Latest / Admonition Podcast / Matthew Chapter 4 - Justin Evergarden - Jan. 21, 2026

Transcript

Matthew Chapter 4 - Justin Evergarden - Jan. 21, 2026 · Admonition Podcast

0:00
Thank you all for coming.
0:01
Always great to see everybody tonight.
0:04
Every time.
0:10
We'll go ahead and start the before class period with a word of prayer.
0:14
So if you'll bow with me.
0:17
Divine Master in Heaven, our Father.
0:20
our glorious Savior.
0:22
Thank you so very much for all that you've given us, specifically this time that we can come to worship and serve you and learn more about your glorious Word.
0:30
May we take what's learned in the class this evening and the devotional later on and apply it to our daily lives.
0:37
We pray that we grow stronger with each and every lesson so that we can become better and more faithful Christians unto thee, so that one day we can have a home in heaven with you.
0:47
And so we pray to thee in Jesus' amen.
0:51
So when we last left off, we were going through Matthew chapter 3.
0:56
So if you want to turn your Bibles over there, we're going to continue with the outline uh that we had done before to give you guys ah some of my personal notes that I had taken
1:08
throughout the study of Matthew.
1:09
Last time we were talking about ah John's clothing and his direct relationship with the ah diet that he was put on as well, the locusts.
1:21
wild honey and we had finished up section one.
1:25
uh If you recall section we had separated everything into different sections trying to jump back up here and uh we had I believe four sections.
1:37
Yes, we had the Messenger in the wilderness, verses 1 through 6, the message of repentance in verses 7 through 10, the message of authority, verses 11 through 12, and a message from
1:47
the Father, verses 13 through 17.
1:51
So now we're in section 2, meaning we'll start in Matthew chapter 3, verses 7 through 10.
1:57
So we'll go ahead and read that now.
1:59
oh
2:07
warned you to flee from the wrath to come.
2:10
Bring forth, therefore, fruits meet for repentance.
2:13
And think not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham our father.
2:16
For I say to you that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.
2:22
And now also is the axe laid unto the root of the trees.
2:26
Therefore, every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire.
2:34
So this starts the section we're going to call A Call to Repentance.
2:37
ah In verse 7, we see the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and Sadducees being exposed.
2:44
ah We see lots of them coming to be baptized.
2:49
These would have been the group's religious leaders with influence and authority as well.
2:53
John does not flatter them.
2:55
He calls them a generation of vipers, which back then would have been quite the offensive term.
3:01
I believe so even today.
3:02
oh
3:05
behind their teeth instead of in the venom-packed soaked fangs that its actual viper would have.
3:12
The language again exposes the hypocrisy because religion without repentance is dangerous.
3:19
Then we move on to verses eight through nine, where we read about fruit instead of heritage.
3:25
John demands them to bring forth, therefore fruits meet for repentance, he shows.
3:31
uh What he's talking about is real change.
3:35
Repentance goes far beyond a simple I'm sorry, but it's an actual change in direction, a change in viewpoint action from then on out.
3:47
He also warns them not to rely on their heritage.
3:50
We see them and make the statement, we have Abraham our father.
3:53
ah Let me ask, spiritual ancestry replace personal obedience?
4:01
No, it has no effect whatsoever on personal obedience to God's Word.
4:05
And just because your ancestor is so-and-so, uh it's an argument, it's a fallacy of argument to uh make an argument from a position of authority like that, just based on your
4:17
lineage.
4:18
It's kind of like getting an argument with a teenage boy and he says, well, my dad owns the bank.
4:23
You know, that's not going to hold any more true for his argument.
4:27
God looks to fruit, that being the works that we produce in our lives,
4:31
not family trees.
4:33
And then in verse 10 we read about urgency.
4:36
We see the image of an axe at the root of a tree and this would show an urgency.
4:42
Typically, if you're going to fell a tree, you would want to have your axe close by.
4:48
Now, the symbolism here of the axe being at the root of the tree is essentially telling them that judgment is near, and it was, it was coming up soon, and repentance must be
4:57
genuine before the axe is actually laid to the tree or the judgment is applied to them in this scenario.
5:04
God is not impressed with outward appearances.
5:06
He wants to see inward change, and He examines even the roots of our lives, doesn't He?
5:12
So we see the...
5:13
uh
5:15
I want to use the word syllogism, but that's not right.
5:17
The illustration used there.
5:20
So which brings us to section three, the coming king and his authority.
5:24
If we can get someone to read the next two verses, verses 11 and 12.
