Luke 4:1-11

How Do I Resist Temptation?

Sermon preached March 1, 2015
Opening
I was presented with a particularly alluring temptation this morning. I woke up about
6:20 and remembering the weather forecast, got out of bed and looked out the window.
The snow had just begun to fall. And my bed was so warm - we have a mattress pad
warmer, Susan was still asleep, and that bed looked so inviting. And I was tempted - to
cancel first worship service. It was snowing, dangerous to drive, slippery out there. I
could get back in bed then wake up a little later, read the Sunday paper and linger over a
cup of coffee. But heroically I resisted - I thought of the crushing disappointment you
would feel if I canceled the service - and so avoided that temptation.
The inevitability of temptation
The first thing we learn here is that temptation itself is not a sign of failure. And
Christians need to hear this - often, when we are tempted, we think weve already lost the
battle - that if we were really spiritual, if our hearts were really pure, if we really had our
act together, we wouldnt feel the temptation at all. And if we believe that, were
defeated before the fight even begins.
Consider Jesus in this passage. Immediately before our reading, Jesus has just been
baptized by John the Baptist and the Holy Spirit descended on him and the voice of his
Father in heaven told him, You are my son, the beloved, with you I am well-pleased.
And vs. 1 of our reading says Jesus is full of the Holy Spirit. And it was precisely at
that moment, that Jesus was tempted. Temptation is not a sign of the absence of the Holy
Spirit, or that you are separated from God, or that there is something wrong with you.
In fact, I believe that the more you are filled with the Holy Spirit, the closer you are
walking with God, the more you will be tempted.
Remember that we have an adversary who is trying to trip us up - and it is when
we are closest to God that we pose the greatest threat to the forces of darkness and
we can expect temptation.
For a follower of Jesus, temptation is inevitable. Consider the setting of these
temptations.
Jesus isnt in the middle of someplace sleazy like the Las Vegas strip. Hes out in
the middle of nowhere.

I mean, have you been to Las Vegas? You go into a casino, and when you sit
down at a blackjack table theyll keep giving you free drinks so youll get stupid
drunk and gamble away your money - you go outside and you will encounter,
about every fifty feet, men handing out little booklets with pictures and numbers
of women you can hire for the night, who will be at your room in 30 minutes or
less; you can gorge yourself on all-you-can-eat buffets and go see naked dancing
girls - plenty of obvious temptations in a place like Las Vegas.
But look where Jesus is here - hes out in the desert - the wilderness - hes there all by
himself. We sometimes think we can avoid temptation if we isolate ourselves from the
sources of temptation - and if you have a problem with greed you probably shouldnt be a
bank teller for instance - but Jesus went away from all the temptations of the world - and
Satan went with him. And Jesus went into the wilderness not to avoid the temptations of
Satan, but to go mano-a-mano with him, with no distractions, no protection, just a
showdown, High Noon style.
So - the Bible does NOT teach that we can be free from temptation by being more
spiritual, more holy, by living in the right place. Nowhere in scripture are we promised
freedom from temptation - we are in fact warned that it will always be with us in this life,
and in fact, that we must go through it. Christianity is the promise of joy unimaginable but we have to go through struggle and pain and temptation. St. Anthony of the Desert
said, Expect temptation with your last breath.
But we are promised that we can fight - and win.
What temptation really is
To fight temptation, we have to understand what it really is. And most people have no
idea what temptation really is.
I have a good friend who lives in Atlanta and she goes to a lot of networking events, and
she has to make conversation with people she has just met. So she has developed a great
question to stimulate conversation. And her question is, If you were asked to give a
TED talk, what would you speak about? TED talks are hosted by an organization that
asks creative people to give the talk of your life in 18 minutes on a subject you are
passionate about - people give talks like How to Save the Rainforest; To the South
Pole and Back - the hardest 105 days of my life. So my friend asks her new
conversation partner, if you were asked to give a TED talk, what would you speak about?
She asked me this question and I said the title of my TED talk would be, Everything You
Think You Know About Christianity Is Wrong. Because I think most people, especially
those who despise Christianity, have no idea what its really about. Most people think
Christianity is about following rules, acting respectable, so you get to go to heaven when
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you die and fool yourself into thinking youre a good person and then look down on other
people and tell them what to do.
So in my 18 minute talk of distilled brilliance, Id tell people that Christianity is about
following the Lord Jesus Christ on a dangerous, thrilling mission to push back the forces
of evil and death and build a new world of peace and beauty and love where we live in
harmony with God, one another and creation. Id tell stories of courage and sacrifice and
heroism, of Presbyterians building hospitals in the Congo and dying of tropical diseases,
of second century Christians caring for plague victims who were abandoned by their own
families, of Wilberforce leading the fight against the slave trade, of the modern fight
against human trafficking, of Id tell them being a Christian is like the Blues Brothers,
when they tell everyone, Were on a mission from God. And I expect my invitation any
day now.
Jesus was on a mission. At the beginning of the passage, he comes straight from baptism,
full of the Holy Spirit, at the end of the passage, hes still full of the Holy Spirit and heads
out on his mission - to be whom God called to be - his beloved Son - and to do what he
came to do - save the world.
And what Satan is up to in these temptations, is to wreck Jesus mission - by subverting
who he is, by undermining what he came to do. And thats the real purpose of temptation
- not to get us to do something naughty - to break a rule; but to wreck our mission to be
whom God called us to be, to wreck our mission to do what God calls us to do.
And these temptations are ingenious.
Jesus is hungry. He has fasted for forty days. And in feeling those intense hunger
pangs, in seeing his body shrink as he burned off fat and then muscle, Jesus was
sharing in our humanity, he was experiencing the limitations of being human,
including the need for food.
And yet, at any time, he could have snapped his fingers and a feast would have
appeared before him. And thats what the devil suggests - actually, nothing so
elaborate as a feast - just - Jesus, youre the Son of God - you dont have to suffer
from hunger like these ridiculous puny humans - say the word and make one of
these stones into a hot loaf of bread, steam comes out when you break it open just one loaf, Jesus, whats the harm?
Whats the harm? God sent him on a mission where he became a real human
being - he became one of us to share our humanity, he took on our humanity to
save it - and to use his power to escape the limitations of being human would have
wrecked his ministry.

