The Book of Luke: The Temptation of Christ (Luke 4:1-13)
Luke 4:1-2 “And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered.”.
During this time, Jesus is fasting and for 40 days he was being tempted by the Devil. The Book of Luke is clear that during these 40 days he was being tempted and not just after the 40 days were over. The Book of Matthew focuses on the temptations afterward but he was being tempted for the entire time period.
This is not only an interesting story but very important to the doctrine of our salvation. He was tempted but never sinned. Hebrews 4:14 “14 Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. 15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.”. This high priest is Jesus Christ. We don’t have a high priest that doesn’t understand what we are going through. Why is that? He was tempted in all points like us in the same way that we are tempted. The only difference is that we often give in to our temptations but Jesus never did.
Being tempted is not a sin. Giving in to temptation is a sin. What we learn from the story is not just that he was tempted in all points but also how to overcome temptations. These are not the only temptations he ever had in life but the Bible highlights these 3 temptations.
Matthew 4:1 “Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.”. Here we see that the Spirit led Jesus to the wilderness to be tempted. It’s interesting because Jesus has not yet officially begun his ministry. He got baptized at the end of Matthew 3 but then he had this big temptation. Before he preached to great multitudes, he had to overcome temptations in his life.
While Jesus is fasting for 40 days and getting close to God, he is being tempted by the Devil. The Devil will not attack those that are not living for God. He will go after those who are accomplishing and attempting to accomplish great things for God. Being led of the Spirit can cause you to come on the Devil’s radar.
Luke 4:2 “2 Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered.”. The Devil is known as the tempter. He is often behind bringing temptation though he is not the only one who will tempt people. The first thing we see him doing is tempting Eve in Genesis 3. He is trying to get all of us to fall into sin. Why would he do that? Sin will destroy your life.
1st John 3:8 “8 He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning.”. The Bible tells us that we should not be ignorant of the Devil’s devices. He brings temptations to you and I. While Satan might seem very nice and enticing when he is tempting us, realize that he is also known as the accuser of the brethren. He will show up and act like a friend but once you mess up, then he will humiliate you in that same sin. He is the accuser of the brethren, the adversary, the lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour.
The first temptation we see is the temptation of appetite. Realize that the Devil will tempt you when you are physically weak. Luke 4:1-3 “And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered. 3 And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread.”. When Jesus is physically weak and hungry, the Devil comes and tempts him with a physical appetite. The first temptation is a temptation of appetite. The Devil will attempt you when we are weak. If we will have victory over the Devil then we need to be aware of those moments that we are weak. This is with physical food but I believe it can be used as an example for all physical appetites. This could be drugs, alcohol, smoking, fornication, porn, adultery and all of these appetites of the flesh.
When you deal with people trying to recovery from drugs and alcohol and things of that nature, the world uses this term “HALT”. Hungry, angry, lonely, tired. They will teach you that you are most likely to relapse when you are in one of these 4 categories. When someone finds themselves in one of these categories, they need to halt. When Satan showed up, Jesus was hungry, lonely and I’m sure tired.
Let me give you another example of a temptation of appetite. 1st Corinthians 7:5 “5 Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency.”. When he is saying “defraud ye not”, he is referring to a spouse not giving the physical relationship to their spouse. Paul is saying that if you are a married couple then you should be regularly participating in that physical relationship. At the end of the verse, the Bible is saying not to go long periods of time without that physical relationship. If you do, you will put yourself in a position of being tempted. When you find yourself in positions of weakness, that is when the Devil will tempt you. The Devil will tempt you with the appetite of the flesh.
James 1:14 “14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.”. The word “lust” means desire. It is not just with a physical relationship but could be food or money or something else. Someone said this “Temptation is bait on a hook.”. The Devil knows exactly what it is that he can tempt you with. The Devil knows exactly what he needs to do to tempt you and have you drawn away with your own lust.
1st John 2:15-16 “15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.”. We will see all these things in the temptation of Christ. We need to understand and be aware that while we are in this world, there are these things that can tempt us and destroy us. It’s interesting because Satan understands physically the best time to tempt. Satan temps Jesus when he was weak but Jesus was ready spiritually to deal with temptation as he is spending time fasting and in prayer with God. The best way to get power over the desires of your flesh is to pray and fast and weaken the grip of the strength of the flesh in your life.
I want you to notice the response from Jesus to this temptation. Luke 4:4 “4 And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.”. Satan tries to draw Jesus away with his own lust but Jesus responds that there is more to life than physical food. The response to temptation with physical appetite is that there is more to life than food.
Matthew 6:25 “25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?”. What Jesus is talking about is our physical needs. Then he says that life is more than just our physical needs.
John 4:31 “31 In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat.”. This is right after the disciples left to get food when he was hungry and he preached the gospel to the woman at the well. She has now left and notice his response after having already been physically hungry for a while. “ 32 But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of.”. He is trying to teach them the lesson that man doesn’t just live to fulfill physical needs but there are things more important. John 4:33 “33 Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him ought to eat?”. They are saying, did somebody else bring food to him? “34 Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.”. We are not just animals trying to fulfill physical needs. When you are being tempted at a weak moment and you have a desire, the response we should remind ourselves is that there is more to life than just fulfilling physical needs.
Let me just give you some tips for temptations. We see Jesus’ response to the temptation but we also see that we can use the word of God to overcome temptation. Jesus is quoting from Deuteronomy 8:3 “3 And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live.”. In this verse, God is saying that he allowed his people to go into the wilderness hungry just like Jesus is hungry in the wilderness. Then it says “but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live.”. The manna sent down from heaven pictured the spiritual word of God that came down from heaven. In the story, they weren’t able to gather manna ahead of time. They had to go out every day for the food. The lesson is that with the word of God we need to gather that spiritual food every day. Jesus used the word of God to fight against temptations. That is why the Bible says “thy word have I hid in mine heart that I might not sin against thee.”. John 17:17 “17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.”.
Maybe you are a young person who is struggling with smoking cigarettes. You should write a verse such as “our body is the temple of the Holy Ghost” and keep it in your pocket to help you overcome that temptation. You quote that verse when you have a desire to smoke or drink or commit adultery or whatever it is. There is more to life than just physical appetite. The first temptation is a temptation of appetite and we also see this tip to overcome this by the word of God.
Secondly, we see the temptation of ambition. Ambition is a strong desire to do or achieve something. Notice what he says in Luke 4:5 “5 And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.”. By the way, I believe that this is something supernatural that the Devil did. There is not a high enough mountain to see all of the world. In a moment of time the Devil shows him everything. Did you know that the Devil is in charge of this world? Luke 4:6 “6 And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. 7 If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.”. Jesus does not tell him that what he is saying is untrue. Go to John 12 and we will see this.
John 12:31 “31 Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.”. The Devil is referred to as the prince of this world. 2nd Corinthians 4:4 “4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”. Notice how it says “god of this world” with a lower case g. This is referring to Satan. The Devil is referred to as the prince of this world and the “god of this world”.
Satan goes to Jesus in Luke 4 and he tells him that he will give him all of these kingdoms. This is why some of you Fox News Baptists shouldn’t get too excited about your political leaders. You don’t become the President of this country without the Devil allowing it, especially in the most powerful country in the world. The kingdoms of this world and the power and glory of them have been given to the Devil. He gives people authority and power in this life. This is why we often talk about selling your soul to the Devil. I’m not saying that people literally meet with Satan in a corner and sign a contract. However, I’m here to tell you that many a movie star, many a musician, many a sports star and many a preacher has worshipped the Devil to get power.
Can we be honest? Some of these rock stars have more money they can spend in life and their music is horrible. How did they do that? Because they sold their soul to the Devil. Look at Joel Osteen. He is the richest and most powerful preacher in the US and his preaching is horrible. How is that possible? People like this have sold their soul to the Devil. There is a temptation of ambition to succeed and climb that ladder of success. I do believe we should be driven as men and try to accomplish great things. However, there is a temptation to go too far with it. God put a lot of desires inside of you and you can take them to too far of an extreme. What do you do when Satan temps you to cut back on the message of the sermon to bring more people to Church and withhold information at work to get more success?
Luke 4:8 “8 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.”. Satan tells us that he will give us everything that we want. Jesus responds that all he wants is God. Jesus doesn’t want the fame or power. He just wants to serve God. It reminds me of that verse “The Lord is my shepherd and I shall not want.”. Our proper response to potential fame is that all we want is God.
Remember the first tip for temptation was using the word of God to overcome temptation. Let’s look at a 2nd tip. What Satan said was “a moment of time”. What is interesting is that Satan always tries to get you to make an impulse buy. It’s like going to the grocery store and you buy chocolate right before you leave that you weren’t planning to get. It’s like a sale where you have to buy it now. When Jesus rose again, he said that all power belongs unto him. Jesus was already going to get all of the kingdoms. Satan is offering something to Jesus that Jesus is already going to get. The temptation is to get it in a moment of time. The temptation is to take a shortcut to get it.
Think of Jacob and Esau. God had already promised to Jacob that he had the birthright and the elder would serve the younger. We don’t know how it would happen but God would have made it happen. Instead, Jacob tries to take it early and spends 20 years traveling around as a result of not being patient. There is temptation to people to give in to sexual desires which will one day be perfectly fine in marriage but people don’t want to wait until marriage. A lot of things that we desire are things we can fulfill in a righteous way but in his timing. It would have been foolish for Jesus to worship the Devil to get something that he was already going to get later.
