The Temptation of Jesus
Download MP3Invite you to open your Bibles to Luke chapter 3. Luke chapter 3. The the text is also printed for you in your worship guide. I'll be reading from the ESV. Now, when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened.
Joel Brooks:And the holy spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, You are my beloved son, with you I am well pleased. Go to chapter 4, beginning in verse 1. And Jesus full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the spirit in the wilderness for 40 days, and being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days, and when they were ended, He was hungry.
Joel Brooks:The devil said to him, if you are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread. And Jesus answered him, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone. And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and said to him, to you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you then will worship me, it will all be yours. Jesus answered him, it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve.
Joel Brooks:And He took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, if you are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here. For it is written, He will command His angels concerning to guard you, And on their hands, they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. Then Jesus answered him, it is said, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test. And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time. Pray with me.
Joel Brooks:Lord, we ask that you would be honored in the very reading of your word. We don't just read so we could get to the sermon, that's that's not it. We believe that there is power through the reading of your word, when accompanied through the power of your spirit. So we ask that you would work change in our life, in our lives as we heard this. Now, god, we've put a lot of preparation into tonight, I've studied a lot.
Joel Brooks:I'm reminded of Elijah and how he's stacked the wood and he made all the preparations, but lord, you alone can bring fire. And so we ask that you would come through the power of your spirit, and bring fire into this place. That you would ignite our hearts, you would convict us where we need convicting, and you would restore us where we need restoring. I ask that my words would fall to the ground and blow away, and not be remembered anymore, but lord, let your words remain, and may they change us. I pray this in the strong name of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Amen. These are 2 extremely important stories, and we know this for a couple of reasons. For one, the story of Jesus's baptism is in all 4 gospels. And this is a rare thing to have the same story in all 4 gospels, yet they all record this. And if you think about it, the birth of Jesus is only in 2 gospels, yet the baptism of Jesus is in all 4.
Joel Brooks:The second reason we know this, or the second story why it's so important, the story of Jesus' temptation, is because we would never know this story unless Jesus told his disciples about it. Jesus was alone when he was tempted. There was nobody looking at him. There was no one around. And yet, after this happened, Jesus thought of this event that it was of such importance that he told his disciples.
Joel Brooks:What he's saying is, this is necessary. I need to tell you this because it is necessary for you to understand who I am. It's necessary for you to understand who you are as my disciples. You've got to understand what happened out there in the wilderness. And so Jesus told this story.
Joel Brooks:And so we know from all 4 gospels talking about his baptism, it is important. And from Jesus himself having to tell his disciples that him being tempted in the wilderness is important. And the reason that we're looking at these two stories together is because they should be read together. One sheds light on the other. You cannot understand the temptation unless you understand what is happening at Jesus's baptism.
Joel Brooks:Let's look at this baptism. Luke Luke here is very brief in his description of the baptism of Jesus. In other gospels, the details are filled in a little bit. The gospel of John says, that when John saw Jesus, he said, behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. In Matthew chapter 3, we have this little conversation between John the Baptist and Jesus.
Joel Brooks:And John says, Jesus, no. I have need to be baptized by you. You you don't come to me, I need to be baptized by you, and that's understandable. This is a baptism of repentance. This is a baptism for sinners.
Joel Brooks:And John earlier in Luke had said, you know, one who's coming after me whose sandals I'm not even worthy to untie. And if Luke is not even worthy to, or if John is not even worthy to untie Jesus's sandals, certainly he is not worthy to baptize Him. Yet Jesus said in Matthew, let it be so for it is fulfilling for us to fulfill all righteousness. And so John baptizes his Lord. And the reason that I believe all 4 gospels include this story, is because it's crucial to understand what we believe.
Joel Brooks:It's crucial to understand the gospel. This sets Christianity apart in many ways from all other religions, what you see here. Because here we see God is humbling Himself. He's becoming human, and he is identifying himself with sinners. He's identifying himself with sinners.
