Temptation Wilderness!

Matthew 4:1-11

Last year the Fox network premiered a reality TV show that was a big hit.

The show put four unmarried couples on a remote Caribbean island to test their devotion to one another. The couples are separated from each other upon arrival. The women stay at a resort with 13 single men - the four men stay at a resort with 13 single women.

During the two week stay the couples have no direct communication with each other. The idea is to see how long the couples will remain committed to each other, or will fall into the arms of another.

How low has our society fallen when we purposefully put people in situations where they will be tempted - and then watch with interest when they fall?

Well, today in Matthew chapter 4 we see God put Jesus, not on Temptation Island, but in Temptation Wilderness. It wasn't to see Jesus fail, it was to prove, test, and show that Jesus was ready to fulfill God's plan.

We often find ourselves in a similar place of temptation - and instead of wanting us to fall, God wants us to stand firm against temptation. Let's look and see how He does it.

4:1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.

"Then" - the same Spirit that descended on Jesus now leads Him out to be tempted. God's purpose is not to see if Jesus is ready but to show that He is ready to take on the role of Messiah.

Satan's plan is to thwart Jesus' ministry early on - we'll see why as we progress through this part of the chapter.

We might ask here - will God do to us what He did to Jesus? Yes.

We need to understand what's meant here - God doesn't "tempt" anyone - or "entice into doing evil". The word "tempt" is actually the word for "test." God was testing Jesus to prove He was ready to begin the public ministry of the Messiah.

Sometimes God will test us - not to humiliate us, for we often fall whereas Jesus never did - but to refine us. That is, after all, what God is about doing in our lives - refining and transforming us into His image.

Part of that process is facing tests. As we see the tests Jesus faced, and how He overcame them, we can gain help for our times of facing the enemy.

2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread."

First off - fasting 40 days? It is possible, although not advisable.

Now we think - Jesus was the Messiah, of course He could go 40 days without food or water. Remember - Jesus was fully man - and He suffered from the physical depravation just like you would.

Some say you can only go for a week without water before you die. We don't know if Jesus had no water - but we do know that He had no food. This is possible - but at the end Jesus would have been VERY weak. It is in this state that the devil comes - not in the temple or at the baptism or when Jesus is strong.

That's the way it is for us too - Satan comes when we are weak. He means it to strike us down, God means it for us to rely further on Him and not ourselves.

The temptations came in three areas:

Physical needs, possessions and power, and pride.

I want to pause here and show you an interesting parallel with how Satan tempted the first woman - Eve, in the Garden of Eden - and how he tempts us today. Turn with me to Genesis 3.

Gen 3:1-6
3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"

2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'"

4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. 5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

The fruit represents rebellion against God - it was "good for food" - that physical needs - "pleasing to the eye" that's possessions and power - and "desirable for gaining wisdom" that's pride.

Now turn to 1 John 2:16.

1 John 2:15-16
15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For everything in the world-the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does-comes not from the Father but from the world

It's the same stuff as in the Garden and the wilderness.

Jesus Eve Us
Turn stones into bread Fruit was good for food Lust of the flesh
Prove His divine sonship Gain wisdom to be like God Pride of Life
Obtain all He could see Fruit was pleasing to the eye Lust of the eyes

Why do we need to know this?

1) Because if we don't know how we are being tempted we won't know how to respond.
2) Paul wrote in 2 Cor 2:11 that we are not ignorant of Satan's devices. These are his devices - and they haven't changed in thousands of years.

o Lust of the flesh - Meeting our physical needs no matter the cost (sexual, hunger, comfort, etc)

o Lust of the eyes - Letting the things we want rule our values and our priorities

o Pride of life - Setting ourselves as the number one and only priority

Pretty much all temptation comes in one of these three areas. Begin to recognize and categorize temptations - if you know how the enemy works you rise up a level beyond just dealing with the individual circumstances.

Computers - until you've opened one up and understood something of how the inner workings go together you can't begin to fix a problem.

