The First Temptation of Christ

Welcome to No Compromise Radio Ministry, Mike Ebendroth here, January 12th, real time.

This is probably played about January 18th, January 17th, 2024.

We are up to 3 ,850 shows.

What are we going to do for our 4 ,000th show? I have no idea what we're going to do. Maybe we'll figure out some better pre -recorded little soundbites than the ones we already have.

In the studio today by myself, me, myself, and I, hopefully we'll get

Pastor Steve back in here one of these days. There's an article called

How to Live Up a Dull Worship Service, and I want to do that with Steve because I think it'll probably be funnier if we do it together.

Once in a while I get asked, which podcast do I listen to? I listen to quite a few.

I've been branching off into some other ones that are more like survival rescue stuff, but the

Christian ones I listen to, I listen to No Compromise Radio. Just kidding, I don't.

I listen to The Pactom with Pat Abendroth and Mike Grimes. I listen to Abounding Grace with John Vonville.

I listen to Theocast, Justin and John. I listen to Two -Age

Sojourner with The Becks. I listen to Glory Cloud Podcast, re -listening to that with Chris Caughey and Lee Irons, the old ones.

I listen to Credo Podcast with Matthew Barrett. I listen to Chris Gordon Preach.

I don't know if they need an updated iTunes thing there, but they haven't posted a new show for quite some time.

I listen to The Heidelcast with Scott Clark. I listen to...

I don't even have these in front of me, but those are some of those that I listen to. I listen to the IRBS Podcast. I don't know.

There are other ones, but those are the ones that I download all the time and listen to. Anyway, 1 .5

speed, of course. Today on No Compromise Radio Ministry, we're going to talk about something that you probably know, but it's good to reiterate it.

In the gospel of Jesus, according to Luke, and in the gospel of Jesus according to Matthew, Jesus is impelled into the wilderness by the

Holy Spirit. That's the language of Matthew 4. He is led into the wilderness.

That's Luke 4's language, to be tempted by the devil,

Diabolos. We say Satan, although the word Satan isn't in the passage, we know it's Satan. And Jesus is tempted for 40 days, probably many, many, many, many temptations.

And there are three recorded in Matthew and in Luke, a little bit different order in Matthew than Luke.

And we're going to go to Luke's order today. And Jesus is tempted by Satan, and three times

Jesus responds, it is written. Actually, in one of the temptations, Satan says to Jesus, it is written, since you like to say it is written and quote the

Bible, here's the Bible, it is written. And Jesus responds, it is written, it stands written, quoting from Deuteronomy each time in response to Satan's temptations.

And what typically happens in evangelicalism is we take a gospel like Luke, and we immediately try to figure out what's a life principle, what's a moral standard that we could learn?

What can we change when it comes to our behavior? What does this mean in my life?

And practically, how does this apply in my life? That's what we do. And we take the

Bible as basic living instructions. Remember the B -I -B -L -E?

Basic instructions before leaving earth. That's so wrong.

And therefore, since that's our idea, we think that's the Bible is kind of Aesop's fables, some morality, some piety.

Obviously, there's morality in it and piety in it, obviously, but we think that's all there is.

So that's primarily what it is. I mean, that's a good question I could ask you, what do you think the Bible is really all about?

And your answer will prove insightful. Didn't Spock say that to Kirk?

Insightful. Fascinating. Therefore, when you come to a passage like Luke 4, if you're not careful, if I'm not careful, because I've taught it the wrong way before, and I'm hopefully going to teach it the right way today on the radio, on No Compromise radio, otherwise it's going to be a sad trombone, right?

What if this whole thing is me messing up? I took some

Twitter heat the other day for messing up. There are certain celebrities you're not allowed to critique at all, and if you do, you're in big trouble.

And I just think if you're going to put your tweets out there, if you're going to stick your chin out there, same with me.

If I say something dumb on Twitter or on this show, then I should take the flack. I mean, if it's just flack for no reason, that's one thing.

But anyway, my dad used to say you could dish it out, but you can't take it. Anyway, if you dish something out on social media, then be prepared for the hordes anyway.

It's kind of tied down. There's like 40 ,000 views or something. See, if controversy sells,

I say something about Jesus on there, there are 200 views. No wonder

St. Clair Ferguson told me 20 years ago, books about Jesus don't sell. And my first two about Jesus didn't sell.

I don't think they were really... It wasn't about... Because they were about Jesus. It was probably how I wrote them. Although the second one, and I didn't pick the title,

The Sovereignty and Supremacy of King Jesus. I think that was my favorite.

I might actually go back after 15 years and read that because I thought it was edifying at the time. I didn't really understand duplex gratia and law of gospel and stuff like that, but I think it still proved helpful.

All right, what was I talking about? Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy three times to withstand temptation of Satan.

So we come to the Bible since it's a rule book and we say to ourselves, this moral guide, this basic instructions before leaving earth book, how does

Jesus overcome temptation? Well, I have temptations too, and therefore I'd like to overcome them.

Both of those statements are fine. You have temptations, true. You'd like to overcome them, wonderful. As much as people want to say we're antinomians, we're not.

We want you to overcome temptation and live a holy life and obedient life, keeping God's commands out of gratitude because of grace.

God's sanctifying work and responses, mortification, vivification. You have to just repeat this all the time.

But is that how we're to read Luke four? Jesus uses the word to overcome temptation and therefore the primary emphasis of the pastor, of the

Bible reader, of the Bible teacher is you overcome temptation, dear reader, listener, congregant, by quoting scripture, hiding

God's word in your heart so that you don't sin against God. Is that what Luke is after?

Is that what he's really after? I don't think so.

I don't think that's what he's after. I thought the gospel of Jesus according to Luke is about Jesus. That's what

I thought. I thought we're not the right man on our side, the man of God's own choosing. Does it ask who that may be?

Christ Jesus. It is he, Lord Sabaoth his name from age to age, the same, and he must win the battle.

When you go to Luke chapter three, Luke chapter four, don't forget about chapter three. The genealogy ends son of Adam, son of God.

And then what happens in Luke chapter four, Luke chapter four, we immediately see that this is about Jesus sent into the wilderness.

Our Ken Hughes said heaven had opened right at the baptism. This is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. Now hell opened, right?

This is battle royale. This is the temptation of Jesus and he's the last Adam and where Adam in the garden failed,

Jesus now in the wilderness, what will happen? Your salvation is riding on this and you ought to be reading the

Bible thinking, I hope you make it Jesus, because I have no hope of heaven. If you fail, if you sin, if you over don't overcome temptation by Satan, there's no hope for anyone because there are no more

Adams than no other sons only begotten, begotten by the father.

We would have no hope. And when you're reading the gospels, you ought not to be trying to do the where's

Waldo stuff. You have to be saying, you know what? What is this teaching me about Jesus? And Jesus now is going to be in the wilderness and tempted like Israel was tempted.

Israel's called the son of God. Will this son of God, the Lord Jesus, will he overcome temptation?

Where Adam failed, where Israel failed, kind of feel this recapitulation back. What will happen with the wilderness temptation?

What did happen in Israel's wilderness temptation? What did happen in Adam's Edenic temptation?

I mean, in this passage, you're going to see Satan certainly isn't afraid of tempting. He knew he overcame

Adam in paradise. And it's not like he's afraid to tempt anyone, including the

Lord Jesus, any true human. Obviously, Jesus is more than truly human. He's truly God.

But here we have the true human son of Adam, son of God, emphasizing his humanity in the wilderness to be tempted.

And will he make it? Adam failed.

What will Jesus do? Now, I know

Satan is not omnipresent, but maybe he was there at the baptism of Jesus and he heard the

Father's pleasure and the statement of the Father and the Spirit of God descending like a dove.

And he hates God, therefore he's going to try to make

Jesus fall. And before we even get into the passage of Luke 4, there are some differences that we ought to think of.

And I've alluded to one at least earlier in this episode. Adam's in a garden tempted,

Jesus in a wilderness, in the wilderness.

You just think about a garden, water and plants and life and fruit and who knows, maybe it's humid because of all the vegetation that could use that, life everywhere, abundance.

You go to the wilderness. That's where Jesus was tempted, dry, arid, parched, scorched.

In addition, I think Lane Tipton's really good on this, this is where I've gotten some of my ideas in his book called

Foundations of Covenant Theology. Adam's in the garden tempted and he has someone to help him.

Jesus is in the wilderness tempted. He has no one to help him. If you have two people, you could stand against temptations easier than if it was just one.

Jesus the mediator by himself, no other humans out there for 40 days, no friend, no other voice, no one to console him.

I mean, I guess he could just hearken back to the father's voice at baptism, but he is by himself.

In addition, not only is Jesus tempted in the wilderness, not in the garden, not only was

Jesus by himself, not with another sinless helper,

Eve, but Adam and Eve, they could eat anything they wanted except from that one tree.

They weren't fasting. They could indulge themselves. They could satisfy themselves.

They could eat anything they wanted. And Jesus has been without food and without food for 40 days.

And that is going to increase the level of temptation, is it not?

Luke's passage reads chapter four, verse one, and Jesus full of the Holy Spirit returned from the

Jordan and was led by the spirit in the wilderness for 40 days, being tempted by the devil.

And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry.

Forty days without food sounds similar to Moses. Elijah must have drank something to live.

Remember, this is a true human. And I don't know about you, but if you don't eat for a while, maybe you get crappy.

Maybe you get grumpy. Maybe you get moody. Maybe you get tired. Certainly the stamina is decreased and you become more susceptible to things.

And one of the things I notice to emphasize once again, how this isn't about us in the where's

Waldo, how do we overcome temptation? Because we're taught to pray, lead us not into temptation, right?

That's how we're to pray. Jesus told us to pray that way. And here the Holy Spirit leads Jesus in temptation.

So you have to be saying to yourself, something's going on here. Something interesting is going on, right?

Lead us not into temptation. This has to be about Jesus.

And he's going to go out there and he's going to be tempted and tried. And I wonder if he will fail like the first son,

Adam, and the second son, Israel. This spirit that fluttered down as it were like a dove, not literally fluttered, but you can get the idea, like simile.

He's the one driving him out because someone has to stand up to these tests. That's what

Adam should have done. And on soil, Adam failed. And on soil, the last Adam needs to succeed.

I mean, Satan just doesn't give up. How many hundreds of years, thousands of years has

Satan been tempting people from Adam all the way up to the Lord Jesus? And now it's like a focused, right?

It's a magnifying glass concentrating the sun's rays into a focal point on to Jesus.

I think it's right when Calvin insightfully notices that Jesus at home at 12 in the temple, 14 at home,

Bethlehem, Nazareth, Egypt, even in Jerusalem before he was baptized and inaugurated into public ministry.

We don't see this attack of Satan. There must've been some temptations, but what you see is

Jesus is now going to go redeem people and he's been baptized.

And now it's time for public ministry, 30 years old, about 30 years old.

And he is going to be a representative man, a public man, a federal man, federal headship.

And so now Satan unfurls his anger and his aggression.

I wonder what Jesus will do. Thankfully, he's full of the Holy Spirit. I think we get a little hint there.

He's led by the Spirit and he is full of the

Holy Spirit. You notice that? Full of the Holy Spirit and was led by the Holy Spirit.

So I think since he's full of the Holy Spirit, I think he's going to win. Well, I've read the end and we know he wins.

But if you just imagine what was going on when you're first reading it, you're Theophilus and you're wondering, okay, what's happening? And see, this was designed to give

Theophilus lots of certainty. Oh, this is the last Adam. This is the last son.

First son, second son, third son, Adam, Israel, Jesus, first Adam, Adam, last

Adam, Jesus. I think he's going to win. And off in the desert they go.

Some people think that there was a messianic -like deliverance that's going to be kind of stemming from the wilderness.

And even in Acts chapter 21, are you not the Egyptian then who recently stirred up a revolt and led the 4 ,000 men of the assassins out into the wilderness?

Maybe that's the place where all this stuff was going to happen. Then will Jesus obey or will he do what

Adam did and Israel did? I mean, 40 days, that's a long time. And the text is being tempted by the devil.

Not like three times, most likely a lot more than three. Being tempted could be lots of temptations by Diabolos, the adversary of God.

I mean, you see chapter one introducing John and Jesus, two John and Jesus, three

John and Jesus. Here's who he is, son of Adam, son of God.

And now here comes the mission to rescue, the mission to save.

And so therefore Satan is not going to have any of that if it's up to him.

Then comes the temptations that are listed here. I think there probably were more temptations than these three, but the three are given in Matthew, different order, and in Luke.

And so on this show, we're going to work a little bit on what are these temptations and then how does

Jesus respond? And this whole time, I just want you to be thinking, well, while the outline might be three temptations and three responses of Jesus, the last

Adam, you should be thinking salvation secure, victory over sin secure, triumph over Satan secure.

Jesus did everything that the father sent him to do. The beloved son with whom he was well -pleased at baptism, and he's still well -pleased after these temptations as Jesus says no to sin,

Satan, and wins. The first temptation, can you really trust the father?

Verse three, the devil said to Jesus, if you are the son of God, command this stone to become bread.

That's what I want you to do. That is found in verse three.

And you kind of see what's happening. He's hungry, 40 days, and the devil,

Diabolos says, the one who accuses falsely, the slander, the one that leads people astray, the one who misrepresents, you know what?

