Yesterday’s message about Satan our enemy makes me want to look at one example of someone who was actually attacked and tested by Satan. (Don’t worry Thursday group, I’m not talking about Job!) I want to look at the testing of Jesus.
To understand this testing of Jesus, we need to understand that Jesus was completely human like we are, and at the same time was complete deity as the second person of the trinity. Therefore, He could be tested in his humanity:
Hebrews 4:15
15 For we do not have
a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has
been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.
We also need to remember that Jesus was born a human being, and had to grow physically AND spiritually. Jesus’ public ministry begins in Matthew 4, when He was 30 years old. He has spent 30 years preparing for a 3 year ministry! The Bible tells us about His spiritual growth:
Luke 2:40
40 The Child
continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom; and
the grace of God was upon Him.
Luke 2:52
52 And Jesus kept increasing
in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.
John 1:14
14 And the Word
became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only
begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
The continued spiritual growth, the increasing in wisdom and grace, was what prepared Jesus for this testing by Satan. It took Him 30 years to get to this point spiritually!
The devil is permitted wide latitude in his testing of a mature believer, because being spiritually mature equips the believer to handle the pressure, like the familiar passage says:
1 Corinthians 10:13
13 No temptation has
overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will
not allow you to be tempted (or
tested) beyond what you are
able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that
you will be able to endure it.
Let’s look at the beginning of Jesus’ testing by Satan.
Matthew 3:13-17
13 Then Jesus arrived
from
14 But John tried to
prevent Him, saying, "I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come
to me?"
15 But Jesus
answering said to him, "Permit it at this time; for in this way it is
fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he permitted Him. (This is a whole different study, but
realize that the baptism (Greek word is BAPTISO, and it means simply
identification) of Jesus was a matter of Jesus identifying Himself with the
plan of God, or showing Himself willing to submit to the plan of God for His
life)
16 After being
baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens
were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on
Him,
17 and behold, a
voice out of the heavens said, "This is My
beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased."
This is the announcement by God that Jesus is ready for the testing. Compare it to what God said about Job right before He allowed Satan to test him:
Job 1:8
8 The LORD said to
Satan, "Have you considered My servant Job? For
there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God
and turning away from evil."
When God makes this kind of announcement about a person, then it’s time for Satan (SATAAN in the Greek means accuser) to try to break them! That’s exactly what happens in the next verse:
Matthew 4:1
1 Then Jesus was led
up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
We’ll look at the specific tests of Jesus in the wilderness, and see how they were brilliantly structured by Satan to get Jesus to go against the plan of God for His life. But I’m out of space for today!