TRIUMPH OVER TEMPTATION

Introduction

-{Matthew 4}

-The movie Braveheart tells the story of Scottish knight William Wallace as he led a rebellion to fight the English rule of Scotland. He didn’t do so to make a name for himself or for any personal gain, but he fought for a cause that he thought was just and right. As he was putting up that fight, Wallace was offered lands and riches to just back off. He was given these temptations so that he would give up the fight and go along with the the status quo. This would be a test of who he was as a man, a husband, a father, a knight, and a leader. It would either prove his character, or it would tear it down.

-In the passage that we are looking at today, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ faces something similar. In context, Jesus went through a sort of commissioning that would mark the beginning of His earthly ministry. He identified with the people whom He came to save by submitting to John’s baptism. After he emerged from the water, the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in a visual fashion, and then the voice of God the Father declared Jesus’ true identity: THIS IS MY BELOVED SON, IN WHOM I AM WELL-PLEASED. God the Son, Messiah, has come to redeem for God a people, establish the Kingdom of Heaven, reverse the curse of sin, and destroy the kingdom of the enemy.

-But before His ministry would start in earnest, His identity and His purpose would be tested as He is tempted to back off and give up the fight. And what we learn from this passage is that Jesus’ victory in temptation proves that He is the Messiah and it offers a path for our own victory. My prayer is that this leads to a greater faith in Jesus and that we live in the victory that He provides.

Matthew 4:1–11 LSB

1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry. 3 And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” 4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’” 5 Then the devil took Him into the holy city and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 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.’” 7 Jesus said to him, “Again, it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” 8 Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory; 9 and he said to Him, “All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus said to him, “Go, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.’” 11 Then the devil left Him; and behold, angels came and began to minister to Him.

-{pray}

-For forty days and nights Jesus is fasting in the wilderness being put to the test to prove that He truly is who God claimed Him to be. Throughout those forty days Jesus was tempted in many different ways, and we only get a glimpse of the last day of temptation and testing. It is interesting, the Greek word that is used for “being tempted” in our passage can mean in a positive way to test the genuineness of something, but also can mean in a negative way to be tempted to sin. What we find here for Jesus, and often happens in our own lives, is that when we are going through trying circumstances, God is using it as a test to prove who we are, but the enemy is using it as a trial to tempt us to sin and walk away from God.

-So, for Jesus, it is a test to prove He is Messiah and demonstrate what sort of Messiah He was going to be. On the other hand, Satan will use this as an opportunity to try and tempt the Messiah to sin so as to prevent his own eventual downfall and keep the kingdom he has built for himself. Although it has been debated by theologians for 2000 years about whether or not Jesus could have actually sinned, the passage is told in such a way as to raise the tension--will Jesus prove to be who God the Father declared Him to be or not?

-Whether or not you believe Jesus could have sinned, Jesus felt the full brunt of the temptations and did NOT sin. And because of that, Jesus demonstrated He is as fully human as He is fully God, and He has complete sympathy with our plight as sin-fallen humanity. We are told:

Hebrews 4:15 LSB

15 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things like we are, yet without sin.

-As we see, Jesus came through victorious. From a theological standpoint, Jesus was undoing what had been done. The first Adam fell into sin with the temptation from the serpent. Jesus, the last Adam, was so tempted and did not fall. There is also a sense here that Jesus is identifying with the nation Israel--they were tried for 40 years as Jesus is tried for 40 days and nights. Israel failed their test in so many different ways. Jesus passed the test and withstood the temptation. Jesus is identifying with the people He came to save.

-So, in looking at the temptations that are recorded here, we see how His victory proves He is Messiah, Son of God. And at the same time it shows how His victory gives us our own victory in the face of temptation. We will look at each of the three temptations from that standpoint. So, first, we look at the:

1)Temptation to self-sufficiency (vv. 3-4)

-Satan begins this temptation (as well as the second) with what is often translated in English as: IF YOU ARE THE SON OF GOD, as if there is any question or doubt. However, in the previous passage at Jesus’ baptism, all doubt has been cast aside. God declared THIS IS MY BELOVED SON. The Greek construction is such that there is no doubt to the statement, so we might want to read it as SINCE YOU ARE THE SON OF GOD. Satan is saying that since God the Father put that declaration out there, and you are the Son of God and Messiah, let’s put that to the test. Let’s see what you’re made of. And Satan lays out the temptations before Jesus.

-The first temptation tells Jesus to command the stones to become bread. That seems pretty tame. Here Jesus has been on a fast from food for forty days and forty nights. At the end of v. 2 it says HE THEN BECAME HUNGRY. That’s probably one of the biggest understatements in the Bible. I get hungry and irritable after a couple of hours, much less forty days. So, Jesus is vulnerable to hunger. The devil is saying: you’re hungry, so just go ahead and turn stones to bread and eat. Since you are the Son of God, you have the power to do this, so do it. From a first glance, human perspective, it seems harmless enough.

