6-20-2020 Temptations of Christ
Stones to Bread Angels shall catch you I will give You all this
After His
baptism by John, in the Jordan, Jesus had a ‘little’ encounter with the Devil
Matt. 4:1-11,
Luke 4:1-13
1 Returning
from Jordan and being full of the Holy Ghost, Jesus was led, by the Spirit,
into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
2 After fasting and having been tempted
by the devil for forty days, Jesus became hungry.
3 And
when the tempter came to Him, he said “If You’re the Son of God, command these
stones to be made bread.”
4 But,
Jesus answered “It is written that man shall not live by bread alone, but by
every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.
5 Then, the devil took Him up to the
holy city and set Him upon a pinnacle of the temple.
6 He
said to Him “If you are the Son of God, cast yourself down for it is written
that He will give His angels charge concerning You and that their hands should
bear you up unless You should dash your foot against a stone.”
7 Then,
Jesus said “It is written that “You shall not tempt the Lord, your God.” (Matt.
4: 5-7 corresponds with Luke 4:9-12).
8 Again,
the devil took Him to an exceedingly high mountain and in a moment of time showed
Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory and said “I will give You all
this power with their glory. It is given
to me to give to whomsoever I will.”
9 And
he said to Jesus “I will give you all these things if You will fall down and
worship me.”
10 Then,
Jesus responded “Get away, Satan, for it is written you shall worship the Lord
your God and only Him shall you worship” (Matt. 4:8-10 correspond with Luke
4:5-7).
11 Then,
when the devil had ended, he left Him and behold, angels came and ministered
unto Him.
Back on
February 16, 2019, I talked briefly about how the angels in heaven are
organized to fight Satan’s three-pronged attack against man. I mentioned that there are three spheres of
angels, each with three choirs. Each
sphere has a realm of operation and each choir has responsibilities within its
sphere. Origen (184 AD) is the primary
source who ordered the spheres and choirs of angels and though others may have
adjusted it from time to time, Origen’s version is what we generally accept.
Okay, the
stage is set.
Look at the
three temptations Jesus faced in the wilderness. Note that Luke says that Jesus was tempted
for forty days, then these last three temptations came as the ‘icing on the
cake’ (if your will).
These three
temptations are important because they depict the three main areas in which
Satan attacks us – the body, the soul and the spirit. All three of these areas are involved in
spiritual warfare.
The first
temptation, the
bread:
At this
stage of the game, Satan knows Father will give Jesus anything He asks so he
knows that Jesus can easily command the stones of the ground to become edible
bread to satisfy His hunger. This is the
‘natural’ man, or the body. Meeting the
physical needs of our body, sustenance (where are my twinkies! Lol).
Jesus knows
there is something more important than just taking in physical sustenance. He realizes that our spirit also needs to be
fed. We do that by reading the bible to
gain understanding how Father operates in our lives and then through us. The bible helps us to qualify God’s Word and
how His love operates in and around us.
Yes, we live here on planet earth and (because we are temporal
(temporarily here)) we need food to survive but our spirits also need to be
fed. When we don’t eat food on a
regularly basis, our bodies will eventually waste away and die. Likewise, if we don’t feed our spirits by
reading the bible and prayer, our spirits will also waste away – become dead to
God. Just as God takes care of the
animals of the land, birds of the air, fish in the sea and plants in the
ground, He will take care of us and our needs. Yes? As
we walk with God, He will give us what we need and even our heart’s, desire as
we line up with His will (Luke 12:22-31).
We need to
trust more in Father rather than what we see in a situation. So this first temptation addresses what we
can hear, see, taste, etc., our physical needs, the body.
The
second temptation, Jump
off!?:
Satan knew
that the angels were set in charge of protecting Jesus in everything He
did. But, Jesus easily recognized this
as a challenge to Father’s intent (Psalm 91:11-12). Are we flippant in receiving what Father has
for us or do we take it seriously?
Paul was
unaware of the poisonous snake in the sticks he had gathered on the isle of
Miletus. The snake bit Paul. The people knew that this snake’s bite meant and
it would quickly bring death. Paul shook
it off into the fire having no ill effect (Acts 28:3-5). God’s protection!
Israel
challenged God about bringing them into the wilderness to die of thirst at
Massah. Father did provide but He was
not pleased that Israel had doubted Him (Exod. 17:1-7). God had already brought them out of Egypt and
parted the Red Sea, yet they weren’t trusting Him for a simple drink of water.
Father tells
us not to tempt Him (Deut. 6:16-18).
Jesus knows that we should always trust Father for what we need (Psalm
104:1-30).
Paul didn’t
see the snake saying to himself “I see the snake, but I’m going to grab this
bunch of sticks anyway for God will protect me.” He was unaware of the snake, and in His
innocence, Father did protect Him. In
short, don’t put ourselves in obvious jeopardy, then expect Father to bail us
out. But, when we unwittingly find
ourselves in a situation, He will protect us.
I bought my
first motorcycle from a dealership in Hyattsville, Md. It was a lightweight, dirt bike, a Triumph
250cc, with knobby tires which put out less than 30 Horsepower (hp). I had never ridden a bike at that time and
the salesman asked me if I wanted to take a quick test spin. Being bold and brazen, I said “sure.” At the time, I owned a 383, 4 barrel,
Hi-performance Plymouth Roadrunner putting out @335 hp. A no brainer, the bike had about a tenth the
power of my car. A snap, right? I hopped on, fired it up and took off. In the blink of an eye, I was off the lot and
into the street, narrowly missing a car coming up the road, which narrowly
missed a telephone pole on the other side.
I had no clue how quick that little rascal was. I let off the gas, turned around and came
back into the lot. My buddy (who came
with me), the salesman and the staff were all ‘bustin’ a gut. I didn’t even know God back then, but, as
with Paul, He was watching over me (and the lady in the car).
Jesus
recognized the difference between being in a situation and trusting Father than
tempting Him so He was obedient to Father. He told Satan to ‘buzz off’ (get behind Me). We may still get ourselves into stupid situations
as we are learning to live in God’s will, but we don’t deliberately put
ourselves there.
This second
temptation addresses what I will call spiritual one, the needs of our human
spirit, the seat of our emotions and mental functions, our psyche aka or rationale
(our soul?).
The third temptation, the heart:
This is also
‘spiritual’, but it is more of ‘where is our heart’? Why do we do things rather than ‘just’ what
have we decided to do. This is the area
that connects us with our Father. This
is the area where the Holy Ghost will take up resident within us and become our
‘driving force’ why do we do what we do.
Which drummer do we listen to motivate us? Father showed me this by having me read “Pigs
in the Parlor” by Frank and Ida Mae Hammond.
‘Pneuma’ is the Greek word translated ‘spirit’ which is mostly used in
reference to the Holy Spirit (or Ghost) where ‘psyche’ is the Greek word
translated ‘soul’. I’ve always believed
that a demonic spirit and the Holy Ghost cannot occupy the same space at the
same time ergo a Christian cannot be ‘possessed’. Pigs in the Parlor is written to Christians
so the church could be clean. Father had
to show me that though pneuma and psyche are in the same body, they are not the
‘same place’. As Christians, we yield
ourselves over to Father. We give our
‘self-will’ over to being obedient to Father.
That is, we bring our soul (psyche, our decision making) into agreement
with the Holy Ghost (residing in pneuma).
We give our heart over to the heart of God, uniting our will with
Father’s will. Without Jesus, our human spirit
motivates what we do. When we get
‘saved’, the Holy Ghost motivates what we do.
Which empowers the pneuma motivates our thinking in the psyche which
will generated our actions in the body.
Get the picture? When the enemy
attacks, he attacks how we think and when the Holy Ghost is not present in
‘pneuma’ what’s to stop him?
Satan takes
Jesus up on a high mountain and shows Him all the kingdoms of the earth and how
glorious (how powerful and magnificent) they are. Now, the ultimate challenge – where was the
heart of Jesus?
Satan makes
Jesus an offer which would be tempting to most anybody. A typical situation – you do this for me,
I’ll do that for you. So what is the offer? Satan says “I’ll give you all the kingdoms of
the world AND their riches and glory. Basically,
“I’ll give you anything and everything you ask and want.” WOW!
No more worry about winning ‘Publisher’s Clearing House’ contest. No more trying to ‘hit the lottery! Never having any needs or wants anymore. The first ‘trillionaire’! People at my beck and call! Who could resist?
The choice
is ours and that choice brings results – good or bad. Jesus stood fast against the devils because
His heart was always in the right place (with Father). Yes, He is the son of man, but He is also the
Son of God – God Himself come into this world in the flesh. Emmanuel (God is with us), Savior (our
gateway into eternal heaven). But
consider, Satan thought he could tempt the human side of Jesus because He was
in the flesh like us. Not ‘just’ like us
but similar. Yes, He was born a ‘man’. His Father is was not human but the Creator of
all things, Almighty God! Jesus resisted
because He was filled with the Holy Ghost which Father gives us. We, too, can resist the enemy because the
Holy Ghost abides in us! All we have to
do is listen and obey!
So Jesus
responded that we should worship the Lord God and worship only Him. That is, our heart should be devoted totally
to Father and we should always walk in His ways. Jesus gave the devil a command “Get away,
Satan!” Jesus knew what Satan was doing,
trying to draw the Son’s attention, steal His loyalty away from the
Father. Besides, Jesus is God (John 1:1). He created everything so everything was
already His (Gen. 1:1-31)! Likewise, as
soon as we realize Satan has taken the offensive against us, we need to do the
same “Get behind me, Satan, for Jesus is my Lord and Savior. He is my eternal salvation and I will serve
only the Father through Him”.
And helping
us to make the right moves is the Holy Spirit, God in us. We don’t fight alone because we have the Holy
Spirit and a multitude of brothers and sisters willing to stand with us against
the wiles of our enemy. Oh, and don’t
forget, we also have angels fighting with us as well – spheres and choirs of
angels. Father has established three
spheres of angel, each sphere with three choirs of angels. One sphere with three choirs helps us as we
fight what we see in the natural, the things of this earth, our body. The second sphere deals with Satan’s armies
in the heavenlies helping us with our psyche, our emotions and values. The third sphere which surrounds the throne
of God helps us with establishing and maintaining our heart in a solid
relationship with Father. So Father has
angels helping in every aspect of our warfare as we remember we don’t fight
against flesh and blood but against powers, principalities, rulers of darkness
of this world and against spiritual wickedness in high places.
We get an
inkling to this warfare in Daniel where the angel is delayed, by the Prince of
Persia, in bringing the answer to Daniel’s prayer (Dan. 10:10-14). God is with us! He gives us the Holy Spirit within and angels
without. We are surrounded by God’s
angels, HIs love! How can we lose (Acts
5:39, Rom. 8:31)? All we have to do is
listen to the Lord and be obedient to His Word.
And remember, Father will never put more on that than we are able to
handle (1 Corinth. 10:13).
Though we
battle in the natural, our true fight is in the spiritual. When our heart is aligned with our Father,
our emotions and thinking processes line up with His will. When our ‘cognitive’ processes are lined up
in God’s will, the body will follow suit.
Our body and
our desires line up with where our heart is and our heart is in tune with God’s
love. Body soul and spirit line up in
unity and all is focused in God’s will. We
are not serving two masters, therefore we are not divided. Jesus tells us that a house divided cannot
stand. So when the body, soul and spirit
are lined up under the influence of the Holy Ghost (in the Father through
Jesus) we become single. Who can stand
against us?
The body is
more than just bread. We need to know
what our freedom and limitations in Christ really involves. We have to know the Word to understand our
relationship with Father so we can make the right decisions. And when our
hearts are knitted together with the living God, we know that we are motivated
by our heavenly Father and there is nothing Satan can offer us. We know in Christ Jesus all power and
authority lies. We know who we are. We know who is Lord and we know the Father!
Amen