Well, good evening everyone who's gathered here. Good morning to everyone who's watching online. My name is James Sutton. I'm the Associate Pastor here at Christ the King and it is my privilege to preach today.

Before we begin, I have an announcement. This is a pretty important announcement in the life of our church. Starting a week from this Sunday on October 25, our worship schedule and options are changing to better serve the very convictions and needs of our church body with a virtual and indoor and an outdoor service option.

I'm going to go through the list of services with the details. But you should be getting an email about all of this. Beginning on Sunday mornings, we'll have a 9 a.m. indoor service. It will be a limited attendance service here in the sanctuary, limited to 70 people who will have to register to attend in advance. The service will last one hour. There will be singing and a distribution of prepackaged communion. Masks will be required, with the exception of those who are preaching or leading. For kids, we'll have worship bags, clipboards, crayons, board books, and a few cry rooms available just off of the sanctuary for individuals who need to make use of it.

There will be overflow seating outside in the lot which we've been using for worship. If you come at 9 a.m. and you're not comfortable worshiping inside, you can simply go where you've been going outside and bring your own chair. There will be speakers so you can hear and sing along, and communion will be served both inside and outside.

If you have questions about any of the details of this indoor service or any of the steps that we've taken to make this space safe given the pandemic, please reach out to Aaron Granger, our facilities manager.

In addition to the indoor service at 9 a.m., simultaneously, we'll be live streaming that service online. Previously, we've been recording on Thursday evenings and then broadcasting that at 7:30 on Sunday morning. That will no longer happen. What will happen is at 9 a.m., that live service will be broadcast and it will be available from that point onward. We will also continue to upload our sermons to the podcast location where you've been downloading them.

Then, in addition to that, following that 9 a.m. service, at 11 a.m., we will have another service that will be outside. That will be essentially the same service that we've been doing at 9 a.m.—your own chairs, communion, wear masks outside in the parking lot.

So, 9 a.m. indoor service that's limited to 70 people with overflow outside, live cast onto the Internet, and then an 11 a.m. service outdoors. So going forward, these will be our three options. Check your email—there's more details about that and a way to sign up for that 9 a.m. service if you're interested.

The Temptation of Christ

We have been doing a series called Vintage Jesus where we've been looking at different conversations between Christ, our Lord, and various different other people. And it falls to me this morning to come to Matthew chapter four. Matthew chapter four is a series of conversations between our Lord and Satan. It's the temptation of Christ.

Before we read this passage, I want to set the scene and explain some of the context. Matthew, as a gospel writer, is writing to a more Jewish audience. More than any other gospel writer, his concern is to reveal Jesus Christ to be the predicted Jewish Messiah that was pronounced in the Old Testament. Matthew really wants to show—and it's really true—that Jesus was the fulfillment of all of the Old Testament.

For those reading this chapter, the wilderness language of this text would have stood out to them. Of course, Israel was called up out of Egypt into a wilderness environment where they were forced to wander for forty years. The parallel of Jesus being led into the wilderness, fasting and praying for forty days and forty nights, would have stood out to them. That is the backdrop with which you have to remember and understand this passage.

Jesus has just been baptized. He goes out into the wilderness, and that's where these conversations take place. So let's hear God's word. This is Matthew chapter four, verses one through 11.

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread." But he answered, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down for it is written, 'He will command his angels concerning you.'"

— Matthew 4:1-6

And on their hands, they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.

Jesus said to him, "Again, it is written, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test."

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory and he said to him, "All these I will give you if you will fall down and worship me."

Then Jesus said to him, "Be gone, Satan. For it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve."

Then the devil left him and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.

Let's pray. Lord God, we pray that you would illumine your word for us today, that we would understand what it is saying, that you would help us to apply it to our lives, that we would be encouraged and challenged and equipped by it. Lord, use your word to transform us more into the image of your son, our savior. We pray this in his name. Amen.

Three Temptations

Alright, so today I want to do something very simple. This sermon series is very simple. We just kind of move through these conversations. So that's our outline for this text. I just want to look at the three exchanges that Jesus has with Satan. There are three: one is turn the bread, or turn the stones into bread; two is cast yourself down; and three is I'll give you all of this stuff, right?

