Jesus, the True and Better (Matthew 4:1-11)
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
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If you have a copy of God’s word, I invite you to turn in your Bible to Matthew 4:1-11 this morning. If you do not have a copy, please look on with your neighbor or you can use one of the Red Pew Bibles in the seat in front of you. You can find our passage this morning on page #
No sooner than Jesus was affirmed as God’s beloved Son whom he was well pleased with, the beloved Son was lead into the wilderness by the Spirit to be tempted. Verse 1…
It is the Spirit, the Third Person of the Triune God who leads Jesus, the Son of God into the wilderness to face these temptations. As was noted last week, the wilderness here is to a remote and isolated place. It is not necessary a wilderness of trees since Jesus is in Judea in the Middle East.
The isolation is the setting for Jesus’ showdown with the Devil, that great and ancient foe. That fiery serpent who seeks to inflict all with the poison of lies and deception. He comes to tempt the Beloved Son and seeks to strike the Son with the poison of doubt and distrust of the Father.
But the Son must face this temptation, he must go through the same paths that both Adam went through in Eden, as well as Israel did in their own wilderness journey. He must go through these if he is to both identify with mankind, but also prove to be the true and better son who was called out of Egypt.
And so the stage is almost set. Yet, the battle would not come when Jesus is at his strongest in his humanity, but in his weakness. Verse 2…
It is while the Beloved Son, Jesus, is tired and hungry from his 40 days and 40 nights of wilderness fasting that the great serpent seeks to bite the Son and inject him with his poison of evil. Satan seeks to subvert the Son of God from the mission of God to redeem humanity. And he does this through three temptations.
But before we dive into the temptations, here is what I think is the main idea of Matthew 4:1-11 , “The wilderness battle that was previously lost by Adam and Israel, and we in them, has now been won by Jesus.”
We are going to unfold this in 3 points: (1) the temptation of self-interest, (2) the temptation of knowledge, and (3) the temptation of self-glory.
Point #1: The Temptation of Self-Interest
Point #1: The Temptation of Self-Interest
Verse 3…
First, notice how the tempter seeks to call into question the sonship of Jesus. He seeks to question is he really the Son of God? And the way he does this, he appeals to Jesus being hungry, and says why don’t you make these stones become bread.
But there is an underlying poison hidden in this question and this offer. Satan is not primarily after Jesus doubting his sonship, but to fail it. Seeking to have the son serve himself instead of obedience to the Father and trust in his ways.
The tempter here seeks here to lure the son to serve himself in turning stones to bread instead of trusting in the LORD’s provisions.
This is very similar to Satan’s first temptation noted back in Genesis 3 where he tempted our first parents, Adam and Eve.
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”
It advances:
5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
With Adam and Eve, the tempter seeks to cause Adam and Eve to doubt God’s word, to doubt his provisions for them. And as he does, he makes the forbidden fruit seem very appealing, and so they take of the forbidden fruit and they eat. They throw aside God’s word, they serve their self, despite every other tree they could eat from.
And because of this, sin entered the world, the first Adam failed the test in Eden. And so the tempter now seeks to sink this same poison of temptation into the Beloved Son, hoping to appeal to his eyes and his belly to turn these stones to bread.
Not that food itself was sin for the Beloved Son, but the temptation is for Jesus to use his Sonship for self-gain, for his own self-interest. Instead of trusting the Father to provide and care for him, the Son is being tempted to rely on himself.
Greg Gilbert in his book, Who is Jesus, writes on this temptation:
The point was not whether Jesus would just do something, anything that Satan suggested. It was whether Jesus would—like Israel before him—demand his own comfort and relief right now, or whether he would submit to the path of humility and suffering that God his Father had placed before him. (1)
Jesus does not demand his own comfort and relief here in the first temptation. He chooses ongoing hunger and passes the first temptation, succeeding where the first Adam fell. Verse 4…
Jesus here quotes from Deuteronomy 8:3. But in doing so, he is also not only showing he is the true and better Adam, he is the true and better Son, the true and better Israel. For the context of this verse shows that Israel had failed to trust the LORD to provide for them. That they sought to live by their own provision instead of the LORD’s.
For here in the context of Deuteronomy 8:3 is the warning for Israel to remember the LORD as they prepare to enter the Promised Land. They are being warned to be careful and do all that God commanded, because during Israel’s time in the wilderness, they had not remembered the LORD, and the LORD therefore humbled them because they doubted him. And it is here that Deuteronomy 8:3 comes:
3 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.
Therefore in Jesus responding to Satan with Deuteronomy 8:3, telling him that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word of the LORD, he is stating he is going to not serve himself, but the Father. To borrow from Charles Spurgeon:
The Gospel of the Kingdom: A Commentary on the Book of Matthew Chapter 4:1–11: The King Begins His Reign by a Combat with the Prince of Darkness
A true son will not doubt his father, and undertake to provide his own bread: he will wait to be fed by his father’s hand
Jesus is the true Son who did not doubt his father and his provisions! He waited on the Father to feed him and provide for him.
