OUR GREATEST TEMPTATION
Luke 22:39-46
INTRODUCTION: A small-town country preacher and his wife were having a very heated discussion. Seems she had purchased a very expensive dress and he was none too happy about it. "How could you do this!" he exclaimed. "I don’t know," she cried, "I was standing in the store looking at the dress, then I found myself trying it on. It was like the Devil was saying to me, "Gee, you look great in that dress. You ought to buy it." "Well," her husband said, "You know how to deal with Satan! Just tell him to get behind you." "I did," his wife said, "but then Satan said "It looks great from back here, too."
This is often how Satan works in our lives, isn’t it. He appeals to our most base instinct, our carnal side, our fleshly desires, our weaknesses. After all, that was the case with Eve in the Garden of Eden – the Fruit was good for food, it appealed to her eyes and it would make her wise like God. He uses the same temptation with Jesus in the wilderness – turn the stones to bread, I’ll give you these wealthy cities, bring the angels to the rescue. In Luke 22 we find Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, and he is not alone, Satan up to his old tricks. READ TEXT When Jesus utters this prayer He is only hours from the cross and He knows it. It is in this scene where we get a glimpse into a struggle that we share with Him. Here Jesus is wrestling with humanities greatest temptation – the temptation to exalt self and failure to surrender to God. And from this passage we are given an intimate look into the two greatest struggles we face.
{The First is…}
I. THE STRUGGLE TO DENY SELF
A. A lot has been said about Jesus sharing with us in the human condition, and rightly so. By the wisdom of God, Jesus was not spared any of the things humanity bears each day of existence.
1. He was as much man as He was God, feeling every pain, bearing every emotion and wrestling with Satan every step of the way.
2. This is why the Hebrew writer tells us that by His human experience Jesus is now qualified to be our High Priest – testifying before God on our behalf as an expert witness to the trials and tribulations we face.
B. As we see Jesus praying this prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane we must realize that He is responding to the work of Satan in His life. No, Satan is not clearly identified in this passage, but he is definitely here.
1. And Jesus knew He must deny himself to fulfill the will of God. That was why He was born of a woman. That was His mission. But Satan has placed the fear of surrendering His life into His mortal body.
2. This is the Devil’s last chance to ruin God’s plan for redemption. If he can get Jesus to put it off, to find one excuse or to just say NO, he then has won the day. Matthew records Jesus saying, "Lord, Let this cup pass from me." This "Cup" does not mean duty or obligation, but the cup of God’s wrath that Isaiah and Jeremiah speak of that will be poured out upon man because of sin.
3. The human side was not ready to suffer this, but Jesus knew he had to. He was struggling with the need to deny self and surrender to the will of God. And Satan seems to have found a way to bring great anguish upon the Son of God.
C. Do we not face that same struggle today? It is not easy to deny oneself, even for God. How often do we find ourselves making excuses, offering up alternate plans, or just saying NO?
1. We do it in regards to obedience, to morality, to righteousness, even salavation. We plead, we beg, we insist that our thinking, our reasoning, our planning is better than God’s. Folks, if this is descriptive of your life, then Satan is living large in your life.
2. He has invaded the very depths of your being and has planted the seed of doubt and cultivated it with humanism and selfishness. He has somehow convinced you that to serve self is in your best interests. In effect, Satan has played his trump card, which is our weakness for self-exaltation.
3. And when this happens, when we elivate self over the will and way of God, we do what Paul described in Romans 1 – "serve the created thing rather than the Creator," we become as Demas in II Timothy 4 – in that we "love the things of this world more than the things of God."
1. Luke 17:33
2. Mark 8:36
2. Matthew 10:32ff
{The Second is…}
II. THE STRUGGLE TO SURRENDER TO THE WILL OF GOD
A. The struggle of self-denial was a difficult one for Jesus. So much so that He was in great anguish and sweat poured from His body like blood from an open wound. This was Satan’s work. Yet, y His unswerving commitment to His Father, Jesus did not allow it to overwhelm Him.
1. He knew that Satan was the source of this great temptation. That is why He fought so hard against it and prayed so fervently about it, and the words He uttered in His prayer show just how aware He was of Satan’s presence.
2. Notice Luke 22:42. Jesus appeals to the Will of God, even as He asks for a release from the cross. Folks, this is the equivalent of quoting Scripture as a defense against the Devil, and it seems like He has done this before.
3. You see, as much as His dreaded the pain and the torture that lie ahead for Him, Jesus could not give in to either Him flesh or to Satan. He could only trust in God’s will for His life. And if that meant denying every thing and going to the cross, then He would do His Father’s will.
B. Folks our lives are no different. God has a will for each of us. He desires to do great things through us and with us, but He will not do them by force. We must give Him a surrendered life. We must commit to "Thy will be done."
1. A surrendered life means we live as He desires not as we desire. It means we abandon our ways for His ways, and our thoughts for His thoughts. There are not more negotiations, no more plea-bargains, nor more refusals on our behalf.
2. When Jesus ends His prayer in the Garden He does so with Total Surrender and thru Total Surrender He finds the peace that enables Him to go to the Cross without a word, without a fight, without any recriminations.
3. Likewise, when we surrender our lives, placed our very existence into God’s powerful hands, we are given a overwhelming blessing of peace thru which we can overcome every obstacle and temptation that Satan throws in our way and accomplish God’s will for us in this world.
1. Galatians 2:20 – this is the epitome of the surrendered life.
2. Ephesians 6:6 – Paul says something about doing the "will of God from the heart."
3. Luke 18:29-30
CONCLUSION: There is an old, old song we sing on occasion, "Just As I Am." Often misunderstood – "Here I am God, good, bad or indifferent, take me as I am." In reality it means, "God, I surrender my sinful self to your will. Save me in my surrender." Invitation
