Introduction
When Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit descended on him in the bodily form like a dove, and a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” We expect that after this amazing event, Jesus will immediately proclaim the gospel of the kingdom of heaven to many people and perform amazing ministry. But Jesus didn't do that.
I. Jesus moved by the Holy Spirit (v. 1)
Look at verse 1. “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert.” Jesus is the Son of God, that is, God. But Jesus did not do everything his own way. Jesus always obeyed the will of God the Father and acted according to the guidance of God the Holy Spirit. When Jesus returned from the Jordan River full of the Holy Spirit, he was led by the Holy Spirit in the desert. This means that Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit and completely followed the guidance of God the Holy Spirit.
Mark 1:12 says, “At once the Spirit sent him out into the desert.” God the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to prepare him before he began his public ministry. This is because the place where Jesus, the Son of God, had to take on a human body and work was a desert-like world. The desert is not paradise. The desert is a wilderness, a wasteland, a very scary place, and a place with no water or food. Fierce animals such as snakes, scorpions, lions, bears, wolves, and wild cats live there. It is an uninhabited land. It is a lonely and solitary land.
The desert is compared to the Garden of Eden. The land that God first created was not a desert. God planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put Adam (Genesis 2:8). Out of the ground, God made all kinds of trees grow - trees that were pleasing to the eyes and good for food. It was truly paradise. Everything was rich. But why did thorns and thistles grow on this land? Why has this world become like the desert? It was because of the disobedience of the first Adam. Adam failed to obey God's words along with Eve. He ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which God had commanded him not to eat.
The desert was the exact opposite of the Garden of Eden. This is why the Holy Spirit led Jesus, the second Adam, into the desert. Jesus had to make up for what the first Adam had done. He had to restore it. Jesus, the second Adam, had to bring about a new world from the desert that the first Adam had ruined in the Garden of Eden. So the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the desert.
Mark 1:13 says, “And he was in the desert for forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals.” Wild animals were also in the Garden of Eden. In the Garden of Eden, Adam named the animals and took care of them. But that care didn't last long. Look. Apostle Paul said, “The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. … We we know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.” (Romans 8:19, 22). Then, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the second Adam, came to the desert, a desolate garden. The wild animals instinctively recognized the One who truly cared for them and stayed with the Lord.
However, both Adam and Jesus were tempted by the devil.
II. Jesus was tempted (vv. 2-13)
However, in Matthew 4:1, it says, “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.” The reason the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the desert was so that he could be tempted. The temptation here is not a test. In a way, it feels like the Holy Spirit took Jesus into the desert and handed him over to be tempted. However, God does not hand anyone over to be tempted (James 1:13). The devil came to tempt Jesus.
Look at verse 2. “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.” There was nothing to eat in the desert. So Jesus naturally could not eat anything, and he must have felt very hungry after fasting for forty days. Adam could not overcome Satan's temptation in the Garden of Eden, where food was abundant. Moreover, even though Eve, Adam's helper, was by his side, he failed. Eve, who was supposed to help and support Adam, instead fell first to the serpent's temptation. “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.” (Genesis 3:6). The devil approached the woman and tempted her in three ways. Apostle John said it was “the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does” (1 John 2:16). Good for food is the cravings of sinful man. Pleasing to the eye is the lust of his eyes. Desirable for gaining wisdom is the boasting of what he has and does. The devil tempted Jesus in the same way he tempted Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. However, none of these three were temptations by Satan to try not to recognize Jesus as the Son of God. Rather, the temptation was to ask Jesus to use his abilities if he were truly the Son of God.
A. Tell this stone to become bread (vv. 3-4)
The first time the devil tempted Jesus was a physical temptation. It corresponds to the cravings of sinful man. Look at verse 3. “The devil said to him, 'If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” The conditional clause that appears here if is a first-class conditional clause, a Greek usage used to mean since, that is, a given fact rather than assuming something. The devil tempted Jesus by saying, ‘Since you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.’ The devil knew that Jesus Christ was the Son of God. Whenever the evil spirits saw Jesus, they fell down before him and cried out, ‘You are the Son of God.’ But Jesus gave them strict orders not to tell who he was (Mark 3:11-12).
