So I bet you don’t have a problem with this one – temptation. Yeah. Yeah, you’ve got a problem with this one. This one’s worthy of being discussed. And I know you’ve got a problem with it, because I do. All you’ve got to do is ask yourself this question. And it’s – this is the hay maker of all questions.
Are you effective at handling temptation – yes or no? What do you think the answer to that one is? Well how about this? Would you like to be more effective at handling temptation? Yes you would. And so would I.
And I believe that we can figure out how to handle temptation better. And I believe that Jesus gives us the secrets of understanding it. Not only does Jesus model for us what it looks like to handle temptation as he was tempted. But we can understand actually the schemes of Satan, as he attempts to tempt us. And that’s exactly what I want to look at today. Is look at how Satan attacks us in his methodology, so that we can better understand what it means to actually handle temptation.
So we’re going to dive into Luke, Chapter 4 today. So if you get your Bibles, you want to open that up. I’m going to be reading verse 1, through verse 13. And it says this. “And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit – returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for 40 days – being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. And the devil said to him, ‘If you are the son of God, command the stone to become bread.'”
“And Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.'” And the devil took him up, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, 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. If you then will worship me, I’ll be yours.’ And Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord, your God, and serve him only.'”
“And he took him to Jerusalem, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said, ‘If you are the son of God, throw yourself down from here. For it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you. And on their hands, they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’ And Jesus answered him, ‘It is said you shall not put the Lord, your God to the test.’ And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.”
Now, I find this interaction to be fascinating for a number of reasons. Number 1, because the devil and Jesus are actually having a conversation. It’s kind of bewildering, right? How real the spiritual realm is in this moment between – in a battle between good and evil.
But we all know this. We know that – number 1 – that Jesus is God, and that he doesn’t have the– A need to send. Because he is a holy God, and we kinda have to ask ourselves, did he have the propensity to actually sin in this moment or not. And that is a bewildering theological question, if you begin to really whittle it down. Because you have to almost come to the conclusion that no he didn’t have the ability to send, because he was God and he was all truth. Yet he lived in human skin and flesh. And so it just – it messes with the head, right?
But I can tell you this about Jesus. Now this is what’s unique about him in this moment. Is that sin doesn’t emanate out of his will, like it does for us. Because we are led away by our own evil desires. So we learn in Galatians 5, and James 1 – that we’re led away by sin that lives in us, Romans 7.
But for Jesus in this moment, sin or temptation is luring him – trying to lure him in, and is coming from outside of him. Kinda like it did for Adam and Eve. In fact, the parallels between this moment, and the moment in Genesis 3 – are quite fascinating. Here we see the second Adam defeating sin trying to attack him from the outside.
And in Genesis 3, we see the first Adam falling victim to sin. And then infecting you and me with sin that now lives inside of us. And of course, we have to live in this body of sin for the rest of our life, until it is completely redeemed at the end of time.
But Jesus is being tempted from the outside, while we’re tempted from the inside. And that – that is a huge differentiator that we really have to comprehend at this moment. That Jesus wasn’t being tempted by his own heart, he was actually being tempted outside by Satan himself.
But just because we can’t connect with Jesus in this way – doesn’t mean that we can’t understand the schemes of the devil, and how temptation works. Since the beginning of time, and even till today. And so, I just want to look at these 3 temptations of Jesus. And see what we can learn about Satan and his temptation of us in everyday life, so we can figure out how to handle temptation in our own personal experiences, okay?
So I want to look at this first one, this first temptation is really all about basic physical needs. It’s all about basic physical needs. “The devil said to him, “If you are the son of God, command this stone to become bread.'”
I find that to be quite interesting. It wasn’t a fancy meal that he said. He was just trying to lure him in with something that would satisfy his flesh. I mean – if Satan were trying to lure me in, he’d say, “Hey, I’ve got a big fat steak right here, and a nice Topi beer. I think that’s what he would lure me in with. And you have your lures, and Jesus had his in this moment.
But it isn’t this – this big luxury item that we’re talking about here. It’s just having him meet his own basic physical needs, right? And I would say that anything that feeds the flesh over the Spirit is something that we use to meet our own physical needs.
Now this all is really subtle in our own lives. But the way to discover the things that tempt us, would be to ask us what are we unwilling to do without, right? Just ask yourselves, what are you unwilling to do without in this physical life? T
his is exactly the proposition that Jesus posed to the rich young ruler, and said, “Hey, you’ve done a lot of really great things. But give up the one thing that I want you to give up, and then come follow me. And then you will have the Kingdom of Heaven, then you will understand the Kingdom of Heaven.”
And Jesus was asking him for the one thing that he just couldn’t give up, right? The one thing that meets all of his physical needs that he just – he was unwilling to give up, which was his own money. He was willing to give God everything but that one thing, right? That’s the thing that could be tempting you the most, is the thing that you’re unwilling to give up, men. So what is it? That would be a great question to discuss in your men’s small group today – is, what’s that one thing?
