Tempted As We Are

A sermon preached at Covenant Presbyterian Church of Fort Smith, Arkansas on September 1, 2024.

And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread” (Luke 4:1–3).[1]

When Satan, in the form of a serpent, tempted Eve and through her Adam, they sinned against God, falling into “an estate of sin and misery.”[2] As a result, God pronounced their punishment, beginning not with Adam nor with Eve but serpentine Satan. It is within the poetic description of his punishment that we hear, curiously enough, not only of his imminent destruction but also a mystery of hope:

The LORD God said to the serpent …

                        I will put enmity

                                    between you and the woman,

                        and between your offspring and hers;

                                    he will crush your head,

                        and you will strike his heel (Gen. 3:15 NIV).

It is a prophetic yet mysterious promise, certain to be fulfilled but when and how? And who is the woman’s offspring, the one to crush the serpent’s head?

As we proceed from the third chapter of Genesis through the rest of the Old Testament, we see evidence of God’s sovereign preservation of individuals, such as Seth, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and then a people, Israel, chosen by God with prophetic purpose to fulfill his promise. But we also see Satan’s sinister attempts to unravel the mystery, to destroy the woman’s offspring, to thwart God’s plan. The Apostle John paints the picture perhaps most colorfully in the twelfth chapter of Revelation, where Satan is no longer characterized as a lying serpent but “a great red dragon” (Rev. 12:3) whose anger and hatred leave destruction in the wake of his relentless pursuit of the woman and her offspring. John writes, “And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it” (Rev. 12:4b). Satan’s attempt to destroy the child in Bethlehem led to the murder of many children but not the one offspring of woman, who would grow from childhood to adulthood increasing “in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52).

Luke tells us of the commencement of Jesus’ earthly ministry, beginning with his baptism in which the Holy Spirit visibly descended upon him and the Father audibly said to him, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased” (Luke 3:22). In that moment, Jesus’ identity was supernaturally confirmed by the visible and audible revelation of God. He who was born of the virgin was declared the Son of God. But following his baptism, Jesus was not led to Jerusalem to be crowned king, as the Jews of Jesus’ day expected their Messiah to be, but instead he was led by the Spirit of God into the wilderness, not for fun but fasting, not for seclusion but suffering, to be tempted and tried by the same snake who lied and led our first parents to the Fall. Knowing that Jesus had come to crush him, Satan sized-up his opportunity and set about his sinister attack upon “the son of Adam, the Son of God” (Luke 3:38).

But it was not “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience” (Eph. 2:2) but the Holy Spirit who led Jesus into[3] and in the wilderness. Jesus was not wandering aimlessly but led in the wild, and not feasting but fasting, and not led away from the devil but to him. How contrary this often is to our way of thinking. Would God lead his Son into this moment of vulnerability and trial? Indeed, he did. Yet, in it, Jesus revealed the perfection of God’s gracious provision.

The Temptation of Provision

Jesus “was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil” (2). The number forty is not without significance, as it metaphorically reminds us of Israel’s wandering in the wilderness for forty years. In this we are to remember that though Israel was tested and found faithless, Jesus, the new Israel, had come in faithfulness. But this does not mean he was not tempted and tried by the enemy.

In one of the great understatements of the Bible, Luke says that for forty days Jesus “ate nothing,” and “when they were ended, he was hungry” (2). For most of us, to miss a meal or two leaves us not just hungry but “hangry.” Jesus was indeed hungry but also extremely vulnerable. The human body and mind crave according to our design, fuel needed for the fire. Jesus didn’t simply desire food he needed it to survive. He was at the point of physical and mental exhaustion, after almost six weeks without food, and it was at that point that the devil made his move, unleashing his most fierce attack at the peak of human vulnerability.  

Listen carefully to what the devil says, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread” (3). Within this conditional statement, there are two related temptations. He starts first questioning Jesus’ identity: “If you are the Son of God.” Does Satan know that Jesus is the Son of God? Most assuredly. He’s not asking for information, he’s tempting Jesus to doubt his divine identity and deny the Word of God.

Think about how tempting this would be. In the middle of the wilderness with nothing but your hunger, would   you start to doubt your calling? Would you wonder: Is this really God’s will for your life? Would you wonder: Did I clearly hear that voice from heaven? How often do we let our own circumstances lead us to wonder similarly?

But at the core of this, as we will see in the other temptations, is the temptation to doubt the Word of God. God the Father spoke from heaven saying, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased” (Luke 3:22). God the Spirit confirmed what God the Father said that God the Son heard, and God cannot lie.[4] The God of truth[5] has spoken his Word of truth,[6] confirming Jesus’ identity and ours too. Do not believe the lies of Lucifer, Jesus didn’t.

But there is a second part to this temptation of provision, the temptation to provide for himself apart from his Father’s will. Could Jesus have miraculously turned stones into the bread he needed so desperately? Certainly. Then, why didn’t he? Jesus would later answer this, saying, “I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me” (John 6:38). In that moment, it was God’s will that Jesus was in the wilderness, hungry and alone, being tempted by the devil.

Furthermore, to provide for himself supernaturally would compromise his role as our suffering substitute. In responding to the devil, “Man shall not live by bread alone,” he is the man who is not governed by the cravings of his body but the Word of God. And in this we see his humanity, not circumventing his circumstances by his supernatural capability, but “in every respect … tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15). As one commentator sums it up, “Jesus did not resist the temptations of Satan by the superior power of his deity, but in all the weakness of his humanity.”[7] And we who look to Christ alone for our righteousness, should be encouraged, “because he himself has suffered when tempted … [he] is able to help those who are being tempted” (Heb. 2:18).

The Temptation of Power

Perhaps in response to Jesus’ unwillingness to satisfy himself by the supernatural, Satan supernaturally transports them up in such a way as to see “all the kingdoms of the         world in a moment of time” (5). We are not told how Satan did this only that he did, revealing a top-down view of worldly power. Offering Jesus the world, Satan has but one request: “worship me” (7). Such a request may not seem too tantalizing until we remember that Scripture tells us that “Satan disguises himself as an angel of light” (2 Cor. 11:14). To an exhausted man who was raised in a no-where town by a nobody family, Satan was more than capable of presenting the world with all its enticements. He whom the Apostle John calls “the ruler of this world” (John 12:31) offered it all to the One who created it.

The irony is, any authority Satan has is subservient to God’s sovereignty. Satan was offering something he didn’t ultimately have the authority to give. But offer it he did, because he “does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44). He is then the perfect tempter, because temptation is a lie, a sinful circumventing of God’s perfect provision. More significantly, Satan was offering Jesus something that he was promised to receive from the Father, but to receive the crown of the kingdom prior to the cross would thwart God’s sovereign plan redemption and the purpose in Christ’s coming. Jesus instead chose not the way of authority and glory but “humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:8-11).

It is helpful here to remember that we were created by God to worship him, but in our sinful nature we are tempted to worship anything and everything but God. In response to Satan’s temptation of power, Jesus gives no commentary of worldly authority or glory, gives no correction to Satan’s offer, not even the rhetorical question, “what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” (Mark 8:36). Instead, Jesus succinctly responds, “It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve’” (8). To worship anyone or anything but God is worship of the unworthy. There is only One worthy of worship, and he is not a jealous fallen angel doomed to eternal destruction but the Lord God Almighty.

John Calvin says that our hearts are “idol factories.” We are perpetually seeking something to worship. Our idols are many and multi-faceted, but Jesus’ response teaches us to ask: Are they worthy of our worship? How often are our hearts captivated by allegiance to the unworthy idols of our fabrication, when the One who created us for himself deserves it all? Jesus defeated Satan with these words, “You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve,” and so would we, heeding the Word to worship the Lord our God with all our soul, mind, and strength.[8]

The Temptation of Protection

As God alone is to be worshiped, Satan takes Jesus to Israel’s place of worship, Jerusalem, and not just to the temple but its pinnacle, tempting Jesus to jump, plummeting to his death or divine rescue. It doesn’t sound like much of a temptation, but for this: God’s glory would be revealed in saving his Son from death. It is as if to say: If it is good that God be glorified, let him be glorified in saving you. To bolster this logic, Satan borrows from Jesus’ defense, quoting Scripture to justify his temptation:

            “‘He will command his angels concerning you,

            to guard you,’

                        and

            “‘On their hands they will bear you up,

            lest you strike your foot against a stone’” (10-11).

It’s a genius ploy: Israel’s Messiah will be revealed in the capitol city, being guarded by angels and delivered from death, in accordance with God’s Word to his glory. So, what’s the problem?

Satan’s temptation seeks to supersede God’s Word with a sign, a stunt over Scripture.

How often do we crave a sign from God rather than being content to listen to his Word? How often do we elevate the experiential over the eternal? How often do we justify our desires by hiding them behind Bible verses, seeking to sanctify our sin with Scripture? How often do we put God to the test by manipulating Scripture, twisting and turning it to fulfill our desires? How often do we try to make much of ourselves for God’s sake rather than remembering our chief end is his glory?

Jesus foiled Satan’s plan quoting this verse from Deuteronomy: “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test” (12). The irony is that while Jesus did not jump and so test God, he came to earth to die. What Satan did not understand is that Christ did not come to save his life but to give it that he might save us, and he did not do this by stunt but by sacrifice. Looking forward from the wilderness to the cross, I would imagine Satan relished his seeming success in Christ’s crucifixion, hearing the suffering cry, “It is finished” (John 19:30), and the agonizing exhale of his last breath. But that old serpent who disguises himself as an angel of light missed the meaning of the mystery. He thought God the Father would save his only Son from death, but instead God used Satan’s murderous vengeance for our salvation.

We who in Adam lost communion with God, by the death of God’s Son are reconciled to him (Rom. 5:9-10). And all this God did, not in reaction to the sinister works of Satan nor in response to our sin, but before the foundation of the world, he chose us in Christ, “that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved” (Eph. 1:4-6). And as his sons and daughters, we live not as helpless victims of Satan’s strategies but as victorious conquerors, not standing against temptation in our own strength but looking to the “one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15).

[1] Unless referenced otherwise, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (Wheaton: Crossway Bibles, 2001).

[2] “The Shorter Catechism” Q. 17, The Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms (Lawrenceville: PCA Christian Education and Publications, 2007), 364.

[3] Matt. 4:1

[4] Titus 1:2

[5] Isa. 65:17

[6] 2 Tim. 2:15

[7] Philip Graham Ryken, Luke, Vol. 1 (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 2009), 156.

[8] Mark 12:30