SCRIPTURE
First Sunday in Lent
Luke 4:1-13 (NRSV)
The temptation of Jesus
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread." Jesus answered him, 'It is written, 'One does not live by bread alone.'"
Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And the devil said to him, "To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours." Jesus answered him, 'It is written,
'Worship the Lord your God,
and serve only him.' "
Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written,
'He will command his angels concerning you,
to protect you,'
and
'On their hands they will bear you up,
so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.' "
Jesus answered him, 'It is said, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'" When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.
SERMON
Today is the first Sunday in Lent. Lent is a 40-day journey to resurrection morning. It begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Easter Sunday morning. For all Christians, of every denomination, it is a time for surrendering our bodies, minds, and souls to God as we fast, pray, and do good works for the poor and the needy.
Lent is the time in the Christian calendar when we are especially mindful of the importance of forgiveness. We confess our sin to God and we are forgiven. We confess our sin to others and we pray for forgiveness. We receive confession from others and we freely forgive them. Remember, Jesus taught us to pray, “forgive us our sin, as we forgive those who sin against us.”
It has been said that the Christian’s bar of soap is God’s forgiveness. That is why I love 1 John 1: 6-9 which states, “8 If we say we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and refusing to accept the truth. 9 But if we confess our sins to God, God is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that God’s word has no place in our hearts.”
See, scripture teaches us that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. There is none righteous, no not one. During Lent we are mindful of our sinfulness and of our great need for Jesus. For us then, Lent becomes a forty days journey to the cross with Jesus. It is a time to draw near to God, as God draws near to us. It is the time that we surrender our bodies, minds, and souls to God as we remember Jesus’ death upon the cross on Good Friday and as we celebrate his glorious resurrection on Easter morning.
As we journey with Jesus, we remember that Jesus came into the world not only to die for us, but also to live for us. Jesus’ life is the perfect example of how to live as a child of God. Jesus teaches us—by his example—how to live and pray and love God, as we serve others.
One such example is found in our scripture for today. In Luke Chapter 4, Jesus gives us a glorious example of how to surrender our bodies, minds, and spirits to God when we are tempted to do wrong. I’m sure most of us are familiar with Luke 4. Just prior to being tempted by Satan, Jesus is baptized by his cousin John. As Jesus comes up out of the water, the Holy Spirit descends on him. Shortly thereafter, he is “driven into the wilderness” to be tempted by Satan.
For forty days and nights Jesus fasted and prayed, prayed and fasted, preparing for the ultimate battle for his body, mind, and soul. Jesus had to know that at the end of his 40 days of consecration, Satan was going to show up. And Jesus was right. Satan came to tempt him; and Satan began with what appeared to be an obvious test. He said to Jesus, “Look, I know you’re hungry, why don’t you just turn this rock into bread?” See, first Satan attacked Jesus’ body…And the same will happen to us because Satan knows that we think about our bodies a lot.
We say, “I’m starving.” When we ate three hours ago. We say, “I’m freezing” while bundled up in hat, scarf, mittens, and heavy coat. We say, “I can’t help-it” when we want an excuse to drink, or drug, or smoke, or lay down with someone who is not our spouse. We say, “I’m dying” when we catch the flu. We worry and fret full of fears and anxieties when we are diagnosed with illness. See, as human beings, we fear death and so we worry a lot about our bodies. Jesus gave us a better example. Jesus shows us that when our flesh tempts us, we ought to respond, “I will live on the Word of God alone.”
When we reject the physical attack on our bodies, Satan moves to our minds. Listen to Satan’s words, “Come on…I’ll give you all the kingdoms of the world, if you will just bow down and worship me.” Now I don’t know about you, but this temptation has come to me as well.
It is my observation that as human beings we have a prideful inclination to be rich and/or famous. We want to be the bishop, the elder, or the pastor. We want to be Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates, or Simon Crowell. We want to be Jay-Z, Beyonce, Ludacris, or Mary J. Blige.
Let’s face it. We just want bling-bling by any means necessary. And you know what else we want? We want much love. We want much respect. We want all of the kingdoms of the world and as human beings we do heinous things to achieve them.
We murder, we rape, we kill, we steal, we pillage. We make war, we make bombs, we make guns, we make slaves. We lie, we cheat, we steal. We sell drugs. We sell sex. And we are always looking for the easy dollar. We bow down before the god of wealth, power, and prestige. And we tell each other it’s all about the Benjamins…and we think its worth it until its our father, our mother, our sister, our brother, our son, or our daughter who gets caught up---blindly seeking the kingdoms of this world—lost on a circuitous road that leads nowhere but to destruction, prison, or the grave.
Thank God that Jesus, who is much wiser than we are, rejected Satan’s phony offer because he realized that Satan has no ability to give a child of God anything! Jesus said in response to Satan’s phony offer to give him the kingdoms of the world, “Thank you very much, but I will worship God, and God alone.”
Finally, almost out of tricks, Satan said to himself, I know how to get this God-man. I’ll test his spirit! He claims to be the Son of God and I’ll make him prove it. So Satan said to Jesus, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself off of the roof of this temple…didn’t your Daddy promise to catch you?”
