Power in the Pulpit | Matthew 4:1–11

Intro: Thank you Leighton for leading us tonight. If you have your bible with you tonight, please turn to Matthew 4. We are going to be looking at verses 1-11. When I was in high school I took several psychology classes. One of the things we did was look at these different psychological studies. One of the studies that we looked at was the delayed marshmellow study. What happened was children were given one marshmellow. They were told that the adult was going to leave the room, if they did not eat it while the adult was gone, they could have two marshmellows when the adult returned. It turned out that the results were inconclusive. But you can suggest that there were some that were able to play the long game. They were able to wait out the 15 minutes, and get a second marshmellow when the person returned. But for some the temptation was too great and they gave in. Do you ever feel like every day is the marshmellow experiment. Every day temptation looks you in the eye. Every day you have to make a decision of instant gratification, or resisting temptation and doing what God would have you to do. How are you suppose to handle that temptation. Tonight we will see that Jesus resisted temptation while standing on the word of God. If you would, please stand with me as we honor the reading of God’s Word.

Matthew 4:1-4.

Exposition: So verse one picks up right after the baptism of Jesus. Remember, Jesus is baptized in the Jordan by John the Baptist and the Holy Spirit comes upon him and the Father says that he is well pleased with His Son. That is where our passage starts. It starts in verse one where Matthew writes Matthew 4:1 “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” So Jesus after his Baptism is led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness. This is pretty interesting if you think about it. Jesus is Himself God. He is God the Son. Then, God the Spirit, guides God The Son into the desert. Even though they are equals, Jesus is following the guidance of the Holy Spirit in his time on earth. Each is fulfilling His role. Jesus is no longer only God, HE is also human. So he is allowing Himself to be led by the Spirit in the same way we should. He doesn’t get any special treatment either. It didn’t lead him to a resort or a super fancy town. It led him into the wilderness. And what happened while he was in the wilderness, he was tempted by the devil.

Explanation: The word devil in Greek is diabolos means accuser. In Hebrew the word is Satan. They mean the same thing. There are two things we have to address here that can be a little confusing. The first, is why did this occur right after Jesus’ Baptism. Shouldn’t this have been the time when everything was going right in Jesus’ life, why is it now that he is being led into the wilderness. Why is it that now he is going to be tempted. Think about this, Jesus has just communed with both other members of the Trinity. He is getting ready to embark on his special ministry. He has also in the wilderness with nobody but Him and His prayers to the Father. His relationship with God is in a great place. The devil doesn’t want that.

Application: The same thing is going to be true in your life at times. A lot of our toughest Spiritual trials will not come at the bottom of our Spiritual ebb and flow. It’s going to come at the top. Think about this, who is Satan going to be naturally more worried about, somebody that can make a difference for God’s kingdom or somebody that doesn’t care about God’s Kingdom. Exactly, and there are going to be times in your life that you are walking faithfully with God, and temptation will come out of nowhere in a way it hasn’t come before. Don’t be surprised, that is when the devil most wants you to fall.

Explanation: Second, the Holy Spirit, who we know to be God, let Jesus into the Wilderness where he was tempted. But it was the devil that tempted him. Is God responsible for temptation? The answer to that is no. God is not responsible for temptation.James 1:13 says James 1:13 “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.” God has no evil or sin in him. So he cannot tempt us to evil. But that does not mean he does not allow it to happen. That does not mean that he is not in control. No, God will allow our testing through temptation. Why is that James 1:3 says James 1:3 “for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.” God will allow us to endure temptation so that our faith can be tested and we will therefore grow in our faith.

Exposition: So what did this temptation look like? Matthew tells us. He says in verse 2 Matthew 4:2 “And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.” Jesus had been in the wilderness fasting, meaning he went without eating, for forty days. Now I went to Equip with some of you. I felt like every two hours I was getting asked about the next meal. Jesus went 40 days without eating. So Matthew kind of states the obvious here. I love how he words this. Matthew 4:2 “And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.” He’s like, just in case some of you might not be able to make this assumption on your own for some reason. He went 40 days without eating. He was hungry. All of this is significant. One, it is significant because this book was written to a Jewish audience. The people of Israel were in the wilderness for 40 years. They did not handle temptation without sin. Moses, on two different occasions, he fasted for 40 days. Then, and I don’t even know if Matthew would have had this information available to him, but 40 days is about how long somebody can fast without doing permanent bodily harm to his or herself. Jesus had not just fasted, he has FASTED. But why does one fast, it is to take the time to be with God. Instead of using that time to eat, one will pray. Whenever one feels hunger pains, that person focuses on their need for God. And that’s what Jesus had been doing for 40 days. And it was probably a spiritually rich time for him. But he was hungry. So what did the devil do. He used that hunger to try and tempt Jesus. Verse 3 says, Matthew 4:3 “And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”” The wording that is used in the original language does not imply that Satan has any doubt on Jesus being the Son of God. It implies more like, “then do what the Son of God can do.” You see there was a famous relationship with God’s people and rocks in the wilderness. On two different occasions when the people of God were in the wilderness, God brought forth water from a rock for them to drink. Satan is telling Jesus to do the same thing.

Explanation: Why is that so bad? Why would it have been so bad for Jesus to turn the rocks into bread if he was hungry. Remember, it was the Holy Spirit that led Jesus into the wilderness to fast. It doesn’t matter how hungry Jesus was and what his powers were. His call was to live as a human and part of that was that he was went into the wilderness by God the Spirit. To shortcut that and not do what The Spirit led him to do would be disobedient.

