"Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry. 3 And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” 4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’"
5 Then the devil *took Him into the holy city and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 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,
So that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.’”"
7 Jesus said to him, “On the other hand, it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
We welcome you to worship
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is my privilege to have you
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continue to give us boldness to speak the truth in ministry in the face
of adversity in the coming days! As you may have noticed, it's becoming
more and more challenging in the day in which we live.
I want to let all of you know how grateful I am for all of you. We are so thankful your prayers and continue to pray for all of you. Prayer is such a powerful tool, and a mighty weapon against the adversary. And through your sharing, God continues to bring a number of people to faith in Jesus Christ. Praise God! May He continue to use you and this ministry mightily to effect change in even more lives. Let's give God some praise for all He has done! Hallelujah to the Lamb of God!!
Jesus' 40 days and nights in the wilderness links Him with the nation Israel, where Israel first underwent its "baptism" and then was led into the wilderness for 40 years, where God tested them. After, Jesus was baptized, He immediately went into the wilderness, where He fasted for 40 days and nights and was tempted by Satan. Jesus is the "true Israel," the "true Son of God," which is evident by the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Him, and by His victory over the temptations of the devil. Whereas Israel failed, Jesus was victorious. He was appointed to the atoning work, He would accomplish at Calvary.
No one else could really know what happened here in these eleven verses, except Jesus. We only have this information because Jesus chose to reveal it. There wasn't anybody there to record this. Jesus, then, gives us a very good pattern to follow. As we see the majesty of Jesus Christ in His temptation, we will find the path to lead us through similar attacks by Satan. We will probably not get through all of this today, we'll see where the Spirit takes us.
Let us pray
Heavenly Father,
Then the devil *took Him into the holy city and had Him stand 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, so that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.’" Jesus said to him, "On the other hand, 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 things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me." Then Jesus *said to him, "Go, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.’" Then the devil *left Him; and behold, angels came and began to minister to Him."
As we look at this text, we will see the preparation, the temptation, and the triumph, up until the first part of verse 3, we are dealing with preparation. I'd like you to notice, this follows immediately on the heels of Jesus' baptism. His baptism would be the greatest victory in the thirty years of His life so far. It is therefore, worthy for us to make note, that the temptation immediately follows that victory. Fast on the heels of the greatest victory He had known, then comes the greatest trial. Allow to mention, this is how Satan loves to work. Immediately following what we call a "mountain top moment!" The unique, rare moments, when it is especially gratifying to achieve something great. Those moments that can make us feel particularly alive and connected to God. Peter, James, and John experienced a mountain top moment at the transfiguration of Jesus. It was a pivotal moment in their lives.
In His baptism is the proclamation, the proof of the Father proclaiming Him as the One to be the worthy King. And, the Spirit, anointing Him as King. Here, Matthew follows it by presenting to us the temptation. The Temptation Of Jesus. He enters into a temptation to validate His right to be royalty. He must not only be declared to be King, if He is to redeem to His people, if He is to reign over His people, He must be demonstrated to be King. His baptism declares it, His testing demonstrates it. He must demonstrate His power over evil.
Let's look at verse 1, "Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil." Immediately following the event of the baptism, Jesus was driven by the Spirit to the wilderness. You may have noticed, after every great victory, there seems to come a reaction. It is in our greatest moments of exhilaration that we then become the most vulnerable. In that moment of victory we are most susceptible to the defeat. I believe it is the most dangerous period of time, because we think it is safe.
I believe that is the reason, that in I Corinthians 10:12, the Apostle Paul warns "Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall."
In I Kings 18, Elijah experienced a thrilling moment of victory, when he defeated all the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. Then, in chapter 19 he's running as fast as his old legs will carry him, he's crying "Jezebel is after me! God, I want to die." A man who was just fearlessly defeated four hundred and fifty men, and it didn't phase him, but now, one woman makes him want to die. There's a great lesson there.
Jesus faces the greatest temptation immediately following after the greatest triumph of His 30 years. Facing forty days and forty nights of fasting, and climactic conflict with the devil. Often, our greatest moments of victory quickly turn to defeat, we must be very careful not to rest in victory. We have to try to be sensitive to that fact, lest we fall on our faces.
There are some people who don't believe in a literal devil, if you want to deny the existence of the devil, you're going to have to overcome the fact, Jesus didn't deny the existence of the devil. In fact, Jesus confronts him, right here in our text. The Bible consistently speaks about a devil, whose hatred is directed against God. A devil who is full of pride and envy, a devil who has been cast out of heaven and is in conflict with Jesus Christ, in a battle for the souls of men. And, when he attacks us, he's really attacking Christ, his approach is to tempt to us with sin.
