The Temptations Of Christ (Luke 4)

Based on a message preached at First Baptist Church, Chamois, MO, on 1-22-2023. This is not an exact transcription.

Introduction: Last week we looked at how John the Baptist came preaching, far away from town, much like he might do here if he lived here. To give a kind of local flavor, he might have “set up shop”, so to speak, way out of town, maybe to the west where the land was level and was close to the river.

John baptized Jesus, which could have been one of the greatest moments of our Lord’s life. I can remember being baptized; it was in a baptistery just like the one behind me but I remember a lot of other people who were baptized in a literal river! I can tell you more about that later on.

But at any rate, Jesus was led (Mark says He was driven) into the wilderness. Now, “Wilderness” didn’t mean desert land or steppe/semi-arid land, such as what Elijah lived in for a while, and it wasn’t untapped forest, like what Daniel Boone might have come into. The word, here, simply meant land that didn’t have a large population; kind of like wide open spaces.

Jesus went there and was in for one of the greatest tests of His life. Let’s read the text and see what God’s Word has to say:

Text: Luke 4:1-13, NASB: 1 Now Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness 2 for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days, and when they had ended, He was hungry.3 And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”4 And Jesus answered him, “It is written: ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE.’”

5 And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6 And the devil said to Him, “I will give You all this domain and its glory, for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I want. 7 Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours.”8 Jesus replied to him, “It is written: ‘YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD AND SERVE HIM ONLY.’”

9 And he brought Him into Jerusalem and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here; 10 for it is written:

‘HE WILL GIVE HIS ANGELS ORDERS CONCERNING YOU, TO PROTECT YOU,’ 11 and, ‘ON THEIR HANDS THEY WILL LIFT YOU UP,

SO THAT YOU DO NOT STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.’”

12 And Jesus answered and said to him, “It has been stated, ‘YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.’” 13 And so when the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time.

<Opening prayer>

The first temptation: hunger

Let me begin by saying fasting, or refusing to eat foods or certain foods, has been around for many years. Daniel was one such Old Testament saint who didn’t eat much for three weeks (Daniel 10:1-3). Moses spent 40 days on the mountain alone with God, as recorded in Exodus, and Elijah’s angel-prepared meal kept him going for 40 days (1 Kings 19) after he stood alone for God at Mount Carmel.

Jesus was not under any command or directive to fast for as long as He did. We’re never told why He fasted for so long but we do have a hint of what happened during that time, and it wasn’t very good news.

At least twice, He was put to the test by the Devil. Here at this first time, when Jesus was weak, physically, and now He was hungry—just look at verse 2! And it’s here that the Devil tries to test or tempt Jesus, not to do anything wrong, necessarily, but to take matters into His own hands. Who needs to wait for anything or anybody when you’re hungry, right?

Here’s what the Devil said: “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” You know, I’ve read this passage many times but never have I understood why Satan made the request of Jesus to turn a stone into bread. Matthew uses the plural, “stones”, in his account but the idea is the same: Jesus, You are hungry, so let’s do lunch. You know, let’s fellowship like we did before You kicked me and my friends out of heaven. It’s all forgiven, right?

But Jesus saw right through the words and the intents and everything else the Devil was trying to throw at Him. Stones—there were and are plenty of them in Israel but in this wilderness, some of the most worthless land in Israel (I mean, if it was any good, there would be people and domestic animals, not just the wild beasts like Mark described, wouldn’t there?), there probably wasn’t much of anything else!