Word Alive Week 5: Victory in the Wilderness (Matthew 4)

Have you ever opened your Bible and wondered...

"Where do I even begin?"

"How do I understand what's really happening in this passage?"

"How do I apply it to my own life?"

If you've ever felt that way, you're not alone—and this week's Higher Pursuit Livestream is for you.

Join me as we continue our Word Alive study through the Gospel of Matthew by diving into one of the most powerful chapters in Scripture: Matthew 4.

Together we'll explore:

• Why Jesus' temptation in the wilderness matters far more than many of us realize.
• How Jesus succeeded where Israel failed.
• What Jesus' victory means for YOUR identity today.
• Practical Bible study tools that will help you uncover deeper truths every time you open God's Word.
• How to use commentaries, BibleHub, and other trusted resources without becoming overwhelmed.

Most importantly, we'll discover this life-changing truth:

Jesus didn't simply overcome temptation to give us an example. He overcame it as our Representative. Because we are in Christ, His victory becomes our victory.

Whether you're brand new to studying the Bible or you've been reading it for decades, I believe you'll leave encouraged, equipped, and excited to dig deeper into God's Word.

 Don't forget to download this week's handout (linked below).

Invite a friend, bring your Bible, and join the conversation in the chat. I can't wait to study with you!

Link to handout: https://higherpursuitministries.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Week-5-Handout.pdf

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/live/cUdSvvXnfgc?si=CjiYPr-uZGuZ5s_C

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I'm gonna read some of what Elicott's commentary said. He says that the temptation of Jesus is one of the most mysterious events in the Gospels because no human witness was present. So the account must come, according to Ellicott, from one of three sources. Linda Nardella says, then Jesus is on the move. Where is he going? Yes. Fantastic. That word then marks movement. Jesus is on the move. So the question we ask is, where's he going? Exactly. Perfect, Linda. So there are no human witnesses present at the temptation. The account must come from one of three sources, according to Ellicott, a myth that develops later, a supernatural revelation that Matthew and Luke both received separately, or Jesus himself telling his disciples what happened. So I won't bore you with all the details.com. You can also find me on YouTube at Cecily LaChapelle with Higher Pursuit Ministries. Okay, now let's dive into the podcast. Hey there, everybody. Welcome to the Higher Pursuit live stream and podcast. Before we get started, I have a question for you. Have you ever looked at this book, your Bible, and thought, how am I ever going to understand what is in there and what in God's green earth is actually in there? And if I can figure it out, how am I ever going to know how to apply that truth to my life? If that has ever been you, give me a thumbs up in the chat. If that is you right now, I have to tell you, you have landed in the right place. I'm Cecily LaChapelle and I'm the host of the Higher Pursuit live stream and podcast. And we are in a series that I am calling Word Alive, How to Study Your Bible. And in this series, we are using the book of Matthew as our text because Matthew, as we learned in prior episodes, was writing to the Jews. And what that means for us as Gentile believers, I believe most of us are probably Gentile believers. We weren't raised understanding Jewish traditions. It forces us to have to go back to the Old Testament a lot to figure out what in the world they're talking about. And so that just makes for a very interesting study for all of us. So hi Linda. Hi Manu. John LaChapelle is here. So great. So good to see you guys. Tracy Warren is here. So awesome to see you guys. Thank you so much for joining. There, we have got a lot to cover tonight. So I'm going to probably have to talk like an auctioneer. I don't even know if I'm going to be able to use my PowerPoint because I don't think my fingers can move that fast. We have got so much. We're going to be diving into the temptation of Jesus. And y'all, it is so rich. So you showed up on the right night. Let me just tell you. Okay. So here, um, God tells us in Isaiah, um, Isaiah 55, 8 to 9, that his thoughts are high above our thoughts, right? He says, his ways are high above our ways, like beyond finding out. So we could look at the Bible and say, well, in that case, that's a little discouraging. If God's ways and thoughts are so high above mine, then how can I know him? But then God tells us in Acts 17, 27 to 28, God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he's not far from any one of us. And the Bible also tells us that if we seek him with all our heart, we will find him. So we first approach God by getting to know him in his word, right? And then we ask him to speak to us so that we can get to know him intimately in through intimate fellowship and hearing God's voice. So here at Higher Pursuit Ministries, that's what we're all about. We are all about, um, oh, can't hear me? Uh, let me see. PM. Somebody says they can't hear me. Let me know if anybody else can not hear me. Give me uh somebody cut somebody text me or tell me if you cannot hear me. I can hear you. Okay, Whitney says she can hear me. Okay, great. So, Tracy, I'm so sorry that you cannot hear me, but that must be an issue on your side of things. You will figure it out. Someone will help you. Okay, so back to higher pursuit. Thank you, Linda. You can hear me. Good, good, good. So here at Higher Pursuit Ministries, we are all about these two legs. The first leg is getting to know God in the Word. And the second leg is getting to know the Lord through hearing his voice. These are the two legs that we walk on. This is how we run our race to win. So everything that I do, whether it's live stream, podcast, writing a book, writing on Substack, speaking, it I am all about this. Higher Pursuit Ministries is all about those two legs: the word, knowing the word of God and hearing God's voice. So whether you're new to your study of the Bible or whether you have been studying the Bible for decades, I honestly believe that we can all grow in becoming a better student of the word. Put a thumbs up in the chat if you are ready to become a better student of God's word. If you want to learn more tips, if you want to find more resources, that's really what we're we're about. And we're a community. I want to hear from you. Maybe there's some resources that you have to share with me. Please share them in the chat. Share links, do all those things. Whitney wants to learn, be a better student. Linda wants to be a better student. That's awesome. Oh, and Denise Korvo's here. She, that's so great. You said you can hear me. That's great. Okay. So jump in the chat also and tell me how long have you been studying your Bible? Maybe you're brand new and you actually didn't even know the Bible was something you could study. You thought that it was just uh, I don't know, religion religious manual for priests to only read. Or maybe you're brand new to studying the Bible, or maybe it's years or decades. Tell me in the chat, would you say you're brand new? Would you say your years? Would you say your decades? I'd love to know like who's here with me right now. Okay, fantastic. So while you're doing that, while you're telling me what kind of where you are in that whole timeline of studying the word, I'm gonna say this. For the last four episodes of The Word Alive, I've been teaching um on how to study your Bible. So if you missed any of the episodes, go back and you can check them all out. They're all on my YouTube channel. They're also the podcast version, the audio version is up wherever you get your podcasts. And also, I've been giving out handouts every week. So the very first comment in this live stream is the episode handout for this one for tonight. And that takes you right to my live to my website, and all the other handouts are there along with other resources. I gave a map of Israel, I've given um how to a comparable, sorry, parallel comparison of the gospels. So more resources will continue to be added there. So that's a great resource for you. And then also I've been walking us through one of my favorite Bible study platforms called Biblehub.com. So in this episode, we're gonna launch into Matthew chapter four. I love that. Tracy says she's good now for sound. That's great. And Deb Mattis says, I'm not as good as I should be. Oh, that's funny. That's funny. I feel like we all think that we should be a better student of the word. And in all honesty, it probably is true. There are probably very few of us that are studying the Bible as much as we really could. We have busy lives, and a lot of times we allow the busyness to crowd out that study. But those of you that are on the live stream, you're you're dedicated. I could, I know who the dedicated ones are. You guys are here right now because you want to learn more about how to study your Bible. So that's not you. Okay. Well, I before we launch into Matthew chapter four, while you're opening up your Bible, I want to tell you something cool. Next week we have a really super special treat. So let me pull up my uh thing. Here we go. There we go. Holly Sweat Raper is gonna be in the house with us next week. This is my sister from Another Mista. She is just a spark plug. She loves the word of God, and she's launching a book in August called Living from Victory and