LUKE 4:1-13 JESUS IS OUR PERFECT SAVIOR2011 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Luke 4:1-13 Jesus Is Our Perfect Savior

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You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2011.

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Luke 4 1-13

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Luke chapter 4 verses 1 through 13. You read the odd numbered verses along with George because he's a little odd. Then I'll read the even numbered verses as we go through this passage once again. Then Jesus being filled with the Holy Spirit returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness.

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Being tempted for forty days by the devil, and in those days he ate nothing, and afterward when they had ended, he was hungry. And the devil said to him, If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread. But Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.

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Then the devil, taking him up on a high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to him, All this authority I will give you, and their glory, for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.

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Therefore, if you will worship before me, all will be yours. And Jesus answered and said to him, Get behind me, Satan, for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only you shall serve. Then he brought him to Jerusalem, set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here.

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For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over you to keep you. And in their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone. And Jesus answered and said to him, It has been said, You shall not tempt the Lord your God. Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time. Let's pray.

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Heavenly Father, as we stand here once again before you,

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God, we pray that you would give us insight into your word. And Lord, as we look once again at this temptation that Jesus experienced, I pray, God, that you would reveal to us how Jesus is our perfect and sinless Savior, how he's the only one qualified to redeem us and give us the hope of eternal life. And so, God, strengthen us, Lord, in our knowledge of you. Help us to understand more and more what you've accomplished for us through Jesus.

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I pray that you'd pour out your spirit upon us to give us insight and understanding, not just into what's being said or what Jesus endured, but also, Lord, for our own selves and how you want to work in our lives through these things. And so, Lord, speak to us and direct us, help us to stand fast and stand strong in the midst of the temptations that we face. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Would you greet a couple of people and then you can be seated.

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Well, this morning as we look once again at this portion, Luke chapter 4 verses 1 through 13, we're

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Looking at a slightly different aspect than what we've seen before. For the first week, we looked at the devil's tactics and the temptations that he brought against Jesus and how those temptations parallel the temptations that you and I face and the things that we go through. They're the same types of attacks that come against us.

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Then last week we looked again at this portion and saw how the Holy Spirit was really victorious in Christ and that he was able to overcome by the power of the Holy Spirit. And again, how you and I are able then, being filled with the Spirit, to follow his example and not give in to temptation but to have victory in the Spirit.

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Well, this week as we go through this portion one last time, we'll move on next week into the next portion, but as we go through this once more, the Lord's really put the emphasis upon Jesus and looking and understanding how Jesus is our perfect Savior.

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You might remember from last week we looked at Hebrews chapter 12 verse 1 where we were encouraged to lay aside the weights and the sin which so easily ensnares us to run with endurance the race that is set before us. Well the very next verse in Hebrews chapter 12 verse 2 tells us to look unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith. And that's what we want to do this morning, to look at Jesus and to see what these

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temptations meant for him how he handled them because he is our example.

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Now as we look at this portion, I would ask you as we start talking about Jesus and these temptations, have you ever wondered about these temptations and what it was like for Jesus? Do you ever wonder, you know, could he have fallen? Would it have been possible? The fact that he is God, you know, would it have been possible? Could he have chosen to sin if he'd wanted to?

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Well, if you've ever wondered something like that, you're in good company because scholars and students and Bible teachers have wondered and debated and discussed that very question ever since this first happened when Jesus went through this. It's been a big discussion about whether or not he could have actually fallen. But there's another question that we often wrestle with and wonder about when we look at this portion.

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Do you ever think that these temptations must have been easier for Jesus

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because he had this perfect nature. Do you ever look at this temptation and think, well, of course he passed, of course he was victorious, because he's God, because he's perfect, he's sinless, and so this was probably a piece of cake for him. It was no problem at all. And I'd like to point out, as we spent some time focusing on Jesus this morning, yes, he is God,

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And yet at the same time, the Bible declares, he added humanity to his deity. He became flesh and dwelt among us. He became man.

