Christ, Our Champion, Steps Onto the Field

Christ’s Victory Over the Devil in Matthew 4

Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg.

The Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew, the 4th chapter. Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, and after fasting 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.

But he answered, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, He will command His angels concerning you, and on their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.

Jesus said to him again, It is written, You shall 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 glory. And he said to him, All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.

Then Jesus said to him, Be gone, Satan, for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve. Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.

This is the gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus. Have you ever spilled coffee on a computer? Coffee and computers do not get along very well. Have you guys noticed that? Weird things happen when you spill coffee on technology or things like that.

You'll note that the technology has a tendency to no longer work properly. Or have you ever dropped something and you have to go and check to see if things are working okay. And when you realize that there's been damage that has been done and that you have to get things fixed, it's always a bummer.

That's kind of how this works out. But have you considered mankind's fall into sin? In our Old Testament text, we read the account. Satan, that murderer from the beginning, had plotted in his evil, maniacal, narcissistic heart that he was going to murder humanity and make God the murder weapon by getting man to disobey God's command to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

He heard full well what God said. The day you eat of it, you will surely die. And so the devil being the devil, this is a good way to do this. I'm going to kill humanity made in the image of God. He hates God.

He hates humanity made in the image of God. So he got them to disobey. And I think he was surprised to see when they were still alive afterwards. But were they? But were they really alive? You see, because they definitely died spiritually, and as a result of it, each and every one of us were born dead in trespasses and sins.

And here's the worst part of the damage that has been done to humanity. We think we're okay. It's that stupid thing from the Monty Python, the Holy Grail movie, the Black Knight. He cuts off his arm, and he says, it's a mere flesh wound.

He cuts off his other arm, and he says, I'll bite your legs off. And he cuts all of his legs, and he can't do anything. He says, let's call it a draw. It's nuts when you think about it. And here's the thing.

We think not only are we okay, that sin isn't that big of a deal. And when it comes to the things of God, we can just at any moment just turn on a dime and love God with all of our heart and stuff like this.

But that's not true. In fact, third article of the Creed in the Catechism, when Luther asks what does this mean, he says these words, I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him.

You can't do this by your own reason or strength. We're completely dead in trespasses and sins. And that's the hard part to come to grips with. We oftentimes think that we're good. When babies are born in the world, we sit there and go, oh, look, a perfect face of innocence.

Not true. Not true.

Babies have the same sinful nature that all of us have. They just haven't had time to develop it. But they are not born innocent. In fact, the psalmist David, he writes in Psalm 51, In sin did my mother conceive me.

And so we must consider then that what has happened to humanity is devastating. We are broken beyond repair. And worst of the worst is that we have been put under the dominion of darkness. And we are not able to free ourselves from the dominion of darkness.

If you think about all of our good stories, and I'm not talking about bad ones, good stories. Good stories are always about some evil, horrible, powerful tyrant who desires to enslave and conquer the entire world and the valiant effort to try to save the world from that fate.

And, you know, think of like the Lord of the Rings and Sauron and things like this. But here's the deal. If you're going to properly understand the Lord of the Rings, you have to understand that you're not Aragorn, the son of Varathor.

You're not. Neither am I. He's a stand-in for Christ. And so when we consider what the devil does, the devil wages war against the church. And too many churches have not battled the devil back. And as a result of it, from their pulpits, they are hearing messages where the scripture describes them as doctrines of demons.

This is legitimately the case. And I can't help but think that Satan being Satan just is cracking up and just laughing his head off when people sit there in church with an open Bible and they hear the Word of God wrongly taught.

And they're taking notes, and they're going to apply themselves to it. And I can't think of a more twisted text, a text that's more twisted, than the story that we read in our Old Testament text.

Right?

And then you'll note that the alternate reading for this week tells us about the story of what? David and Goliath. Kind of a fascinating thing. David and Goliath, that story, David and Goliath, that's a reading for this week.

And I think it's fascinating because the story of David and Goliath perfectly mirrors what's going on in our Gospel text. And so what we're going to do is we're going to kind of back up a little bit. Remember last week we got to hear about the anointing of David?

And there's a fascinating thing that goes here, and we'll take a look at the story of David and Goliath in more detail. I'm going to work from the alternate Old Testament text. And here's a little bit of a reminder of what happened last week.

When they came, he looked on Eliab. This is Samuel looking on Eliab and thought, surely the Lord's anointed is before him. But Yahweh said to Samuel, Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him.

