Dealing With the Devil
Text: Matthew 4: 1 - 11
Richard F. Harsell friendshippastor@yahoo.com
The pages of Scripture are strangely silent concerning the nearly 20 - year period of
Jesus’ life prior to the beginning of His’ earthly ministry, but Matthew picks up the story beginning somewhere around His’ 30’th year when He showed up at the Jordan River and presented Himself as a candidate for baptism at the hand of John the Baptist.
Why Jesus chose to submit Himself to John’s baptism
has been a matter of speculation among Bible scholars
for centuries, but I am led to believe that He did so for three main reasons.
The first was in keeping with the Jewish tradition of totally immersing their priests in water prior to ordination, thus it served as a symbol of the beginning of Jesus earthly ministry. Secondarily, it put His’ "seal of approval" on the ministry and work
of John the Baptist, and third, it established water
baptism as a permanent public ordinance for all who would become His’followers in years to come, symbolizing leaving the old sinful lifestyle behind,
and the spiritual rebirth that had occured in their
lives.
Yet, prior to embarking on His ministry, Jesus chose to go into the desert and spend a 40 day period in
fasting - that is He went without food or water during that entire time. Which brings to mind the additional question as to why He chose to subject Himself to such an ordeal? Although Jesus never gave a specific reason for this self-imposed exile, again,we can still draw several conclusions from what
we read in our text this morning.
First, fasting is a means of denying the fleshly needs and demands of the body. We see in Scripture that Moses as well as the prophet Elijah, as well as a number of other significant people in the Bible endured periods of fasting. In addition we note that the entire nation of Israel was commanded by God to fast on the annual Day of Atonement as as sign of contrition and sorrow for their sins. Thus we can conclude that fasting was not only a means of self denial, but a tool for building strength of character
as well in the battle against fleshly temptation, and ultimately resulted in spiritual growth and maturity. It is said that John Wesley, the founder of what is today the Methodist Church, would not consent to ordain a person to the ministry who did not fast at least 2 days a week!
Several years ago while reading a book by Evangelist Lowell Lundstrom entitled "How You Can Pray With Power and Get Results" I was greatly impressed by an experience he shared where the LORD had impressed upon him the need to begin a 21-day fast during a Crusade which he was conducting. He shared how during that period that he conducted business as usual, preaching every night, and he went on to state: "during that time my spirit became so sensative to the leading of the Holy Spirit that I [felt] alive to the mind of God. My desire for food and other earthly pleasures vanished [and] God was present in power through that Crusade. Many people came to receive Jesus Christ as their Savior, and God performed miracles in their lives." Perhaps it would avail many of us a spiritual boost if we were to try our hand at fasting as well, because it is God’s way of teaching people self-discipline. It is a constant reminder that the spirit is going to be boss over the flesh, and that spiritual hunger is going to prevail over fleshly desires.
After fasting for 40 days, Jesus was weak and as near to physical deprivation as a man could get! And I want to note an important point right here! For us
to fully comprehend the situation described in our
text, it is necessary that we understand that Jesus was going through this period of fasting in the same physical sense as any human. Although He still possessed Godly attributes - He was subject to the same pangs of hunger, the same physical weakness, and the same desires and temptations as you and me.
Verse 2 states quite plainy the "He was hungry" We are dealing here with the human side of Jesus because He was literally on the verge of physical starvation.
And it was at this point that Satan showed up to tempt Him. Did you ever notice how the devil tends to launch his attacks at us in our weakest moments,
and especially in those areas where we are most vulnerable? The temptations which he placed before Jesus were no exception.
THE FIRST TEMPTATION: Satan stated. "if you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread" To begin with, there wasn’t the slightest doubt in Satan’s mind regarding Jesus’ identity. Nor was he suggesting some sort of contest whereby he could ascertain Jesus’ power. He was certainly aware of the fact that the One who fashioned the entire universe could whip-up a loaf of bread if He chose to do so.
In actuality, Satan was presenting Jesus with the temptation to use His powers to gratify fleshly desires. But this temptation held a much deeper meaning than the production of a simple loaf of bread. Again, we must keep in mind that we are dealing with the human part of Jesus’ nature throughout this entire ordeal with Satan. Satan knew that it was impossible to tempt the Godly nature of Jesus, so he attempted to attack the human part of Him, because Satan knew that the human part (even of Jesus) WAS fully susceptible to temptation and sin. Jesus had the freedom as well as the choice to follow Satan’s suggestion had He chosen to do so. If this
had not been true, Satan’s temptation of Jesus would have been of no consequence and a complete waste of time!
But let’s take an even deeper look at the First Temptation of our LORD. Jesus was no-doubt considering the manner in which He would present Himself to the people of Israel as their Messiah. They had been looking for the deliverer for 700 years at the time of His’ earthly ministry, but they were looking for some sort of "knight in shining armor" who would deliver Israel from the political mantle of Rome which at that time had them enslaved. In short,
they wanted a political and military leader, and NOT
a spiritual one.
And that’s exactly what Satan was tempting Jesus to become - a leader who would utilize His powers in performing miracles which would attract the masses to follow Him. Certainly a man who could turn stones into bread would be readily accepted by the Jews as their Messiah! But even though this woud have been a much easier way of presenting Himself to the people it was not God’s way, nor was it in keeping with the divinely originated plan in which Jesus would serve as the redemptive sacrifice for lost sinners.
Such a plan as Satan was proposing would have completely failed in establishing saving grace through faith in Jesus and His promises as
the only means of salvation. Had He fallen for this ruse of Satan, Jesus no-longer would have been sinless and a fit sacrifice to pay the penalty for mankind’s sin.
But Jesus saw through Satan’s plan and quoted a verse from Deuteronomy 8:3 stating that "man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God." Simply speaking, Jesus was stating that there are things which are of far greater importance in this world than gratification of our physical appetites. And for many people this is a hard lesson to learn. Every one of us can think of someone we’ve known who has given in to temptation
of one sort or another in an attempt to satisy a physical desire and has wound-up running their life
onto the rocks! This is the reason that God in His wisdom has laid down rules concerning what is right and what is wrong. It’s not because He is some celestial "kill-joy" who desires to spoil our fun, but rather He is a loving all-knowing God who sees what lies ahead for the soul who falls into sin.
Just like Jesus, we too must determine that there are more important things than earthly pleasures which
serve to temporarily satisfy our physical appetites, yet taint us with the stain of sin. We must seek instead the "bread of heaven" that is obtained only through obedience to God’s will for us. For such heavenly bread will not only satisfy our physical needs, but our spiritual need as well. Not earthly bread such as men have eaten through the ages and eventually died, but heavenly bread that will give us eternal life.
THE SECOND TEMPTATION: We see that Satan then super-
naturally transported Jesus to the pinnacle of the steeple of the temple in Jerusalem. One of the first rules of good salesmanship is that the sale doesn’t really begin until the prospective client says "no" to the first sales pitch.
And you can be assured that the devil is one "super-salesman" who won’t quit trying to sell his product
after a single sales pitch. Once again he challenges Jesus to another so-called "test" of His divine
powers. The challenge this time is that He leap from the temple roof, and note here that Satan can readily quote Holy Scripture when it suits his purpose, for he recites a verse from the 91’st Psalm, saying: "It
is written that He [meaning God] will command His angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone."
As children of God, His Word assures us that He has assigned angels to each of us for our protection - and these "guardian" angels stand ready to deliver us from even the slightest injury. I’m sure we can all recall instances where if there had not been some unseen force protecting us, we might have been seriously injured or even killed. You can bet that the devil would like nothing better than to kill-off every Christian in the world if he had the power to do
so. But as born-again Children of God we come under His divine protecting hand, and nothing is going to happen to us that is not in complete accordance with the will of God. No, that doesn’t necessarily mean that God has built a brick wall around us that Satan
can’t penetrate, but it does mean that God has limited his ability to cause harm to Christians, thus
the trouble that he is allowed to cause in ourlives is limited and tempered within the parameters of God’s permissive will.
Yet, note Jesus’answer to Satan: Again He quotes from Deuteronomy, this time from Chapter 6, "Again, it is written, you shall not put the LORD, your God to the test." Which brings us to the question of
where divine protection stops and man’s presumption begins? A number of years ago I read a newspaper article about a man who was a member of a religious cult that believed that the utilization of modern medical science was unneccessary and any needed healing which a person needed could be accomplished
solely through fervent prayer. His wife, who was 8
months along in a pregnancy at the time suddenly began to hemmorhage, yet he refused to seek medical help. Instead,he stayed by her bedside praying for God to intervene while both his wife and the unborn child bled to death. His reasoning was that her death was a result of God’s will, and the authorities were
powerless to prosecute him because of his right to religious freedom.
