The Temptation of Christ

The Temptation of Christ
TEXT: Lk 4:1- 15

INTRODUCTION:
We left off in our study of Luke in chapter 3 with John’s message of repentance. John was preaching at the Jordan river and baptizing when Jesus came to be baptized by John. We pick up the account in chapter 4 with Jesus being led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan.

One of the greatest conflicts in the history of the church has been who Christ. is and trying to come to an understanding of his humanity and his deity. The more liberal theologians some denominations and some cults have placed great emphasis in his humanity while minimizing his deity. Often as a reaction to that His deity is emphasized while his humanity is minimized almost as if there is a fear of admitting that Christ was human. We’ve talked about it before. Jesus was not a half god/half man mythological being. The scriptural view teaches Christ was fully human without ever giving up being fully divine. We struggle to understand the mechanics of such a union between the human nature and divine nature. Recognizing Jesus is fully God and at the same time fully man I want us to look this morning at the temptation of Christ in the wilderness and His triumph over the devil.

Matthew, Mark and Luke all make mention of this event.. Mark mentions it only briefly in 1:13, writing, He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan, and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to Him. Matt and Luke give a more complete account of the temptation though the order of the temptations are different. Luke 4:1 And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led about by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days; and when they had ended, He became hungry. 3 And the devil said to Him. . . NASB

Let’s look first at the Source of the temptation. I’m talking about the devil. He is known in a number of different ways in the Scripture. Matthew and Paul both referred to him as the tempter (Matt 4:3; 1 Th 3:5). John called him the “father of lies” (Jn 8:44). Peter called him a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Mark referred to him as Satan in his account of the temptation. Satan is a Hebrew loan word meaning adversary or accuser. He is also known as the prince of the power of the air (Eph 2:2) and the god of this world (2 Cor 4:4).

The devil is a real being. Today many think of the devil as merely a personification for evil. Evil exists in the world so to explain it we create an evil person who is the devil to be the source of evil. Some people believe Satan is a personification of our own evil desires, if you are a star wars fan you might think of the dark side. However, if we take the Bible seriously not only a religious book and a Revelation from God but also an historical book thinking again of Luke’s opening comments about examining the evidence for the things we have been taught, we must logically conclude the devil to be a real being.

We should recognize Jesus did not have a dark side to wrestle with so this is not a story about Him wrestling with His own desire to somehow avoid the cross. The Bible also ascribes to the devil distinctive traits of personality, including intellect (2 Cor 11:3; Luke 4:lf.). The Bible ascribes to him the emotions of desire (1 Tim 3:6; cf. Isa 14:12), jealousy (Job 1:8,9), hatred (1 Peter 4:8), anger (Rev 12:12), and will. The Devil commands (Luke 4:3,9) and leads rebellions (Rev 12:1-3).

(from Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics © 1999 by Norman L. Geisler. All rights reserved.)

Understand, however, that while Satan is real he is not a god, neither is he God’s counterpart. He is a created being. While he is powerful he is not omnipotent neither does he posses the other attributes of God. He is neither omniscient nor omnipresent. He does not know everything and he can not be everywhere at the same time. But he doesn’t have to be. In tempting Jesus he came personally. He doesn’t need to do that with us. We know from Scripture that he has spiritual forces at his command. Paul explains that we are involved in spiritual warfare against spiritual forces in Eph 6:12. Satan, as the god of this world, that’s god with a little g (2 Cor 4:4), has also introduced his lies into the world system and into the minds of men. That’s why Paul tells us not to be conformed to this world and that before we turned to Christ we walked in the ways of this world (Eph 2:2). As a matter of fact James 4:4 tells us that friendship with the world is to be at odds with God. Add to that as believers we are also engaged in internal spiritual warfare between the old nature and the new nature. We sin when we give in to the old nature and are carried away by our own personal desires (Jas 1:14). Jesus didn’t have an old nature to wrestle with he was perfectly human. His human nature was what we were created to be.

The place of the temptation.

The spirit led Jesus into the wilderness a place of isolation to fast and pray and prepare for His ministry and to an encounter with His adversary. Jeremiah describes the wilderness in Jer 2:6 as a land of deserts and of pits, of drought and of deep darkness, a land that no one crossed And where no man dwelt? It was a desolate place and as Mark says a place with wild beasts. It was there after forty days of fasting when he was tired, hungry and weak the devil came to tempt Him.

