Matthew 4:1-11: “The Temptations Of Jesus”
by
Jim Bomkamp
1.
INTRO: Here in
chapter 4 we will look at the temptations of Jesus
1.1.
In these temptations we can learn both how it was that
Jesus met His adversary the devil head first and won the battle
1.2.
We can also learn from these temptations how it is
that we as Christians should be equipped to face temptations
1.2.1.
Jesus quoted scripture He had filled His heart with in
order to rebuff the devil during each of the temptations
1.2.1.1.The Word of
God is the “sword of the Spirit” according to Eph. 6:17, and thus it is to be
used skillfully by us
1.2.1.1.1.But, first
we must learn what it teaches, learn God’s promises, then we will be able to
learn how to use it skillfully
1.2.2.
Jesus resisted the devil and he fled from Him, Ja.
4:7, “7 Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you”
1.2.3.
All of these temptations of Jesus were temptations to
distrust God’s good intentions for Him, the promises of His Word, and His love
for Him, and likewise when we Christians face temptations we go through the
same things
1.2.3.1.Notice that
this is in fact how the serpent tempted Eve in the garden of Eden as recorded
in Gen. 3:1-6, “3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the
field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God
said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to
the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; 3 but from
the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You
shall not eat from it or touch it, lest you die.’” 4 And the serpent said to
the woman, “You surely shall not die! 5 “For God knows that in the day you eat
from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and
evil.” 6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a
delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took
from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate”
1.2.4.
Whenever the devil tempts, he also lies and deceives,
as Christ’s temptations teach us.
1.2.4.1.He doesn’t
deliver the goods which he promises when he tempts us, and he isn’t even able
to do so because he isn’t God, and God is the One who is really in control of
everything.
1.2.4.1.1.Satan is
really kept on a short chain as he is able to do only as much as the Lord
allows him to do
1.2.5.
In these temptations, the devil appeared to Jesus
bodily, however his form is not described, yet it is certain that he appeared
not as the monstrous beast that he is, but rather as a marvelous beautiful
angel of light, as Paul wrote about in 2 Cor. 11:4, “14 And no wonder, for
even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light”, and as if he is acting
as Christ’s benefactor
1.3.
Christ’s temptations are in many ways examples of
virtually each kind of temptation that we as Christians might be tempted with
(Ja. 2:16; Gen. 3:6), and thus in His
responses Jesus shows us the way to get victory over every temptation
1.3.1.
The lust of the flesh
1.3.2.
The lust of the eyes
1.3.3.
The boastful pride of life
1.4.
Jesus’ temptations are different than the temptations
which we go through in these ways
1.4.1.
All of Jesus’ temptations came upon Him only from the
external, however in addition to having an external temptor we also have an
indwelling sin nature from which our temptations often come (James 1:14)
1.4.2.
Jesus could not have sinned for in Him as a man God was
dwelling, and He was not 1/2 man and 1/2 God, but totally God and totally man,
and from that sphere He reacted as one person, and we know that God cannot be
tempted with evil (James 1:13)
1.4.2.1.Instead, His
temptations prove and demonstrate that He really is perfect in holiness, and
the testing of Him through the temptations qualify Him to be our redeemer.
2.
VS 4:1 - “4:1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the
wilderness to be tempted by the devil” -
The Spirit leads Jesus into the widerness to be tempted
2.1.
Since the
moment of His baptism Jesus is now “full of the Holy Spirit” (Luke 4:1)
2.1.1.
Since Jesus
was part of the godhead, and because He had never sinned, He was always
continually indwelt by the Holy Spirit, however now He is specially anointed of
the Spirit.
2.1.2.
As far as we
know, Jesus never performed a miracle prior to this point, and never
demonstrated His deity openly, so now that it was time for Him to begin His
ministry, He had to receive power and anointing from on High in order to
perform His work
2.1.2.1.The disciples received the Holy Spirit in the upper
room when Jesus came and appeared to them (John 20:22), but in Acts 1:8 they
are told to wait in Jerusalem because they too were to receive power when the
Holy Spirit had come upon them, and He came upon them just as He did here with
Jesus, to anoint them for powerful effective service for Him
2.1.2.1.1.We need this power also in order to be victorious over
the temptations which we face
2.1.2.2.If Jesus needed to be baptized in the Holy Spirit in
order for His ministry to be effective, how much more do we Christians need
this power in our life to be effective
2.2.
