6.

The Temptation Of Jesus (Matthew 4:1-11)

So far in our developing a method for studying the Bible we have noted that
while the narratives themselves give us the basic reports of the events, what
we call the story lines, the quotations in the story reveal to us what is
actually going on and why. So we focus on the quotations a good deal. Now
in the account of the temptation of Jesus that is going to be true as well. With
the quotations we know what kinds of temptations the devil brought to Jesus,
and how Jesus overcame them.
We have also seen that the narratives are filled with citations from and
allusions to the Old Testament. This should come as no surprise, for our Old
Testament was their Bible. And they knew it well--they were people of the
book. It would be hard to interpret these events without the understanding of
Scripture. So we learn that even though we are in the New Testament, we
have to spend a good deal of time searching the Old Testament to get the full
understanding and background.
It is also true that there are frequently parallel experiences to be compared
(such as the killing of the children by Herod and the killing of children in the
Babylonian invasion according to the record of Jeremiah). Some times the
parallel events do not at the outset seem that unique (a birth in Bethlehem-there had been lots of births in Bethlehem). But on closer study there are
some significant comparisons (it was the birth of the king).
And so now in Matthew 4 we will find that the subject matter is temptation.
Well, there are zillions of temptations--everyone is tempted to sin, almost
daily, if not hourly. But, there is something different going on here. Here
Jesus, at the outset of His ministry, is confronted by the devil with all his
power, and He does not sin. Biblical writers from the outset have seen the
parallel between this temptation and the very first, the temptation of Adam
and Eve. The Bible, in fact, will refer to Jesus as the second Adam, the head
of a new race of people born into the family of God. As we shall see later in
Matthew, with the agony in the Garden, the crown of thorns, the sweat, the

nailing to a tree or cross, all the motifs in the record of Genesis 2 and 3 find a
corresponding solution at calvary. Likewise, the temptation.
And so we can think for a few moments about parallels and contrasts
between the two great temptations, the first which plunged the human race
into sin, and the second which began the way back with victory over Satan.
Perhaps the most celebrated study of these two events are the works of
John Milton, Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained. It is at the temptation
of Jesus that Satan realized that he could not ruin Jesus as he had the
parents of the race, and therefore that he could not stop Gods plan of
redemption.
You might want to make a list of comparisons and contrasts to think this
through further. In Genesis Adam and Eve were in a lush garden with all the
food that they could eat; in Matthew Jesus is in a wilderness where he has
been fasting for forty days. In Genesis the temptation was to eat; and in the
wilderness the temptations of Jesus began with eating. In Genesis the
temptation was to be like God by disobeying God; in Matthew the appeal to
Jesus was to be the king, but without obeying God. In Genesis Adam and Eve
sinned because they did not know precisely what God had said, not as well
as Satan did; in Matthew, Jesus was victorious because He knew Scripture
better than Satan. In Genesis, after the pair sinned, angels barred them from
the tree of life; in Matthew, after Jesus drove the devil away, angels came
and ministered to Him.
So with this history in mind, we can look now into this little passage in some
detail. Mark 1:12,13 mentions the temptation, but does not include the
details. Luke 4:1-13 provides a parallel account to what Matthew has. This
raises an incidental question: how did these writers know about the event?
The simplest answer is that Jesus told His disciples, and that report found its
way to Paul and therefore Luke. The only significant difference is that in Luke
the second temptation is concerning the kingdoms of the world, and the third
is the temptation to jump from the pinnacle of the temple. Putting things in a
slightly different order is a frequent characteristic of the different gospels,
whether parts of an event or a teaching, or major events. The different
gospel writers are writing for different audiences and are arranging the
materials for their individual purposes. It does not make a major difference in

the interpretation of the passage if one of them comes before another.

Matthews is probably the original, and Luke seems to have reordered it with
the Gentile world in mind (although you will find a lot of scholarship that
spends a lot of time deciding who was first). We can appreciate why Luke
would have the emphasis on the kingdoms of the world being Satans to give
coming before the temptation in the temple of Jerusalem.

