The temptation of Jesus. V1-13.
Notice the phrases.
· And Jesus being full of the Holy Spirit. (Verse1)
· And was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. (Verse 1)
· And returned in the power of the Spirit. (Verse 14)
Our Lord was always filled with the Holy Spirit. This was the reason for His victory over temptation, for His fortitude under pressure, for His power over disease – demons - death.
For victory in our lives - for the joy of the Lord in our hearts we too must be filled with the Holy Spirit.
To be filled with the Holy Spirit means to be completely yielded to Him.
It means to be completely obedient to the Word of God.
It means to be cleansed from every known sin.
It means to be richly indwelt by the Word of God.
The temptation of Jesus took place in three different places. The wilderness - a mountain - the Temple in Jerusalem.
Notice the means Jesus employed to defeat Satan. He used the Word of God - the sword of the Spirit. Heb. 4:12
The first temptation concerned the body.
The second, the soul.
The third, the spirit.
They appealed respectively to the lust of the flesh - the eyes - the pride of life.
There are some who say that the temptation is meaningless if Jesus was not able to sin. The fact is that Jesus is God, and God cannot sin. The Lord never relinquished any of the attributes of deity.
Some say as God He could not sin, but as man He could sin.
He still is God and Man and it is unthinkable He could sin. The purpose of the temptation was not to see if He would sin but to prove He could not sin. Only a holy, sinless man could be our Redeemer. The impeccable Christ.
Between Verses 13 and 14, there is a gap of about one year. During this time the Lord ministered in Judea. The only record of this ministry is found in John 2 thru 5. When Jesus returned to Galilee He was in the second year of His public ministry, and His fame had spread through-out the region.
Verse 16—Jesus returned to His hometown, Nazareth. On the Sabbath He went to the synagogue, as had been His custom, and stood up to read. He read from Isaiah 66. Quote Vs 18-19. This passage was acknowledged by the Jews as a description of the ministry of the Messiah. Jesus said, “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.” In essence Jesus was saying that He was the Messiah of Israel.
Verse 22—Though they were impressed with His gracious words, they rejected Him as their Messiah. “Is this not Joseph’s son?”
Verse 24—In this verse the Lord expresses a principle which is true in every age. “No prophet is accepted in his own country.”
In Verses 25-27 Jesus cites two instances from the Old Testament where this actually happened. When there was famine in Israel, Elijah was not sent to any Jewish widow. He was sent to a Gentile widow of Sidon. There were many lepers in Israel when Elisha was preaching. He was not sent to any of them, instead he was sent to Naaman the Syrian.
Imagine the impact of these words on the Jewish minds. They placed women, Gentiles and lepers at the bottom of the social scale. The Lord was saying here that He placed all three above unbelieving Jews. And that Old Testament history was about to repeat itself. He would be rejected by the Nazarenes and Israel as a whole. He would then turn to the Gentiles as Elijah and Elisha had done. The Jews were infuriated, and would have pushed Him over the precipice. Doubtless this was another effort of Satan to destroy Christ. He miraculously walked through the crowd and left the city. As far as we know He never returned to Nazareth.
In Verses 31-32 we find the Lord in Capernaum. In contrast to the people of Nazareth they recognized His teaching was authoritative. His words were impelling, convicting with power.
Verses 33-37 describe a typical Sabbath day in the Lord’s life. Jesus went into the synagogue and found a man who was possessed with an unclean spirit. When the man saw Jesus he cried out loud saying, “Let us alone.” In reality the spirit cried out in terror “Ahhhhh!”
Notice how the demon acknowledged the deity of Christ - “the Holy One of God.” Contrast the Nazarenes statement in Verse 22 “Is this not Joseph’s son?”
Jesus then commanded the demon to “keep quiet, and come out of the man.” The demon did so after throwing him to the ground. The people were amazed at the authority and power of His words. The reality of demon possession is seen in this passage. Also, the Lord’s power over demons and disease.
In contrast to this, believers today should be possessed, controlled, and filled with the Holy Spirit.
In Verses 38-41 we see the Lord’s mastery over disease and demons. First over Peter’s mother-in-law, then as the Sabbath ended He healed many and cast out demons.
Notice the testimony of the demons. Verse 41. “Thou art the Messiah, the Son of God.”
Verses 42-44 The people would have kept Him. But He moved on into other cities, preaching the good news about the kingdom of God.