1st Sunday in Lent!
Prayer
Matt.
4:1-11
First Movement:
When I was a teenager, we moved from St. Louis
to NE Arkansas when I was going into the 10th grade. During the time between then and when I
graduated high school, we found a wonderful church that had an awesome youth
group. We had cottage prayer meetings at
the youth director’s home where I grew close to the leaders as well as the
other youth. We had student led prayer
times during noon out on the high school campus. My pastor’s wife taught the youth Sunday
school class and I had my first experience at teaching my peers during a time
when she gave us opportunity to do that. That was the attempt that I talked
about last week where my voice cut out! Our church grew until it was bulging at the
seams. Many Sundays, we had to pull out
chairs to put them in the isles. It was
a great growing time for me.
Also, within that time, our pastor
began preaching that God had told him we needed to sell out and build in a new
location. He handled it in a way that he
was only able to get less than half of the congregation convinced, and they
ended up leaving to start a new church.
It ended up being a very bitter split; I’ve told you about this before,
but what I haven’t said much about is the struggle this caused for me. Most of the people who I had grown to love
and who had helped me to grow the most were the ones who left! My parents wanted to stay with the original
church; I’m sure they felt that was the right thing to do. It has turned out good for me! God has brought good out of it for me. It is part of my faith journey that has brought
me to where I am today! I am good with
that! It is hard to know what to do in a
case like that (when your church splits), but the thing for me was that the
people who had so influenced my life were now on the outside. I was now an outsider to them because I had
not gone with them. I no longer felt as
welcome to meet with them during the
prayer meetings at school. We grew
apart. The pastor who left said this was
God’s will! Now we had two churches and
more people in church! (On a side note,
now, 48 years later, only one of those churches has survived and it is running
about 26 on a good Sunday! The church
that split off has since closed and is not apartment buildings. Satan really did a number!) I struggled with this being God’s will! I struggled with God allowing this to happen
to our youth group! I struggled with
what I saw people saying to and about each other! I read the scripture that says,
“Since, then, we have a great high priest who has
passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our
confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to
sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been
testedd
as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore approach the
throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to
help in time of need.[1] “ (Heb.
4:14-16)
I struggled with this scripture; when had Jesus experienced
what I had gone through? Forty-eight
years later, I read this scripture today to people going through a difficult
time, usually in the hospital. I know
many times they too are wondering when did Jesus have bypass surgery? Or Etc.
Second Movement:
Our
passage from Matthew today is many times read on the 1st Sunday in
Lent. Jesus’ 40 days of temptation in
the wilderness is paralleled to some degree with our 40 day journey during
Lent. His temptation is compared with
ours, thus he is the Great High Priest who has lived and been tempted as we
have, yet was without sin! As we begin
our Lenten Journey today, let’s look at Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness,
let’s look at the Biblical significance for Matthew’s first readers, and let’s
look at how Jesus indeed is our Great High Priest who understands what we are
going through and can give us what we need.
Third Movement:
The
temptation of Jesus is divided into three temptations. First, “The tempter came and said to him, “If
you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4
But he answered, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but
by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”[2]
Jesus is obviously quoting scripture
here, so what is He referencing?
The whole congregation of the Israelites set out
from Elim; and
This event is summed up in another passage which Jesus is quoting:
Remember
the long way that the Lord your
God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble you,
testing you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his
commandments. 3 He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by
feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were
acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread
alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.a [4]
(Deut. 8:2-3)
The
second temptation is this: “Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed
him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 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.’ ” 7 Jesus said to him,
“Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ”[5] (Matt.
4:5-7) Again, Jesus is referencing
scripture here and an earlier event in the history of
From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation
of the Israelites journeyed by stages, as the Lord
commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to
drink. 2 The people quarreled with Moses, and said, “Give us water
to drink.” Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the
Lord?” 3 But the
people thirsted there for water; and the people complained against Moses and
said, “Why did you bring us out of
And also: “Do not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested
him at Massah. [7] (Deut. 6:16)
These passages are clearly about putting
the Lord to the test. Will you really
trust the Lord, or will you loose faith and not trust? The Children of Israel, the first son, failed
the test!