Reading the Text

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the
devil. 2After fasting for forty days and forty nights, He was hungry.
3
The tempter came to Him and said, If you are the Son of God, tell these
stones to become bread. 4Jesus answered, It is written: Man shall not live
on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.
5
Then the devil took Him to the holy city and had Him stand on the highest
point of the temple. 6If you are the Son of God, he said, throw yourself
down. For it is written:
He will commend His angels concerning you
and they shall lift you up in their hands,
So that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
Jesus answered him, It is also written: Do 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 splendor. 9All this I will give you, he said,
if you will bow down and worship me. 10Jesus said to him, Away from me,
Satan! For it is written, Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.
11
Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.
7

Observations on the Text

The structure of this narrative is relatively easy to trace: there is in
introductory section providing some details, then three temptations with
three answers, and then an aftermath. The main focus of the study will, of
course, be on each of the three temptations, to determine what the
temptation actually was and how Jesus dealt with it.
The introduction, the first couple of verses, tells us a couple of very
significant things. First, that He was led by the Spirit of God into the
wilderness to be tempted by the devil. This is the same Spirit that just

descended on Jesus at His baptism. Almost immediately this Spirit forces the
temptation. This has to be given some careful thought. What it indicates is
that it was the plan of God for Jesus to begin His ministry with this
challenge--and that it was not the devils doing. The devil was willing to
tempt Jesus, to be sure; but it was the Spirit of God leading Jesus to it. The
devil could tempt Jesus with every power he had, but he would not succeed.
The temptation episode was Gods way of showing that Jesus was the perfect
man, that He could resist sin, that he could defeat Satan.
The second thing for us to consider here is the devil, Satan. This is the first
introduction to him in the Gospel. Somewhere along the way you should read
up on Satan in a good Bible dictionary. This is that old Serpent (Rev. 12:9)
who had been in the Garden; this is the prince of demons, the god of this
world, the fallen angel (or archangel) who seeks to destroy Gods work. The
Gospels do not shy away from affirming that there is a whole spiritual world
around the physical world, filled with angelic beings, some of whom rebelled
against God with their leader Satan and are therefore evil. These that are the
fallen angels, devils, demons as they are called, do the work of their prince,
attacking and inflicting all kinds of disorders on those who want nothing to
do with God. But that prince, the devil himself, undertakes the more
significant efforts. He was successful in getting Adam and Eve to sin and
plunge the world into darkness; but he was not able here to defeat the Son of
God.
Third, we are told that Jesus had been fasting for forty days and forty nights,
and was hungry. There is no reason to doubt that it was forty days and forty
nights as the text says; but forty is a common number in the Bible for a
period of difficulty, hardship, or suffering. One thinks immediately of the
Israelites wandering for forty years in the wilderness--one whole generation.
Forty days was a good long time to be fasting; and that duration is here
underscored with the symbolic meaning that it was forty days, the number of
duration and testing. You could look in some of the resources for the
symbolical meaning of numbers to find other passages where this occurs.
In the aftermath of the contest we read how the devil left Jesus and angels
came and ministered to Him. The enemy left as a defeated challenger; and
the angels of God came to Jesus and served Him in ways that we cannot

quite imagine. But they must have affirmed to Jesus with comfort and
encouragement that He had done everything well and had won the victory
over Satan.
But the center of this study will be the three temptations themselves, so we
should look at them now to determine what they meant, and how they were
met.

Analysis of the Temptations

1. Turn stones into bread. The first temptation picks up immediately on
the fact that Jesus was hungry, that he had not eaten for forty days. The
tempter said, If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.
There is a fine point of grammar here that you would probably learn from a
good commentary (unless along the way you studied Greek). You can still
understand the temptation without knowing it, but knowing it helps just that
much more. Sentences that begin with if (called conditional sentences)
have different meanings. Some are contrary to fact, and some are not
contrary to fact. The way it is written in the original indicates the type. For
example, Martha said to Jesus, If you had been here [but you were not],
Lazarus would not have died. That is a condition contrary to fact. That is not
what we have in the words of Satan here. When he said, If you are the Son
of God, he did not mean If your are the Son of God [but you are not], but
rather he meant since you are the Son of God. He knew who this was, and
would build his temptation on it. He was saying, Look, you are divine! Why
should you be hungry? Just change some stones to bread.
Now then, we have to ask what was wrong with that. Was there anything
wrong with making something to eat? He had the power to do it. He
multiplied food later for people who were hungry. So why was this a
temptation?
The answer, I think, is that Jesus had come out into the wilderness to fast for
forty days. That was a spiritual exercise that had a very important place in
His life at the moment. But the devil wanted to ruin the mission of Jesus, and
so if he could convince Jesus on this seemingly trivial thing to abandon a