For the Lord sees not as man sees, but looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him to pass before Samuel. And he said, Neither has Yahweh chosen this one.

Then Jesse made Shammah pass by, and he said, Neither has the Lord chosen this one. And Jesse made seven of his sons pass by before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, The Lord has not chosen these. I didn't highlight this last week, but I'm going to point it out now.

And that is, I don't think it's a coincidence that Jesse had eight sons and that David was the eighth son, the youngest, if you would. And so you'll note all these seven sons have gone by. You'll note in Scripture, oftentimes, not always, but oftentimes the number seven is associated with this present creation.

God created the world in six days, rested on the seventh, and that being the case, Jesus Christ, when he was crucified, he was crucified on the eve of the Sabbath, which means he was crucified on the sixth day, and then he didn't rise on the seventh.

He rested. You'll note that Jesus perfectly kept the Sabbath that Saturday. He didn't even burn a single calorie. That's something I strive to do most days off, to not burn any calories, but he didn't burn a single one on that Saturday.

And then he rose not on the seventh day. He rose on the eighth day. We oftentimes refer to it as the eighth day because it's the first day of the new creation. And here, David, he's the eighth son of Jesse.

It kind of invokes that thing. You'll note that how many sides does our baptismal font have? Count them up.

Eight.

That's the eighth day, new creation kind of stuff. So there's something going on here that we need to consider. And so Samuel asked, Are these all of your sons? He said, Well, there yet remains the youngest.

Behold, he's keeping the sheep. And Samuel said to Jesse, Send and get him, for we will not sit down till he comes here. And then he sent and brought him in, and now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes.

Ruddy means that he was red in complexion. Never thought of King David as a ginger, but there it is. And he had beautiful eyes and handsome. And Yahweh said, Arise, anoint him, for he is the one. Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers.

And the spirit of Yahweh rushed upon him from that day forward, and Samuel rose up and went to Ramah. You'll note that David's anointing as king invokes, if you would, the memory of Christ's baptism in the Jordan River where the Holy Spirit descends on him.

And when Christ was baptized, what was the voice that we heard from heaven? This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. You'll note when Christ is tempted in the wilderness in our Gospel text, what is Satan going after?

He's going after that Word of God and trying to create in Jesus doubt, the opposite of faith, if you are the Son of God. Now I know you are, but I mean if you are, and I'm not saying you're not, but you should really test this out, Jesus.

Don't you think it's presumptuous to think that you're the Son of God? I mean, come on, who thinks that way? And so you'll note that that was where the temptation is. But David here, after his anointing, you'll note that he does not go to the palace.

He does not go and sit on the throne. He is not coronated. He is not crowned. He doesn't begin to decree and declare. He doesn't do any of those things. What does David do after his anointing? A bunch of menial tasks, if you think about it.

And that's kind of a fascinating thing. It says this now. It continues in chapter 16. The spirit of Yahweh departed from Saul, and a harmful spirit from Yahweh tormented him. And Saul's servants said to him, Behold, now a harmful spirit from God is tormenting you.

Let our Lord now command your servants who are before you to seek a man who is skillful in playing the liar. And when the harmful spirit from God is upon you, he will play it, and you will be well. So Saul said to his servants, Provide for me a man who can play well and bring him to me.

One of the young men answered, Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse, a Bethlehemite, who is skillful in playing, a man of valor, a man of war, prudent in speech, and a man of good presence, and Yahweh is with him.

Therefore Saul sent messengers to Jesse and said, Send me David, your son, who is with the sheep. And Jesse took a donkey laden with bread and skin and wine and a young goat and sent them by David his son to Saul.

So the anointed king of Israel is delivering goats, still keeping sheep, and now he's going to be a musician. I do think it's fascinating that he's a musician here because David is the psalmist, and one has to wonder if some of the earlier psalms of David were used to calm the fevered anxiety and demonically tormented Saul.

So Saul sent to Jesse, saying, Let David remain in my service. He has found favor in my sight. You know when David showed up, he didn't sit there and say, Hey, you need to move over because I'm the king now.

I've been anointed, God's rejected you, so you just need to go. He didn't do any of that. Whenever a harmful spirit from God came upon Saul, David took the lyre, played it with his hand, so Saul was refreshed and was well, and the harmful spirit departed from him.

