Sermon 20th January 2013

Today, our Assistant Minister, Gill Tayleur, preaches based on the reading from Luke 4: verses 1-13.

JESUS’ TEMPTATIONS

Have you heard the one about the vicar who parked his car in a no-parking zone in central London because he was short of time and couldn’t find a parking space with a meter. So he put a note under the windscreen wiper saying: “I have driven round this block looking for a parking space for half an hour. If I don’t park here now, I’ll miss my appointment. FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES.”

But when he returned, he found a parking ticket, along with this note. “I’ve been round this block for 10 years. If I don’t give you a ticket, I’ll lose my job. LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION.” 

This morning we continue our journey into Luke’s gospel

with the story of Jesus’ temptations. Last week we looked at John baptising people in the River Jordan, as he challenged them to repent of their sin.

John baptised Jesus too, and Luke tells us that when Jesus was baptised, a voice came from heaven saying, “You are my own dear Son. I am pleased with you.” And then Jesus headed into the desert for 40 days. And there he was tempted by the devil.

Now before we go any further, I had better say as I have before, and as Cameron has, I believe in the devil as a real being, a created but rebellious fallen angel who is constantly fighting against God and those who follow him.

The existence of the devil is not a subject I’m going to tackle this morning, but I hope that whatever your view on it, you can see the existence of evil in the world. We don’t have to look very far do we, just turn on the television,

or open the paper? Or indeed see our own anger or greed let loose. And I hope you’ll recognise there is such a thing as temptation to do wrong.

Now to Jesus in the desert. As theologian Tom Wright says

in his commentary on Luke: After Jesus’ baptism, with the words “You are my own dear son” ringing in his ears,

there were questions to be faced: Was this true, was he really God’s own dearly loved son? What did it mean to be God’s Son in this special unique way? And what should Jesus do as Saviour?

The 3 temptations can be read as possible answers to these questions. We don’t know whether Jesus was tempted in an audible conversation, or in a string of ideas in his head. It doesn’t really matter, but either way the temptations were plausible, they were attractive and they made a lot of sense. [Our temptations do too, they’re often plausible, attractive and seem to make sense at the time.]

The first temptation, to turn stones into bread when Jesus hadn’t eaten for 40 days. Well, God wouldn’t want his “own dear Son” to be famished with hunger, would he? 

The second temptation, to worship the devil in order to rule the kingdoms of the world. If God wanted Jesus to rule over all the world, as the angel Gabriel had told Mary, why not go for it?

And the third temptation, to get God to save Jesus spectacularly from harm. If Jesus was Israel’s saviour,

why not prove it by a stunning display of death defying power?

....................

3 clever, plausible, attractive ideas. Make yourself something to eat. Get the world to fall at your feet, as God has promised. Prove who you are.

Jesus didn’t attempt to argue – arguing with temptation

is often a way of playing with the idea until it becomes irresistible. Instead he quoted Scripture. The passages of Scripture Jesus quoted, all came from the book of Deuteronomy, from the time when the Israelites were 40 years in the desert after escaping from Egypt through the waters of the Red Sea. The parallels with Jesus spending 40 days in the desert after his baptism in the waters of the river Jordan, are obvious. But during their 40 years, the Israelites grumbled against God, they worshipped idols, and continually put God to the test. In contrast, Jesus refused to do those things. He was going to succeed where they failed.

In response to the first temptation, to turn stones into bread when he hadn’t eaten for 40 days, Jesus said physical needs and wants are important, but loyalty to God is more important. He wouldn’t use his power for himself, but for the good of others, as God intended.

To the second temptation, to worship the devil in order to rule the kingdoms of the world, Jesus knew he was to become the world’s true ruler, but the path to it would be by humble service, not by seeking status and power.

And to the third temptation, to get God to save Jesus spectacularly from harm, from death. Jesus knew that trusting God didn’t mean acting stupidly to force God into doing a stunning rescue. The power Jesus already had and would soon be displayed in healings, was to be used for restoring others to life and strength. It wasn’t for cheap stunts. Jesus’ status as God’s Son led him not to showy prestige, but to humility, service & finally death. The Devil tempted him to avoid death with a dramatic angelic rescue, but Jesus knew he had come to die.

