A Messiah Who Fights
Text: Matt. 4:1-11
Introduction
1. Illustration: "If we wish to be free...we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms, and to the God of hosts, is all that is left us...It is vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace--but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!" (Patrick Henry)
2. Last week we talked about Jesus setting an example for us. Today we are going to talk about another kind of example that Jesus sets for us; how to stand and fight.
3. Our text shows us that even Jesus was involved in spiritual warfare. He faced:
a. Physical Fight
b. Mental Fight
c. Spiritual Fight
4. Read Matt. 4:1-11
Proposition: Jesus shows us how to deal with Satan; face him head on.
Transition: Jesus had to face a...
I. Physical Fight (1-4)
A. To Be Tempted
1. There are some fascinating insights in this first verse.
2. First, we see that "Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness..."
a. It was the Holy Spirit that led Him into a difficult place where His character would be severely tested.
b. The temptation was providentially arranged by God as a test of the Messiah’s character (NLT Study Bible).
c. Deuteronomy 8:2 (NLT)
Remember how the Lord your God led you through the wilderness for these forty years, humbling you and testing you to prove your character, and to find out whether or not you would obey his commands.
d. Take heart, my friends, even Jesus was tested to prove His character. So when testing comes your way don’t let the devil convince you that there is something wrong with you, because Jesus was there before you.
e. Take heart, my friends, because Jesus passed the test and so can you.
f. The Holy Spirit leads us into difficult situations so that we might become stronger.
3. The other interesting thing in this verse is the reason the Spirit led Him into the wilderness was "to be tempted there by the devil."
a. First, notice what it does not say. It does not say that they Spirit led Him into the wilderness and tempted Him. It says He was led by the Spirit to be tempted by the devil.
b. James 1:13-14 (NLT)
And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, “God is tempting me.” God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else. Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away.
c. God does not tempt you, it is your own sinful desires, exploited by the devil, that are tempting you.
d. God allows you to be tempted so that you learn how to overcome your weakness.
4. So how do we overcome our weakness? Let see how Jesus did it. Matthew tells us, "For forty days and forty nights he fasted and became very hungry."
a. Jesus dealt with temptation with fasting and prayer.
b. "Wait a minute, Pastor, it just says that Jesus fasted. Where do you see the word prayer?"
c. First, whenever Scripture talks about fasting it is always accompanied by prayer, and even when it’s not explicit, it is always implicit.
d. Second, this is Jesus we are talking about. Can you imagine Jesus going forty days without praying? Can you imagine Jesus going into a spiritual battle without prayer?
e. If you want to break physical bondage, which in reality is spiritual bondage, you had better spend some time in fasting and prayer.
5. Now notice how the devil attacks Jesus. It says, "During that time the devil came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread.”
a. The devil knew that Jesus had been without food for a month and a half, and He was hungry.
b. He knows what our weakness is and he will do whatever he has to do to exploit that weakness.
c. In the garden, he hit Eve’s area of weakness. Hunger wasn’t her weakness; her weakness was pride.
d. Genesis 3:1-5 (NLT)
The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?”...“You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”
6. Look at how Jesus deals with the devil. He just says, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
a. He is direct and blunt. He just tells him "NO!"
b. He doesn’t try to debate with him or get into a conversation with him. He just says "NO!"
c. Along with the direct approach, Jesus quotes Scripture to him.
d. He quotes Deut. 8:3. He hits the devil with the Word.
e. Here is another reason we should read, study, and memorize Scripture.
f. The devil is not stupid. He’s not going to come to you during you devotional time; he’s going to hit you when you and your Bible are miles apart.
g. However, if you have committed Scripture to memory you will always be prepared. Armed with the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.
B. Satan Will Attack Our Physical Weakness
1. Illustration: Let me share a few things with you regarding temptation: The first comes from that great theological work, Reader’s Digest, and is written by a husband: While my wife and I were shopping at a mall, a shapely young woman in a short, form-fitting dress strolled by. My eyes followed her. Without looking up from the item she was examining, my wife asked, "Was it worth the trouble you’re in?"
2. 1 John 2:16 (NLT)
For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world.
3. The devil will attack our physical weakness.
a. He will attack us with what we can see, feel, and touch.
b. He will attack us with food.
c. He will attack us with sex.
d. He will attack us with drugs and alcohol.
e. He will attack us with possessions.
4. The devil knows our weak points.
a. He knows what we struggle with and will hit us with at every turn.
b. He will bombard us with temptation until we just can’t take it anymore.
c. He is relentless and will continue to fight you until he thinks he has won.
5. We need to stay on our guard at all times.
a. 1 Peter 5:8 (NLT)
Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.
b. He will not rest, and neither can you.
c. We need to be ready by continuing in prayer.
d. We need to stay ready by being in the Word.
e. We need to be prepared by praying in the Spirit.
f. God has won us the victory, but we have to fight in the battle.
Transition: We also face a...
II. Mental Fight (5-7)
A. You Must Not Test
1. Matthew says, "the devil took him to the holy city, Jerusalem, to the highest point of the Temple..."
a. The word translated "highest point" means "tip," or "peak."
b. Some scholars believe that the devil took Jesus to the top of the southeast corner of the Temple which overlooked the Kidron Valley (Turner, Cornerstone Biblical Commentary: Matthew, 66).
c. The devil takes Jesus to a part of the temple that overlooked a deep valley; a fall from there would have meant certain death (Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary – New Testament).
