It is almost uncomfortable to think about Jesus facing temptation like we do.  It also helps to know that He truly understands the things that we go through in life.  We have an example of Jesus being tempted by Satan in the desert from Luke 4.  Let’s look at it together today.

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. 3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” 4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’” 5 The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6 And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7 If you worship me, it will all be yours.”8 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’” 9 The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. 10 For it is written:“‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully;11 they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”12 Jesus answered, “It is said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”13 When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.

I think we can learn a lot from this interaction both about the nature of temptation and how to stand up to it.  First Satan tempts Jesus in three specific ways.  First he attacks an area of weakness.  While Jesus didn’t have any areas of sin that He struggled with, He certainly must have been hungry after not eating for 40 days.  Temptation often comes at our areas of weakness.  Next He tries to appeal to Jesus having power.  Since Jesus had come from Heaven where He was ruler over all creation and now is a lowly unimportant human this would have been another temptation – wanting things that we don’t have.  Finally Satan actually tries to use the Bible against Jesus to get Him to stumble.  I often have seen people fall into temptation when they try and justify sin by using scripture.  Jesus doesn’t fall for any of these tricks and one of the reasons is that He knows the word of God so well that He is easily able to use it to stand up to temptation.  When God’s word is in our hearts and minds then we have the ability to do the same thing to stand up to temptation.  Psalm 119:11 – I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.

In His Grip,
Pastor Dave