Posted on 02/18/2018 2:20:59 PM PST by Faith Presses On
1 Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
2 And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.
3 And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.
4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
5 Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,
6 And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
7 Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
8 Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;
9 And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.
10 Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
11 Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.
12 Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee;
13 And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim:
14 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying,
15 The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles;
16 The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.
17 From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
18 And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers.
19 And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.
20 And they straightway left their nets, and followed him.
21 And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and he called them.
22 And they immediately left the ship and their father, and followed him.
23 And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.
24 And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them.
25 And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judaea, and from beyond Jordan.
Heavenly Father, help us to grow in Your Word and to share it with others. Amen.
Here’s a sermon preached by Rev. David Wilkerson on the temptations Jesus faced. I haven’t listened to it yet but I’m going to today.
Audio:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5Z111dylVI
Transcript:
https://worldchallenge.org/content/temptations-righteous
The lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life.
While we are not tempted with the same things, at the root, the temptations are the same sort.
And Jesus defeated Satan with proper quoting of SCRIPTURE, which goes to show the value of it in spiritual warfare by memorizing it.
Psalm 119:11 I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.
Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.
“In the first two temptations, Satan prefaced them with ‘If thou be the Son of God.’ He didn’t do so with the third, in which he offered the Lord all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. I wonder if that means anything.”
The third temptation still revolved around the deity of Christ. Here Satan was trying to persuade Jesus to become a Satan worshipper! When Jesus replied, quoting Deuteronomy, “You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve,” He could have easily pointed to Satan when He said “you” and to Himself when He referred to “the Lord your God.”
In other words, Jesus was never going to bow down or worship Satan, but Satan will some day bow the knee to Jesus and give Him the worship He deserves.
Notice that this passage is not just about humans bowing to Christ:
Philippians 2:9-11
Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
And this one is similar:
Revelation 5:13
And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying:
“Blessing and honor and glory and power
Be to Him who sits on the throne,
And to the Lamb, forever and ever!”
Ping to post 2 for a transcript of a fantastic message from David Wilkerson.
Thanks!
Excellent article!
As Christ was led into the wilderness after being baptized, so goes the spiritual Body of Christ, after baptism, into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan
And interestingly, so went physical Israel too, after 2 of their 3 baptisms.
Amen to everything you said. Satan tries to get us to look at things with our natural eyes and get them off Jesus, but remembering God’s Word will bring us back to Him and His truth.
Yes. Good points. Satan as the temporary ruler of this world was in the position then to put a temptation to Jesus, but the Lord has defeated Him at the Cross and He will have to bow his knee before Him and confess that He is Lord.
The Temptation of Jesus. 1* a Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. 2b He fasted for forty days and forty nights,* and afterwards he was hungry. 3The tempter approached and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread.” 4* He said in reply, “It is written:c
‘One does not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.’”
5* Then the devil took him to the holy city, and made him stand on the parapet of the temple, 6and 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 ‘with their hands they will support you,
lest you dash your foot against a stone.’”d
7Jesus answered him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.’”e 8Then the devil took him up to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence, 9and he said to him, “All these I shall give to you, if you will prostrate yourself and worship me.”* 10At this, Jesus said to him, “Get away, Satan! It is written:
‘The Lord, your God, shall you worship
and him alone shall you serve.’”f
11Then the devil left him and, behold, angels came and ministered to him.
The Beginning of the Galilean Ministry.* 12g When he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. 13He left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali,h 14that what had been said through Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled:
15“Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali,i
the way to the sea, beyond the Jordan,
Galilee of the Gentiles,
16the people who sit in darkness
have seen a great light,
on those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death
light has arisen.”j
17* From that time on, Jesus began to preach and say,k “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
The Call of the First Disciples.* 18l As he was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew, casting a net into the sea; they were fishermen. 19He said to them, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” 20* At once they left their nets and followed him. 21He walked along from there and saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They were in a boat, with their father Zebedee, mending their nets. He called them, 22and immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him.
Ministering to a Great Multitude.*
23
He went around all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues,* proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and curing every disease and illness among the people.m
24
* His fame spread to all of Syria, and they brought to him all who were sick with various diseases and racked with pain, those who were possessed, lunatics, and paralytics, and he cured them.
25
n And great crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis,* Jerusalem, and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan followed him.
http://usccb.org/bible/matthew/4
Gotta get your few minutes of attention in, don’t you?
Do you realize how much of a *Me too! Look at me!* your post copying is?
Yesterday, at Mass, when this Gospel was read I was thinking something along the same line. Did Satan know who Jesus really is? And if he knew, why would Satan waste his time trying to tempt Jesus? And if Satan didn’t know that Jesus was the Son of God, well, that brings up a whole other set of questions.
He had no relations with her until she bore a son, and he named him Jesus.
I think Satan knew and I also think that Satan knew that Jesus’ human nature was subject to temptation and if he could get Jesus to sin, then it would be all over for everyone.
Did you read the transcript at the link in post 2?
It exactly answers your question. It’s very good.
An interesting question. Satan does know he’s defeated but wants to destroy others, and maybe because God had never taken on human form before, he thought he might be able to get Him to give in to temptation through His human nature. He seems to have thought he could kill Him through the Cross, and he still wants to destroy people’s faith and prevent people from coming to Him. Also maybe he wanted to hound God because he hates Him.
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