The devil tempted Jesus by saying, ‘You are the Son of God, so do not endure hunger, but use your power to satisfy the needs of your body.’ When people are hungry, they experience unbearable pain. This is an instinct, regardless of a person's personality. Since Jesus came in human form, he would naturally have felt the pain of hunger. At that time, the devil asked Jesus why God was starving. The devil told Jesus that since he was God, he should use his power to turn the stone into bread, eat it, and avoid starvation. If the devil were to tempt ordinary people, he would tempt them to avoid hunger by begging, stealing, or taking to satisfy their hunger. But because Jesus is God, He can make bread from stone. So, the devil tempted Jesus to use that power.
But Jesus answered, “It is written, 'Man does not live on bread alone'” (v. 4). Jesus defeated the devil's temptation by quoting Deuteronomy 8:3. These words were spoken by God when the Israelites entered the desert. There was no food for the Israelites to eat in the desert. When we think about common sense, having that many people go into the desert is like starving to death. But Moses took the Israelites into the desert. The reason was so that God's people would learn to live on the word of God rather than on bread alone. As a result, the Israelites lived on the manna provided by God for forty years.
When people first try to believe in Jesus, the devil tempts them with the question of eating and living. This means that believing in God does not produce bread. Especially when people face financial difficulties, they think they will not be able to survive on faith alone. At that time, the devil continues to whisper in people's ears to not only seek God but to do something before it is too late. At that time, we must resist the temptation of the devil, saying, ‘Man does not live on bread alone but on the word of God.’ Then, God will open the way to obtain manna.
B. Worship me (vv. 5-8)
The devil knew that he could not defeat Jesus over eating. So the devil gave a second temptation. Look at verses 5-7. “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, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. So if you worship me, it will all be yours.'” It is the lust of his eye. People want to be successful and famous in this world. However, if people worship the devil, the devil will give them all the splendor and authority in this world. Goetae's novel Faust expresses this temptation of the devil well. Dr. Faust promised to sell his soul to the devil in exchange for fame. There are probably many people in this world who want to succeed even if it means selling their soul.
However, all the authority and splendor of all the kingdoms of the world have not been given to the devil. Everything in this world belongs to God. The devil himself opposed God and corrupted Adam and Eve by tempting them with plausible lies, saying, 'If you eat fruit, you will become like God.' He only deceives fallen people and rules them with lies. Although the devil illegally acts as if he is the king of this world, he will one day be cast out and be judged forever. However, by worshipping from the Son of God, the devil was recognized as the ruler of this world, and by making the Son of God his subordinate, he tried to rule this world forever.
But think about it. The Son Jesus, the second person of God, came to this earth from heaven where he was more authoritative and more splendorous than all the authority and splendor of all the kingdoms of this world. And after He has finished His work of redemption for sinners, He will return to Heaven again. Can the splendor and authority of all the kingdoms of the world be compared to that of heaven? What does Jesus, who is God, lack that he would worship the devil?
Jesus resisted the devil’s temptation by saying, “It is written: 'Worship the Lord your God and serve him only'” (v. 8). These words are also an arbitrary quote by Jesus from Deuteronomy 6:13. Not only that. The second of the Ten Commandments says, “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. You shall not bow down to them or worship them.” He remembered these words and worshiped only God the Father, served only God, and obeyed God the Father’s words until he died on the cross.
We must never fall for the devil’s sweet tricks. We are children of God. We are the ones who will inherit the glorious heaven. It was enough for Adam and Eve to fall once. We must serve only the Holy Triune God. Everything in this world belongs to God, and God will surely take care of what belongs to His children. Amen?
