Satan tempted Jesus, yet He did not fall to those temptations. Tonight we consider our temptation to seek shortcuts in faithfulness.
Pastor Tim shows a brief clip from a YouTube video during the stream. Here’s the link to the full clip.
The following study questions and transcript are AI generated and may contain errors.
The following study questions and transcript are AI generated and may contain errors.
Well, good evening and welcome to Steadfast. I’m so glad to be here with you tonight as we continue our series, The Temptations. Tonight we’re going to be moving into the third and final temptation in which Satan tries to talk Jesus into taking shortcuts. He offers Jesus essentially what Jesus has come to do, but not quite. And so often we face the same sort of temptations. So let’s come before our God and ask for his guidance tonight as we dig into this passage.
Let’s pray. Father, thank you for your goodness and your love. Would you guide us tonight as we look at your word? Would you help us to see the truth of your word? Would you help us to see those places in our hearts where we compromise, where we try to take shortcuts, where we reach for power rather than yearning to serve you? And in all these things, Lord, would you strengthen us with your Holy Spirit that we might do your will? We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.
Each of the temptations that we’ve looked at so far has in some way aligned with the story of Israel. Many commentators have noted that this third temptation, which we’re going to look at in just a moment, reminds us of Moses’ last moments in his life. Moses had failed despite a generally wonderful time of service, serving the Lord. He’d failed. He’d gotten so frustrated with the people that he hadn’t done what God had commanded. And so while he continued to lead the people through his life, when his life came to an end, he only got to see and not enter the promised land. We’re told in Deuteronomy 34 that the Lord took him up to a high mountain and he saw all the wonders of the promised land God had set apart for his people, but he would not enter. I can’t imagine what Moses felt in that moment, but I’m sure there was a temptation to run, to somehow try to hide from God and to sneak in so he could see the completion of his work. And yet he didn’t. It says he died and the Lord buried him. It’s sort of a heartbreaking end to an amazing story. Maybe as Jesus is standing on the mountain that Satan takes him to, he feels something of that same heartbreak.
Let’s go ahead and turn to Matthew chapter 4, verse 8. It says, “Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.” So Satan doesn’t just show Jesus a nice land, he shows him everything. It’s kind of mind-boggling to figure out exactly how this works and people have wrestled with it. Is it a vision? Is Satan taking Jesus genuinely on a world tour? It really doesn’t matter. What matters is that Satan is determined to show Jesus everything in the world with the goal of causing Jesus to stumble, to say, Jesus, there is a different route than the one that you’re headed on. This one, following the Father, it’s hard, it’s painful, but let me offer you something different.
As he does that, it says that Satan showed Jesus not just wonders a little here, a little there, but the splendors of all these kingdoms. In doing so, we see one of the ways we start to fall into the temptation to take shortcuts and to reach for our own power rather than serving the Lord. That’s that we soften our misguided goals. We soften what they are trying to achieve. We take out a little paintbrush and cover over the flaws in them. We keep working at our own personal goals, the ones that God hasn’t called us to, but we’ve set our hearts to until they start to look really good. Satan does that to the kingdoms of the world. Jesus knew very clearly the flaws of them. He knew that these kingdoms had constantly turned away from the Lord. They did all kinds of horrible, sinful things. They were filled with people just like you and me, who so often run from what God has called us to. But Satan covers over that and just says, Jesus, look at the wonders of these kingdoms. In doing so, he’s actually hiding the reason Jesus really came. He’s diverting Jesus’ focus. Jesus came to save the world from its sins, to rescue us. Satan says, there’s nothing really to see here as far as flaws. Look at how wonderful everything is.
And then he goes on. We see a little more detail in Luke chapter 4, verse 6. Satan says to Jesus, “To you I will give all this authority and all their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will.” Satan says, this world is mine. I have control over it. And Jesus, I want to give it to you. You’ve come here to be the Messiah, to be the rightful king of Israel. Well, how about this? Why don’t I promote you to king of the world? You don’t have to do all the painful things that are ahead in your path, Jesus. You can set aside all that, and you can achieve your goals right now. You can have all this power, all this accomplishment.
So much like every time Satan tries to lead us astray, from the very beginning when he led Eve and then Adam astray, Satan operates on the basis of half-truths. It’s indeed true that the world has, in some sense, for a time, been handed over to Satan. That Satan runs rampant in this world and his forces, and we see the results of that. But it’s not that he actually owns the world, that it is his to hand over for eternity. It’s only that for a time, God has allowed him here. So when he says that these things have been given to me, and I’ll give them to you, it’s not entirely untrue; it’s not entirely true.
