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Text: Luke 4:1-13 Invocavit (1st Sunday in
Lent) Victory over Satan In
the name of him whose victory won “the Kingdom that ours remaineth”, dear
friends in Christ: These days, in many
Christian circles, you’ll hear people talking about “living the victorious
life”. If you
stop by a Christian bookstore you can probably find dozens of titles that
promise to help you do just that. Open
one of these books, and you’ll read how the author divides all Christians into
two categories. There are the vast
majority who are “defeated Christians”.
These are the ones who have faith in Christ, but who still struggle with
sin, bad habits, and wicked thoughts.
Oh, they’re a sad lot; constantly subjected to the terrible temptations
of the Evil One. But then there are the
“Christians living in victory”. They
have no such troubles. They’re beyond
all that. Why? Well, it’s because they’ve successfully
applied the “ten biblical principles”, or “twelve secrets of discipleship”, or
“seven leadership tenets of Jesus” or whatever it is that the author has
discovered and now puts forth in this book that you hold in your hand – this
book that he really hopes you will buy, not, of course, because he hopes to
enrich himself at your expense – no, never anything so base as that – rather
his goal is that you too might attain the victory that so many others now
enjoy. Really! You can read some of their testimonies on the
back cover – how they were once like you:
only half-hearted disciples, languishing in discouragement and despair;
but how now they have achieved a spiritual breakthrough to a higher level where
Satan just can’t get at them, all because of this book. And perhaps you have detected a note
of cynicism in my comments thus far.
That’s because anyone who tells you that
there’s something you can do or some simple principles you can apply that will
make the Christian life less of a struggle really doesn’t understand what the
Christian life is all about. My friends,
it’s a war that we’re involved in – a deadly
and dangerous struggle. It’s a war in
which if progress is being made against the enemy, it’s only because the
intensity of the struggle is increasing.
The farther you go, the harder it gets.
If there is such a thing as a defeated Christian, it’s one who believes
that he’s managed to lick the problem of Satan’s temptations. In this morning’s Gospel reading we
hear how our Lord Jesus himself was tempted by Satan. There we see how the devil has in his arsenal
three great weapons – or perhaps we should call them “traps”; and he uses them
all against Jesus and those who follow him.
And rather than think of these traps as individual snares, we should
think of them as an entire minefield:
three kinds of deadly devices concealed together to form a seemingly
impassable “no man’s land” through which Jesus must pass first, and then guide
his church by his Word and Spirit. The
thing to understand is that while we are in this life, we’re never out of the
minefield. You can’t claim victory just
because you’ve taken a few steps and haven’t been blown to bits yet – there’s
still more to come. But what I want to
do this morning is examine Jesus’ confrontation with the devil in detail,
marking his footprints, as it were, so that we will learn to recognize the devices
the devil has planted in our way, and learn how, like Jesus, to step around
them safely. It’s fitting that we do this
now. A few days ago the church season of
Lent began. Traditionally, the forty
days of Lent recall the forty days of fasting and temptation that Jesus endured
immediately before starting his public ministry. And it’s no accident that he faces these
temptations in the desert – in this particular desert – there’s a historical
precedent. You may recall that following
their delivery from bondage in Egypt, the children of Israel spent forty years
in this same desert: one year for each
day of their rebellious complaining and their lack of trust in God. The Lord used these forty years to mold and
discipline the people, preparing them for the great task of driving the pagans
out of the Promised Land and establishing the Nation of Israel. It was to be a nation in which God would be
the King, and all the people would be ruled under a special covenant
relationship: quite literally, the Kingdom
of God on Earth. Things began well
enough, they won victory after victory – at first; but they ultimately
failed. Why? Their faith faltered, they lost their way and
began stepping on all the mines, and eventually they turned from the Lord
altogether. At length God brought an end
to their Kingdom. But now, Jesus, in whom is embodied
the New Israel, is subjected to a similar period of rigorous discipline as he
prepares to enter the Promised Land and establish a new Kingdom of God: his Church.
And as he begins his campaign of conquest, driving the demons out before
him, he too must face Satan and all his deceitful schemes. And, as we’ll see, Satan begins his attack
with one of his biggest guns: it’s the
temptation to doubt what God has promised. Here’s the set up: Jesus is hungry. He hasn’t had anything to eat for forty
days. Satan appears and “innocently”
proposes that he change some stones into bread.
