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Taught by
Stephen ArmstrongThe ancient Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu, author of the book, “The Art of War,” famously wrote that you must know your enemy
Victory on the battlefield begins with an understanding of the strengths and tactics of your adversary
Military experts have studied and fought according to Sun Tzu’s principles of war for thousands of years
But his advice doesn’t just apply to wars fought on the field of battle between soldiers and tanks
It also applies to the spiritual battle that every Christian knows or will know during a life spent walking with Christ
We all experience spiritual warfare in one form or another
Some of us experience a greater degree of attack, some of us suffer greater losses, some of us resist with greater strength
But regardless of these differences, we all struggle against the enemy
And therefore, we can all benefit from learning more about the enemy we face, his strengths, his tactics, and his goals
And by that knowledge, we will be better prepared to respond to his attacks in the right ways
Of course, the enemy I’m talking about is Satan, along with his legion of demons who do his bidding
Last week, I taught an introduction to Jesus’ temptations in Chapter 4, by explaining Satan’s backstory from various Scriptures
We looked at how Satan was created, the duties he performed for God in the heavenly realm, how he fell into sin
I said that Satan is now on the prowl, always ready to oppose God and His people
Secondly, I explained the reason Jesus had to face this adversary in a series of temptations
Fundamentally, Jesus came to earth as a man to solve the problem of sin
He came to be our New Adam, to restart the human race
All of us are born with a sin nature, which we inherited from Adam
And Adam’s sin was the direct result of a temptation offered by the great tempter, Satan
So now, Jesus has come to start things over, to hit the reset button on humanity, so to speak
To do that, Jesus must live the life Adam should have lived, but didn’t – the life none of us can live, because we share in Adam’s fallen nature
Having lived the perfect life, Jesus could then die to pay the price for our sin
So that as we place our faith in that payment, we may be born again spiritually in His image and nature
So Jesus, as our New Adam, must correct the chief mistake Adam made, the one that plunged humanity into sin
He must prove that He is different than Adam, that He has a different nature
He must face the same situation Adam faced, yet triumph where Adam failed
But to demonstrate Jesus was truly qualified to be our new Adam, the Father required Jesus to endure temptation far beyond what Adam faced
Jesus will face three temptations, not just one
And He will face them in a greatly weakened physical state, with his body desperately seeking relief
And He will be alone, without the ability to rely on His supernatural power, fully vulnerable to temptation as Hebrews told us last week
As one commentator wrote,
So now, as we turn to Chapter 4, and read the first of Jesus’ temptations, we want to learn three things tonight
First, we want to understand the enemy’s tactics, his goals
That is, how he works to corrupt our spirit and deny God our obedience
Secondly, we want to understand the specific nature of each temptation, the offer Satan made to Jesus
Finally, we will study Jesus’ response to the temptation so we might learn how we too should resist
Satan’s first temptation is linked to the opening verses of the chapter, so let’s reread those as we start in the text tonight
Following His 40-day fast, Jesus became ravenously hungry, which is the usual pattern for people who pursue this kind of extended fast
The body has consumed all available fat stores and is now desperate for a new source of energy
And so Jesus’ hunger response came roaring back
The instinct to eat after so long is so all-consuming, that a person has a hard time contemplating anything other than eating
Your brain is slow and easily confused for lack of fuel
You feel drugged, like you have taken too much cold medicine
And it’s in this severely debilitated state that Jesus must now face the most powerful created being in all the Universe
Remember, we learned last week that Satan was the wisest, most beautiful thing God created
And also that Satan is a member of the highest class of angelic beings, called “cherubim”
But about now, some of you are saying, “Yeah, but Jesus is God so Satan doesn’t stand a chance”
But you’ll remember that Hebrews told us that when Jesus took the form of man, He became for a little while lower than the angels
And Paul told us that when Jesus took the form of man, He voluntarily emptied Himself of His form as God
So if Satan is the most powerful angelic being, and Jesus is lower than the angelic realm at this time…
Then we must conclude that Satan has more power than Jesus, more guile, more strength, at least right now
And so this is truly a David vs. Goliath moment in Scripture, with Jesus playing the role of David, not Goliath
Now that seems backward to us, I know
But it’s important to understand this situation from that perspective
Because it means Jesus’ only defense in this situation is to draw upon the same resources every believer has in this battle
We have our faith in the Word of God and its power to guide us away from harm
And we have our personal determination to obey it
As we’ll see, Jesus depended on these things alone to fight Satan
