The King Goes to War (Matthew 4:1-17)

Matthew has described the anointing of the King with the Holy Spirit when he was baptised by John in the River Jordan. The anointing with the Spirit was required for the next stage in the earthly life of the Saviour, which was the three years of his public ministry when he would show by his word and actions that he was the promised Messiah. Before the anointing took place, Jesus had experienced the blessing of the Spirit in other ways as we can see from the way Luke, in his Gospel, describes how Jesus grew in favour with God and man.

The anointing of Jesus with the Holy Spirit, we can say, was predicted, personal, peaceful and powerful. It had been predicted in the Old Testament, in a passage such as Isaiah 11 that describes how the Spirit would function in the ministry of the Saviour; it was obviously a personal experience for Jesus, and that in many ways – assurance from the Father, equipping for the task, and other ways; the effect of the anointing would be peace, illustrated by the Spirit descending on Jesus like a dove, with this peace being procured by Jesus when on the cross and provided by him to those who would receive him as their Saviour; and it would mean displays of power, especially as revealed through miracles that he performed. It would also involve conflict with the enemies of our souls.

In this chapter, Matthew mentions four details that marked the onset of Jesus’ public ministry, his campaign. First, he engaged in a period of conflict with his most powerful opponent, the devil; second, he returned to Galilee and began preaching; third, he chose certain people to be his disciples; and, fourth, he took them with him on a preaching tour. We can see that he engaged in the first one by himself, and we will focus on it in this sermon.

Before the temptations

This period of temptation took place in the Judean desert, which was where John had baptised Jesus. What is surprising about it is that the temptations were not instigated by the devil as if he was engaged in trying to defeat the Saviour immediately and remove him as a threat. Instead, the devil is on the defensive, not the offensive. The situation is not that Jesus went into the desert for a time of communion with God and was interrupted by the devil. It is true that Jesus had communion with his Father during that time, but the reason he went to the desert was to engage in spiritual warfare.

Matthew points out that it was the Holy Spirit who led Jesus into this experience (Mark uses a far stronger word to describe the way the Spirit led Jesus into the desert). It was part of the divine purpose for the Saviour. The calling that he had was one in which he would destroy the works of the devil, and we can see that he started to do so from the onset of his public ministry. Obviously, the conflict was intentional as far as Jesus was concerned. He was not led reluctantly into the battlefield of the desert.

How would Jesus have entered into this engagement with the devil? It was an expression of his dedication to do the will of God – after all, he was the servant of the Lord, and he fulfilled each stage of the journey with diligence. I suspect there was also an element of discovery because such direct contact with the devil would not have happened often, if at all, before this time. The Saviour found himself alongside the presence of evil and it would have appalled him.

Moreover, the experience was very intense for Jesus because he ensured that he was in a proper state for the battle. This is why he fasted for forty days. We know from elsewhere in the New Testament that Jesus was tempted by the devil throughout the whole period. Yet there was clearly a focus on the three temptations that took place towards the end of the period. It is not too difficult for us to work out that if Jesus had to be ready for such trials, and he was sinless, so how much more do we have to be ready as sinners!

How did fasting for forty days help? In itself, fasting is of no benefit in a spiritual sense. Instead, fasting creates time for preparation. We can easily imagine that a lot of time in the desert could be taken up looking for food. Jesus devoted all of the time to spending it with God. His prayers would have been very earnest throughout all that period. Probably he was meditating on the Old Testament, maybe in the Book of Deuteronomy, because he quotes from it three times when the three specific temptations come.

Clearly there is a contrast here between the circumstances in which the first Adam met the devil and his temptations and in which the last Adam met him. The first Adam was tempted in beautiful surroundings, in the Garden of Eden, in a place of great beauty. He was surrounded by fruit to eat. Jesus, the last Adam, was in the desert, in a place that depicted the effects of the curse made after Adam and Eve fell, with nothing to eat.

There may also be a contrast between Jesus and the children of Israel. The latter experienced God’s powerful intervention at the Exodus and then went into the desert and fell into temptations laid by the devil. In contrast, Jesus after his experience of blessing at his baptism went into the desert and resisted all temptations that came his way.

Enduring the temptations

As we look at what the devil did at this time, we see that he is audacious. He dares to tempt the Son of God and in the process dares to misquote the Word of God. In addition, the devil has alternative temptations if the first does not achieve his desires – for all we know, he may have had more than three ready to use, but if he did he was prevented from using them by the authoritative word of the Saviour. His aim was to bring down the Son of God by getting him to sin against his Father. And we must note that the devil was allowed to tempt the Son of God.

The devil devised three powerful temptations. Probably he used the forty days to come up with them. We can see his craftiness in each of them, and each of them was designed to lead Jesus into specific sins. This is a reminder that the battle being fought was not so much about physical things, but about the state of the Saviour’s heart and the priorities that marked his life. The devil was attempting to change the devotion of Jesus to his Father’s business.

The nature of the temptations may surprise us because each of the things with which Jesus was tempted can be classified as good to some extent. It is good to eat food, it is good to have angelic protection in times of danger, and it was right that Jesus should receive universal power. Of course, the devil twisted each of them for a wrong purpose. Yet we should notice that good things can be used by the devil in temptation. Jesus was tempted with regard to his appetite, to the promise of receiving the kingdom, and to anticipation of divine help.

It has been pointed out that the three temptations are linked to the sonship of Jesus which had been declared at the baptism when the Father spoke from heaven. The devil began by attempting to get Jesus to prove that he was the Son of God. Then the devil suggested to Jesus that he do something dramatic to show that he was the Son of God. Thirdly, he promised to give to Jesus the inheritance that belonged to him as the Son.

It is likely that the devil imagined the three temptations were his most effective arrows. In the first one, he tempted Jesus to use his position and abilities to meet his needs in a wrong manner. We could say that the temptation was to use his divine nature to help his human nature. The need was hunger, the suggested activity was an act of creation, but the aim was to do the desire of the devil rather than of the heavenly Father.

The second temptation laid bare the heart of the devil and the heart of Jesus and revealed the stark contrast between them. Inside the devil’s heart was grotesque sinful ambition that can only be described as blasphemy – he wanted a divine being to bow to him. It was an expression of pride. He did not have the authority to give anything of the world to Jesus – Jesus is the heir of all things appointed by the Father. In contrast, Jesus revealed his authority by dismissing the devil and also reminded him of his duty as a mere creature, which was to worship God alone. That is the devil’s responsibility, but there was and is nothing in his heart that would lead him to do so. Here he was experiencing a foretaste of the judgement he will yet receive from the Saviour on the Great Day.

In the third temptation, the devil tempted Jesus to perform a spectacular stunt at the temple through which all the people would see that the angels would help him. The devil misquoted a verse from a psalm, but it is interesting that he realised the psalm applied to Jesus. The temptation was to use the Word of God to justify a foolish act rather than an act of faith.

We can see from the answers of Jesus that they were straightforward, scriptural and suitable. The straightforwardness is seen in the simplicity of his answers, nothing complicated. His use of the scriptures is obvious, but it is also obvious that he knew the Bible. And his use of them is suitable in that he only used verses that were relevant to the situation.

Looking at the experience of these temptations, we can see three important truths. First, they show us the reality of his humanity. As God, he could not be tempted, but as the One who was also man he could. Second, they reveal that temptation can be resisted perfectly by Jesus without the slightest interest in considering what was offered, even if they were a path to promotion. Third, they point to the representative nature of what he was doing when he endured them – he was doing what we failed to do in Adam, and he was doing so on our behalf. The desert is a good place for us, because there we triumphed with Christ.

The sequel to the temptations

Jesus won a great victory. He revealed that he could overcome the enemy by obedience to the will of God. We have to remember that such a triumph had never been known before. Unlike us, Jesus could not be tempted from the inside and there was nothing in him that found the temptations attractive. Eden had become a terrible place because of Adam’s failure to resist temptation. It was the place of defeat, even although a promise was given that a Deliverer would come. Now he had and the desert became the field of victory.

Jesus experienced the comfort of heaven when angels came to minister to him. Heaven recognised the dignity of his person. Here was the banquet after the battle. There never had been such an event before. The disgust he felt at the presence of evil turned into delight at the presence of sinlessness expressed in the holy angels. A foretaste of restored paradise was given. The One had come who would reverse the curse and transform the universe. In the desert, holy songs were sung.

Some applications

First, the obvious one is that Jesus is stronger than the devil. Our Champion not only won this battle, he was never defeated in any battle by our enemy. It was success all the way, even although it was a severe conflict.

Second, it is not a sin to be tempted, but it can be the occasion when God tests our commitment. This was the case with Jesus. We must remember that we are not tested because God doubts progress, but because he delights in progress.

Third, Jesus understands the full power of temptation, so is able to sympathise with his people when they are tempted. The one who knows the power of temptation is not the one who gives in, even if it takes a while to do so. Instead, it is the person who resists temptation who knows how powerful it is. For us, it is good to know that Jesus understands, even more than fellow Christians who have been severely tested.

Fourth, there is the necessity of feeding our souls on the Word of God. This is what Jesus did, and he is our example.

Preached on 8/1/2017