We Christians
must realize that it is not a sin for anyone to be tempted, for even our Lord
Himself was tempted, and the author of Hebrews writes that He was tempted in
“all ways as are we”
2.2.1.
It is only a
sin when we give in to temptation
2.3.
Mark writes
that the Spirit forcefully “drove” Jesus out into the wilderness to be tempted
(Mark 1:12), but Matthew just writes here that the Spirit ‘led’ Jesus into the
wilderness to be tempted
2.3.1.
From this we
can imply that though it may not be the Lord’s perfect will for us as
Christians to be tempted, as is seen by the Lord’s prayer, “Lead us not into
temptation”, that none the less there are seasons of temptation which every
Christian goes through
2.3.1.1.One author has written that in order for a preacher to
be great, he must endure much temptation with victory, so God uses temptations
in each of our lives as He builds character and perseverance into us
2.4.
The Greek
word translated “temptation” also means “testing”, and the context of where the
word is found in the New Testament has led the translators to render the word
one way or the other
2.4.1.
Also, “every
testing involves a temptation and every temptation involves a testing”
3.
VS 4:2-4 - “2 And after He had fasted forty days and forty
nights, He then became hungry. 3 And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You
are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” 4 But He answered
and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word
that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’”” -
Jesus’ first temptation
3.1.
The first
miracle of Jesus’ ministry is found here in the fact that 40 days and nights of
neither eating or drinking did not kill Jesus
3.1.1.
This just
shows us how His depending upon the Father had a good effect upon Him
3.2.
It appears
that as Jesus’ body was near to the point of death and as typically happens in
this case, a huge survival instinct to eat overwhelmed Him, and this became
then the opportune time for the devil to tempt Him
3.2.1.
Mark 1:13
seems to say that Jesus was tempted the entire period of 40 days however
3.3.
Satan did not
tempt Jesus to pray to the Father to command the stones to become bread, but to
do it Himself. This is the first glimpse
of what the Bible reveals about the nature of the miracles that Jesus
performed:
3.3.1.
Jesus didn’t
pray to the Father to do His miracles, He spoke or willed them into being
3.3.2.
All of Jesus’
miracles were complete miracles where someone who has some sickness or
infirmity is made immediately to be completely well without a natural period of
recovery first occurring
3.3.3.
Everyone was
healed whom Jesus attempted to heal, He had a success rate of 100%
3.3.4.
Jesus healed
people who had congenitive illnesses and infirmities that had even been present
from birth
3.3.5.
Jesus was
even able to bring people back from the dead, even (in the case of Lazarus)
after they had been dead for days
3.3.6.
All of Jesus’
miracles of healing also draw for us a picture of a miraculous deliverance from
sin which men may have through Him
3.4.
In analyzing
this temptation, the first thing we ought to ask ourselves is, “What in the
world would be wrong with a hungry Jesus turning stones into bread in order to
feed His weak and starved body?”
3.4.1.
One answer is
that we should never entertain a suggestion from the devil to do anything
3.4.2.
Jesus said in
John 8:28-29 that He did nothing on His own initiative, and in turning these
rocks into loaves of bread He would have sinned for He would have acted on His
own initiative apart from the Father, “28 Jesus therefore said, “When you
lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My
own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me. 29 “And He
who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things
that are pleasing to Him.””
3.4.2.1.All of Jesus’ miracles and works of power were for
others and not for His own benefit, for concerning His own needs He always
looked to the Father to provide
3.4.2.2.We Christians need to realize that we also need to
look to the Lord and His provision in every area of our lives, and when
problems or worries confront us we need to go to the Lord
3.4.3.
Jesus is
being tempted to distrust the Lord and His provision for Him
3.5.
Jesus quotes
from Deut. chapter 8 here to rebuff satan, and in all of the Old Testament
Jesus could not have found a more aprapo verse to quote, “8:1 ”All the
commandments that I am commanding you today you shall be careful to do, that
you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Lord swore
to give to your forefathers. 2 “And you shall remember all the way which the
Lord your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might
humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep
His commandments or not. 3 “And He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed
you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might
make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by
everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord. 4 “Your clothing did not
wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. 5 “Thus you are to
know in your heart that the Lord your God was disciplining you just as a man
disciplines his son. 6 “Therefore, you shall keep the commandments of the Lord
your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him. 7 “For the Lord your God is
bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and
springs, flowing forth in valleys and hills; 8 a land of wheat and barley, of
vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; 9 a land
where you shall eat food without scarcity, in which you shall not lack
anything; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig
copper. 10 “When you have eaten and are satisfied, you shall bless the Lord
your God for the good land which He has given you”
3.5.1.
