INTO THE WILDERNESS: When Temptation Knocks
Pastor Steven Osborne
Transcribed by PulpitAI (with edits)
Satan is at Work
Luke chapter 22—I want to start maybe in a weird place this morning, but Luke chapter 22, verse 31–34. I just added this this morning, so it’s not even on my slides. This is kind of the Passover weekend; this is just before everything is gonna go down with Jesus, and there’s a moment where Peter is pretty confident that he’s gonna stay with Jesus, that he won’t fall, that he’s got it all down, and there’s this interaction with Peter and with Jesus, and then there’s kind of this intimidating and kind of a scary moment. There’s some weights to these words, so just listen to this. So Luke chapter 22, verse 31.
“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”
So Peter obviously had no idea what was waiting for him.
But it is kind of intimidating when we think about and wonder, “What is Satan doing behind the scenes?” Now, I know this morning even you might—there’s maybe different views on Satan. Some of you might even say, “Hey, I don’t believe in Satan.” I had a seminary professor that didn’t believe in Satan. I don’t think we can look at the world and everything that is going on and look at the destruction, look at the pain, look at World War I and all the things that happened and say, “There’s not an enemy,” that Satan is not alive. And reading this passage this morning, just kind of pondering on that, it’s like, I wonder how many times Satan is working behind the scenes to bring destruction to our lives, to your marriage, to your kids. And I mean, I sure have experienced all of that in my life as well. And so this morning, just as we look at the life of Jesus and even things that he is experiencing with the enemy, I want to just plant the seed with you and want to invite you to read Scripture and allow God to affirm to you that the enemy is real and that he might just be working in your life or in your family’s lives. And we do know this—that he wants to kill, steal, and destroy.
But the good thing is—right, so that’s kind of the weighty piece, and that can be intimidating and scary. But guess what? This morning, Jesus died on the cross for us, and we have power, and we have victory, so that doesn’t need to be the case. We don’t have to leave today feeling, “Oh, I’m scared, I’m worried, I’m concerned, like that the enemy is gonna get his hand over me and bring destruction to my life.” It’s not necessary. We have the victory in what we have received in Jesus Christ on the cross. But I don’t want us to be in a place where we think, “Oh, He’s not at work. He’s not real.”
The Temptation of Jesus
Matthew chapter 4. We’re busy working through Matthew chapter 4. Starting in verse 1. So turn your Bibles with me.
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:
“‘He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”
Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”
Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.
And then I want you to just—kind of same story, a shorter version—turn your Bibles with me to Mark chapter 1. And again, when we look at the gospels, we know that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, all written for a different purpose, different audience, right? And so now we’re gonna see Mark’s version on the story. So Mark chapter 1.
And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.
Kind of interesting how that just leaves us there. It’s like, well, that’s interesting. I want to hear more about that moment, right, Jesus with the wild animals and the angels attending to him and to some of his needs. And we’ll get back to that ending.
Testing Jesus
Last time we met, we looked at the beginning—Jesus being baptized, the skies open up, God said, “Hey, this is my Son, my beloved Son. In him I’m well pleased.” And then Scripture tells us that immediately he is sent. The Holy Spirit is leading Jesus into the wilderness for forty days. And in that forty days, he gets tested. The Greek word that we looked at last time, there’s kind of several meanings to that Greek word “being tempted.” It can mean to be tempted to do evil, but it can also mean to be tested. So like when you’re studying for a test, and now you have to write the test to see what have you learned, what is kind of coming out of you. And so we see that Jesus is now gonna be tested on his identity.
Same Old Tricks
Now, again, just to think through a little bit—because I’ll try and tie all of this together for you. There’s a spiritual moment in this wilderness, in the life of Jesus, and we see that Satan is at work to test Jesus on who he really is, but also, I believe, trying to distract him, trying to set him in a different direction. Right? I don’t know exactly what Satan knew about the cross and the whole salvation plan. I’m assuming that he didn’t know all of the complete picture. But there’s some old tricks to Satan.
And there’s an interesting passage in Zechariah. Zechariah, he’s got several visions. I think he receives about eight visions from God. And here’s one of those visions. Zechariah chapter 3. It says:
Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him. The Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire?”
Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. The angel said to those who were standing before him, “Take off his filthy clothes.”
Then he said to Joshua, “See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put fine garments on you.”
Why am I sharing this vision and this passage with you? Because I think it’s important. And again, there’s some stuff here that we learn from Jesus in the wilderness, and I think that applies to us as well.
The vision and Joshua represents Israel, and it also represents us. And so the picture that Zechariah is receiving, or the vision that he’s receiving here, is to say, here is Joshua the high priest. And guess what? Right next to him is Satan, and he’s accusing him. And he’s showing us his filthy rags, his sin. And then here’s a prophetic vision of Jesus and what he wants to do; he wants to give us a new coat, a new clean robe, and to say, “You don’t have to live in that identity anymore, of your sinful nature.” But I want you to pay attention to the to the vision piece of the enemy’s work in this moment. Satan is next to him, accusing him of his past, of his filth. And God is on the other hand there—again, the picture, the context of this is a vision about Israel, and I believe it is something that applies to us as well.
