Matthew 4:1-11

Last week we went through the second half of Matthew chapter 3. We ended our time seeing Jesus coming up out of the waters of baptism and the Holy Spirit visibly descending upon Him and at the same time God the Father was speaking and said, “this is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.” An incredible moment, I couldn’t imagine being one of the people standing around the Jordan river and seeing this happen, but it is in the immediate wake of that moment that Matthew chapter 4 starts. And let’s read this together.

 

Read Matthew 4:1-11

 

This point in time where Jesus is baptized, and then the transition out into the wilderness, and this interaction with Satan is recorded in three of the four Gospels. And it’s interesting because there is a sense of urgency or immediateness that is conveyed in some of these, for instance in the Gospel of Mark after God the Father speaks, Mark says “Immediately the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness”. Talking about Jesus. They all kind of make it clear that there was no real time lapse here, it seems that Jesus basically came dripping wet out of the Jordan river and the Holy Spirit led Him straight out into the wilderness.

 

It’s believed that Jesus was out in the deserts either between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea or north of the Dead Sea. This particular place had a name in the Old Testament which called it “Jeshimmon”, which literally means “The Devastation” and it really lives up to its name. All of the salt from the Dead Sea basically stops anything from surviving in this land. Even today if you Google map this area it is still completely desolate, it’s just barren open desert for miles and miles.

 

So, it’s here, in this area called “The devastation”, in the barren wilderness, that the Holy Spirit has led Jesus out to. And verse one of Matthew 4 tells us that Jesus while in this wasteland of a place, had fasted for forty days and for forty nights. Jesus was in a situation right now where He was isolated, He was out in the desert by Himself, He was probably sun beaten and weathered by the elements, and He was hungry. He hadn’t eaten in 40 days. And it was here in this state that Satan shows up on the scene in verse 3 to say, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread”.

 

And I think we have to stop here and be like … why? Why was Jesus out here? Why did he need to go through this situation with Satan?

 

If you remember back to last week, we had to ask the same question for another situation. Last week we asked: Why? About the baptism of Jesus. We talked about how of course Jesus didn’t need to be baptized, but He chose to do so to break down some cultural issues, to be an example and lead by example, and at the end of the day to be more relatable to us as our Savior. This whole situation out here in the desert shares some of the same purposes. So that we can visibly see Him lead by example in dealing with Satan and dealing with temptation. He walked in our shoes so to speak to show us how to walk well. I want to go together to look at a passage in Hebrews chapter 2. And you can go there, or you can just listen.

 

Read Hebrews 2:17-18

 

This passage in Hebrews tells us that Jesus very purposefully became like us. He made Himself relatable to us and now acts as this merciful and faithful High Priest for us. It also says there that He paid for our sins. That’s what the word propitiation means. And as we see in verse 18, Hebrews tells us that He was tempted, and we’re reading about that this morning. And the hope for us here, is that we can see this, that we can see what He walked through, how He walked through it, and know that He understands because He’s been there and so we can go to our Savior that doesn’t just know all things because He is God but knows these things specifically because He actually went through them to.  And so, let’s get back to Matthew 4 and see how Satan tries to tempt Jesus.

 

The first method of attack that Satan went after towards Jesus, was to go after the desires of His body or His flesh. Of course, His body had to be incredibly hungry at this point. If you have ever gone an extended period of time without food, a lot of people kind of lose the hunger sensation after a few days, a lot of times you still have the desire to eat, because we’re so used to eating and it’s comforting to have food, and sometimes it’s literally just the desire to chew on something. But the scary thing is when you’ve gone a long time without the hunger pains and then they come back, because that’s typically a sign that your body is going into starvation mode. And that’s where Jesus is at right now.

 

Jesus hadn’t eaten anything for forty days and that’s when Satan as we read before in verse 3 says “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread”. And I want us to note here that even though this sounds like a question, this was written as a statement and would probably be a little more accurate to say, “since you are the Son of God”. It’s kind of a weird translation thing. Satan knew full well Who he was dealing with here, there was no question. But we look at this first temptation and we could potentially be like, what’s the big deal? It’s not wrong to eat. If you are able to feed yourself, why not feed yourself?

 

But see, remember the purpose of all of this. Jesus was in some ways walking in our shoes, He was making Himself relatable to us. Even though He literally is God, He is choosing to walk through all of this in His humanity at this moment. And so, Satan’s temptation here is really an attempt to undermine all of that. Satan is calling Him to use His miraculous power for selfish purposes to provide food for Himself. And it’s not like he is tempting him to make great riches or luxuries or whatever, he’s literally just tempting Him to make bread. Because He is hungry. But we wouldn’t be able to do that, so Jesus walks within our limitations. He’s not about to listen to Satan, He doesn’t for His own benefit, instead of miraculously making this bread, He responds to Satan’s temptation with scripture. And He quotes Deuteronomy 8:3.

 

Read Matthew 4:4

 

Jesus in the face of incredible hunger uses this verse to say essentially that God’s word is more precious, it’s more valuable than food itself even in this situation. Jesus going through this and facing this hunger kind of represents our human wants, and what makes Him so relatable to us here, is that He didn’t make an exception for Himself to meet His own wants. Jesus could have resolved His hunger at will, at any time, but He didn’t give in to Satan’s games. He fought the temptation with God’s word, which gives us the example to do that as well, and so after failing attempt one, Satan decided to try another angle.

 

Read Matthew 4:5-7

 

Satan took Jesus up to the pinnacle of the temple. To the very tip of the tallest part of the building. And many believe that the second and third temptation may have been in a vision rather than actually going to these locations. So, we can keep that in mind, but either way there was a specific temptation contained within Satan’s second attempt. Satan is trying to still lean into Jesus’s humanity, and the natural fleshly urge towards pride. In our natural state our flesh wants what is best for itself, it wants to be taken care of first and foremost, for example it wants to eat when its hungry. We’ve already seen that. But it also wants to be looked up to by others, it wants recognition, it wants something to build pride upon. That really is our natural state and that is what Satan is trying to lean on. He’s like “Jesus, go throw yourself off the highest point in the temple and let the angels catch you”.

 

But he is saying this, for the temptation to put on a show. People like to argue about where exactly the pinnacle of the temple was, but it’s not really relevant, it’s generally accepted that this would be like a 150-250ft jump off of the temple and the temple is a very populated place. And so, Satan is like with all these people watching go and jump off the temple, the angels will catch you, everyone will see, everyone will be amazed, and of course they will be fawning all over you. He is trying to tempt Jesus towards pride, but last week we talked about His example of humility as well and obviously this doesn’t work on Him either. Jesus once again quotes scripture to Satan’s face during the temptation.

 

And notice one more thing in regards to this second attempt. Satan pulls the “For it is written” card too and seemingly quotes scripture at Jesus too. But it’s important to note that he misquotes scripture. He uses part of Psalm 91:11-12, but he leaves out one of the four lines in these verses. Psalm 91 speaks about abiding in the Lord and in His ways and in that place is a place where He protects His people. But Satan leaves out “To keep you in all your ways”, he leaves out the context of abiding in the Lord. Which if you are abiding in Him, would make your ways, His ways. But Satan is tempting Jesus to sin in pride and that would not at all be God’s way and that would make this passage not at all applicable. Lots of people out there misquote scripture for all sorts of purposes, sometimes on accident, sometimes with terrible intentions. We have to be careful of that, because Satan is even trying to do it with Jesus right here, but it fails, and Jesus quotes scripture again and says, “You shall not tempt the Lord your God” and so Satan moves on to his third attempt.

 

Read Matthew 4:8-10

 

Again, maybe a vision, maybe not, there is actually a mountain that is near the city of Jericho that people claim is the site that this happened at, but we don’t really know that. But we can still look at what is going on here, it’s another avenue of temptation. This time still with perhaps a little of the pride element, but probably more so in the temptation of materialism. Satan is like I will give you all of these kingdoms, and their stuff, their glory, their power and all you have to do is fall down and worship me. That’s a bold last-ditch effort, but its revealing of the main pursuit of Satan. He longs to be like God, he longs to be worshiped, Isaiah 14 speaks of Satan, and it says:

 

That’s what Satan wants, but Jesus absolutely isn’t going to give him that. He may have been in a weakened state in His humanity, He maybe have been hungry, weather beaten, He may have been tired, and maybe tired of these temptations. Satan offered Him so much materially in this world, but there was no way that Jesus Christ was going to bow down before Satan.

 

Jesus for the third time quotes the book of Deuteronomy and says “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’” Satan’s ultimate objective was foiled in this moment. The weakened Jesus would not bow down before Him even with his best offer on the table. And so, verse 11 says: