Jesus Succeeded Where we Fail!

1st Sunday in Lent, 2/21/10
Luke 4:1-13


Jesus Succeeded Where We Fail!
I. He perfectly trusted his Father’s providence.
II. He perfectly trusted his Father’s will.
III. He perfectly trusted his Father’s faithfulness.


The other day I saw the title of an article that caught my attention. It read, “Why some succeed where others fail.” The article began by stating what we often experience in life—that success comes when we take an opportunity and work hard. Sounds pretty simple, right?

But this author didn’t agree. First he asked, “What do you mean by success?” He followed that one with, “What do you mean by opportunity?” And his third question was, “What do you mean by work?” That was as far as I read. I couldn’t tell if the author was trying to get me to lower my standards of what I considered to be work, opportunity and success and thus feel better about myself, or to be more lenient when dealing with what I consider to be the failures of others. Maybe when the muddy waters of personal opinion clear a little, I’ll pick the article up again and try to read it to its conclusion.

Reading that small portion of that article did make me appreciate once again that you and I don’t have to go through the muddy process of redefinition when it comes to our relationship with our God. He has set the standard, and it’s extremely high. Jesus said, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt. 5:48). Success in our relationship with God as God defines success means perfectly resisting all of Satan’s temptations.

So, how’s that going for you? Have you spent a day, even an hour, successfully resisting temptation? Honestly? None of us do.

But that’s where our Savior comes in. We often mention how Jesus served us as our Savior by dying for us on Calvary’s cross. And that’s true. But he was also serving as our Savior for the rest of his life on this earth by winning the daily victory over Satan’s temptations.

We see him at that work in Luke’s account of the temptation of Jesus. And one of the many comforting truths that this account shares with us is that Jesus succeeded where we fail. By faith in him, his victory becomes our victory. May his victory empower us as we daily battle with Satan’s temptations.

Part I.

Jesus wasn’t exaggerating when he referred to Satan as the father of lies. He was the first to lie and he’s the foremost expert at it. One of the things that make his lies so believable is that they sound harmless at first and, when we consider them briefly, they actually sound beneficial. Doing things his way sounds like the way to go.

The first temptation that Luke lists seems rather harmless. Satan tells Jesus, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread.” It sounds like no big deal. They’re just stones that belong to no one else. And he’s asking Jesus to turn them into bread— something useful, not harmful.

In fact, food was one of the things Jesus needed most at that very moment. Luke informs us that Jesus was in the desert for 40 days being tempted by the devil and he ate nothing during that time. It’s almost an understatement when Luke adds, “And at the end [of the 40 days] he was hungry.” No kidding. We might even say that this was no temptation from Satan; it was common sense for him to feed himself.

But such an idea fails to see that during those 40 days Jesus was being sustained by his heavenly Father. It was the Father’s will that Jesus face this assault from Satan at the beginning of his ministry. Likewise it was the Father’s plan to sustain Jesus physically throughout this ordeal even though Jesus ate nothing. A miracle was involved here—not a miracle that filled Jesus’ hunger pains, but a miracle that sustained him at the level his Father deemed best.

If Jesus had turned those stones into bread without the approval of his heavenly Father would have violated his trust in his Father’s providence. His Father was allowing him to experience now what he would need to do throughout his work as our Savior—that his Father would sustain him in any and every situation. Jesus knew that bread was not really what kept him alive; it was the providence of his heavenly Father.

And thus Jesus declared, “Man does not live on bread alone.” He succeeded where we fail. He trusted his Father’s providence.

At first it might be difficult for us to identify with this temptation. After all, even if we were hungry, we can’t turn stones into bread or pancakes or cupcakes or anything else. But remember that eating bread at this point was not the real issue. The real issue was trusting in his Father’s providence or failing to trust that providence. Now that’s something we can identify with. Luke tells us that Jesus was hungry, but we don’t hear that he complained. Luke tells us that Jesus was hungry, but we don’t hear that he was worried about where his next meal would come from or when. Failure to trust the Father’s providence results in discontent and worry, and we know discontent and worry. Hardly a day passes that we aren’t bothered by discontent. We believe Satan’s lie that if we just had that one more thing, we’d be truly happy. And worry is our second nature. If we can’t see right away how the Lord is going to work things out for us, then we feel we have a right to worry. But not Jesus. He succeeded where we fail. He defeated Satan on every front, including this one perfectly to trust his Father’s providence. In doing so, he defeated Satan for us.

