chapter 4. This is a good story about Jesus,
just as He's getting ready to start His earthly
ministry, but I believe it's certainly applicable
to us as well. Matthew chapter 4, verse 1 is
where we will start. Before we do, let's pray.
God, we thank You for Your Word. I pray that
you would help us to gain some strength from
it tonight. God, maybe we come in here with stuff
on our mind from the world, worries and stresses
and things competing for our attention. I pray
that you'd clear my mind and clear the minds
of anybody else that in these few minutes that
your Holy Spirit would help us to focus on you.
I pray that these words would be an encouragement
to us, that we would gain strength from them.
And I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
Now, this passage takes place right after Jesus
was baptized. He goes through this short period
of temptation, and then he begins his earthly
ministry. Now, I think it's important to note
that when we become Christians, when we get baptized,
life is not always necessarily going to be easy.
Now, being a Christian is the most wonderful
thing that there is in the world. That's the
greatest gift that we can have is grace and forgiveness
of our sins. But it is not an automatic, okay,
you're a Christian, now everything in your life
is going to be easy and all your troubles are
over. And this passage is a good reminder of
that, that even Jesus himself, the Son of God,
after he was baptized, The next thing we see
in the Scripture is that he faces temptation.
Is he going to walk in obedience to God? Is he
going to walk in obedience? Is he going to give
in to temptation? Well, that's something that
we struggle with all the time. Now, maybe you
are a follower of Jesus Christ today, or maybe
you're not. I don't know your heart, but even
if you are a Christian today, a follower of Jesus,
We all know that temptation doesn't stop when
we start to follow Jesus. If anything, things
may get a little harder because before you're
a Christian, you just go and you live and you
do what you want to do and you don't think twice
about it. Well, then all of a sudden you start
reading the Bible, you start seeing what God
says, and you say, hold up. Maybe there are some
things in my life that shouldn't be this way.
I shouldn't be doing that. I shouldn't be acting
this way. I need to change some things. All of
a sudden you become a Christian, the Holy Spirit.
is now convicting you in things that you used
to do and they didn't bother you really at all.
Now all of a sudden there's just something in
you that's just nagging at you, that conviction
of the Holy Spirit. And so in some ways being
a Christian is harder than not being a Christian.
Of course being a Christian comes with a lot
more hope and strength than not being a Christian
does. Because when we're not Christians and not
following Jesus, we're up against all these things
and they're hurting us and we don't, Maybe you
realize it, but God's word sheds a light on how
sin does affect us in a negative way. So Jesus
had just been baptized, and he's experiencing
similar temptations as to what you and I do.
In verse 1, then Jesus was led up by the Spirit
into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
All right, well, that right there is something
for us to ponder. It's not like Jesus was just
bebopping along, just doing what he wanted to
do. It specifically says that he was led by the
Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the
devil. Now, that's kind of hard for us to wrap
our head around, right? I mean, the Scripture
says that God doesn't tempt us, but God certainly
does allow us to be tempted. And temptation,
I believe, is necessary. I don't believe that
our faith can be proven apart from... from temptation
apart from the test. When we're tempted, when
we're tested, when we're tried, that proves whether
or not we're following the Lord, whether we really
are obedient to Him. And sometimes we fail the
test. That'd be great if we passed the test every
time that we were tempted to do something that
was not good, that was sinful. But sometimes
we fail the test. And in a way, that's beneficial
to us. It helps us to see, man, I'm... I'm not
where I need to be. I'm not following the Lord
like I should. I failed in that way. I feel the
shame and the guilt of that. And so God does
allow us to be tempted because when we go through
really hard times and trying times and troubling
times, it often makes us better. Now, the devil
tries to tempt us to tear us down. We see the
story of Job as a good example of somebody that
God allows the devil to go through some really
bad things. The devil says, hey, if you'd allow
Job to go through some rough stuff, God, he wouldn't
follow you. And God says, okay, if you want to
make him go through some rough stuff, I'll allow
you to do that. And so Job really suffered greatly
with his own health and the loss of his family
and his wealth. But it had the opposite effect
of what the devil thought. The devil thought
that if Job went through these really hard times,
he would curse God. And on some level, I guess
he did. You know, he did kind of call God out.
But ultimately, he was humbled about his situation,
and he ended up rejoicing in the Lord even after
all that. And I suspect that Job was probably
stronger after all that than he was when he went
into it. His blessing was greater after that
than what he had before he went into it. Sometimes
the devil wants to tempt us for evil, but God
can even use that for our good if we would seek
him, if we would trust him, if we would remember
to call on him. And so the devil is going to
have an opportunity here to tempt Jesus. Let's
see what happens in verse 2. After he had fasted
40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry. All right?