During the
wilderness wanderings of the Israelites of the Old Testament, the Lord provided
all that they ever needed whenever they would obey and look to Him, yet they
distrusted Him and complained being themselves in disbelief, but He allowed
them to undergo all of the trials and temptations they went through in order to
reveal the true nature of their hearts towards Him as to whether or not they
would be willing to follow Him completely
3.5.1.1.Jesus taught us in Matt. 6:25-34 that the Lord will
provide whatever we might need if we will just seek Him with all of our hearts,
“25 “For this reason I say to you, do not be anxious for your life, as to
what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor for your body, as to what you
shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body than clothing? 26 “Look
at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather
into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much
more than they? 27 “And which of you by being anxious can add a single cubit to
his life’s span? 28 “And why are you anxious about clothing? Observe how the
lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, 29 yet I say to
you that even Solomon in all his glory did not clothe himself like one of
these. 30 “But if God so arrays the grass of the field, which is alive today
and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more do so for you, O
men of little faith? 31 “Do not be anxious then, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’
or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘With what shall we clothe ourselves?’ 32 “For all
these things the Gentiles eagerly seek; for your heavenly Father knows that you
need all these things. 33 “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness;
and all these things shall be added to you. 34 “Therefore do not be anxious for
tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its
own”
3.5.1.2.God already knows what is in our hearts, the testings
we go through in our life are to reveal to us where our hearts are at
3.5.2.
God is
telling us through these verses that all the allurements and things that this
life offers, are not what really matters, what really matters is being right
with the Lord and looking to Him to provide all that we need
3.6.
This
temptation of Jesus here is a temptation to fulfill “the lusts of the flesh”,
and in that sense it is symbolic of all of the temptations to fulfill the lusts
of the flesh which we may experience
3.6.1.
Bodily
desires, such as that for food, have caused many a person to fall into
temptation and to sin
4.
VS 4:5-7 - “5 Then the devil *took Him into the holy city;
and he had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 and *said to Him, “If You
are the Son of God throw Yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will give His
angels charge concerning You’; and ‘On
their hands they will bear You up, Lest You strike Your foot against a
stone.’” 7 Jesus said to him, “On the
other hand, it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’””
- Jesus’ second temptation
4.1.
These last two
temptations are in the opposite order in Luke’s account, however Matthew was
probably the one who was accurate in his order
4.2.
The devil
takes Jesus up bodily to the highest point on the temple, a place of
considerable height
4.3.
There are two
opinions about how why this temptation was carried out by the devil, and both
describe a temptation to to have presumption towards the Lord
4.3.1.
Some say that
there must have been a great crowd of people below and that the devil was
tempting Jesus to do something to prove to the people in a spectacular way that
He was the Messiah, and thus cause the entire nation to know once and for all
that He is the Messiah
4.3.1.1.However, it is doubtful that Jesus would have fallen for
this temptation since He must have known that just because people see miracles
performed by the Lord they do not necessarily come then to commit their way to
Him
4.3.1.2.Others say that the fact that no other people are
mentioned at all in any of these temptations indicates that a group was not
there, and that the temptation then was merely one to do something to prove His
power and the Lord’s anointing and choosing of Him
4.3.1.3.Jesus would then be being tempted to show off and
prove He was God’s Son
4.4.
It is wrong
to put yourself in a position in which you force the Lord’s hand to have to
work, to perform the miraculous
4.4.1.
Sometimes
Christians can live irresponsibly and carelessly and tempt the Lord to have to
miraculously provide for or protect them
4.4.1.1.A few years ago I read an article about a city in
4.4.2.
Sometimes
people go and live in sin and presume that the Lord will save and protect them
in spite of it
4.4.3.
I think that
this is a grave error that many in the ‘faith’ movement have placed themselves
in, as they teach that a Christian merely has to “name it and claim it”
4.4.3.1.There is also such a cruelty in the teaching of those
in this movement since they proclaim that the one whose prayer is not answered
must not have true faith or there must be in sin in his life
4.5.
