Matthew 4:1-11

Tempted In His Humanity, Yet Without Sin

By Johnny Tatum

PART 4: ATTACK!

 

Scene Two: The Pinnacle of the Temple in Jerusalem (continued)

 

6 and he says to Him, "If

There is that if again.

"If You are the Son of God throw Yourself down; for it is written, 'HE WILL GIVE HIS ANGELS CHARGE CONCERNING YOU'; AND 'ON their HANDS THEY WILL BEAR YOU UP, LEST YOU STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.'"

It seems Satan is attacking Jesus of Nazareth's deity; actually, he is not; he is attacking His humanity and His identity with us. Satan is asking Jesus Are You really going to stay the way You are now; are You really going to stay in this low condition? What would have happened if Jesus had jumped off the pinnacle? Would He have hit the ground and died? No, because there were two situations that could have been enacted:

  1. Jesus could have called for His Father to send His angels down to lift Him up. Would the angels have come? Of course! Why? Because Jesus of Nazareth (the eternal Word of God) is equal with God the Father. I am not speculating; in the Garden of Gethsemane He said:

    2. Right now I can appeal to My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal a very large number of angels, who would come. (See Matthew 26:53.)
  • Jesus could have kicked in His divine nature and just floated off.

    • So Satan was offering Him something that Jesus could have done, and it would have worked.

    What would have happened if Jesus had jumped off the pinnacle? There would have been big crowds, because if somebody goes up to the pinnacle, jumps off the ledge, and flies then there is going to be some acclaim. After doing so, do you think that if Jesus had said I am Messiah the people would have questioned Him? No! If He had said Make Me King then they would have made Him King right there. After all, did Jesus not come to be the King?

    So Satan says Just do this great miracle. Even though those other guys failed, I KNOW You will not. And everybody (including the nation of Israel) will know, and certainly God will rescue You. So Satan quotes Psalm 91, but it is not exactly the same. The following presents the verse, so let us compare it:

    For He will give His angels charge concerning you, To guard you in all your ways. They will bear you up in their hands, Lest you strike your foot against a stone. (Psalm 91:11-12)

    It is often pointed out that Satan omitted To guard you in all your ways. I honestly do not believe that is a serious omission. We are free to quote parts of verses. In fact, Jesus (the Word of God) did not quote the whole verse when He quoted the part about Man should not live by bread alone.

    The real problem is that Satan quoted the Scripture out of context; and I love it, because Satan blew it! He says Throw Yourself down because it says right here on their hands they will bear You up. The context of Psalm 91 is very similar to Deuteronomy, Chapters 6 through 8, which is God will take care of His children. God's children do not have to do supernatural, flashy (showy) things; if you are a child of God, He is your Refuge, and you go under His wings for comfort and protection.

    Unfortunately, the children of God live in a fallen world with physical bodies, and they are under physical laws. It is stupid to think they can violate those physical laws. For example, [I am using theological terms again] it is stupid to jump off a cliff and challenge the law of gravity by thinking it does not apply to them.

    On the other hand, Jesus of Nazareth chose to identify with believers. When He took on that human body He became hungry, He became tired, and [back to this example] He became subject to the law of gravity. However, Jesus could be thinking:

    I can jump; I will ask My Father to lift Me up and He will. -OR- I will kick in My divine nature and I will fly. However, I can do that, but [insert your name] cannot. If [insert your name] is subject to the law of gravity where he cannot jump off the pinnacle and survive and I have identified with this person, so I am subject to the law of gravity too. I will not accept this temptation.

    And Jesus knows:

    It is good that I am identified with [insert your name], because he is a child of God. It says God will take care of him, so He will take care of Me too.

    Is this not GREAT? Jesus of Nazareth draws His security and refuge, not from the fact that He is equal with God the Father, which He is, but that He is a Child of God. How confident are we that God will take care of us?

     

    He refuses to be tempted, because He is identified with us, so He counters with Scripture.

    7 Jesus said to him, "On the other hand, it is written, 'YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.'"

    He quotes Deuteronomy 6, which has a similar context to that of Deuteronomy 8. In Deuteronomy 6, the children of Israel are in the wilderness and they are questioning whether God will feed them. Moses tells the Israelites Do not question God; do not question that He will take care of His children.

    So Jesus refuses to use His divine nature, because He is willing to identify with us.

    The Point of this Temptation: His rejection of this temptation proves that in His life, Jesus was going to take the risk of living His life without His divine nature — like any other child of God. I believe that is what He had to learn in the wilderness. Maybe as a human being He did not know that He could live His life without His divine nature, because this was a new experience for Him. It is difficult for me to say Jesus learned things, but the author of the Book of Hebrews says:

    Although He was a Son, He learned… (Hebrews 5:8)

    He had to learn that He could really live His life as Messiah without drawing on His divine nature.

     

    Scene Three: A Very High Mountain

     

    Satan does not give up. He is determined to break the bond between Jesus and believers, so he comes to Jesus a third time. Here is where Satan shows where he really is.

    8 Again, the devil takes Him to a very high mountain, and shows Him all the kingdoms of the world, and their glory;

    What do you think Satan showed Jesus? He could have showed Him a lot; He could have shown Him the glories of Egypt, of Greece, of Persia, of the Roman Empire, and of the great cities of the day. However, undoubtedly, Satan did NOT show Jesus:
    • The sin behind the walls,
    • The crime in those cities and kingdoms,
    • The cemeteries, or
    • The effects of sin on the world — the sin that Satan had been responsible for introducing into the world.

    Satan showed Jesus the outside of these places, and then he offered them to Him.

    In the text, there is no question that Satan had these kingdoms and cities to give. That is difficult to understand, is it not? There is no question that he could have given them, because they were his to give. Also, there is no question that God sovereignly rules over the earth, however, He put the world system under Satan's rule immediately after Adam fell.

    The Point Is: Because of Adam, Satan did have the right to give those places. Having said that, though, I do NOT think that Satan would have given up the kingdoms because Satan lies:

    He does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. (John 8:44)

     

    [Back to the text…] Satan would have given the kingdoms of the world to Jesus — but only at a great cost:

    9 and he said to Him, "All these things will I give You, if You fall down and worship me."

    This is a horrible thing for Satan to suggest to the eternal Word of God. Before this temptation, Satan said Turn that rock into bread and Jump off this temple pinnacle; now it is Worship me. Satan is asking the eternal Word to worship him!

    [Again, to show you how my mind works…] Why did Jesus of Nazareth not take all of the kingdoms of the world and then kill Satan? Who would have known? Jesus did not because He was maintaining His identification with sinners who identify with Him.

    How could Satan think this would possibly work? We see he is a fool, because all he wants is to be worshipped — He would give up whatever he could to be worshipped. Anything else he does, and all the other evil he is responsible for (and it is a lot) is secondary to his desire to be worshipped.

    However, Jesus of Nazareth does not say Are you crazy? He treats this temptation like the others. To Jesus sin is sin and temptation is temptation, so He counters Satan's temptation with Scripture:

    10 Then Jesus said to him, "Begone, Satan! For it is written, 'YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND SERVE HIM ONLY.'"

    This Scripture is also from Deuteronomy. The context: Israel is in the wilderness, but this time it is a little bit different. The Israelites are saying Moses, you said you were taking us to a place of milk and honey, so where is it? You said you were taking us to a [good] Promised Land, and this place is the pits (the most loathsome place imaginable). In Deuteronomy 6, Moses is saying To get to the Promised Land, you have to first go through the wilderness.

    Application: For us to get to heaven — to the Promised Land — we have to pass through the wilderness of this life.

    Jesus understood:

    For Me (Messiah, the King) to get to My Kingdom, I have to go through the Cross.

    The Point of this Temptation and His Refusal: Jesus is saying My children have to go through the wilderness to get to the Promised Land. My children have to live a life here on this earth to get to the Kingdom; so will I. Specifically, I will not take that Kingdom without the Cross. Alternatively, Satan was offering Jesus the Kingdom without the Cross, but Jesus was not willing to break His identification with God's children and He was not willing to take His Kingdom unless we were with Him.

    Forget Satan. Jesus (the Son of God) could have vaporized Satan right there. In fact, He could have vaporized the whole world so that all that would have been left would have been the holy angels and the Godhead. They could have started all over: Jesus would be the King, the Godhead could create new, sinless persons, and everything would have been the way it should have been. But Jesus was not willing. Why not? He is identified with us — with me, with you! He knows I could be a King without going to the Cross, but [insert your name] cannot. I have identified with you, and I am not going to break that identification. I am going to live like other children of God.

    Jesus successfully overcomes the temptations to:
    • Use His divine nature.
    • Break His identification with us, even if nobody would have seen.

    That is what amazes me; Jesus could have done out and come out and still announced that I am identified with everybody — with you. And who would have known? The point is that is His heart He identified with us.

     

    Satan leaves Jesus:

    11 The devil left Him;

    Dr. Luke adds:

    The devil left Him for a more opportune time. (Luke 4:13)

    Meaning, Satan would be back to try to fulfill his desire to be worshipped.

     

    and behold, angels came and began to minister to Him.

    Does that seem strange? What has been the whole point so far? Jesus was not going to use His divine nature, and He was going to live like any other child of God. He knew He could turn rock into bread, but since believers cannot do that then He did not. Then angels came and ministered to Jesus. Was He cheating? No! God can use supernatural means to feed His children; He did it all of the time.

    The Point Is: Jesus resisted temptations to exercise His divine nature. Again, it shows what Jesus' heart wants, because He could have done those miracles out in the wilderness, He could have used His divine nature, He could have turned the rock into bread, and then come out and still said that He was identified with us. That means Jesus REALLY was identified with us, with [insert your name].

    Why is that important? If from His heart He REALLY identified with believers, then that means that He REALLY took their sins, not as a show, He really took them. Remember there is a double trade:
    • If He is so identified with those who identify with Him that He maintains that relationship even when nobody is looking, meaning HE REALLY GOT OUR SINS.
    • WE REALLY GOT HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS. We did not get His righteousness as a legal fiction; we got it and it is real!

     

    Fighting Temptation

    Is Jesus our example here? Certainly, Jesus is our example.

    Application: We fight temptation with the Word of God, just as Jesus of Nazareth did. Why does this work? Because Jesus identifies with those who identify with Him first.

     

    Illustration:

    Identification with the Sheriff

    One time, a Deputy Sheriff stopped me for an "alleged" offense — ALLEGED — not that it bothered me. [Okay, it bothered me!] The Deputy Sheriff had a badge that said Sheriff, a patch on his shirt that said Sheriff, and his car said Sheriff, but he was a Deputy Sheriff. He talked to me like the Sheriff would talk, and his words had the authority of a Sheriff, but he was not the Sheriff. However, the ticket I got was a real ticket from the Sheriff.

    Now, I could let the Deputy Sheriff be my example. I could pull somebody over and follow exactly what the Deputy Sheriff had done and said to me; however, it would mean nothing — although I might get arrested for being an idiot (fool) — because I would have no authority what so ever. Why not? I am not identified with the Sheriff, as is the Deputy Sheriff.

    The reason believers effectively use Scripture to fight temptation is that Jesus all ready fought the battle for us. In this passage, the point is not so much how He got the victory, but that He was victorious as our Substitute.

     

    So who comes at believers now? The enemy, which is characterized by the following:
    1. The devil (Satan) - the adversary of God and man.
  • The world - activities and systems of this earth.
    		•
  • The flesh - your SELF who opposes everything God does in your life and who is against you.

    • We see in the temptation passage how they work together. It is not necessary for the devil to come in and throw ideas into our minds, because our flesh can come up with enough garbage. So how does the devil tempt us? The devil comes to us and presents to us the world as a place to get our needs met. And our flesh agrees with that thinking, because our flesh has a tendency to look at the world to get our needs met.

    Jesus of Nazareth successfully conquered all three:
    • When the world comes to us, it has already been whipped.
    • When the devil (Satan) comes to us, he has already been whipped.
    • When the flesh comes at us, he has already been whipped.

    The battle is already won by Jesus!

     

    Father, thank You for Your Word, particularly for the Book of Matthew, which shows us over and over that Jesus is the King who is bringing in a different kind of Kingdom. Thank You that King Jesus — the eternal Word of God incarnate — rules by grace, rules only those who let Him rule, and identifies with His subjects. What joy that brings to those of us who identify with Him!

    Thank You for energizing You Son, Jesus of Nazareth, with the power of Holy Spirit so that He could fulfill His ministry on earth, even though He took on the limitations of having a human body and living in a fallen world. It is amazing to know the depth to which He identifies with sinners who believe in Him, who identify with Him.

    Father, I understand why Jesus of Nazareth did not want to go out into the wilderness, to the very high mountain, and to the top of the pinnacle, with dangers surrounding Him, and of course, with the tempter waiting until the right moment to assault Him. However, I am grateful that Jesus was willing to go to prepare for the battles He was to face on earth and to have victory when countering the devil's temptations.

    Satan puts such a good spin on doubting what You say about who Your Son is, so we ask You, Father, to reveal to the unsaved world, through the power of Your Spirit, Your truths about Your Son, Messiah Jesus. May You win the battle of countless hearts and minds by showing them that they are separated from You because they have chosen to believe what the deceptive snake — who desperately wants to be worshipped — has been leading them to accept. Father, please grant faith where faith is needed.

    Thank You Messiah Jesus for being joyfully willing! In Your name we pray. Amen.

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