Sunday, February 17, 2013

Sunday Sermon : Overcoming Temptation (Luke 4:1-14)



For church service today, Brother Geok Seng gave a sermon titled overcoming temptation on the passage of Luke 4: 1-14.  The passage is about Jesus being tested in the wilderness. There are a few items from his sermon.

1. Brother Geok Seng highlighted the fact that Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness. The tempting was however carried out by the devil. Both the Holy Spirit and the devil are involved in the testing of Jesus. The Holy Spirit sets up the location, duration, and the operative of the temptation. Whilst the Holy spirit is in control, the devil is the instrument that gets the tempting done.

2. A testing of a person’s faith can be seen from two perspective. From the perspective of the Holy Spirit, the motive for the testing is to build up a person, so that through the test, the person may come to trust and obey God. Whereas, from the devil’s perspective, the motive of the test is to tear down a person and make the person doubt and reject God.

3. A person’s faith cannot be proven true without the test. Brother Geok Seng brought up the analogy of a person winning a trophy without participating in a contest. The trophy is devoid of significance without it having been won through a contest.

4. Brother Geok Seng asked, can we ever fail a test? Now, Brother Geok Seng cited 1 Corinthians 10:13 which states that no temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind, that God is faithful and will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear, and that he would also provide a way out so that you can endure it. I don’t think Brother Geok Seng answered his question here, but from the verse he cited, the answer I would infer is that one can indeed fail the test! It is just that God would pitch the strength of the temptation such that a person undergoing a test can succeed in it, but this does not necessarily mean that he will do so.

What does it mean to fail the test? From my reading of 1 Corinthianss 10:13 in its context, there are certain instances which Paul mentions to the Corinthians which implies the failure of this test of temptation. There is the rather explicit falling into temptation such as the committing of sexual immorality and idolatry, but it suggests that to test Christ or to grumble is to fail the test as well. During a VCF session once, we went through a question of why God would be lenient to characters like Jeremiah, Job, and the Psalmist, even though they grumbled, whereas he was severe on the Israelites during their wandering in the desert. I thought that the Israelites grumbling were particularly inflammatory, because it charged God with evil motives like bringing them out to the desert to die, whereas the kind of grumbling by Job and the Psalmist were self-depreciating and did not charge God with wrongdoing.

I have a friend who was formerly a Christian who became an atheist because he was very upset at God for allowing his parents to divorce. He substantiates his atheism with many intellectual reasons, but he does admit that there is an emotional basis to why he hates God so much. I would have to admit that I do grumble against God a lot as well, especially when I do badly for my studies, or when there are bad things in my life, and I can understand why some people would hate God, especially when it can seem like he does not care. Which brings me to the next point.

5. Brother Geok Seng says that without the Holy Spirit, we cannot succeed in a test. We should depend constantly on the Holy Spirit, his leading, protecting, and enabling. I would further posit that one requires the intervention of the Holy Spirit. I do think that it is indeed very hard to keep faith in God in difficult times or in temptations. It can come in bitter thoughts that appear very rational to a person, such that he would even doubt the existence of God or the Holy Spirit. I know because For me, one of the experiences I struggle with is to have thoughts that God isn’t real, or that he doesn’t care, that this paradigm of God and devil testing a person is a farce, that all that exist is nature and its necessary evil. For me, reading up on apologetics helps me with my faith, to know that there is an intellectual basis for it, so that I would not be so swayed by the emotions. I would like to think that the Holy Spirit has kept me in the Christian faith, despite my struggles in faith.

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