The
third temptation is, “Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and
showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; 9 and
he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship
me.” 10 Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is
written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’ ”[8]
(Matt. 4:8-10) This is about
idolatry! The Children of Israel knew
about that!
When the people saw that Moses
delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered around Aaron, and
said to him, “Come, make gods for us, who shall go before us; as for this
Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what
has become of him.” 2 Aaron said to them, “Take off the gold rings
that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring
them to me.” 3 So all the people took off the gold rings from
their ears, and brought them to Aaron. 4 He took the gold from them,
formed it in a mold,a and cast an image of a calf; and
they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land
of Egypt!” 5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and
Aaron made proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a festival to the Lord.” 6 They rose early
the next day, and offered burnt offerings and brought sacrifices of well-being;
and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to revel.[9] (Exo. 32:1-6)
And the books of the law clearly
stated: “The Lord
your God you shall fear; him you shall serve, and by his name alone you shall
swear. 14 Do not follow other gods, any of the gods of the peoples
who are all around you, [10] (Deut.
6:13-14) Israel, the first Son, clearly
had a problem with this one, but Jesus, the Son of God and the Messiah, only wanted to serve God! He saw this for what it was, a betrayal of
allegiance to God.
Matthew’s
readers would have understood this concept as well. They were daily tempted to bow down to Rome
in order to do well financially etc., but Jesus sets the bar to serve only God!
Forth Movement:
What
does all this say to us? All of these
temptations have one thing in common, the temptation to treat God as less than
God! That is the ultimate
temptation! They are all about not
letting God be God and putting our faith in something else or in nothing at
all! In either way, it is about not
letting God be God! When my church
split, I was left with the temptation to abandon God and not let God be
God! I was angry and felt that something
had been taken from me; I was tempted to not trust God! Jesus understands that temptation; Jesus was
able to give me what I needed. When we
looe a loved one to death or when we have to watch a loved one suffer leading
up to death, we may be tempted to lose faith in God and not let God be God, but
Jesus understands that temptation to not
let God be God and can give us what I need!
If I suffer from alcohol or drug addiction, I am putting my trust in
something other than God to get me through.
I am not letting God be God; Jesus understands that temptation to not
let God be God and can help me through!
If my own health is failing, if I have had a heart attack or have been
diagnosed with cancer, the temptation is to lose faith in God, to lose hope
that God can make any difference, to not let God be God! Jesus can help me with that! Whatever we are dealing with, the ultimate
temptation is to not let God be God!
Jesus can help with that; he has been tempted just as we are, yet
without sin! As you encounter Christ at
the table today, whatever you are dealing with, leave it here and let God be
God! Amen!
Prayer
of Confession
Service
of Communion
d Or tempted
[1]The Holy Bible : New
Revised Standard Version. 1996, c1989 . Thomas Nelson:
[2]The Holy Bible : New
Revised Standard Version. 1996, c1989 . Thomas Nelson:
[3]The Holy Bible : New
Revised Standard Version. 1996, c1989 . Thomas Nelson:
a Or by anything that the Lord
decrees
[4]The Holy Bible : New
Revised Standard Version. 1996, c1989 . Thomas Nelson:
[5]The Holy Bible : New
Revised Standard Version. 1996, c1989 . Thomas Nelson:
a That is Test
b That is Quarrel
[6]The Holy Bible : New
Revised Standard Version. 1996, c1989 . Thomas Nelson:
[7]The Holy Bible : New
Revised Standard Version. 1996, c1989 . Thomas Nelson:
[8]The Holy Bible : New
Revised Standard Version. 1996, c1989 . Thomas Nelson: Nashville
a Or fashioned it with a graving tool;
Meaning of Heb uncertain
[9]The Holy Bible : New
Revised Standard Version. 1996, c1989 . Thomas Nelson: Nashville
[10]The Holy Bible : New
Revised Standard Version. 1996, c1989 . Thomas Nelson: Nashville
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