Friday Revival Bible Study

Passage: Matthew 4:1-11

Part 2 of 5

Full of the Holy Spirit (Luke 4:1)

 Power of the Spirit

(Luke 4:14)

 

What are reasons for this transformation that

took place during the temptation?

Matthew 4:2-42 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” 4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

1. Fasting & the Lust of the Flesh: 

1.1 Fasting Matthew 4:22 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.  Fasting  is  a  spiritual  discipline  that  is  very  much 

neglected in the church today.

Jesus  was  led  by  the  Holy  Spirit  to  pray  and  fast during the time in the wilderness.

Romans 7:14-2519 For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. 20 But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. 21 I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. 22 For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, 23 but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?

Full of the Holy Spirit (Luke 4:1)

 Power of the Spirit

(Luke 4:14)

 

1.2 Forty Days & Forty Nights Matthew 4:22 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.  Symbolism of the number forty of this period of time is meaningful in Scripture.

The main meaning of this number in Jewish thinking is that it is a long time.

Genesis 7:1212 The rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights. 

Acts 7:3030 “After forty years had passed, and angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in the flaming of a burning thorn bush. 

Exodus 24:1818 Moses entered the midst of the cloud as he went up to the mountain; and Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

Deuteronomy 9:1818 I fell down before the LORD, as at the first, forty days and nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all your sin which you had committed in doing what was evil in the sight of the LORD to provoke Him to anger.  

Deuteronomy 9:2525 “So I fell down before the LORD the forty days and nights, which I did because the LORD had said He would destroy you.

Deuteronomy 8:2-52 You shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.3 He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD. 4 Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. 5 Thus you are to know in your heart that the LORD your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son.

1 Kings 19:88 So he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mountain of God. 

Jesus thus was being tested as Moses, Elijah and also the Israelites experienced.

2. Temptation One: “Stones to Bread” 2.1 Son of God Matthew 4:33 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”  He  calls  into  question  what  God  the  Father  has 

already confirmed in Matthew 3:17

1 John 5:9-109 If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater; for the testimony of God is this that He has testified concerning His Son. 10 The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself; the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning His Son.

2.2 Stone to Bread Matthew 4:33 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

The  tempter  challenges  Jesus  to  prove  his  divine Sonship by performing a miracle.

This  temptation  is  also  a  reflection  of  the  original temptation in the Garden of Eden.

Genesis 3:66 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.  Eve was tempted to satisfy her physical need at the expense of disobeying God.

1 John 2:1616 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.

 The bible calls this as the ‘lust of the flesh’- the desire and the need to be satisfied.

Esau sells his birthright for food and physical satisfaction (Genesis 25:29-34)

Exodus 16:2-32 The whole congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. 3 The sons of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the LORD’S hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

Deuteronomy 8:33 He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD.

Jesus is tempted to react like Esau and the Israelites who grumbled against God.

3. The Response 3.1 Man & Bread Matthew 4:44 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Jesus responds to the tempter by quoting scripture in relation to the Israelites.

Deuteronomy 8:33 He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD.

3.2 Word of God Matthew 4:44 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”  Jesus’ response highlights the importance of God’s 

word as spiritual nourishment.  We must see & experience the spiritual nourishing 

abilities of God’s word in us.

Conclusion: 

Jesus was tempted to satisfy His needs but He chose to obey God than the devil or self. John 4:3434 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.

Questions for Small Group Discussion: 1. How are we tempted to fulfil the desires and lusts of our flesh today? 2. How can we encourage ourselves and others to see and experience the living and active Word of God in our lives today? 3. How can we encourage the spiritual discipline prayer and fasting today?