BATTLE WITH TEMPTATION

Sermon Notes, March 10, 2019

Rev. Ricky Hoosier

Pastor Garry and Beccy were at the District Pastors Retreat in Charlottesville this week, so Rev. Ricky Hoosier brought the message for the First Sunday of the Lenten season.  He titled his message “Battle with Temptation.”  The scripture reference was Luke 4:1-13.

Fasting during Lent is a spiritual discipline or religious exercise generally associated with prayer, and involving voluntary abstinence from certain foods.  It can be used in a general sense of self-denial from normal or enjoyed activities to permit more prayer.  Fasting is self-humbling, repentance, seeking God for mercy, help and guidance. 

Lent is a time set aside to prepare ourselves for the world’s greatest event, a time of giving up in order to receive more of God, a time of preparing for a day of celebration of what happened on Easter.

After being baptized, God said, “Here’s my Son.  I’m well pleased with him.”  (Matthew 3:17).  It was an exciting and glorious public event.  However, we know that after a time of great blessing, there often follows a time of great temptations.  After the spiritual high, we come down.  We find ourselves full of the Spirit, then (boom!) there is doubt.  We find we are tempted in three ways. 

In today’s scripture passage in verses 1-2 Jesus goes into the wilderness for 40 days to be tempted by the devil. In Verses 2-4, Satan tried to tempt Jesus with material things: physical food, or something to satisfy an appetite.  With Jesus it was bread; with Adam and Eve it was the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. 

In verses 5-8 there is the temptation to compromise the spiritual.  Satan wanted Jesus to worship him, but Jesus replied with a scripture. There’s more to life than physical food.  We need God’s Word.  Luke is telling us about compromise.  There is no such thing with God.  It’s all or nothing with Him. 

Notice the significance of the number 40: Moses spent 40 days on Mt. Sinai when he received God’s Word, the 10 Commandments.  The Israelites spent 40 years wandering in the desert after they rebelled.  And Jesus spent 40 days being tempted after his baptism.

In verses 9-12 there is the temptation to give people sensation, the intellectual, doing something sensational.  Are we on trial?  Satan told Jesus to jump off the highest pinnacle of the Temple and God would save him.  Testing is not of God.  It is of the devil.  Doing something sensational to put God to the test is not what draws people to Jesus.  It’s what people see in our lives that draws them to Him.

The first temptation—the enemy asked Jesus to do a right thing in a wrong way, to satisfy a lawful appetite in an illegal fashion.  The Second—to gain the whole world without going to the cross.  The Third—is on a spiritual plane, our complete trust in God.

Temptations: they try us, test us, and prove us.

Three qualities of temptations confronted both Adam and Christ.  The lust of the flesh.  For Adam, the tree was good for food.  For Christ, verse 3.  The lust of the eyes.  For Adam what is pleasant to the eye.  For Christ, verse 5.  The pride of life.  For Adam, the desire to make one wise.  For Christ, verse 9b. 

We are still today tempted as Adam and Christ were.  The more things we give up, the more we can become like Christ.