Yet I will exult in the Lord, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.19 The Lord God is my strength, And He has made my feet like hinds’ feet, And makes me walk on my high places.(Habakkuk 3:19)
The next several weeks our blogs will focus on the Six Mountains of Matthew. A brief survey reveals several PEAK moments in the life of Jesus where He is on a mountain doing the work of the Father. Each mountain gives us insight into a specific revelation of Jesus Christ and the corresponding needful discipline of the Christian to walk in the “high places” of the Lord and learn His ways and heart.
If we want to see victory in the valleys, we will first climb the mountains!
!❖ The Mountain of Temptation (Matt.4:8): The Discipline of Worshipping and Serving
❖ The Mountain of Revelation (Matt.5-7): The Discipline of Listening and Obeying
❖ The Mountain of Transformation (Matt.17:1-23) The Discipline of Beholding
❖ The Mountain of Prognostication (Matt.24-25) The Discipline of Watching & Praying
❖ The Mountain of Crucifixion (Matt.27) The Discipline of Believing
❖ The Mountain of the Great Commission (Matt.28:16-20) The Discipline of Waiting and Going
Read Matthew 4:1-13
The first “very high” mountain we observe is in Matthew 4:8 is the MOUNTAIN OF TEMPTATION. The follower of Jesus must come to embrace Jesus as the Second Adam and the High Priest. Jesus by His Spirit in us will help us navigate the mountainous terrain surrounding our temptations, lest we stumble and unnecessarily fall. When we face the Tempter, the Second Adam will help us practice righteousness “so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, having done everything, to stand firm” (Eph.6:13). Jesus, the High Priest will instill in us the value of “confession” our sins and faith in Him when we do sin. This is third of three (for Luke it is the 2nd temptation) temptations by the devil which Jesus faced ALONE in the wilderness. After this temptation Jesus the angels came and ministered to him and He began His powerful public ministry. The nature of this particular temptation was to exchange allegiance or loyalty from God to the Devil in order to secure power and fame.
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 things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus *said to him, “Go, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.’” 11 Then the devil *left Him; and behold, angels came and began to minister to Him. (Matt.4:8-11)
What is “temptation” by definition? The Greek word is PEIRAZO which can be translated, “test or tempt”. The context determines whether the connotation is good or bad or mixture of both. The idea of PEIRAZO is that “temptation” or “testing” is meant to reveal what character is in the person. Therefore, we begin to see how critical the CONTEXT is to understanding this word. God “tests” us to refine us and bring out the best results in us. Satan “tempts” to bring out the worst in us to destroy us. The Source of the Test determines the goal of the temptation. Satan “tempts” us to be swept away with unbelief, pride and concupiscence into a life course of destruction. God “tests” us to refine our faith and trust in Him alone, to humble us in reliance upon His strength and to follow His impulses to lovingly help others.
Get this straight…God tests us all but tempts nobody.
The classic story that illustrates this mixture is portrayed in Peter’s denial that He knew Jesus while standing around a campfire during the trial of Jesus. Jesus warned Peter that Satan had desired to “sift” Peter but that He was praying for him that his “faith” would not fail. The pride in Peter’s heart became the CONTEXT of Satan’s access. Jesus permitted the “temptation”to refine Peter’s faith and “sift” out Peter’s impulsive pride. Jesus, the Second Adam, permitted Satan in order to purify Peter. Satan’s temptation was to destroy Peter’s faith and leave him in a ditch of unbelief and despair over his failure. Jesus “tested” Peter for his own good; Satan “tempted” Peter to walk away from his call to be a strategic leader in the emerging church. How unfathomable are the riches of God’s grace in Christ, who can allow an enemy to get in our “space” and seemingly get the upper hand, but then turn the our obvious defeat back on the enemy in order to set us free from debilitating pride and self-righteousness. The Tempter can only go as far as God allows him.
This single Wilderness encounter between Jesus and the devil reveals so much about the nature of evil, temptation and sin. There are three basic categories of temptation revealed in wilderness narrative. As we climb the Mountain of Temptation we will gain a new perspective on how to walk in victory by God’s grace in the midst of evil, sin and a world gone crazy.
