Contents:
• Being led by the spirit
• Fasting
• Temptation
• The devil
• The importance and value of reading God’s word daily

I encourage you to read the text of Matthew chapter four before reading this commentary.

Verse 1-2

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, He was hungry.

Reading that verse, several things stand out to me; led by the spirit, to be tempted, the devil, fasting, forty days and forty nights, hungry. Let’s examine each one.

Led by the Spirit

Recall earlier that the spirit descended onto Jesus like a dove when he was baptized. Jesus is filled with the Holy Spirit and that same spirit is now leading him. We too, should be led by the Spirit. In our daily lives, it should be our goal to rely not upon ourselves but upon the Holy Spirit for every circumstance. But how does one do that?

Start with a morning prayer in which you pray something such as, “Lord this morning I want to present the entire day to you. Please be with me throughout today. Please lead me and be my guide.”

Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. What’s that about? Why is that happening?

To be tempted

There is a Bible verse in which it says, Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who was tempted in every way that we are, yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. (Hebrews 4:14-16)

Jesus was tempted in every way that we are, yet was without sin. The encouragement to be drawn here is that regardless of what tempts you, Jesus is able to relate and understand. Terrible would it be if Jesus could not relate to our temptation. My daughter is five years old and has not yet gained any appreciation for the value of a dollar. So when we go to a store and she sees an expensive toy, she has a fit when we tell her we can’t afford to buy it. The same child will pour a large glass of milk, take two sips from it and then pour the rest down the kitchen sink before we can even say “Stop!” Why does she do that? Because she lacks the ability to relate to, or understand how hard we had to work to earn the money to buy that gallon of milk.

Because Jesus was tempted in every way, he can perfectly relate to everything we may be experiencing. Doing so, allows him to sympathize with our weaknesses.

The devil

Satan, Lucifer, the Morning Star, the Tempter.

There is a Bible verse which says; When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone (James 1:13).

Satan is a tool. I’ve heard skeptics ask “If God is all knowing, why did he create Satan, knowing he would rebel?” To understand the answer, one must first understand the meaning of life.

God created people to be in an eternal relationship with them. However, he wants these eternal relationships to only be with those who truly love him. And so, as a type of proof, God has placed us here, in these less than ideal circumstances in order to separate out those who love him from those who do not.

The Bible says;

By His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, reserved in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power for the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in various trials so that the proven character of your faith—more precious than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and rejoice with an inexpressible and glorious joy, now that you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. (1 Peter 1:3b-9)

The skeptic cries out, “Prove to me that there is a God!” but God replies, “Prove to me that you believe.” A life of 85 years next to the expanse of eternity is hardly even comparable. Imagine the size of a grain of sand next to the size of planet earth. This life is like the snap of a finger.

What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. (James 4:14b)

Yet despite the fact that this life is so incredibly short compared to the length of eternity, none the less, it’s all the time that God needs to see and prove and to refine like gold, those who love him. This is in no way to suggest that God doesn’t already know our outcomes. Rather, it is for our benefit. Thus, Satan, the Tempter, serves a purpose, as a tool. Even though Lucifer’s actions are in rebellion against God.

And we know that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28)

Fasting

What is the purpose of fasting in Christianity? It is to put the flesh under subjection. Sin is bound in the flesh and originates from the heart, which is why “follow your heart” is the worst advice ever given.

For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, and slander. (Matthew 15:19)

By gaining mastery over the flesh, our hearts desires can not lead us into sin. We don’t do what the flesh says, we do what the spirit says.

… sin is crouching at your door; it desires to control you, but you must master it. (Genesis 4:7b)

Forty days and forty nights

Jesus fasted for forty days and forty nights. That happens to be exactly the amount of time that God caused it to rain upon the earth during Noah’s time. Moses, when he was with the Lord writing the ten commandments, he also fasted 40 days and 40 nights. It has been said that 40 is the number of testing.

He was hungry

After not eating for 40 days, it’s quite an understatement to say that Jesus was hungry, but we’re going to see in just a moment that it’s all about keeping the flesh under subjection to the spirit.

Verses 3-4

The devil comes to tempt Jesus and says, “If You are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

But Jesus answers ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’

Now let’s think about this for a moment. How often do you eat? I eat breakfast, lunch and dinner and sometimes a snack before I go to bed. But Jesus is saying that we can not live on food alone.

We were just talking about fasting, how would you feel if you went an entire day without eating any food? I’m talking about an entire 24 hours without anything to eat? That is exactly what you are doing to your soul, when you go an entire day without reading the word of God. You are starving your soul.

You need to be in the word of God every single day, 7 days a week. But what does it look like to read God’s word daily?

First, let me remind you that Salvation is by faith. Not by works. We’re not reading the Bible daily in order to earn some type of extra credit points for being a good person. No. That would be false doctrine. Instead, we are feeding the soul with the Word of God.

Again, I want to be clear, you should be receiving this as a challenge and a goal, not as a legalistic requirement.

