Messiah Tempted

David Poland

Matthew: Kingdom Authority • Sermon • Submitted 3 years ago

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A Sermon on the temptation of Jesus

Notes

Transcript

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 97.

Scripture Reading: Psalm 1:1-4.

Sermon:

GMC! I was glad when they said to me let us go and worship in the house of the Lord!

Well today we turn our attention to Matthew Chapter 4 we will be looking at verses 1-11 today. A very famous passage of Scripture. More sermons have ben preached on this passage than most others I would wager. It is the temptation of Jesus.

What is interesting as we come to this passage, before we even dive in, is that we have, from my point of view, as the person trying to prepare sermons on these things, we now have two passages in a row that we are familiar with, (j the B and now the temptation of Jesus) we have two familiar passages but really we need to take a step back and ask: what is this passage really about? If we are being honest, we could ask for a show of hands, but I don’t want to incriminate anyone, how many of us have heard a sermon on the temptation of Jesus, and the main take away is that you need to memorize more verses, because Jesus quotes verses here and that is how YOU will fight temptation. I don't think that is what this passage is trying to say to us. And “I don’t think” is possibly not strong enough, to just say it like that is defiantly falling short of what this passage is teaching us, because Jesus is not the only one to quote a verse here, the devil does it too. So just a blind, memorize verses is not good enough here.

And so we begin to try and read ourselves into this verse. We go to another verse quickly, Hebrews 2:18, may of us know this verse, but the writer of Hebrews says this:

Hebrews 2:18 ESV

For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

And so we read that passage into Mathew 4. That we will face these temptations just like Jesus and this is jesus being our example here of how to be tempted. And Again, just blindly asserting that is not the right approach to this text either. It is dangerous sometime s to rad ourselves into a text like this where we say: Just like Jesus was tempted so too I am tempted because that can lead to a form of legalism that is not helpful. There is alway a lesson in every portion of Scripture, there is always something that, because the word of God is living and active, there is always something that is useful for life and godliness to us, but we should be more judicious in how we get there

and so we come to the temptation of Jesus but we need to ask, what is this for us. I would argue, and we will get there, that there is a proper way to say that this is jesus teaching us how to stand up to temptation. We get an answer to how we can conquer temptation. There is a way we CAN see that Jesus, as he suffered and was tempted gives us insight into how we might be more like him and how he can help us, but we need to be careful. and so rally that is the goal today, to be careful in how we get from this text to Jesus to Us. SO with that being said lets rad our text in it’s entirety Matthew 4 verses 1-11

READ

These are the words of the Lord for us this morning. lets begin with a word of Prayer.

PRAY

When you are dealing with a passage like this, that we are familiar with, that even people who are not “church people” at least know OF this passage, it is one of the few stories that is in all three of the “synoptic” gospels, Matthew mark and Luke, this idea of the temptation of Jesus is in all of them.

And there are a few things that I want us to note before we dive in. We call this the temptation of Jesus and that is because of the translation of a word in verse 4 translated tempted: πειράζω (pie-raz-o). But really the weight of this word is a temptation yes but even mores o a testing. It is actually the same word that you will see when the Pharisees and the Sadducee will come and test Jesus trying to trick him with questions. SO it is a temptation n that you are trying to get someone to fall and fail, but not necessarily in the same sense that we think of when we say that we fall into temptation. And in that we begin to see what is really happening here. In some sense this is a temptation and in some sense it is a test, but even in saying THAT it is a test that Jesus will always pass.

There is sort of a thought exercise that you will see people do in a text like this. They will ask: well what would happen if Jesus failed. If Jesus gave into the temptation of Satan? what would happen? and I would stop you right there and say: that is a wrong thought and will not get you to the answer of what is this text about. Jesus could not fail this. he was fully God. So yes, since h was fully man he could be tempted, but because he was fully God he would never fail. and so we need to understand that what is happening here is that god is directing events so that we can see learn and be taught something.

how do I know that God is the one directing events? Matthew 4:1

Matthew 4:1 ESV

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

Go God the spirit was led into the wilderness for the express purpose he was led TO BE tempted and tested in showing something to US as he passes this test. And so what should we see what must we understand when we look at these temptations? I would argue that the primary role, the primary goal of this passage, this portion of Scripture is MESSIANIC!

The Temptations were primarily MESSIANIC

It is designed, it is here so that we can see the Messiah! We can see how these temptations are uniquely and perfectly suited for the persona and work of Jesus . They point us to and show us the messiah!

This is seen most clearly if we just ask a question: where is Jesus quoting his scriptures from? And what we will see is that they are all quoted from Deuteronomy 6-8. This might be in the footnotes of your bibles but in case its not here they are:

“Man shall not live on bread alone? that is Deut 8:3.

“You shall not put the Lord your God to the test” - that is from Deut 6.16.

“You shall worship the Lord your God” - that is from Deut 6:13.

So we should ask, what is going on in Deuteronomy 6-8? And maybe, one of my commentaries even said this, and I would disagree, it is not that Jesus was doing a personal study on Deuteronomy 6-8 and so these are just the verses that he happened upon when temptation came. I believe that what is happening is that Jesus is pointing us to something. Even in his quotations we are being told that this is the Messiah.

Deuteronomy in general is Moses’ last words and commands to the Israelites before he dies and they head off into the promised land. And 6-8 are specifically having the people look back on the 40 years of wandering in the desert that they have just gone through. So we start to see that maybe there is something going on with 40 years in Deuteronomy and 40 days and nights in Matthew 4:2. This is no coincidence.

And at the end of 40 YEARS for the Israelite, they were to have been in the desert learning to lean on God, trust in God they were SUPPOSED to be learning how to see God’s provision and God’s protection as he fed them manna and quail in the desert, as he provided water for them as he led them beautifully and visibly with a pillar of faire and pillar of cloud. They were to see and learn to trust and rely on God. For the Israelite the 40 years in the wilderness should have been a time of preparation and proving. They should have known how to trust God they should have known how to lean on him, love him, follow him. But they didn’t.

Just a look at Joshua, and Judges show that they didn’t get the point. Things happen the people stop trusting God and God taches them these same lessons over and over again. So really what we see is that they wandered 40 years and learned nothing Jesus goes to the wilderness for 40 days then proves he is the perfect Messiah and fulfills what they should have done. That is in general what these together are showing us. they communicate that Jesus is the perfect Messiah. but when we begin to look through each one individually we see that they also uniquely point us to jesus. We can see that these answer questions about who the messiah he, what the messiah is to do. These things are shown individually in these.

So if you are taking notes in the journal bible, or somewhere like that I would recommend that you leave room in between each of these we are going to circle back and cover all of these 2x. but in the first round through I want us to see that these all point us directly to the Messiah. and this is seen best in asking pointed questions about each Messiah, what things are answered about the Messiah by each temptation.

The first temptation is turning stone to bread.

Again, we immediately find difficulty if we just say yeah, Jesus he gets my temptation because I face the temptation of turning stones to bread all the time! I personally have NEVER faced that temptation, I don’t know about you. That’s not how I am tempted, yet for the Messiah it is a critical temptation. The question that we should ask is: is the Messiah to be a wonder worker? Is his job to come and work miracles for our good pleasure or is there something deeper going on?

It starts, this temptation, with an accusation. the tempter comes and says to him, note this word: IF. “If you are the Son of God...” verse 3. If that's truly your job, if that's truly your identity who you are, I know it has been testified by, we covered this last week, testified by J the B and the spirit and the father. but IF that is truly the case, then give yourself some bread. Work some wonders. If you truly are the messiah then you MUST do this. and so the temptation for the Messiah yes in some sense is to satiate his hunger by turning stones to bread, but there is a deeper issue. and the deeper issue actually comes back to US. as we look to the Messiah, ans we =look to Jesus Testified, as said before, by J the B by the spirit and by the father at his baptism, we gotta ask ourselves about the messiah: what else is needed? Must he turn stones to bread? What will it take for us to progress past “if this is the son” to :truly this man is the son of God. If this is the Messiah, what do we need to proclaim that?

What is being shown us is that the ministry of Jesus is more than just working wonders for our pleasure and Joy, there is something deeper about the messiah that we have to see. This is even more clear in the second temptation. The question is similar, if not more pointed: it is not Just is he a wonder-worker, but is the messiah just to do spectacular, but ultimately pointless miracles.

This portion is a sort of “pre-sermon” on many of the miracles that Jesus will perform in the book of Matthew. When we see a miracle of Jesus there should always be a question of “why did jesus do this and what does that teach” because they are not just spectacular like “wow he did this”. Here the second temptation jesus jump off a building and let angels lift you up” and there are a lot of issues with the messiah going on here. Was it Jesus throwing himself off the temple and then caught by angels, that would be a crazy thing, and because of where the temple was a lot of people would see that, so would this prematurely draw crowds? I don’;t think that is exactly what is going on, but gets us closer, because again the devil starts this temptation with the same word- “if”. (verse 6). So once again the issue is with the IDENTITY of the messiah. and the question that we are left with is will we accept the testimony given us or will we demand miracles signs and wonders. Are we going to say: we will follow you insofar as it gets us this (that's kind of the bread one) or insofar as we see cool things and see miracles, or will we worship the messiah because he is the messiah? which leads us to the third temptation:

