January 10th, 2023
by Jon Welch
by Jon Welch
Day 7- Jesus led off to be tempted
God the Father opens the heavens and speaks to Jesus, telling him that He loves Him, claiming Him as His own, and telling Him that He is pleased with him. What a moment in Jesus’s life! Immediately following this event, the Bible says that the Spirit of God led Jesus into the wilderness. Why? What For? What would be waiting for Jesus in the wilderness? Let's have a look!
Luke 4:1-13, Matthew 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-13
What did Jesus experience during his forty days in the desert?
Physically?
Mentally?
Emotionally?
Spiritually?
What do you think God's purpose was for leading Jesus into this time? (Heb.2-17)
Why do we often need to go through wilderness expectations? (Deut. 8)
Jesus was led into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan himself. After forty days of temptations of every kind, the enemy comes again to Jesus. Jesus is now weak, tired and very, very hungry. Notice carefully what Satan says to Jesus.
“‘if you are the Son of God, tell these tones to become bread.”’ Matt.4:3
The temptation was a direct attack on the truth of God's words. God the father had just affirmed Jesus’ identity as the Son of God at His baptism, then Satan comes and calls into questions what God had clearly stated. This has been the devil’s strategy from the beginning. Remember when Satan came to Eve in the garden? ‘' Did God really say….”’ Satan is so cunning. He always questions what God has said to get us to doubt the truth.
I’ve heard it said,
“Never doubt in the night what God has clearly said in the light”
Satan came to get Jesus to doubt what His father had just said to him. Satan offers things that are temporal, things that will satisfy our hunger for the moment but will leave us feeling empty. Those things that will steal the Word of God from us and attack our new identity in Christ. Satan loves to attack the Word of God because he knows if we doubt what God has said, we will be immobilized and, eventually, become disobedient to God.
Notice how Jesus overcomes the devil. He quotes the Word of God: “…man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from out of the mouth of the LORD.” (Deut. 8:3) Jesus uses the Word of God to overcome the attack on His identity.
The key to overcoming temptation is to know the Word of God. We would be wise to “walk as Jesus walked….” To put a direct point on it, If we want to overcome temptation, we need to know the word of God.
Notice that this is not the only time in Jesus’ life when He was tempted. Near the end of the passage it says, “when the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time” (Luke 4:13)
Temptation is a daily thing in the life of a Christian. Get used to it! We will always have to fight off the attacks of the devil. Sure, they may change, morph from one thing to another, but we will always battle temptation until the Lord makes all things new. The secret to fighting it is being in the world! Psa. 119 talks about how the Word of God makes us pure, allows us to fight back in the face of temptation.
The Word of God is the second root that needs to be established in the life of a Christ follower.
The Word is what gives us the ability to fight back against temptation.
The question is, when the enemy attacks you, will you be ready to fight back like Jesus was?
The challenge today is to memorize God's word! Start small- continually grow.
Today- Will you spend a few moments committing these verses to your memory?
1 John 3:1
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
Hebrews 11:6.
And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
ITs time to start fighting against temptation, instead of yielding to it!
Or in the wise words of Bob Newhart....
Luke 4:1-13, Matthew 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-13
What did Jesus experience during his forty days in the desert?
Physically?
Mentally?
Emotionally?
Spiritually?
What do you think God's purpose was for leading Jesus into this time? (Heb.2-17)
Why do we often need to go through wilderness expectations? (Deut. 8)
Jesus was led into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan himself. After forty days of temptations of every kind, the enemy comes again to Jesus. Jesus is now weak, tired and very, very hungry. Notice carefully what Satan says to Jesus.
“‘if you are the Son of God, tell these tones to become bread.”’ Matt.4:3
The temptation was a direct attack on the truth of God's words. God the father had just affirmed Jesus’ identity as the Son of God at His baptism, then Satan comes and calls into questions what God had clearly stated. This has been the devil’s strategy from the beginning. Remember when Satan came to Eve in the garden? ‘' Did God really say….”’ Satan is so cunning. He always questions what God has said to get us to doubt the truth.
