Gospel of Matthew Chapter 4 -- John Karmelich

1. Most of us know the phrase “thy (your) will be done”. It is part of the Lord’s Prayer.

a) It is a sentence we pray regularly, but rarely think about:

b) It is a prayer for us to do God’s will, and not our own will.

c) How does one practically do God’s will through the day?

i) Unfortunately, we don’t receive faxes in the morning with today’s instructions.

ii) We don’t get e-mails, nor phone messages, nor mail from God saying, “Good morning John, here is what I want you to do today.” J

d) So back to the question, if we are sincerely praying “thy (your) will be done”,
how do we know what is God’s will and how do we obey it?”

i) Fortunately, you have come to the right place. J

ii) The answer is to study and learn God’s word, so you know how to apply it. I’m not saying my bible studies are the answer, (but they can’t hurt J) as much as I desire the reader to study the text itself, contemplate what it means and contemplate how it applies to your life.

iii) Solomon figured this out at the end of his life: “Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.” (Ecclesiastes 12:13, NIV).

a) I underlined the word whole. It is all-inclusive. It means the whole duty of man (and women) is to fear God and obey his commandments.

b) But you say, we are our New Testament believers. We are not “under law”, but “under grace”. Agreed. Our salvation does not depend upon how well we keep the “10 commandments” or any other commandments anywhere in the Bible.

(1) But those commandments are there for our happiness. God wants us to live a full, rich abundant life. God-the-Father, who loves us beyond what we can comprehend, wants to bless you more than you can imagine. For God to bless us, we have to do what He wants us to. As I mention over and over again in these studies, Christianity is not just saying you believe in Jesus, it is taking action based on that belief. If you are grateful for what Jesus did for you, you live in obedience out of gratitude.

e) OK, so if we don’t get faxes, e-mails and voice messages on God’s instructions for the day, how do we practically know what to do for the next, say 24 hours?

i) Well, prayer for “God’s will to be done” won’t hurt. J

ii) Next, remember the age-old idiom, “you are what you eat?” That happens to be true. We physically grow based on what we eat.

a) It is also true that we become what we worship. If you spend all your free time going after pleasure, or seeking riches, you become what you worship. The same applies to Jesus. If we spend our lives worshipping Jesus, studying the Bible, studying the life patterns, the word-pictures, we become what we worship. There is no exception to this fact.

b) If are brains and bodies are “bible-based”, we will know if what we do throughout the day is God’s will or not. We will set goals, work, play, raise our families in ways that are pleasing to God.

(1) Your daily marching orders come from your obedience to what God teaches us from the bible. Those patterns, principals and word-pictures describe on a moment-to-moment basis on how we should live our lives.

(2) You may read a passage in the bible one day, or hear a sermon, or read something here and say, “you know, that one aspect of my life is not pleasing to God, it’s time to change that”.

(a) That is doing God’s will.

(3) You can open your prayers by saying, “Lord, what do you want me to pray for today?” Sometimes, (not guaranteed!) something may pop in your head that you didn’t think about earlier, that God may be calling you to pray about earlier.

2. Now that I’ve gotten your brain focused on doing God’s will, I can break down and talk about The Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 4.

a) The chapter is about Jesus being tempted by Satan.

b) The second half is about Jesus choosing his disciples and Jesus setting up his ministry.

c) The big-picture idea to see is God the Father’s will being carried out through Jesus despite the temptations to do otherwise.

d) In the second half, we see the disciples willing to change their lives based on what Jesus called them to do.

e) The overriding theme is God’s will getting done.

i) Living moment by moment, we may not see God’s will getting accomplished.

ii) We may be busy “just living”. We are going through our routines.

iii) But when we look back and see the big picture, we can often see how God was working through our lives all for His glory.

f) Before I start Verse 1, I should also talk about “mistakes” and God’s will.

i) The bible is full of stories of horrible things done by one of main bible characters. Yet, you will later read of how God used that event, eventually for His glory.

a) Back in Chapter 1 of Matthew, we talked about Jesus’ pedigree. You may remember that his ancestor Judah had sexual relations with his daughter-in-law, who he thought was a (veiled) prostitute. God used that sinful act to keep the messianic line going.

b) Some may think, “Well then, its ok to mess up, because God will even-tually use that mistake for his glory”. Yes He can and He does. It does not excuse what we do. (Romans Chapter 3 tackles this subject). Often we still have to pay the consequence of that sin despite how God used it.

c) The point is God has such a better plan for us if we obedient instead.

(1) Yet God uses are mistakes. He can use us in a better way if we were obedient to what God calls us to do.

d) God desires to work through people.

(1) Oh how much more could God accomplish if we only pray more “thy will be done”! It is through God’s strength that we have the ability to do God’s will in the first place.

g) With all that said, let’s go to Verse 1, and we’ll take on this subject more as we go.

3. Chapter 4, Verse 1: Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.

a) The last verse of Chapter 3 was Jesus being baptized, and the voice of God the Father saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased”.

b) It appears, right afterward, Jesus was called into the desert to be tempted.

c) When Jesus received the Holy Spirit, from this point forward, Jesus lived to do the Father’s will. The Father’s will, was in effect, “OK son, go to the wilderness now. Don’t eat and watch out for Satan”. J

i) Just exactly what Jesus did during those 40 days is unknown.

ii) I believe in the quote, “Where the Bible is silent, we should be silent”.

d) Why this was the Father’s will (go live in the desert/be tempted) is discussed elsewhere in the Bible. The reason for this 40 day period is commented upon elsewhere:

i) “Because he (Jesus) himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.” (Hebrews 2:18, NIV)

ii) Let me paraphrase what a person can think. “There is no way I can overcome my problem with fill-in-the-blank. I am just too weak. I don’t have the power to overcome this problem. How can God help? If there is a God, he cannot relate to my problem. He doesn’t know how tough it is for me to overcome this.”

a) Read Hebrews 2:18 again. If we want Jesus to help us with our problems, then we need to understand that Jesus can relate to our problems.

b) God the Father’s first order of business after Jesus was baptized, was not to do miracles, not to heal sick people, not to preach the Gospel or even go immediately to the cross. It was to be tempted, so that we can relate to Him. Think about that in perspective of how much God the Father loves you and cares about your particular problems.

c) If Jesus, in his humanity, overcame these temptations, think about how much God the Father loves you and wants to help you in your desire to drop your bad habits and live the life more like God desires for you!

iii) Some commentators compare Jesus being tempted in the desert to Adam and Eve being tempted in the Garden of Eden.

a) Adam and Eve, in the best of places sinned.

b) Jesus, in the worst of places, resisted sin.

c) Adam & Eve fell because they trusted in their own desires and not what God commanded them to.

d) Jesus, under the worst of circumstances, not only can relate to our problems, but gives us a model of how, if we obey God’s commandments, shows us how we can mature to live the full, abundant life that God the Father desires for us.

e) Before I move on to Verse 2, let’s talk a little about the devil himself.

i) One commentator counted over 50 names for him in the Bible. The two most common are “the devil” and “Satan”. We tend to use those two the most.

ii) The two great mistakes to make about Satan are that 1) he doesn’t exist and 2) he is everywhere. It is a mistake to think of him as a fictional character. The other problem is we can blame Satan when often it is our own free will that causes us to mess up our lives.

iii) I believe Satan is the most powerful creature made by God. We are unable to resist him in our own power. The only way to resist Satan is to call upon God and rely upon his Word. That is how Jesus overcame him as we’ll see in this passage.

