Pastor Michael Neumann

February 21, 2010 

Luke 4:1-13

Use the Sword of the Spirit

1) When the devil tries to make us doubt God’s promises.

2) When the devil tries to make us worship a false God.

3) When the devil tries to make us test God.

 What a struggle it is to live as Christians. How hard it is to follow God’s word and will. Temptation is always there, seeking to lead us astray – away from the Lord. The devil wants nothing more than to rob us of our saving faith. How often we give into temptation. How often we do what pleases us, satisfying our flesh and ignoring what God wants. How often we sin. Left to ourselves, we’re doomed. Our Savior Jesus had to step into our place and offer to his heavenly Father the work that we could not do as well as suffer what our works have earned. That is what we witness in our text this morning - Jesus, as our Savior and Substitute, overcoming temptation; defeating the devil; doing what we could not do.

 Jesus also then provides us with an example – how we can overcome temptation and live a Christian life according to God’s will. The strength to overcome temptation doesn’t come from some inner strength or great will power. We can’t do it by ourselves. The strength needed comes from the Lord and his word. In his letter to the Ephesians, the apostle Paul encourages us to “put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.” Part of that armor of God is the “sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” That is our one offensive weapon to use against the devil and his temptations.

 Our substitute Jesus used that same word of God to defeat the devil. Here at the beginning of his ministry, Jesus defeats the devil and overcomes his temptations. That defeat would be finalized on the cross when Jesus would shed his blood to set us free from sin and Satan and win for us forgiveness and life eternal. Jesus’ victory is our victory. The devil’s strangle hold on us has been broken; with Jesus’ help we are able to fight and overcome temptation. We do that in the same way that Jesus overcame the devil’s temptations – through the use of the Word of God. Use the sword of the Spirit – when the devil tries to make us doubt God’s promises; when the devil tries to make us worship a false god; when the devil tries to make us test God. 

 After his baptism by John in the Jordan River, Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit out into the desert for what amount to a showdown with the devil. This was not Jesus recklessly placing himself in the way of temptation. It was God’s will that this take place. We will not only fight against temptation, but we will also want to be careful what temptations we subject ourselves to. 

 For forty days, Jesus was by himself to face Satan and struggle against him. There was no one there to comfort or help him. The devil, no doubt, put all his effort into this temptation of Jesus, after all, if he could get Jesus to fall just once, to commit even one tiny little sin, his job would have been over. He would have won. If Jesus had sinned, God’s plan of salvation would have been ruined. He couldn’t be our Savior and we would be lost in hell for all eternity. 

 I suppose we might think that this really wasn’t much of a struggle that took place. Obviously, since Jesus is true God, he was going to be able to overcome Satan. But remember the mystery of Jesus’ person that the Bible presents us with. He is true God, but he is also true man, fully God and fully man. These were very real temptations. As a man forty days in the desert without food, he would have been hungry. As a man, he underwent temptation. But unlike any other man, Jesus did so without sin.

 Luke records for us three of those specific temptations. With the first temptation, the devil tried to get Jesus to doubt God’s promises to care for his Son. He tries to play on Jesus hunger. He tells Jesus – “If you really are the Son of God, prove it by changing these stones into bread.” Behind that temptation is included the thought that God isn’t really concerned about you otherwise you wouldn’t be hungry right now. Had Jesus given in to this temptation, he would have shown a lack of trust in God the Father to provide for him. The devil had worked in a similar way when he tempted Adam and Eve. He questioned God’s motives in withholding from them the knowledge of good and evil. God’s keeping something from you by forbidding you to eat from the tree and gain knowledge. And he led them to doubt God’s love.

 Jesus saw right through the devil’s temptation. The Lord had promised to care for his Son and Jesus could trust his heavenly Father to do just that. Quoting Scripture, Jesus points out that physical food isn’t the only concern. Spiritual matters, love and trust in the Lord and his word, are even more important that physical needs. Jesus encourages us, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

 Yet how often doesn’t the devil lead us to doubt God’s promises. God promises to care for us. He promises to give us everything that we need for this life. He tells us he will be with us. God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” God even promises that he will work everything for our eternal good. 

 Yet how often don’t we spend time worrying about our finances, concerned about whether or not we will have sufficient? How many times don’t we worry about our health or worrying about a great many things in our lives? Worry shows a lack of trust in the Lord. It is doubt in God’s promises. In times of trouble and sorrow, how often we complain and are even tempted to doubt God’s love for us.

 The devil wanted Jesus to prove who he was by turning the stones into bread. How often aren’t we tempted to have Jesus prove himself to us? We want the outward glory. We want visible proof of God’s activity and power in our life. Since he rules everything for our good, don’t we often want him to show that by making our lives easy, by giving us want we think we need and want? Aren’t we tempted to say to him, “If you are in control, take away my suffering now.” The sinful flesh wants nothing to do with the self denial and struggle of Lent.

