Luke 4:1-13

Jeff Peper
Written By Jeff Rybacki
 

And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone 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.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written,

“‘You shall worship the Lord your God,
    and him only shall you serve.’”

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 you,
    to guard you,’

and

“‘On their hands they will bear you up,
    lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”

And 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.

As I read this passage a couple weeks ago, I couldn’t help but draw a comparison between the lies spoken by the devil to Jesus and the ones he still uses on us today. While Satan will attack us whenever possible, he particularly devotes his energy to times when we are exhausted, stressed and sometimes ill. Satan comes to Christ when he is enduring incredible hunger and tempts him with (3) lies that I believe are very familiar to us.

First, he says "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread." (v.3) Satan wants us to fear for our daily provision rather than trusting God. Here Christ is starving, and Satan tempts him with the thing his body needs more than anything else, sustenance. As we continue grappling with the effects of COVID-19 it is easy to fear for our daily bread. When we go to grocery stores and find aisles empty it’s easy to give into panic. It’s easy to question God’s goodness during what may seem like the end of days. Rather, Christ’s response is one we should strongly consider. Jesus says, “Man shall not live by bread alone.” In fact, Matthew 4:4 reads “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Our priority is not our daily bread, our homes, our clothing; our priority is every word that comes from the mouth of God.

Next, Satan says "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." (v.6) Satan wants us to place our status in the world over our trust in God. We are constantly inundated with things that may cause us to be dissatisfied with what God has blessed us with. Maybe it’s watching a home remodeling show or one where people are buying a new beach house and you find yourself wishing that was you. Maybe it’s seeing someone’s new car or a fun family vacation that you were not able to have. While God has made a beautiful world for us to enjoy, our enjoyment of creation is not his final aim. When we put things in the world over our relationship with God we will never be satisfied. As part of our sin nature we want glory, we want authority and notoriety, but these are first due to God. This is something I sometimes struggle with, I need to provide for my family, I want to perform well at work but before long that desire to do well in my toil (Ecc. 2:24) can cause me to place an unhealthy focus on success and what I’m able to achieve, rather than placing my trust in Christ.

Finally, perhaps giving us the best glance into Satan's desire for mankind, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, ..." (v.9) Satan wants us destroyed. When Satan is not able to lure Christ using a couple desirable things he quickly moves to despair. He challenges the authority of God by trying to get Christ to kill himself, but more important than Christ putting the Father to the test, Satan wanted to see Christ destroyed. That is Satan’s goal is our destruction. Satan is not sitting in hell with a pitchfork waiting for us to descend so we can perform comical satirical tasks while he prods us and laughs. Nor is he sitting on your shoulder engaging in a spiritual tug of war with an angel to see how many times he can get you to do something bad instead of something good. Satan hates mankind, and he hates us because we are made in God's image.  

I’ll land with this, again in Mathew’s telling of the story, in chapter 4 verse 11 it says, “Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.” There is hope in the cross and in prayer. Just as God sent angels to minister to Christ in his time of need, so are we given the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will provide wisdom, discernment and strength during our times of need. We only need to ask in prayer and it will be given to us.

 

Jeff Rybacki
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