Scripture: Matthew 4:1-11; Matthew 16:24-27; Matthew 27:27-33
Introduction
Moses was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant—the Ten Commandments.
Exodus 34:28
- We just had a great program last Wednesday night for Ash Wednesday.
- Ash Wednesday marks the official beginning of the Lenten season.
- According to the United Methodist Church at umc.org:
Lent is a season of forty days, not counting Sundays, which begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Saturday. Lent comes from the Anglo Saxon word lencten, meaning “lengthen” and refers to the lengthening days of spring. The forty days represents the time Jesus spent in the wilderness, enduring the temptation of Satan and preparing to begin his ministry.
- Ash Wednesday was an evening of prayer and devotion that culminated with the imparting of ashes on either the forehead or wrist.
- These ashes were made by burning the dried palm branches that we saved from last year’s Palm Sunday.
- They were Rachel Ray approved because I mixed them with EVOO.
- Lent is a time of repentance, fasting and preparation for the coming of Easter. It is a time of self-examination and reflection.
- We don’t have to stop eating from now until Easter, but we can stop putting the world 1st.
- We can make a real effort to try to put God first in our lives over the next 40 days by:
- Avoiding temptation
- Committing ourselves to Christ
- Accepting opportunities
1. Avoiding temptation
- Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness fasting.
- He was there on purpose to face off with the enemy, Satan.
- After 40 days you can imagine that Jesus was very hungry.
- It was at His weakest moment having gone so long without eating.
- We generally avoid getting so run down and hungry that we are weakened.
- But don’t we often find ourselves in situations where we are in a weakened state?
- And aren’t there things in this world that really wear is down?
- This is when we are at our most vulnerable and the human part of Jesus was at His most vulnerable.
- This is when the enemy begins a series of three temptations.
- Appealing to His hunger, he told Jesus: “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
- Paul says in Ephesians 6:17:
Take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
- This is exactly what Jesus does when He counterattacks Satan with Scripture:
“It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Deuteronomy 8:3
- We face temptations all the time and we generally avoid them but the lesson here is the way Satan targets us at our weakest and most vulnerable
- Then the devil took Him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down.
- Then Satan tries using Scripture by quoting Psalm 91:11,12 For it is written:
“‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”
- Jesus answered him by again quoting Deuteronomy this time 6:16:
“It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
- For a third time, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.
- “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”
- Again, Jesus goes to Deuteronomy 6:13 and said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’”
- Jesus is teaching us through this Scripture that the key to avoiding temptation is Scripture
- So, as we move through the Lenten season on the way to Easter consider avoiding temptation by embracing God’s Word.
2. Committing ourselves to Christ
- In Matthew 16, Jesus is talking about how He must die at the hands of the church elders.
- Peter speaks up in verse 22 and says: “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”
- In verse 23 Jesus says to Peter: “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
- In Peter’s defense, he was a strong, rough and tough fisherman trying to protect Jesus.
- Peter was looking at resolving things using his human understanding and ability.
- Jesus was saying this is wrong; and here is where we need to learn from Peter’s mistake.
- We need to stop leaning on our understanding of the world and lean on Christ instead.
- This starts by making a stronger commitment to Christ. Jesus said:
“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.
- What are you willing to give up?
- Christ gave everything He had and in return, He wants us to give our lives to Him.
- Does this mean we give up everything fun and enjoyable in life? NO
- I’m reminded of my good friend Pete Hall’s celebration of life service on Friday.
- A recurring theme about Pete’s life was that he put Christ first and then his family.
- Because he put Christ first, he served others in a way that endeared him to everybody
- He was a success at everything he did rising through the ranks of military service followed by a successful career in real estate.
- He had a lot of fun and did a lot of things and died a very wealthy man.
- But he gave his life to Christ and his life was so much richer for it.
- Jesus explains this in Matthew 16:26-27:
What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.
- Pete put Jesus first in his life and made it a life of service and this was richly rewarding.
- It is kind of paradoxical because by giving up self, we gain so much more.
- What are you willing to give up? Try giving your life to Christ.
3. Accept opportunities
- Consider the story of a man from Cyrene named Simon.
- We have very little information about Simon, but we do know two things:
- He was forced, or compelled, to carry Jesus’ cross.
- He is mentioned by name in all three Synoptic Gospels
- Apparently, Simon was along the parade route that led to Golgotha where the cross would be placed.
- I always pictured Jesus carrying his own cross all the way, but I am partial to John 19:
So, the soldiers took charge of Jesus. Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). There they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle.
- Also, the only disciple around at the crucifixion was John as the others were in hiding.
- Even though Jesus said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” it was Simon who actually picked up the cross of Jesus.
- Imagine being the guy who carried the cross that would crucify all the sins of the world.
- In a way, we are all like Simon.
- We are just walking along the road in life and opportunities are along the route.
- Sometimes we are compelled to take opportunities, sometimes not.
- We need to at least be open to those opportunities that we get to carry Jesus’ cross.
- Sometimes in this world it seems like fewer and fewer people are willing to carry it.
- Sometimes in this world it feels like no one cares anymore.
- There is so much hate and cruelty in this world that Jesus is crying out for us to help.
- The opportunities are all around us to take on the burden of Christ for others.
- In this season of Lent, think about what you are willing to give up.
- Think about how you can help Jesus carry His cross.