Stage is set for us. We see fasting mentioned
in Scripture. Maybe we don't talk about it enough.
Maybe it's a practice you do or you do not do.
Fasting is a good spiritual practice for us to
consider, to prayerfully consider and look at
because when we fast, it's not just going on
a diet, but when you're fasting, it should be
a time that you say, okay, I'm not going to eat,
but I am going to focus on God. And every time
I get hungry, I'm going to focus on God that
much more, and I'm going to pray to God, and
I'm going to seek God, and I'm going to remove
food from my life, and I'm going to dedicate
more time in prayer. And every time those hunger
pains come, it's a reminder of what we're doing
and why we're doing it. And it shows God, okay,
we're serious about this. We're serious about
this request that we're praying for, for somebody
else, or we're serious about the sin in our life,
and we're just fasting, and we're repentant,
and God, we're just humbling ourselves before
you. And so it's a good spiritual practice that
really does draw us closer to the Lord if we
go into it with the right heart. And so Jesus
is fasting here, and when you're fasting, you
get hungry. And man, when you get hungry, It
can really do some stuff to you. It can make
you angry. It can make you short. You do just
about anything for a snicker bar if you get hungry
enough. And Jesus has been out there fasting
for 40 days and 40 nights. He's hungry. He's
at a weak point, just as we are. Now, even if
you're not fasting, like if you go from breakfast
to supper and you don't eat lunch, like you're
probably already starting to get cranky. And
you're like, where's the dinner at? I want some
dinner. And so Jesus has been fasting for 40
days. He gets hungry and the devil says, hey,
he's at a weak spot. This is my opportunity for
me to try to get him. And listen to what happens
in verse 3. Then the tempter approached him and
said, if you are the son of God, tell these stones
to become bread. Now we need to pay attention
to what he does here. He catches Jesus at a weak
point. And guess what? The devil has not changed.
His tactics have not changed. His desire is to
catch us at a weak point. And you got them, and
I got them, and we all got them. A weak point,
things are really, really stressful at work.
You've just been going through a really busy
time at work. Things are stressful with health
concerns, with you or somebody in your family.
Things are stressful with money. I mean, the
list goes on and on and on. And there's all these
things. And you just wore out sometimes from
just working hard. And all these things kind
of, they just kind of weaken us a little bit.
We'll be on guard because the devil wants to
try to catch us when we are weak. And the thing
that he does with Jesus, he says, if you are
the Son of God, well, he's trying to poke and
prod at Jesus a little bit. Are you really God's
son? Now, of course, the devil knows the answer
to that question. He knows good and well that
Jesus is the son of God. There's no doubt there.
He's not questioning Jesus because he's trying
to figure out if he's the son of God. But he's
saying, well, if you're the son of God, you're
all powerful. Why are you sitting here hungry?
You can turn these stones into bread. You can
have a feast if you want to. Now, we have to
be careful that we won't fall into such traps
because maybe somebody... tempts us in some way
or we're tempted to to lash out at somebody that
questions our power or our ability oh yeah let
me show you you want to question me i'll make
you pay the price for it now jesus didn't fall
for it he didn't say yeah i'm the son of god
i'm going to show you i ain't just going to make
that rock a loaf of bread i'm going to make it
into a filet mignon i'll show you my power well
that's what the devil wanted That would have
been sinful on Jesus' part to respond in that
way. Now, turning a rock into bread in and of
itself wouldn't have been sinful if Jesus would
have wanted to do that. He could have done it
at any time. And that act of just turning a rock
into bread was not a sinful act. But the sinful
act would have been if Jesus would have given
in to the devil's temptation. If he would have
let the devil poke and prod him and he would
have said, oh yeah, I'm going to show you. Well,
that would have been weakness on Jesus' part.
Jesus was far too smart for the devil and trusted
in God far too much to give in to this temptation.
He says in verse 4, But he answered, It is written,
Man must not live on bread alone, but on every
word that comes from the mouth of God. Okay,
that's the scripture from Deuteronomy. Jesus
quotes the scripture. So the devil says, Hey,
you're the son of God. Show me your power. Prove
it. Prove to me you're the son of God. And Jesus
says, hold up. And it's interesting, and we need
to make note of this, that when Jesus responds
to him, he responds with the word of God. Now,
the devil's going to try to find us in a weakness.