-But the key might be in Jesus’ response. We notice that in each of the responses that Jesus gives, He quotes from a certain section of Deuteronomy--two from chapter 6 and one from chapter 8. In these sections God through Moses is reminding the Israelites where they came from, what had happened the past 40 years, how they stumbled and fell in many different ways, and gave an encouragement to follow the laws and commandments of God that had been given to them. What Jesus quotes seems to be connected to a problem or failure on Israel’s part and the encouragement to remedy those issues.

-So, here, Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 8:3, and the temptation is connected to this. In this part of Deuteronomy, Moses reminds the people that God led them through the wilderness to humble them and test them to see if they would keep His commandments. God provided for them manna to eat after a whole lot of complaining on their part. But Moses says that God let them go hungry so that they learn that man does not live by bread alone, but by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord. God was trying to teach them that they must depend on God for everything. Trust God to sustain, look to Him to provide, and do not lean on their own understanding.

-Later in Deuteronomy 8, Moses says that God led them through that testing so that they would not later say that it was by their own power and might that they received what they received. Jesus, by quoting from this section, is saying that He will not use His own might and power for His own personal gain, but will trust His Father to provide and sustain. It was a temptation to get ahead of God. It was a temptation to doubt God. It was a temptation to cut ties with the Father and do His own thing. Apparently, fasting and hunger were God’s will for the Messiah at that moment, and the Son submitted to the Father’s will. We might say that Satan was tempting Jesus to become self-sufficient and not trust His Father’s plan, His Father’s will, His Father’s heart. JESUS, JUST GO DO YOUR OWN THING. YOU HAVE THE POWER AND ABILITY--WHY WAIT FOR THE FATHER WHEN YOU CAN TAKE CARE OF IT YOURSELF?

-But Jesus was not going to step out from under the Father’s wings. Could Jesus have turned the stones into bread and fed Himself? Of course. But then He would not have been the Son relying on the Father. He would have exerted an independence that would have torn the Trinity apart if such a thing were possible. But Jesus says--no, MAN DOES NOT LIVE BY BREAD ALONE, BUT BY EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS FROM THE MOUTH OF GOD. He would wait and rely on His Father, and not do His own thing.

-Do we need bread and other physical things for our existence? Yes. But that is not the ultimate reason for our existence. As one author stated it: BREAD IS THE MEANS, NOT THE GOAL OF LIFE. Every area of our existence is to be under the Lordship of God. He is to be our true center. So, our life does not consist on what we eat or what we drink or the clothes that we wear. But if we rely on God, we seek Him and His Kingdom and His righteousness, the physical things will be added to it. But if we declare our independence and seek to fulfill our own needs in our own way, we will lose out on it all. When we realize that whatever God deems to provide us is enough to sustain us, when we rely on what He gives us and not what we think we desire, we truly have learned the key to contentment in God for our life. But then there is another temptation; the:

2) Temptation to presume (vv. 5-7)

-Satan did not get Jesus to yield on the first temptation, so he tries another. Matthew tells us that Satan took Jesus from the wilderness into the holy city, to the pinnacle of the temple, meaning the tallest and highest point of the temple complex. Some scholars believe that it was southeast corner of the roof of the Royal Cloister that stood some 326 feet above the bottom of the Kidron Valley.

-Jesus answered Satan’s temptation with Scripture. The devil decides to show that he knows Scripture too. He tells Jesus to throw Himself off of that high peak because Scripture says this certain thing. Satan quotes Psalm 91, saying that this is a promise from God. And since Jesus said that He was going to rely on God by faith, let’s put that faith to the test. If you throw yourself off of this roof, God said in His Word that He’d COMMAND HIS ANGELS CONCERNING YOU; ON THEIR HANDS THEY WILL BEAR YOU UP LEST YOU STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.

-Jesus, since you are the Son of God, relying on God, God won’t let anything happen to you. Prove your faith in God by throwing yourself off this roof and watch how the Father will send His angels to save you. Jesus, you say that you live by every word out of God’s mouth, now prove it. Because this is what the Bible says.

-Do you all notice that Satan knows the Word of God forwards and backwards. He knew what God said in the Garden of Eden. And now he quotes Psalm 91, and Jesus doesn’t refute that this is exactly what God’s Word says. What Jesus refutes is the devil’s twist to the Word, his taking the Word out of context, his misapplying the Word and giving it an application that it was never meant to have. That is why it is so important when we hear the Word of God taught that we are like Bereans, looking into it diligently to see if that is what is meant. Just like in Real Estate it’s all about location, location, location. When it comes to the Word of God it is all about context, context, context. The devil likes to say the right words, but take them completely out of context.

-So, here, the devil is tempting Jesus (through deceitful use of the Bible) to just presume that God would not allow anything bad to happen to His Son, such that God would yield to every unreasonable whim. As if Jesus could do just whatever He wanted to do on His own, and God would be there to save Him from His own decisions, even if they were bad decisions. As if the Son could manipulate the Father into doing what He wanted.

-There is a great temptation for us to turn and twist Scripture in such a way that we end up treating God as if He were our personal slave here to serve us. That’s the draw of the Health and Wealth Gospel and the New Apostolic Reformation--we will twist Scripture like the devil to demonstrate that God is here to serve our every whim, and we can manipulate God by throwing His own Words back in face to force Him to comply to what we want. That, my friends, is a dangerous game to play.

-As Jesus demonstrates by His response, God is not our servant--we are here to serve God. In Jesus’ response, He quotes from Deuteronomy 6:16. Here Moses is reminding the people about the time that the Israelites were complaining about there being no water. They complained that God led them out of Egypt, making all these promises, only to let them die of thirst. God, you said this and that, and you aren’t doing what we think you should do or how we think you should do it. So, it says that they tested God.

-Jesus answers: You don’t test God. You don’t presume to try to manipulate God by trying to force on Him the means and methods you think He should use to fulfill His promises. Don’t think that promises of God are some sort of blanket statement that you won’t go through difficult times or that God has to miraculously deliver you from difficult times. Instead, you take God at His Word in context, and trust that He will fulfill what He says in the way that His eternal wisdom and knowledge deems best. Then, there is one final temptation, the:

3) Temptation to compromise (vv. 8-10)

-In this final temptation, Satan takes Jesus up on a high mountain, and probably through a supernatural vision shows Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and all the glory and power and splendor that comes with them. And then Satan makes an offer that seems hard to refuse. He tells Jesus that he will give Jesus authority over these kingdoms if Jesus would bow down and worship Satan. Notice that Satan doesn’t start this temptation like the others: SINCE YOU ARE THE SON OF GOD. It is as if Satan wants Jesus to finally deny who He is, deny He is the Son of God, and instead of keeping His allegiance with the Father, switch His allegiance to Satan. The phrase IF YOU FALL DOWN AND WORSHIP ME is a different construction. It comes with uncertainty. Satan thinks there’s a chance Jesus would do it, but he’s not sure.

-It’s kind of confusing, because we know that God has sovereign control over everything, including all kingdoms. And yet, because of the Fall, God allowed the kingdoms of the world to be given over to the powers of darkness, while He still maintains ultimate control. So, Satan is called the god of this world in 2 Corinthians 4:4 and the ruler of this world in John 12:31 and 14:30. In one sense, Satan does have something to give Jesus. On the other hand, the Son had already been promised all these kingdoms back in:

Psalm 2:7–9 LSB

7 “I will surely tell of the decree of Yahweh: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. 8 ‘Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, And the ends of the earth as Your possession. 9 ‘You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like a potter’s vessel.’”

-Jesus had already been promised the kingdoms of the world. Where is the temptation? The temptation is how the Son of God would reach that point of inheriting the Kingdom. I don’t know if Satan knew that the cross would be the path Jesus would take, but he did know Jesus would have a difficult road to get to the point of inheriting the Kingdom. Satan was offering Jesus the quick, easy way of gaining His Kingship. Bypass the ministry, bypass the cross--take over the world. All Jesus would have to do is compromise.

-Maybe another way of putting this temptation is that the end justifies the means. Jesus, you’re going to rule anyway--why not take the easy way? Why go through all the suffering you are going to have to go through? Bow down to me, and I will give it all to you right now.

-After rebuking Satan, Jesus answers by quoting Deuteronomy 6:13. There is only one God who is to be worshipped, and Satan sure ain’t him. WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD AND SERVE HIM ONLY. Jesus chose to follow the path that the Father had laid before Him. You see, without the cross, there wouldn’t be a Kingdom to rule over anyway because there would be no redeemed humanity for Him to rule. Compromise will never get you the results you seek. The end never justifies the means because the means determines where you end up. If the means of getting somewhere is rotten, where you end up will be rotten as well.

-And for us, it teaches us that we must follow the path and means that God lays before us no matter how difficult it might be. To bypass what God has ordained is to bypass what God has for us and desires for us, and we miss out on wherever it is that God wanted us to end up. You cannot compromise with Satan and the world and the flesh and think that somehow you will end up where God wants you. You cannot fulfill spiritual goals through carnal means.

Conclusion

-Think of a chef experimenting with a new recipe. The temptation to add too much sugar or skip steps for ease can derail the whole dish. However, sticking to the recipe and overcoming that urge often leads to something exceptional. Just like that chef, handling temptations God’s way not only proves our commitment to our values but also helps us create a masterpiece out of our lives.

-Look to Jesus. He proved what kind of Son of God (what kind of Messiah) He truly was. He is everything the Father claimed Him to be, and He is worthy of our allegiance.

-Maybe you’re looking for a church home that will encourage you to look to Christ in times of temptation--you have found such a church home here.

-Maybe you are a Christian who is going through a time of temptation--come to the altar and pray for His strength to do things God’s way.

-Maybe you have never believed in Christ, and are currently part of Satan’s Kingdom. Come to the kingdom of light--believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved...