“Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’” The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. If you worship me, it will all be yours.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’” The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. For it is written: “‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” Jesus answered, “It is said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.” (Luke 4: 1 to 11, NIV)
First of all, before this passage we see Jesus, the Son of God, being baptised in the River Jordan, God the Father telling him “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” And then the Holy Spirit comes upon Jesus. At the physical location where ordinary people are made right with God, we see the Triune God. Where the people repented and turned back to God; God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit were present. There is something special when people come back to God. Angels in heaven praise God when this happens. These are the thin spaces that the Celts talk about.
Next, because Jesus is full of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit leads him into the wilderness. This is a hard lesson, we like the soft fluffy words of Psalm 23, where “He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul.” This is our God, this is the God we want. But God also leads us into wilderness experiences. Don't be fooled! God can take us through trying times. Look at Job; he lost his children, his cattle, his servants, and his property all in one day. It’s how we react to these trying times that's important. Job maintained his integrity. Horatio Spafford lost his property empire during the great Chicago fire. Then he lost his 5 children when the ship carrying them and Horatio’s wife was hit by another ship. Horatio went on to pen the hymn “It is well with my soul”. Job was able to worship God, and Horatio was still able to worship God. I pray that we will be able to praise and worship God when we go through our next wilderness time.
Not only can God take us through trying times, but these trying times can come right after we have spiritual highs. Look at Elijah, when he was at Mount Carmel. He had 450 priests of Baal defeated when they saw the reality that Baal was just a dead piece of wood that people bowed down to. On Mount Carmel God came down and consumed a sacrifice by fire. The sacrifice was covered in water, but that was nothing to the Creator God, who made the water. This was a real display of God’s glory and it showed the Israelites that Baal was nothing. But what happened next? Ahab’s wife Jezebel threatened Elijah, and he ran for his life. He had just witnessed the power and majesty of God but he was terrified by a woman who worshipped the dead god Baal.
Jesus and Satan came together and Satan tempted Jesus. Satan used, scripture, the Word of God to tempt Jesus and Jesus used the Word of God to fight back. Satan used the Word of God but he misused it!! We need to be careful when people misuse the Bible. A good example of this is when people tell us ”Judge not, lest we be judged”. They tell us to stop judging, they don't want to be told that their actions are sinful, so they fire out words from the Bible to stop us in our tracks. But they are misusing the word of the Bible. The Bible says “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” We are to be careful how we judge people, but we are not to stop judging people. The criminal courts would grind to a halt if we stopped judging people. We tell children, not to talk to strangers, and we are making a judgement on strangers.
But Jesus also used the Word of God against Satan. So we need to learn the Word of God so that we can apply the Word of God in our lives. Paul tells us to put on the full armour of God. The armour is all defensive, it is there to protect us. But the one offensive item of armour is the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. The Bible is our one weapon that can be used to defeat Satan. Satan can be defeated!
Satan tempted Jesus in 3 ways.
The first temptation by Satan was when he said; “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” But in Matt 4: 4Jesus replied; “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Jesus also ignored the attempt by Satan to make Jesus doubt by saying “If you are the Son of God.” Are you really the Son of God?
Satan misquoted Moses' words found in Deut 8: 3 which states, “He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” You can see how much Satan missed out. He missed out that the Israelites had to go through a process where they had to realise that they were flawed and mortal but God is the Creator God who is also compassionate, and He would satisfy their physical needs. Jesus, the Son of God could have easily changed the stone into bread. However, this was an obvious temptation to use his divinity for his own selfish gain. In fact, later on in his ministry, Jesus would state that he had food of another kind. In John 4 Jesus said; “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.” Instead of satisfying a selfish desire, we see Jesus feed the 5000 and then the 4000 with a few fish and loaves. Finally, Jesus would later on, tell the world that he was the bread of life and we should feed on him. There was no need to change the stone into bread and yield to the temptation.
The second temptation was when Satan; “led Jesus up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. If you worship me, it will all be yours.” So Satan tempted Jesus to worship him and not give all the glory and honour to Father God. Satan does have the world, and Jesus didn’t refute this. However, instead of worshipping Satan, Jesus knew that the world would be redeemed through the cross. Jesus responded by saying; “Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.” Of course, Jesus is referencing Deut 6: 13 that states; “Fear the Lord your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name.” We are only to serve God, not Satan. Instead of worshipping Satan, in the Book of Revelation, we read; “Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” Satan is cast out, he has been defeated. Why on earth worship and serve a defeated master? Satan was willing to give Jesus all the earth. But by going to the cross, dying, and then rising from the grave, we now see Jesus in heaven. And what is his position? He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He has all the authority that Satan was going to give him, but he didn’t yield to temptation.
The third temptation of Jesus was when Satan led Jesus; “to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. ‘If you are the Son of God,’ he said, ‘throw yourself down from here. For it is written: ‘“He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.” Jesus answered, ‘It is said: “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” ’ So Satan tempted Jesus by misquoting Ps 91: 11 and 12 that God would protect him from harm. The writer of the Psalm intended to show that God would protect his people, not to incite Jesus to use God’s power for a foolish display of God’s power. In response, Jesus replied that he would “not put the Lord God to the test.” This response from Jesus was a direct quote from Deut 6: 13; “Do not put the Lord your God to the test as you did at Massah”. Jesus didn’t yield to the temptation and what was the result? Jesus didn’t have his foot strike a stone, but he did have his feet nailed to the cross. The temptation involved avoiding pain, but that was not God’s way. God’s way was to endure the cross and scorn its shame before he sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
How does this affect us today? First of all, we need to acknowledge that Satan exists and is not just a fictional TV character. We need to acknowledge his existence but don't be obsessed with him.
Second, as Jesus responded to Satan with scripture, so for us to live a holy, successful Christian life, then we need to start to memorise Scripture. When we come to a time of testing God can use scripture to nudge us and encourage us to be faithful to Him. Jesus’ brother James, encouraged the church by telling us to submit ourselves to God. “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” This is such an encouragement to everyone - the devil will flee from us if we resist him.
Next, as I have previously stated Satan has been defeated and will be thrown out of heaven. That is because God is Lord over Satan. We see that when God permitted to attack Job.
The first man, Adam was tempted by Satan and yielded to the temptation. The result is that man was cast out of the garden, out of God’s presence. The second Adam, Jesus, resisted temptation and Satan left him. However, Jesus went to the cross and died to take our sins onto his shoulders. By believing in Jesus, we can come back into God’s presence, back into God’s garden.
So let's move forward with God, let's resist Satan when we are tempted.