And then we get to chapter 17. This also is a tormented text, and over and again, you can tell somebody doesn't really understand the Scriptures when they then go to chapter 17 and say things like this.

You need to figure out how to slay your Goliaths with your five smooth stones. This is a story that should inspire us to rise up in retaliation against the Goliaths in our life. Do you have the Goliath of debt hanging over you financially?

Do you have the Goliath of a bad marriage? Do you have the Goliath of misbehaved children? Do you have the Goliath, yeah, there's a few of you here who have that Goliath, right? And so the idea then is that what happens here is that this text is allegorized in such a way that you become the champion.

You are the champion who enters the field of battle, and you, with your five smooth stones and your faith, you slay your Goliaths, and so you are told that this is what you're supposed to do. And so you take notes.

All right, I need to slay my Goliaths. What are my Goliaths? My Goliaths are these. And what are my five smooth stones? I have no idea. How do you start applying this? And so then when you go home, honey, I'm going to slay our Goliaths.

You get right to it, honey. I'll be right here watching, right? And so you take your first of your five smooth stones, put it in your sling, and whew, whew, whew, miss. And then you miss the second time, and the third, and the fourth, and the fifth, and the tenth, and the fiftieth.

You get the idea here. You see, coming back to this, we are not capable of extricating ourselves.

From our problems.

And you'll note the Bible isn't about self-help. This isn't a book of inspiring stories like Aesop's Fables. You know, I hated Aesop's Fables as a kid because have you ever noticed that they're just like dripping with moralism, right?

It's like, so here, everybody knows the story of the tortoise and the hare, and they sit there and go, oh, man, that foolish rabbit, man, why didn't he, oh, man, he thought he was going to beat that tortoise.

But then you get to the punchline of the stupid story. Slow and steady wins the race.

And you sit there and go, thanks.

Just what I needed, a moralistic story telling me to just slow and steady plod along. Thank you, I appreciate that. I hate it when they take entertainment and then really try to put a message into it.

That's just like, it wouldn't sell otherwise.

You know what I'm saying?

So all of that being said, when you do this to David and Goliath, you miss the whole point. Because David is a type in shadow of Christ. And you'll see here in the early part of chapter 17 that David is not, again, he's not in the palace, he's not crowned, he's doing menial tasks.

How can this be? The answer is, is because his life beautifully parallels Christ's incarnation. In fact, when you overlay it with Philippians chapter two, consider what Philippians chapter two says. That's a great word, by the way, in the Greek.

I hate the fact that the English word, it just comes across as conceit. The Greek word's a little stronger than that. Do nothing from selfish ambition or vain, glorious conceit, but in humility, count others as more significant than yourselves.

Let each of you look not only to his own interest, but also to the interest of others. What was Cain's question? Am I my brother's keeper? The answer again, yes, you are. And not only are you brother's keeper, you need to consider your brother as more significant than yourself.

Well, if I do that, how are people to know how glorious and wonderful I am? Did you say that out loud? Or were you just thinking it, right? So he then says this. Have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was by nature God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant and being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that the name of Jesus every knee and should bow and in heaven and on earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

But when we look at the life of Christ then, we must never lose sight of who he is. He is none other than the Son of God, second person of the Holy Trinity, in human flesh. He is the God who spoke us into existence.

The reason why we even have a world and a universe, the sun, the moon, and the stars, is because of his powerful words that spoke them into existence. And with such great power, why on earth did he not come to earth and just squash us like a bunch of rebellious bugs?

Because that was not his intent. His intent was to save us. And in so doing, the King of kings and Lord of lords, Lord God Almighty himself, humbled himself and was found in the form of a slave, a servant of all of us.

And you'll note that same descent is there with David. David, although he is the rightful, anointed, God-ordained King of Israel, what is he doing? He's doing menial tasks, taking care of sheep, delivering food and things like this.

What a wonderful parallel to Christ. Because that's the point. The story of David and Goliath is a parallel, if you would, then to our gospel text where Christ is tempted in the wilderness. Because the real Goliath that we all face isn't Goliath, it's Satan.

And we are not in our own strength able to go toe-to-toe with him and come out the victors. None of us can free ourselves from slavery to him and to the world and our own sinful flesh. None of us are able to overthrow him as the head of the dominion of darkness.

And none of us are able to extricate ourselves from the dominion of darkness. This is why the book of Colossians says that God himself has delivered us from the dominion of darkness. And he did this through a champion, Christ.

