Resist the Devil
Scripture Reading: Matthew 3:13 – 4:11
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. 14 And John
tried to prevent Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?”
15 But Jesus answered and said to him, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to
fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed Him.
16 When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the
heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and
alighting upon Him. 17 And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved
Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And when
He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. 3 Now when the tempter
came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”
4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every
word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’”
5 Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 and said
to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written:
‘ He shall give His angels charge over you,’
and,
‘ In their hands they shall bear you up,
Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’”
7 Jesus said to him, “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the LORD your God.’”
8 Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the
kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if
You will fall down and worship me.”
10 Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the
LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.’”
11 Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.
Today we’re going to complete the ‘Submit to God, Resist the Devil’ series we’ve
been working on for the past three weeks and not amazingly….. I say not
amazingly because I’ve seen God do things like this time and again so it’s no
longer amazing to me. It’s what I expect from Him now. Anyway, you may be
amazed that this series, that I by no means mapped out ahead of time, ends with a
scripture that appropriately takes us to the baptism of Jesus on this day that we
have our first baptism in this congregation.
We are to be imitators of God as it tells us in Ephesians 5:1, Therefore be imitators of
God as dear children. We know that Jesus is God in human form so we are to do the
things that Jesus did. In the first portion of our scripture reading today we see
Jesus going to John the Baptist. John’s first instinct is to say no I should be
baptized by You. Jesus tells John to permit it to fulfill all righteousness. There is
evidently something righteous in being baptized. So here we watch Jesus submit
to John to be baptized. We see Him submit to someone other than Himself. Jesus,
the author of the universe is submitting to a mere man. That’s that first level of
submission that we talked about three weeks ago. Submitting to those around us
that we can see so we can prepare ourselves to submit to God whom we cannot
see.
Next we see the manifestation of His submission to God but the real submission
comes much earlier. Lets take a look at a much younger Jesus in Luke 2:46-47, 46
Now so it was that after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the
teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. 47 And all who heard Him were
astonished at His understanding and answers. You see here is the true submission
when He submitted to the word of God. To listen, to discuss, to study God’s word.
The baptism is the outward display of the more important inward ‘true’ submission
to seek after God with all your heart, mind, and soul. The baptism we will witness
today is a very important step for Ed and Wesley in that they are making a public
pledge to stay committed to God. But what is more important than this general
promise is going to his spiritual appetite. Our spirit, like our bodies, needs to be
fed daily, usually more than once a day. Spiritual food is the word of God. You
can tell from the scripture in Luke that Jesus had a voracious spiritual appetite. He
spent at least three days discussing scripture in the temple with the learned men.
That pretty much says it all! A twelve year old hanging out at church for three
days. Paints a picture, doesn’t it?
So, Jesus is baptized and as He comes up from the water we see picture of Him
being filled with the Spirit of God. Not saying that He wasn’t already but as with His
submission this is just the visible manifestation of this. So, He comes up from the
water and then everything is peachy, God has Him in His hands and nothing bad
ever happens to Him, right? Wrong! This is just the beginning. In fact, He comes
up and immediately is led into the wilderness to be tempted. Many who come this
point of first accepting Christ personally, then being baptized think that now there
will be no more trouble, but as Jesus tells us in this world we will have trouble but
rejoice for He has overcome the world (John 16:33). As Jesus’ life shows many
times the first thing to come at you will be trouble through temptation and testing.
This is why it’s so important that you stay immersed in the word of God; studying,
asking question, seeking understanding so that you will be prepared to handle
trouble when it comes. So let’s see how Jesus handles His trouble.
I want you to first notice from the scripture reading in Matthew 4 that Jesus fasted.
Now, His fast was for 40 days but I wouldn’t advise your first fast to be that long. I’
m quite sure that Jesus had likely fasted before this time. Did you notice that I
mentioned your first fast? Well, Jesus said when we fast in Matthew 6:16, implying
that we should fast. The importance of fasting is to submit your flesh to the
authority of your spirit. You may have heard it said that the spirit is willing but the
flesh is weak (Mark 14:38). Well, the way to control your flesh is to put it under
submission to your spirit. This is what Jesus is doing with this fast. And at the end
of the 40 days, He was hungry. Well, yeah. That’s probably an understatement.
The enemy is always going to come at your weakest point, and Jesus was hungry.
So, how does Jesus handle His temptation? ….with the word of God. The enemy
tries to get Him to improperly use His divinity for a piece of bread when He’s
hungry. Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of stew so it wasn’t unprecedented.
Jesus shows that His flesh was not in control by using scripture to remind satan
that, It is written, man does not live by bread alone.
Then he tries to use pride and to twist the word of God to get Jesus to do
something stupid to prove who He is. Once again He uses the word of God
properly to resist the temptation by saying that, It is written, you shall not tempt the
LORD thy God. So first His flesh is tested. Then His pride is tested, and next will
be His greed; greed for power and glory. The enemy says if you’ll just worship me I’
ll give you everything. As Jesus tells him to go away, He again uses the Word to
say, It is written, you shall worship the LORD thy God and Him only.
Jesus submitted to God, resisted the devil and the devil fled. It’s a pattern that we
must learn if we are going to overcome the world as He did. He tells that He is the
way (John 14:6). He tells us to follow Him (Matthew 16:24). He tells us that where
He is we will be also (John 14:3). Jesus gave us a detailed map to show us how we
will fulfill James 4:7, Submit to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you. It’s
called His life. Let’s look closely at it and do everything to follow Him.
Sermon by: Denise Baxley
Date: June 11, 2006