Satan Tempts Jesus

They said, "Teacher, where are you staying?" And Jesus said, "Come along and see for yourself." So they went with Jesus to where he was staying and spent the rest of the day with him there.

One of these was Andrew who became one of the disciples. After he had seen where Jesus was staying he went and got his brother Simon and told him, "We have found the Messiah." Simon went back with Andrew and Jesus said to him, "You are Simon the son of Jonas, but your new name shall be Cephas." Cephas means pebble.

The next morning Jesus went to Galilee where He met Philip and he told Philip to follow Him. (Philip lived in Bethsaida, where Andrew and Simon lived too.) Philip went and found Nathaniel sitting under a fig tree. He told him, "We have found the one Moses and the other prophets wrote about; the Messiah. He is Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph."

Nathaniel replied, "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" Philip replied, "Come and see for yourself."

When Jesus saw Nathaniel approaching He said, "Here is a true Israelite, one who is without deceit."

Nathaniel asked, "When did you become acquainted with me?"

"I saw you before Philip called you; you were sitting under a fig tree." and Nathaniel replied, "Teacher, you are the Son of God; the King of Israel!"

"Do you really believe in me because I said you were sitting under a fig tree? You will see greater things than that. Someday you will see heaven opened and angels going up and down between me and heaven."

On the third day after His baptism Jesus and the disciples who were with him were invited to a wedding at the town of Cana. Jesus' mother Mary was there too; she saw there was not enough wine and told Jesus. "What has that to do with us, my time to begin my ministry has not yet come." But Mary told the servants to do whatever He told them.

Nearby there were six water jugs holding twenty to thirty gallons each and Jesus told the servants to fill them with water, which they did, right to the top. Then Jesus told them to draw some out and to take it to the master of the wedding feast.

The master of the feast, not knowing where the wine came from, tasted it and was amazed, and told the bridegroom, "Everyone serves the best wine first and then when the guests have drunk freely and won't notice so much they serve the inferior wine. You, however, have kept the best wine until now!" This was Jesus' first miracle.

A few days later the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. He was there and ate nothing for forty days and then Satan came. Satan knew Jesus was starving.

"If you are the Son of God," said Satan, "command that these stones become loaves of bread." Satan appealed to Jesus' human vanity by saying, "IF you are the Son of God..." Satan knew quite well that Jesus was the Son of God, but often when we are confronted this way we will jump to our own defense, saying, "What do you mean, IF, I'll show you!" And, of course, Satan was appealing to Jesus' hunger - no doubt Jesus would have loved to bite into a nice fresh hot loaf of bread and indeed His Father would have changed the stones to bread had Jesus asked. But Jesus was the Creator of Satan, as well as the whole universe, and He would not be fooled into obeying a command of the one who led the rebellion against Him. He told Satan, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.'"

Then Satan carried Jesus to the top of the temple in Jerusalem and said, "If you are the Son of God..." (he tried it again!) "jump, for the scripture says, 'God will give your care into the hands of the angels and they shall carry you so that you won't even stub your foot on a stone.'" This is a true scripture, but it means God will protect His people from many unseen hazards - He won't protect them if they do dangerous things on purpose. The devil can quote scripture, he knows every verse, but he always twists the meanings.

Jesus not only knows every verse of scripture - He wrote them. He replied to Satan, "It is also written in the scriptures, 'You shall not temp the Lord your God.'" God does not tempt anyone and if anyone try to tempt God He ignores them.

Then Satan took Jesus to the top of a symbolic mountain where they could see all the nations of the earth spread before them. Satan said, "If you will bow down and worship me, I will make you the ruler of all the nations of the earth." You might think Jesus would tell Satan that they belong to God so they weren't his to give. But that's not true - Satan is the god of this earth and rules all the nations until Jesus Christ comes to the earth a second time. They were Satan's to give.

But Jesus knew the answer to that, "Get away from me, Satan, It is written in the scriptures, 'You shall worship the Lord your God, and you will only serve Him.'"

Satan then left Him as He had commanded and angels came and provided Him with food and drink.

Since Jesus was human, as well as being the Creator God, these temptations were very real. But with the help of His Father He was able to best Satan. He was already the Creator and Ruler of the universe under his Father only, but now he had qualified, as a human being, to take the rulership of the earth away from Satan. Before this Satan had been given rulership of the earth. When He returns, he will have Satan bound and will become King of kings and Lord of lords over the whole earth.

Even though Satan has been disqualified, he still rules the earth until Christ's return and he never gave up trying to thwart Jesus the whole time He was here on earth.

Life of Christ Part Seven - Jesus Talks to Nicodemus

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