Skip to main content

47. Tempted By Power


Deuteronomy 6:13, Matthew 4:8-10, Luke 4:5-8,
Key Verse: "Fear the Lord your god, serve Him only and take your oaths in His name."
Deuteronomy 6:13, Matthew 4:10 & Luke 4:8

How absurd this seems; the creator bowing down to the created?  To think that the fake splendor of this world could even be considered a possible temptation to the one who came from Heaven and knows what true splendor is?  How, we ask, could this have been a temptation for Jesus at all?

However, what if Jesus could have gained the world without the cross?  What if He hadn't had to suffer, to accomplish His goal?  Satan wouldn't know this of course.  Satan was offering what many mortal men seem to want: fame, power, control. 

Satan was also speaking a truth when he claimed that all the nations of this world had been given to him.  Is he not referred to as, "the prince of this world?"  What he was forgetting is that he is only a prince, not the King.  What he was offering was not really his to give.  It already belonged to Jesus.  Jesus was not there to conquer the world, but to reclaim that which is His own.  He would do this by defeating satan once and for all.  He would use a true power that satan does not understand. 

Was satan hoping to avoid the challenge or battle that he must have known was coming?  After all, God had said back in the Garden that Jesus, the seed of woman, would crush his head.  (Genesis 3:15)  So perhaps the temptation was in trying to get Jesus to think he wouldn't have to fight satan to take back what was rightfully his.  But the trick was that if he worshipped satan, it would ruin Jesus' sinless perfection and so satan would win anyway and still wouldn't give the kingdoms over.  Satan's a liar!

Maybe.  It's probably more true to say that satan didn't understand God.  He never had.  At the beginning he thought that he could prove that he was better than God.  He was envious of all the praise that God, deservedly received.  Satan thought that he deserved praise as well and has continued to strive to capture that praise for himself since his fall.  Now, with only his finite understanding, he believes that God wants the world with all its sin.  After all, that is all that satan has to give.  He has no understanding of redemption or forgiveness or renewal.  He makes the mistake here of assuming that God thinks like him, which is a mistake that we humans often make as well. 

If anyone is in Christ, he or she is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! (2 Corinthians 5:17)  Jesus didn't come to simply conquer the world or paint its sinfulness over with His forgiveness, or force us to worship Him.  No, Christ came to make all things new.  Jesus knew that the world that satan was offering would pass away.  It had to, because the wages of sin is death.  (Romans 3:23)  Jesus would make all things new.  Satan's offer, this finite world, would be destroyed, but what was reclaimed for Christ, those who believe in Him, would stand. 

We too are a new creation when we believe and are reclaimed by Christ.  Our old has passed away.  We are become new.  That which Christ redeems will live on forever with Him.  Only our sinful nature, our wood, hay and stubble, will be destroyed by God's refining fire and, to be truthful, it will be good to be rid of it!  That is God's power, the power of love.

 Hymn: "Seek Ye First"

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Faithful Through the Ages

Luke 2:22-38 Listen Link:  http://www.firstcovenantcadillac.org/#!this-weeks-sermon/c20mw Forgive the buzz on this one. I had a cold and my voice was way down. One of the odd little quirky things that Kathy and I like to do from time to time is walk through old cemeteries and read the tombstones. Sometimes there are interesting little tidbits of information or a verse of Scripture that give a hint to what kind of person lies beneath our feet. Often, however, there is just the name, the date born and the date of death with just a dash between. The dash represents the whole life lived between the two dates, so it would contain most of the interesting information, but it is hidden from us. All we can do is pick up little clues that can be gleaned from the names, dates and from the other tombstones around the one we are looking at. If there are a cluster of stones all containing the same last name, then we may be able to figure out the family relationships; who was the parent, wh
Post a Comment
Read more

August 28 A Non-anxious Presence

The purposes of the heart are deep waters, but a person with understanding can draw them out. ~Proverbs 20:5   How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with You. Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. ~Psalm 139:18 & 23-24  People take time. In chaplaincy work, when so often, the person before me is facing a crisis, and or a difficult decision, it is common for me to practice the art of being a non-anxious presence for them. This simply means being present just for them. I’m not distracted by phone calls or texts or paperwork or my to do list or my next appointment.  Time is suspended for the moment while I just sit with them; available to pray, if that’s what they want; available to talk, available to be what they need from another human being while I
Post a Comment
Read more

312. Burial Plot!

Matthew 27:62-66 Key Verse: So, they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard." Matthew 27:66 "The wicked plot against the righteous and gnash their teeth at them; but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for He knows their day is coming." Psalm 37:12-13 You have to wonder if, by now, Pilate is beginning to question the sanity of the Jewish leaders themselves. It wasn't enough that they were jealous of this quiet dreamer, Jesus, now they were afraid of His disciples. From Pilate's perspective, this last must have been almost ludicrous.  After all, only one of Jesus' followers had stuck around for the trials and crucifixion. For the most part, as soon as Jesus had been taken, they had all scattered and were probably in hiding. The idea of this rag tag group of unlearned fishermen sticking their necks out now to steal a body and then start a rumor that no one would believe anyway, was ridiculous.
Post a Comment
Read more