Jesus in the Desert - The Temptation of Jesus - Matthew 4:1-11 January 24th, 2010
1Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. 2After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread."
4Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'[a]"
5Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6"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.'[b]"
7Jesus answered him, "It is also written: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'[c]"
8Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9"All this I will give you," he said, "if you will bow down and worship me."
10Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.'[d]"
11Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him. (NIV)
a. Matthew 4:4 Deut. 8:3
b. Matthew 4:6 Psalm 91:11,12
c. Matthew 4:7 Deut. 6:16
d. Matthew 4:10 Deut. 6:13
One night an Arabian fellow had settled in for the night and had just fallen asleep when his camel stuck his head in his tent and explained that it was awful cold and asked permission to just stick his legs inside the tent to keep them warm. Granting him permission the man went back to sleep. A little while later the camel woke him up a second time and asked permission to stick his head in. Again permission was granted. This continued on throughout the night until finally the man woke up to find the entire camel in the tent with him. When he told the camel that there just was not enough room in the tent for the both of them the camel suggested that the Arab might want to leave.
That is exactly what Satan does. He slips into our lives a little at a time and one day we wake up alarmed and we tell him that there just is not enough room for both he and Jesus in our lives. To which he suggests that Jesus might then want to leave....
Jesus has just been baptized. The voice of the Father in heaven speaks and declares his love and appreciation of his Son, Jesus Christ, for all to hear. The Holy Spirit comes down out of heaven, in physical form like a dove, and rests upon Christ. What an awesome sight that must have been! All things look good for the Son of God to start his ministry, right?
Then we read this in the 4th chapter on Matthew, the first chapter of Mark, and the fourth chapter of Luke…Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert/wilderness. A better translation of ‘led’ might be as we find in the Gospel of Mark, where we read the word:
Ekballei – The Spirit ‘cast out / drove’ Jesus into the desert (Mark 1:12).
Jesus was cast into the desert by the leading of the Holy Spirit of God…and why? To be tempted by none other than the devil himself.
Deserts are not what I would call my favourite holiday hotspot. Hot, definitely, nice, no.
Deserts are places that receive less than 10” of rain in a year. We get that here in a few days sometimes. Deserts are defined by their lack of vegetation and bodies of water, the ground is made up of sand, rock, gravel, and is devoid of good soil. Deserts experience some of the widest temperature ranges in a 24-hour period. It can be 45° in the daytime and below freezing at night due to the lack of humidity. They support very little life.
But above all, we know deserts to be hot, really hot, hot and dry and…hot! Miserably hot. Unbearably hot. Where do I find a swimming hole?? (oh look, a mirage!) hot!
And it is into this desert that Jesus is thrust by the Spirit, to wander for 40 days with nothing to eat, nothing to drink, just desert as far as He could see. No glorious beginning to a world-changing ministry, no parade for the salivation plan of God to kick-off, no crowds of followers for Jesus. No, he is sent into the desert, alone with his thoughts, and the Holy Spirit. He wandered in it, he slept in it, he prayed in it, he sought shelter within it, he longed to be out of it, but there he was…and in this awful, miserable place, Jesus met up with one who hated him and longed to see him die there, Satan.
Have we ever felt like WE were in a desert? Not an actual desert like the Sahara, but a desert in our situation in life? A place where we feel the heat from those who think we are a little ‘off’ for putting our faith in God, a place where we see nothing but emptiness and loneliness in our relationships. Have we been in a place that is devoid of anything good, living, thriving, bursting with the colours of happiness? Perhaps we may just feel dried up for lack of water from the Word, fellowship with other believers, or anything seeming to have come from the heavens above? Have you been in that place? Are you in the desert?
Why do you think that could be? Think about that for a few moments while we look at the things that happened to our Lord in the wilderness around Judea.
First, realize that Jesus was in a weakened physical state after fasting for 40 days. He ate nothing, and we don’t know if he even drank anything. This would be an ‘absolute’ fast. His body would be weak, but, as we see in the passage, His MENTAL capacities were sharp!
How do you feel when you miss even one meal? We are so spoiled here Canada to have, on average, 3 meals a day. We eat when we want to, not when we need to. We snack, we munch, we sip, and drink almost to our heart’s content. Not that it’s GOOD for our heart to eat some of the foods we tend to crave!
How did you feel? Now try to imagine how you would feel after a full day with nothing to eat. ‘Not too bad, bearable.’ How about 2 days? ‘Where’s the closest drive-thu?’ A week? ‘I’m gonna die!’ Can we even imagine what 40 days of having no food would be like? Have you ever fasted? I have never fasted for longer than a couple of days. And that was hard. I don’t know if there is a word that could describe how HUNGRY Jesus was after 40 days.
Now, in this weakened condition, the devil (tempter - Luke 4) comes to him to tempt him. And the first thing he offers Jesus is food. He asks Jesus to prove he is the Son of God by turning stones to bread. He knows Jesus could do it, and He could, right? Satan doesn’t ask Jesus to show his miraculous power by transporting himself out of the situation, or by creating a beautiful oasis there in the desert, but instead tries to appeal to his human craving for food. Interesting… I did some research on fasting, and probably the WORST thing you could do after a prolonged fast would be to eat bread. The carbohydrates would be turned to sugars in your blood so quickly, that you would probably go into convulsions or seizures; really nice of the devil, eh?
Does Jesus fall for this? No! Jesus answers the devil, not with a harsh word, or lashing out, or the calling of a prayer vigil for himself by the church, but with scripture, “man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Deut. 8:3)
Yeah, I would have liked to have seen Jesus turn pebbles into pumpernickel, stones into sourdough, or boulders into bagels, just to make the devil look bad. But that’s not what Jesus did. Instead, with all his mental faculties sharpened for lack of food, Jesus refers to the word of God, the written law from WAY back in Moses’ day…God’s word is food, and it is more important than what we put into our stomachs. Jesus remembers the word he has read since he was a boy, and applies it to the situation He is face with there in the desert as His stomach rumbled with desire for physical replenishment.
Principle: Don’t give in to your fleshly desires. What we need to desire MORE than food for the body is food for the soul. We need to feed ourselves on God’s word. Read it. Hide it in our heart. Meditate on it. Learn it. Memorize it. Crave it! Psalm 119:11 says this, 9 How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word. I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Lesson #1 on resisting temptation, on keeping ourselves from sin…know the Word of God!
Next, the devil took Jesus to Jerusalem, to the temple. He told him to stand on the highest point, and jump off. ‘if you’re the Son of God, go for it, jump, God won’t let you get hurt…’
Do you have a fear of heights? Does your stomach get a little queasy when you look down from a tall building to the ground below? I remember being in Chicago, at the Sears Tower. It is 1,450 feet tall, and is one of the most recognizable landmarks in the Chicago skyline. The Sears tower held the record for the world’s tallest building for 25 years until the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia were built in 1998. Now there’s a huge building in Dubai, that is over ½ mile high. Stephanie & I were in Chicago in the summer of 1989 as part of our outreach with Youth With a Mission. We had a free afternoon, and wanted to go see the tower. We went up to the sky deck, to the same windows that are in the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. We put our heads up against the glass and looked down to the street. And I tell you, even knowing the glass was there, and with a hand rail to hang on to, I still felt as if I my stomach was going to take a leap! It was an incredible view as you looked across the city, but looking down, that was a different story!
The temple in Jerusalem was not nearly as high as the Sears Tower. I found information that would suggest the height fro between 50-150m, depending on which wall, and what foundation is being referred to. That’s still along way up.
Here again the devil tempts him. He tells Jesus to throw himself down. ‘Don’t worry, you won’t get hurt. The angels will catch you! Your foot won’t even hit the ground’ He quotes Psalm 91:11,12. Jesus replies “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” (Deut. 6:16) Again, Jesus replies with scripture. The devil took that passage a bit out of context. Yes, God would have protected Jesus. But, it would not have been part of His plan for Christ’s life here on earth. The next verse is Psalm 91 says this, “You will tread upon the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent.” Funny how Satan forgot to mention that Jesus will utterly defeat him and put him under his foot…
Do we test God? Have you ever said something like, ‘God, if you’ll only allow me this one thing, this one indulgence, then I’ll give my whole life to you.’ That’s testing God. It’s not right. It’s actually trying to tempt God. God cannot be tempted by our evil desires. James 1:13 “When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.” The first chapter of James deals with trials and temptations. And it is in those times of tribulation that we find we grow stronger in our faith and trust and knowledge of God. That’s when we grow.
ILLUSTRATION: The cocoon of the Emperor Moth is flask like in shape. To develop into a perfect insect, it must force its way through the neck of the cocoon by hours of intense struggle. Entomologists explain that this pressure to which the moth is subjected is nature’s way of forcing life giving substance into its wings.
Wanting to lesson the seemingly needless trials and struggles of the moth, an observer said, "I’ll lesson the pain and struggles of this helpless creature!" With small scissors he snipped the restraining threads to make the moth’s emergence painless and effortless. The creatures wings never fully developed. For a brief time before its death it simply crawled instead of flying through the air on rainbow-coloured wings!
Principle: Don’t try to twist the word of God to justify things that are not part of God’s will for our life. Be sure not to take things out of context in scripture. Read an entire passage of scripture, and not just one phrase and think, ‘that’s what God is telling me to do, and then throw ourselves into whatever ‘that’ is. If God wants us to do something, He will lead us there. We may have to be humbled a bit so that God can actually speak to us. Whether that takes a fast or another tough situation to get our attention, we must not test God. Instead, we should test our thoughts and our desires to see if they line-up with God’s will for us.
Finally, the devil takes Jesus to a point where He can see all the kingdoms of the world. The devil offers to give all this to Jesus for one simple act. ‘Just bow and worship me,’ says the devil. Just think, rather than a being a lowly human, with no wealth of any kind, no home, no one who likes what you say, no money, and no power; I’ll give it ALL to you. You’ll be the KING OF THE WORLD! Just worship me. What was the devil asking for here? What was behind this kind of temptation? He was asking for Jesus place in the kingdom! He wanted to be restored to the ultimate place in heaven. He wanted out of the destruction he will ultimately face at the end of time. For if Jesus worshipped the devil then Jesus would be lowering himself below Satan! God’s plan for our salvation would be ruined, everything would come undone. Prophesies would be unfulfilled, scripture would be false; the Liar would triumph over the Way, the Truth, the Life. We’d be doomed.
Again, Jesus rebukes Satan with scripture, telling HIM to hit the road, “Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only!” Satan leaves, I’m sure in a big huff, and angels come and attend to Jesus.
Serve Him only. Our first obligation in life is to worship God, then to serve Him, Him alone. Putting anything else in that first position is wrong! Our God is a jealous God. He does not share his position with anyone or anything.
The 10 commandments, found in Exodus 20, tells us this clearly, “"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 3 "You shall have no other gods before me. 4 "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand {generations} of those who love me and keep my commandments.
Principle: Don’t put ANYTHING in our life ahead of God. Nothing. Not our family, or our health, not our job or our house, not our car or our toys, not money or power, not our time or our habits. NOTHING can come before the Lord. Get our priorities straight. our eternal soul depends on it!
Conclusion: Jesus was tempted in three areas, as we are often tempted – Lust of the flesh (our body), lust of the eyes (our mind), and the pride of life (our soul). (1 John 2:16). He faced up to these temptations by knowing the scriptures. If we know our Bible, we can face up to the temptations we face today. If we don’t, we may not be prepared for the things that would lead us away from the will of God for our lives.
So where are we today? Do we find ourselves in the desert? Are we tempted to go against the Word of God, do we test God, do we worship anything or anyone other than Jesus Christ our Lord? Are we wandering about aimlessly with no hope, or have we put our hope and trust in the One who will lead us not just into the desert, but will lead us THROUGH it?
