The Temptation of Jesus

Matthew 4:1-11

Last week we looked at Jesus’ preparation for ministry through His baptism in the Jordan. But there was another preparation God had for Him before He could begin His public ministry, and that was a period of testing in the wilderness. Just as Adam and Eve were tested in the Garden, and just as Israel was tested in the wilderness, so Jesus had to go through His time of testing in preparation for ministry.

This passage is both unique to Jesus as the Son of God and a pattern for us as believers in Christ. All of us are tempted to sin. Not a day passes without the fiery darts of the enemy assaulting us. The soul of every true believer anguishes at the impulse of temptation, knowing that to yield to sin grieves the Holy Spirit who has sealed us to the day of redemption and hinders our fellowship with Christ.

Is there any hope for us to be delivered from temptation’s snare? This passage tell us “Yes,” our hope is found in the Son of God, Jesus Christ! Having suffered temptation in every way that we are, yet without sin (Heb. 4:15), ” He is able to aid those who are tempted.” (Heb. 2:18). He knows our weaknesses; He understands the pull of human desires and the fierceness of Satan’s attacks. And He has shown us how to battle temptation in the power of the Spirit by the Word of God. Our Lord’s temptation is both triumphant and instructive, and remains an assurance that the Lord knows how to deliver the godly from temptation (2 Pet. 2:9).[1]

This text stresses the fact that Jesus was the “Son of God” (Matt. 4:3, 6). Remember that this account follows directly after His baptism by John in the Jordan (Matt. 3:13-17) where God the Father declared “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:17). We know that the New Testament affirms both the deity and the humanity of Jesus Christ. We saw His human genealogy in Matthew 1:1-17. But we also saw His divine genealogy as He was conceived by the Holy Spirit (Matt. 1:20).

The Bible declares that “God cannot be tempted by evil” (James 1:13). Yet the God-Man, Jesus Christ was tempted. As a man Jesus faced temptation, but as God He could not be tempted, nor could He sin. Theologians call this the impeccability of Christ. “One might argue that Christ’s impeccability is a function of his deity but must not be taken to mitigate his humanity, and Christ’s temptability is a function of his humanity but must not be taken to mitigate his deity.”[2] This is the mystery of the nature of the God-man Jesus Christ. As Jesus’ baptism declared Him to be King, His temptation demonstrated that He is King.[3]

Matthew 4:1-11

1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”

But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ”

Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “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.’ ”

Jesus said to him, “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’ ”

Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.”

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.’ ”

11 Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.

This text is full of spiritual truth and examples. We could do an entire study on the strategies of Satan: how he attacks during a weakness (Jesus was hungry), after a victory (Jesus was just baptized), and before a ministry (Jesus was about to begin).

We could do an entire study on the nature of temptation: physical temptation (involving bread), emotional temptation (involving security and protection), spiritual temptation (involving worship). We could relate each of these to the temptations of Eve in the Garden and to the three categories of the things of the world, “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” that 1 John mentions.  

We could do an entire study on overcoming temptation: how Jesus followed the leading of the Holy Spirit; how He responded with Scripture; and how Jesus resisted the devil and he “left Him.”

And yes, we will apply some of these ideas from the text. But our main purpose is to see Jesus as Matthew presents Him here. Matthew wants us to see the tremendous obedience of Jesus to see a true demonstration of His righteousness. For it is in His temptation that true nature of Jesus as the victorious King comes shining through.[4]

1. The Setting of the Temptation (Matt. 4:1-2)

Let me make some important observations about the setting for our Lord’s temptation.[5]

First, our Lord’s wilderness experience identified Him with the nation of Israel in the Old Testament.

1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. (Matthew 4:1-2).

Matthew has already linked Jesus to Israel by His genealogy (Matt. 1:1-17) and by the fulfillment of prophecy (Matt. 2:13-23). The number 40 and the wilderness again connects Jesus with the nation of Israel. The “desert” is not only a place associated with demonic activity (Isa 13:21; 34:14; Matt 12:43; Rev 18:2) but the place where Israel experienced her greatest early testings.[6] Just as Israel first underwent its “baptism” (“all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea,” 1 Cor. 10:2) and then was led into the wilderness for 40 years where God tested them, so after His baptism Jesus was tested in the wilderness for 40 days. Moses reminds Israel of their testing in Deuteronomy 8:

1 “Every commandment which I command you today you must be careful to observe, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land of which the LORD swore to your fathers. 2 “And you shall remember that the LORD your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. 3 “So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD. (Deu 8:1-3 NKJV) (Deut. 8:1-3).

Jesus quotes this verse in His answer to the first temptation. Again we see that Jesus is the “true Israel,” and the “true Son of God.” Whereas Israel failed their testing, Jesus was victorious, which shows Him to be qualified as the King who would atone for our sins on the cross and who will judge the world with fire.

Second, I want you to notice that “Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil” (Matt. 4:1). Mark’s Gospel is even stronger, saying “the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness” (Mark 1:12). Jesus was compelled by the Spirit to this deserted place to be tempted.

The Holy Spirit played a significant role in the life of our Lord during the 40 days of fasting and temptation. We will see that Jesus relied on the Word of God to battle the devil. Thus, it was both the Word of God and the Spirit of God that guided and enabled our Lord as He prevailed over Satan in His temptation.

Third, the tempter was the devil. The Greek word diabolos strictly means “slanderer”; but the term is the regular rendering in the Greek translation of the Hebrew “Satan” (e.g., 1 Chronicles 21:1; Job 1:6–13; 2:1–7; Zech 3:1–2) He is the chief opposer of God, the archenemy who leads all the spiritual hosts of darkness (cf. Gen 3; 2 Sam 19:23; John 8:37–40; 1 Cor 11:10; 2 Cor 11:3; 12:7; Rev 12:3–9; 20:1–4; 7–10; Maier). [7] 

Fourth, Jesus was tempted in the wilderness for the entire 40-day period. You might get the impression that Jesus was led into the wilderness for 40 days and nights and then was tempted at the end of this period. But Mark and Luke record that Jesus was “being tempted for forty days by the devil” (Luke 4:2; also Mark 1:13). The three temptations that Matthew and Luke record took place at the end of 40 days, but this whole period was a time of testing and temptation. The word “tempted” can mean both to test and to tempt.[8] As something the devil does, it must here be taken as to tempt, in the sense of to try to entice to sin. But what the devil sees as a temptation, God uses as a test to prove Jesus’ faithfulness.[9]

Fifth, during His 40 days and nights in the wilderness, Jesus voluntarily fasted from food. So Matthew 4:2 says, “And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry.” This is not because there was no food at all in the wilderness. John the Baptist lived in the wilderness for a long while, eating locusts and wild honey (Matt. 3:4).

There are two different views concerning our Lord’s “fasting” in the wilderness. There are those like Chrysostom[10] and John Piper[11] who believe that Jesus’ fasting gave Him spiritual strength, preparing Him to be victorious over Satan’s temptations. And then there are others, like Calvin and Luther,[12] who do not see our Lord’s fasting as strengthening, but as weakening.

What we see here is a great contrast between the temptation of Eve and that of our Lord. Adam and Eve had no lack of food or water in the garden, and they fell by choosing to eat the one forbidden food. Jesus had no food, and yet He resisted Satan’s temptations. Matthew shows our Lord’s spiritual strength at His physically weakest moment.

That brings us to,

2. The First Temptation (Matt. 4:3-4)

Matthew 4:3 says, “Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”

Notice that Matthew refers to Satan here as “the tempter.” Mark calls him “Satan” (Mark 1:13), while Luke calls him “the devil” (Luke 4:2). Matthew is doing more than merely identifying our Lord’s opponent; he is describing his nature and his character. This is who Satan is; this is what Satan does. He is the “tempter,” and then, if he is successful, he becomes the “accuser” (see Revelation 12:10; Zechariah 3:1).[13]

Here, as Jesus was literally starved and with nothing to eat, the tempter came to Him suggesting that He ought to use His power as the Son of God to turn the stones into bread and eat. Jesus, of course, could have done that. He could change water into wine. He could multiply a few loaves and fishes and feed thousands.

What was the nature of this temptation? The point of each temptation must be determined by closely examining both the temptation and Jesus’ response.

Notice that the tempter sought to appeal to Jesus’ sense of self. He said “If You are the Son of God …” (Matt. 4:3). Satan was not denying that Jesus was the Son of God, the sense of His words are “Since You are the Son of God.” Satan was seeking to appeal to any selfishness in Christ. It was a temptation to use His sonship for His own comfort that would be inconsistent with His God-ordained mission.[14] Jesus did not come to satisfy His own cravings, but to do the will of His Father (John 5:30). Jesus would say to His disciples, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work” (John 4:34).

Satan attacked God’s provision: “Certainly the Savior of the world needs His strength. You need food, no one in their right mind would go a second longer. But You are in the wilderness, and there is nothing to eat. Not to worry, You have the power to turn stones into bread. That’s what you ought to do.” What a simple, yet sinister type of temptation! It appealed to sense of self. It was rooted in a genuine need. It was within Jesus’ power as the Son of God. But it came in such a way as to undermine the provision of God and the word of God.

This might not seem to us that serious but if Jesus had given in to that thought, salvation would have been impossible. For in that moment Jesus would have put His own will ahead of God’s will. It was the Holy Spirit who had led Jesus into the wilderness and led Him to fast for those 40 days and nights. To use His divine power to feed Himself would be to disobey the clear leading of the Holy Spirit and His Father. And that selfishness would have rendered Jesus unfit as an offering for sin.

How does Jesus answer? With the word of God. Matthew 4:4, “But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’” Isn’t it instructive that the very first words we hear from the lips of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew showed His absolute confidence in the written Scriptures as the authoritative Word of the living God. The question of errancy or irrelevance never occurred to Him. Those notions are of Satanic origin (Genesis 3:1). In tempting Eve, the devil set out to get her to distrust or distort the Word of God. Jesus picked up and wielded the weapon that she so foolishly neglected in her struggle with the tempter.[15]

Jesus took the thought that He could turn stones into bread, but when He laid that thought up against the Word, it was clearly seen as false. Jesus quotes here from Deuteronomy 8:3, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God as I showed earlier. Now if you read the context for that verse in Deuteronomy you will notice these things: 1) God sent Israel in to the wilderness to test them (Deut. 8:2); 2) God purposefully let them get hungry (Deut. 8:3); and God fed them with manna they did not know (Deut. 8:3); 4) God did this so that they would learn “that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD” (Deut. 8:3).

In other words, God made them hungry and fed them with heavenly food to teach them a lesson. And the lesson was: “God has all of your physical needs under control, so all you need to be concerned with is your spiritual needs. According to Deuteronomy 8:4-6 God did the same thing with their clothing. He supernaturally provided their food and clothing so that they would see that God has that under control. They didn’t need to worry about them. Jesus will teach this very thing in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6:

31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 “For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. (Matt. 6:31-33)

Israel demanded its bread but died in the wilderness; Jesus denied himself bread, retained His righteousness, and lived by faithful submission to God’s Word.[16] Israel’s hunger had been intended to show them that hearing and obeying the word of God is the most important thing in life (Deut 8:2–3). Hebrews 5 says that “though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered” (Heb 5:8). More necessary than bread for Jesus was obedience to God’s Word.[17] Jesus overcame the temptation to turn stones into bread to satisfy His own hunger by believing the word of God. Jesus focused on the eternal, on the spiritual, on the word of God, on His Father, on obedience.

Jesus followed the leading of the Holy Spirit. He trusted in God’s word. He trusted in God’s provision. Jesus overcame temptation. He passed the test. The test demonstrated His qualifications as the Son of God and the Savior of the world. Rather than turning stones into bread to satisfy His hunger, He became the living bread to satisfy the hunger of all who believe in Him. In John 6 Jesus said,

48 “I am the bread of life. 49 “Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. 50 “This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. 51 “I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.” (John 6:48-51)

The bread that God gave Israel in the wilderness sustained physical life, but it did not grant eternal life. Jesus, the “true bread,” does provide eternal life through His sacrifice on the cross. And Jesus demonstrates His commitment to be obedient to the Father’s will here at the very beginning.

This is the first “face-off” between Satan and the Savior, though it will not be the last. But in this encounter with His arch enemy, Jesus prevailed. Matthew is informing his readers, I believe, that this is a foretaste of “things to come.” He lets us know early in his Gospel that Jesus always wins over Satan. Our Lord’s victory in the wilderness is the “first fruits” of the greater victory which our Lord will win on the cross of Calvary, the very thing Satan’s success in temptation would have prevented.[18]

  1. The Second Temptation

 

  1. The Third Temptation

 

 

 

————————————————–

 

[1] Phil Newton, South Woods Baptist Church, Tempted and Triumphant. http://archive.southwoodsbc.org/sermons/matthew_04.01-11.php accessed 06/29/2022

[2] 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), 115.

[3] John MacArthur, The Crisis of Temptation, Part 1. https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/2191/the-crisis-of-temptation-part-1 accessed 06/29/2022

[4] Bro. Rory, FBC Spur, https://fbcspur.org/testing-king-part-1-matthew-41-11/ accessed 06/29/2022

[5] Robert Deffinbaugh, The Temptation of Jesus, Part 1, https://bible.org/seriespage/5-temptation-jesus-part-i-matthew-313-44 accessed 06/29/2022

[6] 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), 111–112.

[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), 112.

[8] Strong’s Concordance cited by Larry Pierce, Outline of Biblical Usage, at https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g3985/nkjv/tr/0-1/

[9] Craig Blomberg, Matthew, vol. 22, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1992), 83.

[10] See Fredrick Dale Bruner, The Christbook: A Historical/Theological Commentary (Waco, Texas: Word Books, 1987), vol. 1, p. 103. Cited by Deffinbaugh.

[11] John Piper, Man Shall Not Live on Bread Alone. https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/man-shall-not-live-on-bread-alone Accessed 06/29/2022

[12]Luther had never seen a right fasting or a fasting that did not encourage trust in good works; right fasting is to accept God-sent hardships … Calvin, 1:124-135, points out that neither Jesus nor Moses fasted every year, but only once in their lives according to the biblical records.” Bruner, p. 104. Cited by Deffinbaugh.

[13] Robert Deffinbaugh, The Temptation of Jesus, Part 1, https://bible.org/seriespage/5-temptation-jesus-part-i-matthew-313-44 accessed 06/29/2022

[14] 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), 113.

[15] John Phillips, Exploring the Gospel of Matthew: An Expository Commentary, The John Phillips Commentary Series (Kregel Publications; WORDsearch, 2014), Mt 4:4.

[16] 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), 113.

[17] 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), 113.

[18] Deffinbaugh, ibid.

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