The Temptation of Christ

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02/16/16 - Temptation

The Temptation of Christ

Mt. 4:1-11

 

Note that the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted.  [Mark says “the Spirit driveth him…”].  Jesus walking as a man submits to the leading of the Spirit that he might do battle against Satan alongside us.  But more than alongside us – he is alongside us but LEADING us.   These trials will get him ready for his service – hard, lonely, challenging, demanding, stressful teaching - only to end in torture and death.  [Often we don’t get ready for our work, so we don’t do it very well.]

Jesus fasted 40 days and 40 nights – we cannot imagine what he might have gone through there.  No attempt is made to tell us, perhaps because we could not know it – we could not understand how all human necessity can be put aside for so long – the depth of his struggle with the cares of the divine plan and preparation.

Sometimes it is asked how the Son of God could be tempted.   Remember that if he was not moved by these temptations, He was not tested, and he did not face what we face.  But how can the Son of God be tempted with evil?  Was he not rather tempted with good?  See how Jesus was tempted to misuse good, to substitute a lower good for the greatest good – the will of the Father.

 

‘If thou art the Son of God, command that these stones become bread’

 

First is the temptation of meeting lawful human necessities.  He was not just hungry, but starving, exhausted, weak, near death.  It would be a good thing, a right thing for him to eat – maybe we could even say it would be wrong not to eat!  How could a man be a worker for the Lord if he doesn’t take care of himself? 

But he would not use the power He had for his own benefit, but for the work of the Father.  He would not work a miracle for His own personal advantage - for His own convenience – not even to relieve His own suffering.

His answer: “It is written…”  He applies the Scriptures [Dt. 8:3], not just knowing them and analyzing, debating them, but living by them, deciding, acting.  He does not reply for the purpose of logical argument with Satan, but to emphasize the reason for his conduct.   “Man shall not live by bread alone.”  We are often tempted this way.  Poverty and hunger are taken as the worst evils in this world.  Men are led to believe that if God really cared for them, He would not let them suffer that way.

But there is a higher way of living.  If we don’t get enough bread, we die [physically].  But we shall live if God wills it, bread or no bread.  We do not really die if we live on every word of God.  He sees to it. The abundant life, the real life, comes from His will.

Note that he is not speaking of the Bible lying on the shelf, or of the Bible just as a quote book to bolster our choice doctrines, but every word of God, every revelation from Him that comes to us, made a living thing in us, piercing, cutting, dividing, moving, provoking.  We cannot really know that a word of God is TO us, until it is IN us. We cannot really know the word just by reading and memorizing, but it becomes a revelation to us when it lives in us.  And then we LIVE by the word of God.

 

 

 

‘If thou art the Son of God, cast thyself down’ from the wing of the temple

 

One wing of Herod’s temple overlooked the Kidron Valley, to a sheer drop of 450 feet to the valley floor.   Perhaps Satan takes him there.   Satan says, if you trust God so much, prove it.  The Scriptures say… [he is a misuser and misapplier of  the Word].

It was for Jesus the temptation to prove the truth of His claim, to show he was in the right, to put the adversary in his place. Don’t you think Jesus may have considered “I will show Satan who I am”?  I believe this temptation would indeed be hard to resist.  To be able to demonstrate my own power – to just show people who I am.

What is Jesus’ response?  “Thou shalt not make trial of the Lord thy God” – do not put Him to the test.  Jesus would let the Father choose and order as He wishes.  He would not put Him to the test.  He would not exercise power for his own personal revenge or credit.  He would not work a miracle to make a show, even to show the Father, or for the sake of proving to unbelievers who He was – for those who would seek a sign.  He knew it would do no good.  Even if it did, it would not be God’s way.  He chose rather God’s way – slower, surer, less dramatic, but by years of labor and love.

Our business is NOT “What will He do if I do so and so?”, but rather “What would He have me to do?”  Wouldn’t we like to make a show.  Wouldn’t we show them if we could work a miracle in front of them, show them we are right.  Maybe even be tempted to ask God to help us defeat them?  We are tempted by carnal methods – show them up publicly, humiliate them, prove to them by the force of our debating skills that we are right. 

 

‘All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.’

 

From a high mountain, He who is the ‘prince of this world’ offers Jesus all the kingdoms of the world – if Jesus would just fall down and worship him. “If you will worship me, I will give up my power over them and walk away, leaving it to you.  You can have your way in the world.  You can rule by the easy route.”

This was the temptation to take his power from Satan and take a shortcut to deliver His brethren.  How simple it would be to conquer the enemies of Israel, and then conquer the rest of the world.  He could save all the oppressed – the widows, orphans, slaves.

But God’s will is to be done.  He would not worship a lie to support the truth.  He would not try to accomplish his end of defeating Satan by bowing down to him.  He would not do evil that good may come.  He saw there is no good but the will of the Father.  Men must be made righteous in obedience and suffering, not in conquering.  Jesus must lead the way.

“Get thee hence, Satan.  For it is written, “thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve”.  Remember Jesus’ rebuke of Peter when he wanted to stand in Jesus’ way as He went to His death.   “Get thee behind me, Satan.  For thou mindest not the things of God, but the things of men.”

Then the devil left Him, at least for a season [Lk. 4].  He had survived the severest temptation.  He must have collapsed with the weight of it.  Heaven rejoiced and angels were sent to minister to Him.  In all these things, Jesus was not tempted to selfishness, but to do ‘good things’, to supply his physical needs, to put evil in its place and demonstrate his authority, to deliver His brethren from the evil one.  But there are no ‘shortcuts’ to righteousness – we must live by the Word of God, we must put our trust in Him and wait on Him, we must see His will as the only ‘good thing’, and we must be obedient to the point of suffering and death.