The Temptation of Jesus – Part 4
Luke 4:1-13 (9-13)
December 31, 2017
Well this morning we’re going to finish up
This powerful section on the temptation of Jesus.
It is nothing short of remarkable
How our Lord prevailed in the face of such temptation.
It has certainly proven to us over and over that
Jesus is in fact the sinless righteous one.
And because of that sinless perfection He is easily seen as the fulfillment of those gospel promises that we hold so dear.
Like:
Hebrews 4:14-16 “Therefore, since 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 cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
Or:
2 Corinthians 5:21 “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
Jesus is that sinless one whose righteousness is imputed to us
When we are united in Him by faith.
Jesus is that One who proved His perfection
Even in the midst of every temptation.
Where Israel failed, and where we fail, Jesus has triumphed.
That is the very essence of our hope for salvation.
This morning we conclude this section on His temptation, but first, let’s quickly recap.
#1 THE TEMPTATION TO IGNORE GOD
Luke 4:3-4
• Of course this temptation came on the heels of Jesus having eaten nothing in 40 days and Satan swooped in to challenge God’s provision.
Just as Satan had done with Korah in the Old Testament,
He whispered in Jesus’ ear that God had done a rotten job of providing and therefore Jesus should take matters into His own hands
For after all, He certainly deserved better.
Just “tell this stone to become bread.”
Jesus however, took that thought captive in obedience to God’s word and quoted Deuteronomy 8:3 “Man shall not live on bread alone.”
Jesus quoted from the passage in Deuteronomy
• Where God explained why He allowed the children of Israel to go for periods of
hunger during their wilderness wanderings.
• God did not do it because He planned to starve them but because He was
teaching them that He was more important than bread.
• They could live without bread, but they could not live without Him and allowing
the bread to be scarce served as a test of their faithfulness to God.
Of course Israel failed miserably, they actually tried to overthrow Moses and Aaron until God intervened and killed over 14,000 of them.
Israel failed, but Jesus triumphed.
He chose not to ignore God instead Jesus overcame
BY BELIEVING THAT GOD WAS ENOUGH.
And we said that sin is what we do when we are not satisfied with God.
• But Jesus never reached that point.
• To Him, God was enough.
• He never doubted God’s provision.
So where we fail in our temptation to ignore God,
Jesus overcame and proved Himself a perfect savior.
Last week we saw the second temptation
#2 THE TEMPTATION TO ABANDON GOD
Luke 4:5-8
Here Satan showed Jesus
“all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.”
And as we also said, that is not a necessarily strange thing for Jesus to think of since all of those things were His rightful inheritance.
The temptation came later:
“And the devil said to Him, ‘I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.”
It is certainly God’s plan to give all of this to Christ,
But Satan was offering it now without the suffering of the cross.
We did note that Satan was stretching the truth here a bit.
• While he is the “god of this world” by reason of his control over sinful humanity,
• It is a stretch to say that it had been handed to him.
• It was also a stretch to say that he could or even would give it to anyone.
Satan is not generous, he is a thief.
If he is offering something you can bet it’s because
The payoff he plans to receive is twice as big.
And of course this was the temptation he used on the children of Israel with the Midianites.
• They were a people who wanted a nation.
• They wanted a land, they wanted secure borders.
• God had promised it, but it wasn’t coming as quickly as they had hoped so
Satan offered them a nation here and now.
Just go in to the Midianites, intermarry with them, worship their gods,
And you will have your nation.
Israel failed there at that temptation
And God killed 23,000 of them by reason of a plague.
We fail there often too.
How quickly we will abandon the commands of God if it means gaining what we want quicker or easier.
But where Israel failed and where we fail, Jesus triumphed.
He overcame by believing
First that GOD IS GOOD and second that GOD IS JEALOUS.
He quoted from Deuteronomy 6 “You shall worship the LORD your God and serve Him only.”
He knew that
• It was God (not Satan) who generously gave to people who did not deserve it
• And that this generous God did not tolerate the worship of any other gods but Himself.
• He is both gracious and jealous and Jesus believed it so much that He resisted the temptation.
So again, where we fail, Jesus triumphed
And proved Himself an effective savior.
This morning let’s look at the 3rd temptation Luke highlights.
#3 THE TEMPTATION TO TEST GOD
Luke 4:9-13
Up until now you’ve had the devil testing the faith of Jesus.
• Are You content without bread?
• Are you willing to suffer for Your kingdom?
And each time Jesus rifled back with a passage
Stating His contentment and trust in God.
Each time Jesus revealed that God was worth more.
Well Satan seizes upon that.
It’s like Satan is pulling and pulling and pulling against you on a rope and just when he has you pulling with all of your might, he stops pulling and gives a shove just to see if you’ll fly in the other direction.
He doesn’t care if you fall off to the right or to the left, so long as you fall off.
So now, after having witnessed Jesus resolute faith in God,
Satan determines to see if this God is really worthy
Of all of that faith which Jesus is giving Him.
After testing Jesus twice only to see Jesus pass with flying colors,
This time Satan tries to get Jesus to do the testing.
He wants Jesus to force God to show the same commitment to Him.
So here comes a very sly and dangerous temptation.
(9-11) “And he led Him to Jerusalem and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, thrown Yourself down from here; for it is written, ‘HE WILL COMMAND HIS ANGELS CONCERNING YOU TO GUARD YOU,’ and, ‘ON their HANDS THEY WILL BEAR YOU UP, SO THAT YOU WILL NOT STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.’”
Again, let’s see if we can’t understand this a little better.
TO START just let me mention the TRICKY NATURE OF TEMPTATION.
There have been no small group of people who have wondered
Why Jesus would have followed Satan’s advice to venture into Jerusalem or to stand “on the pinnacle of the temple” in the first place?
I mean, most would assume that
You should never do anything the devil insinuates.
So let’s discuss this for a moment.
First of all, going to Jerusalem and standing on the pinnacle is not a sin.
• There is place there (so I’m told) that you can stand on one of the portions of the temple wall and it is a 450 drop to the bottom.
• Church tradition teaches that this is where James (Jesus half-brother) was thrown off and martyred.
It’s certainly not sinful to go there or stand there.
Secondly I’d like to remind you again of the reality of temptation.
• This was not Satan coming up to Jesus and saying, “Follow me” and Jesus saying, “Ok”.
• This was a mental temptation.
• This was a thought.
And you can say that temptation isn’t strong,
But here we have Jesus standing on the pinnacle of the temple.
This is a real issue and a real moment.
And here comes the thought that is placed, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here;”
NOW LET’S STOP THERE FOR AGAIN.
What a ridiculous thought for Jesus to have right?
• We can understand the thought to turn stones into bread when you’re hungry…
• We can understand Him contemplating all the kingdoms of the world which
would be His inheritance…
• But why would He even have such a thought?
Part of that stems from common Jewish expectation.
There were many Jews who expected that the Messiah
Would actually ascend down from heaven into the temple.
It was gleaned from a loose understanding of Malachi 3:1
Malachi 3:1 “Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming,” says the LORD of hosts.”
Jewish legend even held that the Messiah
Might reveal Himself with an act just like this.
In fact again, tradition teaches that later Simon Magnus attempted to claim to be the Messiah by doing this very thing.
And it seems that this is the thought that has entered the mind of Christ.
Satan is telling Him that
A good way to burst onto the scene as the Messiah
Would be if He were to jump off the temple
And then when God delivers You, all the world will know.
I suppose there is some rationale behind it.
TO MAKE MATTERS WORSE,
This time Satan even has Scripture to validate his claims.
(10-11) for it is written, ‘HE WILL COMMAND HIS ANGELS CONCERNING YOU TO GUARD YOU,’ and, ‘ON their HANDS THEY WILL BEAR YOU UP, SO THAT YOU WILL NOT STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.'”
Where did that come from?
It came from Psalms 91:11-12 which was a Messianic Psalm.
Psalms 91:11-12 “For He will give His angels charge concerning you, To guard you in all your ways. They will bear you up in their hands, That you do not strike your foot against a stone.”
And that is precisely the verse that Satan brings to Jesus
As grounds for throwing Himself off the temple.
It’s as if Satan says, “Well, if You’re so interested in Scripture, I’ve got one for You. Read Psalms 91:11-12.”
So now, not only does Satan provide Jesus with a plan,
But also seemingly provides Him with permission.
