Luke 04.01-02 | The Temptation of the Messiah part01

Luke 04.01-13

Luke 04.01-02 The temptation of Jesus was not only recorded for us by Dr. Luke, but also recorded by Matthew (Matthew 04.01-11) and Mark (Mark 01.09-13). Mark’s account is a quick, general overview of the temptation of Jesus. When you take a look at the two detailed accounts of the temptation of Jesus in Matthew (Matthew 04.01-11) and in Luke (Luke 04.01-13), it is notable that the order of the temptations is different. This does not mean any type of contradiction, but just that it seems to most commentaries that Matthew records the historical record of the temptations, while Luke puts them in a moral order.

There are many similarities in the temptation of Jesus and Old Testament men of faith.

Just as Jesus was in the wilderness without food and water “for forty days” (Luke 04.02), both Moses and Elijah both had forty-day fasts. Moses while he was on Mount Sinai receiving the Ten Commandments (Exodus 24.18; Exodus 34.28; Deuteronomy 09.09; Deuteronomy 09.18; Deuteronomy 09.25) and Elijah when he was fleeing from the wrath of Jezebel (1Kings 19.08) after the victory on Mount Carmel.

Moses failed at the end of his fast, when he came down from Mount Sinai and saw the children of Israel worshipping the golden calf (Exodus 32.19). Elijah failed at the beginning of his fast, when he fled after receiving the message from Jezebel that she would repay him for killing the 450 prophets of Baal (1Kings 18.40) by killing him. So instead of trusting God like he had told the widow in Zarephath (1Kings 17.13), Elijah feared Jezebel and ran for his life (1Kings 19.01-04). After he ate of the food divinely prepared for him by an angel (1Kings 19.05-07), he traveled in the very same wilderness that the children of Israel traveled in on his way to Mount Sinai (aka Mount Horeb in 1Kings 19.08), the same mountain the Moses was on when he received the Ten Commandments (1Kings 08.09; 2Chronicles 05.10; Psalm 106.19; Malachi 04.04). But neither Moses nor Elijah were not attacked by Satan like Jesus was.

But the most similar Old Testament equivalent might actually be the victory of David over Goliath who took a stand against the nation of Israel by mocking them and challenging them to a fight in 1Samuel 17.01-58. In 1Samuel 17.01-58 we have David defeating the giant Goliath in the place where the giant had challenged the children of Israel for forty-days (1Samuel 17.16). David met Goliath at the end of the forty-days and killed the giant not by a sword but by a stone that crushed the head of the enemy (1Samuel 17.49), which is the same way that God promised in the Garden of Eden that seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent in Genesis 03.15. Goliath was a manifestation of the serpent, and David of course was foreshadowing what the Son of David would ultimately do on the cross, defeating Satan once and for all (John 19.30; Colossians 02.15; Hebrews 02.14-15; 1John 03.08). In John 19.30 the Greek word for “It is finished!” is Tetelestai and it literally means that Jesus has accomplished everything on the cross.

Jesus went through temptation like we do on a daily basis by taking on human flesh to die for us to free us from the servitude of sin and death (Hebrews 02.14-15; 1John 03.08).

What we see here in Luke 04.01-13 (also in Matthew 04.01-11; Mark 01.09-13) is Satan tempting Jesus after He spent forty-days in the wilderness, and Jesus using “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 06.17) to defeat Satan.

Dr. Luke, along with Matthew and Mark all record for us that it was the Holy Spirit that led Jesus into the wilderness. Dr. Luke records it as: “…and was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil…” (Luke 04.01-02) Matthew records it as: “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” (Matthew 04.01) Mark records it as: “Immediately the Spirit impelled Him to go out into the wilderness.” (Mark 01.12) Dr. Luke uses the Greek word (G71) agw ago here for “led” which means to move, impel, to drive. This word is also used of forces and influences affecting the mind. The Greek word that is used here in Luke 04.01 is also used by Paul in Romans 08.14 and Galatians 05.18 talking about the person who yields to the instruction and direction of the Holy Spirit. Jesus was being literally led by the Holy Spirit in perfect submission to the will of the Father. God is always in control, even if seems like He isn’t!

