Power Over Temptation

chapter 4. This is a good story about Jesus,

just as He's getting ready to start His earthly

ministry, but I believe it's certainly applicable

to us as well. Matthew chapter 4, verse 1 is

Matthew 4:1

where we will start. Before we do, let's pray.

God, we thank You for Your Word. I pray that

you would help us to gain some strength from

it tonight. God, maybe we come in here with stuff

on our mind from the world, worries and stresses

and things competing for our attention. I pray

that you'd clear my mind and clear the minds

of anybody else that in these few minutes that

your Holy Spirit would help us to focus on you.

I pray that these words would be an encouragement

to us, that we would gain strength from them.

And I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

Now, this passage takes place right after Jesus

was baptized. He goes through this short period

of temptation, and then he begins his earthly

ministry. Now, I think it's important to note

that when we become Christians, when we get baptized,

life is not always necessarily going to be easy.

Now, being a Christian is the most wonderful

thing that there is in the world. That's the

greatest gift that we can have is grace and forgiveness

of our sins. But it is not an automatic, okay,

you're a Christian, now everything in your life

is going to be easy and all your troubles are

over. And this passage is a good reminder of

that, that even Jesus himself, the Son of God,

after he was baptized, The next thing we see

in the Scripture is that he faces temptation.

Is he going to walk in obedience to God? Is he

going to walk in obedience? Is he going to give

in to temptation? Well, that's something that

we struggle with all the time. Now, maybe you

are a follower of Jesus Christ today, or maybe

you're not. I don't know your heart, but even

if you are a Christian today, a follower of Jesus,

We all know that temptation doesn't stop when

we start to follow Jesus. If anything, things

may get a little harder because before you're

a Christian, you just go and you live and you

do what you want to do and you don't think twice

about it. Well, then all of a sudden you start

reading the Bible, you start seeing what God

says, and you say, hold up. Maybe there are some

things in my life that shouldn't be this way.

I shouldn't be doing that. I shouldn't be acting

this way. I need to change some things. All of

a sudden you become a Christian, the Holy Spirit.

is now convicting you in things that you used

to do and they didn't bother you really at all.

Now all of a sudden there's just something in

you that's just nagging at you, that conviction

of the Holy Spirit. And so in some ways being

a Christian is harder than not being a Christian.

Of course being a Christian comes with a lot

more hope and strength than not being a Christian

does. Because when we're not Christians and not

following Jesus, we're up against all these things

and they're hurting us and we don't, Maybe you

realize it, but God's word sheds a light on how

sin does affect us in a negative way. So Jesus

had just been baptized, and he's experiencing

similar temptations as to what you and I do.

In verse 1, then Jesus was led up by the Spirit

into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

All right, well, that right there is something

for us to ponder. It's not like Jesus was just

bebopping along, just doing what he wanted to

do. It specifically says that he was led by the

Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the

devil. Now, that's kind of hard for us to wrap

our head around, right? I mean, the Scripture

says that God doesn't tempt us, but God certainly

does allow us to be tempted. And temptation,

I believe, is necessary. I don't believe that

our faith can be proven apart from... from temptation

apart from the test. When we're tempted, when

we're tested, when we're tried, that proves whether

or not we're following the Lord, whether we really

are obedient to Him. And sometimes we fail the

test. That'd be great if we passed the test every

time that we were tempted to do something that

was not good, that was sinful. But sometimes

we fail the test. And in a way, that's beneficial

to us. It helps us to see, man, I'm... I'm not

where I need to be. I'm not following the Lord

like I should. I failed in that way. I feel the

shame and the guilt of that. And so God does

allow us to be tempted because when we go through

really hard times and trying times and troubling

times, it often makes us better. Now, the devil

tries to tempt us to tear us down. We see the

story of Job as a good example of somebody that

God allows the devil to go through some really

bad things. The devil says, hey, if you'd allow

Job to go through some rough stuff, God, he wouldn't

follow you. And God says, okay, if you want to

make him go through some rough stuff, I'll allow

you to do that. And so Job really suffered greatly

with his own health and the loss of his family

and his wealth. But it had the opposite effect

of what the devil thought. The devil thought

that if Job went through these really hard times,

he would curse God. And on some level, I guess

he did. You know, he did kind of call God out.

But ultimately, he was humbled about his situation,

and he ended up rejoicing in the Lord even after

all that. And I suspect that Job was probably

stronger after all that than he was when he went

into it. His blessing was greater after that

than what he had before he went into it. Sometimes

the devil wants to tempt us for evil, but God

can even use that for our good if we would seek

him, if we would trust him, if we would remember

to call on him. And so the devil is going to

have an opportunity here to tempt Jesus. Let's

see what happens in verse 2. After he had fasted

40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry. All right?