The second temptation - power - the Son of God has left the awesome beauty and
majesty of heaven and is now stuck in a desert wasteland - and Satan offers him
power and authority over the whole world - gives him a vision of it - it can all be
yours - think of all the good you could do, all the suffering you could end - just
one little detail, worship me.
Whats the harm? God the Father sent Jesus on a mission to save the world and
one day rule over the world - but not through the route of power, but of service
and suffering. This temptation would short-circuit that mission - and destroy it.
The third temptation - security - Satan quotes scripture - yes, Satan knows the
Bible and probably better than most of us - and invites him to make a spectacle of
himself in Jerusalem - at the temple - to step off the tippy-top and have a flock of
angels take hold of him and the crowds below watch him float to the ground - now
if youre the Messiah, the Son of God, what a great way to begin your ministry, to
prove your credentials! What a spectacle!
But the spectacle willed for Jesus by his Father was to die alone on a cross. That
is the image we are to have of the Son of God, God-With-Us.
Our temptations
You see, were on a mission from God too. Temptation is not about doing something
naughty, breaking one of the rules - its far, far more dangerous than that. Its about
doing something that would wreck your mission in terms of what youre to BE: a
follower of Jesus Christ, who may live that out as a spouse, parent, leader or teacher in
the church. Its do something that will wreck your mission in terms of what you are to
DO - join the Lord in building the Kingdom through everyday things like being part of a
church, like loving and encouraging your spouse, raising children, sharing the love of
Christ, doing ministry.
And I have seen some deeply tragic examples of people being wrecked by giving in to
temptation.
A pastor who was a close friend of mine in South Carolina. Hes a pastor, a
husband, a father. But he was not satisfied with the erotic part of his marriage.
He decided he deserved more. And began dabbling with pornography. Whats
the harm? Its already out there, just pictures and video. And its helping him stay
married by filling an empty place in his life that his wife should be filling.
But that just was gasoline on the fire. Then he met another woman. Who
promised him the satisfaction he craved. He began an affair. One day he lied to
his wife, told her that he was out with me. She was suspicious, called me to
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check, I told her no, he wasnt with me. She begins sobbing on the phone. And it
all comes out. He loses his church, his ordination, he leaves his wife, abandons
his son and two days before the divorce settlement, where hes going to get
hammered, his wife is murdered and some of us close to them both wonder about
his involvement.
But my former friend is no longer a follower of Jesus Christ, a pastor, a husband
called to love his wife, a father to his son. He has wrecked his life.
How to combat temptation - Run!
Some day, temptation will find us all. How do we fight it?
Dietrich Bonhoeffer surveyed the traditional ways to combat evil and noted that they are
inadequate:
Conscience isnt enough, because we are trying to resist evil only with our own
resources; and our consciences can lie to us as well.
Duty isnt enough, because duty can be put in the service of evil, just as easily as
good, as we saw in Nazi Germany: I was only obeying orders.
Virtue isnt enough, because there is no way to keep ones self pure for the
contamination around us.1
So the first strategy is to run away - get away from it if you can
William H. Hinson tells about an article that appeared in his local paper. Over the
past several years in Houston, Texas there have been a rash of incidents in which
dogs have attacked small children. As a result, the newspapers have run several
stories about the attacks, some of which have been pretty awful. There was one,
however, involving a little boy called D.J. that was not so tragic.
A reporter asked D.J. how he managed to come away from a recent dog attack
unharmed. You can almost picture the serious expression on the little guy's face as
he said, "Well, right in the middle of the attack, the Lord spoke to me."
"Oh, really," asked the reporter, "And what did God say?"
"He said, `Run, D.J., run!'" the young man reported.
Every one of us has limits and weaknesses and the capacity to do really stupid things.