To tell the truth, I don’t profess to have an answer to such a question, because circumstances vary from case to case. For instance, for me to attempt sky-diving would border on foolish presumption, while for a trained paratrooper it’s nothing more than a routine part of his duties. But I believe there are
some guidelines which we can use to help us in
deciding such matters: (1) are we living close to the true Biblical standards for a Christian; (2) are we truly being led of the Holy Spirit in the choices we make, and (3) is the decision or act which we are contemplating completely thought out - utilizing the
intelligence which God has given us?
THE THIRD TEMPTATION: Having failed twice now, Satan again transported Jesus to a mountain from which they were able to look down onto the world below, and once
more he made this offer: "all this I will give you if you will bow down and worship me." You will note that Jesus does not challenge Satan’s ability to deliver on such a promise.
There is a classic story in American Literature by
Stephen Vincent Benet’ entitled "The Devil and Daniel Webster" which tells the story of a man named Jabez Stone. Jabez had a poor piece of ground which he farmed, and it had always been his dream to have a fine farm which would produce crops of which he could be proud. But year after year all his ambitions were continually thwarted by bad luck and poor weather. One day, while enduring a particularly bad run of circumstances, Jabez Stone made the statement "that for two cents he’d sell his soul to the devil!"
And sure enough, that very night the devil showed up driving a black buggy and made a bargain with Jabez
Stone in which he would have 20 years of good crops and prosperity in exchange for his soul at the end of
that time. Things immediately turned around for Jabez and his fields began to produce bumper crops like never before. His once skinny cattle grew fat and sleek. And he began to prosper greatly in all his business dealing. There was even talk of his running for political office. In fact, the only bleak spot in Jabez Stone’s life occured once each
year on the anniversary date of the contract which
he had signed with the devil, because the devil would drive by Jabez Stone’s farm in his buggy with a wicked smile on his face. And finally, as the years
passed, and the 20 year period was drawing to a close, Jabez Stone began to fear the consequences of the bargain which he had made, and decided as a last
result to hire Daniel Webster, the most famous lawyer and statesman of that time, to argue his case against the devil in hope of rescuing his soul.
I’m not going to spoil the story by revealing the plot, but the point I’m attempting to make is that ANY
bargain which we might make with the devil is a fools agreement, and Jesus was fully aware of this truth!
And when I speak of striking a bargain with the devil, I’m not necessarily talking about some formal
agreement such as Jabez Stone made, because to tell
the truth, Satan doesn’t have to make such an offer to entrap us into an eternity spent in hell! Each of
us automatically enter into such a contract when we commit our first sin, once we each the age where we know right from wrong. In short, he gets us simply by default. Someone once asked an elderly preacher the question, "What does a person have to do to be sent to hell? And he smiled and replied simply, "Just be yourself!"
Finally, we see that Jesus again referred to Deuteronomy 6 where He replies, "Worship the LORD your God, and serve Him only." I said earlier that Satan is a good salesman and he’s a smart one as well.
After 3 attempts he quit wasting his time with Jesus, because he isn’t really interested in making a hard sale. He instead is much more interested in making
an easy one to you and me. But God’s Word instructs us that if we will resist the temptations of the
devil and confront him with the truth found in His’
Word, the Holy Bible, that the devil will be forced
to flee from us. That’s exactly what Jesus did. He quoted Scripture in the face of each of Satan’s attempts to tempt Him. and finally tiring of the
devil’s tactics He ordered that he flee. You and I have that same ability to make Satan leave us alone, because when we invoke the name of Jesus, he has no choice but to flee from us as well. Satan cannot stay long in any place where he is not wanted nor invited.
The Psalmist writing in the 119th Psalm sums up the
essence of the message as he writes: "I have hidden
your word in my heart that I might not sin against
you."
Our text finally records that Satan left Jesus, and God’s angels came to attend to His needs. I declare to you that this very same power which Jesus used to overcome Satan in the desert is available to each and every one of us today, and we can live successful lives as Christians by simply taking advantage of God’s offer of salvation. How do we accomplish this? First, we turn from our sinful ways and accept Jesus as our Savior. Second, we begin to feed on God’s Word on a daily and continual basis, and Third we employ the strongest weapon in our arsenal which is prayer. When we pray in faith and invoke the promises and power of Jesus all the powers of heaven align themselves with us to deliver us from any and all afflictions of the devil.
