THE LORD OVERCOMES SATAN IN THE
TEMPTATION AND BEGINS HIS PUBLIC MINISTRY
(Suggested Reading: Chapter 4:1-37)
Chapter 4 introduces the Lord's ministry as Son of Man the previous three chapters were all Jewish. These are now left behind. The pulse of the gospel quickens as we move from the godly remnant in Israel under the Roman Empire to Christ, the new center of hope. He is the Son of Man. This title of Christ's stands for the rejected One in this world but the Lord of the worlds to come. It gives us God come out to meet us in grace because we are sinners and could not go to meet Him.
The close of the introductory chapters gave us the union of God and Man in the Person of Christ. In Luke 3:22,22And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased. (Luke 3:22) the Father had declared Him to be God; at the end of that chapter He is shown to be Man— 3:38. But He is a Man of a new order, unlike Adam. Adam was overcome when tempted by the devil; this Man overcame the devil. The contrast of the two Adams under temptation is the next subject to occupy our attention.
"How wondrous the glories that meet
In Jesus, and from His face shine
His love is eternal and sweet
'Tis human, 'tis also divine.
“His glory— not only God's Son
In manhood He had His full part.
And the union of both joined in one
Form the fountain of love in His heart.”
The Temptation of Christ by Satan— General Thoughts
The Lord, as Man, was tempted in all things like us— apart from sin. There was nothing in Him to respond to sin as there is in us. His temptation only proved His sinless perfection and His dependence on His Father's Will which He had been sent to fulfill. Even so, we have shown that His baptism was an act of grace by Him, for no sin, and so no repentance, could ever be imputed or required of the sinless One. It is important for every believer to understand these things and to guard the Person and work of Christ with a drawn sword.
Next we should understand that Luke's presentation of the temptation is moral in contrast to Matthew's, which gives the historical order of events and the dispensational teaching. Thus in Matthew, Satan's urging Christ to turn the stones into bread is an allusion to the beginning of Israel's history in the wilderness when they murmured against the manna— the bread from heaven. Again in Matthew setting Christ on the pinnacle of the Temple is an allusion to when Satan will do this to the Antichrist. In the third temptation there is an allusion to the time when Israel shall worship Satan through the Antichrist in exchange for the kingdom, the power and the glory. All this is because Matthew's presentation of Christ is Jewish— he depicts Christ as the rejected Messiah. Luke, on the other hand, gives us the great moral lessons of the temptation. One of these is that faithfulness in trial shows the power of the Spirit as much as the energy of service. The Christian should apply this lesson by standing fast under temptation, as in Eph. 6. His only weapon is the Word of God— the weapon Christ used against Satan in His temptation. Only Christ could use this perfectly, for He Himself was perfect. We can only wield the Sword of the Spirit against Satan if we are in a good state of soul —which is the great thought behind the defensive armor described in Eph. 6.
Satan's first temptation was to the natural needs of the body —bread. It is remarkable how Satan attacked the Lord this way twice— at the temptation and at the cross. The natural needs of the body are two food and drink. In the temptation Satan appealed to the Lord's manifest need of food; at the cross to His need of drink, for there He cried, "I thirst." Secondly, Satan tempted Christ as to His soul by offering Him the world. The Lord Himself linked the love of the world with the soul of every man— "for what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" Mark 8:36, 736For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? (Mark 8:36)
7And they had a few small fishes: and he blessed, and commanded to set them also before them. (Mark 8:7). The third temptation was a religious one, at the Temple and based (partially) on Scripture. This was the trial of the spirit. Just as the soul is linked closely to our body and our aspirations, desires, etc., in the body, even so the spirit in man is that part of his being which is his link with God (if he has a link of course— the spirit in an unsaved man is like a lamp without oil). "I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the understanding also." 1 Cor. 14:1515What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also. (1 Corinthians 14:15). The Lord being a perfect Man, had a body, soul and spirit— all in holy obedience to His Father's will.
