Dr. Ed Young - The Temptation of Jesus
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There’s always bad news before there’s good news, ladies and gentlemen. In the gospel, well, the gospel is good news. There’s bad news before there’s good news: we had to realize, be convicted of our sin and our rebellion against God before the good news can come. There’s bad news. John the Baptist came with the bad news: «Man, you’re rebellious; you’re sinners; you’re away from God; you’re not obeying the commandments.» But there’s coming one after me-I’m not even worthy to unlatch his sandals, the lowest thing you could do for someone. I’m not even worthy to do the lowest service you can render to anybody else. He said, «I just baptize you with water,» but he said, «Jesus is going to baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.» Ladies and gentlemen, if you’ve come to faith in Jesus Christ and you’ve been baptized, whether you were 12 years old or 92 years old, you may not have realized it, but you and I were baptized in the Holy Spirit. That’s when the Spirit of God came into our lives, and we’re baptized with fire because as we walk with Christ, that fire burns and keeps burning up all the junk in you and me-baptized with fire. And that’s the reason we walk with Him; He keeps that fire kindled and burning and keeps you clean and keeps me clean and keeps you pure and keeps me pure and makes you whole and continues to make me whole. That’s the baptism in Christ-not just water, but Holy Spirit power and the fire of cleansing.
Then I want you to read about the baptism of Jesus; He was baptized by John, his cousin. Look at verse 13 in chapter number three: «Then Jesus arrived from Galilee to the Jordan, coming to John to be baptized by him.» But John tried to prevent him, saying, «I have need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?» Jesus answered and said to him, «Permit it at this time, for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.» Then Jesus permitted him. In other words, Jesus was saying, «I do not need to be baptized, you know that John; I know that John. But I am doing it as a substitute, as a surrogate, in imitation of and preparing the way for those who will follow me, and they will be baptized.» See, he’s saying, «Just permit it; I am a demonstration of righteousness that will be imparted to those who are baptized and who later follow me.» That’s the implication that is here.
And then look at verse 16: «After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on him. And behold, a voice out of the heaven said, 'This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.'» A dove coming down out of the heavens! Oh, you guys get excited! I know this is dove season, so this was a different deal here. When I saw that, I thought about the dove that would fly around Noah and the Ark, remember? Waiting for a place to land, and when the dove didn’t come back, Noah knew that the floodwaters had subsided. I thought about the dove, a symbol of the Holy Spirit, flying around all through this time, trying to find someone that he could land on who would be anointed. This is the anointing of Jesus for the specific purpose that God had brought him into this world as his only begotten Son. And then the dove landed, and then the heavens opened, and a voice of the Father said, «This is my beloved Son in whom I’m well pleased. Thirty years you’ve lived, my Son; you’ve done a superb job. I’m well pleased with you, my Son.» The Father confirming the setting aside, the anointing, the call of Jesus Christ.
Now I want you to see at the very beginning of chapter four something that, when you read it uninitiated and fresh, you’re sort of startled by it. What a wonderful moment! You think about it: baptized, dove comes, voice from heaven- the whole Trinity is there: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Man, this is the apex of history! And then look what happens in chapter number four: «Then Jesus was led,» in another gospel translation it says, «Jesus was driven, forced.» Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, he then became hungry. Interesting-mountaintop experience! Then he’s thrown into this place of desolation. He’s there for 40 days with nothing to eat. Can you imagine how he looked? Forty days fasting, heat, wild animals-one of the gospels tells us emptiness alone with the Father- emaciated, dying of hunger, right on the borderline of death. And somebody said, «Well, that’s when Satan came to get him at his lowest moment.» Wrong! His lowest moment physically but his highest moment spiritually! Have you noticed that in your life? When we’re down, we’re out, we’re low, we’re desperate, we’re empty, we’re sick, we’re confused, we’re mad, we’re angry, we’re hurt, and we turn to God in Christ? And there is that brokenness and that openness that can become the highest moment of spiritual power. Right out of desperation, I really pray-don’t you? Out of desperation, we’re so sensitive to God, and all the forces of evil become so offensive to us. This was a low moment physically but a high moment spiritually. And Satan comes to him, and I want you to notice what Satan says. It’s just verse three: «And the tempter came to him.» Jesus said, «If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread.»
