Matthew 4a

Turn to Matthew 4.  Before we begin the sermon, curious, how many of you have gained at least 50 lbs. as a result of the dessert auction?  Sacrificing our bodies for a good cause!

Pray for Easter service and today.   

I’m going to begin in chapter 3. 

Matthew 3:16 ESV

And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him;

Matthew 4:1–3 ESV

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 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.”

Continues on until v17.  In Luke’s letter, he adds that Jesus was filled with the Spirit before going into the desert.  Mark’s version is awesome.  

Mark 1:12–13 ESV

The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.

That’s Mark!

Matthew, Mark, and Luke all write about “The Temptation of Jesus,” which that heading can be misleading, but we’ll talk about that later.  If we’re honest, we all face temptations.  The English word temptation often has a very negative connotation.  I.e. we are tempted to sin or to do something bad or forbidden.  Yes, it can mean all that, but there are also other meanings.  In Hebrew and Greek, there are two sides to this “temptation” coin. 

On one side we do have temptation.  Understand that temptations are not always about getting us to do something bad, but

Temptations are primarily designed to shift our trust and allegiance from God and His truth to self and our “truth.” 

That’s what happened in Gen. 3 with the serpent and A & E.  The main temptation or issue was not getting them to eat from the tree but to shift their trust and allegiance away from God to self. 

Temptations have a lot to do with asserting self-autonomy. 

I get to be God.  Comes down to trust.  Keep that in mind the next time temptation comes. 

The other side of this word temptation can be best understood as a test.  What is the purpose of a test?

Tests are primarily designed to reveal truth.  

A test can reveal the truth of who we really are; it can reveal our mettle (strength or fortitude), what we’re really made of.  Tests reveal if we can walk the talk or whether or not we’re trustworthy.  

Tests can also be opportunities to grow in faith and learn to trust God. 

So whenever you see the word temptation or tempt in Scripture you really need to pay attention to the context because it might be better understood as a test as in the Lord's prayer.  “Do not lead us into temptation or testing?”  God never tempts anyone to sin, so it’s probably not temptation.  We’ll cover that next year when we get to chapter 6. 

As we get into Matthew 4, I believe Jesus was being tested more than He was being tempted.

Matthew 4 has multiple layers that are significant to the narrative which have a significant impact on how we live the Christian faith. We’ll cover 2 layers today – the 3rd next week. 

First Layer: 

Forty is a significant number in Biblical culture. It represents a time of preparation, purification, and/or completion.   

We discover that Jesus fasted and was tested for 40 days and nights.  It was a time of preparation for His ministry, but also reminiscent of the Exodus event in Israel’s history.  Moses spent 40 days and nights with Yahweh on Mt. Sinai receiving the Law (Exo. 24).  Israel was tested in the desert but often failed.  They spent 40 years in the desert kind of as a means of purification before they entered the Promised Land.  Overall, Matthew wants his readers to know that this Jesus is greater than Moses.  And unlike Israel, Jesus passed all the tests, and thus He is worthy and is the Messiah.   

These

1st Century Jews had in many ways elevated Moses so much that their reverence for Moses often superseded their relationship with God and blinded them to the Christ. 

Now, all of us are tempted to do the same – to have a “Moses” in our lives – a person who is greater than anyone else we know.  We are tempted to elevate them higher than we should.  We become enamored, in awe, worship the ground they walk on ….  Could be anyone ….  

Might I have a “Moses” that competes with Jesus? 

 Not saying you have a Moses, but if you do, what’s the Lord saying to you?  I’ve seen Christians elevate pastors, worship leaders, sports figures, politicians …. 

Second Layer:  Jesus was led by the Spirit to be tested by the devil.  Remember, Jesus, though fully God, was fully man, entirely human.  According to Phil. 2, He set aside or refused to use His “Godness” if you will.  He lived and operated in this world fully as a human.  He didn’t cheat at this human stuff.  Didn’t tap into His “God-powers” for His own benefit. 

Everything Jesus did He did as a man filled with the Holy Spirit.      

Now, after His baptism He was filled with the Holy Spirit.  I think God is trying to tell us something here.  If Jesus needed to be baptized and filled with the Spirit prior to His ministry … I think you can fill in the rest.  Part of this testing is to reveal to us humans that we too can have victory over sin, and temptations and tests by following the example given to us by Jesus who literally fought the devil as a human but in the power of the Spirit. 

So I wonder – perhaps some of you today are fighting the enemy, fighting temptations, fighting a past, and sin but you’re not experiencing victory – and you’re getting tired – because you’re not filled with the Spirit of God.  You’re a Believer – you come to church – you’re trying – trying to do this Christian thing - but not baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit. 

If you’re trying to do this Christian life in your own strength … how’s it working for you?

There’s a better way.

I am a firm believer that baptism of the Holy Spirit is something that God does in a person after salvation.  We call this a second work of grace.  Grace is a gift, it’s God’s favor. This is a second gift.  Just as with salvation, baptism of the Spirit must be received by faith - trusting.  

Baptism of the Spirit begins with consecration.

– offering of my entire self as a living sacrifice to God (good, bad, past, future)  God, I am yours and my life is yours.  I’ll be who you want me to be ….  It’s dying to self.  Don’t know who said this –

“Dying to self is not the death of who you are, it is the death of who you were never meant to be. It is the sacred shedding of every false identity, every mask,

every counterfeit version that life, sin, and pain tried to graft onto your soul.  In Christ, you are not erased; you are revealed.”

Last thing – receiving the Baptism of the Spirit often means allowing or inviting the elders of the church to lay hands on and pray over you to receive the baptism of the Spirit.

Acts 8:14–17 ESV

Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for he had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.

Acts 19:4–6 ESV

And Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.” On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying.

            What now?  Come – if you want to us to pray over you.