Sermon: Conquering Temptation

Please note: A couple minutes are missing from the beginning of this replay, but jump right in for the majority of the sermon!

Scripture Text: Luke 4:1-30

Quotes for Reflection

J.C. Ryle, The Gospel of Luke
The first event recorded in our Lord’s history, after His baptism, is His temptation by the devil. From a season of honor and glory He passed immediately to a season of conflict and suffering. First came the testimony of God the Father: “You are My beloved Son.” Then came the sneering suggestion of Satan: “If You are the Son of God.” The portion of Christ will often prove the portion of Christians. From great privilege to great trial, there will often be but a step.

C.S. Lewis, Screwtape Letters
Nearly all vices are rooted in the Future. Gratitude looks to the Past and love to the Present; fear, avarice, lust, and ambition look ahead.

N.T. Wright, Luke for Everyone
It is a central part of Christian vocation to learn to recognize the voices that whisper attractive lies, to distinguish them from the voice of God, and to use the simple but direct weapons provided in scripture to rebut the lies with truth. The Christian discipline of fighting temptation is not about self-hatred, or rejecting parts of our God-given humanity. It is about celebrating God’s gift of full humanity and, like someone learning a musical instrument, discovering how to tune it and play it to its best possibility. At the heart of our resistance to temptation is love and loyalty to the God who has already called us his beloved children in Christ, and who holds out before us the calling to follow him in the path which leads to the true glory. In that glory lies the true happiness, the true fulfilment, which neither world, nor flesh, nor devil can begin to imitate.

Henri Nowen, Life of the Beloved
You have to keep unmasking the world about you for what it is: manipulative, controlling, power-hungry, and, in the long run, destructive. The world tells you many lies about who you are, and you simply have to be realistic enough to remind yourself of this. Every time you feel hurt, offended, or rejected, you have to dare to say to yourself: 'These feelings, strong as they may be, are not telling me the truth about myself. The truth, even though I cannot feel it right now, is that I am the chosen child of God, precious in God's eyes, called the Beloved from all eternity, and held safe in an everlasting belief.

Application Questions

1. How have you recently experienced temptation and why this challenge?

2. What is the meaning of Jesus’s victory for your own spiritual battles?

3. What do you learn from this passage that gives you hope in the face of temptation?