The Essential Jesus (Part 8): The Beginning Ministry of JesusSample

Deliver Us from Evil

PRAY: Heavenly Father, this world can sometimes be dark and evil. Please show me how I can be an instrument of your light.

READ: Luke 4:1-13

REFLECT: Do you believe in the devil? I do. I've never had an encounter with him, nor do I want to, but I have sometimes felt the presence of evil. I've also seen the effect of the devil's work in the lives of broken and destroyed people, and as we see in Luke 4:1-13, the devil attempted to destroy Jesus in three ways.

The promise of granting physical desires. There's nothing wrong with food or eating in moderation, but the devil was trying to use Jesus' hunger to make him forget who he was. Note the taunt, "If you are the Son of God..." (v. 3). One of the devil's most effective strategies is to destroy people by causing them to take a natural desire to an evil extreme.

The promise of worldly power. This is the classic "deal with the devil" that has become the premise for so many plays and novels, "If you worship me, it will all be yours" (v. 7). Again, the drive to succeed is not wrong; taking it to the extreme is. Those who are successful need people who can and will hold them accountable. Note that power and fame are tools the devil claims as his own (v. 6).

The promise of spiritual power. The devil returns to his original taunt (vv. 3, 9) but attaches it to a quote from Psalm 91. Perhaps spiritual temptations are the most subtle and dangerous. The devil doesn't need to stop us from doing God's work so long as he can get us to be ungodly as we do it. That still advances his evil agenda.

Jesus' didn't fall for any of these tactics. He used his knowledge of the Scriptures in each case to repel the devil's attack. And if Jesus needed God's Word to resist evil, we need it even more. Our struggle with temptation won't end (v. 13) until God deals with the devil once and for all (Revelation 20:10).

APPLY: To which of the three temptations Jesus faced do you feel most vulnerable? What's your strategy for resisting?

PRAY: Use the Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13) as your outline for prayer. Slowly say each phrase and add your prayers to each.