The Temptation of Jesus

Introduction

There’s several misconceptions about preachers. One is this is all we’ve ever done and all we ever know. You might try to picture me in elementary school wearing a suit and tie and standing on the monkey bars and preaching at recess, but that’s not the way it happened. In fact, there have been times in my life where I haven’t always and only preached. There were times where I worked for a living. And I’m thankful for that secular work for a few reasons. One is that it’s allowed me to see what the real world is like and to be able to relate to my brothers and sisters who have to go out into that world that cares little for Jesus and how difficult and yet necessary it is to let your light shine.

But I’m mostly thankful for the opportunities that I’ve had to work in the secular world for the sermon illustrations. And so I want to tell you about a time where I worked in an office, and I actually had a secretary.

And so we had a shredder. And periodically, for privacy and security’s sake, we would need to be my job, but when they gave me a secretary, I passed along that job. And so I gave my secretary a box, one of those banker boxes full of documents, and said, these all need to be shredded, and then we’ll save them for the company that comes and picks up those shreds. About 30 minutes later, I went back to check on her progress, and she said, I’m almost through. She was standing there feeding the paper through. And I paused and thought, do I tell her? Or do I wait till my lunch break and shred the documents? Or do I tell her now that that’s the fax machine?

That she had been feeding for 30 minutes documents through. You know, it’s important to know what you’re working with. And it was an innocent mistake, I guess, but she didn’t accomplish what we needed accomplish because she wasn’t aware of what she was working with. And I think there’s a spiritual application. As Christians, we need to not be naive. And I believe one of Satan’s greatest weapons against New Testament Christians is our naivete. That we might be unaware of what we’re working with when we’re in the world. But we need to have our eyes wide open and be fully cognizant and aware of what we face every day of our lives. And so this morning I’d like for us to talk about the subject of temptation, and how that we can be fully aware and then fully equipped to be able to withstand the temptation to sin.

And we want to do that by looking at the example of the temptation of Jesus. It’s recorded in all three of the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And let’s just use the first one. If you’ll turn to Matthew chapter 4, Matthew chapter 4, these accounts are virtually identical in these three gospels, except sometimes the order of the temptations has been reordered. But we want to use Matthew’s order for our lesson this morning. And so let’s just spend a little bit of time in reading God’s word, and let’s read this account in Matthew chapter 4. Begin with me in verse 1, where the text reads, Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when he had for fasted forty days and 40 nights afterward, he was hungry.

But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, He shall give his angels charge over you, and in their hands they shall bear you up lest you dash your foot against a stone. Jesus said to him, It is written again, you shall not tempt the Lord your God. And again the devil took him up on an exceedingly high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and all 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, Away with you, Satan, for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only you shall serve. Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and ministered to him.

And by the way, we understand these aren’t the only times, and sometimes it’s a misnomer to just the title of this lesson, the temptation of Jesus, as if this is the only day in which Jesus was tempted. That’s not the case. The Hebrew writer tells us he was tempted in all points, like as we.

1. Satan Tempting Jesus to Prove It

From the wonderful example of Jesus. The first temptation was turn stones into bread. Jesus had been in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights and had been fasting. And then the understatement is stated in the text, and he was hungry. And Satan comes to him and says, If you are the Son of God, two at least of these temptations are prefaced by that qualification. If you are the Son of God, just earlier, the event that happens just prior to the temptation is the baptism of Jesus, where the Holy Spirit descends like a dove and the voice comes from the cloud from heaven says, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Heaven, God Himself had declared him to be the Son of God, and Satan is now tempting Jesus to prove it.

Prove it. God said you’re his son. Prove it. Prove it to me, Satan is saying. Maybe prove it to the world in that second temptation that we’ll look at. But maybe most importantly, prove it to yourself. And so turn these stones to bread. Now have you ever contemplated, if this is a temptation, it’s a temptation to sin by its very definition. Have you ever contemplated what’s wrong with turning stones to bread? You can read all of the Bible from Genesis to the maps, and you’ll never see a commandment that says, Thou shalt not turn stones to bread. And so what was wrong? He had the miraculous ability. Why not use it? Turn these stones to bread. What made this a temptation and a temptation to sin is that Satan was tempting Jesus to be unlike us.

Again, the Hebrew writer, Hebrews 2, verses 17 and 18 says that in partaking of flesh and blood, he became like us and was tempted in all points like us, so that he might be able to sympathize with us. If he turns stones to bread, uses his miraculous ability to selfishly serve himself, which by the way, he never did, then he would not truly be able to relate to us because we don’t have that ability. We cannot do that. He’s also offering Jesus the easy way out.

And what’s to say that if Jesus, in this moment of hunger, this moment of potential weakness, gives in and takes the easy way out, that he won’t do the same thing at the cross or in the Garden of Gethsemane. And so Jesus’ reply is man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. We’ll talk about the meaning of that in just a little bit. But then Satan then takes him up to the high point of the pinnacle of the temple and says, Cast yourself down. Because Scripture says, and he quotes from Psalm 91, that if you dash your, the Son of God dashes his foot against the stone, then God will protect him. Don’t we find it interesting that Satan is quoting Scripture?

