Sunday 02/22/26 – Adams Village Baptist Church
Sermon Title: “First
Comes the Trial and the Training!” - “The Path to
the Empty Tomb” (Part 1 of 7) - Luke 4:1-13, Romans 10:8-13
(Welcome
Picture)
I have a question for us all to consider this morning. Here
is the question, how many of us have ever had to train or prepare for
something? I think of the Winter Olympics, as Olympians from all over the world
have been training for years to represent their countries, this year, in Italy,
and hopefully win a medal. Some of us, when we started a new job, went through
training for that job. Some of us might have gone to college, vocational
school, or something else in order to train and to be qualified for a job, or something
else. In fact, I went through the training to lead our upcoming “Grief Share”
class to be better prepared to lead that group. Further, athletes in our
schools practice, train, and get ready to compete. After all, who does not love
a Spartan victory, right South Jeff. folks! The original Spartan soldiers from
centuries ago were some of the fiercest and well-trained soldiers in the known
world at the time.
Training and preparing are natural parts of life. As I talk
about this, we can probably think of the various training and preparations that
we have had. What were they? What are they? What will they be? If someone wants
to become a doctor they go to medical school and then spend at least three
years of training as a resident doctor, before they become full medical doctor.
For example, I am currently taking a ten-week class to learn even more about
the history and the heritage of the Baptist movement. Am I doing this because I
have too? No, but I am learning, training, and preparing, as we all are in
various ways.
What if I told you
all, that in a way Jesus also went through His own training, preparation, and certainly
His own trials? I have given this type of sermon before at the beginning of
this season of Lent that we now find ourselves in. I will talk a little bit
more about what Lent is a little later in this message though.
(Show Basic
Training Picture)
One year though I
called a sermon similar to this, “Jesus’ Basic Training!” You see, before a
soldier is officially in the military as a full enlisted soldier, they must first
complete basic training. Which means it is possible to fail basic training and
have to then re-take basic training again! This training though, once again, is
required, and prepares soldiers to serve in the various branches of the armed
forces in which they have enlisted. No doubt this basic training has its challenges
and its trials. No doubt you will be pushed, made better and prepared. In a
way, Jesus goes through His own training and His own time of preparation.
In our gospel of
Luke 4:1-13 reading for this morning, Jesus had just been baptized by His
cousin John the Baptist. Yet, before he started his three-year public ministry
here on earth, as my sermon title for this morning is called, “First Comes the
Trial and the Training!” In fact, in the first part of Luke 3:23 this is what
the gospel says:
23 Jesus was about thirty years old when he began his work (Lk. 3:23a, NRSV).
After this, in the rest
of the gospel of Luke chapter 3 we read of Jesus ancestors, going back to the very
beginning. This no doubt was done to prove Jesus’ lineage, further proving that
he was indeed the Messiah, the savior of the world.
Then right after this, we hear in Luke 4:1-2, subtitled in
my bible, “The Temptation of Jesus,” once again:
4 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished (Lk. 4:1-2, NRSV).
We have accounts of Jesus
being tempted in the wilderness in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, but
not John’s gospel. The purpose of this forty-day temptation is to show us that
Jesus prepared and trained, in a way, for His three years of preaching,
teaching, healing, and loving on this earth. Or as my sermon title for this
morning is called, once again, “First Come the Trial and the Training!”
Some of us so often can think of Jesus and gentle and mild,
and He was and is those things. The same Jesus though, is also as tough as
nails, as this same Jesus stood toe to toe with the greatest evil that this
world has ever seen, and He won! While was Jesus the pinnacle of love,
compassion, mercy, and kindness on this earth, he also was and is a spiritual
warrior. Dare I say, “Spartan” like. This Jesus never taught or advocated
violence or war, but no doubt Jesus had spiritual strength stronger than the
mightiest warrior.
As we continue to
look in our gospel reading from Luke 4:1-13, we pick back up Luke 4:3, where
Jesus had just spent forty-days fasting and being tempted by the devil, This is
what is says, once again:
(Show
Picture of the Three Temptation of Jesus by the Devil)
3 The devil said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.’ 4 Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, “One does not live by bread alone.”’ 5 Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6 And the devil said to him, ‘To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. 7 If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.’ 8 Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.”’ 9 Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, 10 for it is written, “He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you”, 11 and “On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.”’ 12 Jesus answered him, ‘It is said, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”’ 13 When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time (Lk. 4:3-13, NRSV).
