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by Charlie Wolcott

Many sermons have been preached on the temptations of Jesus and how to combat them, but most of the time, they end up being just a practical application for us. Matthew and Luke describe the account in detail, whereas Mark just skims over it with a sentence or two. A summary of the account goes as follows:

After being baptized, Jesus was driven by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness where for 40 days He fasted and was tempted by the devil. Three temptations are described: turning stones into bread, throwing Himself off the temple mount so angels could catch Him, and receiving the pleasures and rule of the kingdoms of the world in exchange for worshiping the Devil. Matthew and Luke have different orders, but that order is based on emphasis rather than chronology.

These three temptations were not all Jesus faced, but they cover the three major categories of temptation: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. All temptations and sins we deal with can be sorted into one of these three categories. Jesus was tempted in other ways, too. Because He was tempted in all ways known and common to man, we have hope in overcoming them. So yes, Jesus did deal with sexual temptation, celebrity temptations, poverty temptations, food/drink temptations, peer pressure temptations, all of it. He did not deal with every application or version of temptation but every type or kind of temptation. Jesus did not deal with “internet porn” or “football addiction,” but He did deal with prostitutes, and as any other teen in His era, He would have faced questions about marriage and having a family. Of course, they had entertainment then, too. Jesus faced every type of temptation we can face, and the three emphasized here encompass all the major types of temptations.

But let’s dig into the mind of Christ and what He was thinking and doing throughout this account. First off, He had just been baptized, and this is when the Holy Spirit came upon Him and dwelt within Him, something that occurs to every believer at the moment of regeneration. But once He had the Holy Spirit, He was then driven to the wilderness. Jesus didn’t “choose” to go fast for 40 days. He was compelled to go. He was commanded to go. One of the first things we will face when we go into a new level in our walk with the Lord is a new wave of temptation and spiritual battles. The devil is going to test us to see if we are going to be legitimate threats or not. Jesus proved to be a legitimate threat.

We have to be careful about blaming the devil for everything wrong that goes on in our lives or for the difficulties we face. Both with Job and with Jesus here, it was God who chose to put His champions on the pedestal. But it was to be a proving ground. Jesus needed to demonstrate that He was not going to do the ministry by seeking the flesh and bodily needs. He needed to demonstrate He was not going to play the popularity game and do miracles for a show. He needed to demonstrate that He would not be motivated by any political, financial, or religious position by which He could influence anyone. While Jesus’ baptism was a declaration that He would not operate by the flesh, the temptations were the demonstration and proving of His claims. God knew Jesus would come through and helped Him through it, but claims are just claims until they are backed by actual practice. The baptism of Jesus was a public declaration that He was going to live and operate by the Spirit, not by His own flesh or desires, and the temptation of Jesus was the demonstration that He would live that way.

One thing I hate in myself is when I constantly fail to live up to the claims I make. It comes with the territory of being in a sin-cursed body, but it doesn’t mean we should accept it. In my writings, I drive home the point of living in accordance with God’s standards and not relying on self. Yet so often, I am guilty of doing just that. It is so easy to make declarations of faith, but until we actually get tested on them, they are just proclamations and noise. This is the severe problem we have in the American church. While the freedom of having no persecution has been awesome, there is no cost to being a “cultural Christian.” Real faith always has a cost. Jesus could have been baptized and gone straight into ministry and been fine because He was without sin. However, He had to go through the wilderness experience to prove that self was indeed stripped from Him. Likewise, we are going to have to go through tests to see if our faith is real.

In our culture, the primary testing will be through peer pressure and acceptance, especially regarding academia. There is a reason why “young earth creationists” are mocked and ridiculed. The enemy owns the academic centers (because the Christians literally handed them over due to fear of being seen as being “unloving”), and He will readily allow any origins model as long as it is not the Biblical one. When I was doing a long-term sub position for physics at a different school, during a planning meeting, the Bill Nye vs Ken Ham debate was brought up, and I laughed at how Nye bombed everything and clearly didn’t do his homework. I got three hard death stares, and because I didn’t want to turn the whole meeting into a debate, I let it go. But I would have cleaned all three of those physics teachers’ clocks if I got turned loose… and then I’d have likely been out of a job. Has your faith been tested? I had a more intense sifting like wheat when I sought to witness to a co-worker back in 2007, and I ended up stirring a demonic stronghold in his life that started to manifest. That was a turning point for me, and it only made my faith stronger. It was so intense that I took the whole encounter and put it straight into my novel Call to Arms.

Jesus was tempted to prove His commitment, and He proved it. He would then spend the rest of His ministry living the lifestyle that His baptism proclaimed and the temptations that failed to deter Him. Next week, we’ll look at Jesus’ first teachings, primarily at Nazareth.

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