Jesus and the Devil
Matthew 4:1-11
satan’s history
Why would the Devil come to Jesus when He was on earth and try to “tempt” Him? You have to remember that satan became the “tempter” because he refused to acknowledge God’s Supreme authority before Adam was created and was cast OUT of Heaven. He TESTED God’s Authority and LOST. (Isaiah 14:12-14, Ezekiel 28:12-18, Job 1 and 38, and Revelation 9:1, Rev. 12, Heb. 12:22 and Jesus statement: “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven” in Luke 10:18, all give us HINTS about what happened to cause satan’s fall from heaven.) God had promised satan after Adam’s fall in Genesis 3:15, that God would send one who would CRUSH the head of satan, although the “Heel” of the Promised One would be bruised.
The Promises of God are a threat to satan’s existence: God promised to CRUSH satan’s head, and now satan would try and see if he could turn that around. DO NOT underestimate or minimize what is on the line here in Matthew 4 with the temptation of Jesus Christ. Matthew 4:1 tells us, “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.”
The Shadows of “Temptation”
For thousands of years, Christians have prayed the Lord’s Prayer, in which Jesus included: “Lead us NOT into temptation, but deliver us from evil”, yet immediately after Jesus’ Baptism and affirmation by the Spirit (the same Spirit which conceived Him), Jesus is LED by the Spirit to be “tempted by the devil” (diabolos- the false accuser). Why did the devil come to tempt Jesus? SATAN CAME TO CHALLENGE God AND HIS PROMISED GIFT FOR STHE ATONEMENT OF SIN.
The word for tempted is much like satan, himself. It’s a tricky word:
Root Verb: “Peiro” "to pierce in order to test, try, examine or prove"
Also Peran: “on the other side, or beyond.”
Noun: “Peira”: a trial, experience, attemp, to make trial of a thing or of a person, learn to know by experience.
Verb: “Peirazō”: to tempt, to try or test one's faith, virtue, character, by enticement to sin. Old Testament Usage: by impious or wicked conduct to test God's justice and patience, and to challenge him, as it were, to give proof of his perfections, of God: to inflict evils upon one in order to prove his character and the steadfastness of his faith (Verb)
(See TEMPTATION OUTLINE)
Satan came to challenge God and His promised Gift for sin.
God tests people to bring them to repentance and holiness;
the devil tempts people to bring to them condemnation and sinfulness!
Satan’s temptation and God’s testing reveal the true character of both. (Yielding to temptation would bring sin, to withstand brings holiness.)
The devil comes disguised as God to lead you away from God to eternal death.
Jesus comes disguised as Man to lead you to God and Everlasting Life.
Remember that God does not TEMPT people to sin. James 1:13,14: When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.
Matthew 4: 2 “And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry.” Jesus was led into the wilderness for Forty days, which reveals a time of testing.
In the Old Testament, 40 days of rain destroyed the unbelieving world with a flood, but God saved Noah.
When Moses spent 40 days on the mountain in the presence of God to receive the law, he returned to find the children of Israel sinning their brains out.
For 40 days, the spies, Caleb and Joshua scouted the land of Canaan. They were sure that God would bring them safely into the land, but Israel rejected their report and God’s promise.
As a result, ISRAEL spent 40 years of wandering in the desert. Out of the 12 spies, only Caleb and Joshua saw entered the land of God’s Promise because they followed the LORD wholeheartedly. The rest perished in the wilderness.
God allowed Nineveh 40 days to repent or they would be destroyed.
We have to remember that the Old Testament is full of “shadows”, pictures of what would be fulfilled in Christ. Water in the Old Testament is many times a sign of God’s judgment on sin; the inability of man to live up to God’s standard: Noah and the flood, the Egyptians drowning in the Red Sea while God’s people are saved on solid ground, the lack of water in the wilderness, without God’s provision, and the plague in Egypt of the water being turned into blood.
The Fulfillment of ALL Righteousness in Temptations
Remember Jesus said that He “must fulfill all Righteousness” at His Baptism? Jesus also fulfills ALL of the Old Testament pictures pointing to God’s Salvation: Jesus is the living water. Jesus turns the water into the best of wines. The Old Testament Unleavened bread, with without sin, becomes Jesus body broken for sin. The Lamb of God’s blood is shed once for all fulfilling all sacrifices.
Jesus begins 40 days of testing WITHOUT SIN and comes through the other side STILL SINLESS. “Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Lead us not into temptation and deliver us from evil.” The devil does not win against THE Deity!
Temptation 1: Matthew 4:3 And the tempter came and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread." 4 But He answered and said, "It is written, (it has been written in the past and still stands) 'MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD." (Deut. 8:3)
Jesus has been fasting for 40 days. He is no doubt hungry, and satan comes to Him and says: “Are you able to turn these stones into bread?” Satan is hoping to appeal to Jesus’ fleshly nature, that at the whim of satan, Jesus would show His Godly Power.
That’s the way the devil works. He Tempts by way of common motivations: He tries to steer people from God by way of physical drives, pride, possessions, STUFF. The devil appeals to the flesh, while Jesus stands firm in the Spirit! Jesus would have denied his self-giving nature which was characteristic of His mission upon earth and His calling from Heaven. Jesus did not owe it to the devil to accept satan’s taunt. Jesus would not abandon His trust in God to provide nor would He fall to the temptation of satan’s test for Him to PROVE that He was God. Jesus had nothing to”prove” to the devil. God’s Kingdom depends Jesus being the BREAD of LIFE not on Jesus eating physical bread.
We are to follow Jesus example in our lives and Children of His Kingdom. He built His Kingdom in unique ways: He hungered, yet fed others. He was weary but offered others rest. He is Sovereign King but paid tribute, because for Christ, there is no Kingship or Kingdom without the cross. He was called a devil but cast out devils. He died AS A SINNER to save people from sin. He was sold for silver but paid a ransom for many. He refused to make stones into bread but gave His Body as broken bread.
Temptation 2: vs 5 Then the devil took Him into the holy city and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 and said to Him, "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, SO THAT YOU WILL NOT STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE." (Ps. 91:11-12) 7 Jesus said to him, "On the other hand, it is written, 'YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.” (Deut 6:16)
In Temptation 2, the devil says: “Be careless and reckless and command God to protect you. That’s what He promises, doesn’t He?” Jesus replies with scripture again: You are not to put the Lord to the test. You do not put God’s power to the test because you FEEL LIKE IT . You don’t intentionally try and see if God is able to do something. It’s like putting God’s ability to save, “on trial”. Here, Satan twists scripture in which God is telling US to trust Him for your needs because He is faithful, not so that you can take advantage of God’s goodness.
Israel “put God to the test” and it was SIN, (Ex 17, Num. 20) so it follows that it would be wrong for us to do the same in our human-ness. It would be sin for Jesus to do it in His flesh.
Again, satan, the father of all lies and deceptions, twists and distorts the scripture (of Ps. 91.) We are commanded to continually TRUST God and obey God, and we are not to create testing of our choosing, in order to test God to see if He will do something.
Temptation 3: vs. 8 Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory; 9 and he said to Him, "All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me." 10 Then Jesus said to him, "Go, Satan! (GO AWAY!) For it is written, 'YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND SERVE HIM ONLY. " (Satan is persistent. Why would Jesus bow to him if He hadn’t fallen on the other temptations?)
Satan is saying, “You can bow to me and STILL accomplish God’s will.” The minute that Adam and Eve bowed to satan’s suggestions instead of God’s Perfect Will, the wages of sin kicked in. The first commandment that satan disobeyed was this one with which Jesus replied: “YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND SERVE HIM ONLY.” Satan was thrown out of God’s heaven and given limited power on the earth and he was offering Jesus what would have been a devastating shortcut. “Skip the cross and I will give you ALL of this, sin included, but you will belong to me.”
. The devil presented idolatry as an alternative to true spiritual Godly worship but Jesus knew the Word and obeyed it. Jesus resisted the temptation by turning to the Word of God because Jesus is ENTIRELY LOYAL to the FATHER. We must do the same, and we can’t possibly do that if we don’t KNOW the Word, and have the Spirit of the Word in us. This was certainly not the only time that Jesus was tempted: Heb. 4:15 say: “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.” Paul wrote in 1 Cor. 10:13 : “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man ; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.”
The devil challenged the Deity and Power of Jesus the Son of God, and still does. He still challenges the Spirit, the Word. The devil challenges trusting in God as Provider and Redeemer.
Jesus came into the world in the form of flesh but without the sin seed of Adam. Jesus was not born with sin. He was not born to die because He was not sinful, but He could only die FOR sin if He died TO sin for His entire life. He was under the same mandate as Adam: If you sin, you die. IF JESUS FAILED temptation, there would be NO redemptive cross, NO sacrifice for sin, NO resurrection, NO Kingdom of God. No book of Revelation. No hope for sinners, only death.
But He didn’t fail. You may recall that Jesus appeared for 40 days after His resurrection to prove that HIS TIME of testing was successful. Life was the proof. Matt. 4:11 says: Then the devil left Him; and behold, angels came and began to minister to Him. ONLY God can turn bad to good; while the devil will always turns bad to worse!
I. Satan’s History
1. satan became the “tempter” when he tested God’s Authority and lost.
(Isa. 14:12-14, Eze. 28:12-18, Job 1 and 38, and Rev 9 & 12, Heb. 12:22)
2. The Promises of God are a threat to satan’s existence.
3. God promised to CRUSH satan’s head, and now satan would try and turn that around. (Genesis 3:15)
II. Tempting and Testing
1. Satan came to challenge God and His promised Gift for sin.
2. God tests people to bring them to repentance and holiness;
the devil tempts people to bring them condemnation and sinfulness.
3. Satan’s temptation and God’s testing reveal the true character of both.
4. The devil comes disguised as God to lead you away from God to eternal death.
5. Jesus comes disguised as Man to lead you to God and Everlasting Life.
III. Jesus’ Temptations
A. Temptation 1 (Matt. 4:3-4): “Can you turn these stones to bread.”
1. The devil Tempts by way of common motivations.
2. Jesus would not abandon His trust in God to provide nor would He fall to the temptation of satan’s test for Him to PROVE that He was God.
B. Temptation 2 (Matt. 4:5-7): “Be careless and reckless and command God to protect.”
1. Israel “put God to the test” and it was sin. 9Ex 17, Num. 20)
2. We are to continually trust God and not create testings of our choosing.
C. Temptation 3 (Matt. 4:8-10): “Worship me now and you will have your kingdom.”
1. The devil presented idolatry as an alternative to true spiritual Godly worship.
2. Jesus was ENTIRELY LOYAL to the FATHER.
(How did satan become evil? God is perfect and everything He does is perfect. Did God create satan to be LESS than perfect? We could NEVER say that for several reasons: 1. It would deny what the Bible says. 2. It would place us above God in judging God to be imperfect. We would be saying that we could see that, but God couldn’t. You cannot minimize the efforts of satan to bring down God and His Holiness, but praise God, he did not.)
