Not By Bread Alone, Part 2 | How to Fight Temptation

Luke 4:1-4

Starting in Luke 4:1, and we’ll read all the way through verse 13. “And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led up by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. The devil said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.’ And Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, “Man shall not live by bread alone.”’ And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time,and said to him, ‘To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.’ And Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, “You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.”’

“And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here,for it is written, “He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,” and, “On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.”’ And Jesus answered him, ‘It is said, “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.”’ And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.”

The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” Notice here when the devil does draw near, he is pouncing, the gloves have come off, but you know what? If you’re experiencing it, he’s actually here kind of gentle. He’s subtle here. He’s gentle. He actually appears to be friendly. He’s taking an interest in Jesus’ physical well-being.

Let’s start with that two-letter word, if. If. “If you are the Son of God.” Is the devil here challenging Jesus’ divine Sonship? Does he himself believe that Jesus is truly the Son of God, or, or does he doubt that? If you believe that the devil here is challenging Jesus’ Sonship, then this probably appears to you to be a temptation for Jesus to prove himself to the devil. But that’s not the case. That’s never the case. Jesus never feels obliged to answer the devil’s slanders. He doesn’t care what the devil thinks. So, what is going on here?

It may seem by the use of the word if, that the devil is calling Jesus’ identity into question, and that’s, could be accurate, but it’s not quite accurate. He’s actually bypassing the issue of Jesus’ identity altogether. It’s clear from the grammatical structure here that the devil is granting that Jesus may or may not be the Son of God. He’s just granting it for the sake of argument. No matter what the devil actually believes about Jesus’ identity here, he speaks to Jesus granting that assumption.

The devil refers to Jesus as the Son of God and again, whether or not he believes that to be true is beside the point, because he’s got something else up his sleeve. He’s got something else in mind, and that’s important to note right off the bat. The devil doesn’t really want to engage in dialogue on issues of truth and reality. He doesn’t care about truth. He’s not interested in good solid arguments. He’s not interested in logical deduction from true premises. He’s got one aim, and that aim is this, to get Jesus to commit sin.

Listen, you can see this all through the abortion debate. You can see this all through the homosexual debate, the gay marriage debate, the transgender debate. There is no debate. All they want to do is throw in doubts, throw in accusations, throw in slanders, get people to emote and feel. They don’t care about truth and logic. That’s why you can’t sit down and debate the issues with someone on that side because they’re not going to deal with you in honesty. They don’t care about honesty. They want what they want.

That’s what the devil’s doing here. He doesn’t want to get tied up into a debate he knows he’ll lose about Jesus’ identity. He just makes a tactical decision to avoid questions about Jesus’ nature altogether. Let’s just grant that and move on. And he takes aim here with one of his key weapons. It’s called flattery. Flattery, “Since you are the Son of God,” so supremely unique, there’s only one in existence like you, since you’re so important, since you’re the object of God’s affection, Son of God, you’re the center of God’s attention, you’re the key to his redemptive plan. Look, this is an explicit stroking of the self-esteem. He applies it generously. He spreads it here around like a thick dab of creamy butter. But the devil does not pause there. He keeps it moving. “Since you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.”

The ESV translates the verb there as “command this stone to become bread,” but the verb literally means say or speak. The devil literally says, “Tell this stone to become bread,” or better, “Speak to this stone that it should become bread.” The devil here is affirming Jesus’ power to do this, whether on his own or by the power of the Holy Spirit. You remember that the devil was there hearing the father’s voice of affirmation. He saw the Spirit descend in bodily form like a dove. Saw the Spirit rest on Jesus. The devil knew that Jesus in some measure possessed spiritual power, even creative power. So, whether on his own, or by the power of the Spirit, the devil acknowledged that Jesus had power at his disposal and he says, you have the power, use it.

Again, he’s flattering him, flattery about his identity, flattery about his power. Proverbs 29:5 says, “The one who flatters his neighbor spreads a net for his feet.” Listen, watch out for those who flatter you. Watch out for those who puff you up because flattery is deceptive. I’m not talking here about legitimate, sincere encouragement, which is concrete and specific, which is substantive and edifying. We are to encourage one another. There are to be encouraging words flowing from our mouths toward each other all the time. But I’m talking about legitimate, substantive, concrete words of encouragement and edification.

But this here is flattery. This is fine-sounding words and niceties that have no real substance at all. Deceptive words, the words say one thing, the actions betray the evil heart. And that is what the devil is attempting to do here with the Son of God. Satan hates him. He approaches with words, though, words of affirmation, friendly words, words that feel good, words that are laying a trap for his feet.

Notice the proposal. Pretty small thing here, really. “Tell this stone to become bread.” The devil’s not suggesting anything extravagant here. It’s this stone, not this entire rock pile. And it’s bread, not a four-course banquet. It’s just a, just a modest suggestion. It’s remarkably modest. It seems almost an insignificant exercise of power. Hardly worthy of notice. It’s certainly nothing to get hung up about, right? Here, no one’s looking, we’re in a desert. You’re starving. There’s rocks everywhere! Take one of them, just a little one, and turn it into a piece of bread.

What’s really going on here? What is he really after? We know the devil’s up to something. What exactly is the nature of this enticement? Some believe this is an opportunity, as I said, for Jesus to verify his sonship, to prove that he really is the Son of God. But, as we said, the devil’s already granted that assumption, and he’s moved on. He’s really not calling that into question. And Jesus would not have been tempted to prove his Sonship, anyway. He’d known his true nature, his true relationship to God, from the time he was twelve years old or younger. So, proving his sonship to the devil like some kind of macho posturing, that’s very small minded to tempt Jesus. No, something more profound is at stake here.

Others say the devil is tempting Jesus to put his miraculous powers to work for his own benefit, and that’s the problem. That’s certainly true, that’s what he’s saying, but that’s not all that’s going on here. After all, there were other occasions when Jesus benefited from the miracles that he accomplished, right?

It’s hard to believe that when Jesus provided food for tens of thousands of people, on one occasion five thousand men besides women and children, on another occasion four thousand men besides women and children, so we’re talking tens of thousands that he provided food for, certainly he partook of the food himself. Deriving personal benefit from the use of supernatural power, that happened from time to time as he displayed his miracles, but that’s not the nature of this temptation either.

The devil is indeed calling on Jesus to make use of supernatural power, to turn rock molecules into bread molecules, but at the heart of this temptation is this, it’s an insidious and subtle accusation against the character of God and he wants Jesus to bite at that. It’s not about biting at bread, it’s about biting at a character accusation against God. The devil draws near here; he comes alongside of Jesus, you might say. He pretends friendship. He pretends sympathy with Jesus’ physical weakness.

Here’s what he’s saying, I’m on your side here, man. I’m on your side. You don’t deserve this. You are the Son of God, after all. You possess creative power. You are far too important to languish here in the wilderness. Look at you, just look at you. Languishing in this Godforsaken desert, left alone without food, without sustenance. It’s not too much to turn this little stone into a little piece of bread, and get on with it.

The insinuation here at the heart of this is that God is not taking care of Jesus’ needs. The devil’s basically telling Jesus that God is not coming through. He’s not taking very good care of his son, here, is he? You can almost hear him saying under his breath, some father. Some father. Doesn’t even provide his child, his only child, by the way, doesn’t even provide him with bread. At the heart of the enticement here is the accusation that God doesn’t really care.

So, the devil calls for the most logical course of action; if you’re out on your own, you’re all by yourself, all who doubt God’s care and concern think like this. The temptation is: take matters into your own hands. You can’t trust God to supply for your physical needs, so do it yourself. Do it yourself, provide for yourself, take care of yourself.

Look, we got to ask, just to kind of ferret this out a little bit and expose the nature of it, why would a loving father allow his son to suffer? Why would God insist that Jesus endure this forty-day period waiting for food and water? If you were starving in a sunbaked desert, I’m guessing you’d start asking that question, as well, and all kinds of questions would start flooding into your mind. What is the point? What is the point of forty days without food, anyway? Who cares about following the pattern of Moses and Elijah; let’s just get on with it. I’m unique. I’ll just make a sandwich, give myself the strength to do what I’ve been called to do. I mean, what is wrong with taking care of natural needs, that, by the way, God designed me to have and to satisfy, like eating, drinking, sleeping? What’s wrong with me taking care of those needs?

Look, let’s be clear about this right off the bat. It’s not wrong to want to satisfy natural God-given desires. We have desires that God gave to us in our bodies, and it’s not wrong to satisfy that. We’re not Docetists here. We’re not trying to make a separation and call body evil, matter evil, and all spiritual, good. We’re not denying ourselves in some kind of a Docetic way, a Gnostic way, but the sin in our hearts becomes revealed when our natural desires are not satisfied, or at least not satisfied in the way we want at the time we want, right? And the question is this: Will we sin to satisfy our desires? Or, will we sin when our desires are not met? That’s the issue.

In fact, you might just jot that down in your notes as a little note to self. God has given us all of our desires that are part of being human, whether we’re talking about the desire to be satisfied with food, the desire for marriage, the desire for children, grandchildren, friends, whatever. It’s fine to acknowledge those desires, but here are the boundaries. First, if you’re willing to sin or compromise to get what you want, that natural desire has become a sinful desire and you’re turning that thing into an idol. You need to repent. Or, if you sin in your attitude when you don’t get what you want and your thoughts toward God become bitter when your desires aren’t fulfilled, again, that natural desire has become a sinful desire, and you’ve turned that thing into an idol.

So, ask yourself two questions about natural desires. Number one, am I willing to sin to get it? And number two, will I sin if I don’t get it? If the answer to those questions is no, then you’re not entering into temptation. You’re safe. It’s okay to desire those things. And wait for God to fulfill them in his time and in his way. But if the answer to either of those questions is yes, you need to identify that thing as turning into a sinful desire, turning into idolatry, and you need to repent.

Look at Jesus here. He stayed well within the boundaries of righteousness. He’s a man with all the natural desires of a man. No doubt he desired food, but he was not willing to sin to get it. And he wouldn’t sin if he didn’t get it. He waited on God’s perfect timing, on God’s fulfillment. And like I said, for Jesus the test was more severe. It’s not just more severe because of the situation he’s in. It’s more severe because of who he is. Unlike us, I mean sometimes we don’t possess what we need to get what we want. I mean, we, we’re faced with similar temptations, but there is a limit to providing for what we want.

Sometimes God has to take us to the end of ourselves when the money is out, when the energy is out, when the strength is out, when the motivation isn’t there, when we’re just flat on our face, and he just does that to show us we don’t have the resources to fix what can’t be fixed. We don’t have what it takes to provide for our own needs due to lack of funds, lack of energy, whatever. That’s exactly where he wants us. Why? Because then we look to him. Some of us more stubborn than others, we have to come to that place a lot.

That wasn’t the case with Jesus, though, not at all. Jesus possessed the power to get what he wanted immediately when he wanted it. As very God of very God, Jesus possessed the power to satisfy every natural God-given need of his own humanity. As Son of God, he’d commanded creation into existence. It wouldn’t be too terribly hard to conjure up a piece of bread. The devil said, “Speak to this stone, tell it to become bread.” Simple. He faced a much severer temptation than we do.

So again, why would a loving Father allow his son to suffer? Since God is good and kind, why would he allow this kind of suffering? There is a similar charge leveled against God. I don’t know if you see this in the news, but every time there is some kind of natural disaster, people say, where was God? Where was God? Some act of God, like a hurricane that devastates people and property, people ask, and it’s often with accusatory underpinnings, if God is all good, if God is all powerful, how can he let something like this happen?

One of my sons had a teacher who recently sent this very argument out to her students as proof that God does not exist. She had a series of ten, I might add, very poor arguments, very poor arguments, all of them with the major premise, one or two minor premises, and then this conclusion, therefore, God cannot exist. On this particular argument that she called the logical problem of pain, she brought up the age-old question of theodicy. Theodicy is just a fancy way of talking about how to justify God’s goodness or power in the face of the existence of evil or suffering.

Here were her premises. Major premise: If God exists, God is supremely good and powerful. Minor premise: A supremely good and powerful being would not allow the existence of evil and pain in the world. Conclusion: Therefore, God cannot exist. Interesting, huh? Think about that, parents, as you send your children out into the world. They’re not affirming or strengthening the faith of your kids, if you’re not coming in to help your kids to understand what’s going on. You’re not equipping your kids to answer these kinds of arguments. You’re leaving them out there without weapons, without shield, without defense. There are simple answers to these things, right?

We agree with the major premise that God is supremely good and powerful. We disagree with the minor premise, though, right? Emphatically deny that conclusion, too, that God cannot exist. It’s that second premise there that betrays an evil, unbelieving heart. Since all things, even God himself, are subject to the breadth of her understanding and any unbeliever’s understanding, and she can’t figure out the reason for the existence of evil and pain in the world, therefore God cannot exist. That’s pretty prideful, isn’t it?

Listen, God is all good. God is all powerful. And let’s never forget, thirdly, which she didn’t include, that God is all wise. Evil and pain do exist in the world; therefore, since God is good and hates evil, and since he is powerful and could eradicate evil if he wanted to, and thirdly, since God is all wise, therefore God has a good and wise reason for the existence of evil and pain in the world. You see how that works?

Look, that’s the conclusion that the believing mind comes to, and only the believing mind can realize and embrace. The unbelieving mind rejects the goodness of God, the omnipotence of God, and the wisdom of God. The unbelieving mind says, I, myself, am the judge of what’s wise and what’s not. I’m the judge of what’s right and what’s wrong. But the believing mind rejects that kind of thinking, and says, I am not all wise, God is. I don’t know all things. Fact, I’m definitely not all powerful and I’m really not even good when it comes down to it. And I go to the Scripture and I find a God that is all good and all powerful and all wise, and I listen to him.

Satan from the beginning rejected the true God and he was there, forever plunged into unbelief, an inescapable prison of unbelief. He enticed the human race to doubt God’s goodness. He attacked that vulnerable pair and mainly Eve in the Garden of Eden with the poison of his own unbelief. “The serpent said to the woman,” Genesis 3, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of this fruit your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

In other words, the serpent told Eve, God’s character can’t be trusted. He’s immoral, withholding something good from you. Opened eyes, godlikeness, more knowledge, fullness of knowledge, it could all be yours, Eve. She pondered it and sinned. She pondered it on what fact, on what evidence? None. It was just a dream, just a conjecture. That’s the nature of his enticement of Jesus as well. It’s this insidious attack on the character of God. God’s concern for you can’t be trusted. He doesn’t really care for you, for your needs, for your hunger. You’re at death’s door, and still, he won’t let you eat. What kind of a God is that? What kind of a loving father is that, to let his own son starve to death?

Why would a loving God, loving father, allow his son to suffer? Because God has a good and wise reason for putting his son through trial and suffering. Namely, our redemption. He took him into the desert so the devil could do what he does, and this temptation that Jesus endured, it was for our good. Jesus was perfected through suffering and he becomes our merciful and faithful high priest through the suffering, so he can sympathize with us in our weakness. That’s why. It wasn’t revealed then. It’s revealed now.

Listen, beloved, we face temptations like that all the time, don’t we? We’re tempted, and to our shame we sometimes fall prey to wicked thoughts, doubting whether God really does care for us, whether he’s really concerned. Sometimes we give in to those enticements to think false thoughts about God. Look, we cannot excuse those thoughts. We can’t deal gently with rebellious thinking. We can’t give it a pass. We can’t coddle our doubts. We can’t reason with those doubts. They’re just slanderous accusations against God’s character, and they have no substance at all. We need to expose sinful thoughts to the light of God’s truth. We need to call this what it is, unvarnished evil shared and promoted by the devil himself.

Look, thank God for the forgiveness that he has granted us through Jesus Christ, right? Because we all fall into this. Thanks be to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for standing firm against this very temptation for our sake.