Matthew 4
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4 But he answered, “It is written,
“‘Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple 6 and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written,
“‘He will command his angels concerning you,’
and
“‘On their hands they will bear you up,
lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”
lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”
7 Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” 8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written,
“‘You shall worship the Lord your God
and him only shall you serve.’”
and him only shall you serve.’”
11 Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.
In the Broadway
Play, My Fair Lady, one of the characters sings a memorable song.
The Lord above made liquor for temptation,
To see if man could turn away from sin,
The Lord above made liquor for temptation,
BUT, with a little bit of luck,
with a little bit of luck,
When temptation comes you'll give right it.
We all
know about temptation, and there is a sense in which we like to trivialize
temptation.
We
whittle it down to things like, “Oh,
I’ll just take one piece of chocolate cake – I know it is against my diet, but
it won’t hurt to yield to temptation.”
Or… “I’m going to fudge on those numbers just a
wee bit on the tax return.”
Or…
“Honey you look fine. Of course that
suit isn’t out of style. Now let’s go
before we miss our dinner reservation.”
White
lies, cheating on diets – those are temptations, but to think only of
temptations in those terms trivialize the power and danger of many temptations.
It is, in fact,
almost frightening how often we encounter people whose entire lives are
destroyed or forever changed because when temptation came, they gave right in.
In spite of the
song of My Fair Lady, temptation is no laughing matter. It destroys us
and even the people around us.
Early in Matthew’s
Gospel, Jesus encounters evil and faces temptation.
When we look at
the New Testament lesson, we find Jesus successfully resists temptation, and by
doing so, he gives us a model.
First, we need to
remember that temptations often begin in forms that, on the surface, seem very
innocent, very subtle.
Temptations don't
come like a hurricane, but like a gentle breeze. They come as subtle and almost
innocent opportunities.
To help you to
understand what I mean, remember that the temptation of Jesus takes place when
he has been in the desert for 40 days. Now, that is a long time. Where were you
40 days ago? That was back on January 28th. A lot has happened to you since then. Imagine
how you would feel if you had been in the desert since January 28th. Imagine
having very little to eat or drink.
Now, imagine you
are Jesus and the thought crosses your mind -- You could, by the sheer power of
your will, turn the stones in front of you into bread.
What would have
been the big deal?
That is the real
problem with temptation. It is so easy to respond to the temptation with the
phrase, "It's no big deal."
If you jump to the
end of the temptation passage you see Satan telling Jesus, "Worship
me!" Now it is easy to see why that is wrong, and it is simple to
understand that this is something Jesus should not do. Satan worship is a big
deal!
But that first
temptation is such a subtle one. It doesn't come bursting into Jesus' life with
hurricane force winds, but more like a gentle breeze. It doesn't come with the
face of evil, but with an air of innocence.
You're hungry.
You have the
power.
Turn these stones
to bread.
It's no big deal.
During the height
of the Cold War, a former FBI agent described Soviet spies working in Washington, and how the
KGB would solicit workers in the FBI and CIA and in the military to work for
them. The writer said the KGB would never start by approaching an American and
asking him or her to steal "top secret" documents. Instead, they
would start with something simple. It usually
began with providing something that was public information, such as office
telephone directory. It was no big deal. It was something the American worker
would justify as no big deal because it was public information. But it would
still be a thrill! It would also put
some extra spending money in the American's pocket. It would also be just
enough to hook the American into doing it again. Next time it would be a file.
Then it would be something confidential, and finally it would be something very
secretive.
That would come
later, however. At the beginning, it would be nothing more than that telephone
directory. No big deal.
And so it is with
temptation.
Read stories about
people who embezzled millions of dollars. It never starts with the desire to
embezzle a million dollars. It starts with the worker needing a few extra
dollars. He or she takes it, thinking, "I'll just borrow this. I'll put it
back. It's just enough to buy a lunch, or a book. No big deal."
Or think of the
man or woman who commits adultery. It rarely starts with a full-fledged affair.
It starts with a simple, innocent conversation. Or a meeting over lunch in
which there is nothing wrong, it's just never shared with the spouse. It's no
big deal.
Jesus faces his
first temptation, and it is no big deal. Turn these stones into bread. He has
the power. As far as I know, God the Father never told The Son not to turn
stones to bread. But Jesus is able to realize that there is something about
this suggestion from Satan that makes it a big deal. He resists because He is
always on the watch, understanding that temptations can appear so innocent at
first.
We learn a lot
about how to face our temptations by looking at Jesus in the way he faces his
temptations. The first thing we can learn this morning is that you have to be
very, very careful. Temptations sneak up on you very subtly. It is easy to
yield to them because they come across as "no big deal."
2
Another
thing about resisting temptation is that the Word of God is the greatest power
in resisting temptation.
