Luke 4.1-13   Lent 1   Hymns: 403, 121, 541, 422

Doesn’t it astound you when you read how cruel some people can be to others? A couple of weeks ago in Cuidad Juarez, Mexico, a group of drug dealers invaded a home where teenage kids were celebrating a birthday and shot 10 or 15 of these kids to death. One of these kids was a member of our mission church in Mexico! How could anyone be so cruel? The news is full of these kinds of horrible stories of shear cruelty that destroys the lives of the innocent.

Worse than that is the work of the devil whose hatred of God, and you, compels him to kill, not your body but your soul. Satan’s intent is to deprive you and all people from living your eternal life in heaven..to keep people who are not Christians from becoming Christians, and to tear the faith in Jesus out of the hearts of people, like yourselves, who are Christians.

Satan rebelled against God because he wanted to rule the world with his evil ways. He destroyed what was good, beginning with Adam and Eve. He lied to them and said that they would be like God if they ate from the Tree of Knowledge...they would not die, as God said . You and I should be outraged because of what Satan did to Adam and Eve and to us today who live in a world than can be cruel...a world that is full of evil and death. We should be outraged. Because of Satan, and Adam and Eve, we are sinful...we suffer the affects of sin in our lives. We are lost and condemned creatures and we cannot pay for our sins to work ourselves back into God’s good graces and earn our way into his heaven. But we are not without hope...hope that is found in God and in his Messiah, Jesus our Savior.

This morning let us LEARN FROM HISTORY OF SATAN’S POWER...AND SATAN’S DEFEAT! Before we look at the way Satan tempted Jesus, let’s take a brief look at the history of the world to see what Satan has done to many people in addition to what he did to Adam and Eve.

Satan understood what God said in Eden...that he would send a descendant of Eve who would crush and destroy him. And Satan did everything in his power to keep that from happening. He somehow tore the faith out of Cain’s heart, the oldest son of Adam and Eve, and turned him into a murderer, killing his own brother. Don’t underestimate how vicious Satan is. After 2000 years of life on this planet Satan had turned everyone against God except for Noah and his family. God sent a global flood and started over in populating the earth with people. Satan tore the faith out of the heart of Saul, the first king of Israel, who tried to kill David, through whose family line the Savior was to come. And Saul took his own life in despair.

Satan used sex to lure David, an ancestor of Jesus, into committing adultery with Bathsheba, and then to engineer the murder of her husband Uriah in an attempt to cover his sin. If it had not been for God David would have lost his faith...Satan would have succeeded in keeping the Messiah from coming.

Satan turned most of the kings of Israel into pagans who no longer looked for the promised Messiah but embraced the gods of Baal, like King Ahab, wife of Jezebel. Satan turned the people of Israel against the prophets who condemned the immorality and unbelief of the Jews and were themselves beaten and killed. And God punished the Jews with 70 years of captivity in Babylon, brought them back to Jerusalem to restore their temple wor-ship and dependence on God for his forgiveness, only to have Satan turn the hearts of God’s people against him even during the earthly life of Jesus.

Throughout the Old Testament era Satan was doing everything in his power to destroy the people of God in order to keep the Messiah from coming into the world who would destroy him and save the human race from sin and unbelief.

Which is why we find Satan tempting Jesus to sin, trying to keep Jesus from doing what he came to do for us: pay for our sins with his life so we can have the eternal life God intended for Adam and Eve in the first place, and destroy the power and life of Satan. Satan actually thought that since he was successful in leading men of history against God, men like Saul and David and the kings of Israel, he could do the same to Jesus the Son of God and Son of Men.

Three temptations...and they were very cunning and calculated: 1^st : Jesus, you can’t be sure if you are divine or not. After all, you’re starving; humans feel hunger pangs, not God. Turn the stones to bread just to make sure of your identity, to ease your mind that you really are God and can save the world from sin as you THINK you can do.

2^nd: You seem to be confident that you are the Son of God. Just to make sure that God is behind your idea of saving the world, jump off from a high pinnacle. If God really wants you to be the Savior, he won’t allow any harm to come to you.

3^rd: You know that if you’re going to pay for the sins of the world you’re going to have to suffer horribly by the crucifixion route on the cross. Let me spare you. Bow down to me and I will give you power the likes of which you have never known. I’ll give you the authority and splendor over all the kingdoms on earth, as far as the eye can see. Let me do this for you.

Dear Christian, learn from history how vicious Satan is. He tried to keep Jesus from saving you and all of humanity as he sucessfully turned many of God’s people against him. And his goal is to tear your faith out of your heart. Indulge yourself into the world’s pleasures; you owe it to yourself. Prove it to yourself that you’re a Christian; sin all you please; it’s not going to hurt you. Take charge of your life; be an independent thinker. The world is passing you by. Money, sex, power, your job. Jump right in. If you’re really a Christian God will protect you. And if he doesn’t, it’s his fault, not yours. God says, "Don’t do this," and "Don’t do that." Forget him. He doesn’t understand what makes you tick. Listen to me! Satan has power, the power of persuasion through lies. Paul (2 Cor 4:4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

But learn also of Satan’s defeat. Listen to what the writer to the Hebrews wrote about Jesus, (2:14-18), Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

Again, (Col 1:13-14 For he (Jesus) has rescued us from... dark-ness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

And again, Jesus said to Paul Acts 26:17-18, ...I am sending you to (Gentiles) to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.

Again Paul wrote to the Galatian believers what every Christian already knows, (5:19-21, The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry... hatred...jealousy...selfish ambition...and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

But Paul goes on to say (5:22-24 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self–control...Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.

Learn from history that Satan has power and has torn saving faith from the heart of many who allowed him to do that. Jesus’ own disciple, Judas, was one of those. But Satan has been destroyed by Jesus. He did not allow Satan to lead him to sin. With every lie Satan told him, Jesus used the power of God’s Word to blow him off. And you and I can do the same with that same powerful Word of God. Satan has been defeated; sin has been paid for. Use the power of God’s Word, trust in Jesus your Savior; turn from Satan who wants to destroy you to Jesus who destroyed him.