A Pure Sacrifice (He is Risen!)

Today's reading: Genesis 9-11, Luke 4

Luke 4:1-2
The Temptation of Jesus
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.



Jesus was tempted in the desert by Satan when He was vulnerable.  Satan used a few different approaches in effort to break Jesus.  Satan tempted him in the area of His physical needs, His authority, and His ministry.  In each case Satan sought to get Jesus to chose himself over the Father.

Jesus was tempted in the area of His perceived needs.  Satan, with a dose of pride feeding, reminded Jesus that He had full authority to feed himself...

Luke 4:3
The devil said to him, “ If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.”

Satan will tempt me in the area of what I perceive to be my needs.  This world, over whom he is the prince, tells me that I need all sorts of things and in my flesh I readily accept much of that message.  Satan will tell me that I have the authority and that I am entitled to these things.  I work hard- I deserve to have this or that.  His message is one that resonates with my flesh and so it is two against one.  The devil and my flesh wage war against the Holy Spirit within me.  As Jesus used the Word of God as His strenth in this encounter with the devil so should I.

First, however, I should acknowledge that materialism and seeking comfort over the Lord's call is sin.  I should recall that God punishes unrepented sinners with unspeakable wrath and take this seriously.  Reflecting a bit more on yesterdays reading I think of how God's glory and His love are amplified by his hatred of sin.  What I mean is that the more He hates sin...the more He radically punishes sin...the more He domonstrates the furosity with which He deals with sin...the more beautiful He is.  Why do we wince at the idea of hell and why do we wince at the passages in the bible where God responds to sin with unspeakable harshness?

Genesis 7:23
He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens. They were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark.

Exodus 32:25-29
And when Moses saw that the people had broken loose (for Aaron had let them break loose, to the derision of their enemies), 26 then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, “Who is on the Lord 's side? Come to me.” And all the sons of Levi gathered around him. 27 And he said to them, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘ Put your sword on your side each of you, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor. ’” 28 And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And that day about three thousand men of the people fell. 29 And Moses said, “ Today you have been ordained for the service of the Lord, each one at the cost of his son and of his brother, so that he might bestow a blessing upon you this day.”

Revelation 20:14-15
Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone 's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

Lord God thank you that although you are so holy and glorious that you hate sin with all the wrath you are capable of, that you chose ,out of your love for your creation, to release that wrath upon yourself rather than me.  Thank you Lord that the more I understand how much you hate sin, the more I understand what Jesus suffered for me.  That moment of separation from You on the cross when Jesus cried out...

Mark 15:34
34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “ Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “ My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

These words pierce me deeply Lord.  Not only did you, as a man, suffer physical torture at the hands of your own creation, but then you somehow were separated from the Father in whatever way was required in order to bear the full punishment for my sin.  How can that have been your plan O Lord.  How is it that you have such love?  Thank you Jesus!  Please Lord God, make me more like your lovely Son.

Jesus was then tempted in the area of His authority and His dominion...

Luke 4:5-7
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.”

Satan will try to get me to think highly of myself and will try to get me to put my own plan and my own desires above the Lord's plan.  Satan will try to use the very gifts God may give me as a means to leverage against my pride.  It does not take much to convince me that I am supposed to me in charge...this comes easy to a man.  Again, the battle is two against one.

Jesus was then tempted in the area of His Ministry and Satan even quotes scripture from Psalms in this effort...

Luke 4:9-11
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. ’”

As in the other temptations, Jesus quotes scripture to battle the enemy...

Deuteronomy 6:16-19
“You shall not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah. 17 You shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and his testimonies and his statutes, which he has commanded you. 18 And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may go well with you, and that you may go in and take possession of the good land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers 19 by thrusting out all your enemies from before you, as the Lord has promised.

One commentary suggests that this was an appeal from the enemy to begin His ministry early and by performing such a miracle that the cross might be avoided due to the impact of the event and acceptance Jesus would receive.  So how important is it that I make sure I interpret scripture in light of scripture and that I make sure the context is correct!  Satan will surely tempt me to plan my own timelines and tempt me to take the easy way out of any ministry or service I am involved with.  I need to know that suffering is part of this walk with the Lord and not seek to avoid it as I might not be following the Lord's will in that.

Romans 8:17
17 and if children, then heirs — heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

Philippians 1:29
29 For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake,

The bottom line of all the temptations that Jesus or that I face is this...Do I chose self or do I chose Christ?  Jesus chose to be the Christ and I must chose to surrender to Him.  Andrew Murray stated this in his book Absolute Surrender at the end of the 19th Century-

There is no choice for us; we must either deny self or deny Christ. There are two great powers fighting each other — the self-nature in the power of sin, and Christ in the power of God. Either of these must rule within us.

Application:
Today I am to choose Christ
Today I am to be diligent to watch for temptation
Today I am to rely on the Word of God when tempted
Today I am to suffer for the Lord

Prayer:
Thank you Lord for loving me.  Please teach me to love as you love and empower me by Your Holy Spirit to walk uprightly that I may not add to what you suffered on the cross any more.  Thank you that Your grace super over abundantly abounds!  And most certainly, may it never be that this grace become again any excuse for me to minimize my sin.  Lest you send Levites with swords...

In Jesus name I pray, amen.

Soli Deo Gloria!

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