He's going to try to find some area that'll make
us want to say, oh, yeah, let me show you, or
I'm going to do this, or I'm going to do that,
or whatever the temptation may be that we give
in to. He's going to try to find some way in
a weakness to catch us off guard. And the way
that we can combat the temptations that we experience
is by the word of God. Now, I don't know what
your temptations are. All of our temptations
are different. It may be something simple or
it may be something really major. It may be something
as simple as, all right, I need to stop drinking
Coca -Cola. Man, that Coca -Cola is really good.
And so every day you get tempted. Man, I want
a Coke. Well, guess what? If you're like me,
you probably just give in and say, yeah, I'm
going to drink the Coke. Every time we give in
to that temptation, it kind of weakens us a little
bit, but the reverse is also true. Every time
we overcome a temptation, it strengthens us.
Sometimes in life, we go through this pattern
of giving in to certain sins, just falling into
that temptation repeatedly, and it really does
beat us down. We talked about that language last
week in Psalm 106, about our sin beats us down.
Well, the solution when we're beat down by sin
and given into our temptation, it sounds easy,
but it's just stop giving into our temptation.
Well, how do we do that? Well, we do it by trusting
in the Word of God. That should be our source
of strength and our source of guidance. And that's
what Jesus went to. So we need to figure out
what our temptation is, try to find some scriptures
that are relevant maybe that we can really find
strength from that help us, make a note of them
in your phone, write them down, memorize them,
And next time you're tempted and you say, all
right, I'm fixing to do this. And you say, hold
up, I'm not going to do it. And we call on the
word of God and we trust in the word of God.
And every time we overcome the temptation, it
builds our strength in God. It builds our faith.
It helps us to be able to do it. Because the
next time we can say, I don't have to say yes
to this. And Jesus gives us the blueprint on
how to overcome temptations. We see it again
in verse 5. Then the devil took him to the holy
city. had him stand on the pinnacle of the temple
and said to him, If you are the Son of God, throw
yourself down. For it is written, He will give
his angels orders concerning you, and they will
support you with their hands, so that you will
not strike your foot against a stone. Jesus told
him, It is also written, Do not test the Lord
your God. So this appears to be some kind of
vision that he's taken up to the temple. And
maybe this whole thing is some kind of vision.
I'm not really sure exactly what the setting
is here in which this temptation is taking place.
But regardless of what the setting is, he questions
him again. If you are the Son of God, just jump
on down. Nothing's going to happen to you if
you jump off the top of the temple. Well, he's
trying to get Jesus to... To doubt God. He's
trying to get him to give in to the temptation.
He's trying to get him to say, oh yeah, I'll
prove to you that I'm the son of God. Okay, so
the first time, Jesus responded with a scripture.
So the devil's pretty smart. What does he say?
He uses a scripture. He says, oh, well, you just
throw yourself down there. God's angels are going
to catch you. Nothing's going to happen to you.
He's not going to let anything bad happen to
you. So now the devil is using scripture. All
right, he wants to go by the word of God. I can
use the word of God. But he twists it. He takes
it out of context. And the devil thinks he's
smart, but Jesus proves that he's smarter. And
what does Jesus do again? He responds with the
word of God. Do not test the Lord your God. Now,
we don't want to be so foolish as to put ourselves
in situations. Now, we may sit here today and
we may say I trust in God, that God's going to
be with me and God's going to protect me and
God's going to walk over me, and therefore I'm
going to go to... four lanes of traffic, and
if I want to get to the other side, I'm just
going to start walking because I believe that
God is going to trust me. Well, that would be
foolish. You're probably going to get splattered
by a semi -truck. Now, that ain't got nothing
to do with God not protecting you or not loving
you or not being with you, but we have to use
some common sense here and be careful that we
don't act foolishly. And the devil here, he takes
some of God's Word, he twists it around. We've
got to be careful because sometimes... We may
see some scriptures. We want to make sure we
try to understand as best we can. Or when we
hear people teaching us or preaching scriptures
to us, whether it's me or your Sunday school
teacher or somebody you hear on the radio, we
want to pay attention to the scriptures that
we hear to make sure that, is that what that
really means? Hopefully nobody's trying to intentionally
lead you astray, but it's okay for us to... Look
at Scripture. We should look at Scripture and
say, okay, I want to make sure that's what that
means. If I'm going to live by the Word of God,
I want to know the Word of God. And Jesus, of
course, knew the Word of God, and he did not
give in to this second temptation. Continuing
on in verse 8. Again, the devil took him to a
very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms
of the world and their splendor. And he said
to him, I will give you all these things if you
will fall down and worship me. All right, well,
this is a pretty interesting thing that the devil
says. So there are certainly different interpretations
as to what this could mean. Did the devil even
have the ability or the power to give the world
to Jesus? Was this all a lie? If Jesus created
all things and they were created through him,
why would the devil even attempt to do this?