spiritual work, then he would have had him. The temptation was to turn His
spiritual nature into a means of satisfying His material need without
reference to finding the will of God. In fact, he would be doing the will of the
devil. The devil simply chose a little thing for the test; but it would have
destroyed the work of Christ.
The perfection of Jesus is displayed in His refusal. Hunger was not wrong,
especially in a spiritual time of fasting (fasting was designed to focus
attention on the spiritual and away from the comforts of life). And Jesus was
announcing to Satan, and to all of us who will hear it, that it is better to be
hungry than to be fed without any reference or recourse to the will of God.
Satan had hit the nail right on the head--Jesus is the Son of God. But the
essence of Sonship is obedience to the will of the Father. He would not,
therefore, act independently of the will of the Father. Jesus knew that the
Spirit had led Him into a place that necessitated hunger, and so He would
fulfill that task.
In response Jesus quoted from the Book of Deuteronomy: Man does not live
on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. If
you go back and readDeuteronomy 8 you will see that the topic there is
about the Israelites hungering in the wilderness for forty years. God tested
them in the wilderness so that they would learn that they must obey what
comes from the mouth of God. He gave them Manna; but to acquire it and
enjoy it required that they follow Gods instructions carefully. The main point
was that if they obeyed the LORD He would provide their food. And so it was
more important to obey God than to have all the food they could eat (recall
that Adam and Eve chose to eat rather than obey Gods word).
So Jesus saw through the clever little ploy of Satan. He defeated the
temptation by appealing to a clear principle of Scripture. But He was not just
quoting a favorite verse; He was drawing in the whole context of the passage
to show that if God puts you in a place of deprivation for some spiritual
purpose you do not try to change it solely for the purpose of satisfying your
physical needs. The first thing that the person must do is try to discover
what God is doing through the deprivation, what spiritual growth is desired
and how it should be achieved. This would show that one does not live by
bread alone, but by everything that God says and does.

2. Throw yourself down from the temple. If the first test was in the
realm of the physical, the second is a test of the spiritual. In fact, the test
strikes at the heart of the previous victory. Jesus had escaped that
temptation by showing that He was not just physical but spiritual, that He
could accept the hunger and the weakness if it meant obeying God. And so
Satan wants Him to do something spectacular to demonstrate that He is
spiritually perfect. Satan was saying to Jesus, Very well, you have shown
your trust in God in response to my first appeal; so now show your trust in
God by flinging yourself from the pinnacle of the temple. This, no doubt,
was to be in full view of all the assembled people; they would witness that
God was with Jesus in a very special way.
What is interesting now is that Satan himself quotes Scripture in making the
appeal. He quotes from a psalm that says that God will give the angels
charge over him so that he will not dash his foot against a stone (Ps.
91:11,12). The psalm is a psalm of trust, telling how God protects his people.
It was never intended to be claimed apart from practical wisdom. God
promises to protect His people; but He has also given them common sense.
The response to this temptation is a little more involved. At the outset one
should consider the source: if the devil, or, more obviously for us, someone
who has no inclination to obey Scripture, if such a person prompts you to do
something that it looks like the Bible says you can do, you would be wise to
think it through very carefully. A lot of Scripture is quoted out of context, or
partially, and needs to be investigated.
Jesus response is also from Scripture: It is also written, You shall not put
the LORD your God to the test. This also comes from Deuteronomy, 6:16.
This is the chapter in the Law that is foundational to Israels faith. It had the
creedal statement in it, Hear O Israel, Yahweh is our God, Yahweh alone.
The chapter then exhorts the people to obey His commands, and to do what
is good and right before Him--but warns them not to test God.
The moment an individual puts God to the test, that person gives evidence
that he or she does not really trust God. The context of Deuteronomy
6:16 refers to Massa and Meribah in the wilderness where the people
murmured against God and tested Him--because they did not believe He
could or would give them water (Massa is one name; it is derived from the