Stage is set for us. We see fasting mentioned

in Scripture. Maybe we don't talk about it enough.

Maybe it's a practice you do or you do not do.

Fasting is a good spiritual practice for us to

consider, to prayerfully consider and look at

because when we fast, it's not just going on

a diet, but when you're fasting, it should be

a time that you say, okay, I'm not going to eat,

but I am going to focus on God. And every time

I get hungry, I'm going to focus on God that

much more, and I'm going to pray to God, and

I'm going to seek God, and I'm going to remove

food from my life, and I'm going to dedicate

more time in prayer. And every time those hunger

pains come, it's a reminder of what we're doing

and why we're doing it. And it shows God, okay,

we're serious about this. We're serious about

this request that we're praying for, for somebody

else, or we're serious about the sin in our life,

and we're just fasting, and we're repentant,

and God, we're just humbling ourselves before

you. And so it's a good spiritual practice that

really does draw us closer to the Lord if we

go into it with the right heart. And so Jesus

is fasting here, and when you're fasting, you

get hungry. And man, when you get hungry, It

can really do some stuff to you. It can make

you angry. It can make you short. You do just

about anything for a snicker bar if you get hungry

enough. And Jesus has been out there fasting

for 40 days and 40 nights. He's hungry. He's

at a weak point, just as we are. Now, even if

you're not fasting, like if you go from breakfast

to supper and you don't eat lunch, like you're

probably already starting to get cranky. And

you're like, where's the dinner at? I want some

dinner. And so Jesus has been fasting for 40

days. He gets hungry and the devil says, hey,

he's at a weak spot. This is my opportunity for

me to try to get him. And listen to what happens

in verse 3. Then the tempter approached him and

said, if you are the son of God, tell these stones

to become bread. Now we need to pay attention

to what he does here. He catches Jesus at a weak

point. And guess what? The devil has not changed.

His tactics have not changed. His desire is to

catch us at a weak point. And you got them, and

I got them, and we all got them. A weak point,

things are really, really stressful at work.

You've just been going through a really busy

time at work. Things are stressful with health

concerns, with you or somebody in your family.

Things are stressful with money. I mean, the

list goes on and on and on. And there's all these

things. And you just wore out sometimes from

just working hard. And all these things kind

of, they just kind of weaken us a little bit.

We'll be on guard because the devil wants to

try to catch us when we are weak. And the thing

that he does with Jesus, he says, if you are

the Son of God, well, he's trying to poke and

prod at Jesus a little bit. Are you really God's

son? Now, of course, the devil knows the answer

to that question. He knows good and well that

Jesus is the son of God. There's no doubt there.

He's not questioning Jesus because he's trying

to figure out if he's the son of God. But he's

saying, well, if you're the son of God, you're

all powerful. Why are you sitting here hungry?

You can turn these stones into bread. You can

have a feast if you want to. Now, we have to

be careful that we won't fall into such traps

because maybe somebody... tempts us in some way

or we're tempted to to lash out at somebody that

questions our power or our ability oh yeah let

me show you you want to question me i'll make

you pay the price for it now jesus didn't fall

for it he didn't say yeah i'm the son of god

i'm going to show you i ain't just going to make

that rock a loaf of bread i'm going to make it

into a filet mignon i'll show you my power well

that's what the devil wanted That would have

been sinful on Jesus' part to respond in that

way. Now, turning a rock into bread in and of

itself wouldn't have been sinful if Jesus would

have wanted to do that. He could have done it

at any time. And that act of just turning a rock

into bread was not a sinful act. But the sinful

act would have been if Jesus would have given

in to the devil's temptation. If he would have

let the devil poke and prod him and he would

have said, oh yeah, I'm going to show you. Well,

that would have been weakness on Jesus' part.

Jesus was far too smart for the devil and trusted

in God far too much to give in to this temptation.

He says in verse 4, But he answered, It is written,

Man must not live on bread alone, but on every

word that comes from the mouth of God. Okay,

that's the scripture from Deuteronomy. Jesus

quotes the scripture. So the devil says, Hey,

you're the son of God. Show me your power. Prove

it. Prove to me you're the son of God. And Jesus

says, hold up. And it's interesting, and we need

to make note of this, that when Jesus responds

to him, he responds with the word of God. Now,

the devil's going to try to find us in a weakness.

