The Temptation of Jesus – 2/11/24

Here’s what I need all of you to do right off the top: I need you to consider last week and this week one long service. That’s actually why we’re doing all of the same songs that we did last week again this week, to make you feel like this is one long service. Actually, I need you to consider my message from last week a really long introduction to my sermon this week. It’s one big sermon. So, if you weren’t here last week, or you missed last week and weren’t able to watch the video on our website since, then don’t leave. Stay. But some of what I say is informed from last week, so let me give you a quick summary of what we learned last week.

The Bible teaches the devil is real. Christians must understand the devil rightly to live rightly. To understand the devil rightly, Christians must understand Jesus rightly. Understanding Jesus rightly empowers us to not give the devil too much or too little credit. So, this moment in the wilderness, the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness, is not a neat moral lesson. It’s not an allegory. It is a culminating event where Jesus, the forever King, the supernatural deliverer of God’s people, faces the ancient serpent, the devil, the Satan in the wilderness. Jesus must resist temptation in the wilderness or hope for all of humanity is lost forever.

This week, the big idea that we’re going to try to see in the text is this: Jesus wins, the devil loses, we win too. Jesus wins, the devil loses, we win too. To help us get there, I’m going to introduce to you a new sermon segment that I’m going to call “brief comments that could be whole sermons.” These are brief comments from this story that could be whole sermons.

Number one, our lives will mirror the life of Jesus. Jesus was just declared the Son of God, and then he was led by the Spirit of God into the wilderness. Just because God declares us his children doesn’t mean we won’t walk through the wilderness. We will face temptation. Number two, don’t disconnect Jesus’s fasting from the Spirit’s leading. The Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness and Jesus fasts. They go together. Number three: Jesus was hungry, not helpless. After 40 days of fasting, Matthew tells us Jesus was hungry. That is perhaps the biggest understatement in all of the Bible. There are literally people in this room who are afraid to be with me if I don’t have my 10:30 a.m. protein bar. 40 days, I’m going to be starving and I will go through you for food, right? I heard multiple times growing up that Jesus, in this moment because of fasting, was at his weakest, facing the temptation. Jesus was physically weak from hunger. He was spiritually strong, removing food to focus on prayer and his relationship with the Father was wise preparation for temptation. Heightened dependance upon God is not weakness, it’s wisdom.

All right, several brief comments that could be sermons about the whole idea of temptation. Temptation is all about intent. What I mean here is the literal word “temptation.” I think we immediately think temptation is an evil word, but the word is informed by intent in the scriptures. This is sometimes differentiated with the word test and temptation. What’s the difference? A test is for the good of the person. It’s for the good of someone. If you teach a kid to ride a bike and they know what they’re doing, and you remove the training wheels and you push them along and you let go, and you test their skill, it’s for their good. You want them to ride well, not skid across the pavement. A temptation is a malicious attempt to get someone to fail. This would be like a parent putting their child on a bike, taking off the training wheels, putting them on a downhill and giving them a shove. They know they’re going to fail. That’s the difference. Test versus temptation. Temptations are traps set in front of us to get us to act in an anti-God way.

Temptations occur outside of us. They’re traps set for us by the evil one, his crew, other humans (both Christians and non-Christians), and this broken world that we live in. Paul writes this in 1 Thessalonians 3:5,

“For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to learn about your faith, for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain.”

Paul was genuinely concerned about this exterior temptation coming from the devil to this church in Thessalonica.

At the same time, temptations arise from within us. Outside of us, within us. We’re tempted within ourselves. Jesus’ brother, named James, writes this:

“Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I’m being tempted by God,’ for God cannot be tempted with evil, and He himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”

So, we can be tempted from without, we are tempted from within. Maybe you’ve heard something like this. I’ve heard this kind of statement floating around: “When I’m tempted, I’m not sinning unless I act upon the temptation.” Well, that statement kind of forgets our internal temptation part, that there’s stuff going on inside of me that I might not even be able to see. Stuff like covetousness, where I really want what you want and I’m not content with what I have. Or hatred. Jesus replies to that popular statement like this in Matthew 5,

“But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

So, when I permit and participate with my internal desires that are anti-God’s ways, I’m sinning. Even if it’s not demonstrated outside of me. And when I sin, death is just around the corner. So just because there isn’t an exterior action, that doesn’t mean I’m not sinning. Big point: temptation did not come from within Jesus. Jesus did not possess interior sinful desires to match the devil’s exterior temptation. Jesus was the perfect human. Now, that doesn’t diminish at all Jesus’s experience of the temptation. Author of The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis, who lived around World War II, helps us so much here. He says this,

“No man knows how bad he is ’till he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out of the strength of the German army by fighting against it, not by giving in. You find out the strength of the wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives into temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness— they have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because he was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means— the only complete realist.”

Jesus understands temptation over the long haul that we can’t even imagine.

Finally, temptation at its core is an invitation to short cut God’s design. The three passages that Chris read at the beginning, there’s this throughline of these temptations to find something that looks good, find something that will satisfy us, find something that’ll make us more like God and go after them. It’s a shortcut to God’s design. We often think of temptation as the bad thing we might do or think or say, and that is true. But that real bad thing is there only because God has another way. Temptation is an invitation to shortcut God’s ways. It’s an offer to satisfy your desire in your own way, in your own time, rather than in God’s way. Now let’s work through these three temptations that Jesus endures for us.

Temptation number one: you are hungry…make bread. Matthew 4:3-4,

“And the tempter came and said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.’”

So, right off the bat, the tempter questions and challenges Jesus’ identity. Remember, Jesus was just declared the Son of God in baptism right before this moment. Now the tempter comes in and says, “If you’re the Son of God,” or that could be translated “since you’re the Son of God.” “If you’re the Son of God” seems to indicate a questioning of Jesus’s identity (are you really the Son of God?), “since” seems to communicate the tempter is challenging Jesus’s identity (if you’re really the Son of God, prove it. Make the stones bread). Since you’re the Son of God, don’t deny yourself. You can fix this. Make those stones bread.

Now, as I’ve read this story multiple times, I’ve come to this realization: there doesn’t seem to be any obvious malicious intent. The tempter isn’t asking Jesus to kill someone or steal or openly lust. In a way, you could say it’s just bread, right? What is the temptation then? We’ve got to remember who the tempter is. The tempter, the Satan lies and slanders. The devil is slandering the Spirit’s leading. The Spirit led Jesus to the wilderness, and led Jesus to fasting, led Jesus to hunger. The tempter attempts to get Jesus to question that leading, the temptation is, “Jesus, you have a need. Satisfy it. Need it.” The devil claims, “Jesus, you can have a feast without the fast. God’s path for you here isn’t satisfying, so satisfy yourself because of who you are in your way and in your timing.” Jesus’ reply in this moment is my calling is to feast without food. How do you do that? Jesus says this,

“But he answered, ‘It is written, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”‘”

We’re going to notice a pattern in each temptation. Jesus does this. He goes back in time and pulls out a story of God’s people that’s recorded in the Old Testament and in one particular book, Deuteronomy. This story is from Deuteronomy 8:2-3. Moses says this to God’s people,

“And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness.”

Where are they? Help me out. In the wilderness. Where’s Jesus? Do you think there’s a connection? I do, too. He led you into the wilderness

“that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”

Hunger then food highlighted the nutritional value of God’s word. God’s words are more life-giving to God’s people than carbs, protein, and fat. Jesus responds to the tempter, no, what I really need in this moment, tempter, is God’s word. God’s provision. God’s promises. God’s plan. Even when I’m hungry right now, I’m actually full. I have his words.

Temptation number two: you are protected…jump off a tower. Matthew 4:5-8,

“Then the devil took him to the holy city [to Jerusalem] and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God’”

Same thing. Question. Challenge. Identity.

“If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”

Once again, the devil doesn’t present Jesus with an egregious, obviously immoral moment. Instead, they stand on top of a tower in downtown Jerusalem. The devil even quotes scripture here. The devil is now patterning Jesus. Jesus goes, “it is written,” and now the devil is going, “it’s written.” Remember, last week, we discovered that Paul said that the devil can disguise himself as an angel of light. This week, we learn the tempter also knows his Bible, and we would be wise to remember that.

What is the temptation? Jesus, you have a promise. Prove it. The devil is saying to Jesus, God isn’t worthy of your trust until you have a satisfactory response. The space between God’s promises and God’s fulfillment, that place right there, that isn’t a safe space for you, Jesus. You better make sure God is going to keep his promise. If he doesn’t fulfill it on your timetable, that promise is null and void. So, prove that God is worthy of your trust. After all, you’re the Son of God, right? The devil is sowing doubt. Is God trustworthy? You ever felt that? Jesus’ reply is, my calling is to trust, not test.

“Jesus said to him, ‘Again it is written, “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.”‘”

Again, Jesus time travels back to God’s people in Deuteronomy. In this section, it’s describing what it looks like to love God. Moses tells God’s people, “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah.” What happened there? At Massah, God’s people were in the wilderness, and they were thirsty. Their thirst made them question God’s promise to deliver them from Egypt. God said, I’m going to take you out of Egypt and deliver you to the promised land. You’re going to no longer be slaves. You’re going to be free. I’m going to take you from cursing to blessing. And on the way, they ran out of food. So, God provided them meat, and now their water rations are low. The people begin questioning God’s promise about deliverance. Then they argue with Moses and say to Moses, I guess God rescued us to kill us out here. Moses, tell him to show up. Tell him to give us some water and prove that he’s going to deliver us. Jesus goes to that moment in history and reminds the devil, it is not my job to prove God’s reliability. It’s my job to trust God’s authority.

Temptation number three: you are promised an inheritance…take it. Matthew 4:8-11,

“Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, ‘All these I will give you, if you fall down and worship me.’”

From this great vista, the hero and the tempter view all the kingdoms of the world and all of their glory. It’s in this moment we do see an obvious bad thing. Even if you aren’t a Christian, many would cringe at the idea of worshiping the devil. But the devil is making a deal here. He’s more wise than any beast that was crafted in the garden. He’s making a deal with Jesus. He’s a slick salesman. If you worship me, I’ll give you the kingdoms of the world. That’s actually pretty significant because God has promised Jesus multiple times in the scriptures that he’s going to give Jesus the kingdoms of the world and their glory. Here’s one example. God said to Jesus in Psalm 2:8,

“Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.”

In the book of Revelation we read this moment where, when heaven and earth come back together, the nations are going to bring their glory into this new realm that’s created and give it to Jesus. So, the devil comes in and says, get what you’re promised. I know you’ve been promised that. Let’s get it on a different path. Get your nations. Get your kingdoms. Worship me and I’ll give you your inheritance. Why could that be a temptation? Well, in God’s plan, the way, the path through which Jesus receives his inheritance is the cross. To worship and obey God the Father, Jesus has to go to Jerusalem and suffer and die. The devil’s deal here is a shortcut. The temptation is, “Jesus, you’re going to have suffering. Avoid it.”

Later in Matthew’s account, Jesus is going to explain this reality to his friends. Matthew 16:21-23,

“From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, ‘Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.’ But he turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.’”

Jesus clearly tells his friends, this is the path for deliverance. This is the path for salvation. This is the path where I’ll get my inheritance, and Peter steps in and corrects Jesus. I’m going to be honest with you, I actually resonate with Peter. I think I’m wired like that, too. “Hey, Jesus. This whole suffering dying thing, that’s not really what we think of as a messiah and a deliverer around here. That’s not really a great plan of deliverance. Let me help you out here. We need to get some strategic relationships built. We need to work on your communications platform. Your followers aren’t tracking with this dying thing to save them. Let’s think military takeover, Jesus.” And Jesus looks at Peter and says what could be interpreted as a very harsh thing: “Get behind me, Satan!” Get behind me, slanderer! Do you think Jesus yelled at him? I don’t know. Nobody knows. But we sure can tell that Jesus is looking at Peter and saying, Peter, stop slandering God’s plan. You’ve been with me for three years. I know my path and I know it’s hard and I’ve set my face to that path. Don’t join the slanderer from the wilderness. I’ve already faced this temptation and won. Don’t tempt me again. You’re a burden now, not a help.

The temptation for Jesus is, Jesus, you can have the crown without the cross. You can get the kingdoms and not be killed. There’s an easier path to get what you deserve. It’s as if the devil is looking at Jesus and saying, listen, God’s rewards aren’t worth suffering for. God isn’t really worthy of your worship if it involves suffering. I’ll give you rewards without the suffering. Jesus’s reply is, my calling is to serve, not swerve. “Then Jesus said to him, ‘Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.”‘ Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.” Jesus ordered the tempter to go sit in the corner. Never doubt who’s in control in the wilderness.

In this Deuteronomy quote that Jesus gives us, Moses is reminding God’s people about their forgetfulness regarding God. Don’t forget it’s God who rescued you. Don’t forget right now that it’s God who’s providing for you, that it’s God who gave you your land, your houses, your wells, your water, your trees, your food, your friends, your family. Don’t forget that. Don’t forget who you owe absolute allegiance to, that God is the only one you fear, the only one you worship, the only one you serve. Don’t forget. And Jesus grabs a hold of that message when tempted to run down a path that avoids God’s call of suffering. Jesus reminds the devil who deserves worship.

You remember last week we learned that one of the things about the devil and his crew is they did not want God’s created order. They rejected it because they wanted to be like God. I love this moment so much because the storyteller in me loves it because it comes full circle. The rebellion that began in heaven about created order, now that the Satan is face-to-face with Jesus, Jesus looks at him and goes, the created order stands. You’re not worthy of worship. I’m not giving in. And the devil responds to Jesus’s victory and his authority, and he obeys Jesus and leaves. Then, in what is this beautiful, tender moment at the end of the story, God sends ministering angels to Jesus. Whether that was food or words of help, we don’t know, but God comes in at the end and comforts his son.

Friends, why does it matter that Jesus won? I’ve said that last week and this week, it’s a life-or-death situation, he has to win. Well, why does it really matter that he won in the wilderness? Well, Jesus’ victory in the wilderness does a couple of things.

First, it verifies Jesus’s identity. I hope most of you know what I’m about to say. This moment in the wilderness is like two-factor authentication. You know what that is? When you set up your account, it’s going to send a text to your phone to be able to get into your account. You get the code, and you have to send it back. The wilderness is the second step of two-factor authentication. The identity is verified. Jesus is declared the Son of God by God with the Spirit over him in the water, he is verified, he is authenticated as the Son of God in his victory over the devil in the wilderness. Jesus is who Matthew claims. I wish I had time to go back through every claim about Jesus all over again. Jesus is who Matthew says he is: son of Abraham, son of David, son of God, supernatural deliverer of God’s people. He is. He’s authenticated in this victory.

Jesus’s victory in the wilderness highlights temptation’s severity. If Jesus is who Matthew claims Jesus is (son of Abraham, son of David, son of God), isn’t it amazing that Jesus took temptation seriously? Have you ever thought about that? He was led by the Spirit, and he took 40 days without food to pray and be with God to be ready. I’m left to look at myself and go, do I take temptation seriously at all? Am I in any type of regular prep mode? Friends, if Jesus needed to be ready, maybe we do. Let me read again from Jesus’ brother James, James 1:13-15,

“Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God,’ for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”

When our internal desires hold hands with external temptations, they produce sin. They produce violations of God’s laws and waves and paths and desires. When that happens, death is right there.

When we talk about this whole idea of temptation, there are only two paths. When we hit temptation, there’s only two paths: (1) we resist, aided by the power of the Spirit, the reality of Jesus’s victory in the wilderness, the power of Jesus’s life, death, burial, and resurrection. We resist, and that path leads to life and fullness and joy and relationship with God the Father. Or (2) we surrender and we enjoy momentary satisfaction that quickly disappears into shame and guilt when we realize that we’re on a path that leads to death. I argued last week and this week that this story is not a neat moral lesson. It is a moment of life and death. Jesus has to win. And so, friends, by extension, when it comes to temptations that we face, they are moments of life and death.

Finally, Jesus’ victory in the wilderness confirms Jesus’s sympathy. This victory in the wilderness is for us. It confirms Jesus’s ability to sympathize with us, to help us right now, today, in temptation. Hebrews 2:18,

“For because he [Jesus] himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.”

Hebrews 4:14-16,

“Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

In the wilderness, the devil hurled all his schemes at Jesus, just like he hurls them all at us. Jesus resisted all of the methods and strategies of temptation without fail. And because he won, we received the benefits. Jesus’s victory in the wilderness is contagious. We get it. We receive help in time of need because Jesus suffered in the wilderness. He can provide us help as we experience the same suffering of temptation. We receive sympathy in time of need because Jesus suffered temptation in the wilderness. He has sympathy for our weaknesses. Jesus compassionately understands our plight when we’re being tempted.

So, brothers and sisters, real quick: when you’re being tempted, if you’re honest, what do you believe Jesus’s attitude is toward you? In that moment when you’re trying to stand against the wind of temptation and you consider Jesus, what do you think his attitude is towards you? I think many assume that Jesus is disappointed or embarrassed or angry. But because Jesus suffered in the wilderness, the scriptures say no. He has sympathy. He gets it. So, when you’re tempted, think of the sympathy of Jesus and don’t sin. We have confidence in time of need. Because Jesus suffered in the wilderness, we don’t have to hide when we’re being tempted. When you’re being tempted, in that moment when you’re going to battle against the evil one, do you feel confident in your relationship with Jesus? Or is temptation a moment where you feel like slinking away, hiding in a cave, pulling a blanket over your head, and trying to play hide and seek from Jesus? Temptation is not the time to hide from Jesus. Don’t shrink. Run.

Confidence in time of need. That’s amazing! If he knows I’m weak, he knows I’m going to be tempted. He’s with me. He’s sympathetic. Then he’s also saying, no, Ryan, you can have confidence. When it comes at you, run to me! I get it. I’m for you. Don’t let shame and guilt cloud your view of Jesus himself. He won so we could confidently run to him. Jesus didn’t win so he could hide. When tempted, our confidence in Jesus is at its peak. We get access in time of need. Because of whom Jesus is, and he suffered in the wilderness, and he won, we get intimate access to the very place of help. When we’re being tempted, we’re not put into a waiting room or a lobby waiting to get some help from God. We go right into the very resting place of grace, and it is given to us. We have mercy and grace in time of need. We can be mercy receivers and grace finders. Not when everything is good, not when I’ve got all my act together, but when I’m right in the middle of temptation. Right when I’m facing it. That’s when I need mercy. That’s when I need Jesus’ compassionate pity for my plight. That’s when I need grace, right in the middle of temptation. I want grace so I don’t sin, rather than getting grace because I sin. I’m going to get that grace at the beginning. I need Jesus’ goodwill toward me right in the middle of the fight.

This story of Jesus being tempted in the wilderness, I believe, transforms how we see Jesus during the middle of our temptation. Brothers and sisters, in my own life, and as one of your pastors for 16 years, I think many of you who have grown up in church forever need to be reminded of that fact. Jesus, when you’re tempted, he gets it. He’s there to help, to give you sympathy, to give you mercy, to give you grace so that you do not sin. Jesus wins, the devil loses, and we win too. Amen.