So in v.3, the enemy brings his first temptation
Before we look at the specific nature of this temptation, let’s make sure we know our enemy, specifically what’s Satan’s goal
Satan’s goal is to lead Jesus to disobey the Father
Back in Chapter 3, the Father had just declared that He was well-pleased in Jesus, His beloved Son
So now, Satan meets Jesus in the wilderness hoping to corrupt that testimony
Satan wants to make God eat His own words, no pun intended
It’s the same thing Satan tried to do to Job when the Father gave Satan access to that man for a time
Satan assumed that given enough motivation, he can make Job (or Jesus) eventually disobey the Word of the Lord
In Job’s case, Satan used trial; in Jesus’ case, Satan uses temptations
Ultimately, this is always Satan’s goal when he attacks God’s people
He puts pressure on us in the hope we will rebel as he did, either of one kind or the other
He wants us to follow his path of rebellion rather than continuing on the path of righteousness
He’s fighting God through us
This fight is all about who gets the glory…
Because whom you obey, you glorify
When we obey God, we give God glory
By our good works, we’re giving testimony that God is the One Who is worthy to receive honor and obedience
Conversely, when we disobey God by giving into Satan’s temptations, or to our flesh, we give Satan glory at God’s expense
We are testifying by our sinful works that we agree with Satan’s lies, rather than with the truth of God’s Word
Perhaps you haven’t thought of your sin in that way before
But truly there is no in-between, it’s either one way or the other
As the Lord told Israel
Now Satan knows our new spirit in Christ wants to obey God, to please Him
So if he is going to pull us off track, he needs a hook, some distraction or motivation that he can use to move us away from obedience
And that leads us to a study of his tactics
Satan has two primary tactics to cause us to disobey God, and both are evident in his temptations of Christ
First, Satan discredits the Word of God
Notice how he begins speaking to Jesus by saying “If You are the Son of God…”
This is similar to the statement he used to deceive Woman in the Garden
As he did in the Garden, Satan calls into question the trustworthiness of the Word of God
In this case, Satan wonders if Jesus is truly the Son of God promised in the Word, probably thinking of Psalm 2
The Word says the Messiah will be the Son of God
And the Father has just declared at the baptism of John that Jesus is that long awaited Son of God
So now, Satan casts doubt on that Word, asking if it’s really true
In other words, perhaps the Father was lying at the river, or maybe He lied back in Psalm 2
Either way, we can’t be sure the Word of God is correct, can we?
Now if Satan’s victim doesn’t have a firm grasp on God’s Word, then that person is going to be deceived by Satan’s deception
After all, he’s the wisest creature God ever made
As soon as he has a person disconnected from a reliance and trust in the Word of God, that person’s fall is virtually unstoppable
Satan is well on his way to gaining the person’s allegiance
Which then leads us to Satan’s second major tactic: tempting us to disobey
Satan uses temptation to motivate us to act in disobedience
Having already placed a seed of doubt in our minds concerning God’s love or His forgiveness or His fairness or something else in His Word, all that remains is to give us a reason to take up sinning
So if Satan’s first step was untethering us from the anchor of God’s Word, then his second step is giving us a little push in the direction of sin
Satan’s temptations can be classified into three categories, according to John
John says that everything that is of the fallen world can be grouped into one of these three categories
First, we may be tempted in lusts of the flesh
The lusts of the flesh are any desire of our physical body for gratification
Principally, we’re talking about things like food, drink, sexual pleasure, chemical addictions, anything that stimulates our body
Certainly, our body has basic needs that we must give some attention to just to be healthy
But when the desires of our physical body overwhelm or interfere with our spiritual objectives in life, then our body has become our own enemy
And at that point, we are called to discipline it, restraining its desires
Placing them in subjection to the Spirit’s counsel, so that we can remain obedient to Christ
Secondly, John says we may be tempted by the lust of the eyes
Even though John uses the word lust again, and even though our eyes are a part of our physical body, this is actually a different category
The lust of the eyes doesn’t refer to satisfying a physical need of our eyeballs, for your eyes have no physical need as such
For example, you don’t feed your eyes
Instead, the lust of the eyes is a euphemism meaning a desire for novelty, excitement, intrigue, spectacle, titillation, and the like
In today’s language, we might call it “chasing the shiny object”
It’s a distraction of the heart triggered by something that caught our eye
Lusts of the eyes would include preoccupations like shopping or hoarding material things
Or various obsessions or fixations, like hobbies that consume all of our available time, etc.
It’s any tendency to let the things of this world distract and consume us
Now here again, we all have stuff and we all have interests and hobbies
These things are not evil in themselves
The question is, do they interfere with your spiritual walk?
And when they do, then it means they have become a tool of the enemy to bring you into disobedience
Finally, John says we can be tempted by the boastful pride of life
This category includes anything that enflames our ego or our vanity or magnifies our sense of self-worth beyond what is due
Our pride of life can be enflamed when we receive accolades or it can be provoked when someone diminishes us
And in those moments, our sin nature will come to life, soaking up the accolades like a drug
Or else rushing to defend our ego in the face of the attack
While some self-esteem is healthy, generally, we all have too much self-esteem
What we really need is a lot less self-esteem and a lot more Christ-esteem
When our pride leads us to defend our desires or interests or reputation more than Christ’s, we’re vulnerable to the enemy
Now all three of these categories of temptation target our physical body in some area, whether our body, mind or emotions
And therefore, we could label these three areas of temptation as temptations of the body, the mind and the soul (emotions)
Satan entices our body by feeding its lusts
He distracts our mind with worthless obsessions
He enflames our soul with delusions of grandeur
Satan’s goal, remember, is not merely to manipulate us, but to lead us into disobeying the Father, leading to an end of what God is building
As James said
So in Jesus’ case, Satan’s first temptation takes the form of a test
Satan proposes a way Jesus can prove that the Word of God is true concerning His identity
Satan asks Jesus to reproduce the miracle that God performed for Israel during the Exodus, summarized in Psalm 78
The Word says that the Lord provided miraculous bread for God’s people while they lived in the wilderness
They were in desolate surroundings, and the Lord sent bread from heaven
So Satan proposed that should Jesus repeat this miracle now, He could show that the Word of God was accurate concerning His identity
Now it’s no coincidence that Satan has proposed this specific miracle, of course
Obviously, Satan is attacking Jesus at His weakest point
Jesus hasn’t eaten in 40 days, so naturally the desire to eat food would be a major temptation
We honestly can’t appreciate how much Jesus would have felt the urge to succumb to this temptation, to find food at this point
Just think how hard it is for you to stop yourself driving through a fast food restaurant on your way home when you’re hungry
How much harder would it be if you were fasting?
Now imagine how great the temptation would be if you could turn stones into tacos on demand?
Satan knew that food would be Jesus’ greatest temptation at this point
In this case, he’s trying to stop Jesus’ fast because it was not a voluntary act
Jesus was commanded by the Father to fast 40 days as a part of this trial or test
The number “40” in Scripture is the number of testing or trial
So Jesus cannot eat without sinning
Obviously, the Father is going to permit His Son to eat when this trial is over
But Jesus can’t cut the trial short without committing sin
And I would submit to you that Jesus might have been allowed to make the stones into bread without sinning
But what happens to a starving person when you put bread in front of them?
If it’s hard for Jesus to obey the Father’s call to fast now, how much harder will it be if a loaf of bread appears in front of Him
And Satan knows this, so he wants to bring Jesus to His breaking point
So Satan has disguised his temptation as a test to prove the truth of God’s Word concerning Jesus’ identity
Now defending the truth of God’s Word sounds like a noble cause, doesn’t it?
And it is, but this just shows you the supreme craftiness of Satan
Satan’s suggesting that Jesus can defend the Word of God…by disobeying the Word of God
Have you ever heard someone justify their desire to divorce and remarry by saying, God wants me to be happy?
Or to justify their decision to spend long hours at work and away from their family by saying, God expects me to be a good provider?
Or maybe a Christian justify a romantic relationship with an unbeliever by saying, God wants me to bring them to faith?
These are examples of how Satan twists God’s Word in our minds, so he can then tempt us into disobeying that Word
So now that we have an understanding of Satan’s tactics, let’s take a look at Jesus’ response in v.4
Mustering all His strength and fighting a mind dulled by lack of fuel, Jesus recalls the perfect Scriptural rebuttal from Deuteronomy 8:3
Now remember, Satan asked Jesus to turn stones into bread, recalling the miracle God did in the wilderness to bring manna
Because making bread appear out of nothing in the desert was one of God’s calling cards, if you will
Jesus does it again in John 6 – it was an obvious indication of deity
But Jesus’ response draws on the very same lesson Satan was using – that of the provision of manna in the wilderness – to refute his claims and expose the flaw in Satan’s argument
In Deuteronomy 8:3, the Lord said that before He gave Israel manna, God purposely allowed His people to go hungry for a time
He delayed their provision of manna for a time, so their stomachs began to growl, and it was a test of their faithfulness
He did so to teach His people an important lesson
God was teaching Israel that their chief concern shouldn’t have been sustaining their physical lives
Because God could bring them bread out of thin air anytime He desired
When God said manna would appear, it appeared
So the lesson was, heed My Word and good things will follow
As Jesus says elsewhere
On the other hand, continue in your ungrateful, disobedient unbelieving hearts and destruction will follow
