SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/31/2020
10:40 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “Intro
to Matthew 4”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
4:1-11
Message of the verses: “1 Then Jesus was
led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And
after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry. 3 And
the tempter came and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, command that
these stones become bread." 4 But He answered and said, "It is
written, ’MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS
OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.’" 5 Then the devil took Him into the holy city;
and he had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 and said to Him, "If
You are the Son of God throw Yourself down; for it is written, ’HE WILL GIVE
HIS ANGELS CHARGE CONCERNING YOU’; and ’ON their HANDS THEY WILL BEAR
YOU UP, LEST YOU STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.’" 7 Jesus said to him,
"On the other hand, it is written, ’YOU SHALL NOT
PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.’"
8 Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain, and *showed Him all the
kingdoms of the world, and their glory; 9 and he said to Him, "All these
things will I give You, if You fall down and worship me." 10 Then Jesus said
to him, "Begone, Satan! For it is written, ’YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD
YOUR GOD, AND SERVE HIM ONLY.’" 11 Then the devil left Him; and behold, angels
came and began to minister to Him.”
In
our last SD we were looking at how different people were attempting to deal
with temptation and John MacArthur in his commentary talks about others that I
don’t think I will include here as I think that they are all kind of useless to
look now as we will want to focus in how the Lord teaches us how to deal with
temptation as we continue looking at these eleven verses in the future.
MacArthur
writes: “In Matthew 4:1-11 one of the
most monumental and mysterious spiritual battles of all time is recounted—the personal
confrontation between Jesus Christ and Satan.
The devil’s temptations directed at Jesus in the wilderness of Judea
were observed by no other human being.
He was entirely alone, and it is therefore obvious that we could know
nothing of what transpired there unless Jesus Himself had told His disciples of
it. Here He reveals the victory secret,
as it were, of His momentous struggle with Satan.” I don’t suppose that I have ever thought
about these events not being seen by any other human being before, but that is
the truth, for Jesus, Satan, and eventually the angels who came to help him
were the only ones there.
After
studying about the baptism of Jesus Christ the last several days we come to the
very next event of His life and this is also seen in Mark and Luke’s gospel
writing, so that means that it was a very important thing that happened. We learned in His baptism that this was His
coronation, His commissioning to be King, and so after His proclamation as King
comes the test of His kingliness. God
the Father had just said that “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am
well-pleased” (3:17), and in this wilderness test we can see why He was
well-pleased. MacArthur adds “He shows
that, even in the extreme of temptation, He consistently lived in perfect
harmony with the divine plan. Here He first
demonstrated His power over hell. His
absolute sovereignty forbad Him to bow to the ‘god of this world,’ so He face
the full force of Satan’s wicked deception, yet remained untouched and uncontaminated. Evil at is lowest was overcome by Him, and
goodness at its highest commended Him.
The combination of both accredited Him as King.” I suppose that we will continue all the way
through the gospel of Matthew talking about Jesus as King for that is one of
the great themes in this book.
We
will be able to learn from our Lord’s temptation how He dealt with it as we are
given clean and applicable insights into Satan’s strategy against God and His
people and also into Christ’s way of victory over the tempter. We will see side by side the way of danger
and the way of escape from that danger.
We will see the way that leads to defeat and death and the way that
leads to victory and life and in short, the way of Satan and the way of God.
I
have mentioned that some time ago that I read a couple of books about Satan,
one by Warren Wiersbe, “The Strategy of Satan,” and the other by Charles
Stanley, “When the Enemy Strikes.” Both
were very insightful and while and after reading them it seems that many things
seemed to go wrong in our lives as things kept breaking down one right after
another and other things seem to still be going wrong. I have learned some things about how Satan
attacks believers and I believe that I will learn more things as we go through
this section in Matthew, things that will help in having victories over
temptation, something we all face each day of our lives.
MacArthur
brings up two reasons why Matthew includes this section in his gospel, and the
first we have already mentioned which has to do with the Lord’s Kingship as He
will win the battle over Satan in this first skirmish showing He is King of kings
and Lord of lords. Satan was trying to
conquer the newly commissioned King, to overthrow the Messiah, and to claim all
His royal rights and prerogatives for himself.
MacArthur
then talks about the other purpose and that “was to demonstrate the pattern
found in Jesus’ human victory over sin, a pattern that He longs to share with
all who belong to Him. When we face
testing and temptation in the same way our Lord did, we too can be victorious
over the adversary’s attempts to corrupt us and to usurp the Lord’s rightful
place in our lives.
“The
momentous encounter that Matthew here describes, and from which believes can
gain such help and encouragement, may be divided into three parts for
study: the preparation, the temptation,
and the triumph.” Now we have the three
different man-sections we will be looking at in this very important subject, as
I hope all will be eager to look at them.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Realizing that defeating temptations that come
into my life I am ready to study this section of Scripture, and I believe that
God has brought this section of Scripture into my life at just the right time.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I pray that God will open my heart wide as
He, through His Holy Spirit teaches me wonderful things from this section of
Matthew, that I will truly have joy in my heart as I study His Word and that it
will also bring about humility.
1/31/2020 11:22 AM
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