First, if you don’t currently have a Bible, I recommend the Bearean Standard bible, BSB, the New Living Translation NLT, or the English Standard Version, ESV

If you’re not currently reading the Bible, I would start with just five minutes a day, beginning in the New Testament.

Build up some endurance to a point where you can read one chapter a day. That takes about five to fifteen minutes.

Why would you not want to spend time in God’s word daily?

On every occasion that we’re looking at today, when Satan tried to tempt Jesus, Jesus responded by quoting the word of God.

You can not defeat Satan through the strength of your own abilities. You have to rely upon God to fight your battles and to protect you.

Also, the only way to not be deceived, is to know the word of God well. And Think about this for a good second. There is an entity who possesses all knowledge, including foreknowledge. He knows everything. He knows exactly what is going to happen to you today, tomorrow and the next day, etc..etc.. Why would you not want to spend time with him? If you don’t, that’s foolish.

Verses 5-7

Then the devil took Him to the holy city and set Him on the pinnacle of the temple. “If You are the Son of God,” he said, “throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘He will command His angels concerning You, and they will lift You up in their hands, so that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.’ (Matthew 4:6)

Did you see that? Satan was referring to Psalms chapter 91. The devil was attempting to use the word of God against Jesus. This is why it’s so important to be ever watching and ever perceiving, because false doctrine exists and false teachers abound. I can almost guarantee you, that in the town where you live, there is probably at least one church that teaches some form of false doctrine.

You have to know the word of God well enough, that you can hear what a particular pastor is saying and think to yourself, “Wait a minute, that’s not what the Bible says.”

You have to look for a church where the truth of God’s word is being taught. Remember also, if you get hurt by a church, it may be that God is trying to pull you out of there and redirect you to a different church. Now, that’s not always the case. Sometimes the problem is you. But don’t quit Jesus because you get hurt in a church. Go find a different church. When my wife and I were searching for a church, I made a spreadsheet of every church within a 15-minute drive from our house. We were shocked to see that there were over 200 churches within an 8-mile radius of our home. So there’s no excuse to say you’re not going to any church because you were hurt by one individual church. Again, God may have allowed that to happen in order to steer you into a different church.

What you should never do is just walk into a new church with open arms and rose-colored glasses. That’s how people get tricked. And then five years later when they finally discover that the pastor is a hypocrite, they feel so betrayed that they leave that congregation and quit church altogether.

My personal opinion is this, if you are looking for a church to attend, start at home by watching their live stream or listening to their podcast. Go through 3 or 4 sermons on double speed to see if they are teaching the truth. This you can do very rapidly and doesn’t require weeks and weeks of visiting a church. And by the way, if you’re a pastor, you should have a YouTube video channel, audio podcast and a blog where you publish your sermons. It requires little additional effort to take what you’ve already written and recorded from your Sunday services and post it to your church’s website.

Our attendance at church is not to benefit the preacher. His job is to serve you and I. His responsibility is to point us to Jesus. When you join a church, you are entering into an unspoken agreement that the pastor is going to be your spiritual leader. You would be astonishingly naïve if upon your first visit, you don’t mentally place him on a probationary period until you come to know his character and the quality of his spiritual walk with Jesus Christ. He should have to earn your trust.

Verses 8-9

The devil took Jesus to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. “All this I will give You,” he said, “if You will fall down and worship me.”

But what is Satan doing here? He’s lying! Satan can not give all the kingdoms of the world to Jesus, because Jesus already owns all the kingdoms of the world, all the cattle on every hill, all the trees on every mountain and in every valley. Jesus already owns everything.

Through Him all things were made, and without Him nothing was made that has been made. (John 1:3)

Satan is the deceiver. He is a liar. Everything that comes out of his mouth is a lie. So when you have a choice between what God says, and what the World says, understand that one of those two is a lie. And God is not a liar.

…it is impossible for God to lie…(Hebrews 6:18b)

Verse 10

“Away from Me, Satan!” Jesus declared. “For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.”

Again, I want to emphasize that in every temptation Satan presented to Jesus, Jesus replied “It is written”. How do we defeat Satanic and demonic influences in our life? How do we overcome temptation? It is by knowing and using the word of God.

For men reading this, I’ll give a practical example. Men are often tempted with lust. This is because their sexual triggers are visually based. When a man sees a beautiful woman, he may be tempted to lust. Therefore, every time you see a beautiful woman, say to yourself, “…The body is not intended for sexual immorality, but for the Lord…First Corinthians Six Thirteen”

Verse 11

Then the devil left Him, and angels came and ministered to Him.

The devil saw that he was getting nowhere with Jesus, so the devil left. That’s the way you and I need to be. The devil can not hang around us because we are so grounded in the Word of God.
I want to issue you a challenge to perform two parallel Bible studies. The first is to listen to the entire New Testament in 90 days. You can do this easily in the Bible app. Find a 90-day, New Testament reading plan and then listen to it at 1.5x speed. With a minimal commitment of time, you can hear the entire New Testament read to you.

During the same 90 day period, perform a second Bible study of your choice in which you take your time going through the Word of God slowly and carefully. In this bible study, you will read it, rather than listen to it. You will see the words on the page. Take notes and examine the Word of God carefully.

