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This Week's Sermon THE FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT 01 March 2009 "Temptation Overcome" Mark 1:9-15 LSB Series B Vicar Gerald D. Heinecke Soli Deo Gloria!

A wonderful Gospel message! A mighty fortress is our God, a trusty shield and weapon....But for us fights the valiant One, whom God Himself elected. Ask ye, who is this? Jesus Christ it is....This World's prince may still scowl fierce as he will. He can harm us none....Our victory has been won; the kingdom ours remaineth.

This song would make a great a sermon all by itself but it fits well with our text today as well. We have entered a new church season. The colors of the paraments have changed to purple. The alleluias are removed from the liturgy until Easter. The liturgy and music, while still proclaiming law and gospel, have now taken on a less festive tone. This is all a reminder of what this season means. Lent is a reflective, penitential season. To be penitent means to be truly sorry for having sinned and done wrong. This does not mean being sorry for being caught but sorry for having committed the sin. It implies having contrition, a deep sorrow for sin, and repentance, the desire to have your sins forgiven and change your ways.

Lent is a reminder of what Jesus did for us. With this new season we have an excellent text to sum up what Jesus did for us. It's an action packed text where we find baptism, temptation, and proclamation. These sound like three separate sermons. They are, and while all three are completely different, in Lent they jive together perfectly. Baptism and Jesus' first proclamation are wound tightly around the temptation.

The Gospel lesson starts with Jesus' Baptism because it's an important part of his overcoming the temptation of the Devil. Jesus was baptized in order to have the Holy Spirit work with him as a full participant in his humiliation and exaltation. The Holy Spirit descends and remains with Jesus as John 1:33 reminds us. It's through the Spirit that Jesus is equipped to deal with Satan and it's by the Spirit that Jesus is led out to the desert. In Jesus' death he gives us the Spirit as we see in John 19:30. (Scaer, David P. Baptism. Confessional Lutheran Dogmatics, Vol XI, Pg. 105.)

We hear we have been baptized into Christ. How's that possible? It's possible because Christ was baptized for us. Dr. Scaer, a Fort Wayne seminary professor notes, "In John's baptism of Jesus, the entire church was baptized with him and receives the Spirit. We are reminded of this in Luther's flood prayer where Luther attaches the church's redemption to Jesus' baptism. Who through the baptism of thy dear Child, our Lord Jesus Christ, has consecrated and set apart the Jordan and all water as a salutary flood and a rich and full washing away of sins." (Pg. 105) His death defines baptism as a death to sin and a daily rebirth in Him who was raised from the dead. Baptism comes from the cross and brings the baptized to the cross.

In Jesus' baptism he did take our sin upon himself. It's an amazing feat to take all our sins and then pay the price for all those horrific deeds by dying on the cross. John's baptism of Jesus is not symbolic, for Jesus submitted himself to it and by it assumed the burden of the world, as John proclaims in John 1:36, "Behold, the lamb of God." In this baptism Jesus appeared as a sinner among real sinners and pointed to His death as the one baptism in which all sins were absorbed. (Pg. 44)

In Baptism he does two amazing things. He takes our sins upon himself and is also equipped to combat the devil by taking on the Holy Spirit. Jesus baptism is an acceptance to carrying out God's plan of righteousness. (pg. 75) And he enteres the wilderness to be tempted.

He goes out to be tempted by none other than the Devil himself. And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan, we learn in Mark 1:13. If you were to go to Matthew 4 or Luke 4 you would see this temptation in its fullness. What we need to be concerned with today is the why of the temptation.

At first glance the three readings for today seem contradictory. The Old Testament lesson is the attempted sacrifice of Isaac. Here we see clearly God tempting Abraham. In the epistle lesson James says, "Let no one say when he is tempted, 'I am being tempted by God,' for God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one." Just when you think that things couldn't get any muddier, we see Jesus, true God, begotten of the Father from all eternity being tempted. God tempts Abraham. God tempts no one. God cannot be tempted. Jesus who is God is tempted. Wow! How does all of this work itself out?

Luther helps clear up the misunderstanding of Abraham's temptation. He uses Deut 13:1 to help, "If a prophet arises among you, or a dreamer of dreams, etc., you shall not listen; for the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you love Him with all your heart and with all your soul."

