The Life of Christ

SECTION 28

THE TEMPTATION IN THE WILDERNESS

Jesus has just received His kingship at water baptism.

• His first kingly act will be to confront the current king of the world, the devil.

• The battle for ultimate sovereignty begins in the wilderness and will conclude at the cross.

• The only hope Satan has is to deflect Jesus off His preordained course.

Lk. 4:1 And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led about by the Spirit in the wilderness.

Following baptism, Jesus is now “full” of the Holy Spirit.

• The wilderness experience is what converts the “ fullness ” of the Spirit into the “power” of the Spirit (Lk. 4:13-14).

However, a different description of Jesus after the temptation is found in Lk. 4:13-14:

• Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time. Then Jesus returned in the “power of the Spirit” to Galilee, and news of Him went out through all the surrounding region (Lk. 4:13-14).

• Jesus went into the wilderness “full of the Spirit,” but came out of the wilderness in the “power of the Spirit.

• Overcoming temptation converts fullness to power.

• Each time we resist temptation we accumulate additional spiritual power.

The Spirit of God, rather than the devil, leads us into dry difficult places.

• Mark's account (Mk. 1:12) says Jesus was ‟ impelled ” by the Spirit.

• The King James Version says He was “driven” into the wilderness.

• The children of Israel were deliberately led into the wilderness (Ex. 13:17-18) before they entered Canaan..

The Judean wilderness was an extremely hostile environment.

• Temperatures were often over 110 degrees and there was very little vegetation or water.

Lk. 4:2 “…for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days; and when they had ended, He became hungry.”

He was hungry during all the 40 days; however, by the end of the 40 th day His body would begin to deteriorate unless He ate food.

Lk. 4:3 And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”

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