The Testing of Jesus: Matthew 4:1-17

Sermon Intro‌

Matthew - writing for and to a Jewish audience. Assuming we’ll pick up cues and connections. Also, Matthew is keen to expose the Empire or the Kingdom of Rome and to point his readers to the Kingdom of Heaven. And Jesus will demonstrate what it looks like to live the Kingdom of Heaven even in the midst of the Kingdom of Rome.

chapter 1‌ - the ancestry of Jesus; the birth narrative - highlighting 4 gentile women in Jesus’ lineage and then linking Jesus to David’s line through his adoptive father.

chapter 2 - the Magi respond well to Jesus; Herod, not so much; the family’s flight to Egypt.

chapter 3 - the baptism of Jesus

Today we’ll look at chapter 4 - the testing of Jesus

And then in the coming weeks, we’ll take some time to unpack chapters 5-7 - which are also known as the Sermon on the Mount.

Three things happen in our text today.

Jesus is tested.‌

Jesus makes a move.

‌Jesus preaches.

Judy, will you come and read. And will the rest of you stand for the reading of God’s word?

Reading

Sermon

You’ll remember that at the end of the Baptism text, a voice - the Voice of God, affirms Jesus as the beloved Son. Affirms the Father’s pleasure in His Son. Affirms Jesus’ identity.

And just a couple of verses later, Jesus, led by the Spirit, is in the wilderness, and has fasted for 40 days and nights.

You heard that at the very beginning of the passage right?

Matthew 4:1 CEB

1 Then the Spirit led Jesus up into the wilderness so that the devil might tempt him.

The Spirit led Jesus… perhaps this surprises us. Not THAT the Spirit led Jesus, but WHERE the Spirit led Jesus. Into the wilderness. Into a place of danger and potential threats. Into a space in which the devil could test Jesus.The baptism of Jesus - wherein we hear God affirm Jesus’ identity as the beloved Son, the is followed by Jesus letting the Spirit lead Him. In fact, we assume that Jesus let the Spirit lead Him throughout his life and ministry. All the way through His death - and then as Paul says, the Spirit raised Him from the dead. Re-animated Him and led Him through death into resurrection life.

But right now, the Spirit has led Jesus into the wilderness. Into 40 days and nights of fasting.

He’s hungry. Weakened. Tired. And isolated.

‌And the Devil sees his chance. To poke and prod and test and question.

What will the identity of Jesus be in the wilderness? Will the identity of Jesus that was announced in His baptism hold? Is it really possible to live under the Kingdom of Heaven in the midst of the Kingdom of Rome?

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The tests are:

You’re hungry? And you’re the “beloved Son?” Well then, turn these stones to bread.‌

Jump off the Temple - and let God save you. Doesn’t Psalm 91 say very clearly, Psalm 91:11-12

Psalm 91:11–12 NIV

11 For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; 12 they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.

And then, worship me (the devil) so you can have the kingdom now.

Let’s look at them one at a time.

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In the first test: “Turn these stones to bread‌”.

In all three tests, the Devil takes truth and twists it just a little.

Aren’t you hungry? Well, yes. In fact, after fasting for 40 days and 40 nights, I’m weak in body and soul.

And Jesus responds by quoting Deuteronomy 8:3

Deuteronomy 8:3 NIV

3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

This one always strikes me as playing dirty. He’s been fasting for 40 days and nights. How could he not be tempted to use the power He has to meet his real physical needs and desires?

Jesus here identifies that the devil is asking Him to choose between two things He needs. And he refuses. Refuses to choose one OVER the other. Am I hungry? Yes. Do human beings need food? Yes. Do they only need food? No. They live not only by bread, but by every word that God speaks. (And friends, Jesus is the Word of God. The Word that speaks. The Word made flesh.)

Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy 8 and doesn’t downplay the physical needs - after all, Yahweh provided manna for the people in the wilderness. But the daily provision of manna was about more than just physical nourishment. It required a daily practice of trusting Yahweh.

In the second test the devil takes what Jesus used to defend Himself and now twists it. The scripture says? Ok. I can do that. The scripture also says...

In this test, there is a public questioning not just of Jesus’ identity but of His value, His worth. Would God save Him if he jumped? Doesn’t the scripture say?

Turns out quoting scripture isn’t a guarantee to truth. Scripture has to be interpreted.

So does the scripture say what the devil says it does? Well, yes. And also no.‌

Interpretation matters.‌

And the way we see Jesus interpreting scripture here (and in the Sermon on the Mount coming up) is to interpret it in light of what He already knows to be true about God.