And
every time Jesus responds, he doesn't resist by the sheer force of his will.
Nor does he resist by engaging the devil in eloquent debate. He simply says,
"The Word of God says..." and then he quotes Scripture.
There
is something important about being so nurtured by the Word of God that it
becomes part of your soul. It becomes
your heritage.
One of
my friends in the ministry recently told me about being on vacation one day and
attending church with his family.
Instead of being up in the pulpit, he was in the pew with his wife and
children.
It
came time for the Apostles’ Creed.
Everyone
stood.
They
started into that holy murmur.
“IbelieveinGodthefatherAlmighty….”
My
friend says he suddenly became aware of a voice he had never heard at that
point in the worship service.
It was
the voice of his 11-year-old son, David.
David, who had a wad of bubble gum in his mouth. David, who could barely
pass 5th grade. David, who in the presence of a congregation stood
and confessed Trinitarian theology. My
friend says it was a moment of great parental pride. And because this minister is a close friend,
he admitted to me that it was also a moment of great theological confusion.
Where did David memorize that? They never taught David to recite the Apostles’
Creed. They never sat around the kitchen table showing flash cards…
“I
believe in God the Father almighty”
“Maker of heaven and earth”
Where
did he pick this up?
He
picked this up by participating in life of worship. He picked it up by Sunday
after Sunday hearing it said in the family of faith. And when he was old enough
to speak, by saying those phrases with everyone else.
And
one day, the words of faith became his own words.
And
now when David becomes a man and life pushes him against the wall he has
somewhere inscribed in his heart, “I’m the kind of man who believes in God the
father Almighty.” He doesn’t invent it
on the spot. He doesn’t try to figure
out something new on the spur of the moment.
He calls it out of his tradition.
And that is what Jesus does. He
calls out of Scripture creedal statements of faith.
Study of the Word
of God is important in giving us the strength to resist temptation. Psalm 119
asks and answers the question in verse 9, "How can a young man keep his
way pure? By living according to your word."
Further in that
Psalm, the writer says, "Thy word I have hidden in my heart, that I might
not sin against you."
By immersing
ourselves in a reading and understanding of the Word of God, we are able to be
more successful with resisting temptations. Jesus met every temptation with a
response from the Word of God.
In many ways, we
have forgotten the Word of God. We do not read it. We do not memorize its most
important passages. We do not try to answer temptation with the power of God's
word.
We have forgotten
even the stories of the Old and New Testament that can serve as examples for
our lives. We have become like actors on a stage of life who have forgotten the
lines from the script.
I was a member of
the stage crew when I was in high school. That was a great job, because we
worked on all the plays and shows and programs. I was in charge of things like
lights and sound effects and opening and closing the curtain, so I had this
feeling that the play could not start or finish without me.
One year, Miss
Sorrells was in charge of the Senior Play. She was a brand new teacher and she
came to our school full of enthusiasm and a love for teaching. She was young
and fresh and bright, and she would pour herself into this play. She would
teach all day, and then in the afternoon she would rehearse with people in
their lines, and then she would go home and put on some jeans and would bring
in some hamburgers and start painting the sets and the backgrounds.
I worked on a
number of programs each year, and most teachers took all this in stride, they'd
directed class play because it was part of their job, something to endure. But with Miss Sorrells, she took all of this
as a personal challenge. She really
believed in the importance of this play and she threw herself into it with
great energy, imagination, creativity and love.
On the day of the
play, everything went well. Or at least,
it started well.
Then somewhere in
the second act, Tommy lost his place. He
had some line to say, and he couldn’t remember the line. He just stood there.
His face grew suddenly pale. The actors stood around him, and no one knew what
to do. It was a moment of panic.
I looked at Miss
Sorrells and she was the face of calm and confidence. She was standing at a podium, with a small
light illuminating her copy of the script.
She had the words.
She was just about
to whisper them to Tommy when all of a sudden Tommy spoke.
It wasn’t the
words from the play. But they were funny words and everyone laughed. And
everyone relaxed. We had gotten through
a crisis moment, and now the play could continue.
But with the sound
of the laugher still ringing in his ears, Tommy said something else that was
funny. Those words were not in the play
either. But they were funny. People laughed.
And then he said
something else. The audience was still
laughing. But the actors were panicking
again. Tommy had left the words. He was making this up as he went along. This play was collapsing. It was out of control.
I looked at Miss
Sorrells. She was no longer calm. She was no longer confident. She was in tears.
We face the crisis
moments in life, and when we do we often make up these words as we go
along. And when that happens, life
spirals out of control. And God is in
heaven, in tears.
We have the
script.
We have the Word
of God.
We need to stick
to the Word.
Copyright 2014, Dr. Maynard Pittendreigh
All rights reserved.
For copies of
other sermons, visit www.Pittendreigh.com