Yesterday, I preached on how Jesus Christ faced and utterly defeated the temptations of the devil at the beginning of His ministry (Matthew 4:1-11), showing us that He is the true and better Adam Who came to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8), and finally kick the devil out of the world as the first Adam should have done. Jesus is also the true and better Israel Who is God's Son and was called out of Egypt, baptized, and then tested in the wilderness. But unlike Israel, Jesus Christ conquered and won the victory.
Yes, the devil is still roaming around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8), but as Christians, we know a much bigger, greater, and stronger Lion! Jesus is the Lion of the tribe of Judah Who defeated the devil in the wilderness, and He defeated the devil when He lived a perfectly righteous life, died on the cross for sinners, and rose from the dead! Hallelujah! What a Savior!
In my sermon, I tried to speak to the situation in our world today. Here is my attempt in the introduction:
In these verses we see Jesus being tempted by the devil. What does this have to do with what is going on in our world and the country in which we live right now? It has everything to with what's going on today!The devil is still tempting wicked people to use their God-ordained authority in an unjust, evil way, which results in murder, death, and abuse like in the murder of George Floyd and others like him.The devil is still tempting wicked people to hate one another because of the color of their skin.The devil is still tempting wicked people to violently attack one another, destroy businesses, grocery stores, and other buildings and steal things that don't belong to them.The devil is still tempting wicked people to rebel against good and righteous and biblical authority.The devil is still tempting Christians to be divided and hate one another because of ethnic differences, political differences, and all kinds of other differences.The devil is still tempting Christians to be divided and hate one another because of differences on how to handle Covid-19.Yes, the world and the flesh are also involved in these sins, but the devil is alive and working, roaming around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. And we need to be ready!Our hope is that we have a great Champion Who came to destroy the works of the devil! He is our Savior! And He is our example! And today we see Him crush the devil and his temptations!
Beloved, keep looking to your great conquering Champion, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's our King! And only He can save and change the world and grant the justice, peace, grace, mercy, and love that we all desire.
