The baptism of Jesus showed us who the Messiah was, and the temptation of Jesus reveals to us what kind of Messiah he is going to be. Let's read this passage:
1 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.’[a]”
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.’[b]”
7 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’[c]”
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.’[d]”
11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.
My favorite part of this passage is what is said in verse 2, "After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry." no duh. That cracks me up every time I read it. Anyway, let's examine this text.
There are several observations that need to be made about the three temptations before we examine them individually.
1. Each of these temptations contain an "if".
Satan is taunting Jesus in these temptations. In the first two, he actually says, "if you are the Son of God" basically saying, "Prove yourself, prove that you are who you say you are."
2. The three temptations parallel what is written in 1 John 2.15-17
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. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.
We see three temptations that the world offers: 1. the lust of the eyes; 2. the lust of the flesh; and 3. the boastful pride of life. This also parallels the temptation of Eve in the Garden. See if you can pick these three temptations out in this passage:
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.
These are the three main ways that we are tempted, the lust of our eyes, the lust of the flesh and the boastful pride of life. At the foundation of all of them is the sin of selfishness. It is wanting what I want, when I want it, how I want it, and I am great. I, I, I, I and I. At the heart of every sin is the sin of self. And this is what Satan was tempting Jesus with. He was trying to offer Jesus an easier route for his Messianic ministry. Jesus knew what his mission consisted of, going to the cross and dying for the sins of the mankind. This was his task given by God, and yet Satan was trying to tempt him by saying that there is an easier way to show that you are the Messiah, there is an easier way for you to carry out your ministry of becoming king of the universe.
And so we have two paths here, God's path or Satan's path. When I put it that way, it seems easy to choose which path to take. But when we are tempted in life, these paths aren't seen this clearly sometimes. Emotions get in the way, our sinful nature, people's opinions and advice cloud the clearness of the fact that there are two paths in every temptation. We can follow God's path or the devil's. The hard thing is the devil's path tells you it is all about you, and that you will get what you want, when you want it, and how you want it. God's path says you have to sacrifice everything you want and live for God.
So how were these temptations supposed to be easier for Jesus and his Messianic ministry? The first temptation, to turn stones into bread, was the temptation of the lust of the flesh.
The Jews idea of what the Messiah would be like was that he would perform miraculous wonders for the prosperity of his people. This is exactly what turning stones into bread would have done. The general populace would have immediately crowned him as king and would have picked up arms to fight alongside him to overthrow the Romans, and they would probably be able to do it because they had an unlimited source of bread. So according to Satan's path, Jesus would have immediate support of all the Jews and would be a miracle worker for the rest of his life. And this path did not involve discipling the twelve disciples and dying on a cross. But would it bless the nations? Would Jesus end up being king over the whole world, sitting at the right hand of the Father in heaven? No. so what is the next temptation?
The second temptation was that of the Boastful Pride of Life. Satan tempts Jesus by taking him to the highest point on the temple and asking him to jump off and allow the angels to rescue him. This would immediately make him popular among the people of that day. For there was a tradition that stated that the Messiah would miraculously appear on the top of the temple. Satan's path would allow Jesus to bypass a lot of "messy Ministry" and provide a shortcut for Jesus' popularity and kingship among his people. But would he bless the nations? Would he be king over the whole universe? The shortcut paths rarely allow you to do what God wants to do with you. They may provide immediate satisfaction, but they rarely bless the nations and provide long-term satisfaction.
So now we come to the third temptation. Satan takes Jesus to a very high mountain and says,
"All this I will give you if you bow down and worship me." This verb in the original Greek means a one-time act of worshipping, not a repeating action. So Satan is tempting Jesus by saying, "Just bow down once, and I will bow out of the fight for the earth and all this will be yours." He was tempting Jesus with the lust of the eyes. Because isn't that what Jesus wants to do, to bless all the nations and rule over them? And this way, he wouldn't even have to go to the cross. He would just have to bow down. But would this bless all the nations? The nations need someone to act as a sacrifice to take their punishment for their sins. And this sacrifice could not have anything wrong with it, it had to be completely sinless. So bowing to Satan might bring immediate satisfaction, but it would not carry out the ultimate plan of blessing all the nations.
The temptations of Satan are seen in three ways, the temptation of the flesh, the temptation of the eyes and the boastful pride of life. Satan's path offers immediate satisfaction with almost no sacrifice. But it doesn't bless the nations and provide long-term satisfaction. God's path is hard, it is narrow and few walk it. It provides long-term satisfaction, eternal satisfaction, but it requires a LOT of sacrifice.
Which path will you choose? How did Jesus resist the temptations of Satan?
He ate his Bible.
With every temptation Jesus withstood that temptation by having studied and hidden the word of God in his heart and running to God's word in the midst of temptation. Look back and you will see Jesus respond to each temptation by quoting scripture.
The way to resist temptation is to have our minds not focused on fleshy, worldly things but focused on heavenly, spiritual things.
How do we do that?
We devour God's word daily. We read his Bible daily. We think about what we read all throughout the day. We remind ourselves everyday that we exist to bless the nations, that we exist to bring God and people back together.
Choose the path of God. Eat the book and resist temptation. And today, Bless somebody.
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