5:52
Alright, so it's clear, and John makes it adamantly clear that he is not the Messiah.
5:59
He says that he's not even worthy to loose the
6:04
belts of his sandals, essentially.
6:06
He baptizes with water, but the one coming after him will baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
6:12
John understands his role.
6:14
In fact, he's stepping aside because he wants Christ to be elevated, not himself.
6:20
He knows exactly where he needs to be.
6:22
True servants of God always point peel to pull to Christ, don't they?
6:27
That's what we should do as Christians.
6:28
We don't point them specifically to a man-made creed or anything like that.
6:32
We want to point them to Christ individually, which is why we as Christians, when we've been trained on this evangelism program, we try to put them into the Word of God, right?
6:40
Because all authority comes from that book, from God himself.
6:44
It's not from us.
6:46
Then we see separation and judgment.
6:47
The imagery shifts in verse 12 over to a harvest type image.
6:52
The wheat is gathered and the chaff is burned.
6:55
uh
6:57
is typically that stuff that ah you would gather up.
7:00
Let's say that you have corn.
7:02
This is the way that I visualize it anyway.
7:04
You have the corn.
7:05
What do you have to do the corn before you can boil the corn and eat the corn?
7:09
You get to shuck it, right?
7:10
You got to take the shuck off and then you're left with those like little strands of things.
7:13
That would be comparable to the chaff with the wheat.
7:17
They would rub the wheat together so they get the wheat seeds, whatever they use to ground down into the flour.
7:22
And then whatever's left would need to be burned in a fire.
7:25
It's useless for any other use.
7:28
This teaches that Christ is going to save the repentant and he's going to judge the unrepented as well.
7:34
So the arrival of the King brings both grace, love, and accountability.
7:38
accountability all at the same time.
7:41
Now let's go ahead and read verses 13 through 17.
7:49
Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him.
7:53
And John tried to prevent him, saying, I need to be baptized by you, and you are coming to me.
7:59
But Jesus answered and said to him, permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.
8:06
Then he allowed him.
8:09
When he had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and
8:17
alighting upon him.
8:20
Suddenly a voice came from heaven saying, is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.
8:26
All right.
8:26
So this is the last section.
8:27
We see the baptism of Jesus unfolding and we see a surprising request.
8:32
Jesus, who, you know, John had been teaching baptism under repentance, came to him and said, I have need to be baptized.
8:38
Now this is not of any sin that Jesus did, but Jesus comes to John to be baptized and John is shocked.
8:44
He resists knowing that Jesus is sinless.
8:47
He knows that he's the son of God.
8:48
That's the whole reason for him coming down.
8:50
um Unfortunately, uh in our country today, and you may have heard of it, there is a book by Katherine Sully.
9:00
This book is a children's book called The Baptism of Jesus.
9:04
And I ran across this a few months ago, maybe a year ago, and it is nothing but...
9:13
foul play, to put it very kindly.
9:16
Her Baptism of Jesus book uh takes Scripture completely out of context.
9:21
This is a children's book that I think we should all be aware exists out there, and I personally would not read anything from Catherine Sully after finding out that on the
9:30
pages of his baptism, uh it quotes Jesus, quotes in heavy quotation marks there because it doesn't.
9:37
It claims to quote Jesus, and it says, I have need to be baptized for the remission of my sins.
9:43
Now that's not blasphemy against our God.
9:45
I don't know what is, but I figured it would be a good note to add in here for you guys, especially anyone with children or grandchildren to keep your eye out for that author
9:56
specifically.
9:57
oh
9:58
But moving forward, we have verse 15, which is to fulfill all righteousness.
10:02
uh Jesus was not baptized to be sinned.
10:05
He was baptized to do several things.
10:07
To fulfill all righteousness means He can identify with sinners as far as the practice goes.
10:14
He's going through the same things that we're going to.
10:16
We notice that Jesus never asks us to do anything that He Himself is not willing to do.
10:23
Being baptized, in this preacher's opinion, is nothing that hard to do.
10:31
He's also obeying the Father, which is something he asks all Christians to do.
10:35
It affirms God's plan, and after this we see him begin his public ministry.
10:39
But mainly what Jesus is showing here is that he, even himself, being the very Son of God, willingly submits to the will of the Father.
10:49
Even something as baptism, he does as an example for us to follow.
10:55
He wants us to follow in his footsteps.
10:57
After all, why do we call ourselves Christians?
11:00
That signifies us being Christ-like.
11:03
That's our entire prerogative in life.
11:05
That's our job description.
