Luke 04.03-13
What we will study today The Temptation of the Messiah…01. The Lust of the Flesh (Luke 04.03-04);
02. The Lust of the Eyes (Luke 04.05-08);
and 03. The Boastful Pride of Life (Luke 04.09-13).
So after the spiritual high of being baptized, Jesus was led
into the barren wilderness to fast for forty-days and to be tempted by Satan.
01. The Lust of the Flesh (Luke 04.03-04)
When Satan tempted Eve, his words in Genesis 03.01 were intended to
raise doubt in the mind of Eve when he said, “Indeed, has God said”. In the
first temptation, Satan tries to tempt Jesus with the lust of the flesh (1John 02.06),
that which appealed to the body and trying to cause Jesus to doubt the love of
His Father. Satan begins not by questioning the deity of Jesus but instead
affirming it. “If
You are the Son of God” should be translated as “Since You are the Son of God”. Satan and the demons have never
denied the deity of Jesus, unlike many of the liberal theologians of the day! What
Satan said was essentially, “Since You are the
Son of God, why are You so hungry?” The temptation that Satan
set for Jesus was to use His power as God to fulfill a normal human desire,
something that Jesus never did (Philippians 02.05-08). The way that Jesus handled each
of these temptations is a model for us in how we are to handle temptation.
Jesus used “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 06.17)
to fight each temptation.
Temptation is the weapon that Satan uses to defeat us, but it
can be instead used as a tool for God to build us (James 01.02-08).
Satan tempted Jesus by appealing to real desire within every person, the
desire to eat and continue to live. Satan tempts Jesus to fulfill this real
need in a prohibited way. This is often the crux of temptation. Jesus
responded to this temptation of the lust of the flesh by using the Sword of the
Spirit (Ephesians 06.17) and quoting from the
Word of God, specifically from Deuteronomy 08.03. Jesus answered every
temptation with the Word of God. What Satan said made sense at first glance, for how could the
very Son of God who created all things be allowed to go hungry? But
what was written in the Word of God makes even more sense. It is more important
to obey the Word of God than it is to fulfill the satisfaction of a physical
desire.
John Nelson Darby, Gospel of Luke, p36-37
It is the written word He ever uses, and Satan is
powerless. What amazing importance Jesus gives the Scriptures. God now acts by
the word, and Satan is resisted morally in this way. A man cannot be touched by
Satan while the word is simply used in obedience. “He that is begotten of God
keepeth him self, and that wicked one toucheth him not.” It was not as an
exercise of divine authority He dismissed Satan, but the enemy is proved unable
to grapple with obedience to the word of God. If he cannot take out of the path
of obedience, he has no power. What more simple? Every child of God has the
Holy Ghost acting by the word to keep Him. Jesus does not reason with Satan. A
single text silences when used in the power of the Spirit. The whole secret of
strength in conflict is using the word of God in the right way. One may say, I
am not like this perfect Man: it might be so with Christ, but how can I expect
the same result? True, we are ignorant, and the flesh is in us, but God is
always behind, and He is faithful, and will not suffer us to be tempted above
that we are able. Temptation may be simply a trial of our obedience, as in
Abraham's case, not a snare to lead us astray. Satan presents what has no
appearance of evil. The evil would be — doing one’s own will. Now it solves
every difficulty to ask — not, what harm is there in doing this or that? — but,
why am I doing it? Is it for God or myself? What! am I to be always under this
restraint? Ah! there the secret of our nature comes out: we do not like the
restraint of doing what God will approve. It is restraint to do God’s will! We
want to do our own will. To act merely because one must, is law, and not the
guidance of the Spirit. The word of God was the motive of Christ, and such is
Christ’s guidance. Not fencing the old man, but the new man living on the word
is our defence against Satan.
Isaiah said in Isaiah 08.20 that the place to look for
direction is the Word of God! By quoting from Deuteronomy 08.03, Jesus was
stating that just as God took care of the children of Israel while in their
wilderness wandering for forty years, providing for their needs and wants, so
too will God take care of those who are “full of the Holy Spirit” and those who are “led…by the Spirit” (Luke 04.01).
Like Jesus, followers of Jesus
today are often tempted to doubt God’s love for them. They wrongly reason
within themselves that if God truly did love them, He would never allow them to
go through any painful experiences or circumstances. They reason within
themselves that it’s not fair that the ungodly seem to thrive, relating to what
the psalmist said in Psalm 73.03-13. But like Jesus, His followers
must refuse to act outside of the will of God, and instead continue to trust in
His loving provision (Psalm 37.01-40).
02. The Lust of the Eyes (Luke 04.05-08)
In the second temptation, Satan tries to tempt Jesus with
the lust of the eyes (1John 02.06), that which appealed to the soul.
Satan showed Jesus “all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.”
(Luke 04.05)
Notice that it
was “all
the kingdoms of the world” (Luke 04.05) and not the world itself? Satan was given the
authority over the kingdoms of this world when Adam sinned (Genesis
03.01-24). As a result of the sin of Adam, Satan became the “the ruler of this
world” (John 12.31; John 14.30; John 16.11), “the god of this world” (2Corinthians 04.04) as well as “the prince of
the power of the air” (Ephesians 02.02). John tells us that God has
purposed that “The
kingdom of the world has become the
kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.”
(Revelation
11.15).
So what Satan was offering to Jesus, the Son of God was
something that Jesus ultimately gets anyways, but without having to go to the
cross to get there. The plan of the Father was for Jesus to suffer first, then
enter His glory (Luke 24.25-26). Satan was offering Jesus all the kingdoms of
this world for a moment of worship.
