Tomorrow Sunday, March 9th, 2014 at Saint Paul’s Lutheran Church of Irvine: “‘It is Written’ vs. ‘If'” (Matthew 4:1-11)
We worship at 9:30 am at Crean Lutheran High School, 12500 Sand Canyon Ave., Irvine, CA in the gym!
Remember to “spring ahead” one hour…it will be darker when you get up tomorrow morning!
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
“‘It is Written’ vs. ‘If’“
(Matthew 4:1-11)
The First Sunday in Lent: March 9th, 2014
Saint Paul’s Lutheran Church of Irvine
Pastor Espinosa
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Dear Christian friends, we are constantly encouraged to go along with the crowd and treat our advanced technological and entertainment-oriented cultural milieu as the most important reality and to treat what God teaches is especially real as myth, fable, or legend. The biblical teaching of the devil is one of the prime examples of what I’m speaking of. Even many so-called Christian teachers suggest that the idea of a personal and powerful fallen angel is archaic, out-dated, and blindly medieval. They would like us to think that the devil is merely a symbol of the evil things that men do and/or of the terrible tragedies that occur that cause us to suffer like the tsunamis and earthquakes that cause tangible devastation. Ironically to suggest that the devil is a figment of the imagination is the work of the devil. You might think that he derives much pleasure to be believed in, but in fact he is absolutely delighted when you don’t take him seriously, because it is then that he can wreak the most havoc in your life. Why would you ever defend yourself against an adversary that you are convinced is completely unreal? Indeed, you would never waste your time or energy and as a result, the adversary would know that you are for him a sitting duck.
Matthew 4:1-11 is on the devil attacking Christ through temptation. The scene reminds immediately of Genesis 3 when the devil tempted Eve and through her, caused Adam to fall. The devil had been successful in defeating the first Adam and as a result, all of us have fallen to sin (Romans 5); when Christ came, he was ready to attack the second Adam Christ. He was aware that the Heavenly Father had announced Christ at His baptism that He was the Son of God. Now, the devil was determined to defeat this Jesus in order to frustrate His mission to save us.
Which is to say, that if you and I do not believe that the devil is real, then we might just as well cut to the chase and admit what we are really saying: “since I reject the reality of Satan, I also reject the truth of God’s Word in general and as a result, I reject Christ. Then all of my religiousity and spirituality is about my feeling good through a self-generated mentality in order to cope with this thing called life.” In this regard, we verify Marx and join in the opiate of the masses. But as for this teaching on the devil, “come on, let’s get real and let’s live in the 21st century.” And again whenever we do this, we pull the wool over our eyes and choose to ignore the fantastic warnings contained in the Bible against the adversary who is content to destroy your faith, your family, and every part of your true foundation that is in Christ.
In Matthew 4, we are taught that this evil one has three different names or titles:
From verse 1: He is called “the devil.” The word “devil” means “slanderer”.
From verse 2: He is called “the tempter.”
From verse 10: He is called “Satan.” The word “Satan” means “adversary”.
The Hebrew term “Satan”/adversary is understood in the sense of a courtroom accuser. Similarly, the Greek term “devil” comes from a verb meaning “bring charges with hostile intent.” (The Lutheran Study Bible, p. 2219). We get a feel for what He does in Revelation chapter 12, verses 10-12:
“10And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, ‘Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. 11And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. 12Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”
Treat him seriously dear Christians. The attacks against our bodies, our minds, our emotions, and especially our spirits come from the devil who employs many means. He uses illness, calamity, frustration, anger, distrust, earthquakes, threats to our business, threats to our marriages, nightmares, migraines, worry, fear, shame, lust, guilt, etc. etc. so that we would be accused just as he accused Christ. In essence, he was trying to get Jesus to contradict his true identity as the Son of God, and you can bet your bottom dollar that he is trying to get you to reject your true identity as one for whom Christ lived, and died, and rose, and calls to repentance and faith, and a holy life that serves the Living God. And this adversary will not rest from his accusations against you until the day you die. And his greatest hope is that you will die without faith in Jesus Christ as a result of his accusations that are designed to undermine faith.
But thanks be to God dear Christian, that this Gospel from Saint Matthew is about the reason for you to be 100% confident that Christ is for you and now chooses to dwell in you through Holy Baptism by His life, death, and resurrection, so that not even death can scathe you.
Jesus has come. Jesus was and is and will be your Champion. And it is not only through His death and resurrection, and His current intercession for you at the right of God that you are saved, but it was also through His faithful obedience to the Heavenly Father when He permitted Himself to go out into the wilderness where He was alone and without any supports of any kind to face the temptation of the devil — not for Himself — but for you, in your stead, in your place, as your substitute, as your representative. He faced the devil to defeat the power of his temptations against you and even in the wilderness Jesus was already fulfilling the first Gospel promise in Genesis 3:15: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” “The difference in the degree of injury inflicted [depends on]…the differing parts of the body being struck.” (TLSB, 20) Jesus struck the head of the devil and to strike the head is to bring defeat. That is, in the wilderness while resisting Satan’s temptation, Jesus was defeating this one who threatens you and divesting him of his power.