11:06
uh
11:07
And then the verses 16 through 17, we see God's approval in Jesus' He's baptized, and the Spirit descends, and note the wording there, like a dove.
11:18
We see depictions all the time of a dove flying down, and it's a nice illustration to be able to see that, but we notice the word like a dove.
11:27
So we don't know exactly what form this would have taken, but it would have been like a dove.
11:32
It could have been something even unseen, soft, kind,
11:37
you think of doves to be, you know, something peaceful.
11:41
But it says like a dove, not as a dove.
11:44
The Father then speaks from heaven.
11:45
see, is my beloved Son, and who I am well pleased.
11:50
So God publicly identifies Jesus and affirms His Son's own obedience publicly to everyone around.
11:58
So major lessons that we find from Matthew chapter three, and I know I'm going back ah to before because we didn't get through the last three sections of Matthew chapter three, but
12:09
we see God preparing hearts for the arrival of His Son.
12:12
We see that repentance is necessary, not optional.
12:16
Religious appearance can never replace genuine change.
12:20
There many in the world that need to learn that lesson.
12:24
And that humility matters in serving God as well.
12:27
Jesus had all things put under His feet.
12:29
He had command over everything, and yet He still humbly served His Father.
12:35
Jesus identifies with the sinners while remaining sinless, and obedience brings the Father's approval.
12:41
And it can do the same for us if we're obedient.
12:45
Now, I had several discussion questions here, but most of them are based on the last class we had, which was several weeks ago.
12:51
So we're going to skip over to there, and we're going to go into Matthew chapter 4 now.
13:00
So Matthew chapter 4, I'm going to go ahead and give you the uh roadmap as I did last time.
13:04
We have a key verse in several different sections broken down.
13:07
uh Matthew chapter 4 follows immediately after the baptism of Jesus, and uh we're going to have four different sections again.
13:17
So section 1, if you're taking notes, is going to be the devil defeated.
13:21
This is verses 1 through 11.
13:24
Then we have the light scene, verses 12 through 17.
13:29
the disciples called, verses 18-20, and the fame that grew in verses 23-25.
13:39
So in section 1, verses 1 through 11, we see Jesus is tempted in the wilderness, overcoming Satan.
13:44
Then we see the public ministry in Galilee.
13:48
The call for the disciples to follow Him in section 3.
13:51
And finally, in section 4, verses 23 through 25, at the end of the chapter, we see the ministry expanding as crowds start to gather around Jesus.
14:00
And uh each section shows a progression.
14:03
We see from victory over temptation all the way to the spread of the kingdom throughout Matthew chapter 4.
14:10
So, let's go ahead and start by reading Matthew chapter 4 verses 1 through 11.
14:15
I'll go ahead and get that because I know it's kind of a longer passage.
14:19
4th, 1 through 11, then Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
14:25
And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward and hungered.
14:32
And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command these stones to be made bread.
14:39
And he
14:39
answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
14:48
Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and seteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down.
14:58
For it is written, ah He shall give his angels charge concerning thee, and in their hands shall they bear thee up, lest at any time thou shall dash thy foot against a stone.
15:08
Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
15:14
Again the devil taketh him up into an exceedingly high mountain, and showeth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, and saith unto him, All these things will I
15:25
give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.
15:29
Then Jesus said unto him, Get thee hence, Satan, for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
15:39
the devil left him and behold angels came and ministered unto him." So Matthew begins with a surprising statement.
15:51
The beginning statement we see, then Jesus, after the previous, after the baptism, was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
16:02
We can note here that this temptation is not accidental.
16:06
This was planned.
16:07
This was something Jesus had to go through.
16:10
And Jesus is led by the Spirit.
16:13
This teaches us that temptation itself is not sinful, even though God's Spirit may allow or lead us into testing for growth and victory.
16:23
But the wilderness we mentioned here would have been most likely near the Sinai region.
16:27
This is the same general region, if you remember back in the Old Testament, where Moses fasted for 40 days.
16:35
The master lawgiver fasted there.
16:37
And then we also have Elijah fasting for 40 days as the great reformer.
16:42
Now these are two other things where we see them in the the in the region of Sinai.
16:48
Now again, I'm not saying this specifically, but based on his location where we last saw in the last couple chapters, it should be somewhere near Sinai.
16:57
So we can assume fairly safely that it was the wilderness of Sinai.
17:02
So Jesus now fasts for 40 days, same as the other two.
17:08
And we see combat before conquest, don't we?
17:13
Can we have conquest before combat?
17:16
You have to go into battle before you can have a victory over your enemy, right?