«If you are the Son of God,» my 40 days before, Jesus, in the Jordan, coming up, the heavens opened; God said, «This is my beloved Son.» Now Satan comes and says, «If you are the Son of God.» In other words, Satan said, «Look at you! You’re dying! You have nothing to eat for 40 days. You’re out here in the middle of nothing! Man, you say your purpose is to be God’s Son!» By the way, little parenthesis here, but I want you to underscore the parenthesis-I want you to write in capital letters: let’s be reminded what the purpose of Jesus was. Very important! Forget everything, remember this: the purpose of Jesus-God visiting this planet in his Son, the Incarnation, God with us- the purpose of Jesus was to change the hearts of people so they could enter the kingdom of God. That’s his purpose: to bring the kingdom, right? Change the hearts of you and me and those who come to faith in him so we will be citizens of the kingdom of God now and forever! That’s Jesus' life purpose! That’s the purpose of the Messiah.
And therefore, the devil comes and says, «If you are God’s Son.» By the way, why do we know about this? Jesus told his apostles about it. Nobody knows it but Jesus. See, that’s how we know this is a real temptation! It’s absolutely real! That’s the reason Jesus told them about it. It was a temptation to him to turn those stones into bread-a little bit, really, not much! A little bit! It was a temptation for him to use his own power for his own person. He never did that; he didn’t do that here. But the temptation is much, much bigger than that, much, much bigger than that! We are always tempted at the point of our life’s purpose. Get that! We’re always tempted at the point of our life’s purpose. What was his purpose? Remember? Change hearts so we can live in his kingdom-that’s his purpose. Now here, Satan was saying, «You want to have the kingdom? You want people to follow you? Feed them! It was bread! You take all the trimmings out of life, throw everything else, punt it, kick it away, take all the trimmings out! What do you have left? Bread! Everybody needs bread!»
You have to have bread. Satan is saying, «Hey, you’re out here! Nobody’s ever heard of you! Look how emaciated, how worn you are! You’re nothing! You’re nobody! If you will use your miraculous power to provide bread, you’ll get a big following!» You doubt that? That’s the whole story of communism, isn’t it? Marx said the answer is a plow, not prayer. Gandhi said even God himself dares not appear to a hungry man except in the form of bread. Now, God doesn’t just say, «Oh, you don’t need bread!» Lord’s Prayer: «Give us this day our daily what?» Bread! Absolutely! So bread is essential, but here Satan is tempting Jesus to say, «The way you’re going to build your kingdom? You feed everybody!» The whole political agenda of some people even today on this Earth is, «Let’s just feed everybody! Get everybody dependent and they’ll follow you! You will be a powerful person! You’ll have a kingdom! You’ll have followers! Just feed them! Feed them, Jesus! You have the power to do it! Turn these stones into bread! You can feed the whole world to answer the problem of poverty, the problem of hunger!»
That’s a big thing; that’s no little thing, and we are a part of that. But then Jesus said, «Man cannot live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.» That’s Jesus' answer! He’s not saying you don’t need bread, but he said bread alone is never enough; it never is! Bread is a temptation of the flesh. Remember? Lust of the flesh, lust of the eye, the pride of life; that covers these three temptations! By the way, it’s a temptation. You can satisfy all the flesh, all the desires, all the passions with bread-everything else-and when you get through, you’ll still be empty! Satisfaction of the flesh is not enough! But by the words of God, you see, we’re basically spiritual beings! If you think you’re a body with a spirit, you’re wrong! You’re a spirit that has to put up with this body for four score plus or minus! You see, just satisfying the flesh is never enough! It never will be enough! It never has been enough for anybody, anywhere, any time! With all the clatter and all the noise, satisfying the flesh. Jesus said, «You can’t just live by bread alone, but by the spiritual quality that comes out of the mouth of God-the Word of God! The Word became flesh-stewardship! Oh, that’s a part of it, ownership! That’s a part of it, responsibility! Love the words that come out of the mouth of God! This flows from us as we walk with Christ, as we are his family, we’re his sons and his daughters!
So Jesus rejected this first temptation. Man can’t live by bread alone; we know that’s true, but by the words, by the spiritual quality that God in Christ gives to those who are his sons and his daughters! Then look at the next temptation: it has to do with magic. Everybody likes magic or religion. Look at verse 5: „Then the devil took him into the holy city and had him stand on the pinnacle of the temple.“ This was Herod’s porch — 450 feet high, by the way, above the Kidron Valley, way up high, right on the top. The devil took Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, „If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down.“ And then the devil quotes scripture! Amazing! „He will command his angels concerning you, and on their hands they will bear you up so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.“ And Jesus said to him, „On the other hand,“ and Jesus quotes scripture. By the way, the devil quoted that scripture out of context! You can take the Bible and twist it around and make it say almost anything! Ladies and gentlemen, I see that all the time! Man, how absurd! How ridiculous! In context, it’s a powerful sword! So he quotes it.
Jesus says, „On the other hand, it is written: 'You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.'“ Jesus answered by scripture: Deuteronomy 8, Deuteronomy 6, Deuteronomy 6-all these tests! „Go up there, Jesus, jump down, and boy, everybody will know you! You’ll become famous! You know somebody who is famous, they can draw a crowd! Man, his Facebook will be filled! People will want to be your friend!“ Satan is saying, „This is the way it works!“ And Jesus rejected this. He said the idea, „I can float down, and God will protect me,“ that’s true, but I’m not going to put God to the test because that’s not the way the kingdom is going to take place. There’s no business like show business! You can gather a crowd, get people to applaud, excited, say, „Boy, what a great guy! What a great gal! What a great person that is!“ But I’ll tell you, Jesus says, „I’m not taking that shortcut to the kingdom!“
„Oh,“ said Satan, „you’ll be well known, and they’ll want to follow you! You’re a miracle worker! We’ve never seen anything like it!“ He said, „No, no, no, no, no! I’ll be testing God! That’s not how the kingdom is to come in my life! I’ll not fulfill my purpose like that.“ See, on a clear day, you can see forever, and Jesus wasn’t going to take a shortcut to the kingdom-no way! And then here is the third temptation, and it’s the most beguiling of all. Satan came to him in verse 8, and the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And the devil said to him, „All these things I will give to you if you fall down and worship me.“ Then Jesus said to him, „Go, Satan! It is written, 'You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve.'“ Jesus quoting the eighth chapter of Deuteronomy, sixth chapter of Deuteronomy.
Big temptation! Right when the Second World War was about to commence, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the President of the United States, sent a telegram to Winston Churchill. In that telegram, he referred to Mussolini because they did not know how the fascists — the Italians — would be on Hitler’s side, the Nazi side, or remain neutral or remain on the side of the Allies. Italy was sort of in no man’s land, and so Roosevelt sent a telegram to Churchill, who had a relationship with Mussolini, and said, „By all means, keep Mussolini from siding with the Nazis.“ Churchill sent a telegram back to FDR and said, „It’s too late! Hitler has already taken him to the top of a high hill and shown him the kingdoms of this world!“
Look around this world today! Just take a globe; take a map. Mention any country you want to mention: who is in authority? Who is the king? Who is the prince? Who is the Ayatollah? Who’s the general? Who’s the dictator? Who’s the president? Who’s the prime minister? With few exceptions, we could say it is controlled by those who are secularists and under the control of demonic powers all across the world right now. And if Jesus-if Jesus-Satan would say, „Jesus, I’ll give you all of this!“ You see, first, he was tempted by bread to bring the kingdom, then he was tempted by magic- you know, jump off the temple, get a big crowd, be a celebrity-now he’s tempted by power. He says, „I control all of this!“
He does today, does he not? Basically, he controls all of this! And he said, „I will give you all this power; all you have to do is just worship me a little bit! Just bow the knee towards Satan a little bit!“ See, this is the first commandment: „Thou shalt have no other gods before me!“ God is exclusive; he’s exclusive! And He always wants you and I to take something and make it an idol to replace his kingdom and replace him as the only object worthy of our worship! Jesus saw all the way through this shortcut to the kingdom! He said, „You shall worship the Lord your God, and only the Lord your God shall you serve!“ Remember his purpose: his purpose was to change lives, change hearts so that we could be members of his kingdom!
