Trust God's Provision (Text)

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This morning we find ourselves once more. . .

in the wilderness with Jesus

In the wilderness with Jesus, we have found help for our souls when facing the temptations and trials of this life. We take great comfort in knowing that the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness. From this truth we know that . . .

God controls the timing of our testing.

God walks with us into the place of our testing.

God is with us through our testing (and that . . .)

God’s good purpose in our testing is to make us like Jesus.[1]

Knowing the end of the story encourages us. We know that because Jesus defeated the devil, the devil must bow to the life of Jesus in us.[2]

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Today we will consider Jesus’ first temptation. The temptation begins with a context that at once tells us that something significant is happening in the timeline of God’s redemptive purposes for humankind and all of creation.

Matthew 4:2 tells us that “After fasting forty days and forty nights”, [Jesus] was hungry. Whenever we see the phrase “forty days and forty nights” we know that God is up to something. Forty is the number of a complete event in the Bible.[3] It signals the end of one state of being and the beginning of another. Two examples are

(1) the great flood - it rained forty days and forty nights. God was bringing an end to the world and preparing to start the world over again through Noah and his family.

(2) the children of Israel were in the Wilderness for forty years. This marked the end of their history as slaves in Egypt and the beginning of their history as God’s chosen people.

The Bible associates forty-day fasts with three persons. Moses fasted for forty days and nights two times as he met with God on Mount Sinai to receive the Law of God. Elijah fasted for forty days and nights as he traveled to Mount Horeb to meet with God. Jesus fasted for forty days and nights in the wilderness before the devil came to him.

The Gospels make a strong connection between Moses, Elijah, and Jesus. At Jesus’ transfiguration it is Moses and Elijah that meet with Jesus. [4] In Jewish thought, Moses and Elijah are the two primary prophets associated with the redemption of Israel.[5] Like Jesus, they suffered rejection and persecution, but God vindicated them. In this sense Moses and Elijah foreshadow Jesus the Messiah.[6] However, the message of the Gospel is that Jesus supersedes Moses and Elijah as the culmination of God’s redemption of Israel and beyond Israel to the whole of humankind.

Therefore, Matthew alerts us that something of cosmic significance is taking place when he tells us Jesus fasted for forty days and forty nights. We are who we are today. The world is what it is today, and all creation will be what it will be because “after fasting forty days and forty nights [Jesus] was hungry. Then, the tempter came to him and said, “if you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

In this sentence, I find . . .

Three Temptations . . .

enveloped in this one statement.

The first is to

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doubt God’s goodness, willingness, and ability to provide his needs. The second is to

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doubt his relationship to God.[7] The third temptation is to

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abandon hope that God will meet his needs. Of course, we too face these same temptations

The devil comes to Jesus when he is hungry. The Greek word for hungry carries the sense of wanting and needing food.[8] Jesus had not eaten in 40 days. Jesus wanted and needed food. Yet, Jesus had no food and had no obvious way to get food. The devil thinks this is the moment to tempt Jesus to

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Doubt God’s goodness, willingness, and ability to provide his (our) needs

There is an implied subtext in the devil’s temptation. The subtext goes something like this:

Hey Jesus, Son of God – really? Just look at yourself - you are a mess. Dirty, hungry, and thirsty. Did God bring you out in the wilderness to kill you? If God were good, he would not treat you this way. Does God care about your hunger? If God does care, why is he not willing to do anything about it? What does that say about the way the Father treats his Son? Then again, could it be that God just doesn’t have the ability to meet your need? Things are not looking good for you sonny boy!

While this subtext is fictional and not present in Scripture, we know something similar was likely present in Jesus’ temptation. We know this because in our times of need these words have scrolled through our minds.

Does God care that I am in real need right now? Will God help me with this situation? If God cares about my need and God is willing to help me with this need, but I see zero change in my circumstance does that mean that God just doesn’t have the ability to intervene?

In our darker moments, those words weighed heavy on our souls. We found ourselves doubting God’s goodness, willingness, and ability to provide for us in our time of need.

From that doubt naturally flows the temptation to . . .

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Doubt his (our) relationship with God

For Jesus, the temptation came in the words “If you are the son of God.” The subtext sounds like this:

“If you are the Son of God” - and right now there’s good reason to believe that you are not - why is God letting you suffer?

This is a brazen attack. God the Father had openly declared Jesus to be his Son at Jesus’ baptism.

Likewise, the devil comes to us and whispers into our ears “If you are really a child of God, why is he letting you suffer?

