Some of the best food the world has to offer isn’t found in a fancy restaurant with white tablecloths and high prices. You won’t see it being made with skill and fury on Iron Chef or being finished off with a sprinkle of seasoning and a boisterous "Bam!" from Emeril Lagasse.

No, some of the world’s best food is found in the same place you’ll find cabs, newspaper stands and crowds of people making their way to work. Some of the best food your fingers can grab is found on the street.

Now, in the States, quality street food can be hard to find — unless, of course, you make your home in some major metropolis such as New York City, where thousands of vendors peddle everything imaginable, from the standard hot dog and pretzel to crepes or the Yiddish snack food knish. In the rest of the world, however, street food is standard fare and, according to many, it’s some of the most satisfying food to be found.

The top 10 strangest street foods, according to travelandleisure.com are:

1. Fried water beetles — Bangkok, Thailand

2. Reindeer hot dogs — Anchorage, Alaska

3. Biltong (jerky made from the dried meat of exotic local animals) — Capetown, South Africa

4. ABC (air batu campur — a variation of shaved ice) — Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

5. Stinky tofu (before frying, it’s soaked in a rancid broth of fermented veggies and shrimp that can be up to six months old) — Taipei, Taiwan

6. Yak butter tea — Lhasa, Tibet

7. Laverbread (made from a black seaweed that grows on rocks) — Gower Peninsula, Wales

8. Bake ’n’ shark (fatty black-tip shark sandwich) — Maracas Bay, Trinidad

9. Roasted cuy (guinea pig) — Otavalo, Ecuador

10. Pie floater (meat pie on a thick pea soup) — Adelaide, Australia

Are you hungry yet?

I know that’s some weird sounding stuff, but the biggest knock against street food is that it typically isn’t the healthiest of foods, which is probably true. But forget about the fact that it isn’t good for you. Instead, think of how the smothered hot dogs and the warm pretzels with cheddar cheese for dipping are good to you — good to your taste buds and good to your wallet. After all, street food is usually cheap!

In today’s text, we encounter a Jesus who had to be hungry. Forty days of wandering in the wilderness is a sure-fire way to get your stomach howling for almost anything edible. Sure, Jesus was sinless and perfect, but he was also fully human. That means when we find him in chapter 4 of Luke’s gospel, Jesus is seriously starving.

But there’s a point and a purpose to it all. Jesus is on a mission. He is actively living and facing temptation in our place. Keeping God’s Law, he was living in our place, so that we might get credit for his perfect life.

Even so, we must imagine that, right about now, even if the nastiest of New York hot-dog carts (which are nowhere near kosher) crossed his path, even Jesus would have been tempted to call it all off and take a bite. In fact, that’s kind of what happens here.

But in place of a street vendor, Jesus crosses paths with Satan himself. Knowing that Jesus is feeling weak and hungry, he nudges up next to Jesus, saying, "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread." In other words, "Hey, Jesus, if you’re hungry and you’re God, then what are you waiting for? How ’bout a little street food? You make the bread, and I’ll provide the butter." Tempting for sure.

Just like Jesus, you and I know what it’s like to be tempted. We know what it’s like to have a hunger for something we want — something that others might say we need — but that we know will only to distract or derail us. Click on that questionable Web site. Spend that extra dollar. Talk trash behind the back of this coworker. Sleep in on Sunday. Eat that doughnut. Ignore the kids. The list is endless. Temptation is everywhere. And, like the smell of great street food when your stomach is empty, its pull is strong. The truth is that Jesus isn’t the only one who has Satan whispering in his ear.

So how do we fight temptation and stay on track? First, it begins with understanding what temptation truly is. Some people see temptation as evil. Many Christians would probably even answer that being tempted is a sin. And the end result of that idea is followers of Jesus worrying about the strength of their faith or the fullness of God’s Spirit in their lives because they feel the pull toward selling out to sin. However, when we look at the Scriptures, we see that this isn’t true at all.

We hear today of Jesus being tempted, and yet the Scriptures tell us he committed no wrong, that he "knew no sin." This may sound crazy coming from the pulpit, but don’t think there’s something wrong with you just because you’re tempted. It simply means you’re human.

This isn’t to say that temptation shouldn’t be taken seriously. It may not be a sin, but it is a tool of the devil who, Scripture tells us, is "prowling around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour." And if Satan can lure you in through subtle temptation or an overt call to crazy sin, he’ll do it. Again, just look at Jesus. If the devil is bold enough to try to fool the Son of God, he surely isn’t intimidated by you and me.

Now temptation, like street food, comes in countless forms. But no matter how it manifests for you, Satan’s goal is always the same: to pull us away from a life that gives glory to God in exchange for a life of gratifying ourselves.

