CROWN OF LIFE LUTHERAN CHURCH
SERVING THE LORD AND US TODAY NEXT SUNDAY
Organist: Rob Lozen Joyce White
Elder: 8 – Paul Condon Daniel Hellmann
10:45 – Dave Balza Dave Balza
Ushers: 8 – Zach Condon & Dave Paulson Dave Paulson & Marcel Krueger
10:45 – Dave Balza & Justin Klingenmeyer Tim & Shawn Lynch
Greeters: 8 – Marlow & Carol Kom Marge Aarons & Margaret Finney
10:45 – Matt & Katie Visaggio Red & Cheryl Kreuter
Fellowship: M. Finney, M. Aarons & Ellen Goshaw Open
Counters: Bill Renken & Mel Pavlisin Dave Balza
Communion: 8 - Marge Aarons & Margaret Finney
10:45 – Red & Cheryl Kreuter
FLOWERS on the altar today have been given to the glory of God by Dave and Pat Paulson in loving memory of Pat’s father, Russell Mott, and by Jerry VonDeylen in honor of the birthday yesterday of his wife, Zola. Thank you!
TIME OF FELLOWSHIP: Everyone is invited to enjoy refreshments and fellowship after the service at the school.
SUNDAY SCHOOL AND BIBLE CLASS will meet after the service about 11:00 AM. Our Bible class will continue our study of Heaven. Everyone is welcome to attend.
REVELATION BIBLE CLASS will continue tomorrow at 10:00 AM.
WELS CONNECTION video will be shown today following our services. The topic for this month is Continuing Education for Called Workers, featuring St. John of Redwood Falls, MN.
CALL MEETING: A special meeting of our voters will be held on Tuesday at 7:00 PM for the purpose of calling a new pastor.
RUBIES’ WOMEN’S BIBLE STUDY will meet on Thursday at 10:00 AM.
LENTEN SERVICE: The second in our special services for Lent will be held on Wednesday at 7:00 PM. Pastor LeRoy Martin will preach on Nicodemus in our series on People of the Passion.
PRESENTATIONS of the Crown of Life Mission and Ministry that were given last year will also be given today and next Sunday following our services at the school. The presentation will last about 45 minutes with a light luncheon included. If you have not had the opportunity to view and hear this presentation, you are encouraged to attend.
YOUNG ADULTS: Our next Young Adults meeting will be next Sunday at Nick Yunker's apartment (13631 Parkcrest Blvd, Apt 113, Fort Myers, FL 33912) from 5-8 PM. Please call Matt Visaggio at 246-8116 if you can attend so that he can let Nick know how many will be there. Also, as always, please consider bringing a dish or snack to share. Young adults is for anyone of college age or older.
PRAYER LIST: Please remember in your prayers: Esther Stellwagen (recovering), Pam Adams (back/recovering), Agnes Woodard (husband, Deuel, has dementia in a nursing home in New York), Norine Metzger (Pastor Metzger’s wife from Michigan with physical problems), Levi Zimpelmann (Pastor Zimpelmann’s son from Montana with seizures), Carol Dobrunz (recovery from knee replacement surgery and cancer treatments), Kenneth Lange (son of Darlene Lange in serious condition with cancer), Kimberly Wallace (the granddaughter of Darlene Lange who has been diagnosed with a form of breast cancer), Ruth Hayes (recovering from back surgery), Bonnie Troy (hip replacement surgery on March 16), Jim Fahnenstiel (partial knee replacement on March 15).
DEUTSCHLANDER PRESENTATION: Anyone who would like to purchase a DVD set of the presentation given by Prof. Daniel Deutschlander in January on the Theology of the Cross. Cost for the set is $2 each and may be purchased through our church office at 239-482-7315.
Also, additional copies of Prof. Deutschlander’s books, The Theology of the Cross and Civil Government, are available on the table in the narthex.
NOTES: NIV softcover large-print Bibles are available for $7.50 each in the narthex entryway… Church mugs with the Crown of Life logo and Bible passage are available on the table in the narthex for $4 each… Anyone who would like a large-print copy of the new Meditations may contact our church office… We are saving old Meditations for the WELS Prison Ministry. There is a basket beneath the mail slots… Crowning Touch newsletter for March is available in the narthex… Forward In Christ magazine for the month of March is available in the narthex.
LOOSE CHANGE: If you have any loose change you would like to offer, there are two small boxes on the water cooler in the narthex. One is to help Martin Luther College, our worker-training school for future pastors and teachers and the other is for New Beginnings, the home for unwed mothers in Denver, Colorado. Thank you!
OUR LENTEN AND EASTER SCHEDULE:
March 16 (Lent 2) – 7 PM – Pastor Martin
March 23 (Lent 3) – 7 PM – Pastor Pankow
March 30 (Lent 4) – 11 AM & 7 PM – Pastor Balza
April 7 (Lent 5) – 7 PM – Pastor Martin
April 13 (Lent 6) – 7 PM – Pastor Pankow
April 21 (Maundy Thursday) – 7 PM – Pastor Balza
April 22 (Good Friday) – 1:30 & 7 PM – Pastor Balza
April 24 (Easter) – 8 & 10:45 AM with Easter breakfast
SERMON
Sermon Text: Matthew 4:1-11
1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, He was hungry. 3 The tempter came to Him and said, “If You are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” 4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’’” 5 Then the devil took Him to the holy city and had Him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6 “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.’’” 7 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’’” 8 Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 “All this I will give You,” he said, “if You will bow down and worship me.” 10 Jesus said to him, “Away from Me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.’’” 11 Then the devil left Him, and angels came and attended Him.
