The Three Temptations of Satan

Part One

In this three-part series, we are studying the meaning and significance of what Jesus experienced in the wilderness after being baptized by John the Baptist and filled with the Holy Spirit, and why He allowed Himself to be led into the wilderness to experience the three temptations of Satan.

We are looking at these temptations as written in the account of Luke, so grab your Bible and note taking materials and follow along. Write down what the Spirit of the Lord reveals to you. The series is also available on Spotify for those you like to listen while they read.

(Luke 4:1-13)

1Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2being tempted for forty days by the devil. And in those days He ate nothing, and afterward, when they had ended, He was hungry.

3And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.”

4But Jesus answered him, saying, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’ ”

5Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6And the devil said to Him, “All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. 7Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours.”

8And Jesus answered and said to him, “Get behind Me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ”

9Then he brought Him to Jerusalem, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here. 10For it is written:

‘He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you,’ 11and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up,
Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’ ”

12And Jesus answered and said to him, “It has been said, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’ ”

13Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.

Two Key Things to Consider in this Message:

1). Scriptures tells us that through these three (3) temptations every temptation was ended. That’s interesting isn’t it? Let’s look at the three temptations and what all was packed into them:

I. Divination – Part 1

II. Kingdoms of the World (in exchange for power and authority) – Part 2

III. Tempting God by Proving His Authority and Power – Part 3

2). When the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.

Satan was given another opportune time. In Luke 11:14-28, we see an example of this occurring when Satan further tests the sovereign authority and power of God, although this time, he would use man. Unfortunately, Satan is always looking for an opportune time.

As I began to read Luke 4, Holy Spirit began to imprint on my heart the severity of how easily we can be tempted by Satan and not realize it is him. He and his minions look for an open door and at the opportune time comes to steal, kill, and destroy not only what we believe we have in Christ but who we are in Christ Jesus. If he can trip us up into believing his lies and accusations, he can tempt us. If we can be tempted, we will in turn tempt the Lord God Almighty. Pay attention! We are called to be about our Father’s business just as Jesus was and still is. Don’t allow temptations to enter and if they do, repent immediately. Do not delay as that in and of itself is the tempter at work.

DEFINITIONS

Satan – (Hebrew word for devil is Sawtawn – pronounced Saw tahn) To accuse, attack, oppose; adversary

Devil – (Greek word for devil is Diabolos – pronounced Di ab ol os) Accuse, slander, backbite, gossip.

1. The Three Temptations

I. Divination

We’ll begin with divination because it is the first mentioned in Luke 4 although there is no particular order required for the devil, as he is a crafty and cunning serpent.

1Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2being tempted for forty days by the devil. And in those days He ate nothing, and afterward, when they had ended, He was hungry.

3And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.”

4But Jesus answered him, saying, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’ ”

If Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit, how is it that He could he be tempted by the devil? Doesn’t being filled with the Holy Spirit protect one from being tempted by the devil? The short answer is ‘No’, but just because we are tempted doesn’t mean we can’t say ‘No.’ Let’s examine the deeper understanding of what happened.

Jesus stepped into His ministry at the age of 30 (as was custom for a Levitical priestly role). In Judaism this would be considered their appointed time to serve in the temple. Jesus was from the tribe of Judah, not Levi, so we already have a major plot twist going on. The Levitical priesthood could not redeem man from their sins, so Jesus fulfilled prophecy right on schedule at the appointed time, and He became the appointed High Priest after the order of Melchizedek versus the former reign of high priest after the Levitical order of Aaron. He is the salvation of mankind so why would he allow Himself to be put in the wilderness to begin with?

He allowed it to show us and teach us that our wilderness experience will happen and that we can overcome the devil’s temptations without sin. He who has ears to hear and eyes to see, look and listen to what the Spirit is saying:

Hebrews 4:15
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.

To understand the importance of the timing, we must first go back to the days of Moses when God delivered the Israelites out of their captivity in Egypt. He led them into the wilderness for forty years—forty (40) being symbolic for a time of testing and trials. Time of testing could be 40 days, 40 nights, 40 years, or 40 months (40 months = 3 yrs 4 mos). God kept the Israelites in the wilderness 40 years because of an unbelieving generation. Even though His provision, power, grace, and protection was evident all around them, many still did not believe in Him. They could have entered the promise land after the first few months but God knew their hearts and would put them to the test. Don’t let your experience last 40 years because of an unbelieving heart and from complaining and murmuring.

Deuteronomy 8:2-3
Remember that these forty years the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness, so that He might humble you and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commandments. He humbled you, and in your hunger He gave you manna to eat, which neither you nor your fathers had known, so that you might understand that man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.

Yahweh (God) allows a time of testing in our life to humble us and to know what is in our heart and whether we will keep His commandments regardless of what temptations may come our way. The hunger Moses spoke of was not manna intended to come from food that entered into their belly, as that was temporal satisfaction, but rather it was their obedience to the Word spoken by God that would result in their fulfillment and spiritual sustainment.

When Satan told Jesus to “command this stone to become bread”, he wanted to mock God and exploit the natural desire of man for his physical sustenance. Satan’s tactic of “if You are...” was to get Jesus to cave and use divination by performing a miracle so as to make something happen in his physical weakness rather than being led by and walking in the Spirit of God. God was His ultimate sustainer in time of weakness. The scenario of divination is liken to what the Egyptians used with their magic to imitate Yahweh’s miraculous power with the rod given to Moses for Aaron. The Diviners of Pharaoh had supernatural powers but they came from unholy spirits of Satan. If the devil could get Jesus to perform on his command and not on God’s command, he’d get Jesus to sin. Even in His physical weakness, Jesus stood firm on the Word because He is the Word. He demonstrated that He did nothing His father did not do and said nothing His father did not say when it came to supernatural signs and wonders and His conduct.

What we can learn about the accuser and his attacks is that he will first try to sow doubt by questioning the truth about who we are, even if we are filled with the Holy Spirit. Think about this, if we aren’t a threat to Satan’s kingdom on this earth, he would have no need to try and tempt us to sin. If we have pride in our hearts, in our hour of weakness we may resort to anything but God’s word and His strength to get us through a trying time in our life. If that doesn’t work, he will get us to use divination to solve problems. We’ll grasp at anything to feel better without seeking and be led by Yeshua and His Holy Spirit.

The dictionary defines divination as, “the practice of attempting to foretell future events or discover hidden knowledge by occult or supernatural means.” The Word of God says that people who divine are controlled or possessed by supernatural spirits which enable them to receive information beyond the human realm at a particular time and warns us about participating in it. But there is one form of divination which few consider but is equally demonic: Rebellion and Stubbornness.

23For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king.” (1 Samuel 15:23)

Saul fell prey to Satan through divination because of His pride. His pride led him to go to a sorcerer to try to hear from God because God had departed from him due to his rebellion and disobedience. It literally led to his self-destruction.

8Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, 9“When Pharaoh speaks to you, saying, ‘Show a miracle for yourselves,’ then you shall say to Aaron, ‘Take your rod and cast it before Pharaoh, and let it become a serpent.’ ” 10So Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh, and they did so, just as the Lord commanded. And Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh and before his servants, and it became a serpent.

11But Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers; so the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments. 12For every man threw down his rod, and they became serpents. But Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods. 13And Pharaoh’s heart grew hard, and he did not heed them, as the Lord had said. (Exodus 7:8-13)

Satan operated through Pharaoh by only by God allowing it to test and to fulfill the deliverance of His people. He did not allow Moses or Aaron to use divination. Instead they were obedient to His word spoken to them. As you continue reading Exodus, you’ll see that Pharaoh’s minions could only go so far with their witchcraft and then God took over. He alone is victorious.

Notice Exodus 7:9 above ‘Show a miracle for yourselves’ and its match to Luke 4:3, “3And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.”

Yahweh God has warned His people about using any form of divination for thousands of years. Sadly, divination disguises itself in many forms including games (cards and other), video games, and religion. The New Age and New Thought movement has crept into the body unawares and has caused thousands if not millions of people to stumble in their walk with God. Men and women with the gift of prophecy can fall prey to divination when pride and money get involved and they become a stumbling block for those who listen to them.

The only way this can happen is because the church is not being obedient to the Word of God. It has fallen asleep. Satan knows this and has capitalized on it. For years, the church has heard and many have bought into self-help doctrine of “mind over matter” theory and that “you are master of your own universe” or more cunning, “these rocks are healing”, transcendental meditation exercises, and the list goes on (horoscopes or fortune cookies, handwriting analysis, tea leaves, tarot cards, angel cards, palm reading, graven images, idols, superstitions, water witching, enticing spirits through games, television shows, etc.) The devil will convince us these things are harmless, but are they really? The Word of God says they separate us from Him. For our benefit, Jesus made it clear to Satan that the word says:

4But Jesus answered him, saying, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’ ” (Luke 4:4)

To share a personal experience in ministry, several years ago we were asked to come to a church and meet with the Pastor and all of his church leaders because things were going sideways within the church and he was wanting to get to the root. We had known this pastor for a while and have the utmost respect and love for him and his love of Jesus. His church was big on small group meetings because the congregation was large. He invited us to teach the leadership group over a two day conference on Leadership and Spiritual gifts for use in ministry, and then individually meet with each leader and the Pastor throughout the week. As it turned out, most all of the church leaders had serious spiritual issues such as idolatry, pornography, greed, and pride. The Pastor was shocked and sad to hear their confessions and learn all this (as were we). He was realizing that his church was a mess and confessed that he had no idea of what was going on beyond the church building walls (Most pastors do not). Many have the form of godliness on Sunday but the rest of the week is a different story. Jesus sees and knows all things and thank God, Jesus is the true and good Shepherd.

On the day we were to depart for home, a young woman came to the hotel we were staying at and joined the Pastor, his wife, and us. She was the director of the children’s ministry and the last one to meet with us. In a very casual conversation, she was sharing about the children’s ministry and how they were practicing for the upcoming Christmas performance when out of the blue and very matter of fact she said, “I pray everyday using my tea leaves asking for guidance to lead the children and Sunday school staff.” WHAT? TEA LEAVES! You can just imagine the Pastor’s heart and the look on his face when he heard this. He and his wife just about crawled under the table. It was devastating and they felt completely defeated. He knew he needed to fire them all and remove them from leadership roles, repent and seek Yeshua for his guidance. Sadly, the church became divided and within a few short years, the building closed it’s doors because it had became apparent God’s lampstand had been removed due to sin and rebellion against Him. This is what divination within the body can do. It separates the diviner and those who follow them from God. Just as Aaron’s rod swallowed up the serpents that Pharaoh’s magicians were able to manifest, so will God overcome the devil’s schemes when we are obedient to His word.

Beloved, if you have fallen prey to the schemes of devil, today I beseech you to repent and turn from these wicked ways. Confess your sin to Yeshua, whether it is due to ignorance or overt sin including rebelling against God (knowing it’s wrong but doing it anyway) or being too stubborn to admit you were wrong. If you are in any position of church leadership, you need to come clean and step down until you are restored (tested and approved by God and your elders). There is no room for divination in the body of Jesus Christ. He came to earth and shed His holy blood for our sins and He wants nothing more than to set the captives free and lead us in His liberty. If you know this is happening in a church you attend, seek Jesus and ask Him what His will is, i.e. if you are to call it out to the pastor or confront those doing it, so they too can repent, or if you are to remove yourself from the wickedness within the church. God knows their hearts and you need to seek Him and His word on the matter. You are called to follow Jesus and His ways. When it is said and done, you are His tabernacle and you do not want Him to remove His lampstand from you.

Jesus declared His coming, and at the appointed time He fulfilled the below prophecy of Isaiah 61.

The Spirit of the Lord GOD is on Me, because the LORD has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners, And recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; 19To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

20Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. 21And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” 22So all bore witness to Him, and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth. And they said, “Is this not Joseph’s son?” (Luke 4:18-22)

We will continue the series in Part Two and hope you will join us. We would love your feedback on how this landed for you.

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Blessings,

Norma Umphress