Joel Brooks:He's not going to sinners separately, and telling them all that they've got to do to try to work themselves up to heaven. He comes down and He gets in line with them. You picture this, and we know 1,000 would go out to John to be baptized. Jesus just got in line. The Lord and savior just got in line with all these sinners going to the river Jordan.
Joel Brooks:He's identifying himself with us. After Jesus is baptized, the heavens open up, the spirit of God descends like a dove. Once Jesus prays, and you hear this voice out of heaven saying, you are my beloved son, with you I am well pleased. Now, what God the father here is actually saying is a combination of 2 old testament passages. You are my beloved son, and that comes from Psalm 2.
Joel Brooks:This is a prophetic Psalm about when the king comes to this world, and he sets everything right, and it says he's gonna take the rulers of the world, and the kingdoms of the world, and he's gonna smash them, just like one gets a clay pot and smashes it. And God says in Psalm 2, you are my son. And the other quote, in whom I am well pleased comes from Isaiah 42. And this is a mysterious figure known as the servant of the Lord. This servant of the Lord is described as one whom the Lord is well pleased.
Joel Brooks:And He's also described as one who's going to suffer. He's known as the suffering servant. He's gonna be chastised. He's gonna be oppressed. He's gonna be afflicted.
Joel Brooks:He's gonna be crushed by the Lord. And so after Jesus's baptism, God the Father, he pronounces, this is my beloved son. This is the king come into this world to reign, and whom I am well pleased. He is the one who will suffer. He will both reign and He will both suffer.
Joel Brooks:That's His mission. He's the Messiah. That's why Jesus was baptized. That's why John was right when he said, Jesus, I need to be baptized by you, because he's thinking Psalm 2, you are the son, you are the king, and then Jesus goes, no, I'm gonna be baptized by you because I came to lower myself, to be humbled, to be chastised, to identify myself with sinners. I am both.
Joel Brooks:No other religion claims anything close to this. Immediately after the baptism, and the spirit of God descending on Jesus, he is led out into the wilderness. Look at chapter 4 verses 1 and 2. And Jesus, full of the spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the spirit in the wilderness for 40 days, being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days.
Joel Brooks:And when they were ended, He was hungry. Now, anybody who tells you that living the spirit filled life means you're going to have a happy life of ease, they have no idea what they're talking about. No idea. For those of you who are contemplating Christianity, who are not Christians, you you need to understand that the Bible does not say, come to me and I'm gonna give you a life of ease. Everything is gonna be just roses.
Joel Brooks:It does not promise that. A matter of fact, one of the the first stories in the Bible is, there's a character named Jacob. In all of his life, he was so rebellious to the Lord. And finally, the first time he gets on his knees and he actually prays, his very first prayer, he says, God, I trust you. God, you're in control of my life.
Joel Brooks:What does God do? He comes down and he wrestles him. He beats him up. He dislocates his hip. And from that point on, Jacob walks with a limp for the rest of his life.
Joel Brooks:When he finally cries out to God for help, and declares his trust with him, God maims him for life. Here we see Jesus obeying God, he's filled with God's spirit, and immediately he's led into the desert to be tempted, to go through hunger. This happens immediately after he is filled with God's spirit. So you gotta understand that being filled with the spirit does not mean an easier life, it doesn't mean a a, you know, just a very happy life all of the time, it doesn't mean an end of suffering. What it means is, you might have peace and you might have joy, but it will be in the midst of trials, not by being removed from trials.
Joel Brooks:A matter of fact, your temptations will likely increase. I feel like I should give an altar call right now. I mean, it's just like, you know, come on. I I I wanna be crystal clear at this. I really do.
Joel Brooks:I I don't want to present a false gospel. Jesus himself said, you need to consider the cost before you start a project. You need to consider the cost of Christianity. It can be steep. There is joy.
