POWER OVER TEMPTATION!
Matthew 4:1-11
4:1 Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
4:2 And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.
4:3 And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.
4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
4:5 Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,
4:6 And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
4:7 Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
4:8 Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;
4:9 And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.
4:10 Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
4:11 Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.
Immediately Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in the River Jordan, he was led by that same spirit that had come down out of heaven like a dove and came upon Him when the Father said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased," into the wilderness of temptation.
The very first thing that Jesus faced in his public ministry was an attack from the Devil. This would signify once and for all whether Jesus could withstand every power that Satan could muster against him and still remain the perfect man.
All of eternity hang in the balance during this long battle. Satan’s reign was threatened and he knew that this was a do or die situation. The devil determined to bring Jesus down, thus securing Satan’s reign forever.
I stop here only briefly to say that the moment you stick your head above the crowd and determine that you are going to take on a position of leadership in ministry for the Kingdom of God, that’s the same moment that Satan will begin to scheme and plan for temptations, troubles, tests and trials to come against you. If he can stop in the beginning, he will effectively have destroyed your ministry for a long time.
It takes years to overcome failure. If you fail morally, not only is your life permanently affected but your testimony is ruined. There aren’t many people who will sit under the ministry of a man guilty of moral failure. Even sincere repentance does not repair the damage done to your effectiveness to the Body of Christ. Just ask Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Baker and others who have damaged their ministries greatly.
God can forgive, and we, as the church can forgive also. But forgiveness and repentance does not negate the negative impact that we have caused through sin.
This battle, that began to rage in both the physical and spiritual nature of Jesus, was in direct fulfillment of Genesis 3:17 where God told Satan that hatred and strife would be between the seed of the woman and the serpent and that her seed would bruise Satan’s head.
For 40 days Jesus fasted in the wilderness. Moses, the lawgiver of Israel, had fasted 40 days in the mountain. Elijah, the prophet, fasted 40 days and now the giver of the New Covenant would do the same.
How could a man fast for 40 days without taking food or water? They could so because they were walking in the realm of the Holy Spirit and were in communion with God and living a life that was closer to Heaven than earth in the realm of the Spirit.
It was after this 40 day fast that Satan came to Jesus to tempt him.
Often after our greatest spiritual experiences is the time when we will experience the greatest time of testing. Satan knows to attack you at your weakest hour. He knows to come against you when the natural mind and body are too weak to resist. Thank God that we do not dwell in the flesh but we live in the Spirit by faith in God.
1) Satan’s first great temptation of Jesus was to command him to turn stones into bread to satisfy the hunger of the flesh.
After 40 days without food and water, the fleshly body was hungry and desired to eat but no food was around. There were rocks everywhere in this desert country and so Satan, knowing the power that Jesus had as Creator, wanted Jesus to turn the rocks into bread.
Why couldn’t Jesus do that? What would have been so wrong with the God of all Creation changing that which He had created into something that He needed to live?
For Jesus to do so would have been misusing His own power and showing distrust in the ability of the Heavenly Father to sustain him through every test.
Jesus was telling Satan that God purposes to take care of his own children in every circumstance. The very thing that man would believe is death to the body, such as a long fast, is meant by God to bring new life to a man through the power of the Spirit.
We cannot live by only that which tickles our ears or brings us comfort, but we must live according to all the Word of God. In fact, it is often the Word that is hardest to learn and to swallow that will bring us the best that life has to offer.
2) The next temptation that Satan came against Jesus with was that Jesus should cast himself down and prove that God’s Word and promises were true.
What the scriptures call “the pinnacle”, according to some historians including Josephus, the great Jewish historian, is probably the “King’s Gallery” which was built by Herod. Herod had built a gallery upon the side of a very deep valley. It was so deep that you could barely see the bottom and it would cause vertigo or dizziness when you looked into it.
Jesus had overcome the first temptation by dependence upon the goodness and mercy of God and now Satan wanted Jesus to put that goodness and mercy to a real test.
