Study in Luke’s Gospel

Study in Luke’s Gospel Presentation 13

Wilderness Temptation Chap 4v1-13 Presentation 13

Introduction Are you the sort of person who says, "I'm not really bothered with temptation“? If so then you have good cause to be concerned about your spiritual state. For Satan does not spend much time tempting folk who have no real heart commitment to God, who willingly submit to the impulses of their fallen nature and who like Oscar Wilde say, “The only way to deal with temptation is to yield to it“. But let a man determine to live for God, walk in obedience to him and seek to glorify him and he will be assailed by the Tempter. Temptation is not sin, it is a call to battle, and it is a call to be involved in spiritual conflict. It is against this background that we examine the temptation of Christ. Presentation 13

The Timing Of The Temptation Temptation, like some bus services, arrives when we are least expecting it. Nevertheless, the timing of Jesus’ temptation provides us with some useful pointers. Jesus had recently experienced the encouragement of the Father when the heavens were rent open and God said, ‘This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased’. Now immediately after that great blessing, temptation came! It is the experience of many Christians that their fiercest temptations have come immediately after a time of particular blessing or period of marked success in Christian service. For in such situations we are often most off guard? Presentation 13

The Timing Of The Temptation Further, the temptation immediately followed Jesus’ public statement of intent to fulfil his God-given mission. In baptism he promised to live a life and die a death that would provide salvation for his people. Whenever we step out in obedience to God it is not unusual to experience a powerful temptation, designed to deflect us. When we decide to consecrate our life afresh to God or, some form of service for him and the Tempter is close at hand. This spiritual law of cause and effect, of spiritual progress being met by distracting temptation, also operates when people begin to show an interest in becoming Christians. Presentation 13

The Timing Of The Temptation C. S. Lewis in ‘Screwtape Letters’ describes a correspondence between a junior and a senior devil which illustrates this strategy of distraction: “I once had a patient, a sound atheist who used to read in the British Museum. One day as he sat reading I saw a train of thought begin to grow in his mind in the wrong way. The Enemy [God] of course was at his elbow. Before I knew where I was I saw my twenty years work beginning to totter. I struck instantly at that part of the man, which I had best under my control and suggested that it was just about time for lunch.” Presentation 13

The Timing Of The Temptation John Bunyan also warns of this danger in ‘Pilgrim’s Progress.’ Immediately Pilgrim is awakened by the burden of sin on his back and decides to seek spiritual relief he encounters temptation to turn back in the form of Mr Worldly Wiseman who begins to ridicule him. His companions in the Slough of Despond add to that pressure but without success. Is this true of your experience? When your interest in God is quickened, when you determine to be more committed to God, perhaps to serve him as never before then an assault of temptation is mounted against you that is designed to make you turn back. This should not surprise us one bit! Presentation 13

The Nature Of The Temptation Secondly, think of the substance of the temptation experienced by Jesus. First he was tempted to turn stone into bread. After 40 days of fasting Jesus would understandably be hungry. And so this first temptation focused upon the natural appetite of his body. Think back to the first temptation of mankind in the Garden of Eden. Eve were tempted to see that the fruit of the tree ‘was good to eat’ Gen 3v6. So too, Jesus was tempted to gratify his human appetite, “Come on satisfy your body, turn the stone into bread, if you are God's Son you have the power at your command to perform this little miracle." Presentation 13

The Nature Of The Temptation How did Jesus reply to this temptation? "Man does not live by bread alone". In other words, man is more than a body with human appetites to be gratified. Man is made to obey and glorify God. Jesus knew that to abuse his power in order to gratify the desires of his body would have dishonoured God. Read through the gospels and examine all of the miracles Jesus performed and you will discover that not one of them was ever performed for his own pleasure, comfort or self-gratification. Presentation 13

The Nature Of The Temptation Can you begin to see how to apply what we can learn from this temptation? We've a whole range of human appetites for food, pleasure, and sexual fulfilment etc. In their place they are all legitimate appetites. But in all of these areas we can be tempted to behave in a way that will displease God. Consider the housewife doing her weekly shop. She is fascinated by the great array of produce. She is tempted to buy things that her family cannot afford and will never eat. She needs to ask, ‘Do we eat in order to live or live in order to eat?’ A young courting couple who find themselves left alone at home one evening and the temptation comes, ‘why wait till you are married, your only human, come on gratify your natural sexual appetite.’ Presentation 13

The Nature Of The Temptation Someone else comes under pressure to attend a late night party on a Saturday evening. Oh it will all be very innocent and good fun. They have very legitimate appetites for social intercourse. But on Sunday morning they discover they are too tired to get out of bed to attend their worship service. God is not opposed to pleasure but when it becomes our master then God has been relegated to a place of lesser importance. How do we respond to these kinds of temptations? We need to remind ourselves that we are more than a collection of appetites, which cry out for satisfaction. We have a spiritual dimension to our being. We have been made for God. In other words we need to remind ourselves of the dignity of man. Presentation 13

