March 9, 2014 Matt. 4:1-11 “Well Done My Faithful Servant!”

06 Mar March 9, 2014 Matt. 4:1-11 “Well Done My Faithful Servant!”

March 9, 2014   Matt. 4:1-11       “Well Done My Faithful Servant!”

I hope that most of you realize that I usually try to speak from the Bible.  Even when I do a topical series like the one we just did on wisdom, I still try to speak from the Bible. Now you may think that all pastors do this but this isn’t necessarily so.  Some pastors will take a reading and then talk about something else completely.  Others will take a passage and put their own spin on it.  This is what I would sometimes call heresy.  Everyone is allowed to interpret the Bible but they have to interpret it within the Bible.  This is how I can come to say that just because society tells us that something is right or ok or maybe even legal, doesn’t make it the right or wise thing to do according to Jesus.  I feel bad for the pastor who says these wrongful things and they probably won’t realize it until he/she is at the gates of hell.  I really feel sorry for all the congregations that he led to the very same place.  Hopefully, we can keep our eyes focused on Jesus Christ at all times.  Today’s reading is a familiar one to us.  Let’s see if we can figure out some ways to keep that mean, pesky old devil off our backs.  It might be a lot easier than you think.

Let’s begin with this cute little story of a man who took his young daughter to the grocery store to help buy groceries.  They picked up all the healthy things that the mother had put on the list plus one of those big bags of M&Ms.  You know M&Ms?  You can’t just eat one, right?  They got home and the mom asked, “Why did you buy these?  You know that M&Ms aren’t good for you!”  The father then said, “don’t worry, honey, this bag of M&Ms has one-third less calories than usual.”

Well, the mom looks over the package pretty closely and says, “What makes you think there are one-third less calories than usual?”  “Well,” the dad replies, “We ate about a third of the bag on the way home, so there’s one-third less calories than usual!”  The chocolate lover in me loves his logic!  I think this is a case of the spirit being willing but the flesh is weak.  You might not have a weakness for M&Ms like this but I would almost be willing to bet, if I wasn’t a good Methodist that is, that we all have some weaknesses.  We all have temptations that are just about impossible to refuse.  This is what Satan is counting on when he attacks us.  He is determined to find our weaknesses and exploit them until we are defeated.

Today, we are looking at the temptation of Jesus Christ by the devil and this occurs right after His baptism.  We need to note the timing because it is so important.  If Jesus ever had a vulnerable time, it might be right after His baptism.  Jesus knows what is in front of Him.  He sees the cross.  He sees the road He has to travel to get there.  Satan is smart and cunning.  He knows that if there is ever a time when we are vulnerable to his trash, it is when we are baby Christian’s right after we have been baptized.  Fortunately, Satan didn’t know who he was dealing with.

It is the same way with us today.  The reason this is so important is that it shows us that we are the most vulnerable when we first come to Jesus.  When we have a new believer in our midst, it is our job, our responsibility to surround this person with the love of Christ and help that person grow because we know that Satan will attack.  I know this for a fact because he tried it with me and he is still trying.  The new believer is vulnerable to these attacks because they don’t know any better yet.  Therefore, if you know someone who is new to the faith, go to them, help them and guide them.  This is so important.

Another thing I want you to notice here before we start is that it was after the 40 days of fasting that Jesus got hungry.  Now I don’t know about you but for me, 40 hours was a long time to go without food.  I was hungry after every Homeless and Hungry event we did.  But this was 40 days, not 40 hours!  There is something going on here that we don’t often acknowledge.  God is working in Jesus.  Jesus is so busy fasting and praying to God that He doesn’t notice that his physical body needs food.  This is a miracle of this passage and it is a huge one.

And God will do the same for us if we get into a situation.  You need faith, faith in God that He will always be there when you need the help.  You need the faith to ask Him for very specific things when trouble arises.  You need a life of faith so that you rely on Jesus for everything.  One of the reasons, I think, that sometimes Jesus doesn’t answer prayer the way we want is that we only come to Him when we are in trouble.  In this passage, Jesus is in constant contact with God the Father for 40 days before the temptation.  This is the same constant contact that you need also.

Now let’s look at the action.  Satan waits until he thinks Jesus will be at his weakest and he tempts him with bread because he is so hungry.  On the surface this might not seem to be such a bad thing.  I mean, Jesus is hungry and He has the power to turn the rocks into bread.  When we look a little closer, we see that foolish Satan is trying to get Jesus to prove himself.  Way back in the beginning of the Law, in Deut. 6:16 we read “Do not test the Lord your God.”  Remember that Jesus had no Bible, only the Jewish books or our Old Testament.  We know Satan is trying to test Jesus because of this very important phrase “If you are the Son of God.”  Satan says this phrase in the first two temptations.  He is saying to Jesus “if you are is such a big shot, then prove it to me and turn these stones to bread.”

But Jesus will have none of this.  Jesus has been fasting and praying for 40 days.  He may be hungry but He is also absolutely full of God.  There is no way He is going to do this just for a little physical food.  Remember that Jesus is God and He can do anything but He will never disobey the Father.  That is what is in play here.  Jesus is claiming victory.  Man does not live by bread alone.  Remember this because it is one of the most important lessons you will ever get.

In our present age, we have a terrible time trying to control our physical passions.  I’m not even going to go into the sins of immorality because they are so many.  We have many heretics trying to tell us that we can commit any of these sexual sins and it is ok.  I will only say this.  They are not ok, not now, not ever!

