Pastor Timothy Patoka 1 Sunday Of Lent: March 10, 2019 Jesus, Our Tried And True Champion Luke 4:1-13 st
1) The Devil Tries To Entice With Temptations 2) Jesus Is The Triumphant Champion A few years back, there was a trend on social media where people would sarcastically post their problems and frustrations with the tagline: “first-world problems.” Perhaps you did this yourself. While I never posted anything on social media, I did go along in spirit. After enduring a red-eye flight or an overnight bus trip where I wouldn’t get much sleep, I would take a mental picture of myself with the tag line “first-world problems” as the caption. I still get the occasional chance to do it whenever I forget something like to pack my lunch in the morning or to fill up on gas when it’s convenient. While these problems are annoying, they are truly “firstworld problems” in that they ultimately aren’t troubling. Yet even in a blessed country like our own, we are not exempt from deep and troubling problems. There are people in need of life’s bare necessities, people whose hearts have been ripped apart from messy break ups or losses of loved ones, people who struggle with mental illness and perceive reality differently because of a chemical imbalance. These problems aren’t limited to first-world nations. They are found in all countries and in all times. In our verses for this morning from the Gospel of Luke, we see our Savior who is going through a problem that is not a “first-world problem.” He find him in one of his weakest moments while he walked on earth – 40 days in the wilderness without companionship or food. Without a doubt, he was feeling the effects of hunger. And not just with a growling stomach, but also with the other things that come from prolonged time without food (i.e. slowed thinking, mood swings, desperation for food). If there were ever a time that Jesus was going to slip up in his mission to be our Savior, this would be one of those times. And so, the Devil came to work his evil will. Yet, despite his hungered weakness, Jesus would defeat the Devil and show that he is our tried and true champion. 1) The Devil Tries To Entice With Temptations When Jesus was baptized 40 days before in the Jordan River, the Holy Spirit publicly anointed him as the Son of God (Luke 3:22) and then promptly brought him out into the wilderness. After Jesus’ 40-day long fast was over, the Devil came to Jesus with 3 enticing temptations so as to trick Jesus into sinning. His first temptation was this, “‘If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.’ Jesus answered him, ‘It is written: ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’” (Luke 4:3-4) Of the Devil’s 3 temptations, this is perhaps the most misunderstood. You may be wondering, “why was it a sin for Jesus to miraculous feed himself?” The act of eating itself wasn’t a sin. Rather the temptation was that 1