Tempted for You

SERMON LENT 1

Tempted for you

 James 1:12-18

Introduction: Every day we’re under temptation. From the lure of dark sites on the Internet, from the gossip we long to share, to the grudge we desire to nurse—our minds are not at peace. We’re at war with ourselves, with a sinful world, and with a deceiving devil.

As Luther taught us to sing, “With might of ours can naught be done, Soon were our loss effected” (LSB 656:2). On our own we fail, “But for us fights the valiant One, Whom God Himself elected” (LSB 656:2).

You are not alone in your battle. Fresh from his Baptism at the Jordan, where the heavens were torn open, Jesus was driven out by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted. Christ Jesus, your brother and your God, knows temptation. Even better, he endured it without a single sin. Without being ensnared. He was tempted for you!

Jesus is the “man” who remained steadfast under trial and therefore in his resurrection received the crown of life! Best of all, Jesus gives you His victory, as St. James explains in today’s Epistle.

IN CHRIST, THE CROWN OF LIFE IS YOURS.

Our battle against temptation is underway—and every day (vv 13–16). Why are we in this daily battle? Is God tempting us?

Did you know that there were Rabbis in James’s day, and some religions in our day, that teach God is the author of temptation and evil. Absolutely not! God cannot be tempted. He tempts no one (v 13). James says unequivocally, “Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God.”

God does, however, allow us to live in the world that Adam and Eve and we, too, have polluted with sin, a world where trials come.

So who if not God, who is tempting us?

We are tempting us (v 14). Like Adam after his fall, we like to blame others for our sin. We make ourselves out to be the victim.

Today, we try to shift the blame to others for our temptation and sin: It’s the fault of my parents, my poverty, my wealth, my youth, or my ill health. They’re to blame, not me.

 No, rather James writes, “Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire” (v 14). Jesus teaches that the desire to sin begins in our own hearts and minds driven by our own passions.

Some televangelists today want you to listen to the still small voice in your heart for direction and God’s will. They teach that you have the divine seeds within you and you just need to be still and listen.  But this is not God speaking but rather the religious old Adam who still claims and seeks to be like God. We look in upon ourselves for divine guidance we will find only death.

Jesus says,  “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.”  (Mt 15:19) 

So the enemy is from within. If you want to know God’s will look to His Word in the scriptures.  Perhaps you find yourself in St. Paul’s predicament, “So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my member another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Rom 7:21–24).

Is temptation really that big a deal? Yes, because death is the result. James tells the awful consequences of letting our sinful desires and passions lure us: “Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” (v 15). “Do not be deceived” (v 16).

Instead, find freedom by repenting and turning away from your excuses, your blame, your sin, and your sinful desires and turn instead to something outside of you, Christ for you.

Christ overcomes temptation, sin, and death to give us the Father’s good gifts. The Father of lights never changes (v 17). The sun, the moon, and the stars, which the Father created, are reliable, but he is even more reliable.

The Father constantly delivers good and perfect gifts, especially his Son, who came down from the Father of lights. In Jesus’ wilderness journey, we see the perfect gift of his sinless life.

In the command to sacrifice Isaac and the ram’s death in his place, the Father foreshowed his Son as our sacrifice—the good and perfect death, enduring the death we owe for our sin (Gen 22:1–18).

The Father gives you new birth into Christ (v 18). By the Word of truth, the Gospel, you are born into a new life. The perfect life of Christ has now been given to you! You are now first fruits of God’s creatures. That is, out of all the world, you who are born from above by Baptism and the Word of God are his harvest forever. He continues to feed and sustain your life in Christ by giving you every perfect gift: His Word, His Baptism, His absolution, Christ’s body and blood, and finally, deliverance from this broken world.

The ultimate gift of the Father through Christ, then, is the crown of life (v 12).

Conclusion: The daily battle against temptation and our many losses are deeply discouraging and frustrating, but do not lose heart. Jesus has defeated the evil one for you. He paid your debt. He lived without sin. He put Satan in his place. Jesus won, and he gives to his people the spoils of His victory, the crown of life.