of his holy word. Before we explore this particular verse and the implications of what Luke says here, it is important to note what has just taken place. This is the aftermath of Jesus's famous and necessary temptation in the wilderness following a 40-day fast. It fasts for 40 days and in his flesh, weak from hunger and he was tempted by Satan. This corresponds almost as a bookend to the temptation of Adam and Eve in the garden. Adam and Eve were in a garden and they were tempted by Satan and they failed and it became a wilderness. Therefore Jesus goes into the wilderness, driven by the Spirit as Mark says in his gospel and he encounters the one who threw our original parents into a condition of sin by causing them or tempting them to rebel against the established word of God. This Fulton Jashine has noted that a one way we can describe the temptations of Satan or the temptations of Jesus is they are, he caused them three deviations from the cross. In other words, the aim or the goal was to get Jesus to do anything but go to the cross, seek to glorify himself, seek to use his own, his power for his own selfish and fleshly purposes rather than depending on the Word of God and in each instance Jesus defeated him with the Word of God. It should be noted that there is nothing that Jesus does in resisting Satan that Adam himself could not do. In other words, Jesus did not defeat Satan with any supernatural power but with the power of the human will to desire and obey the Word of God over the Word of the enemy. So in that case, Jesus has our federal head and as the last Adam, Jesus fulfills all of the requirements of the law including his encounter with Satan whom he resisted. Now we know the means by which Jesus did resist him and he resisted him again as we noted by adhering to the Word of God rather than adhering to the Word of the enemy. In Matthew's account it says that at the end of the temptation because he was worn out both in body and soul and at the end of this that he was ministered to by angels. Luke goes on to say that after this he was driven by angels or he returned in the spirit I should say in the power of the Spirit in proclaiming the kingdom of God being at hand. However, at the end of this temptation this does not mean that Satan who is defeated in the wilderness and ultimately is defeated on the cross. It does not mean that he will cease in tempting Christ. He will continue and look for other opportunities to tempt him. Now also in that vein, understand that because we are part of the body of Christ, apart from our individual temptation and which we are told to resist, there are points at which the temptation of Satan against Christ is extended to the people of God and we'll look at that. So what I want to do is look at four opportune times that Satan will continue to try to tempt Christ. Two of the examples are in the earthly ministry of Christ prior to his crucifixion and two concern the continuing presence of Christ through the church. Now hold in mind also that when we speak of Christ and Satan, this is the ultimate combat, the ultimate battle, the ultimate conflict between the two seeds that we see in Genesis chapter 3 where God tells the serpents that I will put enmity between your seed and the seed of the woman. So Jesus is the fulfillment of the seed of the woman and throughout his ministry, in fact we can say until he returns what Satan will attempt to do is to tempt the people of Christ which in effect is tempting Christ to resist the will of God in various circumstances. So the question that is before us because Luke is the only one who gives this little assertion that after the temptation in the wilderness that Satan departed but he only departed depending on the translation in the ESV it says that he departed waiting for a more opportune time and the other translations I know King James has it that he departed for a season indicating that he will return. So we should as we look at these four areas hold in mind that until the Lord returns the enemy is persistent in attacking Christ and he will attempt to attack Christ not just him personally as he does here in the wilderness but he will continue to attempt to attack Christ even through his church. So let's look at four examples of a more opportune time now that the temptation is over now that Christ has resisted him when does Satan show up again holding in mind that he is always present always attempting any in in fact the way Paul describes it in Ephesians 2 when he speaks of unbelievers he says that he is at work in the sons of disobedience. So Christ of the soul Satan in a sense is always at work but there are four particular areas the first one is this it Satan finds a more opportune time when the necessity of Christ suffering and his death are presented. The place that we want to look at this is in Matthew's Gospel Matthew chapter 16 and we'll look at verses 21 through 23 now again let me repeat the statement an opportune time for Satan to again attempt to attempt Christ is when the necessity of his suffering and his death is presented. In Matthew chapter 16 this is the aftermath of Jesus or of Peter's great confession of Jesus at Cessaria Philippi remember the situation Jesus asked his disciples who do men say that I am and then when they gave the various answers according to and by the way the answers that they give is according to their understanding of the scriptures the anticipation of the coming of the Messiah they didn't think that he was actually Isaiah or Jeremiah they thought he was coming in the spirit of the prophets and so some identified him as a prophet of God but then Jesus turns to his disciples who had been with him and he says but now who do you say that I am that's when Peter speaks out and he says he says you are the Christ the son of the living God Jesus says yes that's all that's true but flesh and blood did not reveal that to you but my father who is in heaven he proceeds to give Peter to tell him that upon this rock I'll build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it now it's at this point in verse 21 Jesus it says from that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders in the chief priests in the scribes and to be killed and on the third day be raised and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him saying far be it from you Lord this shall never happen to you but he turned and said to Peter get behind me Satan for you are a hindrance to me for you are not setting your mind on the things of God but on the things of man so when is an opportune time for Satan to attempt to attempt Christ and it is whenever the necessity of the suffering and death of Christ is presented because what Satan doesn't want to get out in other words he is continuing in this situation through the words of Peter he is continuing what he was attempting to do in the wilderness if Bishop Fulton J. Sheen's logic holds up and I think it does here that the effort in the wilderness was to divert Jesus from the cross and what what Satan attempted to do in the wilderness is the very thing that Peter is attempting to do here no Lord when Jesus talked about how he must go to Jerusalem and he must suffer at the hands of all of the religious leaders then Peter pulled him aside and rebuked him and says no far be it from me to ever let such a thing happen to you isn't it interesting that in Luke's gospel also in Luke chapter 24 after the resurrection of Christ and you have the disciples on the road to Emmaus who are despondent because Jesus has been crucified and they don't recognize Jesus and he asks them sirs why are your countenance cast down why are what's wrong is there something is there something wrong and the two disciples say oh you must be estranged you're here you don't know what happened and he says well tell me what happened oh well Jesus this Jesus of Nazareth we thought that he was a prophet of God we thought he was the Messiah but he died the logic in their rationale is the fact that he died means he must not be who we thought he was yeah that was interesting brothers and sisters that what Peter says here accessory of Philippi is the same mindset that is with the disciples on the road to Emmaus they don't have any place in their religion for a crucified savior so here is where Satan is at work again trying to attempt Christ not in this case just through the words of Peter but certainly in response to his message concerning the necessity of his death Satan would have us not preach and teach and talk about the reality and the necessity of his death and that of course is to the benefit of Satan it's for this reason that Paul says in first Corinthians that our message is foolishness to those who are perishing because he says the Greeks the Jews are looking for sign and and the Greeks are looking for knowledge and the Romans are looking for power and yet all we have is the foolishness of the message of the cross I think one of the great great next of deception that has been draped over the contemporary church is not so much that people aren't going in churches not so much that people aren't excited it's just that they are going and they are not hearing about a crucified savior we have been we have brought into a fleshly in fact notice the way Jesus responds to Peter and he he he he nails the problem on the hand here's the problem he says you are not setting your mind on the things of God but on the things of man the things of man have us defining things and evaluating things according to numbers or according to power according to the things that appeal to the flesh or to the senses but we don't understand the greater work of God that is being done through the death and burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ so Satan finds an opportune time whenever and I'm going to throw that out there whenever the necessity of the suffering and death of Christ are presented Satan finds that as an opportune time for deception now here's the iron if you look in Isaiah 63 or Isaiah 53 you'll see the necessity of that suffering we often quote this sometimes off out of context but in Isaiah 53 verse beginning in verse 4 it says surely he has born our griefs and carried our sorrows yet we esteemed him stricken smitten by God and afflicted but he was pierced for our transgressions he was crushed for our iniquities and upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace what Satan doesn't want you to do he wants you to talk all day long about afflictions he wants you to talk he wants you to understand what it means for you to be void of peace he wants you to to really kind of look at the diseases of your body but what he doesn't want you to know is that through the suffering of Christ those things are imminent that we have peace our transgressions are removed and by his stripes we are healed from the thing that afflicts our soul so a more opportune time for Satan to again pass doubt on the person and work of Christ is whenever the necessity of the death or the the suffering and death of Christ are presented someone will have a counter message and so people talk about easy believeism but I think this is what Paul is referring to in second Corinthians when he says that if someone comes with another gospel then my concern is that you'll believe it and if someone preaches another Jesus then you would believe it or another spirit that you would believe it he doesn't mean that you will believe someone masquerading as Jesus but what he does mean is that you will find yourself or we as as fallen humans that if we are not clear and if we are not careful then we will promote a scarless Jesus a bloodless gospel and we will omit the wounds that he bore so that we could have a right standing with God we mentioned in the past Donald Gray Barnhouse message on what would a city that was taken over by Satan what would it look like and he says what it would look like he says there would be all the bars would be closed on Sunday all the liquor stores would be closed on Sunday the neighborhood would be well kept the children would be obedient to their parents and on Sunday morning every church would be filled as Christ is not preached you see Satan doesn't try to keep us from church per se he just wants to keep us from Christ and if he must go to Christ go to him as the victorious one who does not need to suffer I think this is the problem part of the problem with the word faith movement and the prosperity gospel they want a savior without wounds because the wounds of the savior extend even to us in our frail and failing bodies so a more opportune time for Satan to continue his attack against our savior is whenever the necessity of the suffering and death of Christ are presented and the option is either the word and way of God or as Jesus tells Peter the ways of men that he has set his mind on the things of men here's the second one again this one is connected to actually the continuing earthly ministry of Christ in chapter 17 verses 41 through 44 where we have Jesus in the garden here I think is another opportune time in chapter 17 verses 41 through 44 and Luke says in yeah beginning in verse no I'm sorry not 17 19 yes chapter 19 verse verses 41 through 44
and when he oh no that's not 19 it's 20 yeah in in the garden the prayer in the garden chapter 20 beginning in in verse yeah boy I wrote down the wrong thing in in 22 yes 22 yes chapter 22 verses 41 through 44 and this is Jesus prayer in the garden prayer in Gethsemane beginning in verse 41 it says that he withdrew from them about a stone's throne and knelt down and pray saying father if you are willing remove this cup from me nevertheless not my will but yours be done and they're appear to him angels from heaven strengthening him and a being in agony he prayed more earnestly and his sweat became like drops of blood falling down to the ground so when is a more opportune time not only when the necessity of the suffering and his death are presented but when his soul is burdened by the will of the father it's not just burdened by by having people around him who don't understand but in this instance the very purpose or the very reason that he is sweating like drops of blood bursting forth from his vein is not because of anything else other than the will of the father notice his words here Lord not my will I will that this cup in fact Matthew has it I want that this cup would pass me over and so whatever Jesus is experiencing in his soul prior to his going to the Calvary's cross it burdens him to the point where there if there was a point where Satan could could shift his attention away this is exactly what he's attempting to do in the wilderness and he picks up on that there is an opportune time when the the will of the father is a burden on the soul of the son if ever there was a time that you could get him to say no to the will of the father it must have been in that moment but yet Jesus resist and he says no not my will but thy will be done in the same way that Jesus was able to identify that it was Satan through Peter that was diverting the message or responding negatively about the message of his of his death and his his suffering likewise he understands that in his flesh as a human being our our instinct is to avoid that which is uncomfortable it's one thing for Jesus to say during the course of his earthly ministry that for me to do the will of the father is meat in other words that it is what meat is to the body is what it is to do the will of the father that is up until this very moment the Apostle Paul captures the essence of of Jesus obedience and his and in obeying not only was he obeying the will of the father but he endured he's enduring this this agony of the soul submitting his will to the will of the father even at the expense of a warn of of us of a soul that is worn out by the weight of carrying the idea that he would have to face the wrath of his father in Philippians chapter 2 beginning in verse 5 what we call the conatic hymn Jesus or Paul commends Christ in this way he says let each one of you look not only to his own interests but also to the interests of others have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus who though he was in the form of God did not county quality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death even death on across before he actually bears the wrath of God on Calvary he faces this struggle in the will in Gethsemane the very reason we have this prayer of Jesus on the night of his arrest is to show us that this is a man this is the God man knowing what he is about to encounter and what he is about to encounter is nothing less than the will of God yet nevertheless not my will but your will be done an opportune time for Satan to try to distract Christ is when the message of his suffering and his death are presented and when the weight of divine wrath or doing the will of the Father is weighing heavily on his soul I think that's for us as well but in any event let's look now beyond Jesus earthly ministry there are two other examples that are of opportune times and as we said earlier