BEHIND THE APPLE – Jesus’ Temptation and Testing in the Wilderness.
Adrian Lowe
Last week we began a short series of talks looking at Jesus temptation in the wilderness. We heard how Adam and Eve faced the same temptations that Jesus faced. We got behind the ‘Apple’ and began to understand how Satan appealed to their three main soulish appetites; their appetite for contentment – self-satisfaction, their appetite for Glory, and their appetite for security. Thousands of years later Jesus faced the same three temptations.
Our aim this week is to look in a little more detail as how the enemy of our souls works, we will get behind the ‘Apple’ and look at the first temptation that Jesus faced. “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”
If you are the Son of God and have heavens resources at your fingertips, if you are the one through whom all things were created and you’ve come to the end of your fast and there’s no food readily available, why not turn some stones into bread! What’s wrong with that? Why does Jesus have to wait for His Father to send some angels to deliver a takeaway? (It wasn’t really a takeaway; well at least I don’t think it was!) After all God is God and He can do what He likes, He can please Himself! Or can He?
Why is turning stones into bread to satisfy His hunger a temptation? Likewise surely if we can do something, if we have the wherewithal, can’t we just get on with it. Why wait? If it’s in my power to satisfy the longings of my soul why can’t I just get on with it?
Satan clearly sees and seizes an opportunity to lead Jesus to pick the ‘Apple’. What are your hunger weak spots that lead you to make the wrong choices? Or is it ok to take things into your own hands?
Lord we pray “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil”