Lent 1

Good Shepherd

2004 Pass Rd, Biloxi, MS 39531

Draft 1 Sam 17:40–51; Heb 4:14–16; Mt 4:1–11; Ps 118:1–13; ant: v. 5   –     2/22/26

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Last year I warned you about the ways of the devil, that he has had long practice deceiving men and that he will most certainly pursue you and tempt you to fall. Be assured that he and or his servants the demons watch you and your family day and night plotting how they might destroy your faith, or failing that, render the fruits of your faith impotent. But also rest assured that as the psalmist prayed today, so also when we pray Christ will answer: Out of my distress I called on the Lord; the Lord answered me and set me free. The Lord is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me? The Lord is on my side as my helper; I shall look in triumph on those who hate me. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes. Why, because His steadfast love endures forever.

First we know that Christ can and will help us in our struggles, especially when it is the devil or his demons who trouble us, because we read in the Gospel how Jesus overcame the devil, and not just in the Gospel reading today but every time Jesus heals a sick man, every time he frees a demoniac, every time he restores a dying or dead child, every time he saves a suffering woman, all of these also are defeats of the devil and his attempt to murder mankind.

Look at how Jesus responds to the devil’s temptations: the devil says, If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But Jesus answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” The devil tempts Jesus with the needs of the body, that Jesus would break His forty-day fast, and therefore also break the symbolism of Christ suffering in the wilderness for forty days corresponding to Israel’s wandering in the wilderness for forty years. Yet Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 8:3, from the time Israel was in the wilderness to show that God does not only provide for the needs of the body but more so He provides for the needs of the soul leading to everlasting life. Moses thus wrote, And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. What is so important about teaching all Israel, and now Jesus teaching the devil, that true life comes by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord? The answer lies in Paul’s explanation in Romans 10:17: faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. The devil would tempt Jesus, as he would also you to rely for life on earthly bread, which perishes with the world. But what does Christ say? I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst (Jn 6:35). The bread of the world sustains us for a few days, but the bread of life, Who is the Word of God, sustains us for eternity.

Defeated, the devil changes his tactics. Then the devil took him to the holy city and 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 will command his angels concerning you,’ and “‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” The devil tempts Jesus to glorify Himself  by showing His divinity before the appointed time to all those who are in the temple and he does so, thinking he can turn God’s Word against the Son of God, quoting Psalm 91:11–12.

But the Word of God comes to save humanity in weakness and humility, and says of Himself, If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me (Jn 8:54), and the writer to the Hebrews notes, So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you” (5:5). Jesus did not take upon Himself the sins of wandering Israel, nor your sins and my sins, so that He could glorify Himself, but that He may glorify His Father, as He says in John 12:28, that the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost (Lk 19:10), and that He might fulfill the verse of Psalm 91 after those two the devil quoted: You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot (13). These animals being representative of the devil who attacks and oppresses mankind. Then also, Jesus rebukes the devil’s warping of Scripture by Himself quoting Deuteronomy 6:16 where Moses gave the Ten Commandments and rebuked unfaithful Israel, saying, You shall not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah. At Massah Israel doubted God was with them and grumbled that Moses had led them out of Egypt, they thus defied God, denied God, and by implication threatened that they would turn back from the road to the promised land. These are the very things the devil tempted Jesus to do, to turn back from the road to the cross, but Jesus remained faithful and would neither glorify Himself before man nor tempt the Father’s plan.

Defeated again and with his own misuse of Scripture rebuked, the devil changes his tactics once more. Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’” The devil now casts aside almost all tact and speaks plainly, but he also bluffs. Isaiah writes of the devil, How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ But you are brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit (14:12–15). What he desires is God’s power and authority, and he thinks to trade all the nations of mankind for that power and authority. He knows Jesus has come to save men, and he thinks he owns and therefore can give away all the kingdoms of the world. But in receiving worship from Jesus he would not really lose the world but gain mastery over God. Yet he remains in this foolish and steps beyond his means, his power, and his authority, for even the rule he has over sinful man and the evil he does is only by God’s allowance for a time, as Job chapters 1 and 2 show us. The devil is, as Luther says, God’s devil, who works evil which God always turns to the good of His people (cf. Gen 50:20).

Jesus again turns to God’s word in Deuteronomy, the passage of the Ten Commandments,  and 1 Samuel when the Ark of the Lord was returned to Israel from the Philistines, to defeat the devil. Moses wrote, It is the Lord your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear. You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you (6:13–14). And Samuel said, If you are returning to the Lord with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your heart to the Lord and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines (7:3). Why these passages? Because of what God, that is Christ, commanded in the first of the Ten Commandments, You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. God is god alone, there can be no other. One of His creations demanding the worship due to God alone is absurd and insulting, thus Jesus dismisses His lackey, the devil, with the sharp reminder that there is but one God, the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

And further, the devil’s arrogant thought that he owns all the world is belied by the fact of Psalm 24:1, where David sang, The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein. He has no power to give mankind to Jesus, for the debt of sin is not due to the devil, but must be repaid to God the Father, and then only by the perfect, spotless, sinless high priest with a likewise perfect, spotless, sinless offering of blood, as all of the book of Leviticus shows and Hebrews says, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins (9:22). The devil is merely God’s prison keeper and executioner. Thus defeated and disproven, the devil skulks away until God the Father would summon him again for his most humiliating defeat. Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to Jesus.

So you see the battle of words between the devil and the Christ. See how Jesus turned always to the Bible in His counterattack and that by the Word of the Bible the devil was defeated. Understand also that all of Christ’s life here on earth was marked by the same temptations we face, and that Jesus overcame them all just as He overcame these. Thus the writer to the Hebrews argues, Since then 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 is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Another reason, beyond that Jesus overcame the devil, that we may know that God will help us in our struggles is that Jesus endured these same struggles as you are, thus He sympathizes with your struggle, and He overcame them, so He can and will help you overcome them. Jesus has also promised this, I will not leave you or forsake you (Josh 1:5), behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age (Mt 28:20). And David says, I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread (Ps 37:25).

If God has said this, then it is true and you may stake your life upon it. If Jesus has said that He is with you, than know that it is true, remembering also that “where there is Jesus, there is also life and salvation.” (Petersen) Therefore, heed Solomon’s command, Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths (Prov 3:5–6). And St. John says to we who remain in the world and under attack by the devil, But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world (1.2:1–2) and If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1.1:8–9). Christ has overcome the devil for us, and paid for the debt of our sin, giving us forgiveness, life, and salvation by His death on the cross. He showed His good will toward us and placed His name upon us in the waters of Holy Baptism, and gives to us in His Body and Blood in the Bread and Wine to confirm our faith and deliver to us life. Therefore let us hold fast our confession through whatever storm or attack of the devil because Jesus is faithful.

Now the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen