Luke 4:1-13
The Fight Comes Home
In the last chapter, Jesus was baptized and manifest to John. After
that, Jesus began His earthly ministry. Now the battle begins in
earnest for man’s eternal soul.
The fight has been going on since \\#Ge 3:15\\. Satan has sought to
kill the Messiah and with each promise of the Word of God about the
Messiah, the fight narrowed to specific nation, a specific tribe, and
even to s specific family. But with Jesus’ birth and especially as
His ministry began, there is a single living Target that Satan can
shoot at—and He does.
I. Understand the Battlefield
A. The life and death of Jesus is not just the battlefield of one
man against Satan. It is the battle for the souls of all the
human race.
B. Battles have been fought on this battlefield before.
1. Paul referred to Jesus as the "last Adam."
1Co 15:45 And so it is written, The first man
Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was
made a quickening spirit.
2. That reference, ties something Jesus did to something
Adam did.
3. What was it?
a. Both battled Satan for man’s souls.
b. In the Garden of Eden, Eve was deceived then Adam
sinned, losing not only their own souls but all of
the souls of their descendants.
c. In the Garden of Gethsemane and on Calvary, Jesus
would likewise battle for man’s souls.
(1) The difference was that Jesus would win the
battle.
(2) Now, all who will repent and believe on Jesus
will be saved from their sins.
II. Understand the Enemy - This passage gives us a greater
understanding of Satan.
A. Satan is a person.
1. Satan was created as an angel and angels are spirits.
Hebrews 1:14 Are they not all ministering
spirits, sent forth to minister for them who
shall be heirs of salvation?
2. Spiritual beings seem to have the ability to move inside
and to control other beings.
3. However, that does not make them any less a person.
a. WE are spirits living inside a body!
b. Satan is not just a power or an influence.
c. He is a person with the same characteristics as us.
B. Satan thinks and reasons.
1. For Satan to have these goals and these plans, he must be
a thinking person.
a. He has intellect and reasoning.
b. He formulates complicated plans.
c. He remembers and learns.
2. His intellect is far superior to ours.
a. Satan has only had one dumb thought in his existence
and that was to rebel against God.
b. Outside of that one, Satan’s dumbest thought is
brighter than man’s smartest thought.
C. Satan has his own agenda, goals.
1. Here his goal was to cause Jesus to sin.
2. We also see how Satan uses selfishness.
a. Satan appealed to Eve’s selfishness to deceive her.
(This apple can make you wise like God!)
b. Satan used that same selfish seed against Jesus.
(1) \\#3\\ First Temptation - Aren’t YOU hungry?
There is nothing in the Bible that says YOU
cannot use YOUR powers to take care of yourself.
Why don’t YOU turn these rocks into bread for
YOUR dinner?
(2) \\#5-6\\ Second Temptation - It would be easier
for YOU if You just worshipped me. YOU would not
have to go to the cross. YOU would not have to
die. The world is mine. I can give it to YOU
and I will.
(3) \\#9-11\\ Third Temptation - So YOU think YOU
are God. Shouldn’t YOU prove it? Just jump off
the temple. They people will believe in YOU.
3. We are never more like Satan or doing what Satan wants
than when we are being selfish.
D. Satan has ability.
1. Not only does he have an agenda and intellect, he can DO
what he thinks.
a. Satan is the prince and power of the air.
b. He does own the kingdoms of this world.
2. The only boundaries Satan has are the ones that God has
set on him and for the time being, those boundaries are
very wide.
a. For Christians, Satan must run all temptations and
trials through God for approval. (Job)
1Co 10:13 There hath no temptation taken you but
such as is common to man: but God is faithful,
who will not suffer you to be tempted above that
ye are able; but will with the temptation also
make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear
it.
James 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God.
Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
b. He does not seem able to control death although he can
use it to his advantage..
Heb 9:27 And as it is appointed unto men once to
die, but after this the judgment:
c. But most everything else, including inflicting pain
and suffering upon the lost, he seems able to
accomplish.
E. However, Satan is not god.
1. He is a created, eternal being. He will live forever
somewhere and that somewhere will be the Lake of Fire.
2. He cannot be everywhere at one time. He must use other
devils to do his dirty work.
3. He does not know everything, but he has a lot of
experience, intellect, and helpers so that it sometimes
appears that he does.
4. He is not all powerful, but he is far more powerful than
the strongest human being.
5. And most importantly, he is subject to God. Whatever
boundaries God puts on Satan, he must stay within them.
III. Understand the Rules.
A. Jesus must fight and withstand Satan as a Spirit-filled man.
1. Jesus is God, but He will not use His divine attributes to
help or aid Himself.
2. The battle was between man and Satan not against God
and Satan. There would be NO battle if it were Satan
against God.
3. For that reason, Jesus would supernaturally help
others but not Himself. (The closest miracle that
Jesus ever came to doing a miracle for Himself was
having Peter pull a coin out of the fishes mouth and
paying for both of their taxes.)
4. This is what Satan went after right from the start.
a. Use your power to turn stones into bread.
b. Where was the sin in that?
(1) It wasn’t in eating bread.
(2) So it had to be in turning the stones into bread.
(3) But if turning water into wine was not a sin,
why would turning stones into bread be?
(4) I do not think it was.
(5) I think it was because Jesus turned water
into wine to aid another, but He would have
been turning stones into bread to aid Himself.
B. Committing any sin is the same as breaking every sin.
1. This is the same rule that all mankind labors under.
James 2:10 For whosoever shall keep the whole
law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty
of all.
2. That is why I know that Jesus nothing Jesus ever did
broke the law of the Sabbath, or why He never lusted
after a woman, or had a bad thought.
3. The standard for Jesus was the same as it was for Adam
and Eve, perfection.
C. Winner takes all.
1. When Satan fought Adam and won, all of humanity was lost.
2. When Jesus fought Satan and won, all would be place
their trust in Jesus would be saved.
D. Jesus’ weapons were also those of a Spirit-filled man.
1. By far the greatest weapon Jesus had was who He is.
a. Jesus is God so He had God’s nature.
b. We are not God but we have God’s nature via the Holy
Ghost.
1Cor 3:16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of
God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
17 If any man defile the temple of God, him
shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy,
which temple ye are.
c. Jesus Himself did all of His works in the power of the
Holy Spirit.
John 3:34 For he whom God hath sent speaketh the
words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by
measure unto him.
d. So we have the same nature to overcome sin.
2Pe 1:4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding
great and precious promises: that by these ye
might be partakers of the divine nature, having
escaped the corruption that is in the world
through lust.
2. But Jesus also had love to overcome Satan.
a. There would be His love for God, for us, and for
righteousness.
b. Love is a powerful motivating tool.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he
gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have
everlasting life.
c. Our love for God and righteousness should be the
strongest loves we have.
3. Jesus was determined. We can be stubborn with a holy
stubbornness.
4. Jesus had the Word of God.
a. It was the Word of God that Jesus quoted.
b. The Word gave Jesus knowledge of what was right and
wrong along with understanding and wisdom.
(1) Remember that Jesus set aside His omniscience.
(2) He had to learn truth as we do.
c. The Word also exasperates the devil.
(1) Just like the Word has nothing to answer the Word
of God with, neither does the devil.
(2) Opinions, faulty logic, popular opinion, man’s
laws—nothing can alter or change what God said.
This was certainly not the end of the fight. Satan may have
retreated for a season \\#13\\, but it was a short season and He came
back with a vengeance. However, on this day and in this battlefield
for the first time, the devil got his nose busted!
<Outline
Index> <Close Window>