The gospel of Luke 4:1-13 reading for this
morning tells us that Jesus fasted and was tempted in the wilderness for
forty-days. The Bible says that Noah was on the waters in the ark for forty
days. The Bible says that Israelites wandered the wilderness for forty-years. Moses
was on the top of Mount Sinai for forty-days communing with God before he
brought the ten-commandments down, etc. and etc. In fact,
“In the Bible, the number 40 signifies a period of testing, trial, probation, or preparation, appearing over 150 times to mark significant transitions or judgment” (https://www.google.com/search?q=number+40+meaning+in+the+bible&rlz=).
This is why, once again, my sermon title
for this morning is called, “First Comes the Trial and the Training!” I guess
it would also be a very biblical reason to make military basic training
40-days, as well! Jesus could have fasted and been tempted by the devil for
20-days, 60-days, and so on and so forth, but in the Bible
“the number 40 signifies a period of testing, trial, probation, or preparation”.
This means that even the
number of the days that Jesus fasted and was tempted in the wilderness, in and
of themselves, was significant. It also means that Jesus was and is the Christ.
He was the only person that ever crossed the horizon of this world and overcame
all evil and sin. He therefore is worthy of all honor, glory, and praise.
For us though, how would we do in the wilderness for
forty-days being tempted by the devil? Would we make it through forty days of
fasting and the temptations? Most people would die without food after a month. Further,
if we were starved and that hungry, would we take the devil’s offer to turn
stones into bread? In that weakened and emaciated state would we accept the
offer to bow to the devil and pledge our loyalty to him in exchange for wealth,
power, and more? If so, what would our price be? Would it be $50,000 dollars,
one million dollars, or something else? Lastly, if the devil took us to the top
of a building much taller than this church, and told us to throw ourselves off
because angels would save us, would we do it? Even more, why does the devil get
so mad when we do some much good? We live in a world that has both good and
evil in it, and we must prayerfully, individually, and as a church resist evil
and anything opposite of the love of Christ. So, if we were in the place of
Jesus, how long would we make it in the wilderness? Jesus is strong, and is
Lord of all, because He passed every test, stayed true, and died our spiritual
death for us on the cross.
I also remember years ago when It was teaching a social
studies lesson, when I was a social studies teacher. I was teaching my students
about the cause and effect we as people and as countries have on each other. I
was also talking about greed, war, and power. I asked my students as part of
this lesson, this question:
“If one-hundred people in a third world country that you have probably never heard of, and will never visit, had to die for you to be given ten-million dollars, would you do it?”
To my shock as a young high school teacher at the time,
about 10-15% of my students raised their hands, and unbelievably they had assorted
reasons why they would be ok with this. Of course, one or two of the students
raised their hands just to be funny, but some would actually be ok with one
hundred people they met dying for them to get ten million dollars. I remembered
that story, because when the devil took Jesus to the cliff’s edge after his
forty-days of fasting and temptation, he offered Jesus the entire world if He would
just worship him. The big question then is what is your price? What is my
price? I hope all of us will say that our integrity, that our souls, and that
our humanity is not or will even be for sale.
The second scripture that I read this morning was Romans
10:8-13, once again. In this scripture, it says this, once again:
8 But what does it
say? ‘The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart’
(that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9 because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved. 11 The scripture says, ‘No one who believes in him will be put to shame.’ 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. 13 For, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved’ (Rom. 10:8-13, NRSV).
Anyone who believes in Jesus, has an eternal future, and
has an eternal hope. We are called to live and love like Jesus, but sometimes
it seems like that things in this world might try to tare us down. This
morning, Jesus resisted and fasted for forty-days, and then He bested the devil
and everyone else that sought to destroy Him. For these reasons and many more,
my allegiance to Jesus is absolute, because He has never failed us, and He
never will. This same Jesus taught us a radical new way of living and loving.
In this, wait for it, in this forty-day season of Lent, we are called to be
more and more like Jesus. For the more we live and love like Him the better Adams
is, the better we are, and the better the world will be.
With this said, this past Wednesday on February 18th
this year, we started the season of Lent. This season goes through Maundy
Thursday or as it is called in some traditions Holy Thursday, ending on Good
Friday. The way we get away with the forty-days, is Sundays are “freebie days”
that do not count as part of a Lenten observance. So then, “What is Lent?”