verb in Hebrew nasa,. to test; the other name is Meribah; it is from the
verb rib, to strive). A trust that is weak or wavering seeks a sign or a
dramatic intervention to make it steady.
So Jesus said, No, my trust is perfect; I do not need to do anything heroic to
prove it. And I will not test Gods word by doing something foolish--at your
prompting. And so the spiritual nature of Christ retained its dignity and lived
out its quiet, confident trust in the Father. He refused to do something
dangerous to see if the angels would protect Him.
3. Fall down and worship me. The last temptation is amazing in its
boldness. It is almost as if the devil realized he was not winning, and so with
nothing to lose calls for Jesus to worship him. Its purpose was to prevent the
work of the king, the work for which He had come into the world.
He took Jesus to a high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the
earth. This verse seems to suggest something mystical, something
supernatural. There is no mountain in Israel high enough to see much of
anything. But the idea is probably that the devil provided some vision of
these kingdoms. And the promise was that he would give them to Jesus if
only Jesus would fall down and worship him. Luke adds that Satan claimed he
had been given these kingdoms and it was his right to give them to
whomever he wished. Satan was saying to Jesus, Look, you came as the
king to inherit the nations. Here they are. Why go through the trouble of
being the suffering servant to get to the crown. Give me one moments
homage and I will abdicate.
Well, even in the words of Satan there were some clues that this was a
malicious temptation. First, the offer was coming from the one who is the
prince of liars. Who would knowingly do a deal with the devil? Jesus will later
explain (John 8:44) that he was a liar from the beginning and the truth was
not in him. What a lie this was. Did Satan actually imagine for one moment
that the Son of God would believe him? Never would Satan have given him
the kingdoms; that was simply the bait for him to bow before the evil one.
Unfortunately, far too many people have believed the evil tempter. Adam
and Eve surely did.
Second, all Satan could offer were the kingdoms, plural kingdoms--these
warring, divided, conflicting powers and races in the world. Who wants them?

The Father had promised the Son a Kingdom, united in peace and
righteousness and harmony. Of course, there is no way to inherit such a
kingdom apart from redemption, apart from changing human nature to make
it fit for the kingdom, for without it there would never be peace and harmony
in the world. Satans offer is a cheap substitute.
So Jesus response was, Away from me Satan! For it is written: Worship the
LORD your God, and serve Him only. This too comes from Deuteronomy
(6:13). It is the cardinal truth of Scripture: worship God only. For the
righteous there would not even be a thought of bowing down and worshiping
the prince of darkness. Jesus would hold to that principle; He would never
worship Satan. And so He would receive the kingdom in Gods time, and in
Gods way--by defeating Satan, first here in the temptation, and later at the
cross.. And His will be a far better kingdom than this world could ever offer.

Old Testament Background

As mentioned above, the obvious parallel and necessary background is the
temptation in the Garden. The tempter there came in disguise, in the form of
a serpent, a creature that the humans were to rule over; here Satan did not
come in disguise, but in a bold and direct attack on Jesus.
In the Garden the tempter took the ploy of questioning what God had said. If
you make a detailed study of that passage, Genesis 3:1-7, against the
background of chapter 2, you will see that Eve made three changes in the
wording (or was it Adam who told her in correctly?): first she diminished the
privileges (God had said you may eat to your hearts content of all the
trees, but she simply said, we may eat); second, she added to the
prohibition (God had said, of this one tree you must not eat, but she added,
neither may you touch it); and third, and most importantly, she was not
convinced of the punishment of death (God had said, You shall surely die,
and she said, lest you die, leaving it as a contingency). When the tempter
saw this, he immediately denied the penalty for sin in exactly the words of
the Creator: You shall not surely die. And this is the lie from the beginning,
that you can sin and get away with it, or that God will not punish people
whom He has made over sins like this.

The two observations to be made here are: Satan knew more precisely what
God had said and was able to draw them into a discussion about the word of
God with that advantage, and Satan boldly denied that there was a penalty
for sin. This is why Jesus said that he was a liar from the beginning (John
8:44).
With that in mind we can see in Matthew 4 that Jesus could defeat Satan
because He knew the word of God better than the tempter. He could come
back with the wider picture: It is also written. Often temptation requires
getting rid of one verse, or a prohibition that stands in the way (if only
that passage could be explained differently). But the victorious believer will
know how all of Scripture works, and that behind a prohibition or an
instruction there is a general theological revelation that will govern the
interpretation and application of details.
But we can also see that there is no trivial temptation. Eating from the tree in
the Garden?--such a little thing. Turning stones into bread?--harmless. But
each was a prompting from the devil to go against the will of God. And when
anyone chooses to act contrary to what the living God wills, that person has
chosen death. Satan knew that. We often do not; we often think something
small can be winked at, easily rationalized, even though we know at the time
it is not what God wants. The Bible is filled with examples of this, and the
more you study the Bible the more you will see them. One classic example is
the case of Moses. Commanded to speak to the rock and bring water from
it, he lost his temper and hit it (Num. 20). For that he was not allowed to go
into the promised land. Who could blame Moses after putting up with the
people for forty years in the wilderness? But, in the eyes of all the people he
disobeyed God and gave them the impression that God (and he) was (were)
getting fed up with the people. God wanted them to see His power--not
Moses anger.
Well, in the Garden the aftermath of the temptation is also instructive. The
text of Genesis 3tells us that when the woman realized that the fruit of the
tree was good for food, pleasing to the eye, and desirable for gaining
wisdom, then she took and ate.
This is probably what John is referring to when he talks of the cravings in the
world as the lust/desire of the flesh, the lust/desire of the eyes, and the pride
of life (1 John 1:16). Temptation worked on all three levels--desire of the flesh
to eat, desire of the eyes for beauty, and the desire to be like God, spiritual

pride. But when they ate, all that they discovered were guilty fears and their
vulnerability to evil.

New Testament Correlations

Hebrews. The Book of Hebrews tells us that we have a High Priest, Jesus
Christ, who was tempted in every way as we are, yet remained without sin
(Heb. 4:14-16). This means that He fully understands all that we face in this
world--He was tempted in every way, not just in these three temptations at
the outset, but throughout His life on earth. Therefore, Hebrews says, we
may approach the throne of grace in prayer with confidence so that we may
obtain mercy and grace to help in the time of need. Prayer to Christ in the
times of temptation and rial is therefore critical for victory over temptation.
And this makes sense--seek help from the one who did it.
James. If you look in a Bible study book, or a dictionary, or a theology book,
or a concordance, you should find New Testament teachings on temptation or
on Satan rather easily. James tells us Resist the devil and he will flee from
you (4:7). That indicates that the devil will go where there is the least
resistance. It also indicates that the human heart is capable of producing a
good bit of evil without the devils prompting, a point that James makes in his
epistle.
2 Corinthians. Paul also tells us that Satan masquerades as an angel of
light (2 Cor. 11:14--but read the whole section of verses 1-15). Paul tells us
that thanks to Scripture we are not ignorant of Satans devices, and therefore
should be able to resist the tempter. But it will require more knowledge of
Scripture, and better spiritual perception (see Hebrews 5:11-14). By knowing
Scripture well, we will both know what the whole plan of God is for our lives,
and we will be better able to perceive what would undermine it.

Conclusions and Applications

So we have here a great drama between Satan and Christ. It ends with
Christs victory over the tempter because of His knowledge and use of the
word of God. The attack of Satan was made against every vulnerable point-hunger, trust, and responsibility--and when these were held firmly, there was
no other area the devil could attack. He struck at the material or physical
need of food, but he found one who knew the spiritual was more important
than the physical; he struck at the spirits confidence in God, but found one

whose trust in the Father did not need testing; and he struck at the carrying
out of the divine commission, but found one who was determined to carry
out that plan in a divine way. Thus was Satan defeated.
What did this mean for Christs mission? It was a foretaste of the victory at
the cross. Here Jesus defeated the tempter who tried to ruin His mission. But
here Christ demonstrated that He would not be deterred from His mission. It
was a very significant spiritual victory over the devil. And it would have given
Jesus a tremendous boost (if we can say that reverently); He would know that
the anointing of the Spirit gave Him the power to resist the evil one and to
fulfill His mission.
On the theological level you might want to get off on an aside and think
about what was going on here theologically. It makes a good little discussion.
People often wonder whether or not Christ could have sinned, and if not, was
it a real temptation? We would probably say that as Jesus He could be
tempted, but as the divine Son He could not sin (and so it is bound up in the
mystery of the two natures). But we would also say that at the moment of
the temptation Jesus may not have known this--it was a real temptation and
He worked through it. But Heaven knew He would not sin. In His time in this
world there were times when Jesus had that greater knowledge and insight,
and there were other times that He did not seem to have it or use it. And
when and how this works is hard for us to know. But this was a true
temptation. Satan thought he could win. Jesus fought back with His
knowledge and obedience of Scripture. And Heaven was not surprised that
He defeated Satan. And I do not think Satan was all that surprised either.
The applications or lessons that can be drawn from this passage are many-and you may think up others as well.
One very clear one would be the necessity of knowing Scripture, knowing
what Gods will is (not for a career for your life, but the day in and day out
spiritual life of devotion and obedience to God). This involves both
understanding and being able to use the word of God in making choices
between what is good and what is evil.

