The Testing of Jesus Christ

Read Ephesians 6:10-13

Ephesians 6:10–13 NASB95

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.

Matthew 4:1-11

1. INTRODUCTION

2. BODY

a. Jesus encounters the tests (4:1-10)

i. Immediately after Jesus is baptized, he is led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. This is similar to Exodus 15:22 where Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and went into the wilderness of Shur and as they went into the wilderness, literally the desert, they found no water. When we think about the historical journey of the Israelites, we see a similarity between Jesus and Israel. Like Israel, they wandered for 40 years in the wilderness and Jesus was tested for 40 days in the wilderness. Like Israel, Jesus was tempted by hunger and like Israel, Jesus was tempted with idolatry.

ii. Deuteronomy 8:2-3 reminds Israel that the reason for His testing was to humble Israel, to test you to know what was in your heart whether your would keep His commandments or not. But the key is found in verse 3, where God says that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.

iii. Similar to how God tested Israel, Jesus was now testing Jesus. Verse 2 tells us that after 40 days of fasting, Jesus was now hungry. At this point, when Jesus was hungry and weak, the tempter came. Notice how the tempter knows exactly when we are weak. As he comes, he asks Jesus if you are the Son of God, command these stones become bread.

iv. A couple of points we want to consider is that the Spirit led Jesus to be tempted by the devil. The Spirit was allowing for this to happen and ware aware that Jesus was to be tempted. Another point to consider is that Jesus’s hunger tells us that He was fully human. It displays to us that He truly can understand how we feel because He truly did engage humanity as we see in this passage. He wasn’t God that He did not understand us. No, He understands everything in our humanity.

v. Verse 4, Jesus responds the first of three tests with a quote from Deuteronomy. The first statement is that Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 8:3. Jesus stating this verse tells us that Jesus knew He was being humbled by God and that God was testing Him by showing us that if the Son of Man would be tested this way, certainly, we would face the same struggles as Christ.

vi. What’s important for us to recognize is how we are to respond to life’s temptations. Ephesians 6:10-17 is important for us to consider as it tells us in verse 17 that we are to we are to take the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. It’s a reminder that if we are to combat the devil, we must use the Word of God. Just as Jesus responds in verse 4, verse 7, and verse 10, we too must combat the tempter with the Word of God.

vii. Verse 5, next, the devil takes Jesus to the holy city, we know from Luke 4:9 that the holy city here is Jerusalem. So he takes Jesus to the top of the temple and tells Him to throw Himself down, to kill Himself. We have to consider the context of what the devil is saying. In Mark 13:1-2, the disciples ask Jesus, what wonderful buildings? The temple was a massive building and the highest building in the whole city. When it says that the devil took Jesus to the top of the temple, he was able to oversee all of Jerusalem. and then quotes Psalm 91:11-12. What’s astounding here is that the Devil knows the Bible and quotes the Bible.

viii. Verse 7 Jesus responds the devil by telling the devil, that you shall not put the Lord your God to the test. Jesus again quotes Deuteronomy 6:16. Again, Jesus quotes the Bible and defends Himself by using the word of God. Again, the reminder for us is to tell us that whenever we face various trials, we are to remember the promises of God and to combat our minds and our hearts to trust in God.

ix. Verse 8, again, after failing to convince Jesus, the devil takes Jesus to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. He then asks Jesus that if He were to worship the devil, he would give him all the world. This is where Jesus responds in verse 10, by telling Satan, Go and quotes Deuteronomy 6:13. Jesus tells the devil that you shall only worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.

x. Similar to Israel, when Israel made a golden calf in Exodus 32, Satan challenges Jesus to make an idol. Satan is telling Jesus, your life is more important and if you are willing to save yourself, I will give you everything you want and more. It reminds us of Matthew 16:21-23. Choose to do what makes you happy.

xi. This sounds like what we deal with every day because we want to live comfortable lives and we want nice things in life. But Jesus tells Satan, leave. Be gone Satan. Not only are you to only worship the Lord your God, but Jesus tells us that we are to serve Him only. Nothing else is to master you or have mastery over you. Only God is your king.

b. God sustains the Son (4:11)

i. So in verse 11, the devil leaves Him and the angels came to minister and serve Jesus. What is fascinating is verse 10 where Jesus commands the devil to leave and in verse 11, we see the devil’s departure. Now, we can close this message but I wanted to deal with why are these Bible verses important?

ii. I think we can come to a lot of conclusions as to why it is important. These verses show us how unlike Israel, Jesus passed the test in the wilderness. It also tells us the biblical principle that God’s calling must be tested. These passages show us how all believers in Christ must deal with adversity. Lastly, these verses tell us how Jesus truly is the messiah. But how and why is that important to us?

iii. When we think about Jesus, what stands out about this? It is the reality that Jesus never disobeys the Father. In the first two instances, the devil tempts Jesus, what was the devil trying to do? The devil was trying to tell Jesus, if you truly are the Son of God, prove to me that you are the son of God by doing a miracle. Instead of trusting in God, find your own way to get yourself out of this struggle. But what we witness is exactly the opposite. Jesus doesn’t answer the devil by finding His own path. Rather, He submits to the Father by trusting in God.

iv. One of the most important lessons in life that I’ve learned over my Christian life is that God never tempts us. He tests us. Now how do we know the difference between a test and temptation? Most Bibles will label this section as the Temptation of Jesus. It’s odd that it phrases it this way because it says clearly in verse 1, by most translations that Jesus was being led by the Spirit to be tempted. Well James 1:13 tells us let no one say I am being tempted by God, for God does not tempt anyone. So if these two statements are true, they don’t make sense. They are contradictory (부정). In one Bible verse, it says God does not tempt and here in Matthew 4:1, it says that God the Holy Spirit led Jesus to be tempted.

v. I think we can say that God did not tempt Jesus but allowed the temptation so it doesn’t necessarily mean that God is doing the tempting. But when we look at the situation, what is the difference between a temptation and a test? The clear distinction between a temptation and test is the result. When we look at a problem, we don’t know what it is. But we will know what it was based upon our result, how we handled it. A temptation will cause us to fall away from God. We will lose trust in God. We will be hindered from seeing God’s goodness. But a test will cause us to draw closer to God because we will experience God’s goodness.

vi. When we look at each temptation, we see Jesus clearly had a choice. The devil was trying to convince Jesus that He should look out for His best interest, but Jesus kept submitting and trusting in God, by quoting the Word. He did not listen to the Devil, but rather, stated that God is the one who provides life and is in charge of our lives. Whatever the difficulty, Jesus reminds us that we are to trust God.

vii. And in the last test, when Satan tells Jesus to worship Him, Jesus reminds us that we should not love anything more than God. We are to only obey God. Again, the lessons we are to learn from this passage tell us that obedience is the true evidence of saving faith. Obedience through suffering is what Jesus displays here in Matthew 4. Therefore, just as our savior obeyed the Father, we are called to obey Him.

3. CONCLUSION