Sean C. Capparuccia

22 February 2026, 1st Sunday in Lent

Gen. 2:7-9, 3:1-7; Ps. 51; Rom. 5:12-19; Mt. 4:1-11

As we begin our Lenten journey together, we begin with the source of our miseries; the miseries of our human condition. We need a Savior. Why? Because we are sinners.  Paul tells us that “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:3). King David, in one of the verses that was actually left out of our Psalm reading, reminds us, “I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me” (51:5). And this didn’t just apply to David as though his was some especially sinful conception, but it applies to us all, except Jesus, of course.  

Everyone loves to quote John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Rather than being a statement of universal redemption it is simply a statement of fact: all who truly believe in Jesus Christ will have eternal life; people of the whole world, not just Jews. This was the point Jesus was making to Rabbi Nicodemus.But the verse that no one likes to quote is two verses later in verse 18, “Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe in Him stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” We don’t come into this world shrouded in some kind of neutrality. No, we come into this world as sinners, and we continue in sin until we have the gift of saving faith in Christ.

So, one point which I think that has been greatly softened, or watered down, over the centuries, and especially since the 20th century, is the question of what sin is. I mean, even non-Christians do ‘good’ things, and even Christians do ‘bad’ things, so we’re all kind of in the same boat, Christian or non-Christian, right? No. Sin is best defined as that which goes against God’s will. Let’s draw a line between “being in sin” and “committing a sin.” Anyone who does not have Jesus as their Savior is “in sin.” Their whole life is in sin. They do a good deed? Great, but no one is saved by good deeds, or works, and they’re still in sin and sin equals death. The Christian does not “live in sin,” he or she has been redeemed by the Savior. Yet a Christian does a “bad deed.” I ask you: did not the Savior die on that Cross for all their sins? Yes He did. Did His blood not cleanse every sin that every member of His spotted and blemished Church would commit? Yes. Yes it did. So the Christian is in a different place here: he is redeemed, but he has sinned, he has done something against God’s will. What is he to do? What is she to do who has willfully, or maybe even unknowingly, sinned against God? They repent; they ask forgiveness.

But now I’ve spent the first few minutes talking about sin and that’s not really what our Gospel passage is about. Do you know why back in the older days that many churches, I think especially Baptists – maybe Methodists, too – didn’t approve of dancing? It is because dancing tends to put people in tempting positions, or rather, in a position to be tempted. In itself, dancing was ok, but what it might possibly lead to – not ok. I think, for the most part, they’ve gotten over that by now. As Christians we are tempted. We do well to remember that at the Cross and Resurrection, Satan was defeated, his power was diminished, but he has not been thrown into the Abyss yet. He still roams this earth, “prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour” (I Pet. 5:8b). This is our clear and present danger. And in the first of that verse, Peter instructs us to “be clear-minded and alert” (I Pet. 58a).

And why shouldn’t we be tempted when even the Son of God was tempted? “Truly, I say to you with certainty,” Jesus said, “a servant is not greater than his master” (John 13:16). And these servants can never be above their Master because of this one thing: when Jesus was tempted, He did not sin.

Getting into the text, then, let’s look at this first verse. “The Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness.” Jesus, after being baptized and understanding now His divine mission, is led into the wilderness. We need to understand here that Jesus came to redeem and to restore. By taking on a human nature, He redeemed the human nature. By having a human mind, He redeemed the human mind. “Just as sin entered the world through one man [Adam], and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned…. So also through the obedience of the one man [Jesus], many will be made righteous” (Rom. 5:12, 19). Adam, the first man, was created sinless and with the capability of not sinning; Adam did not have to sin, it was not his nature to sin; he had the free will not to sin, or not to transgress the commands of God. But he was also not incapable of sinning. He could sin. So, too, Jesus, came into this world sinless and, like Adam, He was peccable, or able to sin. Jesus had perfect free will. It is bad theology to say Jesus could not have sinned, he very well could have, and Satan knew it. 

Jesus went into the wilderness to redeem the 40 years’ journey of His people, Israel, who continued to fail time and time again with their temptations. And just as Moses fasted 40 days before he received the Law, so Jesus fasted 40 days before commencing the giving of His “new law.” Did you get that? Jesus is retracing history in order to redeem and restore it, to bring it back into obedience to the Father’s will.

