Matthew 4:1-11 “The Temptation of Jesus”

Passage: Matthew 4:1-11

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4 But he answered, “It is written,

“‘Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple 6 and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written,

“‘He will command his angels concerning you,’
and

“‘On their hands they will bear you up,
lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”
7 Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” 8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written,

“‘You shall worship the Lord your God
and him only shall you serve.’”
11 Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.

Intro:
We face temptation with the True Son and His triumph in mind.

Outro:
Some of us have maybe sat in church all our lives and failed to grasp this. You face temptation and IT’S HARD. You give in (maybe not all the time). And you think, how could God accept me? How could he approve of me? Remember the challenge to identity? Great news. God could never and would never accept you based upon how frequently you beat sin. Because you’ll fail.

But, Jesus has beat sin. He has conquered temptation. He alone is righteous. And his righteousness counts for His people. The psalms say many times that those who trust in God will not be put to shame. If you are trusting in Jesus for your salvation…

If you are not…

God’s not waiting for you to beat all your temptations so that He can accept you. You’re called to place your trust in the only acceptable one who has beat temptation – Jesus Christ.