(Show the
“What is Lent” picture)
Here is a good definition
of what the season of Lent is:
Lent is a 40-day (excluding Sundays) Christian liturgical season of fasting, prayer, and almsgiving, starting on Ash Wednesday and ending before Easter. It signifies a period of repentance, spiritual renewal, and preparation for Easter, mimicking the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness (https://www.google.com/search?q=What+is+lent&rlz).
Is Lent or Advent in the Bible? The answer is no. However,
there are many number forties in the Bible, and as we know this is a period of
“testing, trial, probation, or preparation.” Studying for a Regents exam is a
period of “testing, trial, probation, or preparation.”
Over the first centuries of the early worshipping Christian
Church, early Christians began developing Christian seasons of the year. The
season Advent that leads up to Christmas, and the season of Lent that leads up
to Good Friday, and then Easter, we created and developed. Why? As
opportunities to prepares ours hearts, our souls, our minds, our hands and our feet
for the birth and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord. In this
season of Lent, and always we are called to grow closer to Christ and move
deeper into the love of Christ. Hopefully, our Lenten devotions we have at the
back of the church sanctuary can help with this. We can also give up, give
away, serve, sacrifice, and abstain, but not to hurt and or punish ourselves.
Instead, we are invited to this during Lent to grow closer to Christ, grow
deeper in the love of Christ, and in deeper in our love and service to others.
Some Christian traditions begin the season of Lent on what is called “Ash
Wednesday,” and on this day people get ashes on there foreheads that look like
a cross. These ashes are from the palms that were waved on Palm Sunday when
Jesus entered Jerusalem. They are burned into ashes and are used in churches
that celebrate “Ash Wednesday.” So, the triumph turns into a tragedy, if you
will.
All this to say, this season that we find ourselves, this
season of Lent is an opportunity, but not a requirement. I am observing this
season, as I want to grow closer to Christ, and be better equipped to serve Him
and others even better. So, as result, and this will be hard for me. I am
giving up Pizza for Lent. No pizza until Easter for me. This mean next month
when we have pizza with the pastor, you have a pastor and a pizza, but no
pastor eating that pizza. I hope this draws me closer to Christ and does not
just depress me!
So how does this forty-day trial and temptation of Jesus,
the season of Lent, and our lives connect to all of this. Or to put it another
way: how does this message of “First Comes the Trial and the Training!” - “The
Path to the Empty Tomb” Series (Part 1 of 7), matter to us today. Here is summary
and application points from this morning’s message:
In Luke 4:1-13, Jesus fasts
for 40 days in the wilderness, filled with the Holy Spirit and tempted by the
devil to abuse his power, seek worldly glory, and test God. Jesus overcomes
these temptations by quoting Scripture, demonstrating faithful reliance on God.
This passage frames the season of Lent as a 40-day, spirit-led journey of
fasting, prayer, and spiritual warfare.
Summary
of Luke 4:1-13: The Temptation in the Wilderness
·
The Setting: Immediately after his baptism, Jesus
is led by the Spirit into the desert for 40 days, symbolizing a period of
preparation and testing.
·
The Three Temptations:
1.
Physical Need (Stones to Bread): Satan tempts a
hungry Jesus to turn stones into bread. Jesus replies, "One does not live
by bread alone" (Deut. 8:3).
2.
Power and Authority: Satan offers all the
kingdoms of the world in exchange for worship. Jesus responds, "Worship
the Lord your God and serve him only" (Deut. 6:13).
3.
Testing God (Temple Jump): Satan urges Jesus to
throw himself from the temple to prove God's protection. Jesus replies,
"Do not put the Lord your God to the test" (Deut. 6:16).
·
The Outcome: Having failed, the devil leaves
until a more opportune time, and Jesus begins his ministry strengthened.
Connection
to the Season of Lent
·
40-Day Parallel: Lent mirrors the 40 days Jesus
spent in the wilderness, serving as a time for Christians to retreat, reflect,
and prepare themselves spiritually.
·
Preparation for Ministry: Just as Jesus prepared
for his mission, Lent is a time for Christians to renew their baptismal
identity and focus on their calling.
·
Overcoming Temptation: The season calls for
confronting personal temptations—pride, greed, and selfishness—through prayer,
fasting, and Scripture, just as Jesus did.
· Focus on God: It is a time to move away from worldly desires (the "desert" experience) and rely solely on God's word (https://www.google.com/search?q=how+is+Luke+4%3A1-3+and+lent+connected&rlz).
As we move forward in this season of
Lent on “The Path to the Empty Tomb” of Easter, may we train, equip, and become
more and more like Jesus. Happy Lent! Amen.
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