Temptation of Jesus - Matthew 4
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Good morning!
So good to see your faces today my friends.
I pray you’ve had a good week.
I know and believe that each day is a blessing, and we should be thankful for each day no matter the difficultly that it may hold.
Now today, we head back to the Gospel of Matthew…
Last week we started with Chapter 3, and with it we saw the ministry of John the Baptist and his work to prepare the way for Jesus public ministry.
We closed out chapter 3 seeing Jesus being baptized by John in the river, and this was permitted to fulfill all righteousness.
Today, we come to Matthew chapter 4 - Jesus temptation in the wilderness.
Lets look at the first 11 verses of chapter 4
1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4 But he answered, “It is written,
“ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”
5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him 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 I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written,
“ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God
and him only shall you serve.’ ”
11 Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.
So this morning as we walk through the text, we can see three points without any difficulty.
1.) Led by the Spirit 2.) 3 Temptations 3.) Lessons Learned
1. Led By The Spirit...
1. Led By The Spirit...
Now if we look backward just a bit and review, remember Jesus has just had a that great meeting with John the Baptist.
And John, submitted to God’s will and Jesus was baptised in the Jordan. There we see Jesus coming up out of the water and the Holy Spirit descends on Jesus like a dove and the heavens are opened and God the Father speaks… “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased… “( Matthew 3:17)
Now the Bible tells us as this event ended Jesus was led, directed by the Spirit to come into the wilderness, the country side where He would wait on the Lord, pray and face temptations by the hand of the devil… we will talk more about that in a bit.
For the moment it is important for us to set the stage for all that is happening.
Jesus has just had a huge spiritual event, He is God’s Son. He is fully God and Fully man, but up until this time he has not been moving forward with His public ministry.
But the baptism marks the beginning of His ministry. Now I say all this because we understand that after we take a stand for God, after a great spiritual event, we usually have difficulties, opposition and frustrations. Jesus did as well.
The Scripture always rings true in every way… let me share Hebrews 4:15
15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
Now the gospel of Mark tells us that from the Jordan, the Holy Spirit immediately led Jesus into the wilderness. Immediately is important, it happened right after it.
Now verses 1-2 again from Matthew.
1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.
Now the word “led” is important. It speaks to an actions that is more than just guided, it literally refers to being drove them. He had to be in that place and walk through these events..
The wilderness here is traditionally thought to be a high plain that is almost desert like in appearance. It is a place that seems to mirror the children of Israel in their desert wanderings. It would be a place of isolation, a place of solitude where Jesus would be alone.
God’s own Spirit, the Holy Spirit is the one who leads Jesus to a place where He will be tempted in the days to come, but please, please be careful here. God is not the one who is tempting Jesus.
God allowed Jesus to come to the place to be tempted, but He did not cause it. And likewise the Devil does not have free reign. He is allowed to tempt, but he cannot harm, hurt or go beyond God’s will for this event.
We understand it is necessary....
An then verse 2 tells us that Jesus fasted for 40 days.. Fasting was often used by the Jews, and we see people do it today. The whole process is to make a person more receptive, more in tune and aware of what God is doing. The hope is to through the sacrifice of material things like food, you use that time to draw closer and closer to God.
I’ve known people who have fasted 40 days.... it is a dangerous task, they sustained them self with water and juices but no food. They were blessed through it. Jesus is using this time to commune with the Father.
For a physical note, 40 days He is hungry. The physical body needs food, Jesus physical body needs food as well.
The Holy Spirit led Jesus to this place. Now I am not saying that God is going to led you to fast like Jesus did…but I do believe the Spirit will lead you daily if you will allow him too.
The question is are you listening to God’s Spirit as He seeks to lead your life.
He is there everyday to help you, to make you the best possible version of yourself that God intended for you.
Now this brings me to my second point of the day....
3. Three Temptations...
3. Three Temptations...
As Jesus is there in the wilderness, we are told that the Devil is allowed to come to Jesus. lets look at our text..
3 And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”
Matthew calls the Devil the tempter, why? That is the function the Devil conducts here in this moment, Her tempts, he is the tempter and continues to tempt, deceive, led astray, push toward sin.... in the lives of many on a daily basis.
Then the Devil says something very unique at the end of verse 3.. “…If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”
Now the devil isn’t saying he doubt’s Jesus is the Son of God.. Why?
19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!
The devil and his demons, his minions believe… He is really seeking What type of Son Jesus will be, and if the Son can be swayed....
So 3 temptations come to into place...
Temptation 1
Temptation 1
So verse 3,“…If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”
Literally, if you are God’s Son, You don’t have to be hunger, prove your status by satisfying your hunger....
And Jesus answers the devil…
4 But he answered, “It is written,
“ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”
Jesus responding to the devil by going back to the Torah, the law, and quotes Deuteronomy 8:3. The context of that verse reminds us that God is the one who provides for the needs of His children.
What’s the lesson. It really speaks to what Jesus teaches in Matt 6:33
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
The focus of humanity is to live for God, to seek Him first above all other matters and trust Him to provide the rest. Jesus didn’t need to feed himself and thus prove who He was, He was well aware of His identity and knew God would provide for His needs.
He trusted God.
