The Temptation Of Jesus Dws#2 Series

The Temptation of Jesus...

I. Introduction...

Praise God Church!

How many in here tonight have ever been

through a time of testing?

How many have ever been through trials or temptation?

I’m pretty sure everyone in here has been

through something like that. Amen?

There’s been at least one time in your life when

you’ve experienced some kind of temptation.

I’m sure the majority of us probably go through that daily.

Maybe you’re not tempted everyday to do some

kind of immoral act.

Maybe you don’t feel led of the flesh or the

Devil to sin against God daily,

But I’m sure you face some kind of temptation in your life.

You might go to the store and see fresh baked

apple pie in the bakery

And maybe you’re tempted to buy it even though

You know that it won’t be good for the diet

you’re on. Amen?

That’s temptation.

And how many know that the only way you’re

going to succeed in that diet,

The only way that you’re going to accomplish

the goal that you set out for is to

Overcome the urge or overcome the temptation

to buy that pie. Amen?

You can’t lose the weight if your steadily

stuffing your face with pie. Amen?

There are so many things in life today that tempt us,

There are so many products and gizmos and

gadgets out their that appeal to

the eye and appeal to the flesh

Sometimes it’s hard for me to walk through the store

and not buy something or at least be tempted

to buy something.

And in that sense I think we’ve all experienced

some kind of temptation in life. Amen?

Well, that’s what I want talk about tonight.

II. The Meaning of The Words Tempt and Temptation...

a) Root Words...

The Greek word for tempt is the verb peirazō (pi-rad’-zo).

It is translated both tempted and tempter in

the King James Version of our text tonight.

KJV was translated from the textus receptus

which simply means "received text".

Peirazō appears in the Textus Receptus 41

times, but it’s not always translated tempted

or tempter.

12 different words

tempted, 15...tempting, 7...tempt, 6...tried, 3...tempter, 2...assayed, 1...examine, 1...prove, 1...tempteth, 1...try, 1...about, 2...gone, 1...

And it means to test objectively, to examine

closely or influence.

It’s a verb so it always implys action.

The Greek noun is peirasmos (pi-ras-mos’)

which translates temptation.

And even though it doesn’t appear in our

scripture tonight it has 21 occurences in the

King James Version of the Bible.

Both words derive from the root word peira

(pi’-rah), which means experience or trial.

Peira which is a noun derives from the verb

peiro which literally means to

perforate or pierce through someone or

something in order to find out the constitution.

If steel is going to be used for a building it’s

constitution has to be tried.

Basically, it’s strength has to be tested in order

to find out whether or not it is fit for the job. Amen?

In the same way we as Christians have to go

through tests.

The trials that we go through are a part of our

perfecting process.

Now the Devil doesn’t see it that way.

b) Satan’s Tempting...

The Devil tempts us with the express purpose

of showing us that we are failures.

He doesn’t want to prove your strength.

He doesn’t want you to grow and learn from

your mistakes.

He wants to take you down and keep you there.

His main goal is to show you how weak you are

in your sarkikos (fleshly) state.

He knows that the sarks (flesh) is weak so he

tries to use it’s lusts and it’s desires against you.

When you put your Jesus on and head out into

the community to work for the kingdom of God,

The devil despises that.

He hates to see God’s people actually being obedient.

He sees it as some sort of front.

He sees you as a faker and he wants to expose

your flaws to God and everyone who look to you

as a Christian.

He wants to ruin your witness and the best way

he knows how is to PEIRO or pierce through

and prove how weak you truly are.

And He does that through peirazo or tempting you.

He is labeled the accuser in scripture and that’s

what he wants to do.

He wants to prove your weakness so that he

can accuse you before the Father.

He focuses all of his time and effort toward the

task of destroying the relationship that we have

with God.

c) God’s Test...

God never tempts us in that way.

He tries us in order to prove to us and others

that He can use us,

He never puts more on us than we can bear.

His tests are setup for us to be able to pass with