John MacArthur wrote:
“With that subtle and clever twist, the tempter thought he had backed Jesus into a corner. If Jesus lived only by the Word of God, then He would be confronted by something from the Word of God. “You claim to be God’s Son and You claim to trust His Word,” Satan was saying. “If so, why don’t You demonstrate Your Sonship and prove the truth of God’s word by putting Him to a test – a scriptural test? If You won’t use your own divine power to help Yourself, let Your Father use His divine power to help You. If You won’t act independently of the Father, let the Father act. Give Your Father a chance to fulfill the Scripture I just quoted to You.’”
(MacArthur, John [The MacArthur New Testament Commentary; Matthew 1-7; Moody Publishers, Chicago, Ill, 1985] pg. 93)
He is trying to get Jesus to force God to prove
He is worthy of all the devotion that Jesus has shown Him.
I mean, after all, as the modern day charismatic preachers would claim, “God is contractually obligated to respond to your faith” right?
Now here is something important.
You would probably love it if I could take you back to Psalms 91
And show you that Satan was taking this whole passage out of context.
You’d expect that we can look at Psalms 91 and see that
This isn’t what God was talking about and Satan is just twisting the verses
To say something that God didn’t mean.
The problem with that expectation is,
If you go back and read Psalms 91 you’ll find out that
It IS a Psalm all about God’s promise of deliverance for His anointed.
It was a Messianic Psalm about how God will in fact deliver His anointed
And set Him securely on High and will let him see salvation.
SO WHAT GIVES?
The manipulation of Satan here
Is not found in his interpretation of Scripture,
But in his application of it.
Are there times when he lies? Of course
Are there times when he twists the truth? You bet
Are there times when he takes Scripture out of context? Yes indeed
We are all familiar with the work of his false prophets
And the horrible twisting they do to God’s word.
But that isn’t the only way Satan maligns the word of God.
Here we find that he will also twist the application of God’s word.
He tells Jesus to force God to honor that promise
And to honor it right now.
“throw Yourself down from here; for it is written…”
NOW IF YOU’RE WILLING TO SEE IT,
This is exactly the mindset that Satan placed in the minds of the Israelites.
Remember I told you that these temptation correlate to the big failures of Israel in the wilderness?
1 Corinthians 10:8-10 “Nor let us act immorally, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day. Nor let us try the Lord, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents. Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer.”
The one we’re talking about here is the second one Paul mentions when Israel tried the Lord and it resulted in the serpents coming up out of the sand.
Now the story of the serpents is recorded in Numbers 21,
But the story really starts long before then.
It’s just that THE PUNISHMENT doesn’t show up until Numbers 21.
But the issue of trying the Lord started long before.
TURN TO: EXODUS 17:1-7
You remember this as
One of the first times when Israel took issue with God’s provision.
They assembled together and demanded that God honor His word.
(2) “Give us water that we may drink.”
That is to say that they saw themselves as sovereign
And God as the servant and sought to force Him
To respond according to their desires.
In fact you see down in verse 7 that this whole thing was a TEST.
(7) “He named the place Massah and Meribah because of the quarrel of the sons of Israel, and because they tested the LORD, saying, “Is the LORD among us, or not?”
That is to say that Israel was on the verge of going on strike.
They were trying to discern if they thought God was still worth following.
If God will jump through the hoop and give us what we demand, then sure, we’ll keep following, but if not, maybe it’s time to return to Egypt and her gods.
Now you notice that in Exodus 7
God complies without really any word of punishment.
He tells Moses to strike the rock and water came out.
Now that was the beginning.
But it wouldn’t be long before this attitude would emerge again.
TURN TO: NUMBERS 20:1-13
• There again that selfish attitude emerges and the Israelites demand for God to jump through their hoop again.
And this time they again escape the anger of God,
In fact the only ones who do receive God’s anger is Moses and Aaron for failing to obey according to God’s command and to treat Him as holy in the sight of the people.
It is the third time they try it that God breaks forth with the punishment.
TURN TO: NUMBERS 21:4-9
What you see then is that Paul referenced that last one
Because it was the culmination of the 3.
But it is a punishment in reference to
All the times in which Israel tested God.
In fact, the Psalmist relates to us how much God despised this attitude.