This too is a brazen attack for the devil knows, that in our profession of faith and our baptism the Father has claimed us as his child. In fact, we are co-heirs with his Son Jesus.[9]

Yet, in our weaker moments this attack slips through our ears and into our souls and we wonder:

Does God love me? If God loves me, why am I in such need? Why am I in such pain? Am I really a child of God or is the whole thing just a lie to prop up those who are not strong enough to cope with the fact that we live, we suffer, and we die - and that is the whole meaning of life?

If the devil could get Jesus to doubt God’s goodness, willingness, and ability to intervene. If he could get Jesus to doubt his relationship with God, then he could trick Jesus into derailing God’s whole plan not by doing something evil, but doing something good - taking care of himself by simply changing a few stones to bread. There’s nothing inherently wrong with changing stones to bread and nothing inherently wrong with taking care of one’s self.[10]

On top of this, just as God had provided food in the desert for Israel, this simple act would put to rest any question of his identity as the Son of God.[11]

However, to make those stones into bread would require Jesus to . . .

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Abandon trust in God’s provision

In making bread from stones, Jesus would in practice declare that God either did not care, was not willing, or was not able to meet his need. Rather, than waiting on the Father, the Son would have to assert his ability to take care of himself.

Unfortunately, this is exactly what we do if we lose our trust in God’s goodness, willingness, and ability to supply what we need. If we lose confidence in our relationship with God, we will inevitably say to ourselves, well I guess it’s up to me to . . .

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Start making bread out of these stones

Figuratively speaking, Adam and Eve tried to make bread out of stones when they took the fruit and ate it. Abraham and Sarah tried to make bread out of stones by conceiving God’s promised child through Sarah’s slave Hagar. Israel tried to make bread out of stones when they made and worshiped the golden calf. Trying to turn stones into bread never turns out well in the Bible and it never turns out well for us.

It is possible to confess a belief in God’s ability to supply our need and to confess our right standing with God. While in practice, we abandon all hope in God’s provision for our needs. We get busy trying to make bread out of stones.

We all need bread to live!

We take the stone of pain and try to turn it into the bread of pleasure.

We take the stone of failure and try to turn it into the bread of praise.

We take the stone of material hardship and try to turn it into the bread of financial and physical possessions.

We take the stone of loneliness and try and turn it into the bread of popularity. [12]

These are only four ways we try to make bread out of stones; there are others. If we do succeed in making something that looks like bread out of these stones, in the end we will find them empty of life-sustaining nourishment.

That is why Jesus refused to make bread out of stones. Jesus squared up with the devil and said, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every rhema that comes from the mouth of God!”

In that statement, Jesus is quoting Moses. In the wilderness, Israel lived on manna from heaven. In the wilderness of temptation, like Jesus, we . . .

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Live on rhēma

You may be asking, “what is rhēma and how do we live on it?” We are going to answer that question but first we must notice something subtle and significant about Jesus’ response to the devil’s temptation.

Notice that Jesus in his words and actions completely ignores the “if you are the Son of God” phrase in his response to the devil. Jesus has no need to prove that point. In Jesus’ response we see supreme confidence in his relationship to the Father and in His Father’s ability to take care of all that concerns him.

Like Jesus, we can have this same confidence in our relationship with God. When the devil whispers in our ear, “are you really a child of God?” we can just ignore that part for God’s word tells us that . . .

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“To all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—” (John 1:12, NIV)

If we receive Jesus in our hearts by believing in his name, we are children of God. We can stand in that assurance with the same confidence Jesus had in his position as the Son of God.

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In responding to the devil’s temptation, Jesus ignores the challenge to his identity and gets to the significant part. He directly addresses the challenge to doubt and abandon God’s goodness and God’s willingness and ability to supply his needs. Refusing to make stones into bread, Jesus says to the devil, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word - every rhēma - that comes from the mouth of God.

In the New Testament there are two Greek words translated as “word” in English. The first is logos. The second is rhēma. Logos is the complete, the entire message of God. Most often the English phrase “word of God” is “the logos of God.” The Gospel of John refers to Jesus as the “logos” of God that became flesh and made his dwelling among us.”[13}

Rhēma refers to a brief, usually spoken statement that is part of or expounds on the larger logos of God.[14] [15] Figuratively, if we think of logos being Lake Michigan, rhēma would be a cup of water dipped from Lake Michigan. The Bible is the logos of God, preaching to explain the temptations of Jesus in the wilderness is a rhēma of God.

