Members Will Be Tempted
Notes
Transcript
ME: Intro
ME: Intro
I want to start this morning,
Sharing about a helpful book written by Russell Moore called Tempted and Tried.
I’ll reference it a couple times this morning.
But I first want to share a pretty vivid illustration Moore uses to describe temptation.
He says temptation is similar to the way the major beef companies slaughter cows.
He explains how for a long time,
They used to forcefully push and prod cows into the slaughter house.
But because the cows resisted,
The whole operation was extremely difficult.
So, they have come up with a much more efficient way to slaughter cows.
They make them feel comfortable,
So, they willingly enter the slaughter house.
Cows are quietly led up this ramp,
Through what is called a squeeze chute,
Which replicates the comforting touch of a mother.
This immediately puts them in a peaceful state of mind,
Where they follow this wide meandering path,
Which gives them a sense that they are moseying home.
In this contented state,
They walk themselves right onto a conveyor belt,
That subtly lifts them up,
When...
BAM!
This heavy blunt instrument drops right between the eyes.
And now they are ready to become dinner.
That is how temptation works on us.
Last week,
We saw the start of Jesus’ public ministry with His baptism.
Then, Matthew jumps straight from His baptism to His temptation.
This is a relatively familiar passage.
You may be able to rattle off all three temptations,
And Christ’s responses to each.
But the danger with this familiarity is that we might miss how crucial this passage is to our own battle against sin.
Part of our mission as Christ’s members is to grow in Christlikeness.
But there is a spiritual battle that is seeking to attack this growth.
And temptation is one of the most effective weapons used against us.
So, there is a close tie between the temptations Jesus faces and the spiritual battle we are fighting.
Matthew 4:1-11 reveals that Members Will Be Tempted in this world.
Slide
And as 1 John 2:16 says,
For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.
Temptations do not come from things that seem bad.
Or they would not be tempting!
Temptations come from good things in this world,
The things we desire.
They come from the world,
Enter through our eyes,
Infiltrate our minds,
Then settle in our heart.
This may not have been an intentional progression of temptations for Jesus.
Slide
But this track makes a natural outline for our passage;
Temptations of the Eyes (vs. 1-4)
Temptations of the Mind (vs. 5-7)
Temptations of the Heart (vs. 8-11)
Jesus gives the blueprint for the battle,
And He gives His body & blood for the battle.
Slide
On the screen I have 5 realities that provide greater depth and background to this passage.
That there is a spiritual world,
In it, is a spiritual war.
Our enemy in this war is formidable.
The stakes are eternal and the scope is universal.
And our involvement is personal.
For times sake,
I am not going to go into them this morning.
But I will post an article on our Facebook page this week that goes into a little more depth about these 5 realities.
For now, I will simply summarize them this way,
As humans,
We must be aware of the spiritual war that is going on around us!
Because we are all part of a people where every person has succumbed to to the temptation to sin.
Slide
But there is one human who is the exception.
One Whom Satan has no control over,
One Whom never succumbed to sin and temptation,
One Who overcame death,
Jesus Christ.
Because of Jesus,
We do not have too great a fear of Satan!
Although Satan is stronger than all our cumulative strength,
And he is an aggressive force that we must always be on guard against,
Christ has already fought our battle and triumphed over him.
Therefore, Christ’s members are guaranteed to triumph over him as well.
As 1 John 4:4 says,
Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
WE: Temptation of the flesh (vs. 1-4)
WE: Temptation of the flesh (vs. 1-4)
Slide
Now that we have this understanding,
Let’s turn our attention to vs. 1-4,
Where Satan uses temptations of the eye.
Ch. 4 begins with Jesus being led by the Spirit into the wilderness.
And it says the reason for this is for Jesus to be tempted by the devil.
Like all other humans before Jesus,
And all other humans after Him,
Jesus faces temptations from the devil.
And we see all throughout the Bible,
How the devil tempts humans by questioning God.
In the Garden,
He asked,
“Did God really say...”
For Jesus,
He asks,
“If you are really the Son of God...”
So, Jesus is stepping into the same story as Adam and Eve,
He is stepping into the same story as the nation of Israel,
And He is stepping in the same story as us.
The tempts Christ,
Just as he tempts Christ’s members.
But if the Spirit led Jesus to be tempted.
Does this mean God is the source of temptation?
Understandable question,
One that the Bible very clearly answers.
Slide
James 1:13 says,
Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.
So, no,
God is not the source of temptation,
Satan is.
Satan is the tempter.
But God, in His sovereignty,
Allows Satan and his demons to tempt us.
Job teaches us that Satan is essentially on a leash.
The picture is like a vicious junkyard dog,
He has the capacity to do great damage,
But he cannot do anything that God does not allow him to do.
Like a junkyard dog has one simple goal,
When Satan tempts,
He intends it for evil, harm, and destruction.
But the reason God allows this,
Is because He uses Satan’s evil intentions to refine us,
And to teach us greater faithfulness.
Slide
You see,
When we overcome temptation,
We are strengthened and encouraged by the victory.
But when we succumb to temptation,
We are made more aware of our need for further sanctification and grace.
To which God says,
Though our sins are great,
His mercy is more!
So, we can definitively say,
God was not tempting Jesus,
Nor does God ever tempt us.
When it comes to temptation,
Satan is the source.
But the sovereign God allows it,
For our sanctification.
So, we know Satan was tempting Jesus to sin here.
And I am sorry to ruin the ending,
But Jesus doesn’t sin.
So, this brings up another important question.
Could Jesus have sinned?
What do you guys think?
Thumbs up if you think yes,
Thumbs down if you think no.
Technically, it seems like everyone is right,
The answer is no…but yes.
This is kind of confusing,
Slide
So, let us look to Scripture to help us understand.
First, we have already talked about how Jesus is fully human.
He was as much a human as you and I.
So, Satan tempts Jesus’ humanity.
And what happened?
Heb. 4:15 says,
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
So, because of His human nature,
Christ knows what it is to endure human temptation.
But unlike us,
Christ does not know what it is like to sin,
Because He never sinned.
So, perhaps you might be tempted to wonder,
Then how can Christ truly sympathize with my temptations?
Which would be a backwards way of looking at this.
Hebrews is teaching us that Christ has persevered against the force of temptation more than any of us ever have!
I have used this illustration before,
But I am going to use it again,
Because it is just so helpful in understanding this.
Picture temptation as a gale force wind blowing against you every moment of every day,
Working against every step toward righteousness you take.
Throughout your life,
There are moments when that force becomes too much.
Your tired,
Your face is chapped from the wind,
Your whole body feels heavy,
While your legs are weak and wobbly.
So, you can’t take it anymore.
You stop walking against the wind.
You tell yourself,
“You just need to rest for a moment,
Regain your strength,
God will understand, you have made a lot of progress!”
You just need the unrelenting pressure of the wind to subside for a moment.
But that moment you stop,
Is the moment you succumb to temptation.
And perhaps it truly is a brief moment of weakness.
So, you quickly get back to your feet and continue marching against the wind.
Or perhaps,
That break feels really good.
And the thought of trying to walk against the wind is just so unappealing.
So, you stay and rest just a little while longer.
You give into your temptation a little bit more.
And that brief moment of weakness quickly becomes an extended comfort.
Then you begin to wonder if sitting here feels this good,
How would it feel to actually walk with the wind instead of against it.
So, you get back on your feet,
But you take a timid step…or two…or three,
And you feel the wind motivating you in this direction,
And it feels good!
You begin to convince yourself why this was the right way all along,
So, you pick up your pace,
And before long,
You are running full speed away from righteousness,
Fully committing yourself to the temptations of evil.
Clueless to the reality,
That the wind is blowing you toward the slaughter house,
And you are running full speed ahead to your own death.
You and I have all succumbed to that force of temptation.
But because Jesus is without sin,
He never has.
Jesus spent every moment of His life marching against that wind.
He never once stopped to rest,
Not even for a moment.
Jesus knows what the force of temptation feels like.
In fact, He knows it more than any of us,
Because He never got a break from that unrelenting force.
So, no matter how painful temptation feels to you,
Jesus knows,
He has felt it too,
He can sympathize with you in that pain.
And the beauty of the gospel,
Is that He does not condemn you when you succumb to those temptations.
In fact, it is just the opposite.
In His grace,
He gives you His Spirit.
So, that when you feel the force of temptation wearing you down,
And it feels like you couldn’t possibly take another step.
He takes your burden upon Himself,
And lifts you up on wings like eagles,
So, that you can walk,
And not grow weary,
So, that you can run,
And not grow faint!
Jesus has been tempted in every way as you and I because He was fully man.
But the Bible also teaches that Jesus is fully God.
And we already read in James 1:13 that God is not tempted by evil.
Slide
So, Jesus is fully man Who was tempted,
But Jesus is fully God who cannot be tempted.
How exactly these truths work together is a mystery.
So, I’d like to borrow another vivid illustration from Russell Moore that might help wrap our minds around this.
He says to think of the person that you love the most in this world.
Picture their face.
