Sermon Tone Analysis

Last week we started a brand-new twelve-week series answering a very important question.

Can anybody remember what that very important question was? “Who is Jesus Christ?”

This is the question that philosophers, scientists, and theologians have debated for almost 2,000 years.

And while last week I read some interesting quotes from some skeptics, we determined that the ultimate source of truth about Jesus of Nazareth is from the Bible.

And so throughout this series, we are going to look at twelve key events in the ministry of Jesus Christ that reveal not only who He is, but also what it means for us.

Last week we looked at the baptism of Jesus, and how that baptism served as a launching pad for His public ministry on earth.

His baptism by John showed how His ministry was promised, and how it was verified by God the Father and God the Holy Spirit.

But we also read how baptism was set up by Christ as a way of identifying with Him and His ministry.

And just in case reading it wasn’t enough, we saw first-hand how Stacy identified with Christ through the ordinance of baptism.

But today we are moving on from the Jordan River, and looking at a time in Christ’s ministry where Satan was attacking Him from every side.

In case you haven’t already figured it out, this morning we are going to look at the temptation of Christ in the wilderness, and our Scripture text is Matthew 4:1-11.

“Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He was afterward an hungered.

And when the tempter came to Him, he said, ‘If Thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.’

But He answered and said, ‘It is written, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”’ Then the devil taketh Him up into the holy city, and setteth Him on a pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto him,’ If Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down: for it is written,” He shall give His angels charge concerning Thee: and in their hands they shall bear Thee up, lest at any time Thou dash Thy foot against a stone.”’

Jesus said unto him, ‘It is written again, “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.”’ Again, the devil taketh Him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; and saith unto Him,’ All these things will I give Thee, if Thou wilt fall down and worship me.’

Then saith Jesus unto him, ‘Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.”’

Then the devil leaveth Him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto Him.”

Let us pray.

This morning the title of my sermon is, “Jesus: The Defeater of Temptation.”

Beyond simply observing the fact that Jesus never sinned against God, we are going to look at seven different facts that we can learn about temptation from this passage.

If you have a pen and paper handy, I would encourage you to write down these seven principles.

Writing down the principles shown here in Scripture is a great way to not only retain more of the message, but also to have a resource you can fall back on when temptation is coming your way.

So if you are taking notes this morning, at the top of your paper you can write, “Seven Facts about Temptation.”

Now let’s dive into God’s word together.

Fact #1: God Allows Temptation

Look at verse one again.

“Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.”

Before we look at the verse itself, look at the placement of this verse compared to our passage last week.

You’ll notice that this verse happens right after Jesus gets out of the water and God the Father says, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

As a matter of fact, in Mark’s gospel, the Bible says that the temptation in the wilderness happened “immediately” after the baptism at the Jordan.

In this verse, who does it say led Jesus into the wilderness?

It says it was the Holy Spirit!

The Bible even elaborates the Spirit’s intentions by saying that He led Jesus up into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

At this point, we need to look at the difference between testing and temptation.

The Bible says that God tests people’s faith to strengthen them.

Satan, on the other hand, tempts people so that they will be weakened and ultimately destroyed by sin.

Sometimes the test and the temptation look eerily similar, but with the test, God is cheering you on in the background, desiring for you to choose Him.

With temptation, though, Satan is constantly whispering in your ear saying that it is okay to sin, and he is hoping that you will sin and separate yourself from God’s will.

I know this sounds strange, but I think that many times, God’s testing and Satan’s tempting happen simultaneously in our lives.

What do I mean by that?

Take for example the horrible things that happened to Job in chapters one and two of the book of Job.

His kids died, his livestock was stolen, and even his health was ruined almost to the point of death.

In Job’s case, was this situation God testing Job, or Satan tempting Job?

I think the answer must be both.

The key to understanding this concept is that God is in control of everything, and nothing happens without His approval.

So in essence, no temptation comes your way that God does not allow to happen.

So the next logical question is, “Why?”

Why would a loving God allow Satan to tempt us to sin against Him? God knows that Satan hates us with all of his heart, so why would He allow that monster anywhere near us?