Just like the things that we fall to temptation on, as we’re polishing away at our goals, trying to make them seem attractive enough to justify why we’re going to divert from where God has set us, we take away some of the flaws. We take away the little asterisks and the footnotes that explain that things aren’t really as good as we want them to be, that these things aren’t going to genuinely satisfy us or help others. We keep working those things away because our hearts are deceitful. Our hearts want what we want, and we want to justify it at any cost until it looks really, really appetizing.
A couple of years ago, I saw a video—I’m going to play just a clip of it for you right now—about how they make commercials for food, for different fast food, different things you can buy at the supermarket. If you watch food commercials, they always look so delicious. You watch these commercials and you’re starving. You see something like this wonderful burger with melted cheese. But as we’re watching this video here, notice what’s happening with this burger. This burger isn’t really what it seems. They’re using wedges to hold it up, and there’s toothpicks in it, and they’re using a hairdryer to melt the cheese in a way that it normally wouldn’t melt.
Then we see the real thing—the thing that we actually get when we order—and we’re disappointed because it doesn’t look anything like the commercial. You’ve probably all experienced that. You’ve seen something, it sounds so delicious, you rush to the store, you rush to the restaurant, you order it, and you see something that seems almost entirely different. Because in real life, the lettuce isn’t that crispy. In real life, the cheese doesn’t melt perfectly. In real life, there isn’t a foam wedge holding the bun up so it looks extra tall.
In the comments, if you have a fun story about a disappointing food order, why don’t you stick it down there and we can share it together? Because we can kind of laugh about those things. It’s fun, well, after we’ve gone and eaten something else to replace our unsatisfying burger. But what burgers of life do we fall for? Because we do the same thing. We may not be the people putting together those commercials, but we do the same thing. We take the goals that we set, the ones that aren’t necessarily pleasing to God, and we stick the little foam wedge in, and we melt the cheese, and we put the oil on the burger to make it shiny. We make it look beautiful. We make it appealing to ourselves. We feed into the temptation until we finally say, well, if this burger looks so delicious, why don’t I just bite into it? That’s what Satan’s trying to do to Jesus here. He’s polishing away all the flaws in all the kingdoms of the world and saying, Jesus, look at the beauty of this. You don’t need to come and die for the sins of the world. This world is just gorgeous, and I want to give it to you. You don’t have to do anything painful to have it.
Where do we do that? Where do we buy into those disappointing burgers of life? Sometimes it’s oversights, where we’re just not paying close attention, where we know we’re sort of disregarding what God’s called us to do. We’re not being truthful. We’re compromising. We’re speaking ill of others. That is almost an oversight. We’re not really thinking about it. Sometimes it’s a matter of entitlement. If anyone was entitled, Jesus was. Jesus was the rightful king of the world already. He was entitled to all those kingdoms. And so often we think, well, I’m entitled to what I want. I’m entitled to be happy. I’m entitled to have the comforts of life. I’m entitled to share my opinion wherever I want, whenever I want, with whomever I want, no matter how much it hurts them. I’m entitled.
Sometimes it’s more intentional. Sometimes it’s less intentional. But we keep polishing away. And as we do, it may not be explicitly what we’re trying to do, but we come up with these rationalizations and we keep building on these things until suddenly it seems like, of course we should eat that burger. Because who wouldn’t eat a burger that delicious? It’s that perfect burger. It doesn’t need anything else. Anyone with a brain could know I should eat that burger. We order it, and we’re handed that flat, limp burger, and we realize that through temptation, through sometimes outside temptation, sometimes just internally in our hearts, we’ve bought into an utter lie.
As Satan goes on in his temptation, we see how he tries to seal this deal with Jesus. He says to Jesus, “All these things I will give you if you will fall down and worship me.” Think about it for a second. That sounds extreme, but think about this for just a moment. We know that Jesus already knows where he’s headed. Jesus is God himself. He knows the painful path ahead. Maybe he could pull some kind of trick on the devil, sort of a devil-went-down-to-Georgia kind of moment, where, if you are familiar with the song, Johnny outplays the devil and gets this wonderful prize because he can trick the devil. The devil thinks he can outplay Johnny, and he can’t on the fiddle.
Well, Jesus knows that you don’t play games with the devil. You don’t try to somehow agree to his terms and then break them. That in itself would be a compromising position. He shouldn’t worship Satan a little, because the Father will overlook it. He can come to the Father and say, well, look, I’ve accomplished my goal so much faster. I didn’t have to go through all that painful stuff ahead and deal with all these disciples that didn’t always get it. I just made this little deal. No one even saw me worship Satan, and it’s all done. No, he doesn’t do that, because those rationalizations never actually work.
This option that Satan offers to be the Messiah the easy way is ultimately not to be the Messiah at all. So often when we come to these compromising moments, we say, well, if I’m not quite honest at work and I can get this promotion, I’m going to use it for such good that it’ll be worth everything that I’ve done. If I’m just not quite as nice as I talk about some of the people in my life, other people are going to like me so much better, and then I can accomplish things, so it’s worth it. And we do these things, and we rationalize these things, and in the process we’ve missed the very thing that God’s called us to.
