Sermons - from Bethel Church, Northwich, Cheshire
Gordon Wright 19th August 2007 "The temptation of Jesus"
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Good morning and welcome to Bethel Church. We are pleased to have Gordon Wright as our guest speaker this morning and he will be preaching on temptation using scripture from Luke 4 (p.1030) “The Temptation of Jesus”. The devil, who tempted Adam and Eve in the garden, also tempted Jesus in the desert.
Satan is not a symbol or an idea – he is a real being, a created but rebellious fallen angel who constantly fights against God and those who follow and obey God. Knowing and obeying God’s word is the only offensive weapon against temptation, provided in the Christian’s armour (Ephesians 6:17 (p.1177)). Temptation is part of the human experience, so for Jesus to be fully human and understand us completely, he had to face temptation (Hebrews 4:15 (p.1203)). Also Jesus had to undo Adam’s work. Adam, though created perfect, gave in to temptation and passed sin on to the whole human race. Luke portrays Jesus deftly refuting the devil each time with a quotation from Scripture.
“Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.”