2. Showing his arrogance, the devil says “If you are the Son of God, jump off! For the Scriptures say, ‘He will order his angels to protect you. And they will hold you up with their hands so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.’”
a. There are several things here. First, he tries to question Jesus divinity.
b. 1 John 2:21-22 (NLT)
So I am writing to you not because you don’t know the truth but because you know the difference between truth and lies. And who is a liar? Anyone who says that Jesus is not the Christ. Anyone who denies the Father and the Son is an antichrist.
c. This not only shows his arrogance but the fact that he is the father of lies.
3. The second thing that he tries to do is get Jesus to doubt the Father’s love for Him.
a. He is trying to coerce Jesus into testing the literal truth of God’s word.
b. By doing so Jesus would be doing what the Bible clearly tells us not to - putting God to the test (except when it comes to tithing, where God gives us permission to test Him) (France, NICNT: Matthew, 133).
1. However, Jesus sees right through the devil’s tricks and says, “The Scriptures also say, ‘You must not test the Lord your God.’”
a. Countering the devil’s appeal to Scripture, Jesus invoked a deeper scriptural principle of honoring God, which the devil ignored (NLT Study Bible).
b. The devil was trying to twist the Scriptures for his own benefit, but Jesus shows that we need to consider the whole counsel of Scripture.
c. In essence, the devil was trying to get into Jesus head and get Him to make a rash decision. However, Jesus knew better.
B. Battlefield of the Mind
1. Illustration: "The spiritual battle takes place in our minds, but the place we give Christ in our hearts determines our victory" ~ Magdalene.
2. 1 Peter 1:13 (NIV)
Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.
3. The devil’s favorite means of attack is our minds.
a. He gets in our minds and tempts us to sin.
b. He gets in our minds to get us to doubt.
c. He gets in our minds to get us to fear.
d. He gets in our minds to get us to think we are the only ones.
4. Once he gets us to sin, he continues to attack our minds with condemnation.
a. He tries to get us to feel as though we are not forgiven.
b. He tries to get us believe we are not really saved.
c. He tries to get us to give up.
5. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through Jesus Christ.
a. We have been given the mind of Christ.
b. We have been transformed by the renewing of our minds.
c. There is, therefore, now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
d. There is victory in Jesus!
Transition: Above all we must realize that this is a...
III. Spiritual Fight (8-11)
A. Worship the Lord
1. The devil, like some people, doesn’t know when to quit.
a. Even though he had been defeated on two different attempts, he still makes a third attempt to deceive Jesus.
b. He saves his best trick for last.
2. According to Matthew, "the devil took him to the peak of a very high mountain and showed him the kingdoms of the world and all their glory."
a. This attempt was unlike the first two in several ways.
b. First, he does not attack Jesus divinity because it did not involve a misuse of His messianic privilege.
3. Second, he deliberately asks Jesus to break the second commandment (Turner, 67). He tells Jesus “I will give it all to you,” he said, “if you will kneel down and worship me.”
a. Exodus 20:5 (NLT)
You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me.
b. What the devil is doing is offering Jesus the kingdom without the cross (Keener, IVP NT Commentary: Matthew, 93).
c. He is offering Him the easy way out.
4. However, Jesus again sees through his tricks. He tells the devil, “Get out of here, Satan, for the Scriptures say, ‘You must worship the Lord your God and serve only him.’”
a. The Father alone is worthy of worship. Satan’s demand for Jesus to worship him indicates his overall objective and is indeed the essence of sin.
b. Sin desires to cast off God’s will and have one’s own way, to make oneself out to be the god of one’s own life (Wilkins, NIV Application Commentary, New Testament: Matthew, 161).
c. Jesus makes it clear that He would worship only the Father.
d. He takes His stand, submits to the Father, resists the devil, and the devil flees.
B. Spiritual Battle
1. Illustration: Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote this about our spiritual battle: A man who does not understand the nature of the problem he is confronting is a man who is already doomed to failure. Christian people are like first-year college students—they think at first that every subject is quite simple, there is no difficulty. Well, we know what is likely to happen to such when they face an examination! The first thing you have to do is to understand the nature and character of your problem. So we have to realize that we are called, in the Christian life, to a battle, not to a life of ease; to a battle, to a warfare, to a wrestle, to a struggle.
2. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 (ESV)
For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.
3. We must realize that the essence of our battle is spiritual.
a. We are not fighting people.
b. We are not fighting circumstances.
c. We are fighting the devil.
4. This battle takes place in a spiritual realm.
a. It is a realm we cannot touch with our hands or see with our eyes.
b. However, it is very much real, and we all deal with it every day.
5. If we are going to be effective in this fight, we have to fight with spiritual weapons.
a. The shield of faith
b. The sword of the Spirit
c. The breastplate of righteousness
d. Praying at all times in the Spirit
6. James 4:7 (NLT)
So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Conclusion
1. Jesus shows how to fight a spiritual battle.
2. Jesus shows us how to deal with a spiritual enemy.
3. Jesus shows us how to prepare for a spiritual battle.
4. Are you ready for a fight?
