Into the Wilderness

February 14, 2016 1st Sunday of Lent Luke 4:1-13 Into the Wilderness A preacher tells a story of the time the devil came to him and invited him to take a walk to the store. They walked past the church and into the convenience store. The devil took him up to the counter and bought him a lottery ticket. He encouraged him to hold on to it. Just in case, if he won, he would never have to work a day in his life. Not wanting to offend the devil, the preacher took the ticket and put it in his pocket, fully planning to tear it up once the devil left him. Then the devil took him to all of the great pulpits of Chicago, he took him to Salem, with all of those people in the congregation depending on the pastor, he took him to Trinity UCC, he took him to St Sabina, he even took him to Chicago Temple to look on Rev Myron McCoy – and the devil whispered in his ear- all this can be yours – if you just follow me. Now notice I said this preacher was a man – so I am not talking about myself being put in this position. The devil continued chiding him, telling him that his church could be even bigger than this, that he could do even more than this – the preacher looked at all that those churches were doing, and still he said no – I will stay put where I am in my little church in the hood. But them the devil took him to Sears Tower- Willis Tower. They took the elevator to the top floor – even higher that the observation booth – and he let him look through a telescope. There was a crowd of people on the sidewalk below. And then he looked around and saw that all of the television crews were there, channel 7, channel 5, channel 2. The devil whispered in his ear again, go ahead and jump – You can make it. It has never been done before, but God will protect you. And just think when you succeed – you will make it into the Guiness book of world records – you will be a hero. Just then he heard the crowd below encourage him to go ahead and jump. That’s when the preacher fainted – he was afraid of heights. When he came to – the devil was gone – but he had a funny feeling that this was not the last time that he would see the devil, as a matter of fact, he checked his pocket – and he still had that lottery ticket. This is a modern day telling of our gospel passage. We can find this story in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. So if the preacher is following the lectionary, then we hear this story every first Sunday of lent. And you all might get tired of hearing this story – but I have to say that I never get tired of telling it. Even as I was preparing for this sermon this week – because this story is so rich – and there is just so much in this story for us to think about as we enter into the wilderness of the Lenten season. And the exciting thing this year is that nobody can tell this story like Luke Our understanding about who Jesus is, and why we need a messiah come from Luke’s telling of Jesus story. And this is why this story is so important for us to hear. We know Jesus died on the cross for our sins, we know that Jesus is the son of God, who came to life in human form to show us how to truly live, we know what a messiah is and what a messaiah does, we all know that we are sinners who need to be saved. All of that comes from Luke’s telling of this story. This story is important because Jesus realized that his people had been sinning for thousands of years. God had led them for thousands of years, and they were still sinners. In need of a messiah. Jesus realized that something had to change. There had to be a new way to salvation, a new hope for people. And if he was the son of God and if he was the messiah then he had to be the one to change things and to make a difference. That was more than enough to drive him into the wilderness to think. I think I have told this story before, but I love Asian movies, because there is always a lesson in them. I remember watching a movie about an old budisht monk – who became a great master. As he began his journey – he went into the wilderness to meditate. And his task was to be a spiritual leader for lay people who needed a retreat from life. And they would come in streams to learn their lesson, and then go on with their lives. Well one layperson went came to the wilderness thinking he wanted to give up his life and become a monk- but in his time away realized that he loved his wife and kids, and his job and his life and decided to go back to the city, but a changed man. When his wife came to pick him up and take him home, the man lashed out at the monk and asked him why he had chosen to be a monk. Who does this, why would you give up your life and live in the woods? And the monk calmy replied – because I know that there are always fools like you who need to get away and your run to the wilderness in order to get a perspective on life. And when you come out here in the middle of nowhere – there has to be somebody here to guide you so that you have sense enough to get back home. And that somebody is me. For me, that was one of the altime greatest story lines. And I tell that story now- because whenever we are are all alone and can quiet all of the noise in our lives – there is still a voice that speaks. I remember someone came to me once and said that she thought that she was called to be a minister – because a voice spoke to her. But she told me that she was not for sure if the voice was the devil or God. and that she could not tell the difference between the two. So she asked how could she tell the difference. I told her it depends on who she is used to listening to. If she is used to listening to God- then she will know its God speaking to her right away. And if she is used to listening to the devil- then the devil will continue to talk to her. In Luke’s story – it is God’s voice saying this is my beloved son that drives Jesus into the wilderness in the first place. But when he gets there it is the devil who speaks to him. In verse 3 the devil sows seeds of doubt, in verse6 and 7 he outright lies, and in verse 23 he even uses scripture by reminding Jesus of psalm 91 that God will protect him. The devil uses that same tactic on Eve in the book of Genesis. When he takes what she already knows and puts a spin on it causes her to doubt causes her to question what she already knows to be right. The devil’s tactics do not change – he does the same thing all of the time. The bible says that God speaks to us through the prophets, and that if we want to hear God’s voice and know God’s will – then we have to know what is in the bible. God’s word will never change. The meaning of God’s word will never change. When God speaks to you – you can find it somewhere in the bible. When the devil speaks to you, he is going to take the word of God and twist it and cast doubt upon it. That is what is going on in this story. The devil is tempting Jesus