LIFE VS DEATH

CONTEXT
MATTHEW 4:1-4 and LUKE 4:1-4

Jesus: - Is FULL OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
- LED BY THE SPIRIT into the wilderness
- EAT NOTHING for forty days – He hungered
- Tempted by Satan (the tempter, the devil)

The devil said to Him:
“If you are the Son of God, COMMAND this stone to become bread…”
Note: - Satan questions Jesus’s nature (his divinity)
- COMMAND …- Satan gives Jesus an order
- Takes advantage of Jesu’s hunger
Why the “IF”…
- there is NO PRECEDENT of the INCARNATION
OF THE CREATOR – Satan does not know how much
humanity (weakness, vulnerability) Jesus possesses
and how much divinity is in Him.
- Satan does not know the balance of powers in Jesus
And he wants to test Jesus on platform that is a temporary weakness.

Note: Philippians 2:7
- emptied Himself of divinity.
- being born in the likeness of men.
- took upon Him the form of a servant.
This is what Satan sees…! And he is baffled …! He cannot estimate his opponent.
The choice of his first temptation:
a. “COMMAND”… - Satan gives an order to Jesus.
- If Jesus obeys… he is (or becomes) inferior
to Satan, and Satan gains the position of
authority over God, the Creator.
Why: Jesus is co-Creator with The Father John 1:3
b. SOLVING THE GLOBAL HUNGER PROBLEM – stones
becoming bread.
- the Eden episode where God curses the Land and
the Serpent
Appealing to Jesus’s love for humanity, Satan tries to bring Jesus under his dominion… “little he knew…”.

Jesus’s answer. (first temptation)

Few things are obvious:
A. Satan is a “earthly thinker”…
B. Satan is limited in his knowledge of God’s Redemptive plan
C. Satan uses similar tactics – lack of creativity…
D. Satan does NOT know the future.
E. Satan is not capable of creative projections…
Jesus answers Satan from a totally different perspective:
Let us emphasize the opposite paradigms:
Jesus. Satan
- Spiritual thinking - Earthly thinking
- Connected to LIFE. - Disconnected from Life
- Solving humanity’s problem - Solving humanity’s problem
for eternity temporarily
- Reconnecting humanity to - Disconnecting humanity from
God forever. God forever
- Eternal Restoration - Eternal Destruction

The Answer:
Starts with “It is written…” – Profound knowledge of THE WORD
“Man shell not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth (comes) from the mouth of God”.
Jesus thinks about the LIFE…ETERNAL when he answer Satan
And he defines LIFE…ETERNAL.
LIFE is to eat THE WORD OF GOD, and that will keep you
In a permanent connection with God.
Satan thinks in terms of TEMPORARY, PHISICAL LIFE.
For him life is reduced to feeding this body and experiencing all the physical feelings.

His intentions are to separate humans from
Their connection with God. That is how he destroys humanity.

But Jesus restores that.

Principle #5

LIFE – Is to be CONNECTED WITH GOD
DEATH – is to be SEPARATED FROM GOD