we always as we are told by the apostles both Paul and Peter to resist the devil Peter says resist him and he will flee but he also reminds us that he is like a roaring lion seeking whom he made devour and the reason Satan is always on our trail is not because of us it's because of Christ and therefore he continues his attack on Christ as he attacks the people of God so apart from our daily struggles and our daily efforts to resist the will and doing the will of Satan there are two particular instances that are recorded in the New Testament that give us broader an a broader understanding of how Satan continues to to his attack against Christ through his church both of them are found in second Corinthians first is when God's people suffer through the suffering of God's people that can be an opportunity for Satan looking second Corinthians chapter one and we look at verses eight and nine second Corinthians one verses eight and nine and Paul was talking about his own experiences we kind of touched on it a little bit this morning and looking at the reality of depression that our souls sometimes is it cleansed the sorrow and or is melted by sorrow but in in first second Corinthians chapter one beginning in verse eight he says for we do not want you to be unaware brothers of the affliction that we experience in Asia for we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself indeed we felt that we had received the sentence of death but that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead here is an opportune time for Satan to distract and distort the faith of believers and in his his attack on believers is a continuation of his attack on Christ that he and one of the reasons I chose this particular passage is because this is not much different from what Satan was attempting to do with Jesus in the wilderness when it came to turning stones into bread what he was attempting to get Jesus to do knowing that he was divine get him to depend on his own strength and his own ability rather than trusting God in his time of hungry in this situation Paul says he whatever the situation that he experienced in Asia he said it brought such distress of at the level of the soul that in such affliction that that it was such a burden to him that he basically didn't even want to live and he says what God did through that circumstance and what God did through that sent that that situation he despaired of life itself and then he says indeed we felt that we had received the sentence of death and so looking away from the purposes of God looking away from the power of God it was almost as if he was ready to turn just within and just let it go but then he says something came out of that it says but we but but that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God the suffering of God's people whether it is physical whether it is spiritual sometimes if we allow ourselves to be distracted we will give up and become apathetic towards the things of God and we will rely on our own abilities and that's what Satan wants us to do he wants to break our gaze upon the Savior and have us look at ourselves one can certainly think of Peter in that scenario remember when Peter saw Jesus walking on the waters and Jesus invited him to come and join him and Peter started walking and he's looking at Jesus and here he is walking on water and then he looks around and he sees the winds he sees the waves and what happens he starts to sink Satan would have God suffering people to concentrate on the wind and the storm and the waves so that we would sink and not rely on the Savior here's a fifth or the fourth and final one and that also is in second Corinthians but also we'll look at a passage in Galatians but but Satan finds an opportune time to distract and tempt Christ through his people when it comes to dealing with sin within the covenant community when it comes to dealing with sin in the covenant community we know again that individually we all confess our sins before the Lord but look at what happens in second Corinthians and we've alluded to this on a number of occasions chapter 2 verses 5 through 11 this is a young man who has been called out by the church and has been brought under the discipline of the church and he has come back and has expressed repentance and godly sorrow the way Paul describes it later but he has expressed genuine regret and repentance and so in verse 5 I guess perhaps the people were wondering I don't know if they have written to Paul now that he's repented what do we do or maybe Paul got wind of the fact that they were a little slow in receiving this brother we don't really know maybe he heard that that this brother was being received in the church but now maybe he was considered as a second-class Christian in any event here's how Paul responds to that situation in beginning in verse 5 he says now if anyone has caused pain he has caused it not to me but in some measure not to put it to severely to all of you for such a one this punishment by the majority is enough so you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow so I beg you to affirm your love for him for this is why I wrote that I might test you and know whether you are obedient in everything anyone whom you forgive I also forgive indeed what I have forgiven if I have forgiven anything has been for your sake in the presence of Christ and here's the statement so that we would not be out with it by Satan for we are not ignorant of his designs is another way in which another opportune time is when sinners saved by grace as we are are allowed to deal with the sins of other sinners in other words even though we can't we know that we sin continuously and we seek the forgiveness