Doesn’t sound like much a temptation:
it’s no sin to make bread. So
what could be wrong with it? Jesus has
the power to do it, and he has a very good reason for doing so. Yet he declines. Why?
The simplest answer is that you and I can’t change stones into bread –
and if Jesus is to be the perfect substitute and sacrifice for mankind, he must
face these temptations just like we do:
armed with nothing but trust in our heavenly Father who provides all
things. But beyond that, Jesus is coming to
establish the Kingdom of God, and he doesn’t want to build it on miraculously
created bread, not for himself or for his followers. Recall that when Jesus fed the 5000, they
wanted to make him their king right away.
The problem with such a kingdom would have been that the only questions
on everyone’s mind would be, “When do we eat?
When will you satisfy all our physical needs and desires? When will you give us the things we want?” But it isn’t upon things that Jesus wants
to establish his kingdom. He is going to
build it upon the Word and promises of God.
He responds to Satan with the words of Moses, “Man doesn’t live on bread
alone, but by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God”. Moses spoke those words to the children of
Israel as they were about to enter the Promised Land. He told them that they had just spent the
last forty years in the desert, being fed every day on bread that fell from
heaven, to learn that very point: That
the Kingdom of God is not about bread, but about God keeping his promises: that the Lord created them, sustains them,
and will give them the Promised Land all by his Word. Jesus is not going to build the Kingdom of
God on bread that fills stomachs, but rather upon bread that fills spirits, the
Bread of Life, which is the Word of God. This is important for us because
regardless of how much or little someone has, he is always susceptible to
falling into the trap of allowing worry about physical needs to overshadow
trust in God’s promises. It is Satan’s
biggest trap. It may take the form of
food, or clothing, or a home, or family and friends, or a job, health,
appearance, a sport or hobby, or all these and more. Whenever the cares and concerns of the world
begin you shake your confidence in the promises of God, Satan has you in the
trap. Knowing this, Jesus steps clear of
temptation and establishes his church on the very thing we need the most, and
he charges his church to continue the proclamation of God’s Word to feed the
world’s true hungers and needs. The second temptation has to do with
misplaced trust and misdirected worship.
In it, Satan makes Jesus a remarkable offer. He will give Jesus authority over the whole
world if Jesus will simply bow down and worship him. Your first inclination may be to think that
Satan is lying, and that Jesus would have to be a fool to fall for it. But Satan isn’t lying. He really does have authority over all the
earth, and he is willing to give it to Jesus.
You see, the entire world is under the curse of the Law, and Satan is
the foremost being under curse of the Law.
He uses the authority of the Law to hold the entire world in
bondage. If Jesus were to worship Satan,
he too would fall under the curse of the Law.
He would be the foremost being under the curse, and the world would be
in bondage to him. He could bypass the
humiliation, suffering, and death of the cross, and be in charge of a kingdom
today. Satan is essentially offering
Jesus his job. But Jesus turns him down
cold. Jesus has authority too. His authority extends over heaven and earth,
and it is a higher authority than that of the Law. Jesus has the authority to forgive sin. He can free people from the curse of the
Law. He can free people from bondage to
Satan. His authority rests in the
sacrifice he is going to make to pay the penalty of the Law. But thank goodness we never fall
into the trap of worshipping Satan ... or do we? When we think about satanic worship, we
probably think about cases of weird people who wear black, hooded robes and
perform secret rituals in the middle of the night. And certainly, that is a form of satanic
worship; but worshipping Satan is much more common and widespread than
that. Remember that Satan holds the
world in bondage by the authority of the Law.
When we imagine that we become righteous by satisfying the requirements
of the Law, we are effectively worshipping Satan. Let me explain. The children of Israel were in bondage in
Egypt. They made bricks and built the
wonderful treasure cities for the Pharaoh – their work served him. Moses went to the Pharaoh and asked for
permission to worship God. “You want to
worship God?” replied the Pharaoh, “Work harder on your bricks!” Satan tells people the same thing: “You want to worship God? Work harder to obey the Law! Do more good works!” That is the formula of all the world’s
religions, and sadly, many of the so-called “Christian” sects: Do good works. Earn God’s favor. And people slave away making their lives
wonderful treasure cities of good works and virtuous living for Satan, the
Pharaoh of the world. God has another
name for these impressive monuments of human goodness: he calls them “filthy rags”. Satan offered Jesus his job as
“Pharaoh” of the world, and he makes a very similar offer to you each day. He baits this trap very well. He offers you some of his authority if you
worship him this way. No, he won’t make
you the president of the corporation, like he offered Jesus; but he will give
you your own franchise. If you live in a
palace of your own holiness you can earn the praise of men. You can look down from lofty heights on all
those who are more sinful than you. And
when people offend you or do something wrong to you, you can hold them in
bondage. You can make them work hard to
regain your favor. You, too, can
exercise the authority of Satan. But Jesus makes us an even better
offer. He offers to free us from the
bondage of Satan. He will forgive our
sins. The only thing we do is believe
the promise when he gives us the gift of faith.
