Sermon Tone Analysis

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Did you know that you were attacked today?
Did you know that you have an enemy?
Did you realize that he is hunting you?
There is a dark, ancient evil that is watching us, plotting, strategizing, patiently waiting for his opportunity to go in for the kill.
We are under CONSTANT attack, but we often don’t realize what’s happening until it’s too late.
Christ’s temptation in the wilderness provides for us a picture…a pattern for how the enemy tempts us.
Certainly, the temptations for Jesus were unique to Him and His deity and position as the Son of God, but there is much applicational wisdom that we can glean from this narrative to aid us in our own temptations.
And when we come to understand the enemy’s strategy, we can begin to recognize his attacks and escape the snare of sin in our lives.
We have all probably read this verse and heard it in church many times, and while the way of escape might be specific to the particular temptations situation, I believe that Jesus demonstrates for us a way of escape that is universal in nature - no matter what temptation we face, if we employ the strategy used here by Jesus, we will escape our temptations.
You might have heard about the little boy who was caught by his mother eating the cookies he was told were for after dinner.
His explanation was this: “I just climbed up to smell them, and my tooth got caught.”
We see the humor here, but honestly this is often our mindset when it comes to sin.
Instead of saying “no!” to sin, we leave the door open with a “maybe”.
We simply don’t take sin seriously enough..and then we pay a high price.
As we study this passage, please remember that our purpose is not to focus on Satan as much as it is to focus on our Savior.
We need to be aware of Satan’s strategies, but we need to primarily keep our attention on Christ - turn your eyes upon Jesus - and learn how we might defend ourselves when the enemy comes upon us in our weakness and entices us with his lies.
We will see that Jesus’ temptation was really a series of offers to EXCHANGE something of eternal value for something of immediate but temporary pleasure.
and we will break the passage into these main divisions:
The Temptation of Christ
Introduction
I. Stones For Sustenance
II.
Exultation For Escape
III.
Risk For Reward
We will see that Satan tempted Jesus with the same themes that he tempts us with today.
And we will see that Jesus gives us a perfect example of how to escape the devil’s strongest temptations.
Let us allow the Spirit to do His work through His Word tonight, and be encouraged that we really do have a way of escape.
pray
Introduction
We need to understand the context here…how did Jesus end up on a fasting excursion in the wilderness?
Jesus was baptized by John the Baptizer in the previous chapter.
read Luke 3:21-22
The Father had spoken from heaven as an inauguration of Jesus’ ministry, and the Holy Spirit had taken the form of a dove and alighted on Jesus as a symbol of power on His ministry.
So we see the Holy Trinity of the Godhead present in this scene.
(one God, three distinct Persons)
And now the Son is being led by the Spirit and walking in obedience to the Father (more on that later) into the wilderness.
There are also some Old Testament themes present in this text:
Israel was also led by God in the desert.
Jesus’ 40 days represent Israel’s 40 years of desert wanderings, as well as Moses’ forty days of fasting on the mountain (Deut.
9:9 ).
God also called Israel His son: Ex. 4:22
Yet Jesus succeeded where Israel failed.
I. Stones For Sustenance
v.2 Jesus tempted by Satan for 40 days
no food eaten
hungry
physically weak, headache, nauseous, exhausted, cracked lips, bloodshot eyes
key word - “afterward” - The devil waits until we are at our weakest:
anxiety
stress
disappointment
pain
also - Jesus was not sitting in an air-conditioned hotel room…He was in the wilderness, with the sun beating down on Him all day and only rocks, gravel, and sand for His comfort.
v.3 “If you are the Son of God...” - Questioning the word of God (Luke 3:22
“Has God indeed said...” (Genesis 3:1)
Genesis 3:1 (NKJV)
1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.
And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”
Satan’s tactics have not changed in 6,000 years!
Satan will often “re-brand” God’s Word to sound similar, but different from what God actually said - God didn’t say to not eat from trees…only from ONE tree.
KFC re-branding example
Doesn’t totally oppose Scripture - just questions it a little
“IF you really are the Son of God...”
“ Stones to bread” - Jesus was almost starving, physically famished for fresh, warm, bread.
It would have been easy for the Creator, the One who fed thousands with just a small lunch, to make Himself a meal
Satan played on the idea that that Jesus somehow felt the need to live up to the “hype” of being called the Son of God - after all, that’s exactly what he wanted to be and exactly what he would have done!
If you are really who God says you are, prove it!
Show off!
Take care of you!
You do you!
You got this!
Turning stone into a loaf of bread is not sinful (He did turn water into wine, after all)
Satan didn't ask Jesus to commit a horrible crime..or to break God’s law.
But he was asking Jesus to stop trusting His Father, and to stop being led by the Spirit - it was the Spirit who led Jesus into the wilderness where He knew there would be no food...the Spirit was leading, the Father was directing Jesus’ steps, and neither had provided physical food yet.
For Jesus to make the bread out of stones would be to act apart from the Trinity...to go rogue and act as a free agent from God!
It would have been to live as if the Father was not enough.
We are also tempted to live apart from the Father.
This is the lie of autonomy, which states that we are each individually fully capable enough and powerful enough to sustain ourselves.
How often humanity has fallen for this lie of autonomy…
But Jesus remains obedient:
v. 4 “It is written” - Jesus, the incarnate Word of God, could have spoken a NEW revelation to defeat the devil...He could have spoken His own words, but instead He turned back to the Pentateuch - to Deuteronomy! - and He did that to leave us an example...a strategy to win against temptation.
“It is Written!” - This was not the words of some legend or myth...not something inscribed in a cave somewhere in a forgotten dialect...not the ramblings of some monk in a monastery...It is the Word of God!
Present tense
Here and now
to us
for us
and in God’s power!
The Word of God is transcendent truth - it will not fade away…it is not a passing fad or a cultural phenomenon.
God’s Word withstands the test of time.
It transcends all other words and works - it is timeless and eternal and cannot be changed…IT IS WRITTEN!
It is also important to understand that the verses quoted by Jesus are not a simple incantation or a spell.
Satan was not defeated because Jesus slapped a Bible verse on a bumper sticker and drove away…Satan is defeated when the Scriptures are PROPERLY APPROPRIATED.
I believe in the power of the written Word of God, but if we have only a shallow understanding of Scripture, we will fail to parry the attacks of the enemy.
Biblical literacy is sorely missing in many Christian’s lives.
So why do we fail to defend ourselves and end up falling to temptation?…I believe that one of the biggest reasons is that we don’t know our Bibles as well as we need to….or as well as we think we do!
The verse that Jesus quoted here (Deut.
8:3) was the appropriate verse for the specific temptation that Satan was offering.
And like a master swordsman, Jesus wielded the Sword of the Spirit, and with perfect precision parried the devil’s attacks and thrust him backward!
Notice that Satan does not repeat the same temptation twice here in this passage…he is defeated and quickly moves to a different attack strategy…but don’t forget that he was defeated!
One other application from this temptation is seen in how Satan distracts us from what is truly important in this life.
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