Not Defeat. And so that's what we're gonna be talking about next week. I wanted to get her on in July because she's just gonna be so busy with her book launch in August. And um, this will be great because you might want to pre-order her book. Who knows? And I'm all about help promoting my friends and letting them have a chance to share with my tribe all the great stuff that's going on in their lives and in their world. So you're not gonna want to miss that. And then after next week, we're gonna come back to our study of Matthew and we're gonna be looping in some other people that are gonna be joining us live for the live stream. So that will be great. And now we are going to dive into Matthew chapter four. All right. Um, I am going to demonstrate one of the tools from Bible Hub because right at the very beginning, we're gonna talk about a commentary that I found. And I want to show you, remind you how you can. Yes, Bible Hub, great tool. Yes, brand new to Tracy said, brand new to really seeing and hearing what is in the word. I love that. Dee said for decades she's been studying the word, but simply read it. Love it. She's highlighted the whole thing, but never learned to use strongs and loved how I showed her, um, showed them Bible Hub. So that's fantastic. I love that. I love that. So we're actually going to look at Bible Hub right now. So let me share my screen and get you over to Bible Hub. And is that where I want to be? Yes. Okay. So let me go back because we are actually there now. So when you start off in Bible Hub, if you can see where my cursor is circling right here, I'm just gonna go ahead and click on Bible Hub, and that's gonna take you to sort of a main page where there's things on there. Now we're gonna go up on this very top bar. This is where we put in the book of the Bible that we want to find. Study Matthew. I'm choosing Matthew. We are in chapter four. So next tab over, scrolling down to Matthew four. Now we've got a dark blue menu bar, then we've got a light blue aqua kind of menu bar. Underneath there is a light gray menu bar. And smack in the middle is this tab that says comment, which is short for commentary. And we're going to click on that. And this is where you're going to find all the commentators for Matthew. Right here, you can see that they're listed alphabetically, the ones that are that are here. You know, Alfred, Barnes, Bengal, Benson, B.I. Calvin, Cambridge, Chrysostom. I mean, a lot of them probably don't mean anything to you. There are a couple that are some of my favorites. I love Elicott. I love the expositors Bible commentary. And one of my favorite guys, I'm going to talk about in another session. His name is Gil. And he wrote back in the 1700s. And this man knows his Greek and his Hebrew. And he is especially a student of Jewish culture and background. So for the book of Matthew, he is our dude. He is, he explains things so well. But right now, what I just wanted to show you really quickly, we're going down to Ellicott's commentary for English readers. This gentleman wrote in 1882. So, unless you read a lot of literature that was written in the 1800s, some of these commentaries are going to be a little tough to get through. You're going to be reading, going, I feel like I understand it, but I kind of don't know what he's saying. So, what I do is I literally just copy and paste the whole thing. I'll take this, I'll copy it, and I'll put it into Chat GPT. And when I get to Chat GPT, I say, translate this into modern English. And bam, there's a commentary I can understand. And sometimes I'll say, put this into modern English and make it a synopsis because some of them are really long, especially Gil. He's very wordy. So a lot of times I'll say, translate this into modern English and put it in outline form. And that's what I did with this expositor's um commentary. So let's now go back. I need to figure out how not to be sharing that screen anymore. Remove. Okay. So now we should be back. And here is what X here is what the expositor's Bible says. I mean, Ellicott's commentary says from my uh version of Chat GPT. We're talking about the temptation of Jesus. This whole section in Matthew chapter four, your Bible might call might have a section heading that says the temptation of Jesus. It says um in verse one, then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. If you have been hanging out with me for the last four weeks, I want you to type in the chat what that word then is and what you would be doing in your Bible with that word then. Tell me what you would do in your Bible. If you were me, you might not like writing in your Bible, but if you're following Cecily's instructions, then what are you doing with that word and why? What is it signifying? And while you're typing what that word then is and why you would mark it, that's a little hint. I'm gonna read some of what Elicott's commentary said. He says that the temptation of Jesus is one of the most mysterious events in the Gospels because no human witness was present. So the account must come, according to Ellicott, from one of three sources. Linda Nardella says, then Jesus is on the move. Where is he going? Yes. Fantastic. That word then marks movement. Jesus is on the move. So the question we ask is, where's he going? Exactly. Perfect, Linda. So there are no human witnesses present at the temptation. The account must come from one of three sources, according to Elicott, a myth that developed later, a supernatural revelation that Matthew and Luke both received separately, or Jesus himself telling his disciples what happened. So I won't bore you with all the details, but Elicott goes through and refutes why it would not have been a myth. If it would have been a myth, he said they would have related it back to Adam's temptation in the garden, because Jesus was referred to as the last Adam. But there's no symbolism of a serpent. Satan does not appear as a serpent or a tree or fruit, any of that. Neither is it a myth because both authors put that story in different places in the chronology of their story. Also, the author rejects that it was something that uh a supernatural revelation, because both Matthew and Luke tell it the same way, pretty much the same way. So he says that the temptation was a real historical experience, even though it's very cosmic, even though there are aspects of it that really kind of blow our minds and make your imagination kind of go, woo-woo, woo. The author rejects the idea that Matthew and Luke received the story through special supernatural revelation. It had to have been a historical experience. That's the most reasonable explanation. And the explanation would be that Jesus himself shared this experience personally with his disciples. Then the gospel writers just recorded it from his testimony. And viewing it that viewing the account that way makes the um the episode, what happened with Jesus, coherent and meaningful. It sheds light on Jesus' inner struggles during those 40 days. It helps explain aspects of his later teaching and ministry. And the while the event is extraordinary and very cosmic, it is presented as a genuine personal experience of Jesus rather than a symbolic story or a legend. And I think we have to understand that because a lot of times, as Bible students, people are going to come to you and they're going to say that certain parts of the Bible they believe is real, and other parts they think are myth. We don't get to do that cherry picking unless the Bible tells us it's an allegory, or for instance, when Jesus talks in parables, we have to take things at face value. And that's what the expositor is saying here. So now let's look at another aspect of Jesus testing in the wilderness. This is where it's going to start getting super meaty, guys. We can compare the testing of Jesus in the wilderness to that of the um of Israel. So let me get us back to our slides. Because I've created a little table for us down here.

