Matthew 6

Temptation

Jesus has finally started His ministry and in a big way by being baptized and revealing the truth of the Trinity to those who witnessed it. Let’s move into chapter four and see where His next move is in His ministry.

Matthew 4:1 “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.”

Here we get into the temptation of Jesus. We will see how He was tempted and what His temptation can show us. On top of that, we will be able to see how He manages three different types of temptation that we will likely see in our lives today.

Look at the first temptation starting in verse two

Matthew 4:2-3 “And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.””

When We are Weak

Jesus was fasting in the wilderness meaning that He had not eaten for forty days. After that forty days He was extrordinarily hungry I am sure. Notice that Satan waits to begin tempting Him until that moment. The first temptation that we recieve is when our body is weak. In this momen Jesus’ earthly body was weakened and Satan knows that to corrupt a man of faith you need to wait until they are weakened somehow.

For Jesus here His weakened state is brought on by hunger, but that is not always the case with us. Our weakened state can be when we are grieving, hurting, sad, angry, or any range of things that cause us to become distracted. Maybe you are weaker when you hang out with certain people. Maybe when you go to a certain place, or maybe when you are alone. We all have something that can weaken us and keep us from thinking of what God would want us to do in a situation.

So what do we do? Look at Jesus’ response to the temptation in verse four

Matthew 4:4 “But he answered, “It is written, “ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ””

Jesus runs to scripture in His weakened state. He relies on its truths to help Him to avoid falling into the temptation. Not only that but the scripture He provides is one that tells us that our earthly desires are not to rule our lives.

We all have what scripture often describes as desires or passions of the flesh. This is meaning things that our body wants but are not always good for us in every circumstance. Our body is at war with The Spirit inside of us with our body telling us to do everything that is pleasing to us and The Spirit wanting us to do what is pleasing to God.

The passage from Deuteronomy that Jesus quotes tells us that it is not by bread alone that we will live. This means that it is not by only the things of earth that we can truly live. We need God and His word to truly live.

After hearing Jesus use scripture Satan himself decides to use scripture to give us our second form of temptation.

Matthew 4:5-6 “Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and “ ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’ ””

Attack on The Word

Satan is quoting from Psalm

Psalm 91:11-12 “For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.”

Satan is trying to twist scripture against God to tempt Jesus into putting God to the test.

There are two things that we get from this temptation. One is Jesus’ response in verse seven

Matthew 4:7 “Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ””

Jesus again fires back with scripture saying that we are not to test God. Sometimes when we see scripture or someone quotes scripture to us more often, we see some discrepencies. There are some places it seems to contradict itself. If God promises to protect us and not let us be harmed then why cant Jesus throw himself from the building? Why does it seem to say that we can do whatever we want and not get hurt but that we cant test it?

Well look back at Satans exact quote verses verse eleven in Psalm 91.

Notice that Satan left out the phrase in all your ways. The actual scripture tells us that God will protect those who are in His will. And when we read the whole chapter what it actually is saying is that God will keep true evil from happening to those who believe in Him. There may be trials and pain and suffering but all of that will be used for good. Evil simply for the sake of evil will not happen to us.

Satan tries to twist that scripture by omitting a few words to change it to mean bad things wont happen to Gods people.

Unfortunately, we live in a time where this lie and many others like it are told in churches across America today. A wave of what some call a “new Christianity” has been sweeping our nation. It is a wave of people claiming to be believers but they do not preach the whole truth. They only select the scriptures that make them feel good and happy, leaving the scripture that brings on conviction and repentance behind them.

The modern church in America has butchered God’s word to serve their own purposes. They claim that sin is merely a concept or analogy. That you can do whatever makes you happy.

You will run into this in your life. People who twist scripture to serve their own goal. It will be a temptation for you. We all have a wicked evil heart inside of us that does not want to serve God. We have sinful desires and there is a part in all of us that wants to change God’s word to allow the sin or our choosing to be permissable.

You will be tempted by yourself and others to read scripture in a way that allows for anything you could desire.