The temptation to bow before Satan so that you can gain all the kingdoms of the world. But really the question for the messiah is: what sort of kingdom are you here to establish? If it is just some sort of kingdom ruling over the world then why would’t he take this shortcut? avoid all the pain and suffering and humiliation of that cross plan. this one makes more sense. OK. Spend a little bit of time bowing down before satan then just RULE THE EARTH like you were going to messiah. But this shows us that the Messiah was to be the suffering servant no shortcut would work. He must fulfill all the prophecies all the thoughts given us of who the messiah should be. Even the less desirable ones and painful ones. we don’t get to the anointed sovereign messiah ruler of the world without the suffering servant of Isiah.

and so all these temptations begin to paint a picture of the Messiah. Who comes for a reason deeper than just fulfilling our wants. Who came and did miracles for reasons greater and more profound than just wow that was incredible show. And show us a Messiah who came who endured who would suffer the cross who would suffer all that would come before him so that he could truly have authority.

this is, as a quick aside, something fascinating about this last temptation. What Jesus is offered by satan is authority over the earth. Because of his role as the messiah, because he will not bow down and worship satan but instead will serve and worship God and his will he goes from just being over the earth to… he has Matthew 28:18

Matthew 28:18 ESV

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

These temptations show us who our Messiah is. What he came to DO first and foremost these temptations are messianic because they tell us who our messiah is. But THEN once we get that secondarily they become exemplary.

Then secondarily EXEMPLARY

Then once we realize OK this is showing who the messiah is, then we can ask, what then does the Messiah want us to learn. and the best way to see that is to look to the verses that he quotes. For in selecting the specific passages he did he taches us things. Yes partially he does teach us the value of God’s word. we should memorize Gods word it does equip us an enable us to stand against temptations when they come. Those are correct and right things we should “hide God’s word in our heart that we might not sin against God” Psalm 119:11.

But why Did Jesus quote THESE verses? I had an epiphany this week Jesus quoted God’s word here, but everything That Jesus said was by definition the words of God. so he didn’t have to quote Deuteronomy to counter with the words of God. Jesus could have said ANY words, his words, like he does elsewhere, Coming up soon is the sermon on the mount, where Jesus will give us A LOT of his words, and they carry the same weight and power as Deuteronomy. So WHY would he look back to these verses? well each one teaches us something about HOW we are tempted and what the solution to that temptation is.

So as jesus is tempted to turn stones to bread he answers: Matthew 4:4

Matthew 4:4 ESV

But he answered, “It is written, “ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”

this shows us that we will often be tempted in our priorities

PRIORITIES

Jesus lays out a dichotomy. and in some sense it is a false dichotomy it is not that we have bread OR the word of God. and we all have been given Scripture and we all have eaten in the past, more recent than 40 days… I don’t know your eating habits, some people skip breakfast… The point is not that we have EITHER bread OR the word of God and we have to pick one the question is which is your priority. Jesus goes and fasts for 40 days and 40 nights and then in what has to be one of the greatest understatements in all of scripture we read in Matthew 4:2 that “he was hungry”. you think! and the tempter comes and he says: OK, IF you really are the son of God (so there is the sort of messianic accusation in this temptation) If you are the son of God well then just fix it. eat some food. And Jesus response is to say: I will take God’s will, God’s will will take priority over self gratification.

even over the apparently essential requirement of food I will take the word of God, ore more to the point, God’s will. there is a modern physiological tool called Maslow’s hierarchy of needs where you start with the base needs which are like food water ant then shelter and the priorities, so says the world, they work up to “self actualization” that is the highest need we have as humans.

I would argue that the entire hierarchy is broken because it has a wrong base. Lower than our need for even food and water is our need for God and his words. to hear from him. to know him and be known by him. and what happens is we are often tempted to fulfill our wants apart from God’s wills and that is where our priories get all askew and that is where we fail in temptations. and so my priority is I want comfort I want shelter I want comfort i want temporary happiness I want these things instead of asking what is God’s will for my life. If you want to be able to conquer temptation, the first step is to understand that what God wants is always greater better and more important that what I want. We must surrender our desire to fulfil self and prioritize God-what he wills and desires- first.

And so Jesus tells us you SHALL NOT live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. which is your priority, which do you desire more? do you desire your own wants, and I will push that do you desire your own “needs” more than you desire what God would have?If he asks you to forsake all-abandon all- for the cause of Chrsit what is your priority? Jesus tells us to look to God his priorities.

The next one, we fall into sin when our priories are askew, that is probably the best way to say it. we fall into sin when our priorities are messed up and we fall into sin when our FAITH is not strong enough.