By doing these two Bible studies together, you’ll be able to get the big picture and the small picture all at the same time.

Verses 12-16

When Jesus heard that John had been imprisoned, He withdrew to Galilee.

In order to begin and continue his ministry, Jesus needed to keep himself both alive and out of jail. There are several occasions in the gospels when Jesus withdraws from a place because people were seeking to arrest him or wanting to kill him.

On this occasion, when Jesus heard that John the Baptist had been arrested, he may have been thinking that he’d be next if he didn’t withdraw. Jesus went to Capernaum. Although we don’t know exactly his starting point, if he were in Jerusalem, Google maps says that the journey to Capernaum is 163 kilometers (101 miles). Google maps describes the distance as requiring 37 hours to walk. John the Baptist was imprisoned in a town called Machaerus, which is even further from Capernaum than Jerusalem. If instead that was Jesus’s starting point, then he may have walked 40+ hours to get to Capernaum. Assuming he walked only during the daylight hours and walked 12 hours per day, it would have taken 3 days to walk there.

Verse 17

From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” See my comments on this from Matthew 3:1-2.

Verses 18-22

Jesus begins to find and gather his first disciples.

When I was younger, I would read these verses and think it was odd that Jesus called out to random strangers “follow me” and they dropped everything to do so, even leaving their father to pull in his net all by himself. But let’s take a moment to talk about the sequence of events.

In John chapter one beginning at verse 29 it says that after Jesus was baptized, but before he was led into the desert, he returned to where John the Baptist was. The bible says: The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is He of whom I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because He was before me.’ I myself did not know Him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that He might be revealed to Israel.”

The book of John goes on to say that the next day still, (meaning now two days after Jesus was baptized, he once again went to where John the Baptist was. Starting at verse 35 it says

The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus walking by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!” And when the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw them following. “What do you want?” He asked. They said to Him, “Rabbi, where are You staying?”

“Come and see,” He replied. So they went and saw where He was staying, and spent that day with Him. It was about the tenth hour. Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard John’s testimony and followed Jesus. He first found his brother Simon and told him, “We have found the Messiah”.

So Andrew and Peter spent about ten hours with Jesus, before he was led into the desert to be tempted by the devil. Keeping this in mind, it makes a whole lot more sense that 40 plus days later when Jesus calls out to them from the shore line “follow me”, they drop everything, leaving their nets in the water, in order to rush to his calling.

They’ve previously met him and spent an entire day with him. They have already rightly concluded that he is the Messiah, so they were eager and willing to drop everything to follow him.

For those who may be recalling Mark 1:12 in which it says after Jesus’s baptism that “immediately the Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness…” We must conclude that the writer was not using the word immediately to imply “that very next second” but instead must be using the word immediately as meaning “the next big event in this timeline”. Jesus was baptized and then spent about 48 hours becoming acquainted with Andrew and Peter and then proceeded into the wilderness to be tempted.

Verses 23-24

What stands out to me? Jesus healed every disease and sickness among the people and they brought to Him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering acute pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed—and He healed them.

Today, it’s more likely that a person praying for healing will not receive a miracle. Why is that? There are several reasons.

First, I have heard from the eye witness accounts of missionaries, that miraculous healings happen more often in poor countries and places with drastic economic disparity than they do in the United States. I personally know missionaries who have seen people instantly healed on the foreign mission field.

Second, modern medicine is itself a blessing from God. If a person prays for a healing and they then go to their doctor and that doctor performs a procedure or a surgery and afterward the person is healed. Was their prayer for healing answered? Yes it was.

Somewhere, when I was a kid, I saw a TV show, in which two men were talking about God and gave this perfect example of how God so frequently works. The scene from that show has stuck with me all these years. I have no idea, today, what show it was, I can’t remember who the actors were, but if a reader of this commentary ever finds that show, maybe they can send me the name of it. It went like this; Two men were sitting at a bar talking about God. One of them begins to tell a story about the time he was in the Alaskan wilderness and found himself caught in a blizzard. It was a total whiteout and he couldn’t see anything. He couldn’t even figure out which direction he was walking. Night was rapidly approaching and the temperatures were dropping fast. He knew he was in great danger, and so for the first time in his life he prayed a prayer, “God, if you save me from this blizzard, I will worship you for the rest of my life.” The other man at the bar, stared anxiously at him and said, “What happened?” The man replied, “Nothing. Some Eskimo came by on a snowmobile and gave me a ride back to town.”

What was this man expecting? A miracle that defies explanation? But how does God most often work? Through other people using ordinary means. The character in this television show failed to recognize that his prayer was answered. Likewise, being cured in a doctor’s office is no less an answer to a healing prayer than is a miraculous healing that defies explanation.

Verse 25

The large crowds that followed Him came from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan.

Once Jesus started healing people, word spread fast and he rapidly became famous. Everyone following him was hoping to get something from him, but as we will see, not many of them actually put their faith in him, let alone understood who he was.