SPEAKER_01 19:39

Okay. So on this slide. Oh no, that's not the one I wanted. This one. Let's go this way.

SPEAKER_00 19:56

Okay. So here we're comparing the Israelites to Jesus in the wilderness. If you recall from last session, we talked about how Jesus is the fulfillment of so many Old Testament prophecies, right? And how even specific events that happened to the Israelites are shadows of what Jesus actually fulfilled. The cosmic reality of who Jesus was. Jesus Christ is going to fulfill in a deeper, eternal, and messianic way so many of the things that we see happen to the Israelites. Like, for instance, when Moses goes as the Messiah, as the deliverer, the savior of the people to bring them out of Egypt, out of slavery. That's just a type and a shadow of what Jesus actually fulfilled, right? So his testing in the wilderness is that exact kind of event where the Israelites were also tested in the wilderness, were they not? And now Jesus is tested in the wilderness. So let's compare and contrast these. The Israelites were tested in the wilderness. You can find it in Deuteronomy 8.6. They and they wandered for 40 years. Jesus is tested in the wilderness for 40 days. Israel was tested because they lacked food. You can find that in Exodus 15. But Jesus was tested with actual fasting. Just as Jesus Israel was tested as a son, so Jesus was tested to see if he was really the true son. Remember, he just came from his baptism, where God spoke over him. This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. So Israel was tested in the wilderness to see if they would be a son for God. Now God says, You're my son, and he takes his son out to test him, to see if he really is a true son. I love what D.A. Carson says.

SPEAKER_01 22:04

Is that my slide for?

