Following The Feet Of Jesus - Walk Through Temptaion

3.8.15
"Following Jesus Through Temptation"
Audio Sermon Can Be Heard HERE.

In the 1988 film "The Last Temptation of Christ" director Martin Scorsese attempts to paint a picture of a very human man who discovers his other worldly heritage and assumes the role as Son of God. The film's most controversial concept was the idea that Jesus was willing to succumb to the final temptation of the devil - to leave the cross and have a normal human life with wife and kids.  While this idea is pure fiction, the bible records that Jesus did in fact face temptations by the devil.

In Matthew chapter 4 we read that the Holy Spirit lead Jesus to the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. While there, Jesus fasted and became hungry. This is when the old snake moved in.

This is the second recorded personal tempting or beguiling by Satan of a person upon this earth.  The first was nearly four thousand years earlier. We have recorded in Genesis chapter 3 where he stopped in to have a chat with Eve in the Garden of Eden. In both of these encounters the devil used three basic promptings:

1. The lust of the eye or desires of the flesh.

Jesus was hungry, a fact that the devil used to tempt him into turning stones to bread. A simple action on the part of the creator of the universe to rearrange the atoms of sandstone into a fluffy flavorful loaf of bread. In Eve's case, it is recorded that she saw the fruit as being "good to eat and pleasing to the eye". Her thought seems to echo ours: "Yeah, that looks good and surely it will be good for me." That's what the flesh does...leads us with its desires, even if it is not what is best. Don't believe me? Put a piece of raw broccoli and a piece of chocolate on the table in front of you. You know the veggie is better for you, but the taste buds in your fleshy mouth scream: "Chocolate tastes better! I want the chocolate!" And so you eat the candy...

2. Perversion of God's Word.

The devil took Jesus to the top of the Temple and taunted him to jump...after all, God had said in his scriptures that he would send angels to keep Jesus from getting hurt unnecessarily. The devil did the same thing to Eve. "Surely you will not die." he said to her. The devil is kind of twisting what God said and putting a little spin on the idea in her head. "Sure," the devil purred," God might get upset, angry, and even might punish you...but kill you? Nah, surely not!" With Jesus he demonstrates his knowledge of scripture once again. He has heard the words of God, but uses them out of context and in a way to bend the rules, so to speak. Real life: you have a terrible week in which you are late to work, you are written up by your boss, the kids forget to tell you about the change in practice schedule and it's your week in the parent carpool to take the kids home, and on and on the week rolls out until Sunday morning. That's when we get to church and we are greeted by our small group leader or pastor or really anyone else that has their clothes on straight, make up done just right, and generally appears to have it all together and when they ask how our we are doing they receive the practiced statement, "Fine. Just fine." Is this the kind of lie God was talking about in his ten commandments? The kind of lie that Paul says makes us liars and can cause a rift in our relationship with our Heavenly Father? "Nah, surely not!" we hear whispered in our mind.

3. The Promise of Potential Power.

Finally, the devil takes Jesus to the top of a high mountain and shows him the nations of the world. Like the famous con artist, George C. Parker who "sold" the Brooklyn Bridge an average of twice a week even though he did not own it, the devil offers something that really did not belong to him.  In fact, he was trying to sell it to the actual owner! Silly devil, Trix are for kids, and you are no kid. With Eve, the devil tried to sell the idea of omniscient knowledge. He tells Eve, "When you eat of the fruit you will become like God." He tempts Eve with the promise of something he himself does not posses. Not really. Oh yes, by then the devil had knowledge of Good and Evil, the thing he offers Eve, but he does not have an understanding of it. God understands the two and he understands how you can take something evil (our unredeemed hearts) and make it something good (see Psalms 51). The devil has been given dominion in this world (see 2 Corinthians 4:4 and Ephesians 6:12), but this world is just a footstool for God (Isaiah 66:1) and Jesus is already promised to be the ruler of it (Revelation 1:5), so the offer by Satan is a scam, a con, it's like selling the Brooklyn Bridge or oceanfront property in Wyoming.

In our lives it looks something like this: "inflate your numbers and get that promotion" or "take this shortcut, cheat a little, no one will know and you will go farther, faster in life". God uses ideas like patience and perseverance. The devil offers us the easy way, the quick way. Jesus could not have taken ownership of the kingdoms of the world without obeying his father. Eve should have realized you cannot be like God. She had seen him. He was totally different. If there were things God wanted her to know, she should have asked him, not look for the easy way.

In all three means of the devil's tempting, we have Jesus as our example of how to walk through the temptation. Notice I say walk through the temptation. There are times, just as Jesus faced, that we have to go through the devil's tricks. Jesus instructed his disciples, and us by their example, to pray to God the Father that he "lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one." This is a prayer to help us on our daily stumble through life in which we have a pretense to walk the path of evil instead of the path of the righteous. In the story of Jesus and his dialogue with the Tempter, we are modeled a simple three step action plan: Chose God's Word, resist the temptation offered and then watch as the devil flees. James writes this in his letter: "Submit yourselves then to God. Resist the devil, and he must flee."  In all three temptations offered by the devil to Jesus, it is always God's word correctly applied partnered with Jesus' refusal to succumb to the the temptation that wins the day. Eve on the other hand failed starting with relying on her own understanding of the world, not God's, and then buying in on the offer presented by that great Con Artist, the devil.

What about you? Have you been walking through some temptation lately? How have you fared? Did you submit yourself to God, His Word, and resist the offer to sin? Or did you say "where do I sign up?" and now you are the proud "owner" of the Brooklyn Bridge...along with thousands of others who also have nothing to show for their investment.