Last week we looked at this same passage and focused on the statement, “He was in the wilderness forty days being tempted by Satan.” This was the first truth about temptation that we wanted to deal with: Satan is our enemy, and he is at war with God, but since he cannot strike God directly, he seeks to strike him indirectly by attacking those whom God loves. He tempts us to betray the Lord by appealing to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. And he does this at moments in time which he detects are most opportune to his advantage. Now you say, “It sure did take you a long time to say all of that last week.” True. So long in fact that I did not have time to say two more things that this passage teaches us about temptation. So we return to it today to emphasize those truths in hopes that we will be edified and encouraged in our regular and frequent episodes of temptation.
You can’t help noticing that Mark’s account of Jesus’ temptation is very brief. It is only two verses, compared with 11 verses in Matthew, and 13 in Luke. He does not include nearly as many details as those two evangelists do. But he makes very clear the personalities involved – Jesus is the subject, Satan is the adversary. But surprisingly perhaps, we also read that the Holy Spirit had a part to play in the temptation of Jesus, as did the angels. And as we see their role in His temptation, perhaps we will better understand their role in ours, and we will be better equipped to handle those things knowing that God is at work in the situation.
Our first point was that Jesus was tempted by Satan. Now, we move on to the next truth we find in the passage.
II. Jesus was Impelled By the Spirit (v12)
The English translations vary here. My NASB says impelled. The KJV has driveth. Other recent literal translations use the same word drove here. The NIV uses the much weaker term sent. The Greek term here is ekballo, and Mark’s use of it implies much more force than Matthew and Luke’s weaker term anago, which means simply led. The word ekballo combines a preposition meaning out with a verb ballo, from which we get our word ball, because it means “to throw.” Most of the uses of this word in Mark have to do with Jesus casting out demons. But in this case, we should not understand this to mean there was reluctance on Jesus’ part, but rather that divine necessity compelled Him to go. He was thrown out into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. James Edwards says, “The same Spirit that descended on Jesus at the baptism has an appointment for Him in the wilderness.”[1]
This is surprising to us, because we know that James 1:13 says that no one should say “I am being tempted by God,” for God does not tempt anyone. Indeed He does not, but that does not mean that He will not lead us into occasions of temptation or allow us to be tempted. Temptation is not sin. But it is the opportunity for you to choose sin or choose righteousness. And God will lead you to those places where you must make that choice. You recall that Jesus taught His followers to pray according to a model which says, “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.” Now why should we pray that God would not lead us into temptation if it is not true that sometimes He does lead us into temptation? So the natural question for us is, “Why did the Spirit impel Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted?” And the follow-up question, “Why does the Spirit lead us into temptation?”
A. Why did the Spirit lead Jesus into temptation?
As we answer this question, it is important for us to recognize that He was tempted for 40 days. That number, 40, ought to be significant for us. Only the number 7 is more common in Jewish writings. Noah endured 40 days of rain in the flood (Gen 7:4; 7:17). Moses was on the mountain with God 40 days (Ex 24:18; 34:28).
The Greek word translated tempted in most of our Bibles may also be rendered tested. God was proving His Messiah by putting Him in the face of attack so that He could have victory over Satan. Hebrews 4:15 says He was tempted in all things as we are yet without sin. Whereas mankind had stumbled repeatedly and failed in the face of temptation, Jesus demonstrated that He had come to defeat Satan fully and finally. He conquered temptation and proved His nature as the sinless Son of God who would die in the place of sinners as an acceptable sacrifice to God. The Spirit led Him into the wilderness to prove to Satan that this was the Redeemer who was coming, as John says in 1 John 3:8, “to destroy the works of the devil.”
So now the second question:
B. “Why does the Spirit lead us into temptation?”
I suggest to you that the answer is the same. He leads us into temptation as a proving ground, a place of testing, to demonstrate our spiritual maturity. But you say, “Doesn’t God already know?” Yes He knows everything, but we don’t and Satan doesn’t. So temptation is our opportunity to prove to ourselves the work that the Holy Spirit is doing within us, and to prove to Satan that God will faithfully uphold His own.
