Jesus Didn't Sin

[0:00] 167 of your Bibles. Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

[0:17] After fasting for 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.

[0:30] Jesus answered, It is written, Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the highest point of the temple.

[0:46] If you are the Son of God, he said, throw yourself down, for it is written, He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.

[1:00] Jesus answered him, It is also written, Do not put the Lord your God to the test. Again the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.

[1:14] All this I will give you, he said, if you will bow down and worship me. Jesus said to him, Away from me, Satan, for it is written, Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.

[1:28] Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him. This is the words of the Lord. The Lord came, and he didn't sin that he came to defeat the devil.

[1:42] And where others failed, he succeeded. And so if this was a football match, on the one side we have the devil, and on the other side, on the opposite team, we have Jesus.

[1:54] The result would be 3-0 to Jesus. But before we learn some exciting things, we're going to speak to God, our Father, now.

[2:04] And we're going to speak to Jesus now. So kids, you know what's coming. P-R-A-Y. Dear Jesus, we are excited to hear how you defeated the devil, and how you didn't sin, but obeyed God your Father perfectly.

[2:23] Please help us to listen now carefully to what you have said, as it was written in the Bible long ago. Amen. Well, do look up there.

[2:34] And we can see that it's a contest by our very first verse in our reading. I wonder if you spotted it, verse 1. I'll read it again for us. Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

[2:48] And what happens is that Jesus goes into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And he was fasting. That is, fasting is simply a fancy word for saying that Jesus hadn't eaten anything.

[3:00] He wasn't eating. But instead, he was praying to God and relying on God for everything that he needed to live. And he was being tempted by the devil there.

[3:11] It doesn't mean that God was allowing bad things to happen to Jesus. But by being tempted by the devil, God was giving Jesus a chance to show the devil who is boss.

[3:23] The devil would have loved for Jesus to let God down. The devil would have loved for Jesus to have said no to God and yes to him, the devil.

[3:33] And the Bible's word for when we do that is sin. And sometimes we use the acronym, shove off God. I'm in charge. And no to your rules.

[3:45] The Bible's word for sin. The devil would have loved for Jesus to sin rather than trust God. And so God gives Jesus a chance to show the devil who's boss that he won't sin and that Jesus will keep on trusting God no matter what the devil promises to trick him.

[4:04] And what the story of Jesus' temptation tells us is that Jesus didn't sin. And that's our first point. Jesus didn't sin. And you can imagine how hungry Jesus would have been after 40 nights fasting in the desert.

[4:20] All he would have wanted was a delicious slice of bread. Maybe you've cooked some bread and you've smelt the aromas. He would have wanted a delicious cheeseburger. And you can imagine the cheese dripping off it and the bacon sticking out on all of it and gherkins and maybe not gherkins.

[4:36] That's all he would have wanted. But he was fasting and he was depending on God for everything. And he said that he was not going to give in to the devil.

[4:48] And so look what the devil says to him in verse 3. If you are the son of God, tell these stones to become bread. And straight away you can see what the devil is saying.

[4:59] He's saying give up fasting Jesus. Give up depending and trusting on God. You're the son of God. You have superpowers. Tell these stones to become bread.

[5:11] And then you will be filled. And then you'll be satisfied and happy. But do you know what happened? And Jesus didn't sin.

[5:22] Jesus won. The devil zero. And so the devil came up with another plan. He hatched another plan. He took Jesus out of the wilderness and back to Jerusalem.

[5:34] To the highest place in the city of Jerusalem. Right to the tippy top of the temple there. And he said, if you are the son of God, throw yourself down for it is written.

[5:46] He will command his angels concerning you. And they will lift up their hands so that you'll not strike your foot against a stone. And what the devil was doing was he was trying to get Jesus to sin.

[5:58] By getting Jesus to test God. By test there, I don't mean writing an exam or taking a lateral flow test or PCR. We've had enough of those recently.

[6:11] But he simply means testing God. It's when we say, if, to God. I wonder if you've ever found yourself saying, if, to God. I wonder if you've ever been tempted to do that.

[6:23] God, if you are God, then give me good results in my exam. God, if you are God, I will love you if you give me a PlayStation for Christmas.

[6:35] As if God needed to prove himself to us. And if there was anything good that God had not already given us. But do you know what happened?

[6:47] Jesus didn't sin. Jesus to the devil zero. Well, the third and final thing that the devil did to try and trick Jesus was to say no to God and yes to the devil was that he promised that he would make Jesus the world ruler if only Jesus would worship him.

[7:08] So just look down again at our passage. Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. All of this I will give you, he said, if you will bow down and worship me.

