We that have been around the church in one form or another have heard all the stories in the Bible relating to Christ’s life…some over and over and over again. When we hear a story as a five year old child we come to accept it’s reality and by the time we are forty five the account has certainly lost any mystique it may have one time had. When you teach of Christ’s life like I have thousands of times the tendency is to fall into a pattern of repetition that robs life changing story of it’s excitement to all except those who are hearing it for the first time.

I have ask God this spring to give me insight into Jesus life that will let me look deeper into these snapshots of Jesus life and let me grasp truth that has eluded me up to this point. That’s what this series of sermons is about including the Palm Sunday and Easter sermon.

The question I have heard ask as much as any other over the years, by those who are not as solid in their faith as you, always starts with the same word….Why?

We like to imagine in our more mature faith we are more able to accept the sovereign acts of God without questioning his motives like the immature believer or the unbeliever but when the unexplainable, then, happens in our own life: what is the first question that pops into our heads.

Why?

Oh we might struggle against the actual word forming because that might indicate a lack of faith on our part but there is a restless unease in our spirit, in our praying;

We sometimes find ourselves shying away from talking to God like we would if we were on the outs with a friend….. I have myself, after a few months of inner questioning, awakened to the fact that I was just down right angry at God for not preventing the preventable. Not stopping those things from entering my life that he certainly had the power to stop. I would venture to say that many of you, if you were honest, down on the inside, would admit a sincere anger that God has not done things the way you thought he should. If God had acted in power the events of your life could have turned out so, so differently.

Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?

I’m giving myself (and you) permission during these lessons to look at biblical accounts in Jesus life and ask why. In fact I’m asking you to go below the surface of the written account and honestly ask the why questions.

When any of us start in ministry, we start with the simple and move to the more difficult. We tell a story in a Sunday school class long before we try to get up on Sunday Morning and preach a sermon. We try to convince a boy to stop stealing long before we try to take on the task of a demon possessed serial murderer.

God’s way is different….

Question--What was the first recorded ministry task of Jesus?

That fact should alert us right off the bat that the following events are not going to be run-of-the-mill events.

Let’s read the account:

I’ve spend much time in Seminary discussing whether Jesus could have given in or not with those who said he couldn’t have (Peccability vs. impeccability) If he couldn’t have given in to Satan’s temptations then this whole thing is not worth studying.

We place total emphasis on the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus as the most important event in all of history and that is true…. This event , I think, falls directly next in determining whether you could have freedom from the power of sin in your life.

The same tempter who had been able to Cause Adam and Eve to stumble and fall away from God now sets his sights on this new challenge. He was confident….. He had won the first time…God had failed… He would simply bring this newest plant of God too his knees. Eventually, perhaps, God would realize that he was fighting out of his league.

Two single combat warriors, converge in the barren wilderness of a little country on the edge of the Mediterranean to sort out the future of mankind. One, just beginning his work to wrestle the dominion of the earth back from the “Prince of the power of the air” comes in a weakened state after 40 days of fasting. The other is confident, on his home turf, and as sure of victory as he was with Adam and Eve…..Who will win????

It’s important to remember that no one was there in the wilderness except Jesus and the evil one. In order for us to be reading this today, that had to mean that Jesus himself either wrote down the events as they had happened or he told them to Matthew who then wrote them down. Either way we have to assume that these events were so important that Jesus could not take the chance on us not having them available to learn from today…

So let’s learn…

A) Puzzling through the facts

What exactly did satan ask Jesus to do that was so wrong?

Defeating death was what his time here on earth was all about. Why not speed up the process and prove himself to satan right off the bat?

Obviously there is a problem with this one. In fact if you look at the three in a line it is clear that by the third one satan is getting desperate and throwing all caution to the wind. So what is really going on here?

At this point we don’t know how much satan really knows about Jesus. He’s not omnipotent. He certainly saw the events around the birth of Christ and knows that Jesus had come directly from God. But does he know, or does he believe, or does he even have the capability of understanding that Jesus is incarnate God, God in the flesh come to earth to right sins wrongs? I doubt it…

He is definitely probing to find out just how much power this Sent One has

If you are a God then act like a God….shock me with your power. Bring your power out in to the open… then we’ll get down to pitting your power against my power!

Satan: Now lets be reasonable: You’re here on earth to become the long awaited Messiah. The king in the line of David and all that stuff. When God’s creation fell to my temptations the dominion of the earth that God gave to them was transferred to me. Now I am the “Prince of this world”. If you want to become the long awaited Messiah, that’s all right with me. But understand if you are going to be a king in this world, you will be doing under my dominion.

I’m won’t try to stop you from being King of the Jews. In fact, I’ll offer you a shortcut. You don’t have to go through whatever length of time God has planned to elevate you to prominence. We can accomplish all that right here today.

We can speed up this whole process of you establishing your power on this earth and you will concede your submission to my dominion and you can be the Messiah and we will all live happily ever after.

Now the gloves are clearly off, Jesus is using these quotes from Scripture to swat him off as if he were a bothersome fly. Him, the “Prince of this world” is being snubbed by this carpenter from Nazareth. And then he does it again:

Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.'" Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

I’m quite sure it’s at this point that satan knows the only possible course of action will be to kill this pain in his neck. What he doesn’t know is that he is thinking exactly the way God intends him to to bring about the crucifixion, resurrection, and the salvation of the world.

Follow me closely here… What satan had was the power to compel everyone to believe whatever he wanted them to believe.

When a fundamentalist Muslim fantasizes about slaughtering all the infidels in this world who don’t belief just like them and believe they are Allah’s choice servants because of that belief…. Satan says Ta-da!

When a liberal promotes sexual behavior that the Bible condemns and says it’s because they are enlightened in their minds and everyone living under old social taboos are stupid and out of touch with the world….satan says Ta-da!

Satan has had the power to compel everyone to believe whatever he wanted them to believe. Now; in the showdown in the desert he meets one who is completely unimpressed with him and swats him away like a fly.

Had Jesus positioned himself under satan’s authority; with it would have come the authority to make everyone believe what he told them to believe.

That’s the power satan had and it would have become his.

Something here is very ironic:

Now you are seeing something about God that is very deep:

Jesus rebuffs Satan, instead of proving his power by wiping him out. In doing so he allowed satan to go on with his plans to bring about his downfall. Doesn’t that seem like weakness on Jesus part? This same evil one would lead a group of soldiers to hang him on the cross just three years later.

Here Jesus is in a showdown with the one he came to defeat. He has the power to force his will on satan, yet he’s content just to just show satan that he can’t overpowering him.

That leads to a huge theological point:

He would take satan on many times before the ultimate showdown after the crucifixion and before the resurrection. He would often cast out demons then replace that evil demanding spirit with his Spirit which was far less possessive and remained at the will of the one possessed.

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