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LUKE - Christ, the Savior of the World
A Bible Study Course on the Gospel of Christ according to Luke

PART 2 - THE PREPARATION FOR THE WORK OF CHRIST IN PUBLIC (Luke 3:1 - 4:13) - DEMONSTRATING AND PREACHING REPENTANCE

3. The Temptation of Jesus (Luke 4:1-13)


LUKE 4:1-4
1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness 2 for forty days, being tempted by the devil. He ate nothing in those days. Afterward, when they were completed, he was hungry. 3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” 4 Jesus answered him, saying, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’”

After his baptism Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit, and was longing to be alone with his heavenly Father, to speak with him about the secrets of his salvation ministry on earth. For the Son did nothing of himself, but what the Father showed him. This communing with his Father in the wilderness of our world was so important to him that he did not care for food and drink, for communion with God makes even the desert a paradise. The Holy Spirit at all times, directed the thoughts of the Son and his conversation with God, and sealed the beginning of his ministry, while he prayed and fasted for forty days and nights alone in the wilderness.

The devil stole into this holy place where Jesus was, with the aim of finding out a weak point in him, to snatch him from the communion of his Father, and abolish the cross and the redemption of the world. The evil one found no opportunity to attack Christ except his hungry body. Therefore, he opened the eyes of the hungry Son to the stones around him in the desert and tempted him to turn them into bread. The devil believed in the authority of the Son, as the Creator of the universe, who is able to change matter into something else.

However the poison of the devil was in the question and not only in the purpose of the temptation. The evil one did not say, “you are the Son of God”, but “if you are the Son of God do so and so” putting Christ’s sonship and the Father’s fatherhood in question, as if he were not certain, and in need of proof. However, the Son realized the voice of the arch-deceiver. He did not want to win the world through bread, but chose the way of the cross.

Jesus answered the devil with the words “it is written” though he could have spoken. When Satan attacked him, he was ready. He knew that God in past times had been with his people in the desert, and would be with him now. He showed that man lives essentially by the word of God, for this word confirms to us our communion with the Holy One. Christ humbled himself greatly and called himself a true man who needed daily bread to live, and needed even more the word of God, which is the spiritual nourishment of the soul.

Do you realize how Jesus triumphed over the devil? He did not doubt his spiritual sonship, nor did he obey the voice of the tempter, but refused to satisfy the world with performance of good deeds and exciting miracles, and chose to listen to the written word of God as the way to continue in eternal life. Dear brother, do not listen to the thousands of voices in our world, and do not give in to worldly ambitions, but every day read the word of God attentively. Do not fall into temptation, for this is the heavenly nourishment, which gives you the power to overcome the devil. Blessed are you, if you appoint five to fifteen minutes every morning and evening to pray and to read the Holy Bible. Then you will enrich yourself spiritually, and be sanctified, humbly acknowledging that there is no solution to the problems of our world but in the cross of Christ. He leads us into communion with God, the Father, and establishes us more firmly in him.

PRAYER: Our Lord Jesus Christ, thank you that you opposed the devil from the first moment, and did not doubt the fatherhood of God and your assured sonship to him, but chose the way of the cross, listening to the written word. Open our ears so that we may listen to your voice of guidance, obey you, and pluck up courage to overcome all spiritual, psychological, and physical temptations.

QUESTION 36: Why did Jesus not make bread out of the stones in the wilderness?

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