The Life of Christ: His Temptation

As you guys know, one of my favorite movies is the Lord of the Rings. In fact, Mike Stewart and I were just talking about that. And I love the Lord of the Rings, I think it is a brilliant and powerful story. ANd ion that movie, they are trying to destroy the magic ring of power. And this ring in it holds all the power of evil in it. ANd in that movie, the again and again as characters come into contact with this magic ring, even teh best, greatest, and most noble characters become corrupted by this magic ring of power. IN fac,t the only characters who don’t become infected by it are the characters who don’t touch it. And even then, some are still twisted by its powers. And I think that resonates with us. Because we all know what it is like for something that we want or desire to tempt us or to twist us. We all know what it is like for something that we really want to twist us. And unfortunately, there is none of us who has been able to stand up to this terrible, brutish monster of temptation. None of us, except for one. And the story of that man is the story that we’re going to talk about today.

The Three Ingredients

The Spirit: The first thing that we see is that the Spirit led Jesus to be tempted by Satan. The Spirit, the third person of the Trinity had just been given to Christ at his Baptism. The Father had just spoken from heaven and said, “This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.” And the Son receives the Spirit and follows him. The Spirit has come upon him to empower him for his mission and to reassure him of his status as the Son of God.

The Wilderness: And we see here that he goes out into the wilderness. Throughout Scripture we see that God brings his people out into the wilderness to test them. He brings Moses out to the Wilderness to meet him at Mt. Sinai. He brings his people out from Egypt and into the wilderness in part to test them. He brings David into the wilderness and tests him with the kingdom. He brings Elijah out into the wilderness and tests him. And all of these characters have varied results. The wilderness, in Scripture, is the place of testing. It is God’s boot camp. It is the forgery, the refining fire. The wilderness is where God sifts the heart of his people, to see what, if anything, is there. And they are always found wanting. Here, in the wilderness, Christ will be tested severely. Because we see that Christ was fasting in the wilderness for forty days, while Israel was in the desert forty years. He is here to see if he can be the true Israel, the better Israel, the real Israel. He will be tried to see if he succeeds where others failed. In fact, the reason that Christ is called to the wilderness to be tested is to see if he will succeed where Israel has failed time and time again. He will be brought to see if he can do what Israel could not, if he could stand where Israel fell, if he can be faithful when Israel was faithless.

The Devil: We also see that the Devil plays an important rule. There are two interesting things about Satan in this story. First, we need to recognize that Satan is not the archrival of God. In fact, Satan cannot do anything apart from God’s permission. The Devil is unable to tempt, to try, to test apart from God’s permission. Like Satan had to ask to try Job, like Satan had to ask to sift Peter, so Satan can only work here if God allows it. Secondly, you will notice that the name for Satan here is the “Devil.” Now, Satan has different names. Sometimes he is called the “Serpent” to refer to what he did in Eden. Sometimes he is called “Satan” which just means adversary, someone who will do everything he can to oppose God and his ways. But the name “Devil” means “accuser.” When Scripture calls Satan the Devil, he is calling him the accuser. This will be of no surprise, but the dominant picture of the Devil is of a lawyer. And the root meaning of this word means a “divider.” And that is essentially what the Devil seeks to do, to divide God and man. This is what he did with Eve in , with Job in , and with David in . Satan still tempts this way. This is what Satan does by tempting you not to read your Bible or to pray or to come to church. The Devil’s main approach in your life is to try to separate you from the lifeline of your relationship with God. And it is no coincidence that as soon as the Son is baptized and receives the Spirit from the Father that the Devil shows up. Because his temptations are carefully and precisely aimed at seperating the Son from the Father. At attacking hte unity of God and the unity of the incarnation. The Devil shows up now because he wants to stop this unity. And with the three ingredients set, Satan sets out to tempt Christ.

The Three Temptations

Crisis

1. The Temptation of Hunger

Jesus Fasted: So the first thing we see here is that Jesus fasted. Now fasting is a discipline where you forgo eating to pray. And it is a time of intense trusting in God and his Word. Because in fasting, your normal physical strength fades away. And your need for your dependency on God is strengthened and heightened. And CHrist here, at the end of forty days, is spiritually strong, but physically weak. It is precisely at this weakness that the Devil strikes.

If you are the Son of God: The Devil comes to him and first says, “if you are the Son of God.” Satan comes to Christ and says, “If you really are God’s Son,” what is he trying to get him to do? He is trying to get him to think that God would want him to do this. That this is a good thing that God would really want him to do. What Satan is really aiming at is trying to get him to doubt God’s love for him in not providing for Him. He’s saying, “Listen, if you are who you think you are, do you think God would really be offended by this?”

Falling Action

Turn these stones to become loaves of bread: Now, this temptation is aimed very precisely. Because it is very similar to the story of Exodus. In the book of Exodus, God brought the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt. ANd they were in the wilderness of Sinai, and they grumble against God because they are hngry. And they say this in … So just like Israel came to the wilderness and was tempted with hunger, so Jesus comes to the wilderness and is tested by hunger.