1st Temptation

So, like Moses, He fasted for 40 days, and like Israel, He spent 40 days – one day for each year – in the wilderness. Note, that Jesus never commanded us to fast. Fasting from eating is purely a voluntary discipline that has ancient roots and has its own benefits. If you feel led to fast and devote that sacrifice to prayer, by all means fast; if not, then don’t. But if you do, please don’t try to go 40 days, unless you are Moses or Jesus. Not good.  Jesus was, as you can imagine, extremely wearied and fatigued by this time. Satan, of course, who prowls around like a roaring lion, saw his mark. He moved in. Some imagine that this is probably early morning when the new light of the day is just beginning to dawn. If you’re ever up at this time of day you know that the light can cast some weird shadows on things. So I’ve been told, anyway. To a man who hasn’t eaten in 40 days the loaf-sized rocks of the Judean wilderness could very well look like loaves of bread. “Since[1] You are the Son of God, turn these stones into bread.” Now Satan wasn’t asking Jesus if He was the Son of God, Satan knew exactly who He was; Satan was issuing a challenge to Jesus to prove it. (King Herod did the same thing when Jesus was sent to him for trial: Herod had “hoped to see Him perform some miracle” (Lk. 23:8).)  No, Satan knew who Jesus was. He was tempting Jesus to go against the will of the Father. Jesus, you know you’re starving, look at those stones, they look just like nice fat loaves of homemade bread. You have the power to turn them into bread. Why don’t you do it and eat something? Surely the Father in Heaven wouldn’t want You to starve, Jesus.

            Don’t think for a minute that Jesus stood erect and said with conviction, “Why, no, Satan, that would be a sin and I for sure would never do such a thing.” The point of the passage is that Jesus was, in fact, tempted, just as you or I would be had we the power to change rocks into bread. The temptation was there and it must have been agonizing or else it didn’t mean anything. But He answered, “It is written: Man shall not live by bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”     

Scottish author George MacDonald, who was one of C. S. Lewis’ greatest influences, wrote: “The Father said, That is a stone. The Son would not say, That is a loaf [of bread.] No one creative fiat shall contradict another. The Father and the Son are of one mind. The Lord could hunger, could starve [to death], but would not change into another thing what His Father had made one thing. There was no such change in the feeding of the multitudes. The fish and the bread were fish and bread before…”[2]

Wow! Those are powerful words. Because the Father, by His own creative command said, “That is a stone,” the Son, even though He had the power, would not contradict it by making it bread though He might even starve to death. This reminds me so much of this cultural battle we’re in over changing sexual identities. Did God not create you a boy? Did God not create you a girl? Not even Jesus would contradict the creative fiat, or command, of the Father and yet some think they have that authority. Oh, how wrong they are; how utterly wrong they are.

The Word of God is our ultimate authority. Not only in what His Word has created, but in what He has said. “It. Is. written!” Our creeds and confessions and catechisms only have authority is so far as they agree with the Word of God. We call this Sola Scriptura. We trust in God’s Word alone to reveal to us all we need to know concerning Him. We trust Him to give us what we need. We don’t need to turn stones into bread because the Lord will provide.

2^nd Temptation

In the next temptation of our Lord, Satan’s jumps on Jesus’ quotation of Scripture and says, “Since you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from this height, for it is written….” Satan has existed since probably just before Adam was created[3], do you not think he knows the Bible forwards and backwards? And here again, we have this picture of Jesus at the pinnacle of the Temple in the middle of the night, just him and Satan. In The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, Alfred Edersheim imagines a different picture. Imagine that it is now early morning, the sun has just peeped up over the horizon. It is time for the morning sacrifice at the Temple. Jesus is standing at the tippy-top, 450 feet in the air[4], because He allowed Satan to take Him there. And just like in the movies when someone is standing at the top of a tall building ready to throw their life away, everyone is looking up and pointing and making a spectacle of it. There’s Jesus. No one notices Him at first. Then one person happens to look up and spot a man on the tower, then another, then the crowd gathering for the daily morning ritual begins to point up at Him. What a perfect thing to do right now at the beginning of Your ministry, Jesus. “Jesus, since You trust Your Father so much, throw yourself down off this height, right now while everyone is watching. God would surely never let His Son hit the ground. You will be famous; everyone will follow You.” It would actually be an easy way to gain His following and be hailed as the Messiah right from the get-go.

Notice the undertone Satan is using here: Since You trust Your Father and You trust in the Scriptures, then this will be a win-win situation for You. You proved the Father’s love for You and You proved the Scripture. That must have been quite a temptation, really. Jesus knew He wouldn’t hit the ground, and He knew it would grant Him instant fame. But it wasn’t the Father’s will.