Still today, nothing has changed. Satan is still out there accusing the brethren, constantly reminding us of our past, constantly tempting us and leading us away and making us doubt of our identity in Christ and who we are. And sometimes we fall for it, and hopefully most of the time we don’t. And it’s easy to stand here today or to sit here today and say, “Oh, I will never fall for those tricks. I will never fall for Satan’s accusations about my identity.” And we actually need this story, this story of Jesus in the wilderness. It is so important to us because it reminds us that the Jewish people, when they were being led by Moses out of the wilderness, they failed in their identity. They failed in their trust with God.
And in the same way, this passage of Jesus in the wilderness, when we’re looking at the references, it also reminds us that Eve failed in Genesis when she was tempted. And I think it’s important for us again to take kind of a humble approach this morning and to say, “You know what? Just maybe Satan is at work, and just maybe Satan might even be working behind the scenes and trying to mess with our identity and to remind us of our past and maybe telling us like, ‘Oh, God doesn’t care.’” And people over the years have failed over and over and over for the same lie and the same tactic. But guess what? Jesus did not fail. And Jesus didn’t fall for these tactics as well. And I believe that there’s some things that we can learn this morning as we study this.
Led by the Spirit
It says, “Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness.” This wasn’t per accident. It was the plan of God to lead Jesus into those moments. He had to be tested on his identity, and there’s some things that needed to be revealed to us.
Forty Days
“For forty days.” It was a time—kind of as we think about forty days, it is interesting, when we look at Scripture and kind of the meaning behind it, forty days, what does it represent? It represents a time of testing, preparation, transformation, and restoration. Okay? And so we see this number kind of throughout Scripture. You have Moses was on Mount Sinai for forty days. Noah faced forty days of rain. After running from Jezebel, Elijah travels forty days to Mount Horeb. After his resurrection, Jesus spent forty days visiting with people. This number is kind of throughout Scripture, forty days, and it represents a day of testing, growing, restoration, preparation.
The Purpose of the Wilderness
And here you have Jesus, now he’s being called into the wilderness by the Spirit of God for forty days. He’s being prepared for something way bigger. At this point, nobody really has an idea of who Jesus is. His public ministry isn’t public at this point. And you would think, “Well, this is Jesus. He is the Son of God. Maybe he gets to skip the wilderness.” Well, you don’t get to skip the wilderness just because you’re called. God prepares you in private before he uses in public. Can I hear an amen? That’s part of the challenge today. A lot of times we want to run away from the wilderness, because again, the wilderness isn’t fun. Last time we met, we went into details on what we can expect in the wilderness and what that looks like. I mean, who wants to hang out just when we think about the natural? If you recall, if you missed it, go back to the last sermon. I showed you some of those images of the Judean desert. Nobody wants to hang out there. It’s just sand and rocks. Probably cold at night, warm during the day, and there’s wild animals during the day as well. But there’s nothing. The only thing you can do in the wilderness is to trust God.
And here you have Jesus—he’s being called into the wilderness, and it has a purpose, and the purpose is to prepare him in private for his public ministry.
You know, it is so easy for us to think, “Oh, I don’t need the wilderness. I don’t want to go through the wilderness. Just give me that big ministry, Lord,” or whatever it might be. But the wilderness, for all of us, is important. And I get it. I mean, it is hard. You probably have all gone through some sort of wilderness. Maybe even this morning you are going through a wilderness, where you feel maybe alone, and you feel overwhelmed, and you’re like, “God, where are you in all of the stuff that I’m dealing with? Do you even see me in the wilderness here, Lord, how I’m suffering and the stuff that I’m going through?” And from our perspective, we might think that God is not seeing, God is not aware of your season. But guess what? When we look at Scripture, and every moment where God called people and he took them through the wilderness, he is preparing them, and he’s teaching them to rely on him. And he wants to reveal to you that he is worthy.
If you don’t go through the wilderness and you end up in a place—maybe I’m just talking from a ministry perspective—a lot of times if we think, oh, we can just kind of show up on a national stage without the wilderness, a lot of times there will not be character, and then things will crash. We need the preparation. Don’t cut that season short.
Being Spirit-filled doesn’t mean you avoid the wilderness. It means you have power in it. We can be so fearful; we can be so afraid about the wilderness and think, “Well, how am I gonna survive? Will I survive?” Right? And God gives us all the tools. We have the Holy Spirit with us. We don’t have to fear the wilderness. We don’t have to run away from the wilderness. But it’s a great opportunity for us to really experience the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives and for our faith to be challenged and tested in the wilderness and to say, “Wow, this whole thing with God, this is real.” Because you might not know God is really real and that the Spirit of God is with you if you have not experienced him and his faithfulness in the wilderness. Amen? You guys are very quiet this morning.
Satan’s Strategy
Part of the enemy’s strategy—nothing has changed. This is the same strategy. I want you to know, a lot of times you and I will face the enemy when we are lonely or uncertain, when we are tired and discouraged, and when we feel like God is distant. I don’t know, anybody, have you been there? Right? It’s surprising to me that Satan doesn’t show up in those moments where we are flying high, when we’re on the mountaintops. We just experienced God, and the worship is great, and life is great—a lot of times we don’t face Satan in those moments. But it is when we’re in the wilderness and when we are by ourselves that he shows up.
