We love the great times, don’t we? The times when we feel God’s Spirit flowing through us and when others recognize the Lord in us and rejoice. Wouldn’t it be great if every day was like the baptism of Jesus—with the Spirit of God descending like a dove on us and God telling us He is pleased with us? Immediately following that experience, Jesus was driven by the same Spirit into the wilderness to be tested and tempted. He got hungry and thirsty, he was tired, and in the midst of it all comes this very wily creature trying to trip him up when he is at his worst! Sounds a lot like where we live our lives all the time. We wonder where God is and why life is so hard and why it is so difficult to serve God in the midst of all this temptation to model ourselves after this age.
Temptations are Satan’s shortcuts and they are his main weapon. They attempt to alter your perception of reality to make a choice in what seems to be your short term interest, but not in yours or God’s long term benefit. Often we try to hide behind the devil’s temptations: “the devil made me do it.” In this fallen world the reality is we do just find finding and falling into temptations all on our own! I’m so glad Jesus went through this, though, because it gives us some rich lessons in how to deal with life and temptation!
1 – 2
The same Spirit that led Jesus to be baptized now leads him to be tempted. God allows us to undergo trial and temptation, not to discourage us, but to prove His power in us. God didn’t send Jesus into the desert to see if He was ready to be Messiah, but to show the Devil that He was the Messiah.
Satan wanted Jesus to do God’s will by his means, which is often what our temptations are like as well. The Devil tempted Jesus in three critical areas: physical needs and desires, power and possessions, and pride.
Note something though, Jesus was physically weak, but Satan could not weaken Jesus spiritually.
2 Cor 4:16-18 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. 17 For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
3 – 4 Making our needs more important than God’s design.
Satan wanted Jesus to satisfy His own needs using His divine power. It seems simple and innocent. Satan didn’t doubt Jesus’ Sonship, but wanted Him to use that power in a way other than the mission God had sent Him on. Later Jesus would make baskets of bread, but for others, not solely for Himself.
Jesus didn’t discuss the sin as Eve had done in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3). He quotes Deuteronomy 8:2-3. Jesus knew nothing was more important than the Father’s mission, even food and water. In order to fulfill that mission, Jesus had to completely rely on the Father and completely be human, only using his powers when the Father told Him to.
5 – 7 Doing things your way and expecting God to come along.
The pinnacle of the temple was the highest place in Jerusalem, the city where the Messiah was expected to arrive. In tempting Jesus in this way, Satan was trying to get Him to declare Himself the Messiah too quickly. Or it’s possible that this temptation tried to test the relationship between Jesus and the Father. It would place a little bit of doubt for Jesus to have to “prove” that God would come through. Do we trust in God so completely that we don’t need to ask for “proof” of His love?
Psalm 91 doesn’t mean we will never fall into harm, it means that we will be able to do what God has called us to do without the mission being compromised by the enemy. This would have been an artificially created crisis and not God’s will.
Jesus again quoted from Deuteronomy 6:16. The section talks about the failure of Israel at the waters of Massah (Exodus 17:1-7). There the people were thirsty and doubted whether God was among them. Jesus didn’t doubt His relationship with God and so had no need to test Him.
8 – 11 Attempting to accomplish good things through the wrong means.
Satan’s temptation was one of expedience. The offer itself was not evil, and in fact, Satan does control the kingdoms of the world (as much as God allows him to). In Luke, Satan’s words are: “To you I will give all their glory and all this authority for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please” (Luke 4:6).
What was evil was that doing it this way was not God’s timing or His will. Getting the world but by worshiping the devil is also a false victory. If Jesus had bowed down to Satan then though the world would have belonged to Jesus, Jesus would have belonged to Satan.
It is a temptation that we face all the time. Many people have been led to lie and cheat, telling themselves that the ends justify the means. They don’t. God would rather have you “fail” with integrity and righteousness than succeed by sinning.
Satan is telling Jesus “why go through all the pain and agony of obeying God and going to the cross when we can accomplish your goals the easy way?” Jesus knew there was no easy way. Besides, He would have been leaving us behind. The goal was not just to rule but to save. In fact, Lucifer had it backwards. Jesus came to give his life, then upon his return he will rule the world (and destroy Satan).