How can a person being led by the Holy Spirit be brought to such a desolate place and to be tempted? This is something that the Word of Faith teachers will avoid, because according to their theology, all must go well with you in life or you are out of the will of God and in sin. Jesus was able to be led by the Holy Spirit into a desolate place and to be tempted by Satan because He was “full of the Holy Spirit” (Luke 04.01). We saw when John baptized Jesus that “the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove” (Luke 03.22) Isaiah prophesies that the Messiah will be full of the Holy Spirit in Isaiah 11.02-04 and Isaiah 61.01. Peter says the same thing about Jesus when he was speaking to the Gentiles in Acts 10.38. Matthew tells us “after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry.” (Matthew 04.02)

Luke 04.02 “being tempted by the devil” is the same idea that Paul talked about Satan tempting believers in 1Corinthians 07.05 and 1Thessalonians 03.05. People tend to think that if you are tempted you have already sinned. But James tells us otherwise in James 01.13-16. James says that God cannot be tempted because there is nothing in evil that would appeal to a perfect, holy God. Plus, God never tempts anyone, though He will often test people. The source of temptation is not from God, but from within a person. It is his sinful, evil desire, lust or passion that literally baits a person or draws them out that causes them to sin. James then illustrates the steps into temptation that every person takes with a vivid picture. The lust is first conceived and from this conception sin is born. Sin then grows or matures and the result is death. James could not be clearer, when lust goes unrestrained it leads to sin, and sin causes death (Romans 06.23). This is why James warns his readers not to be deceived or led astray by lust (James 01.13-16).

Jesus, being completely man and completely God was tempted, but He did not sin! The fact that Jesus was tempted does not mean He sinned, for the Bible tells us that He was without sin (Hebrews 04.15). We are also told that because of what He endured, “He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.” (Hebrews 02.18)

Luke 04.02 “…And He ate nothing during those days and when they had ended, He became hungry.”

This is proof that when Jesus came as a man, He was 100% man (John 01.14). Further examples of His humanity include Him getting hungry (Matthew 21.18), He got tired (John 04.06) He slept (Matthew 08.24-25; Mark 04.38; Luke 08.23) and He wept (Luke 19.41; John 11.35). This is a good reminder that our Saviour knows and understands the struggles that we go through (Hebrews 04.15). But even though Jesus could not sin because He was God does not mean He could not face temptation.

The way that Luke writes the temptation of Jesus seems to fall perfectly in line with what John wrote in 1John 02.16. These are the three temptations that Satan used to tempt Eve and then Adam to sin in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 03.06). Satan tries to tempt Jesus with the same temptations that succeeded in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 03.06), the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life. But unlike with Adam and Eve, Satan came when Jesus was hungry (Luke 04.02). The first temptation is an appeal to the identity of Jesus; the second in Luke (third in Matthew) is an appeal to having the world’s glory. The third temptation that Dr. Luke records for us is the religious temptation through the Word of God, and therefore the hardest morally of all three temptations.

The differences though are noteworthy: Adam faced temptation in paradise (The Garden of Eden) while the temptations that Jesus underwent were in wilderness of the desert in Judea. Adam lived in a sinless world, and there was no build up of temptation that enticed Adam to sin, for he gave in to the first temptation that he encountered. Jesus faced His temptations after having been without food for forty-days. Adam though was tempted in paradise (in The Garden of Eden), with his wife, and Satan was in the form of a snake (Genesis 03.01-07), and was driven into the wilderness after the temptation. Jesus was driven first into the wilderness, tempted by Satan unveiled and all alone. Adam was not weak physically before he was tempted. Jesus was physically at His limit after fasting for forty-days. In the best of environments, Adam gave in to temptation, while in the worst of environments; Jesus withstood the temptation of Satan. Here was a case of the second Adam succeeding where the first Adam failed (1Corinthians 15.45). Job (Job 31.33) stated that he had nothing to hide from God like Adam hid his transgression. The Apostle Paul talks in multiple places about the salvific work of Christ in comparison to the transgression of Adam in Romans 05.10-21, 1Corinthians 15.22, and 1Corinthians 15.45.