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Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for 40 days to be tempted by the devil. You may be seated. In the name of Jesus, amen.
Dear Saints, we have this most important text today, and especially you children. I want to make sure all the children can see me because we’ve got to think about this text and we’ve got to hold this one close to our hearts. That our Lord Jesus, after he was baptized, was driven by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness for 40 days where he was fasting. He didn’t eat anything at all.
And then the devil came to him and tempted him in every way. And we might wonder, at least I would wonder, well, it’s Jesus. Is he going to be hungry after not eating for 40 days? After all, he’s God. And the answer is, yes. The text tells us explicitly that he’s hungry. And now the devil comes to him. After all of this exhaustion and weariness and hunger, the devil comes to him and he’s going to bring three great temptations. The first one is he comes to Jesus and says, if you’re the Son of God, why don’t you turn this rock into bread and have breakfast?
Now, we know that Jesus had the power to do that. In fact, he could feed 5,000 with five loaves. It’s no problem for him to turn a rock into bread. But he doesn’t. He doesn’t use his own power to serve himself. Instead, he answers the devil with the word of God and says, Man shall not live by bread alone. And so he resists the first temptation.
And then the devil takes him to a high mountain. And almost in a miracle, like a vision or something, he shows him all the kingdoms of the world and all of their glory. And he says to Jesus, all this I will give to you. You can have it all. I’ll just give it to you right now. I’ll sign over the deed. If you just fall down and worship me. But Jesus again answers the devil’s temptation with the word of God and says, You shall worship the Lord, your God, and Him alone shall you serve. And so Jesus resists the second temptation.
And then the devil takes Jesus up to the tall pinnacle of the tabernacle in Jerusalem. You can imagine our bell tower, but maybe even taller. And he stands Jesus right on the edge, and he says, it’s no problem if you jump. You won’t hurt yourself. The angels will catch you. That’s what Psalm 91 says. He’ll give his angels charge over you to guard you in all of your ways. They won’t let you dash your foot against the stone. And so the devil is tempting Jesus to think that that word is applied in that way, and he should just jump. But Jesus again resists the devil’s temptation, and he says, again quoting the Bible, quoting Deuteronomy, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test.
And so the devil resists the three great temptations. In fact, the Bible calls this all temptation, and the devil leaves him alone for a time. And Matthew and Mark tell us that the angels came and ministered to Jesus. And so he had a meal, and he was strengthened, and he went on with his ministry.
Jesus is there in the wilderness and he’s doing for you and for me what Adam and Eve could not do, that is, resist the devil and his temptation. And he does it all for us. And we need to hold on to this story as one of the great mysteries of our doctrine and our faith. In fact, I think this account of the Lord Jesus in the wilderness has more and more fruit to give, the more and more we think about it, the more and more we meditate on it.
I’ve been thinking about it and thinking specifically, because I have to preach it to you right now, I’ve been thinking about this text. And it occurs to me that there’s something here that I do not quite yet understand. Because Hebrews, the book of Hebrews, preaches this temptation of Jesus also. And I want to give you three passages where Hebrews mentions this temptation and makes some conclusions about the temptation of Jesus that I would not have thought to make.
Here’s the first passage. This is Hebrews chapter 2, verses 17 and 18. We read, He, Jesus, was obligated in all things to be made like his brothers, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people. For in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he’s able to help those who are tempted.
And then later on in Hebrews chapter 4 we read this. We do not have a high priest who can’t be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but we have one who has been in all points tempted like we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore draw near with boldness to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and may find grace for help in time of need.
And then later on in Hebrews chapter 5, verse 8, this is the final verse, it says, For though he was a son, Jesus, yet he learned obedience by the things that he suffered. Now, we normally think of the temptation of Jesus as that he is there in the wilderness to teach us how it’s done. And sure, that’s true, in fact. He teaches us how to stand against the devil, how to resist temptation, how to fight in this spiritual battle with the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. In fact, Jesus is our instructor in this marvelous way.
Is that he doesn’t use his divine power to resist the devil, but he uses the word of God to resist the devil, and in that he’s our teacher. But Jesus is also in the wilderness to learn. In fact, in some ways, the temptation of Jesus is so closely connected to his baptism as that which sets Jesus apart to be both the high priest and the sacrifice to take away sins.
We know that the baptism of Jesus is his ordination. That’s when the Holy Spirit descends upon Him, and God the Father says, this is my beloved son, in whom I’m well pleased. Jesus is the, John the Baptist preaches this. Here’s the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world so that Jesus is set apart for that work as the Messiah. But if the baptism of Jesus is like his ordination, then the temptation of Jesus is like his seminary class.
Although it happens after ordination, it’s in the wrong order. But in this way, because when the devil comes to tempt Jesus, the temptation is connected to his baptism. I don’t know if you noticed it. When Jesus is baptized, God the Father says from heaven, this is my beloved son. And now the devil comes to Jesus in the wilderness and says, if you are the son of God. In other words, the devil is tempting Jesus away from the promises of his baptism.
And if you want to think of it this way, every single time the devil comes and tempts us, that’s exactly what he’s doing. He’s tempting us to believe apart from our baptism or to live apart from our baptism or to forget the gifts that God gave to you in your baptism. If you are the Son of God. And he says it like this. If you are the Son of God, why don’t you take the rock and turn it into bread? If you’re the Son of God, why don’t you use your power to serve yourself? If you’re the Son of God, why don’t you just worship me and I’ll give you all the kingdoms so you don’t have to go to the cross? If you’re the Son of God, why don’t you just jump off the tower of the temple and do whatever you want?
After all, you have all these promises. But here, Jesus is not only demonstrating what it means to be the Son of God. I think in this profound way from Hebrews, he’s learning what it means to be the Son of God. He is not God in the flesh to make himself happy. He does not give himself a miracle breakfast in the wilderness, even though he’s hungry and starving. And I imagine that if you or I had the ability to turn rocks into bread, and we hadn’t eaten for 40 days, we would do it.
But Jesus, who can, does not because he does not use his power for himself. To be the Son of God means to not serve himself, but to give his life as a ransom for others. Jesus, I think in some profound way, is learning exactly what it means to be the Son of God, because he knows that whatever the devil is tempting him to be is not what it means to be the Son of God.
That is true for the second temptation. Fall down and worship me and I’ll give you all of these kingdoms. This is the shortcut to the cross. This is the devil saying, you don’t have to go through all the pain and all the affliction and all the dying and all the bleeding and all the whipping and beard pulling and spit wiping and all the nonsense of passion. You can just skip all that, and I’ll give you all the nations right now apart from the cross, but that is not what it means to be the Son of God.
Jesus must suffer all of these things. He must endure all these things. He must set his face to Jerusalem, to the cross, because that’s where your salvation is to be found. Jesus does not want. Here’s what he does not want. He does not want to get all of the world and all of the power without getting you and the forgiveness of your sins. And for that he has to go to the cross. That’s what it means to be the Son of God.
If you are the Son of God, the third temptation, if you are the Son of God, just jump off the tower, and the angels will protect you. And this is what it does not mean to be the Son of God. It does not mean that you have your own personal convoy of like secret service angels who are always going to scoop you up and protect you in every way. In fact, remember what Jesus says when he’s in the garden suffering. He says, the angels are here and I could call them and they would bring an end to all of this, but Jesus does not.
In other words, to be the Son of God does not mean that he is safe and protected by the angels. But in fact, that he’s vulnerable. But he’s vulnerable in this way that he’s doing the vocation that God has called him to do and nothing more and nothing less. So that Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness is preparation for his office as high priest and sacrifice.
Now, that’s the conclusion that Hebrews makes. And for us, the conclusion is twofold. There are two things that we can find from Jesus. Hebrews 4:16, after preaching about how he was in every point tempted like we are, yet without sin, says, let us therefore draw near with boldness to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace for help in time of need.
Thank you. Now, we have to recognize that our Lord Jesus, when he gathers us together into his house, like we are right now, gathers us together so that he can minister to us, so that he can care for us, so that he can be the great and holy high priest who gives us gifts. But because of his temptation, we know that he treats sin in two ways. He treats sin with mercy, and he treats sin with help.
Now, this is an astonishing thing to us. Because we know how God should treat our sins. We know that God should, because of our sins, cast us out, destroy us, send us to suffer in hell forever. That’s what we deserve because of our sins. But Jesus is with us on this side of weakness, on this side of temptation, on this side of affliction. And so he comes to you and your sins, and he brings you, first of all, mercy. Mercy. He says that all of your sins, everything that you’ve done wrong, that’s what I died for. That’s why I suffered. That’s what’s forgiven by my blood shed on the cross for you.
And he brings to you help. He does not leave you alone. He doesn’t leave you to face the devil in the wilderness by yourself. No. He comes to fight for you, to fight with you, to fight in front of you, to uphold you, to defend you in every different way, to be your helper, the sacrifice for sins, and the one who intercedes for you.
So we can rejoice in the temptation of Jesus. It’s a deep and profound mystery, how Jesus joined himself not just to our humanity, but to our temptability, not just to our body, but to our mortality, not just to our earthly life, but to our weakness, so that in the midst of trouble, we can know that he’s our friend.
Finish with this thought. There was some moment in my life, and I don’t even really know how to describe it, but I think that this basic idea kind of hit home to me. And it was a profound change in my own thinking. I used to think as I felt tempted to sin and drawn away from the Lord’s word to do things that I ought not to do or think things that I ought not to think or say things that I ought not to say or want things that I ought not to want or to neglect things that I ought to do or whatever I’m tempted towards my own sort of selfishness.
I would always think that as I was enduring that kind of temptation, that God must be looking down on me and be very, very disappointed in me. That when I was there in my weakness and temptation, that the Lord Jesus was against me and angry with me and frustrated with me and upset with me. But what this text tells us is that Jesus, in the midst of all of this trouble, comes to be with us. He is sympathetic with us. He knows what it’s like to be tempted in every way. He knows what it’s like to be tempted and to not sin.
But he is, dear saints, with you in the midst of your suffering, in the midst of your weakness, in the midst of your sorrow, in the midst of your temptation. He is with you, merciful and helpful. And that is our confidence, and that is our peace. May God grant it for Christ’s sake. Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.