The Temptations of Jesus

 “This is the list of the ancestors of Jesus Christ, a descendant of David, who was a descendant of Abraham. From Abraham to King David, the following ancestors are listed: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah and his brothers; then Perez and Zerah (their mother was Tamar), Hezron, Ram, Amminadab, Nahshon, Salmon, Boaz (his mother was Rahab), Obed (his mother was Ruth), Jesse, and King David.” (Matthew 1:1-2)

 “From David to the time when the people of Israel were taken into exile in Babylon, the following ancestors are listed: David, Solomon (his mother was the woman who had been Uriah's wife), Rehoboam, Abijah, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon, Josiah, and Jehoiachin and his brothers.” (Matthew 1:7)

 “No one has ever seen God. The only Son, who is the same as God and is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.” (John 1:18)

 “…and the Holy Spirit came down upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my own dear Son. I am pleased with you.’” (Luke 3:22)  “And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.” (Mar 1:12)  “Jesus returned from the Jordan full of the Holy Spirit and was led by the Spirit into the desert, where he was tempted by the Devil for forty days. In all that time he ate nothing, so that he was hungry when it was over.” (Luke 4:1,2)  “He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. The tempter came and said… (Mat. 4:2)

 “God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone.” (James 1:13)  Omnipresent  Omniscient  Omnipotent

 “Now the snake was the most cunning animal that the LORD God had made. The snake asked the woman, ‘Did God really tell you not to eat fruit from any tree in the garden?’” (Genesis 3:1)  “You may eat the fruit of any tree in the garden…” (Genesis 2:16)

 “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,’ the woman replied. ‘It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’” (Genesis 3:2-3)

 “There is a notable change between what the Lord God had said and what the woman says. God said ‘you may freely eat’, but the woman omits the emphatic infinitive, saying simply, ‘we may eat.’ Her words do not reflect the sense of eating to her heart’s content.”  NET Bible footnotes

 “The snake replied, ‘That’s not true; you will not die..’” (Genesis 3:2-4)  “A blatant negation equal to saying: ‘Not – you will surely die.” (NET Bible footnote)

 “God said that because he knows that when you eat it, you will be like God and know what is good and what is bad.” (Genesis 3:5)

 Satan deceives us about God; he is God’s accuser (and ours)

 Job:  “When the day came for the heavenly beings to appear before the LORD Satan was there among them…  “Would Job worship you if he got nothing out of it?” (Job 1:6-9)  Satan accuses God in front of the on-looking universe

 Both were baptized:  “ I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that all our ancestors [who left Egypt] were under the cloud, and they all went through the sea. They were all united with Moses by baptism in the cloud and in the sea. All of them ate the same spiritual food, and all of them drank the same spiritual drink. They drank from the spiritual rock that went with them, and that rock was Christ. Yet, God was not pleased with most of them, so their dead bodies were scattered over the desert.” (1 Corinthians 10:1-4)

 Baptism followed by 40 years/days of temptation:  “Remember how the LORD your God led you on this long journey through the desert these past forty years, sending hardships to test you…” (Deuteronomy 8:2)  Jesus quotes Deuteronomy  Unfaithful Israel vs. Faithful Christ

 “The Devil said to him, ‘If you are God’s Son, order this stone to turn into bread.’ (Luke 4:3)  ‘You are my own dear Son. I am pleased with you.’” (Luke 3:22)  “Jesus answered, ‘The scripture says, Human beings cannot live on bread alone.’” (Luke 4:4)

 Designed to create doubt in his Father  Designed to lead Jesus to perform miracles for selfish reasons (save self or save others?)  Designed to strike at the root of God’s Kingdom

 “The Jewish authorities came back at him with a question, ‘What miracle can you perform to show us that you have the right to do this?’” (John 2:18)  “Herod was very pleased when he saw Jesus, because he had heard about him and had been wanting to see him for a long time. He was hoping to see Jesus perform some miracle. So Herod asked Jesus many questions, but Jesus made no answer.” (Luke 23:8-9)

 “People passing by shook their heads and hurled insults at Jesus: ‘You were going to tear down the Temple and build it back up in three days! Save yourself if you are God's Son! Come on down from the cross!’ In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the Law and the elders made fun of him: ‘He saved others, but he cannot save himself ! Isn’t he the king of Israel? If he will come down off the cross now, we will believe in him! He trusts in God and claims to be God’s Son. Well, then, let us see if God wants to save him now!’” (Matthew 27:39- 43)

 “Unselfishness, the principle of God’s kingdom, is the principle that Satan hates; its very existence he denies. From the beginning of the great controversy he has endeavored to prove God’s principles of action to be selfish, and he deals in the same way with all who serve God. To disprove Satan’s claim is the work of Christ and of all who bear His name. It was to give in His own life an illustration of unselfishness that Jesus came in the form of humanity. And all who accept this principle are to be workers together with Him in demonstrating it in practical life.” (Education 154)

 “…like the Son of Man, who did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life to redeem many people.” Matthew 20:28

 “Your task is to single-mindedly serve Christ….Strength is for service, not status. Each one of us needs to look after the good of the people around us, asking ourselves, ‘How can I help?’ That’s exactly what Jesus did.” (Romans 14:18; 15:1-3 – The Message)

 Designed to create doubt in his Father  Designed to lead Jesus to perform miracles for selfish reasons (save self or save others?)  Designed to strike at the root of God’s Kingdom  Designed to lead Jesus to use coercive power

 “What good thing comes from Nazareth?”  “He has a demon!”  “Show us a miracle if you are who you say you are!”

 “Don’t tell anyone…” (Matthew 8:4)  “Do you believe only because of the miracle?”

 “Then the Devil took him to Jerusalem and set him on the highest point of the Temple, and said to him, ‘If you are God's Son, throw yourself down from here. For the scripture says, 'God will order his angels to take good care of you.' It also says, 'They will hold you up with their hands so that not even your feet will be hurt on the stones.'  But Jesus answered, ‘The scripture says, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” (Luke 4:9-12)

 “Do not put the LORD your God to the test, as you did at Massah.” (Deuteronomy 6:16)  “They complained to Moses and said, ‘Give us water to drink.’ Moses answered, ‘Why are you complaining? Why are you putting the LORD to the test?’ But the people were very thirsty and continued to complain to Moses. They said, ‘Why did you bring us out of Egypt? To kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?’” (Exodus 17:2-3)  That place was called Massah” (Exodus 17:7)

 “Then the Devil took him up and showed him in a second all the kingdoms of the world. ‘I will give you all this power and all this wealth,’ the Devil told him. ‘It has all been handed over to me, and I can give it to anyone I choose. All this will be yours, then, if you worship me.’  Jesus answered, ‘The scripture says, 'Worship the Lord your God and serve only him!’” (Luke 4:5-7)  When the Devil finished tempting Jesus in every way, he left him for a while.” (Luke 4:13)  “Then the Devil left Jesus; and angels came and helped him.” (Matthew 4:11)

 “Do not let anyone deceive you in any way. For the Day will not come until the final Rebellion takes place and the Wicked One appears, who is destined to hell. He will oppose every so- called god or object of worship and will put himself above them all. He will even go in and sit down in God's Temple and claim to be God.” (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4)

 Pharisees  Church attendance  Bible reading  Mission work  Tithe paying  Calling God by the right name  Avoiding contact with the “heathen”  Did not worship idols  Sabbath  Eagerly awaiting the 1 st coming

 “You are of the children of your father, the Devil, and you wan to follow your father’s desires…When he tells a lie, he is only doing what is natural to him, because he is a liar and the father of the lie.” (John 8:44)

 “Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea…The dragon gave the beast his own power…It opened its mouth in slander against God, misrepresenting his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven.” (Revelation 13:1-6)

 Today:  Church attendance  Bible reading  Mission work  Tithe paying  Calling God by the right name  Sabbath  Eagerly awaiting the 2 nd coming