Matthew 4:1-11
In the Name of Jesus, the Valiant One Whom God Himself Elected, Dear Christian Friends,
“Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves” (Ge 3:7). That’s how our First Lesson for this morning ended. What an embarrassing defeat! Adam and Eve were led to believe that they didn’t need God, that they could handle the devil, disguised in that talkative little snake, all by themselves. So they let him serve the first shot, but they couldn’t volley with him. His lies looked too good to resist. He was promising them divine status, and they took the bait. The result? They lost, and they looked bad in doing so. Instead of rubbing elbows with God they ended up scurrying for something to cover their nakedness which, for the first time, made them uncomfortable. Now they knew shame. Now their eyes were open, and what they saw bothered them. Now they saw a ruined creation, a sin-stained shambles of what they once had. They had been to battle with the devil, and the result was a humiliating and deadly defeat.
But, as the saying goes, the devil may have won the battle, but the war was far from over. The cavalry was on the way. The Lord promised to send help when he told the devil (Ge 3:15), “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” This morning Matthew shows us the Lord’s “crusher” in action. We see Jesus in hand-to-hand combat with the devil, and this time we’re not disappointed by the result. Let’s see how the devil takes his best shots, but every time our Lord responds with winning returns. In the end the decision is clear. Jesus wins:
“Game, Set, Match!”
I. Jesus refused to play Satan’s “game”
II. Jesus refused to be “set” up by Satan
III. Satan proved to be no “match” for Jesus
God sent his Son to this world for one reason (1 Jn 3:8): “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.” Jesus was eager to take the battle to him. We see this in the opening verse of our text (v 1), “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.” Being led by the Spirit to face the devil’s temptations doesn’t mean that Jesus did so against his will. Quite the contrary. To defeat the devil Jesus knew he had to face him, one-on-one. And he knew the one he was up against. In the Greek language the word diabolos is the word we translate “devil.” It’s the word from which we get our word diabolical. It means “slanderer” or “liar,” very fitting descriptions of what Satan is all about. He invented the lie and worked it to perfection. That’s why Jesus refers to him as “a liar and the father of lies” (Jn 8:44). Satan knew who Jesus was. He knew he was the Lord’s Messiah. So he was determined to do whatever it would take to get Jesus to slip up, to just once go against his Father’s will. He had already won a battle against Adam and Eve. Now he wanted another victory so he could claim the whole world as his own. So he launches his attacks against Jesus. This morning we’re told about just three of these confrontations between our Lord and his evil adversary, but we’re left with no doubt as to who the victor is.
“After fasting forty days and forty nights, [Jesus] was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, ‘If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread’” (vv 2,3). Jesus had been fasting for almost a month and a half. Being true man, Jesus naturally was hungry. For the past 40 days, his heavenly Father had sustained him as he had refrained from food. In his Gospel Luke tells us that the devil made regular visits to Jesus in the desert (Lk 4:2), “For forty days he was tempted by the devil.” There weren’t just three temptations lobbed at our Lord. This shouldn’t surprise us. The devil is called “the tempter” here. Tempting is what he does for a living. The temptation he launches at Jesus here is for him to ease his hunger by using his divine power to turn stones into bread, to avoid suffering and to stop trusting his heavenly Father to provide for him. It was the same technique he had used on Eve, trying to raise doubts and suspicions in Jesus’ mind. If, in fact, he was the Son of God, why should he wait for his Father in heaven to provide for him? Why didn’t he just take matters into his own hands?
Jesus refused to play Satan’s game. He answered this temptation by using “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Eph 6:17). “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God’” (v 4). Jesus used the words of Deuteronomy 8:3 to show that man does not live because of food, but because God says so. Jesus demonstrated his complete trust in his Father to provide for him. He later would proclaim (Jn 4:34), “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.” All the bread in the world wouldn’t keep him alive if his Father didn’t want him to live. If he wanted Jesus around to save the world, he would make sure that he would survive, even after going 40 days without food. Jesus refused to doubt his heavenly Father, and he refused to play Satan’s game. Round one goes to our Lord!
If nothing else, the devil is persistent (vv 5,6), “Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. ‘If you are the Son of God,’ he said, ‘throw yourself down. For it is written: “He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.”’” Another attempt to create doubt. If Jesus truly was the Son of God, certainly his Father wouldn’t let anything happen to him. So Satan was telling Jesus, “Prove it! And since you’re in the habit of quoting Scripture, look what he says in Psalm 91. He’ll send his angels to protect you. So go ahead and jump. You’ve got nothing to fear — if you really believe that your Father will protect you.”
Jesus refused to be set up with this temptation. Once again he answers with Scripture (v 7), “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Satan had tried to quote Scripture, but he had pulled it out of context. The verses he had quoted from Psalm 91 are not a promise of unlimited angelic protection under all circumstances. They are instead an assurance of the Lord’s protection as we go about our daily activities. Martin Luther had this to say, “If the devil does not succeed in robbing us of our confidence in God, he will go to the other extreme and try to make us cocksure and much too daring.” To tempt God in such a way is not an act of faith, but a demonstration of doubt. It’s trying to make God prove who he is by forcing him to perform a supernatural act. Instead we are to rely on him and trust in him to watch over us, as Jesus proved by avoiding the trap Satan had set for him. Round two again goes to our Lord!
But Satan wasn’t ready to admit defeat. He tries again, this time attempting to make a deal with Jesus (vv 8,9), “Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. ‘All this I will give you,’ he said, ‘if you will bow down and worship me.’” This may have been the toughest test of all for Jesus. Remember, Jesus had come to win the world. Now Satan was saying it all could be his without having to suffer and die for it. He was giving Jesus a better option, a shortcut to his final goal, if he would just forget about his Father’s will and bow down to him, the prince of this world.
The father of lies was living up to his name here. First of all, “all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor” didn’t belong to the devil. If Jesus had bowed down to him, not only would he have not won the world for himself, but the exact opposite would have occurred. The world would have been lost because it would have lost the Savior. Satan had lied. Scripture tells us (Ps 24:1), “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world and all who live in it.” Satan was selling, but once again Jesus wasn’t buying.
A third time Jesus uses the power of Scripture to refute the devil’s temptation (v 10), “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’” To worship the devil would have been worshiping a false god, thereby breaking the First Commandment. Jesus would not commit such an idolatrous act. He wasn’t looking for shortcuts to get around the will of his Father. He was determined to walk the path his Father had set before him, no matter how difficult that path may have been. He had come to do his Father’s will, and he wanted nothing to do with what the devil had to offer.
In his Epistle James tells us (4:7), “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” Jesus proved this to be true (v 11), “Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.” Satan proved to be no match for Jesus! When told to leave, he had to obey. Sure, he’d be back again, but the result would always be the same. He could never stack up against Jesus. As we sang this morning (CW 200:3), “This world’s prince may still Scowl fierce as he will, He can harm us none. He’s judged; the deed is done! One little word can fell him.” Our Savior proved this to be true as well. Now we rejoice in his victory, because “the kingdom’s ours forever” (CW 200:4)!
So what do we take home with us today? Three points seem to stand out. First of all, let us never underestimate “the old evil foe.” Peter tells us (1 Pe 5:8), “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” Satan never takes a vacation. He never takes a day off. He doesn’t even pause for a coffee break. He’s constantly on the prowl, waiting for us to slip up. And he knows our weaknesses. He knows us better than we know ourselves, and he tempts us accordingly. We have to be on our guard at all times. The moment we think that Satan can’t get to us is the moment he’s got us right where he wants us. Keep in mind the warning of the apostle Paul (1 Co 10:12), “If you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!”
How do we stand up against the devil’s temptations? We use what the Lord gives us (Eph 6:10,11,17), “Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. . . . Take . . . the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” Use the same weapon Jesus used — the Word of God! Sunday School children and those in confirmation, now do you see why we have you memorize those Bible passages? God wants us to be ready to counter the devil’s temptations, to send him away by firing back at him with God’s Word. If we don’t know the Word, we can’t use it. If we don’t arm ourselves with the weapons the Lord provides for us, then we’ll fall and give in. Remember, “one little word” — God’s Word — “can fell him”!
Finally, we can’t go home this morning without realizing that by overcoming the devil’s temptations Jesus proved to us that he is the unblemished Son of God who lived a perfect life for you and me. We rejoice when we read in Hebrews that “we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are yet was without sin” (4:15). During this Lenten season our attention so often is centered on the cross, the place of our Savior’s death. But don’t forget to look at all that took place before the cross came into the picture. Before we look at our Savior’s death, let’s look at his life. The cross wouldn’t mean a thing if Jesus didn’t have any righteousness to exchange for our sins when he died. He had to do battle everyday against every assault the devil launched against him. He had to overcome every temptation hurled his way. He had to be perfect — and he was! His perfect obedience to the will of his Father is what made it possible for us to be clothed in righteousness as we stand before our God in heaven, confident that we are fit to spend eternity with him. Before he died for us, Jesus lived for us. And in so doing he won the war over Satan — for us and for all people!
The best news of all? When Jesus defeated the devil, his victory was complete. There’s nothing left for us to do. When we put our trust in our Savior, Satan can’t harm us. When we resist him with God’s power, he has to leave us also. Jesus has rendered him powerless. If we venture out on our own, he can still do some damage. But with Christ at our side, we have nothing to fear. The victory has been won!
So, if you’re scoring at home, jot down the winner. It’s a rout! The margin of victory is overwhelming! Our Lord remains undefeated! The devil has been defeated. Jesus’ victory is complete — game, set, match!
Amen
–Rev Jonathan Rockhoff