Pastor Mike Lowery - Sermoncast
Religion & Spirituality:Christianity
Led into Temptation
Matthew 4:1-11
The Season of Lent HAS to begin with the Temptation
> The great point of Hebrews 4:15 - " This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin." (NLT)
> It significantly effected Jesus; just look at the Lord's prayer:
* "Lead us not into temptation"
* "Give us our daily bread"
* "Thy Kingdom come on earth"
> Jesus was the only one who could have shared this story
Where is the evil or the harm in these requests?
> Stone to bread = feeding of 5,000; Physical safety = Resurrection; Authority now = Authority after the Resurrection
> Malcolm Muggeridge - What should the messiah look like?
* People's messiah?
* Torah messiah
* Kingly messiah?
* Certainly NOT the Suffering messiah!
Satan was tempting Him with a quick, non-suffering way to achieve the aims of the incarnation, the crown without the cross, to be human without the bad parts, to be the superhero rather than the Messiah
> Isn't that often temptation's way, offering us the shortcut to security or pleasure that are in themselves good, but can be grasped in the hurtful, destructive way?
> But looking over your own history, don't you sometimes wish God had been the conquering superhero, rather than the gentle Father? Why does God seem to sit on His hands?
* Yet would we not find, like Elijah, that the Lord was not in the Wind, the Earthquake, or the Fire, but in the Still, Small Voice?
* Satan was tempting Jesus to do things his way, the way that forces obedience rather than the way that encourages Love
> "Yet what was offered Thee? There are three powers, three powers alone, able to conquer and to hold captive for ever the conscience of these impotent rebels [humans] for their happiness; those forces are miracle, mystery and authority. Thou hast rejected all three and hast set the example for doing so." - Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
> Satan's power is external and coercive; God's is internal and persuasive
> Phillip Yancey, in The Jesus I Never Knew, "Only Love can summon the response of Love" Yes. Coercive power would only compel fear...
Jesus chose...
> God's kingdom, God's will, God's methods that promote love rather than compel fear
> The path of self-sacrifice, the hard but GOOD path, the path that leads us to grace
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