First Temptation of Jesus Christ in the Wilderness

Six Reminders

There are six reminders from what we learned last Sunday night that I would like to discuss here.  First is that there is a spiritual world.  Second, we are involved in a spiritual war.  All of us are involved in spiritual warfare.  It not just Christians that are attacked by Satan, or really bad people that get persuaded to do things for evil, it is all of us.  And if we do not realize that we are in a war, then we might verge of wrecking our lives, especially if we do not even know we are in a battle.  This war is between two conflicting kingdoms (Christ and Satan).  This war is a Continual struggle (Christians and demons).  Although Christ has already won the victory of death and we wait for His return to establish the new heavens and the new earth and since we read in revelations what happens to Satan upon that day, we can assume, that although the War has been won, Satan will still do everything in his power to keep those that do not believe in Christ in their sin, and those that do believe in Christ, doubting His goodness.

This leads us to our third point.  Our enemy in this spiritual war is difficult.  Knowing his final destination does not make Satan work less at tempting us, but even more intensely until his final day.  However, we should not fear the enemy because we have learned from the book of Job that God is over Satan and that Satan cannot do anything outside of the will of God.  Therefore, we can trust God when we go through trials because we know he loves us and we can be confident that He will use it for our good and His glory, just as He did for Job.

Fourth, the stakes in this spiritual war are eternal.  Not fighting this war is not an option because it has eternal stakes.  The war is not just on you, but the entire church.  Therefore, if was to fail, even though, I am confident in my salvation and that I would still go to  heaven, it would still have eternal ramifications because if I was to fail then my witness of God’s Word would be corrupted and not only would the world be skeptical of my testimony, but also the church that I serve.

Fifth, the scope of this spiritual war is universal.  No one is making it out of this battle unaffected.  Everyone is going to be tempted.  It is how you respond to the temptation is what defines you as a man or woman of God.  And it is impossible to defeat this temptation without the work of the Holy Spirit working inside you in the process of sanctification, but that does not mean that we can be lazy, but that we will pray that the Holy Spirit will incline us to become more motivated to work harder against the battle of temptation.

Finally, our Sixth reminder is that our involvement in this spiritual war is personal.  There are no new temptations.  We are attacked in the same ways that Jesus was attacked in this passage.  We are being attacked every day and we are even being tempted right now.  Satan will tempt you in every way until he finds a weak spot and then he will attack there full force.  We see in this passage that Jesus was hungry, so what does Satan do?  He tempts Jesus into turning the stones into bread.  Here we see that Jesus was tempted to fulfill his wants apart from God’s will.  However, Jesus trusted the all-satisfying all-sufficient goodness of the father.  Although will not be tempted to turn rocks into bread, but we will be tempted to meet our God given desires in an ungodly way.

We are tempted to fulfill our wants apart from God’s will.  For example with food, the desire to eat was naturally given to us by God so that we would not starve to death.  However, we corrupt it and over eat and our overeating shows one that we love to self-gratify ourselves and too that we do not trust God to provide food for us later on, the next time that we get hungry.

Same thing with thirst, God gave us thirst so that we would not die of dehydration.  However, often we obey our thirst in a way that does not glorify God by what we drink.  It is also the same with our sexual desire.  God gave us our sex drive for us to be able to multiply the earth and for the bonding of a husband and wife.  God wants us to get the most joy out of life by having sex only within marriage, with only one spouse.  However, we will be tempted to meet our sexual desire that God gave us for good, for ungodly purposes.  Having sex outside of marriage is saying to God that he does not know what is best for us.

Two Pictures

Now I also want to remind you that there are two pictures going on in this passage.  First, Jesus is the new man, stepping into the universal human story.  Adam was the first man and failed when he was tempted causing all humanity to inherit his sinful nature.  Jesus is the new man and is victorious against temptation and provides a way for all humanity to come back into the right standing with God.

The second picture is that Jesus is the true son, suffering through in the wilderness.  Israel was God’s chosen people, but did not have faith in God to enter into the Promised Land and had to wander in the wilderness for 40 years.  Jesus fasted 40 days in the wilderness and totally trusted in will of God to provide for him, displaying the Word of God is more valuable than bread alone.  Jesus trusted the all-satisfying, all-sufficient goodness of the Father.

Does god Tempt Us?

We are tempted by Satan, who is subordinate, for evil.  We are tested by God, who is sovereign, for good.  What Satan means for evil, God means for our good and His glory.  God tests us just like a silversmith tests silver.  He heats us up with fire so that he can purify it and remove the impurities, it is a painful process, but the result is a better and more useful piece of silver.

Could Jesus have sinned?

            By a show of hands who thinks Jesus could have sinned, now who thinks that Jesus could not have sinned?  Well you both would be right.  Jesus is fully man therefore he was fully tempted.  However, Jesus is fully God, therefore, God cannot be tempted.  To help you get your brain around this difficult truth, I want you to think of someone that you love most on this earth.  Now I want you to picture imagine that someone wants you to murder them.  Although you could physically murder them, at the same time it would be impossible for you ever to do it.

Why Should We Fast?

It is important to have a purpose when fasting because without a purpose, fasting can be a miserable, self-centered experience.  Fasting is not to be a legalistic routine, but a privilege and an opportunity to seek God’s grace that is open to us as often as we desire.  “Self-indulgence is the enemy of gratitude, and self-discipline usually its friend and generator.  That is why gluttony is a deadly sin.  The early desert fathers believed that a person’s appetites are linked: full stomachs and jaded palates take the edge from our hunger and thirst for righteousness.  They spoil the appetite for God” (Plantinga, 1988).

In our passage today, we see that Jesus fasted forty days and forty nights in order to spiritually strengthen Himself and to dedicate Himself to God for the beginning of His public ministry.  In the spiritual strength of that prolonged fast Jesus was prepared to overcome a direct onslaught of temptation from Satan himself, the strongest He would face until Gethsemane.

Jesus privately dedicated Himself during this fast to the Father for the public ministry that He would begin soon thereafter.  Therefore, the first purpose of fasting is dedicate ourselves and to help us grow spiritually in order to overcome temptation.  We are in spiritual warfare and sometimes it is good for us to weaken our physical bodies in order to strengthen our spiritual ones.

The second purpose of fasting is to strengthen our prayers.  When we fast, we should be like Jesus and say that we desire God and hearing His word, more than desire fulfilling our fleshy desires.  Therefore, when you feel your hunger pains use it as a reminder that 1.) that you love God more than you love food, and 2.) to remind you to pray for whatever you fasted for.

The Bible does not teach that fasting is a kind of spiritual hunger strike that compels God to do our bidding.  If we ask for something outside of God’s will, fasting does not cause Him to reconsider.  Fasting does not change God’s hearing so much as it changes our praying.  In his book God’s Chosen Fast, Arthur Wallis remarked,

Fasting is calculated to bring a note of urgency and importunity into our praying, and to give force to our pleading in the court of heaven.  The man who prays with fasting is giving heaven notice that he is truly in earnest….Not only so, but he is expressing his earnestness in a divinely-appointed way.  He is using a means that God has chosen to make his voice to be heard on high.

God is always pleased to hear the prayers of His people, but He is also pleased when we choose to strengthen our prayers in a way He has ordained.  (Whitney, 1991)

Second of all, we see that Jesus practiced solitude in preparation of His temptation.  With that fullness the Holy Spirit led him into solitude for forty days.  He went away from family and friends and crowds and lived in the desert for forty days.  That is almost six weeks.  No radio.  No television.  No computers.  No cellphones.  No text messages.  And this wasn’t the only time: Luke 5:16 shows that other times Jesus went away alone.  It must be that preparation for ministry demands significant times of solitude.  We simply cannot maintain a radical God-centeredness under an unbroken barrage of human interaction.  The depth and value of what you bring in your heart to other people will depend on what you do with your solitude.

The Temptation of Jesus in the Wilderness in Mt. 4:1-11, Mk. 1:12-13, and Lk 4:1-13

The main point of this passage is to introduce to us how Jesus will not pursue his mission.  His goal is not to draw attention to himself, but to focus on God’s work and God’s truth, which he is called to carry out.  Jesus will not use his power to serve himself, but he will lift up others and minister to both their physical and spiritual needs.

This passage reveals three truths to us and goes deeper each time.  These truths are themes that are going to be reoccurring throughout the ministry of Jesus.  The first truth is that Jesus is the devout Son who has unwavering allegiance to God.  Second, the battle between Satan and Jesus will run through the entire Gospel.  And third, the success of Jesus in the wilderness recalls Israel’s failure there.  (Bock, 1994, p. 363)

Again, God is transitioning us from the Old Testament to the New Testament in this passage.  In the Old Testament, we see that at the center of the storyline has been the Nation of Israel.  However, now it is made clear that Israel and Jesus are complete opposites.  The Old Testament stories are there to show us how we all have fallen short of what God has required for us, but Jesus is pointing us to the one that will fulfill the law and redeem us.