SPEAKER_00 22:08

Yes. Um The Israelites failed to be a faithful son to God, but pointed to the son who would never fail. I love that. Alright, we're gonna get these slides off. All right. Enough of that. Jesus chose to believe that he was who God said he was at his baptism. I have a question for you. Has God spoken anything over you about your identity? And has it ever been tested? Is it being tested now? Because I know so many times in my life, God will speak something to me, either in my journal or through a prophetic word or through scripture. And right away, the enemy tries to come and steal the seed. He comes to steal that revelation. And he wants to test me. And the Lord will allow me to be tested, to see if I truly believe I am who God says I am, that I have what God says I have, that I can do what God says I can do. So after revelation, there's going to come intimidation by the enemy. But if that revelation has truly soaked down into our soul, it will bear fruit. And even the storm of temptation and testing won't be able to remove it. If anything, the wind and the rain of those trials are only going to feed the seed and make it grow stronger through resistance. So finish this sentence in the chat. Today I choose to believe that God says I am. And finish that sentence. Good to see you, Lisa Demurs. I'm so glad that you joined us. You can join us in this chat assignment. Finish the sentence in the chat. Today I choose to believe that God says I am blessed, anointed, cherished, loved, seen, known, a child, his daughter, his son. Put in the chat. Today I choose to believe that God says I am. All right. So we're going to look at the testing of Jesus. Redeemed. Harmony says redeemed. Wow, it's a good one. That is a good one. I didn't even think about that one. I love that. That is such a rich word. Such a good word. We should do a whole live stream on that word, redeemed, and what redemption really means. It's so deep. Lisa says, I choose to believe I am his bride. That's beautiful. I love that. I love that. So we're going to be looking at the first test of Jesus. And that is going to be starting in the um verse three. So another Bible study tool. I did find some other Bible study tools that I'm just going to share with you quickly. They're in your handout. So the links are right there in your handout. You'll be able to follow that. Deb Mattis said that I'm his child. Yes. So some of those, there, first of all, there's the book that I told you about last week by Tim Chester. And that is called Matthew for You. It's a very good book. And then also I found some audio, some old audio teaching by a great Bible teacher called Chuck Missler. And he does an exposition of the entire book of Matthew. And you it's phenomenal, very deep teaching. Also, on your handout, you'll see something for enter the Bible.org. Those are free Bible study courses that are broken up into really small segments. So you can just do one tiny segment. It might take you like five minutes, check it off. It lets you move on to the next one. And it is every single book of the Bible in it. Super great. So that's enter the Bible.org. And that's on your handout as well. So let's look at the dialogue between Satan and Jesus. And the tempter came to Jesus and said to him, If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread. But Jesus answered him and said, It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. So if you have a study Bible, it will tell you through this entire dialogue between it's like watching a tetis match, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. Old Testament scripture volleyed back to Jesus. Old Testament scripture volleyed back to Satan and back and forth. They're dropping Old Testament scriptures to one another. Isn't it interesting that Satan is quoting scripture? He knows the word. Satan probably knows the Bible better than you do. And that's why you need to learn to hear God's voice. Because Jesus didn't fall for just scripture being plopped at his lap. He knew that that was be the scripture was being twisted. That was not the heart of God for that scripture. And so Jesus came back with another scripture that's found in Deuteronomy 8, 2 to 3. So if you have your Bibles, turn. Oh, daughter of the Most High is what Linda said, and Mono said. Yes, Linda. That's very good. Daughter of the Most High. I love that. That's who you choose to believe you are. So good. So if you have your Bibles, turn to Deuteronomy chapter 6. Every single thing that Jesus says here, I believe, is going to come from this chapter. I want to tell you about this chapter. This is why this testing is so rich when you go back to the Old Testament references. I've said it through every single episode. Please, for the love of God, find the Old Testament references and go read them. And don't just read that one phrase. Read around it because every single part is important. So this whole section right here of Deuteronomy chapter six in my Bible is called the Greatest Commandment. This is when Moses is talking to the children of Israel. Guess where? In the wilderness. This is when they are being tested in the wilderness. And God is talking to them about how to be a son, how to be his son. All the commandments of hear, oh Israel, the Lord your God is one. That is still spoken by Jews every single day. That is what's called their Shema. God is here. And then it says, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. I'm reading from uh verse four and verse five. But Jesus is quoting here from Deuteronomy 8 2.

SPEAKER_01 29:28

Um is that for Deuteronomy 8.2 or Deuteronomy 6.2? Sorry.