Joel Brooks:There is peace beyond understanding, but it comes in the midst of trials. And for those of you who are Christians, don't assume that because you're in the midst of a trial that you're not being led by the spirit. I think that's our first inclination. It's like, my life is pulling falling apart. What I do wrong?
Joel Brooks:You might have done nothing wrong. God might be leading you there by his spirit. You know Lauren and I, we experienced this to some degree when we decided to follow the spirits leading and starting this church. And a lot of you know what happened to us in the 1st 6 months of starting this church. I had another shoulder surgery.
Joel Brooks:Lauren broke her foot. Georgia was born through a very difficult delivery, and she became the child who decided not to sleep. The spring in our attic steps one time broke at the exact moment I was looking at it and just popped me in the head 14 stitches. A freaky storm comes and knocks down the tree in front of our house, which knocked down our house, and then after it knocked down our house, it landed on my truck. And so we spent 4 months out of our house.
Joel Brooks:All of this stuff happening, what in the world's going on? And above this, those, those were minor. There's a little physical trials that started coming. Those were minor, greater than these were the temptations. Both Lauren and I felt temptations heightened during this period, during those 1st 6 months.
Joel Brooks:I mean, thoughts of pride, jealousy, bitterness, anger, lust would just flood my mind. Sins I thought I dealt with a long time ago, also just came, and this heightened temptation. Lauren and I, we had many serious discussions in those 6 months. And, you know, we would never fight because, you know, of course, good Christians, we don't fight. We had more serious discussions in those 6 months than we ever had in our 13 years of marriage.
Joel Brooks:We felt being like we were being attacked. These things can cause one to doubt if you're really following the Lord's will, but they shouldn't. Being Spirit led often means going into the wilderness, being to a heightened sense of temptation and trial. Maybe a lot of you have experienced this, you know, when you've you've gone to some kind of spiritual retreat, you come back, you're all fired up, within 3 days you'll probably be the worst sin you've ever done. Or Peter, you know, Peter is a classic example.
Joel Brooks:Jesus tells him, Peter, your name is rock, and on this rock I'm gonna build my church. And the very next thing Jesus says to Peter is get behind me, Satan. He has his greatest height, and then he has his greatest fall. It's kinda normal. Let's look what happens to Jesus in the wilderness.
Joel Brooks:I mean, what is it happening here of such great importance, that he felt compelled to tell his disciples? First of all, you need to understand that Jesus is going to be tempted both where Adam was tempted, and all of Israel was tempted, where they were tempted and failed. Now, look at the last two names of the genealogy of Jesus. I skipped over the genealogy. I was gonna preach on the son of Hezron and the son of Perez, but, you know, I decided to skip over that.
Joel Brooks:But the very two last names are the really important ones. It says the son of Adam is the son of God. And Luke is wanting us to compare what comes next with the temptations with the son of Adam. You know, Jesus, he succeeds where Adam fails. Adam's temptation, it comes, if you compare him in the midst of a perfect garden, with a full belly.
Joel Brooks:He's not starving. He's he's got a companion with him. It's a lot easier to follow God when you have somebody with you, and yet Adam falls. Jesus, He's out in the wilderness, not a garden, He's on an empty belly, and He is all alone, and He succeeds. And just as in Adam, when he fell, we all fell.
Joel Brooks:Now through Jesus Christ, this new Adam through faith where he succeeds, we can all gain righteousness. Jesus also triumphs where Israel failed. God often would call Israel, the nation, his loved son. He would often call Israel that. And And if you remember when Israel was in bondage, when they were slaves to Egypt, God called them out into the wilderness.
Joel Brooks:He baptized them as they pass through the Red Sea. So right when they were baptized through the Red Sea, they went into the wilderness where they were tested. Their first temptation was hunger. They failed. They failed hunger, and and then they began to put God to the test in so many other ways.
Joel Brooks:They committed idolatry. And where they failed, Jesus succeeded. And you could tell Jesus is thinking about this story because he quotes from Deuteronomy 6 through chapter 8, which deal with Israel in the wilderness. Let's look at the temptations. The first temptation came from the devil, after Jesus had made himself incredibly weak after fasting for 40 days.
