Midweek Service after Lent 1

Jesse Jacobsen

Time-stamp: <Wed Feb 16 13:26:25 2005>
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Comfort in Temptation

``Lead us not into temptation,'' we pray in the sixth petition of the Lord's Prayer. We know already that God doesn't tempt anyone to sin. But He wants us to pray this, and it's a good thing to ask for. There are so many temptations in our lives already. We are like mariners in a stormy and dark sea. There are invisible rocks and shipwrecks in these waters, making navigation impossible. We need our God to light up the lighthouses. We need the best charts and instruments. We need a Pilot to guide our vessel through the narrow channels out to the safety of the open sea. So in the Lord's Prayer, we pray for God's forgiveness, but also for His help against all temptation.

We are tempted to sin constantly. If it doesn't seem to be so, then we have already become numb, and are drifting toward the perilous shore.

There are temptations to lie, and sometimes seemingly good reasons. The truth can hurt. It can hurt you, and it can hurt your neighbors. Avoiding the truth or lying can seem like a convenient way to avoid getting hurt, or hurting others. Yet we are not allowed to play one commandment off against another. If the truth hurts, it is our own fault, not the fault of the eighth commandment: You shall not bear false witness.

There are temptations to think that our personal comfort is more important than the good of our neighbor. Jesus said we should serve one another in love, not force our preferences upon one another so that our neigbors are deprived of the blessings God wants to give us all. Sinful pride is a terrible temptation. Instead, we should be humble in ourselves toward God's Word, and humble toward our neighbors. Even thinking that we can stop learning --- especially from the Holy Scriptures --- is another kind of sinful pride.

My point is that you don't need to be a murderer, an abortionist, a homosexual, or an apostate to be a sinner. And those are not the worst temptations we face. The worst temptations are the ones that lead you to sin --- even if the sin is hidden away in your private life. They may come from the tempter himself or one of his crew; from any of the people around us; or even from within. They may come from a combination of factors: the image or thought of another person may provoke a wicked heart to lust. The fear of rejection or mockery may lead a Christian, like Peter, to soft-pedal his faith instead of being the bold witness that our Lord would have us be.

We are overwhelmed with temptations every day. As Christians, we don't even know what they all are. We resist some, but we fail to resist others. The rocks below the restless waters bash and tear into the hull of our vessels, even when we don't know they are there. So what hope is there? Is there any comfort?

God wants to give us comfort as we face our daily temptations. If we open the eyes of faith that God has provided us, we will see that a light is piercing the dark night of our temptations. It's the light of the Gospel. We have forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ. So the very first thing we must do is repent of our sins, even the sins we don't know about. In fact that very thing is part of the Lord's Prayer. In that prayer, we repent of our sins before we ask for God's help in temptations. And every time we pray that prayer, we need to remember that we are laying our guilt before God in heaven.

The Gospel itself prompts us to do this, because it is God's promise of forgiveness through Jesus Christ. Jesus suffered and was crucified as our substitute. We are Barabbas, the convicted killer who was released so that Jesus could die in his place. Every time we repent, believing God's pronouncement of absolution, Barabbas is being freed once more. The chains of death are loosed, and we are completely pardoned for the sake of Jesus Christ. Every day of our lives should be a day of repentance before God, because every day is a day of sin.

So the first step in dealing with temptation is to repent of all past sins. Repentance is a posture before God, a posture of your mind and soul, and sometimes a posture of your body. We bow before the Lord to confess our sins. But when He pronounces us forgiven, God is saying to us, ``Rise, and stand before Me as one who is righteous. Do not be troubled by your guilt, because My Son Jesus Christ has taken it all away from you. It belongs to Him now.'' Only then can we think about resisting temptations successfully, because God sends His Spirit to us through that Word of absolution. That Spirit is the Pilot for our vessel, who can guide us by His Word of truth between the rocks and the shipwrecks toward the open sea.

Now, you know the beginning of repentance, and Who has taken your sins upon Himself. That's the other part of our text tonight. Jesus did not have to take the place of Barabbas, but He chose to go ahead with it. He suffered for you and me. The things He suffered are the things that we deserve. For every sin we commit, Jesus bled. For every time we fall to temptation, the dirt and stones beneath Him received a drop of His most holy blood. He did this gladly, but it did not diminish the terrible pain or the deep humiliation. How can we resist temptation? By remembering the price that our dear Lord Jesus paid for our sins.

Matthew 27:26--31



Then he released Barabbas to them; and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered Him to be crucified. Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole garrison around Him. And they stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him. When they had twisted a crown of thorns, they put it on His head, and a reed in His right hand. And they bowed the knee before Him and mocked Him, saying, ``Hail, King of the Jews!'' Then they spat on Him, and took the reed and struck Him on the head. And when they had mocked Him, they took the robe off Him, put His own clothes on Him, and led Him away to be crucified.
That, dear friends, is the price of your weakness to temptation. But it is also the kind of love that God has for you. There is no temptation you can fail and Jesus did not pay the price. He was humiliated, beaten, despised, pierced, and hung on a tree because of His great love for everyone here tonight. That's right, you are included. So know that God has freed you from the condemnation of your guilt. Barabbas has been released. But remember the price of your freedom --- not to make you feel guilty again, but to strengthen you against temptations tomorrow.

We have enough to keep us busy to repent of our sins and remember the passion and death of Jesus. In fact, a person could still grow weary in the fight. It takes a lot of focus to resist temptations to sin. So along with the Holy Spirit, God gives us His Word to hear, read, and study so that our faith in Christ Jesus will grow. He provides Baptism as the seal that we have been washed clean of all sin. He gives us Holy Communion as the ongoing food for spiritual strength. It is through these things that God builds up our faith against temptation, and provides forgiveness and healing when we have sinned.

So we do ask that God would lead us not into temptation. Without His help and guidance, or without His forgiveness, we would have perished long ago. But He is still with us, and still says to us, ``You are free to go.'' Your sins have been forgiven because of our Lord's suffering and death. Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria!

This document was translated from LATEX by HEVEA.