So let's look at those three exchanges starting with verses two through four, where Satan basically says, "You know, turn these stones into bread."

Satan's Question

What I want you to see right off the bat, before we start talking about the stones and the bread and the loaves, is that subtly, hidden amongst that challenge is a question. If you'll notice in the actual text, it says:

After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry and the tempter came to him and said, "If you are the son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread."

That "if you are the son of God"—I just want to key in on that for just a second. This is a classic Satan strategy. Remember that in chapter three of Matthew, Jesus has just been baptized. He comes up out of the water and God says from heaven, "This is my son with whom I am well pleased." Right? This is my son. God has proclaimed it from heaven and Satan comes to Jesus. The next spoken words in the gospel is, "If you are God's son."

Satan loves to do that. He loves to throw in these subtle questions that question God's proclamation, right? He did this in the garden: "Did God really say...?" Right? This is how Satan works.

And there's some insight here into our enemy. I would submit to you that in the midst of this pandemic, we, like Jesus, are kind of feeling like we're in a wilderness. Lately for me, that wilderness has been a struggle with sleep. I have a sleep disorder. I've been changing medications. I have not been sleeping. I don't think in the last four nights, hardly at all. I've been waking up every morning with a migraine headache and it has felt miserable.

Every night when I lay down in my bed, it feels like I'm going to war. And I'll tell you, in those moments, even though I am a pastor, what happens in those wee dark hours of the night as I'm struggling to go to sleep, right? Satan comes and he says, "If you really believed in the gospel, you'd be able to sleep." Right? He asks the question. He subtly erodes the proclamations of God. And that's how he attacks all of his victims. And it's no different with Jesus.

He comes in and he immediately asks the question: "Did God really say you were his son?" And then he says, "If so, prove it, tough guy. If you are God's son, then you should be able to turn these stones into loaves of bread. If you're God's son, you shouldn't be suffering out here in the wilderness. If you're God's son, you should be feasting."

Two Tempting Elements

And there's two things that I want you to see that would be tempting to Jesus about this. First of all, Satan is preying upon his humanity. Do you see that? Forty days and forty nights, he's fasting. He would be really hungry.

Now, I don't know. If I were the son of God and I could snap my finger and turn stones into loaves of bread, and I had not eaten for forty days and forty nights, that temptation would be nearly unbearable for me. I'll tell you honestly, during the pandemic, we have been eating a lot of meals at home, and I have five kids who do not eat all of their food. And it is a constant temptation for me, even though I am full, when I see a plate of half eaten food that tastes good, to pass that by. I can't do it. Obviously, right? Like, it's so hard being human, right? We have weaknesses, these cravings, these urgings.

And Jesus, even though he is God, is no different from us. And at the end of forty days and forty nights of fasting, he is very hungry and Satan attacks his humanity. He comes at him and he says, "You know what? This is something that shouldn't be."

This suffering, this weakness that you have, if you're God's son, fix it. And that's the other thing that's tempting here. Satan is asking Jesus essentially to prove the proclamation of God. He's saying, God's proclaimed you to be the son of God. You're in your human state suffering. This shouldn't be. You should prove. You should do the work of transforming these stones into bread to prove who you are. He's essentially saying to Jesus, you need to work to make this proclamation true.

Satan is trying to do the same thing to me right now. Get to sleep. Don't tell anybody you're not sleeping because a pastor who's not sleeping probably doesn't believe the gospel. You need to get to work on this problem in order to prove that this stuff is true. But Jesus doesn't play Satan's game. He fires right back with a very simple quotation of scripture from Deuteronomy. He's quoting Deuteronomy 8:3. And it's very significant. Jesus, all through this text, through the temptation, all the passages that Jesus is quoting are from Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy is a wilderness text. It's a sermon that Moses preached on the back end of the forty years of wandering, reflecting upon all the lessons that Israel learned during their time in the wilderness. And so Jesus is very appropriately quoting Deuteronomy here.

