Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. The tempter came and said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.’ But he answered, ‘It is written, “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” ’
Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying 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, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.” ’ Jesus said to him, ‘Again it is written, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” ’
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; and he said to him, ‘All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Away with you, Satan! for it is written, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.” ’
Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.
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Baseball season
started on Monday. It was a glorious day for this baseball fan, and
the combination of Easter and baseball made this week one of the
best. I was grateful for the sound of the Reds' radio announcers as
they described the game to these grateful ears.
Now, I love
baseball, and I played a bit growing up. I was never any good, but I
wasn't terrible enough to drop out and give up. I played until I got
to high school and realized that I wasn't great at it. At the
Cincinnati Reds' Hall of Fame, they have a display where you can step
in and face a 90 mph fastball. They have it all plexi-glassed off to
make sure no one gets hurt and sues them, but you get the feeling of
what it's like to stand in the batters' box. It's intimidating.
I imagine that if
I stood in a real batters' box long enough and took enough swings,
the odds of dumb luck would eventually swing in my favor and I'd get
a hit. If an infinite number of monkeys working on an infinite
number of typewriters can eventually produce Shakespeare, I'm sure I
could eventually blunder my way into a basehit. As the old Reds'
announcer used to say, if you swing a bat, you're dangerous.
One
hit would be a huge deal for me. It's a big deal for any baseball
player—they always save the ball of someone's first major league
hit. For me to get two hits in a row? That would be much, much
tougher. Three would be downright impossible.
Even
skilled baseball players fail approximately 70% of the time. The
very best will go several games without a hit. It's normal.
What
isn't normal is long hitting streaks. The record, one that is
considered unbreakable by many, is Joe DiMaggio's 56 game hitting
streak, set back in 1941. For 70 years that record has stood. The
closest anyone has come is Pete Rose, who had a 44 game hit streak in
1978. Several players have made it into the 30s recently, but no one
has come close to 56. DiMaggio's consistency has set a seemingly
unreachable bar.
Consistency
is something that I believe we underrate in society today. We want
big, flashy results, but we don't recognize the importance of daily
reliability. I believe that our consistency is vitally important to
our life as Christians.
Think
about marriage. If I expect Rachel to be impressed by one day of
faithfulness, I have quite a bit to learn. What she wants is not one
great day of faithfulness, but a lifetime of it—me showing up, day
after day, seeking to win her heart. If I cease my efforts because
I'm so impressed by one day or one year's worth, I've missed the
point of marriage.
Think
about work. If you show up and do great work one day, does that earn
you the right to take the week off? If I preach a great sermon
today, or next week, in case you've already written this one off,
does that mean I can mail it in for the next three weeks? No—to be
a great preacher, I need to be consistently good, faithful to the
text day after day, week after week.
To
be faithful Christians, we need consistency. It's not enough just to
live faithfully one day. How many of you go to God on Sunday
evenings and say, I've prayed quite a bit today, God. Went
to church this morning, worshiped you and even gave more than 10%.
Loved my neighbors and was even nice to my mean Uncle. Hope you're
happy, God. We'll chat again next Sunday.?
Nobody says that. Well, some people may, but I hope none of you do.
We know that the faithful Christian life is one that is lived out
each and every day. We show up every day, ready to be faithful,
ready to love God, ready to love what God loves and treasures. We
know how important consistency is. Even when we fail, when we fall
down, when we falter, we get up, because we know that tomorrow is
another chance to be faithful—with Christ, there is forgiveness,
and we can start again with a blank slate. In Christ, we get a new
beginning. Nobody is too far gone to start anew in his love and
grace.
So
how do we get to consistency? It's a daunting challenge, isn't it?
Think about living how we're called to live every day for the rest of
your life. Whether you are 9 or 90, that is tough to think about.
Today,
we're going to talk about the temptation of Jesus. We're going to
talk about the key to our consistency, the key to living a faithful
life, the key to resisting the temptation day after day, week after
week, year after year.
