The Temptation of Jesus, Part 3
Matthew 4:8-11
We have come in our study of Matthew to the devil’s third temptation of Christ. We have seen that these temptations from the devil are also God’s testing and proving of His Son. It was God’s intention that Jesus fight this spiritual battle with Satan. Remember that it was the Spirit that led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil (Matt. 4:1).
One purpose that God had in sending His Son into the wilderness to be tempted was to prove Him to be the King and High Priest who would suffer for our sins. Hebrews 2 says, “For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings” (Heb. 2:10). Jesus Christ was proved to be the perfect High Priest, the captain of our salvation, through His sufferings. Again Hebrews 5 says, “though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, called by God as High Priest ‘according to the order of Melchizedek,’ ” (Heb. 5:8-10). That is, Jesus’ sufferings taught Him obedience, perfecting Him as the King and High Priest who provides eternal salvation.
Christ’s temptations also allow us to see clearly the sinless perfection of Jesus Christ. Hebrews 4 says, “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.” (Heb. 4:15). Jesus’ temptation displayed His sinless obedience to His Father and to God’s word. We saw that Jesus’ temptations echo Adam and Eve’s temptation in the garden of Eden as well as Israel’s testing in the wilderness, teaching us that Jesus succeeds where our first parents and Israel had failed.
In His first temptation, we saw that the devil came to Jesus after He had fasted 40 days and nights and tried to get Jesus to use His miraculous powers wrongly. “If you are the Son of God,” said the devil, “command that these stones become bread” (Matt. 4:3). In other words, “Jesus, you’re about to die. Take care of yourself. Save your life!” But Jesus replied from Deuteronomy 8:3: “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ” (Matt. 4:4). Jesus knew from the scripture that life was more than physical life. He also knew that fasting was part of the test that God had prescribed. So, He would not use His powers to cut short the test, but trusted that God would provide for Him.
When the devil saw how Jesus countered the first temptation with God’s Word, he decided to use scripture too. Taking Jesus to the highest point of the temple in Jerusalem, he said, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’ and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’ ” (Matt. 4:6, with the devil referring to Psalm 91:11-12).
Surely, the devil implied, God will protect you since you are the Son of God! But Jesus saw the evil in that proposal. Forcing God to rescue Him by unnecessarily exposing Himself to danger would trying to force God to act. He would be saying, in effect, “I’m jumping, God. Save Me!” Jesus would not do it, but again turned to Deuteronomy, this time Deuteronomy 6:16. “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the LORD your God.’” (Matt. 4:7). Jesus knew that the purpose of the Scriptures is not so that we will test God, but so that we will trust God. Testing God is counterfeit faith. God may test us because He is God. He may require us to trust His faithfulness and obey. For us to test God is doubt, not trust; presumption, not obedience.[1]
Today, we come to the third and climactic temptation that Satan gave to Jesus, the ultimate test of His trust in God His Father. Satan had offered the Lord instant food and instant fame; now he offered Him instant fortune, the throne of the world without a cross.[2] Once again, the setting changes to match the temptation. Matthew 4:8 says, “Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.” From this vantage point, the devil presents Jesus with a vision of the kingdoms of the world and all their splendor– Egypt with its magnificent pyramids and treasures; Greece and Athens and Corinth with all their finery; Rome with its power and wealth; and all the rest of the world’s kingdoms. Notice the devil shows Jesus the glory only, not the sin, the wickedness, the iniquity, the storms of envy and strife that characterize all the kingdoms of the world.
Why would this be a temptation for Jesus? Because the Messiah is the true heir to the kingdom and the glory. These kingdoms were exactly what Jesus Christ had come to earth to get. He came in order to win the world, that he might be Lord and King over all; that he might be exalted, as man, to the highest position in the universe; that every tongue should confess and every knee should bow and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God.[3]
The Old Testament declares that the Son of God is the rightful heir of the world. Psalm 2 says, “I will declare the decree: The LORD has said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will give You The nations for Your inheritance, And the ends of the earth for Your possession.’ ” (Psa. 2:7-8). That is a messianic promise from God to the Messiah, the Son of God. In Daniel 7 the prophet records,
“I was watching in the night visions, And behold, One like the Son of Man, Coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, And they brought Him near before Him. Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, Which shall not pass away, And His kingdom the one Which shall not be destroyed.” (Dan. 7:13-14).
Psalm 72 prophesies about the Son, “He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, And from the River to the ends of the earth. … 11 Yes, all kings shall fall down before Him; All nations shall serve Him. (Psalm 72:8, 11).
The New Testament declares that God has appointed His Son to be heir of all things (Heb. 1:2). Revelation 11 proclaims the kingdom of Christ: “Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!’ ” In Revelation 19 at His second coming we see Jesus with the name, “KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS” (Rev. 19:16). There was nothing wrong in Jesus thinking about the kingdom and His inheritance.
So having shown Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, the devil then hits Him with the temptation—Matthew 4:9, “And he said to Him, ‘All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.’ ” Satan is offering to give Jesus immediately what will one day be rightfully His.
You might say, why did Satan think he could offer all this to Jesus? Could he actually follow through on this offer? And here again, we see the subtle deceitfulness of Satan. In one sense he has temporary ownership of this world, but in a greater sense, God already owns it all. Jesus calls Satan the ruler of this world three times in the Gospel of John (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11). Paul calls him “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience” (Eph. 2:2), and ‘the god of this age’ (2 Cor. 4:4). In 1 John 5:19 the apostle declares, “the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.” But Satan is the usurper, not the rightful ruler.[4]
It is a lie that Satan can give these things at his pleasure. Psalm 24:1 says, “The earth is the LORD’s, and all its fullness, The world and those who dwell therein.’ Daniel 2:21 says of God: “And He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings.” And Daniel 4:25 says, “the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever He chooses.”[5] And as we saw, God had already promised it all to His Messiah. God had promised it in the end, but Satan was offering it now. Satan was offering Jesus a shortcut – a way to obtain all the kingdoms of the world without having to go to the cross.[6]
Satan can only offer a cheap imitation of the promise of God. Satan’s kingdom is corrupted by evil, broken by rebellion and death, populated by sinful, rebellious men. The Father had promised the Son the Kingdom of Heaven, united in peace and righteousness, filled with people who know and reflect the glory of God. Of course, there was no way to inherit such a kingdom apart from redemption, apart from changing sinful human beings to make them fit for the kingdom, for without redemption there would never be righteousness or peace in the world.
At Jesus’ baptism, the Father’s voice spoke words that united Davidic messiahship and suffering servanthood (Matt. 3:17); here the devil enticed Jesus to enjoy the kingdom without the suffering. Small wonder that when Peter made a similar suggestion, Jesus would rebuke him saying, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men” (Matt. 16:23). “Jesus had in mind from the very beginning of His earthly ministry the combination of royal kingship and suffering servanthood attested at His baptism and essential to His mission.”[7] The cost of the kingdom of God would be suffering and death for Jesus.
What cost would the devil substitute? The devil said, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me” (Matt. 4:10). Satan’s boldness is astounding here. He is done being subtle. The devil drops the mask and shows his true nature in one final desperate attempt to achieve his goal.[8] It is almost as if the devil realized he was not winning, and so with nothing to lose he calls for Jesus to worship him. His purpose was to prevent the saving work of the king, the work for which He had come into the world.[9]
The word worship means to bow down before or prostrate yourself. He was asking Jesus to simply bow to him, show him the respect due to a king and ruler. Satan didn’t tell Jesus not to worship God, he just asked Jesus to also bow to him, just this once. And by the way, do you know that’s what the devil says all the time. “Go ahead, compromise. You can have what you want, and you deserve it. All you have to do to get it is just bow to me.” Every time we sin we bow to Satan. Every time you sin you do his will.
How did Jesus answer this temptation? Matthew 4:10, “Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ” ” Jesus again goes to the scripture for His strength, this time to Deuteronomy 6:13. Deuteronomy is Moses’ sermon to the nation of Israel as they are about to cross into the land God promised their fathers. Moses reminds the present generation that in the promised land they will face the same temptation their fathers faced in the wilderness: Will they be faithful to the Lord or not? Moses had already reminded them of the Ten Commandments in Deuteronomy 5—the first one being, “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Deut. 5:7).
In Deuteronomy 6 he reiterates that command:
13 “You shall fear the LORD your God and serve Him, and shall take oaths in His name. 14 “You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are all around you 15 “(for the LORD your God is a jealous God among you), lest the anger of the LORD your God be aroused against you and destroy you from the face of the earth. (Deut. 6:13-15)
Jesus recognized that Satan’s suggestion entailed depriving God of His exclusive claim to worship.[10] Only One is worthy of worship, the One who redeemed Israel from Egypt, the Lord God Yahweh Himself. Jesus would not give in for one minute on that issue.
The issue was worship of the One true God. This is still the main issue in life. It is the issue that all people must come to terms with. Will I worship the one true God who has revealed Himself in scripture and in His Son Jesus Christ? Or will I worship something less?
Worship is bowing down, communicating your understanding of your relationship to the King. He is your Lord and you are dependent on Him. Worship is not just singing that we do externally. Worship is an internal state of our hearts. Worship is a deep fundamental inner attitude that I recognize who I am in relationship to God. I acknowledge that He alone is God and that I am utterly dependent on His grace and mercy. I bow my knee to Him and acknowledge that He is my provider, my creator, my savior, and my Lord.
Jesus insisted on worshiping God alone. By the way, we have already noticed from the story of the wisemen in Matthew 2 that Matthew’s Gospel has a theme of worshiping Jesus (Matt. 2:2; 8:2; 9:18; 14:33; 15:25; 20:20; 28:17). What does this say about who Jesus is? It is more evidence for His divinity.[11] John MacArthur writes,
Not only is He the King by genealogy, not only is He the King by birth, not only is He the King by adoration, not only is He the King by attestation of Old Testament prophecy, not only is He affirmed the King by the forerunner John the Baptist, not only is He the King by virtue by His baptism and the spirit coming upon Him in the declaration from the Father in heaven but He is the King by virtue of His power over the current ruling monarch, Satan, and He shows His blazing power.[12]
What have we learned from these temptations? Satan will tempt us to distrust the care and provision of God. He doesn’t want us to believe God when God says He’ll supply all our needs according to His riches by Christ Jesus. Secondly, Satan will tempt us to presume on God. To go after the spectacular regardless of the consequences and expect God to rescue us or put the pieces back together. And thirdly he’ll tempt us to ambition, to fulfill our ambition his way, to forego the discipline and suffering of being a follower of Christ to seek worldly wealth and fame.
How do we face the temptations of the devil? The same way Jesus did, by the word of God, by scripture. It is the word of God wielded in the power of the Spirit by faith in the Son of God that gives us the victory. The weapon that won the battle was a reliance upon God’s Word.
Ray Stedman wrote:
This is very important. Our continuing struggle comes because we are so reluctant to take our stand on God’s revelation. We feel the force of the devil’s alluring lie that we will gain something by this action or thought or attitude that is tempting us. We think if we don’t do this thing, life is going to pass us by — we’re going to lose something. And if we do it, we will gain a hidden kingdom which will be a satisfying and blessed experience. That is the force of the temptation. But when we retreat to what God says is the truth about it, then we discover immediately the end of the struggle. You see, when it looks as though we are going to gain by disobeying, our one retreat must always be into the Word of God, for here is the revelation of things as they really are. This is the way to confront temptation, not with our weak, failing humanity, but with the power of the Word of God himself. When Satan finds himself up against that, he turns tail and runs.
Matthew 4:11 says, “Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.” Although Satan later continued, in subtle ways, to tempt Christ to turn to the left or right from the path that led to the cross, after being vanquished in this encounter, Satan would be ultimately defeated at the cross. Satan’s temptation failed but God’s test succeeded. Once Satan had left, it was fitting that the angels would come and minister to Jesus, undoubtedly providing food to restore His physical strength and prepare Him for the task ahead.
Jesus triumphs over Satan. He has proven the ability to take you out of the kingdom of darkness ruled by Satan and bring you to the kingdom of light, through the forgiveness of sin, based on His death and resurrection in your behalf.
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[1] Hugh T. Blevins Jr., The Third Temptation of Jesus, https://bible.org/seriespage/7-third-temptation-jesus-matthew-48-10 accessed 07/08/2022
[2] John Phillips, Exploring the Gospel of Matthew: An Expository Commentary, The John Phillips Commentary Series (Kregel Publications; WORDsearch, 2014), Mt 4:8–9a.
[3] Ray Stedman, The Temptation of Christ, https://www.raystedman.org/thematic-studies/the-life-of-christ/the-temptation-of-christ accessed 07/08/2022
[4] Thomas Manton, Christ’s Temptation Sermon 5 – Matthew 4:8-9. https://www.apuritansmind.com/puritan-favorites/thomas-manton-1620-1677/the-works-of-thomas-manton-volume-1/christs-temptation-practically-explained-and-improved-in-several-sermons/christs-temptation-sermon-5-matthew-48-9-by-dr-thomas-manton/ accessed 07/08/2022
[5] Thomas Manton, Christ’s Temptation Sermon 5 – Matthew 4:8-9. https://www.apuritansmind.com/puritan-favorites/thomas-manton-1620-1677/the-works-of-thomas-manton-volume-1/christs-temptation-practically-explained-and-improved-in-several-sermons/christs-temptation-sermon-5-matthew-48-9-by-dr-thomas-manton/ accessed 07/08/2022
[6] Ray Fowler, Beating Temptation, http://www.rayfowler.org/sermons/matthew/beating-temptation/ accessed 07/08/2022
[7] D. A. Carson, “Matthew,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Matthew, Mark, Luke, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 8 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1984), 114.
[8] John MacArthur, The Temptation of Christ. https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/90-84/the-temptation-of-christ accessed 07/08/2022
[9] Allen Ross, The Temptation of Jesus, https://bible.org/seriespage/6-temptation-jesus-matthew-41-11 accessed 07/08/2022
[10] D. A. Carson, “Matthew,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Matthew, Mark, Luke, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 8 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1984), 114.
[11] Craig Blomberg, Matthew, vol. 22, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1992), 85–87.
[12] John MacArthur, The Temptation of Christ. https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/90-84/the-temptation-of-christ accessed 07/08/2022