In this first temptation of self-serving, the tempter seeks to cause us to doubt both God’s goodness and his ability to provide. He seeks to cause the LORD Jesus to take something good, but in the wrong manner and at the wrong time, turning stones to bread.
Daniel Doriani in his commentary writes:
The tempter invites Jesus to possess material things in the wrong time and manner in order to alleviate his hunger. (2)
And if the tempter has come after the Beloved Son of God in this way, he so will us. He will seek to entice us to take material things at the wrong time and in the wrong manner over and over again. For even those good things, if they are enjoyed in the wrong manner or the wrong time is a victory of the tempters work, a sign of his poison working within our hearts.
Consider the many good things that are had, but to take them at the wrong time or in the wrong manner of theft are not according to the ways of God. To commend a brother or sister for the good things God has given them is a fine thing, like our church covenant which we approved last week states, to rejoice with those who rejoice is a wonderfully Christian duty. But when our hearts do not rejoice with others joys but begin to covet what others have, we have began to desire in the wrong manner.
Or what is to be said about sexual immorality, the lusting of the heart. Is that not also to desire something in the wrong manner and at the wrong time? For it is one thing to desire a wife, it is another to desire someone else’s.
Friends, to be a disciple of the LORD Jesus is to hear and obey the LORD Jesus, to follow him. And to follow him, we have a call to deny ourselves and take up our crosses.
If we are to do this, then we must learn to resist the tempter by living not by bread alone, but by every word of God. We must learn to feast on God’s word and seek to understand that word and then rightly apply that word to resist the tempter and his tricks.
But how are we to know that word if we neglect our Bibles. Friends, we must make it a habit to regularly read through the whole of the Bible, reading it, studying it, meditating on it, so that God’s word is stored in our hearts to guide us along the way. For how else can we live by every word of God if we do not feast on it daily?
Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us look to Jesus and follow his example in how he resisted the devil in the temptation of self-serving. Let us deny ourselves self-service and live by God’s Holy Word!
Point #2: The Temptation of Knowledge
Point #2: The Temptation of Knowledge
Verses 5-6…
Having failed in his first attempt to tempt Jesus, the Son of God. Satan comes again. This time he changes location, to the peak of the temple.
In his second attempt, the devil tries to use Jesus’ means of self-defense as a weapon of his own. He takes up the Scriptures to use them against the Son of God, the Word himself.
Friends, we should note here that to know the Bible is one thing, for even the Devil himself can quote Scripture. It is another to rightly know it and apply it and live it.
That said, the Devil here states, “He will command his angels concerning you, and on their hands they will bear you up lest you strike your foot against a stone.”
This being a quote from Psalm 91:11-12.
11 For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.
12 On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.
And yet his urging of Jesus to throw himself down from the peak of the temple here is a horrible abuse of this passage.
To quote R.T. France:
The Gospel of Matthew E. The Testing of the Son of God (4:1–11)
It would be “to act as if God is there to serve his Son, rather than the reverse”
For where the first temptation was a temptation to doubt God to little, here it is the reverse, to presume upon the LORD’s provisions in wrong ways. For the devil here is urging Jesus to jump down from the temple in presumption that God will thrust his angels down to save him before he goes splat.
Charles Spurgeon writes here:
The Gospel of the Kingdom: A Commentary on the Book of Matthew Chapter 4:1–11: The King Begins His Reign by a Combat with the Prince of Darkness
This second temptation is a cunning one: he is persuaded rather to believe too much than too little. He is not now to take care of himself, but recklessly to presume, and trust his Father’s promise beyond its meaning.
It is like someone hearing the country song out there called Jesus Take the Wheel and then them letting go of the wheel and presuming Jesus will take it and keep them from swerving into oncoming traffic or the ravine on the other side. It is complete foolishness.
And here with this temptation, Jesus sees right through it. He continues to stand firm and resist the devil in his misapplication of God’s word. Verse 7…
Jesus will not put the LORD to the test. He will not test his care for him by casting himself down, he will not doubt God’s promise to be a refuge for him by putting himself in a foolish situation and then seeking to test God.
Here Jesus is quoting from Deuteronomy 6:16 “16 “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah.”
This passage in Deuteronomy is pointing back to Exodus 17:1-7 and Israel’s testing of Moses and ultimately of the LORD in their ability to provide drink for them in their own wilderness journey. And so, Deuteronomy 6:16 is calling the people to not test the LORD again as they enter the promised land, that they are to trust the LORD will do as he says and they are to take him at his word based on how he has continually provided for them.
And this was the point of Psalm 91. God promised to be a refuge for his people, to guard them from their enemies. But God being a refuge and protector is not a call for us to air drop into hostile battle and then tell the LORD alright, protect me, be my refuge as I just dropped into this hostility.
Beloved, there is a difference in us trusting in the LORD and seeking to put God to the test. We are to take God at his word and trust him to deliver us as we seek to obey. But we should never seek to live outside of God’s means and then attempt to force his hands into action as if he were on trial.
