Temptation – Calling & Ministry
Text: Read Matthew 4
April 30, 2020
The
Temptations of Jesus Vs. 1-4
We ought not
think it strange when we face trials and temptations of various kinds. After
all, Jesus was led, deliberately, into the wilderness to be tempted of the
devil. This was no mistake that He was there. It was a planned event by God
Himself. Jesus would have to do what we all must do – draw near to God and
resist the devil. He was tempted in every area we are:
Lust of the
flesh – What we want to have
The pride of
life – What we want to do on our own
Lust of the
eyes – What we see that we want
In each of the
temptations, the enemy wanted to attack Jesus’ identity, and get Him derailed
into thinking if He truly was the Son of God, He shouldn’t have to suffer being
hungry another minute. All He would have to do is tell the stones to become
bread.
It didn’t stop
there. Satan took Him up into the holy city and tempted Him to throw Himself
down, thereby testing God to see if He would send the angels to catch Him
before He hit the ground. Here, the devil was trying to get Jesus to trust in
Himself and not God. All of it was an evil attempt to get Him away from the
plan of God and into his evil kingdom.
Lastly, when Satan
took Jesus to show Him all the kingdoms of the world that were under his
authority since the fall of mankind, he would try to get Jesus to worship him
rather than God – using the lust of the eyes – seeing all the worldly things,
to get Jesus to fail.
None of it
worked. Because of Jesus’ intimacy with the Father God, He knew enough about
His Father and had enough faith to know that He could withstand all those evil
temptations and that in the end, God would take care of Him – and He did.
The Father did
send the angels to minister to Him. And friends, He will send them to minister
to us too – if we will only believe. Look at the following verse.
Hebrews 1:13-14
But to which of the angels
has He ever said: “Sit at My
right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool”? Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to
minister for those who will inherit salvation?
Too often we
can get distracted with the cares of this life. Look at this:
Mark 4:13-20
And He said to them, “Do you
not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? The
sower sows the word. And these are the ones by the
wayside where the word is sown. When they hear, Satan comes immediately and
takes away the word that was sown in their hearts. These likewise are the
ones sown on stony ground who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it
with gladness; and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for
a time. Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word’s sake,
immediately they stumble. Now these are the ones
sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, and
the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires
for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. But
these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it, and
bear fruit: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.”
When God wants our attention, we
would do well to let other things just wait for a while. Busyness can be a real
hindrance to our relationship with Jesus. So also the preoccupation with food, money and other things which can be a
broad category in itself.
From the book of Proverbs, if you
read a Proverb a day to keep the devil away, this is a passage that is well worth contemplating:
Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to
those who put their trust in Him. Do not add to His words, lest He rebuke you,
and you be found a liar.
Two things I request of You (Deprive me not before I
die):
Remove falsehood and lies far from me; Give me neither poverty nor
riches— Feed me with the food allotted to me; Lest I be full and deny You,
and say, “Who is the Lord?”
Or lest I be poor and steal, and profane the name of my God.
Here we see the Psalmist asking God
to “keep him in check” so to speak. He wants to have what he needs to live, but
not so much that he stops depending on God. This doesn’t mean that the Lord
does not want us to have wealth or good food – He just doesn’t want it to have
us.
Jesus was fully God, and fully man.
He was sent to the earth to do a job for us that we couldn’t do for ourselves.
He laid down all His mighty weight and glory while He was here on the earth so
He could live just like us – as a human. In so doing, He would reveal to us an
example of how to walk humbly and closely with our God, while still doing all
that we need to do in this world. Jesus can understand what we go through. From
the book of Hebrews, look at this:
Hebrews 4:14-16
Seeing then that we have a great High Priest
who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot
sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we
are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of
grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Today, as we
look at this passage about the temptations of Jesus, I believe it is a simple task indeed for most
of us to look and see where we have missed it, time and time again. Oh, that we
would have the faith that Jesus has. Ah, but He said He gave all of us a
measure of faith – so we can’t blame anyone for a lack of faith except ourselves.
It is up to each one of us to put our faith to work and cause it to grow. We
may be strong in some areas, but weak in others. Something to think seriously
about is how we can work on improving that, amen!
Jesus Begins
His Public Ministry Vs. 12-17
After all Jesus
went through in the wilderness, having proved Himself faithful, it was now time
to get into the ministry for which He had been born.
In this
passage, we get to see where Jesus lived. He had made His home in Capernaum. Can
you imagine what it must have been like for the people to have Jesus living
right there among them? Well, that’s why He came. So we could “dwell with Him.”
What a glorious thing. The people back then would get a foretaste of heaven with
Jesus, and when He left, He gave us the Holy Spirit of God so we too can have
this wonderful blessing of salvation and light as long as we live on earth and
forever more.
What an
exciting time for the people of this earth, both then and now. Living in
darkness ever since the fall of mankind, people have groaned for a Savior.
Well, the Lord had arrived on the scene. Soon, their spiritual darkness would
become light.