17:20
So here we have him getting ready.
17:22
The phrase crucial here is to be tempted.
17:28
It shows victory requires opposition.
17:31
To be tempted.
17:34
Right?
17:34
Because if we're tempted, we're in a spiritual battle.
17:37
Sorry, I know the thinking's kind of off, but I'm trying to lead you guys through the way my thinking has been.
17:42
m
17:43
Let me ask this, does faith require testing?
17:50
Yeah, right?
17:52
We can only call it faith because faith is what?
17:54
Belief in action?
17:55
It's the same thing.
17:56
So the action is to overcome something.
17:59
That proves your faith.
18:00
Likewise, free will requires choice.
18:05
Similar to how Adam and Eve were given a choice.
18:08
Unfortunately, they chose wrongly, bringing sin into the world.
18:10
But Jesus now faces a choice as well.
18:13
But where Adam failed, Christ is going to succeed.
18:17
Now, I had seen a...
18:19
uh while doing this study, I came across, and I can't remember the name of the diagram.
18:24
It's a foolish diagram trying to disprove the reality of or the existence of our God.
18:31
And this diagram made the argument that...
18:34
and it had the different steps, if God is all-powerful, then A.
18:39
If He's not all-powerful, then B.
18:41
And the entire argument circled around the idea of free will.
18:45
The problem with this diagram is, I don't think
18:47
think the person that wrote the diagram actually understood the meaning or definition of free will.
18:53
You have to in any argument be able to define the terms that you're given in said argument.
18:58
And so to define free will, how would you define free will?
19:05
You get to choose.
19:06
It's a choice, right?
19:08
So let's say, and we'll follow the diagram.
19:10
I know I don't have it up right now, but the diagram says, Jesus is all powerful, could he make a world without sin?
19:20
Yes.
19:21
Yes, of course he can.
19:22
He's all powerful.
19:23
In fact, he did, didn't he?
19:24
And then it says, well, ah then basically the, and I can't remember the entire thing off the top of my head.
19:31
I don't have it, unfortunately, but.
19:35
the argument essentially goes this route.
19:38
It says that if God was able to make a world without sin, why didn't He?
19:45
And still give us free will?
19:48
Well, the premise is wrong there.
19:49
The fact is, you can't have free will if you don't have a choice.
19:53
If your only choice is pure stark obedience and there is no temptation and it's not there, how do we have free will?
20:00
It's the lack of choice.
20:02
So the entire diagram winds up circling around.
20:05
If you're, you know, sharp enough to look at it at an underlying level, they redefine the term free will thinking that it can just be redefined.
20:15
And that's simply not the case.
20:16
But here we see also uh the first mention of the devil in the New Testament.
20:22
This shows him as an active personal adversary for Christ in this situation.
20:28
So verses 2 through 3, the first temptation.
20:32
ah Let's go ahead and read that again, verses two through three.
20:37
is when he fasted 40 days and nights, he was afterward and hungered.
20:42
When you go up against someone in battle, what condition do you want them to be in?
20:50
You want to go as strong or as weak as possible?
20:54
You want them to be weak.
20:55
We want to be strong.
20:56
We want to be well fed, well rested, well prepared, the best armaments, bigger guns, right?
21:02
So here we have the devil showing why he's a viper, why he's a serpent, right?
21:08
Why he acts like this because contextually we know that, you know, we attribute the thinking of slyness, deceivingness to snakes.
21:20
The devil's being the same way here.
21:21
He thinks he's being sly.
21:23
So he's trying to find Christ in a very weak moment.
21:28
He would have been hungry, he would have been tired, and so he comes and he says, if thou be the Son of God, command these stones to be made bread.
21:36
He's appealing to what is effectively the lust of the flesh in this situation.
21:43
Yes.
21:50
He does.
21:55
Mm-hmm.
21:59
Yes.
22:01
And it was a whole lot easier for Eve because he simply said, thou shalt not die.
22:06
Repeated the entire commandment, but just added in the word not.
22:11
Yeah, absolutely.
22:12
No, he's either trying to get him to doubt or he's agging him on.
22:17
It's kind of like pulling attention from Christ and putting it on himself.
22:21
Well, if you say you're the son of God, make these turn into stone.
22:24
Prove me wrong.
22:26
He's agging him he's poking the bear as it were, right?
22:30
And so here he is, the detail is critical.
22:32
Yes.
22:36
Mm-hmm.
22:38
He always attacks when we're tired.
22:40
He loves to attack when we're hungry.
22:42
He definitely attacks when we're stressed, right?