There’s a warning, isn’t it? Just because someone can quote Scripture and seem to be godly and pious and righteous doesn’t mean that they’re necessarily leading us down the pathway of righteousness. But Satan correctly quoted the scripture from Psalm 91, but he incorrectly applied it. Psalm 91 says, if you trip and fall, God will protect you. Satan wasn’t saying trip and fall, Satan was saying jump off. That’s very different than the promise of Psalm 91. And again, this was a test. If you are the Son of God, Satan may have also had in mind the passage of Malachi where it says the Lord will suddenly come to his temple. What a great demonstration, Jesus, for you to just jump off, and everybody who’s around the temple will see that and see you miraculously coming down, suddenly appearing at your temple.

But for the second time, Jesus quotes Scripture and says, You shall not tempt the Lord your God.

To tempt him in such an unrighteous way. And then lastly, Satan takes him up to a high mountain and shows him all the kingdoms of the world and says to Jesus, I believe what he’s saying is, I’m going to offer you a shortcut. I’m going to give you the glory in the kingdoms, but without the suffering of the cross. All you have to do is bow down and worship me, and I’ll give you all the kingdoms of the world.

The first question we ask is, did Satan really have that ability? I think in some sense he must have, because Jesus would have been able to see right through that veil of deception. And so Satan had something to offer Jesus. Some kind of earthly power, not a heavenly kingdom that God had promised him, but some kind of earthly kingdom. And this will be just as good, won’t it, Satan, if you’ll just take this earthly kingdom, this earthly reign, that I, as the prince of the power of the air, the rulers of the darkness of the kingdom, that I can offer you, take this shortcut, this easy way out. Jesus finally says, Satan, get away. Go away. For you shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.

2. All Three Times Jesus Quotes Deuteronomy

All three times. And so now take your Old Testaments, maybe leave your finger or bookmark there in the New Testament, Matthew chapter 4, but go with me to the Old Testament, to the book of Deuteronomy. Because all three times Jesus is going to quote from the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy. A book of the Old Testament, authored and spoken by Moses, the predecessor, the lawgiver, the predecessor to the prophet Jesus. And Moses speaks these words to Israel after they have spent 40 years in the wilderness. Remember, Jesus had just spent 40 days in the wilderness and is going to be tempted. Israel had spent 40 years in the wilderness and is going to be tempted. And so Moses, God through Moses, gives them this instruction of how they can remain faithful.

And three times Jesus is going to quote from this sermon of Moses, relating their 40 years in the wilderness to his 40 days in the wilderness. The first quotation that he answers this temptation to turn stones to bread is found in Deuteronomy chapter 8 and in verse 3, where Moses says, So he humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you to know that man shall not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. God will provide. That’s the point of Deuteronomy chapter 8 and in verse 3. That’s the point that Jesus calls to mind when he says, I will not use my ability to absent myself from being human.

Because God will provide. God will provide like he provided manna for the children in the wilderness. Now Jesus quoted Deuteronomy chapter 8, verse 3. It’s safe to say he also knew Deuteronomy 8, verse 5, that just follows this. Look in Deuteronomy 8, a couple verses down in verse 5. So you should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you.

God’s going to let us go through difficult times. God’s going to let us hunger and thirst. God’s going to let us suffer to chasten us, to discipline us for our own good. But we need, in the midst of that chastening, when temptation may arise, we need to remember that God is there and God will take care of me.

At his hunger.

If we can describe it thusly of Jesus at his weakest moment, when he is physically weak and hungry, Satan comes to tempt him. But he remembers that the Lord his God was chastening his son and that God would provide. In answer to the temptation to cast yourself down, for God has promised that he’ll take care of you. Jesus again quotes from the book of Deuteronomy, but this time in Deuteronomy chapter 6 and in verse 16. Israel learned the lessons of what happened to the previous generation in the wilderness. You shall not tempt the Lord your God as you tempted him in Masa. In Masa, where the waters would become bitter. You tempted God. You tested God by your behavior. And Jesus says, I’ve learned the lesson.

I’ve learned the lesson of Israel in the wilderness. I’m not going to tempt God.

And in our temptations today, we might be tempted to demand things of God. Have you ever made in your weak moments or heard someone else in their weakness make moments? Well, if God is really in heaven, then he’ll do this. Thou shalt not tempt the Lord your God. Or maybe you’ve heard these statements, or maybe in your own spiritual weakness, have made these statements. Well, the God I serve wouldn’t do that. Don’t tempt the Lord your God. God and God alone, by his sovereign right, has the power to decide what type of God he is going to be. And we simply accept that and bow before him. Lastly, when he is tempted to bow down and worship Satan, Jesus draws quickly his reply from Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 13.

God is the only one to be served. We will bow down to no other idols, literal or figurative, we will worship God. But then back up a few verses in Deuteronomy 6, verses 4 and 5. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.

