Rock Eating, Building Leaping, Devil Worshiper (Sympathizing With the Temptations of Christ) Part 1

A few weeks ago I preached a sermon on how the temptations of Jesus fit into the Story of God. Below is an edited version of my manuscript. It is so long I will have to post it in portions, but I hope you will follow along day by day. The permeating thought is this. The Bible says that Jesus is a High Priest who was tempted as we are and as such is able to sympathize with our weaknesses. I don't know about you, but I find it hard to sympathize with Jesus' temptations (Matthew 4 and Luke 4). Turn a bread into stone? Fly off of a building? Worship the devil to rule the world? Honestly, this is not my problem. I know the Bible says that Jesus sympathizes with my temptations, but I have a hard time sympathizing with His. What good is His sympathy to me? Yet when we examine the temptations of Jesus faithfully from the Biblical text we are able to sympathize with His temptations and in the end we realize how He sympathizes with our own. A rock eating, building leaping,