The
key to living a faithful life is recognizing that you can't do this
on your own. You do not have the strength to live the faithful
Christian life. It's impossible.
But
we don't live this life based on our own strength. We don't believe
that our faith depends on us. We don't get caught up in the lie that
we have to do this on our own.
Instead,
we look to how Jesus lived. In Romans, Paul says that Jesus was
tempted just as we are, yet he was without sin. That's what we want,
right? We want to avoid sin. We should hate sin and flee from it,
yet all too often we find ourselves falling prey to sin, either by
what we do or what we fail to do.
So
how did Jesus resist sin?
Look
to the Scriptures. Notice, first of all, that Satan comes to Jesus
when he is at his weakest. He hasn't eaten for 40 days. He's
hungry. He's tired. He's weak.
Satan
has been tempting people away from God for thousands of years. He
has a lot of practice. He knows what works well. He knows that it's
much, much easier to pick off people when they are weak. It's like a
lion on the prowl—he doesn't have to tackle the fastest gazelle to
eat, he just has to capture one, and it's going to be the slowest
one. The weakest member of the pack gets devoured. As an aside,
this is why it is so very important for us to stick together as a
church. If we are in it for ourselves, we abandon our weakest
members, and the devil will prey upon them. If we stick together and
support one another, we are living as faithful disciples, supporting
one another. The strong need the weak just as much as the weak need
the strong. You are not in this alone.
So
Satan comes to Jesus when he is weak.
Satan
also comes to Jesus quoting Scripture. It's mighty bold of Satan,
but he knows what he is doing. He's no amateur. Many of us would
fold at this point, even if we managed to overlook our own weakness.
But
Jesus doesn't rely on himself. He turns to strength beyond his. He
knows Scripture so well that the same Holy Spirit that has inspired
Scripture is within him, giving him the strength, knowledge and
wisdom to turn from the devil's temptation.
First
of all, Jesus recognizes the danger here. He sees the temptation for
what it is. Many of us might wonder what the harm here is. Jesus
sees that the Devil is trying to get Jesus to turn from God's
providing hand and provide for himself, to not trust God and only
trust himself. Jesus recognizes the danger and temptation.
Then,
Scripture strengthens him. The Word of God enables him to resist the
lures and wiles of the devil.
First
obstacle overcome. Let's go celebrate, right?
Not
exactly. The devil keeps coming. Twice more he tempts Jesus, and
when Jesus has rebuked him a third time, we see this little note at
the end: Then the devil left him.
It's not permanent. The devil didn't give up. In other Gospels, it
says Then the devil left until an opportune time.
Satan
never gives up his attacks. Satan never relents and never accepts
our rebuke as final. 1 Peter says that if we resist the devil he
will flee from you, but it doesn't say that he won't come back. Day
after day, Satan will attack, relentlessly pursuing us, trying
desperately to get us to turn from Christ and give in to his
temptations. What does it take to resist? How do we keep our
consistency?
We
have to be resilient. We have to find strength deeper than our own.
We have to be ready and willing to put on the full armor of God day
after day. We have to show up each and every day ready to be
faithful. To do so, we need to re-arm ourselves every day. We have
to feed ourselves with God's Word every day until we know it so well
that the same Holy Spirit that inspired it is guiding our hearts and
minds and thoughts. To read Scripture every day is to let God
strengthen you with his wisdom. To read Scripture and learn it by
heart is to accept the help of the Holy Spirit in navigating this
life. In learning Scripture, we imitate Christ, and we learn how to
recognize the attacks of the devil and defend ourselves from them.
In learning Scripture, we accept God's strength and let it guide us
into consistent, faithful lives that are centered around him each and
every day. In learning Scripture every day, we are becoming
consistent disciples that God uses to build his kingdom, day by day,
soul by soul.
So
let's be consistent, and let each and every attack of the devil fail
against our God-focused hearts.
Let
us pray
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