Handling Temptation Like Jesus

Like Jesus is the name of our series for Lent, the 40 days leading up to Easter. And I'm gonna start with a question this morning. Do you remember the very first time that you saw this? Darth Vader tempting Luke Skywalker to come to the dark side. Luke, come with me. We can rule the universe together as father and son. Man, what an exciting scene. I read an interview with the creator of Star Wars, George Lucas, and he said his inspiration for this scene was the temptation of Jesus Christ in the Bible. He said that he was trying to recapture the emotion that he felt as a little kid at a small Methodist Church Sunday school over in Modesto, California when he first heard the story about the temptation of Jesus by Satan.

And that's kind of what I hope to do for you today. I want to tell you the story and recapture the emotion, the drama, the feeling of the high stakes that are in play in this moment. In this series we are retelling the story of Jesus leading up to Easter, seeing how Jesus was countercultural in so many ways like he came to establish a new kingdom, but not just a new kingdom, a new kind of kingdom. One based on grace and gentleness with a new kind of king who served his subjects and he calls us to be like him.

Ricky Jenkins did a great job in Luke 2 last weekend. Let's pick up the story in Luke 4:1. It says, "Then Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness where for 40 days he was tempted by the devil." I want to ask three questions of the text today. Why is this in the Bible? What are the temptations? And what's the takeaway for you and me today?

So first, why is this even in the Bible? Whenever you read the Bible you need to ask this question. Why did the author choose to include this? Of all the things, for example, that the authors of the Gospels could have told us about Jesus, why did they include this odd little story? Well, because they are making a point. They're not just telling some random story. They are making a point. And what I want to do, if you'll hang with me this morning, is I want to show you that this story is way bigger than some metaphor about how you can overcome temptation. It's way bigger than that and way more important to understanding the story of Jesus than that.

So let me establish the characters and the setting and then the plot. That verse says "then." And every time you see this word "then" in Scripture you need to ask, "Okay, what came before the then?" What's the overall arc of this story? What's propelling this? Well, this is in Luke 4. So in the previous chapter, Luke 3, we see a wild preacher named John the Baptist, baptizing people in the Jordan River. And he says he is getting everyone ready for the Messiah. And the Messiah is this prophesied new warrior king who God is going to send one day to Israel. And it is thought that he is going to kick out the Romans with military might and liberate Jerusalem politically from its oppressors and even have the ability to call down fire from heaven against his enemies and just incinerate them.

And man, the people have been oppressed for so many centuries they're really looking forward to this. So John says, "I'm getting you ready for the Messiah." And then guess who shows up on the scene? Luke 3:21 says, "When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened." Watch this. "And the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And then a voice came from heaven and said, 'You are my son. You are my son in whom I love. With you I am well pleased.'" And it's then after Jesus is baptized, after the dove, after the voice from heaven, after you are my son, then Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

Now to help you picture this, this is the Judean wilderness. This is cell phone video that I took in 2019 while we were driving through it. I just took this right out the window. As you can see, it's actually a lot like Death Valley here in California. It's way below sea level. In fact, it's the lowest place on the surface of the planet. Temperatures can reach 125 degrees. And it's here, the Bible says, that Jesus is tempted by the devil. Now when we read this word, there are some misconceptions that we can have about it as 21st century Americans because we've been influenced by Hollywood and so on.

This word does not mean a character who is red and has horns and hooves and bat wings. That is Greek mythology. That is Hollywood. That is not the Bible. The word devil in Greek, which is the original language of the New Testament, diabolos, means the slanderer, the accuser, the liar. It's that voice of accusation. God doesn't really love you. You're never gonna make it. You know what? Maybe you're not even really saved. Or if you try this, I know they say not to do it, but you're not gonna get hurt. Go ahead. We've all heard these lies, these accusations, the condemnations. That's diabolos, the liar, the accuser.

But again, what is the point of all this? Why is this in the Bible? Well, this story is here to explain why Jesus was different than expected. Remember, this is huge to understanding the story of Jesus. The expectation was that the Messiah would rule on a throne in Jerusalem and kick out the Romans with military men. He would out Caesar Caesar. He would out muscle the most muscular. Didn't happen like that in the ministry of Christ, did it? He didn't rule on a throne. He died on a cross. Now, Jesus one day will return in glory to visibly rule over all the kingdoms of this world, the Bible says, but the way there is sacrifice.