C. Throw yourself down from the highest place (vv. 9-13)
The third and final time the devil tempted Jesus with the boasting of what he has and does. Look at verses 9~11. “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.'” The devil's temptation was for Jesus to show the power of the Son of God by jumping from the highest point of the temple. Then, many people would not reject him and worship him as the Messiah.
When Jesus resisted the devil's temptation by quoting the words of Deuteronomy, the devil placed Jesus on the highest point of the temple in Jerusalem and tempted him by boldly quoting God's word, Psalm 91:11-12. If obedience to the word of God was so important to Jesus, shouldn't he be able to jump and hold on to the word of God written in the Psalms? Then, God will definitely send angels to protect him, and the angels will lift him up with their hands and prevent him from striking his feet against a stone. The devil would also know Psalm 91:13. “You will tread upon the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent.”
After the devil tempted and corrupted Adam and Eve, and then God punished Adam and Eve for their disobedience, and also punished the serpent. “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” (Genesis 3:14-15). The devil clearly heard these words. The devil knew what his end would be. The devil knew that the one who came as the offspring of the woman was Jesus Christ, and so he tried to temp Jesus in any way possible so that God's prophecy spoken in Genesis and in the Psalms could not be fulfilled.
The words of the Bible were given to help us believe in God, not to test Him. The trap we can easily fall into is Satan's temptation to prove the Word. ‘Jump down! Prove that you are the Son of God! Doesn't the Bible say that angels will protect you?' In Mark 16:18, 'Didn't Jesus say that they will pick up snakes with their hands; and they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all?' In particular, the Bible verse quoted by the devil is apoetic expression that God protects us in any crisis, and does not literally mean to jump from a high place, catch a snake, or drink poison. The devil partially quotes the Bible and abuses it. The Bible must be understood comprehensively.
Jesus answered by continuing to quote Deuteronomy 6:16, regardless of whether the devil misuses the Bible or not. “It says: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test'” (v. 12). We must not test God. Heretics and people with strange beliefs try to interpret Bible verses in their own way and believe them. The more we know God, the more we should believe and obey God's word, not testing what God does.
Look at verse 13. “When the devil had finished all the tempting, he left him until an opportune time.” The devil tempted Jesus using all three categories of tempting people, but he could not make Jesus fall. So he left Jesus until an opportune time. During Jesus' public life, the devil continued to attack and tempt Jesus behind people's backs: through the Pharisees, even by mobilizing Jesus' chief disciple Peter, and in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Conclusion
The devil tempts people with the cravings of sinful nature through hunger, which is the most basic desire of man, the lust of his eyes that causes people to show vain splendor and worship the devil, and the boasting of what he has and does that makes them jump out of the temple and show off the power of God. The devil tempts us into these three categories at any time. In the Bible, we see that many people of faith were tempted, fell, or succeeded in one or two of these three categories. In the Garden of Eden, the first Adam failed and fell when these three categories of temptation came to him all at once. However, Jesus defeated the devil's temptation with the word of God and was victorious.
If the devil tempted Jesus, who is God, like this, there is nothing more to say about us. Each person has weak points. Some people suffer from the cravings of sinful man, others from the lust of his eyes, and still others from the temptation of the boasting of what he has or does. In some cases, our temptations may be a combination of two or three of these characteristics. Human instinctive desires such as appetite, sexual desire, material greed, and desire for fame continue to tempt us, and we continue to have the urge to achieve something and be recognized while living in this world. If we do not overcome these temptations, we will eventually have no choice but to succumb to the devil. Therefore, like Jesus, we must resist the temptation of the devil with the word of God. What is the most serious temptation facing us right now? Don’t we, as humans, just give up, thinking that it is something we can’t do anything about? I pray that we think of the Lord whenever we are tempted, that we do not loose heart, that we defeat it with the word of Go, that is, the sword of the Holy Spirit, and the we live a victorious life today as well.
