Study of
Jesus - Index
Sunday, August 29, 2010 am
THE LIFE OF JESUS (6)
The Beginning of Jesus Ministry (3)
His Temptation
As we continue our
study of the life of Jesus, today we want to examine His temptation.
Immediately following His baptism, Jesus was driven into the
wilderness to be tempted of the devil for forty days and forty nights.
Let us notice the details of this event and then make some
application to our own lives concerning temptation.
a.
Defined as
“to make trial of, try, tempt.
Trial, temptation, a putting to the test, spoken of persons only.
When God is the agent, …is for tor the purpose of proving
someone, never for the purpose of causing him to fall.
If it is the devil who tempts, then it is for the purpose of
causing one to fall.” (WS
Dictionary NT)
There are generally three ways that we find this word used in scripture:
1) God testing us (Heb. 11:17,
Exodus 20:20-LXX) – in which case the better word is TESTING, because
God NEVER tempts us to sin, but He will see how loyal we are to Him?
(cf. Jas. 1:13)
2) We tempt or test God (Acts
5:9, 1 Cor. 10:9, Heb. 3:9) – such is something we ought to approach
carefully. At times, testing
God is a good thing (cf. Psa. 34:8, Gideon – Judges 6:39-LXX), but at
other times it can be evil.
3) Satan tempting us (1 Cor. 7:5)
– his temptations are ALWAYS with
the intent to do us harm. He
wants us to sin and be lost.
In our use in this text, we are speaking primarily of the malicious
efforts of Satan to put before us enticements that will lead us to sin
and thus suffer the severe consequences of such (i.e. Rom. 6:23, Jas.
1:15).
Satan’s efforts to tempt Jesus were with the intent that He would sin
and fall thereby failing in His bid to be that perfect sacrifice
necessary for the forgiveness of our sins (Heb. 7:26-27, 1 Peter 2:22, 1
John 3:5, etc.).
b.
NOTE:
Temptation is NOT sin!
Temptation can lead to sin if it
is not resisted (Jas. 1:12-15), but there is no sin in being tempted.
Even if you put yourself in a situation where you are tempted, it
is not necessarily sin (but you have increased your chance that you WILL
sin) – cf. “Righteous Lot” (2 Pet. 2:7-9)
Jesus was tempted and He certainly did NOT sin! Heb. 4:15
c.
Temptations are not all bad.
If truth be known, we need temptations to make us stronger.
When we resist we are better for it.
Furthermore, we learn trust in God in our temptations.
AND such makes our desire to go to heaven that much greater when
this life is over, because we will no longer be tempted to do evil.
d.
We all
face temptations – a study of
how Jesus dealt with His temptations will certainly help us in dealing
with ours.
II.
The Temptation of Jesus
a.
Recorded
in Matthew 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-13, Luke 4:1-13
b.
Background: Immediately after His baptism He was driven by the Spirit
into the wilderness (Mark 1:12-13) to be tempted by the Devil for 40
days and 40 nights. During
that time Jesus fasted (4:2, Luke 4:2).
(NOTE: Two other individuals in the Old Testament spent 40 days
without eating or drinking – Moses (Ex. 34:28) and Elijah (1 Kings
19:8)) After this, He was
hungry. NOTE: Physically,
Jesus was in a weakened state, which makes resisting temptations that
much more difficult (consider one who has just started a diet),
especially temptations related to satisfying His hunger.
The point: Jesus was tempted STRONGLY and with INTENSITY.
c.
The three
temptations –
i.
Jesus faced three temptations.
We sometimes note the three avenues of temptation mentioned in 1
John 2:15-17 – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride
of life. I believe it
to be accurate to say that all temptations fit into at least one of
these three categories (some fit into more than one).
When we study the account of Jesus being tempted, we see clearly that He
faced all three avenues of temptation.
But I find it challenging to tie each specific avenue exclusively
to a specific temptation. It
could be argued that in all three temptations Jesus faced all three.
And in particular, the last two appealed to both His eyes AND His
pride. So which one do you
put where? Let us just say,
they all apply and learn the lesson that Satan will try EVERYTHING to
induce us to sin!
ii.
Turn stones to bread –
1.
Jesus was
very hungry so Satan appealed to that natural craving.
The devil challenged Him to make bread from stones.
2.
NOTE how
Satan started, “If you are the Son
of God…” He seeks to
cast doubt either within Jesus Himself (which I doubt happened) or
implies that He needed to prove His deity.
3.
Jesus
responded, “It is written, “Man shall not live by bread alone…” (Deut 8:3).
There are things more important than food (which is an absolute
necessity in life). The
emphasis was that God must be before anything or anyone else.
His word is more important than even physical sustenance – for it
leads to eternal life John 6:35 – He is the bread of life.
1 Timothy 4:8 notes that bodily exercise is of just a little profit, but
godliness is “profitable for all things.”
4.
The
problem with such a miracle –
it demonstrate selfish and
fleshly lusts. Jesus would have been self-serving.
He NEVER performed a miracle for His personal gratification.
Like every other miracle recorded in scripture, it demonstrated
God as sovereign ruler.
Another thought:
Jesus had depended upon God for 40 days and He still needed Him,
even more than physical sustenance.
To turn these stones to bread would have demonstrated a lack of
trust in God (cf. Matt. 6:33) to sustain Him.
Further, Jesus needed to set an
example for us to follow.
We don’t have miraculous powers to sustain us, so Jesus didn’t
use them.
iii.