In each case, Jesus saw through the temptation. He saw it for what it was. He saw the wrong in going along with it.

And he refused to; he resisted temptation.

So what about us?

We’re unlikely to be tempted in the same ways Jesus was,

but whether or not we go along with it partly depends on whether  we see temptation for what it is. Do we see the wrong in what we’re tempted to do? We all know how subtle and incremental temptation can be. This little bit is alright, and a bit more, and a bit more...

Sometimes we do know quite clearly that what we are tempted to do is wrong. Last week Cameron spoke about making right or wrong choices. Sometimes they’re in front of us quite plainly and we know it.

Other times it doesn’t seem so clear cut, as what we’re tempted to do may not be wrong in itself, but it may be a temptation because it’s the wrong time, or the wrong reason, for doing it.

I think we often try - and succeed – in fooling ourselves

that there’s nothing wrong in what we’re about to do,

and what we’ve done before. We say, it’s OK. We make excuses. Excuses like, It’s not my fault! I was provoked!

Or, it’s very understandable, it’s only human, or other people do much worse than I do!

They’re excuses – but they don’t excuse us. We are still responsible, very much so. Using excuses to try to wriggle out of recognising our wrong doing for what it is, when we’re tempted or when we’ve already done it, simply isn’t good enough. Because as we heard last week, God HATES sin. He HATES it. He LOVES us, but HATES it when we sin.

We can get a bit of a glimpse of how this might be,

imagining a really good parent – who loves their child deeply, but when that child repeatedly thumps their younger brother til he bruises, or tells calculated lies,

or deliberately smashes something in anger – at an age when it’s done on purpose - the parent hates it. Wishes they wouldn’t do it. It doesn’t stop them loving their child,

but they are very angry and upset with what the child has done.

God HATES our sin, even though he LOVES us despite it. As Cameron said last week, so STOP IT. STOP IT NOW.

How? How do we do that? When we’re tempted, what do we need to do? We need to recognise temptation for what it is, even when it’s clever, plausible and attractive.

Tom Wright again: We need to learn to recognise the voices that whisper attractive LIES to us, and to distinguish them from the voice of God, and to use the simple but direct weapons provided in Scripture to rebut the lies with truth.

One way of looking at temptation and sin is in terms of

lies and truth. Let’s look at Jesus’ temptations in this light.

The devil whispered to Jesus the lie: you’re not really God’s beloved son!

In the first temptation, he tempted Jesus with the lie

that God’s not really looking after you, he doesn’t really love you – you need to look after yourself. Make some bread! You need to look after number one! .... That’s a lie. For Jesus and for us. The truth is, God does love Jesus, and us, and our relationship with him and loyalty to him is the most important thing. The truth is, “Man cannot live on bread alone.” We need spiritual life and food as much as physical. We need to rely on God for them.

In the second temptation, the devil tempted Jesus with the lie that if Jesus bowed down to him, he’d have power and wealth, and that all would be well. That was a lie – if Jesus bowed down to the devil, there would be no rescue for us from evil and death. It would have completely wrecked God’s plan for the salvation of the world. The truth is that worshipping and serving God

in accordance with God’s purposes is the right – and best – way to live.

In the third temptation, the devil tempted Jesus with the lie that it’s OK to test God, you need to prove who you are. The truth is that we’re to believe and trust in God and his word, not by twisting Scripture as the devil did to Jesus, but genuinely and trustingly.

I’ve found this way of looking at sin, and temptation to sin,

in terms of truth and lies, can be quite helpful. For we’re all tempted to listen to lies, and believe those lies, and live according to those lies. It comes out in all sorts of ways.

There are lies about ourselves  – deep down we may believe the lie that we’re unloved, unaccepted, unworthy and rejected, by God and others. I’m a nobody, I’m weak, I have nothing to add, I won’t be missed if I’m not there. I have to hide away in shame or self hatred.

