Luke 4 - Jesus' Forty Days

Presented to Stony Mountain Penitentiary 18 June 2007
Presented to 614 Regent Park, Warehouse Mission 12 March 2017
by Captain Michael Ramsay

I’ve really enjoyed living in Winnipeg the last couple of years. It was good getting to know all of you as well. In a week or so I’m getting out. I’m going to miss you guys but (you know what) I’m kind of happy to get out. I don’t know if you can relate to that at all.

I’ve been in Winnipeg for about 2 years now and I’ve been at the college that whole time where they tell me what to do, what to wear, when and where to go and, if I want to do anything different, I have to meet with my advisors, my workers, and have tons of paper work filled out. Many times, by the time I have jumped through all the hoops, it’s too late to do the programme that I wanted to do anyway. I don’t know if you would know what that is like. Oh wait? Maybe there are some similarities between us here.

All kidding aside, I know it’s not the same but I am still looking forward to being free. But to tell you the truth I’m a little nervous. I’ve made a lot of good friends here in Winnipeg. I’m going to miss you guys. I really am. I’ve liked coming here every Monday. I’ve even looked forward to it.
And I’m also a little nervous too because things have changed since I’ve been out on my own making decisions for myself. The world doesn’t stand still. But God is good He has been preparing me for my release into the world, just like He has with those of you who are getting out of here soon. God is getting us ready for our next stage in life.

Because of this I thought that it would be good to look at the part in the Bible where God is getting Jesus ready for the next part of his life, when he is about to start his full-time ministry. We read from Luke 4 earlier where the Holy Spirit leads Jesus into the desert for 40 days.
This is right when Jesus is released into ministry. And just before this happens – in 3 verse 21 – Jesus is baptised along with a bunch of other people and the HOLY SPIRIT, the Holy Spirit himself descends upon Him like a dove. And God says to him (verse 22) you are my Son, ‘you are my Son, the beloved; with you I am well pleased.’ Jesus is released and his dad, his father, God, is happy.

Now what happens as soon as he is released, the Holy Spirit descends upon Him and leads him into the desert to fast for 40 days… and then Jesus is tempted by the devil. Great. He gets released into ministry and winds up in the desert with no food and being tempted by the devil. Gee, thanks. And we think some of the guys that are going to meet us when we get out are bad …the devil himself shows up to meet Jesus.

Now, I just want to explain something here that is sort of an aside but is nonetheless important. Looking quickly at James 1:13, “No one, when tempted should say, ‘I am being tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one.”

The bad stuff that happens, the tempting here, it isn’t by God. He doesn’t do it. Take a look. The devil does it. Just like with Job. And also Jesus never gives into the thought of doing it. He never actual considers it (God cannot be tempted) but the devil does try to tempt him.

What God, the Holy Spirit, does is to lead him into the desert to fast; He gives Jesus a chance to prove Himself. And this is important also because of the symbolism of the other people that God has encouraged like this: there’s Elijah (1 Kings 19:4-8) and Moses, (Exodus 34:28; Deuteronomy 9:9) who fast for 40 days – Moses, when he gets the 10 commandments; Elijah after all the prophets of Baal have been killed; There is rain for forty days and nights when Noah is in the Ark after God frees him and, (cf. 1 Cor 10:1-10) the Israelites, as soon as they are released from captivity in Egypt, spend their first 40 years in the desert. And now God is giving this same opportunity to Jesus – and in the process letting everyone know that Jesus is at least the same calibre as these people - and we know he’s even more…

Jesus gets his forty days when he’s out. It is sort of like a halfway house, I would imagine – except without any food. He is released into ministry but he is still in the desert. It is here that the devil attacks him.

It will be exiting now that we are getting out into the real world again. You should have heard the cheering around the college when our release was announced! Wow. Having them say they trust us out there and that they were going to give us a church and more to be in charge of, I imagine, must have been like a successful parole hearing. Or a voice from heaven – we were stunned.

And when we get out, I imagine we’ll find the same thing that Jesus found when he was led into the dessert. At first it will be a little different than everyday life. We probably won’t have a full work routine or normal life just yet and we will be getting to know everyone and everything. The Lord, I’m sure, will give us a lot of time, if we use it, to spend in prayer and fasting.

But you know who strikes to try to take away our freedom? Satan - The Devil. The Holy Spirit will lead us out of here. He will. He will set us up; and who’ll attack? Who’ll attack? That’s right.
And here’s the thing. He attacks in a number of different ways. He’s not stupid. He knows where to get us. And he tries to tempt Jesus the same way he tries to get us. Jesus in his life faces every temptation that is common to people.

The first way the Devil tries to get Jesus is through a social temptation. How many of us have ever fallen prey to a social temptation? Jesus is hungry. He’s been fasting for forty days - remember. And, verse 3: “The devil said to him ‘if you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.’” Now in doing this the devil is saying a couple of things, 1) you call yourself the Son of God? I don’t believe you. Prove it. You’re hungry. Feed yourself. And 2) he also knows that Israel wasn’t the richest country in the world and there were starving people then (just like there are starving people now). If he is the Son of God, he should be able to take care of society, of people, of his friends, of his family, & of himself. Jesus, Satan says, feed yourself, if you care about people - if you can; turn this rock into bread, if you can (cf. John 6:26, 30-31).

The devil tries to tempt us the same way doesn’t he? You’re free. You go home or wherever. You’re doing well. You’re keeping clean. Your buddy calls you up. Hey can you run to the beer store for us? Or can you meet this guy and pick up some dope for us. You refuse and they accuse: What! you won’t even get that for us! I thought you were our friend. We’ll give you the money. If you really are our friend, just turn this “bread” into rock if you can.

But what does Jesus answer when the devil tries to tempt him? He answers by quoting the Bible. Good call. Good reason to keep reading the word too. Jesus doesn’t need to turn the rock into bread and he says, vs. 4, ‘man does not live by bread alone.’

(This is neat.) I wish you all had Bibles with you today. Jesus is quoting from Deuteronomy 8. This is right when Israel was finishing its forty years in the desert, just like Jesus is finishing his forty days in the dessert. God lets them be hungry (8:3) just like God lets Jesus be hungry but he took care of them. ‘Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ God will provide.

God will take care of Jesus. God took care of the Israelites, even though they were hungry. The Spirit who led him into the desert will do it. And so Jesus tells the devil: ‘Man does not live by bread alone (Deut 8:3).’

God and His Spirit that will lead you out of prison will take care of your friends too. He probably won’t get them their rock / But God will take care of them / and He will take care of you. Even if you are hungry; even if they are hungry; even if they are pressuring you to help them get crack; just tell them straight up that ‘man does not live by rock alone – um - bread alone.’ And, hey, God took care of the Israelites …so God can take care of you. There is no need to disregard God, to look after what your friends want (cf, Nolland, 179). God can take care of everyone.

The devil doesn’t give up so easy though. He tries first with the social temptation. He tries next with a political temptation: you can be great, he says, Luke 4:5-6, I will give you all of the power, all countries –all of the kingdoms- in the world. I will give you all this authority, “it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I please. If you then worship me it will be yours.”
This seems to be a pretty good offer. After all, the devil is right - sort of - he has been given authority on earth (John 12:30-32, 14:29-31, 16:11)– you don’t have to look so far with all the wars, violence, and starving people around (even though God has given us more than enough to solve all of these problems), You don’t have to look to far to see the trouble that we people are causing because the devil is the ‘prince of this world.’

In our passage, the devil is tempting Jesus with power. He is saying, look, just work for me, and you can be in charge of this world. You say you are the Messiah, the king of kings (cf. 1 Tim 6:15). You can have all the political power in the world, just come work for me.