Joel Brooks:And the devil says to Jesus, if you are the son of God, command these stones to become bread. And now, I feel like I need to address a few things here. First of all, I I need to just say, there is a devil. There is a devil. This is not a popular belief, but the Bible clearly teaches this.
Joel Brooks:There's not just some vague evil out in the world, this evil has an intelligence to it. This evil has strategy, coordinates attacks, plans things out. This evil has a personality. We're told throughout scripture that, satan is behind this. Now, there's 2 types of people, and I'm sure you've come across these kind of Christians.
Joel Brooks:You know, there's some who don't believe in the devil at all, or at least has no practical implication in their life, and then there's those that see a devil or a demon behind every tree, everywhere, they're always casting out demons everywhere, always praying about spiritual warfare, and, some of praying about spiritual warfare, and, some of my friends back at the University of Georgia would do this, and they would anoint every room in their house with oil. They would cast out all the demons in every single room. And one of my friends went into a Chinese restaurant, and I kid you not, and there was this little golden Buddha, and he put his finger in the belly button of Buddha, and he said the loudest prayer casting out all of the demons that were in this Chinese restaurant, and the whole restaurant is looking at them. He goes, best meal I've ever had. And so we we have people like that, you see demons everywhere, and then we have some, they would just deny that they even exist.
Joel Brooks:The bible clearly teaches that evil does have an intelligence behind it. Clearly. His name is Satan. He is at war with God. He's at war with us because we are created in the image of God.
Joel Brooks:He hates all of creation because creation declares the glory of God. So Satan hates God. He hates us. He hates creation, and he has been on destroying us. Peter, speaking from experience, the apostle Peter says, Satan is like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.
Joel Brooks:So evil doesn't just happen. And now the first thing you got to notice when battling Satan is is don't think of the movies, you know, like you gotta get your holy water, you know, you gotta get your cross, you know, find some priest, you know, different things like that and have this exorcism. That's that's not how you battle the devil. That's usually what we think of when you battle the devil. That's that's that's not it.
Joel Brooks:Satan works in a much more subtle way. He didn't come to Jesus, you know, dressed in his red suit and a little pitch fork, you know, out there and say, alright, let's get it on. It's it's it was so much more subtle than this. If if Satan never came like that, you would just laugh it off. No.
Joel Brooks:Obviously. No. Get away from me, Satan. But it appears as a as a voice in his head. Just that just a little voice in his head.
Joel Brooks:Man, I'm so hungry. Gotcha. You know, I I I could just easily change these stones into to bread. I mean, really what what harm is in that? There's I'm not hurting anybody.
Joel Brooks:I'm I'm just using the things that the gifts that I have to provide for myself. Nobody's even around to see this. It'd be so easy. Just a little thought popping in your head. So Satan works very subtly.
Joel Brooks:And he does it by trying to get Jesus to doubt his identity. Remember earlier in the baptism, he just heard it. Jesus heard his father say, this is my beloved son. Jesus heard that. I'm your son.
Joel Brooks:That was 40 days ago that I heard your voice. Now I'm weak, I'm hungry, I'm not hearing anything. And it's in this state that he hears that little voice. If, if, if you're the son of God. And the temptation here is not about whether Jesus is gonna use his powers on frivolous things about turning stones and bread.
Joel Brooks:That's not it. This the temptation here is is Jesus gonna doubt his identity that came from God's word? God declared and he said, you are my son. Now it's Jesus, is He gonna believe that because God takes care of His children? Is He gonna believe that?
Joel Brooks:There's no evidence of it anywhere. There's no food around, there's no help around, there's nothing around. The only thing that he has to go on is God's word in believing that. Will He? Now Jesus could easily rationalize this decision.