This is the tactic he tried with Jesus. "Hey, J.C., forget about following the plans of your Father. Feed your stomach instead. Stop submitting as a son. Instead, bow to me and grab some glory for yourself. Why do you trust all God’s plans in the first place? Jump from these heights and see if he has your best interest at heart."

The goal of temptation, just like with Jesus, is to pull you off the mission of living a life that’s obedient to God and gives glory to God. Instead, Satan wants you to walk through life scratching every sinful itch and ultimately just gratifying yourself. The hope is that if he can get you to do it enough, he can get you off God’s team altogether.

Back to our question: So what are we to do? Well, the antidote to temptation isn’t to assert more willpower. As if we have it within us to resist every single sin if only we try hard enough. Some would argue that the best defense is to barricade your life from as many evil influences as possible. Cancel the cable. Pull the plug on the PC. Home school the kids and start making your own clothes. Pull away from society, and you’ll stay far from temptation.

The only trouble is that Satan can permeate our perfect world. He followed Jesus into the desert; he’ll follow you, too. Besides, there’s this whole issue of the Old Adam that lives within us who can warp almost anything into some kind of sick little sin. Seriously, what do we do?

We can fight temptation with truth. If we look back to Luke, we see that Jesus decides to fight temptation in a very specific way. He didn’t assert his power, although he could have. He didn’t flee, although it was an option. Instead, Jesus fought temptation with truth. He fought temptation with the truth of God’s word.

With each offer, Jesus answered by pointing Satan to the promises and standards of the one true God. As temptation tries to pull us from God, the greatest antidote we have — our lifeline — is the truth of God. When temptation shades our eyes and clouds our minds, God’s "word is a lamp to [our] feet and a light to [our] path" (Psalm 119:105). We can’t truly live by feeding our hunger, by devouring the bread or by savoring the joy of street food alone. We truly live only when we feast on the things of God.

It makes sense, doesn’t it? How can we fight temptation or even know that we’re being tempted if we don’t know God’s expectation? How might we know that this choice or that option is less than God’s best if we’ve never been inspired to strive for his ideal? How will we spot the lies of Satan and self if we don’t know the truth of God?

Honestly, this is one reason the study of Scripture is so essential to the life of a disciple. It isn’t just so we all become Bible nerds. It’s so we can see the lies, hold to the truth, stay on mission and steer away from sin. In this section of Scripture, Jesus is fighting temptation the way we should fight it, too — with God’s word.

There’s something else here, though, that’s even greater — something incredibly important for us to understand. During his time under the pressure of temptation, Jesus didn’t budge. He didn’t sway. He endured. He did it not only to stay on task, but he did it all for you. We give in to temptation all the time. Jesus never gave in once. But where we have fallen down, Jesus succeeded.

Scholars tell us that during his time in the wilderness, Jesus was replaying the struggles of Israel and being the faithful child of God that they weren’t, so that through him, they might be restored to God. I don’t know about that, but I do know that during his time in the wilderness, Jesus was dealing with the struggles and temptations that we face and was being faithful in our place so we, too, might be counted as righteous in the Father’s sight.

In the Garden of Eden, Adam was tempted by satan, and he failed the test. His failure had universal consequences. In, with, and under Adam’s sin, we sinned. In, with, and under Adam’s guilt, we are guilty. In, with, and under Adam’s death, we die.

But the second Adam, the person of Christ Jesus, was tempted by satan, but he triumphed. It wasn’t just his victory. His triumph had universal results. In, with and under his victory, we are victorious. In, with, and under his keeping of the Ten Commandments, we keep the Ten Commandments.

Thanks be to Jesus, who actively and passively obeyed his Father’s will. He didn’t take a short cut or abandon the path that would lead to his death, just for the sake of saving his own life. Jesus saved the world in the only way it could be saved, through the foolishness of the cross. Where the first Adam failed, the Second Adam succeeded and we are the beneficiaries.

So when you and I fall to temptation and prove ourselves unfaithful, through the power of the Holy Spirit, we have the ability to hold on to the faithfulness of Jesus. We can cry out to God, saying, "I have fallen, but your Son is strong. I am rebellious, but he is obedient. Forgive me for his sake, and set me again on his path." And as sure as there are amazing tacos on the streets of Mexico City, there is forgiveness, there is mercy and there is grace abundant for you.

Temptation, like street food, comes in countless forms. And man, it can look and smell incredible! But just because we’re hungry for it doesn’t always mean we need it. May we model the strength of Jesus. May we run to the truth like Jesus. But most of all, when we fall, may we feast on the forgiveness found in Jesus.

To end this morning, we pray; "Gracious God, we understand that temptation is unavoidable. We ask that you would grant us eyes to spot the lies and a heart full of truth. Give us the strength to choose real, lasting, life-giving food found in your word. Thank you most of all for giving us your Son, our Savior, and our only hope, Jesus Christ. Thank you for his obedience on our behalf.Amen.