Greetings in the name of the Lord Jesus to all of our folks watching and listening. We love you all very much. Thank you for joining us.
We pray for you all the time. You're a priority for us here. And we thank you for saying hello to us when you do.
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We know you will. And thank you for joining us for our journey through the Gospel of Matthew today. Of course, we're in Matthew chapter 4, and we will complete the text concerning Jesus' duel with Satan in the wilderness and in Jerusalem, or what we commonly refer to as the temptation of Jesus. Those of you met here in person, would you please stand to honor.
The reading of the word of the Lord, Matthew chapter 4. I'll go ahead and start again in verse 5. Matthew chapter 4 verses 5 to 11, although today we'll resume actually in verse 10. Then the devil took him into the holy city, and he had him stand on the pinnacle of the temple. And he said to him, If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, He will give his angels charge concerning you. And on their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against the stone. Jesus said to him, On the other hand, it is written, You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.
Again the devil took him to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, where we will resume today. And Satan said to him, All these things I will give you, if you fall down and worship me. Then Jesus said to him, Be gone, Satan, for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God and serve him only. Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and began to minister to him. These are the words of the Lord.
Thanks be to God for them. Thank you, folks. You may be seated.
Sovereign Lord God, our Heavenly Father, Ruler of Heaven and Earth, thank you for these greatest events in all of history according to your plan, the greatest story ever told, your plan for all of history from Alpha to Omega, with your Divine Son as the great champion, the great king, the great hero in the center of it all. Thank you for saving us from ourselves and from the temptations of the evil one and from a dark world that is under his influence, but only for a time, until the Divine Son returns in his second advent. and ends the evil one and all evil forever. Thank you for creating us and redeeming us to be a part of this wonderful story and this plan. Bless this, the humble proclamation of your word throughout this place, throughout our nation, and throughout the world.
Bless our brothers and sisters overseas who've been with us for some time. We love them very much. Ease their heartaches, their troubles, their pains, their difficulties.
Fill them with your spirit and the power of your word to assist them in their journey on their way to the eternal home. May everything that is said and done here bring honor and glory to you, O Lord our God, our Rock and our Redeemer. In Messiah Jesus' name we pray.
Amen. Resuming in verse 10, well again I'll give Satan's temptation, as we discussed, studied last week, what many theologians believe to be arguably the worst or the most difficult one of all. Certainly a temptation which probably no mere... mortal, sinful, flawed human being could resist to rule the world and everyone and everything in it. How relevant is that?
We have tyrants the world over who are still trying to do that to this very day, still falling for that old temptation of the evil one. He took him to a very high mountain, and as we discussed last week, this is probably a supernatural vision. at least to the kingdoms of the world, and they were great, especially the empire of Rome in the first century A.D.
showed him their glory. All of these things I will give you, which as we discussed last week, is a lie. I will give you if you fall down and worship me, proskuneo, the word which Matthew uses for worship, which always means the worship which is due to God and to God alone.
Then Jesus said to him, by the by, this is upago, I believe in the Greek, which is an extremely strong command, an imperative. Go be gone, you could translate it literally, here in the New American Standard Bible, be gone, get away, get gone, you could translate it all that way. Be gone, Satan.
And by the way, Satan is as much as an insult as a name, because the word essentially means enemy. or adversary. Be gone, enemy.
Be gone, adversary. Be gone, Satan. For it is written, and a quote from sacred scripture, you shall worship the Lord your God and serve him only. So according to Jesus, there can be only one response. There can be only one answer to Satan's temptation, even this one and every other one besides.
And again, the Son of God defeats and refutes the evil one, this time not only with a citation or quote of sacred scripture, using scripture literally as a weapon, the sword of the spirit, as Paul will later say, but he defeats and refutes the evil one with a very strong command of his own, as well as a command from sacred scripture, from the old moral law of God. according to the book of Deuteronomy. Very strong command from the Word of God, sacred scripture, one of the main lessons to be learned from this encounter.