When Jesus is weak—Jesus is in the wilderness for forty days. He’s been fasting. He’s been praying.
Now, I’ve been in the Boundary Waters with friends, right? And there was one night I had to go to—I’m using the word “toilet” loosely. And so you have to kind of walk, and you know, we’re kind of on an island, and there’s some of the guys are there. I can see the guys. I can see the campfire. And still, you kind of, as you’re walking there by yourself, and you hear the different noises, you’re still a little nervous, right? And one, it’s like, is there something, a wild animal that can jump out? And some wild animal did jump out, and that was Christo, right?
But again, you know, it’s like, I’m with friends, and so here we think about just about Jesus. He’s all by himself—I mean, the Spirit of God is with him. He is weak, probably. I mean, ask yourself, how strong would you be without eating for forty days? A lot of times when you do any adventure thing—like I said, Boundary Waters—or you go and climb a mountain, or some of these adventure things, it’s always good advice not to do that on your own, to have a buddy with you. If something should happen, that there’s somebody that can actually go and look for help. These were extreme circumstances. Jesus is by himself, and he’s not been eating for forty days! I cannot think of a more extreme situation. And no wonder that Satan shows up in that moment.
Testing the Identity of Jesus
And then here’s kind of the key passage for us this morning. Listen to the enemy’s words here. It says:
“If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
I’ll read it again.
“If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
Do you think Satan knew that Jesus was the Son of God? Absolutely. What’s the history of Satan? What do we know? He’s a fallen angel. Before he became a fallen angel, what was his task? He was a worship leader, right? An angel in heaven. Did he know exactly who Jesus is? Absolutely. And yet he comes to Jesus and says, “Well, if you are the Son of God, then just turn these stones into bread. You’re hungry.” And so he’s testing not Jesus’ power, but his identity. He knew Jesus could turn these stones into bread. That would have been nothing for Jesus. But in a sense, what he’s telling him, he says, “Jesus, you know what? I know you just had this whole baptism thing and the skies kind of opened up. But you know what? If you are really the beloved Son of God, why don’t you just turn these stones into bread? Do you think that Abba Father, if he really loves you, that he wants you to go hungry? You know what? You’ve been through enough. You’ve suffered enough. You actually should be in the heavenly places, and now you’re in the desert. You don’t even have a tent. You’ve been hungry for forty days. You know what? You’ve got the power. Why don’t you just turn those stones into bread?” Satan knows that he can do it. But he’s testing Jesus’ identity and his obedience.
And maybe if I was Jesus, or if I was in that situation, I would have taken a shortcut. Instead of waiting on God, we can be tempted to take shortcuts in the wilderness because it is not fun in the wilderness. And if I didn’t understand my identity and if I didn’t understand my calling, and same with Jesus, easier to have said, “Yeah, you know what, Satan? You’re right. You know, I’m at 39 days here. Maybe that’s good enough. I’m hungry. I do have the power. You know what? You’re right. I have the power to turn these things into bread. Let me do that. That sounds like a good idea.” Guess what? He did the same thing with Eve, and it cost her. And a lot of times in our own lives, when God is calling us to obedience and to walk it out in the wilderness, a lot of times, because of the lies of the enemy, and because of our lack of faith in trusting God, we give in, and we fall for the enemy’s schemes.
Satan didn’t attack Jesus’ power; he attacked his identity. And if he did it to Jesus, he will do it to us as well. Satan didn’t tempt Jesus because he was unsure of his identity. He tempted Jesus because he knew exactly who he was, and he knows exactly who you are in Christ Jesus. You are bought by the blood of Jesus Christ. You are his sons and his daughters, and he will do whatever he can to destroy your life. And he’s not gonna show up in your life as kind of this picture that we maybe have of Satan with a red tail and a fork. He will bring addictions, affairs, drugs, and to say, “Here you go. It’s gonna be okay.”
Closing Thoughts
2 Corinthians 11:3—this is Paul writing to the Church. He says:
But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
Paul writing to the Church. Don’t ever think that you have just arrived and that you can relax and that Satan is not at work.
If you don’t know who you are, you will chase anything that makes you feel seen. I love with Jesus—he could have done the miracle, and the way that he responds is not through a show. He just quotes Scripture. Because Jesus knows exactly who he is. He understands his identity, that he is the Son of God, that he has a purpose. And you know what? When you and I have the awareness of who we are in Christ and understand our identity, and when the word of God is in inside of us, we will not get distracted by the enemy. Another way maybe of saying this is: Confusion about who you are will have you performing for people God never told you to impress.
Last point here for us this morning. Stop trying to earn what you’ve already been given. If you have given your life to Jesus Christ, you are his child. You belong to him. You don’t have to earn his love. You don’t have to earn his grace. He’s done it on the cross for you. And you and I don’t have to earn anybody’s approval. Be obedient to God’s Word. Be obedient to his Word, and live in your identity, and be aware of what the enemy is doing.