But wait, there’s more…. The devil is quoting Psalm 91:11-12. I invite you to turn there right quick. Satan left out part of the verse.  [verses 9-12] “to guard you in all of your ways.” In the context of the Psalm, the meaning is that God will protect those who fear Him and dwell in Him and will protect the righteous in their righteous ways. Not in all of their ways, but in their righteous ways. The devil, who knows Scripture better than any one on earth, can also twist it. We create so many problems for ourselves when we either add to or take away from Scripture. In a sense, Satan was asking Jesus to place a false trust in the Father. It is a testing of the Lord God Himself. We are guilty of this on many levels. Who doesn’t ask God for health but then refuse to live a healthy lifestyle? Who asks God for traveling mercies but then drives 90 mph down the highway? Who asks God to protect them from STD’s but lives promiscuously? Who asks God to give them a loving wife but then habitually treats his wife with contempt?  We pray, “Lord, lead is not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,” and then put ourselves right into the middle of temptation and in the presence of evil. Isn’t this, in a way, justice? Getting what you deserve? It’s funny how the trend in the liberal church is justice, justice, justice, when the truth is “Justice” is really the last thing people want.

3^rd Temptation

Thwarted now twice, the Devil takes Jesus to a mountain high enough to see the kingdoms of the world. This reminds me a little of Rock City at Lookout Mountain, Georgia. From this spot you can see 7 different states. “The kingdoms of the world and all their wealth could be Yours, Jesus, if You just simply bow down to me.” I John 5:19 says, “…the whole world is under the control of the evil one.” This is John, now, writing considerably after the death and resurrection of Jesus. The world is still under Satan’s control, remember; he is the “prince of the air.” What he doesn’t have control of anymore is death. And Satan’s power can only go so far as God allows it. Yes, the world is currently his, but God’s power to protect His people and exercise sovereignty is far greater. But Satan can grant wealth and power, sex, control; anything you want, the devil can get it for you… for a heavy, heavy price. On the other hand, the devil is a liar and there is no truth in him (John 8:44). So, his power is limited; it is always checked by the Creator of this world. 

And for the third time, Jesus did not oblige Satan but told him resolutely where He stood: “Be gone, Satan, for it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.’” Jesus’ authority over Satan is here plainly seen. Satan immediately left.

Friends, Satan is an old, old soul, with a bag of old, old tricks. There’s nothing new with Satan, only new “toys,” new “technologies” that he can use to accomplish his goal. Since Adam and Eve were in the Garden, his only goal has been to keep God’s people from knowing and loving God; to keep them from having a meaningful relationship with Him.

Adam, who was created without any sin, who was perfectly capable of not sinning, but who had the free will to sin, lost that perfection with one disobedience to God’s command. Every generation since has been born in sin, without the ability to not sin, without a will so free as to want to choose God. And death is the result of sin – not just physical death, but spiritual death. Through one man sin came into the world, and death through sin, and because all sin, death came to all…[but] how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! (Rom. 5:12-15). Christ redeemed the will that was lost by Adam. Because of Christ’s obedience, His people can beat death and reign with Him forever. His people, because of what He did, have the capability of not sinning, a capability you did not have before coming to faith in Him.  

1. Satan will test your belief in God; your trust in God’s absolute concern for your well-being. David said, “I have never seen the righteous forsaken, or their seed begging for bread” (Ps. 37:25). We hear this lie of Satan in so many forms. Satan wants us to wrest the control of our lives from God and take matters into our own hands. Not to be irresponsible or accomplish what we are given to accomplish, but to clearly go against the Lord’s will to get what we want. I wonder how many otherwise decent people are sitting in prison because they didn’t trust God to avenge them but took it upon themselves to do it? We sin when we usurp God’s authority over our lives. We live by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

2. Satan will tempt you to put the Lord to the test. And in reality, this is only testing your faith in the Lord. “Lord, if you do this for me, I will believe in You.” “Lord, if you give me an ‘A’ on my exam,” or “if you get me that raise, I will trust in You.” “Lord, if You get me through this sickness, I will forever love You.” “Lord, if you don’t let me get caught, I’ll never do it again.” And if the Lord doesn’t do this for us? What then? If God’s existence depends on your getting an “A” or a raise, then you already don’t believe there is a God. If your love for God is conditioned on your own terms, then you don’t love God to begin with.  If your repentance for your sin depends on His hiding your lying, your cheating, your otherwise shameful dealings, from those people in your life who will hold you accountable, then I’d say you really have no desire to repent in the first place.  We don’t put the Lord our God to the test, but accept His will for us.

3. Satan will tempt you to abandon a happy contentment for all that God has given you for the things of this world which God has not chosen for you. Indeed, for some God has chosen wealth, and power, and fame, all healthy things if used for His glory and I personally believe that God knows who will use it for His glory and who will not. He also tells us that if we are faithful in little things, then we can be faithful in bigger things. Are we being truly faithful in the little? It is so easy for us sinful mortals to replace our love and worship of God for the love and worship of ‘things,’ exalting the creature above the Creator.  But we will worship the Lord our God and serve Him only.

I want to come back to this idea of Christ redeeming our nature, our mind, our soul. Christ came to redeem the whole man. We do err when we relegate “sin” simply to works, to acts of morality. We also err when “sin” is relegated to the realm of ethics. I believe the pendulum of hamartiology has swung back and forth between these two spheres. In essence, between what we do and how we think. Christ came for sin in both areas and the Christian’s life is to be reformed in both areas. But there is a third sphere where sin enters in and that is in our relationship to God. The first two necessarily flow from the third. If our relationship with God in Christ is not right (we could say orthodox) then the other two will never be rooted in God’s definition of sin but rather defined by man. Sexual perversion – biblically defined as any sex outside of marriage between a man and a woman – can be downgraded to “less than sin” or even “not sin” by those who do not know God as He has revealed Himself. As can abortion and any number of other things. But one can also oppose the killing of an unborn child (a moral question) while at the same time lending money at 29.99% interest (an ethical sin) when their relationship with God is not rooted in a true knowledge of Jesus Christ. Again, Christ came to redeem and restore the entire person.

Jesus did not have any moral or ethical issues, a fact that Satan most assuredly knew. So, Satan did not attack Jesus with sins of the flesh, per se, he attacked Him with sins involving His relationship with the Father. Distrust; rejecting God’s authority; mistrust of God’s written word. When our relationship with God is right, we can then accept His morality and a truly Christian ethic. Let me state the obverse for those who have trouble reading between lines. One who defines sin as something other than what God has said, i.e., one who “calls evil good and good evil” (Is. 5:20), are not Christians; they do not have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them. They may have a form of righteousness or godliness, but it is not true godliness and it is not righteous.

From the relationship with God comes the knowledge of good and evil in both morals and ethics. The only other option is to have your relationship with God be defined by your definition of sin and ethics. If I think beating my wife and children is acceptable, it is because I believe God thinks it is acceptable which immediately shows that I do not know God. A better word for this kind of thinking is apostasy which is precisely where the mainstream liberal churches have gone. No longer does the UMC, PCUSA, ELCA, UCC, just to name the big ones, have a right knowledge of the God of the Bible. They have redefined the Creator in the image of sinful man in order to mollify their own sinful nature. In this there is no redemption, no restoration, no born-again-ness. These are organizations, and many more besides, who have usurped the authority of the Holy Spirit in the spirits of their adherents. They are leading people toward the sin that leads to death, sin against the Holy Sprit of God.  

Sin is no light thing. Sin leads to death. But before we sin, we are tempted. Satan cannot make us sin, but he can tempt us. Beloved, our first line of defense against Satan is to quote God’s Word against him. Then, in the power of Jesus name, we must be willing to say, “Be gone, Satan!” And maybe you already know this, but it’s sometimes harder than you think. The sinful nature that continues to live within desires sin; it doesn’t necessarily want to cast out Satan; it doesn’t want to cry out to God, “Help me now, O Lord!” Otherwise, it would.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote:

“In your members there is a slumbering inclination toward desire which is both sudden and fierce. With irresistible power, desire seizes mastery over the flesh. All at once a secret, smoldering fire is kindled. The flesh burns and is in flames. It makes no difference whether it is sexual desire or ambition or vanity or desire for revenge or love of fame and power or greed for money or, finally, that strange desire for the beauty of the world, of nature. Joy in God is…extinguished in us and we seek all our joy in the creature. At this moment God is quite unreal to us, He loses all reality, and only desire for the creature is real; the only reality is the devil. Satan does not fill us with hatred of God, but with forgetfulness of God… The lust thus aroused envelops the mind and will of man in deepest darkness. The powers of clear discrimination and of decision are taken from us.”[5]

Now it would be very unpastoral of me if I didn’t also remind you that in Christ, we not only have the victory, but we have forgiveness. Have you sinned against the Lord your God? Repent of it. Ask His forgiveness. Ask Him to strengthen you against it from this day forward. Are you stuck in some sin, something that only you know about? Repent. Trust in the Lord. Is there some particular behavior that you know is ungodly but it is just so habitual? Repent. Create a new habit to take its place. Our Lord did not die for nothing, He died for you, and just as Satan’s goal is to disrupt your relationship with God in Christ Jesus, our Lord’s goal is to sanctify you to perfection through the Holy Spirit. Receive Him, then, and strive against the power of darkness.

The weight of temptation can be heavy, and the weight of sin is crushing, but the weight of death will destroy us.

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[1] See Hendricksen on ει in Mt. 4:3.

[2] George Macdonald in C.S. Lewis’ George Macdonald (NY: HarperOne, 2001, orig. pub.1946), 14.[3] See Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, Appendix 13, “Jewish Angelology and Demonology, the Fall of the Angels.”

[4] C.f , Josephus (Antiquities XV.412ff).

[5] Bonhoeffer in Swindoll, 566.