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THE FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT March 9, 2025 Pastor Tom Steers Christ the Saviour Lutheran Church, Toronto Brothers & sisters, peace, grace, and mercy be to you through God our Father, and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen. Our Opening Hymn is: “O Lord, Throughout These Forty Days” Lutheran Service Book, 418 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoLSntYTNbw The Invocation Confession and Absolution – Page 184 The Introit – When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honour him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.” Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place— the Most High, who is my refuge — no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen. When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation. The Kyrie (Lord Have Mercy) – Lord, have mercy upon us. Christ, have mercy upon us. Lord, have mercy upon us. Our Collect Prayer: O Lord God, You led Your ancient people through the wilderness and brought them to the promised land. Guide the people of Your Church that following our Saviour we may walk through the wilderness of this world toward the glory of the world to come; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. Our Bible Readings: Old Testament – Deuteronomy 26:1-11 Psalm 91:1-13 Epistle – Romans 10:8b-13 Gospel – Luke 4:1-13 The Nicene Creed – Page 191 Our Hymn of the Day is: “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” Lutheran Service Book, 656 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSnYob1I93s Words & music by Martin Luther (1483-1546) 1 A mighty fortress is our God, a trusty shield and weapon; he helps us free from every need that has us now overtaken. The old evil foe now means deadly woe; deep guile and great might are his dread arms in fight; on earth is not his equal. 2 With might of ours can naught be done, soon were our loss effected; but for us fights the valiant one whom God himself elected. You ask, "Who is this?" Jesus Christ it is, the almighty Lord, and there's no other God; he holds the field forever. 3 Though devils all the world should fill, all eager to devour us, we tremble not, we fear no ill: they shall not overpower us. This world's prince may still scowl fierce as he will, he can harm us none. He's judged; the deed is done; one little word can fell him. 4 The Word they still shall let remain nor any thanks have for it; he's by our side upon the plain with his good gifts and Spirit. And take they our life, goods, fame, child, and wife, though these all be gone, our victory is won; the kingdom's ours forever! The Sermon – Of all the words in the English language, the simple word "if" has the ability to be one of the most influential and also cause the most trouble. The little two-letter word can be responsible for losing sleep and peace of mind when we agonize over "what if?" "What if this or that had been different." “What if certain things hadn’t been said.” “What if I had just called-in sick that day?” Closely related to this life-derailing, self-torture is the "if only" game we so often engage in when things don’t go as planned. "If only things could be different.” “If only we did this instead of that." There's also the sense of uncertainty the little word so powerfully conveys. "If the medical test comes back negative… if my son or daughter gets their life together… if things change…." We don't know what the future holds, and it's that uncertainty that can drive us to distraction. Then there's the ‘conditional’ nature of “if.” This is where the word "if" is at its greatest, where the word wields the most power and potential harm. "If you really love me; if you want to keep living here; if you know what’s good for you,” then you will do this or the other thing for me. I’m sure none of us here have ever said that. With this in mind we turn to our Gospel lesson for this morning and hear Satan wielding this powerful two-letter sword against Jesus. It’s an attempt to bring sinful harm and chaos into the already difficult life of Christ. After 40 days of fasting in the middle of the desert the devil comes to Jesus with three simple propositions. "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread.” “If you fall down and worship me, all of this earthly authority and glory will be yours.” If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from the highest point on the temple and let God's angels catch you." Do you notice what the devil is NOT doing here? He's not coming at Jesus with all the fires and terrors of hell. He's not forcing, coercing, scaring Jesus into doing something against His will. Rather, the devil is using an almost childish, playground approach. "If you really are the Son of God, prove it! I dare you! I double-dog dare you! But Jesus doesn’t take the bait. He doesn’t give in to sinful foolishness. He didn't give in to the temptations aimed at exploiting the most basic human weaknesses. Weaknesses like an empty stomach, or selfish feelings of lack of respect, or desire for power or authority. Christ doesn’t give in to the temptation of doing whatever you want and then expecting God to cover for you. But that's just it: Jesus didn't give in to some of the most basic temptations you and I fall prey to all the time. Our Lord met and countered every temptation with the unerring and all-sufficient Word of God. He didn't enter into a debate or argument with the devil. He didn't try to reason with satan. He simply countered lies with God’s truth alone. So, it should come as no surprise that this leads many people, and sometimes us, to the logical conclusion that if you want to beat the devil when you're tempted you just need to do what Jesus did. It seems to make sense. It might appear simple. But such a conclusion is dead wrong. What do I mean by that? Basically, that people can wrongly approach this text as a model for what we need to do in our lives as we confront temptations. They ask, "What would Jesus do?” Simple! The answer is right here. Follow his example; follow our leader Jesus, and you too can triumph over the devil!" But here's what is so wrong about that approach: If Jesus is the example of what we can do to beat satan at his own game, then why did Jesus have to take on human flesh, and suffer and die on the cross? If it comes down to nothing more than "do what Jesus did," then our salvation would no longer be grounded in faith and grace. It