Or in order to be loved and accepted, I have to make sure I get attention, or go to extreme lengths to prove myself, or say and do whatever it takes to make sure others always think the best of me.

Or to try and feel better about myself, I’m critical of others, or superior, or want to always be in control, or satisfied by what I think I’m entitled to.

Such ungodly behaviours are often based on the lie that we’re not really deeply loved and accepted by God. Lies about ourselves, others and him. God doesn’t hear or answer my prayers. He can’t really change me, he can’t really be trusted.

Lies, all lies!

But we can fight the lies with the truth. Both in the moment of temptation, as Jesus did, and as a way of life. We can consciously embrace the truth in our day to day lives.

We might do this in several ways.

First, we can receive and accept the truth in our minds, in our thinking. We can read God’s truth in the Bible, and apply it to ourselves in a conscious deliberate way. We do this together on a Sunday, we’re doing it now, and many of us do it during the week, individually or in small groups.

Let’s make sure we read – and take in – the truth in the Bible for ourselves. In a few weeks’ time, we’re going to suggest a plan of short daily Bible readings from Luke, that we can all do through Lent.

Then sometimes we can receive the truth in pictures, stories or parables. Jesus used them a lot to convey truth,

and mulling over gospel stories, imagining ourselves in them, can impact us more deeply than just a quick read through. Or sometimes we may be given a picture that represents truth to our hearts better than words, a picture we have when we are praying, or one that leaps out at us from somewhere else.

And we can embrace the truth with our voices, declaring it out loud, to help root it in our hearts and minds. We can speak words of truth, for ourselves and one another.

Rebutting lies with the truth is one way of fighting temptation. And that fight is ongoing. Our reading this morning ends in verse 13 where it says that the devil left him for a while. In other words, he’d be back. Jesus beat him in the desert, but there were more battles to come, culminating in the final showdown at the cross, where Jesus triumphed over the devil supremely for all time.

Temptation continued for Jesus, & it certainly does for us too! And although Jesus won these battles in the desert, we know that we will sometimes fail. We will sometimes give in to temptation, and sin. That’s the sad reality.

But we know what to do when that happens. We heard from Cameron last week how to repent, with 4 Rs: we need to Recognise our sin, Repent, say sorry, Receive God’s forgiveness, and Replace that is, change, our behaviour. There’s another R sometimes added in to that list – Realign. Realign ourselves with the truth. Spot the lie that drove us to our wrongdoing, and renounce it, and so Realign ourselves with the corresponding truth. It’s like the truth is a straight line, or straight path, and when we wander from it, and go all crooked, we need to get back in line with it, need to realign.

So the question for us this morning is, what lies are we listening to at the moment?

And what is the truth?

And how do we live in that truth, as a way of standing up to temptation?

The answers for each of us will be individual and personal.

Let’s think about them, pray about them, and if we have someone we can talk to about such things, let’s talk about them.

The bottom line truth is that we are, each of us, deeply loved by God. Oh he hates it when we sin, hurting him, ourselves and others – and it has real consequences, now and in judgement, as we heard from John the Baptistlast week. Remember today is the day before, so STOP IT TODAY! But we’re still loved – loved so much he sent Jesus to die for us, to deal with our sin, as we’ll celebrate with Communion in a few minutes.

So in response to God’s love, this morning let’s renew our commitment to fight temptation, and pray for God’s strength to do so. For that’s the way to fullness of life!

Living God’s way and resisting temptation is not about denying ourselves anything that’s good for us. It is about living our lives to the full by living as God made us to be.It’s about becoming the person that our loving Father God designed us to be and living His design for our life – what could be more glorious?!

So let’s pray.

Thank you Father God for your wonderful love for each of us. Help us to know that love so deeply that we can spot, and fight, the attacks and lies the devil throws at us each day. Help us to grow in your truth,

so that we can resist temptation

and grow to live Godly, holy lives of worship and service.

In Jesus powerful name we pray, amen.