Following after Jesus #28

 

We've looked at Matthew and Mark's accounts of Jesus' temptation. Now let's take a glance at Luke 4:
And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness 2 for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. 3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” 4 And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’”

All three Gospel writers talk about the Holy Spirit leading Jesus out to the wilderness, but Luke alone lets us know that Jesus was "full of the Holy Spirit", fully submissive to His guidance, comfort, and empowering.  That tell us something about being ready to face temptation: it is nothing to attempt to do in our own strength, with only our own wisdom, and, it's not going to be easy: it is going to hurt to say "no." This experience Jesus had was intense and relentless and inescapable. We need to keep in mind that He was doing it as our Representative, on our behalf. But He was also doing it as an example. As long as we live in this world, temptation will be relentless and inescapable, and seemingly at times, relentless. Paul says in I Corinthians 10:13:No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. The question is: "how will we see the way of escape?" The Holy Spirit will show us, guide us. We also must never get the idea that on our own we can resist: we will always need the power of Christ and His Spirit to say "no." Finally, temptation hurts and saying "no" can also.  We need the comforter. As Jesus went through this He had the Holy Spirit and his angels to comfort. He will be there for us too.