These are not the words of an angry judge, but they are fatherly words which say: "I have given you My Word, that you may accept it with a tranquil heart, etc.; but I shall send false apostles and test you, whether you are willing to love Me and My Word in earnest." Thus a father takes an apple away from his boy under some pretense not because he wants to deprive him of it but merely to make a test whether his son loves him and believes that his father will give it back. If the son gladly gives up the apple, the father is pleased with his son's obedience and love.

Thus God's testing is a fatherly one, for James says in his letter (1:13): "God is not a tempter for evil"; that is, He does not test in order that we may fear and hate Him like a tyrant but to the end that He may exercise and stir up faith and love in us. (Luther's Works, Vol 4, pg. 131)

God, the Father, is not a tempter to evil. Rather he has tested Abraham and tests us to exercise and stir up faith and love in us. "It is the Devil, Satan, who tempts for evil," says Luther, "in order to draw you away from God and to make you distrust and blaspheme God." (Luther's Works Vol 4, Pg 132).

The problem that God cannot be tempted is easily solved. Jesus as true God, is also confessed as who? He is true man. Remember the 2nd article. Jesus as true Man born of the virgin Mary is fully capable of being tempted. He is the New Adam. He is perfect, just as Adam was perfect before the fall and must be able to resist the temptation Adam could not.

So what we learn in the sixth petition of the Our Father is true. When we pray, Lead us not into temptation. We ask what does this mean? God tempts no one. We pray in this petition that God would guard and keep us so that the devil, the world, and our sinful nature may not deceive us or mislead us into false belief, despair, and other great shame and vice. Although we are attacked by these things, we pray that we may finally overcome them and win the victory.

Jesus is tempted with the greatest of temptations: the desire for food, to tempt God to prove who he is, and the ultimate temptation, power. The Devil's goal is to use the Word of God against Jesus but the Devil fails miserably. After this great temptation Jesus comes into Galilee, "proclaiming the gospel of God and saying, The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe the gospel."

Victory! Jesus has overcome the great temptation of the devil and the world. That obviously does not mean that temptations are finished. We are still constantly assailed by the Devil and his minions. We are led into false belief, despair, and other great shame and sinful behavior. What does Jesus victory over temptation then mean for us?

This is the gospel! Jesus had to face the temptation of the devil for us. He had to overcome what the first Adam could not, and satisfy the law on our behalf. That is what is meant by the time is fulfilled. The perfect man, Jesus Christ, overcame temptation. The gospels are packed with fulfillment. The keeping of the Law had to be accomplished. Since we are incapable of it, it is Jesus who has done it for us.

Jesus' success lives in us today. His work applies to you and I right now. He is the complete accomplishment of all we need. When we look back at the sixth petition we again ask that we may finally overcome them and win the victory. And we do! Not by what we do but by what Christ has done for us!

Through our Baptism, we are baptized into Christ. He has taken our sins upon himself, removing them from us. We daily remember our baptism as we confess our sins. It is the blessing of confession and absolution to know that each of our sins is indeed removed and has been paid for on the cross. The cross that we now see Jesus marching towards this Lenten season. He goes as a sheep to the slaughter, ready to die for us that we might live. He has given us his body and blood in that once and for all sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins. It is with joy that we receive this precious gift at his table.

The kingdom of God is still at hand. As each day goes by the kingdom of God draws closer. It's a reminder not only for us to continually repent and believe the Gospel but of the need to continue the mission of the church. There are many who have fallen from the faith because of false belief, despair, and other great shame and sinful desire. Look around. Who no longer faithfully come to the Divine Service? You know who they are. The mission of the church begins here. Invite your friends and family to hear the Word of God in order that they may repent and believe the Gospel.

Baptized, and tempted, our Savior has overcome Satan. A mighty fortress is our God. Jesus Christ has fulfilled all things on our behalf. We have the precious gift of Jesus who has taken on all our sins in baptism; who has overcome temptation on our behalf. Jesus Christ it is! It is through him that we know that the Law has been fulfilled! We have been given the gracious gift of salvation handed to us through the Word. Through Christ's work the temptation has been overcome. Our victory has been won; the kingdom ours remaineth.