Was it a Trial, was it a Test, or was it a Temptation? (Part 2 of 2)
Matthew 4: 1-11
So, how did Jesus handle this temptation? Well, let’s remind ourselves of what the text says.
The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread. Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
(Matthew 4: 4)
When we look at verse 4 we see he answered by saying, “it is written man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God”. This puts the whole temptation into clear focus. Satan said make these stone into bread, and Jesus says you got it wrong Satan, because man does not live by bread, and the keyword here is alone. But by every word that comes out of the mouth of God, Jesus is quoting Deuteronomy 8:3, which means he meets Satan head on with scripture .So how do we overcome temptation? We do it by first of all knowing scripture and beyond that knowing when to apply it.
So, the first temptation was to disobey the will of God and take a legitimate need and meet it in an illegitimate way. Satan said follow the craving of your own flesh and Jesus said no, I have to live by the word of God and he quotes Deuteronomy to make this point.
Let’s look at the 2nd temptation. The first was about being disobedient to God’s will. The second has to do with disbelieving God word. Now keep in mind Jesus has just quoted Scripture so Satan comes back and says OK, two can play that game.
Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “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.]”
(Matthew 4: 5-6)
Satan says “you want to trade scriptures, here is Psalm 91”. But when he quotes the scripture, he only quote a portion of it, and he quotes it out of the context of the whole passage it sits within. Let’s look at the original place this passage comes from.
If you say, “The Lord is my refuge,” and you make the Most High your dwelling, no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
(Psalm 91: 9-12)
It then goes on to list many of the blessings of God. This passage makes no bones about the fact that if a person has made the Lord their refuge, because of that decision no evil shall prevail against them. Get the picture? God promises to protect those who trust him, and Satan conveniently left that caveat out. In other words, Satan is mis-using scripture to tempt Jesus.
I studied Shakespeare’s play the Merchant of Venice when I was 15. In that play Shakespeare said the devil can cite scripture for his purposes, and that is true. The way it does it is so he can deceives people; he usually tries makes them think you will gain some earthly thing that you won’t Satan uses Scripture to disguise temptations. I don’t know how many people I’ve had said to me, when discussing the sin in their lives “but the Bible says” and then what follows is usually totally out of context, and they have totally missed the point. That’s why you need to really know not only what the Bible says, but what it means. So how does Jesus meet this temptation, look what he does.
Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
(Matthew 4: 7)
In other words, Jesus is saying you should trust the Lord, not test the Lord. What Satan wants us to do is put God to the test and see if what he does is what he said he will do. If you think about that for a moment it is clear to see that by testing to see if God will deliver what the scripture promise is just another way of saying you disbelieve what it says in his word. In the case, it wasn’t even an accurate representation of what the scriptures actually said, So that is why this second temptation had to do with disbelieving God word.
There’s one more temptation. The first was about being disobedient to God’s will. The second has to do with disbelieving God word. The third has to do with disregarding God’s worship.
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”
(Matthew 4: 8-9)
Satan take Jesus to an exceedingly high mountain where it says he can see all the kingdoms of the world, so perhaps this is in some kind of a vision. At any rate, he shows him all the kingdoms of the world and he says, “I’ll give you all of these”. There’s a couple of very interesting things about this. In the first place, is Jesus destined to rule all the nations as the king of kings. So, he is offering to give him something that he is going to get anyway? Satan suggest he can offer Him a shortcut to gaining this. This of course suggests that if he does it Satan way he can miss out the cross.
Here’s another rather fascinating fact about this. Satan says he’s going to give him all the nations of the world. Does he have the right to do that? In what way is Satan God of this world? He is only the God of this world, in the sense that when the world fell, and creation film then demonic forces began to hold sway over the nations, and the majority of people then as now have handed over their lives to be driven by these demonic forces. So, he is the God of this world in that it’s under his domain and at this point, he has control of all the regenerate souls and the kingdoms thy have built. But scripture teaches that when Jesus comes back, he’s going to conquer the devil and restore and gain the whole world it legitimately.
So again, the Devils is tempting Jesus to take the shortcut, to cut out all this suffering and sacrifice stuff. Just worship me he says and you can have it all now. Here’s Jesus’ response,
Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’” Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.
(Matthew 4: 10-11)
This is a direct quotation from the Pentateuch a quotation from Deuteronomy Chapter 6. So, Jesus reminds Satan that he has got it all wrong again, I’m not meant to worship you, I’m here too worship father God and him only. Again, he meets him head on by quoting scripture.