You may have been there, not in an actual wilderness like Jesus was but that desolate place where you have been tired and weak and felt desperate and alone. It may have been a wilderness of your own making through bad decisions, anger spite whatever, or you may be in a wilderness place brought about through sickness or because of something someone else did and you had no control over how you got there. But you’re there, and often your guard is down. Someone did something to you and you want to get back at them, or someone said something hurtful and you’re full of anger. Maybe you lost your job or your marriage and you feel like you’re hanging on by a thread. At those times temptation comes in whatever form it might take when you are most vulnerable and it catches you unaware.

Satan thought Jesus was vulnerable when he came to Him. He tempted Jesus in three times in ways that cover any type of temptation we might face. The heart of his temptation of Jesus is to have Him avoid the way of suffering and death that would take Him to the cross.

The first temptation was to compromise faith in God. This is and assault on our natural desires, our appetites, our cravings and our hungers. The devil used the natural desire of hunger to tempt Jesus. There is nothing sinful about the desire for food. It’s how our body is sustained. Jesus had been fasting for 40 days and he was hungry. It was a real need. But, Satan takes this natural desire and tempts Jesus into filling it in way that would dishonor God. Luke 4:3 And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” NASB. This is the conditional use of the word “if” that we have talked about before in the Greek where something is assumed to be true. It’s used differently here, however because there is a challenge. It is like the temptation of Eve where Satan said, “has God really said.” It’s almost a taunting, since you really are the Son of God go ahead and satisfy you hunger.

It would have been easy for Jesus to do. But we see in Scripture Jesus never used supernatural power fo other than God’s purposes. The temptation wasn’t in turning the stones to bread it was to use His Sonship in a way inconsistent with His God-ordained mission. It was to satisfy a legitimate need in an illegitimate way. Why was illegitimate? Because the Father wasn’t telling Him to do it. It wasn’t God’s will for Him to do it that way. We read in Matt 4:11 Then the devil left Him; and behold, angels came and began to minister to Him. NASB

We encounter things like that all of the time in our lives. When I first came to Nebraska there was a financial need in our schools we were told and if we would just legalize gambling that need could be met, schools wouldn’t have to worry about budget shortfalls. The law legalizing it was fought but soon it happened and we have legalized gambling in NE and you know what we still are having budget shortfalls in our schools. We have many legitimate needs in our own lives the temptation we don’t want to fall into is meeting those needs in ways that dishonor God.

The second temptation Luke records, is to compromise the will of God. This really focuses on the kind of king Jesus was to be and the kingdom He was to establish.

Luke 4:5-7 5 And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6 And the devil said to Him, “I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. 7 “Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours.” NASB

Luke doesn’t tell us how this leading took place or how this visionary experience happened. It’s not important to the account. It’s the confrontation that’s important. Jesus came to rule and reign in the hearts of men, not just rule them. The temptation was for Jesus to be successful in the establishment of His kingdom, but to do by compromising the will of God.

We all have within us the desire to be successful, the desire to make a difference. We sometimes get confused over the definition of success. We often think if we have more of things we are successful. The people we seem to look up to the most seem to be the ones with power, prestige, fame and fortune and we think that’s what it means to be successful that’s what I want. There is nothing wrong with having power, prestige, fame and fortune. Abraham had all that. Satan’s temptation is to take a shortcut. For you it may not be any of those it may be something as simple as having more friends. We tell ourselves If I had more popularity, more power, more money more fill in the blank life would be wonderful I’d be a happier person and God wants me to be happy so whatever it takes to have that and be happier that’s what I’ll do even if it means doing things I know are wrong because after all God wants me to be happy.

God wants us to be joyful and God has promised us life abundant. He created Adam and Eve in perfection and provided for all of their needs but Satan said look you can have more you can be like God Himself if you just listen to me and take a bite of the forbidden fruit. Satan promised Jesus what wasn’t his to give. If Jesus would just bow and worship him. Just cut a deal with me and it will all be yours right now, you won’t have to suffer or go to the cross.

Satan’s lie is if you want to get ahead in this world don’t wait for God. Cheat a little here, steal a little there, lie a little more and it will all be yours. Worship me by the way you live and I guarantee you’ll have it.

