Gospel of Mark wk 3
Notes
Transcript
Jesus is Tempted
Jesus is Tempted
This morning we are in week 3 of our series of the Gospel of Mark
We have seen that Mark not only gives us testimony that Jesus is the Son of God, but that he provides us with the witness of the prophets, John the Baptist, and that of the Heavenly Father and Holy Spirit.
Last week we looked at Jesus’ Baptism, and that Baptism does not save a person, but that it is a step of obedience in following Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
Baptism is symbolic of what Jesus did for us, by dying and being raised from the dead to conquer death and sin.
This morning we are going to look at how Jesus was led into the wilderness and was tempted of Satan.
We are going to look at two verses from our text in Mark 1, but will also look at the account Luke gives in his Gospel.
Mark is once again brief in his account of Jesus’ temptations, but Luke goes into more detail about the events.
The temptation that Jesus went through helps us to see that not only was Jesus fully human, and fully God but that He dealt with things just as we do.
As we look at our text this morning there are some great lessons we can learn from this text, and the account Luke gives us.
We will see that as Jesus goes into the wilderness and is tempted, He is led there by the Holy Spirit, and that angels came and ministered unto Him.
There are three temptations or test that Jesus went through while out in the wilderness.
Look with me at our main text this morning in Mark 1:12-13
12 Immediately the Spirit impelled Him to go out into the wilderness.
13 And He was in the wilderness forty days being tempted by Satan; and He was with the wild beasts, and the angels were ministering to Him.
Pray
Pray
Mathew and Luke both give a more in depth account of this time that Jesus was tempted, but we are going to look at Luke’s account found in chapter 4 of his gospel.
I. Led by the Holy Spirit.
I. Led by the Holy Spirit.
12 Immediately the Spirit impelled Him to go out into the wilderness.
Here we see that Immediately, that is Jesus went into the wilderness just after being baptized.
This did not happen days, weeks or months after Jesus’ baptism, but immediately after coming out of the Jordan River.
We are told here that the Spirit driveth Jesus into the wilderness.
Luke tells us in Luke 4:1
1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness
We know from the account of Jesus’ Baptism that the Holy Spirit descend upon Jesus.
Now we know that God is one in three distinct persons which are the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost/Spirit.
As Luke states, Jesus was full of the Holy Ghost and was led out into the wilderness.
As born-again believers we are indwelt with the Holy Spirit.
We are told in the letter to the church in Ephesus that once we are saved, we are sealed with the Holy Spirit.
13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise,
Just as Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit, as born-again believers we are indwelt with the Holy Spirit.
This is important, because the Holy Spirit is there to help us, just as the Spirit was with Jesus.
26 In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words;
The New American Standard Bible states in this verse, In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness.
Just as Jesus faced temptations, test, and trials, we as believers will also face these things in life, and just as the Holy Spirit was with Jesus through these things, the Holy Spirit will be with the believer during these things.
As I was studying this, God revealed to me that we need to be in prayer constantly for new believers, as Jesus was baptized and led into the wilderness, Satan began to tempt Him.
New believers will also be a major target for Satan, the new believer is vulnerable and even though they have been sealed and indwelt with the Holy Spirit, they can become weak and not know how to rely on the Holy Spirit for strength and help.
II. Tempted by Satan
II. Tempted by Satan
13 And He was in the wilderness forty days being tempted by Satan; and He was with the wild beasts, and the angels were ministering to Him.
In this verse we see that Jesus was out in the wilderness for forty days, and Satan tempted Jesus.
Luke gives more details about this time in the wilderness and what the temptation actually were.
2 for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days, and when they had ended, He became hungry.
3 And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”
4 And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’ ”
5 And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
6 And the devil said to Him, “I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.
7 “Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours.”
8 Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’ ”
9 And he led Him to Jerusalem and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here;
10 for it is written,
‘He will command His angels concerning You to guard You,’
11 and,
‘On their hands they will bear You up,
So that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.’ ”
12 And Jesus answered and said to him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ”
13 When the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time.
As Jesus was out in the wilderness for these forty days, He fasted or did not eat, which caused Jesus to be hungry and as a human when we are hungry we can become weak.
As Americans we are not use to going without food, we have the ability to get food at pretty much any time of day or night, and whatever we want.
We have all kinds of fast food choices, we have grocery stores that are packed with all kinds of options for food.
But if we fast, for a day, week, or forty days, we especially as Americans become weak to temptations of food.
We must remember that Jesus was fully God, but He was also fully human, that is He dealt with the things we deal with, after forty days of fasting Jesus just as we would be, He was hungry and in a sense in a vulnerable state.
We also see that just as Jesus was out in the wilderness fasting, angels were there ministering unto Him
14 Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?
Just as angels were present to minister to Jesus, they will be there for us to minister to us in our times of weakness, struggles and temptations.
Now there are some things that we can learn from these test or temptation that Jesus faced.
III. Three Test
III. Three Test
14 Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,
15 and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.
16 For assuredly He does not give help to angels, but He gives help to the descendant of Abraham.
17 Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
18 For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.
The writer of Hebrews is telling us that Jesus faced the same things that we face in life.
Jesus not only dealt with temptations, He also dealt with pain, suffering, lose of loved ones, and other things that we deal with as Human believers.
This shows us that Jesus is not someone that does not understand what we are dealing with, but knows what we are going through in life.
1. Stone to Bread
1. Stone to Bread
2 for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days, and when they had ended, He became hungry.