(Ron’s class over the fall about the Bible and all the ways we approach the Scriptures)

In the third test, the devil offers Jesus a shortcut to enthronement. A bypass of the path Jesus is on … that does lead to enthronement, but that gets there by giving Himself away. By laying down His life. By taking the power that He possesses and using it for others.

The devil’s approach is direct. Worship me. And I’ll give you the power OVER.

In Laura Barringer and Scot McKnight’s book A Church Called TOV:

Power over - Rome, Babylon. Domination. Control.

Power to - the capacity to influence (either positively or negatively) and everyone has at least a little bit of this power

Power with - when we take what power we have and we share it with people - whatever our sphere might be, whatever our status or access is; and this is where we start to see Christian power at work.

Power for - taking our power and not only sharing it, but giving it away. This is the ultimate Christian use of power. This is the kind of power we see in Jesus as He lays his life down. This is the kind of power that is surrendered again and again and so it doesn’t corrupt, but brings life. Empowers others.

Now, in some ways, all three tests have been about identity & power. And Jesus each time, demonstrates that He knows who He is. Or at least trusts in what the voice from heaven declared in his baptism. And that true power is not power over.

Henri Nouwen writes about these tests as questioning three basic things: I am what I do, I am what others think of me, and I am what I have.

I find this really helpful, as I think these are three tests we each face as we seek to live as God’s beloved children. Our identity as those loved by God is tested constantly and particularly - as we wrestle with who we are… what we do, what others think of us and what we have.

We are not defined by these any more than Jesus would have asserted his true identity as the Son of God by turning stones into bread, jumping off of the temple, or bypassing living out the self-giving love of God and jumping straight to being the master of all the kingdoms of this world. We can see it so clearly with Jesus, but it’s harder to do in our own lives, isn’t it?

How does Jesus pass these tests? The Spirit that led him into the wilderness was still present, revealing truth, reminding Jesus of His true identity as the beloved Son.

Can we trust that the Spirit is in us, too? With us? Guiding us? Teaching us? Leading us?

But the testing is not the only thing in our text today. Jesus also makes a move.

Leaves his hometown of Nazareth and settles in Capernaum. (Crosses the Jordan from

Fulfilling Isaiah’s words. Light dawning in the darkness.

‌And then Jesus begins to preach.

Jesus’ message here is the same one we heard last week from John. In the chapters that follow, we will get more of Jesus’ Word & Works. Jesus’ word or teaching - The Sermon on the Mount (chapters 5-7) and those are followed by His works - Ten Miracles recorded for us in chapters 8 & 9.

But don’t think that the sermon on the mount or his message at the end of our text today is the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. Sermons matter, for sure. But the public ministry of Jesus begins with Him identifying with His followers by being baptized among them. And then by demonstrating how to rely on and interpret scripture in a way that keeps us from falling for the decoys and distractions of false paths and fake ministry. ‌

Jesus begins to preach - and we see that his message is not going to be completely new and different from what has come before. There is continuity between John and Jesus. Between the old covenant and what Jesus will eventually describe as the new covenant. Something new is happening, yes. But not something disconnected from all that has preceded it.

Three things happen in our text today.

Jesus is tested.‌ He remains faithful… to His identity as the beloved Son, trusting that He is not what he does, what people think of him, nor what he has…but who the Father says He is… the same Father who will give him the name that is above every name. But not without walking the path of revealing to us what God is like. Love that gives itself away. Power not over, but to, with and for.

Jesus makes a (prophecy-fulfilling) move.

Jesus’ move away from “home territory” and taking up residence in the Gentile area of Galilee was also something we can assume the Spirit led Jesus to do.

And Jesus moves from His hometown to Galilee - from the familiar Jewish village of Nazareth to the mixed Jewish & Gentile Capernaum. On the sea of Galilee. A fishing village where we can imagine some of his would-be disciples were going about their fishing without any inkling of how their lives were about to be turned upside down.‌

‌Jesus preaches (a simple message).

And what is his message? What new revelation of God will Jesus speak??? Aren’t we all on tenterhooks? Tingling with anticipation? And his message is identitical to the one we heard his cousin preaching last week:

‌Repent! Change your hearts and lives!

Here comes the kingdom of heaven. God’s rule starts now.

And so, once again, we are invited to take a look at our orientation towards Jesus.

What direction are you facing this morning? What is your trajectory?

What is your next step? Do you need to unclench your fists? Turn around? Make a course correction? The kingdom is come near - Jesus is moving towards you. Will you move towards Him in response?

Where is the spirit leading you?

What move are you being led towards?

What message are you being invited to give?

what will you do with the power you have… power over, power to influence, power with/shared and power for…