The timeless temptation to value something other than God as being of supreme value...

At the church where I serve, we have been spending our time together in a sermon series entitled Tempted. We launched into this series by asking the question “What is temptation?” We discovered that temptation, simply put, is an enticement towards evil. Temptation is an enticement to take a God-given desire beyond God-given design in a way that results in us rebelling against God’s design.

After discovering the definition of temptation, we tackled the second question, which is “Where does temptation come from?” We discovered that the temptations that entice us to evil come from our own selfish desires. However, while the temptations that entice us toward evil come from our own selfish desires, there are external circumstances or forces that provoke those internal desires.

We discovered that there are three differing worldviews that come from the world system that sets themselves in opposition to God and compete for our devotion that attempt to arouse and provoke our selfish and rebellious desires apart from God through pleasure, possessions, and prideful position. We discovered that these desires are provoked by the world system that sets itself in opposition to God and His kingdom mission, and that is led by the Devil.

And it is the Devil, who is often described in the Bible as the tempter, who will attempt to expose our own selfish desires for pleasure, possessions, or prideful position in a way that results in those selfish desires dragging us toward evil and away from God.  The Devil will attempt to expose anyone at anytime to the selfish desires that dwell within them. No one is off limits. Not even Jesus was off limits. We began to look at an event from history from an account of Jesus life in the Bible called the gospel of Matthew, where the Devil attempted to tempt Jesus toward evil and away from God.

We looked on as the Devil called Jesus to satisfy His physical needs and desires through His own supernatural means and power and discovered that we are able to overcome the temptation towards autonomy when we invest in close community. We looked on as the Devil attempted to tempt Jesus toward evil and away from God by doing the spectacular in order to garner the approval and applause of others and discovered that we are able to overcome the temptation towards popularity and individuality when we selfless serve others in community with others.

However, while Jesus provided us a timeless example of how to overcome these temptations, the Devil was not finished when it came to his attempts to entice Jesus toward evil and away from God.

And this week we will see the Devil reveal another timeless temptation that we all face as we live out our life here on earth, along with a timeless principle that enables us to overcome temptation.  So let’s jump back into this event from history, together, beginning in Matthew 4:8:

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 things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me."

Matthew brings us back into this event from history by explaining that after failing to entice Jesus toward evil and away from God by doing the spectacular in order to gain applause, approval and popularity, the Devil took Jesus to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world. Now, a natural question that could arise here is “Well Dave, did the Devil really take Jesus and have Jesus physically stand on a top of a mountain so that He could see the entire earth? I mean that is impossible; there is no way that you could see all the kingdoms of the earth from any one location on the earth. Or was this just a vision that Jesus had?”

Most likely, this transportation was visual, not physical. In other words, the Devil transported Jesus in a vision to a location and placed all the kingdoms of the earth below Him where He could see their glory, their greatness, and their splendor. Upon positioning Jesus where He could see the greatness and splendor of these earthly kingdoms, the Devil then made an enticing offer to Jesus: "All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me."

In other words, the Devil was offering Jesus the right to be in command and control over the entire earth. The Devil was offering Jesus the position to rule and reign over all the earth. All Jesus had to do in exchange for such command and control was to fall down and worship the Devil. What is interesting here is that the phrase fall down, in the language that this letter was originally written in, literally means to throw oneself down as a sign of devotion to someone or something. In addition, the word worship here involves the concept of expressing an attitude or gesture of one’s complete dependence on or submission to a higher authority figure.

You see, worship simply put, is a life that is lived in response to what we value most. By offering Jesus the opportunity to have command and control over all the earth in exchange for worshipping him, the Devil was enticing Jesus to value him supremely instead of valuing God the Father supremely. The Devil was enticing Jesus to place him as the object of His devotion instead of placing God the Father as the object of His devotion. The Devil was enticing Jesus to express His submission and dependence to the Devil instead of to God the Father.

Now here is a question to consider: Is this not the exact same temptation that we face? Are we not tempted to value something other than God as being of supreme value in our lives? Are we not enticed by a desire to place something other than God as the object of our ultimate devotion in life? Are we not tempted by the desire to live our lives in submission and dependence to something other than God as God?

Now if you do not think that this is a temptation that we all face, let me ask you a couple of questions: Where do you leverage your time, your affection, your energy, and your loyalty? What do you view as being of supreme value when it comes to where you spend your time, your talents, and your treasure? Because that is what you worship. And regardless of what we say, our worship is more about what we do than what we say. Often what we say we worship is betrayed by what we actually worship with our time, talent, and treasure.

Remember, temptation entices us to take a God-given desire beyond God-given design in a way that results in us rebelling against God’s design. Thus, we can often be enticed to take a good, God-given thing and make it a supreme thing that becomes the object of our worship instead of God. You see, we are all tempted to value something other than God as being of supreme value in our lives. We are all enticed by a desire to place something other than God as the object of our ultimate devotion in life. We are all enticed by the desire to live our lives in submission and dependence to something other than God as God.

The question is not whether or not you will worship, the question is who or what will you worship because we all have been wired for worship. We see Jesus reveal this reality in His response to the enticement of the Devil to worship him. So let’s look at Jesus response together, in Matthew 4:10:

 Then Jesus said to him, "Go, Satan! For it is written, 'YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND SERVE HIM ONLY.'" Then the devil left Him; and behold, angels came and began to minister to Him.

Here we see Jesus respond to the enticement of the devil to value him supremely instead of valuing God the Father supremely by commanding the Devil to go away from Him. Jesus then provided the reason behind His command to the Devil by quoting from two sections of a letter that is recorded for us in the Old Testament of the Bible called the book of Deuteronomy.

 In Deuteronomy 6:13, we see Moses, who was the leader that God used to deliver the Jewish people from slavery at the hands of the nation of Egypt, command the Jewish people to value the Lord supremely and not be enticed to instead value supremely the false gods of the nations of the land the Lord had promised to give the Jewish people. Moses reminded the Jewish people that the Lord was a jealous God that desired, deserved and demanded their worship.

In Deuteronomy 10:20 Moses commanded the Jewish people serve the Lord as a demonstration of their devotion to the Lord as being of supreme value in their lives. You see, Jesus recognized and acknowledged the reality that there is no other being that was to be of supreme value. And because of that reality, Jesus commanded the Devil to depart from Him.

What is so interesting is that in another account of Jesus life that is recorded for us in the Bible called the gospel of Luke, Luke adds the additional detail that the devil left Jesus until an opportune time. In other words, the devil departed Jesus but still kept his eyes on Jesus, waiting for the right opportunity to attempt to entice Jesus toward evil and away from God. So the devil waited. And the devil waited. The devil waited until a Thursday evening when Jesus and His disciples gathered together in Jerusalem to celebrate the Jewish feat of Passover.

However, while the devil waited, the devil was not idle. The devil enticed more and more self righteous religious leaders to place themselves in opposition to Jesus. And the devil enticed one of Jesus closest followers, a man named Judas, to betray Jesus. You see, Judas was looking for a political revolutionary, but that was not what Jesus was offering. And Judas had sticky fingers; Judas was consistently extorting money from Jesus ministry budget to grow his bottom line. Judas never truly trusted and followed Jesus for what He was offering and asking. Judas tagged along for what he wanted to get from Jesus.

And when that did not happen, the devil was right there to seize the opportunity to entice Judas towards evil. As a result of the devil enticing Judas towards the selfishness that was already within him, Judas betrayed Jesus and led a group of self righteous religious leaders to the place where they could arrest Jesus.

However, the devil was not finished when it came to his desire to entice others toward evil and away from God. The devil then turned his attention to the rest of Jesus closest followers. After celebrating the Passover meal, after proclaiming to the disciples that one of them would betray Him; after addressing an argument that the disciples were having when it came to who would be known as the greatest disciple by teaching them that one who would be greatest must become like a servant; Jesus turned to His closest followers and made a profound statement that would change the tone of the entire evening.

A statement that we will look at tomorrow...