January 5, 2025
Luke 4:1-13
“Give the Devil His Due”
Back in September, our television had a breakdown. A center strip, from top to bottom, developed a gray-like shadow. It was most noticeable during bright scenes. Also, along most of the bottom edge, it was like little gremlins were shining flashlights upward. It made for interesting viewing.
We tolerated it for about two months.
There were a variety of reasons why we waited so long.
First, there was the absolute bear of a chore to figure out what would be the best television for our budget. You know how maddening that process can be.
Second, there would be the task of hooking the television up. They are no longer plug-and-go. They come with a Baskin-Robbins assortment of apps. Each app requires a different password. So you have to rustle up all your passwords.
Then you have to adjust the sound and picture quality to your room and lighting.
I know, first world problems, right. But still, what a pain in the behind.
I felt less overwhelmed when we bought our first computer back in 1986… a Radio Shack Tandy 1000 Deskmate.
We’ve all had the experience of having to buy a new appliance or gadget or gizmo. Some of us find it exhilarating. Others not so much. When it’s all over, you get to enjoy that new appliance or gadget or gizmo. You get the joy of experiencing first-hand what was once an idea or research project.
After replacing our old television with the new one, literally the shadowy haze lifted. We had renewed clarity.
Now, put aside such trivial matters. Imagine, for a moment, you are facing a much more serious circumstance.
It could be a devastating report from the doctor. When I was in eighth grade, my mom was diagnosed with colon cancer. The outlook was grim. Such news can strike any of us at any given time. When it happens, nothing cuts through the fog and haze like God’s Word. You’re not going to turn to the owner’s manual of your new television. No one is going to sit by your bed, reading from the latest Consumer’s Report of the best television to buy. Those things are going to fade from view.
What happens in the moments while the bad news is still hanging in the air? What happens after the doctor is gone and you and your family are left with the inevitability of your own death? What happens to your fascination with gadget and gizmos and televisions? What happens?
What happens is you are pressed to consider the end of your journey. You squint to see through the fog and the haze, to gain clarity of the mountains of eternity. You look back as the fog lifts from all the things you thought important or deserving of so much of your time and energy. You were captivated by things holding no meaning in these deeper moments of your life.
With today’s passage, we’ll consider that whatever has entranced you or captivated you or swallowed up your attention is the haze of illusion. They are the things which distract from the glorious truth of God’s gift of Jesus Christ. They are a shadowy haze on the mountains of eternity that Jesus came to reveal. Today’s passage shows us how Jesus battles to show us what’s most important in life.
Luke 4:1-13:
And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’” And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written,
“‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.’”
And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here,for it is written,
“‘He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,’
and
“‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”
And Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.
Where have we been up until this point in Luke? We looked at the baptism of Jesus. Luke covered, but we didn’t look at, the genealogy of Jesus. Suffice it to say that Jesus’ genealogy traces him all the way back to Adam. As Adam was uniquely created, and gave in to temptation, leaving us in our sinful state, so Jesus, uniquely created, will be tempted but will not fall, bringing us into a victorious relationship with God. Luke shows that Jesus is like a new Adam. With Jesus Christ, sin is defeated.
So we now have Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness.
Here are four ways Jesus prepares for the conflict ahead.
JESUS IS FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT
Luke says it right there in verse one. Jesus is under the power of the Holy
Spirit. The love of the Father drives him to fulfill his destiny. We are talking
about nothing less than his death on the cross.
JESUS ENJOYED FORTY DAYS OF SOLITUDE
Jesus was away from family and friends for forty days. Almost six weeks. No distractions. It’s always good to have some time for no distractions.
At the other end, it’s always good to have time, important time, to spend with others. That’s what worship is all about. Our time on Sunday morning brings us together. We sing…we pray…we learn from God’s Word. We’re being made spiritually strong for our wilderness moments. I encourage you to find some time of solitude to prepare for Sunday morning.
JESUS SPENT FORTY DAYS OF FASTING
I don’t know how it struck you, but it struck me as ironic that, here we are, after Christmas and New Year, talking about fasting. How much fasting have you done since the day before Thanksgiving?
