December 13, 2016
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Luke 4: 1 – 13
And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led about by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days; and when they had ended, He became hungry. And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’” And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment. 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. Therefore if you worship before me, it shall all be Yours.” And Jesus answered and said to him, “It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’” 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; for it is written, ‘He will give His angels charge concerning You to guard you.’ And ‘On their hands they will bear You up lest You strike Your foot against a stone.’” And Jesus answered and said to him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” And when the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.
This is an important story because it shows how the devil tempts and how Jesus fought those temptations. Ephesians 6: 17 says that the weapon we have is the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. Jesus, being our model, demonstrated how to defeat the enemy. I want you to see and recognize the weapon of His warfare. Jesus defeated Satan with the Word of God. Notice that after Jesus fended off two of Satan’s attempts with the Word, Satan quoted from the 91st Psalm to try to deceive Jesus. But Jesus knew the Word. He knew it so well that he could see the perversion of the word that the devil attempted to sneak past Him.
There is no other weapon that would have defeated the devil then, nor is there any other weapon that will defeat him now. The Word, is the sword that the Father has given us. It is well able to defeat the enemy but you have to know how to wield it. Each time the devil threw a temptation at Christ, Jesus countered that temptation with, “It is written.” It is a good thing, then, that Jesus knew the Word. He used the Word itself, not just his knowledge of the Word, to combat the devil. Jesus did not rely on His own strength, His own knowledge or His own wit to defeat the devil. No, He used the Word of God. He did not argue with the devil. He just quoted the scripture to him.
Today’s passage brings us a very important message. If we are to defeat the devil and his minions we must first give attention to the Word. If you don’t study the Word then you are unarmed and you really don’t want to fight the enemy unarmed. Further, we need to understand that Jesus did not fight with or argue with the devil. He did not rely on His position as the Son of God. He was a man and in all ways tempted as are we and he had to resist the devil with the same tools that are available to us. He simply quoted the Word to the devil. He did not enter into a debate with him. Jesus made the Word of God the final authority and the wielding of that Word defeated the devil. We must all learn to do this too. Read the Bible. Arm yourself with the living sword of the Spirit. Then when the devil gets in your face, just start quoting scripture. You will see for yourself that the devil cannot stand up to the Word. He will have to flee from you just like he did from Jesus.