We need to see the inner workings of temptation to understand how to keep from falling prey to it.

How Jesus dealt with the temptations can be model for us. Let's look.

4 Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"

First and foremost Jesus responded to Satan with God's written Word. That's how we need to answer as well.

Jesus didn't get into an argument with Satan or try to reason His way out of the dilemma - He just repeated God's Word.

For us, we need to first know His Word, then apply it. That's why we emphasize the teaching of God's Word so heavily here at Living Waters.

But let's look more closely at how He responded to each specific temptation.

1. The Bread

Both Jesus and Satan knew that Jesus could do the miracle - and later Jesus did make bread - not out of stones but out of thin air. The problem wasn't the bread, - eating is a good thing, especially if you want to stay around for a while. The problem was the timing.

This was a time for Jesus' testing through a fast - not to eat.

With us it is the same way - physical intimacy is a good thing - but not before or outside of marriage. Like Jesus, we need to commit ourselves to being pure and committed to God's mission and timing.

Many desires are normal and good - being a disciple of Christ means finding the right time and way to use those desires.

5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6 "If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down. For it is written:

"'He 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.'"

7 Jesus answered him, "It is also written: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"

2. The Pinnacle

The pinnacle of the Temple was a high corner place of the Temple Mount with the Kidron Valley beneath - I've seen it and it is a long way from that precipice to the valley floor below.

Satan quotes Scripture - a side note - Satan knows the Bible better than most Christians. But he will use the Word out of its context in order to twist the meaning. Sometimes the enemy will through the mouths of others use the Word to get us to sin - we need to know it, and the context, in order to avoid this.

Jumping from the pinnacle would have been a ridiculous test of God's power. Satan was testing Jesus' relationship with the Father.

Jesus would have none of it.

He again quotes Duet - don't test the Lord. Jesus understood that doing this would have been out of the Father's will. The Father's mission for Jesus was for Him to suffer and die, not to be protected by the angels (as He said later in the Garden of Gethsemane).

For us - we need to not short circuit God's mission for our lives, even if that means suffering. It's the sign of a mature believer who will forgo personal comfort or even safety, or go through a trial - because they know God is shaping them.

8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 "All this I will give you," he said, "if you will bow down and worship me."

10 Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.'"

This was obviously the most difficult temptation. Satan was offering Jesus the chance to get to the end product, returning rule of the earth give to Satan by Adam. And Jesus wouldn't have to undergo the death on the cross to get it. But He would have to bow down and worship Satan in order to get it.

The problem is that Jesus getting the world back would still leave us as lost sinners. Jesus came into the world to "seek and save the lost."

Satan didn't understand that pain and death were part of God's plan - as they are for us - death to self and sin, pain as He molds us into His image - but the end is far better for the suffering.

Jesus said: "Away with you." This temptation came down to a choice - God or Satan. Jesus would worship and serve ONLY God.

Satan offers us the same thing - worldly success, wealth, sex, power - in exchange for submitting to him instead of God. Remember to quote the same verse as Jesus - worship God only.

11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

We don't know if the angels served Jesus' physical or spiritual needs or both - but we do know that they played an important part in assisting Jesus - and they play an important, though mostly invisible part in helping us.

Another thing - the temptation had an end - and so too do temptations in our lives. God knows our limits.

1 Cor 10:13
13 No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.


Lessons Learned

o Following Jesus can lead to dangerous and intense encounters with the enemy
o Our spiritual victories might not always be apparent in the visible world
o We must rely on God's power to withstand temptation - not our own
o Temptation isn't sin, however dirty it makes us feel
o Remember - real obedience doesn't show until it is tested
o In all three Scriptures that Jesus quoted (from Duet.) the nation of Israel failed the test. Jesus was telling Satan "where my people failed, I will NOT fail." This is a good thing for us to remember - where we fail in our flesh, Jesus will NOT fail, and we can rely on Him to help us through any temptation.