Matthew 4:1-11 Jesus' Reformation of Satan's Deformation of Scripture

We are in Matthew Chapter 4 this morning. Where we will see Jesus’ teaching us to forsake trusting as a final authority in anything else besides the written word of God. God’s written word alone as the full, final, and sufficient guide for our faith and life.

The context for Matthew 4 is that Jesus has just been baptized by John, The Father has spoken from heaven that He is the beloved Son of God who has left heaven, taken on our nature, and now stands as our righteous Messiah.

Jesus is going into a confrontation with Satan, but as one anointed, indwelt by the Holy Spirit who rests on him. It is going to be a confrontation with Satan based on Jesus’ role as our representative, doing what Adam, and Israel could not do, living a perfect life. Jesus says in John 4:34 “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work.”

So Jesus enters this fight clear on who he is, what his mission is, and we will see he will contest Satan with the Sword of the Word of God illuminated by the work of the Holy Spirit.

Read: Matthew 4:1-11

[1] 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.’” (Deut. 8:3).

[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.

Just two questions this morning

#1 How does Jesus Use Scripture Alone to guide his response to temptation?

#2 How should this inform Our Use of Scripture Alone to guide our lives?

Our passage says Jesus was driven by the Spirit into the wilderness, where he fasted for forty days,

And [understatement] he was hungry…Jesus had a true humanity and true natural desires and responses to hunger.

Verses 1 says it was the Holy Spirit that led him there in order to be tempted. The word can also mean trials or tests. This echoes Israel’s 40 years of testing in the wilderness, where they were provided manna in the wilderness and the Lord there tested their hearts to see if they would trust in their own hearts, minds, desires, and instincts on how things ought to be.

Would they live according to the instincts they gained in pagan Egypt? Would they live according to what popular leaders said was, ok?

Or Would their hearts be receptive to God’s Word and God’s leading them? Would they trust their lives to God and his every word to them alone? Well spoilers, it was a very spotty record for Israel, and for the Christian church down through the centuries.

Jesus will be quoting Deuteronomy 6 & 8 so Jesus will be quoting individual verses but hear the passages he is thinking about, First Deut. 6:4–9

[4] “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. [5] You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. [6] And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. [7] You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. [8] You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. [9] You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (ESV)

Deuteronomy 8:1–3 “The whole commandment that I command you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land that the LORD swore to give to your fathers. [2] And you shall remember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know