Application: You notice how satan doesn’t come and try tempt Jesus by challenging him to create a new weight loss routine. He’s not tempting him with anything that doesn’t have anything to do with his current situation. No, Jesus is hungry, so satan tempts him by trying to get him to make bread out of stones when he is in the desert hungry. James 1:14 says James 1:14 “But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.” Satan uses our own desires to entice us into doing what we shouldn’t. Being hungry is not a bad thing, it’s natural. But Satan was trying to use it in a bad way. The same is true for you. I don’t think wanting to be liked is always a bad thing. I think it is probably better to want to be liked than disliked. But where does temptation come. Satan tempts you into being rude or a bully or just disassociating from certain people or talking in a way that doesn’t honor God so that other people will like us. This same thing is true with sexual sin. I need you to all be mature teenagers with me for a second so we can have a real conversation. Sex is a gift given from God to be enjoyed between a man and woman in the union of marriage. Therefore, sexual desire is not a bad thing. But then temptation comes in. Maybe sometimes you feel the temptation to look at something on the internet you know you shouldn’t because of the natural desire. Or how many unmarried couples don’t honor God in their relationships because they put themselves in situations where the temptation from that natural sexual desire is too strong. And it’s hard sometimes to even recognize it as sin because we are just following natural desires. It can happen in hundreds of other ways. But Jesus gives us an example to follow in these times. Verse 4 says 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.’ ”” . This passage that Jesus quotes comes from the book of Deuteronomy when Moses is telling the people the story of how God provided manna from heaven when they were in the wilderness. It was a reminder that God provided for their physical needs. Jesus is telling Satan that he does not have to make demands of God to give him substance because God will provide that. Jesus knew that God had provided for His people in the wilderness and the Father woul provide for him.

Application: Are we rooted well enough in scripture that we can stand on it the way Jesus does here? Do we know it well enough that when our natural desires begin to become the use of the devil and to pull us away from God we can look at God’s promises and hold true to what he says is good? Or do we know general things we have learned at church over the years?

Transition: So we see that the devil used a physical need or desire to tempt Jesus. But it wouldn’t stop there. He also tried to trick Jesus into disobedience.

Matthew 4:5-7.

Exposition: So we see Satan tempt Jesus a second time. Starting with verses 5 and 6 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.’ ”” The word used for pinnacle is probably better translated portico. The portico of the temple was an area of the temple that overlooked the Kidron Valley. It was about 300 feet from the pinnacle to the bottom of the valley. This is about the same height as the statue of liberty. In this time period those waiting for the Messiah expected him to do something great at the temple to show who he was. What can be greater than that. I mean, satan is quoting scripture saying that God will use his angels to protect Jesus. It says it in Psalms. This could have been Jesus’ moment right. He came so that he could be the messiah and those who believe in Him could be saved. What better way to have them believe in Him.But Jesus realizes right away what Satan is doing. That’s not what the entire verse says. The entire verse says 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.” The verse is not a promise that if somebody jumps off the top of a building to prove who He is that God will save him. It’s a promise not to let somebody fall in a metaphorical sense. Jesus understands this. And he responds once again by resisting the temptation the devil was giving him. Verse 7 says Matthew 4:7 “Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ”” Jesus understood what the passage was actually talking about. He understood what was happening. He also knew that scripture said not to put God to the test.

Application: How well do you know scripture? Do you recognize scripture well enough that you can point out when something is wrong? What satan quoted was scripture, it just was missing context and incomplete. I’ve said this before and I’m almost certain I’ll say it again. We cannot be a people of God if we are not a people of His Word. Psalm 119:9–11 “How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” The way that we learn to avoid temptation and to know what God is asking of us is to store up God’s Word in our hearts. But we cannot do this if we are not taking time to study God’s Word. How desensitized are we from the things of this world because we consume so much of it instead of God’s Word. How much more are we influenced by this world and more likely to give into temptation because that’s what we fill ourselves with. How much easier would it be to say no and to stay away from places of temptation if we were allowing ourselves to be influenced by His Word. And how often do we walk in disobedience because we were tricked into thinking the Bible justifies something because our understanding of scripture has such as limited reach.

Transition: So Satan has tried twice to get Jesus to give into temptation. He then tries one last time.

Matthew 4:8-10.

Exposition: Matthew writes in verse 8 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.”” Jesus is God. He is worthy of wroship. He is also the rightful King of the World. What Satan was offering Jesus was what he came for and what he deserved. Satan wasn’t tempting Jesus with something that didn’t belong to Him. He was tempting Him with the method of how he would get it. By bowing down and worshiping Satan. Jesus knew that He could not do this. He says 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 knew that he could not give this worship to Satan because it belonged to God.

Application: There are two things here that are the essence of sin. The first is that

Verses 8-9

All of this would belong to Jesus eventually anyway, Satan wanted him to skip the suffering that God had intended for his servant.

Verse 10

Jesus understood the core theme of scripture

Transition: So Satan leave Jesus, and we see that though the temptation came, God’s care for Jesus never wavered.

Matthew 4:11.

The angels came and ministered to him, probably meeting his physical needs. God provided for him.

Conclusion: Some of you right now can think of several different areas where you experience temptation. You’re thinking about situations with your friends or when you’re by yourself where the temptation seems like too much. 1 Corinthians 10:13 says 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.” Though it is hard, God has given us a way to resist temptation. And why should we resist temptation, because what God has for us is so much better. Sin does not satisfy. How many times do we give into sin and later feel the disappointment that comes with it. I urge you young people, begin to dive into God’s Word. Stand firm on its promises and allow it to be what you use to fend off temptation. And know that what God has for you is so much better.