Anchor My Faith

Temptation 3: Grant You Authority

Scripture: Matthew 4:9-11; Luke 4:5-6; Luke 4:13

We covered the second temptation in the previous lesson and are now ready to look at the third: “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” (Luke 4:5 – 6). In a sense what the devil said is true in that he is the ruler of this world, as we see in John 12:31 (ESV): “Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out.” God has granted him this authority for a period of time and then it will be removed. It is questionable whether the devil has the authority to give the ability to rule to someone else as all authority belongs to God and is under his control.

The devil continues: “And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me”” (Matthew 4:9). The devil claimed the authority to give these kingdoms to Jesus, if he would fall down and worship him. Even if Jesus were to bow down and worship him, there is no guarantee that the devil would deliver on his promise because he is known as the father of lies (John 8:44). Here the devil is trying to get Jesus to sin by breaking the first commandment: “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3 ESV).

Jesus responds: “. . . “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’”’ (Matthew 4:10). The response that Jesus gives is the response we should give when we are tempted to replace God with some idol, which is easy to do in so many different ways, depending on the culture in which we live.

The devil tried three times to get Jesus to sin, but he struck out. There may have been other temptations, but only three were recorded in the gospels. “And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time” (Luke 4:13). Even though the devil departed from Jesus, he remained active in opposing him. We will see this as we follow Jesus in our future lessons. It was not until the cross that Jesus will experience another direct confrontation from him.

Now that the temptations are over, “[The] angels came and were ministering to him” (Matthew 4:11). Each time Jesus was tempted by the devil he stood firm using Scripture as his defense. If Jesus used Scripture as a defense, then we should be challenged to grow in our knowledge of the Bible so that we will be more victorious in our walk with the Lord. With the Word of God, we resist the devil and he will flee from us (James 4:7). Peter also speaks of this in 1 Peter 5:9 (ESV): “Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.” All of heaven knew the significance of this victory Jesus had in this confrontation with the devil. Had Jesus failed he would be disqualified as a candidate for being our savior.

Surely Jesus had physical needs at this time so God sent angels to meet those needs, just as God will meet our needs when we do battle for him.

Prayer

Father, Jesus stood against the best efforts of the devil and remains without sin and thus is able to begin his public ministry of communicating the plan of salvation and then going to the cross to purchase that salvation for us. Salvation is not anything we do; it is a gift you give to us as believers in the finished work of Jesus Christ when he died on the cross in our place covering our sin with his blood.