The father said to you, you were beloved, you were well -pleasing to him. You have the spirit of God, but it sure doesn't seem like it's helping you much right now.

The favor of God is on you, really? I thought you were

God's son. I mean, regular fathers would make sure their sons ate.

What about your heavenly father? You know, maybe he's not really that good. Maybe he's not really that heavenly.

Maybe he's not really that hallowed. Maybe he doesn't really provide and protect. Maybe he's not really reliable.

I mean, you're starving. You're the son. You're starving, 40 days. I mean,

I don't think Satan knows this yet, but Jesus would go on to feed the 4 ,000 men and the 5 ,000 men, creating bread, fish.

I think Satan knows that he's God's son. It's not like if you are, it could be translated sins.

You're hungry, you're God's son. You're born in a barn, put in a manger, and then now you're off in public ministry and you're starving.

This is kind of a trick of Satan, isn't it? Food, the fruit of the tree that he shouldn't eat,

Adam shouldn't eat. And now what about turning these stones into bread?

I mean, what's the big deal? It's just food. I want to say out loud almost, resist the devil and he'll flee from you,

Jesus. The will of the father was not for the son to eat right now.

The spirit of God had impelled Jesus into the wilderness to fast, and it wouldn't be right for Jesus to do this.

I mean, come on, Jesus, just in your mind, kind of contemplate what's it mean to be a son?

I mean, actually, you can satisfy your own needs anyway. You don't need to rely on the father.

You can just take matters into your own hands. I mean, track record isn't too good.

people in the past, Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, not all failed when it comes to food, but failed when it comes to temptation.

Now some medieval folks said this first temptation was about gluttony, has nothing to do with that.

It has everything to do with the father's sending the son to do something, his will, and the son doing that will versus short circuiting that will.

And if Jesus fails, there's no substitutionary death. There's no resurrection. There's no ascension.

There's no return. There's no hope. Put yourself in Jesus's shoes, in his sandals.

You don't have anything to eat for a week, two weeks, three weeks, 40 days, nine hunger.

I mean, was he close to death? Had he ever been this close to death? No. Would he ever become close to death again?

Of course, with the crucifixion where he would die. Getting Adam and Eve to doubt what

God said, getting Jesus to doubt the father's character.

I mean, just prove your sonship to yourself. Yeah, God says you're a son, but prove it to yourself.

But of course, Jesus didn't come to do his own will, did he? He came to do the father's will. I don't know if Satan appeared to him as a man, an angel of light.

Some people say he came like as a scribe or Pharisee or an aged hermit. I don't know what he looked like.

I think he probably was attractive, like the angel of light. Is God the father good,

Jesus? Can you trust him? You're a son. You're the son.

I don't know if you can trust God. I don't know if you can take him at his word.

I'm not sure you should keep submitting to the father.

What does Jesus do in response? Obviously, you know the answer. Thankfully, we know the answer.

Jesus answered him saying, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone. He quotes

Deuteronomy and the first word in the Greek is not, not by bread alone.

And notice he says man, because Jesus here, truly human out there, truly getting tempted in a true wilderness, true food, true hunger.

And Jesus says, no, Deuteronomy eight is quoted.

Are you Israel going to trust in God's word? And Israel fails, but Jesus doesn't fail.

Israel in the wilderness grumbles and complains, doubts God's goodness, doubts God's provision, doubts

God's word. But Jesus, the new Israel, the true Israel, the ultimate son, if Israel is called my firstborn son, let my son go that they may serve me,

Moses said to Pharaoh, how much greater is Jesus, God's son? Greater than Adam, greater than Israel.

Actually he's the redeemer of Adam and he's the redeemer of Israel. If I have to die in the wilderness,

I die in the wilderness. I'm going to do what God has me to do. One theologian said in the wilderness, whose word does

Jesus prove? He proves the word of his father. To whose voice does Jesus hearken? He hearkens not to the voice of the serpent, but to the voice of the father.

In whose power does Jesus walk? He walks not in the flesh, but in the power of the spirit. In all this, he proves himself the true son, the one greater than Adam and Israel.

He is offering obedience to God that neither Adam nor Israel ever offered. More than that, as the mediator and redeemer of God's elect, he's offering obedience that is designed to redeem those who have fallen and failed to hear the voice of God speaking in his word.

Praise the Lord. Well, my name's Mike Abendroth. Boy, that went by fast. That went by fast.

I don't know. I'm going to have to tune again back to hear more another time.

Mike Abendroth, Forget the Where's Waldo. We read the Bible, looking to our savior, who?

What does 1 John 3, 8 say? Jesus appeared to destroy the works of the devil.