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So much so that the author of Hebrews in Hebrews 4.15 says, look, we have a high priest, that's Jesus, who can sympathize with us. He can relate to us and we can relate to him because he was tempted in all points as we are, although he did it without sin. He lived the human life. He experienced emotions. He experienced temptation. These things were not just a piece of cake for him. They were difficult.

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And we can see that by the example of Jesus there in the Garden of Gethsemane. It proves his humanity there. We'll get to it in quite a few weeks in the Gospel of Luke, but you might remember the account in Matthew 26, where Jesus is there in the Garden of Gethsemane. It's right before he's heading to the cross. And there he's spending some time in prayer, and it tells us there that he is sorrowful and deeply distressed.

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It's not just an easy cake in the walk, you know, let's just have a little bit of prayer time and pray, you know, for good weather or things like that. But he's overwhelmed. He even tells his disciples in Matthew 26, 38, he says, my soul is exceedingly sorrowful even to death. He is extremely burdened. He's overwhelmed by the things that are upon him. And so he's asking them to pray along with him.

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In Luke chapter 22 verse 44 it also tells us in the same instance where he's in the garden of Gethsemane that he's in agony and he prays earnestly and it says that his sweat became like great drops of blood falling to the ground.

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That's a medical condition called hematidrosis where the capillaries in the sweat glands burst because of extreme stress and so the blood and the sweat, they mingle and so the sweat and the blood are coming together as Jesus is overwhelmed by this great stress of the cross that lies before him.

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Now, this is all evidence. This demonstrates to us the humanity of Jesus. That he experienced life. He experienced things like you and I experience. In fact, much more so. Not only that. Not only was he human. Not only did he have those same types of things. But also understand that Jesus had a big target on him. Because more was at stake for him than for any other person who had ever lived.

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If Satan could take him out, then God's eternal plan would have failed. And so the enemy is going to come at Jesus with everything he has, with his best attacks, with every attempt, every opportunity possible throughout his life to cause him to sin, to cause him to stumble. Because if he does, then all of humanity will be lost, God's plan will have failed, and Satan will have been victorious.

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And so the temptation that Jesus experienced was not only real, but it was actually much more difficult than you and I could imagine. We usually think about it the other way. Ah, it must have been easy for him. He was God. But in reality, it was more difficult than we could understand and more difficult than the things that we go through.

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The word tempt that we've been looking at for the past couple of weeks, it means to examine or to test or to tempt. Now, it carries with it the idea of discovering what good or evil, what weakness or strength is within a person.

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And so what we have here in the temptation of Jesus is the revelation of his strength, of his goodness. Really the revelation of the fact that he indeed is our perfect Savior. He is our sinless Savior.

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And so I want to take a closer look at Jesus through this portion, and I want to do so by not so much looking at Luke chapter 4, but looking at the references, the passages that he quoted from the book of Deuteronomy. So there's three things that Jesus shared, three points I want to highlight for you about Jesus from these scriptures that he quoted. The first point we'll see is that Jesus fully surrendered to the Father, and

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Deuteronomy 8

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Deuteronomy chapter 8, we have here the portion that Jesus quoted from in response to Satan's temptation. Now let me set the stage a little bit for you. Here is Jesus, he's been fasting in the wilderness for 40 days. He's hungry, he's been tempted this whole time, but now it tells us the devil comes and he brings these particular temptations against him at the end of this 40 days of fasting.

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Again, Jesus is hungry and so the devil comes to him and says, Hey, since you're the son of God, you don't have to be hungry. Why don't you make these stones right here into some bread so that you can meet your needs, so that you can fulfill your need. In other words, Satan is telling him, you don't have to suffer like this. You deserve much better. Why don't you provide for yourself and make some bread?

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Now Jesus responds to that in Luke chapter 4 verse 4 saying, It is written, man shall not live by bread alone but by every word of God. He responds with the passage saying, It is written. And where is it written? Well, it's in Deuteronomy chapter 8. And I want to read to you verses 1 through 6 so that we can get the context of what's happening and then we'll zero in on verse 3 which is the verse that Jesus quoted.

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Deuteronomy chapter 8, look at it with me. It says in verse 1, Every commandment which I command you today, you must be careful to observe, that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers. And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.

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So he humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.

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Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you. Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God to walk in his ways and to fear him. So this is the portion that Jesus is quoting from, that he's drawing from in order to respond to this temptation that the devil brings against him.

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The book of Deuteronomy was written and spoken at the end of Moses' life and ministry. His ministry is drawing to a close. He's passing the torch onto Joshua. And Joshua is about to lead the people into the promised land, the land of Israel that God had promised to them. But as he's doing that, he's looking back.

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At the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, at the deliverance out of Egypt for the children of Israel, he's looking back at all that has taken place, all that they've experienced, the commands that God has given. And as he's looking back, he's reminding the people of what has happened and what God has said. And so here Moses tells Israel, don't forget about your time in the desert.

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He says you need to remember, keep it in your memory. There's some important lessons that God taught you through that time in the wilderness. He taught you primarily about obedience to God. Remember they wandered in the wilderness out of disobedience.

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Because Moses led them right to the edge of the promised land, but the people would not believe God and would not enter in as God had commanded because they were afraid of the giants in the land. And so as a result, they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. And so primarily God's teaching them about obedience. But also, Moses says, look, God was also teaching you about his provision, how he is able to provide for you, how there's this great multitude...

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estimates range around 2 to 3 million people some estimate as high as 6 million people are there in the wilderness and God provides for them daily with this miraculous manna that falls from heaven every day incredible work that God did in providing for them not only that but he goes on there in verse 4 he says look your garments didn't wear out so for 40 years he took care of them their clothes didn't go out of style they didn't fall apart

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Their shoes didn't wear out. Also, God gave them health. He says, look, your feet didn't swell after walking, you know, for 40 years in the desert. You might have some swollen feet. They didn't have swollen feet. They were protected. They were taken care of. God provided for them in the wilderness. And so Moses is reminding the people about what God has done as they're preparing now to go in to this promised land that God had given to them.

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Now this is the portion of scripture that Jesus quotes from, and I think it's very appropriate, of course, because there's so many parallels to what Jesus was experiencing and what the children of Israel went through. You can see they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, and Jesus has been in the wilderness now for 40 days, fasting.

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And as he's been there in the wilderness, it seems that Jesus is learning some of these same lessons that Israel was learning in their wilderness experience. Again, to be obedient to God, but also God's ability to provide. You see, here in the wilderness for 40 days, Jesus was humbled. He was humbled. Just like Israel was humbled there in the wilderness. Look again at verse 3 here in Deuteronomy 8. It says, So he humbled you...

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and allowed you to hunger. He humbled you. He allowed you to hunger. This kind of hunger is humbling, not just to Jesus, but to any person. To be in a state of hunger and not be able to provide for yourself or get food for yourself, that is a humbling experience, but especially for Jesus.

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Jesus was hungry, but at the same time we see that he was fully surrendered to the Father. He knew God could provide. Obviously, he could quote the scripture. He's reminded already, God provided for millions of people in the wilderness daily with this miraculous food called manna. So he knew God could provide, but he's fully surrendered to the Father, waiting for the right time for the Father to provide for him.

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But how humbling this was for Jesus to be in this condition of need, in this condition of lack, in this condition of hunger. He went from creator to hunger. Can I remind you of Colossians 1, verse 16? There Paul says, "...by Him," that's by Jesus, "...all things were created that are in heaven."

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and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. Jesus is the Creator. The entire universe was created by Him and for Him. And yet here He is. He's humbled Himself. He's allowed Himself to be in a condition of great need, a condition of hunger.

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He's the Creator, and yet He's humbled Himself. In order to stay fully surrendered to the Lord in this condition, Jesus had to be focused on the Lord. He had to be consumed with the Lord because He is the Creator. He is all-powerful. He raises the dead.

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Do you ever have times where, you know, you do something and you, well, you just don't realize your own strength? You exert more strength or more force than you were expecting or than you were thinking and, you know, someone gets hurt or something breaks. You know, you accidentally exert too much force. You don't know your own strength. Jesus, you understand, He could have accidentally created some food just by daydreaming a little bit. I mean, He had the power. He's God. He's the Creator. He's the Creator.

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The other night, Kim and I were falling asleep, and as we were laying down, I always fall asleep first, and as we were laying down, she had her hand in mine, it was just, you know, laying there, it was nice and sweet in the bed together, she had her hand in mine. And I'm beginning to fall asleep, but I'm not all the way asleep so that, you know, like I'm in a deep sleep, I'm a little bit awake, but I'm asleep enough to start to dream.

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And for whatever reason, I started to dream about eating Pringles. And so in my dream, I'm eating Pringles. Her hand's there on my chest. Well, she pulls her hand away. And in my dream, she's taking away my Pringles. And so I wake up and I said, Hey, I was just dreaming that you were taking away my Pringles.

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And so I was thinking about that in relation to Jesus, that, you know, hey, he could dream just a little bit and then boom, all of a sudden in his hand there's some Pringles, right? And so Jesus, it wasn't, you know, his surrender to God wasn't a passive thing. That's my point. That he had to, on purpose, say, I'm surrendering to the Father. I'm going to let Him provide for me. I'm not going to provide for myself.

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And so on purpose, he's saying, no, God will provide for me in his time according to his will. But here he is in this condition of hunger, having all power, and Satan comes to him and says, look, you don't have to put up with this. You are the son of God.

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But Jesus says, hey, if God provided for Israel for 40 years in the wilderness, that's what he's saying here by quoting from Deuteronomy chapter 8. God provided for them, he could provide for me, I can trust him for that. He's fully surrendered to the Father, even if that means that he is humbled and hungry. He's fully surrendered, even if it means he's humbled and hungry. Incredible example for us. This...

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was important preparation for Jesus, for the humbling that he would experience at the end of his ministry, where Paul tells us in Philippians chapter 2, that he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Jesus humbled himself. Although he is God, he fully surrendered to the Father, to the Father's plan for provision, and then even, ultimately, to the death upon the cross.

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Well, the second thing we see in Jesus as he quotes from Deuteronomy to counter these attacks of the enemy, is we find that Jesus fully worshipped the Father. And for that, would you turn with me please to Deuteronomy chapter 6. Just two chapters back, Deuteronomy chapter 6. And here's what's going on as Jesus is quoting from Deuteronomy chapter 6.

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The devil now takes Jesus to a high mountain and he shows him all the kingdoms of the world. He shows him all of humanity. And the devil says, look, this is mine and I can give it to whoever I want. So just bow down before me and then I will give you all the kingdoms of the earth. I will give you all of humanity. And in Luke chapter 4 verse 8 it tells us that Jesus responded saying, it is written that

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Where is that written? Well, it's found here in Deuteronomy chapter 6. And look with me please at verses 13 through 15. It says this, You shall fear the Lord your God and serve Him and shall take oaths in His name. You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are all around you.

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For the Lord your God is a jealous God among you, lest the anger of the Lord your God be aroused against you and destroy you from the face of the earth. Here in Deuteronomy chapter 6, Moses is telling the people, don't forget that it is God who has blessed you.

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Going back a few verses, if you want to look at verse 5, there Moses tells them that they need to love God with all their heart, with all their soul, with all their mind, with all their strength. That it's to be an all-consuming, their love for God is to be the major thing of their life, the most important, the thing that they're most passionate about, they're to be for God with all that they are.

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But he says in verse 10, look, when you go into the promised land, again, they're right there on the edge. God's about to take them in through Joshua and Moses is warning them. He's reminding them, listen, when you go in, when God gives you the land that he promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, then in verse 12, he gives them a warning. Watch out, beware, lest you forget that God did this for you. He's reminding the Israelites of a danger that exists.

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There's a danger that we still face today. That when a person or a people have received blessings from God, there's a danger of forgetting that it is God who provided. Some people do that by thinking once they've arrived, oh wow, look at what I've done. Look at what I have accomplished. Much like King Nebuchadnezzar did, right? When he looked at Babylon, he said, oh look at this great kingdom which I've built for myself.

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And there's a danger of turning away from God and thinking, hey, I'm at this position in life. I've accomplished this. I have this job or these things. I have this status because of, well, what I've done and how hard I've worked and the discipline that I've had. That's a danger for us to forget. It's God who puts you there. It's God who gave you the ability. It's God who has done that work.

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But there's also the other way of turning away from God or forgetting that it was God. And that's very simply by worshipping other gods. By turning after and following other gods. And that's what Israel did. They did so quickly. They turned away from God. You know, we got to see this kind of practically over the last couple of weeks. For the first outreach...

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It was located here and so the people who went out passing out flyers, they went in this neighborhood. Now this neighborhood of Corona is not known to be the wealthiest neighborhood of Corona. There's a lot of poverty here. And so as these neighborhoods were ministered to and were offering opportunity, you know, can we pray for you? A lot of people responded, yeah, probably, you know, George was sharing with me yesterday, probably half the people that, you know, that was offered to, they responded and said, yeah, please pray for me. I've got these needs.

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Well, then yesterday's outreach was a little bit farther up the street. The surrounding neighborhoods are not as poor. They're a lot better off financially. And it was interesting, he was sharing with me, how when prayer was offered in those cases, it was few and far between that people wanted to or were willing to receive prayer and say, yeah, you can pray for me in these areas.

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because there's this tendency, hey, look at the house I've got, look at the place I'm at, look at the cars I have, look at the RV in the driveway. I'm doing great. I'm wonderful. I'm well off. I don't need prayer. And so there's this tendency when we have been blessed to forget God, either by thinking that you provided it for yourself or to turn away from God and focus on other things. And so here's this temptation that Jesus experiences

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Satan comes to him and says, look, here's the kingdoms of the world. All you got to do is worship me and I'll give it to you. Now understand that worship is not just about singing songs. I know that's what we usually refer to when we talk about worship. But when Satan asked Jesus to worship him, he didn't hand him a guitar and a pick and say, okay, serenade me, sing me a song, you know, worship me. No, the word worship, it means to bow down before God.

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And so that includes singing songs. We worship the Lord in song. And that's an important part of worship. But by no means is it the extent of what worship is. Worship is about a life commitment of service. When he tells Jesus to bow down before him, he's saying, commit yourself, swear allegiance to me. Commit yourself to serve me and then I'll give you this world.

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And so he's asking for his allegiance. He's asking for his life of service. And that's what worship is, even for us today. It's not just about, you know, come here and sing some songs at church, but it's commit your life to serve God. Give your whole life and whole heart to Him. Swear allegiance to Him and be obedient to Him in all that you do.

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Well, Jesus is fully worshipping God. He's not having anything that the enemy will bring against him to worship Satan or to bow down or serve Satan. Now, what made this a temptation though as we look at this was not that it's enticing or it's tempting to worship Satan. It's not like, "Oh, wow, Satan's here. I need to bow down and worship him." That's not what was going on. Here's what was happening.

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Satan was asking Jesus to put the people, to put the kingdoms, to put humanity above God. He's saying, look, you're here for the people. And you know Jesus loved the people. In fact, I wonder if this portion of scripture was quoted by Jesus because he could really relate to what was going on here in Deuteronomy chapter 6.

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What was happening? They're headed into the promised land. And Moses says, look, when you're there and you've got all these houses and you're just so abundantly blessed, don't forget God. I kind of think that that's where Jesus was at this point. He loves people. And here, for the past 30 years on the earth, he's been able to connect with people like he's not been able to do since Adam fell in the garden.

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I mean, he's able to see people face to face. This is exciting for Jesus. He's in the promised land in that sense. He's with people. He's getting to talk to them. He's getting to love on them. He's getting to serve them and minister to them. I mean, this is a dream come true for Jesus because he loves us intensely, incredibly. He's able to connect with people in a way that, well, he's not been able to. And so he's so close to the people. He's in the promised land. And there in the promised land, Moses warned, don't forget.

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It's God who brought you here. You need to worship Him, serve Him, and serve Him only. To turn from worshiping God will always involve multiple gods. In this case, it would have been Satan as he bowed down to commit to serve Him. It would have been self because he would have been taking the easy way, escaping the pain of the cross. But probably most tempting was the people.

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He would have been putting the people and making them more important to God than to God. These are the most important things. However I obtain the people, however I can have all of humanity, however I can have the kingdoms of the earth, that's what's most important to me. Sorry God, I gotta do this. It would have been idolizing humanity. As much as Jesus loves us, the Father comes first. The Father comes first.

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The same kind of deals are offered to us today, understand, that the enemy brings these same types of things. He tempts us by putting something in front of us that we want. And then he asks us to make it more important in our life than God is in our life. You know, maybe your objective, and it's a good objective, is to provide for your family. So Satan will come in. The temptation will come. Okay, you want to provide for your family. Great. Well, in order to do that, here's what you got to do. And he'll give us opportunities to

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To put our family first and deny the Lord. Give us opportunities to compromise. To compromise our integrity. To compromise our morals. Or to consume ourselves with our careers or this or that. In order, because we have this objective to provide for my family, and so then work becomes our God, or our family becomes our God, or this becomes our God, or that becomes our God, so that we can provide for our family. But in reality, we've turned away from God. Instead of

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Being focused on Him and committed to Him first and foremost...

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And allowing God to meet our needs and provide for our family, we've put our family above God and we've chased after that provision of the family because you don't want your kids to have it like you had it when you were young and that's most important to you and so I don't have time for what God wants or I can't be faithful to God. I have to lie. I have to cheat. I have to get the deals that I can get so that I can provide for my family. It's putting those things ahead of God. Those same types of deals are offered to us.

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Or maybe your objective is to buy a house or to get an education or to have this career or whatever the case may be. And those are not necessarily bad things. They're good objectives, but it must not come before your commitment to God. And so we see here that the people, humanity, are offered to Jesus, but His commitment to the Lord is first. He's fully worshipping the Father. Even if that means that He has to go to the cross.

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Even if it means that he's rejected by humanity now, he knows that it will mean ultimate salvation later. He's worshiping the Father first and foremost.

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Well, the third temptation that Jesus experienced, the third lesson we see about him is that he fully obeyed the Father. And we find this, he quotes this time from Deuteronomy 6 once again, but this time verse 17. Let me set the stage for what was going on. This time the devil takes him to the pinnacle of the temple. There, this high point of the temple, probably 400 feet above the ground. He says, Jesus, you know what? You should jump.

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You should jump off of here. He quotes from Psalm chapter 91 where it says that God will protect you. He says, look, God says he's going to protect you. You should jump. Now there was a tradition of the day. The Jews believed that the Messiah would reveal himself on the roof of the temple. And so he's really tempting him with this. Hey, why don't you reveal yourself and demonstrate once and for all that you are the Messiah.

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The devil is saying, look, since you're the son of God and you have God's protection, show the people, prove to them that you're the Messiah. It tells us in Luke chapter 4 verse 12 that Jesus responded saying, it has been said, again quoting the scripture, you shall not tempt the Lord your God.

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Where is that scripture that he quoted? Well, it's here in Deuteronomy chapter 6. Let's look at verses 16 through 19 and then we'll come back and look at what it meant for Jesus. It says in verse 16, You shall not tempt the Lord your God as you tempted him in Massa. You shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, his testimonies and his statutes which he has commanded you.

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And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may be well with you, and that you may go in and possess the good land of which the Lord swore to your fathers, to cast out all your enemies from before you as the Lord has spoken. Here in Deuteronomy chapter 6 verses 16 through 19, Moses is speaking to the people and he's telling them, don't tempt God again.

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Again? Well, when did it happen? When did they tempt God? Well, he makes reference there in verse 16. He says, you shall not tempt the Lord your God as you tempted him in Massa. So what happened in Massa? How did they tempt God in Massa? Well, we're not going to turn there. We don't have time, but you can check it out later. In Exodus chapter 17, it has this account.

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And that is the portion where, you remember, the children of Israel, they're delivered from Egypt, they're through the Red Sea, they're in the wilderness, and then they get thirsty. There's no water to be found. They're in the desert. They're looking around, there's no water, they're thirsty, and then they begin to grumble, they begin to complain against Moses and against God.

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And then Moses goes to God and says, well, what do you want me to do? I mean, there's all these people, they're thirsty. And God instructs him, go strike the rock. And he does. And then water comes forth. And all the people are able to quench their thirst with this water that God provided. God provided water from the rock. But here, this place where God provided for them was named Massa, which means testing. Testing.

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Because it says there in Exodus chapter 17 verse 7, it says they named it Massa because they tempted the Lord saying, is the Lord among us or not? You see, here's what was happening with the children of Israel. They're saying, look,

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Is God among us or what? Because we're thirsty. And if God were among us, He wouldn't allow us to have this kind of thirst. He wouldn't allow us to be in this kind of condition. And so they're testing the Lord by declaring, by saying, look, God must not love us or God's not able to provide for us. Something's wrong here. Because if God was with us, then we would not have this thirst. If God was among us, God, if He really loved us,

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then you would be meeting our needs and not allowing us to suffer in this way. The people were demanding that God prove himself to them. And here in Luke chapter 4, Satan is asking Jesus to do the same thing. He says, look, demand that God prove himself to you and to all the people. God said he would protect you, so jump off the pinnacle of the temple. Make God prove that you're the Messiah. Make him...

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Show everybody that you really are the Savior. Now, why was this tempting to Jesus? I mean, why did he want to jump off the temple? Well, maybe because bungee jumping hadn't been invented yet, and so he just, you know, no, of course that's not it. Why was it tempting? Well, think about it this way. Do you know what it's like to be misunderstood? Have you ever experienced that?

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Do you know what it's like to be thought little of? You know, when you have the answer, you are able to help and people just kind of dismiss you and say, what do you know? Do you know what that's like? Do you think you've experienced in your life some time where you've tried to help but you've been rejected or even attacked for trying to help? Understand that was Jesus' life. His whole life was like that.

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He lived in obscurity. Here he is, Jesus, the creator, the son of God. He came to earth to save humanity, but really nobody paid him any attention. Up to this point, he's been living in obscurity and poverty. Nobody comes to him for advice. Nobody comes to him for counsel. The religious leaders don't seek him out and say, we've got this perplexing question in the scriptures, you know, what do you think, Jesus? Jesus wanted to let the people know

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He was a Savior. Again, He loved them. He wanted to help them. He wanted to minister to them. In Luke chapter 13, we'll get to it in quite a few weeks, but He says, Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stone those who are sent to her. He says, How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing. Jesus is longing to...

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to minister to the people, to help them, to love on them. That's what he came to do. He was with the people that he loved so dearly and he came to save them, but they didn't pay him any attention at all. They disregarded him. So the devil enters and says, look, I have a way you can get the people's attention. God promised he's going to protect you, so just jump off.

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And then everybody will know that you are the Messiah. That's what they're expecting, the Messiah to come on the pinnacle of the temple. And then they'll see as God protects you, man, you really are the real deal. You'll have their attention. You'll be able to say, I am your Savior. And remember how all throughout Jesus' ministry people kept asking for signs? Prove to us, show us that you're the Son of God. This would have proved it. This would have shown it. But Jesus responds, I will not tempt God.

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I will obey him. I'm not going to tempt God. I'm not going to demand that he prove himself just because I want to be foolish or I want this attention. David Guzik says it this way. He says, anytime we deny God's love for us or demand that he do something for us, we are testing him as if he must answer to our standards and tempting him to judge us.

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When we demand from God or we deny God's love and say, hey, if God loved me, then why is this happening in my life? As if He must comply with our will. He's not your genie. Hey, you better make my wish come true. You better grant it. You better do what I want. That's tempting God. It's testing God. It's really tempting Him to judge us because remember, He's the potter and we're the clay.

