The Barn Christian Fellowship

Temptation is part of God's perfect plan for our growth

Matt 4:1-11

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.  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." ⁴ Jesus answered, ‘‘It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" 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.'" 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.'" ¹¹ Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

Since the fall in the garden of Eden temptation has been a constant unrelenting part of human life. People have tried to avoid it resist it run from it. Inflicted pain on themselves people have prayed against temptation they have isolated themselves denied themselves of physical comforts. But no person has ever found a place or circumstances than can isolate him from temptation.

A Fifth century Christian wrote these words:

Fly from all occasions of temptation, and if still tempted, fly further still. If there is no escape possible, then have done with running and show a bold face and take a two edged sword of the spirit. Some temptations must be taken by the throat as David Killed the lion; others must be stifled as David hugged the bear to death. Some you had better keep to yourselves and not give air. Shut them up as a scorpion in a bottle. Scorpions in such confinement die soon, but if allowed out for a crawl and then put back into the bottle and corked down, they will live a long while and give you trouble. Keep the cork on your temptations, and they will die of themselves.

Another person who lived 500 years after Christ sought and increase in grace and exception form temptation by wearing a rough hair shirt and living fro three years in a desolate cave. They lowered his food on a rope. Once he threw himself into a clump of thorns and briars until his body was covered with bleeding wounds. But he later admitted that he found now escape from temptation.

Other people have tried to overcome temptation by denying it. One monk taught that after a person was baptized he was forever free of the devil's power and from temptation.

We know that baptism does not drown the Devil.

Here in Matthew is described one of the most real and vivid personal encounters or confrontations a person can have with the devil. His baptism was his commissioning service. At his baptism Jesus was affirmed as the Son of God. God said of Him "This is my beloved son,, in whom I am well-pleased." 

Note some interesting facts preceding his temptation:

Ø He had just had a experience where he was filled with the Holy Spirit

Luke 4:1

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert

Now the test was going to come. After every high there is a test, temptation waiting.

After every victory there comes temptation

Testing can be used for good or evil purposes.

Satan used his testing for evil purposes.

He wanted to frustrate the plans of God from the outset.

Ø The second interesting fact is that he was lead by the Holy Spirit to the Desert where he was going to be tempted.

Here is the scenario:

• Jesus had been fasting for 40 days -he is now very hungry.
• The tempter comes and first makes a manipulative statement
• Then ask him to perform a miracle
• Jesus refuses by answering "that man should not live by bread alone

"If you are the Son of God...." The Greek indicates that he did not deny that Jesus was the Son of God. Satan had just witnessed the baptism of Jesus and the demonstration of the filling with the Holy Spirit and he had just heard God say "This is my son with whom I am well pleased."

He was making a manipulative statement to challenge Jesus to do something that would be against the will of God.

Saying to a mother "if you are a mother you will change your babies nappy". The statement does not deny the mothers motherhood but is a challenge or a manipulating statement to get her to do what you want her to do.

It almost seems that Jesus' answer lacked meaning and depth. Why did he give him this answer?

Ø The first direct temptation in the wilderness was for Jesus to act against the plan of God.

Food was not the issue

The temptation involves far more that Jesus satisfying hunger. After 40 days in the desert he was hungry and thirsty. He had the right to food and something to drink.

Part of the temptation was to meet His own need in a miraculous way.

The second part of the temptation was that being hungry in the desert was challenging Jesus' dignity as the son of God. He was tempted to doubt the father's word, the father's love, and the Fathers' provision. He was challenged to use His own divine powers to supply what God had not. The Son of God was too important to suffer such hardship and discomfort. He was born in a stable, had to flee to Egypt, lived with a insignificant family for thirty years in a small obscure village, now he is in a desert, no people no recognition no food,

Surely there was more to it than all of this, especially after his Baptism and the fact that God say about Him that He is His beloved son. It was a good time to use some of the dignity and divine authority for his own personal benefit.

The first Adam failed because of fruit, Satan wanted the Lord Jesus who is refereed to as the second Adam to fail as a result of bread, both would have been acts of rebellion against God.

Jesus illustrated by His statement that he will not do things against the will of God. His purpose was to do the will of God

John 5:30

³⁰ By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.

John 10:30

²⁹ My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand.  ³⁰ I and the Father are one."

Heb 10:5-7

⁵ Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: ‘‘Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; ⁶ with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. ⁷ Then I said, ‘Here I am-it is written about me in the scroll- I have come to do your will, O God.'"

John 4;34

³⁴ ‘‘My food," said Jesus, ‘‘is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.

Matt 26:39,42

³⁹ Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, ‘‘My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will." ⁴² He went away a second time and prayed, ‘‘My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done."

It was this absolute trust and submission that Satan wanted to destroy.

Jesus Illustrated

We are better off to obey and depend on God, waiting on his provision, than to grab satisfaction for ourselves when and as we think we need it. 

Deut 8

Do Not Forget the Lord

8         Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land that the LORD promised on oath to your forefathers.  ² Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.  ³ He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.  ⁴ Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years.  ⁵ Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you. ⁶ Observe the commands of the LORD your God, walking in his ways and revering him.  ⁷ For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land-a land with streams and pools of water, with springs flowing in the valleys and hills;  ⁸ a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey;  ⁹ a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills. ¹⁰ When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you.  ¹¹ Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day.  ¹² Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down,  ¹³ and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied,  ¹⁴ then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.  ¹⁵ He led you through the vast and dreadful desert, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock.  ¹⁶ He gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known, to humble and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you.  ¹⁷ You may say to yourself, ‘‘My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me."  ¹⁸ But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today

When our physical needs are met we forget God, he is not just our God to meet our physical needs.

God's people are never justified in complaining and worrying about their needs. If we live by faith and in obedience to His word, we will never lack anything we really need.

Phil 4;19

¹⁹ And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

Matt 6:8

⁸ Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

Matt 6;28-33

²⁸ ‘‘And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.  ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.  ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?  ³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?' or ‘What shall we drink?' or ‘What shall we wear?'  ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

We are always better off when we obey God and trust in His gracious sustenance than to impatiently selfishly try and bypass God.

And more importantly God is not just there to provide for our needs.

Man shall not live by bread alone

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