3. Lust of the Flesh, Eyes, and Pride of Life

And he’s the only one I’m going to serve, Jesus said. And so no matter how glitzy, no matter how glamorous and enticing the temptation might be, I’m going to serve God. Now, when we think about these temptations of Jesus, and that he was in all points tempted like we, we recognize that we’re going to be tempted, that we’re going to be tempted with just the veracity, and at just the right, weakest moment of our time. Look with me in the book of 1 John. You remember this passage, don’t you? In 1 John chapter 2, verses 15 and 16, where the inspired writer is encouraging us to make a choice. And that’s really what temptation is. It’s making a choice. Do not, 1 John 2, verse 15, do not love the world, nor the things in the world.

If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, it’s not of the Father, but it’s of the world. And so John, in a sense, tells us this is temptation, the love of the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Now we can make, and you’ve probably seen this chart or heard it described before, but we can make a comparison and a contrast between what John says, or the Holy Spirit through John says, is the world and the temptation of the world. Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, the pride of life.

If we go back to the beginning of sin, to Adam and Eve, and we look at Eve’s temptation to sin in Genesis chapter 1, it says that she looked at that forbidden fruit and saw that it was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and that it was desirable to make one wise, and even as Satan said, to make one almost like God.

When we look at the temptation of Jesus, we see that the three temptations of Jesus kind of align themselves to the first temptations to sin and align themselves to the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. So let’s look at that. The lust of the flesh is this innate carnal earthly desire to just fulfill our own lust. Eve saw that that was good for food. One of the most basic human lusts, our desires, is that of hunger. She saw that it was good for food. Jesus was tempted to turn stones to bread, which would have been good for food. Satan was using both Eve’s and Jesus’ potential to have the lust of the flesh, to just have those base desires fulfilled.

There are other very basic desires that pull us in a direction. And that make us like Jesus, that tempt us like Jesus to give up who we really are. And just do what you want to do. Escape yourself from being godly and chaste. Just give in to those desires. Do what you want to do. Take the easy way out. That’s the world. The lust of the flesh. But John also says there’s the lust of the eyes. The eyes are a powerful weapon for good, but also a powerful weapon Satan to use for good. That we can see, and we can have that desire, the lust of the eyes. Eve saw that the fruit was pleasant to the eyes. And how easy it was for her to reason.

That looks good. That looks so enticing. Surely God would want me to have what I want. And what looks good.

I don’t want to serve a God who tells me I can’t have that. And Jesus was tempted to see all the world’s kingdoms. What a sight that must have been. And how that exactly happened, we don’t know, but he was taken to that high mountain, and it says that he could see all the kingdoms of the world. How enticing that sight must have been.

My eyes. Job understood the power and the attraction of the eyes, and to say, I recognize that Satan can use that. Lastly, John says, the things of the world, lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, the pride of life. Oh, pride. How many sins, how many broken lives have been started with pride? It goes before a fall, doesn’t it? And Eve saw that fruit that it was desirable to make one wise. And again, Satan even said, you’ll be like God. He appealed to her pride for vain glory. Satan appealed to the potential pride of Jesus. Cast yourself down. Show everybody, if you are the Son of God, what better way to prove it to me and to the crowd surrounding the temple. Throw yourself down and show everybody that God is going to take care of his son.

All of these temptations were efforts and attempts by Satan to get Jesus to compromise his mission. To compromise who he was.

4. How Jesus Was Able to Resist Temptation

Let’s think just very quickly at some of the ways that Jesus was able to resist temptation. First of all, he was determined to do God’s will. That was his choice. And remember, we said that temptation really is just a choice. Do I want God or do I want this thing? Jesus was determined to serve God, to choose God, and to do his will. He also, secondly, he chose not to sin. And again, it’s a choice. Now I’m not minimizing it. It’s sometimes it’s a very difficult choice. It wouldn’t be called temptation if it wasn’t tough. But it’s still a choice, choosing not to sin. Self-discipline, self-will, powered by the will of God, can give us the power that Jesus possessed that day to just decide I’m not going to be of this world.

He chose not to sin. Thirdly, we’ve heard this before, he knew God’s word. He was able to think of a time in Israel’s history that related to his own present circumstances. They were in the wilderness for 40 days. They were tested by God and tempted by Satan. I’ve been in the wilderness 40 days being tested by God, and now I’m being tempted by Satan. Maybe, maybe there’s something in Scripture from their experience that will help me in my experience. He knew Scripture. And secondly, and connected to that, he was also able to properly understand and apply scripture. It’s not enough to be able to quote it.

It’s not enough to go to Bible class and to study it and answer all the questions in the workbook correctly, but to be able now to take that scripture and properly analyze it and apply it to my life. Not looking for a way out of fulfilling the will and the word of God, but looking for a way that I can make this real in my life. It’s so important to know what we’re working with. We’re working with temptation. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Know your enemy. Know your battlefield. And know how to answer temptation and how to choose God.

Conclusion

And unfortunately, it’s our human experience that we’ve fallen on that battlefield. And we have sinned. But thanks be to God, this Jesus Christ perfectly qualified himself to be our mediator and to pay the price for that sin. So that when we do fall on that battlefield, that we can stand back up by the grace and the forgiveness of God. Would you give your life to Christ, dedicated to win this battle in this war? Would you come to Him right now as together we stand and as we