I was reminded, I was having a conversation last week with a friend. We’ve been planning out Faithtoberfest, which is coming up in a few weeks. I’m so excited about it. He made the comment about making sure that we promote it, that we don’t get so busy planning this great event that we forget to actually spread the word. He was talking about how he’s done that before. I know I’ve done that before. You can get so busy putting together the pieces, you forget the most important part, which is that you want people to come, want people to enjoy it. A wonderful event with no one there doesn’t accomplish anything if it’s meant to minister to people.
That’s sort of what happens every single time we compromise on what God’s called us to do. Even when we convince ourselves, well, this is so beautiful, what I’m accomplishing, that it’s worth it, that God will be pleased in the end. But if we’re not actually acting in a God-pleasing manner all the way through, we’ve missed the point. God isn’t concerned with if we can polish everything up just right in the end. He’s concerned that we actually follow him faithfully now, that we look to him, that we love him. When we’re not, it’s like ordering a jelly donut and finding out there’s no filling in it. Yeah, it looks appealing on the outside, but there’s nothing worse than just eating a dry jelly donut with no jelly. Our lives become that, where we can have all the beautiful glazing on the outside, but there’s just emptiness inside.
Why do we do it then? Well, as we face these temptations, and I think we’ve all experienced this, and we’re going about this rationalization, trying to make things look better, and to convince ourselves of why we can do what we want to do, we feel this pull to go ahead, to just say, okay, it’s fine, I’m going to bite into that burger, it’s going to be more delicious than I could possibly imagine. I’m not going to accidentally hit that toothpick holding in the lettuce.
John Calvin says that the desire that we have draws us like wild beasts. He goes on to say, though we are convinced that all our support and aid and comfort depend on the blessing of God, yet our senses allure and draw us away to seek assistance from Satan as if God alone were not enough.
That’s the crux of it. We may not look at it that way. We never say, or we probably at least don’t say, I’m actually going to make a deal with the devil. I’m actually going to seek Satan’s help on whatever I’m about to do. What do we do? We simply start ignoring what God’s called us to do. We simply compromise on his truth. We simply compromise on how he’s called us to love others. We compromise on what he’s called us to be as a church. We compromise on what he’s called us to be as individual believers, being the hands and feet of God to the world. We compromise and we compromise until we can justify what we’ve done. But in the end, what we’re really doing is we’re seeking after what the world says are the answers, what ultimately Satan says is the answer, rather than what God does. We look everywhere for these solutions to the things that we want to achieve and the things we want to be. We’re looking for these momentary solutions when the eternal solution is right in front of us, and that’s Jesus.
Take a look at verse 10. It says, “Then Jesus said to him, Be gone, Satan, for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and him alone shall you serve.” So often, I think what it really boils down to is what we want is to be served rather than to serve. We want things to work out easily for us. We want things to be comfortable. We want things to be just, simply put, how we want them. That’s what Satan is trying to get Jesus to fall into. He says, Jesus, you can have what you want. You’re the king. You deserve this.
But Jesus came to serve. He came and took the form of a servant that he would rescue the people, that he would take the life that we face, the temptations that we face, and he wouldn’t fall to them. Instead, he’d rescue us. As we look to the drudgery of the things that we don’t want to do, as we look to the pain of standing up and being faithful, we want to grab onto that burger. We want to run to those answers the world offers us that sound so much easier and more comfortable. They sound like they’ll provide us with success and power. Just like that offer of the kingdoms of the world sounds like it offers to Jesus.
What did Jesus do? He looked to the Father and took the incredibly much harder road, the most difficult road anyone will ever take, the road to actually being our Messiah who saves us. In that, he fulfilled Philippians chapter 2, verses 9 and 11. When he did these things and he humbled himself, Paul goes on to say, “So that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth. And every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.”
Let me ask you this question. Let me ask myself this question. Where am I rationalizing my actions right now? Where are you doing the same? Where are those things that we think we’re doing something that’s good, and yet that last part of what we’re told in Philippians chapter 2 that is done to the glory of God the Father is missing? That our actions are not glorifying God. Maybe we think someday we’re going to reach a point where it’s glorifying God, but in the moment it isn’t glorifying God. And I’ve rationalized that. I’ve explained it away. I’m ignoring that and just polishing it off so that everything looks splendid and wonderful. Where are those things? And once I know where those things are, then what do I do?
We’re told over and over again in scripture the proper response is simply to trust God. What did Jesus do? He trusted the Father. And as he trusts the Father, he calls us to trust him. We ask God for help. Instead of trying to solve all these things, we actually seek the Father’s will. Think about the Lord’s Prayer for a moment. Before we even ask for our daily needs, what do we do? We ask that the Father’s will be done and that his kingdom come. Why? So that we’re properly orienting ourselves even as we ask for the things we need and want, that we’re doing so in the context of knowing that all this needs to happen in a way that is pleasing to God.