Another application would be the inspiration that can be drawn from the fact
that Jesus as perfect man defeated Satan. Therefore, because he was
tempted and because he was victorious, he understands us and stands ready
to help. So prayer to him for victory would be a good lesson.
Other lessons can then be drawn from the individual temptations (and these
have been discussed above so I will not go into detail here). The first had to
do with knowing what is most important in life--obeying the word of God--and
not living only to satisfy the flesh, or making a living, or using spiritual
resources just to meet physical needs. Living by obedience to God has fallen
on hard times today when so many are only interested in security of life
through investments and entitlements, or indulging themselves in the good
things of life. Seeking the good life can truly crowd out the spiritual things.
The second temptation had to do with trusting God. Those who truly know
God and experience the reality of their faith daily do not need to find
something spectacular to convince themselves and others. Today there is a
growing pre-occupation with miraculous signs. Now God will do miraculous
things--when He chooses to do them. But if people seek the spectacular in
order to believe, or to convince themselves of the faith, it betrays a week
faith. Remember how in the vision of the rich man and the poor man Lazarus
in their rewards, and the rich man asked Abraham for Lazarus to be sent to
his family to warn them, thinking that they would believe if one came back
from the dead? The answer was, If they do not listen to Moses and the
prophets [Scripture], they will not be convinced even if one rises from the
dead (Luke 16:31).
The third temptation had to do with fulfilling the commission or plan of God
with a shortcut, not doing Gods way. This is the common temptation to avoid
the means to get to the ends, or as is said, the end justifies the means. But
with God there is a way to accomplish His plan for your life, and it calls for
absolute devotion and obedience to Him. But Satan always offers shortcuts,
that if looked at carefully, will ruin your life.
So there are a number of very useful lessons that can be drawn from this
account. These should start your thinking. You can probably meditate on
these for a while and find other examples of how the temptations would work

in life, and how knowing what God wants would prevent them. The bottom
line is that Jesus demonstrated for us how to achieve victory over
temptation. In other words, we do not have to sin. There are ways to spiritual
success, if we are willing to take them.
One thing that the rabbis taught on temptation is helpful. You work the
issues and temptations and choices out like a business person, with a profitloss ledger. If you make this choice and do this, what are the benefits, and
what will the cost be? In many cases the cost, including fallout afterward, is
just too high. A wise decision will count the cost.
If Christ had followed any one of these temptations, the immediate result
might not have seemed so great, but the overall results would have been
disastrous--He would have been a sinner, another fallen human like us,
unable to redeem anyone, and the mission would have been ruined by the
devil. But that was not going to happen, for the Father sent the Son into the
world to redeem us, and by doing that He had to conquer Satan.

The Temptation of Jesus

After Jesus had been baptized, the Holy Spirit led him out in the country where
nobody lived. He was alone there for 40 days with only wild animals around. During
that time he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing for the 40 days, and when they
were over, he was hungry.
Then the devil came again to tempt Jesus. The devil told him, "If you are the son
of God, tell these rocks to become bread." Jesus answered by quoting Deuteronomy
8:3, "It is written, "a person does not live only by eating food, but by listening to
every word that comes from God's mouth."
Then the devil took Jesus to the city of Jerusalem. He put Jesus on a very high
place on top of the Jewish temple, and said, "If you are the son of God, Jump off."
Then he quoted Psalm 91:11-12 to Jesus: "It is written, "God will command his angels
to take care of you, and their hands will catch you, so that you will not hit your foot
on a rock." He left out the last part of verse 11, "In all your ways." Jumping off the
temple was not one of the things that Jesus was supposed to do-it was not one of the
"Ways" of Jesus. That's why the devil left that part of the verse out. But Jesus knew
that the devil was trying to change the meaning of the scripture, so he answered by
quoting Deuteronomy 6:16, it is also written, you must not put the lord your God to
the test."

Then the devil took Jesus to the top of a very high mountain. There in a moment
of time he showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and all the great things that
were in those kingdoms. Then he said to Jesus, "I will give you all the authority and
the glory of these kingdoms, because it has been given to me and I can give to anyone
I wish. If only you will bow down and worship me, it will all be yours." But Jesus
Knew it was not right to worship anyone or anything except God alone. He answered
by quoting Deuteronomy 6:13, "it is written, you must worship the lord your God, and
serve only him!"
After this the devil quit tempting Jesus and left him to wait until a better time.
Jesus was tempted many different times in his lifetime in all kinds of ways, but he
never gave in to the devil and so he never sinned (Hebrews 4:15). Because he has
been tempted, he can understand our weaknesses and help us when we are tempted to
sin (Hebrews 2:16)
There are other lessons that can be learned from Jesus' temptation. For one thing,
he was tempted just after he was baptized. Some people think that when they are
baptized, they won't be tempted anymore. But this is when the devil really starts to
work, because he knows that if he can't get a person to turn back to a life of sin, he has
lost them. They will go to heaven instead of to hell with him. God never promises that
the Christian will not be tempted, but that he will have help to overcome the
temptation (rom. 8:13 1 Cor. 10:13). And if he resists the devil in this way, the devil
will leave him like he left Jesus (James 4:7).
Another thing to learn is that the devil can quote the Bible, but he quotes it in
such a way that he changes the meaning. So today there are many different people
saying that the bible says many different things. It doesn't really. But each person must
study the bible for himself to make sure what the bible is saying. You can't take
anybody else's word for it, not even mine. God will hold you personally responsible
for what you did with his word.
Another lesion to learn from Jesus' Temptation is that the devil often lies (John
8:44). He promises many things but he does not give them. We, like Jesus, need to see
that he is lying and answer him with quotations from the bible, which is God's truth.
Jesus was tempted with pleasure and pride and greed. We too are tempted with these
same things in different ways. We too need to say "No" to them. For Jesus is our
example.