Many fall into this temptation because they are not willing
to wait for God’s perfect timing. The way to the throne goes through the cross,
and if Jesus would have skipped it, He couldn’t have been the Son of God.
There was no way that Jesus would ever bow down and worship
Satan! If Jesus had given in to this temptation, there would be no cross and no
salvation for us! His sacrifice on the cross for our sins is what redeemed us
so that we could have eternal life (Titus 03.04-07). Jesus responded to this
temptation of the lust of the eyes by quoting Biblical truth for the second
time, Deuteronomy
06.13. Jesus responding again with Scripture shows us that when a
believer filled with the Holy Spirit uses the Word of God properly, temptation
can be resisted. Jesus proved that Adam did not have to sin, that there was
nothing wrong in how God created Adam. The temptations of Jesus were more
severe than that of Adam’s, and yet Jesus succeeded where Adam failed (1Corinthians
15.45).
03. The Boastful Pride of Life (Luke 04.09-13)
In the third temptation, Satan tries to tempt Jesus with the
boastful pride of life (1John 02.06), that which appealed to the
spirit. Satan took Jesus “to Jerusalem and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the
temple”, the most prominent place in Israel and suggested that He
throw Himself down (Luke 04.09) the hundreds of feet to the rocky
valley floor below. In Luke 04.10-11, Satan then misquotes Psalm 91.11-12
in this temptation saying that God promised to preserve the Messiah, so go ahead
jump! If Jesus gave in to this temptation, it truly would have been an amazing
sight to see!
It was from this pinnacle that the High Priest would watch,
waiting for the dawn to then signal the beginning of that day’s service and begin
the morning sacrifice.
Josephus has a description of this pinnacle on the temple (Antiquities,
Book 15, Chap.11:5)
This cloister (porch) deserves to be mentioned better than any
other under the sun; for, while the valley was very deep, and its bottom could
not be seen if you looked from above into the depth, this farther vastly high
elevation of the cloister stood upon that height, insomuch that if any one
looked down from the top of the battlements, or down both those altitudes, he
would be giddy, while his sight could not reach to such an immense depth.
It is interesting to note that in rabbinic literature, in
the Midrash (Pesiqta Rabbati,162a) that it states the Jewish belief that the Messiah
would manifest Himself standing on the roof (or the pinnacle) of the temple. Another
interesting note is that the rabbis believed that the person identified by God
in Psalm 91.01-16
is none other than the Messiah. This is exactly where Satan misquoted the
Scripture about the angels in Psalm 91.11-12.
Satan could not throw Jesus down from the pinnacle, but he
was going to ask that Jesus would throw Himself down, and Satan justified it by
quoting Scripture. Satan knows the Bible, and he knows how to use it to justify
what he wants and twist when needed. Satan used the same trick in the Garden of
Eden, misquoting what God’s Word said to deceive Eve (Genesis 03.01). Jesus answered
Satan’s misquoting of Scripture with the proper use of the Bible, quoting the
text from Deuteronomy
06.16. By rejecting Satan’s misquote of Scripture, He accurately
handled the Word of God (2Timothy 02.15). The test that Satan asked
Jesus to do by jumping off the pinnacle of the Temple was actually tempting or
testing God in an ungodly way.
Luke 04.13 Satan
left Jesus alone, for a more “opportune time” which probably would have been
when Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26.36-56; Mark 14.32-52;
Luke 22.39-53;
John 18.01-11).
This is a good reminder that our Saviour knows and understands the struggles
that we go through (Hebrews 04.15). Jesus understands temptation,
for we have never faced temptation like He has. The temptations of Jesus were
more real and severe than it has ever been for us. The pressure of temptation
only yields when we give in, which is something Jesus never did. The
temptations that Jesus faced and endure with were with their full force, He had
to endure a much greater difficulty of temptation than we will ever face. He is
God, therefore nothing is impossible for Him, so it would’ve been easy to turn
the stones into bread to prove to Satan that He is the Son of God, but that
would’ve been giving in to the flesh, thus sinning and disqualifying Himself
from being our Saviour. We will never face temptation like Jesus faced because
we don’t have the ability to turn rocks into bread.
The temptations in the wilderness that Jesus faced with Satan
prepared Him for His ministry, and specifically for the time leading to the
cross, when He would’ve been faced with the temptation to turn away from
Gethsemane where “His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground.”
(Luke 22.44),
the temptation to to name all who beat Him while He was blindfolded (Matthew
26.67-68; Mark 14.65; Luke 22.63-64) or to come down
from the cross to “prove” to the mockers that He truly was the Son of God (Matthew
27.40-42; Mark 15.29-32). When Jesus was put completely
to the test, He would do nothing but the will of His Heavenly Father (John 06.38).
Jesus gave us a model that we are to copy when we are facing temptation. Jesus
used the Word of God to combat the temptation of Satan and of sin. Jesus never
used His power as God to combat temptation, or tapped into some spiritual
resource that only the elite and chosen can have access to. He used the same resource
that we have today, the Word of God.
When tempted, we are to shine the light of God’s Word to
expose the seductive lies and half-truths that are given to us. If we don’t
know the Word of God, we will be ill-equipped to fight against temptation. Paul
tells us that we are to emulate the attitude and humility of Jesus, not
clinging to our rights (Philippians 02.05-11). Through every
temptation, Jesus knew that God’s way is always the best and that there are no
shortcuts to accomplishing the will of the Father. Like Jesus, we need to be
patient, wait on God’s perfect timing and refuse the temptation to take matters
into our own hands.
To be able to fend of temptation like Jesus did, we need to
trust God’s love and have a good working knowledge of the Word of God. It is
done by taking the time to read, study and memorize the Word. If we don’t know
the Word of God, we will be ill-equipped to fight against temptation.
