Matthew 4:1-11
Matthew: The Kingdom of God • Sermon • Submitted
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Introduction
Introduction
Matthew: The Kingdom of God
This is the last week where we are in the opening movement of Matthew, the introduction of the king
This week we find Jesus right after his baptism as he is ready to begin his public ministry
Matthew 4:1
1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
Matthew is picturing Jesus in terms that are reminiscent of Israel wandering in the desert for 40 years
Jesus is brought into the desert for: πειράζω - peirazo
Temptation by the devil
Testing by God
Have you ever felt the urge to do something you know is wrong?
Jesus knows well the pull toward sin, because he endured it
I. The temptation of entitlement
I. The temptation of entitlement
2 And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4 But he answered, “It is written,
“ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”
Notes:
After fasting in the desert for forty days, Jesus was hungry - of course!
The devil, having come, speaks to Jesus
The devil is pictured as waiting for an opportune moment when he thinks perhaps Jesus’ guard would be down
The manipulative conditional statement: if you are the Son of God
This is not meant to imply the devil doesn’t know whether Jesus is the Son of God or not
In this case, a conditional phrase is used to try to manipulate Jesus
Illustration: If you love me, you’ll give me a back rub - since you love me, you should give me a back rub
So the devil is attempting to entice Jesus into something by the subtle acknowledgement that he is indeed the Son of God
He is taking a truth and then willingly drawing wrong conclusions from that truth
This is how truth is twisted into devastating ruin
The entire prosperity gospel movement takes the true statement, “God loves us” and then draws unbiblical, wrong conclusions from it
God’s will for me must therefore be that I be wealthy, prosperous, in good health, happy, and comfortable at all times
The temptation: command these stones to become loaves of bread
The ask is made: satisfy your hunger, your fleshly appetite. After all, why wouldn’t you?
Jesus, there is no reason the Son of God, through whom everything has been created, should go hungry!
Jesus, you are the Son of God; surely you deserve to make use of some of the perks of that position, don’t you think?
Command these stones to become bread
Some of the most evil, diabolical, ruinous things in your life will start with the phrase, “I deserve”
A lot of temptation comes our way through the path of deserving entitlement
“I deserve to satisfy my appetites - food, drink, sex
“I deserve to have what I want” - respect, influence, money, comfort
We would do well to see how desire becomes entitlement and leads us right into sin and death
James 1:14-15
14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.
If we want to die on the hill of what we deserve, what are our rights, we’d better be careful, because if God were to actually give us what we deserve, we get hell
The response: It has been written, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God”
“It has been written” - a phrase repeated by Jesus 3 times in this passage
Jesus constantly appeals to the written word of God, to what God has already said, in order to know what to do
Matthew uses the perfect tense here, which signifies a past action that has ongoing significance in the present
Since “it has been written”, I can know what to do today
Jesus is highlighting the sufficiency of what God has already done and said in order to know what to do to honor him
So many people are constantly lamenting how God doesn’t seem to be speaking to him while ignoring and refusing to give any serious effort to studying what he has already said
The first quote from Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy 8:2-3
2 And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. 3 And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
Israel was commanded to remember God’s faithfulness to provide for their every need by remembering how he had fed them with manna, which God gave to illustrate to Israel that it wasn’t by bread that they sustained their life, but by him
For Jesus, the things of God consumed him and sustained him
Ask
How often do you sit with God in his word?
How deep do you dig into and study the word?
How often do you meditate, pray, dwell on God’s word
I pray that God would continue to stoke a fire in our church of love and passion for his word, for it do dominate and dictate all we do
Having been frustrated in his first attempt to entice Jesus by this reference to the word of God, the devil turns to the scriptures themselves for his next try.
II. The temptation of demand God prove himself
II. The temptation of demand God prove himself
5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple 6 and said 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,
lest you strike your foot against a stone.’ ”
7 Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ”
Quotation from Psalm 91:11-12
Psalm 91 is about trusting God and taking refuge in him
Psalm 91:9-12
9 Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place—
the Most High, who is my refuge—
10 no evil shall be allowed to befall you,
no plague come near your tent.
11 For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways.
12 On their hands they will bear you up,
lest you strike your foot against a stone.
The devil is trying to tempt Jesus to force the issue here by creating a situation where God is forced to intervene
We already know as the reader that God loves his Son and will in fact protect him in order to accomplish his gracious purposes
Jesus is being tempted to try to make God prove his faithfulness rather than just trusting it
Essentially, the devil has moved on to putting God on trial and tempting Jesus to participate in it
Response from Deuteronomy 6:16
16 “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah.
This is in turn a reference to Exodus 17:1-7
Exodus 17:7
Israel has been led out into the desert out of slavery in Egypt
They got thirsty and thought God had just led them out to let them die of thirst in the desert
In spite of their mistrust of him, God had Moses miraculously bring water out of a rock to provide for them.
7 And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”
There’s a big difference between trusting God and testing him
Trusting God means implicit faith in him on the basis of his past actions
Testing God moves to a place of needing God to prove his trustworthiness on my terms
“Is the LORD among us or not?” - let’s make him prove it!
Having failed in his twisting of Scripture, the devil drops his mask and goes for a brute force temptation.
III. The temptation of dissatisfaction
III. The temptation of dissatisfaction
8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written,
“ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God
and him only shall you serve.’ ”
The offer: All of the glory of all of the kingdoms of the world
Jesus was already on this path, but his path was going to lead to a cross before it led to a throne
His path was going to be excruciatingly painful
His path was going to be a denial of all that was rightfully his
His path was going to be the stripping of all of his rights, dignity, honor, and even his life
Satan is offering to fast track Jesus to his rightful place of Lordship over all of the world, but in a way that would leave him indebted to and allied with Satan rather than God
The core of this temptation is dissatisfaction with God himself, substituted for the desire for all of the gifts God gives
It is the temptation to trade away God himself in favor of all shiny things the world has to offer
John Piper:
The critical question for our generation—and for every generation—is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ were not there?
He goes on to say, “it doesn’t take a person who has been born again to want these things; it takes a person who has been born again to want Jesus.”
The response: Deuteronomy 6:10-13
10 “And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities that you did not build, 11 and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full, 12 then take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 13 It is the Lord your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear.
Moses is warning the people of Israel about the lure of all the good things they are going to experience when they go into the promised land
He warns them not to let those good gifts from God lure them away from their true treasure, God himself
Jesus keys in on this and rejects the devil’s offer, choosing instead to honor God and serve him alone
As a result, God has exalted Jesus and given all authority in heaven and on earth to him
Conclusion
Conclusion
And this is where we want to end: with the glory of Jesus because of his humility, his obedience, his sacrifice
Jesus was tested in the wilderness as Israel was tested
Where Israel failed it’s testing, Jesus did not
God was not testing Jesus to see if he would fail but rather to prove that he wouldn’t
Illustration: a new bridge tested to see whether it will hold up
This test of Jesus was not for God’s benefit, to find out whether his Son would hold fast or buckle under temptation
This test of Jesus was not for Jesus’ benefit, for him to know whether he had what it takes
This test was for your benefit
Because like Israel, you regularly fail in your test
The worst thing we could do with this text is just shallowly apply it by saying, “well, you better try hard to resist temptation!” and leave it at that
Because the truth is, you haven’t resisted temptation - all of us, for all our lives we battle against temptation, and if we’re totally honest, we lose that battle more than we win
We are shaky and inconsistent in our faithfulness, but Jesus is rock solid in his
The reason Jesus was tested was not to prove to God that he is faithful, but to show to you that he is faithful
That even when you yield yourself to your temptations to sin, you can trust Jesus because he has NEVER yielded to temptation
He remained faithful even to the point of a humiliating and excruciating death on the cross for your sake
He is a solid rock, a sure foundation and certain anchor for you, even though you regularly give in and are faithless
It is not by trying harder but by looking to Jesus that we find the fuel of our own discipleship and the power to resist temptation
Hebrews 12:1-2
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Therefore, let us look to the one who has run with endurance the race that was set before him so that we can run with endurance the one set before us.