The Victorious One

Matthew 4:1-11

Rev. Earl E. Dunbar

February 13, 2005

I was searching Google on college football losing streaks. The first thing that came up was MacAllister College in Minnesota. MacAllister College between 1989 and 2004 have won 20 games. That's not great. Factor in the fact that in 2002, they won five. So in the other 15 they averaged one win a year. In 2001 things were so bad that they were down to 29 players total on the sidelines. Most football teams at least 50. From 1974 to 1980 they set the all-time college football record, 50 consecutive losses. The head coach in 2002, before the 2002 season started, was quoted as saying this, "each year one of our goals is to be undefeated." God love him. They were five and five that year. I thought about this, what is it like to play for a team in which you always know you are going to lose? What is it like to be around defeat? What is it like when defeat is inevitable? That you live with it. That it stalks you. That even in the locker room there might be a culture of defeat? When you walk in you know that the best you are going to be able to do is maybe win two games in a season. What is it like? Then, I looked in the mirror. Because all human beings suffer from a culture of defeat, don't they? The things that we said we wish we didn't say. The things we could have done that we wish we could have done. Those Murphy Law moments that we really think exist, that if anything can go wrong, it will? Those temptations that we continually fall toward. The failures that we seem to live with all the time. And you know it doens't seem like much of a difference between the ways we live our lives and MacAllister College. In the course of the day any of us can point to places in areas in ways that we have fallen short. You know some people want to take care of that by just moving the definition of defeat. There is no such thing as wrong. No such thing as evil. No such thing as, dare I say the word, sin? So therefore we can be OK. The problem is it doesn't do anything with that gut. That gut that keeps gnawing and gnawing and gnawing. Well, some of us as believers, I fall into this trap sometime. We are believers in Christ and we use forgiveness as a cushion. Hey, I am forgiven. I can say I'm forgiven and I never have to deal with anything in my life, because I'm forgiven. I don't know if that’s you, but many of us fall into that trap, or some of us are just too darn busy to notice. And yet, there is that nagging. When we stop for a minute to really think about it, there is that nagging that doesn't seem to go away. You know what? We need a victory. And lent is that time of year where we need to face ourselves and thankfully it doesn't end there. That we face ourselves at the cross and we face the one who is on the cross, in the tomb and has won the victory for us.

Today, as we begin lent, I have good news for you. And it is this: only Jesus offers and delivers authentic victory. Only Jesus offers and delivers authentic victory. I want to share with you in this account of the temptation as we get ready to come to the table, the basic nature of the people that are involved in this story, keeping in mind the book of Hebrews that says Jesus was tempted in every single way as you when I are except he did not fall. Let's take a look at the story is go back to the wilderness. Let's see what we can find as we are in the beginning of Chapter 4. Jesus is baptized and now we see right off the bat the nature of the tempter. The nature of the tempter first is that he comes in isolation. Jesus willingly goes to the wilderness. He decides on a total fast, 40 days 40 nights. There is a reason for the 40. I'll come back to that later. But anyway, he is there and there is probably no food only beverage. Then the tempter comes. Now it is true that the tempter was coming throughout Jesus's ministry. But, I find it interesting that the account does not pick up at day one. It picks up at day 40. It picks up after Jesus has not had food for 40 days and he is alone and he is in preparation and no doubt wrestling with things. He is there in the wilderness. He is in his very own wilderness. There is the tempter. Isn’t that true? When we are alone, when we are angry, when we are depressed. When we are frustrated. When we want to go our own way. When we see the roof caving in. When all the world around us seems to be out falling apart. That is one time in which the tempter seems to be there knocking on our door. That's exactly what the tempter does here. When he arrives he offers a deal. Every temptation is a deal. It is a contract. I can enter into that contract and I expect to receive something. Here is what Satan offers. First, he offers to satisfy all of my needs. All my needs will be satisfied. He says to Jesus, if you're the son of God (and that word there means if or since, I think it's the latter here) since you are the son of God, please turn the stones into bread. No problem. Isn't it true that the more you have something taken away from you and the more you want it? After two or three days of not eating, for me, tofu would look really good. 40 days. You heard this sentence before. I want to rephrase it for you so that is new in case it is old for you. Jesus, look at that stone and turn it into the most wonderful piece of piping hot French bread that you've ever seen in your life. Now you get the temptation? It's OK, nobody is going to get hurt. It's in isolation. Nobody here, it's just the two of us. By the way you're the son of God, you deserve a perk. You have to be satisfied first before you can serve anybody else, right? So satisfy yourself first and then you'll be able to satisfy everybody else. Oh boy! Ever had that happen to you? Satan offers that if you would just do one thing all of your needs are going to be satisfied and you'll be able to take care of yourself first. Just let me ask if that ever works?