SPEAKER_00 29:40

Yes, Deuteronomy. Sorry, Deuteronomy 8.2. And you shall remember the um the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these 40 years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what is in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. And he humbled you to let your um and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. So, right here, when Jesus is coming back at the devil, he is coming back, bringing the enemy back to the very time that Israel is being tested in the wilderness and is being fed manna from heaven. And what did Israel do when they were fed manna from heaven? They acted as if God wasn't enough, giving them enough. They wanted quail, they were bored with the manna. All they did is complain. And Jesus is saying here, no, I have bread you know not of. I have the presence of the Father, I have my identity as his son, and I don't need your stinking bread, devil. I have bread from God. In fact, he is the manna from heaven. Jesus is the bread from heaven. But in this instance, he's saying, the Father's presence with me is all the bread I need. And that's what Israel never got. That's what he's referring to in 8.2. So good. And then the devil took him up to the holy city. I'm going on now in Matthew chapter uh four, verse five. Then the devil took him up to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, If you are the son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, he will command his angels concerning you. The enemy is quoting, Satan is quoting Psalm 91. Um, the these two verses here are Psalm 91, 11, and 2. Now, open your Bible to Psalm 91. Let's see what the enemy is quoting. So 11, verse 11 and 13. I mean 11 and 12. For he'll command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands, they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. You will tread on the lion. Oh, look at verse 13. You will tread on the lion and the adder, the young lion and the serpent, you will trample underfoot. Oh, it's so interesting. Did you notice Satan didn't quote verse 13? Quoted verse 11 and 12, and he stopped it right there. Because what does verse 13 prophesy? It prophesies that Jesus is going to conquer him. He is going to trample on him because Jesus is the fulfillment of the prophecy to Eve that her offspring would put the enemy under his heel, that the enemy would bruise his heel, but that he would step on the enemy, step on the serpent. And Jesus is the fulfillment of that. I'm shocked that of all the scriptures, Satan chooses the one that is right next door to the prophecy of his doom. But I don't know. That's what he chose. So then Jesus said to him, Again, it is written, yes, and amen, hallelujah. Harmony says, Again, it is written, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test. So I believe that this is, let me see, where we're going back to on that one. You shall not put the Lord your God to the test. Somebody look up in your study Bible which reference that is on that one. That is Deuteronomy 6, 16. Very good. Good student. So this is you shall not put the Lord your God to the test as you tested him at Massa. You shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God and his testimonies and his statutes, which he has commanded you. And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may go well with you, and that you may go in and take possession of the good land that the Lord swore to your fathers by thrusting out all your enemies before you, says the Lord. So Jesus quoted one line, but if you keep reading, you hear the enemy is getting the boot. The enemy is getting the boot. If Jesus, as the son, will be obedient and not test the Lord God in his wilderness, then the promise is that he is going to receive his full inheritance. Who is his full inheritance? You. So if Jesus passes the test in the wilderness, he is the son. He shows the Father, he shows heaven and hell that he is the son. And what the prophet, how the prophecy ends is oh, Satan, you're getting the boot. You have my and you're you're squatting in my inheritance right now. I am coming to take it back through my obedience, through my humility, through being a son who serves, through being the lamb led to the slaughter. I will receive my full inheritance and you will be dispossessed by the Father. So good. That's why it's so good if we read these and then keep going, because Jesus is dropping apart, but there's so much more that comes after that. All right, where are we at? And again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, All of these I will give you if you will fall down and worship me. And then Jesus said, Be gone, Satan. I love that. I actually said that in prayer today. You should try it, it's super fun. For it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only will you serve. I tell you what, that is absolutely amazing. That is coming from the Shema, and that verse is found right in the middle of Moses' famous speech. You shall love the Lord God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might, and you shall teach them diligently to your children. And it goes on to talk about that. It also talks about not going after other gods and serving only the Lord God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all of our might. And it also talks about not going after the gods, uh, the God who brought them out of Egypt. It's so interesting. We learned a few episodes ago that Jesus was the son that is in uh Matthew chapter two, I believe it says, Out of Egypt have I called my son. And that is what happens here. He is the fulfillment of that. He is the fulfillment of out of Egypt I have called my son. And so don't look back. Stay true to the Lord your God and don't serve other gods. Don't serve the gods of Egypt. And Jesus is passing the test by not doing that. And then comes the line that Jesus just quoted. But if you keep reading, you see that God promises all that follow these commands that they will have complete victory over all their enemies. Jesus is prophesying Satan's demise while also quoting from the book that outlines what true love and dedication to the Lord looks like. Satan is inviting Jesus to prove his divine royalty by throwing himself off the temple so that the angels will swoop down and rescue him. But Jesus doesn't need to prove his sonship. He is confident in who God says he is. He just heard it. And it was he was declared by the Father as the beloved son. So even though he's hungry and he's weak from fasting, he doesn't let this test make him question his identity or make him feel like God has abandoned him. Don't we all tend to do that though? The moment things get hard and we pray and we're asking God for deliverance, but it isn't coming and it isn't coming, that we can think, well, what's wrong with me? Or what did I do wrong? Or has God abandoned me? Am I not enough? We question God, we question ourselves, why is he letting this happen? Why is this going on so long? Everyone else has life easy. Why aren't you there for me? So put amen in the chat if you've ever had to remind yourself of what God already said instead of believing what your circumstances were telling you. So put an amen in the chat. If you ever had to remind yourself of what God already spoke, the promises He gave you, and you had to war with those words to believe them over your circumstances that were screaming a whole different reality. I've got an amen from Linda and Amen from Manu and Amen from oh, lace, laced in God's grace. Fantastic. Good to see you. So good. Yes, this temptation, guys, is repeated again in the garden. When one of the disciples pulls a sword, and Jesus replies in Matthew 26, don't you think that I can call on my father and he will at once put at my disposal more than 12 legions of angels? Harmony says, Amen. Denise said amen. Mattis says amen. And then, but Jesus goes on to say, How then would the scriptures be fulfilled that say that it must happen this way? So, guys, the angel option is always available for Jesus. But he doesn't take it here, he doesn't take it in the garden, he doesn't take it at the cross when he's tempted even there. When they say, like, oh, if you're the son of God, then you know, call, call on the angels to come and rescue you and get you down. He never executes the angel option. And he's proving that he is going through this testing, this temptation as a man, just like us. He could lean into his identity as the son of God, but instead he leans into his identity as the son of man. Are angels available for us too? Oh, that's such a good question. Mandy Gorman said amen about that. Sometimes I have to say it daily, Manuta says she's got a war with those words. Are angels available for us too? Yes, Denise, they are. They are, but we don't command angels like Jesus could have commanded them. That's the difference. We have to ask the Father, if he will, according to his will and his sovereignty, if he will send angels to assist us, we don't have command. They're they're a whole different genus of they're not of the earth. Our authority and our dominion are is on this earth. Everything that was on this earth when God created it, those things that you read about in Genesis, he put man, gave man authority and dominion over those things, over the earth. So we don't have authority or dominion over angels, although they do come and assist us. Does that make sense? I hope that was clear. Okay. Well, that was a very good question. Cool rabbit trail. So in that third test, we just read how Jesus, the devil took Jesus to a very high mountain and he showed him all the kingdoms of the world and all their glory and said, I can give you all of these if you fall down and worship me. Speaking of authority and dominion, Satan can actually give this. Adam handed it to Satan. And so he has it. And those are the keys of the kingdom that Jesus got back and that he handed to his disciples and to us at his resurrection. But at this point, Satan still has these kingdoms and all the glory. And Jesus says, Be gone, Satan, for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and only him shall you serve. I love that. So the first two tests are a little subtle. Satan is trying to get Jesus to use rights that he genuinely had as the son of God, or the test is, will he fulfill his assignment of being the suffering servant, the son of man? Um, Mark Jones in his work, Knowing Jesus, he said, Would Jesus be God's Messiah by following the path of suffering even to death on a cross? This because this is where it all starts. This test is just the first. And Jesus knows where this goes. But he has to pass this first test, or he'll never get to the final test, which is the cross. And then Mark Jones goes on to say, or would Jesus be Satan's Messiah by simply bowing down to him and not having to die on a cross? Oh. When I read that, that I just that put it all into perspective for me. I never even thought that that would be an option or a plan. I mean, I it never even dawned on me that that would be the case. So when we're being tested, do we boil it down to serving God or serving Satan? I don't know about you, but often I just look at the result of falling or failing as um, well, I just slipped, I just let my flesh win.