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Our job is not to give him instructions and tell him what to do. Our job is to follow his instruction. And we see that here in Deuteronomy chapter 6. Verse 16 it says, You shall not tempt the Lord your God. Verse 17, you have then what you should do. You shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God. That's our responsibility. Not to tell God what to do or demand that God do something. Our responsibility is to obey God.

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And that's what we see Jesus doing here. He fully obeyed God. Hey, even if it means I have to live in obscurity and be rejected and crucified by the people, Jesus says, I'm going to obey God. He fully obeys Him. And so here in Luke chapter 4 and these portions in Deuteronomy, we see that Jesus, well, He didn't give in to these temptations.

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And not just these ones, but the 40 days of temptations. Then it tells us in verse 13 that the devil came back at an opportune time, or he left until an opportune time. He was tempted throughout his whole life. And yet we have these examples so that we could know that there's no doubt, that there's no question. Jesus was sinless. He was perfect. It makes him our perfect Savior. James Vernon McGee says, Why was Christ tempted?

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He answers his own question. He says, to demonstrate that you and I have a sinless Savior. He is sinless, impeccable, able to save. He proved that all power had been given to him. There is a man in glory today, friend, who understands us and is able to sympathize with us. It is wonderful to have a Savior like that. Amen? It's wonderful to have a Savior like that.

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What Jesus went through shows us His perfection, that He is that perfect sacrifice, that He's the only one qualified to take the sins of the world and bear them there on the cross, to offer to us forgiveness, to offer to us eternal life. Back in the Garden of Eden, Adam represented all of us. He was our representative and he fell into sin.

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As a result, you and I, we have a sinful nature. Because our representative rebelled against God. But then, here comes Jesus, the second Adam. He is our representative. He represented us in his sinless life. He represented us at the cross. And in every case where humanity has failed, Jesus remained pure.

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And as our representative in dying on the cross for sin, you and I, by believing in Jesus, by holding to our faith in Jesus and His finished work upon the cross, we have forgiveness. And His righteousness is accounted to us because He is our representative. Now here's the great thing, and Pastor Bill was sharing about this on Wednesday. When we stand before God, will you be allowed into heaven?

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And if you're allowed into heaven, what grounds, what grounds will allow God to say, come on, enter in to the joy of the Lord? Here's the two options that you can present to God at that point. You can say, well, I've trusted in Jesus. I've put my faith in Him. I've committed my life to Him. And I serve Jesus, my representative. He died on the cross for my sin. It's covered, completely paid for. It's done. Enter in. Here's the other option.

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Let's pretend for a moment that you've not yet sinned in your life. Now, we all know that's not true, but let's just pretend for a moment. Here's the other option. For the rest of your life, never give in, never fall in any temptation, and don't make any mistakes. Those are your options. You want into heaven? You want eternal life? Jesus is our perfect Savior because He withstood all temptation. You and I, we fail. We fall. And because of that, we're disqualified and we deserve judgment. But Jesus...

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He succeeded. He was perfect. And He gave Himself willingly so that you and I might have eternal life. So understand that Jesus is our perfect Savior. This account here in Luke 4, these verses that He quotes in Deuteronomy remind us that He went through those things that you and I go through. But He never sinned. He never fell. He walked uprightly and righteously, obedient to God in all His ways. Let's pray.

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Heavenly Father, as we consider this example of Jesus and the incredible life that He lived, the things that He overcame and how He was able to stay pure and holy without one fault, without one fail. God, we thank You for providing for us a Savior to represent us. Lord, if that standard was placed upon us, Lord, we'd be lost without hope. Because we have sinned, we do fall short of Your glory.

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We give in to temptation, but Jesus didn't. So God, I pray that you would help us, each and every one, to not look to ourselves, to not think that we are good, but to look to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. That we would not only look to him, but that we would surrender ourselves completely to serve him, to love him, to walk with him, as you've called us to. And so God, I pray that you would...

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Strengthen in our hearts the truth, the reality of who Jesus is and why he's qualified to be our Savior. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.