I think there are two important answers to this question, and you may want to write these down.

The first reason God allows temptation is because we come out stronger when we succeed.

If you look at the end of the book of Job, all of Job’s possessions, and even his family size doubled because he was obedient to God.

And while that reason alone should make us okay with the thought of temptation, the second reason is more important.

The second reason is that when we defeat temptation, God is glorified by our victory.

Going back to Job again, remember how Satan had challenged God, saying that Job would fall if God allowed Satan to ruin his life.

But when Job remained faithful to God, God was glorified because His servant obeyed Him.

God allows temptation in our lives because it is an opportunity for us to say, “No way Satan, I don’t follow you anymore, I’m with God now.”

When we repel the temptation to sin, our God is glorified.

So now that we have looked at the foundation of why God allows temptation, let’s begin to look at how we can defeat temptation in our lives.

Fact #2: Defeating Temptation Requires Preparation

Look at verse two of our text again.

“And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He was afterward an hungered.”

What we need to realize about this verse is that Jesus knew that temptation was coming His way.

He knew that the devil was going to come and attempt to defeat Christ by causing Him to sin.

And notice what Jesus did knowing temptation was coming.

He fasted for forty days and for forty nights.

Jesus didn’t work up clever one-liners to throw at the devil.

He didn’t work on his left hook or his right jab.

He didn’t even write a 200-page thesis on why He was not going to fall into temptation.

No, what did Jesus do when temptation was coming?

He fasted.

Now fasting is an art that has almost been forgotten in this day and age, but it is an extremely powerful tool that God has given us to defeat the evil one.

Fasting is essentially where we agree to not eat for a specified period of time.

That time could be from sunrise to sundown, or that time could be for a period of two or three days.

And the fast does not necessarily have to be from all food.

You can fast from dessert, you can fast from soda, and if you want a really easy one, you can even fast from Brussels sprouts.

But the idea of fasting is to replace your time of physical nourishment with a time of spiritual nourishment.

So if you are fasting from sunrise until sundown, the proper thing to do is to spend time praying and meditating on God’s word during lunchtime, or during afternoon snack time.

Jesus in this verse was so dedicated to His upcoming trial that He did not eat for forty days and forty nights.

Now in case any skeptics tell you that it is impossible to survive that long without food, and that this means the Bible isn’t true, you can gently remind them that the world record for not eating is forty-three days, and so the Bible wasn’t joking when it said that Jesus went forty days without food.

But the point in this verse is that Jesus prepared Himself for temptation.

He knew it was coming, and He took the time to arm Himself, not with witty remarks or great boxing skills, but with the power of God.

And if God the Son took the time to prepare Himself to fight temptation, shouldn’t we mere human beings take time to prepare ourselves for the battle?

Most definitely!

And one of the weapons that God gives us to defeat temptation is fasting.

And intimately tied in with the concept of fasting is the concept of prayer.

One reason God has us pray is because it gives us the power to defeat Satan whenever times get rough.

So to sum up this point, we can be absolutely sure that temptation is going to come, just as Jesus was absolutely sure that the devil was going to be tempting Him.

And because we know temptation is coming, it is our job to prepare ourselves for when it does happen.

Now that we’ve seen how to prepare ourselves, let’s look at one method to fight temptation when it comes.

Fact #3: We Must Be Thankful For What God Has Given Us

For this point, we need to read verses three and four again.

“And when the tempter came to Him, he said, ‘If Thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.’

But He answered and said, ‘It is written, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”’”

In these two verses we see the devil actually approach Jesus and begin to tempt Him.

In this first temptation, the devil tempts Jesus to turn stones into loaves of bread.

Now, I don’t know about you, but if I just skipped one meal, I would be tempted to give into this temptation.

But Jesus had not eaten in 40 days!

I can’t imagine the kind of hunger He must have felt when Satan told Him to turn the stones into loaves.

But the one big question that popped into my mind was this: Why was it wrong for Jesus to turn the stones into bread?