win our own victories over temptation … win our own immunity challenge.
Scripture
Read Matthew 4:1-11
So, how can we win in the battle against temptation?
1. We must prepare for temptation, because it will surely come.
Scripture: Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. (Matthew 4:1-2)
Illustration
Pastor John MacArthur tells a story about his experience in high school football. One Friday night his team was ahead by fifty points, so the coach played everybody. The team was about to score again, so the coach played the senior, fourth-string running back so that he could have at least one touchdown in his high school career. That running back scored easily. And as the crowd cheered, he turned to wave. But he kept running, and ran into the goal post and was knocked out cold. His victory was short-lived.
It’s the same in our spiritual lives. The first thing we need to understand is that temptation usually comes after every victory. Jesus had just been baptized, His ministry was beginning, and the first thing that He had to contend with was a direct temptation by Satan.
But Jesus prepared for it. He went into the hot, desolate Judean desert to be tempted. But He fasted for forty days. Now, we don’t know what He did during those forty days. But He surely spent most of that time in prayer, focusing upon and communing with the Father. He needed time for thought and for prayer, just as we do. He had to prepare forty days for the temptation that was coming. And after forty days, when He was really hungry and weak, it came.
Friends, we must also prepare for temptation. We prepare by doing daily maintenance in our walk with Jesus. We prepare thought prayer, studying the Word, and focusing our hearts and minds upon Godly things. But so many Christians let those things go … drop them way down on their priority lists … and they pay the price when temptation comes. And just like this event in the life of Jesus, temptation comes when we are weakest … when we are most likely to give in. So, friends, prepare in advance for temptation, because it’s coming.
2. Understand Satan’s primary methods of attack. (verses 3, 5-6, 8-9)
• He will tempt you to live a self-centered life instead of a God-centered life. Scripture: The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread." (Matthew 4:3)
Do not be mistaken. This first temptation wasn’t just about being hungry and being tempted to eat bread. It wasn’t just a temptation to meet His physical needs. The phrase, “If you are the Son of God,” really means, “Since you are the Son of God.” It assumes His Sonship. Satan doesn’t doubt that. He knows it. He was simply trying to tempt Jesus to disobey the Father. It was God’s plan for Jesus to set aside his power in humility and only use it when it was God’s Will. Jesus said in John 6:38, “For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.”
So, this temptation was not just a temptation to meet a basic physical need … the need for food. It was a temptation to place His own desires before the desires of God. It was a temptation to rebel against the Father. Satan was trying to fracture the very nature of God through the basic human need of hunger.
Friends, Satan will do the same thing to you. He will attack you through your basic human needs and desires. He will attack you through your hunger, your sexuality, your desire for wealth and material things … all with the single goal of tempting you to rebel against God. You see, the more Satan keeps you focused upon yourself, that’s all the more that he keeps your focus off of the things of God.
• He will tempt you to abandon faith and test God.
Scripture: Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. "If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down. For it is written: "`He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” (Matthew 4:5-6)
Satan wanted Jesus to put the power of God to the test. He took Him up on the highest point of the temple. This was most likely a roof that stuck out over Herod’s portico and overlooked the Kidron Valley. The drop to the valley floor was about 450 feet. So, from that spot Satan tempted Jesus to Jump. He pretty much said, “Since you’re the Son of God, go ahead and Jump. The angels will catch you.” He even quoted two verses from Psalm 91 to back up his temptation. He wanted Jesus to perform a sensational act to test the power of God. Satan had basically resorted to sensationalism. Boy, wouldn’t that have been a show! Jesus swooping down off the top of the temple and a flock of angels catching Him and floating Him gently down to the ground. That would have made the front page of the Jerusalem Enquirer!
I believe that we can relate to this temptation of sensationalism. Dramatic signs and wonders have always appealed to the flesh. But they have never produced faith. The miracles of Jesus only made His enemies hate Him more. There were throngs of people who would later follow Jesus because of His miracles. They scattered their garments before Him and waved palm fronds when He entered Jerusalem … all because they were excited about His raising Lazarus from the dead. But just a little while later, he hid from the crowd because, “Even after Jesus had done all these miraculous signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him.” (John 12:37) And only days later, that same crowd who followed Him because of His miracles shouted, “Crucify Him!”