of God but all of our sins are not broadcast all of our sins are not seen or known but there are sins that are made public and when those sins are made public and dealt with then everyone gets to point a finger everyone all of a sudden as we mentioned this morning this is part of the optical effects of the fall that somehow the smallest sin in others is a glaring glaring thing and it stands out and we can see it in our fallen condition a mile away in fact we are so good at it that even if a person apologizes if a person says that that they they have they they repent then we have we we are so good in our fallen nature that we even have the ability to determine that they didn't mean it that's what Paul is addressing here and brothers and sisters whenever sinners are given the opportunity to deal with the sins of others Satan is lurking in the mix waiting for an opportunity to bring not only a rip within the body but you see what he's doing this is him this is his last ditch effort at Christ so that the grace of Christ the grace of God that is located in Christ that is perhaps caused this person to repent to begin with is now made null and void Paul's all good friend of mine was or is an Anglican or Episcopal minister and Paul is quirky kind of character he's funny he's but but he has he's written a book on on grace and but he's made this observation about grace he says about grace that that church folk are we love to talk about how good and how deep God's forgiveness runs and we love to talk about how gracious God is until someone actually sins until someone else's sins become public then we become vigilantes I'm convinced and I've stated this in a number of settings that the biggest consumers of grace are the cheapest when it comes to dispensing it you see in other words we will drink a gallon and a half of grace from God but we will dispense it in little thimble falls to others but Paul is concerned about here is not that anybody is getting away with anything and hold in mind brothers and sisters that's true of all of us and it's true in all situations those of us who are in Christ our sins are many but we don't get away with anything we haven't gotten away with it because every one of our sins past present and future has been a tone for in the blood of Jesus so no we're not dreading what's going to happen in the future here's what makes us Christians we know we don't dread what what's going to happen in the future we look what happened in the past and that is supposed to have a sobering effect on how we deal with the sins of others and our ability to get up when we've been knocked down by sin here's where Satan finds an opportune time when God's people are not gracious in dealing with the failures and the sins of others within the fellowship one of the passage that reaffirms that and then will be done and that's in Galatians chapter 6 verse 1 Galatians 6 verse 1 says brothers if anyone is caught in any transgressions then you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness but keep watch on yourselves less you too be tempted yeah dealing with the sins of others within the covenant community is an opportune time for Satan to deceive and distort the people of God so that we don't look more fully to God's grace in Christ and we all of a sudden become thankless or we become like this the unforgiving steward who had all of his debts forgiven and was soon as he was set free he took his little black book and all of the people that owed him he was just taking them breaking them over the coals for the money which was a fraction of the debt that had been forgiven by him and when the master heard about it he said bring him here and then he cast him into debtors prison brothers and sisters we have received all of the grace that we need in the person and work of Christ and when we do not walk and speak and act in grace towards others this gives an opportunity for the evil one it gives an opportunity for the evil one and bringing discouragement to a sinner who has been saved and it gives opportunity for the evil one to lead those who are spiritually mature to fall down the rapid trail or the rapid rabbit hole of human pride in dealing with the failures of others here's what Satan says I'm gonna let him go now but I'll come back at a more opportune time and he is with us and he will continue to look for that opportune time until Jesus returns I pray that we likes like Christ would rebuke him that we like Peter admonishes us that we would resist him I pray that we would be so built up in who we are and whose we are that we would not only resist him but we would give no room for the devil not in the messages that we proclaim not in dealing with suffering as we deal with it in our own flesh and in our own circumstances and certainly not when it comes to dealing with the sins of others let's pray and ask God's blessings father we do thank you for your word we thank you for the reminder of the sufficiency of your grace in Christ we thank you also for the reminder that we are engaged in spiritual warfare not with political entities not on a cultural level but we are engaged in spiritual warfare with principalities with spiritual forces that are beyond that which we are able to conceive and we know that behind it all is our great adversary the evil one who does not want us to stand boldly in the finished work of our savior we pray that you would make us wise in your word that we would not give opportunity to Satan even as he tries to seize on opportune times thank you for the victory of our savior thank you for his resistance against the evil one equip us to do the same yeah and it is in Christ's name that we pray amen amen would you please