So while Israel was seeking for food for their bodies, they were ignoring their need to nourish their souls
Now God wasn’t asking Israel to chose between physical bread or spiritual bread
He was asking them to put these needs in the proper priority
We should seek to please God above pleasing ourselves, even in matters of food
When we seek to fulfill our physical needs above our spiritual needs, we sin
Which is why Jesus quotes this verse to refute Satan’s request
Deuteronomy 8:3 teaches that obedience to the Word is even more important to God than supplying our physical needs
And since God had instructed Jesus to fast, He could not break it without sinning
Secondly, that passage affirms Jesus as God’s Son
Remember, in Exodus and elsewhere, God calls Israel His firstborn son
So Deuteronomy 8:3 teaches that God’s “son”, Israel, were made to experience a fast for a time in the wilderness as a test of their hearts
So this verse can also be understood to be an indirect reference to the Messiah Himself
That God’s Son was made to fast in the wilderness too, as a test of His heart
What a perfect response
Now keep in mind, Jesus brought this Scripture to mind using the same mental faculties God has given to each of us
Jesus didn’t have His iPad nearby with a convenient search box so He could locate that perfect passage on the fly
Jesus would have had the entire Old Testament memorized
He had to know it well enough to recall it even at the conclusion of a 40-day fast
On the other hand, we know Jesus was uniquely prepared by the Father
The Gospels tell us that Jesus was profoundly blessed with spiritual wisdom and insight, even as a young man
So clearly, we are not Jesus’ equal and that’s not my point
But what I am saying is, Jesus still had to learn the things He knew as He grew up
They weren’t downloaded into His head like a software program
And He wasn’t born knowing them
He still had to put in the necessary time and make the required effort to absorb these truths
For example, Luke ends his account of Jesus’ upbringing with these words
Notice Jesus increased in wisdom and in favor with God
And therefore, we must see His brilliant response in this moment not as some superhuman magic trick beyond our grasp
Rather, we need to appreciate what a godly, dedicated and faithful man can accomplish when He is thoroughly nourished on the Word of God
We will never be Jesus, but we can be like Jesus in many things
Satan preyed upon the weakness of Jesus’ flesh and tried to use it to lead Jesus against the will of the Father
And instead, Jesus allowed His physical body to continue suffering, not willing to satisfy it
And instead, He made his priority pleasing God by obedience to His Word
That’s not something beyond our reach
We need to understand this account as it was intended to be understood
It’s an account of a man resisting the enemy by maintaining self-control, while making obeying the Father His highest priority
This is about a Man Who knew that in time, the Father would satisfy His body’s need for food when the time was right
Later in this Gospel, we will hear Jesus teaching these words
When we study this passage in a few weeks, remember what Jesus experiences in His first temptation
And don’t think He couldn’t identify with His own teaching
Jesus knew exactly what it’s like to be in desperate need of a meal
He understood the temptation to suppose that God wasn’t going to provide
That He had to do something for Himself, something that would have been contrary to the will of the Father
Something that was contrary to righteousness
But Jesus lived according to the same Word He preached to His followers
Jesus sought first the Kingdom, that is to obtain His rightful place over that Kingdom
And He sought for the Father’s righteousness, to obey the Father’s commands even above His own needs
Because Jesus knew the other things He needed, like food, would come in time…God would provide them when the test was over
Last week, as we ended, I mentioned that Jesus’ death on the cross was the moment God made a provision, a payment, for our sins
And by placing our trust in that payment, by accepting that payment on our behalf, putting our faith in Jesus, God says He will forgive us our sins
And by that forgiveness, we will be welcomed into God’s presence when we die
Only our faith in Jesus is required, nothing more
But I also said that in a sense, Jesus’ dying on the cross for us was the “easier” part for Him
As horrible as Jesus’ death was – and it was truly unbearable – it was an easier task than living 30+ years without committing a single sin
But Jesus had to succeed as our New Adam
Because if Jesus’ death on that cross were to mean anything, to be worth anything, Jesus had to be our spotless, sinless sacrifice
He had to resist temptation everyday, not just on this day
That’s what makes Christianity unique and every other religion counterfeit
No one else had a solution for the problem of sin, for it is our sin that stands in the way of reaching Heaven
Unless God does something to erase your sin, you have no hope to be counted worthy for Heaven because the standard to get into Heaven is sinlessness
Muhammad offers no solution to the problem of man’s sin
Buddha offers no solution, Confucius offers no solution, Mormans, JWs, Scientology, none of them offer a solution
But Jesus does…He says, let Me take your sin on Me
Jesus lived the perfect sinless life you couldn’t, as a man who knew temptation, yet never gave in to it
And then, Jesus died an underserved death to pay the penalty for your sin
And all He asks, is for you to accept the salvation He has prepared for you by placing your faith in Him