The word "tempt," is a very important word. It is the Greek verb "peirazó," which means either test or tempt, it can also mean both, simultaneously. It could be a testing for good; or a tempting to cause somebody to do evil, to seduce somebody into sin. The Greek word does not necessarily have to mean enticement, or evil, it can be a test of a positive nature. From Satan's perspective, it is a temptation for Jesus, to prove that He is unworthy to be King. From God's perspective, it is a test, a way to prove that the Son is worthy. Through Satan, we are tempted. By God, we are tested.
In James 1, James tells us to "Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." Testing then, affords us with an opportunity to strengthen our faith, to grow in endurance, and transform and perfect our lives. God's intention is that we be proven righteous. God will never entice someone into sin, He will however, allow a test to prove righteousness. When a test comes into your life, whether you pass or fail, will either prove your righteous or your unrighteous.
So, the Holy Spirit leads Him into the wilderness for a test, and Satan is waiting there with a temptation. Now, we all know He passes the test and He is vindicated. Allow me to insert here, this is the way we must look at the circumstances that occur to us.
Genesis 50:20, gives us wonderful illustration, "But Joseph said to them, "Do not be afraid, for am I in God’s place? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive. So therefore, do not be afraid."
The same struggles that strengthen you, are the same struggles to cause you to fall.
Verses 2-3, "And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry. And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread."
Jesus needed to eat like any other human being, He was susceptible to temptation on a human level. However, in His deity, He has no way to respond to such things. His character is without evil, and over flows with righteousness. But because of His humanity, the temptation was there. God's very own deity, will allow Him to commit sin. Scripture is very clear, about the sinlessness of Christ.
In I Peter 2, Peter says "For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously; and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed."
And, in Hebrews 4:15 it says, "He was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin."
I'd like to point out something about temptation, notice when Jesus was tempted, He never gave in, He ran every temptation to the limit. When Satan tempts us, he comes at us with ways that hit us where we are. He preys on our weaknesses on the fringes of our strengths. Also, when he hits us with temptation at let's say 10 or 20% intensity, when we resist, he increases the intensity to say, 40 or 50%, if we continue to resist, at some point, we run temptation to the limit of what Satan has to give and we're victorious. Satan tempts us at the point of our own strength, just as He did Jesus.
From Matthew's account, it would be easy to assume that Jesus was led into the wilderness for 40 days and nights and then, somewhere at the end of this period, He was tempted. Mark and Luke seem to indicate that He had been tempted during the forty days, but that the great climax of temptation comes in the moment when the forty days and forty nights are over and He is hungered.
Notice Mark's account in chapter 1, "And He was in the wilderness forty days being tempted by Satan; and He was with the wild beasts, and the angels were ministering to Him."
And, in Luke 4, "Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days, and when they had ended, He became hungry." Jesus endured Satan’s temptations for the entire 40 day period and not just at the end of 40 days."
Jesus was weak, and Satan let Him have it full blast. Satan's like that, he desires to catch us in our weak moments. But, Jesus relied on the Word of God for His strength and guidance during His temptation. Both the Word of God and the Spirit of God guided and enabled Him as He prevailed over Satan in His temptation. When you guard against temptation, you're on your way to victory.
In Mark 14:38, Jesus warned the disciples "Keep watching and praying that you may not come into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” For example, if you have charisma, Satan will tempt you to use your charisma to get what you want. If you have a way with words, he will tempt you to talk people into what you want. Temptation comes when we think we're strong, then Satan pushes us over the edge. If you think Satan isn't real, go visit Martin Luther's room in the castle at Wartburg, Germany. There's an ink stain on the wall. Luther was fighting with the Satan one night and he threw his ink bottle at him. That's how real he was to Martin Luther.
Satan tempted Jesus at the point of His strengths, then he attempted to push Him into sin. There is much we can learn from that.
In Closing..
There is no way that you can handle temptation, apart from having Jesus Christ as your Savior. You're a victim of your desires, lusts and temptation. Jesus is waiting to give you victory, but you must be willing to accept it. If you keeping falling into sin and temptation, you are of no use to God for His plans and purposes. It's only in the times of victory, we experience the fruitfulness of Jesus Christ.
May it be so..
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen