Sermon Tone Analysis

The Temptation of Jesus

A family had a big evening planned so the mom told her young son, ''You don't have time to go swimming in the pond this afternoon.

I need you to be clean and dry when I am ready to go.''

As the time drew near to leave the little boy was nowhere to be found.

The mother went down to the pond and sure enough there her young son was swimming.

She made him get out of the water and called him over to her and said, ''Son, didn't I tell you not to go swimming?''

He said, ''Momma, I didn't mean to but the devil tempted me and caused me to go swimming?''

She looked down at her son who was wearing and bathing suit and asked, ''What are you doing with your bathing suit on then if the devil tempted you?''

He said, ''Oh, I brought that along just in case I was tempted!''

Jesus had just been baptized by his cousin John.

God has just pronounced him who Jesus was.

That must have been something right?

The Baptism of Jesus

13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him.

14 John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” 15 But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”

Then he consented.

16 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; 17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

Jesus is baptized and when he is done with that we are told that he is led by the Holy Spirit, Luke tells us that He is full of the Holy Spirit and is led into a season of temptation.

Keep in mind that it has just been revealed that Jesus is God’s beloved Son with whom He is pleased.

That must have been something for Jesus.

At this point, the Holy Spirit in Jesus leads him into the wilderness for fasting and to try and figure out what kind of ministry this is going to be.

And for temptation.

This story is a holy story in that it had to have come directly from the lips of Jesus Himself.

There was no one else there.

So there must have been a point when He was talking with the disciples and telling them about this thing that happened to him.

After His baptism.

Jesus begins to walk in the truth of what God has said about Him.

He is the Son of God and Jesus goes to prepare for Ministry through a period of fasting for 40 days.

Jesus begins to walk in the truth of what God has said about Him.

He is the Son of God and Jesus goes to prepare for Ministry through a period of fasting for 40 days.

He is thinking and praying and trying to understand the problem of how to win these people over to God.

And we see that after he wrestles with this in the wilderness that he was in that he decides how he will and how he will not use his power.

The problem of figuring out how to win these people over to God.

And we see that after he wrestles in this wilderness that he was in that he decides how he will and how he will not use his power.

Now, Satan knows that Jesus has power, Satan knows that Jesus has different abilities and so he is trying to exploit them by trying to tempt Jesus into using those powers.

So we know that Jesus has been fasting for 40 days.

It is certainly possible for people to fast for 40 days, it isn’t an impossibility by any means.

But it is interesting that the Scripture says after the 40 days he was hungry, and Satan shows up.

So lets understand what is going on here.

And it is really interesting.

Jesus, has been named the son of God at the baptism, and then He goes to be alone and he fasts and he prays and when He hits the point when he is hungry (this doesn’t mean that he wasn’t hungry on day 2, it means that this was the worst point.

At this point the devil shows up.

Understand this, that there certainly is a devil.

The devil is not a made up fairy tale.

Nor is the devil the little guy in the red onesie with the pitchfork and the tail.

No, Satan is real, and he is evil to the core.

He wants to kill and destroy God’s people and there is no good in him.

He seeks out Jesus in this temptation.

Just waiting for Him.

And understand this, Satan is at the core trying to get Jesus to prove that He is the Son of God.

As if Jesus were feeling insecure about that.

Listen, this is the moment when Jesus is probably physically most vulnerable up to this point in his life.

He is hungry, he is weak and he is being presented with doubts as to who He is.

If you really are the son of God..

Temptation 1

We see the same thing from the garden with Adam and Eve in .

When the serpent came to Eve and said, not that there is no God, no , he was trying to get Eve to think that she couldn’t trust God.

God wasn’t true to His Word, you can’t trust God is what he was saying.

Did God really say you couldn’t eat from any tree?

You will not die!

God is hiding something from you.

Temptation 1

Temptation 1

Luke 4

The place where Jesus was was not a desert, there were stones in this valley, limestone that looked just like loaves of bread, they are still there today I imagine.

And for a person who hasn’t eaten in 40 days I am sure that it was tempting to do that.

And remember that this is a legitimate need.

We need to eat! Jesus needed to eat but he knew what the devil was doing…

There is more to life than surviving.

There is more to life than just getting by.

Living, eating, working and sleeping.

There is so much more than that.

There are probably two things going on here.

Every one of these temptations the devil has for Jesus is the basic temptation he has for us.

Turn stones into bread.

(Win people with material things, bribe them.

That is the basic temptation that the devil has for all of us.

Not necessarily that there isn’t a God, that isn’t what the devil is saying.

The devil is saying, can you really trust God with what HE said?

Is He really trustworthy?

Can you really trust God?

Is He holding out on you?

We see the same thing from the garden with Adam and Eve in .

When the serpent came to Eve and said, not that there is no God, no, he was trying to get Eve to think that she couldn’t trust God.

God wasn’t true to His Word, you can’t trust God is what he was saying.

Did God really say you couldn’t eat from any tree?

You will not die!

God is hiding something from you Eve!

For Jesus the question is “If you really are the Son of God… prove it.

Prove it by turning this stone into bread.

Isn’t it funny that the devil uses the same method of temptation for Jesus that he did for Eve in the garden.

Both had to do with food.

With eating.

Now I don’t want to spend too much time on this but I think it is really interesting.

I know that this is an area where so many people cannot say no to.

You see something scrumptious in front of you and you cannot help but to want to take it even if you aren’t hungry.

And so Jesus is the second Adam.

He is man, the way man is supposed to be when it comes to obeying God.

He is the example Jesus was going to be obedient where Adam was not.

He is saying, God says not to live by bread alone and I am going to obey that.