Do, you have their picture in your mind?
Now ask yourself,
Could I murder this person?
Immediately, you think,
Absolutely not!
Never!
Which is both true and not true.
Morally speaking,
Of course you could not murder that person.
But literally and physically speaking,
You physically could do that.
Kind of a dark illustration,
But it is helpful.
Because Jesus, as God, could not sin,
Because morally speaking,
He is incapable of sin.
But in the same sense,
Literally and physically speaking,
As human, He was capable of sinning.
But if Jesus was fully God,
Why would He submit Himself to the temptations of humanity?
Slide
Heb. 2:17 says,
Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
As a human who never sinned,
He is able to pay the price for all our sins.
And as God who could not sin,
He is able to overcome the consequence of sin.
It is important to understand this,
As we look at how Satan tempts Jesus.
Slide
In vs. 2,
It says Jesus had not eaten for 40 days,
As a spiritual discipline,
An act of worship,
And an expression of reliance on the Father.
So, to say Jesus is hungry is a bit of an understatement.
Right from the start,
This is clearly meant to allude to the nation of Israel in the wilderness.
Israel wandered in the desert for 40 years,
One year for each day they spied out the promised land.
Slide
God explains His reason in Deut. 8:2-3,
And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
So, Israel’s wilderness testing foreshadowed Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness.
Slide
It is not just the OT allusion that is important here.
But the physical reality of Jesus’ hunger matters as well.
Because Christ is physically weak from hunger,
And Satan pounces in this moment of weakness.
Tempting Jesus by attacking Him as God’s Son.
Remember, at the end of ch. 3,
The Father declared from heaven that Jesus is His beloved Son.
Satan knows this,
Which is why He attacks this declaration.
So, Satan offers a temptation of the eye,
Ordering Jesus to prove that He is God’s Son by turning these stones to bread,
And satisfying His hunger.
Satan is clearly trying to tempt Jesus to doubt the Father.
“If you really are God’s beloved Son,
Why are you out here in the wilderness starving?
You want food, don’t you?
Well, if Your Father is not providing for you,
Not caring for you,
Then just satisfy your own desire right now.”
It is kinda easy to wonder,
Where is the harm in that, right?
Jesus creates food on other occasions.
So, why would it be a problem here?
First of all,
When Jesus creates food on other occasions,
He does not do it for His own benefit.
So, if He were to do it here,
It would be a self serving misuse of His power.
Secondly, and more importantly,
His actions would demonstrate that He is not trusting in the Father’s provisions,
And it would be an act of disobedience.
Slide
Instead, Jesus had unwavering trust in the Father’s care.
Even with a temptation of the eye,
We see the track that connects straight to the heart.
Because when we see something we want,
We are tempted to fulfill that want apart from God’s will.
We all have natural,
God-designed desires.
And these desires are good.
But God designed us to look to Him to satisfy those desires.
Again, think of the Garden of Eden.
God made trees for Adam and Eve to eat from,
But Satan suggested that God was withholding good from them,
So, they looked at the apple,
And they wanted it.
They fulfilled their desire apart from God’s will.
This is the same temptation of the eye that we have.
We have good, God-given desires:
Food, water, sleep, intimacy, relationships, etc.
So, this is where Satan goes to work.
He takes your desire for food and tempts you toward gluttony or bulimia.
He takes your desire for sleep and tempts you toward apathy or laziness.
He takes your desire for intimacy and tempts you toward lust or adultery.
At the core of all of these temptations,
Satan says that God is not providing for you the way you want,
Look around,
And you can see countless ways to gratify your needs and wants without Him.
If you are a member of Christ’s body,
You are His!
This does not mean you will never desire something contrary to God’s will,
You will fight these temptations your entire life.
Slide
But day after day,
Year after year,
We can look to the blueprint for battle Jesus gives us here.
When He was hungry,
He did not look at the temptations of the eye,
He trusted the Father according to God’s Word,
Quoting Deut. 8:3,
Which we read earlier.
So, we must likewise trust God to fulfill our desires according to His Word.
Which means we trust that God is good,
And any attempt to satisfy our wants apart from Him will lead us to our own destruction.
As soon as Adam and Eve ate the fruit,
They realized what they had done.
Everything around them,
Everything within them,
Changed for the worse.
The desire they thought they were satisfying led them to the slaughterhouse.
There are no exceptions for us!
This will always be the case!
Only God ultimately satisfies us!
So, we must trust in the goodness of the Father.
Jesus does not need to turn rocks into bread.
Because He is confident the Father will provide for Him.
A confidence based on God’s Word.
