Words are important and if we’re not careful they can easily be misunderstood. These actual newspaper headlines were collected by graduate students at the Columbia School of Journalism and illustrate that truth:
•Autos killing 110 a Day; Let’s Resolve to do Better
•Blind Woman Gets New Kidney from Dad she Hasn’t Seen in Years
•Cold Wave Linked to Temperatures
•Grandmother of Eight Makes Hole in One
•If Strike isn’t Settled Quickly it May Last a While
•Iraqi Head Seeks Arms
•Juvenile Court Tries Shooting Defendant
•Kicking Baby Considered To Be Healthy
•Killer Sentenced to Die for Second Time in 10 Years
•Police Begin Campaign to Run Down Jaywalkers
•Something Went Wrong in Jet Crash, Experts Say
•Teacher Strikes Idle Kids
•Two Convicts Evade Noose, Jury Hung
•Two Sisters Reunite after Eighteen Years at Checkout Counter
•Two Soviet Ships Collide - One Dies
•War Dims Hope for Peace
As we continue examining the beginnings of the ministry of Jesus this morning, we’ll look at an event that demonstrates just how important words and their meaning were for Jesus and how important they are for us as we live our daily lives as Christ followers.
Last week, we focused on the baptism of Jesus, which certainly had to be one of the high points of His earthly ministry. I certainly know if I heard an audible voice from God saying that He was pleased with me, that would be a mountaintop experience for me.
But immediately after that Jesus faces a much more difficult task as He heads into the wilderness to face the temptation of Satan. That event is recorded in all three of the synoptic gospels, but we’ll primarily use Luke’s account this morning. So go ahead and turn with me to Luke 4 and follow along as I begin reading in verse 1:
1 And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness 2 for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. 3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” 4 And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’” 5 And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, 6 and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. 7 If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” 8 And Jesus answered him, “It is written,
“‘You shall worship the Lord your God,
and him only shall you serve.’”
9 And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, 10 for it is written,
“‘He will command his angels concerning you,
to guard you,’
11 and
“‘On their hands they will bear you up,
lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”
12 And Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” 13 And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.
Jesus is letting us in on a secret here. Since there is no one else around to observe this event, the only way that we know about it is that Jesus chose to reveal it to those who would later be the source or sources for Matthew, Mark and Luke as they recorded their gospel accounts. So since Jesus chose to do that, it seems pretty clear that that there are some important things that He wants us to learn from this account.
Before we deal with the primary principles that we’ll draw from this passage, let me first just make a couple of general observations that will help to set the stage:
Some observations:
1. We are most vulnerable after our “mountaintop experiences”
Most of us are probably familiar with 1 Corinthians 10:13, which deals with temptation:
No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
1 Corinthians 10:13 (ESV)
But how many of you know the verse right before it – verse 12?
Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.
1 Corinthians 10:12 (ESV)
Jesus clearly understood that. He knew that after the mountaintop experience of His baptism, He would be most vulnerable to temptation. And Satan knew that, too. But, as we’ll see, because Jesus understood that, He had made preparations that allowed Him to resist the devil and avoid succumbing to the temptations that were hurled His way.
2. Testing/temptation has two perspectives:
Matthew, Mark and Luke all record that Jesus was “tempted” in the wilderness. In English that verb –to tempt – definitely has a negative connotation. But the Greek word – peirazo – is actually a neutral term. It is not inherently either positive or negative. That word literally means “to try”, “to test” or “to prove” and the context determines whether it is positive or negative.
All three gospel accounts indicate that Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit for the purpose of being tested by Satan. That indicates that both God and Satan had a purpose for the testing that Jesus was going to go through. So we can view this trial, just like the trials in our own lives from two different perspectives.
• God uses it to prove us faithful
God knew ahead of time that Jesus would prove himself to be faithful in this trial. So His Holy Spirit actually leads Jesus into the wilderness so that He can experience Satan’s attacks and prove Himself to be faithful to God and thus provide us with a model of how to deal with temptation in our life as well.
• Satan uses it to get us to fall
Satan, on the other hand, was using the same occasion for exactly the opposite purpose. Just as he had been doing consistently from the time he tempted Adam and Eve in the garden, he was attempting to short circuit God’s plan for a Messiah who would make sinful man righteous before God.
Our own trials in life are much the same. Sometimes God leads us into them so that we can prove to be faithful to Him. But at the same time, Satan is using those same circumstances to try and get us to fail.
3. Satan tempts us according to our strengths
None of us will ever face the same temptations that Jesus faced because none of us have the capacity to turn stones into bread. I think most of us instinctively think that Satan tends to attack us in the areas of our weakness, but the Bible show that he usually does just the opposite.
He attacks Adam and Eve in the area of their strength – they already know God intimately, but Satan gets them to desire to go one step further and know everything God knows.
He attacks Job in those areas where he was the strongest – his riches, his family and his health.
We don’t know exactly what Paul’s thorn in the flesh was, but we know that Satan was harassing him because of the visions and revelations God had given to him.
When you think about, this isn’t all that surprising since one of the greatest weapons that Satan uses to tempt us is our own pride. And that pride will tend to manifest itself in those areas of our lives where we are strong, humanly speaking.
With that background in mind, let’s do two things this morning. First, let’s look at the three tests that Satan used against Jesus. Although, as I’ve pointed out, we aren’t going to face those same tests, each one represents a category of testing that we can expect to deal with. So we’ll see what we can learn about Satan’s methods from those three temptations.
Then, we’ll see how Jesus had prepared Himself to deal with those temptations and discuss how we can apply those same principles in our lives.
THREE WAYS SATAN WILL ATTEMPT TO TEMPT US:
1. To distrust God’s provision
Since Jesus has been in the wilderness for 40 days with nothing to eat, it’s not surprising that Satan’s first attack was aimed at Jesus’ hunger. So Satan tries to provoke Jesus by saying “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.”
In our English translation, we almost get the idea that Satan isn’t really sure that Jesus is the Son of God because of the word “if”. But the Greek construction here makes it clear that Satan understands fully that Jesus is the Son of God. He’s just trying to goad Jesus into proving it by turning the stones to bread.
But there is something going on here that is much deeper than just Jesus’ physical craving for food. In effect what Satan is saying to Jesus is something like this: “Jesus, you’ve been out here by yourself for 40 days with nothing to eat. If your heavenly Father really loved you wouldn’t he have provided you with at least something to eat during that time? I mean He at least provided the Israelites with quail and manna when they were in the wilderness. I guess you’re going to have to take things into your own hands now.”
Do you see what’s going on here? Satan is trying to get Jesus to distrust God’s provision in His life. He’s trying to convince Jesus that God is withholding something that Jesus really needs.
And that is still one of Satan’s methods of attacking us today. He tries to get us to focus on what we don’t have, implying that somehow God is withholding that for no good reason and then he tries to get us to take things into our own hands to get what we want.
And that is not just limited to material possessions. It also applies to our position in life, our jobs, our families and even our relationships. For example, I know some single people who have succumbed to Satan’s temptations in this area. They get dissatisfied with the fact that they are single. So instead of being content with the life God has given them, they take things into their own hands and go try to find a mate. And then when things don’t work out, they blame God.
2. To distrust God’s process
The second temptation that Satan throws at Jesus is that He promises Jesus authority over all the kingdoms of the world if Jesus will just worship him. The first thing we notice here is that Satan will often offer us something he is not even capable of giving to us. While it is true that God has given Satan some degree of influence in the world today, God is still sovereign. Satan is not. So the fact is he couldn’t give Jesus what he promised even if he wanted to.
But the large issue here, and the one I want us to focus on, is that Satan tries to get Jesus to distrust God’s process. The fact is that one day Jesus will have exactly what Satan promised Him – complete authority and reign over this earth. But Satan tries to get Jesus to grab what God has in store for Him in the future right now without going through the process that God has ordained for Him.
In a world so focused on instant everything, this may in fact be Satan’s most effective tool today. Let me give you just one illustration.
We know that the economic crisis we face today has many causes. But I’m convinced that the root problem is the greed that demands that we be given what we want right now without having to go through the proper process to get it.
In the last 10 years, how many people who couldn’t really afford to, purchased houses because someone was willing to lend them the money to buy the house without ever considering the person’s ability to pay back the loan? So instead of the traditional method of saving up a sizable down payment and waiting until they had adequate financial resources to pay off the loan, people went out and borrowed the entire purchase price of the home on interest only loans for which they could barely make the payments every month. And because these people tried to short circuit the process, they are now reaping the consequences of giving in to that temptation.
3. To distrust God’s position
The third temptation that Satan brings against Jesus is to try to get Jesus to test God by throwing Himself off the pinnacle of the temple to see if God’s angels would rescue Him.
Satan is trying to get Jesus to presume upon God – to essentially back God into a corner and dare Him to get Jesus out of His predicament. What he’s really doing here is to try and get Jesus to question who God is. Is He indeed the sovereign God of the universe or is He merely the God of our own making who exists to do our bidding?
Unfortunately we are still prone to doing the very same thing today. We get ourselves into a mess and then we presume upon God to somehow extricate us from that situation. We might even promise that if God will just remove us, we’ll do something for Him – as if God really needs anything from us.
Probably the best illustration of this mentality is a saying that was really popular on bumper stickers and license plates several years ago – God is my co-pilot. Well I’ve got news for you – God isn’t interested in being your co-pilot because He knows that we’ll crash the plane and then come running to Him to pick up the pieces.
It is certainly helpful to understand how Satan operates when he tries to tempt us. But the most important thing we learn from this passage is that Jesus prepared in advance so that He would be ready to face temptation when it came. So let’s see what we can learn from His preparations.
