Rebuffing Spiritual Temptation

In our Matthew Mondays we’ve been looking at Matthew 4, and the temptations of Christ, particularly through the lens of Hebrews 4:15: “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin”, and the trinity of man: body, soul, and spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:23) in that these three temptations of Christ represent every way we are tempted.

Last week we looked at how the devil tries to tempt Jesus physically with food, and the way Jesus rebuffs Him by explaining the nature of the physical world: it’s God’s word.  God spoke it into being; thus man is not sustained by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4).

This week we’re going to look at the second temptation of Jesus.

Then the devil took Him into the holy city and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command His angels concerning You; and 'on their hand they will bear You up, so that Your foot will not strike a stone.'" (Matthew 4:5-6)

Now let’s take just a moment before getting into Jesus’ response here to look at exactly what the devil is asking Jesus to do.

Satan took Him to the temple.  This is the spiritual center of the world.  Even the New Testament talks about Jerusalem and the temple as being the spiritual central.  The Gospel would eventually radiate out from this point into the entire world, and it continues to be the major focus of the Judeo-Christian religions. 

If Satan had just wanted to see if angels would swoop down and rescue Jesus, there were hundreds of other places he could have taken Him.  Mount Everest might have been a good choice.  Satan knew as well as Jesus did that the angels would have saved Him.  This temptation wasn’t about the action any more than the first one was about bread. 

The temptation on the temple top had a spiritual element to it. 

Imagine you were standing at church waiting to go in, and this guy comes hurtling down off the steeple, and before his foot hits the ground, a bunch of angels appear, catch him, and gently set him down.  You ask why the angels caught him, and he says because I’m the Son of God—hard to argue with that don’t you think? 

If Jesus had fallen for Satan’s temptation, He would have immediately become the spiritual leader of Israel.  Caiaphas (a goon appointed by Rome) would have been tossed out on his head, and there would have been no crucifixion, no redemption of sin, and no spiritual regeneration for any of us.  But God had other plans.

And so Jesus responds, “On the other hand, it is written, “you shall not put your Lord to the test” (Matthew 4:7).

Often times when it comes to spiritual temptation we experience, it comes in the form of testing God, and the test is for the wrong reasons.  It’s never just to prove to ourselves that God is true to His word and that He abides in us.  It’s to prove ourselves to others around us.  We pray for God to do x, y, or z in our lives.  Make us rich.  Heal us.  Help us teach, preach, and prophesy.  But our imaginations are running a mile a minute about what others will say or do when God moves so mysteriously/miraculously in our lives.

This is spiritual temptation.  God’s power is not meant to bring us glory; it’s meant to bring Him glory.  When you pray for these things, pray that God would glorify Himself however He wants and then be obedient.  Maybe He wants to use someone else to accomplish His work, and maybe He has other plans entirely.

Obedience to God’s plans is the key and the beauty of overcoming spiritual temptation.  Because in obedience there is humility, in humility God is glorified, and when God is glorified, He raises our spirits.

Next week, we look at the temptation of the soul.

Physics 101

In the last Matthew Monday, we looked at Matthew 4 and how Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit to be tempted by Satan.  Hebrews 4:15 says, “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.” 

How does the temptation of Christ in the wilderness equate to “being tempted in all things”? 

It has to do with the trinity of man: body, soul, and spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:23)

The first temptation that Satan issues is directed toward Jesus’s body.  Jesus has been fasting for 40 days and 40 nights, and Satan walks up and says, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread” (Matthew 4:3).

Jesus answers, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God’” (Matthew 4:4).

Often times Satan uses our body to tempt us into sinning against God: food, sex, adverting pain and suffering, etc. 

But Jesus says, listen God spoke the world into existence.  His words are not just some kind of sustenance; they are life.  There’s nothing our body needs that God’s spoken word hasn’t provided: plants and animals exist because He spoke them into being, the opposite sex exists because of His word, and pain and suffering exist because we challenged His command in the garden, but with a word from Him they can end just as surely as they began.

The Bible says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.  And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:1-4, 14).

This physical world is a product of God’s spoken word.  Jesus is God’s word made manifest in flesh.  Satan doesn’t use physical temptation for the simple act of making us suffer physically; He uses it to get us to deny the very word of God, and this is why Jesus rebuffs the physical temptation with the scripture He does. 

We live and have our being because God speaks.  Understanding this truth is the key to overcoming the temptation of the flesh. 

Next week we'll look at the temptation of the spirit.

Led Into Temptation

It’s Matthew Monday again, and we’re moving into Matthew 4.  Last week we looked at the Trinity and that rare moment when Father, Son, and Holy Spirit when observable during Jesus’ baptism.  How empowered Jesus must have felt at this moment, with the Holy Spirit’s anointing and the Father’s pronouncement of pleasure in His life.

But then in chapter 4, what happens?

The Spirit leads Jesus out into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan (Matthew 4:1).

Notice that God is not doing the tempting.  In fact in James it says, “Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.” (James 1:13-15).

But God does allow us to be tempted, and He does put us into positions were the devil will have opportunity to tempt us via our own natures.  I mean if He did it to Jesus why are we any different?

But God also promises that “no temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it” (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Jesus had a way out when it came to His temptation.  He did three things: fasted, prayed, and meditated on the scriptures, and when the devil came calling, Jesus was well-prepared to resist the evil one’s temptations.

So when Jesus teaches us to pray, “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one” (Matthew 6:13), He’s speaking from experience.  Experience that says temptation isn’t easy.  “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15), and thus He teaches us to ask for grace in not being tempted in the first place, and freedom from the weakness within us, so we may persevere when Satan employs his pernicious wiles.

And we may have faith in God to answer this prayer because this is His kingdom, in His power, for His glory, forever and ever. Amen

Next week, we'll look at the specific temptations and why it is that these three temptations equate to being "tempted in all things as we are"; it's interesting stuff, and you won't want to miss it.