The Provision of God

Scripture says, "Man does not live by bread alone." It's helpful to catch the whole context of this. I'm going to read Deuteronomy 8:2-3, so you get the whole sense of it.

You shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know nor did your fathers know that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. — Deuteronomy 8:2-3

What is Jesus doing? He's very cleverly and very simply pointing to several things that answer all of Satan's temptations. Scripture answers all of Satan's temptations when rightly understood. This is pointing back to the past provision of God. Jesus is saying, Satan, remember, God made bread fall down from heaven. A bread that we knew nothing about how to make. The people of God, they didn't know anything about it so that they would understand a deeper spiritual reality. They would understand that life doesn't just come from the things that we procure for ourselves. So your temptation to make me prove this, that somehow I am God's son, I don't need to do that because God has already proven it through his past provision. He has already proved it by his proclamation. He has proved it by his word. And that is ultimately what gives us life.

Because bread, as good as it is, ultimately comes from God. And God gave manna in the wilderness so that the people would not be able to say, "Hey, we earned this. We deserved it." He did it so that they would understand that their dependence upon God was ultimately what gave them life.

And what's happening here, Jesus even in subtly quoting this, is pointing to the manna. Remember that Jesus himself is the bread that came down from heaven. Satan wants Jesus to clearly be eclipsed, in terms of his spiritual purpose by his physical reality. He wants him to forget about his physicality. He wants him to just focus on the hunger. This is the problem. The physical reality, the here and now. It is absolutely a subtle trick of our enemy to try and convince us that we are merely physical beings. But the reality is that we are physical beings. And in the past, God has constantly provided for our physical needs. But that provision for our physical needs, while being great in and of itself, points to a greater spiritual reality that God himself will care for us and that we are more than merely physical.

The wilderness that we find ourselves in, the physical wilderness of our present suffering is not the ultimate thing. The ultimate thing is our spiritual reality and our connection with God. It's manifest in our physical reality. But the ultimate thing is God is going to provide for us. He is our source of life. We don't just live by bread, we live by the very words that come from God.

The Second Exchange

Let's move on to the second exchange. Satan slightly changes his tactic here. Do you notice? He shifts from just kind of asking Jesus to perform miracles to now he's playing Jesus' game. He says, "Oh, you wanna quote scripture? I can quote scripture." Do you see that? The question is still there. He says, "If you're God's son." That's still part of this second exchange. But he's going to quote Psalm 91.

Satan's Misuse of Scripture

It's important to note that Satan does this. We can get a little superstitious about holy things and think Satan can't interact with them, but Satan uses God's word. He wants to twist God's word. He can't use it appropriately or correctly, but he's always trying to use it to twist it and change it. And that's something he does to this day. It happens all the time.

There are some blatant examples I could give you. Have you ever heard someone try to defend slavery using scripture? I have. Have you ever heard somebody try to defend abuse from scripture? I have. Those are pretty blatant, but there are also subtle examples in ways that people misuse scripture. Satan misuses scripture.

Have you heard the prosperity gospel? There's a lot of quoting of scripture in the prosperity gospel. Have you seen the way that our world takes our Savior's words—"judge not, lest ye be judged"? The whole point of that exchange is that you should be introspective about your own sin, but more often than not, that passage is used to deflect anything that anyone would say against anyone else. "Don't judge me." Right? We as believers should want to be judged. We should want to see our faults. That's the whole point. Like, "help me see the plank in my eye." But "judge not, lest ye be judged"—scripture gets misused all the time. Satan wants us to misuse scripture. And in this case, Satan is misusing scripture to try and subtly tempt Jesus.

The Second Temptation: Recognition and Testing God

There are two things to note about this temptation. This is the one where he brings Jesus up on top of the temple and says, "throw yourself down." First of all, why the temple? Jesus is out in the wilderness. Why not just a high mountain? If the goal is just to get him somewhere high where he would potentially damage himself if he fell so that the angels would rush to his rescue—why not just a high place? Why the temple?

