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Mat 4:1-11 The Temptation of Jesus
(Guest Speaker, Ken Corkins)
This week’s reading takes us back in time from where we've been for the last few weeks. Just prior to this story, Jesus was baptized in the Jordan river, We saw the heavens open, the Spirit descend like a dove, we heard the voice of God saying "this is my Son, with him I am well pleased".
Now the Sprit leads Jesus into the desert, and there he fasts for 40 days and nights.
Satan comes along to try to get Jesus to sin against God.
Temptation #1Turn Stones to bread
Easy. Jesus has been fasting for 40 days, he's hungry. Satan appeals to Jesus’ earthly needs and his heavenly power. Telling him, you don’t have to be hungry, you have power. You can make bread out of rocks.
Jesus responds with "It is written"
Any time Jesus says It is written, you know he's quoting from the bible. In this case, it’s a quote from
Deuteronomy 8:3
He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD
This quote possibly explains why Jesus fasted for 40 days and nights. It was a humbling.
There are other occurrences of 40 days and 40 nights in the Bible:
- The Flood in Noah’s time lasted 40 days and 40 nights
- Moses was on the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights writing down the 10 commandments
- Elijah doesn’t eat for 40 days and 40 nights on his way to Mt Horeb.
There are quite a few references to 40 in the bible. In fact, too many to go into today.
Satan Tempts Jesus with: Do things for yourself, Do it your own way.
Jesus responds with: It’s not just about bread, it’s about everything that God gives me.
Temptation #2
I have to admit, as I have read this passage over the years, I never understood this second temptation. Satan says “Hey Jesus, jump off the Temple. God’s angels will rescue you. And Jesus responds with “don’t test God?
Was Jesus really tempted by this? This reminds me of something our parents said to us, and we say to our Kids, “If all your friends were jumping off the cliff, would you jump too?” Is Satan asking Jesus to be the first kid to jump? Not even a “Hey, I’ll give you 10 dollars to jump down.
Maybe there’s something more in what Satan says.
Satan tries to get fancy, and uses: “It is written”. Saying in essence, I can quote Scripture too.
Satan quotes Psalms 91:11 and 12. But he misapplies the passage. (It’s about the Holy City of Jerusalem).
That didn’t help me
So, I had to read further. As I did, I asked myself, why go to the temple? We know that Satan was going to take Jesus to a very high mountain next. Wouldn’t that be a more spectacular leap?
It’s possible that Satan had a secondary motive here. The Temple in Jerusalem was the center of a lot of activity. There would have been priests and thousands of people there. So, if Jesus was to jump from the top of the Temple, and Angels would have miraculously saved Jesus, it would have been a huge spectacle. There would be no question among the priest and the people as to who Jesus was. This would have definitely changed the plan.
But still, that doesn’t explain it. Maybe the answer lies in how Jesus responds.
Jesus responds by saying ""It is also written: You are not to put the Lord your God to the test."
Here, Jesus is referring to Deuteronomy 6:16 "Do not test the LORD your God as you did at Massah"
This is a reference to Exodus 17:1-2 when Moses struck the rock to obtain water in the Sinai desert. The Israelites’ were testing to see if God was with them.
So, I look at this temptation again. Satan says:
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.’"
Satan is trying to put a seed of doubt into Jesus’ head, asking him to test God to make sure God is really with Him. In fact, Massah means proving.
Satan tempts Jesus with: Make God prove He is with you.
Jesus Responds with Don’t test God.
Temptation #3
Next, Satan takes Jesus to the top of a very high mountain, shows him all the Kingdoms of the Earth.
This is Satan's last, best attempt to get Jesus to sin.
He's offering Jesus "King of the Earth"
All Jesus has to do is serve Satan, not God.
Jesus replies with " For it is written: ‘You are to worship the Lord your God and serve only him’"
a quote from Deuteronomy 6:13 "Fear the LORD your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name."
Satan tempts Jesus with: Serve me
Jesus responds with: I serve the Lord God
Satan's attempts to thwart God's plan was denied and Jesus continues his ministry.
So, what does it all mean?
- There are basically 3 interpretations of these temptations;
- Helps to understand the true nature of His messiahship
- Not Militaristic or political
- Jesus' testing mirrors that of the Isrealites in the Desert
- Jesus quotes three texts from Deut. All are commandments that Israel failed to obey, but Jesus is determined to obey.
- Jesus provides a model for dealing with temptation
- So I looked at these temptations side-by side to see what I might learn from them.
- Satan tries three times to get Jesus to sin
- Do it yourself
- Make God prove he is with you
- Do it for Satan's
- Jesus Responds with quotations from Deuteronomy
- Man Does not live on Bread alone
- Don't test God
- Serve only God
- Jesus' responses are a model for us. (Make a Positive Action Statement)
- God gives me more
- I trust in God
- I serve God
Summarize and close
Temptation is all around us, everyday. And its everywhere in our society.
I don’t believe that Temptation itself is sin, because Jesus was tempted, and remained sinless. But temptation can lead to sin.
Jesus gave us a model for dealing with temptation, so it doesn’t lead us to sin.
- God gives me more.
- I trust God.
- I serve God.
Mankind has been tempted from the beginning of time.
Genesis 3 - Adam and Eve were tempted by Satan, and they sinned.
This caused them to be cast out of Eden, and caused mankind to be separated from God. In fact, it put all mankind under a sentence of death. Romans 6:23
The Apostle Paul writes about this in his Letter to the Romans, in chapter 5 verses 12-19. It’s a very philosophical passage, and I find it hard to follow, so, let me read just 2 verses, 18 and 19, from a translation called The Message:
Romans 5:18-19 The Message
Here it is in a nutshell: Just as one person did it wrong and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, another person did it right and got us out of it. But more than just getting us out of trouble, he got us into life!
One man said no to God and put many people in the wrong; one man said yes to God and put many in the right.
So to me, the real message of today’s reading is this;
Because of one man's sin, we were separated from God
Because we have sinned, we are separated from God
Because of one man's triumph over temptation and sin, we are forgiven.
Amen