Then Jesus was led
up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted forty days
and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. The tempter came and
said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves
of bread.”
But he
answered, “It is
written, ‘One does not live
by bread alone, but
by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
Then the devil took
him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying 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 hands they will bear you up, so
that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’” Jesus said to
him, “Again it is
written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
Again, the devil
took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world
and their splendor; and he said to him,
“All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Jesus said to
him, “Away with you,
Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord
your God, and
serve only him.’” Then the devil left
him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.
After spending these 40 days in prayer and
fasting, Jesus is confronted by Lucifer himself. It is appropriate to remember that the
tempting came after two things:
a.
After Jesus
made preparations to fulfill the ministry God had laid out for Him – ministry
decisions about how he would serve.
b.
After he was
physically and mentally exhausted.
Why?
Why
wait for the time when Jesus was just getting started in ministry and after a season
of spiritual preparation?
Satan always attacks foundations.
If you can corrupt the foundation of anything, it doesn’t matter what
is built afterwards. It’s Satan’s way –
undermine the footing, destroy the building!
When a church
gets a new pastor they are in the foundation of a ministry together. Satan would dearly love to undermine this
relationship. Then, for all the time they
have together, the people second-guess the pastor’s motives, and the pastor also wonders
about them. Will that pastor and people accomplish much for the kingdom? I think not; trust undermined is faith forsaken!
Satan’s undermining of foundations is the
very reason why values have been such a big player politics in recent
years. It isn’t so much that politicians
are interested in Christian values, per se – politicians are interested in
getting elected; they can’t even agree on what values really are. (I can tell them – but they wouldn’t want to
look in the Bible.) Satan knows if the focus surrounding values can be shifted to a debate over what constitutes values, he
has already won.
Satan understands that once we settle on any
definition other than what God has laid out in Scripture, he has won. If the foundation is not God’s Word, it is
bound to crumble.
Satan’s temptations always attack the foundation
of God’s Word:
a.
Physical hunger.
Satan knew there were plenty of hungry people in the world, so he offered,
Hey, Jesus, turn these flat stones – the
ones that look like bread – turn ‘em into bread. You can feed all those people. No one will ever have to listen to Sally
Struthers pleading on TV to feed those poor, hungry children. Jesus quoted the Scripture: Not
only bread – God’s word. Strike
ONE.
b.
Spiritual hunger. Satan’s second swing involved an ancient prophecy from God’s own
Word. It seems as if he said, OK, you quoted Scripture, take this: The angels are supposed to watch over you –
here’s how you can kill two birds with one jump; take a leap off the peak of
the temple – let God’s angels save you with a spectacular miracle. Everyone will certainly know that you’re the
Messiah, and you’ll prove God’s word is true.
Jesus pointed out the verse that really applies here: Don’t tempt God with foolishness. Strike
TWO.
c.
Accomplishment hunger. Look, Jesus, see all the kingdoms
of the world. I can give it ALL to
you. If you just worship me, I’ll set you up good.
It’s a short cut to what God wants for you anyway. Let me save you all that cross business. It’s so much easier this way.
Jesus rejected this also with a word from the Word – Worship YOU,
Satan? God alone is to be worshipped!
You better get out of here! Strike THREE – and out.
Satan struck
at Jesus’ foundations, and found he’d hit rock.
This is the lesson we can learn today from this battle of temptation…Let
Satan swing against the Rock…he will find no way to cut down Jesus in your
life!
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