Psalms 95:8-11 “Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, As in the day of Massah in the wilderness, “When your fathers tested Me, They tried Me, though they had seen My work. “For forty years I loathed that generation, And said they are a people who err in their heart, And they do not know My ways. “Therefore I swore in My anger, Truly they shall not enter into My rest.”
The problem was that
• The promises of God were not enough for them.
• They did not trust God even on His impeccable resume.
• They demanded Him to act when they wanted Him to act.
• They wanted God to prove it at their demand.
Of course we don’t see that attitude change any in the New Testament.
Luke 11:29-32 “As the crowds were increasing, He began to say, “This generation is a wicked generation; it seeks for a sign, and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah. “For just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. “The Queen of the South will rise up with the men of this generation at the judgment and condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. “The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.”
Israel is still a nation that demands God jump through their hoops
Every time they expect Him to prove Himself.
And can we honestly say that anything has changed?
Oh sure we have those far-out examples of strychnine drinkers or serpent handlers who seek to force God to deliver them from their own arrogant stupidity.
But they are far from all who test God.
I’m sure you are aware by now of the “Word-Faith” movement,
Which is really nothing more than NewAge mysticism.
It is people who speak their demands into existence…
Who basically seek to force God to move at their own declarations…
Go this afternoon and post on facebook a prayer request and see if someone doesn’t come back with a comment like, “I command this sickness to leave in Jesus name”
What are they saying, but that they are demanding Jesus to take care of it, because they certainly can’t?
Ultimately it is a shift that says,
“I am sovereign, and my will is sovereign,
And God is the servant which must grant what I desire.”
And many of them even have verses of Scripture in their hip pocket
About God being healer or provider or deliverer and they wave those in God’s face as though He now must do exactly as they proclaim.
It totally ignores the mysterious will of God
And the ways that God uses things
Like suffering and loss and pain and tragedy and delay.
I’ll tell you, I’m convinced this is why Jesus wept at Lazarus tomb.
You remember the story.
• Jesus received word that Lazarus was sick
• Because Jesus loved him He purposely waited 2 days longer
• Once Jesus knew Lazarus was dead, then He went
Do you remember the response of everyone?
Martha is mad that Jesus didn’t jump up and come heal him when she called:
John 11:21 “Martha then said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.”
Mary is disillusioned that Jesus didn’t jump through her hoops and come as well:
John 11:32 “Therefore, when Mary came where Jesus was, she saw Him, and fell at His feet, saying to Him, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.”
The crowd is disillusioned that Jesus didn’t come immediately at their beck and call:
John 11:37 “But some of them said, “Could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind man, have kept this man also from dying?”
To that entire scene John says that Jesus was
“deeply moved in spirit and was trouble” (11:33)
The Greek word there is EMBRIMAOMAI,
It is an onomatopoetic word that means “to snort like a horse”
And two verses later Jesus wept.
Why? Because Lazarus was dead?
• Hardly, Jesus purposely waited for that.
• Beyond that Jesus, knew what He was about to do.
No, His weeping was out of frustration
And the realization that all of these had put Him to the test,
And according to them, He had failed.
They are all wondering if they were wrong to follow Him
Just because He didn’t jump through their hoop.
And that is what people still do with God.
They face affliction or hardship and the first thing they demand is for God to jump at their beck and call and prove Himself worthy of trust.
As though God were on trial and we were the judge.
What God wants is for His people to trust
That He will provide and deliver according to His perfect plan
And at His perfect timing and to trust Him to do so.
AND THAT IS WHERE WE FIND JESUS.
Again, where we often fail, Jesus triumphs.
Satan wants Jesus to jump so that God will be forced to prove Him as the Messiah.
(12) “And Jesus answered and said to him, “It is said, ‘YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TET.’”
It’s my goal to not jump across gospel accounts too much,
But I really like how Matthew’s gospel states this reply.
Matthew 4:7 “Jesus said to him, “On the other hand, it is written, ‘YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.'”
I like the use of the words “On the other hand”.
It reveals a very important hermeneutical principle.
• No Scripture stands alone.
• Certainly we interpret Scripture by its context,
• But we also interpret Scripture by Scripture.
If vs. A seems to contradict vs. B then you are misinterpreting one of them
• Certainly a case could be made by Satan that Jesus was justified according to
Psalms 91 for jumping off of that temple.
• However, Satan’s argument loses all weight when interpreted in light of
Deuteronomy 6:16 which Jesus quotes here.
Jesus could fulfill Psalms 91:11-12 by jumping off of that temple,
But He could not jump and obey Deuteronomy 6:16.
For presuming upon the promise of God would be to put God to the test.
• God did not have to prove His devotion to Jesus.
• God did not have to show Him to the world.
• God did not have to prove that He loved His only begotten Son.
• And Jesus would not put those things to the test.
Instead Jesus chose to believe that
God would reveal Him as the Messiah in His way and in His time.
SO HERE IT IS:
Satan tempted Jesus to test God:
Jesus overcame by believing that God is SOVEREIGN
That is to say, God is not here to serve our purposes, we are here to serve His.
Certainly He is gracious, certainly He is our provider and healer and protector, but He is so according to His sovereign purposes, not our selfish demands.
Jesus understood that.
And He understood that throughout His ministry.
Remember the garden?
Matthew 26:39 “And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.”
Or perhaps in a few moments when Peter draws a sword and removes the ear of one of the arresting soldiers.
Matthew 26:52-54 “Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place; for all those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword. “Or do you think that I cannot appeal to My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels? “How then will the Scriptures be fulfilled, which say that it must happen this way?”
Do you realize that those twelve legions of angels He said He could call
Was also in reference to Psalms 91?
Even then, while being arrested, Jesus still knew that
It was not His job to test God’s plan, but to submit to God’s will.
The temptation here was NOT to wrongly interpret a verse,
But rather TO wrongly apply one.
God’s promises are contained so that we will TRUST HIM,
Not so that we will TEST HIM.
So, we have already learned that:
• Sin is what we do when we are not satisfied with God
• Sin is what we do when we do not believe that God is good
• Sin is what we do when we do not believe that God is jealous
This morning I would add that:
• Sin is what we do when we do not trust God.
We sin because we desire to force God to do what we want
And when He doesn’t come through as we expected
We get angry at Him.
We come to Him like Martha or Mary or the crowd and wonder “What in the world are You doing?”
• Didn’t You not get my letter?
• Didn’t You not hear my prayer?
• Then why didn’t You come?
And in essence we tell God that He failed the test.
And THE SIN WAS not just that we got angry at Him for failing,
But THAT WE TESTED HIM IN THE FIRST PLACE.
That is the temptation Jesus resisted.
I’m not going to throw Myself off of this temple, instead I’m going to allow God to reveal Me as the Messiah in whatever way He sees fit.
And incidentally, God did have a plan for revealing Jesus as the Messiah
And it wasn’t (at least initially) by fulfilling Psalms 91.
Do you know what Psalm God was going to use to prove Jesus as the Messiah?
Psalms 16:7-11 “I will bless the LORD who has counseled me; Indeed, my mind instructs me in the night. I have set the LORD continually before me; Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoices; My flesh also will dwell securely. For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol; Nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay. You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.”
That was the Psalm most preached about Jesus by the apostles and the early church, it was about the resurrection.
Aren’t you glad Jesus chose to trust God instead of testing Him?
And that again has been our point.
• While you can learn a lot about temptation from this passage.
• While Jesus is a great example about how to overcome temptation.
• This passage is not really a “How To” course about temptation.
This passage is to show you that Jesus overcame it.
In fact Luke makes his STRONGEST POINT in the last verse of the section.
(13) “When the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time.”
That’s the point.
JESUS NEVER STUMBLED
His righteousness is perfect
His righteousness has been fully tested and still stands
And His perfect righteousness is available to all who will let go of their own futile attempts and will place their faith in Him.
Hebrews 5:8-9 “Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation,”
And now having concluded this section
From Luke’s perspective you should be CONVINCED OF ONE THING.
JESUS IS RIGHTEOUS.
It was declared at His baptism.
It was demonstrated during His temptation.
And this is essential to the gospel
Since it is His righteousness that is imputed to us.
God is pleased with us because God is pleased with Christ
And we are clothed in His righteousness.
A pure and perfect righteousness that never stumbled,
Even at the most intense temptation.