That's the point. So the story then continues. The Philistines gathered their armies for battle. They were gathered at Succah, which belongs to Judah, and encamped between Succah and Azekah and Ephes-da-min.

And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered and encamped in the valley of Elah. And they drew up in line of battle against the Philistines. And the Philistines stood on the mountain on one side, and Israel stood on the mountain on the other side.

And a valley between them. And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits in a span, nine feet tall. Man, if this guy was living today, I mean, he would do well in the NBA.

You know what I'm saying? Just to go dunk. That's kind of what we're talking about here. He had a helmet of bronze on his head. He was armed with a coat of mail. And the weight of the coat was 5 ,000 shekels of bronze.

We're talking about 150 pounds of gear here. That's pretty impressive. He had a bronze armor on his legs, a javelin of bronze slung between his shoulders. The shaft of his spear was like a weaver's beam.

His spear's head weighed 600 shekels of iron. And his shield-bearer went before him. He stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, Why have you come out to draw up for battle? Am I not a Philistine? And are you not servants of Saul?

Choose a man for yourselves and let him come down to me. If he's able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us.

Representative warfare.

What an idea. I like this.

The winner-takes-all kind of mentality. And you'll note that in the ancient days they didn't really abide by those rules because you'll note that after David did defeat Goliath, then the armies got involved.

So they don't always follow that. But in our case, representative warfare is a good way of thinking about it because you'll note whether you recognize it or not, in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve, they were at war, although they didn't recognize it.

An enemy came in to kill them and they didn't see the threat for what it was. And as a result of it, we fell and were put under the dominion of darkness. Adam was our representative, and in Adam we have all fallen.

So you'll note, he was our representative, he failed. But this is where Christ, the last Adam, the second Adam, comes onto the battlefield, and you'll note he wins the day. I'm giving a little bit of a hint as to what goes at the end of this, but I apologize for the spoilers, but we continue then.

Representative warfare. So the Philistine then said, I defy the ranks of Israel this day. Give me a man so that we might fight together. And when Saul and all of Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and they were greatly afraid.

I really wish the people who insist on putting themselves into this text would put themselves there. That's the right place for us to be. We are among the armies of Israel, and there we are, dismayed and afraid, not willing to go forward and challenge Goliath because we know full well we would lose, and there we are with shaking in our sandals, wetting ourselves and behaving like a bunch of schoolgirls.

Right? That's the idea. So David then, the son of an Ephrathite of Bethlehem in Judah, named Jesse, who had eight sons. In the days of Saul, the man was already old and advanced in years. The three oldest sons of Jesse had followed Saul to the battle, and the names of his three sons who went to the battle were Eliab, the firstborn, and next to him was Binadab, and the third, Shammah.

David was the youngest. The three eldest followed Saul, but David went back and forth from Saul to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem. For forty days the Philistines came forward and took a stand morning and evening.

Forty days.

How many times do we see the number forty in the Bible? Forty days and forty nights it rained for the flood. Forty years in the wilderness for the children of Israel. Christ is tempted in the wilderness for forty days.

And here, for forty days, this Philistine came forward and took a stand morning and evening. I would note, there seems to be a consistent theme here. Forty days seems to invoke that generation that we're in, in the wilderness, and the difficulties we face.

So Jesse said to David and David his son, you take for your brothers an ephah, of this parched grain, and these ten loaves. Carry them quickly to the camp to your brothers, and also take these ten cheeses to the commander of their thousand.

See if your brothers are well, and bring some token from them. Note, Jesse gives him commands to basically do menial tasks of delivering goods, and David doesn't sit there and go, but dad, I'm the king of Israel.

Nothing of the sort, because again, he's exemplifying Christ's humility in the incarnation. Now Saul, and they all, the men of Israel, were in the Valley of Elah fighting with the Philistines. I have to take issue with this one sentence.

Were they really fighting, though? They were getting ready to fight? Fighting with the Philistines? Fighting. While we sit here afraid, David rose early in the morning and left the sheep with the keeper, took the provisions, and went as Jesse had commanded him, and he came to the encampment as the host was going out of the battle line, shouting the war cry, and Israel and the Philistines drew up for battle, army against army, and David left the things in charge of the keeper, the baggage, and he ran to the ranks and went and greeted his brothers, and as he talked with them, behold, the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, came out of the ranks of the Philistines and spoke the same words as before, and David heard him.