22:46
And does he attack when we're isolated?
22:48
Yeah.
22:49
Strength in numbers, right?
22:50
We were talking about the three-fold cord not too long ago.
22:53
If you have a rope with many, braids in it, it's going to be much stronger than one piece of twine used for sewing, which is probably why my hems and my pants come undone so often.
23:05
But this is good battle strategy.
23:07
Satan's a skilled enemy.
23:09
Please don't think that he's not.
23:10
He's very skilled.
23:11
He's very smart.
23:13
But the first temptation appeals to the lust of the flesh.
23:16
This parallels the first sin in the Garden of Eden, as we said before.
23:19
Both temptation involve hunger and disobedience.
23:22
To Adam and Eve, they looked at the tree and saw that it was good to eat, and it looked pleasing to the eye.
23:27
Now, I don't know about you, but if I had to not eat for 40 days, just about anything would look pleasing.
23:33
especially when you have the ability to simply command stones to turn into bread.
23:41
Locust and honey would be a treat at that point, yes, absolutely.
23:45
But verse four, we see the response.
23:47
Jesus always responds with scripture, and he says, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone.
23:55
Now this quotation comes from Deuteronomy 8.3, so if someone will go ahead and get that for me.
24:00
We'll actually read the direct quote there in Deuteronomy chapter eight, verse three.
24:24
So this is directly referring to the manna that they were being fed in the wilderness.
24:28
God had it appear for them.
24:29
He wanted to show them dependence on His power because that's all we need.
24:34
In fact, that's all we have.
24:35
Whether you like it or not, this entire world is upheld by God's power.
24:42
And so we have a direct quote from Deuteronomy referring to the manna.
24:46
Who benefited from the manna?
24:50
Was it God or God's people?
24:52
God's people, absolutely.
24:54
Jesus reminds Satan, and he should remind us, that physical provision is not enough, a life sustained by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.
25:03
Now we were talking a moment ago of not eating for 40 days.
25:08
Locusts and honey would be a welcome thing.
25:10
If we think that that's detrimental and how much weight you would lose uh at a physical standpoint, can we apply that same principle to studying God's Word from a spiritual
25:20
standpoint?
25:21
If we think we're physically starving for physical needs in 40 days, what happens when we go 40 days without even looking into God's Word, without studying it, without reading it?
25:31
Are you spiritually starving?
25:33
You may not know it, but you are.
25:36
We need to always feed ourselves daily with God's Word.
25:40
But notice the tense.
25:41
I did notice this and it really stuck out to me.
25:45
Notice that Jesus says it is written, not it was written.
25:52
If it was written, a law, is it in any effect now?
25:58
But if it is written, is the law still applicable to us today?
26:03
Yes.
26:03
oh
26:04
And so he was telling Satan the same thing.
26:06
God's Word is very much still written, it's still active, it's still binding, and it's very much still powerful.
26:12
We have the same weapon today.
26:14
If someone will please read Romans 1 and verse 16.
26:23
This should remind us of something very critical.
26:26
Romans 1, 16.
26:33
for the power of God unto salvation, which also means if it's the power of God unto salvation, does every word matter?
26:41
Every word matters, absolutely.
26:43
Every word has meaning, none are disposable, which is why when we study, we try to get deep sometimes.
26:49
Yes, you can wade as deep in the water as you want, you can stay at a surface level, but let me tell you, you can study it your whole life and that water is just gonna get deeper
26:58
and deeper and deeper.
27:00
We can always learn more.
27:02
Moving on to verses five through six, we see the second temptation.
27:05
We're gonna label this one the pride of life.
27:08
Satan fails once, but do we know Satan to be a quitter?
27:13
No, he didn't.
27:13
He could have quit in the Garden of Eden, but he didn't.
27:15
He kept going and kept going.
27:17
He's going to keep going until he's finally laid to rest.
27:21
He takes Jesus to the holy city, Jerusalem, or it could have been Jerusalem.
27:25
He just says, a holy city.
27:27
But we notice that this is a city.
27:30
Would this have been a place where people would have resided?
27:35
Yeah, absolutely.
27:36
So it teaches us that no place is exempt from temptation.
27:40
Even around others, temptation is still present.
27:42
There are private sins and there are also public sins.
27:46
Even religious places, unfortunately, from time to time, can become places of temptation.
27:51
Cities are filled with people and where there are people, there are temptations.
27:56
But Satan places Jesus at the pinnacle of the temple.
27:59
The Greek word here could also mean spire or like a high visible point.
28:04
You think of like a tower.