would be founded on a rock of personal willpower and self-righteousness. We would see the Bible as many non-Lutheran denominations do as basically a self-help manual. They say: "Do what Jesus did, and if that's not working for you, try harder!" The simple truth is that if our salvation hinged upon our own ability to be just like Jesus, we’d be doomed and dead in our sins, no matter how hard we tried! And that's just it: We can't beat the devil, sin, or temptation on our own. That’s why Christ, true God and true man, came into this world to bring us salvation – because we can't do it on our own. The same is true for every descendent of sinful Adam and Eve. What we see in this Gospel lesson is not a ‘how-to guide’ in overcoming temptation and defeating the devil, that’s not the point the Apostle Luke is making. What we have here is our perfect, complete Saviour and substitute taking our place and doing perfectly what we all fail at – so that His perfection could be credited to us for our salvation. I’d like us to think about that for a moment – because it's something we can miss. Jesus Christ is not just our substitute on the Good Friday cross. He's our perfect and complete substitute every day, in every way. He was from His conception to His resurrection. Jesus came to this world, not just because we're unable to work perfection in our lives, but so that we’ll never have to go through what He did. He was forsaken by God on the cross, so that Christian believers never have to experience that hell. He suffered for all our sins, so that we’ll never have to pay that unbearable price. The sinless Lamb of God did this for you not because He had to, but because of His great unconditional love for each and every one of us. . . . . . and His perfect love for and obedience to His heavenly Father, who willingly gave His Son to die so we could regain the eternal paradise we lost. Now, I want to speak about one last point in the Gospel text that’s often overlooked. Luke writes: “And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.” Brothers and sisters – the devil didn't simply quit after Jesus had bested him that one time in the wilderness. The devil won’t quit. Evil is not a one-and-done kind of thing. A case in point – satan came back at Jesus with the very same two-letter temptation three years later when Christ was hanging on His cross, and he said it through the mouths of the people who jeered at Him: ‘If you are the Son of God save yourself! Prove it! Come down off your cross!’ Talk about a more opportune time. A time when our Saviour was in agony, forsaken by just about everyone, including God Himself at the point when Christ had taken on the sins of the world. Satan was saying: ‘Okay…you can overcome the temptations of an empty stomach, and all worldly power, and you can even avoid putting God to the test, but things are different now! ‘Those were small things compared to present reality. ‘So, if you really are the Son of God put that almighty power to good use and end all of this. ‘Save yourself, come down off the cross and let these losers get what they deserve.’ That's just it: If Christ would have given-in and come down from the cross we would have been finished. And Jesus knew it. There would have been no atonement for our transgressions. But that's not how it worked out. Jesus didn't give in. "It is finished" was spoken in victory by Christ on His cross as the plan of our salvation was fulfilled. All too often we can fall prey to the devil's temptations when things really heat up, when life gets difficult. We can stand firm and resist once, maybe twice when the temptations are small, but when life really hits the fan it’s as if the rules change for us. We begin to falsely reason that ‘extenuating circumstances’ call for a few liberties. "Normally this would be wrong, but things are different here. Considering what I’m going through it'll be okay this time. God will understand." Believe me, the devil is not that stupid. He didn't stop working on Jesus. He didn't even bother to use different temptations. He used the same old temptation. He just waited for a “more opportune time” to strike; a time when that temptation would have more influence, leverage, power. If this was the case with Jesus, what makes us think the devil is going to stop working on us simply because we overcame his temptations once before? Yet here’s our solution. No matter how good or bad life is going. No matter how the devil tempts you. The answer is always the same: Look and hold fast to your Lord and Saviour –Christ Jesus. Don't see Him only as a model of what you need to do. Because nothing makes the devil happier than having you believe you can actually ‘assist’ in earning your salvation and deliverance. Instead, hold fast to your perfect and complete substitute who did it all, perfectly and completely, for you. Hold fast to the Son of God and His victorious and eternal proclamation, "It is finished!" In Christ, all of God's promises of life, forgiveness, and salvation are ours. Satan wants you to doubt God, doubt your salvation, doubt that Jesus cares for and loves you. Why? Because we are saved by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone. (Ephesians 2:8-9). And every doubt we have works to undermine that faith by which we’re saved. "Resist the devil," James says in his epistle, "and he will flee from you." Resist? Yes! But not with your own strength or reason. Not with our personal feelings or power. Not by practicing a method, exercise, or meditation. Resist the devil by simply looking to our Saviour in faith alone! Martin Luther once wrote, “My worst enemy is closest to me, I am carrying him in my breast. Therefore, if God does not help me with His Holy Spirit, I am lost. I cannot govern myself for a solitary hour.” It’s in Christ alone that the devil was defeated, making us no longer enemies of God, but His cherished and redeemed children. Believer, our Father who was willing to ransom His Son has forgiven you, and destined you for Heaven and eternal life. May the peace that truly passes all understanding, keep our hearts and minds in Jesus Christ. Amen. The Prayers of the Church The Service of the Sacrament (The Lord’s Supper) – Page 194 The Benediction – The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen. Our Closing Hymn is: “Lord Keep Us Steadfast in Your Word” Lutheran Service Book, 655 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3N_61w4Vakk Words by Martin Luther (1483-1546)