Introducing Matthew, the Temptation of Jesus (and why was Jesus baptized?) (a study of Matthew 3:13-4:11)
- mww
- 12 hours ago
- 23 min read
Jesus would succeed where Israel failed.
Bible Study Ideas and Commentary for Matthew 3 and 4
Phew -- we introduce the Gospel of Matthew with a bang. In addition to the details about the Gospel itself, we learn why Matthew started with the stories of Jesus' baptism and temptation. The people were looking for a conquering king, but the Old Testament prophesied a Messiah who would be fully identified with His people -- but not sin.
If you are the Son of God . . . (4:3)
We Studied This Passage in 2015
Wow -- it's been 10 years since we studied Matthew. I'm so excited! You know that my goal is not to repeat things I said in previous Bible studies on the same passage, but 10 years is a long time. Expect me to repeat the biggest points. Here's an overview of that lesson:
Israel in the wilderness
The baptism of Jesus
The structure of sin and temptation *
The wilderness of Judea
40 days
Herod's Temple
Satan's power
So, that's a lot of great and important topics. If you don't think I covered something well enough below, please take a look at that post.
Advent Connection
This week is pretty simple: if the season of Advent is about us preparing our hearts for the coming of the Messiah, this week's passage is about Jesus preparing to launch "the ministry of the Messiah".
I just saw this resource from Bible Project:
They've got some really nice, short videos about the elements of Advent, and I'll try to have more of this in the post next week.
Getting Started: Things to Think About
Your Baptism Testimony
In this week's passage, Jesus gets baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. That's . . . pretty memorable, don't you think?
What do you remember about your baptism? I was 24 when I was baptized, so, even though that was a long time ago, I still remember it extremely well. I was very self-conscious about being baptized as an adult, and I didn't understand why my Methodist sprinkling as an infant "didn't count", and the pastor really didn't help me as much as he could have (which is why I'm a bit maniacal about explaining baptism to anyone who wonders). Looking back, I would have loved to have slowed that day down a bit so that I would appreciate it more.
How about you? Leaders -- if you discover some real questions about baptism in your group, please make sure to spend some time talking about what baptism is and means, and put that individual in contact with your pastor. This might be a great opportunity to help someone in your group take an important step of discipleship!
Your "Temptation Weakness"
Because Lifeway seems to think that our Bible study time slot is 2 hours long, not only are we talking about the baptism of Jesus (and introducing the Gospel of Matthew), we're also talking about the temptations of Jesus. If your group knows each other well, you might instead choose this topic to kick things off: what temptations do you really struggle with?
There's obviously a wide range of activities here, from "saying no to the donut" to "staying away from certain websites", that could get dark and uncomfortable quick, so you have to be the judge of what is appropriate for your group to share. But this is one of the most important passages in the Bible for Christians to read and realize that we can resist temptation -- all temptations, in any form. Satan came at Jesus with everything he had when Jesus was at His weakest, and Jesus could still resist using the tools we have available today. There is no temptation that the Spirit will not help you overcome.
Your Fasting Story
Oh yes, Jesus also fasts for 40 days in this week's passage. We've all fasted, either for medical reasons or spiritual reasons. What's your fasting story? How long was it? How did it go?
The point of this would be to help us appreciate what Jesus endured (on our behalf -- to give us courage in facing life).
This Week's Big Idea: The Gospel of Matthew!
I'm overwhelmed with the amount of material that we could potentially cover this week. I'm going to lean on my previous introduction to Matthew, some great Bible Project videos, a few well-written short articles, and a little from "The Chosen".
First -- my previous post on this subject:
Second -- the Bible Project:
And here's a great overview of what "Gospels" are:
You'll notice that I capitalize "Gospel" when talking about one of those four books, but I don't capitalize it when talking about the "good news of Jesus Christ". That's just to help me distinguish between the two. There's no hard-and-fast rule on that.
Here's a great summary by Douglas Moo:
"The first four books of the NT are named 'Gospels.' The word 'gospel' comes from the Old English god spell, a phrase that means 'good news.' In the NT this word never refers to a book; it denotes the coming of Christ and the message about him (e.g., Mark 1:1 ['good news']; Rom 1:16; 1 Thess 1:5). By the early second century, however, Christians were calling the books that recorded the life of Jesus 'Gospels.' But the original application of the word was not left behind. The titles of our Gospels take the form '[the Gospel] according to Matthew, etc. -- that is, the story of the good news as related by Matthew, etc. While our Gospels are not biographies in the modern sense, their obvious focus on the life and significance of one person, Jesus Christ, suggests that they fit comfortable in the ancient genre of bios, or 'biography.' The fourfold Gospel was explicitly recognized by the end of the second century.
"The four Gospels tell the same basic story: Jesus ministers in several regions of Israel, teaching and performing miracles; he gathers followers and makes enemies (especially in the Jewish religious establishment); this opposition leads to his death by crucifixion at the hands of the Romans in Jerusalem; he is resurrected from the grave. All four accounts relate that Jesus' followers recognized him to be God's Messiah, the one through whom God's plan of salvation was reaching its climax. For all their basic agreement, the four Gospels also differ, sometimes significantly, in their presentations of the life of Jesus. These differences are especially marked between the first three Gospels, on the one hand, and John, on the other. The many parallels between Matthew, Mark, and Luke -- extending even to specific wording at many places -- suggest that they are closely related. Accordingly, they are labeled the 'Synoptic' Gospels (synoptic is Greek for 'seen together'). Mark's Gospel may have been the first to be written, with both Matthew and Luke using Mark's account to compose their own Gospels. John's Gospel differs significantly from the first three, and it is not clear if it depends on any of the first three. The diversity in our Gospels can prove challenging at times, but a careful and charitable reading reveals that they do not contradict one another. Rather, they complement one another: God has used four different early Christian leaders to help his people understand the many facets of Jesus' life and teaching."
[Note: there are large studies available giving a detailed numerical analysis of the relationship between the Synoptic Gospel. I'm not going to share those today.]
This is now me talking again.
Gospels do not fit the modern definition of "biography". Today, we expect biographies to cover certain basic facts of a person's life in chronological order. The Gospels about Jesus kinda do that, but those authors were much more interested in telling us who Jesus is, what Jesus did, what Jesus taught, and why that matters. The authors group things differently. Some ignore an event in order to include a different event. I like the phrase "spiritual biography".
But there's more to it. You know how long a modern biography can be -- hundreds, even thousands of pages, still being very selective about what's included. John says that the whole world wouldn't be able to contain all of the books it would take to accurately report everything Jesus said and did (John 21:25). The Gospel writers were limited by literacy (on the part of the crowds), and by the cost of writing materials. They had the most important story in the world that has ever been told, but they needed to make it as short and simple as possible.
Frankly, they did an unbelievably brilliant job (with the help of the Spirit).
About Matthew Specifically
For reasons I acknowledge must be narcissistic, the Gospel of Matthew is my favorite book in the Bible. It was also the first thing I studied in the first course I ever took at seminary (which was the first serious Bible studying I ever did), which I took under a truly genius Bible scholar, so I was simply blown away by this book. And that awe has stuck with me ever since.
Author
The Gospel of Matthew was written by Matthew (Levi) the tax collector, one of Jesus' disciples. Strictly speaking, each of the four Gospels is anonymous -- the emphasis was always on Jesus. But church tradition dating back to at least the second generation of church leaders identified the authors of the Gospels as we know them today.
Matthew was both a Jew and a tax collector, something that the series "The Chosen" has helped a lot of people see just how messy that was. In fact, I would venture that more than a few of our group members now think of Matthew as the character in the series!
I really like what they did with that character, but remember that they have taken "dramatic license"!
Date
Thinking that Matthew is the "best" meant that I always assumed that this Gospel was the first. I've since learned that there are a lot of very highly respected biblical scholars who have a range of opinions about the date of Matthew's Gospel. And those dates depend very much on which Gospel was written first. You saw above that the "Synoptic Gospels" have so much in common that it's silly to argue that they didn't use one another as resources. There are two primary theories:
Matthew was written first, and both Mark and Luke relied on Matthew.
Mark was written first, and both Matthew and Luke used Mark plus another source (often called "Q").
Early church tradition says that Matthew wrote his Gospel while Peter and Paul were preaching in Rome, thus the early- to mid-60s. I believe that Mark wrote his Gospel in the late 50s, so that's a good argument in favor of "Markan Priority".
But why would Matthew, one of Jesus' apostles, use a resource written by someone who wasn't a disciple? Well, because Mark has always been associated with Peter -- that Mark's Gospel was based on Peter's sermons. That's a pretty good resource, even for an apostle!
My personal opinion is that Matthew and Mark (Peter) and Luke (Paul) had personal and direct interaction while preparing their Gospels, so it's somewhat less important who actually came first. But the first Gospel did establish some word choices that the other Gospel authors followed.
Purpose
Here's a snippet from one of my favorite Bible scholars, D. A. Carson:
"Although the Synoptic Gospels display many similarities, they are certainly not identical: careful reading shows how each differs from the other two. Matthew appears to be written in a dominantly Jewish context. Matthew quotes extensively from the OT, and he is eager to show that Jesus is the promised Messiah (or Christ). Matthew's work is carefully structured, with speeches and narratives alternating. Mark carries the story forward with breathless speed; Mark's book is characterized by urgent drama as he demonstrates that Jesus is the suffering Son of God. Luke is measured and polished. Luke repeatedly shows that the good news is that Jesus is the Savior not only for Jews but for all people, especially the poor and oppressed."
Note: I do have a single favorite Matthew commentary -- that by D. A. Carson in The Expositor's Bible Commentary. Yes, I do believe that you should look for a copy of that volume for your own library.
Summary:
Matthew: Jesus is the Messiah
Mark: Jesus is the suffering Son of God
Luke: Jesus is the Savior of the whole world
So there you go! We will go into more of the details throughout our six months in Matthew; I just don't think we have time to cover much more of that in this week's action-packed focal passage.
Where We Are in Matthew
Here's a simplified outline based on D. A. Carson's commentary:
Part 1: Introducing Jesus (1:1-2:23)
Part 2: Introducing the Gospel Message (3:1-7:29)
Setting the stage for Jesus' ministry (3:1-4:25)
First teaching (the Sermon on the Mount) (5:1-7:29)
Part 3: The Kingdom Advances (8:1-11:1)
Miracles and messengers (8:1-9:34)
Second teaching (the Missionary Discourse) (9:35-11:1)
Part 4: Opposition Arises (11:2-13:53)
Hostility and confrontations (11:1-12:50)
Third teaching (Parables of the Kingdom) (13:1-52)
Part 5: Progressive Polarization (13:43-19:2)
More rejection, bigger miracles (13:53-17:27)
Fourth teaching (Life under Kingdom Authority) (18:1-19:2)
Part 6: Opposition and Grace (19:3-26:5)
Into the Passion Week (19:3-23:39)
Fifth teaching (the Olivet Discourse) (24:1-25:46)
Part 7: The Passion and Resurrection of Jesus (26:6-28:20)
Carson sees five carefully chosen sets of action and teaching, mirroring the five books of the Torah. To Matthew, Jesus is the true fulfillment of the promise in the Old Testament, so everything about Jesus' ministry "recapitulates" what the Jews have learned, except Jesus succeeds in being the "better" Adam and Abraham and Israel and Moses and David and Isaiah and all of that.
Our study starts in Part 2 (Lifeway is saving the birth narrative for December 21) -- introducing Jesus. Matthew has some very specific things to cover for his Jewish audience, and I'll try to point those out as thoroughly as possible. (And yes, that means there's plenty of "meat left on the bone" if you want to go a different direction in your own study.)
Part 1: Jesus Is Baptized (Matthew 3:13-17)
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. 14 But John tried to stop him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and yet you come to me?” 15 Jesus answered him, “Allow it for now, because this is the way for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John allowed him to be baptized. 16 When Jesus was baptized, he went up immediately from the water. The heavens suddenly opened for him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming down on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased.”
I'm going to encourage y'all to make sure your group understands the "big picture" of what Matthew is doing in these opening chapters. I related above that the main purpose of this Gospel is to establish that Jesus is the Messiah.
Well, Matthew's Jewish readers would have had some nonnegotiable expectations of this Messiah (the various prophecies in the Old Testament). For example, Jesus must have been in the tribe of Judah (which Matthew establishes in chapter 1). Jesus must have been born in Bethlehem (which Matthew establishes in chapter 2). And then there's one related to what we studied last week with the death of Moses -- the people waiting for "the next Moses".
Aside: The Importance of John the Baptist
Last week, I took us to the end of the Old Testament -- the prophecies of Malachi. Malachi served approximately 460 years before our passage this week; God was "silent" between the ministries of Malachi and John the Baptist. The final words of the Old Testament are,
4:4 Remember the instruction of Moses my servant, the statutes and ordinances I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel. 5 Look, I am going to send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. 6 And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers. Otherwise, I will come and strike the land with a curse.
In other words, Jews knew that God's Messiah would have to be heralded by a "new Elijah", and indeed Jesus was (Matthew explains this at the beginning of chapter 3).
The opening chapters of Matthew "check off" the requirements for Jesus to be the Messiah.
But Matthew understood something deeper, and that helps us explain the bigger question about this week's passage: "why did Jesus need to be baptized?"
First, realize that John's baptism was slightly different from that of the early Christian church (for example, Acts 18:25). John offered a baptism of repentance; Peter took baptism to the next step -- into Jesus. But that doesn't really explain anything because Jesus didn't need to repent of anything! (And John, Jesus' cousin, knew that.) John didn't want to baptize the Pharisees and Sadducees because they were not worthy of his baptism; but John equally realized that his baptism was not worthy of Jesus.
Even though every Gospel has the event of Jesus' baptism, only Matthew has verses 14 and 15 -- and that uniqueness helps us understand what's going on.
Key Truth: The Messiah as the Embodiment of His People
Even though Mark focused on the theme of Jesus as the suffering Son of God, Matthew also championed this theme for a specific reason: the Old Testament clearly prophesies that the Messiah would suffer (for example, Isaiah 53). But why? Because the Messiah would be fully identified with His people. The Messiah was not some demigod conqueror (that the people wanted); the Messiah was one of them. The Messiah would experience the entire history of Israel, but where they failed, He would succeed; where they rebelled, He would remain faithful; where they sinned, He would remain pure; where they doubted, He would trust.
And that's what Jesus meant when He told John that this baptism was right / proper / the way to fulfill righteousness. No, Jesus did not need to be baptized, but this was how He would publicly identify Himself with the people, and His people did need to repent.
And God the Father validated that identification. (Indeed, this is a very important clear appearance of the Trinity in the Bible -- the Father speaking, the Son obeying, the Spirit empowering.)
Matthew sees so much of the Old Testament encapsulated in this short event, including (for example) Isaiah 42:1:
“This is my servant; I strengthen him, this is my chosen one; I delight in him. I have put my Spirit on him; he will bring justice to the nations.
(Read all of Isaiah 42. God showed Isaiah a lot of mind-blowing truth.) The Messiah is God's Servant. Matthew, having lived with Jesus for those years, observed servant-leadership, humble submission, and self-sacrifice on an unbelievable level, and he realized that this is what the Old Testament said would be true of the Messiah.
This is not what the people expected. But they should have.
Now, we don't know exactly how "public" this was (i.e., how many people were there, how many people heard the voice), but that's not Matthew's concern. This is the introduction to Jesus' ministry -- Matthew is showing his readers that Jesus "qualifies" to be the Messiah and that God validated Jesus' ministry. And then we jump into one final event that will demonstrate that Jesus is "worthy" to teach what He's about to teach.
(Again, if you want more details on the specific wording in the verses, please take a look at my previous post on this passage. I'm keeping a big-picture focus this week.)
Aside: Where Are We?
Here's a handy map from generationword.com.
Remember that there is not full agreement on where exactly John baptized, but most of the maps I've seen have it near this map's "Bethany by the Jordan".
There's also not full agreement on where Jesus was led to be tempted. Most maps I've seen have this in the region between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea -- the "Wilderness of Judea / Judah". You might wonder how someone could go and be alone there so close to Jerusalem. Well, that region was truly a wilderness; it's where David fled from Saul. Desolate, dangerous, uninhabitable.
Harmony of the Gospels
When it makes sense, I'll point out similarities/differences between the three Synoptic Gospels. In this case, both Matthew and Mark tie Jesus' baptism directly to His temptation -- all of it is integral to His "preparation for ministry". But Luke inserts his genealogy here, taking it all the way back to Adam. It does seem that Luke is making the additional point that where Adam failed to resist Satan's temptation, Jesus did not. But Matthew has a different story to tell in this event.
Part 2: Jesus Is Tempted (Matthew 4:1-4)
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 After he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 Then the tempter approached him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” 4 He answered, “It is written: Man must not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
We just studied Numbers and Deuteronomy, so I really, really hope the parallels with Israel in the wilderness jump off the page. In the wilderness, Israel was presented with the command to trust God and conquer he Promised Land. They did not. They disobeyed God, and they wandered in the wilderness for another 40 years until they repeated the test of obedience.
Matthew is showing his Jewish readers that Jesus experienced that same "wandering" (not in years, but in days), but Jesus did not fall into temptation, proving Himself to be a faithful, obedient Servant where Israel was not.
Note that Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, just as God led the Israelites into the wilderness. This "test" is by God's design. Satan may have done the tempting, but God allowed it.
Jesus fasted for 40 days. This was no supernatural preservation -- He was hungry.
Aside: About Fasting
Why did Jesus fast in the first place? First, realize that Jesus expects God's people to fast (Matt 6:17). Again, why? Fasting (from food) is an ultimate form of self-denial and self-discipline. In the Bible, there are "normal" fasts (like what Jesus did); there are absolute fasts (Paul did this in Acts 9:9 where it explicitly says he also did not eat or drink for three days); there are partial fasts (like the diet restriction that Daniel did). In each case, the purpose of the fast is to draw closer to God. It was intended to be a private / personal activity, just as is one's own pursuit of a closer relationship with God (Ex 34, 1 Sam 7, 1 Ki 19, Ez 8, Ps 69, Isa 58, Zech 7).
Did Jesus need to fast (in order to "know God better"? Of course not! This is in the same category of "to fulfill all righteousness" -- here at the outset of His ministry, Jesus fully identified Himself with His people, with their weaknesses and frailties. In doing so, He modeled for us a life fully devoted to and reliant on God.
I Know You're Wondering: How Long Can You Fast?
Some people reject this story not believing that anyone can fast that long. (That's what they can't believe?) Well, as long as you have access to water (the Bible doesn't say Jesus abstained from water), you can survive 2-3 months without food, though at great physical cost. -- see How Long Can You Go Without Food?
Anyway, the point is that Jesus was legitimately hungry and vulnerable. Satan saw this as an opportunity, and he took it. The Bible does not tell us how Satan came to Jesus, and I'd just as soon not speculate.
Aside: The Nature of Temptation
Many commentaries point out the parallels between Jesus' temptations and Adam/Eve's in the Garden of Eden (I mentioned how Luke deliberately put his genealogy before this event)
3:6 The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom.
John calls this (1 John 2)
the lust of the flesh,
the lust of the eyes,
the pride of life.
Jesus faces 3 temptations --
Turn stones into bread to ease His hunger.
Prove His divinity by leaping from the temple pinnacle.
Be the king of the world.
The lust of the flesh (check), the lust of the eyes (creating a public spectacle, check), the pride of life (check).
To follow the lesson outline, I'll treat each temptation separately.
The First Temptation: Stones into Bread
Note that Satan acknowledges that Jesus has the power to do this. And how different is this, really, from turning a few loaves of bread into enough to feed thousands?
Well that's the question, isn't it?
Satan starts with, "If You are the Son of God" -- and that should be a red flag. Satan was trying to manipulate Jesus. If he could get Jesus to obey him in this simple request, what else could he get Jesus to do?
This is our lesson about the danger of temptation. Satan came to Jesus when Jesus was at His most vulnerable. Do you remember when Moses committed the sin that kept him out of the Promised Land? It was after he was completely fed up with the Israelites. He was done, and he sinned. Lesson: you need to watch out for temptation when you are tired, confused, lonely, stressed, etc. That's when Satan will come after you.
You also need to watch out for those temptations that don't sound too bad. Jesus knew that Satan was a liar and the father of lies, so His guard was up, but how often do we let our guard down?
What was the sin Satan was enticing Jesus to commit?
At the very least, it's self-gratification. That's pretty obvious. But there's something deeper -- Satan was tempting Jesus to "cheat" at His mission. Jesus could make things a lot easier on Himself if He used a little of His power to help things along, right?
Sure, but at what cost?
Matthew is making the point that Jesus fully identified Himself with His people, yet was without sin. That's not the case if Jesus is doing so only with divine/angelic assistance. (But more on this below!)
But if Jesus is facing the personal temptation from Satan himself and overcoming in His humanity, then we can trust that Jesus understands our weakness and pain and suffering and endured it just as we do. (And ultimately, we learn that Jesus' sacrifice on the cross was truly for all of humanity because He was the perfect representative of humanity -- fully God, yes, but also fully human.)
We all should be pretty aware of Jesus' response to temptation -- the Word of God. No special power. No divine assistance. Jesus knew what the Bible said, and that was enough to help Him resist that temptation.
Sure, you can carry a phone around that enables you to search the internet when you are tempted, but if you don't know the Bible very well (or at all), how will you know when you are being tempted?
This church put together a snazzy list of verses that would be valuable to memorize:
Part 3: The Second Temptation (Matthew 4:5-7)
5 Then the devil took him to the holy city, had him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written: He will give his angels orders concerning you, and they will support you with their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.” 7 Jesus told him, “It is also written: Do not test the Lord your God.”
Again, we don't know how Satan arranged these things, and I'd rather not speculate.
Satan had started with a very simple temptation, but Jesus saw through it and responded with Scripture. So, Satan ups the ante, and this time comes with Scripture of his own.
The nature of this temptation is simple -- Satan is offering Jesus a shortcut to publicly identify Himself as the Messiah. What could achieve notoriety faster than floating down from the temple pinnacle?
Just like with the previous temptation, Satan was tempting Jesus to "cheat" at his mission, to take a shortcut. (And if He took a shortcut here, where else might He take one?)
But Satan was adding a very cruel barb -- "if You don't do this, Jesus, might it be because You don't trust God to protect You?" This is very much like the wicked barbs hurled at Jesus when He was on the cross (see Matt 27:40). In other words, this temptation was rooted in asking Jesus to test God the Father.
Is that not a tactic Satan uses on all of us? (With great success, I might add.) "You know better how to take care of your needs than God does; just take this matter into your own hands." "If God really loved you, He would let you do such-and-such." It worked on Eve, and it still works today.
The resistance to this is the have absolute faith in God the Father. And Jesus did. Jesus didn't need to "prove" God's care for Him through this contrived scenario -- He knew it. Testing God is itself a sin! (Dt 6:16) Satan was trying to get Jesus to disqualify Himself from His mission before it even began!
But Jesus saw through it.
This is the next level of Bible familiarity. Not only do we want to be familiar enough with the Bible to use it to help us resist temptation, but we also want to be familiar enough with it to know when somebody else is twisting the Bible to their own ends.
Part 4: The Third Temptation (Matthew 4:8-11)
8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 And he said to him, “I will give you all these things if you will fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus told him, “Go away, Satan! For it is written: Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.” 11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and began to serve him.
This final temptation is the cruelest of them all. You might read this and say, "Well, that should be the easiest one of them all to resist!" But one, you've never had the entire world offered to you. And two, let's dive into what Satan was offering.
You know how the story ends (when I say "story", I'm talking about history itself) (note: when Satan said this, he did not know . . .): Jesus will return to the earth as a mighty conquering King:
Rev 19:15 A sharp sword came from his mouth, so that he might strike the nations with it. He will rule them with an iron rod. He will also trample the winepress of the fierce anger of God, the Almighty. 16 And he has a name written on his robe and on his thigh: King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
But what has to happen first? Jesus must be crucified -- die a horrible, horrible death, and be separated from God.
Satan was offering Jesus the end without the means. And we have to realize that this was slightly tempting to Jesus.
Matt 16:21 From then on Jesus began to point out to his disciples that it was necessary for him to go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and scribes, be killed, and be raised the third day. 22 Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, “Oh no, Lord! This will never happen to you!” 23 Jesus turned and told Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me because you’re not thinking about God’s concerns but human concerns.”
Jesus did not want to die that horrible death. He was truly human, after all. But at the end, in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matt 26:39), Jesus fully submitted to God's will.
You see, Satan could offer to Jesus to be that mighty king of the world. What Satan didn't know was that "the rest of it" was to make salvation available to humanity. Jesus didn't come to become King (He was already King) -- He came to become Savior. And Satan's offer circumvented all of that. And so Jesus knew to reject that temptation.
The Disturbing Implication. Let's be clear about this -- Satan had the authority to make this offer. Jesus did not say otherwise. Satan has power in this world. But one, Satan only has the power that God allows him to have, and two, any human can resist Satan in the power of the Spirit and the Word of God.
Jesus would not fall into Satan's snare -- He understood the what and the why of God's plan. If Jesus accepted to Satan's offer, Satan would now be Jesus "benefactor", not God the Father, and everything Jesus came to do would fall apart.
This is the final level of Bible familiarity. Jesus knew the Bible well enough to resist temptation, well enough to know when someone else was twisting God's Word, and well enough to know how the Bible guides Him forward. In other words, not just the "do not" but also the "do".
About Those Angels
Didn't I just say that Jesus proved His humanity by resisting this temptation without angelic assistance? So what gives with the angels helping Him now? Is that "cheating"?
Clearly not.
First, the Bible doesn't say what the angels did to serve Him -- I have always read this as simply offering their company and protection from the wilds of the region in His weakened state.
But however you choose to read it, the point is that "took on Satan" without their help. He went through the 40 days of fasting without their help. He did not "cheat" in starting His ministry.
What have we said about the miracles in Jesus' ministry? What to John say? Those miracles were signs to the people that Jesus was indeed the Son of God. There were no human observers in Matthew 4:10, so it's almost irrelevant what exactly the angels did to serve Jesus. Just remember that angels were created as servants of God. Their entire existence was to serve Jesus. I can only imagine the angelic equivalent of "mixed emotions" as they watched Jesus face Satan without any divine power or help of any kind.
Closing Thoughts: What Would You Do?
I really like the Lifeway activity at the end of this lesson -- show a $100 bill and ask what the people would be willing to do to get it. Would you skip a worship service for $100? Would you back out of a plan to help somebody for $100?
I don't know that Lifeway explains the import quite well enough. Lots of us have skipped a worship service because we had to work overtime (or the like). This is more about the "what are you willing to do?" If you skip a worship service once, isn't it easier to do it again? Or to do something else? This is why Jesus stiff-armed Satan immediately and fully -- Jesus wasn't about to remotely entertain going down that road.
The Bible doesn't tell us to dance around temptation; Paul tells us to run away!
2 Tim 2:22 Flee from youthful passions, and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace.
And when we do, we can have the kind of victory that Jesus did.
Jam 4:7 Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
So, let's know the Bible! Let's be able to use the tool that Jesus used to resist the devil and also help the Christians around us to do the same.