Matthew 4:1-11, The temptation of Christ

Very soon, we will be entering the season of Lent; one of the most important seasons of the Christian
liturgical year. And, as we approach that season, I wanted to reflect a little on this passage from
Matthew 4 about the temptation of Christ in the wilderness. Throughout Lent, we will be focussing on
wilderness spirituality in our Sunday morning sermons but, for tonight, lets begin by thinking about
Jesus and all that he faced during that 40 day period in the desert.
Normally, a preacher may start a sermon on this topic by asking the rhetorical question, Have you
ever been tempted? But as I thought about starting my sermon with that question, I began reflecting
on who I am as a person and have decided to ask the more real question: Have I ever stopped
being tempted?
My reality is that I live with temptation all the time: not a minute goes by, it seems to me, when I do
not face temptation in one way or anotherIt is a not just a perennial problem for me: it is a state of
being.
And that is the case not because I am any more of a sinner than the rest of you or because I am
weaker than the rest of you but because I live in a constant state of sin. By nature by sinful nature
I put Me at the centre of my universe and I am always looking out for ways to strengthen and please
I. Of course, I can play the game and appear to be super-spiritual but the reality is, because I am
sinful and egotistical. I live in a constant state of temptation and so this story from the life of Christ is
so important to me. And its important because I need some hope that there is actually a way out of
my predicament and I need hope that the power of temptation will not be my Lord and Master.
So lets reflect on this passage for a few minutes and see what we have to learn from it.

The context of it is very important, I think. The temptation of Jesus in the wilderness comes
immediately after the story of his baptism by John in the River Jordan. What an incredible moment
that must have been in the life of Christ: baptised by his cousin and then a voice from heaven declares
before the crowd: This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him! This must
have been one of the most wonderful moments of Jesus life. It must have been a moment that was a
real spiritual high, when he felt so affirmed and so loved by God, so intimate with his Father and so
focussed on his ministry. After the baptism, Jesus must have felt so spiritually strong and confident
And then we read in verse 1: Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the
devil. This is an interesting but difficult verse to understand.
Firstly, Jesus was led In Marks account, the Greek is even stronger: he wrote, The Spirit drove
Jesus Jesus had just been baptised and was about to take control of his destiny by beginning his
ministry on earth but, immediately, he forgoes his power and submits to God. Jesus was led Right
from the very beginning of his ministry, Jesus was a servant, obeying the will of God.
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. The very purpose of the
Spirits leading of Jesus into the desert was so that he might be tempted by the devil. That is an
incredible thought! Why should God the Father inflict such a terrible experience on his Son? Why
should the Spirit collude with this torturous event?
Perhaps it was the only way that God the Son could truly empathise with us. If he was to become sin
for us, if he was to stand with us in our frailty, he had to experience our broken humanity in its
fullness. As the writer to the Hebrews said, 4:15, Our High Priest is not one who cannot feel
sympathy for our weakness. On the contrary, we have a High Priest who was tempted in every way
The temptation of Christ is crucial to his ability to act as our High Priest bridging our way to God for
salvation. If Christ were not tempted, he could not stand with us, or stand for us. So there is
something imperative about this story: it has to happen in order for the Gospel to become a reality.
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. It had to happen
But even though there was an imperative about this: Jesus was driven by the Spirit in order to
there is also a sense in which Jesus freedom to respond to the temptation is crucial to the narrative
itself. Because even though it was the Fathers plan and the Spirits imperative, Jesus chose to resist
the temptations. And that, in itself, is important because in choosing to resist, Jesus reverses the
effects of the Fall in the Garden of Eden. Remember in Genesis 3, the serpent tempted Adam and Eve
and they chose, by their free will, not to resist. And here we are, no longer in a Garden but in a
wilderness and the devil tempts Jesus. But unlike Adam and Eve, he chooses, by his free will, to resist
and so the curse begins to be undone.
So lets look at the temptations themselves