Jesus’ ministry
was to preach repentance. As He did, people came from all around to repent and
receive His light. The key to this ministry was and is to get people to come
close to God. Jesus didn’t mess around with letting people know that they could
go on living the way they were. They would need to display a change of heart,
like we looked at yesterday through John the Baptists’ ministry.
Indeed, the
kingdom of heaven was right there staring them in the face. And by the Holy
Spirit, He still is today. He is calling His people to get right with Him – especially
now, with all that is happening in the world. If ever there was a time to draw
close to God – it’s now. Jesus came to do work the ministry of reconciliation.
Look at this:
2 Corinthians
12:18-21
Now all things are of God, who
has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the
ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was
in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses
to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as
though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s
behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to
be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Calling the
Disciples Vs. 18-22
Immediately
Jesus began calling a special group of men whom He could teach and train over
the next three years or so. He began with Simon (Peter) and his brother Andrew.
They had been fisherman for their trade. Now, Jesus would call them to become
fishers of men. How symbolic is that. He went on to call more fishermen, James
and John, and they too left their fishing trade to follow Jesus. Little did
they know what would lay ahead, and still they went.
Isn’t that what
Jesus is calling us to do today? He is looking for disciples on every corner of
the earth. The original group would be used to introduce Christianity to the
world through preaching and teaching, along with signs and wonders by the Holy
Spirit. He has a specific call for each one of us, and that remains as long as
we live.
Romans 11:29
For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
Today, Jesus is
looking for those who will lay down their lives for their brothers and become
fishers of men too. It doesn’t necessarily mean that they will have to drop
their work, unless they are called to preach full time or enter ministry some
other way on a full time basis. All of us get an opportunity to be a disciple of
Jesus.
Romans 12:6-8
Having then gifts differing according to the
grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let
us prophesy in proportion to our faith; or
ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who
teaches, in teaching; he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with
liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with
cheerfulness.
1 John 3:16
By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to
lay down our lives for the brethren.
If we do,
though we will not know what it will entail, we can be sure there will be some
challenges to face. The devil is as real and nasty today as he ever was, and if
we are a disciple of Jesus, we can be sure that he isn’t going to sit idly by
while we preach the gospel. Like Jesus, we will have to learn to walk in great
faith and stay close to God – watching and praying. Then and only then can we
be truly safe from the snares of the enemy – like Jesus was.
Jesus’
Ministry Duties Vs. 23-25
This is an
awesome passage that shows what types of things Jesus came to do. He was in the
business of teaching in the synagogue, preaching the gospel far and wide, and
healing all kinds of sicknesses and diseases. He helped people with torments of
various kinds, and He healed the demon possessed. Yes, Jesus did it all. He did
it then, and even though we cannot physically see Him, He is doing it now
through His Holy Spirit. What an awesome Savior He is.
Acts 10:36-38
The word which God sent to the children of
Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ—He is Lord of all— that
word you know, which was proclaimed throughout all Judea, and began from
Galilee after the baptism which John preached: how God
anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went
about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God
was with Him.
My
Experience
Like most
people at various times, I can say that my day didn’t necessarily go as I had
hoped it would. I got up later than usual, and before long the interruptions began
and away I went with them before finishing my time with Jesus. Distractions of eating
and general every day duties soon crept in to take my attention away from the
One who really should matter most. It took all day to finally get settled down
to finish this devotional. Until I did, I didn’t feel right. Nothing I tried to
do was going right and I knew I was being led to stop, rest, and start all over
again.
Fortunately we
serve our God who is patient and kind. He may need to prod us a bit to get us
going down the right road , but that’s OK. We will experience all kinds of
temptations, just like we see Jesus did in this chapter. I certainly did today.
Whether it was the enemy or my flesh, both must be watched closely. Neither can
be trusted!
It was exciting
to see how Jesus began His ministry of love for a dark world. I know
personally, when I’m not drawing close to Jesus, things can seem dark and feel
dry. I have to learn like everyone that many times, we just need to stop, grab
ourselves by the neck and just sit down. We may have to cry it out for a few
moments, but after that’s all done, He will comfort us and cause us to draw
near to Him once again. That was my experience today.
I am dealing
with a couple of issues that are far to big for me to handle, so I have to keep
releasing it to the Lord. In this time, I must remember that the battler is
His.
1 Samuel 17:47
Then all this assembly shall know that the Lord does not save
with sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s, and He will give you into our hands.”
The comforting
thing is that Jesus will heal us. Whether we feel physically sick, or
spiritually dry, He is there for us – no
matter how it may feel at the moment. I have seen many trials and temptations
as a disciple of Jesus, and friend, the battle can get very ugly. But He who is
greater in us is greater than he who is in this world. We must never forget it.
1 John 4:4
You are of God, little children, and have overcome them,
because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the
world.
How About
You?
Have you been
facing temptations that seem overwhelming? What is your plan to keep yourself
from the enemy’s snare? The Bible says this:
James 4:7-8a
Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil
and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
Matthew 26:41
Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing,
but the flesh is weak.”
Do you know
what your calling is? As you think about this, do you need further prayer to
determine next steps?
When you face
the battle, how are you leaning on God to help you through it?