Sermon Theme: “SEE OUR SAVIOR GO TO WAR FOR US”
As one of the signs of the end times, Jesus said that there would be “wars and rumors of wars”. And certainly that has been the case. In the 235-year history of our own country alone, there have been 11 major wars with hundreds of thousands of war deaths.
But never in the history of the world has there been a war like the one which took place in the Bible. The Bible, of course, is filled with accounts of wars and battles. But the greatest of all wars took place some 2,000 years ago in a warzone halfway around the world from us - the war between Jesus and Satan, the archenemy of God.
For you and me to appreciate what Jesus was willing to do for us, we need to understand what that war was really like for Him. That is what we will try to do today as we “SEE OUR SAVIOR GO TO WAR FOR US”. We will see what this war was like and then we will see what we can learn from this war for ourselves.
1.
The war of all wars was foretold by God shortly after Adam and Eve became the first victims of Satan’s lies and deceit. The first Adam, of course, was created perfect in the very image of his Creator. But now he had become a slave of the enemy. That disease of sin, that now became a part of his very being and nature and would lead to death, would also become a part of the DNA of every human being who would descend from him.
But there would be one big exception. The one exception would also be a true human being, an offspring of the woman. Not only would He be the “second Adam”, but He would also be “the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation” as the Bible calls Him. He would come to make war against Satan. And there would never be a question about the outcome of the war. “He will crush your head”, God says to Satan, “and you will strike His heel”.
The war began virtually the moment the Offspring of the woman was born into this world. From the very beginning, His life was in great danger as Satan and his allies tried to eliminate “the newborn King of the Jews”. But the war did not intensify until some 30 years later when Jesus - God’s faithful and perfect Servant – now entered upon His public ministry.
Following His baptism and His anointing with the Holy Spirit, we are told that “Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.” Clearly it was time for the war to escalate. Now it was no more Satan just picking on Jesus, but Jesus becomes the aggressor, even welcoming the opportunity to take on the enemy. Led by the Spirit into the desert, God placed Jesus in a very vulnerable position.
Our lesson today gives us the initial battles that Jesus fought in this war of all wars. There would be many more battles to follow, culminating on a hill outside of Jerusalem. But here we get a real feel for what that war was like and how intense it was.
We are told here of three attacks that Satan makes on Jesus. First, it says that “After fasting forty days and forty nights, (Jesus) was hungry. The tempter came to Him and said, ‘If You are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.’” Jesus now had gone 40 days and nights without food or drink. Obviously, He was hungry. Why? - because He was a real human being, like us. But Satan also knew Jesus was hungry. So he comes with a simple solution: Jesus, just turn these stones into bread. After all, you are the Son of God, aren’t You?
You see, Satan was more than trying to have Jesus prove that He was the Son of God. He knew Jesus was the Son of God. He knew Jesus had the power to turn those stones into bread. Jesus could have given Satan a knock-out punch right then and there, if He had wanted to. But no, that is not what Jesus had come to do. Remember, Jesus NEVER, EVER did anything only for Himself. He came as the Offspring of the woman to fight for us. That meant laying aside His almighty power so He could do what we could never do for ourselves - submitting Himself fully to His Father’s will.
You see, by biting on Satan’s bait and turning those stones into bread, Jesus would have shown a lack of trust in His heavenly Father. He was able to fast 40 days and nights only because His Father had sustained Him day after day. And that is why Jesus says here to Satan: “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
Jesus was quoting from the words of Moses in Deuteronomy 8:3. There Moses was reminding the Israelites of the time God had tested them in the desert when they were thirsty. The people grumbled and complained against God. They even went so far as to ask Moses: “Is the Lord among us or not?” God had promised to be with them and provide for them but they did not trust Him. That is why Moses said to the people: ”man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Food alone never keeps anyone alive but only the word or blessing of the Lord.
Round one was over and Jesus clearly won. But Satan was not done yet – not by a long shot. Now we are told that “the devil took (Jesus) to the holy city and had Him stand on the highest point of the temple. ‘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.’” Satan now takes Jesus to the highest point of the Temple at Jerusalem and told Him to jump. That would prove again that He was the Son of God. But more than that, it would prove that He really did trust His Father, like He said He did.
But then Satan came with the real clincher. If Jesus was going to use the Bible, then he would too. So Satan quotes the words of Psalm 91:11-12. That is a beautiful section in which God promises to send His angels to watch over us and keep us safe. But being the liar and deceiver that he is, Satan totally took this passage totally out of context. He wanted Jesus to believe that God will take care of us and keep us safe if we take foolish and dangerous chances. But God never promised any such thing.
That is why Jesus comes back again with the sword of the Spirit and says: “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Again Jesus was quoting the words of Moses in Deuteronomy 6:16. There Moses warned the Israelites not to test God with their grumbling and complaining, like they had done at Massah when they were thirsty. They were only thinking only of themselves and never trusted that God would take care of them. But Satan was not going to get Jesus to show such a mistrust in His heavenly Father.