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Luke 4:1-13

¹ And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness ² for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. ³ The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” ⁴ And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’”

⁵ And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, ⁶ 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. ⁷ If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” ⁸ And Jesus answered him, “It is written,

“‘You shall worship the Lord your God,
and him only shall you serve.’”

⁹ 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, ¹⁰ for it is written,

“‘He will command his angels concerning you,
to guard you,’

¹¹ and

“‘On their hands they will bear you up,
lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”

¹² And Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” ¹³ And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Dear saints, beware. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour (1 Pet. 5:8). His ultimate goal is to get you to utterly reject God’s Word. But the devil is content with being patient so long as he can simply get you to doubt, at least a little, what God promises. So, the devil is always playing his favorite game where he questions all of God’s promises to you. And he is really good at it. The worst part of this is that our own sinful flesh likes to play doubles with the devil.

This was the devil’s game in the beginning, in the Garden of Eden. The first words we hear from Satan are, “Did God actually say? Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” With those words, the devil plants a little seed of doubt in Eve’s mind. That seed germinates so fast you can see the growth.

Eve adds to God’s Word, “We may eat the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” God never said it was wrong to touch the tree. But Satan, pleased with this slight twist on God’s word, waters his little doubt plant and presents the possibility of Adam and Eve being like God. And you know the rest of the story. Eve put herself in the place of God when she saw the tree was good for food. She went after the desire of her eyes. She decided that going against God’s Word would make her wise. Adam and Eve believe the lie of Satan. Satan wins his game, and all humanity falls.

Satan tries this same ploy on Jesus. If you are simply reading through the Gospel of Luke, it is shocking how bold Satan is as he plays his cards. At the Baptism of Jesus in Lk. 3:21-22, the text closes with God the Father saying, “You are my beloved Son; with You I am well pleased.” The next quoted words in the Gospel are Satan’s words in our text, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.”

The devil comes to Jesus when He is weak from fasting. But, notice, that the temptation is not merely for Jesus to fill His belly, rather the temptation is to prove what the Father has already declared. In other words, the devil is saying, “If You are the Son of God, You provided Your people with mana in the wilderness. And You are, right now, giving food to the whole world. You should be able to have what is Yours. If You really are God, why should You go hungry? Why shouldn’t You have what You are providing for everyone else? Prove you are God by turning this stone into bread.”

But it would have been a sin for Jesus to turn that stone to bread. The Holy Spirit had taken Jesus into the wilderness to fast. Jesus is God’s Son, but being a son is not about getting the inheritance, the power, and the rights. Being a son is all about obedience. Jesus knows that the Father is good and will provide precisely what He needs at exactly the right time. “Man shall not live by bread alone.”

So the devil shows Jesus all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. Satan promises, “All the authority and glory I will give to you, just worship me, and it will all be Yours.” But Jesus knows what is at the heart of this temptation. The devil wants Jesus to get what Jesus will get after His death on the cross. The devil just wants Jesus to skip the cross part. Jesus knows that, if He does as the devil asks, He will have the world under His authority. Sure, the world would go on for ages and ages, and people might even live long lives. But they would still spend eternity in hell. Jesus doesn’t get that power and authority and glory for His own sake but for your sake. “You shall worship the Lord Your God, and Him only shall you serve.”

Finally, the devil takes Jesus to the top of the Temple, and the he goes back to questioning Jesus’ son-ship. “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here because God will not let you get hurt.” The devil even quotes from our Psalm this morning. Satan is being really tricksy here. He is saying, “God has said that He will protect You. Prove that you trust God’s promises to You.”

God would, of course, protect Jesus, but God had never told Jesus to jump from the pinnacle of the Temple either. And even though God does protect Jesus in every way, Jesus still goes through temptations, suffering, beating, and death. “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.”

In all of these temptations, the devil tempts Jesus to get what is rightfully His – food, glory, protection – but not in the way or the timing that the Father has in store for Jesus.

The devil still plays this game. Satan wants you to look at your circumstances, your status, your surroundings so that you doubt God’s promises. But what is more trustworthy – your circumstances or God’s Word?

The devil even uses the voices of even some Christians. They join in the devil’s game of causing you to doubt what God says.

God says, “Baptism now saves you” (1 Pet. 3:21). God says, “In baptism you are united with Jesus’ death and resurrection” (Ro. 6:3-5). But many mislead Christians say, “Your baptism is only symbolic. It doesn’t actually do anything. It is just an act of obedience.”

Jesus says, “Take eat. Take drink. This is My Body. This is My Blood for the forgiveness of your sins” (Mt. 26:26-28). But, again, the voice of doubt is preached from pulpits. “Jesus isn’t really in Communion. This is physical, material stuff. It doesn’t really do anything but remind you of what Jesus has done.”

Jesus says, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Mt. 16:19). Then more explicitly, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them” (Jn. 20:23). And God says, “Confess your sins one to another that you may be healed” (Jam. 5:6) But the devil has caused you to doubt the Absolution. Absolution is not the pastor’s forgiveness it is always God’s forgiveness – the pastor is simply God’s mouthpiece.

You see, any teaching that even slightly deviates from the Word of God is poison. Poison might not kill you immediately, but it still kills. When God says something, it is clear and certain – even though our sinful minds might not be able to comprehend it. The devil’s game is to cause a sliver of doubt wherever God has spoken. Then, all he has to do is continue to feed that doubt, and the wedge of unbelief is driven deeper and deeper between us and God.

Now, we do see a way out of temptation here. Jesus is our example as He always returns to God’s Word wherever the devil attacks. The answer to doubt is always God’s Word which never changes. It is solid, lasting, eternal.

But even more importantly, brothers and sisters in Christ, the Word of God says that Jesus resisted every temptation of the devil. And that sure, certain Word of God says that you, dear saint, are in Christ. As Jesus resisted all the devil’s temptations, you do too. God sees you only in Christ. Jesus’ resisting temptation is your resisting temptation. His life is your life. His death is your death. His resurrection is your resurrection. His righteousness is your righteousness. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.