Answers2Prayer
BIBLE
TEACHING SERVICE
FOCUS:
JESUS
HOW
TO WIN OVER TEMPTATION
Text:
Matthew 4:1-11
Memory
Verse: Thou
shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Matthew 4:10
Central
Truth: The
Word of God provides the means of overcoming temptation.
INTRODUCTION:
Immediately after John baptized Jesus, the Holy
Spirit led Jesus into a wilderness where no people lived and not even grass
would grow. Notice that it was the
Holy Spirit who led Jesus here it was not Satan.
But it was Satan who tempted Jesus.
Why would the Holy Spirit lead Jesus into a place where Satan would come
in temptation? This, like His
baptism, was one way that Jesus made Himself like an ordinary man.
He really suffered; He was hungry, thirsty and tired, just as we are.
God allowed Jesus to be tempted, as we are tempted so that Jesus might be
able to help us in our temptation. (Hebrew
4:15). The experiences of Jesus let
us know that we also may be tempted, but that we also may overcome.
(1 Peter 4:12, 13; 1 Peter 1:6, 7).
TO
BE EXPECTED: God
may allow people to meet temptations and trials in order to test their faith,
but he will never tempt them to do evil. Rather
he wants to deliver them from evil (Matt. 6:13; I Cor. 10:13; James 1:13; 2
Peter 2:9). Satan not God is the
one who tempts people to do wrong (Gen. 3:1-6; I Cor. 11:3; Eph. 4:27; 6:11; 1
Peter 5:8-9). Some people blame God
when they give in to temptation. The
Scripture point out that the source of their problem lies not with God, but with
the sinful desires within their own hearts (James 1:13-14).
NO EXCUSES: Temptation comes in many forms. Satan has many cunning methods, and people can easily get caught in his trap (2 Cor. 2:11; 1 Thess. 3:5; 1 Tim. 6:9). But there can be no excuse for giving in to temptation, as there is always a way of escape (1 Cor. 10:13). Christians should not be over-confident in their own ability to overcome temptation (1 Cor. 10:12). Instead they should be aware of the weakness of sinful human nature, and given it no opportunity to satisfy its desires (Rom. 6:12; 13:14).
The struggle against temptation is more than merely a struggle with the problems of everyday life. It is a battle against the evil powers of Satan (Eph. 6:10-12). God has given His Word to his people to equip them for this battle (Matt. 4:3-7; Eph. 6:16-17), and he has given them the assurance of victory, provided they make the effort to resist the tempter. Can we imagine what it was for Jesus to go 40 days without food? By the end of this time He was tired and hungry, and He was alone. No one was with Him to encourage Him. It is at such a time that Satan always comes with his temptation because he tries to come when we are weakest.
FIRST
TEMPTATION: Satan
is so clever and subtle. First he
tried to tell Jesus that the Lord had every right to make stones into bread
because Jesus was truly the Son of God. The
words, “If thou be the Son of God,” do not mean that Satan doubted that
Jesus was the Son of God. These
words really mean, “Since you are the Son of God” or “Because you are the
Son of God”. In
what area(s) are you being tempted?
Where was the temptation here? It was in Satan trying to get Jesus to make the stones into bread just for His own benefit, to please Himself. Satan was saying, “You are the Son of God. Why should you suffer in this way? Use your power to help yourself. Do not mind what God’s will is”. In your family, academic, financial, marital, professional and social life have you not been faced with temptation? In all these, have you not been satisfying yourself or you have resigned absolutely to God’s perfect will? If Jesus had yielded to this temptation, He would not have been able to help us today. He had to suffer just as we suffer. He did not protect Himself because he came to help others. His real purpose in coming was to save us and make us children of God so that we could have fellowship with God. His real food was “to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work” (John 4:34).
It is not sin to eat and satisfy your hunger, but it is possible for us to allow eating to become such a pleasure that we use this to satisfy a kind of lust.
Jesus stood strongly against Satan. The Bible says we must resist the devil (James 4:7). We can win the victory as Jesus did when we take “the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God” (Eph. 6:17). Jesus could have used His divine power, but He used only those means, which we have to use. You too can overcome if you depend on Jesus and act on His word!
THE SECOND TEMPTATION: The devil came with a second temptation. Satan does not surrender quickly. This time Jesus was taken to a high place of the Temple. Here Satan used the Scripture in temptation. Satan can come as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11: 14). He knows the Word of God, but he also can twist the Word or use the only part of it. He used Psalm 91:11, but read the whole thing and see what Satan left out. Satan wanted Jesus to use God’s promise in the way that heathen use magical charms. How has the devil deceived you with the Word in time past?
Jesus did not allow Satan to deceive Him by the use of the bible in a wrong way. Many groups of people today are using the Bible in a wrong way, and we must study the whole Word of God and be filled with the Spirit to know the real truth.
God’s Word is not something to use as a charm or talisman.
In verse 7 Jesus meant that we should not see how far we could go in
using the Word of God for our own purposes.
God protected Paul when he was bitten by snake, but it would be tempting
God for us to go out and find a poisonous snake and pick it up in our hand to
try to prove that God would protect us!
THE THIRD TEMPTATION: Next, Satan called for Jesus to worship him, and then he would give the Lord all the Kingdom of this world. Today the kingdoms of this world are important to many people, and some will not serve God because they seek for riches by stealing, or they seek for power by bribery. Although Satan claims to be the ruler of this world (Ephesians 2:2; John 12:31), the devil is a liar. The real authority in this world belongs to God. See Daniel 4:35 and 5:21. God forbids us to worship any other god. If we try to gain the world by wrong means we will lose the world in the end and also lose our eternal souls.
CONCLUSION: After Satan went away, angel came to help Jesus and give Him strength. God is always ready to help us when we are tempted. Whatever you may be passing through by way of temptation, God will help you overcome!
