Home Bible Study - Jesus temptation in the Wilderness - Day 3

Matthew 4:1-11 - Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:

“‘He will command his angels concerning you,

    and they will lift you up in their hands,    so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

7 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do 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 splendor. 9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”

10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”

11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

Day 3 - 

We see three ways that the Devil attacks Jesus.  First, he goes after his temporal needs.  Temporal needs are things we need for this world...food, clothing, shelter, etc.  These things are temporary.  The Devil knows Jesus is hungry, so he encourages him to eat.  Just turn those stones to bread.  I can just hear the devil saying, “Come on man, you are hungry.  It is no big deal, just turn those rocks to bread and get a little bite to eat.  You deserve it, you are the Messiah.”  It is a big deal, because it is against God’s will, which means it is a sin.

One of the ways the Devil tricks us is by getting us to put too high of a value on temporal needs.  For instance, we need clothes to wear, but sometimes we can become so focused on what we are wearing that we spend all our money on clothes and we think clothes are what defines us and makes us who we are.  As Jesus tells us in Matthew 6, we have to seek the Kingdom of God first and God will always provide us what we need.  Our primary focus should always be on things that have an eternal value (means it will last forever).

What are some other temporal needs the devil uses to trick us or tempt us?

What are some things with an eternal value?

   Next, the Devil attacks Jesus’ ego or mind.  The goal is to get people to worship God, but by throwing himself down he is putting God to the test and, I don’t know about you, but if I saw someone get caught by angels, I would believe in them, so it wouldn’t require much faith.  Yes, this would accomplish Jesus’ purpose, but it is not the right way, because it is not God’s way.

Often the Devil will attack our ego by either making us think we deserve something or making us think we are not good enough.  Both of those are lies.  First, remember, you are so valuable to God that he sent his only begotten Son out of heaven to earth to suffer and die to forgive you.  God loves you!!!   This is called mercy.  Mercy is us getting something we don't deserve, like Jesus dying on a cross.

However, we also believe in grace and grace is us not getting what we deserve.  The punishment for sin is separation from God for all eternity.  However, God doesn't want that for you.  He loves you too much, so Jesus took the punishment for our sins with him on the cross, so we could be forgiven.  Because of God's grace in Jesus, we don't get separated, but believers get to be in heaven with God forever and ever.  So, when we start thinking, I deserve a new car, new clothes, an X-Box, respect, etc., we have to remember that we are people of grace and we aren't getting what we deserve, so we should see everything we have as a gift and blessing from God!!!  

 Finally, the Devil plays on what Jesus knows is coming, which I would correlate to the devil attacking our fears.  Jesus knows to become the King of kings, he has to suffer and die on the cross.  The Devil is offering him a way to be King without the pain.  He is offering the Crown without the Cross.  And there are two really important things to notice here.  First, the devil isn’t called the Father of lIes for no reason.  He is lying to Jesus right here.  He is offering Jesus something he can’t give – the worlds.  The world belongs to God.  Sometimes the devil will offer us things that he can’t give us – like happiness, love, peace, etc. – those things only come from God.  We can’t fall for the Devil’s tricks, because everything good comes from God.

Second, even if the Devil could give Jesus the world, Jesus would have the crown, but he would not get to share that with us for all eternity.  It is an earthly throne that the devil is offering.  It won’t last.  The only way for Jesus to take his seat on the heavenly throne and to open the gates of heaven to all believers is for the perfect, sinless, Son of God to freely offer his life to forgive our sins.  He has to take the cross for our sake.  Thank you Jesus!

The Devil will attack our fears.  Whether it is the fear of the dark or the fear that we might not be popular.  We have to remember that the devil's answer to our fears will just cause more fear, because it pushes us further from God.  The Bible tells us that "perfect love cast out fear," and perfect love can only be found in God. Whatever fears we have, we need to take them to God, because he will drive them out and bring us closer to him.

For this video parental guidance is strongly suggested.  Every-time I read the story of Jesus being tempted I think of the below scene in the Empire Strikes back with Luke and Vader.  If it is age appropriate, watch the scene and discuss if you see any similarities or if I am just crazy

How do you seeing the devil attacking people in our culture by using what they think they deserve?

What does grace and mercy mean?

Why should we never listen to what the devil says about our fears or worries?