Now isn’t that just like Satan? He tells Jesus, God made flesh, prove that you are who you say you are. And don’t we face similar demons? Once we become Christians the world and all our unsaved friends and family say to us, “Oh yeah. Prove it!”
And we are tempted to act proud, haughty, dignified, and cocky. We are tempted to look down our noses at the unbelievers. We are tempted to become “holier than thou” with no time for sinners. We are tempted to forget where we came from and who it is who saved us. And we are tempted to lock ourselves up in the four walls of the church in an effort to prove to “sinners” that we are better than they--for we are saved!
Now God knows that we are not that different from unbelievers. It is only the blood of Jesus on our brow that makes us acceptable to God. It is only our willingness to confess our sin, that makes it possible for us stand in the white light of God’s glory. It is only the perfection of the Son that makes it possible for our imperfection to enter heaven.
Jesus, who is the only sin free one, said in response to Satan’s final test, “I-WILL-NOT-TEST-GOD!!”
And we too ought not to test God. We too ought to remember, “we are dust, and to dust we will return.” When our inner demons tempt us in body, mind, and spirit we must surrender our whole selves to God. We must remember that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, our minds are transformed only by Christ, and that the Spirit is but a gift from God meant to lead us into all Truth.
We must have made up minds to follow the way of the Cross. When anger, fear, worry, anxiety, pride, greed, gluttony, envy, lust, and laziness assail us, we must turn our hearts and minds back to Jesus who is the author and finisher of our faith.
Let me point out something to you found in Luke 4:1. It states, “Jesus, full of the holy spirit…” Full of the Holy Spirit, ya’ll! The only way for a Christian to overcome sin and temptation against body, mind, and soul is to be full of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 8:5 says, Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. If your sinful nature controls your mind, there is death. But if the Holy Spirit controls your mind, there is life and peace.
Don’t we want the Holy Spirit to control our minds giving us life and peace? That desire is exactly why prayer, fasting, and charitable good works have been the spiritual disciplines of Lent for almost two thousand years. We are called to walk and talk with God and to meditate on God’s word and God’s ways. We are called to fast as we pray, recognizing that every time our stomachs growl, it is a call to prayer for ourselves and for others. And we are called to do good works for the poor and for the needy. For Jesus says, Let your light so shine before people, that they may see your good works, and glorify your God in heaven. Hebrews 10:24 says, “Think of ways to encourage one another to outbursts of love and good deeds.”
Please, saints of God, help me—encourage me—help each other—and encourage each other--to think of ways to encourage one another to outbursts of love and good deeds. Romans 12:1 says, And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice the kind that God will accept. When you think of what God has done for you, is this too much to ask? 2 Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect God’s will really is.
Oh! May we allow God to transform us into a new people, by changing the way we think!
Lent lasts but 40 days plus Sundays. Ash Wednesday, to Easter Sunday. But, those forty days ought to be a time when our minds are truly stayed on Jesus. It ought to be a time that the non-Christians around us are overwhelmed by our love, our joy, our peace, our faith, our hope for the future and our attitude of gratitude. It ought to be a time when we make up our minds not to step over the bruised, the broken, the hurting, the lame, the hungry, the thirsty, the sick, the hospitalized, or the imprisoned. It ought to be a time for turning off the TV, the gameboy, the computer, the ipod, the blackberry, the bluetooth, the cell phone and anything else that keeps us from our Bibles and from prayer. It ought to be a time of turned down plates, and upturned hearts.
After all, Jesus gave his life on an old rugged cross on Golgotha’s hill that we might have life and that more abundantly. If even Jesus faced temptation out in the wilderness, so shall we. But, there is good news today. Greater is God within us, than any evil to be found outside of us. We are more than conquerors, through the resurrected Jesus—who is in love with us.
Please allow me to close with a hymn that is close to my heart during this Lenten Season. It is entitled Forty Days And Forty Nights (George Smyttan):
Forty days and forty nights
Thou wast fasting in the wild;
Forty days and forty nights
Tempted, and yet undefiled.
Sunbeams scorching all the day;
Chilly dew-drops nightly shed;
Prowling beasts about Thy way;
Stones Thy pillow; earth Thy bed.
Should not we Thy sorrow share
And from worldly joys abstain,
Fasting with unceasing prayer,
Strong with Thee to suffer pain?
Then if Satan on us press,
Jesus, Savior, hear our call!
Victor in the wilderness,
Grant we may not faint nor fall!
So shall we have peace divine:
Holier gladness ours shall be;
Round us, too, shall angels shine,
Such as ministered to Thee.
Keep, O keep us, Savior dear,
Ever constant by Thy side;
That with Thee we may appear
At eternal Eastertide.
Won’t you pray with me?
Eternal God, please give us the faith and courage to reject the temptation to surrender our bodies, minds, and spirits to the things of this world. Please help us to keep our eyes fixed steadfastly on you. Please forgive us for those times when we have missed the mark and yielded to temptation. Please fill us with the Holy Spirit so that we are enabled, equipped, and inspired to share the good news that Jesus died on the cross to forgive our sin and gift us with eternal life. We pray this in Jesus’ Name, Amen.
INVITATION
If you have questions about how to become a friend and follower of Jesus, please see the devotion entitled, “Come to Jesus” @ http://bit.ly/JVhaL
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