Lent 1
A Jesus as Example or Savior?
St. Matthew 4:1-11
9 March 2014 – Redeemer
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This morning’s sermon is a multiple choice sermon. Based on the text in Matthew 4 I am going to deliver two different Jesuses to you. Your test is saying “amen” – yes to the true Jesus. Consider the sermon a little test. Now I know that some people get nervous about tests and I don’t want to put any pressure on you. Please don’t worry. There are only two choices and your answer is merely a matter of life or death. (I’ll also let you in on a little secret – I won’t let you leave today without giving you the right and true and only Jesus you need.)
The first Jesus is the most commonly preached Jesus of this text. He is Jesus your example. He is described like this. Jesus has just left the waters of His baptism and now He goes into the wilderness to be tempted. You also are baptized and you will face temptation. Jesus beat temptation and if you follow His example you can beat temptation.
The first thing to learn from Jesus the example is that Satan is going to go after your appetites – your desires – your hunger for food, for drink, for love, for pleasure, for happiness. He will play on your feelings. Learn from Jesus you need to ignore your feelings and cling to God’s Word. You need to know and believe that you do not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. Life is not found in satisfying your appetites and following your feelings but in God’s Word. To resist temptation you need God’s Word – hear it, memorize it, confess it, carry it with you in your heart and speak it when you are tempted.
But know this. Satan will not leave you alone. If you quote Scripture to him he will quote it right back to you. He’s a Bible scholar, albeit a liberal one. He only picks the part of the Bible he likes and so he tempts Jesus a second time with a partial Scripture passage – taking Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple Satan tempts Jesus with Psalm 91, “For he will command his angels concerning you. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.” (Psalm 91:11–12, ESV). Satan however left out one very important part of the verse – “he will command his angels concerning you in all your ways.” Jesus’ way is suffering and the cross. That is the way the Father has given Him. So Jesus, knowing Satan’s deliberate ignorance, corrects his theology, “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.” You are testing the Lord if you think He will protect you when you depart from His way. If you follow Jesus you will know your Scripture well. You will know your place, and you’ll not depart from it.
Finally, we follow Jesus when we are not tempted to false worship. The Devil will never stand before us in his red union suit with a pitchfork and invite our worship. Instead he will stand behind the good gifts of God to distract us. He showed Jesus the whole world – the very world Jesus came to save and offered it to Jesus for a simple act of worship. We follow Jesus when we can distinguish between the Creator and the creation, when we worship the Lord alone and not the gifts He gives us. That’s Jesus your example.
Jesus number two is Jesus your Savior. Jesus your Savior is led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit for the very purpose of being tempted. The Scripture clearly states that God doesn’t tempt anyone, (Jm 1:13) so Jesus must not be just anyone for He is led by the Spirit to be tempted. God His Father has sent Jesus into the world and the wilderness for a very specific purpose as Saint Paul told us in today’s Epistle reading – Jesus is the One Man through whom righteousness is accomplished for you. Jesus has come to undo what Adam has done to you.
Jesus is led into battle, to face Satan’s temptations, to restore what Adam recked. Adam listened to the Devil. Adam gave in. Adam hungered for something God had not given him and Adam ate. Christ is hungry from 40 days of fasting and Satan tempts Him to use His power for Himself. Can Jesus make bread from stones? Absolutely. He is God. He made fish sandwiches for 5000 people from five loaves and two fish. Jesus, however, will not satisfy His own hunger, for He has come to satisfy those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
Adam was tempted to believe that his Father was holding out on him. He didn’t trust that his Father truly loved him. This is the second temptation of Jesus – to test the Father’s love, to make sure that the Father’s Word was true. Did His Father really love him? Test Him. Throw yourself down from the temple. But Jesus will not test. He trusts His Father’s ways and will. He will be obedient and faithful to the way the Father has set for Him. Jesus 2. Satan nothing.
Finally Satan would have Jesus question his identity. A son only has one father (no matter how secularists and judges redefine marriage). Adam chose to have two fathers – but God would not share Adam with Satan and so Adam’s sons were born in bondage to their father the devil. Jesus will not worship Satan. He has One Father, whom He will honor and adore. What Adam lost, Christ won. Jesus 3. Satan – zip, nada, nothing. Jesus has a no hitter going after three innings, but Satan will be back.
Let me make a clear distinction between these two Jesuses. There is much to learn from Jesus the example, but everything you learn from Jesus the example is up to you. You need to know your Scripture. You need to confess the truth. You need to be in God’s Word if you are to resist temptation. Jesus the example will help you, but if Jesus is only the example then the fight against temptation is all up to you. Jesus the example means Jesus is no more than your coach, a therapist, and another law giver. Do what Jesus does and you will defeat Satan.
Here’s the problem with Jesus the example. You’re not Jesus. When you wrestle with Satan and your self and you lose – Jesus the example is finished with you. He has done all He can do for you and you are left a loser, a failure, a sinner who sins and dies. Jesus the Savior however says to you who fight temptation, but lose, “Do not worry that Satan may have won that battle – He has lost the war. I beat Him, 3-0 in the wilderness and 3-nothing at the cross.” When I rose again I shut him out.
Jesus your Savior does what you cannot do and He does it for you. He does not seek His own satisfaction He seeks to satisfy His Father’s demand for righteousness. He isn’t worried about saving Himself He has come to save you. He doesn’t need bread for His belly, He is the bread of life who comes down from heaven to feed you the fullness of His forgiveness and salvation. He doesn’t need to seek recognition and world power. He has come that your Father in heaven would recognize you as redeemed and forgiven and raise you on the last day to be with Him.
Faithful Christian preachers preach Jesus as Savior and we primarily do that by preaching His cross for your salvation, but here, in this text, we do not see Jesus on the cross. We see Jesus actively fulfilling the Law, keeping God’s commands, not biting on Satan’s bait, refusing to compromise with the Devil’s lies. If you are bothered by your weakness, troubled that Satan seems to know the exact bait you’ll bite on, despairing because the Devil is doing a dandy job of destroying your hope, then look at Jesus leaving the wilderness. He has won, but He hasn’t simply won, He has won for you. This is your Savior, into whose name you are baptized, whose righteous and holy life has declared yours, credited to your account. This morning once again He has bestowed His victory on you – the forgiveness you heard in absolution, His body and blood in His Supper. Satan loses. Jesus wins, but much more than that – He wins for you. The Jesus of this text is Jesus your Savior. In His name. Amen.
Pr. Bruce Timm
8 March 2014 anno Domini