Everyone lives with the basic assumption that they will never be tempted. Even if they are, they won’t yield.
“It won’t happen to me,” the arrogant boast.
And yet, it always does.
Nobody starts out intending to be an alcoholic or a drug addict. And, nobody can become an alcoholic without taking that first drink.
“One drink won’t hurt you,” the tempter says. And of course, he is right, if it ended with that one drink.
The young man or woman who takes that first drink at some party because everybody else is doing it always says, “I will not become an alcoholic.”
20 years later, it is a different story, a life wasted
Most people, even Christians, don’t understand the significance of temptation. To expect a life without temptation is the most extreme naivety possible.
Temptation brings out the real you.
You are what you are today because of the temptations you have faced. You either failed or succeeded.
Some have suggested that we learn more from our failures than our successes. That is a possibility, but if you keep making the same mistakes over and over again something is wrong somewhere.
There is a common denominator to every temptation.
First, there is the allurement factor. Something on the inside of me is attracted to something on the outside. This is where the temptation aspect begins. Something on the outside is alluring me in a certain direction.
To add the spiritual spin here, it usually is leading us away from Christ and the things of God.
Second, is the consequence factor. Every temptation, no matter how big or small, has a consequence attached to it if yielded. For the most part, when we are being tempted we don’t give much regard to the consequence. The temptation is far too tempting for us to think through what happens if we yield to that temptation.
Most of the time the allurement factor overshadows the consequence factor but the consequence is always there. A moment of fun can produce a lifetime of consequences.
The questions that are never asked is, “Is it worth it?” “Was it worth it?”
Let’s look at temptation from a positive side. Our temptations will never compromise our relationship with God, but will bring to the surface God’s amazing grace for us in times of need.
With every temptation comes a stream of God’s grace flowing in our direction.
“There has no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it” (1 Corinthians 10:13).
The apostle James sheds some light on this matter of temptation.
“Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: but every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust has conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death” (James 1:12-14).
This brings us to the temptation of Jesus. There two things we need to understand when we look at this temptation of Jesus.
1. How did Satan attack Jesus?
2. How did Jesus respond to that attack?
When I understand these two things, I will be able to understand what is going on in my life and how the Adversary is trying to set traps for me to divert my attention away from the Lord Jesus Christ. The purpose of the enemy is to get me to focus on myself, and then he wins.
Let me reiterate that every temptation gives opportunity to put Satan in his place through a demonstration of God’s grace in our situation. Do not shrink back from these temptations but stand and having done all stand firm.
Again, the apostle James gives us encouragement along this line.
“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).
The key words in this verse are submit and resist. The two must be in place. This is the God factor in every decision.
In the temptation of Jesus, we see the three basic categories where Satan attacks. Let’s examine them.
I. The Body (Luke 4:2-4) How I relate to the needs of my body.
Please note that Satan’s attack came when Jesus was at His most vulnerable point. He had spent 40 days fasting and was hungry. This is where Satan focused his attack.
This is the natural aspect of our human body. We get hungry and there is nothing wrong with eating. Satan was not asking Jesus to do something terribly wrong. Jesus had bodily needs, he was hungry and Satan is focusing in on that.
How did Satan attack Jesus?
The emphasis in verse three is on the word “if.”
This was the challenge to Jesus. If you are really the son of God, turn this stone to bread. Use your authority to satisfy a fleshly need.
The attack of Satan on Jesus was his authority. “If you are…” In other words, “Show me you have authority.” “Prove that you are who you say you are.”
This is really where Satan attacks us as believers.
“If you really are a Christian and believe in Jesus then prove it…”
If I am a Christian, I really do not have to prove it, just live it every day of my life. My life is all the proof the world needs to see.
Look how Jesus responded to this temptation.
“It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’”
The KJV adds, “But by every word of God.”
Jesus is quoting from an Old Testament passage, Deuteronomy 8:3, “And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”
Jesus is pointing out here that our strength is not a fleshly strength, but rather, it is the power of God living through us. Our lives are built, not upon our carnal appetites, but rather upon the Living Word of God. We are so much more than our carnal appetites.
As I saturate my life with the Word of God, I lose interest in the things of the world. My inner life overcomes my outer life.
Keep in mind that the flesh is the battleground where we will encounter our adversary at his worst. The only recourse we have is the Word of God. As the Word of God becomes a priority in our life, we gain the strength needed to resist the temptation of the flesh.
II. The Soul (Luke 4:5-8) How I relate to the world around me.
This represents the ego of mankind, the engine that drives men to do what he does. “I am man, hear me roar.”