Jesus responded again from Deuteronomy, this time Deut 6:4-5, 13. Loving God means not loving something else—this age and its ruler. Loving God isn’t the easy way but it is the right way. It is the way of the long term. Too many times we settle for short term gratification, rather than long term satisfaction.
Satan had to leave when Jesus told him to, but Luke tells us he just waited for another opportunity. The Greek indicates that even as Satan continuously tempted Jesus during his 40 days, so too angels were present to minister to Him. Though it can mean they served Him food, it is more likely they ministered to his spirit.
12 – 17
We don’t know exactly why Jesus moved 20 miles from Nazareth to Capernaum, but Matthew mentions John the Baptist’s arrest by Herod Antipas as the spiritual signal. Jesus had been careful not to step on John’s ministry, and as we see, Jesus’ first words in this gospel are the same as John’s. But when John was put in prison, Jesus moved to an area where more people could hear the gospel.
The area was among the first taken into captivity by Assyria, and those who were resettled in this area were Gentiles. So that’s why Isaiah’s prophecy focuses on bringing light to the Gentiles.
Whenever Jesus comes, it is like bringing a bright light into a dark and gloomy place. Those that hate the light scurry, but many are attracted to it and come to fall in love with Jesus.
18 – 22
Jesus did not come along and see strangers who just got up like robots and followed Him. John’s gospel tells us that Andrew, a disciple of John the Baptist, had met Jesus before and had brought Peter to him. This wasn’t a meeting but a decision point. Jesus was looking for ordinary people to follow him. There is a time for introductions and getting to know someone, then there is a time when you have to decide, do I put my trust in Him, or do I just keep doing what I was doing and ignore Him. Peter and Andrew answered the call and were never the same.
Next Jesus finds the business partners of Peter and Andrew: James and John. John had also met Jesus as a disciple of John the Baptist. John was probably just a teenager. What kind of impression Jesus must have had on these four men. What impression does he make on you?
23 – 25
Jesus went to the synagogues, meeting places first created during the Babylonian exile when the people could no longer go to the temple. The synagogue ruler’s job was to invite rabbis to speak. Jesus taught (seated), preached (standing) and healed. The healings gave credence to who He was (in addition to His powerful message) and spread His fame far and wide.
The Romans referred to all of Palestine outside of Galilee as Syria.
Conclusions
Your Christian life will not always be easy. You will be opposed. We must know and appropriate the Word of God, not your own strength or wits, to combat the enemy. He will come to us, we don’t need to seek him out. The enemy often strikes in times of our greatest weakness. Most temptations involve fulfilling something good with something bad and involve personal choices, not battling demons with pitchforks. Even our victories are not always evident to others. Often temptation, battle and victory take place in private.
The good news, God will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able to bear, but with the temptation will provide a way of escape, as He did for Jesus, that we might be able to bear it (1 Corinthians 10:13).
What can we learn about handling temptation from what Jesus went through?
They fall into three categories: Living life, Having Meaningful Relationships, and Fulfilling purpose.
Satan tries to get us to fulfill legitimate needs by illegitimate means. He tries to get us to test and thus doubt the most important relationship with have, the one with God, through whom all our other relationships flow, and he tries to get us to short-circuit God’s plan.
In a real way they all involve quick fixes. We need something and we’ve got to have it now. We want God to prove Himself now. And We want to accomplish things now.
Using the Word of God is essential. But I also want to point out some wisdom James gave us:
James 1:2-4 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
Couple that with some advice from Jesus:
Matt 6:19-21 "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also … 25 "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? … But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Recognize the temptation for what it is (Matt 10:16 “wise as serpents”)
Remember God’s Word (Psalm 119:11 “Thy word have I hid…”)
Recite the Word out loud
Resist the devil and he will flee from you (James 4:7)
Remove yourself from the situation (2 Tim 2:22 “Flee youthful…”, 1 Cor 10:13)
Repent to keep short accounts with God (1 John 1:9)
Restore your fellowship with God (James 4:8 “Draw near to God…”)
Rejoice in your relationship with God
Rest in God’s provision and timing and purpose for your life (Psalm 37:7)
As you are tempted, remember that God loves you, you can trust yourself to Him. He will provide all you need to do His will and often it is what you do in the time of temptation that is more important than the thing you are tempted about. The means never justifies the end because it is in the means that God works his character in our lives.
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