Sermon -- Summer Sermon Series: Lord's Prayer, 6th Petition (August 24, 2025)

LUKE 11:1-4

LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION.

In the name + of Jesus.

    This petition has confused many Christians.  When we pray, “Lead us not into temptation” to the Father, it infers that he might.  Pope Francis even suggested that this petition needs to be changed to avoid misunderstanding.  However, no man has a right to change the words of our Lord.  It is our understanding that needs correction, not God’s word.

     St. James wrote, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God,’ because God cannot be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one.  But each person is tempted when he is dragged away and enticed by his own desire” (James 1:13-14, emphasis added).  Temptations do not come from God.  He is pure and holy.  He does not condone sin, much less encourage it.  Temptations arise from within us.  We are sinners which means that we are naturally prone to rejecting God’s commands and craving what God forbids.

     One reason people accuse God of tempting people has to do with the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  Our Lord had put that tree in the middle of the Garden, which means that Adam and Eve would see it often.  God attached this word to that tree: “You shall not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, for on the day that you eat from it, you will certainly die” (Genesis 2:17).  People have reasoned that the Lord was laying a trap.  They argue that by putting this tree in such a prominent place, God was practically begging Adam and Eve to sin against him.  Either the tree was evil, or God was evil for putting the tree there. 

     That’s not how God saw it.  After God had completed his whole creation, God gave his assessment: “God saw everything that he had made—which included the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil—and indeed, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31).  So, the tree was good, and the word God attached to that tree was good.  The tree presented Adam and Eve with the opportunity to demonstrate loving and willing obedience to the Lord by keeping his commandment.

     Adam and Eve had one commandment by which they could demonstrate their love for God.  You and I have ten.  Just as the Lord placed the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil where Adam and Eve would see it all the time, so also the Lord puts in front of you, every day, opportunities to demonstrate loving and willing obedience.  By doing this, God is not tempting you to sin.  These are opportunities for you to honor, serve, and obey the Lord and to love your neighbor.

     Just as the devil twisted everything in the Garden of Eden, so he continues to pervert God’s good gifts.  The devil warps God’s good blessings for his own perverse purposes.  The internet can be good.  The devil teaches us to use it for perversion, for insults, to stoke envy, or to distract us from our responsibilities.  Music is a tremendous blessing from God.  The devil uses it to glorify promiscuity and to celebrate debauchery.  God gave us speech to encourage, to comfort, and to build each other up.  Satan leads us to use our words to tear people down.  All God’s gifts are given so that we can glorify him with them.  The devil tempts us to use them for selfish and perverse purposes.

     We pray, “Lead us not into temptation,” because Jesus warned us, “Temptations to sin are sure to come” (Luke 17:1).  In fact, they are never-ending.  The devil even turns opportunities to do good into temptations to do evil.  When God gives you the opportunity to be patient, the devil stokes up anger.  When God gives you the opportunity to console someone who is miserable, you might find joy in their suffering.  When God gives you the opportunity to help someone in need, you may ignore him so you can focus on yourself.  What God offers as an opportunity to do good, Satan turns into a chance to do evil.  So, we pray, “Lead us not into temptation.”

     Sometimes God puts your faith to the test to strengthen you in it.  But Satan will use the same event to tempt you to sin against God.  It serves one purpose for God, but the opposite purpose for the devil.  So, if you should lose everything through tragedy like Job, would you still confess that God is good?  If you should have to wait for relief like the Israelites in Egypt who endured centuries of oppression, would you still hold on to God’s promises?  If you should daily be seduced to do evil like Joseph was by Potiphar’s wife, would you remain steadfast in purity?  When you are despised and defamed for confessing God’s word like all the prophets and the apostles, will you still confess that word?  God uses such difficulties to draw us closer to him.  The devil uses them to drive us away, not merely to disobey God’s word, but to abandon it altogether.  These tests can be intense.  The Father’s discipline can seem harsh.  The temptation to forsake the narrow path which leads to heaven for the broad and easy road which leads to hell can be enticing.  This is what the devil wants for you, not God.

     The hymn What a Friend We Have in Jesus includes the line, “Jesus knows our every weakness.”  So does Satan.  Guess where he will attack you.  The devil knows which sins you find most attractive.  He knows what could lure you away from the kingdom of God, and he will put out the bait again and again.  His temptations for you are tailor-made.  What tempts me may not tempt you, and what tempts you may have no appeal to me.  But the temptations will come to us all.  That is why we call upon our Lord, “Lead us not into temptation.”

     In his explanation of the 6^th Petition, Martin Luther told us why our prayer is so important.  He wrote, “We pray in this petition that God would guard and keep us, so that the devil, the world, and our flesh may not lead us into false belief, despair, and other great and shameful sins, and though we are tempted by them, we pray that we may overcome and win the victory” (Luther’s Small Catechism: 6^th Petition).  

     I try to warn young people in Catechism Class about such temptations.  Teenagers and twenty-somethings are often embolden people to do things that are wicked—whether they are seduced or pressured or act on their own foolishness.  There is a reason the Psalms teach us to pray, “Do not remember the sins of my youth” (Psalm 25:7).  If you are older, odds are that you have something in your past that qualifies for “great and shameful sins,” not that we outgrow these things.  After great and shameful sins, Satan  works to lead people into despair.  That happened with Judas Iscariot.  It was mere hours after he had betrayed Jesus that Judas was filled with great shame and remorse.  He was so overwhelmed by his guilt that his solution was to kill himself.  Having despaired of God’s grace, he perished.  Sadly, this pattern has been repeated by many young people.  Satan plays dirty.  Pray hard and pray often that Satan does not lead you into false belief, despair, and other great and shameful sins.

     Shame is a big reason why people do not come to church.  They expect that the church will only pile on a heavier burden of guilt.  I suppose that happens in some cases.  But Jesus did not come to crush you in guilt; he came to take your guilt away.  Jesus Christ does not condone sins, but he did pay for them and he does forgive them.  We come to church to receive our Lord’s absolution.  We come to have the blood of Jesus purify us from all sin.  He releases us from every charge of guilt.  Jesus is not ashamed of us.  He presents us to his heavenly Father as holy and blameless.  No one needs to despair over his sins.  Satan will always accuse, but Jesus sets us free.

     The devil takes what is good and perverts it into what is evil, but the Lord turned the tables on the devil.  He took what was evil and turned it into what serves your highest good.  It was evil when religious leaders plotted against Jesus.  It was evil when Judas Iscariot betrayed him.  It was evil when Jesus was falsely accused, mercilessly beaten, unjustly sentenced, and brutally executed on a cross.  It was evil when the religious leaders mocked him, calling out, “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross!  …He saved others, but he cannot save himself.  If he’s the King of Israel, let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him” (Matthew 27:40,42).  Satan tempted Jesus right to the end to prove himself to his enemies or to abandon his suffering, to come down from the cross, and to let ungrateful sinners perish in their guilt.  But Jesus faithfully obeyed his Father’s will, and he died for our sins.  All the evils the devil worked among sinful men Jesus has used for your good.

     Jesus has taken away your guilt.  There is no need to despair, even over great and shameful sins.  If you are haunted by your sins, then go to your pastor for Private Confession and Absolution.  Hiding your guilt and pretending that everything is fine will not provide you with any relief at all.  Your burden may remain your secret, but it also remains your burden.  Listen to God’s word: “A person who conceals his sins will not prosper, but one who confesses and abandons them will receive mercy” (Proverbs 28:13).  Neither your pastor nor your Lord will be surprised that you have given into temptation.  Neither your pastor nor your Lord wants you to suffer the burden of shame or the weight of your guilt.  The devil wants to bring you to despair.  The Lord wants you to have peace and hope.  The Lord gives you a pastor to deliver these to you.

     You have been redeemed by Jesus.  Your sins are forgiven, and God’s favor rests upon you.  Nevertheless, you and I still need to pray, “Lead us not into temptation,” because temptations are not going to stop.  Right after Jesus was baptized and the Father declared from heaven, “This is my Son, whom I love” (Matthew 3:17), the devil came to tempt Jesus.  If the devil attacked Jesus, he will certainly also attack you who have been baptized into his name and are beloved children of God. 

     Our Lord summons you to pray to him so that you are not overcome by temptations.  In fact, he extends a promise to you.  He says, “Call on me in the day of distress.  I will deliver you, and you will honor me” (Psalm 50:15).  To fend off the devil, you have been given the word of God and prayer.  To strengthen you in the battle, Jesus gives you his body and blood.  To preserve you in godliness, the Holy Spirit continues to work in you to will and to act according to God’s good pleasure.  Our Father in heaven strengthens us to stand firm against the devil, the world, and our flesh.  He does not lead us into temptation; instead, he leads us on paths of righteousness and into eternal glory.

In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.