4. Verse 2: After fasting forty days and forty nights, he (Jesus) was hungry.

a) Well, who wouldn’t be after 40 days! J

i) People who have studied fasting will say that after a few days your body will “shut down” and no longer desire food. At about a 40-day period, you are now near the point where you can starve to death. The body now needs food again simply to survive. That is what is meant by the text.

ii) The number “40” in the bible is usually associated with “trials”.

a) After leaving Egypt, the Israelites were in the desert for 40 days when the spies came back from the Promised Land. When they came back, the reports of “giants in the land” gave them fear of doing what God commanded them to do and conquer the land. God then punished them for 40 years (a year for each day). (See Numbers 14:34)

b) Also with Noah, it rained for “40 days and 40 nights” (Genesis 7:12)

c) Remember that Matthew’s primary concern is to show Jews that Jesus is the Messiah. Jesus' success at His 40-day trial in the wilderness is meant to be compared to the Israelites failure on their 40-day trial.

b) The next 10 verses will discuss Jesus being tempted by the devil. Notice that the fasting didn’t prevent Satan from tempting Jesus. If anything, Satan used that moment of weakness to tempt Jesus. Think how we feel when we are hungry.

i) There is an English acronym associated with human weakness called “H.A.L.T.”.
It means one should never get too (H)ungry, (A)ngry, (L)onely or (T)ired. When one is suffering from one or more of those things, that is when we are weak and are more susceptible to Satan’s Attacks.

5. Verse 3: The tempter (Satan) came to him (Jesus) and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread."

a) Notice Satan acknowledges that Jesus is the “Son of God”.

b) He is not saying it as a form of denial or question, but saying in effect, “Since you are who you claim you are, then use your power to turn the stones into bread.

c) Could Jesus do that? If Jesus is God, he can do anything. The Bible teaches that it was through Jesus that all things were created (See John 1:2, or Colossians 1:16). That means that Jesus is a creator and not a created “thing” and has the power to make stones into bread or anything else he desires.

i) If you know your bible, you should be familiar with the story of how Jesus “multiplied” the loaves of bread on two occasions; one to feed 5,000 men and the other to feed 4,000 people. Both stories are covered later in Matthew and we’ll get to them later in the chapter. If Jesus could multiply the loaves then, he certainly could have used some miraculous power to feed himself here.

d) OK, so what is wrong with Satan asking this question?

i) Here was Jesus, literally starving to death.

ii) Satan was not telling Jesus to “go starve to death”, but to save his own life.

iii) If I encountered Jesus in the desert, and I didn’t have any food or any way to transport Jesus to food in time to save his life, I would probably have said something similar.

iv) Jesus’ answer tells us why it was wrong.

6. Verse 4: Jesus answered, "It is written: `Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.' "

a) The problem was not Jesus eating bread. The problem was this was not the desire of God the Father for Jesus to do at this moment in His life.

b) Let’s face it; it is logical for Jesus to eat bread here to live.

c) This verse has scary implications for us as Christians. Does that mean the “logical” thing for us to do is not always “God’s will”? It is something to stop every now and then to pray about. Sometimes God may ask us to do illogical things (by the world’s idea of what is right) as God has a greater purpose in mind.

i) If you try a prayer like that, and don’t get an answer, consider the logical thing is the right thing to do, assuming it is not something contradictory to the bible.

ii) This situation applies to the time where you are feeling supernaturally “led” to do something that defies logic. Again, you will know it is God’s will if 1) it is not something that violates any biblical principal and 2) the results ultimately work out for God’s glory.

iii) This principal about God’s will is summed up with the quote Jesus gave. It is the last phrase of Deuteronomy 8:3.

a) Notice it says we are to live on every word that comes from God’s mouth.

b) To live on every word, would mean to learn every word.

c) This is why Christians encourage regularly readings of the entire bible.

d) Further, it says that man is not to live by bread alone.

(1) Jesus does not condemn eating food and sustaining our life.

(2) It is about putting things in perspective.

(3) It is about seeking God’s will first, and then our food or whatever else you desire.

7. Here comes temptation #2; Verse 5: Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. ⁶ "If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down. For it is written: “He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. "

a) Somehow, Satan took Jesus from the desert to Jerusalem. Specifically, he took Jesus to the high point on top of the temple.

b) How Satan “transported” Jesus is an unanswerable question.

i) It may have been a vision or it may have been like “Star Trek” where Jesus was “beamed” to this location.

ii) Either way, it gives us a glimpse into how much power Satan has!

c) Historians tell us that the Temple Mount stood over a large valley. From the top of the temple to the ground (via the back side) was a 450 foot drop!” (Source Josephus).

d) Let me paraphrase was Satan was saying, “Hey Jesus, the Bible says in Psalms 91:11-12 that angels will protect you. So why don’t you just prove to everyone that you are the Messiah. Jump off the temple. People will see angels catch you, realize you are the Messiah and save a whole lot of trouble.”

i) This verse indicates that Satan can quote Scripture! Further he can twist it to tempt you with all kinds of things.

ii) This is why false-teachers are emphasized so much in the New Testament. Every book in the New Testament has at least some reference to false teachings and false teachers. If Satan can cause temptation by misapplying Scripture, imagine what man can do!

iii) Further, Satan knew that this prophecy in Psalms 91:11-12 was about Jesus!

a) When Satan quoted these two verses, he skipped one sentence. Satan skipped the last sentence of Verse 11 that says, “to guard you in all your ways” (NIV)

b) That sentence is the key to the temptation.

c) “Your ways”, refers to the ways of God-The-Father. The prophecy is that the Messiah would come to do 100% do the will of God the Father.

d) God the Father desired that Jesus pay the price for all of mankind’s sins.

e) Remember that Satan’s goal is to stop, prevent, or at least slow down God’s redemptive plan for mankind.

i) God the Father, by definition is perfect. In order for us to spend eternity with God, a perfect sacrifice would be needed for sin.

ii) If Satan could cause Jesus, even for a moment, to not do God the Father’s will, Jesus no longer becomes the perfect sacrifice for our sins.

iii) These temptations never deny Jesus as God. In fact, they attempt to make Jesus show off his power. They focus on attempting to make Jesus anything less than perfect so the sacrifice on the cross no longer becomes a perfect sacrifice.

f) Let us personalize this second temptation.

i) The first one has to do with sustenance. There is nothing wrong with eating food or enjoying life, it should simply be done in accordance with God’s will.

ii) This second temptation is about power. There is a need in man to have power and to obtain power.

a) There is nothing wrong with power per se. Somebody has to lead and be in charge. God raises up people to be our leaders. (See Rom. 13:1).

b) The point has to do with committing sin in order to achieve or use that power. If we are not following biblical principals in order to get that power, then we are living in sin.

c) Satan was offering Jesus a “short-cut” for his power. The application is to resist Satan’s temptations of “short-cuts” in order to live our lives.

d) Again, it comes back to God’s will. God does desire the best for us and wants us to accomplish great things. (God’s desire of “great things” is often contradictory to man’s definition). But God desires that we do it his way, and at His timing, and not ours.

8. Verse 7: Jesus answered him, "It is also written: `Do not put the Lord your God to the test.' "

a) This is Jesus’ response to Satan’s second temptation.

i) This is a quote of Deuteronomy 6:16.

b) Notice Jesus did not say, “you didn’t property quote the bible”.

c) Jesus used his authority as God to resist Satan. He said that one does put God to the test. He was referring to himself, not God the Father in this situation.

i) Jesus responded in a way that we could use when we face the same temptations.

ii) The text does not say, “You (Satan) shall not put me or you (people) to the test”.
It says, “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.”

iii) Satan has been given the power and authority to tempt and test us.

iv) God allows this for our growth and maturity. The same way we test our children to see if they learn. God allows temptations to keep us dependant upon Him.

v) Our only hope of resistance is to turn to God for help. (Reference: See Jude 1:9)

9. Here comes “Temptation #3”; Verse 8: Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. ⁹ "All this I will give you," he said, "if you will bow down and worship me."

a) Satan showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world. Again, we don’t know if was “like a movie” or just how Satan did this. We simply take the text at face value.

b) An important concept to understand is Satan owns this world.

i) Not just the ugly aspects, but also the beautiful aspects of nature, the beautiful things man has built. You name it, if it is part of the earth, man-made, or God-made, and it does not swear allegiance to Jesus, it belongs to Satan.

ii) Remember that if Satan didn’t own the kingdoms of this world, Jesus can’t be tempted by it. If I tell you, “You can buy this house from me for $5”; you can’t be tempted by the offer unless you believe I own the house in the first place.

iii) You will notice in this section of Scripture (Verses 8-11) that Jesus never denies Satan owns this world! He simply rebukes Satan by again quoting Scripture.