Joel Brooks:He could say, well, you know, it's actually a good idea to do this. Certainly, Jesus wouldn't I mean, god wouldn't prevent me from doing this. Certainly, god doesn't want me to die. Let me ask you, how can you distinguish between the voices in your head? I'm not talking like mad voices, but the, you know, the subtle little quiet whisperings of what you should do.
Joel Brooks:How do you know which one is the Lord and which one is the devil? Martyn Lloyd Jones, he used to say that you know, yes, we have been transplanted out of the kingdom of darkness, out of the kingdom of Satan, and we've been put in the kingdom of God. Satan is no longer our master, but the problem is, there's just a wall now separating us, and we can hear Satan still commanding. And sometimes by instinct, we obey his voice. Even though we're in the kingdom of God, we're in his domain, we've been in slave to Satan for so long, we still obey when we hear his voice.
Joel Brooks:How can we discern which is the Lord's voice and which is Satan's? I mean, all of the time, and I've heard people say, you know, the Lord is leading me to do this. Probably most of you in this room have said that at some point. I really feel the Lord is leading me to do this. I really feel like the Lord wants me to say this.
Joel Brooks:I really feel like the Lord is saying this to me, or my favorite is the the Lord, you know, he gave me this song. I'm like, man, do not blame that on the Lord. Okay? Do not that was all you. Yeah.
Joel Brooks:But but we're always convinced that we hear the Lord. If I heard it, certainly it's the Lord, it's not the devil. How can you distinguish? Because remember, these are very subtle, subtle differences. It's by which agrees with the word of God.
Joel Brooks:That's it. It's not if one's a good idea. It's not even if one demands a certain level of faith, turning stones into bread demands faith. It actually demands trusting the power of God. That's not how you distinguish what's the Lord and what's the devil.
Joel Brooks:It's simply which agrees with the word of God. That's how you know. Notice that Jesus does not argue with Satan. He doesn't debate him. If you attempt to debate temptation, you're gonna lose.
Joel Brooks:It's gonna look really attractive to you by the end of it. You will rationalize yourself into doing it. He simply fires off scripture. Man cannot live by bread alone. The gospel of Matthew tells us that there is actually an extra sentence to that Jesus adds, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God, Jesus goes back to God's word.
Joel Brooks:That's how I know I'm a son, because of the word of God. He just said 40 days ago, this is my son. I believe him, even though everything else tells me otherwise. I will believe the word of God. And he's also saying, I trust in the sovereignty of God.
Joel Brooks:Satan, you were mistaken. I will not live if I take bread. I live if God tells me to live. Hebrews tells me that the whole universe is held together by the the power of God's word. Don't ever make the mistake that the reason that you're walking and and you're alive is because you breathe air.
Joel Brooks:No, it's because God says, live. Don't make the mistake of thinking that you that you can exist because you eat bread. No, it's because God says, live. That's the reason. Jesus understands that.
Joel Brooks:He that. He says, I could deny myself bread forever, and I will still live if my father says, live. That's the greater word. Satan's going to try to tell you all the things that you need in order to live. Don't believe him.
Joel Brooks:He's gonna tell you all of these things that you really need in order for you find your identity. Don't believe it. You trust the word of God. For the second temptation, Jesus is is asked to worship Satan, takes him to this high place, shows him all the kingdoms of the world, says, Jesus, I'm gonna give you all of these if you'll just come and worship me. All of the kingdoms of the world can be yours.
Joel Brooks:Just bow down. And and what this is, is Jesus here, he could he could gain all of this, finally be king, and he would never have to endure suffering. Don't ever think that, you know, Satan wanted Jesus to go to the cross. Satan does not want Jesus to go to the cross. He understands what the cross will do.
Joel Brooks:Satan is always trying to get Jesus to deviate from that path. And so he's saying, you don't have to go to the cross. Here it is. A cross, I mean a crown without the cross. You can have it right now, just worship me.