I think Jesus went without food in order to empty himself of all earthly
things. He could then be filled with the power of God in order to fulfill his
task. As Paul writes in Philippians 2:5-8:
“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
What a symbolic moment his time in the wilderness became. Jesus went without earthly food in order to become our heavenly food. Amen?
JESUS SPENT FORTY DAYS IN BATTLE WITH THE DEVIL
What’s striking is that Jesus doesn’t challenge the devil’s claim to have authority over all the kingdoms of the world. We live in a fallen world. The devil appeals to self-interest and lust for power and a desire to avoid difficulty or suffering. In other words, the devil tempts Jesus with the things we see day-in and day-out. These things lead to broken people and a broken world. Luke gives the devil his due. He is a real, menacing,
destructive force working to tear people away from God. You can count on it.
But nothing in all creation could keep Jesus from fulfilling his role in our salvation history. No attack from the devil was going to stop Jesus from doing what he was born to do.
Here’s something you might want to write down:
SATAN WOULD HAVE DONE ANYTHING TO PREVENT JESUS FROM SUFFERING
Make no mistake. The devil throws three temptations at Jesus. Notice the temptations the devil skips. He doesn’t trifle with adultery or fornication or stealing or lying or murder. Those temptations are too obvious. Those are the things the devil throws at weak people. He doesn’t have to make much effort. Weak people will fall for those things all day long.
Look at how the devil tempted Jesus:
Eat like a king.
Rule like a king.
Escape suffering and death.
You can have your best life ever. You can have great prosperity. You can
be free of hardship. Who doesn’t want that? Buy my book and I’ll tell you
how it all can be yours. {Side Note - I’ll let you decide if you think I think the prosperity gospel is of the devil.}
The devil had one goal in the wilderness. To keep Jesus from suffering and dying on the cross. The devil would do anything to keep us held captive to sin and death. He did everything to keep Jesus from suffering. But nothing, not even the devil himself, could thwart the trajectory of God’s salvation history.
It's funny when you think about the ways we throw around the notion of the devil. We sing about him…the devil went down to Georgia. We root for his teams…the New Jersey Devils, the Arizona State University Sun Devils… we eat his cake…devil’s food with chocolate frosting…we use him for insight…the devil in the details…and we use him in a phrase that is far from a good thing…I had a devil of a time. We often do what C.S. Lewis warned against in The Screwtape Letters. We write off what Luke is telling us is dangerous. We ignore the reality of the devil at our own risk.
Let’s now return to the sick bed scenario. The shocking news of your
imminent decline has caused the haze of your earthly cares to clear. The mountains of eternity now stand before you. You look out your window, taking in the beauty of God’s creation. A cardinal sits on an evergreen branch. A squirrel skitters across the fence.
Off on the horizon crouches the devil of destruction. He offered Jesus a wasteland in the guise of opportunity. Jesus rejected it for us. That same devil wants you to grab hold of his opportunity. But because Jesus Christ has done the hard work for you in the wilderness, you can reject the devil. We remember when, at Jesus’ baptism, the Holy Spirit descended like a dove and a voice from heaven said, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” Those who are touched by the One who was touched by the dove are filled with the Spirit. As you look out your window, you take heart for that taste of paradise. You are not of the wasteland of the world. You are following Jesus Christ.
When we are tempted, we risk turning away from Jesus. For our encouragement, I close with these words from Charles Spurgeon:
The believer must go to Christ for help, and so must you. There is
balm in Gilead; there is a Physician there. Sinner, if thou lookest to Christ thou shalt live. Though thou stand to-day upon the pinnacle, for life is such, though death be thy dreadful fate, and the fiery lake be thine everlasting portion, presume not, dash not thyself further into sin, plunge not into ruin, but lift thine eye upwards and say, “My God, my Father, help me; thou God, the Son who didst redeem with precious blood, wash me from my sin; thou Spirit of the living God, renew me in heart and life,” and it shall be done, for “ he that asketh receiveth, he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.” “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”
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