Exodus 16:1–3 ESV

They set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the people of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt. And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

Satan Tempts Us With Comfort Today: Listen Satan wants to work in the exact same way today. Satan appeals to our physical weakness and appetites all the time. Here’s what this looks like today. “If God loves you, you don’t need to go to church.” Or “If God loves you, you don’t need to worry about reading yoru Bible.” “If God loves you, you don’t really need to get involved with a Growth Group.” He says, “You’re too busy or you’re too tired,” He says, “You don’t really want to be around people people right now. You’ve had an exhausting week, just go get some me-time.” Here’s the fact, just like Israel, we so often are tempted by our physical appetites and desires. We think our physical or emotional needs are more important than our spiritual need for Christ. And just like Israel, we give in allt he time.

Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the Mouth of God: But here’s the difference. When Israel is tempted. They crumple into pieces. But when Christ is tempted, he doesn’t complain, he holds onto God’s Word. In fact, Jesus cites part of , but almost certainly he would have wanted us to know the whole verse. Which says.... You see, Jesus is saying, “No, I’m going to get right what Israel got wrong. I’m not going to give into temptation, I’m not going to give into hunger, I’m going to live off of God’s Word alone.” Jesus gets right what Israel got wrong, and Jesus is faithful when we are so often faithless.

Satan Tempts Us With Comfort Today: listen

2. The Temptation of Presumption

Took him to the city and set him on the edge of the temple: Satan’s next move is to take Christ and to bring him to the edge of the temple. The edge of the temple would have looked down into the Kidron Valley hundreds of feet. We can see a picture here of likely where this would have been. To jump down this would have been a leap to his death.

He will command his angels concerning you: And Satan brings Christ here and says, “Jump down.” And he says, “You want to talk Scripture, you know that says He will command his angels concerning you.... He says, you say God loves you? Well why don’t you jump down and prove it. If you are who you say you are, why don’t you put yourself in harm’s way and see how God responds.

And Satan brings Christ here and says, “Jump down.” And he says, “You want to talk Scripture, you know that says He will command his angels concerning you.... He says, you say God loves you? Well why don’t you jump down and prove it. If you are who you say you are, why don’t you put yourself in h

Israel Presumed on God: When Israel was faced with a similar temptation, they tested God. In fact, just a chapter after they whined against God in the wilderness about bread, we find that they did something very similar. You see, they were in a desert land with little water, and the Israelites were grumbling against Moses because there was no water. And God told Moses to tap his staff against the rock and he did that and water came out. And this is how God summarizes the event in .

To Presume on God is to Tell Him He has not Been Faithful enough as it is: The reason that this is wrong is because it is to tell God that he has not already been good or faithful or generous to us. It is to tell him that he has not yet shown his goodness to us. It is to tell him that he has not already been faithful to us, and that if he wants our allegiance, he needs to prove it. It is to tell God that we will not believe him until we have good reason to believe otherwise. It is to tell God to let us examine him and take him to court to see if he really is who he says he is. It is to doubt God’s godoness, his fiathfulness, and his love. To presume on God is like a Son saying to his father, “Dad, I won’t know you really love me unless you do this for me.”

Example: Gideon: This is what Gideon does, right. I mean, Gideon was a judge who God rose up to chase off the Midianites, and time after time, Gideon keeps saying, “God if it is really you, God if it is is really you.” And God is so gracious towards Gideon. But that does not mean it is right to test God.

We do this all the time: And we do this same thing all the time. We presume on God when we sin and we know its wrong and we think, “Well, God will just forgive me, that’s what God does.” We presume on God when we think that because we prayed a sinner’s prayer or came down the altar or got baptized, that it doesn’t matter how we live our lives because God will forgive us. We presume on God when we live 90% of our lives as if we dont’ need God, but when we get into trouble we pray that God would rescue us. THat’s not Christianity, that’s fire insurance. That’s presuming on God, making himself prove himself over and over again in our lives

You shall not put the Lord your God to the test: Jesus of course, sees right through Satan’s schemes. And where Israel fails, he succeeds. Where we fall, he stands up straight. He says to Satan, “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.” Jesus here is again citing from teh book of Deuteronomy. ANd he is saying, “You’re trying to get me to do exactly what the Israelites did at Masah and Meribah, you’re trying to get me to put God to the test.” He says I will not, I will not presume on God. I will not make him prove himself to me time and time again. I will trust in him.

3. The Temptation of Glory

A Very High Mountain: So the Devil has had enough playing around. He takes Jesus to the very height of the whole world. He takes Jesus up to the highest of highs and says, “okay Jesus, let’s do this.” Now, there is celarly some kind of supernatural element here, where the Devil was allowed to give Jesus visions of all the world. He shows him the great cultures of Greece, he shows him the great power of the Romans, he show shim the great wealth of the Persians and Babylonians, he shows him the great beauty of India, he shows him all the peoples of China, he shows him every kingdom and all their glory. All the wealth and power and fame and status.