Joel Brooks:And if Jesus had done that, yes, He would have been ruler of a kingdom, but He understands it would have been a fallen kingdom. He might have been the ruler but it would have been over a fallen world. He could not bring redemption that way. Redemption doesn't happen by just seizing power. Redemption comes through suffering, taking on the evil of the world, allowing it to do its worst to you.
Joel Brooks:And through that, he brings redemption. What what Satan is offering here is the world not redeemed. Power without the cross. Says, be gone. I've come to identify myself with sinners and to take on their shame.
Joel Brooks:Final temptation, Satan takes Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple and says, hey, you know, you want to quote scripture all the time, alright? I'll give you some scripture. Says, you know, throw yourself down from here, and God says, He'll send angels to protect you. Your foot's not even gonna hit the ground. Just think how impressed people will be, Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Jesus said, he's not gonna put God to the test. He does not need to do anything to become spectacular. He doesn't need to do that. He has no need to impress people. He's not like us, you know, who we're always trying to do something great, something of worth that we can show people so they'll notice us.
Joel Brooks:Show people that they'll be impressed with us, always wanting to get credit for the work we do, because we're building our identity on that. Jesus doesn't need that. Because his identity is on what happened at his baptism. You're my son, and I'm pleased with you. He doesn't need anything else.
Joel Brooks:I mean, we need others to notice us. We we want to wow people at times, so that we can feel like we're a somebody, but Jesus knows who He is. Now, what can we take away from this? There's a lot more you could dig in with just each one of these temptations, but just big picture, what can we take away from this? What can we apply to our lives from this?
Joel Brooks:Why did Jesus tell this to his disciples? Well, there's definitely some small applications that we've already looked at. You know, being led by the spirit doesn't mean an easy life, It often means an intensification of trials and suffering. We looked at the the power of the word of God in defeating Satan. Thy word I treasured in my heart, that may not sin against thee.
Joel Brooks:That's that's absolutely true, but that is not the main application of this. I don't think that's why Jesus told this story. The main application is you need to trust Jesus where you have failed. You need to trust Jesus where you have failed. Adam failed, All of Israel failed.
Joel Brooks:All of humanity has failed. Jesus did not fail. He didn't. We've all failed at these temptations, we've all failed to trust God at his word. We've all failed to find our identity and God alone.
Joel Brooks:We have put God to the test so many times. We've we've thought that the way to change the world is by embracing power instead of embracing weakness. We've all worshiped idols. And you know, and matter of fact, it struck me as I was studying this. We more closely resemble Satan, than we do Jesus in this story.
Joel Brooks:We do. I mean, how often have you prayed, if you're God, God God, if if you're God, help me with this. If if you're God, get me this job. If you're God, heal my boy of cancer. You know, if you're God, do this.
Joel Brooks:Often we pray like Satan tempted Jesus. All of us have failed. This story teaches us to trust Jesus. Jesus, the one who came to be identified with sinners. Jesus who got in the long line with all of us, became one of us.
Joel Brooks:Jesus who lived the perfect life I never could. Jesus who succeeded where I have failed. Jesus who is both the king in Psalm chapter 2, and the suffering servant in Isaiah 42, put together. We trust him and no work of ours, for we have failed. That's why Jesus told the story.
Joel Brooks:He wants to make sure we don't leave, and we just try to become better people. He wants to realize that we have failed, but it's all right. Cause he's identified with us and we could trust him for our salvation. Pray with me. Lord, you handled the word of God so carefully when you argued with Satan?
Joel Brooks:So carefully, you knew the subtleties of scripture, their context. You knew every word. Then then you told this story to your disciples who have told it to us. It is now the word of God. The story is now the word of God.
Joel Brooks:May we handle this story as carefully as you handled the text in Deuteronomy. May we savor every word. May we meditate on that. May we realize that in this word is is power for real change. Power to resist temptation.
Joel Brooks:Power to trust you. We do trust you. Thank you that we do not have to work our way up to heaven, but that you came down to us. Thank you for being our savior. We pray this in the name of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Amen.
