Stolen Identity Restored: Luke 4:1-13 Part 1

This is part of a teaching series I’m offering on Luke at the Zion Hill Church in rural Neoga, Illinois. I am serving there as an interim speaker during their search for a new pastor. I thought some of you might enjoy it. The audio quality is not the greatest, and there are occasional references to my daughter, who I’ve asked to advance the scripture slides.

These are my notes: notes are below.

We left off with Jesus being baptized, and God opening up heaven to declare his identity: the son of God. Then in Luke 3, Luke gives a geneology of Jesus, 77 names, back to David, back to Abraham, and back to Adam, the son of God.

Last week, we talked about Abraham, and how God tested Abraham, challenging him to sacrifice Isaac to Yahweh, and we discussed how that request shocks us, but it did not shock Abraham, because in his culture, that’s what gods did: they insisted on human sacrifice.

But then God stopped Abraham, and substituted an animal for the sacrifice. God declared that humans have value. And we know this, because we have Genesis 1: something that Abraham did not have. In Genesis 1, we have the creation of the universe, and we have the God-given identity of humankind.

The very first page of the the Bible: your God given identity: 

Genesis 1:26–27 ESV

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

The image of God. Humans – all of them – are made in the image of God. This status of being “in the image of God” is affirmed again after the flood. Humans – all of them – are in the image of God.

So what does that mean? What does it mean to be in the image of God?

Some people say it’s intelligence, or emotional capacity, or free will, or some other ability, like the ability to pray or think. But it can’t mean that, because not everyone has those abilities equally.

It means we are AS God’s image. His unique representatives on earth. God’s agents, functioning as God would if he were emboddied.

When someone looks at you, they should see how God looks.

1 John 2:16 ESV

For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.

Genesis 3:1–6 ESV

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.

He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.

When someone looks at you,  they should see how God looks.

The serpent stole Eve’s identity. He told her she wasn’t good enough, to be like God, she had to do something. When God did the work.

God said her identity was the image of God. The serpent said it was not. Who is telling the truth?

So let’s get back to Luke. Jesus has just been baptized and is going into the wilderness to fast for 40 days.

“If you are the son of God” – the devil immediately attacks the identity of Jesus. God spoke from heaven, stating Jesus was the son of God. THen came the geneology of Jesus, going back to Adam, who was the son of God. And then Jesus goes into the wilderness, and the devil comes and asks “If you are the son of God, prove it.” The implication is… if he doesn’t do what the devil says, he’s not the son of God.

What are the three temptations?

Luke 4:1–13 ESV

And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’ ”

And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written,

“ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God,
and him only shall you serve.’ ”

And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written,

“ ‘He will command his angels concerning you,
to guard you,’

and

“ ‘On their hands they will bear you up,
lest you strike your foot against a stone.’ ”

And Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ” And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.

1.   Bread – he’s hungry. You could call that “lust of the flesh.”

2.   Showed him: lust of the eyes.

3.   Angels protecting him from falling off a building: Pride of life

Jesus does not follow the devil’s challenges to prove he is the son of God.

We are all challenged by all of these sins, because we believe lies about ourselves.  We don’t believe the identity that God has given us. We believe other identities.

Believe what God has said, and know when you fail, Jesus succeeds. Put your trust in God’s word and in Jesus.