You know what. We are going to face this temptation too. You may get out of here and be established. You may even begin talking to people about how God has cleaned you up and you’re clean and straight now. Someone might come up to you and make you an offer…work for me they’ll say…maybe they are into some bad things…maybe at first they aren’t asking you to do any of those things but are just saying, ‘look I got money. I got respect. I got authority. “Don’t follow God, work with me instead and you can have it too…” Does this temptation sound familiar? You know, I used to be a businessman myself, and I can tell you I faced this temptation more than once.

Well, what does Jesus do…just as God’s Spirit leads Jesus into the desert. He turns to God’s word and disarms the devil. He quotes scripture again. And –this is cool- he quotes from the same part of scripture when the Israelites are just finishing up their time in the desert (Deut 6: 13-15) that the Devil quoted earlier. He says, verse 8, ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’ This makes sense really if we think about it. Sure the devil has been given a certain amount of authority on earth, but it really is God who is the King of kings. Satan, is just a rebellious prince. He’s a bad manager while the boss is away. And you know what happens to a bad manager when the boss comes back…it isn’t good. And for those who are working for the guy who is undermining his boss… Jesus knows. Jesus knows that ultimately all authority on heaven and earth is really His anyway because he is God’s son.

We should know this too. God is real. His Spirit is getting us out of here and Jesus is coming back. And when he does, do you want to be working for a rebellious prince, a bad manager, or a dealer with a bad debt? …or would you rather be working for God! God is the real authority and Jesus is coming back. Don’t be tempted to serve anyone else or you’ll be back here sooner than you think, or worse.

The Devil doesn’t give up though. Jesus was led to the desert by the Spirit. He so far has been remaining in the Spirit and quoting Scripture. So you know what Satan does? He quotes scripture too. And he knows it pretty well. He takes Jesus to the top of the massive temple in Jerusalem and says –Verses 9 -11– “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you, and on their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone (Psalm 91:11-21).” Good point.

This is a religious temptation. The Devil quotes the Bible and it says that God’s angel will protect Him. Don’t worry, you’ll be okay. God will protect you. You’ll be fine.
How many times do we hear this in our lives: its just a white lie: you’ll be fine if you do this; you won’t go to hell. You’re just speeding, its not hurting anybody. Just one toke, God’s not going to cast you away for just one puff. Look no one really cares about that anyway. It says that God will never leave you nor forsake you. We all sin all the time anyway. These are tricks the devil can use to lead us astray and…

This is it. This is the culminating attempt at temptation and this is one lie that can get us all if we don’t rely heavily on God’s Spirit and God’s Scripture: ‘your not hurting anyone…and why bother? Since we all sin all the time anyway’.

It’s not true. We don’t need to sin so don’t believe it when you hear it. We don’t need to sin. We do need not to sin. Be holy (1 Peter 1:15, Lev 11:44,45; 19:2; 20:7). Be perfect (2 Cor. 13; Col. 1:28; Hebrews 11,12;). We can’t do it ourselves but…The Lord will help us. He will do it (1 Thess 5:23-24). We need to rely on God and on his scriptures like Jesus did. Turn to the Spirit who lets us endure any temptation. Its like Jesus says, quoting Deuteronomy again, ‘don’t put the Lord your God to the test’…don’t Sin! Don’t listen to Nike – JUST DO IT. Listen to God and Just DON’T do it!

So when the Holy Spirit released Jesus into His ministry, the devil tried tempting Jesus with everything he had. Jesus was in the Spirit, he relied on God and he relied on the Bible, and in so doing he resisted the devil and the devil fled from him. Like it says in James 1:12, ‘Blessed is anyone who endures temptation. Such a one has stood the test and will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.’

Don’t give up, remain in the spirit, even if you slip up, remain in the spirit and as you do you will find that you read the scriptures, trust in God, endure the temptations, and persevere. Remember what it said in Luke 4:13-14: ‘When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him –until an opportune time- Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee. And it will be the same with us.

Let us pray. This prayer for us from 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24, ‘May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you (us) through and through. May your (our) whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.’

So then, we need to remember when we leave here and are faced with temptations from the devil himself, to just remain in the Spirit, like Jesus and the devil will flee us -

God will take care of him.