Slide
So, Jesus’ blueprint for battle:
Wield the Word of God,
Which Ephesians 6 says is the Sword of the Spirit.
The Bible is how God reveals Himself to us.
None of us would know the truth about God,
Nor be able to relate to Him in a personal way,
If He had not first acted to make Himself known through His Word.
The Bible is His testimony.
It is all about Him!
We must be incredibly grateful that He has given us this miraculous gift!
And we base our trust,
And our entire life upon it!
Because the Bible gives us eyes of faith,
Empowering us to see through the temptations of the Eye.
GOD: Temptation of Self-Protection (vs. 5-7)
GOD: Temptation of Self-Protection (vs. 5-7)
Slide
But Satan is not done yet.
In vs. 5-7,
He presents a temptation of the mind.
In vs. 5,
The devil sets Jesus on the highest point of the temple.
This was likely on the edge of the Kidron Valley,
Which was an enormous drop,
Approximately several hundred feet high.
If you were to fall off,
There is no doubt you would die.
It is from here,
Satan gives perhaps the most difficult temptation to understand,
Tempting Jesus to jump off a cliff.
I remember when I was a kid,
And I did something foolish with my friends.
I would always try to blame one of them.
And my mom always came back with the line;
If they jumped off a bridge too,
Would you do it?
Common sense says, ‘no.’
But as a child,
You at least would consider it.
Not necessarily for the sake of jumping off,
But to test how much I could get away with from my mom.
To jump paints me as the poor misled victim.
And that is similar to the idea of Satan’s temptation here.
The temptation is not ultimately about jumping off a cliff.
That is why the devil uses God’s Word to tempt Jesus here.
He rips two verses from Psalm 91 out of context.
Psalm 91 is all about trusting in God’s protection.
It declares that God is a refuge and fortress,
Who delivers you from the snare and deadly pestilence,
Whose faithfulness is a shield,
Who holds fast to you in love,
Who knows your name,
Who is with you in trouble,
Who rescues and honors you,
Who satisfies you with long life,
And shows you His salvation.
That is what Psalm 91 is about.
But Satan uses it,
Not to trust God,
But to test God!
Which is a perfect example of abusive manipulation.
Satan does not want you to live by faith,
He wants you to live by the delusion that you are in control.
He does this,
By abusing and manipulating God’s Word,
Tempting you to do the same.
This is what makes temptations of the mind so difficult.
Just because someone is using God’s Word,
Does not mean they are using it in truth.
This is why we must be wise and humble with the way we use God’s Word.
Because we are capable of using it the way Satan uses it here.
Using it for our own control,
Rather than using it in truth,
And trusting God.
Slide
Jesus’ reply in vs. 7 gets at the core of this temptation,
He quotes Deut. 6:16,
Which says not to put God to the test.
Deut. 6 refers back to Exodus 17,
When Israel,
In their anger and thirst,
Put God to the test by demanding God to provide more water,
Making is miraculously flow from a rock.
Their test proved that they did not trust in God.
And that they wanted to be in control.
This is the same temptation of the mind we face.
We question God because we lack trust in Him.
We test God because we want to be in control.
And we will manipulate and abuse God’s Word to do it.
That is what Satan was tempting Jesus to do.
To take control,
And force God the prove that He would protect Jesus,
If Jesus would willingly jump off this cliff.
It is an incredibly arrogant thing to do.
To try and control God,
Demand Him to prove that He is God to us!
This kind of callous control clearly shows we do not trust God.
Satan tempts us to abuse God’s Word for our own personal preferences,
To question God’s plans for us when they don’t go according to our plans,
To doubt His love for us the second things go wrong,
To demand Him to give us a sign,
To prove His faithfulness to us,
And to complain when we don’t feel like we are in control.
This is what Satan was tempting Jesus to do.
And had Jesus succumbed,
It would indicate that His faith was frail,
And He would only trust the Father if He was in control.
Trusting God does not mean He has to prove Himself according to your standards.
That is not trust.
Slide
So, once again,
Jesus gives us the blueprint for battle,
Showing us how to rest in God’s unshakeable security.
He knew He had no reason to test the Father.
He knew He had no reason to worry.
He knew that if the Father cares for the flowers of the field and the birds of the air,
Then surely,
The Father cares for Him.
Everything God does in our lives is for good.
True faith knows this.
And true faith perseveres through hard times.
Looking ahead to the cross,
Jesus’ tormentors similarly said,
“If you are the Son of God,
Come down from the cross.”
And like He does here,
Jesus trusts the Father,
Even as whips peeled the flesh from His body,
Even as nails were being driven through His limbs,
Even when He could no longer continue breathing,
And He succumbed to death.
