The Temptation of Jesus, Part 3
Matthew: The King and His Kingdom • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 40:30
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· 3 viewsAs a Christian, you must see the world as doomed and spared. Doomed because of the coming wrath of God yet spared for beauty in God’s love.
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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 I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”
Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’ ”
Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.
We are going to look at another temptation of Jesus today.
But I want us to see first that we in ourselves, have all followed the path of temptation and have failed.
The two temptations we have considered thus far was for Jesus to turn a stone into bread and leap from a building.
The first had everything to do with self-denial.
If Satan could get Jesus to misuse His power to turn a stone into bread for personal gain, then it would show He is just like us in His desires of the flesh.
We saw that Christ was a great victor, and by clinging to Him we can truly conquer.
Secondly, we saw Satan’s temptation for Jesus to leap from the building to prove that God loves Him.
By leaping from the building, Jesus would show that God really loves Him.
The problem with this was the Father already declared His love for the Son, so Jesus would need to disbelieve what God has already said.
We saw that as we drink from the fountain of Christ, we learn to fight with discernment and conviction.
How are we supposed to as Christian’s understand the world?
In some way’s it’s entirely appropriate to view the world, as God made it to be: GOOD.
God made the world and everything in it, the trees, the rocks, the animals, and all of it He pronounced GOOD.
How else does the Bible present the world?
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
The world is often spoken in biblical terms of being rebellious and the domain of the devil.
The world is also seen as the present evil age that we are supposed to stand in opposition to.
Galatians 1:4 (ESV)
who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,
As a Christian, I would contend that we need to view the world in two ways.
As a Christian, you must see the world as doomed.
As a Christian, you must see the world as doomed.
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 I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”
Now apart from Christ, we need to view the world this way but we also need to see ourselves as people who by nature are doomed.
Who by nature are under the curse of Adam.
Who by nature are “following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—” (Ephesians 2:2)
Who by nature are doomed and rest under the judgment and wrath of God.
We DON’T know how Satan allowed Jesus to see the whole world at once.
Whether it was through a vision or some other way...
But I want you to notice that phrase, “and their glory.”
Matthew 4:8 (ESV)
showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.
We often speak of the “glory of God” around here but we never consider the glory of anything else.
It can make us begin to think that nothing else has glory of any kind, but this is not the way the Bible speaks.
Matthew is presenting this test of Jesus as though Satan is tempting Him with a lesser glory, which is seen in the things of this world.
The “kingdoms of the world and their glory” are NOT the things that God has made.
Rather they are the things that MAN has made in his SINFULNESS.
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
Now God created the world and everything in it, but He did not create the kind of glory we are referring to here.
The kind of glory that Matthew tells us about here could be divided into three main categories.
Riches, Fame, and Pleasure.
Riches, Fame, and Pleasure.
Riches tell us, “If I just have all the money I could ever need, then all my problems will go away.”
Fame tells us, “If I act a certain way, then others will like me and then I’ll be significant.”
Pleasure tells us, “If I seek the pleasure of this world, that is where true happiness is found!”
Sometimes the way we as Christian’s speak of the world, we speak of it as though there really is no temptation at all happening here.
But we need to consider what the most elegant and glorious splendors the kingdom’s of this world have to offer.
Satan’s offer is he will give Jesus all of these things if Jesus would fall down and worship him.
The glory that Satan is offering Jesus here is only earthly glory.
And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”
The offer is...
Have the glory of this world or the glory of the Father.
Experience the glory of all that this world has to offer now or be obedient to your Father and seek His glory now.
Again, we see another bloodless path to God’s plan.
We need to remember that God’s plan is to give the nations to His Son.
Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.
The temptation is for Jesus to take now what He knows the Father has offered to Him.
The temptation is for Him to take what only the Father is giving.
To take it now would undermine the Father’s plan and usurp God’s purposes.
Satan knows it, the Son of God will have all the nations as His inheritance.
“Will He obtain it through the Father’s plan or Satan’s?”