Do you trust God, Do you trust Him to take care of you even when you do not understand it or see it.
That is the first lesson learned..
Temptation 2
Temptation 2
Then we move to the second temptation, verses 5-7. The second temptation brings Jesus to the Holy City of Jerusalem.
And here we see that the Devil has lifted Jesus to the highest point of the pinnacle. This place according to Josephus Antiquities, this was the Southeast corner of the Temple area. It was the place that looked over the Kidron Valley and was about 300 feet to the ground.
And the second temptation comes from His evil lips…”...If you are the Son of God throw yourself off, for it is written that He will command His angels concerning you and they will bear you up so that you won’t even hit your foot upon the ground...” (My paraphrase).
Lets look the passage in full...
5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him 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.’ ”
The temptation here is to bypass the Messianic plan of God, for jesus to step off this height and be preserved by God would have risen Him to instant fame. The people would have known instantly that He was sent from God.
His fame would be in His power not in his sacrificial death. And this is not the way...
Jesus gives a reply to the devil… verse 7
7 Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ”
What does this mean… put God to the test? We must not test God’s faithfulness to His word by manufacturing those situations to try and force Him to act a certain way.
God and His word are faithful and true. We can take God at His word and trust Him.
You have heard me say before, We trust God with our salvation, why can’t we trust Him with the rest of our lives. The answer… We can!
And this brings to the third temptation...
Temptation 3
Temptation 3
Again the Devil takes jesus the to tallest mountain with another temptation.
Look with me at verses 8-9
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 I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”
The devil has tried to appeal to Jesus flesh, and then to his tempt Him to display a false faith in God, and thus achieving position and power ahead of God’s plan. And now this one is one of worship.
The Devil says I will give you everything if you will bow down and worship me.
It truly reveals the liar that He is, he owns nothing, He has nothing but temporal objects for a moment in time and He promises so many times to give what is not His..
The price He requires is nothing short of damnation.. For a person to bow their head and worship him is to sell their soul to the devil and abandon God.
And upon hearing such a promise Jesus utters these words..
10 Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written,
“ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God
and him only shall you serve.’ ”
11 Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.
I love that, Be gone Satan… Jesus reminds him of the truth that Gdo is the only one to be worshipped.
God is the only one who is worthy of worship , He is the only one who deserves worship for He is the Creator, Sustained and Redeemer of all the world.
And Satan left Him… and the angels came and were ministering to him.
Remember Jesus has fasted for 40 days..His physical body is weak and in victory the Lord receives help from the Father above. Angels are sent to him and they minister to Him. Jesus recovers and is ready to begin proclaiming the Kingdom of God is near...
Three temptations, Three points that are necessary for Jesus to begin His ministry and later to die in our place, to satisfy the righteousness of God, that we might be declared “right” in his sight.
Remember the serve I shared with you earlier...
15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
Jesus was made like man, waled and lived as we do, he endured was tempted and did not sin that He might be our great High Priest and also our sacrifice for sin.
Now just one more thought, a few things for us to consider my friends.
my third thought...
3. Lessons Learned from Temptation of Jesus...
3. Lessons Learned from Temptation of Jesus...
1. Satan seeks to disrupt God’s Plans…
1. Satan seeks to disrupt God’s Plans…
My friends I want you to know that God has a plan for us in this life. We are not hear by accident. And with that God has a plan for our lives. God called 12 men to carry the message of Jesus into the world and we are to continue that mission.
The Scriptures testify that we are fearfully and wonderfully made… And if such care has been given in our construction then my friends the days we walk here on planet Earth have his purpose behind them. To declare the glory of the heavens, God has loved us and sent his Son into the world to die for mankind, to take our place so that our sins are forgiven.
As such, Satan seeks to disrupt our lives, to discourage us, hinder us and stop us from being effective in this life.
He wants to take as many people to hell with him, we must be about our Father’s business.
2. Trust God in every Area of Life...
2. Trust God in every Area of Life...
The devil tried to put Jesus in a place to test God, and He seeks to challenge our trust and faith as well.
We will come to the passage shortly, But Jesus in the sermon on the mount teaches that man can trust God for his life, His needs and of course His Salvation.
I shared that verse with you eaerlier… Matthew 6:33
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Marci and I have witnessed it time and time again that God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory.
God provides and cares for His children the greatest of which is Jesus and His sacrificial death on the cross.
3. Allow Nothing to Distance your Walk with God
3. Allow Nothing to Distance your Walk with God
One of the greatest blessings of being a child of God is that we are allowed the joy of walking with and knowing the Lord our God.
The call is for us to put Him first… to love Him, to walk with Him, to teach Him to our children
I love this passage, listen to Deut 6, verses 5-9
5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
God has prepared our lives for Him, His ways and purposes. You were created for great things that bring Him glory and honor.
Be careful to guard your hearts and minds, and never, never take your eyes off of Him.
I’ve seen people allow their heart or mind to get corrupted, they think one way or another and pretty soon that one thought grows and crowds their heart with evil and pushes them away from God.
Keep God first ...
Start each day with Him… give thanks daily for His great love in Jesus
seek His face as you walk, seeking His will for the course of your days.
And praise Him as you lay down every single night.
lets pray