And again, Jesus draws from, again, the law of God, the old moral law of God, God's standards for behavior and conduct for His people in this world, according to the Old Covenant, the book of Deuteronomy in particular. But first notice the very strong upago, be gone, get away, Satan. What is this saying to us?
It's command. It's very sharp command. It's very harsh. It means that Jesus is the one who's really in control here. And Jesus is asserting himself here.
Up until this time he has been, how should I say it, tolerating the evil one. And now he will tolerate him no longer. Perhaps tolerating isn't even the right word I want to use. But because Jesus has been locked in combat with him, of course.
But Jesus is the one with the real authority and the real power here. And now is the time to assert it once and for all and end this contest. For the time being, he has had quite enough of the devil's arrogant, blasphemous, presumptuous behavior.
For so it is, of course. And Jesus sternly and sharply criticizes him, commands him, and dismisses him. Drives him away, commands him away.
He brusquely calls the evil one Satan or Satan. Which simply means, as I mentioned a moment ago, enemy or adversary. Don't forget that name, because that's exactly who he is.
That's exactly what he is. He's your worst enemy. He's humanity's worst enemy. He's creation's worst enemy. And Jesus brusquely calls him this name, which I believe, frankly, is something of an accusation, something of an insult.
Doesn't call him king. Doesn't call him prince. Doesn't call him Lord, not even of the dark world, not even of the demonic world, just simply enemy. And we'll give the devil no more than that. By the by, we should follow our great Captain Jesus into battle and learn from his example.
Now, shouldn't we? Jesus will tolerate Satan no longer, and we shouldn't tolerate him either. He gives the devil no more than that.
no more than what he is, an enemy, no more than what he deserves, and neither should we. Theologian R.T. France, in his wonderful commentary, writes, Jesus, we must understand, is not just terminating this interview. He is sending his enemy packing in full retreat, end quote.
And that's exactly what he's doing, and that's very important, because all of our hopes hang upon this battle, and upon the battle in the Garden of Gethsemane, upon the battle that will be. Fought and won on Jesus' cross and his empty tomb. But we're well on our way because Jesus won here. And if he didn't win here, we would have no hope. We have all the hope that is more than enough because Jesus won here.
Not terminating an interview, but defeating his enemy and sending him on the run. Praise be to God, we have hope. And because Jesus defeated him in the power of Jesus, in the name of Jesus. In the Word of Jesus, in the Spirit of Jesus, you and I are expected to do exactly the same when we lock horns with the evil one, pardon the expression, in combat.
And if you haven't fought him, you're going to, because the New Testament makes it abundantly clear that the kingdom of the Christ will be filled not with cowards, but with overcomers, with hard-bitten, hard-fought veterans who will be rewarded on the day of days for defeating. the kingdom of darkness in our lifetime and our chapter of history on our watch after our redemption. The battle won by the Son of God who is ultimately lost humanity's finest champion for all of us collectively and all of us personally and because he won again we can win but What does Satan do?
Does he argue the point? Does he stand around and try to fight it out a bit to the bitter end any longer? No. Verse 11 says, then the devil left him immediately, full retreat. And that's written rather strong in the Greek as well.
I absolutely love that. Sometimes we translate it a little on the soft side in English. Satan fled from him when Jesus gave him that kind.
of a command. By the way, what does the New Testament say later on? Resist the devil and he will what? He will flee from you.
Here you have it. It all began here with the incarnation of Jesus and his first mission in this world, the first century AD. Jesus resisted, Jesus commanded, the devil fled.
In Jesus, you who are born again in his name and in his power. Using his word authoritatively and honestly, you can resist the devil and you can cause the evil one to flee as well. Now, Satan must obey Jesus' command and rebuke.
So Jesus asserts his place and the battle is ended. It is just that simple. No questions asked.
The victory belongs to the Son of God as it was meant to, as it was planned. And the enemy can only skulk away in defeat. And now to Jesus' scriptural command.
Let me read the verse again. Be gone, Satan, for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only. So this time, Jesus again quotes from the book of Deuteronomy, the moral law of God given to the Old Covenant people by way of Moses.
But where do you find it? Well, you will find this time Jesus' quote from Deuteronomy 6, verse 13. So I'm going to go there. If you want to follow me, you can. If not, I, of course, will read it for you. I'm going to read a couple of verses from chapter 6 because they all were considered as one.
One sacred holy text to obey and to honor the one true living God. First, verse 1 of chapter 6 says, Now this is the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments which the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you that you might do them in the land where you were going over to possess it. Of course, this is Moses giving the law of God to the nation of Israel.
Now let's go to verse 4. Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, and with all of your might. And these words which I am commanding you today shall be on your heart. Now let's move over to verse 13. I'll read 16 as well. Well, first I'll read 16. Remember from last week?
You shall not put the Lord your God to the test, as you did at Massah, one of the places where they rebelled against God in the desert. Today, verse 13, Jesus' quote from what we know of is Deuteronomy 6.13. You shall fear, worship, serve only the Lord your God. Of course, you will find that all in capitals, he is using God's memorial name, Yahweh, the Great I Am. You shall fear and worship only the great I am, Yahweh, the Lord your God.
You shall worship him and swear by his name, he and he alone. So now let me read you something that Dr. Spiros Zidiades has in my keyword study Bible. To the Jews of the Old Covenant, this is the most important text in the book of Deuteronomy. And this agrees with Jesus' own assessment.
Because Jesus will call, Deuteronomy chapter 6, the call to worship God and He and He alone, Jesus will call this the greatest and foremost commandment, to love the Lord your God with all of your being. The ancient Jews of the Old Covenant referred to these verses as the Shema, since that is the first word in the text in Hebrew, Shema, meaning to listen with the sense of taking heed to it, paying attention to it, and obeying it. This is the central tenet. In the monotheism of the Old Covenant Jews, the worship of the one true God, Jesus quoted part of this verse in response to one of Satan's temptations against him in the wilderness. In fact, this early part of the book of Deuteronomy, which was spoken by Moses, while Israel was still in the period of her wilderness wanderings, this formed the basis of all three of Jesus' responses to Satan.
You shall not put the Lord your God to the test. You shall not live on bread alone. And so forth.
It forms the entire basis for Jesus refuting him. Defeating him and commanding him away. The passage warned old Israel concerning the heinous sin of idolatry. And by the way, that's what Satan is tempting Jesus to do, to commit the sin of idolatry.
That crass, that simple, that bold, that blasphemous. Of course, idolatry is worshiping anyone or anything other than God himself. And this is what Jesus uses against the evil men. the command against idolatry.
And the evil one is who? He's what? He's the originator of all idolatry.
Because ever since he rebelled against God in ages past, what does he want? The worship that's due to God. Satan wants to replace God. He's been trying ever since.
He's been tempting human beings to replace themselves with God, to worship ourselves instead of God. And so Jesus uses a command against idolatry. against he who originated idolatry in the first place.
So once again, what does this mean? Pull the whole story together because that's what's happening here. This is what you need to look for.
Adam and Eve failed, and they fell into a form of idolatry. Not wanting to worship themselves as much as the old dragon that tempted them, they failed. Jesus was tempted.
He won. He succeeded. Israel fell into idolatry, the golden calf.
Constant rebellion against God and the difficulties in the wilderness. They failed. They failed miserably.
But where Adam and Eve failed and where old Israel failed in the wilderness wanderings, Jesus will succeed. And in some ways, Jesus had it a lot harder than all of the rest of them did. And that most of us do.
Jesus will succeed where all of the others failed. And Jesus' victory over Satan in this skirmish, this encounter, what does it do? It points to better things to come, to more things to come.
It points to and anticipates Jesus' final victory over Satan in his mission by way of his victory over Satan in the garden to complete his mission, by victory over Satan on his cross, and by victory over Satan in his resurrection. It will also point to Jesus' many numerous victories during his three or three and a half year ministry in and out of synagogues and all of these locations all over the Roman provinces of Palestine where Jesus did what? He drove out demons away from people or out of people, constantly liberating people from the tyranny of the evil one's minions, other demons, fallen angels.
And of course, it points to something that hasn't quite happened yet. One of the most important events in history, one of the most important events in the plan. I hope you're looking forward to it. It also points to Jesus' final victory over Satan upon his return in his second advent.
His victory over Satan at the final judgment, at the very end of history, as we now know it. Now a word from Brother Leon, Brother Leon Morris. Notice Jesus rejects this temptation with great strength and decision, just as he rejected all of the earlier temptations, again by citing a passage of the Word of God.
Notice Matthew records Jesus as saying, Upago, go away. Very decisive rejection of the proposition that Satan has made. By the way, we should just as well decisively reject any propositions that Satan throws our way. Our Lord Jesus will have absolutely nothing to do with Satan suggested or with the one who suggested it. Satan is used here for the first time in this gospel, and Matthew will call the evil one Satan four times throughout the course of this gospel.
He or the apostles, Jesus will. The word is the meaning of enemy and is being used for the being who is most strongly opposed to God and to the best interests of the people that God has made and redeemed. Notice again, Jesus says, It stands written.
This is a phrase meaning the absolute unquestioned authority of everything that proceeds from the mouth of God. The absolute authoritative quality of the Bible, of Scripture, of God's Word. Jesus proceeds to quote from Deuteronomy again, this time from what we know of as chapter 6, verse 13. In this passage, the Lord your God stands first with great emphasis, meaning not Satan or anyone else, but God, and God alone is to be the one and only object of worship.
And when Jesus uses the prefix, the Lord, And the passage uses the prefix the Lord. This points, of course, to God's divine majesty, which he and he alone possesses. You will worship is the force of an imperative, a strong command. The passage gives instruction on the object of worship, God alone.
Divine honors of any kind are for God and God alone. Notice we have worship and serve. Serve is another word that points to service offered. to God and God alone. Worship and this kind of service that Deuteronomy speaks of, that Jesus speaks of, is not ever to be offered to human beings or to any angelic being, however high or low they may be.
The terms worship service refer to what is proper for God alone, not for any other human being, and certainly not for the evil one. And this, brothers and sisters, we must live and die on if necessary. This has gotten Christians like us in trouble for the past 2,000 years to this very day.
We will not bow to anyone but the Lord God, the Almighty, and He, Father, Son, and Spirit, and He alone. Not Satan, not any demons, and not any sinful human tyrants whom they serve. God alone.
Only is a very important word. It is worth reflecting that while Satan offered Jesus sovereignty over all the earth, an authority he really didn't have, if Jesus would but worship him, this is the point I made last week. Jesus insisted on obeying and worshiping the Father with whom he is one.
The Father only. And what happened for Jesus at the completion of his mission that we read of in Matthew chapter 28? Because Jesus remained faithful to the Father and the Father alone, the Father's will and the Father's plan alone, after his resurrection, Jesus can then say, all authority and power upon heaven and on earth has been given to me. Legitimately and truthfully. Satan offered the kingdoms of this world.
He can offer no more than that. And that's a lie. But God the Father gave him what?
Heaven and earth. Folks, that's a phrase that you could just as well translate into English as all power and authority in the cosmos, the universe, the created order has been given to me by perfect obedience and total union and total solidarity with the will and the plan of the Father, God, God alone. Verse 11. Then the devil left him, and behold, angels, holy angels, began to diakonun, minister to him, or serve him.
The ESV Study Bible, textual note, which many of you have, says, Jesus resisted the devil by standing firm on God's words, setting an example for his followers. And you can refer to James chapter 4 verse 7 and to 1 Peter chapter 5 verse 9 on further instructions for the Christian to resist the devil. And as you do so when you do so in the power of Jesus' name, in the power of his spirit, in the truth of his word, he will run from you. Then angels came and were ministering to him.