I’ve heard it said,
“Never doubt in the night what God has clearly said in the light”
Satan came to get Jesus to doubt what His father had just said to him. Satan offers things that are temporal, things that will satisfy our hunger for the moment but will leave us feeling empty. Those things that will steal the Word of God from us and attack our new identity in Christ. Satan loves to attack the Word of God because he knows if we doubt what God has said, we will be immobilized and, eventually, become disobedient to God.
Notice how Jesus overcomes the devil. He quotes the Word of God: “…man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from out of the mouth of the LORD.” (Deut. 8:3) Jesus uses the Word of God to overcome the attack on His identity.
The key to overcoming temptation is to know the Word of God. We would be wise to “walk as Jesus walked….” To put a direct point on it, If we want to overcome temptation, we need to know the word of God.
Notice that this is not the only time in Jesus’ life when He was tempted. Near the end of the passage it says, “when the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time” (Luke 4:13)
Temptation is a daily thing in the life of a Christian. Get used to it! We will always have to fight off the attacks of the devil. Sure, they may change, morph from one thing to another, but we will always battle temptation until the Lord makes all things new. The secret to fighting it is being in the world! Psa. 119 talks about how the Word of God makes us pure, allows us to fight back in the face of temptation.
The Word of God is the second root that needs to be established in the life of a Christ follower.
The Word is what gives us the ability to fight back against temptation.
The question is, when the enemy attacks you, will you be ready to fight back like Jesus was?
The challenge today is to memorize God's word! Start small- continually grow.
Today- Will you spend a few moments committing these verses to your memory?
1 John 3:1
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
Hebrews 11:6.
And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
ITs time to start fighting against temptation, instead of yielding to it!
Or in the wise words of Bob Newhart....
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6 Comments
I was stuck on Mark 1:11-12, amazing "You are My beloved Son; I take delight in You!" Immediately the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness. Heb. 5:8, "He learned obedience though what He suffered" , as we spoke about last nite in bible study Jon, i dont know why we in The Church think this life we walk should be ANYTHING less than what our Master recieved in this life. Is. 53:3 He was a man of suffering, and familliar with pain. Help me us embrace this in our lives and not run from it, thank you Jesus for what you suffered for Your Church, may it be said of me and us as a community., I think my focus on His mission helps me look forward and not into the datk places my mind would rather go. Thanx Jon
I love this! We tend to forget why we have the Word and how important it is on our life. Reading your Bible everyday is just as important as praying. Praying is talking to God and reading the Word is God talking to us. We all should want to be in it 24/7.
When reading I have to ask the Holy Spirit to bring it to light for me because I can get distracted easy or read it and instead of studying it. We can make it a check list if we aren’t careful instead of zoning and soaking it up and receive what God wants us to get from it.
satan loves to distract us, especially from the Word and he has done a great job at it. The way to fight temptation is knowing and living the Word out, as Jesus modeled for us.
Thanks for this, Jon. So, important for us as a Christian’s to be in the Word.
It’s like we have spiritual amnesia when we face temptation. The cure is fixing Gods word in our heart. Imagine what God would do in our communities if we did this! That’s what’s great about the church. While sometimes we might think that my impact is small… “if I live with Gods word driving my life, it won’t have big impact” we say. But- if the church… all of us… (or even most of us) did- wow! Huge impact!
The question left today really resonates with me. Will I be ready when the enemy attacks? Will I stand strong like Jesus did? Or will I crumble and fall into temptations? We’ve all fallen short, I know I do everyday. But I pray and read my Bible to try and grow stronger. Maybe this time temptation got the best of me, but if I keep preparing and keep seeking God, I will be ready!
Jesus used his two edged sword immediately! This reminds me how often I turn to inward thought that leads to worry and anxiety.
Christ did not use his divine power when tempted by Satan, he used the wisdom and power of the Holy Spirit! How often do we try to combat the enemy in our flesh without relying on the Holy Spirit to fight our battles through reminding us of scripture to counteract the enemy’s lies.
Great devotion today!
I loved, "Never doubt in the night what God has said in the light."
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He is faithful! Just because I can't see the future, doesn't mean that He doesn't know what it will hold.🙂