And this story is here right at the beginning of the ministry of Christ to kind of foreshadow the radical new kind of leader that Jesus is going to be. And this is where you come in. The story is also in the Bible to warn us, his followers about the same exact temptations. Because listen, every day you and I are offered these same exact temptations. And ironically, most Christians are not on guard against these. They think of all kinds of other temptations, but not these. And these are the most destructive. So what are these temptations? What are they all about? Well, really, they're all temptations to the same exact thing. The overall temptation is to reach good goals in evil ways. All these three temptations have this in common.

So that's the overview. We've set up the stage, the characters, the context. Now let's plunge into the action. Verse two says, "He, Jesus, ate nothing during those forty days, and when they had ended, he was hungry." Now that may be the most obvious statement in the Bible. He was hungry. Yeah. Why does Jesus, rather, why does Luke include this? Listen, because he wants us to know Jesus was human. And at this point, Jesus was weak. He was just as human as you and I would be if we'd gone this long without food and we were in the desert, without shelter, we were in the wilderness.

In other words, he's very vulnerable. When the devil said to him in the next verse, "If you are the Son of God," and you see what he's doing with this sentence? Do you see it? Remember the context? He's referring back to what the voice from heaven had just said about Jesus at his baptism, right? "This is my beloved Son." He says, "If that is true, tell this stone to become bread." What he's doing is tempting Jesus to use his power, watch this, to benefit himself. "But Jesus answered, 'It is written.'" And every time he says, "It is written," that means he is quoting scripture. "It is written, 'Man shall not live on bread alone.'" What's that all about?

Here Jesus is quoting from Deuteronomy 8, and this is the great story where God provides the daily manna from heaven to feed his people, and God is teaching them more than just feeding them. He's teaching them daily dependence on him. And in this verse in Deuteronomy, he's saying to them, "It's not about the bread, it's about trusting the one who supplies the bread. It's about believing that the Lord will provide in his way and in his time." And when Jesus quotes this verse, Jesus is saying, "Even though I am the Son, that is absolutely true. I am submissive to my Father's way and my Father's time, establishing that Jesus will never use his power in his own self-interest."

And this is why later, for example, when Herod says, "You know, I might set you free if you just do a little miracle for me," Jesus won't do it. Or when he's hanging on the cross and the people say, "If he is the Son of God, let him come down and prove it." He doesn't, because Jesus will not use his power for his own self-interest. This establishes that. He'll only use it to serve others. Next, "The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, 'I will give you all of their authority and splendor. It's been given to me and I can give it to anyone I want to.'" Now watch this. Authority and splendor. Aren't those two things so alluring, so tempting?

Authority. You know, what we need, what the church needs to bring the kingdom of God into the world is some authority. We need people to do God's will in charge. People like, well, me. The temptation to political authority. And splendor. So alluring. The splendor of power. You know, I'll never forget one year Laurie and I were in Washington DC. We were staying at the Hilton and I'd read in some book somewhere that in the basement of the Hilton there was allegedly some kind of an underground emergency White House set up with a secret entrance. Kind of a remote presidential office, I suppose, for emergencies. And so I told Laurie, "Let's try to find it."

Now true confessions here I have in my past when I was much less godly snuck into places as kind of a hobby. I've snuck into concerts without tickets and snuck into movie studios and and stuff like that. Well, I said, "Let's sneak in." And I don't want to give all the details because maybe the secret service will come and disappear me if I do. But we found it. It was off of a sub-basement corridor, a service corridor for staff only, but we snuck in and we kind of tried all the doors and so on. And we got into this place all alone, turned on the lights, and the first thing we saw on the carpet before us was the seal of the President of the United States.

And we kind of wandered through wide-eyed carefully, respectfully, and then we found in the back a big office with a big desk and stationary in the drawers from the White House. And here's what I remember made such an impression on me. The carpet was so plush underfoot and the pens wrote so smoothly and the paper felt so rich and the soap in the bathroom smelled so great. And yes, we did try all that out. But I gotta tell you, the trappings of power are super nice. I can see how they could become alluring and addictive. And they were then too. Imagine this kind of splendor dangled in front of a man who is barely surviving in the desert.

And the devil says, "If you worship me, it'll all be yours." Saying, "Jesus, I know what you are here to do. You're here to establish your kingdom. I'm just offering you a shortcut. You can forget about the cross. I'm offering you the crown. You just have to go through me." Very slight compromise to a very good goal. The temptation was to reach a goal that's biblical through a means that's diabolical. And this is a temptation that every single one of us will face. Parents will face it. Leaders of businesses and schools and communities will face it. Pastors will face it. Just think of how much good you can do if you get there by these ungodly means.