FAITH

When tempted to throw himself off a building, Jesus’ quote is to tell the devil that “you shall not put God to the test”. The issue is that to pt God to the test demonstrates a lack of trust and a doubting of God’s either competence or dependability. To put God to the test is to say “well, I don’t know” I know God said this, what ever this is in your life or the moment you find yourself in… but that is hard.

maybe God din’t know what he was talking about. Sometimes his rules about purity run against the world, faithfulness to only one person and not lusting, that is impossible! God doest know what he is talking about. Wait, I’m supposed to be honest all the time?!? well that's not sort of sociologically fitting that's not the way you get ahead sometimes, so I don’t think god really meant you have to tell the truth all the time. Our faith is not strong enough to know that if God commanded it we should do it. we are tempted to question God’s presence. we say God is not really here, God doesn’t really know, God does not really see, God is unaware! and so we fall into temptation. Or if we don’t have enough faith in God’s presences we also don’t have enough faith in his promises.

For he said we must live holy and righteous lives and it will be better for you, but we look at the world and think: holy and righteous lives don’t get you ahead! So we fall into temptation.

We fail, we fall when our priories are not right. we do not prioritize God’s will and commands over own own. We fail, we fall, when our faith is not strong enough we doubt God’s presence or God’s promises such that we think we can do it or earn it or do something better. and we fail we fall, we fall into temptation when we do not WORSHIP

WORSHIP

Jesus, says to satan Matthew 4.10

Matthew 4:10 ESV

Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’ ”

we are tempted ultimately to assert ourselves or whatever idol we have into the would all the while we are robbing God his due worship, glory honor and praise.

The world offers us many things. It will offer us riches prestige and power. and it will ask us, and I do not say this rightly or tritely if we look at the world and see what it requires of us, it will ask us to offer ourselves at the altar of whatever it is that is the issue of the day.

do you want to not be labelled a hypocrite bigoted jerk whatever? well come and bow down at the altar of the sexual revolution. do you want fame prestige power whatever, well just bow down at the altar of immoral, relativistic thought. Bow down at the altar of “acceptance” where acceptance means glorification and honoring of things that are not just NOT RIGHT but things that are an offence to a holy God. do you want these things, well just bow down at the altar of whatever the issue is for the world.

and so when we come to think about temptation and sin, it is because we are more willing to hear the arguments of the world thane we are to worship God. To be strange and different, to worship him alone to serve only him.

I was thinking about this this past week, as you face certain temptations as you find yourself falling into certain sins one of the helpful ways to escape that temptation is to ask yourself what is really going on and what is this “thing” requiring of me? And I don’t think we often enough think of our sins as requiring things of us, but they are. they require your love devotion and attention. and what I am here to tell you today is that anything that is not of God that is demanding you love time attention devotion, shortly put your WORSHIP, you must get rid of it! it is a tempter.

DO you find yourself desperately needing every moment of every day to hop on Facebook to get likes and attention form people that you probably haven't truly talked to in years? Its a real thing, Facebook demands your time and attention it requires your worship, you doubt me, give it up for a week, see if you can do that, because it will be harder than you think, and what we need to see is that it demands your worship which is due only God!

Is your desire for wealth, comfort, ease, is that demanding your love devotion and attention, if so get rid of it, it is a tempter! Does your desire to know all the freshest latest gossip demand you time focus love and attention if so get rid of it it is a tempter!

For God alone is worthy of all worship. then through that we can rightly digest and interpret and interact with the things of this world. So I pick on Facebook, and to be honest while It is between you and the holy spirit, more and more I believe that social media, and how it mess with our brain it is in general inherently sinful, but you CAN i believe interact with it rightly you must keep this thought in the forefront, is God receiving all worship.

And then what we see is that these three points all interact with and inform one another. All sin, I would argue, falls into a failure in one or all of these categories. And each of them informs the other. why are our priories all messed up? it is because we don’t have enough Faith in God to know that he is worthy of all my worship. Why is my faith weak? because I have not prioritized time devotion and yes worship of him. Why is my worship weak and fruitless, because my priorities are messed up and my faith is not focused on God.

And so, to bring this to a close, in the temptation of Jesus we do see how we can stand up to temptation, part of it is knowing God’s word, but we know it because that is our priority, to study and love it, because we have faith that he will use his ,word to shape me and mold me and because part of how I worship God is to know and love the words that he has given me. These things truly are the way that we will stand against temptation when it comes our way.

We have example in Jesus how to stand up, but it come through, more than anything else the TEACHING of our messiah. I exhort you today, when you face temptation, ponder these things: how have your priorities gotten so messed up that you are falling and falling into sin? Where is your faith weak or misplaced such that you don;t rely on God, and instead put him to the test thinking he doesn't know he doesn't care or his plan is not god enough? and where do you worship other things? Look at your life evaluate these things and then, like we talked about last week, here was the message of last week in the message of John the Baptist: REPENT!