The temple is important. The temple is a place of worship and a gathering place for tons of people. If Jesus throws himself off of the temple and angels rush to aid and lower him to the ground, what happens? A whole lot of recognition for Jesus. Probably worship. They would recognize that he's the Messiah. They would fall down and worship him. And in fact, in truth, there will be a day that Jesus descends with the angels and is worshiped. But that's not his goal in this coming, right? He'd just been baptized. God speaks from heaven and says:

Hey, this is my son with whom I'm well pleased — Matthew 3:17

There's gotta be this temptation of like, "Hey, I'm somebody, right? Recognize me." There has to be some temptation of wanting this recognition. Especially after being isolated and alone for forty days and forty nights. Again, Satan is appealing to his humanity, his weakness, his desire for self-recognition, and his desire for connection. He wants to be seen. Satan's saying, "Do that. Throw yourself down."

Now he's also trying kind of like the reverse tactic of before. Jesus has said, "Hey, you know what? It's not up to me to prove that I'm the son of God. I'm not gonna take matters into my own hands and turn these stones into loaves of bread." Satan's saying, "Fine, fine. I hear what you're saying. God's gonna provide for you. Okay. Well, let's test that, right? Now, instead of asking you to prove this, I'm saying, throw yourself off of this temple so that God will have to prove it."

And that's what makes Jesus's response here perfect. It's so perfect. He again quotes Deuteronomy. This time, Deuteronomy 6:16. And it's simply this:

Do not put God to the test — Deuteronomy 6:16

Here's the full quote: "You shall not put the Lord your God to the test as you tested him at Massah." Well, what's Massah? Massah was the place where the Israelites were groaning and grumbling because they had gotten the manna, they had gotten all this provision. God had miraculously delivered them out of Egypt and they come to Moses and say, "Hey, listen. You just brought us up out of Egypt so that we could like totally die out here of thirst. We need water, right?"

Essentially, Jesus is saying that if he were to cast himself off of the temple, he would be putting God to the test in the same way that the Israelites were putting God to the test by essentially saying, "Hey, all this miraculous stuff that you've done for me in the past, that doesn't matter unless you can totally provide for me now." It's a subtle manipulation of God—basically, to use our needs in order to get him to show up and do what we want him to do because of his promises. It's putting him to the test. Jesus says, "I'm not gonna do that. I don't need to do that."

I know God's relationship with me. I know of his provision for me. It's not necessary for me to put him to the test. In other words, I don't need all of the promotion of being carried down and worshiped at the temple. I don't need to test whether he's going to actually care for me. I know he will care for me. What more self-promotion do I need than the actual verbal commendation of my Father from heaven? What more safety and security do I need than the relationship that I already have with my Father in heaven? I know he's going to care for my needs. It would be sinful. It would be wrong for me to put him to the test.

I think oftentimes we want to do this. We look at whatever needs exist in our life, whatever frail human needs that we have, and we want to say to God in some sort of manipulative way, "God, if you're there, you'll show me by doing this. You'll give me the thing that I want, that job that I need. You'll give me a miraculous sign." Jesus wants to say, "God has given us everything that we need. And in fact, he himself is the miraculous sign that reveals God's character and love for us."

Do we need to put God to the test, brothers and sisters? Those of us who have Christ Jesus—he's the water of life. He's the ultimate expression of grace. He gives us everything. And it's right for us to say, "He who gave us his own son, will he not also give us all things?" We have no need to test God. We have everything that we need in Christ Jesus. So Jesus, in rejecting Satan's temptation, is also pointing to himself here.

The Third Temptation

Let's move on to the third exchange. This is one where Satan really changes tactics. No longer is he asking Jesus to prove that he's God's son. No longer is he quoting Scripture. No longer is there any subtlety at all. He brings him up on top of a high mountain, shows him all of the world with all of its splendors and he says, "Hey, I'll give you all of this if you'll just bow down and worship me."

We're finally at essentially what Satan has been driving at this whole time. He comes often subtly, but he's not afraid to bring the full frontal assault. And that's what Jesus is bearing here.