That’s temptation number 1. Temptation number 2 is this. It’s all about power and control. Now this isn’t a new sin, this is something we’re very familiar with throughout the context of the Bible. Satan says this, the devil says this. “To you, I will give all this authority and the glory for it has been delivered to me. And I will give it to whom I will. If you then will worship me, will all be yours.”
Imagine that. Imagine being tempted by power and control in our life? I mean, wasn’t that what the very first sin was really all about anyway? It was – first it was about food – just like Jesus here, right? The food looked good and pleasing to the eye. And then they also saw it was beneficial for knowledge, because they wanted to be like God. I mean literally be like God.
What is that about? That’s about power. It’s not just about food and basic physical needs. It’s about power and control. And I’ve got to tell you, power is very tempting to trust in. I mean, you may not think that you crave power.
But every time you engage in intimidation or minimizing issues or using your social standing to your benefit. Or engage in actual physical violence or exclusion. Or using threats. Or harmful, hurtful language. Or use your economic power to control other people. Or abuse people through economic violence. Or isolate people. Or use technology in a hurtful way towards somebody else – all that is all about power, gentlemen.
And to be quite honest, I think this is a common temptation for us. Because we like to be God, and we think we can – in very subtle ways, that sometimes dwell in the private places of our mind, where we think we can do it better than somebody else. Consider that.
What is your manifestation, your temptation of power in your life that’s unique to you? It’s different for everybody. And I just give you – gave you a list of like 10 different forms. But what is it for you?
So temptation 1 is also – always about basic physical needs that we become addicted to, that we can’t do without. Temptation number 2 is all about power and control and us lauding it over other people.
And Temptation number 3 is this. It’s all about manipulating God. And he took him to Jerusalem. This is what Satan did. Satan took Jesus to Jerusalem. I mean, think about that. Just let that mess with your head for a second. “And he set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and he said to him, ‘If you are the son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you. And on their hands, they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.'”
And you know what this is about? It’s about manipulating God to get what you want. Now if you don’t think Christian’s do this, you are so mistaken. I actually think that God followers of the New Testament, that we call the Pharisees do this all the time.
And if you don’t think that there are Pharisaical Christians living today, then you have – you have been living in make believe land. Because we all do this. We subtly manipulate God to get him to do what we want. And we doubt him when he doesn’t do what we expect him to do.
Did you hear that? We doubt him when he doesn’t do what we expect him to do. And then we’re disappointed and discouraged and frustrated and angry – because God didn’t live up to our expectations, right? You ever been there? You’ve ever been in that moment?
These predominant temptations here have – I have wrestled with for a long time in my spiritual journey. I’ve got to tell you – it’s hard for me to say that these are the only temptations. But I think I can get almost – almost all temptation to fit into one of these 3 categories – basic physical needs, power and control, and manipulating God.
Those are pretty broad, specific categories. And because Satan engaged in them – not only here, but in Genesis 3 – I have to assume that these are his tactics that we should know when we’re living in this physical life that is full of temptation trying to drag us away and entice us by our own evil desires. Because all these things emanate from inside of us – inside of us. And they lure us in to sin.
Now I love this text too for a couple of other reasons. But the biggest one is because– I think we can learn some minor key principles from Luke chapter 4 here – about how to handle temptation as well, and how to understand it. So I’m going to give you a few principles here – about 7 that are in your study guides for today – that I think are key about handling temptation in your own life.
First one is this. Temptation should be expected, so anticipate it, right? We know that temptation is going to come our way. So gentlemen, you need to anticipate it. Principle number 2 is this. Temptation brings suffering. But hold the long view on suffering. In other words, we know we’re going to suffer, but it’s better to suffer here than to suffer there, right? In eternity. So hold a long view on suffering. Because yes – through temptation, you will sometimes suffer deeply.
Principle 3. Temptation can be resisted. That’s one of the things I love about Jesus here, is he actually does resist sin. And he resists the completion of temptation. 4 – temptation is not a sin. To be tempted is not to sin. It’s only when we actually commit the act of sin that we sin.
5 – temptation will strike you when you are at your weakest. Isn’t that always true? It’s always when I’m hungry, when I’m angry, when I’m lonely, when I’m tired. You know that HALT principle – HALT. Hungry, angry, lonely, tired – it’s right there that Satan strikes, when I’m at my weakest. I come home, I’m tired – and everything comes at me and I lose it, right? You’ve been there? No, probably haven’t been there either, huh?
6 – temptation will make you feel alone, but truth in the Holy Spirit will always be with you. Isn’t that true here? Don’t you love it how truth is with Jesus when he quotes scripture. How the Holy Spirit continues to maintain a presence to him, and how – although he felt probably very alone, he was not really alone. He had truth in the spirit at his side.
And finally, temptation can happen in any setting. Because it happened here in the wilderness, there on the mountain – and also in the Holy place we know as Jerusalem. So be ready for it at all times.
Well that’s some good stuff. Just from a short reading of Luke chapter 4, we can learn – maybe a little bit of the tactics of Satan. And understand maybe there’s some blessing that comes out of temptation itself?
