比較溫和，一樣管用Less Intense, Equally Effective 1/25/2009
馬太福音 Matthew 4:1-11
INTRODUCTION
“Less Intense, Equally Effective” – that is written on the label of a mouth wash. This brand of mouth wash is known for its intense flavor. Now the smart merchants add a different artificial flavor and change its color to tone it down. Even though the packaging has been changed the active ingredients remain the same. Our spiritual enemy, Satan, is just like that. Since the beginning of the human history from Adam and Eve he had been trying to use different tactics, sometimes very intense but sometimes less intense, to assault us. The purpose is to find an effective way to lure us away from obedience to God. This morning we will study the temptation of Jesus in Matthew 4:1-11. We will never face the same temptations Jesus encountered and your “soft spots” may be very different from mine. However, if we understand the tricks Satan uses and follow Jesus’ example we can surely overcome the temptation coming to us.
With that in mind let us read from Matthew
4:1-11. Verse 1 and 2 give us the background of the whole account. Matthew
tells us that “Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the
devil. Why did Jesus have to go through this series of temptations? We can get
the answer from two perspectives. First, we can look at it from the context. Matthew
sandwiches the temptations of Jesus between His baptism, where God the Father
has just affirmed Jesus’ identity as His beloved Son, at the end of chapter 3
and the beginning of His ministry in
EXPLANATION
The first temptation Jesus faced is in vv. 3-4. Jesus had a real need
but Satan suggested a wrong way to satisfy the need. We are told in v. 2 that
Jesus fasted for 40 days and nights and He was hungry. Matthew emphasizes the
humanity side of Jesus. I don’t know about you but my brain simply does not
function well if I don’t eat and sleep well. Now Jesus was hungry and v. 1
tells us that He was in the desert, rather than the food court of a mall. Where
could He find food? At that very moment Satan appeared and provided Jesus a
wrong way to feed Himself. In verse 3 Satan began by saying, “If you are the
Son of God…” Here Satan was not casting any doubt on the identity of Jesus.
Rather, He was reminding Jesus of His true identity and the privilege He enjoys
as a result of it. But what is wrong with turning stones into bread as Satan
suggested? Jesus was learning to lead an obedient life to the Father. John
Many a times we rely
on our little wit and fall into the trap of Satan to fulfill our real need with
the wrong way. After all we are bombarded with such lies from music, TV and
movies. Years ago there was a movie titled “The Bridges of Madison County”
in which Client Eastwood plays a photographer. He was taking pictures of the
bridges in Iowa but he got lost. He stopped by a farm house and asked a
housewife whose husband and children were gone for state fair for direction.
This haphazard encounter turned into a four-day Hollywood type of romance. This
lady had been living a peaceful and enjoyable farm life with housework, husband
and children. But all of a sudden because of this stranger she realized that
seemingly something was missing. She noticed that she had all her right to look
for so-called real love. Four days later reality set in when her family returned.
She had to make a decision between the two men. One of the final scenes shows
her riding with her husband in their car in the midst of a heavy downpour.
Client Eastwood was in his own car blocking the road, waiting for this woman to
jump the wagon and come to his embrace. She cried as she was trying to resist
the temptation. I can imagine that many of the viewers cried too. You see Satan
is so crafty in
depicting something as morally wrong as adultery into a dreamy love affair. This
woman had a real need for love but there was a wrong way to fulfill that need
presented before her.
Even today Satan keeps spreading his lies and keeps telling us that we
have our right to satisfy our real need with the wrong way. For those who work
a day job it could be that nice colleague of the opposite gender who makes you
wonder how good it could be if my spouse can be so gentle, so caring and so
good-looking. He or she never talks with a loud voice or makes embarrassing
noise when eating. For those who are still single among us that special someone
may be the very person who is trying to date you. But the problem is he or she
is still an unbeliever. What should you do – follow the right way and wait for
God’s provision or go on the wrong way and do what is pleasing in your sight? There
are three powerful words that Satan likes to keep whispering to our ears: You
deserve it. Your spouse does not live up to your standard and so you deserve a
better companion. You worked so hard to get your degree and so you deserve a
better income, bigger house and a newer car. Brothers and sisters if we truly
know what grace really us we would realize that we virtually deserve nothing.
Whatever we have is a blessing from God. Living an obedient life is never easy
because very often it would contradict with our natural desire. But it will
always bring glory to God and blessing to us because such decision is pleasing
in God’s sight.
How should we protect ourselves when temptation comes? Look at how
Jesus handles it. He reminds us that obeying God’s Word is the highest priority
above everything else. When an idea pops up from your mind or proposed by
someone you have to examine it with the unchangeable standard of God’s Word.
Does it violate any of God’s command? Will it bring shame rather than glory to
the name of God?
II. 真實的應許，扭曲的應用 Real
Promise but Twisted Application (vv. 5-7)
The next temptation Jesus faced deals with a real promise that carries
a twisted application. Satan picked up on Jesus’ own claim that His desire was
to obey God’s Word. Satan thought, “That’s good! Let’s do a test to find out if
God’s Word is truly valid.” In v. 5 he led Jesus to the highest point of the temple,
which was the tallest place in the whole
This temptation Satan presented before Jesus was a valid challenge.
After all it could have been a spectacular demonstration of Jesus’ true
identity as the Son of God if He had jumped from the pinnacle of the temple and
landed on the ground unhurt. To Jesus Himself He did not need such experiment
to verify whether or not God’s promise was true. God’s Word is true not because
it can be put to our test and be validated. It is true because it comes from
the source of all truth. Psalm 119:160 says: “All
your words are true; all your righteous laws are eternal.” Jesus rebuked Satan
in v. 7 by quoting Deuteronomy 6:16 against putting God to test.
It is not a new thing to misuse God’s real promise to come up with a
twisted application. It is natural for the human nature to be attracted to
spectacular phenomena. People attach the label of whichever god they believe to
these so-called wonders. Let me give an extreme example. There is a sect called
the Snake Handlers. They based their
practice on Mark 16:17-18 that “And these signs
will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they
will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when
they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their
hands on sick people, and they will get well.” So by abiding to the Word
literally those devout leaders in these churches handle poisonous snakes as a
demonstration of their faith in God. It may sound silly but that is what they
practice. Do they get hurt at all? The report I read mentions that some of
these believers have deformed hands or missing fingers, and yes, some died of
snake bites too. But the tradition goes on.
We may not have such courage to play around poisonous snakes but do we
sometimes fall into the temptation of putting God’s real promise to twisted
applications? I used to know a brother who once testified that he trusted the
promise of God through Paul in Philippians 4:13:
“I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” Therefore he said that
he had faith that he could pass a particular exam he was facing even though he
was not well-prepared for it. But if he had read carefully the whole context he
would have understood that what actually Paul says is that he is content with
whatever material possession he gets access to. Therefore whether he has a lot
or not much it would not be a hindrance to his ministry of the gospel. In this
second temptation of Jesus Satan quoted the Bible. When you hear people using a
Biblical verse to justify their own view do not believe whatever they say until
you check the context and see if they have twisted the application for their
own gain. Besides that sometimes when we are facing an important decision in
life we pray to God for a sign. There are many incidences in the Bible on that.
But we cannot base our faith solely on that. Sometimes God shows mercy on our
lack of faith and gives us the sign we asked for. But I would say the general
norm is for God to work in our hearts, through the counsel of His Word and other
believers or by working through our circumstances to guide us to the right path
He has in mind. It is an act of disobedient to demand God to fulfill His
promise to us in our own terms.
III. 真實的榮耀，空洞的盼望 Real Glory but False Hope (vv.
8-10)
The first temptation attacks the real physical need of Jesus while the
second one goes after the real emotional need of Him. So far Satan failed to
lure Jesus into his traps. The third temptation deals with the real
psychological need of Jesus. Jesus
was seeking for real glory but what Satan could provide was only a false hope.
Verse 8 tells us that Satan brought Jesus to a high mountain and displayed
before Him the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. Everything was up for
grasp if only Jesus would bow down before Satan. You may ask: didn’t everything
belong to Jesus in the first place, since He is the Creator of all things? If
so, then what Satan had in his control to offer? Let us look at a few Scriptural
verses. 1 John
That reminds me of what happened just last week in my home. My older
son was trying to trick his younger brother to give him his toy. He said to
him, “If you would give me the thing in your hand I will give you a candy.” My
wife was standing next to the two brothers the whole time. She didn’t hesitate
to correct him: “Who gave you authority to pass out candies? Those are not your
candies in the first place!”
In order for Jesus to receive the eternal glory He sought after He had
to go through the cross. On the final days when Jesus knew He would be
crucified soon He told the crowd in John 12:23: “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be
glorified.” Then skip down to verses 31-33: “’Now
is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world (referring
to Satan) will be driven out. But I, when I am lifted up from the earth,
will draw all men to myself.’ He said this to show the kind of death he was
going to die.” Many will come to Him and worship His as Lord.
Therefore, what Satan offered was a short cut to bypass the cross to
receive instant but temporary glory he could offer from this world. Had Jesus
succumbed to this temptation He would end up being a political ruler of the
whole world. In reaction to Satan’s offer Jesus responded in Matthew 4:10 “Away
from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him
only.’” Once again Jesus quoted the Bible from Deuteronomy 6:13 to drive Satan
away.
The glory that Jesus has can never be fully attained in our lives as
human beings. But we as human always look for ways to achieve a sense of
achievement and significance. We can easily be led astray by the false hope of
using other temporal things to satisfy our real needs that only God can
fulfill. The fact is we keep pursuing this borrowed and temporary glory Satan
can offer. We are being fooled to believe that if we have this or buy that we
will feel more secured. Let me read you the slogans of some stores that you may
be familiar with. One electronic store says: You,
Happier. But I believe if you shop there often it is their boss who
becomes happier. This clothing store claims: We Can
Save You. From what? It is talking about your wallet. Really? I thought he
best way to save our wallet is to keep the money in there! Then another
department store puts it: Save Money, Live Better.
But what they did not mention is that in order to save money you have to spend
money at their stores first. Besides material things we chase after other
things to bring glory to ourselves. We work hard to climb up the corporate
ladder to prove that we can achieve something. We study for this degree and that
certificate to add some titles which few people know what they are on our
business cards. We force our kids to participate in various extra-curricular
activities hoping that they would be good at one or two events to fill our
cabinets with trophies.
What is Jesus’ antidote for that? He reminds us to go back to the
Father. It is He who deserves all our glory and allegiance. Go back to the
basic and always keep in mind our relationship with Him. It is only in God that
we can recognize our self-worth and significance. He sent His only Son Jesus
Christ to die for our sins on the cross. He cherishes us as His beloved
children. We don’t need anything exterior to make us feel more special.
CONCLUSION
The three temptations Jesus faced follow the pattern in 1 John 2:16, where it says: “For everything in the
world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what
he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world.” Every temptation
of the world can be grouped under one of the three categories John summarized.
In the wilderness the Israelites grumbled about the lack of food and they craved after the meat
in
Since Jesus conquered these three types of temptation we have hope
because we can rely on the power given to us by the same God the Father to
resist temptation. Jesus set up an example for us that we can use God’s Word to
defend ourselves against Satan’s temptation. There are two weapons mentioned in
the spiritual armory of Ephesians that we should use all the time. Paul reminds
us in Ephesians 6:17-18 that we have to “Take…
the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on
all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.” So it all goes back to
the basic – we have to read God’s Word and pray constantly. By our own wisdom
and strength we will surely fail to temptation. We can only win this spiritual
battle with the proper spiritual weapons.
Jesus’ experience of and victory over temptations give us hope because
He knows exactly what we are going through when we face temptation. Hebrews 4:15-16 puts it well: “For we do not have a
high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one
who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us
then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy
and find grace to help us in our time of need.” We have a perfect example to
follow, we have perfect weapons to employ and we have a perfect helper to call
upon. Brothers and sisters, we too can overcome temptations.