Jesus knew compromising God’s will has consequences. He asked the question in Mark 8:36 “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? NASB Compromising God’s will to achieve your goals at what cost; success at what price. The temptation of Satan is to forsake God’s plan and God’s purpose to compromise God’s will for what we think is what we want, what we imagine is what we need. And the question resounds in our hearts “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?

The third temptation Luke records is the temptation to presume upon God.

Luke 4:9-11 9 And he led Him to Jerusalem and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here; 10 for it is written, ‘He will give His angels charge concerning You to guard You,’ 11 and, ‘On their hands they will bear You up, Lest You strike Your foot against a stone.’” NASB

Luke says the devil led Him, Matthew says he took Him. Again we don’t know how this was accomplished but these verses show that while Satan is not omnipotent he is powerful. He took or led Jesus to a very high place and showed him the kingdoms of the world and now he in some way takes Him from the wilderness to the pinnacle of the temple. Satan took Jesus to the highest point in the holiest place overlooking the splendor that is the temple of God to tempt Him. Temptation in the church can you believe the nerve of Satan? Would he really do such a thing, obviously he would.

He can do that in a number of ways in church on the physical, emotional and spiritual levels. Tempting us to look down on someone else in church, or to gossip about someone or to reject someone, to get angry or get distracted from actual worship to go through the motions and become distant from God while being in church. To do things our way instead of God’s way or to simply not do anything at all. At this point Satan is more subtle and more cunning. He again used the challenge he used in the first temptation “if you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from this high place. Then he quotes Scripture. Then he tries to use God’s own word against Him. The ultimate bad use of proof texts. This isn’t new this is what he did to Eve when he asked her “has God really said if you eat this you will die?” Satan himself is a student of the Word of God. Here he quotes Ps 91 vs. 11-12. 11 For He will give His angels charge concerning you, To guard you in all your ways. 12 They will bear you up in their hands, Lest you strike your foot against a stone. NASB

The temptation is to first of all doubt God’s Word? Did He really say that, does He really mean that, will he really do that? Does He really love you and care about you, does he really want you to be happy? Then it is to presume upon the grace of God…if God really loves you have Him prove His love for you by doing this or that or giving this or that. We also presume upon God’s grace when we listen to the lie don’t worry about doing this or that whether God says it is right or wrong, God will forgive you anyway. We never want to presume upon God’s grace.

How did Jesus respond to temptation? Jesus didn’t need God to prove anything. Throughout history God has already proved His faithfulness. God’s word was sufficient for Jesus and that’s how he responded to the temptations of the devil.

When the devil said, “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”

Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’” (Deut 8:3)

When the devil showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and said:

7 “Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours.”

8 Jesus answered and said to him, “It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’” (Deut 6:16)

When the devil took him to the pinnacle of the temple and said

“If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here;

10 for it is written, ‘He will give His angels charge concerning You to guard You,’

11 and, ‘On their hands they will bear You up, Lest You strike Your foot against a stone.’”

12 Jesus answered and said to him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” (Deut 6:13)

When Jesus was faced with temptation he turned to the place that had the answers the Word of God. He trusted God’s Word and He relied upon God’s promises. The Lord told Moses He would never leave him, He told Joshua the same thing and he tells us today the same thing (Heb 13:5).

Jesus said in Matt 7:24: “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine, and acts upon them, may be compared to a wise man, who built his house upon the rock.

NASB When the storms came and the winds blew when the trails and temptations came the house did not fall. When we are faced with temptation no matter what it is, no matter what it involves we must learn to trust God’s word and rely on God’s promises.

Luke wrote in 4:13: And when the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time. NASB

Temptations will come.

We can be sure if temptation came to Jesus they will come to use. It is not a matter of if, but when. Trials and temptations will as sure as the sun comes up every morning, they will come in different forms at different times in different places. They will come when we think we are strong and our guard is down, they will come when we are at our weakest. They will come especially during times of trials, and when you think you have weathered them they will come again at an opportune time. The devil will come by whatever means in whatever form or manner and will try and get you to compromise your faith in God, to compromise the will of God and to presume upon God.

When they come to us we need we must take our eyes off the trial off the temptation, off the world off the struggles that make us want to give up and give in and instead turn our eyes upon Jesus.