Matthew 4

A lot happens in Matthew chapter 4, but I am going to focus in on The Temptation of Jesus at the very beginning of the chapter. Even in these first few verses there are a ton of application points!

In verses 1-11 Satan is tempting Jesus to try and throw off God’s plan of redemption. He is trying to get Jesus to fall into sin, in order to disqualify him as the sinless Savior.

The text says that Jesus was “lead up by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” (v1) This seems odd. Why would this happen? As we have probably heard before, God uses circumstances to lovingly test and grow a person’s character. Jesus is about to start his ministry and is standing at the begging of something huge. He is about to, with authority, give the gospel to the world. Here the Father is using the devils evil intentions for the good purpose of strengthening Jesus in his messianic role. God intended to show in the person of His Son how Satan opposes our salvation. Satan attacks Jesus because he is preparing to redeems us to himself!

As it continues on, we see Satan misquoting scripture to tempt Jesus and pitting one part of Gods word against the other. Jesus, being fully confident of the Lords truth, never gave into Satan’s lies.

Jesus, who overcame temptation is the only one qualified to merit a righteous status for us in the eyes of God. We can and should learn from his interaction with the devil to defeat sin and deception in our own lives. Knowing and believing the Word of God is the most effective way to avoid sin and grow in holiness.

Prayer

Father God, thank you for your perfect son who came to redeem us! We ask that you would give us a passion for your word. To read it, to believe it, to crave it, to memorize it, for its implications to be worked out in our lives, and for the Gospel story to come out of our mouths. Set our eyes on your kingdom.

Amen.

 

SPENCER ROTH  |  Pastoral Intern

 Spencer went to and graduated from Hutto High School. After graduating he attended Texas A&M for two years before moving to Birmingham, Alabama to serve as an intern for a year in the worship ministry at the Church At Brook Hills.