Date : First Sunday in Lent, February 21, 2010
Text : Luke 4:1-13
Title : Jesus: full of the Holy Spirit
"Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil."
As we begin Lent, we focus on the Lord Jesus defeating the devil. What we should notice, first, comes in the very first line. Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit.
God’s Word tells us that Jesus received the Holy Spirit "without measure." Of course, as God the Son, Jesus is in perfect harmony with the Holy Spirit. Therefore, He will only do that which the Holy Spirit would do, and they both would do only what God the Father would do.
Jesus, on the other hand, is also true man. As a real live human being, He faces the devil’s temptations exactly as you do. Thankfully, in His human nature, He knows no sin and, being full of the Holy Spirit, He will not fall for the devil’s deceptions.
You know the rest of the story. You know how the devil kept tempting, and Jesus kept fending Him off. You know how Jesus stopped Satan in his tempting tracks: each time, quoting the Word of God to the devil.
The devil tried to twist God’s Word into such a shape that he might trip up Jesus; that Jesus might wind up saying, "Oh, I never thought of it that way. I guess you’re right, after all, Lord Satan."
Didn’t happen. Wouldn’t happen, because Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit; because Jesus always is in perfect harmony with His Father. Thus, Jesus would always have the right view of each temptation. Jesus would never look for the selfish way out, for example, because He was hungry.
What an understatement. "And he ate nothing during those [forty] days. And when they were ended, he was hungry." Luke, the Gospel writer, will never be accused of exaggeration. Yeah, Jesus was hungry. He was famished. He was starved. The locusts, that John the Baptist ate, probably sounded like a Thanksgiving feast.
What will a man do when he is hungry; when he is to the point of craving? We know what Jesus did. But, remember, Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit, and He knew no sin.
What do you do when you are hungry; when you are to the point of craving? How well do you handle the cravings of life? When you have an itch, how far will you go to scratch it?
The reason the Lord was in the wilderness, facing the devil head-on, is because Adam was in the Garden, facing the devil head-on, and when the devil presented the very first itch, Adam scratched. Jesus was beginning the process of paying for Adam’s failure.
Where Adam had been made in God’s image, now all people would be made in Adam’s image—his sinful image. Now, we humans would be a people who are incessantly itching, and ceaselessly searching for the supreme scratch.
And, where we want to blame the devil for our undoing, it is the Lord Jesus who reminds us that it is from out of the heart that every evil comes: disobedience, murdering, adultery, stealing, lying, coveting, you name it.
Even the so-called strongest among us are prone. We like to put people up onto pedestals, but there is no human who is not prone to satisfying his itch in the wrong way. No one is full of the Holy Spirit, as is Jesus, without also being full of a sinful nature. We are full of something, all right: we are full of ourselves.
Last Thanksgiving, we were shocked when Tiger Woods’ world was shanked into the nasty sand trap of adultery. On Friday, he spoke for the first time. In his apology, he very humbly outlined what he is doing to change his ways. He reminded us that he was brought up in the Buddhist faith, and explained how he needed to utilize it: "Part of this for me is Buddhism. It teaches that craving for things outside ourselves causes an unhappy and pointless search for security, it teaches me to stop following every impulse and practice restraint.
"Did you catch how Buddhism teaches that it’s the craving for things outside ourselves, that is the problem? But, the Lord put the problem directly inside ourselves—right in our hearts. Which is it?
Tiger Woods’ itch was not the attractive women, who threw themselves at him. The itch that he was scratching was his own: his desire, his ego, his pride, his arrogance, his lack of fully loving his wife and children.
It’s the same problem that you have. Don’t ever blame your spouse for you not treating her or him with the utmost love and respect, or the bottle for your getting drunk, or the person you don’t like for your lying about him, or the IRS for your cheating on your taxes, or the casino for taking your money. It is from out of your own heart that you scratch these itches.
Why was it that the Lord Jesus perfectly used the Word of God as the salve to calm each of the devil’s itches? Of course, it was because Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit, with no sin in Him to squelch the voice of the Holy Spirit.
But, wait. Aren’t you also full of the Holy Spirit? When God brought you to faith, wasn’t it the Holy Spirit who worked that faith in you? Isn’t it correct, what that Bible verse says, that no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit?
Since you folks profess Jesus to be Lord, it is evidence that you possess the Holy Spirit. Thus, all of the blessed truths of today’s epistle are true for you:
"If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."
"Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame."
"Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
You have been baptized into God’s promise to give you His Holy Spirit. You receive the forgiveness of sins, through the proclamation of the Word of God, which was written by the Holy Spirit for your eternal life and salvation. It is the Holy Spirit, who moves you to the Lord’s altar, where you receive the body and blood of the Lord Jesus, who is full of the Holy Spirit.
You are, indeed, full of the Holy Spirit. You have the ability to fend off the devil, just as Jesus did, by quoting and relying on the Word of God. But, your itches don’t begin outside of yourself; the devil is not your chief concern. You are your chief concern.
Your sinful nature contends with your Spirit nature. Your sinful nature keeps you from being truly full of the Holy Spirit.
Tiger Woods’ religion teaches him to look deeper into his heart for the salve to calm his itchy cravings. That’s so sad, because you know that God’s Word is true, that the deeper you look into your own heart, the more you see how badly you want what it is you are craving.
Therefore, dear Christians, this Lenten season focuses you outside of yourself; outside of your sinful heart. The Holy Spirit, who does, indeed, live and work in you, turns your hearts and eyes and mind to Jesus Christ, the author and perfecter of your faith who, for the joy set before Him, defeated the devil—from the temptations in the wilderness, where He was hungry, right up through His being nailed to the cross, where he was thirsty.
Jesus is perfect in the Holy Spirit. He is perfect to defeat the devil, whom you cannot. He is perfect to put to death your sinful nature. By looking outside of yourself—by looking to Jesus, you, through faith, defeat all which is evil; all which would turn you away from your heavenly Father. "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." Amen.