What's so tempting about this? Jesus obviously sees the whole world. He sees all of the nations and Satan's offering him all of it. And it is, in fact, as the ruler of the world, it is Satan's to offer. Satan would have given him the world. And what's tempting about that? Obviously, the power, the glory, the majesty of ruling the whole world. He would be king of the world. That's tempting, and we're tempted by things like that. We like power. But I think what's really tempting about this—and Satan's real tactic here with Jesus—is that Satan's offering him a way to get all of this without the cross. Right? You can have the entire world. Isn't that your mission, Jesus? Aren't you here to claim the world, your kingdom? I'll give it to you. And you don't have to suffer and die if you just bow down and worship me. That's the temptation.

Often Satan comes and he gives us all these little subtle temptations—shortcuts and ways that we can avoid suffering and pain if we just take these little moral shortcuts, if we worship him. And it's so devastating and dangerous and deadly, but it seems so easy.

Jesus wrestled with this because in the last night of his life, right before he's about to be tossed into trial and into his suffering, he's in the garden and what's he praying? He's like, "Lord God, if there's any way this cup could be taken from me, take it from me." But he says, "But not my will, but your will be done."

Jesus's Response

And that brings us to his response. He quotes Deuteronomy 6:13:

Don't worship other gods or chase after the gods of that land. Worship the Lord your God only. — Deuteronomy 6:13

Jesus is saying, look, he's harking back to the promised land of Canaan. He's saying the land of Canaan actually was not such a picture of heaven. It was more of a picture of hell when it was ruled by the gods of that land who demanded things like human sacrifice and all kinds of horrible atrocities. When the Canaanites occupied the land of Canaan, it was a miserable, scary place. When the spies went in to check it out, all but two of them were frightened and ran back and said, "I don't know if we want to go in there."

And Jesus is saying, "Look, if I capitulate to you, Satan, I recognize that what looks like a beautiful thing is actually hell. Satan is offering Jesus temporary glory in exchange for eternal suffering."

He's saying, exchange your temporary suffering and eternal glory for my temporary glory and eternal suffering. It would be an eternity of suffering to worship Satan. You'd be exchanging a loving father for a horrible monster. Someone who would be hell bent on destroying you. Jesus didn't play in that game. He recognizes that a promised land without God is no promised land. He doesn't want the world without his father. He's come to claim it for his father.

You know, several years ago, we bought a minivan, and I was very attracted to this minivan because it had all the bells and whistles. It was nice. It was red. I like red. It had leather seats. I like leather seats. They were heated. My wife likes that. It had all the bells and whistles of GPS and one of those big screens with the backup camera and all the things. It had all the things. Push button doors so I wouldn't have to worry about my kids struggling to open them. I mean, it was great. Bought it. I dubbed it the Millennium Falcon. The guy that sold it to me, he was like, you're getting a great deal. This is a great minivan. And about a month in, we had our first problem with that minivan. There was all kinds of things mechanically wrong with that thing. And over the next two years, we spent $9,000 replacing transmissions and other things. It was a nightmare.

This is what Satan comes selling. He sells temporary glory for eternal suffering. We've since gotten a much better van. I'm not going to talk about brands because this isn't an advertisement. The point is, Jesus comes, and he offers temporary suffering, eternal glory. He enters into temporary suffering for our eternal glory.

You know, and oftentimes I get this question. When I was a chaplain at St. David's, all the kids would have all kinds of spiritual questions. The question was this: Why didn't God just snap his fingers and save us? Why did Jesus have to come and go through all of this? Here's the best thing I've got as an answer for that. Obviously, it was God's purpose. It is his plan. He's sovereign and knows all things. But from scripture, here's what we know.

This is how we know what love is. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. — Romans 5:8

You realize apart from the crucifixion of Christ, apart from his sacrifice, apart from his love, we wouldn't know what love is. We wouldn't be one with him through that love. We wouldn't have the opportunity to express that love. In short, we'd have a kingdom without love. It'd be like the kingdom that Satan offered Jesus. But instead, Jesus came willingly sacrificing himself in order that we might have a kingdom of love connected with the God of love who sent him.

Jesus Has Been Where We Are

You know, in conclusion, this passage that David just read as we were heading into our confession of sin, from Hebrews chapter four, is very instructive for how to use these three exchanges.

We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. — Hebrews 4:15

The first thing that I want you to see is that this story reminds us that Jesus has been where we are. Jesus has been where we are.

You know, I think about all of the temptations that we face in the modern world. And oftentimes people ask me, they're like, Do you really think Jesus was tempted in all the ways that we are? I mean, was internet porn like around in the first century? What about all the crazy ways in which we can totally indulge in self gratification? I mean, I'm on Amazon Prime just buying stuff like crazy right now. And it just appears in two days. Well, here's the thing. Jesus could make anything appear. He could turn rocks into bread. I mean, the power that Jesus had, whatever, that quote from Lord Acton, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Well, Jesus had absolute power and Satan used that power to tempt him. He used all of Jesus' power, all of his abilities, his ability to pull off miracles, and he used that against him.

And so what I want you to see is Jesus was tempted. Really, Hebrews is right. He was tempted in every way we have been. At least as much as we were, if not more. So he knows what it's like. He knows what it's like when I'm trying to go to sleep in my bed and I start to question my own salvation. He knows what it's like when you're struggling with wanting something so much that has nothing to do with your spiritual benefit and good. He knows because he's been there.

And the second thing that I want you to see—not only has Jesus been where we've been, but Jesus has gone where we can't go. Right? Hebrews four says, yet without sin. He's tempted and tried in every way, yet without sin.

Satan came to him in person and gave him everything that he had in order to try and tempt Jesus. And Jesus walked through that temptation perfectly without sin. Without sin. And you know what that means? He's the new Joshua. He's the new king. He's the new leader that we follow who has actually conquered the promise land on our behalf. He's led us through the wilderness perfectly by his record, not by ours because we couldn't do it. But he has achieved it. He has resisted temptation. He has conquered the land, and he is bringing us into it.

And that's the last point: not only has Jesus been where we've been, not only has he gone where we can't go, but he's taking us with him. He's taking us with him. You know, oftentimes it stops. Sermons stop after we're kind of like, okay, Jesus did all the things that we can't do, so we don't have to. Well, I don't think that's sufficient. I don't think it's sufficient to say that Jesus did all the things that we can't do, so we can just stop. Jesus did all the things that we can't do so that we could go with him.

What that means is you can stand up to Satan and his temptations because you have Christ. Years ago, in the early days of Christ the King, we had a basketball team. And I was on this basketball team. That should amuse you because I have all of the basketball skills of a snail. It's not pretty. I'm lucky if I draw a rim. But anyway, we had a basketball team and it was kind of a way to connect with other churches. We were part of an inner city church league and we would play against some really good teams. I would go out there and people would see me and they would start chuckling.

We'd start playing. We had this point guard, and he was really selfless. For the whole first half of the game, I mean, he was feeding us the ball. I was putting up air balls. The other team would get like a twenty, thirty point lead. Then at halftime, this guy—like a switch would flip in his head. He played JV at Carolina. At halftime, he'd come out and instead of dishing the ball, he'd start draining threes. I mean, he didn't miss. By the end of the game, he's doing this number and it's going in. Guys are hanging off of his arm and it's still going in and you just couldn't stop him. We won a ton of games because of this guy.

That's Jesus. Jesus has beat Satan and he invites you on the team and he says, "Hey, guess what? We're taking Satan's kingdom from him and we're claiming it—a kingdom of love for my heavenly father—and we're gonna rule and reign in it together for eternity. It's gonna be amazing. It's gonna be beautiful."

So when you go home tonight and you're struggling with temptation and Satan comes to you and he starts attacking you and you start thinking, "Well, I'm just gonna succumb because Jesus has already done it all for me"—no. That's saying, "Jesus won the game. I'm gonna sit over here on the sideline." Don't you wanna be in the game with Jesus? Be in the game with Jesus. Share in the victory. Share in the glory. Joy in the journey because it is amazing to walk through life with a savior like him.

In the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit. Amen.