FOUNDATIONS FOR PEACE

LUKE 4:1-13
February 20-22, 2010
First Sunday of Lent
Pastor Tim Smith

“JESUS DELIVERS US FROM TEMPTATION”
1. From temptations in our bodies
2. From temptations in our minds
3. From temptations in our faith

PART I. Jesus delivers us from temptations in our bodies
Jesus’ first task in his ministry was to pick up exactly where the first Adam left off. He was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. There were not just three temptations; but we are told by Matthew and Luke what the final three–the typical three–were. For forty days, Jesus had eaten nothing at all. Usually the Jews would eat at night while they fasted, but Jesus, we are told, ate nothing at all. All by itself, that is miraculous, but we’re focusing on what happened after the 40 days were drawing to a close.

It’s probable that the order of the temptations in Matthew is the order in which they happened, but here in Luke we’ll just focus on what each of the three temptations teaches us: First of all, Jesus delivers us from temptation in our bodies.

1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. 3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” 4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone.’”

Don’t get bogged down wondering whether Jesus as God could fall into sin or not. The point we need to remember is that Jesus was tempted exactly the way we are. The devil began with something to eat—this was the temptation that worked for him in the Garden of Eden. But Jesus didn’t let the devil’s words enter into his heart.

The devil looks and looks for our Achilles’ heel. The temptations of our physical bodies can all be seen here in this one. How many different ways does he have of tempting our bodies? Food, drink, alcohol, drugs, sex, our appearance, our obsession with our feelings, and all of the physical world is caught up here in this temptation.

Notice how close the devil comes to telling the truth in this temptation. If all we dwell on here is the temptation to eat something, we might be led to question, what’s so tempting about that? Why would it have been sinful for Jesus to have eaten something? In fact, couldn’t Jesus, as the Son of God and indeed as Almighty God, have done exactly what the devil suggested?

But that was the point—the devil was only using Jesus’ hunger to challenge his claim to be the Son of God. Jesus could have commanded the devil to stop or to leave him alone—but instead, our Savior gave us an example of how to resist the devil even at this moment of his extreme hunger. He quoted from the Bible, from Deuteronomy 8, because the point of his entire ministry on earth is to show us that “Man does not live on bread alone”—we get true, eternal life from the Bread of Life, from faith in Jesus our Savior.

PART II. Jesus delivers us from temptations in our minds
Luke records a second temptation, and in it we see that Jesus delivers us from temptations that come into our minds…

5 The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6 And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7 So if you worship me, it will all be yours.” 8 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’”

The devil offered Jesus all kinds of things that he may very well think or dream that he has power over: The titles that he has suggest all kinds of splendor for the devil. He is the Ruler of Darkness, the Angel of the Abyss, the Murderer, The Ruler of the Kingdom of the Air, the Tempter, the Liar, the Accuser, the Adversary, the Enemy; the Slanderer. He is called Abaddon and Apollyon, with both mean ‘destroyer,’ he is called Beelzebub, “Lord of the Flies,” and Beelzebul, “Lord of Manure.” And he is called Beliel, which means “Worthless.” It’s not quite so scary when you hear what it means, is it?

Not many of these are very flattering, but the devil still tried to tempt Jesus with power. Not knowing what was going on Jesus’ mind, he threw every kingdom of the world at Jesus all at once. And Jesus doesn’t even dispute the devil’s sovereignty over the kingdoms of the world—because there is an even bigger temptation here that Jesus addresses over all of the others. What the devil was looking for behind all the blinding bling of civilization is that he was asking Jesus to worship him.

Jesus stops right there. The First Commandment is the First Commandment, and it’s the commandment we break the most easily. But here, in this wilderness, Jesus looks the devil in the eye and does what Adam and Eve failed to do. “I worship the Lord God and I serve only him,” he says. And in this moment, Jesus Christ kept the First Commandment perfectly for us.

All of the times we have failed to keep it are swept away and we are made new again. Have you seen in the Olympic games a glimpse of that big ice machine called a Zamboni? When the skates of the skaters chew up the ice and make all kinds of ruts and chunks go flying here and there and the surface of the ice becomes just about unusable, they bring out the Zamboni, which does a couple things. It scraps the surface of the ice to get the ruts out, and then in a process of two or three difference washes with hot and even hotter water, it very quickly melts, smoothes, polishes and then helps to re-freeze the ice, so that a clean, virtually perfect surfaces is there were there were all kinds of ruts and grooves before. When Jesus Christ atoned for our sins, he paid for them in full, and like a Zamboni on the ice, he polished us and our record so that all the ruts and grooves and potholes left by our sins are gone from our account. In Jesus, we are pure and holy again.

PART III. Jesus delivers us from temptations in our faith
The third temptation Luke tells us about shows the devil trying to murder Jesus through a deception, but at the bottom of it all is another test that touches us all: Jesus delivers us from temptations and trials of our faith.