Casting Himself off the temple
1.
Satan
takes Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple in Jerusalem.
NOTE that he again says, “If you are the Son of God…”.
He then follows this up with a
challenge for Jesus – throw yourself off the temple and the people will
believe in you. It was, as
some describe, a shortcut to glory associated with being the Messiah.
2.
Satan
then quotes scripture to back
up. He quotes from Psalm
91:11-12. It is a psalm that
deals with God’s protection of His people and could have included the
Messiah. But the point of
that text addresses proper trust in God by living in service to Him.
The psalm begins with, “He who dwells in the secret place of the
Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.” (91:1)
The implication is one faithfully serving God.
3.
Jesus
responded to Satan by again quoting scripture. One that would have made
the “test” Satan provided a misapplication of the promise of the text he
quoted. Jesus, again quoting
from Moses in Deut. 6 says, “It is
written again, ‘You shall not tempt the LORD your God.’” This was
from Deut. 6:16. Moses
challenged Israel to not unduly provoke God in their conduct.
4.
The
problem with such a miracle -
First, based on the scripture Jesus quoted, such an act would have been
an unnecessary test of God’s
power.
Second, it would have been
self-serving in that Jesus would have taken that “shortcut”.
God had specific plans that required Jesus to live His life a
certain way so as to become the necessary sacrifice.
Rather than evoking followers merely by sight,
He wanted followers by faith.
Yielding to this temptation would have set that faith aside.
Furthermore, in a sense, Jesus
would have been acting without complete faith.
He would have been “testing the system” to see if God really was
with Him. Jesus didn’t have
ANYTHING to prove to Himself!
iv.
Bowing before Satan
1.
The final
temptation records the devil taking Jesus to an exceedingly high
mountain and shows Him all the kingdoms of the world. Satan offers all
of them to Jesus if He would but bow down and worship him.
2.
Jesus
pointedly tells Satan to “GET AWAY FROM ME!”
He then again quotes scripture, this time, Deut. 6:13 saying,
“You shall worship the LORD your
God, and Him only you shall serve.”
While not the exact wording, the message is CLEAR and proper!
God does NOT share worship with anyone or anything else.
3.
The
problem with this temptation is obvious.
Jesus was not about to worship someone else, including the devil.
Understand, that in so doing, Jesus could have ended all hope for
mankind and received prideful glory and power without the pain of the
cross. He could have ruled
the world with evil along side of Satan himself.
But Jesus would NEVER even consider that.
WHY? Because He LOVES us too much!
Jesus came to serve us, NOT to defeat us!
He gave His life “a ransom for many.” (Matt. 20:28)
Incidentally, all the kingdoms of the world DO belong to Him in the
purest sense – 1 John 4:4, 1 Cor. 10:26, “For the earth is the
Lord’s, and all its fullness.”
(cf. Dan 4:25). This
prompts some commentators to interestingly affirm that Satan was
actually LYING to Jesus in offering Him all the kingdoms of the
world. That IS an
interesting thought!
d.
Matt.
4:11, “Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered
to Him.” Jesus WAS taken
care of by God.
ONE other observation, Luke 4:13 says, “Now
when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an
opportune time.” Do not
think that Satan was done with Jesus after this.
He continued to try and defeat Him and to tempt Him throughout
His ministry. To a limited
degree, Satan knew what was at stake and would have thrown every
conceivable dart he had at Jesus, but it always ended in failure.
It is because of THIS that we know Jesus was “tempted
in all points as we are, yet without sin”.
Heb. 4:15
III.
Because Jesus was tempted
a.
He
understands what we are going through.
We face all different types of
temptations today. At times
we seem to think we have it so much worse than Jesus and wonder how He
could possibly understand.
But He does! He fully knows what we are going through.
Heb. 2:17-18 tells us, “Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He
might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to
God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that He
Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are
tempted.”
b.
He has
given us an example to follow in dealing with temptation.
1 Cor. 10:13 tells us that there
is NO temptation we face that we cannot handle.
If you are dealing with temptations, LOOK TO Jesus! Consider HOW
He handled his temptations and what He taught about temptations.
i.
He appealed to scripture
– in all three temptations, Jesus quoted scripture.
We need to KNOW the word of God so that we can handle whatever
comes our way. With God’s
word we will no longer be “tossed to and fro” (Eph. 4:14) or ignorant of
Satan’s devices (2 Cor. 2:11).
ii.
He prayed to God – Jesus was always praying.
He taught us to deal with temptations with prayer.
In the Garden of Gethsemene He told his disciples, “Watch and
pray, lest you enter into temptation.
The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak”
(Matt:26:41).
In the Sermon on the Mount, in teaching us to pray He included, “And do
not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” (Matt 6:13)
iii.
He resisted the devil
– even telling him to GET AWAY!
We must resist the devil in overcoming temptations as well.
1 Peter 5:9 tells us, “Resist
him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are
experienced by your brother hood in the world.”
iv.
He trusted in God
– we see this in the account we have studied today.
Jesus always trusted in His Father.
Prov. 3:5 tells us to trust in Him and not your own
understanding.
How strong is our faith? The
stronger our faith, the better equipped we will be to withstand the
devil. (cf. Eph. 6:16)
And thus we can see some lessons to be
learned from the temptation of Jesus.
May His example inspire us to live faithfully overcoming whatever
temptations we face as we live our time on this earth.
We will all face temptations throughout our lives.
That is not the concern.
The real concern is how we deal with them.
FOLLOW Jesus!