Their ministering, that of the holy angels, probably included, I would say most certainly it did include, much needed physical sustenance which Jesus' human physical body badly needs at this time. All of heaven knew the significance of Jesus' initial victory over Satan in this cosmic battle. I like that he uses the word cosmic.
It is a cosmic battle. What does he mean by cosmic battle? It means a battle that goes beyond this world.
It means a battle both in this physical world. It means a battle in the spiritual realm as well. Jesus won a victory over Satan in both worlds, the spirit realm and this temporal world as we know it. Jesus' victory is over it all, all the forces of darkness here and anywhere.
It's a victory which encompasses the whole universe. It's a victory in which he not only will raise up members of lost humanity, but he will raise up the very created order itself on the last day when he returns. Now, ministering to him. I think I gave it away already.
The word in the Greek to minister or to serve is diakonon. Does that sound familiar? Diakonon or diakonate?
It's the Greek word by which you get the English word deacon. Deacons in the church are diakonon. It means deacons, their role in the church is to serve. the literal physical needs of the members of the church who are in need.
That's what deacons do. And so that's what this group of deaconate angels, holy angels, are doing. They are literally serving the physical needs of the very, very tried physical body of Jesus. They're bringing them food, they're bringing them water, and they are providing him with a comfortable place to stay, a way to rest, a way to sleep. to literally assist and heal his physical body.
And he's been suffering greatly on our behalf for 40 days. He's just about reached the end of his limit. So doctors say, I've told you before, about 40 days, the medical folks say that's about as long as a human body can go without permanent physical damage in a fast. So the evil one, the leader of demons, fallen angels, slinks away in defeat, and he's replaced. There's no spiritual vacuum.
There's either going to be evil around you or there's going to be good around you. There's no such thing as a spiritual vacuum. You get rid of evil, it's going to be replaced with good. You ignore good, turn your back on good, it will be replaced by evil. No such thing as a spiritual vacuum and there's not here, even with Jesus.
The defeat of the evil one, he is removed and the evil one is replaced by the assisting. Presence of holy angels. And we should not forget the kind presence of holy angels who are sent by God to care and assist, to care for and assist those whom God loves and favors. We find this all through sacred scripture, through the history that's given us in the Old and the New Testaments.
By the by, the New Testament tells us that there are holy spirit beings, holy angels, who are sent to help you and to serve you. Whether we're aware of it or whether we're not, one day we will be aware of it for certain. Remember that. You don't pray to angels as some people believe you do. Pray to the commander of angels, and he will send them to help you.
And be aware that by God's command, by God's will, they very well may be there, holy angels, to help you. You have dark spirit beings around you to tempt you. You can also have holy angels, holy spirit beings there to assist you, to protect you, to defend you.
We find it all through the Bible, don't we? The patriarchs, Abraham had angels sent to instruct them, to defend them and protect them. Elijah, Moses, and of here, of course, Jesus.
And if you read the book of Acts, numerous times in the history of the early church, holy angels were sent to assist the apostles against the evil one and against... the human enemies of the apostles. And of course, we even find this principle, wonderfully, even the incarnate life and mission of Jesus, even Jesus, the divine Son of God, with all His power and authority, in His incarnation, in His humanity, taken onto His deity, even He receives angels to serve Him and to help Him when He needs it.
Not to sound like an old softy, but well, I'm not when I am tempted to shed a tear for my Savior. This has been this way for a long time, but one of the most touching passages in the Gospels is when the Gospel tells us that in the Garden of Gethsemane, one of Jesus' most awful, horrible, dark hours in dealing with evil and all of that hell that he's beginning to take upon himself. For our sakes, the scripture says, an angel.
An angel came to help him. An angel came to hold him, to hold him up, and to strengthen him. And I believe that the angel did, was sent, to help Jesus literally physically, to help his human body go through the process of healing.
go through the horrible torture and stress and abuse that was already beginning there in the garden. There is a real medical condition in which a human being can suffer such horrific horrific stress, that blood vessels start to burst and you will bleed bloody sweat. That's exactly what the gospel tells us Jesus went through, even before the arrest.
And the other physical abuse began. And a holy angel was sent by God to hold on to him and hold him up and give him strength to get through it, to get through it on our behalf. And if holy angels were sent to help Jesus, if they were sent to help the apostles, they will be sent Sent to help you. As well.
And doubtless these holy angels. Were sent to bring badly needed food. To Jesus. You remember somebody else. That was supernaturally fed.
In the wilderness. In the Old Testament. Who is. That's right. Another uncompromising champion.
Against evil. Elijah. Who is fed.
Not by angels. But fed by ravens. who may have been assisted by angels. As Elijah was supernaturally fed in the wilderness, so the divine Son of God is supernaturally fed in the wilderness after winning a great victory. You see, folks, there's things to look for all through this wonderful story.
Things to watch for, things to listen for. The way God works in this world all through history. Allow me to remind you of this. No need to turn stones into bread. You're hungry, you're dying, you're starving.
Turn the stone into bread, eat. No, no, thank you. No need to do that. I can do it, Jesus says. But instead I will use my power to create food where there was none before.
I will do so by the divine plan and will of my Father who is in heaven. Not by your way or any suggestion of yours. He receives food from the Father.
No need to create bread from stones. Do it God's way. He'll take care of you.
Satan tempted Jesus with angelic aid to hold him up if he threw himself from the temple. Remember? Well, if you're the Son of God, prove it. And if you're the Son of God, well, force your father's hand because he said himself that he'll send angels to defend you and protect you so you won't even stub your toe against a rock.
Well, there's no need to do that. No, it is written, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test. And you know, Satan, that I am the divine Son of God.
When you tempt me, you are tempting God. You shall not put the Lord your God to the test. And what happens later? Well, now here, at the right time, and in the right and proper way, Jesus does, in fact, what?
Receive the assistance of angels, who will serve him and not allow him to suffer physically any longer. And they are sent by God the Father, just exactly as God the Father promised in Scripture. This event in angelic assistance also tells us what? The truth of Jesus' true deity. He is the triumphant Son of God, approved of the Father, one with the Father, the one whom the divine Word is all about, the King and Commander of holy angels, even in His humble humanity and human incarnation.
We know of Jesus' full deity and His full humanity here, that wonderful and beautiful mystery that God Almighty, the Son, is God. and actually a real human being with a real human body, the God who took humanity onto himself. The two natures of the one person of the Christ, the divine Messiah. So a very important victory over evil has been won in this world.
One that's never been won before until the first century A.D. Won against evil. And this is the very beginning of Jesus' public ministry. We're off.
To a magnificent start. Jesus' public ministry is what? Well, it's that final time period, entering the completion of his mission in this world, that last three, three and a half years, in which he'll complete the purpose of his incarnation in this world. The Messiah is in the world. The Messiah is triumphant.
The Messiah is on his way to completing that divine mission, by divine plan. Rejoice, Christian. You now have some hope. Now, For the sake of our brother's back, I am not going to proceed any further. We're going to conclude here for the day.
But in conclusion, by way of Mr. Grant Osborne's commentary, which I've enjoyed very, very much, thanks to Brother Mark, there's a section in his commentary that he calls, pardon me, Theology and Application. How do Christians apply these texts and live out these texts in our lives? or as I like to say, translate the Word of God into action in your life.
Well, here's some lessons that we should learn that does apply to daily life for us. Jesus conquered the devil. You're going to have to do the same in your way because Jesus conquered.
Well, a gentleman by the name of Craig Keener wrote a wonderful, oh my goodness, I think it's more than one volume commentary of Matthew. He says that there's three categories. I think he's right for properly interpreting what happened here. One, a salvation historical approach. In layman's terms, this simply means that Jesus' testing is recalling the fall of Adam and Eve when they failed, but he will win.
Jesus' testing is recalling that of Israel, the old covenant people in the wilderness. They failed, he succeeded. Also, it's Christological. It's all about Jesus.
It tells us who Jesus is. By conquering the devil in this way, Jesus proves himself to be the divine Son of God, the Christ, the Messiah, who came to conquer the evil one, who came to crush the serpent's head, as the ancient prophecy in Genesis says, and Jesus came to lift up fallen humanity. He is the divine Son of God, and he proves it by defeating Satan in the wilderness. Jesus exemplifies absolute surrender to God the Father's will, and we are to follow in his example.
Where Israel failed, where Adam and Eve failed, Jesus succeeded. And so what does that mean? If we are in Jesus with a new birth from above because of Jesus, then it's time we stopped failing and we started defeating the evil one as well. Because Jesus came into this world to establish a whole new kingdom that will one day truly consume this world with his return. Jesus came into this world to create a whole new type of human being, born again from above.
New life, new type of human being, who is to conquer the evil one. And Adam and Eve what? They failed.
And old Israel failed in what? Area of food, area of protection, gaining kingdoms and power. That's how they all failed. That's how all human beings fail. And this is how Satan tried to trip up Jesus.
Jesus conceded. Praise his holy name forever. Amen. Jesus succeeded by obeying God. In this encounter, we encounter a theme that is absolutely vital in the theology of all four Gospels.
The goal of obedience to God and God alone is accomplished. Notice, interesting here, not by prideful, triumphant self-assertion, not even necessarily by the exercise of raw power and authority, but irony of ironies by the way of humility, service, and suffering. Now, when Jesus returns, Oh my, he will conquer once and for all by raw, unleashed divine power and authority. But ironically, in his humanity, he often conquered by what?
Humility, service, and suffering. And absolutely no compromise with evil whatsoever. Therein lies true greatness.
The heroes of the faith go through testing throughout the Bible. Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David, Job, Elijah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, many others. And through it, through testing, and you and I through testing, learn that dependence on God is absolutely necessary for a triumphant life and a triumphant ministry.
It is exactly the same for believers today. And we need to look at our trials as a means of growing in the faith. As Keener says in his commentary, disciples are destined for testing.
The New Testament tells you you will be tested. But Jesus, the great forerunner, the great conqueror, has gone before us. And he can show us how to overcome.
Next, the true son of God is not self-centered. Another important point. Satan tempts Jesus first to be a self-centered, self-serving magician. Doesn't he? Many would succumb frequently in this area, and one would go so far as to say like what he says here.
Perhaps the average Christian in the Western world, that is perhaps the average Christian in America, should probably have two prayers at every meal, thanksgiving before the meal and asking forgiveness afterwards. The heart of sin is placing self ahead of God. That's it, folks. That's the heart, that's the core of the evil one himself and every evil, sinful, fallen human being to place oneself ahead of God.
That was the basic sin of Adam and Eve. It's the basic sin of Israel in the wilderness. It's the basic sin of every human being. It's the basic sin of every demon, not Jesus. Not the divine Son of God.
Next, the true Son of God is not an attention grabber. We have a few minutes to finish here. He's not an attention grabber. How many people who call themselves Christians or Christian leaders or in Christian service here in America are attention grabbers? Oh, that's all I'll say on that.
The second temptation was to prove to everyone his heavenly origin by forcing God the Father's hand, by sending angels to rescue him in a spectacular sensational fashion. Oh, America loves the sensational. Jesus did command the hosts of heaven.
He is God Almighty the Son. But he was not to use them for any personal selfish benefit in his mission, in his incarnation. This is similar to the selfish prayer. of James chapter 4 verse 3 that says you pray to get what? Only your own pleasures, your selfish wants, your own pleasures as a goal.
And so that type of a prayer is not answered. Israel did this in the wilderness for 40 years, always winning things their own way, always grumbling, always complaining, always rebelling because God didn't acquiesce to their every whim. And what happened to that generation? They all died in this. We are promised that Jesus Christ will give us what we want, but only if we pray in his name.
If you ask for anything in my name, I will give it to you. Not our own pleasures, but what does in my name mean? What does Jesus mean by in my name?
When Jesus says pray in my name and I will give you what you want, praying in his name means to pray in absolute union with him and his will and his principles, and his standards, and his goals. That's what it means to pray in Jesus' name. An absolute union with the will of Jesus, and his plan, and his principles. Praying in Jesus' name was never intended to be only a formula that closes prayer as a magical phrase to get God to say yes to our requests. We are to be submissive to him.
That is how we are to pray. That is how we are to make requests. That is how we are to apply the promises that he gives us in the Bible.
And lastly here, Christ was promised eternal dominion. It's prophesied in the Old Testament. Just one passage, Daniel chapter 7, verse 14, one of my favorite passages in the Bible in the Old Testament.
One like the Son of Man was ushered before the Ancient of Days, and to him was given dominion and power. power and authority and a kingdom that all peoples and all nations and all ethnicities on earth would bow to him and of his kingdom there shall be no end. It's prophesied. But what?
According to the plan. Only after Jesus followed in his incarnation his father's will by going to the cross as the suffering servant of Isaiah who would take his people's sin upon himself. First the cross, then the crown.
according to divine plan. We are promised that we are actually co-heirs with Jesus of a kingdom that cannot be taken from us. Paul tells us this in Romans 8, 17. Co-heirs with Jesus of this kingdom.
But as a cross first came to Jesus and then the crown, first we bear our cross and then we receive our crown. Just like Jesus, according to divine plan. Only after we too have suffered with him will we be. given our crown. And only after what?
After we have defeated the evil one in our life and our time, we will win the overcomer's crown, according to the apostles. Israel failed in the wilderness, Adam and Eve failed in the garden, but we can be victorious by trusting in Jesus completely and by following the example of Jesus who paved the way to victory. And now to the evil one.
Final word on him. It's interesting in the Gospel of Matthew that whenever Satan and his legions appear, they always wear, quote, according to Osborne, the faces of defeat. They are defeated by Jesus every single solitary time. Matthew wants to tell you Jesus has come into this world and he has conquered the enemy. Every time, every time they show their evil faces, they're sent packing in retreat.
Jesus came to conquer them and to conquer the devil's works. This theme is given in Jesus by Jesus in Matthew 12, verse 29, when Jesus says, I came into this world to bind Satan himself. Bind him up. Tie him up.
Christ has now bound Satan in his own house, a fallen world. And every exorcism that we encounter in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus driving away demons, is proof of that. Demonic powers are very strictly limited, even though it looks like they're running hog wild in this country and in this world. Believe me, folks, they're on a short leash, and their time is growing short. I think that's why they're in such a desperate...
fix and you're seeing it and you're hearing it now everywhere. They know they're going to hell one day and each passing day it's getting closer and closer and closer. Their power is limited.
They fail completely in the presence of the Son of God and those members of his community who are full of faith. Christ has passed on his authority to the church. We'll read of that in Matthew chapter 10. And so Satan has no true power over the believer except through deception. But if you behave like Jesus, you will defeat him every time.
Jesus has done it before you and Jesus has given you... Perfect example. Sovereign our God, our Heavenly Father, we thank you for the victory of your divine Son.
Perfect, obedient to you, humanity deity. Thank you for sending him into the world that we might have hope, that we might have life, that we might defeat the darkness of this world, and that we might ultimately live in the kingdom of light. that we might ultimately see you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, worship you, adore you, and enjoy you, and you only forever, and thereby enjoy a wonderful creation restored, the creation as you always originally wished for it to be.
This is the divine plan. Thank you for giving it to us. Thank you for giving us knowledge and wisdom and instruction by way of your word. Thank you for giving us the plan, so we know where we are in this plan. and where we can be in this wonderful story.
And thank you for saving us to be part of your life and your plan and your story. Bless this, the proclamation of your word, O sovereign God, we pray. In the name of our triumphant Savior, Jesus, we pray.
Amen.