It is worth pointing out that no one but Jesus, Satan, and some wild animals are present at this testing.  That means this account could only have come from Jesus.  Therefore, it gives an important glimpse into Jesus’ self-perception as the Son of God, and judging by the scripture he quotes, the way He perceived his own relation to Israel.  (Carson, 1995, p. 111)

The reference to the forty days in the wilderness is reminiscent of the  forty-day fasts of Moses (Ex. 34.28; Dt. 9.9) and Elijah (1 Kg. 9.8), and the forty years the Israelites wandered in the desert (Nu. 14.33; 32.13).  The only parallel developed, however, is the wilderness wanderings of Israel, as demonstrated by Jesus’ quotes from the book of Deuteronomy.  As God led Israel into the wilderness, likewise the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness.  God tested Israel in the wilderness, and they failed; God allowed Jesus to be tempted by the devil, and he resisted.

First Temptation

The first temptation (Mt. 4.3,4) was an attempt to get Jesus to doubt God’s providential care.  Would Jesus use His miraculous power to meet His own needs?  If Jesus had turned the stones into bread, He would have been acting independently from His heavenly Father.  The devil’s comment concerning Jesus’ sonship should not be understood as an attempt to get Jesus to doubt His sonship, for that had just been announced from heaven at His baptism (Mt. 3.17).

Rather, the devil argued that since Jesus is the Son of God, he should use His powers to meet His own needs.  Jesus’ response (Dt.8.3) teaches that spiritual nourishment is more significant than physical nourishment.  Israel’s hunger had been intended to show them that hearing and obeying the word of God is the most important thing in life.  However, Israel demanded its bread, but died in the wilderness.  Jesus, however, denied himself bread, retained his righteousness, and lived by faithful submission to God’s word.  Therefore, we see that God’s word is the most important thing in this world.  (Carson, 1995, p. 113)

What Can We Learn About Preparing For Battle in the First Temptation?

First of all, we see that Jesus practiced solitude in preparation of His temptation.  With that fullness the Holy Spirit led him into solitude for forty days.  He went away from family and friends and crowds and lived in the desert for forty days.  That is almost six weeks.  No radio.  No television.  No computers.  No cellphones.  No text messages.  And this wasn’t the only time: Luke 5:16 shows that other times Jesus went away alone.  It must be that preparation for ministry demands significant times of solitude.  We simply cannot maintain a radical God-centeredness under an unbroken barrage of human interaction.  The depth and value of what you bring in your heart to other people will depend on what you do with your solitude.

Second of all, we see that Jesus practiced fasting.  Why?  The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.  God richly furnishes us with everything to enjoy (1 Timothy 6:17)!  Why should the perfect Son of God go without?  To demonstrate that he was not enslaved by anything but God.

Your spiritual power will be weakened to the degree that you cannot say no to your bodily appetites.  Physical appetites are not evil (Jesus was hungry!).  However, when they take the precedence in your body, your spiritual power will decline.  Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:27, “I pommel my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.”  For forty days Jesus pommeled his body to certify and demonstrate that his appetite for food and for sex gave no foothold to Satan in his life; for he was mastered by a superior appetite for God. “My food is to do the will of him who sent me” (John 4:34).

This is what it means to be filled with the Spirit—to be so full of God and his purposes that food, even after forty days of fasting, does not control us.  Paul said (in Ephesians 5:18), “Do not be drunk with wine . . . but be filled with the Spirit” (see Luke 1:15).  Conquer your physical addictions with spiritual addictions.  No other way will bear long-term fruit.  Drive the demon of gluttony out the front door and seven more will come in the back, unless you fill your house with the Holy Spirit.  Jesus was full from the start and no demon ever had a toehold in his marvelous life of discipline.  (Piper, 1984)

However, we also see in Matthew 6:16-17 that Jesus expects us to fast.  Normal fasting involves abstaining from all food, but not from water.  We are told in Matthew 4:2, “After fasting forty days and forty nights, Jesus was hungry.”  It says nothing about Him becoming thirsty.  Furthermore, Luke 4:2 says that He “ate nothing during those days,” but it does not say He drank nothing.  Since the body can normally function no longer than three days without water, we assume that He drank water during this time.  To abstain from food but to drink water or perhaps fruit juices is the most common kind of Christian fast.