If you are tempted by pornography, dont put a computer in a room where you can
hide away
If you are tempted by greed, dont count the Sunday offering by yourself.
Like Martin Luther said, "Don't sit near the fire if your head is made of butter."
And dont listen to the voices that tell you, whats the harm...or, Just a little. Run!
Bonhoeffer again - there is a slumbering inclination towards desire, which is both
sudden and fierce. With irresistible power, desires seizes mastery...a secret,
smoldering fire is kindled...at this moment God is quite unreal to us...the powers
of clear discrimination and of decision are taken from us - the Bible teaches that
in times of temptation..Flee! Get away from it...2
Or as Mark Twain said, There are several good protections against temptation, but the
surest is cowardice.
How to combat temptation - know Scripture
So Jesus is facing off against the tempter and the wilderness. Showdown. High Noon.
What weapon does the Lord reach for? The Bible. Specifically, the Bible knowledge that
he has committed to memory.
This is surprising - remember, hes the Son of God - why would he need to quote the
Word of God?
Well, remember his state of being - hes hungry, tired, alone and vulnerable. So he turns
to a source of strength and authority in the Bible.
Temptation is obviously the most compelling, when were the weakest. When our
marriage is struggling, youre vulnerable to an affair; when our finances are under stress,
youre vulnerable to do something crooked.
And when the Lord was vulnerable, he turned to the Bible - and remember, he didnt have
a collection of scrolls with him, he turned to the Bible he carried around up here (point to
head). How much scripture do you have tucked away up here to protect you?
How to combat temptation - know the Love of God in Christ
Every time Jesus cited scripture to combat Satan, it was a scripture about having a
relationship of love and trust with God. Jesus was reminding himself that his ultimate
security and safety came from the love of his Father. And that was his real protection
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against the temptations of the Evil One.

It works just the same way for us. When we are tempted, really tempted, the real reason
is that we do not fully trust God for our worth, our security, our future.
Why might someone have an affair? A man might say, She made me feel like
such a man, a woman might say, He made me feel loved and beautiful. And it
very well may be, that in those marriages, the spouse was not giving their
husband, their wife, everything they should have.
Why might someone steal from their employer? That person may very well be
underpaid; may work for a boss thats a jerk; may have real financial needs.
But what the Lord invites us into, is a relationship of love and trust with him. Where we
can know, in the deepest parts of our hearts and minds, that we are loved and loveable, so
we dont need to find that in the arms of someone else. That we know, really know, that
God has promised to care for us and that our security rests in him alone, so we dont need
to cheat and pilfer our way to security.
Closing
After Jesus faced down the Evil One, he emerged from the wilderness and plunged into
his mission. And that mission took him to the cross. Oh, Satan tempted him again - in
the Garden of Gethsamene he cried out that he would be spared to the cross. But he set
his face like flint and went straight towards it - and on the cross defeated the powers of
sin and death that enslave us. We can be free from their power, we can say no to the
temptations that would wreck us, because our Lord faced down our adversary and won.
Run to him! Amen.
Endnotes
1. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, quoted in The World Treasury of
Modern Religious Thought, Jaroslav Pelikan, ed., pp. 463-464. New York: Little, Brown & Co.,
1990.
2. Ibid.