Temptations

Temptations:

Luke 4 : 2-13

For 40 days, Jesus fasted and was tempted by the devil in every possible way. Jesus went through these temptations but never yielded to them. He never sinned. He overcame all the devil's temptation. Now, Jesus went through these temptations because he does not want us to face anything that he has not faced before. 

Temptation #1:

After those 40 days ended, Jesus became hungry. And the devil did not want to miss this chance when he was hungry. He asked Jesus, "If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread". 

First of all, we don't need to obey the devil. He was suggesting to Jesus to do a miracle to feed himself. God is a miracle working God and no one needs to tell him what to do. Satan had no business in giving divine advises. All he wanted was to make Jesus obey him. Just like many centuries ago, he made Eve to obey him by telling her to eat the fruit that God had clearly instructed them not to eat. If he makes Jesus to obey this once, slowly he can lure him into another sin and then into another. Also, it was true what Satan said. Jesus is the Son of God and yes he can make the stone into bread. We see that Jesus was able to feed more than 5000 people with just few pieces of fish and bread. But Jesus knew an even better truth that Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Jesus clearly overcame the devil with the Word of God. We see examples in the Bible where Moses and Elijah on certain circumstance by the grace of God went without food and water for 40 days. 

Where Eve fell, Jesus won victoriously.

Temptation #2:

Satan led Jesus to a high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the wold in a moment of time. I don't think that there is any mountain in the world from which we can see the entire world. Well, we can say that the devil is good at showing you things he wants you to see. He can flood our head in the blinking of an eye with thoughts of lust, pride, anger, murder or what not if we give room to him. Give him no room for it. 

In this case, he showed Jesus the entire world. This beautiful world his Father made but was under the devil's dominion now. This fallen world. The very purpose why Jesus was born was to bring God's kingdom here on Earth and the devil now suggested a way for that to happen. He said, "I will give the world to you. Just worship before me and it shall all be yours". Jesus immediately rebuked him and said "You shall worship the Lord you God and Him only shall you serve". 

Very sadly, we see today how Satan tries to take the place of worship. People think that they are worshiping God but many times they end up worshiping him instead. God is everywhere. Even the breath we have is His. We can worship God by just sitting in our home. We don't need to go to a special holy mountain to see Him. I grew up in a Catholic home. I have seen people kissing the statue of Mary and Baby Jesus every Sunday. There is no one called Baby Jesus in the Bible. Well, all of us were babies sometime in our life and Jesus was like that. Nothing special in that. Mary was a woman who found favor in God's eyes. Mary is not a person to be worshiped nor would she like to be worshiped I am sure. (Oh please forgive me if there is a catholic here and if I am offending you, God forbid. I just hope you can see the truth) But Satan tells all kinds of lies to be worshiped. He just loves to be worshiped. He is not worthy of worship. If we take one look at him he knows we will run away. He knows that. That's why he takes the name of some holy form and causes people to worship him. Even in some churches, Satan tries to deceive by displaying false worship, false preaching, false miracles and false revival and so on. So we need to be on guard ourselves with the Word of God and we must beware of these things.

Jesus overcame this temptation again with the Word of God too.

The Bible says in Hebrews 4:12

For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Ephesians 6:17 says

 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;

We need to guard ourselves with the sword of the word of God 

Temptation #3:

The devil led him to the highest point of the temple and advised him to jump for the Scripture says that God will send his angels to guard us. What a clever way to tell someone to commit suicide. Satan always cunning says "If you are the Son of God" and then lays the trap. Always check that the statement that comes after the If statement. If that statement is from God, it will be life giving . If that statement is from Satan, it destroys our life.  

We can see many examples in our world for people who fell for this lie. He lies to people saying, "If you are a worshiper of the so and so God, then you need to kill people with other beliefs or other castes or other ethnic group". There are terrorists who think they are doing service to God but they only do service to the devil. There are parents who have believed the devil's lie "If you are a believer of so and so God, give your children as prostitutes or human sacrifice". Remember, would never ask us to kill our children. He want to bless our children. There are most of us who have believed the devil's lie ,"If you are a believer of so and so God, its not necessary to live a pure holy life. It is not possible to live a holy life. Just live as the rest of the world. It's alright if this offering or prayer is made". That's not true. The God of the Universe is holy and expects us, his dear children to be like Him. Otherwise we will become illegitimate. 

And Jesus overcame this temptation by saying, "Do not put the Lord your God to the test". When the devil had finished every temptation, he left him until an opportune time.

The same devil who tempted Jesus is there today to lay a trap for us. And we need to overcome him by the word of God.

Jesus said in John 10:27-30,

My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. I and My Father are one.”

Dear God,

Help us to be like sheep who follow you. For you are our Good Shepherd who laid your life for us. Help us to meditate on your word daily and store it in our heart. Keep us safe from all the lies of the devil. 

In Jesus name we pray

Amen.