But I don't really know exactly. What the devil
was attempting here, I have a theory that may
or may not be correct, but my theory is perhaps
the temptation would be, all right, Jesus, you're
coming to be the king of kings, to be the ruler
of all these people and all these things, and
there's this cross thing that's lingering out
there that you're going to have to be nailed
to and suffer, but... What if I just told you
you could have all this now and just skip it?
I'll just go ahead and let you have all this,
and you can just be the ruler of all this right
now without going through all the suffering.
Perhaps that was the devil's angle. I don't really
know what his angle was, but whatever his angle
was, Jesus was not falling for it. This promise
of giving him the kingdoms, whether the devil...
would have even had the power to do that, whether
it was a lie, whether there was some other something
going on in that temptation, whatever he was
trying to get Jesus to fail in, again, Jesus
did not budge. Because Jesus was most concerned
with being obedient to the will of God and following
the Father. And he was not going to be easily
led astray by temptations. especially not these
weak attempts by the devil. So the devil tries
three times to tempt Jesus, and he fails three
times. And listen to what Jesus says this third
time in verse 10. Then Jesus told him, Go away,
Satan, for it is written, Worship the Lord your
God and serve only him. All right, go away. I'm
done with you. Are you King James? If you've
got a King James, get thee behind me, Satan.
Pretty popular verse. And maybe a phrase that
you've used a time or two in your life. That
the temptation is strong. And maybe you've spoken
it verbally. Get thee behind me, Satan. Just
get away. And Jesus gives us the example of what
to do in our temptation. One, we need to know
the temptation is going to come. And maybe when
we become a Christian, maybe we're tempted even
more. Just as Jesus, right after he was baptized,
we see this temptation. Maybe for us, after we're
baptized, after we become followers of Jesus,
we start to experience temptations. But we do
not have to give in to them. We need to be in
the Word of God. We need to read the Word of
God. We need to remember the Word of God. And
we need to call on the Word of God in our daily
life, in our struggles, in our pains, in our
hardships, in our temptations. The Word of God
can be a great strength for us. We need to follow
the example of Jesus, and we need to call on
the Word of God, and we can overcome our temptations.
That's the good news for us today, is that Jesus
proves to us in this passage that temptations
can be overcome. Now, we can't overcome them
on our own, but He overcame. And because He overcame,
if we seek Him and trust Him, we too can overcome
our temptations. So maybe there's some temptation
you're struggling with tonight. Or maybe there's
something you're going to struggle with next
week or next month or next year. We don't have
to continually give in to those things, but by
the power of Jesus Christ through his death and
resurrection, we can overcome those temptations.
And finally, in verse 11, it says, Then the devil
left him, and immediately angels came and began
to serve him or began to minister to him. Now
that's a beautiful scene, that after this long
phase of fasting, He was probably weak. He was
hungry. He just went through this temptation.
And it says that the angels came and ministered
to him. That kind of reminds me of the story
in the Old Testament of Elijah. Whenever he's
just ready to give up after defeating all the
prophets of Baal by the power of God. He's running
for his life. He gets under a tree. He says,
God, I'm ready to die. He wants to give up. And
in that story, God sends an angel to feed him
and to give him drink. and to strengthen him
up and to let him rest. And then he says, all
right, after he ministers to him through the
angels, God says, get up and go on your way.
And this story is a reminder of that, that sometimes
life is tough, and sometimes seasons in life
are really hard, and sometimes our temptations
are really hard. But if we call on the name of
Jesus, that he who is in us is greater than he
who is in the world. And through Jesus, we too
can overcome the temptations that we are up against.
And I believe just as God ministered to Elijah
and just as God ministered to Jesus here, I believe
that God still ministers to us after our seasons
of difficulty. And maybe you're in the middle
of one now. Maybe you're coming out of one. But
today I encourage you to trust the power of Jesus,
to trust the Word of God, and to ask God to minister
to you and to restore your soul today. Let's
pray. God, we come to you. We thank you for your
good word. I pray that you just would help us
to ponder this story and help us with our temptations
and our struggles. Maybe some of us are going
through some things right now or maybe the time
will come in the future. I pray that we would
remember this passage, that we would seek the
power of Jesus to overcome those temptations,
that we would find strength in you and that we
would be able to rejoice. and whatever we're
able to overcome through you. And I ask these
things in Jesus' name. Amen.