The First Sunday in Lent, March 1, 2020

Matthew 4:1-11

In the name of Jesus who beat the devil for us,

Dear Fellow Redeemed:

       We covered this ground in family learning.  It is the Gospel for the first Sunday in Lent.  God’s Spirit lead Jesus into the wild-erness to be tempted by the Devil.  It is not a new story.  Moses lead Israel into the wilderness.  Forty years they were tempted.  Forty years they gave in.  God leads us through our Baptism for a life time of trials.  Most of the time, we give in to these tests from the evil one.  Jesus went through Baptism like us.  Immediately,

He was lead into the wilderness to meet with Satan. Our theme:

JESUS RESISTED EVIL.

Jesus fought for us and won.  No sooner had

a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased…Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.

Baptism and temptation are connected. Luther warned every Christian, after our baptism, will be tempted by the devil.

       We might wish it were not so.  Too often, we do not even notice.  We may think such temptations are not important.  But our souls are at stake, eternal life with God.

       By baptism, God made us His children.   He snatched us from

the evil one and the kingdom of the evil one.  It is the power of

Baptism, the benefit that we become children of God’s kingdom. 

God wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 

God invites us all to believe in Jesus so all may be saved.  God works through simple water to create faith, even in those too young to understand.  God washes all our sins away.

       Satan doesn’t give us.  He is a difficult enemy.  He is strong and dangerous.  He was the victory over humanity in the Garden of Eden.  Adam and Eve strayed from God’s word and promises.  Satan killed the entire human race.  He brought Adam to sin.  Sin

kills us all.  Jesus said of the evil one.

You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

       Our enemy wants us dead.  He will do anything to accomplish this goal.  We need to respect his evil.

       With Jesus we need to learn his tactics.  Jesus temptation is

standard fair for Lucifer.  This is the first of His tests.  He said. 

If you are the Son of God. 

This is the temptation to doubt God’s love.  He accuses the Father

before His Son.  Satan is the accuser.  He would have a doubt.

       He whispers, God has forgotten you.  You are in the wild-erness, hungry and alone.  God is indifferent.  He would begrudge you even a piece of bread.  How could God love you?

       We have been there.  Things do not go the way we want.  We suffer.  The world is full of suffering.  We wonder:  Why would God allow suffering.  Satan would have us look at something other than God’s promises.  We doubt.  If you are God’s child…

       If this doesn’t work, Satan will confuse us about the pro-

mises.  He told Jesus to put God’s promises to the test.  Luther…

Christ’s second temptation…is that the devil teaches us to tempt God; as he here calls to Christ to cast himself down from the pinnacle of the temple, which was not at all necessary, since there were surely good steps upon which he could descend.  Why not take the steps instead?

       God takes care of us His way.  Think of His Baptismal pr-omises.  Suppose we suggest to God, Baptism doesn’t seem to be the way He ought to convert us.  Suppose we say, you must heal my body before I will believe, I will believe only if you change my life.  Suppose we tell God we will believe if He makes us happy.

       God does things His way.  He heals us by means of medicine,

doctors, and nurses.  He feeds us by means of the honest labor of farmers.  He protects us by means of His law, police, firemen, the military.  God has His ways.  Satan wants us to demand more.

       Satan’s deceit goes to our deepest desires when he offers Jesus everything.  Satan promises our hearts desire in exchange for our souls.  Give up your soul.  You will be rich and powerful.

       Temptations are common to all.  We are experts at sin. 

We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet was without sin.

In the wilderness, Jesus resisted.  The man who is God took on the devil.  Jesus resisted.  In Jesus, we win.  Adam gave in.  Peter succumbed.  We fell.  Jesus was tempted.  He won for us.

       Jesus used God’s power to resist Satan.  God’s power is available to us all.  “It is written”, Jesus said.  He employed the mighty word of the omnipotent God.  God’s word knocked out

Satan.  Jesus defeated the devil for us.  And God says to us: 

Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

Jesus understands what is going on in our hearts.  When we come to Him with our deepest guilt, He does not turn away.  He opens

His arms to hold us and love us.  He is our redeemer.

       He is able to help those who are being tempted also because

He applies His victory over temptation to us.  The Bible says:

Through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.

Adams fall made us sinners Jesus’ resistance makes us holy.  This entire glorious victory Jesus won over Satan is applied to us as if we had resisted.  By faith in Jesus victory, God considers it as if we had resisted all temptation every day of our lives.

       This is our great comfort.  We pray:  Lead us not into temptation.  Then like St. Peter, we open ourselves to the worst of temptations.  We like to give in.  But Jesus resisted for us.  By Baptism, by faith in Jesus, Jesus covers us and all sin with a pure white gown of holiness.  Our sin is forgiven and forgotten.  It is erased and replaced with Jesus. His victory is our assurance.  Temptations continue until we die.  We continue to give in.  We hide behind Jesus’ victory over evil. 

       But we learn to trust God’s word.  When temptation comes, we learn to trust God’s word of victory.  Satan tells us that God

couldn’t love us.  We sin too much. The Bible tells us that nothing

in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  

Satan tempts us to test God’s promises.  God’s word assures us that God always keeps His promises.  Satan offers us this world, its pleasures, its wealth.  God tells us we have all already because we are God’s children.  God owns it all.  And when the devil has us trapped in sin, God tells us Jesus came into this world to suffer and die for us so that we are forgiven.

       So, we begin our walk with Jesus to the cross.  Just baptized, Jesus had His first skirmish with the evil one.  Jesus won and He would always win.  Therefore, we win because He did it for us.

Amen.  Soli Deo Gloria!