Seeing that Jesus wont cave to His human side and He cant be tricked Satan goes to his final temptation.

Matthew 4:8-9 “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.””

Empty Promises

Satan tries to tempt Jesus by offering the world to Him. Honestly, think a minute how silly this must have sounded to Jesus. Everything they are looking at that Satan is offering, the kingdoms, the glory, it was all made by Jesus. God created all of the people of Earth and the entire universe itself and Satan has the audacity to offer it to Him as though it belongs to him?

Jesus responds in verse 10

Matthew 4:10 “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.’ ””

Jesus tells Satan to get lost because He will never bow down to worship him. Jesus again goes to scripture reminding Satan of a lesson he never learned that it is only God that is deserving of worship and it is only God that we should serve.

We will be tempted in the same way. All we have to do is cave just a little in our morals and people offer us popularity, fame, money, pleasure. It is all offered to us at the cost of our worship and servitude. The world wants us to worship it. Satan wants us to worship him. And you may say that you would never do either of those things. That no one does those things maybe. We don’t see Satanic churches or churches dedicated to the world all over the place do we? Well no, but worship is not just singing songs together like we so often think. We worship by living our life for whatever it is we hold in that position. I worship God by doing my best to serve God in every decision that I make. Every moment of my day I am trying to worship God by doing what is pleasing to Him.

This is not something that I alone am exclusively doing, but all Christians whether they realize it or not are worshipping God with their daily actions. The world will try to pull you away and have you worship it with your action, doing what is pleasing to you or what helps you to fit in with everyone else. By submitting to the will of those around us we will be submitting to worshipping it.

So, with our three forms of temptations that we will face in life we see each time how Jesus responds to the temptation to keep from falling into it. What does this mean for us though and how can we be more like Him here.

First, here is the biggest thing that it means for us, He can relate. We serve a God that knows what it is like to be human. Of course God is perfect and all knowing so even if He hadn’t come to earth as a man He still would have understood us better than we understand ourselves, but it is made so much more apparant in the fact that He was tempted too. When we go through a temptation or we are struggling with a particular sin it is easy to feel alone. We feel like no one will understand and we have to face this by ourselves. God knows. He understands because He was also tempted by Satan himself and was able to resist because of His love for us. Remember when we are struggling with a sin that Jesus resisted for us out of love so we can return the favor and resist for Him out of love.

Second, is we know three of the main ways that Satan will attack us with temptation so we can be prepared for each situation.

We know that when our minds and bodies are weak that is when Satan is looking to make us stumble. So, avoid those situations as much as possible. If you know you are weak when you hang out with certain people then don’t be with them alone. Give yourself some accountability by adding other people to the situation. Maybe it’s when youre alone that youre weak. Avoid alone time spend time with friends and family that will keep you from temptation.

We can’t always avoid being weak. We are weak humans after all, it will happen eventually that you are left alone or you’re in a situation you do not want to be in. Make a plan for that. If it blindsides you then you will stumble, but if you already thought of this possibility and prepared for it then you are more likely to succeed. When temptation hits you pull up some scripture to read, listen to some worship songs, or maybe call a friend that you could talk to to distract you.

When scripture is twisted for the purpose of the world the best way to combat that is knowledge of scripture. People on social media especially are going to be lying to you and twisting Gods word. Make sure you are able to recognize something that does not line up with what you know to be true. If you are unfamiliar with what Gods word says then you will have no clue when it is being corrupted.

When the world makes you promises be assured that they are empty promises. The world literally has nothing to offer you. Satan has no right to offer anything to anyone because everything belongs to God. Only God can give you true joy and peace because only God is eternal. The world offers fame, money, popularity, or pleasure but all of those things go away. When you die you leave it all behind. But, a relationship with the eternal God of the universe? You keep that with you forever. That joy that He offers will never go away.

No matter how you are tempted in life keep this in mind.

1 Corinthians 10:13 “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.”

You are not alone.

You have the ability to fight.

God will provide a way out.