3 And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”
4 And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’ ”
The first test or temptation that Jesus faced was that of His hunger.
Satan knowing that Jesus had been fasting for forty days, comes to Jesus and says to Him, why not make these stones into bread (food) if you really are the Son of God.
Jesus being the Son of God could have easily done this, He could have called food down from heaven, as we know that God provided the Israelites with food in the wilderness.
11 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
12 “I have heard the grumblings of the sons of Israel; speak to them, saying, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread; and you shall know that I am the Lord your God.’ ”
13 So it came about at evening that the quails came up and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp.
14 When the layer of dew evaporated, behold, on the surface of the wilderness there was a fine flake-like thing, fine as the frost on the ground.
15 When the sons of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “It is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat.
If God could provide food for the Israelites in the wilderness, then Jesus could have called for food or turned the stones into bread or food.
Jesus tells us in His Sermon on the Mount, not to worry about the needs of life, if we will seek first the Kingdom of God, then we will be supplied with the needs of life.
33 “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Jesus had responded to Satan with Scripture.
4 And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’ ”
Here Jesus is speaking Scripture to Satan from Deuteronomy 8:3
3 “He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.
There is way more to life then physical things such as physical food, we need to look more at the Spiritual things of life, like the Word of God.
2. Kingdoms of the World
2. Kingdoms of the World
5 And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
6 And the devil said to Him, “I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.
7 “Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours.”
8 Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’ ”
First Satan tempts Jesus with food, now Satan turns to power.
As humans we desire food, but we also desire or look for power.
We think of people with power to be great people.
One thing that comes to mind from this temptation or test as we are approaching the Presidential election this years is that people in a sense place to much on Presidential candidates.
What I mean by this is that even Christians look at these Presidential candidates like they are God in a sense.
As Christians we need to look at who God would have us vote for and which candidate has the most morals and beliefs that align with what God has given us in His Word.
But to many times, it seems that even Christians hold these candidates up almost as if they are God.
I am not here promoting one candidate over another, but this past week as there was an assassination attempt on Trump, I have seen so many that are applying Scripture to this.
I am not condemning those that have, but we must be careful to how we take Scripture and apply it to the things of this world, and take those Scriptures out of context.
People allow power to go to their head, and we as humans look at the power others have and allow that to cloud our judgment.
Again Jesus responds to Satan with Scripture.
Scripture must be our guide, we must look to Scripture as our base, as what to believe, as what to follow.
Jesus responds to Satan with, Luke 4:8
8 Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’ ”
Jesus tells Satan, get behind me and that it is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.
Now there are many that the way they talk, the things that they do and share it is almost as if they are worshipping a person - Presidential candidate.
Jesus is speaking Scripture to Satan from Deuteronomy 6:13
13 “You shall fear only the Lord your God; and you shall worship Him and swear by His name.
Here the text says thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, this fear is a reverence fear, that of respect and honor.
But what Jesus says to Satan is in a sense a summary of the first three of the Ten Commandments.
1 Then God spoke all these words, saying,
2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
3 “You shall have no other gods before Me.
4 “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.
5 “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,
6 but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
7 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.
As God gave the Ten Commandments to the Israelites He says I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the bondage of Egypt.
Now we may not have been in bondage in Egypt, but we all have been in the bondage of sin in our lives at one point.
33 They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, ‘You will become free’?”
34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.
35 “The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever.
36 “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.
37 “I know that you are Abraham’s descendants; yet you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you.
38 “I speak the things which I have seen with My Father; therefore you also do the things which you heard from your father.”
Until we have received salvation through Jesus Christ we are in bondage to sin and ultimately ruled by Satan.
If we are truly born-again believers in Jesus Christ, following Jesus as our Lord and Savior, then we must worship and serve Him only.
3. Jump
3. Jump
9 And he led Him to Jerusalem and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here;
10 for it is written,
‘He will command His angels concerning You to guard You,’
11 and,
‘On their hands they will bear You up,
So that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.’ ”
12 And Jesus answered and said to him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ”
13 When the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time.
As Jesus has responded to Satan with Scripture, now Satan wants to use Scripture to tempt or test Jesus.
Satan turns to Psalm 91:11-12
11 For He will give His angels charge concerning you,
To guard you in all your ways.
12 They will bear you up in their hands,
That you do not strike your foot against a stone.
The first two temptations or test did not work, so Satan thinks he can use God’s words against Jesus or to get Jesus to fall into the temptation or fail the test.
But Jesus once again responds to Satan with Scripture.
16 “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested Him at Massah.
Just as Jesus faced temptation, we must understand that we also will be faced with temptations, test.
And just as Jesus responded to the temptations with the very Word of God we also must do the same.
This is why it is so important to study and learn the Word of God, as the Word of God is our weapon to fight the temptations in life.
12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
We are to use the Word of God to fight temptations, to fight attacks of Satan.
And we must understand that as Jesus was and is fully God and fully man, He faced these things and He understand the things that we face in life and therefore, we can turn to Him.
14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.
15 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.
16 Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Jesus understand the things that we face, and He went through His life and was sinless.
We must turn to Jesus and follow after Him.
12 Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.
13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.
See temptations help us to grow in our faith, when we look to God for help, He will reveals to us His power, and His ability to help us.
As humans we will face all kinds of situations in life, from temptations, to trials, to loss of loved ones, and so much more, but we need to remember as Born-again-Believers we are indwelt with the Holy Spirit and therefore need to surrender to Jesus and allow the Holy Spirit to lead us in this life.