Jump off! If God is who He says and He has promised to give angels instructions to not allow you to fall then prove it!
I want you to know that you can put your absolute trust in the goodness and mercy of God and you don’t have to prove it to anyone. That trust is a work of faith and to attempt to prove it through natural means of your own choosing is to tempt God. God is in charge of testing your faith to buid trust in Him and He doesn’t need our help to do so.
God will never overcome the laws of nature just to make you look good. If Jesus would have jumped I believe He would have died right there and that would have been the end of our chance for redemption.
We cannot tempt God by doing things that are harmful to our bodies and expect God to not let us get hurt in the process.
You can’t over eat and not expect to gain weight. You can’t smoke and not expect to get lung cancer or emphysema. You can’t drink a lot of alcoholic beverages and not expect to get drunk or develop cirrhosis of the liver. You can’t speed and not expect to get a traffic ticket. You can’t tempt God without running the risk of reaping what you sow. You can’t do drugs without expecting to get addicted or arrested. If you do the crime you will do the time - If not in this life, then in the one to come for certain.
One of God’s laws does not negate another of God’s laws just because we want to prove a point.
1 Corinthians 10:13, "There hath 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."
This scripture bears out the fact that God will make a way of escape from every trial and temptation that He allows to come against us, but, I don’t believe that God is obligated to make a way of escape from the trials and tests we bring upon ourselves. He often does because of His mercy and grace but not all the time.
3) The third great temptation against Jesus by Satan was that Jesus was taken up into a high mountain. This high mountain was either in a vision or in the spiritual realms for there is no literal mountain on earth where it would be possible to see all the kingdoms of the earth at once.
Satan was bragging now, just as he does to every man who chooses to follow him.
Just look at what I own, look at what my kingdom consists of, and the glory, wealth and power that I hold. Look at the glitz and glamour. Look at the fame, power and fortune that only I can give to you. If you will but bow down to me and let me be your God, I will give it all to you.
What a pack of lies and empty promises this is. In the first place, even though Satan has power and is now the god of this world, it is only temporary. He stole the birthright from man in the garden but Jesus is coming to take it back again.
Yet man falls for it every day. The wealth, fame, power, and fortune are there only for a short while then their luster fades and we are left with emptiness and eternal death instead. Satan is the father of liars and he is so very convincing.
Since this temptation of Satan against Jesus was more than just a temptation against the flesh but was now a temptation against His nature as God in the flesh, Jesus had to handle this one differently.
Now the 40 days of fasting really paid off as Jesus spoke from the standpoint of God in the form of man and commanded, with all the authority of Heaven behind Him, that Satan had to leave.
The temptations of Jesus came under the headings of FOUR types of sin.
First was the sin of DISTRUST when Satan said to turn the stones into bread.
The second was PRESUMPTION when he said for Jesus to throw himself down.
The third was WORLDLY AMBITION when Satan showed and promised Jesus all the kingdoms of the world.
The fourth was IDOLATRY when he instructed Jesus to bow before him in submission.
Jesus overcame each of these great temptations by the Word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit and thank God that He did or there would be hope for us now.
What lessons can we learn from this temptation of Jesus?
1)No man, no matter how righteous, is above temptation. Jesus was God manifest in the flesh and He was tempted too.
2)The best way to overcome Satan in through the Word of God that we hide in our hearts.
3)That temptation, no matter how strong it is or how long it lasts, is not sin as long as we resist it. Jesus was tempted for a long time by Satan and yet he never sinned.
4)There is no temptation that Satan can bring against you, no matter how strong it is, that can overcome you if you determine to resist it.
When the battle is over and the temptations have been overcome we can look forward to the Father in Heaven sending his holy angels to strengthen us for the journey ahead just as they did for Jesus.
From this temptation, Jesus began his earthly ministry that would eventually lead to the cross where He died for our sin to give us eternal life.
After each temptation we are strengthened that we may made into a more honorable vessel that can bring glory to God and lead souls to the foot of the cross to find Jesus as their Savior.