He still trusted the Father instead of testing the Father.
This trust guards you from temptations of the mind.
YOU: Temptation of Self-Exaltation (vs. 8-12)
YOU: Temptation of Self-Exaltation (vs. 8-12)
Slide
In the final temptation,
We once again see the track from eyes to the heart,
With Satan presenting the temptation of the heart.
In vs. 8,
The Devil shows Jesus all the splendors of the world,
And says,
I will give it all to you,
If you bow down and worship me.
The irony of this is that although Satan does exercise authority over the world,
It ultimately belongs to God,
And God promises to give it to His Son.
So, Satan is offering to give to Jesus,
What the Father has already said is rightfully His.
But Satan knows this.
So, there is an important difference to Satan’s offer here.
He is saying Jesus can have it right now,
Without ever having to go to the cross.
The Devil was essentially telling Jesus,
“You are the Son,
You should be King!
Not a servant!
Why go and be crucified?
This is all yours,
Go ahead, take it!”
This is the temptation of the heart,
Worshiping Satan instead of God.
This is precisely what Satan whispers in our ears.
All temptations offer something desirable.
Satan points to these things,
Success, accomplishment, pleasure, or possessions.
He says,
“Go! Get them now! They are yours for the taking!”
Going back to the Garden once again,
For Adam and Eve,
He told them they would be like God!
And in their heart,
That is what they wanted more than worshiping God.
All temptations force you to make a choice.
And here in this final temptation,
Satan unmasks these choices,
Revealing that every temptation comes to the heart,
Where we must decide who we will worship.
Every temptation offers you something good in the moment,
All it takes is worshiping Satan instead of worshiping God.
We all face temptations of the heart.
But we keep the mask on,
So, that we keep ourselves from seeing it as worshiping Satan and self.
Unaware that in doing so,
We are robbing God of His rightful worship.
Instead of a simple and humble and admittedly difficult obedience to God.
In our pride,
We seek to attain what we want in the way we want and when we want it.
This pride is at the root of all our rebellion.
And we all struggle with this temptation of the heart.
So, it is all too easy for Satan to offer us the throne of this world,
At the tiny expense of dethroning God in our own heart.
Our only hope against this temptation is Jesus.
Jesus, the beloved Son,
Demonstrates the supreme duty of worshipping the Father,
Knowing that humbling Himself before the Father,
Exalts God,
And paves the way to partake of His glory.
But how did Jesus do this?
Not by sinfully submitting to Satan for the world.
By by His suffering obedience to the Father’s will,
That ended with His death on the cross for us.
But in the end,
Jesus received all the kingdoms of the world,
And all glory!
Slide
So, our passage ends by foreshadowing this glorious victory.
First, demonstrating the authority of Jesus,
When He forcefully says,
“Be gone, Satan!
Go away!
Get out of here!”
Then quotes Scripture one final time,
Saying you shall only worship and serve God.
Then, vs. 11 says,
The devil had no choice but to obey Jesus.
Because Jesus is greater.
Satan lost,
Just like he loses when Jesus rises from the grave.
And behold, it says,
The Father sends angels to come and care for Jesus,
To provide for Jesus,
To serve Jesus.
Just as Jesus trusted the Father to do.
Satan is a strong enemy.
He does rule in this world.
But Jesus shows here,
And He teaches in Matthew 12:29,
That He has come into the world,
Into Satan’s house.
And He has bound up Satan,
Conquered Satan,
And He is plundering Satan’s house,
Taking the most valuable things in this world,
The image-bearers of God.
You, and me,
And all members of Christ’s body.
So, the final blueprint Jesus gives:
Trust the Father is greater than temptations.
WE: Conc.
WE: Conc.
In closing,
It is important we understand,
Christ does not just give us the blueprint for battle here.
Because even with the blueprint,
Satan has successfully tempted us all to bow down and worship Him.
But that is not the case with Jesus.
Jesus resists all of Satan’s temptations.
So, the gospel teaches that where we all fail,
Jesus is faithful.
Every “no” Jesus says to Satan,
Is a “yes” to the cross.
By His great strength and incredible faithfulness,
Jesus silences Satan by going to the cross,
Paying for our sin with His life,
Then rising from the grave in power and victory and glory!
So, yes, Jesus gives the blueprint for the battle.
But as members of His body,
We will still be tempted.
So, even more than the blueprint,
Jesus gives His body and His blood for the battle.
By it, we have victory over temptation,
Over sin and Satan,
And over death.
All because Jesus is faithful.
Pray.