He's going to try to find some area that'll make

us want to say, oh, yeah, let me show you, or

I'm going to do this, or I'm going to do that,

or whatever the temptation may be that we give

in to. He's going to try to find some way in

a weakness to catch us off guard. And the way

that we can combat the temptations that we experience

is by the word of God. Now, I don't know what

your temptations are. All of our temptations

are different. It may be something simple or

it may be something really major. It may be something

as simple as, all right, I need to stop drinking

Coca -Cola. Man, that Coca -Cola is really good.

And so every day you get tempted. Man, I want

a Coke. Well, guess what? If you're like me,

you probably just give in and say, yeah, I'm

going to drink the Coke. Every time we give in

to that temptation, it kind of weakens us a little

bit, but the reverse is also true. Every time

we overcome a temptation, it strengthens us.

Sometimes in life, we go through this pattern

of giving in to certain sins, just falling into

that temptation repeatedly, and it really does

beat us down. We talked about that language last

week in Psalm 106, about our sin beats us down.

Well, the solution when we're beat down by sin

and given into our temptation, it sounds easy,

but it's just stop giving into our temptation.

Well, how do we do that? Well, we do it by trusting

in the Word of God. That should be our source

of strength and our source of guidance. And that's

what Jesus went to. So we need to figure out

what our temptation is, try to find some scriptures

that are relevant maybe that we can really find

strength from that help us, make a note of them

in your phone, write them down, memorize them,

And next time you're tempted and you say, all

right, I'm fixing to do this. And you say, hold

up, I'm not going to do it. And we call on the

word of God and we trust in the word of God.

And every time we overcome the temptation, it

builds our strength in God. It builds our faith.

It helps us to be able to do it. Because the

next time we can say, I don't have to say yes

to this. And Jesus gives us the blueprint on

how to overcome temptations. We see it again

in verse 5. Then the devil took him to the holy

city. had him stand on the pinnacle of the temple

and said to him, If you are the Son of God, throw

yourself down. For it is written, He will give

his angels orders concerning you, and they will

support you with their hands, so that you will

not strike your foot against a stone. Jesus told

him, It is also written, Do not test the Lord

your God. So this appears to be some kind of

vision that he's taken up to the temple. And

maybe this whole thing is some kind of vision.

I'm not really sure exactly what the setting

is here in which this temptation is taking place.

But regardless of what the setting is, he questions

him again. If you are the Son of God, just jump

on down. Nothing's going to happen to you if

you jump off the top of the temple. Well, he's

trying to get Jesus to... To doubt God. He's

trying to get him to give in to the temptation.

He's trying to get him to say, oh yeah, I'll

prove to you that I'm the son of God. Okay, so

the first time, Jesus responded with a scripture.

So the devil's pretty smart. What does he say?

He uses a scripture. He says, oh, well, you just

throw yourself down there. God's angels are going

to catch you. Nothing's going to happen to you.

He's not going to let anything bad happen to

you. So now the devil is using scripture. All

right, he wants to go by the word of God. I can

use the word of God. But he twists it. He takes

it out of context. And the devil thinks he's

smart, but Jesus proves that he's smarter. And

what does Jesus do again? He responds with the

word of God. Do not test the Lord your God. Now,

we don't want to be so foolish as to put ourselves

in situations. Now, we may sit here today and

we may say I trust in God, that God's going to

be with me and God's going to protect me and

God's going to walk over me, and therefore I'm

going to go to... four lanes of traffic, and

if I want to get to the other side, I'm just

going to start walking because I believe that

God is going to trust me. Well, that would be

foolish. You're probably going to get splattered

by a semi -truck. Now, that ain't got nothing

to do with God not protecting you or not loving

you or not being with you, but we have to use

some common sense here and be careful that we

don't act foolishly. And the devil here, he takes

some of God's Word, he twists it around. We've

got to be careful because sometimes... We may

see some scriptures. We want to make sure we

try to understand as best we can. Or when we

hear people teaching us or preaching scriptures

to us, whether it's me or your Sunday school

teacher or somebody you hear on the radio, we

want to pay attention to the scriptures that

we hear to make sure that, is that what that

really means? Hopefully nobody's trying to intentionally

lead you astray, but it's okay for us to... Look

at Scripture. We should look at Scripture and

say, okay, I want to make sure that's what that

means. If I'm going to live by the Word of God,

I want to know the Word of God. And Jesus, of

course, knew the Word of God, and he did not

give in to this second temptation. Continuing

on in verse 8. Again, the devil took him to a

very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms

of the world and their splendor. And he said

to him, I will give you all these things if you

will fall down and worship me. All right, well,

this is a pretty interesting thing that the devil

says. So there are certainly different interpretations

as to what this could mean. Did the devil even

have the ability or the power to give the world

to Jesus? Was this all a lie? If Jesus created

all things and they were created through him,

why would the devil even attempt to do this?

