The Big Guns

Luke 4:9-13

Jesus resisted the first two temptations of Satan, which were masterfully, deviously clever. Then the devil pulled out the big guns.

There is a point on the temple mount in Jerusalem that is a dizzying height.  If you have any kind of fear of heights, you don't want to go near the southeast corner.  The temple mount, of course, is a massive, patio kind of thing, where today is the Dome of the Rock and the al Aqsa Mosque, two primary Muslim places.  And up at the north end of it is where we believe the original temple was, and it's surrounded by a wall and it sits up on what is Mount Moriah, where Abraham went to sacrifice Isaac.  And so it's been flattened out and you ascend long stairs from the southern side. Those gates, by the way, and the stairs there are the very ones Jesus used in His lifetime.  So it's a remarkable place. 

But on the southeast corner there is a great dropoff that sinks down into the Kedron valley where the Kedron stream [red brook] goes through and it is a dead straight drop of 450 feet to the ground.  Tradition tells us that the brother of our Lord, James, who was the leader of the Jerusalem Council, was thrown to his death from that corner.  They threw him alive off that 450-foot edge.

v. 9          Now Satan says, look, You trust God, do You?  You only want to obey His Word.  You trust His love, You trust His care and You will only do what His Word says to do, right?  Fine, okay, let's go over to the temple, and dive off.

v. 10 -11   Oh, You want to go by Scripture, well it is written, and he quotes Psalm 91 verses 11 and 12.

If Jesus will not prove He is the Son of God by doing what God has said not to do, worship anyone other than Himself, maybe He will prove He is the Son of God by doing something to prove the truth of what God has said. 

This is a messianic Psalm, Psalm 91, and it pledges protection for the Messiah.  So go up there and throw Yourself down and You will give God an opportunity to have His Word proven.  Just create a deadly peril.

[BTW, the top of Herod’s temple was about 150 feet above the patio, if that’s where they were, rather than down at the corner.]

Now remember, Jesus is a man and He cannot survive such a fall.  He couldn't survive the cross.  Once He had lost His blood, He was dead.  What Satan wants to do here, His wicked purpose, is to kill Christ. He wants Him dead. 

You can prove You're the Son of God because as You go flying down, at some point the angels are going to come along and they're just going to gather You in their arms and You're going to come down to a soft landing and then everybody will know You are the Son of God.  This would be spectacular. This would gain You the amazement of the world.  And You won't have to go through any more humiliation. You do this and folks are likely to say, yep, He is the Messiah.

But that isn't what Jesus wanted.  He didn't want popularity.  He didn't come to be popular.  He didn't come to be accepted.  He really came to be hated.  It was really essential that He be hated and rejected in order that He be killed.  He was to die by crucifixion and no other way.

v. 12        Now, first there was the temptation to distrust God's love and care.  And then there was the temptation to distrust God's plan; and then the twist, the temptation to trust God presumptuously, to literally back God into a corner. That was the temptation.

Satan knew that Jesus was a man and that a fall like that would kill Him.  He told Eve, "You'll not die," but she did.  And so would Jesus.  God didn’t swoop in and save Eve at the last second. He wasn’t bluffing.

The devil quotes Scripture and he usually quotes it fairly accurately.  This time he quoted the Septuagint.  The devil knows the Bible, very well.  And, you know, the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Mormons and all the other isms and schisms and all the other cults and occults throw the Bible around all the time because the devil knows the Bible. He knows the Bible as well as you and I or better.  So, the devil, rebuffed by Scripture, quotes Scripture. 

Jesus doesn't move.  One thing He won't do, He won't presume on God.  He will not act independently.  This is not the plan.  This is not God's purpose.  He will not become some kind of a flying hero.  He will not force God's hand to do something presumptuously.  This is like saying, OK, God, You promised to watch over me and protect me, so I'm going to go stand in the middle of the freeway to watch You vindicate Yourself.  He won't do that.  He will only do what the Father wills Him to do.  He will follow the plan to the very letter, only as the Spirit of God empowers Him to do it for He has set aside any independent use of His attributes.  And there is no internal solicitation for Him to violate that because there was nothing in Him that had a capacity to sin.

Satan will tempt you to trust God presumptuously.  Well, God, You know, You promised to meet all my needs, so I'm going to do this - here I go.  You go wandering out on the end of some rickety branch and it breaks and then you blame God.

The devil will always tempt people to presume on God, and then when God doesn't come through the way they think, guess what?  God's history.

v. 13        The devil is not omnipresent.  He left and he left in defeat.  But he only left temporarily.  He came back and — believe me — he came back after Jesus later and often.  Hear what He said to His disciples:

Luke 22:28

²⁸ Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations.

You know, the whole time they were together for those three years was a time of temptation.  One time he came through Peter, remember that?  In Matthew 16:23 Peter said, "Ah, You're not going to die, Lord, that's not going to happen."  And Jesus said to Peter, "Get thee behind Me, Satan."  That’s Satan trying to get Jesus to avoid the cross.

In John chapter 13 and verse 27 Satan entered into Judas and brought about the betrayal.  Satan was coming after Jesus through many different circumstances.  But Jesus defeated him at the cross, crushed him at the tomb.  And in the end, of course, will destroy the entire world of sin.

What do we learn from this?  Satan's strategy; he will tempt us to distrust the love of God; he will tempt us to distrust the plan of God and thus to compromise with sin to get what we think we need and deserve and want.  And then he will tempt us to presume on God and act foolishly out of pride and self-will. Presuming on God's grace we do things foolishly.  That's his strategy.

His conditions; when does he come at us?  Watch out for the high points in your life because just as soon as you've had your high point and you've heard from God, "This is My beloved Son," you're liable to get hit with the biggest temptation.  Be alert when you're physically weak.  Be alert when you're in evil surroundings. 

How do you defeat Satan when he pulls out the big guns?  How did Jesus defeat him?  Three times, what did He do?  Quoted Scripture.  Be committed to obey God's Word.  First of all, you have to know God's Word and you have to obey God's Word.  Know the Scripture.  Not only know it in your head, but know it in your heart and be committed to live it.  When Satan challenges your loyalty to God and your confidence in God's love and your confidence in God's plan, and when Satan challenges your will to act in a proper manner toward God's promises, what's going to anchor you is your knowledge of the Word of God and your devotion to obey it.

1 Peter 2:21

²¹ For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:

Isn't that great?  He suffered physically for us, but now we are reminded that by way of His great temptations He suffered spiritually for us. And He did not sin. And the reason He committed no sin was because He was anchored in obedience to God and refused to presume on His goodness.