The First Sunday in Lent , 03/05/2017

Sermon on Matthew 4:1-11, by Samuel D. Zumwalt

1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3And the tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread." 4But he answered, "It is written, "'Man shall not live by bread alone, 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 6and 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.'" 7Jesus 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. 9And he said to him, "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me." 10Then Jesus said to him, "Be gone, Satan! For it is written, "'You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.'" 11Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.

GOD’S PROPER WORK: DEFEATING THE DEVIL

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Each Christian has a mission in life. We are to follow the Lord Jesus in lives of humble service. Just as He gave His life away in radical obedience to His heavenly Father, so, too, we, the baptized, are called to follow Him in giving our lives away as He did.

Now the shape of each Christian life is different. We come from different ethnic backgrounds. We come from different family types. We come from different regions of the world. We come with different gifts, different personalities, and different spiritual types. We are equally different by birth, but we are equally the same by calling.

The great lie is that the differences between Christians must be a divisive thing. It is just the opposite. All Christians follow the Lord Jesus in His mission. And as we follow Jesus, He gives us our mission. We are to make disciples from all ethnic groups by baptizing in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that the Lord Jesus commands. God has given us different experiences and different gifts that the whole world might be reached with the Good News of Jesus Christ, who has given His life that the whole world might be saved from sin, death, and the devil.

Trying to Divert the Called

At the end of Matthew 3, the Lord Jesus was baptized by John. The Holy Spirit descended upon Him like a dove. The Father’s voice said: “This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.” And that’s where our Gospel lesson begins today.

We learn at the beginning of chapter 4, that it is the Father’s good and gracious will that the Son of God, Jesus, be led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Given all that we have previously read in the preceding chapters of Matthew, we know that the Lord Jesus is retracing the steps of God’s Son Israel. But where Israel was faithless, now God’s Son Jesus is faithful to the saving mission His Father has sent Him to accomplish through His radically-obedient life, utterly-innocent death, and incomprehensibly-joyous resurrection.

Matthew wants us to remember the wilderness. In the Sinai wilderness, Israel failed the test of faithfulness to the Father. In fact, repeatedly, for forty years, Israel whined and murmured and disobeyed God. Israel tested the Lord God’s patience again and again and again. And that first generation of Israelites that God rescued from bondage in Egypt were not allowed to enter into the Holy Land.

Note that here at the beginning of chapter 4, the Father sends His Son do what Israel failed to do. God the Father sent Jesus to be faithful. After forty days of fasting, when His human body was weak, God’s Son then faced the temptations of the old enemy. Satan wanted to divert the Lord Jesus from His calling to give His life away on the cross for the sake of the world. Now let’s stop and think about what that has to do with us.

Still Trying to Divert the Called

We began by reminding ourselves that each Christian has a mission to follow Jesus by giving away our lives in humble service and, along that way, by making disciples from all ethnic groups.

Just as the devil came at Jesus when He was physically weakest, so it is that the devil still comes at us when and where we are weakest. You might just stop right there and think about your greatest weakness and how it led to past stumbling and falling.

For some of us it’s a physical thing that trips us up right away. We make God great promises that we don’t keep, because we listen to the devil instead of God. Notice how Satan waited until Jesus had not eaten for forty days before the old enemy came at Jesus right when and where He was weakest.

A number of years ago James Taylor sang: “Don’t let me be lonely tonight.” That’s how it is for some who can’t stand to be alone. Some make compromises only to discover the one settled for in loneliness is really not good for her or him. Some enter into bad marriages and stay in dreadfully abusive relationships because of hating to be alone. Refusing to wait on God, they discover what’s worse than loneliness. Is that you?

In the same way, our physical weaknesses can be the vices that are self-destructive crutches. Addictions can divert us from God while ruining our health. Favorite pastimes can divert us from God while keeping us away from worship, study, and service. Fearing to lose the affection of a spouse or other loved one can divert us from God by keeping us focused more on what others think than on what God thinks!

I remember again my dear friend, Edna, who on the first Sunday after her marriage to Gene, a farmer/rancher, told her husband he needed to put on his church clothes and go to worship. She said that God could take away his health and his farm at any time, so he better get himself to worship first before thinking about fields and cows. Gene told me that story as we planned Edna’s funeral almost 40 years later. And, yes, Gene followed Edna, and, along the way, found that he was following Jesus, too.

More Attempts at Diversion

Again, the devil came at Jesus when He was physically weakest, so it is that the devil still comes at us when and where we are weakest. In the second temptation, the devil tried to divert Jesus by trying to get Jesus to put His Father to the test. The devil wanted Jesus to do a really dumb thing by throwing Himself off the high point of the temple mount, and, in so doing, testing God the Father’s goodness.

Some of us stop believing God is good and some of us even begin to doubt God’s existence, because first we foolishly put prayer tests in front of God and then begin to get mad because God seems to be failing our tests by not saying YES.

God will be God even if no one believes in Him, even if no one trusts Him, even if everyone doubts His goodness. That’s how it was with Israel in the wilderness. Even Moses, who had seen and heard God, stupidly tried to put God to the test, because Moses was tired of listening to the people’s griping. The devil used people to divert Moses.

Is that how it is with you today? Do you doubt God, because you have set certain expectations before God that seem to say this is how God must prove He is there or He is loving or He is good? Have you been diverted by your own foolish childishness?

The Lord Jesus was not diverted from His mission like Moses and Israel. He didn’t listen to Satan’s twisted use of Scripture.

Still the devil came at Jesus when he was physically weakest, so it is that the devil still comes at us when and where we are weakest. In the final temptation, the devil tried to divert Jesus by an appeal to pride and an appeal to the need for power.

That’s where a lot of us stumble often. We associate self-worth and even importance with things and positions. Sometimes we have to have those things or get very close to them to learn how often Satan uses them to try to divert us from God.

Twenty-three years ago I came very close to achieving a position that, to that point in life, seemed to me the very pinnacle of pastoral success. Afterwards I received a note from an older, much-ballyhooed charismatic pastor saying I had had a brush with ambition. Of course, his own political agenda, which he assumed was always pure, kept him from seeing that the one who assumed that position needed it far worse than anyone else. Yes, I had a brush with ambition, but, even in that moment, I was on my knees asking God if that was what God wanted for me. Even in my, then, youthful fear and self-doubt, I prayed for God’s will and not my own. Remember what the Lord Jesus said: it is possible to gain (what you think is) the whole world and (still) lose your soul!

We Are Weak But He Is Strong

Even though the Lord Jesus was at His physically weakest moment, He never yielded His authority as the only begotten Son of God. The ultimate author of Scripture used His Word to fight against the forces of evil, the devil, and all of his empty promises.

God the Father had sent His Son on a mission to save the world through His faithful life, death, and resurrection. Even though He was at His physically weakest point, the Lord Jesus never yielded to the devil and never was diverted from His mission. Because He went to His lonely cross faithfully for you and me, the Lord Jesus offers us, yes, in our disobedience and failures His gifts: forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation! If you haven’t availed yourself of private confession, don’t miss out on God’s great gift!

As we begin this season of Lent, our Lord Jesus is reminding us He has been tempted like us in every way but without sin. The best antidote to our temptations is to call upon the Lord Jesus with the confession: “I am weak, but You are strong.” Listening to Jesus and following Him will bring us regularly into prayerful communion with Jesus, His Father, and the Holy Spirit. Coming to Bible study, we will learn how God’s Word is a mighty spiritual resource for fighting temptation. Coming to regular worship and receiving the Lord Jesus in bread and wine, we will be reminded that there is no place we are going that the Lord Jesus is not out in front of us all the way!

Today we are learning from the Lord Jesus how to rebuke, how to say no, to the forces of evil, the devil, and all his empty promises. Just as the Lord Jesus held up His hand and said “No” to the devil, so we can say with His present help: “I’m not going there. I’m not listening to this. I’m not hanging around here waiting for trouble.” As a favorite mentor used to say: “You get into trouble when you put yourself in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people.” Very true that one. Think on it.

Staying On Message and Staying On Task

Challenge yourself to read a portion of Matthew’s Gospel daily during Lent. Discuss and pray over it. You will find why it is the early Church’s discipleship manual.

Regardless of what makes each of us different, all of us have been called to the same life: to follow Jesus, to learn from Him, and to invite others to begin to follow Him and learn from Him at their Baptism. The Lord’s mission to save the world from sin, death, and the devil has been accomplished through His life, death, and resurrection. And now each of us has been called to carry that mission forward until every knee bows and every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father!

Stay on that message. Stay on that task. Give your life away in humble service!

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Spirit. Amen.

The Rev. Dr. Samuel D. Zumwalt
Wilmington, North Carolina
E-Mail: t szumwalt@bellsouth.net

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