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I think we often neglect to consider a demonic agenda working behind the scenes, tempting us to cooperate with the kingdom of darkness and reject God's higher purpose for us. That's really sobering when we put it in that light. But when we consider that the enemy so desperately wants to take us off our path, he'll use every single deception that he knows how to use. But Jesus chooses God's will for him, as we know, even including suffering on the cross. And again, he quotes from Moses' review of Israel's history, stating what Israel should have done, but failed to do. Israel failed to be a son to God. But Jesus was the beloved son. And he was the perfect son. Now we're almost out of time. So I'm just going to really quickly go through one thing that I think a lot of people need to understand about the temptation of Jesus. I don't know about you, but when I first read the Bible and I was reading the temptation of Jesus, I thought, well, that's that's not really helpful to me because he's God. Of course he's not gonna fall, of course, he's not gonna sin. He had the easy road. He's God. There wasn't, it wasn't really a temptation to him. But here's the thing: it was. Jesus divested himself of everything, all of his superpowers, so to speak, of his glory. And here, even with the angels, you see, he's purposefully not picking up those heavenly resources that were his right to use. He chose to walk through this like a man. And this is why he's called the last Adam. So here's what you need to understand about the divine nature and the human nature in Jesus. When Adam was created, he was created without sin, right? He wasn't created with a sin nature, but he made he had a free will, right? We see that executed when he eats the fruit along with his wife. And all of a sudden, their nature changed. They became sinners. And from that point on, every single person born out of the loins of Adam and Eve, and from that point on, were born with a sin nature. Okay. So sin is a nature problem more than it is a behavior problem. So Jesus, while he was born of Mary in a human flesh with human blood, human bones, human emotions, you know, feels hot, cold, hunger, tired, all of it. But he did not have a sin nature. So he's born without the sin nature like Adam was. But he still has everything. He's got the free will, he has all the ability to sin just like Adam and Eve did. So it this actually is a test. So while he was not born with a sin nature because his blood had to be pure, he was the, that was the only way that he could be the ultimate sacrifice for all of us. If he was born of the sin nature, just like us, we could just like crucify, you know, Joe Schmoe and say, okay, does that pay for all of our sin? It couldn't. That's why he was called the last Adam. He kept his sinless nature. He did not make choices like Adam did and like we do. So I hope that that clarifies for you how this is actually a real test. And how even though he was born with a sinless nature, it didn't mean that there it was not a temptation for him. I hope that makes things a little bit more clear. All right, guys, I have put in your handout some application questions. I hope you'll take the time this week to review those application questions and to ask yourself things like, which of the three temptations do we recognize most in our own life? Or what about this personal takeaway? We shouldn't just see ourselves, um, we we shouldn't just see ourselves like Jesus. Yes, Linda says 100% human and 100% God. Absolutely. Very good point. We don't need to just see ourselves like Jesus as much as we need to see ourselves in Jesus. In your wilderness, you're probably not going to pass every test. I know I don't. But God is saying he's crediting the 100% that Jesus scored in his testing. He's crediting that to your account. That's what happens when you are in Christ. That is the scandalous grace, yes, in Jesus. So good. I tell you all the time in my prayer, in my prayer closet, I say, Lord, I am in Christ. When I'm taking communion, I am thanking the Lord that the body and blood of Christ are in me, giving life to my mortal body, giving life to everything that is out of alignment, that is sick, that is weak, that is overwhelmed on the inside of me. But then I say, But I am also in Christ. I am hidden in Christ. So Satan, try to come and condemn me. You can't find me because I'm hidden in Christ. You have to stand up to Jesus and try to condemn me. And he's gonna say, She's in me. Right? So we are in Christ. It is an amazing miracle. In the handout, I give you place to reflect on all of this this week. So feel free to go back to the handout and talk to the Lord in your journal about how you feel in your heart of hearts about all these personal applications. And um yeah, so definitely use the handout this week. There was a lot more personal application stuff that I put in there for you than in other ones. So here's our closing challenge. Jesus didn't overcome the wilderness simply to give us an example to follow, although he did. He overcame it as our representative. So his victory becomes our victory. We no longer have to fight for acceptance. Praise the Lord. We fight from God's acceptance. That's the gospel. And that's why this passage of the testing, Jesus was tempted in the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. And the Bible says those are the three areas that we will be tested. But when we fall, we can receive forgiveness and we are seen as perfectly righteous with his righteousness credited to us. All right, guys, here's the live stream closing. Make sure you subscribe to this channel. And if you're listening to this as an audio podcast, make sure to like this podcast, subscribe to the podcast. And if you're feeling super generous, then please rate the podcast. That really helps other listeners who are trying to decide whether this is worth their time. If you give it a rating, if you give it a comment, man, oh man, that is so helpful to me in getting the word out into other people. As you can probably tell, a lot of time and effort goes into preparing these live streams. So everything that you do to help share it, spread the word, put it on your social media, it all helps get the word out more. I'm hearing more and more people saying, oh, you're showing up in my stream, you're showing up in my feed. This is so great. It's because people like you are helping the algorithm give me validity. And that's really what it takes. They don't care what my content is, YouTube doesn't care. They only care that people like you want to stay and listen to it. So thank you so much for making comments and doing all those things. Let's close in prayer. Oh, Jesus, we are so grateful that not only did you demonstrate that we can have victory over temptation, but you showed us that the reverence of the Lord and the sincere knowledge of the word are the keys to our victory. Jesus, you understood the word and you knew the God of the Word. You knew when Satan was twisting the word in deception because you knew the heart. You knew the heart of the Father behind the word when it was spoken. You could recognize the counterfeit. And Lord, that's why we're here in these live streams. We want to know not just what your word says, but we want to know the heart in the word. We want to hear your voice resonate in every verse. We want to know you as our father, as our friend, as our redeemer, as our deliverer, our savior, our shepherd, our el Shaddai, our Adonai, our Jehovah, Haulaam, God over the universe. We want to know you more. So I thank you that through your word, you are guiding us and providing for us and leading us in Jesus' mighty name. Amen. Guys, thank you so much for being with me. And until next week, be blessed. Take care. Hey family, I pray that you were blessed and encouraged by that episode, and that you took away something you can use in your walk with the Lord starting today. Jesus tells us in Matthew 6 to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. So I thank you for making me a part of your pursuit. Until next time, abide in Him.