Second, to make me master. Jesus is taken now to the temple. It is the highest peak of the southeast corner of the temple. It is a place in which the trumpeter would come and herald. When there was news, a trumpetet would come to this corner and the crowd would gather and a herald would come out and herald news. It was a place in which crowds would gather. And so at this point the tempter says, "Jesus, what I want you to do, is go to the edge and do a swan dive off of there. Just go to the edge, put out your hands and BOOM! Just fall over. Why, because Psalms 91 says, "don't you know, that if you fall, God will pick you up. God will even lift you up over a stone. So absolutely God is faithful so just test him. Throw yourself off. And by the way, as angels come and protect you from smooshing yourself at the bottom of the ravine of hundred feet down. As the angels come, people will see that and be converted to you.” Very simple. There's a problem. One author calls this manipulative bribery of God. "God, I dare you to be faithful.” It is making God dance on the head of a pin. It is the difference between asking an honest question and making God be faithful to prove Himself. There's a difference. And more than that, Satan is asking Jesus to do it at the very spot that indicates God's presence and faithful care in the temple. Satan did not just take him to the temple because of the high place. It was because precisely at that spot Jesus was going to undermine who he was and call into question the faithful care of Almighty God. But, Jesus would remain in charge. He would be in charge. He could make God do his bidding. God would be forced to respond. Been there? Satan comes and says, " you can be in control. You can stay in charge. You can have it altogether. It's all there, all you have to do is take it".

Thirdly, Satan comes to offer a life of avoidance of pain and inconvenience. A life avoiding pain and inconvenience. You see, now is the main event, the third temptation. Is it just me? Or has it happened to you this way? Where you know you're tempted to do something wrong. You know it's wrong, you say “no, get out of here” and I’m not going to do that, but then the temptation seems to get worse. And then you say, " no, no, no." Then it seems to get harder. As if you and the tempter know that it is inevitable that you are going to give in. It's just a matter of time. In other words, resistance is futile. So Satan takes Jesus to a high place. When a seller wanted to sell piece of land, that person would take the buyer up high and they would look at the land, so that this buyer would know that the seller was telling the truth. This land right here. The land we're looking at from a distance right here. That's the land you have. The tempter is doing the same thing. He's doing it in that culture. He takes Jesus up and says, "you can have all these things if you would just bow down and worship me." Again we're alone, you can just bend the knee for a second. You can fake it and nobody else will know. Just do that and you can have it all. The problem is, there's no cross. It is being a king without a cross. It is having it all in an earthly sense without the mission of suffering and pain and death that is required for salvation. It is to short-circuit the very mission that Christ was there to have. It is the temptation. I believe this is the same temptation that Jesus undergoes in the garden of Gethsemanee, when he says to God, if it is possible to take this cup from me, please take it.

I heard about a phone scam recently. Very quickly, it goes like this. Answer the phone. The person on the other end says, "I'm from such and such credit card company. We notice when checking your bills, we noticed that you have a certain purchase that is questionable." Then they read the purchase, which of course you didn't make. And they know that. So they say, "did you make that purchase?" You say, "No." They say, "OK, for free service we get this all cleaned up for you, we just need to doublecheck your credit card number." And you give them a credit card number and they're off to the races. You see they offered something. A quick fix that could not be delivered. You see that is what Satan does. He offers satisfaction and control and convenience. He offers all of these and for a very short time it works and then the bottom falls out. Because there is never enough satisfaction. There is never enough control. And you can never be enough convenience. And as soon as we find out that's the case we end up in a trap. It is a trap that Satan sets. It is a trap of my own making. The nature of the tempter is to be full of lies. Now we have the nature of Christ. Jesus's answers reveal his character. First, that servant obedience is true satisfaction. Servant obedience is true satisfaction. Jesus was led into the wilderness. He willingly went into the wilderness. And when the devil asked him to turn that stone into bread, he says, "No, my bread is from God." True satisfaction is loving the father. True satisfaction is following the father. True satisfaction is clinging to that relationship with the father. I am only truly satisfied when I'm in connection with him. Men and women may not live on bread alone but on every word that passes from the mouth of God. It is to rely God for all of our sustenance.

Next, trust brings peace. The first time Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 8, the second Deuteronomy 6. He says, " do not test Satan. Do not test the Lord your God." In Deuteronomy 6 it ends like you did at Massah. And in Massah, the people were wandering around with no water and accused Moses, i.e. God, that they just brought them out of the desert to murder them. A mass slaughter. And so they demanded of God that he produce water so that they would know he was faithful. Get that? Do you get the attitude? It is totally different than asking the question that you really want the answer to. It’s sticing your finger in God's face and saying, "prove your faithfulness big boy." Jesus says, "No. I'm going to trust the father no matter what. I am going to trust the father no matter where it may go. And yes, even if it means there will be some people who will not turn to me because I didn't jump off this temple. I am going to follow." Because trust is what brings peace, not control.