Verse 2: After fasting for forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and
said, If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread. Jesus answered, It is written:
'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'
Jesus had been fasting forty days and forty nights before the first temptation. This is a point often
missed because we often think about this story as if the temptations are sort of evenly-spread
throughout Jesus time in the wilderness. But thats not the case. Jesus had been there for more than
forty days and, by now, Jesus is famished: he is tired, he is hungry, he is weak, he is vulnerable.
Fasting is difficult. If you have tried it, you will know how tough it isFasting for forty days and nights
must be a complete assault on the body, let alone doing it in the middle of a wilderness in solitary
confinement!
And it is at Jesus most vulnerable point that the devil makes his first assault. This is not a game for
the devil: he goes for the kill right at the very beginning. Jesus is starving so: The tempter came to
him and said, If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread. What is this temptation
that Jesus undergoes?
Its nothing less than the temptation for immediate personal gratification. And this is a temptation we
all face on a daily basis. It seems that our whole society is geared up for this, especially in the
broadband world in which we live. As each generation passes, we are getting worse at waiting:
whatever it is, we want it now and, actually, we can have it now, so it doesnt even feel like a
temptation anymore
I was reading this week a sermon on this passage and the preacher rightly said that, these days,
patience is no longer a virtue; it has been turned into a vice. The pursuit of instant gratification is the
placing of my needs at the centre of the universe and I will pursue them, whatever that may mean for
others
But Jesus, by his free will, resists the temptation and he quotes Deuteronomy 8:3 in his defence: We
do not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Christ chooses not
to pursue personal gratification but chooses instead to make the pursuit of God his top priority. He
knows his mission, he knows who he is and chooses to trust in God completely.
We know who we are, we know our calling to be children of God and, as Christians, we know that we
do not fulfil our destiny by pursuing personal gratification. Now, that is not to say that Gods way is
always opposed to our way or that, to fulfil our destiny, we must be miserable and never be happy
because we are in constant submission to God. Some Christians behave as if that were the truth
But, in the final analysis, our way must always be Gods way and it is there that we find our ultimate
happiness, even when that does not always accord with our personal gratification.
Firstly, then, Jesus resists the temptation for personal, immediate gratification.

But that does not work and so the devil visits him for a second time, verse 4: Then the devil took him
to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. If you are the Son of God, he
said, throw yourself down. For it is written: He will command his angels concerning you, and they will
lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'
Interesting, of course, that the devil decides to quote Scripture back to Jesus in his second attempt at
temptation: Psalm 91:11-12. Its not just the faithful who know the word of God
But Jesus refuses to give in to this temptation, which is the temptation to use the sensational to
attract people to you. We dont need to be the Son of God to be tempted by this: dont we love to be
loved? dont we want to be thought of as wonderful people? arent we attracted by the thought of
being attractive? Yet again, this is an example of us wanting to put the Ego I at the centre of our
world rather than God.
But Jesus, through his free will, chooses to resist and, again uses Scripture from Deuteronomy to do
that: 6:16: Do not put the Lord your God to the test.
Finally, the devil takes Jesus to a mountain and tempts him with worldly power, verse 8: Again, the
devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their
splendour. All this I will give you, he said, if you will bow down and worship me.
We look around us at the world today and we see so many leaders who have given in to this
temptation but we are mindful of our own petty pursuits for power and how we are prepared to push
people aside so we can have control.
But Jesus, of his own free will, chooses to resist because he knows that these kingdoms are not in the
devils gift anyway. All authority in heaven and on earth are Christs . He is the King of kings and Lord
of lords.
So Jesus stands with us in our temptations. He truly knows what it is to face temptation and he has
shown us that it is possible to resist temptation if we are constantly soaked in the word of God and the
intimacy of a relationship with the Father.
As we move towards the season of Lent, it is good for us to prepare ourselves by remembering the
physical and spiritual cost to Christ. It is good for us to resolve ourselves afresh to be soaked in the
word of God and to seek a new intimacy with the Father so we can be stronger in our resistance to
temptation.
Ultimately, it is only in the strength of the Spirit and through the cross of Christ that the victory over
sin and death is won. But we have our part to play in the skirmishes and the battles and we pray
tonight for strength to resist. And, as we prepare to come to Communion, we give thanks to God for
what Jesus was prepared to endure so we could be free. Amen.