And Jesus answered, "It is written, 'Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.'" Getting at the core of the temptation, idolatry. We so easily idolize power. And his response to this temptation is establishing that Jesus is never going to grab earthly political power as the primary way to advance his kingdom. Now this doesn't mean politics is bad. I'm glad for the Christians who've chosen a career in politics, but this means that the way the kingdom advances is not primarily or even necessarily through the authority and splendor and power of the kingdoms of men.

And again this helps explain why later when people come and try to make Jesus king by force, he refuses and slips away. Okay, plot nine, I'd rather rather verse nine, "The plot thickens. The devil led him to Jerusalem," watch this, "and had him stand on one of the highest points of the temple." Now so that you can picture this even today, when you look up at the highest point of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, it is dizzying. But in those days it was even higher. I want to show you a model of what it looked like. The ancient historian Josephus says that its highest point in those days was 450 feet above the valley. That's the height of a 45-story building. That's taller than the St. Francis in San Francisco.

And there was always a crowd down here milling around, sometimes in the millions for religious pilgrimages. And so the devil's up there with Jesus and he says, "If you are this Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down from here, for it is written." And now Satan quotes the Bible. It's kind of funny. He's like, "Okay, two can play at that game. Let me quote some scripture. He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully. They will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone." He's saying, "God's gonna preserve the life of the Messiah, right? If you say you're the Messiah, don't you believe the Bible? God promises to take care of you. So jump off and float down. And everyone here in the nation's capital will be so astonished they have no choice but to believe."

But again, follow me here. This is here to establish how Jesus is different. Jesus will never compel belief. You know, God didn't come to earth incarnate as Jesus Christ so he could do some supernova miracle so the whole planet would automatically worship him as some kind of a superman. Now he became incarnate as a normal man, as a human, precisely so that he could reveal himself as human. So people could know his heart. They would see Jesus with little kids and lepers and outcasts and prostitutes and extortionists and they could see him with these people at their parties and being friends with them and extending forgiveness to them and imparting a new sense of mission to them, not condemning them, redeeming them.

In other words, Jesus came to reveal God's heart in order to win our hearts. Jesus is into conversion, not coercion. And Jesus here says, "No, I'm not gonna go float around Jerusalem just to make people believe in me." Jesus answered, "It is said, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'" And he's quoting Deuteronomy again where the nation of Israel says to Moses basically, "We're God's chosen ones, right? So he's got to do what we are demanding right now." And Moses says, "Yes, God chose you and God loves you and God redeemed you, but you cannot manipulate God." And the text says, "When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time." That means this was just round one.

These same exact temptations would be offered to Jesus again and again. And I want to show you round two in just a minute. But first, what's the takeaway here for you and me? Let me answer that question with another question. This is from Andy Stanley from whom I got so much great material for this message today. He asks this, "Why are people, when they gain power, so inclined to go off the rails, morally, ethically, financially?" Right? In other words, where does bullying come from? Sexual harassment, arrogance. Now let me ask a more uncomfortable question. Why is Christianity, when it gains power, so inclined to go off the rails in those same ways? In other words, why the Crusades? Why the Inquisition? Why the injustices perpetrated by some of the early, you know, California missionaries? Why Jim Jones? Why David Koresh? Why Father Riker here in the Holy City in the Santa Cruz Mountains, who in the 1920s had an enforcement squad to physically beat up people who left his cult?

Why does stuff like that happen and keep happening? The Bible says this happens because we yield to these same satanic temptations to power and self-interest. And this is why now more than ever we need to double down on the kind of kingdom Jesus is building. Jesus, who throughout his ministry modeled over and over a different kind of leadership and a different kind of kingdom, one where power is for the benefit of the powerless. No one had ever heard of such a thing before of a kingdom where the King lays down his life for his subjects.

You know, maybe you're joining us today and you have your doubts, frankly, about whether or not Jesus was the Son of God and whether or not you believe a hundred percent of the Bible. I want to suggest that you still consider following Jesus because especially if you're tired of all the bullying, the authoritarian leaders, the cruel culture, Jesus is the alternative to all of that. You say, well what about all those cult-like Christian leaders that you just mentioned, René? That's the takeaway for us Christians. That's the big idea really of this whole story. Please don't miss it. Here it is. I must do God's work in God's way.

You've seen this theme pop up in this like Jesus series now, three weeks in a row, I must do God's work in God's way. There is evil in the world. No question. The question is how do we fight it? We fight by loving our enemies. We fight by turning the other cheek. We fight by blessing even those who curse us and people from every side of the political spectrum who call themselves Christians really need to own this. As Martin Luther King Jr. said, always be sure you struggle with Christian methods and Christian weapons. As you press on for justice, be sure to move with dignity and discipline using only the weapon of love.

Now watch this. He said if today's church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, that spirit of turning the other cheek, of serving, it will lose its authenticity and be dismissed as irrelevant. Very true. Now to be fair, this is very hard. This was very hard even for the people who lived and worked and served with Jesus Christ. This was very hard even for Jesus's own disciples to really get. In fact, one time right at the very end of his ministry, his disciples are arguing with each other and they're basically saying, "Jesus, we heard you talk all about love, but we know how the world really works."

And they say, "Lord, at this time are you finally going to restore the kingdom?" And they mean in power. Like is it time for some smiting, for some fire from heaven? And when you do restore it, can we sit up there on little mini thrones with you so we can have a front row seat to the smiting? They still can't wrap their minds around the fact that Jesus came to introduce a brand new kind of kingdom. And Jesus says, "Guys, guys, you know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles, lord it over them." That kind of bullying authoritarian attitude. "But not so with you. We're not going the way of the kingdoms of this world. I know it's all you see," he's telling them. "I know you think it's how the world must work, but whoever would be great among you must be a servant."

So my wife and I were talking about this verse this week as we were talking about the sermon. And Laurie said to me, "René, why when you look back on so much of Christian history do you not see this?" And she said, "It must mean that we do not believe that this is actually true. It must mean that we actually don't believe Jesus. We must believe that being a servant is just gonna make us a doormat and the devil will win and so instead in panic we grab for domination instead of devotion and Satan just laughs." As those exact same temptations that Jesus said no to so many times throughout our history Christians have been like, "Absolutely sign me up! Wait a minute are you telling me that I can have authority and power and the power to compel people to behave and believe? Where do I sign?"

And that's exactly what has turned people off to Christianity throughout the centuries. And so the question that I want to close with is what about you? Do you really believe this? That the way to introduce people to Jesus, the way for the kingdom to come into the world, is for us to serve and to love and to be gracious and humble at all times. And do you believe what Jesus said in the next verse? "For even the Son of Man, the Messiah, came not to be served but to serve," watch this, "and to give his life as a ransom for many." As Andy Stanley puts it, do you know what Jesus valued more than all the authority and splendor and power of the kingdoms of this world? He valued you because you are a part of this many.

And you know what hung in the balance during that dramatic temptation in the desert? You. You hung in the balance. Your eternal salvation, because if Jesus had grabbed mere political power, not one human soul would have been saved. See, the problem with humans is not primarily what's over in our capital buildings. It's what's right in here, our hearts. And new government won't change the human heart. New policies won't change the human heart. Shifting power from the oppressors to the oppressed won't change the human heart. The blood of Jesus shed for sins and believed on for new life is the only thing that can change the human heart.

So why isn't the church always driven by this example? The example of Jesus Christ serving others like him. Because I'll tell you what's at stake. The gospel witness of the church is at stake. And a generation of young people is at stake. People who have watched us not engage the way Jesus called us to engage and so have concluded that the church must not really love people and they don't want to be a part of it. Here's what's at stake right now. The world is hurting right now. And that means this is our moment church. To be the kind of people that Jesus called us to be, that Jesus gave his life for us to be.

So let's be that. Let's not grasp for that authority and splendor and power and dominance like all the other kingdoms of this world like just some other lobbying group. Let's be something authentically, totally, astonishingly different. Let's be an alternative to the aggressive culture. Let's be an army of servants. Let's be a light in the darkness, a city on a hill, a kingdom not of dominance but of service. Let's be people like Jesus and we will draw people to him.

Heavenly Father help us to realize you have got a mission for every single one of us today but you also have a way, a way for us to do your work. And so help us to be leaders in our families, in our neighborhoods, our schools, our cities, our churches to help us to lead as you led as servants. And Lord I believe that there's some joining right now who find themselves moved to say, "Yes, I want to follow you Jesus into that new kind of kingdom. May your grace wash over me, be my king, forgive me, and empower me to be like you." Amen.