How Christ Overcame Satan—4:1-13
Anyone who has meditated on the story of David and Goliath would surely have seen in it the foreshadowing of Christ's conflict with Satan. David was the only man able to fight Goliath; Christ, who was David's Son, was the only Man able to fight Satan. David overcame Goliath with only one of the five stones chosen from the brook; Christ overcame Satan with quotations from only one of the five books of Moses, for all His quotations in the temptation were from Deuteronomy, the book of obedience. By obeying the Word of God, the last Adam overcame Satan in contrast to the first Adam who disobeyed the Word of God and fell. Through disobedience Adam exalted himself and was humbled. Notice how Satan tried that with the Lord, too. The devil took Him to a high mountain and set Him on a pinnacle of the Temple. But in both cases, the last Adam refused to be exalted at Satan's hand. In due time His Father would exalt Him and He was content to await His Father's time.
The devil's first temptation was to persuade Christ to satisfy His hunger by commanding the stones to be made bread. But Christ did not come to command, but to obey His Father. Had not the Spirit led Him into the wilderness? Then why should He distrust His Father's care of Him? The Spirit had led Him there. The Father would provide for His bodily needs in His own time. Man should not live only for what goes into his mouth— bread— but by every word that comes out of God's mouth— the Word of God.
Foiled, the devil tests Him on that very truth. He shows Christ the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. These belong to him, he says. This is a half truth because they really belong to Christ. Still, because man follows his own lusts and becomes the slave of the devil, in practice the world is his kingdom although he is subject to overall restraint, for the Lord "is the governor among the nations." Psa. 22:2828For the kingdom is the Lord's: and he is the governor among the nations. (Psalm 22:28). But "every Word of God" by which Christ the last Adam walked, said, "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and Him only shalt thou serve." Thus Christ foiled the worldly temptation. This intermediate temptation is usually the one in which Satan attacks the believer most successfully today. He holds the world before us like a lure before a fish. This is especially true if we are young and what the world offers seems so tempting. I remember marching in public behind a military band in the distant years of World War 2. The band struck up "after the ball" and the words "many a heart was broken after the ball" truly reflected the light spirits of the airmen and the admiring glances they drew from the fair sex at the time. Nothing of this human vanity remains but old photographs and almost forgotten memories. Yet it is with such baubles Satan lures the soul away from Christ. They perish. He alone remains— "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today and forever."— Heb. 13:88Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. (Hebrews 13:8). "The world passeth away and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever." 1 John 2:1717And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. (1 John 2:17). It passes away like a dream and the reality of following Christ abides. The believer's marching songs will echo through the courts of glory— "where sin, nor want, nor woe, nor death, can come.”
"That rest secure from ill
No cloud of grief e'er stains
Unfailing praise each heart Both fill
And love eternal reigns.”
The third and culminating temptation— for each one ascends in severity— is religious in character. Satan now applies to the Lord His own saying that man should live by every word of God. He quotes Scripture to Him, urging Him to cast Himself down from the pinnacle of the Temple because the angels would take care of Him if He did. Cunningly he half quotes the Scripture, omitting "in all Thy ways" Psa. 91:1111For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. (Psalm 91:11). It was not in the ways of God that Christ should use His power independently of His Father any more than that He should command stones to be made bread when His Father hadn't told Him to do so. So Jesus closes the record of the temptation here by quoting Scripture— "thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." This beautiful reply also answers Satan's opening and closing thrust— "if Thou be the Son of God." There was nothing in Jesus' circumstances to suggest that He was, so great was His humiliation. But the Father had publicly declared that He was— 3:22— and that was enough.
The Lord triumphed in each of the three scenes in which Satan tempted Him before He began His public ministry. As we have just seen, these were the temptations in the wilderness, the mountain, and the pinnacle of the temple. Defeated, Satan departed from Him for a season— 4:13. When he returned, he would try Christ in a fourth scene— a garden the garden— of Gethsemane. The garden is a pleasant place. But death had come into the garden when our first parents listened to Satan. In the garden of Gethsemane, the Lord agonized at the cost of doing His Father's will the death of the cross. But He obeyed His Father's will, and dying set us free.
Much nonsense has been written on the temptation— for example, on the form Satan took when he appeared to the Lord— how he showed the Lord the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, etc. Such speculations remind the writer of the time when as a young man he attended a lecture on the temptation given by the celebrated Dutch Bible teacher, August Van Ryn. Van Ryn told the story of a Bible Reading on the temptation. Someone asked J. N. Darby how the devil managed to get the Lord to the pinnacle of the temple. Darby's reply was "to give you a wise answer to a foolish question, I don't know." We might add that nobody else does either and that the lessons from the temptation are moral. For the first time in this world a Man has appeared who has overcome the wicked one. The next lesson is how the Overcomer uses that strength to deliver our race, bound by Satan's chains, up to this point.
The Lord Teaches in the Synagogue at Nazareth—4:16-30
Without going into details, Luke tells us of the beginning of our Lord's Galilean ministry, which ends at 9:50. The fame of the Lord went out "through all the region round about." He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all. Then He returns to Nazareth where He was brought up. He goes into the synagogue on the Sabbath day. The custom in Jewish synagogues at this time differed markedly from ours today and we need some explanation to help understand the text. When Jesus stood up, it was public notification that He wished to address the people. This liberty was extended to visiting rabbis, and the public was no doubt anxious to hear Him whose fame had spread abroad. So He was handed the Scripture roll by the servant of the ruler of the synagogue. The Scriptures were always read standing up as a mark of respect for the Word of God. After reading the Scriptures, the Lord rolled up the parchment scroll, returned it to the servant, and sat down. Then we are told that "the eyes of all those who were in the synagogue were fastened on Him." In other words, they were eagerly awaiting His message. Rabbis in those days delivered their messages seated, from a small platform provided for the purpose. They dilated on the Word rather than preached from it so that the seating posture was preferable. Later we find Paul in the synagogue at Pisidian Antioch— Acts 13— standing up to preach and beckoning with his hand. Whether this typically Christian mode of addressing people publicly arose with Paul or whether both styles were permitted, we do not know. This digression is only inserted to give our readers an insight into the circumstances surrounding the Lord's address to the people.
The Lord spoke from Isaiah, the most evangelical of the prophets, and from a portion of that prophet's writings which strikingly refer to the mission of Christ. This is the first verse of Isa. 61 and part of the second verse, ending with "to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." Jesus stopped reading the Scriptures at this verse, for this was His mission at the time. The remainder of the verse, which He did not read is "and the day of vengeance of our God." That day is still future as we write and could not have been quoted at the introduction of the Lord's ministry of grace. The verses the Lord read were descriptive of His ministry among men soon to be given to us in this gospel. They commence with the Spirit of the Lord God being upon Christ because the Lord had anointed Him for various characters of divine service. Here we have an allusion to the Spirit of God alighting on Christ at the Jordan. He was to preach good tidings to the poor. He had been sent to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those who were bound. The only part of the Lord's discourse given to us in these verses is "this day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears." By saying this, the Lord made it clear that He was personally the Fulfiller of promise. It was the day of God's favor and mercy to man in the person of Jesus. The result was that they all "bare Him witness and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth.”
Why did they wonder? Was it not His claim that He was the One of whom Isaiah wrote— on whom the Spirit of God rested? How could this be, they reasoned, seeing that He was but Joseph's son, a man of no account even in their despised city? The Lord's reply was that no prophet was accepted in his own country. This statement is universally true. Great men do not find honor in the place of their birth or recognition among their immediate associates, since people take them for granted and, if anything, are merely jealous of them. The Lord read their thoughts. If He was what He claimed to be from the Scripture He had read, let Him show His power in Nazareth as He had apparently done in Capernaum. But the Lord had refused to use His power when Satan had challenged Him to do the same thing in the temptation. Would He then permit man to swerve Him from the path of obedience when He had received no direction from His Father to use His power this way? Man could not succeed any more than Satan. Instead He would rebuke them for their unbelief as He had rebuked Satan for tempting the Lord God. He is the Man in whom the Spirit is, and cannot therefore confine Himself to Israel.
So He takes up the case of two prophets who had to turn to the Gentiles because Israel would not hear them. Elias was sent to a widow in distress. A widow is a figure of helplessness since the natural means of her support are cut off. The widow is cast upon God. So should the Gentiles be and God would take care of them as He did the widow of Sarepta. Again Naaman the Syrian— a Gentile man as the widow was a Gentile woman— was cleansed of his leprosy, but the lepers of Israel were not. Now leprosy in Scripture is a distinct type of sin. What the Lord was teaching by the two illustrations was that what God had done before He could do again. If the Jews would not receive Him as the One on whom the Spirit of God rested and rejected His mission, then the Gentiles should receive God's salvation and the Jews would remain in their sins. God would not fail the Gentiles who trusted in Him like the widow of Sarepta and would cleanse them from their sins like Naaman. The Jews understood the illustrations perfectly for they were versed in the Old Testament Scriptures. They were filled with wrath at the thought of God blessing the Gentiles and sought to destroy the One who would do it. They "rose up, and thrust Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast Him down headlong." Now note the fulfillment of the Scriptures Satan had partially quoted to the Lord in the temptation— "for He shall give His angels charge over Thee, to keep Thee in all Thy ways, They shall bear Thee up in their hands, lest Thou dash Thy foot against a stone." Psa. 91:11, 1211For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. 12They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. (Psalm 91:11‑12). Satan did not quote "in all Thy ways" but here was a Man whose ways were entirely of God and so the Lord passed through the midst of them and went on His way. He had not departed from His Father's ways when they sought to have Him demonstrate His power independently of His Father— now His Father demonstrates that power to them in an astonishing deliverance just as He had fed Him after the temptation by Satan. Here was a power as great, or greater, than that shown in Capernaum which they wanted to see. But it was not exhibited on their terms, but on God's. So the Lord goes down to Capernaum. Here the people are teachable, but they are astonished at His doctrine, for His Word is with power. The mission of healing which the Lord so freely offered to the people in the synagogue at Nazareth and which was rejected, will now be just as freely offered to the people in the synagogue in Capernaum. Here it will be received and the blessing will flow out.
The Demon in the Synagogue at Capernaum—4:31-37—Proclaims Christ As the Holy One of God of Psa. 89
In the synagogue at Nazareth, Satan did not need a man with an unclean demon to represent him, for unbelief was at work and the congregation asleep to the need of a Savior. Here, because Jesus taught the people on the Sabbath days, Satan's representative trembles— "hast Thou come to destroy us?" But the demon testifies to who Christ is— "Jesus of Nazareth, the holy One of God." This testimony gives us an insight into the knowledge of the Scriptures possessed by the powers of darkness. We have already seen how Satan knew Scripture so well that he could select passages which he thought would be most useful in swerving the Lord from the pathway of obedience. In this account we see that his servants, the demons, knew Scripture too— and shall we say it to our shame?— perhaps better than most believers. For the demon acknowledges the Lord as "the holy One"— a prophetic title of Jesus given to us in Psa. 89 and which sums up the mercies of God. In that psalm we read, "then Thou spakest in vision of Thy Holy One and saidst I have laid help upon a mighty One; I have exalted One chosen out of the people" verse 19. How many Christians would have such an understanding of Scripture as this wicked one possessed? Indeed, it is this very knowledge they use to subvert divine principles in the world in these present evil days. The Apostle does not write in vain of "seducing spirits and doctrines of demons"— 1 Tim. 4:11Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; (1 Timothy 4:1)— or that "we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places" Eph. 6:1212For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (Ephesians 6:12).
While the Lord could not accept testimony from a demon, and rebuked him, it is instructive to see that both Satan and his representative, the unclean demon, fully understand who the Lord is, which was not the case with man, who only saw Him as Joseph's son.
And now we find that the Word the Lord spoke in the synagogue in Nazareth is fulfilled in the synagogue in Capernaum. Surely He had come to set at liberty those who were bruised. For the last time the demon bruises the man, comes out of him, and hurts him no more, for the man's Deliverer has spoken. Thus Jesus, who overcame Satan in the temptation, overcomes his power in the unclean demon. His victory is the amazement of the people, who discuss it among themselves, saying, "what a word is this! for with authority and power He commandeth the unclean demons and they come out." The incident closes at Capernaum as it opened at Nazareth with His fame spreading abroad.
The Secret of Power
Since the Christian belongs to Christ and is to serve Christ, we need to know the secret of His power, for He Himself has said— "without Me ye can do nothing." It is complete dependence upon the Word of God— the Holy Scriptures— and doing the Will of God. This, of course, costs us something. The Word of God came to John the Baptist in the wilderness for the rulers of this world had no use for it. From our earliest days we should memorize Scripture and cause our children to memorize Scripture so that the Word of God becomes part of us— embedded in our everyday thinking. Christ knew it perfectly and when Satan omitted "in all Thy ways," instantly He recognized his guile. But knowledge of the Word is not enough. It must guide and control our lives as It did Christ's. In obedience to His Father, He took a place so lowly that we cannot understand it. But Luke has shown us how the Creator of the universe came into the world His hands had made as a homeless stranger— a babe in a manger. As a child of twelve He who wrote the Holy Scriptures is found in the Temple, not teaching the doctors— because He accepted His childhood as part of His humiliation, but hearing them and asking them questions. For an occupation He chose to be a carpenter, not an architect. So complete was His humiliation that Satan twice said to Him in the temptation, "if Thou be the Son of God" inferring that it could not be, in view of His lowly circumstances.
Applying these lessons to ourselves, grace should teach us to be humble that we might be more Christ-like and so serviceable to God. If we do not take this place willingly, God will break us, like Gideon's pitchers Judg. 7:19, 20,19So Gideon, and the hundred men that were with him, came unto the outside of the camp in the beginning of the middle watch; and they had but newly set the watch: and they blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers that were in their hands. 20And the three companies blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers, and held the lamps in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands to blow withal: and they cried, The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon. (Judges 7:19‑20) so the light of Christ can shine out of these earthen vessels, for that is all our present bodies are. "We have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us." 2 Cor. 4:77But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. (2 Corinthians 4:7). For this reason, God broke the two great Apostles. Peter, the Apostle to the Jews, was broken by his denial of Christ. Peter went out and wept bitterly. Paul was broken by persecuting the Church of God. The thought of this was anguish to Paul at a later date. But, together with his vision of Christ on the road to Damascus who forgave him, he became truly the bond-slave of Jesus Christ. The man who preaches or teaches Jesus Christ must practically apply the cross to himself. He must hide himself, his qualifications, and his ability, so that he becomes nothing more than a voice crying in the wilderness. Oh to be a voice for Christ in such a world, and nothing more. The Lord called John "the greatest born of women.”
God's principles do not change with the passing of time. The life of Brownlow North strikingly illustrates how God works through a broken vessel. North was a very wicked sinner. He himself once said that he had committed every sin a man could commit except murder, yet he became the outstanding evangelist in the great awakening of 1859 which added to the churches of Northern Ireland some 100,000 saved souls. But when his sins first troubled him, he thought that he could relieve himself of their burden by theological studies. As he was nearing completion of his course, he was called in to the Presiding Bishop's study and confronted with a letter from a man who insisted he should not be allowed to graduate because of his life. He was asked if the letter was true. When he replied affirmatively, the bishop said, "Mr. North, if our positions were reversed, would you ordain me?" Being honest, North replied, "No," and walked out. But later, when he was truly saved and confronted with a similar situation, he met it in the Lord's power, for he had humbled himself under the mighty hand of God. The latter incident arose when he was handed a slip of paper as he was getting ready to preach. He read it. It contained a list of his sins and a warning that if he dared to go into the pulpit, he would be exposed then and there. North accepted the challenge, outlined the message he had received, acknowledged the truth of its contents, but spoke from the text, "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather that is risen again" Rom. 8:33, 3433Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. 34Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. (Romans 8:33‑34). Truly, if we humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, He may exalt us in due time— see 1 Peter 5:66Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: (1 Peter 5:6).