[7:23] Can you imagine how awesome and brilliant it would be to be world ruler for a day? What would you do? I decree that school would only be between 10 a.m. and 10.15 a.m. on Wednesdays.

[7:37] I decree that Friday we will be compulsory to have burgers and chips and chocolate milkshakes for lunch. I decree that kids can stay up as late as they want whenever they want.

[7:51] It would be absolutely not that great to be honest. And as tempting as that would be, that would be wrong because there's only one world ruler.

[8:02] There's only one king of the universe and that's God. God. And so, do you know what happened? Can you guess what happened? Jesus didn't sin.

[8:16] Jesus three, the devil zero. Three times the devil tempted Jesus to sin. To say, shove off God. I'm in charge. No to your rules.

[8:27] And three times Jesus said no to the devil. And yes to God. And do you know, can I let you into a little secret there?

[8:38] Do you know how astounding this is? Because no one in all of human history had ever done this before. Every single person before Jesus had ever lived had sinned.

[8:52] Every single one had said, shove off God. I'm in charge. No to your rules. So we think right back to the very first people. Adam and Eve in the garden. They had everything.

[9:02] Brilliant. What did they do? They said, shove off God. I'm in charge. No to your rule. And they ate the apple. The one thing that God had said they couldn't do. And then we think of Noah. How he rescued all the animals and created a new world.

[9:16] And how the first thing he did after sacrificing to God was he got drunk. And then we think of good King David. How he defeated Goliath as a mighty warrior. Yeah, well, he wasn't.

[9:28] Things turned out to be a complete mess with David, didn't they? And then we think of wise King Solomon. The wisest man who ever lived. The greatest king. And what did he do? He hoarded lots of horses and treasures and wives.

[9:41] All the things that God said kings shouldn't do, he did. And he sinned. But Jesus did not sin. Jesus didn't sin. Because Jesus did not sin, he conquered the devil.

[9:54] Jesus beat the devil. Jesus beat the devil by living a perfect life. And Jesus beat the devil by dying on the cross for our sins. For all of those who trust and believe in him as their Lord and Savior.

[10:10] And therefore, when we get things wrong and sin and mess up and say, shove off God. I'm in charge. No to your rules. When we pull our sister's hair. When we blow rosary at our teacher at school.

[10:24] When we say to our parents, oh, I'm not listening to you. What do you know? You're only my father or my mother or something. We don't have to be afraid. Because we have a champion who never sinned.

[10:36] Who beat the devil. Who died for our sins. And gave us a perfect report card as our own. Isn't that good news? Isn't that amazingly brilliant news?

[10:46] Well, one way that we can celebrate that amazing news is by singing a song. And so what we're going to do is we're going to stand up now. We're going to sing our song. And then we're going to look some more at that passage.

[10:58] But I want to teach you some actions. The song's better. We haven't sung it before at St. Silas. But it's perhaps slightly better if we throw lots of enthusiasm at it at some actions. That can be quite boring, I know, sometimes.

[11:09] Especially if you're older. But we're going to give it a go. So let's get up on our feet. We'll bring up the third verse. We'll go back to the lyrics. I'll just read the last slide. We've got our line.

[11:21] So, right. So Jesus is the means of our salvation. Jesus is the way to fight temptation. Jesus is the word that conquers Satan.

[11:33] Jesus is the king of all creation. One more time. Jesus is the means of our salvation. Jesus is the way to fight temptation. Jesus is the word that conquers Satan.

[11:46] Jesus is the king of all creation. That's exciting. Great. Let's give it a go. We're going to sing that song. Sing it loudly. I know we haven't done it before. That's okay. Let's give it a go.

[12:25] Jesus is the king of all creation. Jesus is the king of all creation.

[12:35] Jesus is the king of all creation. Satan didn't win, Jesus didn't sin. Jesus was tempted. Satan didn't win, Jesus didn't sin. No.

[12:54] Devil said to Jesus, jump off the temple. Didn't God promise that there'd be no mess? Satan was tricking and Jesus knew it. He said, don't put the Lord your God to the test.

[13:07] Jesus was tempted. Satan didn't win, Jesus didn't sin. Jesus was tempted. Satan didn't win, Jesus didn't sin.

[13:20] No. No. Oh no. Devil showed Jesus the glory of the nations. I'll give it to you if you fall at my throne.

[13:33] Jesus wouldn't do it. He said, get gone Satan. I'm gonna serve and worship God alone. Jesus was tempted. Satan didn't win, Jesus didn't sin.

[13:47] Jesus was tempted. Satan didn't win, Jesus didn't sin. Here we go. Here we go. Here we go. Here we go.

[14:07] Jesus is the means of our salvation. Jesus is the way to fight temptation. Jesus is the word that conquers Satan. Jesus is the king of all creation.