First, we will look at the nature of Temptation:
:➢ The Sourcing of Temptation
➢ The Seasonality of Temptation
➢ The Specificity of Temptation
Second, we will develop a strategy of obedience in the midst of temptation:
:➢ Normalizing Temptation
➢ Submitting to God
➢ Resisting the Devil
The Sourcing of Temptation
• The Devil: The Scripture is very clear on this point. The devil, the adversary, Satan is the primary source of all temptation. Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness BUT He was “tempted by the devil.” If you are not careful, you can transfer the leading of the Spirit onto the leading of the devil. Luke’s narrative sheds further light on this distinction between the leadership of the Holy Spirit and the leadership of the Devil. Luke, who focuses both the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles on the person and work of the Holy Spirit, shows that Jesus was “being led about the wilderness” by the Holy Spirit. The verb tense for “being led” is in the PASSIVE voice, suggesting He was under the influence or “filled” with the Spirit of God as he walked about. The word for “led” is also used for a ship being “driven or carried” along by the wind that fills its sails or a driving storm. Like Israel, who spent 40 years in the wilderness, was “carried” by God like an eaglet on the wings of an eagle.
Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. (James 1:13)
The Spirit of God is ALWAYS leading us toward victory and the purpose to serve and glorify God. God Himself has no sin nature, He is entirely and utterly pure and without mixture. There is nothing in God that would be vulnerable to being carried away by evil. Satan learned through his temptations of the Son of God that there was nothing in Jesus that would cause Him to be carried away contrary to the will of the Father.
This leads to the second source of temptation…
• Humankind: People can be a source of temptation to what is sinful in the eyes of God. You and I can tempt someone to stumble. For the love of God, Paul warns strong Christians not to put “stumbling blocks” in front of weaker saints (1 Corinthians 14:13). I remember a specific instance I was led by a co-worker and friend to a place I should not have been. We were rooming together and we a few hours before we had to be on the tradeshow floor to represent our company. I was leaving the room because I wanted to get a swimming workout in before a long day on my feet. My roommate invited himself and said he would go with me. On the way, he suggested we go to another pool to work out that I did not know about. Oddly, we had to pay to get into this pool, at this point I should have realized this was not a good idea and fled for the other pool. I foolishly went along and the rest was an embarrassing page in my work history. Fortunately, God had mercy when I owned up to my actions.
*Sarah Tempted Abraham by Giving Hagar to Prematurely Fulfill Promise of an Heir (Gen.16)
*The Israelites Tempted Aaron to Fashion an Idol while Moses Delayed On Mount Sanai
*Peter Tempted Jesus to Avoid the Cross (Matt.16:23)
The other day I was speaking to a brother who has a drinking problem. He had broken off a relationship that was highly dysfunctional, even though he really cared about this person. However, this person had decided they did not want him in their life anymore. He was living a sober life and had recovered a very good job that he had lost due to his drinking. One day he was unpacking some clothes that he had picked up from his former girlfriend’shouse. As he was unpacking she had put three bottles of whiskey in the midst of the belongings. He was carried away with desire and drank all three bottles over the next few days of Christmas break. By the grace of God, hewas able to recover himself but nearly lost his home and job again. His X-girlfriend knew his weakness and wanted to see him fail in his sobriety.
If we are not careful, we can be a source of leading others to a “cess- pool” of carnality, sensuality or bitterness. We are called to “love one another” and lead each other to the depths of God’s love and fountain of His Spirit to drink deeply.