Thirdly, it is to choose the way of the cross. He finally said to Satan, "go away and get out of here." You may worship and serve only God. Jesus understands that who I worship and who I serve are together. Who I really serve is who I worship. Never mind what I say. Nevermind what I pray. Never mind what I read. It is who I worship is who I serve. They are inexorably linked. I cannot serve Christ unless I am ready to take the way of the cross. But, too often I go back to that altar of convenience and too many times that altar has stabbed me in the back. Yet, I keep coming. I keep coming. Instead Jesus says, "No, I'm going the way of servanthood. I am going the longer way. I know that the father is found in the way of the cross. It is Christ's nature and that's mine. I think all of you realize that words have power. They can build up or destroy. They can condemn or they can build up to heights. You know, many of you go every day with that little voice in the back, maybe it's not audible. That little voice saying, "You can't do it. You failed. You're condemned." So words are powerful. Look at what happens. Jesus speaks the word of God and Satan backs down. Why? Because falsehood can not live with absolute truth. This here is one of the biggest examples that the word of God is absolute truth. Because Satan could not stand to it. It is like dark that cannot exist in light. You and I have the sword of the spirit, the word of God. But notice also Jesus is the word. The word became flesh and dwelt among us. The most powerful word there is, is Jesus Christ himself. I need to I ask myself what side do I identify with? The nature of the tempter? Or the nature of Christ? There is one more person in the story before we conclude. We're not going to spend more than a minute or two. It's me, it's you. But you say, I am not in in the story. Yes, you are. You see, the word wilderness was a catchword. A word that would've gotten Matthew’s reader's attention. They were Israelites and they remembered that word, that the Israelites wandered in the desert for 40 years. Why? Because they failed the test. In their wilderness they were tempted and failed. That's why Matthew makes it plain. It was 40 days and 40 nights to symbolize the 40 years in the desert that Israel had walked. And Jesus underwent the same temptations that Israel faced in the desert. This time there is a winner, and it is not Satan. And therefore I can very easily make the leap because of Genesis 2 and 3 that we read. That I'm in the background of the story because Jesus is there. Jesus is in the wilderness because I lost. Jesus is in the wilderness precisely because of his love for me. And because in my wilderness I dropped the ball. I'm MacAllister College. Instead Jesus wants me to be Oklahoma or USC. He wants us to be that victor if we will follow him. He has defeated all comers in all powers. He wants us to follow.

The best way I can illustrate this is this: my favorite movies of all time is The Sound of Music. At the end of "Sound of Music" Mr. Von Trapp is singing because he is going to leave his homeland. They are escaping the Nazis. For the last time he sings, "Edelweiss." Remember in that scene where he starts Edelweiss, and his voice catches. And the rest of the family comes in and sings. I couldn't go on. I failed. Jesus completes the song. Jesus completes the song because he alone is the victor. As we wrap up, listen to this quote. I am going to give you a suggested process. Find your own way if this doesn't work for you. This author wrote, “God, our goal is not to defeat Satan because he is already defeated. But to prevent him from reclaiming territory that already belongs to God.” That is the territory of our heart and soul. The territory of our church. It is to prevent Satan from reclaiming the territory that only belongs to God. Let me give you a suggestion, to name one temptation or family of temptations. You may look at your life and where you fall to temptation and you may see a pattern. I know it's true in my life. That may or may not be true in your life. And then what I want you to do is name that. Because there is power and words. Name that fault or that family of faults. Name it in prayer before God and then name it before one other person that can walk with you. ( 30 second commercial. Two weeks ago in our annual meeting I mentioned, you'll get a letter about this in about two weeks.) That I am offering thyself to walk with you in a spiritual journey. To have some laughs together, to walk together, to encourage. For a variety of reasons, this is one of them. To help you in an area of temptation that you fall in. Once you've done that, to look up some scripture that speaks to this issue put it in your mind and be ready to quote it. Be ready to say it. And yes, that sounds like old-school Sunday school. But there is nothing like the word that will set us free. Are we going to sin? Absolutely. Are we going to fall? Absolutely. Do you know what? I don't have to hand Satan a gun. I don't have to give him the territory. As we come to the table today, remember that this table is a place of victory. It is a place of healing. It is a place of honesty where you can honestly say, I come because I'm invited. And because I come as Jesus has won the victory for me. Come now and let us partake of this meal that celebrates the victory of Christ. Let's pray.