[14:20] Jesus is the means of our salvation. Jesus is the way to fight temptation. Jesus is the word that conquers Satan. Jesus is the king of all creation.

[14:33] Satan didn't win, Jesus didn't win.

[14:47] Satan didn't win. Jesus didn't sin. Oh, lay, oh, lay, oh, lay. Satan didn't win.

[14:58] Jesus didn't sin. Oh, lay, oh, lay, oh, lay. Satan didn't win. Jesus didn't sin. Tattly well, considering you haven't ever sung that song before.

[15:14] Well done for doing the actions, even the folks at the back who thought they could have got away with it. You guys did do the actions. I was really impressed. Great, so Jesus is the champion who did not sin.

[15:26] But how did Jesus keep on sinning? How did Jesus beat the devil? What do you think? I've got three options for you. Here they go. Was it because A, Jesus was spectacularly strong?

[15:40] Was it because B, Jesus was super-duper smart and clever? Or C, something else? So who thinks it's A, Jesus was spectacularly strong?

[15:53] Put your hand up. Who thinks it was B, Jesus was super-duper clever and smart? Put up your hand if that's you. Okay, who thinks it was C, something else?

[16:05] Yes, lots of Cs there. Great, well done. Yes, it wasn't because he was super strong, and it wasn't because Jesus was spectacularly clever, super-duper clever, but rather, as you guessed, there was something else.

[16:17] And I wonder if you spotted the clue in our passage. Just look down at verse 4 again. I'll read it for us. Jesus answered, Then just look at verse 7 and 10, where Jesus says, It is written.

[16:41] And he quotes the Old Testament. See, Jesus didn't sin, and he beat the devil because he trusted God and everything that God had said.

[16:53] He trusted everything that God had said to his people. In the Old Testament, all the instructions that we read in Leviticus, all the lists and numbers, all the genealogies in Genesis, all the exciting battles in Joshua, all the love stories of Ruth and Song of Songs.

[17:11] Jesus trusted God and everything that God had said to his people in the Old Testament. Jesus trusted God's Word. And I wonder if you spotted something else there, and this is something for the real brainiacs among us.

[17:26] This is a proper higher grade question. But it's also super duper obvious. And that's what makes it hard to spot. What if you spotted it? See, this is it.

[17:36] Sometimes we read the Bible, and we think we are the hero in the story. We imagine we are Moses dividing the Red Sea. And we imagine we are David smashing Goliath.

[17:48] And we imagine that we are Samson wrecking the Philistines, left, right, and center. And we imagine that we are super strong and powerful. But no, look at what Jesus does.

[18:00] He read the Bible with God at the center, with God as the hero. I wonder if you spotted that. You probably did. It is really, really obvious.

[18:11] Everything he read is telling us is how big and how awesome and how mighty God is. So just look, verse 4. Every word, this is the reason that he gives, that comes from the mouth of God.

[18:26] Verse 7, don't put the Lord your God to the test. God is the hero. Verse 10, worship the Lord your God only and serve him. God is the hero.

[18:36] It's all about God. Jesus saw that God is the hero and not us. And because God is the hero who helped Moses part the Red Sea, who helped David defeat Goliath, who helped smash Samson, smash the Philistines, Jesus is God's son, is the hero who did not sin and beat the devil.

[18:56] And so because Jesus is God's son, the hero who did not sin and beat the devil, we can be certain that he is strong enough to rescue us no matter what mess we get ourselves into in our lives.

[19:08] Well, so before us, we have a wonderful opportunity this year. What will we do? Will we trust Jesus as our sinless Savior who beat the devil and didn't sin?

[19:21] Will we trust Jesus and not fear the devil or anything else in our lives? Will we trust everything that God has said to us in his word?

[19:32] Will we trust him in all that we do this year? Will we not read ourselves as the hero in the Bible story? But will we read that God is the hero who has sent his son to die for our sins and rescue us?

[19:49] Well, let's close in a prayer and then we'll finish up. So dear Father, we thank you that you are the hero. We thank you that you sent your son Jesus to rescue us from sin, death, and the devil.

[20:03] We thank you that he didn't sin even when tempted just like us. We thank you that he beat the devil so that we can be with you in heaven forever.

[20:14] Please help us to trust you more and more each day. In Jesus' name. Amen. Great. I think we're handing over to the musicians now.

[20:25] So I'm going to say, a great cloud of witnesses that is throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.

[20:40] For the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Father God, we pray that you would focus our eyes on the Lord Jesus this week, this month, and this year.

[20:54] May we live lives of joyful service to you for all that you have done for us and keep the gospel in our focus at all times. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. And please take...