When we constantly have in mind that yes, I need to achieve these things, I believe that even God has called me to these things, but I need to do them in a way that God’s will is done every single moment, it starts to help show those places I’m rationalizing because I look at it and I think, how am I doing God’s will in this? And so often it points us to one of two problems, one of which is that what I want, what I think I need, the power I want, the popularity I want, the accomplishments I want aren’t really what’s pleasing to God. It isn’t part of his will being done. Or I’m trying to force the timing. I’m not concerned with what the timing of God’s will is.
As I seek to do these things, I have to rationalize and come up with these shortcuts because God isn’t yet opening the door. Those two things will inevitably show up as I realize that I’m rationalizing something and I’m not actually concerned with the Father’s will.
But what do I do? What should we all do? Well, not necessarily do I do, what should I do, I should say. Because so often I don’t. This is hard. What should we do? We pray and we wait and we seek to be faithful with the things in front of us.
We talked at the beginning about Moses on the mountain. I’ve looked at that passage time and again and felt so awful for him that he didn’t actually enter the promised land. But as I was preparing for this particular study tonight, something struck me afresh in that story. Of course, we know that Moses is held throughout scripture as the one who came and spoke before God that he spoke in a way that no other prophet ever did. But in some sense, that Moses never could have even imagined and in any rationalization that was spinning around in his head as he maybe was tempted not to follow the Lord till the end, he saw a greater fulfillment of the promise.
If you think about Matthew chapter 17, there’s what’s called the transfiguration where Jesus takes the inner circle of his disciples and before them they see not only Jesus in all his glory, they see Moses and Elijah talking with him. It says in Matthew 17:3, “And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah talking with him.” That is Jesus.
Moses didn’t enter the promised land in his lifetime. If he was trying to get all work on his timetable and in his way, he should have run and just chomped down on that beautiful looking tempting world burger.
What did God have in store for him? That he would actually be a part of the ministry of the Messiah, that he would actually get to talk to Jesus himself in this moment that showed Jesus’s glory, that while he didn’t enter the promised land with the people of Israel in the way that he dreamed would happen, he saw the fulfillment of the promise as he looked in the glorious face of Jesus.
What do we do when we’re feeling the need to rationalize and it feels like God’s promises aren’t working out for us the way that we thought and we think I need to just help it out a bit by taking these shortcuts, by just grabbing onto some worldly power, grabbing onto some worldly success and pulling it in and then in the end God will be thankful for me doing that? What do we need to do? We need to wait and pray and continue to keep in mind that the heart of the matter that God has called us to is to glorify him and to be in relationship to him. Moses saw the face of Jesus. Moses saw that glorious fulfillment, and so will we.
Look everywhere for these momentary solutions that somehow are going to make things right, but the eternal solution is right in front of us, it’s Jesus. Let’s pray tonight that whatever temptations we face and we want to rationalize, that we would look to Jesus, that we’d look to bring him glory, and that we’d flee from all those shortcuts and rationalizations that turn us away from that.
Let’s pray. Lord, as we come before you tonight, we look at the path that you have laid out before us. Look at how you’ve rescued us. We can know these things and yet in our hearts we struggle because there’s this yearning, this desire to somehow do things on our own, do them on our own timing, achieve the goals that we set rather than the ones that you set. To listen to the call of the world, to listen to the call of the devil for those easier paths that aren’t as hard and painful. And yet in all those things we know that they pull us away from you, that they turn us away from your glory. You call us to wait patiently and to act faithfully, following you, not necessarily always knowing the end or how it all works, but knowing that that’s what you have under control.
Lord, would you give us peace in that truth tonight? Would you help us to trust as we do to do your will in this world? We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.
Next week we’re going to continue and we’re going to wrap up our series by looking at one more passage from the Temptations of Jesus. At the end, we’re told that Satan waits for an opportune time and so often in our lives it feels the same way, that Satan is waiting for the opportune time. And it’s good to prepare for that and to turn to scripture and know how we prepare for those times when Satan is waiting to pounce. Because God’s grace and his strength through his Spirit is strong enough to overcome that every single time.
I hope this has been encouraging to you tonight and if it has, please like this, please leave a comment, please share it to others through social media and beyond. You can make a difference. You can help us to let people know about the God who is with us, who simply calls us to follow him and to rest in his grace. I thank you for joining me tonight. If there’s any way I can be praying for you this week, please let me know. I hope you have a wonderful and blessed week. I hope to see you again next week as we conclude this series. It’s always a blessing to get to share in God’s word with you. And I hope you have a wonderful night. Amen.