If you bow down and worship me: Satan says, you want it it is yours. Every last bit of it. All you have to do is to bow down and worship me.” All you have to do is you have to bow the knee. You have to submit to me. You have to pledge allegiance to me. ALl you have to do is give me your word and it will all be yours, what do you say?” Satan here is offering Jesus a shortcut. Jesus you don’t have to go to the cross, you don’t have to bear the weight of the world, you don’t have to suffer the wrath of GOd. Just bow down to me, and all the kingdoms of the earth and all their glory, they are yours.

Israel failed with the golden calf: Our minds are again drawn to the Israelites in the desert. In the Exodus, God brought Israel to the edge of Mt. Sinai, and called Moses up to the mountain to receive the law from him, which Moses does. ANd they’re up on the mountain, and while Moses is up on the mountain what does Israel do? They prostitute themselves after a golden idol. They worship it and they revel in it. They totally failed.

Idolatry is to cosmic adultery: You see, we think that idolatry is a purely physical act, it is to bow down to something physical and commit ourselves to it. But idolatry is really anything that we put in the place of God. It is whenever we take a good thing and we make it an ultimate thing. This is why, in , God tells Israel that they have been unfaithful for their adultery. This is why in , James tells us that friendship with the world is adultery. Because in adultery, a spouse tells someone that they can give them something their spouse cannot. Well, in idolatry we tell something that it can give us what GOd cannot give us.

We commit idolatry all the time: We are not all that different. We all commit adultery by putting things in the place of God. By looking to something to give us some kind of fulfillment that God cannot give us. Listen to what David Foster Wallace says...

Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And an outstanding reason for choosing some sort of God or spiritual-type thing to worship... is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things — if they are where you tap real meaning in life — then you will never have enough. Never feel you have enough. It's the truth. Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly, and when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally plant you. On one level, we all know this stuff already — it's been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, bromides, epigrams, parables: the skeleton of every great story. The trick is keeping the truth up-front in daily consciousness. Worship power — you will feel weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to keep the fear at bay. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart — you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. And so on.

Everybody worships: In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship... Pretty much anything else (other than God) you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things — if they are where you tap real meaning in life — then you will never have enough. Never feel you have enough. It's the truth. Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly, and when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally plant you. On one level, we all know this stuff already — it's been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, bromides, epigrams, parables: the skeleton of every great story... Worship power — you will feel weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to keep the fear at bay. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart — you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. - David Foster Wallace

In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And an outstanding reason for choosing some sort of God or spiritual-type thing to worship... is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things — if they are where you tap real meaning in life — then you will never have enough. Never feel you have enough. It's the truth. Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly, and when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally plant you. On one level, we all know this stuff already — it's been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, bromides, epigrams, parables: the skeleton of every great story. The trick is keeping the truth up-front in daily consciousness. Worship power — you will feel weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to keep the fear at bay. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart — you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. - David Foster Wallace

Christ will not give in: ANd here, at the most powerful and most sinister levels of temptation, where you and I give in like a twig snapping beneath a semi truck, Christ does not give in. He says, “Be gone Satan, for it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.” Christ will not put anything in the place of God. He will not look to anything for smething he things GOd has not given him. He will maintain his faith and trust in God, come hell or high water.

Denouement

Application

This reminds us just how faithless we are: This story reminds us just how faithless we are. How quickly we give into sin. How quickly we give up on God. How quickly we forget about God. How quickly we presume on God. How quickly we are impatient with God. How quickly we think God won’t provide for us. We are so quick to turn our back on God. In fact, if you don’t find yourself revealed in this passage as someone who tempts God, as someone who grumbles against God, as someone who worships something other than God, you’re not reading it.

This shows us just how faithful Christ was: BUt, and here is the important part, this shows us just how faithful Christ was. Because he was faithful when we were faithless. He stood strong when we bent under pressure. He did not give up when we gave in. He persevered when we gave up. He was who we could not be. He did what we could not do. He stayed to the very end. Which means, even though we couldn’t be good enough to please God, he pleased God for us.

This helps us walk in wisdom going forward: Not only this, but because we know that Christ was faithful, we know that we have the same Holy SPirit he had, and so it is an example to us. It shows us how to follow Christ. In particular, note how Christ maintained faithfulness to God. He was prepared himself for temptation with prayer, and he maintained himself in temptation by the WOrd of God. If you do not have a steady diet of the WOrd of God, if we are not saturated with Scripture, if we are not living by God’s Word, then Satan wille at us for lunch. But because you have the same Spirit that Christ had, you can walk by teh Word. You can meditate on Scripture. Some of you might say, “Well, I don’t really need to read the Bible.” Look, if you have the Holy Spirit, that is no excuse, because the same SPirit that enabled Jesus Christ to be word-soaked lives in you. THe same Spirit that built Christ up preaparing him for temptation with Scripture lives in you.

Grace again: And here is the beautiful thing. you and I are going to stumble, we will fall. We can get better and grow in our ability to withstand temptation. But, we will never be perfect. And that’s why Christ came. To be perfect for us. To be faithful for us. To be our substitute. And we grow in him, and when we fall we lean on him. ANd we grow, and we lean, and we grow and we lean and we are ever more, getting closer and closer to the day where will be like him and know him even as we are known.

Conclusion

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