But I don't really know exactly. What the devil

was attempting here, I have a theory that may

or may not be correct, but my theory is perhaps

the temptation would be, all right, Jesus, you're

coming to be the king of kings, to be the ruler

of all these people and all these things, and

there's this cross thing that's lingering out

there that you're going to have to be nailed

to and suffer, but... What if I just told you

you could have all this now and just skip it?

I'll just go ahead and let you have all this,

and you can just be the ruler of all this right

now without going through all the suffering.

Perhaps that was the devil's angle. I don't really

know what his angle was, but whatever his angle

was, Jesus was not falling for it. This promise

of giving him the kingdoms, whether the devil...

would have even had the power to do that, whether

it was a lie, whether there was some other something

going on in that temptation, whatever he was

trying to get Jesus to fail in, again, Jesus

did not budge. Because Jesus was most concerned

with being obedient to the will of God and following

the Father. And he was not going to be easily

led astray by temptations. especially not these

weak attempts by the devil. So the devil tries

three times to tempt Jesus, and he fails three

times. And listen to what Jesus says this third

time in verse 10. Then Jesus told him, Go away,

Satan, for it is written, Worship the Lord your

God and serve only him. All right, go away. I'm

done with you. Are you King James? If you've

got a King James, get thee behind me, Satan.

Pretty popular verse. And maybe a phrase that

you've used a time or two in your life. That

the temptation is strong. And maybe you've spoken

it verbally. Get thee behind me, Satan. Just

get away. And Jesus gives us the example of what

to do in our temptation. One, we need to know

the temptation is going to come. And maybe when

we become a Christian, maybe we're tempted even

more. Just as Jesus, right after he was baptized,

we see this temptation. Maybe for us, after we're

baptized, after we become followers of Jesus,

we start to experience temptations. But we do

not have to give in to them. We need to be in

the Word of God. We need to read the Word of

God. We need to remember the Word of God. And

we need to call on the Word of God in our daily

life, in our struggles, in our pains, in our

hardships, in our temptations. The Word of God

can be a great strength for us. We need to follow

the example of Jesus, and we need to call on

the Word of God, and we can overcome our temptations.

That's the good news for us today, is that Jesus

proves to us in this passage that temptations

can be overcome. Now, we can't overcome them

on our own, but He overcame. And because He overcame,

if we seek Him and trust Him, we too can overcome

our temptations. So maybe there's some temptation

you're struggling with tonight. Or maybe there's

something you're going to struggle with next

week or next month or next year. We don't have

to continually give in to those things, but by

the power of Jesus Christ through his death and

resurrection, we can overcome those temptations.

And finally, in verse 11, it says, Then the devil

left him, and immediately angels came and began

to serve him or began to minister to him. Now

that's a beautiful scene, that after this long

phase of fasting, He was probably weak. He was

hungry. He just went through this temptation.

And it says that the angels came and ministered

to him. That kind of reminds me of the story

in the Old Testament of Elijah. Whenever he's

just ready to give up after defeating all the

prophets of Baal by the power of God. He's running

for his life. He gets under a tree. He says,

God, I'm ready to die. He wants to give up. And

in that story, God sends an angel to feed him

and to give him drink. and to strengthen him

up and to let him rest. And then he says, all

right, after he ministers to him through the

angels, God says, get up and go on your way.

And this story is a reminder of that, that sometimes

life is tough, and sometimes seasons in life

are really hard, and sometimes our temptations

are really hard. But if we call on the name of

Jesus, that he who is in us is greater than he

who is in the world. And through Jesus, we too

can overcome the temptations that we are up against.

And I believe just as God ministered to Elijah

and just as God ministered to Jesus here, I believe

that God still ministers to us after our seasons

of difficulty. And maybe you're in the middle

of one now. Maybe you're coming out of one. But

today I encourage you to trust the power of Jesus,

to trust the Word of God, and to ask God to minister

to you and to restore your soul today. Let's

pray. God, we come to you. We thank you for your

good word. I pray that you just would help us

to ponder this story and help us with our temptations

and our struggles. Maybe some of us are going

through some things right now or maybe the time

will come in the future. I pray that we would

remember this passage, that we would seek the

power of Jesus to overcome those temptations,

that we would find strength in you and that we

would be able to rejoice. and whatever we're

able to overcome through you. And I ask these

things in Jesus' name. Amen.