• The Human Heart: Temptation emerges from the blackness of our own heart. Our heart has the ability to tempt us to take a path of potential destruction. Listen closely to these two passages of truth from God’s word…
“But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.” (James 1:14)
“The heart is more deceitful than all else; And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9)
Satan is limited in his power, knowledge and presence. I highly doubt Satan himself has the time to fiddle around with you. The “Devil made me do it” is a fundamental case of mistaken identity. The truth is “YOU made yourself do it.” However, you are in a battle against “spirits of wickedness”, the warfare is personal and it is strategic against us. You and I are culpable for our sins. People around you are also limited in their ability to influence for better or for worse. Yes, good company can corrupt bad morals. We need to be a force for the goodness and grace of God. The problem with evil and sin is it resides in the human heart…YOUR HEART…MY HEART. Our hearts lead us and tempt us to disobey God. Jesus was alone in the wilderness; his only interaction was with the Father, the angels, the wild beasts and the Devil. He was tempted in every possible way we have been tempted but HE WAS WITHOUT SIN. His heart was wholly devoted in His Father in perfect love and obedience.
However, we still wrestle with our sin nature. Romans 7 is the watershed for understanding evil, sin and temptation.
If we can learn to wrestle with God in our falleness, we can learn to stand strong in the day of temptation by the grace of God.
For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate……I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good…22 For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, 23 but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin. (Romans 7:15,19,21-25)
Some scholars would argue this is Paul’s struggle BEFORE his conversion to Jesus Christ. The argument is understandable because someone truly “born of God” does not “practice sin” according to the Apostle John. However, John and all the Apostles teach that Christians do in fact SIN AFTER BAPTISM(1 John 1:1-9). The early church really struggled with how to handle post-baptismal sins. WHY? They believed in the radical nature of our conversion to Jesus Christ and the impartation of the divine nature which can’t sin. They rightly believed that the grace of repentance truly laid the axe to the root of sin, thus, expecting the fruit of the Spirit to flourish in the new believer. Water Baptism was often performed only once per year on Easter Sunday. WHY? The new believer spent an entire year preparing through instruction, fastings, and watchings, renouncing the devil and his works. Before they would enter the waters of baptism they would “spit” on the ground and renounce the devil and his works. After baptism, they would anoint the new Christian with oil and pray they would be filled with the Holy Spirit. I do not advocate this kind of approach to spirituality as it may tie “saving grace” to the sacrament of Water Baptism. However, there is something redemptive in the seriously sober approach to deep repentance and preparation to walk as a Christian to face the world, the flesh and the devil. The early church leaned toward the expectation that the Christian should be sinning far less as they grow in holiness. The modern evangelical church leans toward a licentiousness that expects Christians to fall and fall often. We must embrace the paradox of our two natures. I am both a saint and sinner. We are pursuing holiness in a body not yet redeemed and by the grace of God and the resident Holy Spirit bring forth fruit in keeping with our repentance and faith in God.
THERE IS NO CONDEMNATION FOR THOSE IN CHRIST JESUS, BUT THERE IS CONVICTION BY THE HOLY SPIRIT (Romans 8:1)
Once we embrace that truth that our “heart” can be a source of temptation we will guard it with the vigilance of Christ. We will give the indwelling Christ full access to every room of our heart to full occupy us and transform us on a daily basis.
The devil is the father of lies. He promises everything and delivers nothing. Do not be fooled…he can’t give you all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. He can’t give what does not belong to him. The truth is all things belong to the Son and will eventually be subjected to the Father.
But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. 21 For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming, 24 then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. (1 Cor.15:20-24)
Worship God and serve Him alone and the devil will fail to distract or derail you and will flee from you!
Father, we humbly bow before You. You are the Father of lights, the Father all goodness who works all things together for Your glory and our joy. You are the source of “testing” for our own good. You are not the author of temptation; you do not seek to lead us on paths that would bring out the worst in us. In fact, you “deliver us from evil”. Father, you seek worshippers who come to You in ny grace and in the Spirit of truth. Satan seeks worshippers to fall down before him in a spirit of deception and lies, for he is the father of lies. We choose to bow down before You and not fall down before the the Devil. We rededicate ourselves to gain only what you give to us in accordance with Your will. We reject the ‘shortcuts’ to prosperity and success built on pride. Give us the humility of Jesus to reject all premature solicitations of the devil to circumvent your provision. We devote ourselves again to walk as Your true worshippers and servants. We trust you to protect us while we walk with You. AMEN