9 The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. 10 For it is written: ‘“He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; 11 they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.”’ 12 Jesus answered, “It says: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” 13 When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.

Did the devil misquote Psalm 91? Jesus doesn’t even bring it up. That passage is meant to comfort us. The angels, we are assured, are there behind the scenes all the time.

In 1940, preparing for an enemy army to invade, Great Britain trained the Home Guard, secret groups of local residents in every community who would carry out sabotage against the occupying forces. They trained for this by sneaking around farms late at night without the farmers’ knowledge. The people of Britain took comfort that the guard was there, but they never know the lengths that those guards took or were prepared to take on their behalf. The angels of God work behind the scenes in some of the same ways—and certainly without us knowing or suspecting what war rages around us invisibly all the time.

What’s the temptation here? Could Jesus have thrown himself down from the top of the temple and survived? The devil couldn’t have known it, but years after Jesus’ ascension into heave, his earthly brother James became the pastor of the church in Jerusalem—we are told by Jewish as well as Christians sources that James was put to death by the Jewish leadership in Jerusalem by throwing him off this same part of the temple, and then stoning him to death afterward.

So could Jesus have fluttered down to the ground without being hurt more than a feather, landing on his tiptoes and then looking back up to mock the devil? That’s not the point. The devil is tempting Jesus to trust in the angels to protect him, misapplying the Psalm to twist the faith that the Bible proclaims. We trust in God; we are protected by his angels. When it comes to trust, we focus on God alone; not on anything or anyone else.

When we become tempted to put our faith anywhere except in God, we need to turn back to God and realign everything in our lives. There is no appointment so urgent that we can’t focus our attention on our Savior first. There is no day in your life so busy that you should not give your praise and devotion to God first and foremost. That’s why we even make worship a central part of our wedding days and our funerals, too. It’s why we prefer to baptize our children in worship, to share the sacrament with the rest of our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Jesus reminds us that we must never put the Lord to the test, and we can’t help but remember the comforting words of the Apostle Paul, who also said: “God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear” (1 Cor. 10:13). When we are tested, God won’t let it become too much for us. As he did with Job, we keeps the devil on leash telling him this far, but no farther.

God has forgiven our failures when we have fallen into temptation, but remember that he helps while we are being tempted, too. Don’t be afraid to remind him of that promise. Jesus Christ delivers us from temptations in our bodies, in our minds, and in our faith.

The Lord bless you today and always. Amen.

2 Corinthians 3:12-18
February 13-15, 2010
Transfiguration
Pastor Don Sutton

2 Corinthians 3:12-18
12Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. 13We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at it while the radiance was fading away. 14But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. 15Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. 16But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”

Introduction
On this Transfiguration Weekend our gospel reading took us with Jesus to the Mountain of Transfiguration where we see Jesus glorified as the Son of God and Lord of Glory while at the same time he is identified as the Savior of the World. In our Old Testament reading we journey back to the days of Moses where the Lord of Glory causes his glory to be reflected on and radiated from Moses when Moses read the Word of the Lord. When Moses stopped speaking God’s word this glory faded. So when Moses stopped reading God’s Word, he put a veil on over his face so people wouldn’t keep looking at him. In our second reading today from 2 Corinthians 3, Paul talked about this veil over Moses’ face. So today based on God’s words through Paul we focus on “The Veil” … Remaining … Removed.

1. … Remaining
To understand what Paul is writing about in this section of God’s word, let’s put things into perspective. Imagine that before our services this weekend some traveling preachers contacted our lay leaders saying, “When it comes to preachers, we’re the real deal. Let us hang out here and hear what we have to say for while. We will warm with our personalities, wow you with our message and win you with our ministry. In a few weeks you won’t care bout Smith and Sutton. Besides, we’ve got all kinds of letters from the Twin Cities, Mankato, Duluth, Rochester, St. Cloud, Bemidji and Brainerd recommending us to you.”

This is what was happening in Corinth. Self-proclaimed “super-apostles” came to Corinth trying to wow and win the Christians away from Paul, Silas and Timothy to following them. They told people, “We will give you the straight stuff.” They did …right out of the Old Testament Covenant of Moses. They told people that Jesus isn’t enough. They likely said that people needed to observe all the Old Testament ceremonies, make all the Old Testament sacrifices, and practice circumcision.

These super-apostles were putting this Old Testament Covenant, given through Moses and binding for the Old Testament times, in the place of the New Covenant that emphasized Jesus as the Son of God, Savior of the World, and Source of life. These super-apostles were not only binding people to this Old Testament Covenant, but burdening them with despair.

Now keep in mind that the moral part of God’s law that Jesus summed up with love God most and your neighbor as yourself, and is outlined nicely with the Ten Commandments, does have a place in the lives of New Testament Christians. It keeps our sinful natures in check with its curbs and consequences. The law shows our sin and need for the Savior. The law guides Christians in living for God to thank him. But the law does not liberate and enliven, empower or enable people in a relationship with God. Like the glory that faded from Moses face when he was done reading the law, so the glory of the law faded when Christ came to establish the New Covenant.