OK, let’s sum all this up and let me see if I can make some practical suggestions of how this applies to us today What I’m saying is simply this, God tests you and you might find that test a agonizing trial. Very often at the same time as the test, Satan will appear and try to tempts you to, rather than endure the trial but capitulate and disobey the will of God, disbelieve word and disregard the worship of God, and take his path instead. In short, simple sentences, Satan tempts you to ignore God, to disobey God, to not believe in who God. Got it? That’s Satan’s plan, to get you to leave God out of the equation, and that is the essence of temptation.
Now I want to draw this to a close by making a couple of observations and by doing so I hope to give you a few keys into how to overcome temptation. Would you like to know how to do that, well stick with me. Firstly, I want to make the observation that many have pointed out there is a similar temptation right in the beginning of the Bible in the Book of Genesis. There’s a similarity between all of this temptation presented to Christ and those at the beginning of the Bible that led to the fall of man. I think this is most fascinating. The temptation in the Garden of Eden was the temptation to eat the tree that was forbidden by God and what did Satan does here is tells Jesus to turn stones into bread. That there is a sense in which both passages are talking about a temptation that involves seeking pleasure.
What this tells me is the thing that is most likely to lure us away from the will of God, is pleasure seeking. If you look both passages closely you will see it always comes down being tempted to go after pleasure and power. That’s not to say that God doesn’t want you to have pleasure, that God doesn’t want you to have some agency in your life and there isn’t a legitimate place for pride if you are being proud of something glorious. So, what can we learn about the ways to overcome temptation? I’m going to give you three things.
The first thing you need to know about overcoming temptation is that you’ve got to know the word of God. And you’ve got to know it so that it’s at your fingertips, or a better way of saying it , is that it is on your lips when you need it to be. It’s going to need to be an integral part of the way you think. When we neglect spending time with the Lord in His word, we become more vulnerable to temptation. Now. this is a growth process, a discipleship process, it’s not just citing Bible verses it’s about understanding the word of God so that you understand the will of God, so you can know in the moment what you should or should not do. This is why the more you grow in the Christian faith, the more you grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, the better you are equipped to not only resist temptations that the devil , but also to overcome the trials of life and send the devil running.The Bible says we are to be, “strong in the Lord”, which leads me to my second point.
Later, and we will get to this as we go through the Gospel of Matthew Jesus will teach us to pray and he said we are to pray “lead us not into temptation”. The second thing you need to do is pray. Most Christians pray when they feel tempted, the Lord prayer tells us to pray before we are tempted. Don’t wait until you face a temptation before you start praying. The key is to pray before you are faced with the temptation. This type of pray should naturally be intimately linked with our study of the word. When we are grappling with his word, and are struggling to discern what it means, God by His Holy Spirit will lead us to some conclusions about what it says, and you then need to simply ask him for the strength to do what it says we should do. You’ll probably have to have some small skirmishes before you’re able to tackle the big skirmishes. But as you go through that process, you will grow until eventually you can be strong in the Lord, which just means being able to remain firm in times of trail and less likely to succumb to temptation.
But there’s one more thing the Bible says. There will no trial you will not be able to bear and there will be no temptation above which God cannot enable you to have victory. God is faithful and he will always provide you a way of escape or victory. Victory over the trail or escape from the temptation. Our desires should never overtake the will of God. And when the desire gets strong then. We just read that Jesus fasted for 40 days and nights. Do you think he was hungry? The desire for food was there and yet he said, “I would rather be hungry in the will of God than experience a momentary pleasure in the will of Satan. This is a warning and wisdom all wrapped up in one.
Listen to what Paul says about this.
No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. 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 endure it.
Make no mistake about it, this is a discipleship process, and you will have to make some choices along the way. But when it’s a temptation God will always give you a way of escape. God always provides the way of escape, but you be prepared to flee. If you want to know how to overcome habitual sin or addiction, here is what the word of God says you should do, don’t fall for Satan substitutes. If you got pain in your life don’t self-medicate with drugs or alcohol, turn to the word of God and seek legitimate medical help. But underpinning all this is the fact that you have got toa know the word of God so you can know the will of God.
And never forget the third thing. The third thing is, God will provide a way of escape. He will give you an opportunity to flee, but at the point is you have to take it. Let’s not pretend we don’t usually know exactly what going on when we face temptation, usually it saddles up beside us, sits in the seat next to us and whispers in our ear. Maybe all you need to is metaphorically move seats, all you need to recognise is that you shouldn’t sit where you are currently sitting, and move away from the temptation. If you were seeking God with all of your heart and soul you will want to be seated alongside him more than anyone or anything else in this world and certainly more than the empty promises of Satan.