with scripture, and each time Jesus responds with another scripture. That is why we hear psalm 91 and dueteronomy this morning. The devil misuses psalm 91 and says that God will protect you no matter what. And Jesus responds with the words of deauteronomy and says but the word of God says…. I think it is interesting however that in our culture we are taught that temptation is wrong, and that the devil is wrong for leading us into temptation. We are taught that the devil is bad, and wrong and even evil. And that is not really what the bible says. We get a little of that in the new testament, but that is not in the old testament. Satan is that one who asks – those really strange questions. The problem is not in the question, the problem is in how you answer the question. We think that temptation is really bad. When in reality, we all know right from wrong. And most of us don’t wake up in the morning to do wrong. People don’t carry guns for the sake of killing people, people don’t sell drugs because they want them to be destroyed. We have complete control over the wrong in our lives. It is that little bit of right that we don’t have control over that leads us into sin. It is that justification for protecting ourselves that leads someone to pull the trigger, it is the desperation in feeding our family that leads someone to give someone else drugs. For eve, it was that what if God is hiding something that led her to sin. And for Jesus – if he is the son of God and if God had just outwardly claimed him – then just maybe God would also deliver him if he jumped from a high tower. But in this story Jesus teaches us that it is not the devil, and it is not even the temptation that leads us to sin – it is our response. Each time the devil comes at him with a twisted version of the truth – Jesus responds with the word of God. and the determination to stick with the word of God. the good news in this story is that when jesus was in the wilderness – the devil spoke to him. But the scripture says that the holy Spirit never left him. Luke says that the spirit led him into the wilderness. But there is not mention that that spirit ever left. Now Mathew and Mark both say that the angels had to come and minister to Jesus after this temptation. But if you read the book of Luke – he stresses that that spirit is always upon Jesus. The spirit was there when he was born, the spirit was there when he was baptized, the spirit was there in the wilderness, the spirit was there during his trial, the spirit was there at the cross. It was that spirit that led him to resist temptation. The good news for us is that there is nothing wrong with the devil speaking to us. It is nothing wrong with the devil telling us the wrong thing. If we are a child of God and we have claimed Jesus Christ – then the spirit is with us at all times. We can claim the promises of Psalm 91 – that God will protect you in all circumstances. Even in the presence of the devil. Even in the presence of temptation. And if I know the bible, and I know that I am a child of God – then I have the power to resist doing the wrong thing. I love this story – because it is so rich I could preach on it forever. The scripture says that the devil left him until an opportune time. What are that opportune times? It is a common understanding in healing circles that we should never let ourselves get to the point of halt. Never get to hungry, angry, lonely or tired. Because those are the times when we are most likely to pay attention to the devil’s foolishness. But the lesson that jesus was trying to teach us – and everything jesus does is a lesson for us. The lesson is that salvation is not a means to an end, it is a commitment to God. the biggest temptation that the church and all of face is the temptation to survive. To make it by any means necessary. Jesus could have turned stones into bread and ate them, jesus could have become ruler of the world – if jesus was in charge how would that be a bad thing. Jesus could have jumped and God would have caught him. But what would that have taught you about salvation? And how would that help you in your life today? God did not put you here to survive. God did not intend for you to just get by. There is more for you! God intended you to live your life to the fullest. To be a child of God. Jesus came out of the wilderness a better man, with a clearer understanding of what it meant to be the Son of God. If the devil had not tempted him, he would never had the opportunity to realize what it meant to be saved. He would never have been able to claim salvation in his own heart. We read this story every time it is time for us to go into the wilderness. So that we will have the strength to stand with Jesus on the other side. Let us pray…. Children’s Sermon: Exegetical Aim: The body is more than food. Props: A loaf of bread (Wonder Bread if your region of the country sells it). Lesson: [Hold the loaf of bread before them.] What do I have in my hands? (response) Can you tell me some of the things we make with bread? (response) That's right. What's your favorite thing you make with bread? (response) Peanut butter and jelly sandwich? That's my favorite too. What do we need in order to live? (bread) That's right, and why is bread important? (response)Bread is food, and we need food for energy. What else do we need in order to live? (response)Possible answers are water, clothes, etc. Try to draw these ideas out of them, and talk to them about why these are important. If one of the children guesses early where you are headed, then use that thought for the following discussion. As important as food and water and clothes and houses are, we need more than this to live. Can someone tell me what else we need besides food, water, clothes, and a home? (response) It will be great if you get something spiritually related but, if not, then suggest something. Do we need our parent's love in order to live? (response) What about the lessons they teach us? (response) What kind of lessons do they teach you? (response) Do your parents teach you what an A and a B and a C look like? (response) What else do they teach you? (response) Do they tell you not to hit and not to tell any fibs? (response) You know we need to be taught how to behave. Application: So, you see, we don't live by bread alone hold up the bread or by water alone. We also need to be taught how to live. We need to be taught to be kind and to tell the truth. Your moms and dads know this because God told them not to live by bread alone. They need to listen to God in order to live. It is God who tells us not to lie and to be kind to one another. You see, it takes a lot more than just bread to live. We need to listen to our parents, and we need to listen to God. Let's Pray: Lord, give us your Word. We know that we cannot live simply by eating bread and food. We must have your Word to live. Amen.