“Will Jesus desire instant glory or the glory through the Father’s plan?”
This is the question in the balance.
Notice the passage that Jesus defends Himself again....
Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’ ”
For the first time Jesus calls him by name which is, “Satan” which can be translated as Accuser!
Jesus cites Deuteronomy 6:13 which is connected to a larger passage and says...
It is the Lord your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear.
You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you—
We are reminded back to the story of the Exodus when Moses went up the Mountain to receive the law of God.
The people went after other Gods.
When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”
And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”
When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.”
It’s NOT that the people were forsaking the LORD, they were trying to find an image to represent Him before them like the rest of the nations.
And this is idolatry.
Their desires to be like the rest of the nations happened in their crafting an animal from gold to represent YAHWEH to them.
This golden calf is the embodiment of Israel’s idolatry.
Doomed because of Disobedience
Doomed because of Disobedience
It is what would continue to happen to them in the land they inherit from God later.
Israel’s theology often could be described as “the end justifies the means.”
It would have sounded like, “We are still worshipping YAHWEH, we are just doing it like the rest of the nations.”
“We don’t need to worship the Lord as He prescribes, we can do it however we feel like.”
This leads them right into idolatry.
So when we hear Satan say to Jesus....
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 I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”
“Come on Jesus, you know the nations will be your inheritance! I’ll give it to you now if you just give me your allegiance”
Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did.
We see in Israel a kind of patterning that all humanity has followed.
Everyone has entered into this pathway of doom, because everyone finds themselves as disobedient.
We are NOT disobedient because we are doomed, we are doomed because of our disobedience.
Doomed because of Distrusting God
Doomed because of Distrusting God
Exodus—Saved for God's Glory (Sin is Distrust)
The..cause of the sin of the golden calf was Israel’s impatience with God, their unwillingness to trust in his timing.
Not only could they NOT trust God’s timing....
They were placing their trust in a man, Moses.
Exodus—Saved for God's Glory Sin is Distrust
They were counting on a man to save them. This too is sin: trusting anyone or anything else to do what God alone can do.
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 I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”
“Come on Jesus, are you even sure that God is going to give you the nations anyway?”
“How can you really trust that He will give the nations to you? I am offering you a ‘foolproof’ plan of having the nations!”
Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.
Exodus—Saved for God's Glory Sin is Distrust
We get impatient for God to heal us or provide for our needs. We get impatient for him to bring spiritual change, either in our own lives or in the lives of others. We get impatient for him to lead us out of the wilderness. But sometimes, for our own benefit, God doesn’t want to bring us out of the wilderness.
Doomed because of Distorting God’s Purposes
Doomed because of Distorting God’s Purposes
Aaron’s mentality in the wilderness was “If I can’t ‘beat ‘em’, then I guess I’ll ‘join ‘em’”
He knew that it was wrong to create the calf in the wilderness to represent God to the people.
But rather than pushing against the people’s desires, he gave in.
He gave in to their desire for a god they could “see”
And this is exactly the temptation that Satan lays before Jesus....
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 I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”
“Don’t worry, you can obtain God’s plans another way. A quicker, easier way.”
“Come on Jesus, you know the nations will be yours, just take them in a way that seems best to you!”
Now we give into this every time we
Application for Children
Every time we allow our friends to pressure us into doing something we KNOW is wrong.
Every time we KNOW we are supposed to listen to parents but DON’T.
We sin just like Israel in the wilderness.
Application for Adults
Every time you
Application for New Christians
Every time you
Application for the Church
We pray for revival in our churches every week.
But what happens if it doesn’t come in the way we think it will?
We can try to abandon the faith and seek God’s blessing some other way.
We can try to distrust God’s purposes and begin to get impatient that we aren’t growing like we want.
As a Christian, you must see the world as doomed and spared. Doomed because of the coming wrath of God yet spared for beauty in God’s love.
The world is doomed because they have all bowed the knee the Satan.
