LUKE 4:1-13 - IT IS WRITTEN: FIGHT TEMPTATION WITH THE WORD

IT IS WRITTEN:

FIGHT TEMPTATION WITH THE WORD

LUKE 4:1-13

Susie: This is Luke’s account of the temptation of Jesus Christ. You may want to read another account as well in Matthew chapter four.

Luke 4:1-2 And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered.

Susan: Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit; for even though He was completely man, He was still completely God.

Susie: After He was baptized by John, the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness for a time of prayer, fasting, and ultimately temptation.

Susan: God does not tempt people Himself but uses Satan as the instrument of temptation, for Satan is under God’s control and must do God’s bidding.

James 1:13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:

Susie: We will see that Jesus was tempted in all the ways we are but remained sinless.

Hebrews 4:15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

Susie: There are three broad categories of temptation, and Satan tried to trip Jesus up in each of them.

1 John 2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

Susan: Jesus fasted 40 days and nights as Moses had at Mount Sinai (Deuteronomy 9:9) and Elijah had after the Lord consumed his offering on Mount Carmel, and he had slain the prophets of Baal, making a spectacle of him (1 Kings 19:8). Then we have the great understatement that Jesus was hungry! Famished would be the word I would use.

Susie: Enter Satan (who had probably been tempting Jesus the entire forty days) to capitalize on the fact that Jesus was starving and tempt Him in the area of “lust of the flesh”—putting your physical wants and even needs above the Lord’s will.

Luke 4:3 And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread.

Susan: The “if” in this verse is not best rendered as a question. Its better translation is “Since thou be the Son of God.” Satan was well aware that Jesus was truly the Son of God.

Susie: The Jews ate small round loaves of brown bread, so the stones probably looked very much like bread to Jesus in His famished state. Satan was tempting Him to use the power He had set aside to become human (Philippians 2:7) for His own immediate gratification.

Luke 4:4 And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.

Susan: Jesus’s rebuttals to Satan as concerns all three temptations recorded here are found in the book of Deuteronomy.

Susie: His first response explains why He used Scripture to refute the Devil’s reasoning. He quoted from a passage about the time when God preserved the Israelites with manna which I’m sure got pretty boring after an extended time. But God was making the point that being sustained spiritually by His word was far more important than delicious food for the body.

Deuteronomy 8:3 And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live.

Job 23:12 Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.

Susan: Jesus had the scripture internalized because He wrote it, but He was portraying for us the example of the importance of internalizing God’s word in order to use it in our arsenal of Holy armor:

Ephesians 6:17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:

Luke 4:5-6 And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.

Susan: You may be saying, “Wait a minute! Only God has the authority to put a person in that place of power!”

Susie: However, Scripture backs up what Satan claimed here—that God had given him authority over this world, even calling the devil the “prince of this world.”

John 12:31 Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.

2 Corinthians 4:4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

Susie: For now, the whole world is under the curse and lies in the power of Satan (only as far as the Lord allows).

1 John 5:19 And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.

Romans 8:19-22 (NIV) For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.  For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.

Luke 4:7 If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.

Susan: Satan’s condition for giving Jesus all He could see was that He worship him, give him the place reserved for the Father.

Susie: Satan was appealing to the “lust of the eyes,” something ingrained in our fallen nature. A baby’s first words are often “no” followed by “mine!” If they see it, they want it. I remember reading children’s book titled More, More, More Said the Baby by Vera B. Williams. Our quest for more begins early in life and can only truly be satisfied by a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Susan: The devil was tempting Jesus to forfeit His purpose on behalf of the divine Kingdom and accept the poor substitute of ruling on earth.

Susie: Many of Jesus’s followers thought He should be an earthly king and conquer the Romans, but Jesus knew this was not the Father’s plan, and resisted the temptation to give in to their desires.  

Luke 4:8 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

Susie: Jesus again rebuffed Satan by paraphrasing Scripture.

Deuteronomy 6:13-14 Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name. Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are round about you. . .

Susan: In His replies, Jesus is paralleling His temptation with the wilderness experience of the Israelites, with the difference being that He succeeded in not giving in to the devil where the Israelites had failed.

Susie: We are not to place anything or anyone above the Lord our God. He alone is worthy of worship. We trust Him alone to give us what we need.

Matthew 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Luke 4:9 And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence: For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee: And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.

Susie: Satan then tempted Jesus in the area of the “pride of life” by telling Him to jump from a height that would surely be suicidal. He is again trying to trick Jesus into displaying His power as deity rather than remaining in humble subjection to the Father’s will.

Susan: God’s enemy is trying to get Jesus to test God, to see if His Father truly would send angels to save Him. Satan even employed scripture to try to trick Jesus:

Psalm 91:11-12 For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.

Susie: The Scripture was pointing out that we can trust God, not that we should put this trust to the test.

Susan: God is trustworthy and does watch over us, but we should not set up situations in which we need to be rescued. There are times we cannot make sense of what God is doing, but He is still trustworthy, and we should not allow those times to create doubt in our minds.

Luke 4:12 And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

The MacArthur Study Bible has a good note on the related verse from Matthew 4:7:

Christ replied with another verse from Israel’s wilderness experience (Deut. 6:16)—recalling the experience at Massah, where the grumbling Israelites put the Lord to the test, angrily demanding that Moses produce water where there was none (Ex. 17:2–7).

Deuteronomy 6:16 Ye shall not tempt the Lord your God, as ye tempted him in Massah.

Exodus 17:7 And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us, or not?

Luke 4:13 And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season.

Susie: There were temptations for Jesus throughout His ministry as crowds continued trying to make Him an earthly King and detractors were always demanding a “sign,” a miracle to prove He was the Messiah.

Susan: However, Satan waited until the most opportune time, when Jesus was in His weakest moment, to attack Him will full force again. In the Garden of Gethsemane, in His humanity, Jesus prayed with all His strength even to the point of sweating drops of blood that He be allowed to avoid the cross, the weight of our sin, and the separation from God the Father. He and the Father had always been one; and in His humanity, He was paralyzed by the thought of the impending separation when the Father could not look upon the Son because He bore our sin.

Susie: Agonizing in prayer was not sinful nor a lack of trust in His father. It was proof that He was fully man as well as fully God. Satan did not defeat Jesus in the wilderness, nor did He defeat Him by causing Him to abandon the Father’s plan of redemption. Jesus prayed three times that this “cup” might be avoided, but all three times He submitted to the will of God (Luke 22:39-46).

Susan: Jesus passed every test that Israel had failed.

Susie: He passed every test that we fail in our human frailty. Therefore, He served as the perfect sacrificial Lamb to redeem us from sin.

Susan: Because of Jesus’s death in our place on the cross, and His subsequent resurrection from death, God sees those of us who believe as 100% clean!

QUESTIONS

1.  Who authorized Satan to tempt Jesus?

2.       With what weapon did Jesus combat Satan’s temptations?

3.       How can we prepare in advance for the temptations we will surely face in this world?