 The Lord does give us everything we need. We need to turn to God’s word for strength – to hear once again all of those wonderful promises that God has made us. We know that he is faithful. “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” Use the sword of the Spirit when the devil tries to make you doubt God’s promises.

 In the second temptation, the devil comes with a lie. He claims for himself power and authority which only God has. He promises Jesus, “if you worship me, all the kingdoms of the world will be yours.” He tries to get Jesus to worship him – a false god. This temptation again offers Jesus comfort and ease rather than following God’s will. The devil is telling Jesus – “You can become the great Messiah-King without having to go the long, difficult way of suffering and death. Just worship me and it’s yours.” To follow the devil’s advice would be a selfish concern for Jesus’ own person, rather than a concern for what God wanted.

 The devil tempts us to place other things in our lives above God’s will. He tempts us with ease and comfort so that we will follow what we want – which is what he wants – and not what God wants. With our time – how often other things become a priority over the study and hearing of God’s word. How often a concern for money and possessions, or a concern for our recreation and enjoyment directs our lives rather than a concern for what God wants. When it comes to our money, that might be shown in offerings that are less than generous, first-fruit offerings to the Lord. We are concerned with our comfort and ease, so we withhold from the Lord so that we don’t have to do without what we want. 

 The devil would have us exchange God’s way for our own comfort and ease in this life. The devil makes those things look so very good. He says to us, “Think how happy you will be if you have that, or if you do that. If you have all those things for yourself, you can rest in peace.” But how empty his lies are. He promises power and knowledge, comfort and ease - but in truth we would become the devil’s slave. Think for example of the person whose greatest concern is to have sufficient savings and money so that he can be secure. He may spend his life obsessed with work, constantly concerned over his finances. His life isn’t peaceful. Yet, how easy for us to fall into the devil’s traps and place so many other things ahead of the Lord. 

 Anytime we put something/anything ahead of God and his word that has become our god. But as Jesus quotes, “Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.”  God demands the number one place in our lives, but he promises to care for us. Turn to God’s word when the devil tries to make you worship a false god.

 With the final temptation Luke records, the devil tries to get Jesus to test God. Jesus used Scripture to overcome the devil. Here the devil misused Scripture to tempt Jesus. The devil uses the same tactics yet today. Think of some examples of how Scripture is misused to condone or even encourage sinning. We are told to love one another – so the devil encourages us to join together with all other churches. It’s not loving we’re told to separate from others just because of a few differences. But God calls upon us to separate from all false doctrine. But the devil would have us set aside God’s doctrine of church fellowship for the sake of loving others.

 Or, the Bible tells us not to judge – so we are told that we shouldn’t point out sin. Don’t tell others what they are doing is wrong and sinful. Don’t judge. But God in his word clearly tells us what is right and what is wrong. He calls upon us to point out sin for what it is – rebellion against God. These are used by some to justify sins like homosexuality, or couples living together outside of marriage, or having sexual relations before marriage. And the devil would tempt us to misuse Scripture to justify things that our sinful flesh might like to do. The devil would tempt us to use our reason to interpret Scripture in the way that seems best to us.

 But we will always let Scripture interpret itself. It is God’s word. It is one hundred percent true. It is a source of absolute truth and the only source of eternal life. Therefore, when the devil tempts us we will turn to that word for strength and comfort and direction to overcome those temptations. We see Jesus do just that.

 Thankfully, Jesus is more than just an example for us. We often fall victim to the devil’s temptations. We often give in to temptation and sin. But not Jesus. Satan, who had tempted Adam and Eve to fall into sin and so had doomed the whole human race to sin and eternal death, failed here in his attempt to get Jesus to sin. To be sure, this was not Satan’s last attack against Jesus. Throughout Jesus life, right up to Jesus death, Satan was hard at work. After all, if Jesus sinned, Satan would win. But after this Satan, works behind the scenes in a more subtle way. We might think of the temptation that Jesus faced not to go to the cross when Peter had told Jesus he was not going to let him die. Jesus had responded, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” Or there was the temptation Jesus faced when the crowds wanted to take him and make him an earthly king. Satan did not give up, but continued to tempt Jesus. 

 But against all of Satan’s temptations, Jesus was perfectly without sin. He was perfect for us, in our place. And so because of Jesus’ perfect and righteousness, we have been declared righteous and given eternal life. The apostle Paul tells us, “Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.” And so Jesus, even as God had promised already to Adam and Eve immediately after the fall into sin, would crush Satan head and destroy the hold he had over us because of sin. 

 Jesus, by the power of his word, overcame the devil. Jesus, our Savior and substitute, has defeated the devil and set us free. Now, everyday in your Christian lives, use the sword of the Spirit, God’s Word, to overcome the devil’s temptations and live your life in thanksgiving to your Lord and Savior.