The world is doomed because they have all sought the glory of this world over the glory of God.
The world is doomed because God’s wrath is coming against sin.
BUT when we hear Jesus saying...
Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’ ”
As a Christian, you must see the world as spared.
As a Christian, you must see the world as spared.
What are we spared from?
Spared of the Satan’s Reign
Spared of the Satan’s Reign
Those who have placed their trust in Jesus, can confidently say that they are no longer a slave to Satan.
Listen to how Jesus describes this reality for His followers.
When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are safe;
Now that “strong man” is NOT Jesus in this example, it is actually Satan.
He is the strong man in this example and he is guarding his goods and protecting it.
but when one stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil.
Now Jesus is the STRONGER ONE.
He is the ONE who attacks the strong man and plunders his goods.
Luther used to say that a person is either a slave to Christ or a slave to Satan.
“Thus the human will is placed between the two like a beast of burden. If God rides it, it wills and goes where God wills....If Satan rides it, it wills and goes where Satan wills...” -Martin Luther
To be a Christian for Luther meant that Christ has removed Satan from the back of the Christian and NOW directs the will.
So when we hear Satan tempting Jesus with...
Matthew 4:9–10 (ESV)
“All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”
Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’ ”
We need to hear Jesus binding the STRONG MAN!
How did Christ spare us?
Spared by Christ despising the world’s glory.
Spared by Christ despising the world’s glory.
Christ had to first look at the glory of the world that the devil showed Him, and turn away from.
Jesus looked at the glories of this world and rejected them.
He turned away from the glories of this world and despised them.
For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.
For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?
Spared by seeking the Father’s glory.
Spared by seeking the Father’s glory.
Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’ ”
We need to hear our brave conquerer overcoming!
We need to hear our brave champion overcoming when we have failed!
We need to hear our brave hero overcoming the evil One on our behalf.
Where Israel failed, Jesus has succeeded.
Where you and I have failed, Jesus has overcome!
Christ sought the glory of God more than all of the glory this world could offer Him.
All of the best and most glorious things in this world could NOT allure the Son of God away from the glory of God.
Christ looked at the glory that this world had to offer and trusted and believed that God’s glory was greater.
He was more deserving, more beautiful than all the glory this world could ever offer Him.
I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.
And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
For Jesus to seek His Father’s glory was to maximally seek God above everything else.
When He did this, He was faithful and obedient to the Father’s plan for the world which was for Him to send Jesus.
We must never view fighting sin as though we are missing out on the party.
We must always see fighting sin as it is, pursuing a greater glory.
For the Christian, the key to obedience is desiring a greater glory.
We need to see sin as it is, a lesser glory.
We need to see God for as He is, a GREATER glory!
Notice what happens in verse 11...
Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.
The devil leaves the Lord Jesus and God provides for Him in the wilderness through the angels.
Jesus refused to be fed by the devil but now was providentially provided by angels.
Jesus refused to throw Himself from the temple to prove God’s love for Him, but now is shown God’s love through angels ministering to Him.
Jesus refused to bow in worship to Satan to gain His kingdom, but now fulfills Scripture by ministering to others and announcing God’s kingdom.
Now when we become Christians, the unrighteous are made in righteous in the blood of Jesus spilled for sinners.
Sinners are made righteous because of the work of God in our lives, but then why does God not just “ZAP” us out of here?
What are we spared for?
Spared for Beauty
Spared for Beauty
“Sinners are beautified as they behold the beauty of God in Jesus Christ.”
- Dane Ortlund
By beauty, I mean that we are spared for holiness.
God has a purpose in delivering us from temptation and it terminates in worship.
It finds it’s greatest end in our holiness which is beautiful.
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.
But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.
If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.
We can rejoice when trials come upon us because Christ has overcome us.
We can rejoice because as we resist the fiery trials, we are making clear the holiness that God has worked in us.
No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.
As a Christian, you must see the world as doomed and spared. Doomed because of the coming wrath of God yet spared for beauty in God’s love.