I am convinced that Satan is successfully attacking millions of believers today by keeping them focused upon sensationalism instead of keeping their focus upon living the faith. That temptation is what packs out stadiums and auditoriums full of people who go to see the miracle shows. We have Christians who live from one day to the next looking for a miracle. They are obsessed with supernatural events. They want to see people lifted up out of wheelchairs and walking. They want to see flamboyant preachers wave their arms and three rows of people fall out. People flock across continents to see stigmata – statues of Jesus that produce blood or people with holes in their hands. Right now people are so excited about that bone box that some say contained the bones of “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus.” People are screaming, “Finally! We have proof! The best solid evidence that Jesus actually existed!” I’m afraid that so many believers have been distracted from their faith by a constant quest to test the power of God.
People are so quick to abandon the simple beauty of faith and go out to test God. They want to see something wonderful and dynamic, miraculous and life-changing. Friends, we don’t need miracles to believe. There is no need to test God. We don’t need proof. We already have it. There is nothing more life-changing than the personal relationship with Jesus that you and I have. Think about your life before Jesus, and now think about your life with Jesus. Consider how He has touched your life, your home, and your family. Think about how He helps you get through the everyday trials of life.
There’s your miracle! There’s no need for us to test God. Keep the simple faith of an honest, sincere, life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ.
• He will tempt you to impatiently go after what you want and not wait on God’s timing.
Scripture: Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. "All this I will give you," he said, "if you will bow down and worship me." (Matthew 4:8-9)
So, Satan showed Jesus all of the kingdoms of the world, and offered them to Him, if He would only bow down and worship Satan. As King of kings, Jesus had a divine right to all of those kingdoms. We know that someday Jesus will rule all the Earth, and every knee will bow down to Him … every tongue will confess Him as Lord. But Satan is saying to Him … “Why wait? You deserve it now. There’s no need to go down that long, bitter, painful road to the cross. Just listen to me and you can have it all now!”
You know, Satan always makes those kinds of promises to us. We can have money, fame, and power … all of our desires and fantasies can be fulfilled if we will just go and take it. Just do it now. Fulfill yourself now. You can almost hear him as you fight with temptation, “Why live by those high standards of God’s? Why wait for your rewards in heaven? You can have it all right now! Don’t wait!”
Friends, God does have a plan and a will for your life. But sometimes we can’t see it, and we get so impatient. We are so tempted to just go for it! Forget what God wants and go for what we want … on our own terms, and in our own time. That’s temptation … and our impatience is one of Satan’s primary targets for attack.
So, Jesus has shown us three main areas where Satan attacked Him … and three areas where we need to be vigilant, as well. We have a better understanding of Satan’s methods of attack. But what is the final strategy that we must use to fight temptation?
3. We must immerse ourselves in the Word of God and obey its teachings.
Just look at how Jesus responded:
• When tempted to selfishly turn those stones into bread, Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 8:3 - Jesus answered, "It is written: `Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ " (Matthew 4:4)
• When tempted to test God by jumping from the heights of the temple, Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 6:16 - Jesus answered him, "It is also written: `Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ " (Matthew 4:7)
• When Jesus was tempted to skip the plan of God, bypass the cross, and gain instant rule over all the earth, Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 6:13 - Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: `Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’ " (Matthew 4:10)
Jesus knew the Scriptures. He was raised in a home where He faithfully learned the Word of God. But Jesus was not able to resist temptation simply because He knew the Scriptures. He was able to resist because He obeyed God’s Word. Quoting is one thing … doing is entirely another. It is wonderful to memorize and learn verses from God’s word … but knowledge without obedience is empty. We must be willing to take a stand and obey the Word of God!
Closing Illustration
Eskimos have a traditional way of killing a wolf. First, he coats his knife blade with animal blood and allows it to freeze. He then adds layer after layer until the blade is covered with frozen blood – sort of a blood Popsicle.
The hunter then takes the knife and buries the handle in the ground with the blade up. Sooner or later the wolf will smell the blood, discover the source, and start licking it. And as he tastes the blood, he will start licking faster and faster, lapping until the razor edge of the blade is exposed. But the wolf becomes so feverishly consumed with his taste for blood that he doesn’t even notice the sting of the naked blade on his tongue. And he doesn’t recognize that his unquenchable hunger for blood is being satisfied with his own, warm blood. But his taste for blood consumes him until he bleeds himself to death in the cold snow.
[From Hot Illustrations for Youth Talks by Wayne Rice, Zondervan (1994), p. 87.]
Friends, that’s how the temptations of our enemy attack us. They look and taste so good … but in the end they will destroy us. In the end, we are consumed by our own desires, hungers, and lusts.
Christians, prepare for temptation. It will surely come. Understand Satan’s methods. They have not changed. And immerse yourself in the Word of God … but don’t just learn it … obey it and put it to work in your lives. Then you will win your immunity challenge – the ongoing battle against temptation.
Closing Challenge
Encourage non-believers not to be tempted to reject Jesus. Pray for strength of believers.
