` Lent 1 - 2003

Lent 1 - 2003



Todd A. Peperkorn, STM
Messiah Lutheran Church
Kenosha, Wisconsin
Invocabit – Lent 1 (March 9, 2003)
Matthew 4:1-11
TITLE: “Clinging to the Word of God Alone”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.  Our text for today is the Gospel from Matthew four, the Temptation of Christ.

What does it mean to trust the plain words of Scripture and to cast away all false interpretations?  That is at the heart of sin and redemption, and of our Lenten journey to the cross with Christ our Lord.

At the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were faced with a choice which God had freely given them.  Our heavenly Father loved them with an everlasting love.  He created them in His image, the image of selfless love.  And for them to be in that image, that meant that they had to freely love him back.  For love is not truly love if it is forced.  It must be freely given.  God created them in love so that they would be His image of love in the world.

But Satan, that old deceiver, tempted Adam and Eve. He twisted the Word of God to say what it did not say.  He created doubt by making them look in their own hearts for the truth, and not to the Word of God and what He promised them from the very beginning.  God promised them life, He gave them the truth, and so when God said to Adam, “Do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, or you will surely die,” it was quite clear.  If you eat of this tree, you will die.  There were no questions and no doubts about it.  It was as clear as day.

There was no doubt, that is, until Satan stepped in.  Satan weaved his lies into the fabric of God’s Word, so that Eve doubted the clear word of God and began to believe the lie.  That lie passed on to Adam, and so sin and death came into the world.  They stopped believing the clear Word of God and trusted themselves and their own words, twisted by Satan, and so lost the image of God imprinted upon them.

We have inherited that same doubt of God’s Word.  It’s in your soul.  You shall have no other gods, unless something else is more important.  You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, unless you just want to use the Lord’s name as an expletive in a sentence, or refuse to pray in time of need.  Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy, unless there is something more important than going to church that week.  Honor your father and your mother, unless you don’t agree with them or you just don’t want to.  You shall not murder, unless the person you hate really deserved it.  You shall not commit adultery, unless your spouse is a nag and you just want to watch one more TV program you know you shouldn’t, read one more novel that is over the edge, and you lust for what you know is wrong.  Don’t steal.  Don’t gossip and talk behind other people’s back.  Don’t covet things that are not yours.  You constantly doubt God’s clear word and come up with a thousand reasons why it shouldn’t apply to you.

Repent.  Turn away from your twisting of God’s Word to suit your own purposes.  Don’t believe the lie that Satan has foisted upon you that you know what is best for you better than God Himself.  God’s Word is clear and certain, and He will not allow you or anyone else to wiggle out from under His Law.  You can’t escape it.  You can’t keep the Law.

But there is One who has done what you cannot.  There is One who has kept to the plain word of God because He is the Word of God in the flesh.  Jesus Christ was baptized and immeditately went into the wilderness of temptation, just like you.  Jesus Christ was tempted like you in every way, yet where you have twisted the Word of God, he has held onto its plain words for your sake.  One church father put this great mystery of Christ’s work this way:

Because of the evil will of the devil, we are caught in the snare of diabolical tyranny. In our misery, we dare not raise our eyes to heaven for mercy. Where is the way of salvation? What pardon is there for those who have broken the command of the Lord? There is only the clemency of God—His mercy and compassion. So He sent His Son as our Savior and Redeemer, who alone has power to free mankind from the grip of the devil. With infinite kindness and goodness, the Only Begotten Son of the Father took upon Himself our likeness and was made in all things as we are—except sin—so that through Himself He might redeem us all, and bring us to God the Father, freed from all defilement and stain. This is why He suffered hunger, and fasted. It was the beginning of our salvation. (St. Cyril of Alexandria)

Jesus hungered and fasted for your salvation.  He clung to the Word of God because He is that very Word and Mouth of God.  Satan pummeled him with temptation after temptation, he twisted God’s Word, he tempted Jesus with all the kingdoms of the earth, but Christ our Lord held fast and clung to that Word of God for you.

You see, that is at the heart of Jesus’ temptation.  He is tempted for you.  He holds on to God’s Word for you.  He hungered for you.  He thirsted for you.  That love of God which was foreshadowed in the curse of Satan way back in Genesis 3:15 finds its fulfillment, or at least the beginning of that fulfillment, in our Lord’s temptation today.  There is enmity between Christ and the Devil.  Christ overcame Him, not by power and glory, but by clinging to the word of God, and by suffering the shame of the cross for your sake.

When you were baptized into Christ, everything Christ won in His temptation and on the cross became yours.  Trust Christ’s Word of forgiveness for you.  When He says “I forgive you all your sins” it is true.  And to prove it to you, He gives you His very body and blood a sure pledge and guarantee of His love.  Our Lord this day gives you His very Word made flesh to you so that you may know Him and love Him.  For He loves you with an everlasting love.  He has been seeking you and working out your salvation long before you were even born.  Christ was thinking of you when He rebuffed Satan’s temptations, because He knew that you would fail.  But He doesn’t fail.  Because of that great work of His in the temptation, you can be certain and sure that God’s Word is for you and that His work for you will never end.  He will never grow weary of caring for you. 

Believe it for Jesus’ sake.  Amen.

And now may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in true faith unto life everlasting.  Amen.

Copyright © 2003 by Todd A. Peperkorn.
I Samuel 17:40-51 (NKJV)

Then he took his staff in his hand; and he chose for himself five smooth stones from the brook, and put them in a shepherd's bag, in a pouch which he had, and his sling was in his hand. And he drew near to the Philistine.

So the Philistine came, and began drawing near to David, and the man who bore the shield went before him.  And when the Philistine looked about and saw David, he disdained him; for he was only a youth, ruddy and good-looking.

So the Philistine said to David, "Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?" And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.

And the Philistine said to David, "Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field!"

Then David said to the Philistine, "You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.  This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.  Then all this assembly shall know that the LORD does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the LORD's, and He will give you into our hands."

So it was, when the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, that David hastened and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine.  Then David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone; and he slung it and struck the Philistine in his forehead, so that the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the earth.

So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone, and struck the Philistine and killed him. But there was no sword in the hand of David.  Therefore David ran and stood over the Philistine, took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him, and cut off his head with it. And when the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled.

Hebrews 4:14-16  (NKJV)

Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.

For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Matthew 4:1-11 (NKJV)

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.  And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. 

Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread."  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.'" 

Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, 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.'"  Jesus said to him, "It is written again, 'You shall not tempt the LORD your God.'" 

Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.  And he said to Him, "All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me."  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.'"

Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.
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