![](https://pastorsamwise.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/matthew-4_4-temptation-of-jesus-stones-bread.jpeg?w=1024)
Matthew 4:1–11
1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4 But he answered, “It is written,
“‘Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple 6 and 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
“‘On their hands they will bear you up,
lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”
7 Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” 8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written,
“‘You shall worship the Lord your God
and him only shall you serve.’”
11 Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.
In the name of Jesus. Amen.
Our Old Testament and Gospel readings today both record the devil coming to tempt. The first temptation was in the perfection of Eden and was aimed at Eve and Adam. The second was aimed at Jesus who was alone in the wilderness. In the Garden, Satan succeeded, and in the wilderness, he failed – and failed miserably. Now, in the past, we’ve considered how both of those temptations are similar and follow the pattern that the devil uses with us.
The devil is a one trick pony who tries to get Eve, Adam, Jesus, and you to doubt God’s Word. In the Garden, the devil asks, “Did God really say?” And when he is in the wilderness with Jesus, the devil starts his temptations with, “If you are the Son of God…” Remember, at Jesus’ Baptism, God the Father clearly said, “This is My beloved Son,” so the devil is trying to cast doubt on God’s Word again. He does the same thing In the temptations he throws at you. Now, this is extremely helpful to know and helps us fight against sin. But there is a very important difference between the temptations Satan lobs at Adam, Eve, and Jesus and the temptations he hurls at you. The difference, mainly, lies in the devil’s goal. Think through this for a minute.
In the Garden, the devil only needed to get Adam and Eve to sin once. One sin would rip all of humanity them from perfection and holiness and plunge them into fallenness and corruption. One sin and Satan figured he could stop working and retire to Arizona or Florida. But he was wrong. God completely upended the devil’s plan and promised to send the Seed of the woman to crush Satan’s head (Gen. 3:15). So, with his plans thwarted, the devil had to continue to tempt all people while he waited for that Savior to be born.
When Jesus entered creation, the devil again saw his chance for an early retirement. Here was that long-promised Seed of the woman. If he could just get Christ to commit one sin, then Jesus couldn’t be the Savior of all humanity. So, the devil waited until he thought the moment was ripe. After Jesus had fasted for forty days and nights, the devil came with these three temptations that he aimed at the second Adam (Ro. 5:14; 1 Cor. 15:45).
Do you see the difference? In the Garden with Adam and Eve but especially in the wilderness with Jesus, all it would take is one sin and the devil’s goal would be accomplished. Now, it wasn’t possible for Jesus to sin; He’s God and God cannot sin. But, hypothetically, if Jesus had sinned, there would be no Savior and no reconciliation with God. No mercy. No grace. No forgiveness. But, dear saints, that is not Satan’s goal when he tempts you. The devil’s goal is not to get you to sin once. No, he has to keep coming after you.
Because Jesus did not sin, the devil needs to continually tempt you – day after day, moment after moment. He can’t leave you alone; he has to keep pestering and tempting you. Even though you were born into the sin of your first parents, Jesus has rescued you by His perfect obedience. Now through faith, the devil does not own you; Jesus does. Christ has lived perfectly and has been tempted in every way as you are, but He did it without sin (Heb. 4:15). Jesus kept the Commandments in your place and credits His obedience to you through faith.
The day is coming when the devil will no longer be able to tempt you, but that day is not yet. So, the devil continues to work on you with his temptations, and you have to fight with all the resources God has given to you. Eph. 6:10-18 details the armor that God has provided for you – the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the Gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. And remember when you read that passage, you are called to take up that armor and pray. Stand protected and call in the heavenly reinforcements to fight for you. God will send His holy angels to fight back against the devil on your behalf.
This is just an aside, but that is another difference between Jesus’ temptation and yours. Our Lord faced those temptations completely on His own. The angels only came to minister to Him after He resists the temptations and wins. You always have the holy angels assisting you in every moment and temptation.
Today, you should recognize that the devil is going to be after you constantly to try to get you to fall into temptation and sin to draw you away from Jesus. But even knowing this offers a key strategy to help you in the fight.
Adam and Eve’s fall was instant. But because you are saved and bought by the blood of Jesus, the devil is going to try, little by little, to get you to slowly slip away from the faith. For example, the devil isn’t going to tempt you to blaspheme God; he knows better than that. You aren’t going to just curse God. But the serpent will tempt you to skip church or your family devotions. Satan is going to work, little by little, to harden your conscience toward sin. And this means, dear saints, you need to be actively working to soften your conscience. This is difficult, painful work, but it is work you need to do. Here’s how you go about that.
We’ll use the 5th Commandment as an example. The 5th Commandment, “Thou shalt not kill,” and the Small Catechism’s explanation, “We should fear and love God so that we do our neighbor no bodily harm nor cause him any suffering but help and befriend him in every need.” Now imagine your conscience has a 5thCommandment thermometer. There are degrees by which the 5th Commandment is broken. Genocide would be way up at the boiling point. A little below that would be mass murder, then murder, then hitting and physically harming your neighbor. Way down at the bottom would be anger because when Jesus explains the 5th Commandment, He equates anger with murder (Mt. 5:21-22). But anger doesn’t physically harm others like murdering or even hitting them does. Let me be clear, both are sin; both need repentance and forgiveness because they both break the 5th Commandment.
Now think about where your conscience registers guilt because of your thoughts, words, and deeds somewhere on that 5th Commandment thermometer. Maybe you don’t think twice about being angry in your heart because you figure everyone does it and that guy really was a jerk. But you wouldn’t go grab a baseball bat and hit him. So, the devil isn’t going to tempt you to do that sort of thing. Instead, what the devil is going to do is try to raise the temperature of your conscience just a bit. He’s going to try to get you to break the 5thCommandment with more anger or holding on to that grudge a little harder. Once the temperature of your conscience acclimates to that level of sin, Satan can graduate you to the baseball bat.
What you need to do, dear saints, is stop excusing your anger. Recognize and confess it for the sin that it is. Let go of that anger and continually soften your conscience to the working of the Holy Spirit. Think through all of the Commandments like this. Recognize where your conscience registers sin and take that sin to Jesus. Confess it for the sin that it is and hand it over to the Lamb of God who takes away that sin and nails it to the cross.
And know this. The softer your conscience becomes, the more you will feel your sin. Real sanctification and actually growing in holiness is going to make you feel more and more sinful and cry out like Paul does in Ro. 7:24, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” The one who will rescue you is your great high priest. He can sympathize with your weakness because He was tempted in every way as you are, yet without sin (Heb. 4:14). He invites you now to come with confidence, right here, to His throne of grace. Here you will find mercy and grace freely given to you in Jesus’ Body and Blood which will continue to strengthen you for the fight against the devil’s temptations. And as you fight, remember that God is faithful and will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. He has promised to provide the way of escape (1 Cor. 10:13). Amen.
The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
You must be logged in to post a comment.