I think of rhēma like this: the rhēma of God is the word of God that we experience. It is a specific word of God usually spoken to a specific person or persons within a specific context for a specific reason.

Therefore, Jesus is telling us that it is experiencing the life-giving power of the word of God that nourishes us and gives us life. Why is that the case?

Jesus said,

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“The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words (rhēmata) I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life.” (John 6:63, NIV)

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“If you remain in me and my words (rhēmata) remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” (John 15:7, NIV)

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“The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word (rhēma).” (Hebrews 1:3, NIV)

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Do you see, what Jesus is doing in his response to the devil? In effect Jesus is saying and the devil is understanding something like this,

Devil, you know who you are talking to. My words sustain all things. My words give life. “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” (John 6:35, NIV) You know who you are talking to because my rhēma, my word is the Word of God.

Finally, as Jesus proves, the rhēma of God directly ties to overcoming temptation. The Apostle Paul tells us that in our fight “against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” we are to . . .

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“Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word (rhēma) of God.” (Ephesians 6:17, NIV)

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The rhēma of God, is the word of God that the Holy Spirit brings to us in our moment of need. When the words of the Bible seem to leap off the page an into our heart - that is the rhēma of God applied to our heart by the Holy Spirit. When we are troubled, and a verse of scripture comes to our mind that brings us assurance that is the rhēma of God applied to our heart by the Holy Spirit. Whenever you hear a sermon or Bible teaching and think that is just what I need to hear today, that is the rhēma of God applied to our heart by the Holy Spirit. When you are in a situation and you wonder what to do or what to say and you find yourself doing things and saying things that are grounded in the Word of God that is the Holy Spirit applying the rhēma of God to your situation.

Therefore, we should take every opportunity, make it our highest priority, use every method to fill our minds, hearts, and souls with the word of God.

This is the reason we are taking all the time that it may take to work through the entire Gospel of Matthew. We are doing this because, as your pastor, I want the rhēma of Jesus to fill our minds, to fill our hearts, to fill our souls.

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When we are living on every word - every rhēma that comes from the mouth of God, we will not fail to trust God to provide for our every need, provide our need every time, and provide what we need right on time.

[1] Hale, Jeff (2020) Led by the Spirit. Unpublished Manuscript.

[2] Hale, Jeff (2020) Tempted by the devil. https://sermons.faithlife.com/sermons/576939-tempted-by-the-devil

[3] Myers, A. C. (1987). In The Eerdmans Bible dictionary (p. 769). Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.

[4] Matthew 17:1-13

[5] Hatina, T. R. (2016). Transfiguration. In J. D. Barry, D. Bomar, D. R. Brown, R. Klippenstein, D. Mangum, C. Sinclair Wolcott, … W. Widder (Eds.), The Lexham Bible Dictionary. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

[6] Renz, T. (2000). Elijah. In T. D. Alexander & B. S. Rosner (Eds.), New dictionary of biblical theology (electronic ed., p. 454). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

[7] The predominate view among commentators is that the devil does not challenge Jesus’ identity, but accepts it as a given. However, there is some dissent to this view James Boice and R.C. Sproul are among those to see a direct challenge to Jesus concerning his identity as the Son of God. See Boice, J. M. (2001). The Gospel of Matthew (p. 56). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.

[8] Faithlife Corporation. (2020). to be hungry (Version 8.13) [Computer software]. Logos Bible Software Bible Sense Lexicon. Bellingham, WA: Faithlife Corporation. Retrieved from https://ref.ly/logos4/Senses?KeyId=ws.be+become+hungry.v.01

[9] Romans 8:17

[10] Wilkins, M. J. (2004). Matthew (p. 158). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.

[11] Hauerwas, S. (2006). Matthew (p. 52). Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press.

[12] Adapted from Haase, A. (2008). Coming home to your true self: Leaving the emptiness of false attractions (p. 39). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

[13] Carpenter, E. E., & Comfort, P. W. (2000). In Holman treasury of key Bible words: 200 Greek and 200 Hebrew words defined and explained (p. 422). Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

[14] Source: Pastor Joshua, Gospel Tabernacle. It is written. Retrieved from https://sermons.faithlife.com/sermons/562228-it-is-written?utm_source=logos&utm_medium=guidesection&utm_content=searchresult&utm_campaign=promo-faithlifesermons

[15] Hayford, J.W. (1991). Spirit-Filled Life Bible. Matthew 4:4 Word Wealth (p. 1408). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers