Full of the Holy Spirit...

Luke 4:1-21 (NASB) from the daily reading n the OneYear Bible (link available on links page)

The Temptation of Jesus

4 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness ² for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days, and when they had ended, He became hungry. ³ And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” ⁴ And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’”

⁵ And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. ⁶ And the devil said to Him, “I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. ⁷ Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours.” ⁸ Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’”

⁹ And he led Him to Jerusalem and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here; ¹⁰ for it is written,

¹¹ and,

¹² And Jesus answered and said to him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

¹³ When the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time.

Jesus’ Public Ministry

¹⁴ And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread through all the surrounding district. ¹⁵ And He began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all.

¹⁶ And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. ¹⁷ And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written,

²⁰ And He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. ²¹ And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” 

Today's text begins with Jesus, having just been baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit, being  led around by the Spirit in the wilderness  for forty days, being tempted by the devil.  The first temptation was not really about food, it was about questioning Jesus identity. The devil says if you are the Son of God. The devil knew who Jesus was. His question was to try to get Jesus the man to either doubt or rise up in pride to prove Himself. Either one would have given the devil an openning. In the same way that the devil knew who Jesus was, he also knows who we are in Christ. His greatest fear is that we come to know and believe who we are. Quesioning our identity is one of his primary attacks against us. That's why our first response to the devil needs to be as James 4:-7-8 says: submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. ⁸ Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.    We resist the devil not first by engaging him, but rather by submitting to and drawing near to God. When we draw near to God and are in His presence our true identity will be clear to us. When we come into God's presence the devil will flee. Evil has no place in the presence of God.

Sometimes it seems that God's way takes too long. We tend to want things quickly. God gives us only as much as we can handle. This is true of both difficulties and  also our success  and responsibilities. The devil knows this tendency. His second temptation of Jesus appealed to that human tendency to take the shorter, easier path to our destination.

  And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. ⁶ And the devil said to Him, “I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. ⁷ Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours.” ⁸ Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’”  

The lie here was not that satan had authority in the world, that authority had been passed to him by Adam and Eve when they fell to his temptation. The real lie in this temptation which satan still uses, the temptation to obtain our goals through following him, is that the devil is self centered and greedy. He will not give anything that he has to any one. The things he offers are at best temporary. We need to recognize that our true inheritence, like our identity, is in Christ. God's way might not always seem to be the fastest but it is always the best. 

God decares through the prophet Isaiah: “For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. ⁹ “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9)     God is eternal. His thoughts, His ways and His plans for us are eternal. In the scope of eternity our entire lifetime is merely a twinkling. We need to resist the temptation to risk our eternal blessings which God freely gives, for temporary success or satisfaction which the devil promises. He though, can't give what he doesn't have. Happiness, peace, love and joy are not his. They are from God alone.

Jesus was fully God and fully man when He walked this earth. He recognized that as a man His flesh was no match for the temptations of he devil. He didn't engage in the battle in the flesh. He was full of the Holy Spirit and He countered the temptations and  lies of the devil with the truth of the word of God. Jesus is the Word made flesh.    And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)

The devil's schemes and tactics have not changed. He tempts us the same way he tempted Jesus. We overcome the devil by resisting him, by drawing near to God. We overcome by not engaging in a battle in the flesh, but rather by the Holy Spirit and the Word. We overcome as Revelation 12:11 says: And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death.,     Our victory is in and through Christ, by His blood.    Our testimony is the Word, Jesus is the Word made flesh.      

We then, overcome satan by the blood of Jesus and by the very life of Jesus Himself. We overcome because Jesus overcame, not only in the wilderness but even more through the cross and the resurrection.

My prayer for myself and for you today is that we    be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.  Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.  For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.  ( We overcome not in the flesh but by the blood)

  Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.  Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,  and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;  in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.   With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints      Amen