Now, these temptations were about how Jesus would fulfill his life’s purpose! You got that? Bread, magic, or power! And those are still there! There are a lot of people who want a magical religion instead of a moral religion! Just zap me! Just heal me! Here’s someone who’s made bad choice after bad choice after bad choice — the B choice-and now they’re sick, mentally, emotionally, and probably physically. „Oh Lord, heal me! I want magic!“ Real faith in Christ works through morality and repentance! That’s how Christ comes, and that’s how he heals us from the inside out! That’s how he works! Oh, we want magic! Oh no! It’s miracle! It’s miracle! That’s how he works! That’s how he heals!
So the challenge here, I say, „Well, how do we resist temptation?“ I guess we fill our lives with scripture-that’s a good idea! That’s a 25% tip! If I’m going to stand up against temptation, I need to have my life full of scripture! Jesus was just full of the word of God, was he not? That’s how he answered all the temptations- Deuteronomy 8, two passages, Deuteronomy 6. It’s like a sponge! You put a sponge in water, and you fill it up, and it’s full of water; it doesn’t have any room for anything else! If the word of God, the scripture, is in there, man, that’s what happened! The devil couldn’t get a foothold in Jesus' life because he was full of scripture!
But I’ve got bad news for you: you could memorize the whole Bible, word for word, Genesis to Revelation! You say, „Boy, I put on the full armor of God, I’ve got scripture, I’m ready to combat Satan!“ Oh no! Satan was not trying to get Jesus to sin and to fall so that he would no longer be a good example! What about Jesus? Jesus is being a good example! He is a good example, to be sure, but that’s not the primary issue! That’s 25% of it! Jesus, primarily, is our Savior and our substitute! That’s what this is all about! It’s how we would be saved, our hearts changed, and brought to his kingdom! It’s how we’d be salvaged, restored to the purpose for which we were made: saved, saved, saved-not an example!
You’re in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, nobody’s around, there are no boards, there are no boats, no hope, and you’re drowning. Jesus comes and says, „Hey, watch me! I’m going to show you how to swim! Watch me! I’m a good example!“ You’re not going to swim out even with Jesus as an example a thousand miles and make it right! You don’t need an example if you’re drowning in the middle of the Pacific Ocean; you need a Savior- somebody who will take you out of the depths and lift you up! Jesus came as a Savior to establish his kingdom!
Now, our staff tells a story about her mother, brought up in South Louisiana. She said as a little girl, her mom was playing in the yard, and a water moccasin came out of the swamp and bit this little girl on the arm. She ran in crying. They were so far away they could not get help, but her father took and made a cross over the place she was bitten and sucked all the poison out -did you get that? All the poison out-and she was saved! That’s what Jesus did on that cross! All of these options that Satan offered-shortcuts to establish the kingdom-were to keep Jesus from having to go to the cross. But it is on the cross where Jesus sucked all the poison out of you and me when he died for you and died for me, and that’s salvation!
Now let’s get just real practical, ladies and gentlemen. Martin Luther was asked, „Martin, how do you handle temptation?“ He said, „Well, what I do is when the devil knocks on the door of my house, I just send Jesus Christ to the door.“ And the devil says, „I want to talk with Martin,“ and Jesus says, „He doesn’t live here anymore; you’re going to have to talk to me!“ I was crucified with Christ-we were crucified with Christ! Nevertheless, I live; nevertheless, you live-not I-not you-but Christ who lives within us! Very simple! Just send him to the door! Send him to the door, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the devil will run from you!