Luke 4:1-13

 One of the main purposes in preaching is to be able to show how the Word of God is practical and applicable for today.  It is not some dry, dusty, old book whose main purpose seems to be decorating a library shelf.  The Bible is the living Word of God.  It is, as the book of Hebrews tells us, living and active and able to cut right down to the very motives of your heart. 

Of course, depending on what is going on in your life there are certain portions of Scripture that seem more applicable than others.  Verses dealing with child rearing may not seem as important to a great grandparent as they do to a young married couple expecting their first child.  Chapter 2 of Titus gives some serious instructions to the older women of the church, but that passage may not seem to have as much value to the teenage boys sitting in the back.

The nature of Scripture is that certain passages speak louder to us than others and that different verses will have greater impact on us at different times or stages of life.  However, the passage we are going to look at today I can confidently say is applicable for all people, no matter where you are in life and no matter what is going on. 

In the first 13 verses of Luke 4 we have recorded for us an encounter between Jesus and Satan.  We get to see, up close and personal, exactly how Jesus dealt with both temptation and the Tempter.  And I can guarantee that each and every one of us here will need to know how to do this as well.  I think some people get the mistaken idea that once you become a Christian you don’t really have to deal with the devil anymore, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.  Satan is real and his attacks and temptations are real.  So we better know how to stand against them.

But before we look at those verses lets read two verses from 1^st Peter: 

1 Peter 5:8-9, “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.  But resist him firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.” 

The incident that takes place just prior to this passage is the baptism of Jesus.  It was a significant event where God identified Jesus as His own beloved Son, and it was at this point that Jesus was filled with Holy Spirit.  In Old Testament times, and anything before the death and resurrection of Jesus is considered Old Testament times, the Holy Spirit wasn’t given to every believer, but rather just to certain people for guidance and power to accomplish a specific task of God.  With Jesus the Spirit was with Him for His entire 3 years of ministry. 

What would you expect to be the Spirit’s first move as Jesus began his public ministry?  Maybe some grand miracle to capture the people’s attention and place Jesus firmly in center stage.  Perhaps a proclamation to the religious establishment declaring His plans and purposes.  Or He could have set up a system to start receiving applications to fill the positions of the 12 apostles.  Any of that would have seemed good to me.  But God had a different plan. 

1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.

I’m pretty glad that when I answered the call to be pastor of this church they didn’t tell me, “The first thing you have to do is fast for 40 day.”  I have fasted for 3 days before and that was plenty long enough for me. I probably could have gone longer, but I had determined before I started that 3 days was my goal.  The first day was really tough.  The second morning was misery.  But sometime throughout the second day the feelings of hunger started to disappear.  So most of the second day and all of the third day, I didn’t really feel hungry.  I’ve talked with people that have done longer fasts and they tell me that normally after the first day or two you stop feeling hungry. 

It was great for me until that 72-hour deadline began to approach.  When I began to think that my fast would soon be over, all of a sudden food was about the only thing I could think about.  And when I started thinking about food I got hungry.

I sometimes wonder if that is what verse 2 is talking about.  Jesus knew the end of His 40-day fast was at hand and the thoughts of hunger kicked in.  Knowing how hungry I was at the end of 3 days I can hardly imagine how famished a person would be after 40. 

And that is exactly when Satan hit.  I think that principal translates over for you and me today.  When you are weak or distracted or hurting or worn down Satan will take that as his cue to attack. 

Of course our temptations will not be the same as what Jesus faced in detail.  But the underlying reasoning behind each temptation fits our situation exactly.  Let’s take a look at the first temptation in verse 3:

3 The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread."

Like I said the details of the temptations will be different for Jesus than us.  Satan could come to me and tell me all day long to turn rocks into bread and it wouldn’t be the least bit tempting.  It wouldn’t be tempting because I can’t do it.  It is not a possibility for me.  So I’m thinking, “How can I relate to this temptation?”  And maybe you are wondering the same thing.

Turning rocks into bread is an impossibility for us, but it wasn’t for Jesus.  Jesus had the supernatural abilities to do miracles.  So there He was.  Fasting for 40 days and now very hungry and Satan presented Him with something He could do.

When I was a kid and first heard about this temptation in Sunday School class my immediate thought was, “What’s wrong with eating?”  I could never figure out what would be wrong with Jesus making bread.  It didn’t make sense to my why that would be considered a sin.  It wasn’t until years later that I understood the temptation here was not about bread but trust.  What Satan was doing was asking Jesus to distrust the Father’s care and take matters into His own hands.   When it is put into those terms suddenly this temptation is something we can relate to, isn’t it.

Actually it is the oldest temptation in the book.  Eve is in the Garden of Eden, the perfect paradise that God created here on earth.  She has everything she needs and could ever hope for.  Then Satan comes along and plants a seed of doubt in Eve’s mind about the goodness of God.  Basically he tells her that God is holding out on her.  He is denying her something that would be good for her.  He causes her to begin mistrusting God.  She falls for Satan’s deceit, and well, the rest is history.

And ever since that time Satan has been whispering in our ears.  Dropping hints that God is withholding something from us.  Something good.  Something that we need.  And then he conveniently suggests ways in which we can take care of ourselves and get the things we deserve. 

Satan is telling Jesus, “Man, you are going to die if you don’t eat.  You’re God’s Son and He’s leaving you out here in the wilderness to starve to death.  Well phooey with that.  You’ve got the power, make some bread and take care of yourself.”

And the devil is still tempting us in this way.  You’ve all heard the old cliché, “If you don’t take care of yourself no one else will.”  Or Satan will say, “You deserve better than this.”  You got to watch out for number one. 

And so the temptation comes to cheat on the test because you deserve a better grade.  Or to do whatever it takes to land that job even if it means lying or compromising your standards because you really need the higher salary.  Or to keep the extra change the cashier accidentally gave you because they charge too much for stuff in that place anyway.  Why should I declare that income there’s no record of it and besides, taxes are way too high.  I can’t afford to give any money towards missions.  I’m barely making ends meet as it is.  Go to church on Sunday?  I only get one day to sleep in.  I work hard and I have to take care of myself after all.  Satan is constantly tempting us to distrust God and His care for us.

But Jesus answered Satan back with a quote from Deuteronomy chapter 8.  “Man shall not live on bread alone.”  Moses had been leading the children of Israel through the wilderness.  They were hungry and began grumbling.  The doubted God’s salvation and started accusing Moses of leading them out into the desert to starve to death.  God provided Manna from heaven every morning to feed them and told them, “Man does not live by bread alone.”  It is not bread we need it is God.  We need His creative, energizing sustaining power. 

We should be able to meet this temptation of Satan easily for we are told over and over again in the both the Old and New testament that God will take care of us.  He will supply all our needs.  He gave us Jesus Christ, will He not freely give us everything else we need?   We should never doubt God’s love, provision and care for us.

The next temptation is found in verse 5.

5The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6And he said to him, "I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7So if you worship me, it will all be yours."

This is a temptation to abandon loyalty to the Father.  Jesus came to free the people of the world but He knew it was going to cost Him everything to do that.  Pain, suffering and the cross was the path God laid out for Him.  Satan was offering Jesus the easy way out.  Forget the cross.  Who needs the whip and the crown of thorns?  I’ll give you the kingdoms of the earth right now.  All you have to do is worship me.  The end results will be the same, only you won’t have to work so hard to get.  And the ends do justify the means, don’t they?

Satan sometimes offers us a shortcut as well.  But the shortcut will always involve breaking one of God’s laws, just as this temptation would have caused Jesus to break the first commandment.  Satan mummers to your mind, “God said its not good for man to be alone, so it’s all right for you and this woman to spend the night together.”  Satan is always offering a shortcut to happiness.  But His shortcuts always end in pain.

Jesus did not look at the results Satan was offering but rather the method Satan proposed.  And in looking at the method the sin quickly was exposed.  So Jesus responded in verse 8,

8Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.'"

Verse 9 begins the final temptation:

9The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. "If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down from here. 10For it is written:
   " 'He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully;
 11they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'"

This temptation offers Jesus a path to instant popularity.  Satan says, “You want to reach the people?  You want to gather crowds?  Well I have the perfect plan.  Imagine how the crowds will come running after a spectacular miracle like this.  And it would give you instant credibility with the religious leaders.  You don’t have anything to worry about.  If you are God’s Son then God will make sure you land softly and gently on the ground.”  Satan even quoted Scripture to prove his point.  Is it true that God would take care of the Messiah, His Son?  Of course He would.  So what is the sin here?

The sin is easily identified when we look at the answer Jesus gave,

12Jesus answered, "It says: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"

In the first temptation Jesus said, “I’m going to trust God.”  Now this temptation is not to trust God but to presume upon Him.  This was not something God had called Jesus to do.  Instead it was artificially creating a need for God to act.  It would be like a Christian today saying, “God promises to take care of me so I can drive like a maniac and just trust God to keep me from having an accident.”  It doesn’t work that way.

God has promised to meet all my needs.  Well then I’ll just quit my job and go fishing and trust God that all my bills will be paid when I get back home.  Or another man says, “I know I have a problem with pornography on the internet, but I’m not going to put any safeguards on my computer and just trust God to keep me off the wrong sites." That’s not trust.  That’s presumption.  That’s stupidity.

God has many precious promises that we can count on.  But God also gives us instructions for how we are to live and act in this world.  Our trust in God comes as we follow His will for us.

Now just two more quick thoughts as we wrap this up.  The first, and I’m sure most are familiar with this already, did you notice the technique Jesus used in combating Satan?  It is written, it is written, it is written.  If we want to have strength and wisdom to combat Satan then we better be committed to knowing God’s Word.  I’m not saying you have to have it memorized, but you better know what it says. 

In the second temptation Jesus didn’t give an exact quote.  What He did was combine the words and principles from two different verses.  You might not be able to quote Philippians 4:19, “And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”  But you can remember, “Hey, I don’t have to steal.  God will take care of me.” 

And the final thought.  Look at verse 13:

13When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.

We had better be prepared because Satan is always looking for an opportune time.