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“Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Matthew 26:41)
A few years back, I watched the movie “The Mask of Zorro” on the CD player and first I must say that it was a very entertaining movie. In one scene, when Antonio Banderas who played the part of Alejandro Murrieta, Zorro’s student Zorro had learned to be noble in the art of being graceful. When he met the movie protagonist, he presented himself as a noble from Spain who was looking for an opportunity. Not that my thoughts reference the movie’s plot, I supposed that most in this world are looking for an opportunity. As I read some scripture this morning, Luke 4:1-13, the word opportune popped out in my mind.
This passage in Luke speaks of the time right after the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist. We recall that the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus at His baptism in the Jordan River. After His baptism, the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness where He fasted for forty days in communion with His Father. “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness.” (Luke 4:1) It is mentionable to see that being led by the Spirit of God does not always keep Satan from tempting us away from the Word and Will of God.
The verse goes on to say that in those forty days, Jesus was being tempted by the Devil. Now we know of the three temptations, as they are recorded in the Scripture, but I suspect that there was a time of temptation throughout the forty days. A little temptation here and there, but at the weakest of Jesus’ suffering, Satan tempted Him to make bread out of stones when He was the hungriest. Myself, I would have fallen for that temptation if it was lunchtime and I had not eaten since breakfast. Jesus had endured forty days without nourishment.
Satan went on to tempt Jesus two more times, and like as with the first temptation, Jesus gained victory over Satan’s temptations with the Word of God. Satan knows and respects the power of God’s Word as he had lived under the Word for an eternity before this moment in time. Satan then realized that he was not going to tempt Jesus out of His focus on the Word and Will of God the Father, and in verse 13, we read, “When the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time.” (Luke 4:13)
I know of no other temptations recorded in the Bible of Jesus other than the three in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, but there may have been other times of Satan trying to tempt Jesus that are not recorded. We do know that Jesus was having a challenging time in the Garden of Gethsemane the evening of His crucifixion. He was on the mount, praying fervently to the Father. In the prayer time, I think He stepped back from His mission, His goal to do the will of the Father, and asked if it be His Father’s will to remove the cup of suffering from Him. Of course, we do not know the other side of the conversation, but it is obvious that there was no other way but for Jesus to go to the cross. Jesus, in His selfless humility, said, “Not My will, but yours be done.” “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.” (Luke 22:42)
Jesus was entirely God, and He was fully man. As a man, He had to endure the same struggle with Satan’s temptations that we as people do. But the lesson of this scripture passage is that there are two needed things to defeat Satan who comes to devour humanity’s souls. Jesus defeated Satan in the wilderness by the power of God’s Word, which even Satan has to obey. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus won the victory by remaining in the Will of the Father. We also learn that Satan is going to and fro through the earth, searching for an opportune time. “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8)
Jesus came to us here in this world from His Kingdom in Heaven, and He came here to abide with us as a man and show us the way to overcome the world that we live in with all its evil attractions and the temptations of the evil one. When Jesus offered His call to His disciples, the twelve and those of us who follow Jesus, He said, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.” (Luke 9:23)
Satan is looking for the opportune time to distract us by his temptations to enter into the broad path. We must learn not to give Satan an opportune time. Many theological people define what it means to take up your cross. Some say that it is a cross of service, a cross of sacrifice, a cross of giving our talent, time, and treasure for the advancement of His Kingdom. Our cross may be the loss of our life here in this world for His sake. I agree with most of the definitions made for the meaning as they all boil down to this. The Cross that we must carry is the willingness to have the Word of God written on the tablet of our heart and mean it when we pray thy Will to be done here as it is in Heaven. Are we studying His Word daily? Are we walking by the Spirit only? I tell you that I have to ask those questions of myself each day.
When we take up our cross and follow Jesus, we live by His Word and walk in His Will for us? When I pray thy will be dome, the first question I ask myself is, am I in His Will every moment? Am I equipped with the Sword of the Spirit to defeat the attacks of Satan? Am I living as a citizen of the world or a citizen of the Kingdom of God? “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 3:20)
When we can answer these questions in the affirmative, we are not giving Satan an opportune time to attack us. When we set down our cross, we open the door for Satan to have an opportune time to devour us. The purpose of this thought is that Jesus gave us some good advice, actually perfect advice. He created us and therefore knows us intimately from the first cell to the complete person, from our first emotion to our last, and from our first thought on forward. He knows how to deal with every attack, every flaming dart, and every deceitful word that Satan can offer to us. We are to watch, watch others, and watch what events are happening around us, but to watch ourselves and test ourselves to know that we are in the will of the Father. We, the willing, still have this sin-nature we are battling. “Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Matthew 26:41)
We are running a race in time, a mission that is His mission we have been given to do for His glory. It is not ours to accomplish alone. He is in us, and we are in Him to do the good work that He has pre-planned from the beginning. Even in the coldest, darkest night, or loneliest moment in time, we are not alone as our Lord is with us always even to the end of the age and for all of eternity. “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20)
Thomas N Kirkpatrick
First Baptist Church of Durant, October 16, 2018
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