28:06
So I know some of the church buildings have the really tall steeple.
28:10
Back in the day, you could have walked upstairs and gotten up there.
28:14
know, like old cathedrals and things would have the bells up there, but you'd have the bell ringer.
28:18
It would be something similar to this.
28:19
I'm not sure the exact context, but it would have been a high visible area.
28:25
We also notice Satan does not push Jesus.
28:29
He tempts him.
28:29
to jump, rather.
28:32
Then Satan quotes Scripture.
28:34
So we see Satan lose the first time because he has to eat the words of God.
28:38
It is written.
28:40
You can almost see the devil's attitude going, oh, okay, you want to use Scripture?
28:46
All right, let's use Scripture.
28:47
And so he does.
28:48
He turns around and he quotes Psalm 91 verses 11 through 12.
28:53
So let's go ahead and get that one.
28:55
Psalm chapter 91.
28:57
Verse 11 through 12.
29:15
deeply and all.
29:19
are barely up.
29:25
Alright, so there we see Satan quoting scripture.
29:28
Now if Satan is quoting scripture, what does he have to know?
29:33
Scripture!
29:35
Is it a shame for us if the devil knows scripture better than we do?
29:41
I guarantee he does for most of us, probably all of us, including me.
29:49
He may even believe it more than we do.
29:51
You ever think about that?
29:53
I think he knows.
29:54
He's seen it firsthand.
29:57
I think he does.
29:58
But he uses it in a distorted way.
30:01
He corrupts God's Word and able to bend it as almost like, you know, there are tribes.
30:08
I think it's South Africa, where they take their arrows, but instead of using pure, clean arrows, they dip them in the poison from the poison dart frog, and they'll fire them that
30:19
way.
30:20
Is that arrow corrupted with poison?
30:22
Yeah, it's the same thing.
30:24
He takes something that he knows is powerful, something that can affect you all the way to your heart and soul, and he tries to corrupt it for his own weapon.
30:34
But this temptation appeals to the pride of life.
30:37
Satan wants Jesus to abuse his power for self-glory.
30:40
And so we see Jesus' retort by using Scripture correctly.
30:45
He responds again, shifting the attention away from himself and back to the Father.
30:50
Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
30:54
Jesus is refusing to test God's faithfulness.
30:57
He knows God is going to be faithful.
30:59
It's going be hard what he asks him to do, but he knows he will be faithful.
31:02
Scripture constantly condemns testing God.
31:05
So let's get a few verses that prove that fact.
31:08
If someone will get Numbers 14 and verse 22, and then we'll have Psalm 78 and 18.
31:17
So again, the first one is Numbers 14 and verse 22, and then someone else will get Psalm 78 and 18.
31:28
who have seen my glory and the signs which I did in Egypt and the wilderness have put me to the test now these ten times and have not heeded my voice.
31:37
Alright, so there we have them trying to tempt the Lord.
31:41
Alright, Psalm 78 and 18.
31:46
and they tempted God in their heart by asking for their lust.
31:50
All right.
31:52
Using scripture wrongly, does it make an action righteous?
31:58
No.
32:00
So we'll go back to Matthew chapter four and we'll move on to verse eight.
32:04
We have the third temptation.
32:06
We label this one the lust of the eyes.
32:08
In verse eight, Satan changes tactics again.
32:12
He learns from past mistakes.
32:13
He is always changing, always evolving, and yet he's always losing, isn't he?
32:19
In verse eight, Satan changes.
32:21
He says the temple was not high enough, so he takes Jesus to an even higher place.
32:27
This could have been a mountain with a sweeping view, but Matthew tells us Satan shows Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them.
32:35
Does anyone remember a Disney movie with something like that?
32:40
Of the Lion King?
32:41
Simba, everything the light touches, I just can't get that out of my head every time I read this.
32:46
oh Everything the light touches, Simba, it'll be yours, just not the Shadowlands.
32:50
But in this instance, the devil essentially is playing the bad guy and saying, you'll even get that.
32:56
You get it all.
33:00
Do we see something similar in Genesis 3 and verse 6, when Eve saw that the fruit was pleasing to the eyes?
33:07
He thinks he's changing tactics, but the pattern stays the same.
33:10
He tries to evolve, tries to change.
33:12
If one thing doesn't work, he'll try it again.
33:14
So we've had the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life.
33:19
Satan's goal here is not power.
33:22
He's wanting misdirected worship, right?
33:25
In fact, he wants the creation to steal the honor that belongs only to God.