HOW TO PREPARE TO FACE TEMPTATION
1. Be filled with the Holy Spirit
At His baptism, the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus. And we know from John’s gospel account that the Holy Spirit remained on Him. And as He prepares to face Satan, we see that Jesus is “full of the Holy Spirit.”
In His humanity, Jesus was not equipped to deal with Satan in His own human power. It was only through the power of the Holy Spirit that He was prepared for the temptations He was about to face. So if Jesus needed the Holy Spirit, just think how much more we need His operation in our life if we want to be prepared to face temptation.
The good news is that if you are a Christ follower, you have the Holy Spirit dwelling permanently in your life. And there is nothing that you need to do to “release” or “unlock” His power. However, the Bible is clear that there are some things that we can do that can hamper His operation in our lives – things like unconfessed sin and failing to be obedient to His leading in our lives. That is why Paul gave this familiar command to the church in Ephesus:
Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Ephesians 5:17-21 (ESV)
The idea here is that Christ’s followers were not to be controlled by wine, but rather they were to be controlled by the Holy Spirit. This certainly implies that it is possible not to be filled, or controlled, by the Holy Spirit.
I know that we’ve looked at this passage before and we’ve discussed some of the things we can do to be filled with the Holy Spirit – confessing sin, being obedient to the commands of Jesus, and asking the Holy Spirit to fill us. And all of those are certainly part of that process. But I’m convinced that the key to being filled with the Holy Spirit is the second thing that Jesus did to prepare to face temptation. So let’s look at that.
2. Saturate my life with God’s Word
Jesus responds to each temptation with the Word of God. But an interesting thing occurs here. Satan also uses the Word of God, or more accurately we could say he misuses it. I’m reminded of those headlines that we looked at earlier. The words may have been true but they didn’t portray accurately the underlying events. Satan did indeed quote the Word of God, but he did it in a way that didn’t accurately portray God’s heart.
That is a danger that is still present with us today, even in the church. It is easy to take a verse or two out of context and develop a theology that is totally inconsistent with the overall themes of Scripture. That is why I like to take large sections of Scripture – often entire books – and use that as our starting point for studying God’s Word. When we do that it is much less likely that we will err in our handling of God’s Word or that we’ll be deceived by those who do misuse the Bible.
We know that even as a young boy, Jesus was constantly building the Word of God into His life. And that obviously went well beyond going to the synagogue once a week and going to the temple in Jerusalem three times a year. But how, do you ask, does this have any connection whatsoever with being filled with the Holy Spirit?
As we saw when we studied the book of Ephesians several years ago, the best commentary on that book is the Book of Colossians, which has many parallel passages that give us some further insight to what Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus. And sure enough, if we look carefully, we can get Paul’s own commentary on what is required to be filled with the Spirit by looking at a parallel passage in Colossians:
And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Colossians 3:15-17 (ESV)
You’ll notice here the same reference to psalms, hymns and spiritual songs that we saw immediately after the command to be filled with the Holy Spirit in Ephesians 5. So it seems logical to conclude that what Paul writes immediately before that here in Colossians has some bearing on what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Given that connection, it appears that being filled with the Holy Spirit is a function, at least in part, of letting the word of Christ rule in us richly. Isn’t that exactly what Jesus did? He not only knew God’s Word and had memorized it, but He also lived it out in His life. Jesus could properly apply God’s Word when needed, because His entire life was saturated with it.
3. Pray fervently
Luke only records that Jesus had eaten nothing during His 40 days in the wilderness, but Matthew’s account makes it clear that this was an intentional fast on Jesus’ part. And since fasting in the Bible is always associated with fervent prayer, we can be sure that Jesus spent these 40 days in fervent prayer before His Father.
Jesus understood how weak He was in the flesh, so He spent time in prayer with His Father asking for strength so that His conduct in the flesh would be consistent with the desires of His spirit. So it’s not surprising that He would give this command to His followers as He prepared to pray in the Garden just before going to die on the cross:
Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.
Matthew 26:41 (ESV)
Although we don’t have the words of Jesus’ prayers in the wilderness recorded for us as an example, I think that our examination of this passage this morning provides us with some guidance on how we ought to pray in order to prepare for the temptations that Satan will bring against us:
• Thank God for His provision in our lives and ask Him to help us be content with what He has given to us.
• Thank God for the process of growing and maturing that He is taking us through on a daily basis and ask Him to help us not give in to the temptation to short circuit the process.
• Thank God for who He is – the sovereign God of the universe and ask Him to help us resist the urge to make Him into the God we want Him to be.
• Pray for God to develop a love for His Word in our lives and help us to be obedient to His Word in every area of our lives.
• Pray that we would rid our lives of anything that hinders the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
We’re going to take a few moments right now for you to pray for some or all of those things in your life. Then once we’ve had a chance to do that the worship team will come back up and we’ll close our time this morning by focusing some more on Jesus.