Also, like the veil that covered Moses’ face when he was finished reading the law to Israel, so those who put their faith and hope in the Old Testament Law Covenant have a spiritual veil that covers their hearts and keeps their souls from seeing Jesus for who he is. 14But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. 15Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts.” This was true of the false teachers in Corinth, the Jews of Paul’s day who rejected Jesus and anyone today who rejects him as Savior of the world.

A few years ago I preached for the opening of Luther Pep School in Watertown, WI, on an Old Testament text where God said that because for the most part the Jewish people rejected him, he was going to take his word to the Gentiles. I entitled the sermon, “A Whole New Team.” I compared changes in God’s Church to whole-scale changes that sometimes takes place on losing pro football teams as owners get rid of players and bring in others, or to colleges and high schools as teams graduate and news teams rise up. Little did I know that there was a devout Jew in the assembly that day who took great offense at my words. Following the service, before I got 100 ft. from the facility where the service was held, the man was in my face, yelling at me, showering me with his “salivic mist,” and accusing me of ignorance, insensitivity, and intolerance for saying that those who held to the Old Testament Law and didn’t believe in Jesus were not on God’s Team. For this man, the veil remained.

The veil remains for every other Jew and everyone else who rejects Jesus as God’s Son and the Savior of the world. The veil remains for everyone who celebrates Christmas and Easter but believes they can and must keep the Ten Commandments to get to heaven. The veil remains for those who dabble in Eastern philosophy that emphasizes a person’s basic goodness at birth and potential to attain perfection on his own while on earth and put out in way that will move God to say on that person on the last day of life or time, “Come on in!” in respect to eternal glory. As Paul wrote, “No one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.” And as Paul wrote in Galatians 3, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the law.”For those who depend on the law to be right with God, the veil remains.

2. …removed
But in Christ, the veil is removed “because only in Christ is it taken away (v.14)… Whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away (v.16).” Christ provided the means for removing the veil with the sinless life he lived and the perfect love he showed to God and others. He provided the means for removing the veil with his life he gave on the cross of Calvary to be the all-atoning sacrifice for all sins of all people. Christ redeemed us from the curse of he law by becoming a curse for us. When one believes in the Lord Jesus, the Lord in the person of the Spirit Holy Spirit takes the means the Lord Jesus provided as he wrote the gospel with his life, death and resurrection, and removes the veil.

“ 17Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”

The result is as Paul wrote, “…We have such a hope…” This hope is centered in the message of the New Covenant, the gospel that assures us that though faith in Jesus we have forgiveness, eternal life, and the eternal presence of Jesus to bless us. It gives us boldness to be God’s witnesses and to cope with life.

When the veil is removed we enjoy freedom. This is freedom from the condemnation of God’s law for “there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:1).” There is freedom from the coercion of the law. In other words, we don’t strive to live according to the commandments because we feel we have to do this for eternal life. We strive to do so because God has given us eternal life through faith in Jesus – “If you are led by the Spirit you are not under law.” We are free to be children of God – “You are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus (Gal. 3:26).” We are free to enjoy access to God as our Father – “Our Father in heaven….” We are free from the power of sin. As Paul wrote, “Sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace (Rom 6:14).” We are free from death through Christ who destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel (2 Tim 1:10) in that in death our souls go to eternal glory and on the last day our bodies will rise and experience the same. We are freed from fear and worry because we know our Lord who loved us and died for us, lives again and in love rules in our behalf. This freedom comes when the Holy Spirit removes the veil with the gospel.

One more thing also happens as a result of the veil being gone – “we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” When the veil of spiritual deadness is removed the glory of God shines one and in us as the Holy Spirit works God’s love in us through the gospel. This changes us. The word in the Greek that is used to describe this change is the root for the word metamorphosis. As spiritual radiant energy of God’s love warms us, we radiate that love to others. Changes take place in us. We become more self-controlled, more patient, more forgiving, gentler, kinder, and more helpful – actually, more God-like.

It’s kind of like the radiant energy of the sun working on the interior of a car or truck on a cold but sunny winter day. The sun warms the seats and upholstery of the car’s interior which in turn warm the air which in turn warm us. God warms us with his love and empowers us to warm others. But if we withdraw from Jesus and the radiancy that comes from him, that radiancy will be reduced that the veil will return.

You want to see some positive changes in your character and become more godly in your attitude and actions? Then let the Holy Spirit work on and in you. Let him do this as you read, hear and think about God’s Word. Let the Spirit do this as you reflect on your baptism and the forgiveness, life and adoption as God’s child you experienced in this sacrament. Let the Spirit work as you receive Communion and the assurance your sins are forgiven in Jesus. As you do, the Spirit will help you grow and positively change until God takes you into eternal glory where the change will be completed so that your soul and body will be gloriously transformed to be like that of Jesus on the Mountain of Transfiguration. Amen. (DRS)