Dr Hershael York: Alright. Turn if you would to Luke chapter four.

I briefly alluded to the temptation of Jesus in that last session, so it makes me want to preach it, so let’s do that. Luke chapter four. And we’ll begin reading with verse one. “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.’ And Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, man shall not live by bread alone.’ And the devil took Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time and said to Him, ‘To you, I will give all this authority and their glory; for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will.

“‘If you then will worship me, it will all be yours.’ And Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, you shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve.’ And he took Him to Jerusalem and set Him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to Him, ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here. For it is written, 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.’ And Jesus answered him, ‘It is said, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.”

I confess to you, I’m not really a fan of fighting. The kind of…Really, even boxing. I don’t follow UFC and mixed martial arts and any of that, but I did know who Ronda Rousey was because her dominance of the sport became so mainstream. You just saw her on everything. You saw her in magazines. You saw her in newspapers.

I saw her on the news. And when she faced Holly Holm in the main event in UFC 193 on November the 15th, 2015, it was an event. People knew about it. She was undefeated. I can remember Tanya’s dad in the nursing home before he died, talking about Ronda Rousey. He thought she was incredible, and she just had this way of disposing of an opponent in the first, often 60 seconds.

She had participated in—I think she’d won the bronze medal in judo in the Olympics. And then when she went over to get in the mixed martial arts and ultimately in the UFC, she still had those judo techniques. And if she got an opponent down on the mat, she’d get her in an arm bar. She’d get that arm right there across her leg and pull back toward the pinkie.

And if you don’t tap the mat, your arm’s gonna snap. And Ronda Rousey could make that happen in just a few seconds flat. And once she got that opponent in that hold, it was over. They tapped the mat, up she’d get. It seemed like she was undefeatable. But that night, November 15, 2015, facing Holly Holm, Rousey was unable to get home to the ground.

She had no answer for Holm’s superior striking. Got through the first round, you could tell she was shaking. Early in the second round, Holm knocked Rousey out with a high kick to the neck, and she ended Ronda Rousey’s three-year reign as champion. It was also her very first loss ever. Not only was she beaten, she was medically suspended by UFC until December 9th, and then it took her a full year to get back into fighting shape.

The next year, she comes out of that medically imposed retirement after a year to face Amanda Nunes. And on December 30th, 2016 in the main event at UFC 2007, everybody wonders if Ronda Rousey is back. And, man, she was out within just 48 seconds into the match. It was stunning.

She’d gone from seeming just absolutely unbeatable to losing two consecutive matches desperately, and suddenly she was out. The cloak of invulnerability was gone. Now, I remember when that happened, thinking back through, “I’ve seen this before.” I remember when Mike Tyson was the world champion. You remember that?

And Tyson would get into the ring with somebody, and he would just dispose of them so quickly. He seemed so invulnerable until he faced Buster Douglas and he lost. I mean, we’ve seen this throughout history. The army of Napoleon. The Roman army. There’ve been so many times we’ve seen someone that was considered the best ever, the best at what they did.

And they seem like they could not be defeated. And then they were. When you read Luke chapter four, you can’t help but think the devil has had an amazing streak. All the way back to the Garden of Eden. When Adam and Eve fell, since that time, Satan has never been defeated. Every other human being born falls prey to Satan’s temptations sooner or later, one way or another.

He’s got quite a streak going. In all of human history, no one has faced him and defeated him. But now God has another Son. You know, it’s not lost on me that Luke ends what you and I call chapter three with this genealogy that goes back to Adam. You see that? The son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God, and now here comes another Son of God.

He invokes the one who was defeated, and now he’s going to show us the one who lifts the cloak of invulnerability, the one who turns the tide, the one who defeats he who could not lose, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, Jesus, the Son of God, is the star of Luke’s presentation here. He’s taken great pains to show us beginning with chapter one, setting up through the birth of John the Baptist that Jesus is indeed the Son of God. He is.

Notice he comes into this scene on the Mount of Temptation, in the first verse of chapter four, full of the Spirit. Jesus, the Son of God, is full of the Spirit. Now this might be lost on you. You’ve got to pay careful attention. You’ve got to be a careful reader, because many other times Luke tells us about someone who was filled with the Spirit.

Why, John the Baptist was filled with the Spirit from his mother’s womb. Elizabeth was filled with the Spirit. Zachariah was filled with the Spirit. Others are filled by the Spirit, but Jesus is not filled with the Spirit. He comes full of the Spirit. It’s a subtle difference, but it’s an important difference.

Gabriel told Mary, “He will be called the Son of the Most High,” and Jesus had told us He had to be about His Father’s business. At His baptism, God had spoken from Heaven, “You are my beloved Son. In you I am well pleased.” And now, here Luke shows us that this beloved Son of God, the one who Gabriel said would be the Son of the Most High; the one who testified when he was 12 years old He had to be about His father’s business; the one of whom God spoke from Heaven, that “You are my Son.” Now, this Son comes full of the Spirit. He’s not seized by some external power. He is Himself the bearer of the Spirit. He brings the Spirit. Now, is He full of the Spirit?

Luke says that He’s led by the Spirit. Notice the double mention of the Spirit. Everything Jesus does is completely in harmony with the Spirit of God, but He’s coming to be tested of the Spirit while He’s tempted of the devil. Now, you can waste a lot of time in your life wondering whether your problems are from God who is testing you, or from Satan who is tempting you.

The reality is the very same thing is used by both. Abraham is tested of God there in the offering of Isaac. But no doubt he’s also tempted by the devil to not do what God calls him to do. Paul, in 2 Corinthians 12, when he talks about the thorn in the flesh, remember he says, “To keep me from being conceited, there was given to me a thorn in my flesh.” So if it’s given to him to keep him from being conceited, who gave it? God gives it. But the very next phrase says, “A messenger of Satan to harass me.” You see, it really doesn’t matter whether it’s from Satan, from God. Your response has to be the same. There is a right way to respond, and the key is to be filled with the Spirit of God.

Now, Jesus is not filled as though it’s an external source. He’s full. He is the bearer of the Spirit, and He’s the Son of God. And when He is— Mark uses a very strong verb— He’s driven by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tested. Here, He’s led by the Spirit, so He’s tested of the Spirit, but He’s tempted of the devil.

Now, the temptation narrative here focuses us on the two revelations of Jesus that had just occurred in chapter three at His baptism. Remember, when Jesus is baptized, two things happen: the Holy Spirit descends upon Him in the form of a dove, and God speaks. So the Spirit comes upon Him, bearing witness that He is carrying out the work of the Spirit.

God speaks, bearing witness that He is the Son. Now, Luke shows us that exactly these two things are in view as he goes into the wilderness to be tempted. And for how long is he tempted? For 40 days. He fasts for 40 days. Now, that number 40 certainly grabs our attention, doesn’t it? Because the number 40 is significant.

Moses spends 40 years on the backside of the desert. Moses leads the children of Israel 40 years through the wilderness. Elijah is tested for 40 days. Moses is with God on Sinai for 40 days. Here, Jesus is tested for 40 days just like Israel was for 40 years. So Luke is showing us that Jesus, is in fact, the Israel of God.

Israel, tested of God in the wilderness for 40 years, they fail. And every time they come up against the temptation, they’re out of water, they’re out of food, what do they do? They cry out to God. They accuse God that God is not good, that God has not met their needs. God brought them up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness, that their children are going to die. And they accuse God that He is not concerned about them.

Jesus, out in the wilderness for 40 days in complete, utter dependence upon God, He does not fail the test as Israel. He’s tempted by hunger. He’s tempted to worship something other than God. He’s tempted to put God to the test. So as Satan comes against Him in this temptation, His responses to Satan are going to come from God’s interaction with Israel in the wilderness. Now, the three temptations—think about this. If you were to design the three temptations to temp the Son of God, what do you think you would come up with? Now, let’s just be honest. Most of us would think sex has gotta be in there somewhere.

What a great temptation. How many ministries have we seen ruined because of sexual temptation? I mean, it’s a big one. A lot of marriages have been ruined. Ministers have been ruined. Wars have been fought over sexual temptation. Surely we think, “Oh, Jesus would be tempted with sex,” but there’s nothing here about sex.

We might think about money. There’s nothing here about money. We might think about power. There is something here about authority, but not quite power the way we think of it. These three temptations of Jesus, Satan doesn’t tempt Jesus to do the kinds of things that we normally think of as temptations.

Indeed, the first two temptations seem entirely reasonable. I mean, Satan says, “If you are the Son of God.” Already, even before he names the temptation, Satan has set Jesus up to make it about proving Himself rather than merely resting in who He is. “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.”

This is what I call the temptation of self-satisfaction. It seems like such a small thing. A loaf from a stone. Now, this temptation is, indeed, physical. It has to do with the appetite of His flesh. And it’s an intimate temptation. This isn’t the kind of thing that anyone else will notice. It doesn’t involve anyone else.

Jesus might think, “In doing this, I’m not affecting anybody else. This is completely about me. My need.” And if you think about it, Satan is actually trying to get Jesus to engage in a kind of identity politics, because this temptation is physical, and it’s intimate. What he’s saying to Jesus is, “Define yourself by the desire of your flesh. Surely God gave you that desire. He’s given you the means to satisfy that desire. What could possibly be wrong with you doing exactly that? Doesn’t God want you happy? Doesn’t God want you to be satisfied? He’s given you the means of satisfying yourself. Engage in that. Indulge in that. Define yourself by what you want rather than by God’s mission.”

 And Satan will tempt you by suggesting that you should satisfy your legitimate and natural desire above all else. And if you will just satisfy that longing, then that itself is the proof that you are a child of God. Because, after all, doesn’t a good God want you to be satisfied? Oh man. That really is so close to the truth. It sounds a lot like the truth, doesn’t it? A good God wants you to be satisfied. Just so. Of course, the answer to that question is that God does want you to be satisfied. With Him. And here’s the subtlety of this temptation.

Oh, this is private. This is intimate, and no one will know. And it will satisfy your longing, and you’ll still be a child of God. But you know, private victories empower and energize public ministry. By the same token, private failures emboldened public pretense and hypocrisy. If you give in to those private temptations, the temptation of self-satisfaction, whatever it might be, this gives you a false sense of entitlement, so then in your public ministry, you’ll think that that’s about satisfying you, too.

And Jesus knows what is at stake in this temptation is the mission of God. Being God’s Son entails a mission that has to be fulfilled. God has a purpose and a plan for Jesus, and certainly turning a stone into bread would be flashier, but Jesus answers Satan with— notice the duties of a common man. Jesus does not use His powers here to rise above us, but He faces this temptation as one of us, as His fellow human beings would; not to live out and to carry out His divine mission among us somehow as different from us, but as one of us. And notice the solution Jesus gives.

He quotes from Deuteronomy 6. And this is when God deals with them because they did not trust Him in the wilderness. And God reminds them that even in spite of their lack of trust, that He gave them manna from heaven. But He warns them that what is needed is not just living on bread, but on a comprehensive commitment to the Word of God.

It’s not about satisfying your desire. It’s not about satisfying your longing. Even though you have the power to do it, even though it’s private and intimate and no one would necessarily know, that’s not God’s plan for you. That’s not the mission God has given you. And to turn to the right hand or to the left would be to deviate from God’s plan for you.

And Jesus won’t do it. He will have none of it. He won’t give in to the temptation of self-satisfaction. So Satan comes back with another one. He says, “Well, if you are the son of God…” he said. Verse five: “The devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.”

I love in Milton’s Paradise Regained, he very poetically pictures this scene as Satan shows Jesus the great historical kingdoms of the world; Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Rome, Athens. They each represent a different thing that appeals to Jesus’ sensibilities; Athens, to wisdom, Rome, to military might, etc. And I don’t know if it was exactly like that, but I honestly think Milton is onto something.

There he shows Jesus, in just a moment of time, Jesus is able to see all the kingdoms of this world, and Satan says, “To you, I will give all this authority and their glory; for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you then will worship me, it will all be yours.” Notice the use of the personal pronouns I me, you, yours. And here, Satan is bringing this temptation down to just between the two of them.

The second temptation is the temptation of self-glorification. He’s offering Him a crown with no cross. Now, this temptation is not physical. It’s spiritual. This isn’t about satisfying the needs of His flesh. It’s about satisfying His mission in another way. It’s not private, per se. It’s devotional, because it involves His relationship to God. And Satan says, “Jesus, if all this is mine, and I can give it to whomever I will…” Now, by the way, is that true? Where are we ever told that Satan was able to give the kingdoms of this world to anybody?

It’s certainly true that Satan has a lot of power. He is the Prince of the power of the air. It’s true that these world’s kingdoms belonged to him on some level, but we’re never told that he has absolute authority over those kingdoms. In fact, I like the way Luther put it. He said, “The devil is always God’s devil.”

He has power, but it’s limited power. He’s a vicious dog, but he’s on a leash. He can only go so far. And so here he speaks in half-truths. This is what he specializes in. Half-truths. What he says is so close to the truth. It sounds so right. “Jesus. You’ve come to this world to receive the kingdoms of this world. Isn’t that the great prophecy? ‘The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ’, and this is why you’ve come. And you don’t need to go to the cross. You don’t need to continue this daily drudgery of obedience to your Father.

“If you will just bow down and worship, me right now, they’ll be yours. No cross, no suffering, no problem. You can have it.” But Jesus knows what is at stake here is the worship of God. That if He has all the kingdoms of the world, and yet He does not yield worship to the Father, that He’s really lost everything. John will put it this way in his epistle, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh, or the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”

You see, Jesus knows that if He were to bow down and worship Satan, even though He would avoid the cross, He would also abandoned the worship of the Father, the mission of the Father. And so Satan now comes back with a third temptation. Once again, after Jesus answers him, “You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve.” So Jesus turns it makes it about worship. So now, Satan takes him somewhere. Verse 9: “He took Him to Jerusalem and set Him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to Him, ‘If you are the Son of God…'” Here’s the second time Satan has used that charge, “‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written…'”

Now notice Satan gets in on the act of quoting scripture. The devil, like heretics, is quick to quote scripture. Don’t be fooled just because somebody comes spouting scriptures. Don’t think that just because someone can take a verse out of context, that they’re biblical. Satan quotes scripture. I would even argue that Satan does not misrepresent this scripture.

Is that not indeed a messianic prophecy from Psalm 91? It is. And is it not God’s promise that He’s not going to allow his anointed one to fail? Indeed it is. So here’s Satan. Again, what he says, so close to the truth. And this is the temptation of self-fulfillment. “Jesus, you have the power to fulfill yourself as Messiah. You can reveal yourself as Messiah right now.” This is a temptation about presumption on promises. Notice, by the way, in Luke’s gospel, the gravitational pull of Jerusalem. It begins with Jesus going to the temple for His dedication in chapter 2. Then he’s there again when he’s 12.

But in Luke’s gospel, He won’t get back there until, I think, chapter 19. And the whole gospel is oriented toward Jesus returning to Jerusalem, to the seat of the temple. He’s going to go back to the temple. He’s going to cleanse the temple, and in fact, He’s going to reveal that He is the temple of God, that He’s building a new temple.

So Jerusalem has this gravitational pull in Luke. Jesus doesn’t go there like in John, multiple times. We just see Him the one time. And Luke lets that represent the consummation, really, of Jesus’ ministry. It’s at the temple, when He reveals Himself, that the crisis now comes into play.

And so here is Satan. Again, the temptation of a shortcut, he takes Him to the pinnacle of the temple. It is way up there, about 450 feet above the floor of the Kidron Valley. And he says to Him, “Look, you can declare yourself Messiah right now.” Notice here’s a hybrid temptation. It’s both private and public. This scene between Satan and Jesus on the pinnacle is very private, but if Jesus jumps off, it’s going to get public real fast.

Because one of two things is going to happen. He’s going to hit the Kidron Valley below, or a bunch of angels are going to come and catch him, and either way it’s going to make news. And Satan is saying, “You can prove yourself right now. You can glorify yourself. You can fulfill yourself.” This is a presumption on the promises of God.

So he quotes scripture to get Him there. And what is at stake in this temptation is the will of God. God will protect and preserve His Son, but Jesus does not have permission to presume on God’s goodness. See, just because God gives you promises does not mean you have the right to tempt God to say, “Well, God’s promised to protect me from the enemy. So therefore I can go into areas where I’ll be tempted and it’s okay. God’s made me the leader in this church, so I have the right to always exert authority and tell people what to do.” There are so many ways that we presume on God’s goodness,and we presume on His promises, and this is what Jesus refuses to do.

The solution here is a comprehensive commitment to the will of God. Satan says, “Oh, He’ll command His angels concerning you to guard you, and on their hands they’ll bear you up lest you strike your foot against a stone.” But Jesus answered him, “It’s said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.'” Again, a quotation from Deuteronomy 6. God speaks to Israel in Deuteronomy because they have failed. God says, “I’m the one who made you hungry so I could then feed you, but you didn’t pass the test.”

In the same way, God says that I have tested you, and you didn’t pass the test. You don’t get to test me. You shall worship the Lord your God only, and Him only shall you serve. This is the answer that Jesus gives: “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.” That you I do not have the right to presume on God’s promises so that we live any way we want and say, “Oh, the Lord has said He’ll protect me.”

And just as He is tempted to jump down from the temple, Jesus will soon be tempted to not go up to the cross. And the will of God is what’s going to guide Him in both. If Jesus can’t pass this test, He won’t be able to pass the test of the cross either. So Jesus, the Son of God, how does He defeat Satan? He defeats Him by the written Word of God.

In the three temptations, the devil has exhausted all his arsenal of weapons: the lust of the flesh, feed yourself, satisfy your desire. The lust of the eyes: look here at the kingdoms of the world, they can all be yours with no cross. The pride of life: just jump down off the pinnacle of the temple, and His angels will catch you up and prove to everybody that you are the Son of God.

But Jesus faces each temptation with the mission of God paramount. The will of God is the most important thing. The Word of God comes quickly from his lips, and Adam, the son of God fails and brings death to the world, but Jesus succeeds, so He can bring life through His death. And in the same way that Jesus defeated Satan by the written Word, I defeat Satan by the incarnate Word.

Satan comes to me, he wants me to engage in identity politics, too. He wants me to define myself by the color of my skin or by the desires of my flesh or anything except the will, the mission, the calling, the salvation of God. That’s who I am. I learned this pretty early. I was 10 years old when I first felt God calling me to ministry.

I’d been saved when I was seven; I trusted Christ. After a year of turmoil and understanding my lostness, I trusted Jesus. And, man, the relief that that brought. I’ve never had a serious doubt about the reality of that commitment to Christ when I was seven years old; He saved me. When I was 10. I knew He was calling me into ministry. I knew He was calling me to preach the Word, and man, there would just be this burning, gnawing in my gut. And I didn’t say anything to anybody. And I knew people would say, “He’s 10 years old.” I knew they would think, “It’s just a little kid making this up.” And I knew people would say, “Oh, it’s because his dad is a preacher.”

So it was a summer day. I wasn’t in school, and I went into my dad’s study. He was studying at his desk, and I hem hawed around, and Dad said, “What’s bothering you?” And I told him, I said, “Dad, I don’t know how to say this, but I feel like God’s calling me to preach. And I know people are gonna say I’m only 10. I know they’re going to say I’m just doing this because you’re my dad, and I just don’t know what to do.”

And my dad, I thought he’s going to go one of two directions. I anticipated he was going to say, “Well, don’t worry about people,” or else he’s going to say, “Hey, you know what? You’re young. Just hold off on this, and as you get older, it’ll be clear.” I thought he’d say one of those two things. He said neither.

He looked at me and he said, “Hersh, if God calls you when you’re 10, just say yes when you’re 10.” He said, “Just get in the habit of always saying yes to God, and it doesn’t matter how old you are. He’ll always show you what it is He wants you to do.” That defined my life. It sent me on a course of action that I look back on my life and I say, oh. He could not have said anything better. Just say yes. This is what Jesus does, and no matter what Satan throws out there, He has already said yes to His Father, and He cannot turn back.

Sometimes we think, “yeah, but I’m so weak.” John Owens said, “A little faith still gives you the whole Christ.” Your faith may be weak. You might have a very rough time where you’re serving. It might be hard. The good news is Jesus has already defeated our enemy. Satan had a marvelous winning streak going. And Jesus lifted the cloak of invulnerability and showed us that our enemy has been defeated. He has crushed the head of the serpent.

I don’t fight Satan for victory. There’s the good news. I don’t have to beat him. I fight Satan from victory. Jesus has already defeated him. I’m like the guy who reached in his pocket and pulled out his pocket knife and he said, “I took this knife, and I cut the tail off of a mighty lion.”

And someone said, “Well, why didn’t you cut off his head if you’re so tough?” He said, “Well, someone had already done that.”

That’s exactly right. That’s how I face and defeat Satan. I don’t have to defeat Satan. I just have to remind him he’s already defeated. I look at this passage. Jesus answers Satan. He says, “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.” It’s not my place to put God to the test. God is faithful. I don’t have to prove Him. He puts me to the test. I don’t put Him to the test. And when Satan heard this, look what he did: “When Satan had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.”

When you rest in what Christ has done, Satan will depart from you until an opportune time. For Jesus, that opportune time came on the cross. When Satan came at Jesus with everything he had. But you know what? Jesus spoiled the principalities and powers and made a display of them openly, triumphing over them in Himself there, too.

You get little victories under your belt, the private victories under your belt, God will be with you in the greater things. He’s defeated Satan for you. That is our hope.

Would you bow with me? Father, I thank you that where Adam failed, where we have failed, the Lord Jesus Christ has succeeded and lifted the cloak of invulnerability from our enemy. Thank you that a little faith gives us a whole Christ, and we who have but a weak faith have a very strong Christ. Thank you that as we face temptation, we do so with the power of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, full of the Spirit, the Son who pleases you in every way. How we thank you for that. How we rest in that. And I pray that we might, equipped with that truth, now go into our lives, into our ministries and have victory through the risen Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.