33:29
Are we warned in the Bible not to allow the creation to be worshipped rather than the Creator?
33:36
This is something that I've actually come in contact with in Japan.
33:40
Some of the people that wake up in the morning will greet the morning sun and bow to it and thank the sun for its sunlight and for growing the crops.
33:48
And so one of the things that we're working for over there is trying to redirect their thinking, asking them, well, do you know of the God that made the sun?
33:56
Well, yeah, I guess so.
33:58
Well, would it be not more appropriate to thank the person who made the sun?
34:02
So now they don't have to change their culture.
34:05
They can keep waking up in the morning and bowing towards the sun, but now they're thinking that creates
34:10
and not the creation.
34:17
Satan's always desired worship, hasn't he?
34:20
Seems so.
34:21
At this moment, he exposes his true objective.
34:25
So in verse 9, Satan says, all these things I will give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.
34:31
Tell me, is this a lie on multiple levels?
34:36
I think so.
34:36
First off, Satan's offering something that was not his to give to begin with, right?
34:42
Who does the creation belong to?
34:44
To whom?
34:46
To God.
34:47
The kingdoms of the world ultimately belong to God, and we read that in Psalm 24 and verse 1.
34:53
Satan may influence worldly systems, but they do not belong to him.
34:57
He is not the owner.
34:58
Second, Satan offers Jesus a shortcut to the throne.
35:02
Is he offering Jesus authority without ah
35:06
without suffering?
35:08
He's trying to.
35:09
He's trying to offer a shortcut.
35:11
Glory without the cross.
35:14
Sounds like a good deal on the surface, but when you look deeper...
35:19
He's tempting Jesus to bypass the suffering that was coming in the future.
35:22
But third, Satan implies that this would only need to happen once.
35:27
The verb tense here that we read in the Greek signifies a single act of worship.
35:33
You can almost imagine him going, man, just do me this one solid.
35:37
I will give you everything that I have.
35:38
Just worship me once.
35:39
Just do it once.
35:41
Because then he'd get to gloat.
35:43
I got one over on Christ.
35:45
I only won once, but I won.
35:47
So it's doable again.
35:49
m
35:50
Christ doesn't fall for it.
35:53
Just once will absolutely hurt.
35:57
Let's have somebody get Romans chapter 1 and we'll read 24 through 25.
36:09
Romans chapter 1, 24 through 25.
36:17
Therefore, God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lust of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves, to change the truth of God into a lie and
36:29
worship and serve and create the creature more than the creator who is blessed forever.
36:36
Amen.
36:38
So at the end of the day, idolatry is always at the heart of sin.
36:41
You're exchanging God's truth for a lie.
36:43
And as it says in the verse there, they're worshiping the creation and not the creator.
36:49
Satan's offering Jesus an easier path, but obviously this is a false path.
36:52
God's plan has no shortcuts.
36:55
When God does something, does he do it the right way the first time?
36:59
Always.
37:00
And he does so perfectly.
37:04
Verse 10.
37:06
we see the command in the Scripture.
37:07
This is actually our key verse for the entire chapter.
37:10
Here Jesus responds differently than before.
37:12
He actually exercises his authority.
37:14
He says, get thee hence, Satan.
37:18
This time Jesus does not merely quote Scripture.
37:21
Again, he's issuing that command.
37:23
He follows the command with Scripture though.
37:26
So he gives them the command, get away from here.
37:29
For it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." And again, he's quoting Deuteronomy back in Deuteronomy chapter 6 and verse 13.
37:40
This is the climax of the temptation narrative.
37:42
Jesus demonstrates that Scripture is not only defensive, can it also be authoritative?
37:49
Is the Word of God a double-edged sword piercing unto the soul?
37:54
Right?
37:54
Absolutely.
37:57
The word is God is not something to debate with Satan, it's something to stand on.
38:01
So verse 11, have we ever seen Jesus or God himself issue a command and it's not obeyed?
38:11
In terms of angels and Satan and things like that.
38:16
He gives us a choice because he wants to give us free choice, right?
38:19
He commands us to obey, but humankind always disobeys.
38:24
But in this case,
38:25
Does Satan have to obey a direct command?
38:30
Yeah, absolutely.
38:31
What did Jesus happen whenever he saw the man possessed by Legion?
38:36
He said, get out.
38:38
Now they were going to the full time, but they said, please send us over here instead.
38:43
We'll leave.
38:44
We're still going to obey.
38:45
But they ultimately give in to the authority that comes from Christ.
38:50
Matthew says, then the devil leaveeth him.
38:52
This is critical.
