Robert Penn Warren wrote a novel called All The King's Men. It was the story
of a governor of Louisiana and his rise to power. His name was Willie Stark.
At the end of his story he is shot down dead. Here was a man who gained a
kingdom and lost all he ever had.
Two thousand years earlier a man from Galilee said, "What would it profit a
man if he gained the whole world and lost his soul?" Perhaps when He made
that statement He was not only addressing it to those who heard Him, but
also was looking back to a time of decision in His own life.
There is something so very curious about the man from Galilee. He has
captivated the imaginations of people throughout twenty centuries. He
transcends time and place, culture and custom, race and language. Something
there is in Him that always speaks clearly to us. We see it throughout the
gospels, everywhere He went, in everything He said and did. Son of God and
Son of Man, we know He became one of us.
While He is the answer to all our struggles, we see Him struggling with the
things He faced. And, as He finds the way for Himself He finds the way for
us as well. We see this truth at the very beginning of His ministry. He left
His home up in beautiful Galilee, and went down the Jordan Valley to a place
at the river. His cousin John the Baptist was there and he baptized Jesus in
the river. And, a voice from Heaven said, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I
am well pleased." Then, Matthew writes in the very next verse, the first of
chapter four, "Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be
tempted by the devil." Immediately following His baptism Jesus faces the
temptations, the greatest temptations of His life. The issue was not whether
He would rule the world, but how He would take it. So, out there in the
wilderness of those barren Judean hills Jesus struggled with what He would
do and how He would do it.
Sometimes we may not take this very seriously. We may not think Jesus was
really tempted, not the way we are tempted, not our Jesus. But we need to
understand that the temptations of Jesus were real temptations. Jesus was
tempted. The New Testament clearly states this. Matthew tells us plainly
that Jesus was in the wilderness tempted by the devil. He did not say Jesus
wondered, imagined, was charmed, or that He considered his options. He tells
us He was tempted, and that He went there to be tempted. Mark tells us He
was tempted. Luke tells us He was tempted. John does not take time to
mention it. He was in too big a hurry to get Jesus back up to Galilee.
However, the book of Hebrews tells us, "He was in all points tempted like as
we are."
The city of Jericho isn't far from the place where Jesus was baptized by
John the Baptist. You can stand there in Jericho and look up into the Judean
hills to a place called the Mount of Temptation. It is easy to imagine Jesus
being up there, by Himself, fasting for forty days, alone and hungry,
struggling with what He would do and how He would do it.
Surely, He must have thought of some easy ways to do what He had to do. That
was the temptation of His life. So, there we see Him. He was tempted. Let's
take a look at what He faced at all that he was offered:
1. Jesus was tempted by the wrong use of power. That was the first
temptation.
2. Jesus was also tempted by the wrong way to popularity. That was the
second temptation.
3. Finally, Jesus was tempted by the wrong kind of partnership. That was the
third temptation.
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