The first temptation is the temptation of appetite and the 2nd is the temptation of ambition. Thirdly, we see the temptation of arrogance. What is the temptation of arrogance? It’s that you think you are so important that you have to get God on the same page with you. It’s arrogance that you need to get God to do what you want.
Luke 4:9 “9 And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence:”. This seems like an odd temptation. Why would Satan tempt him this way? Look at verse 10. Luke 4:10 “10 For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee:”. Here the Devil is speaking and quoting scripture. Did you know that the Devil quotes scripture? By the way, the Devil misquotes scripture when he quotes it. “11 And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.”.
Satan tells Jesus that the Bible says that if you fall off this cliff then the angels will make sure that you will be ok. The problem is that he misquotes this verse and changes the Bible. By the way, that is what he has been doing since the Garden of Eden. He has been doing this from the beginning. By the way, that is why there are so many modern Bible versions that have removed complete sections of scripture. Let’s look at what he quoted from. Psalm 91:11-12 “11 For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. 12 They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.”. Satan left out “in all thy ways” in verse 11. The problem with removing that part is that the death of Jesus was not going to die until God the Father wanted it. It wouldn’t be an accidental death. We will see next week that in the verse first sermon that Jesus preached, they wanted to throw him off of a cliff. This was not going to happen until God allowed Jesus to die. There was a purpose to the death of Jesus. Jesus was born to die on Calvary.
Satan brings this up because he was casting doubt on Jesus if he was really the Son of God. He is telling Jesus that if he is really the Son of God then God the Father will not allow him to die yet so jump off and prove that you are the Son of God. He is trying to appeal to the arrogance of Jesus to prove who he says he is. Don’t people say things like “If you’re really tough, prove it. If you can really hold down your liquor, prove it.”. This is a temptation of arrogance. If he is really as powerful as he says he is then force the hand of God by throwing yourself off the cliff. Satan misquotes and misapplies the context of the scripture to do it. The Bible tells us in 1st Thessalonians 5:21 “Prove all things, hold fast that which is good.”. Be careful who you trust quoting the Bible. Make sure that they are the real deal.
2nd Timothy 2:15 “15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”. What do you do when you hear some radio or tv preacher saying something. You make sure you study the Bible to see whether it is actually true or not. Be like the Bereans where the Bible says “11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.”. I don’t think you ought to show up to Church with a bad attitude of not believing anything you hear. You ought to come like the Bereans that came ready to receive the word but then you ought to make sure you search the scriptures for yourself that the things you heard are correct. 1st John 4:1 “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.”. Don’t just believe everything you hear but make sure it is accurate.
We have this temptation of arrogance. Sometimes we have prayers where we really want what we want and want to get God on our plan rather than us getting on his plan. The response of Jesus to Satan in Luke 4:12 “12 And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.”. What does this mean? This word “tempt” can mean many different things. It can mean to try to get people to sin but it also can mean like “attempt” or “test”. Jesus tells Satan that we are not to tempt the Lord thy God. He says that he will not put God the Father to the test. He is saying that he works for God the Father and won’t make God the Father work for him. Jesus understood that he was to be submissive to the will of the Father. We ought to tell Satan that we aren’t better than God the Father and we are here to obey him. We work for him. Jesus told Satan that he worked for God the Father and he wasn’t going to test God the Father.
Notice Luke 4:3 “3 And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread.”. Notice Luke 4:9 “9 And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence:”. It’s interesting to me that Satan keeps bringing up this idea of “if thou be the Son of God”.
Luke 3:22 “22 And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.”. It’s interesting to me that in chapter 4 Satan keeps questioning if Jesus is the Son of God. In verse 3 God already specifically told him that he was the Son of God. Don’t allow Satan to cause you doubt things that God has already told you. Don’t let him put a question mark where God has already put an exclamation point.
We learned that we can use the Word of God to fight the temptation of appetite. We see that our tip to fight the temptation of ambition is to only desire God. Then we see this tip to fight the temptation of arrogance is to not allow Satan to cause you to doubt things that God told you.
Luke 4:13 “13 And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season.”. The Bible promises that if you resist the Devil, he will flee from you. If you resist the Devil, he will flee from you. However, it says at the end of the verse 13, “for a season”. Satan will come back in the future. We will be tempted through our whole lives. We need to learn to flee temptation. The Bible says “13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”.
What is the key to having victory over temptation? Remember that there is a way to escape. Remember when Joseph was alone with Potiphar’s wife in the house and she is trying to get him to sleep with her? He runs away. He flees temptation. Don’t live in the presence of temptation because eventually you will give in if you don’t run.
Let’s pray.