Part II.

If the first temptation didn’t seem like much of a temptation, it’s likely you felt the same about the second. The devil takes Jesus to a high place and in an instant shows him all the kingdoms of the world and tells him, “I’ll give it all to you if you’ll bow down and worship me.” In fact, he makes the claim that it’s all been given to him and it’s his to do with as he pleases. Even our children know the truth that God owns all things, not Satan. Jesus knew this truth as well. So why was this any kind of temptation for Jesus?

First, what Satan was really offering Jesus was power and dominion, the right to rule over all things for all time. We rightly say that Jesus now possesses that. He now rules over all things.

But the point is how he attained that position. You’ll recall that the Father gave him the rule over all things after he suffered and died and rose again. By virtue of the fact that Jesus had conquered sin and death and hell by his life, death and resurrection, Jesus rightly claimed the rule and authority over all things.

What Satan was offering Jesus here was a shortcut of sorts. Satan knew where Jesus was headed—to death on Calvary’s cross. And he tried with all his might to prevent him from going there, knowing that his death would end Satan’s claim on every sinful soul. So he offered Jesus all the glory with none of the pain. Just bow down and worship me, Jesus, and I’ll gladly give it all to you. But Jesus knew that eternal rule wasn’t Satan’s to give and bowing to him would not bring him eternal glory, but eternal shame.

Jesus succeeded where we fail. He trusted his Father’s will.

In spite of how Jesus defeated this attack of Satan, Satan still uses it on us. Daily he entices us to bow to him and his will and he’ll give us what we want. Do things his way, not God’s way, and we can have it all. But sin never brings happiness, only frustration, guilt and shame. We’re just too weak to realize it. But not our Victor, Jesus! He saw through every lie of Satan and defeated every temptation for us. And then he obeyed his Father’s will and went to the cross for us, knowing that his death would bring eternal glory to us and to him. Jesus succeeded where we fail. Thank God that he perfectly trusted his Father’s will!

Part III.

In the third temptation before us, you have to give Satan credit for his ingenuity, but he was still no match for our Savior, the Son of God.

In this third temptation he tries to make the word of God say something that it doesn’t say. He takes a passage from Scripture and quotes it to Jesus and then creates a situation which seems to apply. He tells Jesus to throw himself down from the temple because God has promised that he will send his angels to protect us so that we will not strike our feet against a stone.

In effect, Satan was saying, “Here’s God’s promise to you, especially you, since you are God’s Son. Let’s see if your Father will do what he promises to do.” In other
words, is God faithful or not?

Jesus saw through the temptation in an instant. Just because God has made a promise to protect us doesn’t mean we can place ourselves in harm’s way. For instance, God doesn’t promise to keep us safe if we throw ourselves in front of a speeding freight train. He doesn’t promise to protect us if we drive our vehicles excessively fast for the road conditions. To do so would be to test God, not trust him. And with one punch Jesus knocked Satan to the ground one final time.

Did you notice something about the way Jesus dealt with every temptation? He quoted Scripture. He used God’s word as the sword of the Spirit, his weapon against Satan’s attacks. The minute Satan attacked with his temptation Jesus countered with the appropriate verse from God’s word. And Satan was no match. He had to back down when faced with the power of God’s word.

You and I have that same word of God. That same sword of the Spirit is in our hearts and minds to use against Satan’s assaults on our faith. Yes, it’s true that Jesus succeeded where we fail, but it’s also true that Jesus gives us his power to succeed as well when tempted by Satan. So, confront Satan and his temptations, and with the power of Christ overcome them! Amen.