10. Verse 10: Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: `Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.' " ¹¹ Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

a) Again, the temptation focuses on Jesus taking a “short cut” to the cross.

b) You almost get the impression that the 3^rd temptation was a desperate attempt to get Jesus to fail. If he wasn’t going to eat bread despite his extreme hunger, if he wasn’t going to take a “short cut” to the cross (via throwing himself off the temple to prove his Messiahship), then he wasn’t going to bow down to Satan even if Satan offered everything he had to Jesus.

i) I believe Jesus is aware that one day the world would be redeemed to Him anyway. The ceremony for that event is described in Revelation Chapter 5.

ii) The third temptation was “just” Satan offering another shortcut.

c) There is a bible trivia point I should mention here.

i) The same story of the “three temptations” is told in Luke Chapter 4.

ii) In Luke 4, the order is mixed up. In Luke’s account, the 3^rd temptation is told second and the 2^nd temptation here in Matthew is told as the third in Luke.

iii) The logical explanation is that Matthew tells the story chronologically and Luke tells them in climatically. The 2^nd temptation (throw yourself from the temple) appears to be the greatest temptation. The 3^rd temptation (worship me) appears to be a desperate attempt by Satan to get Jesus to take a short cut.

a) In Matthew’s Gospel, you will notice the word “then” as a connection. After the 1^st temptation, then comes the second one, etc.

b) In Luke’s Gospel, you will notice the word “and” as a connection.

(1) If the 3 temptations are connected by “and”, they don’t necessarily have to be in chronological order.

c) There, don’t you feel better know that you know that? J

d) Notice Satan left right after this third temptation? Why? Because Jesus commanded him to leave after this temptation.

i) Satan must obey Jesus, as Jesus is Lord and God.

a) You can read all three temptations and Jesus response was to say in effect that, “I, Jesus, am Lord and God of all, you must obey me.”

(1) This is written as a model for us to turn to God to overcome evil and not try in our own power.

b) I believe the greatest Satanic attacks come 1) when we are weak and/or
2) when we are in service for God.

(1) He comes when we are weak because we are vulnerable.

(2) He comes when we are in service to God as he is doing everything in his power to stop us from being a good witness. This goes back to one of my favorite expressions: “If you don’t believe the devil is real, try opposing him for awhile”.

c) Notice that Jesus’ fasting and praying for 40 days didn’t stop the attacks from happening. Jesus knowledge of the Word of God gave him the strength to know what was God’s will for his life. He could resist the temptation by knowing “God’s Will” by knowing the Bible.

e) Notice the last phrase of Verse 11 “angels came and attended him”.

i) The logical assumption is that angels came and fed him and strengthened Jesus.

ii) Details are not given, so that is the assumption.

11. Verse 12: When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he returned to Galilee.

a) Verse 12 is a bridge verse. In fact, there may be a time gap here of up to a year.

b) The purpose of Matthew’s Gospel is not to give a detail-by-detail account of Jesus’ life.

i) It is to focus on specific events that show that he is the promised Messiah.

c) Some of the early chapters of John’s Gospel appear to have taken place in the time-gap between Verses 11-12 and Matthew.

i) Chapter 3 of John’s Gospel tells how Jesus was baptizing others elsewhere along the Jordan River. John the Baptist’s disciples were commenting on the fact that people were coming to Jesus to be baptized and that John’s audience was decreasing. (See John 3:26).

d) Jesus returned to the Galilee region because it was part of God’s redemptive plan to go to that region at that time. Jesus was simply working on God the Father’s timing.

12. Verse 13: Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the