There’s more. He has given the
authority to forgive sin to his church.
Through Baptism, Confession and Absolution, and the Lord’s Supper we
free people from bondage to Satan. And
he gives his authority to us as individuals.
We can forgive those who sin against us, and when we do we are
exercising the authority of the Son of God. For the third and final temptation, Satan
takes Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple and tells him, “Prove to me that
you’re the Son of God. The Scriptures
say God will protect you. Step off the edge. We’ll see if it’s true. We’ll see if you really believe it.” Again, Jesus responds with part of the speech
Moses delivered to Israel immediately before they entered the Promised Land,
“Do not test the Lord your God.” You may
recall that it was not part of the original plan for Israel to spend forty
years in the desert. God had delivered
them from bondage, defeated their enemies, cared for them in every physical
sense, and led them to Canaan, pointed them in the right direction, and said,
“Here is the land I promised to give you.
Go in and take it.” How did they
respond? They totally chickened
out. They accused God of bringing them
into the desert only to die, and they pined away for the good ol’ days of slavery back in Egypt. After all God had done to prove his love for
them, they still questioned it. They
doubted that he really cared about them.
They tested God. They were
testing the limits of his patience and mercy.
And they paid for it. God
condemned them to go back into the desert until they learned to trust him;
until every Israelite who was 20 years or older when they passed through the
Red Sea died for the sin of testing God.
Jesus, who knew more than anyone the vastness of God’s love, refused to
put it to the test. But it reveals something of Satan’s
evil genius that he is able to take a promise of God and twist it into a
temptation to sin. He tells Jesus, “Go
ahead, step off the edge; God will hold you up.” He tells you and me, “Go ahead, sin; God will
forgive you. The Gospel is your license
to sin as much as you please. Have the
best of both kingdoms. God loves you,
you can’t go wrong!” It is absolutely
true that God forgives sin, but it is also true that he can be tested to the
point that he is compelled to respond.
We who have God’s Word, and have the forgiveness of sin, have Christ
living within us. When we consciously
decide to do something we know is wrong, what we’re really doing is standing
with Jesus on the pinnacle of the temple, and we set his Spirit aside and say
to him, “Look, Lord, I’ve got this thing I want to do – and I don’t want you
with me while I do it. So I’m going to
step off the edge here, but I want you to catch me before I hit the bottom –
you promised you would. And off we go,
testing the limits of God’s patience and mercy, plummeting toward destruction
and imagining that he’s going to catch us with open arms and a big smile, as if
he were delighted that we demonstrated so much trust. How often are you guilty of testing God? At his temptation, Jesus
successfully bypassed Satan’s three big mines.
But the text tells us that Satan left him “until an opportune
time”. You see, Jesus would have to walk
through that same minefield every day, and Satan would continue to lay new
traps in his way, always variations of the same themes – but anything to get
Jesus from going to the cross where by his death he would destroy the curse of
the Law and pull the plug on Satan’s authority.
Satan failed to stop him. Jesus
did go to the cross, and through his suffering and death he defeated Satan once
and for all. That was his final victory
over Satan. Like Jesus, we pass through Satan’s
minefield every day of our life on earth.
And though Satan failed to stop Jesus, he hasn’t given up on us. He still looks for an opportune time to catch
us off guard and lure us to step on one of his mines. But the way is clearer for us. Jesus has marked a safe path. He’s shown us what the mines look like and
where they can be found. And we do not
walk the path alone, for Jesus leads us by the hand every step of the way. He also forgives us and guides us back to
safe path if we stray. And we can be
certain that because Satan failed to defeat Jesus with his traps, we will
safely make our passage through the minefield as long as we allow ourselves to
be led by Jesus. Walking with him and in
his Word, we too can be victorious over Satan. Soli
Deo Gloria! |