But let me get back to our worship of food.  It is phenomenal how many different kinds of foods we have today.  We have been truly blessed.  However, it is just food.  We were in Las Vegas on vacation a few years ago and they wanted $77 for a buffet for two.  I think today it is well over $100.  I don’t know if I’ve ever had a meal that is worth anything close to this, unless of course, Sharon has cooked it or one of you folks.  We didn’t eat at that place but there were people who did.  Then they will come away from such a meal, whether it is in Las Vegas or downtown Fargo, and tell you how great it was.  They don’t really mean that the food was so great.  They mean they just feel that guilty they spent so much on a hamburger that they had better say it was good. They say this for their badly bruised egos.

We worship food and other physical appetites.  We were not made to be like this.  You were made to come to Jesus first.  If these things aren’t the sin of gluttony, then they are the sin of over spending when we have almost a billion people in the world who are starving.  Jesus is telling us that we do not live by bread alone.  We live on the contact we have with Him and that is a fact.   Jesus Christ is our bread, butter and all the trimmings.  He will in turn make sure that you don’t go hungry in a physical sense.  You cannot let Satan put food between you and Jesus because when you do, you are not looking out for your best interests.  I cannot tell you strong enough that you are never to let anything come between you and Jesus.

Ok, so that is the first part.  The second part of this begins again with ‘If you are the Son of God.’  Here Satan is being very specific.  He is saying, ‘Jump off this high place and you will be ok.  It is written that the angels will protect you from all harm.  Jump!’  Can Jesus do this without harming himself?  Of course he can!  He is God.  One of the things that the modern world tries to do in many of these passages is explain things in our terms.  Modern scientists would come up with a way that Jesus could do this and not be harmed according to our physical laws.  They would probably say that there was a stuntman’s airbag at the bottom so He would be ok.  This is obviously ridiculous.

But there are many other places where miracles are explained away in our physical sense.  I have read where the Red Sea wasn’t really parted.  It was another place where the water was shallow.  I have read where Jesus didn’t really walk on water.  It was only a vision.  People, we are not dealing with our physical world.  We are dealing with the spiritual world.  It is a world we do not understand yet.  It is a world where obedience and faith rule and not gravity and the three states of matter.  If you are trying to physically explain Jesus and what He did, then good luck.  It can’t be done.  You cannot test God in any way especially with our very limited physical knowledge.

There is something else in play here that we often don’t see.  Satan is the father of all lies, right?  Notice in this instance he isn’t really lying.  He is daring Jesus to do this.  All these things can be done but Jesus knows that they are not in accordance with God, the Father.  If Jesus is the Son of God, He can do these things but they are not the will of God.

We have to be ever so careful when we live in our world.  For everyone it is pretty basic.  Satan dangles some lie and you go for it only to find that it isn’t true.  For example, you will be happy if you have more money.  You will be happy if you get this promotion.  You will be happy if you worship the devil and not God.  The list goes on and on.  The non-believer and sometimes the believer will fall for these things over and over.

As we become believers, as you ask Jesus to be Lord and Savior of your life, Satan has to up his game a little because you are now a child of God.  You have faith and you are harder to corrupt.  Now Satan tells us that God didn’t really mean what He said in the Bible.  It is ok to indulge in certain forms of sexual immorality.  It is ok not to tithe to your church because times are different today.  It is ok to go out and do all sorts of rip-roaring things at a party on Saturday night as long as you confess on Sunday.  Satan is still working in our lives and often times we don’t even notice it.  Do not test the Lord, your God.  Read His good words and obey.  This is the only way to a happy life.

The last thing that Satan does is offer Jesus the world if He would just bow down and worship Satan.  I don’t even know how to address this one because it is so ridiculous.  Jesus already has everything.  Why in the world would He bow down to a lesser figure than God just so He can have what He already has?  It doesn’t make sense to me.  Satan is trying to offer Jesus a shortcut so He doesn’t have to go to the cross.  This isn’t going to work because Jesus is God and He is obedient.  Jesus will not take shortcuts!

We have to remember this also.  Satan cannot give us anything that we don’t already have or what we are going to have anyway.  He cannot give us eternal life in heaven.  He cannot give us the love we so desperately need.  He cannot give us anything good on a permanent basis.  All we have to do is remember, “Satan is a liar!  Satan is a liar!  Satan is a liar!”

Connected to this is the last command that Jesus gives to Satan.  “Away from me, Satan!  For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.’”  Jesus is God and He wins.  Jesus knows that Satan has no hold on Him.  He knows that Satan has to obey his every command.  He tells Satan to get out of here and Satan has to obey.

I remember the first couple of times I commanded Satan out of our worship service.  There were a few people who weren’t expecting that.  We have the power to ban Satan from our lives.  If we command him out in the name of Jesus, Satan has to go because he has to obey God.  I would dare guess that there are many people who will not do this because they kind of like living in sin.  Many other people don’t know any better, so they think they like it where they are.  They have never lived in the pure graciousness and absolute total freedom of Jesus Christ.  One of the reasons I get so excited about Jesus is because of all the freedom and love I get from being in this wonderful relationship with Him.

Satan is an adversary that you cannot beat by yourself.  You will always lose by yourself.  Jesus showed us the way to defeat him that always, always works.  Jesus loves you so much that all you have to do is call on Him, call His name and you can cast this evil beast out of your life.  You may have to do it every day because Satan won’t quit but neither will Jesus and Jesus is far more powerful than Satan.

This passage is not about Satan and Satan’s temptations to us.  It is about us loving, following and obeying Jesus Christ.  He is God and we are to do exactly what He tells us.  This year I would like you all to remember to always be in prayer.  Learn to pray continuously.  This should go hand in hand with the short series I’m beginning next week on spiritual gifts.  I pray that these offerings to you will be pleasing in the eyes of Jesus Christ.  When we get done at Easter, I pray that Jesus will say to you, to each and every one of you, ‘well done my faithful servant!’  Thank you, Jesus, for first loving us.  Let’s pray.