This is a most corrupted and twisted act, and it is this deed that the Devil seeks for Jesus to do. For he succeeded with Adam and Eve in the garden in putting God to the test on whether they would or wouldn’t die in eating of the tree. The devil succeeds in causing Israel to test God in their wilderness journey in Massah.
But where they failed and where we have failed, the true and better Son of God does not. Jesus is the true and better Adam, the true and better Israel who trusts his Father and refuses to put him to the test.
Friends, let us learn to take God at his word and trust him! Let us resist the temptation of knowledge by not needing to know what is to come by seeking signs and evidence, but by hearing from the LORD and believing he will do what he says he will do.
Point #3: The Temptation of Self-Glory
Point #3: The Temptation of Self-Glory
Verse 8-9…
In Satan’s first two temptations of the Beloved Son, Jesus, he questions his Sonship and takes subtle attempts to trip him up. But in his third temptation, the gloves come off. Satan no longer attacks in a subtle manner, but a direct approach. A seeking of Jesus to bow to him in worship. And the prize, all the kingdoms of the world will be given to him.
But here is the thing, Jesus as the Son of God is already promised these kingdoms.
8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.
But Satan’s offer here of the kingdoms of the world is an offer to acquire them in a way opposite of his Father’s. The devil here, that great schemer seeks to offer Jesus the kingdoms of the world without needing to suffer on the cross.
Jesus can inherit the nations as his and not have to lay down his life. He will not have to endure the suffering of a suffering servant. He will not have to take the road of one who is to be stricken, smitten, and afflicted. All Jesus has to do is to bow and worship him.
For this same trick worked with Adam and Eve. He offered them to be like God in knowing good and evil by disobeying God. The nation of Israel time and time again failed to bow to the LORD their God and gave themselves to bowing to other idols, even that of a golden calf in the midst of their Exodus journey.
But would Jesus avoid the suffering of the cross to more easily receive the nations? Verse 10…
Jesus refuses to bow to satan and worship him. Jesus will worship his Father, the LORD, our God alone. For he alone is worthy of worship.
This last temptation of self-glory is a culmination of the first two. While maybe we will never be tempted to inherit all the nations of the world, day in and day out we are being tempted to have a kingdom here on earth. We are tempted to put our treasures here on earth rather than above. We are tempted to bow down and worship the Devil as we worship the god of our own bellies instead of the LORD, our God alone.
It is here when we need most to look to Jesus, to see that he has resisted the devil to the point of him leaving. Verse 11…
That great tempter, that serpent, the devil found himself defeated. Here these words from a preacher most known for the Great Awakening here in America, George Whitefield. He writes,
Hell, we may well suppose, like the Philistines of old, was confounded, and gave a horrible groan, when they saw their great Goliath, in whom they had so long trusted, thus shamefully and totally defeated in no less than three pitched battles. The first Adam was attacked but once, and was conquered, but the second Adam, though thus repeatedly assaulted, comes off without the least sin, not only conqueror, but more than a conqueror. (3)
Jesus resisted the devil and he fled. He defeated him in the battle, resisting his flaming darts, the poison he sought to inflict, by being the Beloved Son who pleased the Father through obedience and trust. And following this, he was ministered to by the angels, the very angels who the devil had tempted him to cast himself down so that they could catch him.
Jesus endured the temptations of Satan by choosing obedience to the Father and his provisions and his plans. And in so doing, Jesus chose the road of suffering. The road that would lead to calvary.
Jesus won the battle in the wilderness temptations causing Satan to flee. Satan would strike the heel of the Beloved Son as he was nailed to the tree, the cross to suffer and die. But though the Son was stricken on the heel, he did not remain dead and in the tomb, on the third day he rose again as the Risen King! He rose in having conquered death. And he then ascended on high to be seated on this throne where all the earth was made a footstool under him. The Suffering Servant is now the Glorious King!
So Christian, let’s look to our Glorious King on high! Trusting his provisions and care in the midst of our ongoing fight. For though Satan still remains, his doom is guaranteed. He struck the heel of God’s Beloved Son, but his head has now been crushed.
Temptations they will come, but we can be sure, resist the devil and he will flee. Put up the shield of faith and the sword of God we must. But the strength to win will not come from us, it will come from him who has already won.
Christian, beware the wiles of the tempter, of the devil himself. Keep fighting temptation, keep resisting the devil until your final breath. Keep trusting God in all his goodness, seek not your own ways, but the paths that he has made.
And maybe some are here who are still bowed to the devil and under the guilt and shame of their temptation failings. Friend, see that the Son of God has come and bleed and died so that you no longer have to be under that guilt. He suffered so that you can live, come and bow to him alone, trusting in his most gracious provision. A provision of deliverance from death to life. Believe today and live, my friend. For Jesus won so that you could win in him.
Let’s pray…
Footnotes
Gilbert, Greg. Who is Jesus. (Crossway, Wheaton, IL. …) ?.
Doriani, Daniel. Matthew-Luke Expository Commentary Volume VIII. (Wheaton, IL, Crossway. 2021.) 74.
Whitefield, George. ESV Church History Study Bible. (Crossway, Wheaton, IL. 2023.) 1419.