Everybody has the ambition to be a somebody. Most people have a highly inflated opinion of themselves causing them to think they are better than somebody else or even everybody else.
If you see someone worse than you, it’s because you really don’t know yourself.
How did Satan attack Jesus? (6-7).
From a human standpoint, this was a very attractive offer. People long for fame and recognition. Much of the impetus behind politicians and musicians and actors and athletes and writers and you name it, can be summed up in this one little word “ego.” We are proud of what we do and we want others to share in our pride.
This is an easy target for the enemy. He promises to build our reputation to the point where the world will celebrate our acclaim.
Satan is offering Jesus a shortcut to glory by bypassing the cross. All He had to do, according to Satan’s temptation, was to worship him.
How did Jesus respond?
“It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.’”
Jesus is quoting from Deuteronomy 6:13, “It is the Lord your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear.”
There are no shortcuts to God’s glory. The temptation here is to try to boost Jesus’ ego to the point where He would consider such a shortcut. After all, Jesus came to reach this world and Satan is offering a venue to accomplish that goal.
Jesus emphatically says that we are to put God first at all cost, and it truly will cost everything.
The adversary knows how to stroke our ego. It does not matter how old we are, we all suffer from an inflated ego and Satan knows how to use it to his advantage to control you. If your ego has not been surrendered to the Lord Jesus Christ then Satan can use it for his purposes.
Have you brought your ego to the cross of Christ?
III. The Spirit (Luke 4:9-12) How I relate to the spiritual world.
Most people fail to realize let alone understand the spiritual realm. Every man has a body, soul and spirit. We easily can understand the body and soul, but it is the spirit where we get into trouble.
There is a spiritual dimension to every person. It is the means whereby we connect with God. To the unsaved person, this spiritual dimension is not working properly.
For the Christian, we have been made alive, and this is the area of our life that has been made alive. And so we have a spiritual dimension, which is vulnerable to the attack of the enemy.
How did Satan attack Jesus? (9-11)
Here again, Satan says, “If you are the son of God.”
Again, this is to challenge the agenda of Christ in this world. He did not come to be a spectacle, rather to be the Redeemer of mankind.
“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10).
Several things are interesting about this attack.
Notice the place where this temptation took place. In Jerusalem and “on the pinnacle of the Temple.”
This highly suggests the religious element of Satan, I think he is probably the most religious creature in all of God’s creation. Moreover, his suggestion is a valid one if you put it in the context of religion. People are tempted to use the church to achieve their goals out in the world.
In this one, Satan is quoting Scripture also. Usually quoted out of context as many people do. Beware of the person who has a text for everything. The text Satan uses is,
Psalm 91:11-12, “For he will command his Angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.”
This has to do with the safety and vulnerability of Jesus in this world. The idea is that Jesus did not have to worry about suffering and that God’s Angels would keep him from all kinds of harm. And so, Satan is tempting Jesus to take that “leap of faith” and impress the people with how special He really is.
How does Jesus respond to this?
Again, he uses Scripture. Deuteronomy 6:16, “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah.”
The natural tendency is towards self-preservation. Jesus could omit the personal sacrifice if he would simply listen to Satan. But Jesus understood that He came as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. His life was not filtered through some religious template. He broke the mold when He rose from the dead.
Satan comes tempting us to use our religion for personal advantage. Two use religion to further some personal agenda. Sad to say, many people have succumbed to this temptation. I could give a list, a long list, of those who have used the church, Christianity and religion to accomplish their agenda.
In many cases, Satan is winning a tremendous victory over the lives that have fallen to his alluring and is growing each day.
The only remedy for this temptation is to know that you really belong to God. The basic temptation here is to question who you are in Christ.
With Jesus, there was no question.
With us, it is another story.
Do we have confidence in our relationship with Jesus Christ to the point that we are willing to turn our back on the world? Do we know whose we are?
The temptation of Jesus reveals to us that the enemy is going to attack us. Notice Luke 4:13, “And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.”
Nobody is as persistent and tenacious as Satan in regards to his attack on God’s people. He will never give up.
The reason this temptation of Jesus is important to us is, because he was victorious over these temptations you and I can be victorious as well.
Listen to what John tells us in 1 John 4:4, “Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”
Because he was victorious over the temptations of the enemy, so we too are victorious over every temptation that should come our way. Jesus is victorious and leads to our victory because He who is in us, is greater than he who is attacking us.
The challenge here is, are you going to take control of your life or, are you going to surrender your life to Jesus Christ?
Is your life really in God’s hands?