38:53
Satan must obey the command given to him.
38:56
He doesn't leave voluntarily, but he leaves because he's commanded to.
39:01
The image is one of those of him being in complete defeat.
39:04
The enemy retreats, humiliated, powerless, exposed.
39:09
You can almost see him like a dog with his tail between his legs running away.
39:13
But Matthew adds, and behold, angels came and ministered unto him after the temptation.
39:20
Now the word ministered here,
39:22
if we were to do a more literal translation of the word, it means to tend to the needs of, to serve, right?
39:30
So after 40 days and fasting and an intense spiritual battle, can we reasonably assume that the angels attended to Jesus's physical needs?
39:39
oh
39:42
Seems likely.
39:43
I'm not going to say verbatim yes or no because the scripture doesn't tell us, but this could have included his hunger.
39:50
And the victory is followed by provision.
39:52
God never abandons his servants after obedience, does he?
39:55
No, he stands with us all the time.
39:58
Now there's a time-light note here.
40:00
I actually wouldn't have known about this if it wasn't for my instructors that pointed it out to me.
40:05
We actually have a timeline jump between verses 11 and verse 12.
40:10
And this is actually between Matthew, I'm sorry, these events would have been recorded in John chapters one through five.
40:17
So in the Gospel of John, we get a little bit more.
40:20
Now we're sticking to Matthew for this study so that I'm not bouncing around all over the place.
40:25
But the accounts, uh roughly account for one year of ministry, which is condensed into
40:30
oh 136 verses, but we do see a time skip here and I'm running out of time.
40:36
Matthew is selective about this.
40:38
He's not writing in a biography.
40:40
He's wanting to make sure that he presents the King the way that he is.
40:44
So Matthew chapter 12 through 17, we're going to get to the light scene and the ministry begins.
40:50
I'll go ahead and read that 12 through 17 of Matthew.
40:56
Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee.
41:00
And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast and in the borders of Zebulon and Nephtalem.
41:07
that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by Isaiah as the prophet, saying, the land of Zebulun and the land of Nephtali, by the way of the sea beyond Jordan, Galilee of the
41:17
Gentiles.
41:18
The people which sat in darkness saw great light, and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death, light has sprung up.
41:26
From that time, Jesus began to preach and to say, repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.
41:34
So Jesus leaves Nazareth and he starts to dwell in Capernaum.
41:38
This would have been a very strategic location for his ministry.
41:41
It was the village of Nahum.
41:43
It was also Matthew's hometown.
41:45
We know that Peter had a house there and Jesus had friends there.
41:49
So this would have been a good place for him to set up shop.
41:52
And the word dwell there would have implied more of a permanent dwelling.
41:56
This was kind of his base of operations, if it were.
42:00
So Capernaum becomes the center of Jesus' Galilean ministry.
42:04
Now verses 14 through 16, we actually see the fulfillment of prophecy that we see back in Isaiah chapter 9, verses 1 through 2.
42:15
In fact, Matthew tells us, whenever you see Ezeas right there, it's just Isaiah.
42:20
It's a different translation of the name, same person, same name.
42:23
But this is Isaiah, specifically referencing chapter nine.
42:27
When Isaiah first spoke these words, the area was primarily Jewish.
42:30
If you notice down there, uh it said, of the Gentiles.
42:35
Galilee of the Gentiles.
42:37
So when Isaiah would have first spoken these words, the area would have been more primarily Jewish in culture.
42:42
But by the time Jesus arrives, we see the population kind of shift over into more Gentiles.
42:48
This would be the change of words there between Isaiah's account in chapter nine and Matthew's account in chapter four.
42:55
So the Gentile population has significantly, explaining the shift in language.
43:01
But light is now shining in a place once marked by darkness.
43:04
God's salvation is
43:05
in essence expanding forward, outward.
43:09
It's always growing.
43:10
So verse 17, we see the first recorded sermon of Jesus, or at least the first words recorded.
43:18
Matthew records them saying, repent.
43:22
You notice that that's the same message that John preached?
43:25
Well, who was John paving the way for?
43:28
Would it make sense for him to preach the same message?
43:32
Absolutely.
43:33
So, our King continues the call to repentance.
43:37
But we notice that the Gospel does not begin with comfort.
43:40
It could have.
43:41
It could have been telling them there's a better way, a better place, but instead the Gospel begins with change.
43:47
And that's where we'll leave it tonight because I believe I am running out of time.
43:50
And next time we'll start in Matthew chapter 4 verse 18 for when we see the disciples called.
43:56
oh