The Temptation of Jesus
Aim: To show the necessity of the baptism of the Spirit, and how it is greater than water baptism administered by John.
Text: Mark 1:12-13
Introduction: Writing to the Corinthians Paul said, “There is no temptation taken you but such as is common to man.” Few experiences in the Christian life have such universal familiarity as the experience of temptation, and yet we read here that the Lord Jesus too, knew temptation. The Bible says He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin.
So far Mark’s gospel has introduced us to the ministry of John and the baptism of the Lord Jesus. All of that was preparatory to His coming, to the beginning of His ministry. Now there is one more preparation – He must be tested. He must be tried. He must be proven to be the Son of God.
Illus: At the Consumer Electronics Show recently held in Las Vegas, one company unveiled the unbreakable mobile phone. When asked what the phone was capable of withstanding, the director said you could drop it from a ten storey height, immerse it in over 20 ft of water for up to 30 minutes, and even hammer a nail with it and it would not break. In fact, so confident was he, that if you could find a way to break it, the company would give you a free phone. So Dan Simmons from the BBC's technology show “Click” thought he would give it a go. First of all he dunked it into an aquarium. Sure enough, though the phone was immersed in water it vibrated in response to a call and when he brought it up it continued to operate. He then hammered it, four times on the corner of the aquarium, and guess what? He broke the screen. It really was very unimpressive.
Isn’t that how men are in relation to temptation. We give in so easily, fall so readily, prove ourselves so weak, and yet here comes God’s Man, Jesus Christ and He wants you and I to know that He is who He claims to be, the perfect Son of God, and so He is driven out into the wilderness to be tempted that we might see He was/is unbreakable. The theological term is “impeccable.” Jesus could not sin. And yet His temptation was as real as any you or I have ever experienced.
I. The Occasion of It
A. Mark says, “And immediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness.”
1. “Immediately” is, of course, one of Mark’s key words – this gospel writer takes us straight to the action.
2. In fact he covers in 2 verses what Matthew covered, albeit in greater detail, in 11.
3. Now Mark wants us to think about when this period of temptation occurred – it happened immediately AFTER His baptism.
4. It came immediately AFTER the Lord had committed Himself to exemplifying righteousness, identified with those He came to save and committed Himself to His Father’s plan.
5. This is a detail that each of the gospel writers conveys, and its point is important, because it is often after the blessings that we enter into the battles, and no spiritual privilege may shelter us from ferocity of temptation or trial.
B. This is a mistake that many new converts make.
1. They think because they have won some victory, or enjoyed some mountain top experience that they are home and dry… but the opposite is often the case.
2. We see this over and over again in Scripture, and yet what?
3. Some poor fellows makes his stand for right, and he thinks the battle’s won when suddenly he finds himself under the cosh, he finds himself facing temptation, his very testimony as a believer is put on the line.
4. Or some new convert eager to follow the Master surrenders to the ordinance of baptism, even as Jesus did, and enjoys a moment of victorious testimony, reveling in the warmth of the church’s approval and fellowship, but then within days or weeks or months we find that same one struggling, and we wonder if they are a Christian at all.
5. But they have let their guard down and in so doing opened themselves up to spiritual attack.
6. The experience of Jesus teaches that. He leaves the baptismal waters behind with the approval of His Father still ringing in His ears and what?
a. The Spirit driveth him into the wilderness to be tempted.
b. Having committed Himself to do that which is right, He is tested and tried.
c. Isn’t that often the way?
II. The Location of It.
A. Again, “The Spirit driveth him into the wilderness.”
1. We have already mentioned in this series why it was that Jesus’ introduction to ministry began in the wilderness.
2. This was the place to which the presence of God had departed, leaving behind a godless temple in Ezekiel’s day.
3. Now Christ picks up where He had left off. He returns as it where to that same spot, and so we see Mark’s emphasis in these opening verses of His gospel on the wilderness.
B. But here it seems the Spirit moves Him even deeper into the desert.
1. How well we know that the Lord leads us beside still waters in times of refreshing and restoration, but what about times of trial and temptation.
2. Well sometimes that same Lord brings to a place of isolation, to a barren place, to a dry place, to a place where there are little or no resources that we might learn to look only to Him.
C. You know if you and I were charged with leading someone into a place of temptation I think we might not consider the wilderness as a possibility.
1. We might want to bring a man to some place like Soho in London, or Las Vegas, or some other place that is associated with open sin.
2. We might take him to some place like Dubai, Cannes or Marbella where he could covet the material possession of the rich.
3. And no doubt there were similar such places in Christ’s time. There were places of vice and wickedness then as there are now, but when Jesus was tempted He wasn’t driven by the Spirit to dens of iniquity; but the quiet isolation of a barren desert.
4. Why there? Because God knows man so well, and He knows that temptation comes not from that which is without, casinos, prostitution, debauchery, materialism, but from that which is within – “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jer 17:9)
a. But God knows it – and to prove the sterling quality of His Son He brings Him to this lonely place, that He might try the character of the inner man.
III. The Duration of It
A. “And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan …”
1. Matthew tells us that for these forty days Jesus was fasting.
2. On a human level that places Him in a place of physical weakness.
3. But here again, we see Satan’s method of operation – he comes to us when we are at our weakest.
a. The Bible says, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.” (1Pet 5:8)
b. Now the thing about a lion is that, though it is undoubtedly a fierce beast, it is also very strategic in its choice of prey.
c. A lion approaching any heard of animals will always seek out the youngest and the weakest.
d. Isn’t that how Satan works.
e. Here we see it in the life of Jesus. When Jesus was hungry, when He hadn’t eaten anything for over a month THEN Satan made his approach, then he appeared to tempt Him.
4. And that is how he operates – he comes maybe after prolonged marital problems, and he says “walk away… leave her/him”
5. He comes after a long period of financial problems and he says, “End it all – kill yourself, that way there will be no bills to pay.”
6. He comes after weeks of grief and he says, “God doesn’t care – if He cared He would never have allowed that loved one to die,”
7. He comes after a long illness and he says, “Listen, God isn’t hearing your prayers – prayer doesn’t work.”
8. You see the servant is not greater than his Master, and what we witness in the life of Jesus is the experience of all those who follow Him.
IV. The Temptation in It
A. Remember when this temptation came – it followed the Lord’ baptism, it came hot on the heels of that heavenly testimony, “Thou art my beloved Son…”
1. Now it is this very testimony that is to be tested.
2. Satan always wants us to doubt the Word of God.
3. When Adam and Eve were in the garden, he came with the words, “Yea, hath God said…” He cast doubt upon God’s Word.
4. Now he is to try this same tact with Jesus.
5. Matthew details for us the nature of the temptation – see Matthew 4:1-11.
a. Notice verse 4, “If thou be the Son of God…” again,
b. Notice verse 6, “If thou be the Son of God…”
c. Do you see that? The Father says, “Thou art my beloved Son…” and Satan comes to cast doubt upon that, “If thou be the Son of God…”
d. He always casts doubt upon the testimony of God’s Word.
e. The Word of God tells us, “If you believe on Christ, if you trust His work on Calvary you will be saved,” but Satan comes and he says, “If you were saved you would not think that/ say that/ do that.”
f. This is no onslaught on your character alone, this is a challenge to the testimony and promises of God.
B. Now he comes to Jesus with three primary temptations.
1. The lust of the flesh; “If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.”
a. I am sure Jesus would have liked nothing better than some bread after 40 days of fasting. Indeed, in the eating of bread there seems no sin, but what Satan is really suggesting to him is that he break his fast by placing the needs of His body ahead of the needs of the soul.
b. He is really calling upon Him to satisfy a legitimate desire of the flesh in an illegitimate way.
c. Doesn’t Satan still play that card?
e. How many Christians have laid aside their testimony for a moment of physical pleasure?
2. The pride of life; “If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.”
1. Here he is quoting from Psalm 91 – rather he is misquoting – how the devil likes us to justify our sins by some reference to God’s Word, and how often is that reference wrenched from its context, added to or taken from in some way so as to make the Bible say something it was never intended to say.
2. Here he says, “Jesus, show us what you can do – you are the Son of God, show off some of the privilege associated with your status. Show us you really trust God’s Word by putting it to the test.
3. How subtle this temptation is, because real trust doesn’t try the One it’s trusting.
a. If I trust my wife I do not hire a private detective to follow her.
4. Here Satan called upon Jesus to indulge in the sensational as proof of His Sonship, but Jesus was always one step aside of the tempter reminding him, that, “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.”
3. The lust of the eyes; “Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.”
1. In a sweeping moment Satan presented the Lord with a panoramic view of the kingdoms of the world (Luke 4:5) and he says, “Take a look Jesus, all this could be yours, if you would but bow down and worship me.”
2. Do you think the devil’s offer was sincere? Remember he was a liar from the beginning. Never do business with liars.
3. What’s more, the Lord Jesus knew that what worship is who you serve. He would not be made a sovereign by worshiping Satan, but a slave.
4. Look up Psalm 2:7-9
a. Did you notice that Jesus was commanded to ask His Father for the kingdoms of the world?
b. Yet here Satan, (and it says something of his knowledge of the Scriptures) says, “ask me”.
c. He shows him the brochure, as it were, and says all this could be yours, here and now, if you would bout ask.
5. This is the lust of the eyes. It is the “buy now, pay later” mentality. It’s the same lust that often brings us into financial debt.
6. Satan says you can have the kingdom without cross – look it’s yours! All you have to do is worship me. But to do so would have brought the Saviour into Satan’’s debt and so He replies, “Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.”
V. The Ministration Following It.
A. Now, as Mark’s brief account closes out he writes, “and (He) was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him.”
1. He “was with the wild beasts.” Why does Mark include this little line?
2. Some suggest that perhaps Satan was endangering His life, seeking to kill Him off by means of the animal kingdom. I don’t believe that is it.
3. Some suggest it shows Him as Lord over nature. That could be. But I think there is even more to it than that.
4. There is something Edenic about this detail – see Genesis 2:19.
5. Here is the first Adam with the wild beasts, naming them as the head of creation.
6. Now the first Adam fell, and as the in so doing he brought the whole human race with him.
7. Mankind needed to be redeemed and restored, and to do that there needed to be a new head for humanity – a perfect Man – one who could bridge the gap between man and God and reconcile man to God.
8. The Lord Jesus came to fulfil that role; the Bible calls Him the Last Adam.
B. The conflict between Satan and the first Adam was in a beautiful garden, a paradise, but the conflict between Satan and the last Adam was in a wilderness.
1. The first Adam ate freely of all things except one (the forbidden fruit) Jesus the last Adam ate nothing for forty days.
2. The devil came into the garden to challenge the dominion of the first Adam, but the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to challenge the dominion of Satan.
3. Satan ruined the first Adam, who failed the test and as the head of the human race brought ruin upon the world. The Last Adam, spoiled Satan, passed the test and as the head of the new creation, brought redemption into the world.
4. And in doing so He revealed to us who He is - The one who conquered sin, the very Son of the living God!
5. You see, even here, even in the wilderness, the temptation was not endured for us, as proof of Him, and of the victory He affords.
C. The victory won, the enemy shamed, “the angels ministered unto him.”
1. Perhaps, like Elijah of old, they brought Him food and drink.
2. Perhaps they came to afford Him their praise and worship, as the Second Person of the Godhead.
3. How precisely they ministered we cannot say, but what we can say is that these same angels are often sent to minister unto us.
a. “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?” (Hebrews 1:14) and the same book reminds that from time to time Christian entertain such beings unawares (Hebrews 13:2)
Conclusion: You know when we think of our temptations, we more often than not think of failure. Like Adam before, we are tempted and fall – sometimes all too easily. But Jesus never fell and Jesus never fails. And that is what makes Him such a wonderful Saviour. You see His victory is our victory. In Him we too are victorious, “more than conquerors,” according to Paul. And yet, how often do we feel more like failures than conquerors. Here my friends, is the secret to success in the Christian life. My life is hid with Christ in God. You and me, with all of our failings, all our weakness may live victoriously when we reckon ourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. When we identify with Him. His life. His death. His resurrection.
But that means denial of self. That means an acknowledgment of weakness. That signals our own inability. That means putting our lives to the cross. Being assured of our sonship, never doubting our standing in Christ, and walking according to His Word. How blessed we are, that we have an High Priest was “in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” What glorious hope he brings, and what gracious sympathy He offers, and what a marvellous victory He affords to those who trust Him and walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh.