We notice
here also that the devil knows and can quote scripture, however I must point
out that he distorts it here, for the full scripture he quotes from is Psalm
91:11-12, “11 For He will give His angels charge concerning you, To guard
you in all your ways. 12 They will bear you up in their hands, Lest you strike
your foot against a stone”
4.5.1.
This verse
says that the angels will guard God’s people in ‘all’ their ways, not just that
they will keep them from striking their foot against a stone
4.6.
In Jesus’
rebuff of satan from the scripture here, He quotes from Deut. 6:16-17, which
references a story that occurred in Exodus 17, “16 “You shall not put the
Lord your God to the test, as you tested Him at Massah. 17 “You should
diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and His testimonies and
His statutes which He has commanded you”
4.6.1.
In the
incident at Massah, which is told us in Ex. 17:1-7, the Israelites grumbled and
complained loudly against the Lord and Moses because they were thirsty, when
they should have merely looked to the Lord to provide for all of their needs,
and in this way they put the Lord to the test by their fleshly attitudes, “17:1
Then all the congregation of the sons of Israel journeyed by stages from the
wilderness of Sin, according to the command of the Lord, and camped at
Rephidim, and there was no water for the people to drink. 2 Therefore the
people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water that we may drink.” And
Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” 3
But the people thirsted there for water; and they grumbled against Moses and
said, “Why, now, have you brought us up from
4.6.1.1.Again the scripture that the Lord chose to rebuff
satan is appropriate, for just as the devil was tempting Christ to distrust the
Lord and believe that He was not for Him, the Israelites were testing the Lord
by doubting that He was among them and would provide for them when they put the
Lord to the test
5.
VS 4:8-11 - “8 Again, the devil *took Him to a very high
mountain, and *showed Him all the kingdoms of the world, and their glory; 9 and
he said to Him, “All these things will I give You, if You fall down and worship
me.” 10 Then Jesus *said to him, “Begone, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall
worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.’” 11 Then the devil *left Him;
and behold, angels came and began to minister to Him” - Jesus’ third temptation
5.1.
In this third
temptation we see that the devil took Jesus up to a high mountain where He
could see all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, so since there could
never be any physical place upon earth where this could happen, this time the
devil had to at least in part create a deceptive vision for the Lord for the
temptation in addition to physically transporting Him
5.1.1.
In this
temptation, satan deceives Jesus, for though he presently is the prince of the
power of the air on this earth, the power is not his to give kingdoms to
another, for as Dan. 5:21b says, “...the Most High God is ruler over the
realm of mankind, and that He sets over it whomever He wishes”
5.2.
In the
progression of these temptations we see that the devil is getting more
desperate, for Christ is not succumbing, so finally here in this temptation he
reveals his true colors
5.2.1.
Prior to this
temptation, satan was probably acting as a benefactor who was just looking out
for Christ, but now he foolishly comes tempting Christ to fall down and worship
him
5.3.
One author
has suggested that satan might not have insisted so much that Christ bow the
knee and worship him, but rather just that He might acknowledge satan and his
cause, for in doing this He would really be worshipping him
5.3.1.
Paul wrote
that those who worship idols are actually worshipping demons, for their is a
demonic being pulling the strings behind every form of false worship (which is
idolatry)
5.3.2.
Any kind of
worship of self or self-centeredness is idolatry, and this act itself is really
a form of worship of satan who is the epitomy of self worship and
self-centeredness
5.3.3.
You don’t
have to bend the knee to worship satan, you just have to act like him
5.4.
Jesus rebukes
the devil after this last temptation and he leaves Him, for the devil has no
part of Him, and Jesus chooses unequivocally to worship only the Lord
5.5.
We Christians
are called to ‘resist the devil’ during our times of temptation, and if we will
just persevere in that, Christ through His power will rebuke him from our lives
(James 4:7)
5.5.1.
We must not
forget that as James wrote in this verse, we must first submit ourselves to God
in order to successfully resist the devil
5.6.
God shows His
kindness in sending his holy angels to minister to Christ according to His
needs after the ordeal of this time of testing that was the most severe testing
of any person who has ever lived
5.7.
Quoting Deut.
6:13, Jesus rebuffs the devil by quoting to him that God and God alone is to be
reverenced and worshipped