And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him, and they were much afraid, and the men of Israel said, Have you seen this man who's come up? Surely he has come up to defy Israel, and the king will enrich the man who kills him with great riches and will give him his daughter and make his father's house free in Israel.

Let me see if I got this right. The guy who kills Goliath will not only be rich, but he also gets a woman, a wife, in marriage.

Hmm.

Have you ever stopped to think that Christ defeating Satan on the cross? He was promised a bride as well. Us, the church. The parallels again are just striking. So he continues. So David said to the men who stood by him, Well, what shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel?

For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? And the people answered him in the same way, So shall it be done for the man who kills him. Now Eliab, his eldest brother, heard when he spoke to the men, and Eliab's anger was kindled against David, and he said, Why have you come down, and with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness?

I know your presumption and the evil of your heart. You've come down to see the battle. And it's funny, I was reading in the Church Fathers this week, and this passage was part of my reading, and one of the Church Fathers sees this as the slander against David by his brother, as the slander of the Pharisees against Jesus.

He sees a parallel between it. It's funny how the ancients read these texts. They couldn't read these Old Testament texts without seeing Christ and seeing the parallels, so much so that when David is insulted and slandered, the Church Fathers saw that as an affront to Jesus himself.

And I think that's fascinating. It makes sense if you think about it, because Jesus is the son of David. The line of the Messiah has come to David and no farther at this point. So you can legitimately make the claim that the Messiah himself, in the loins of David, is on the field.

That's kind of the point. So it says, I know your presumption and the evil of your heart. And David said, Well, what have I done now? Was it not but a word? And so he turned away from him toward another, and he spoke in the same way, and the people answered him again as before.

And when the words that David spoke were heard, they repeated them before Saul, and then he sent for him. So David said to Saul, Let no man's heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.

And Saul said to David, You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him. You are but a youth, and he has been a man of war from his youth. But David said to Saul, Your servant used to keep sheep for his father.

When there came a lion or a bear and took the lamb from the flock, I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of its mouth. And if he rose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him.

Now I would note, that does not sound like normal behavior or normal experiences that kids have during their youth. Never once when I was taking care of my family dog, did a coyote or a lion or a bear come and me kill it with my bare hands.

That's something I have yet to do. In fact, if anyone pulled that off today, I think it would make the evening news. David, he sees this kind of miraculous thing that has happened, not once but a few times, as proof that God is with him.

As a sign that the Lord will not forsake him. He trusts in Yahweh and what God has done for him. And he then uses that faith to kind of extrapolate. If he delivered me from a lion, surely he's going to deliver me from a Philistine.

So he's not acting presumptuously. He's acting based upon his faith and what he's seen God do. So, I went after him, struck him, delivered him out of his mouth. I caught him by his beard, killed him. So your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them.

For he has defied the armies of the living God. And David said, Yahweh who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will also deliver me from the hand of this Philistine. And of course, Saul can't fight this logic.

So Saul said, go, Yahweh be with you. And you kind of have to think, he's probably scratching his head saying, this kid's about to commit suicide. So Saul clothed David with his armor. He put a helmet of bronze on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail.

And David strapped his sword over his armor. And then he tried in vain to go, for he had not tested them. Then David said to Saul, I cannot go with these, for I have not tested them. So David put them off, and then he took off his staff in his hand and chose five smooth stones from the brook and put them in his shepherd's pouch.

His sling was in his hand, and he approached the Philistines. And here I would remind you that the church fathers, when they think of those five smooth stones, they could not help but think of the five wounds of Christ on the cross.

Two in his hands, two in his feet, one in his side. In fact, if you were to look at our altar cloth here, we have little crosses, right? We have five of these on our altar cloth, five of them representing the five wounds of Christ.

Keep that in mind.

We even recognize that this symbolism is kind of important. So keep that in mind. If you were to think of what the five smooth stones are, since Christ is the one who really defeats Satan for us, the wounds of Christ are the things that he defeats them by.

So the five smooth stones. And then, let's see here. He put them in his shepherd's pouch, and his sling is in his hand. He approached the Philistines. The Philistines moved forward and came near David with a shield-bearer in front of him.

And when the Philistines looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was a youth, ruddy, handsome in appearance. And the Philistines said to David, Am I a dog that you come at me with sticks? And the Philistines cursed David by his God.