The Nature Of The Temptation Temptation is designed to rob us of our God given dignity and deprive God of his glory. A glory which ought to be reflected in lives of his children. Resisting such temptations are not easy not least when the society in which we live is being increasing reshaped by Epicurean philosophy . We are encouraged to satisfy our appetites and no matter the cost to, ‘Eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we die’. But the cost is too high! And if yielded to we damage our communion with God and so distance ourselves from the enjoyment of his love. Surely God is more important to us than a few moments gratification with some forbidden fruit! Presentation 13

The Nature Of The Temptation The second temptation offers Jesus a view of all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. He was told they would be his if only he would worship Satan. Jesus would be a puppet king and Satan would be the power behind the throne. Satan recognised that Jesus’ mission was to recover and rule over a lost world. And so he was saying, "I can make your mission easy. You can avoid the terror of the cross. My offer is less rigorous, less demanding! All I ask is that you bow down before me, that's not hard is it?" An accomplished goal with minimal cost can me made to appear very attractive. No cross! How real was this temptation? One only has to remember Jesus agony in Gethsemane to be convinced of its powerful reality! Presentation 13

The Nature Of The Temptation This is an abiding temptation for both individuals and the church. It promotes a crossless Christianity and promises an easy route to a spiritual objective. It may involve negotiating with evil and accepting its rule but such compromise can appear attractive if it dispenses with the cross and the suffering and shame it brings. There is only one answer to such a temptation. The one given by Jesus - outright rejection and refusal. God alone is to be worshipped and that means no truck with evil no matter what ease it may promise. Loyalty to God is not a thing to be compromised. And compromise never enables us to achieve a spiritual objective. There is no crown for the Christian without the cross. Presentation 13

The Nature Of The Temptation The way of the cross is costly. This is graphically illustrated in the life Abraham. He returned from battle having rescued his nephew Lot along with many other captives- including some from Sodom. The king of Sodom came out to meet him and offered him great wealth and the security by way of an alliance with himself. It was an attractive offer to Abraham, a stranger in a foreign land. How did he reply? “I have raised my hand to the LORD, God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth, and have taken an oath that I will accept nothing belonging to you, not even a thread or the thong of a sandal, so that you will never be able to say, 'I made Abram rich.' I will accept nothing…’’ Gen. 14v22 Presentation 13

The Nature Of The Temptation Did Satan, incensed by Abram’s refusal to compromise, tell Abraham he was a fool for turning down great wealth and for refusing an alliance that could have provided security within the land. We read just a few verses later : After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.“ A congregation seeking funding for a youth project were told they were foolish not to apply for lottery funding. They wanted to build a work for the benefit of the community that did not rest on the proceeds of gaming. The lottery carrot was a very real temptation and God honoured that stand and more than £250,000 came in and the project was completed within two years. Presentation 13

The Nature Of The Temptation The final temptation suggested Jesus throw himself down from the pinnacle of the temple. Had not God promised that his angels would protect Jesus during his mission. But there's a difference between trusting God and challenging him. Responding to this kind of temptation would have posed such a challenge. There is a difference between faith and insane presumption. This temptation appeals to ambition to establish a ministry by grabbing the crowd’s attention. This temptation is to put one’s trust in the attraction of the spectacular is constantly knocking on the door of the church - ‘something spectacular, eye-catching and entertaining is guaranteed to draw crowds in’. Presentation 13

The Nature Of The Temptation Jesus ministry was essentially a ministry of "the word". The message of his Father and his kingdom, spoken and applied in the power of the Spirit was Jesus method. This preached Word is the resource of the church and we must never be ashamed of its ‘simplicity.’ Jesus overcame temptation in the same way each time by quoting scripture v8, 10, l2, “It is written...”He used the sword of the Spirit the only offensive weapon found in the Christian armoury in Eph. 6. All Jesus replies come from the book of Deuteronomy, suggesting that this was the portion of scripture he was meditating upon prior to his temptation. It is one thing to read God's word it is another thing to meditate upon it and build it into our lives. Presentation 13

The Rejection Of Temptation Let me suggest one of the greatest single reasons why Christians have difficulty in resisting temptation? We fail to meditate sufficiently upon God's word. We in the West do not have the excuse of the thousands of language groups who do not possess a copy of the Bible in their own tongue. We don’t have the excuse of those nations of the world with a poor literacy rate. We have access to scripture and are privileged in the education which has equipped us to read it. Sadly we are often too lazy to make better use of God’s provision than we do. Presentation 13

Conclusion You may think, it was easy for Jesus to resist temptation. He knew more of temptation’s power. How so? Whenever we buckle under temptation the screw stops turning. Our capitulation means temptation has done its work. But Jesus never capitulated and so the screw never stopped turning. He experienced the full force of temptation yet without sin. This fact among others that qualifies him to be our Saviour. His sinlessness gave his sacrifice its worth. And because Jesus has experienced temptation, he is uniquely qualified to sympathise with us in our weaknesses when we fall. The one who overcame temptation can help us overcome. What a Saviour! Presentation 13

Study in Luke’s Gospel