“Have you considered my servant Job?” That was the question God asked Satan in Job 1:8. Satan said he had been roaming about on the earth, and walking around on it. What was he doing? First Peter 5:8 says he prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. He was looking for a victim. But God did not say, “Well, you just keep your distance from Job – I can’t lose him.” Rather, God said, “Have you considered my servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil.” God invited Satan to test Job. Why would God do that? Was it so that God could find out if Job would turn his back on Him? No, God never finds anything out. He knows everything. It was so Satan would know that Job was a faithful and spiritually mature man who loved the Lord and was absolutely committed to him. And, it was to demonstrate to Job how much God trusted him to do the right thing in the face of temptation.
Did you know that when temptation comes your way, it is a sign that God trusts you? He trusts you to do what is right! That is the lesson in the book of Job – not that Job trusted God, but that God trusted Job enough to let him go through all those tests and trials. Job was God’s trophy, and his victory in those trials was his glory! My pastor, Mark Corts said, “Temptation is the glory of the believer because God can give us victory in it.”[2] Temptation affords us the opportunity to demonstrate to Satan that we are committed to the Lord, and for God to prove to us how faithful He is in our time of need.
God trusts you to hold on to Him. Sometimes, you don’t even trust yourself – but God is wanting to show you how much He can do through you in the face of that temptation if you will trust Him and cling to Him in the midst of it. Turn to 1 Corinthians 10:13 &. Look what Paul says:
No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man – You don’t have it worse than anyone else. The temptations you face may be of a different matter, but they are of the same nature and intensity as that faced by every other person in the world. And some fall to it, and some withstand it, but they are common to man. Read on …
and God is faithful – He is as faithful to you in times of temptation as He is any other moment of your life. He is always true to His promises. And what does He promise …
He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able – God knows your limits. If you are facing a temptation, it is one that God knows you are able to withstand if you rely on His strength to get you through it. God does not bring you to face temptations that He knows you cannot endure. Satan can do nothing to you without God’s permission, and God only permits him to tempt you with what God already knows you can handle. And notice what else …
with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it. God will always provide a way out for you. You are never hemmed in by your temptations. God brought you to it, He will bring you through it – if you depend Him in it.
Look at Joseph in Genesis 39. Turn there please &.
You notice that Potiphar trusted Joseph with everything in his house. Now, the writer even tells us in v6 that Joseph was a handsome man, and in v7 that Potiphar’s wife desired him and wanted to engage him in a sexual escapade. But look at v8 – Joseph refused. He said, “How then could I do this great evil and sin against God?" And notice how she persisted. Verse 10 says she pursued him day after day, but “he did not listen to her to lie beside her or be with her.”
And then one day they were all alone, and she seized him. She took hold of him to fulfill her desire. No one would know if he yielded to her demands. No one would know if he gave in and gratified the desires of the flesh. But Joseph knew that God would know, and he knew this temptation was a satanic attack to undermine his testimony for the Lord. So he left his garment in her hand and fled, and went outside.
This guy had a tough time with his clothes, didn’t he? You remember how his brothers took his coat of many colors and lied to their father about what happened to him? Now, Potiphar’s wife took his garment and framed him with it. He was thrown in jail for a crime he did not commit. But his conscience was clear, and God knew the truth. And even in the depths of that Egyptian prison, Joseph knew the victory of keeping his testimony pure before the Lord.
Listen once more to those words Dr. Corts spoke -- “Temptation is the glory of the believer because God can give us victory in it. You don’t have to yield to temptation. You don’t have to sell your testimony for a moment of pleasure.” Your testimony is the result of your tests, and the victory God gives you in them. So when temptation comes your way, know this –
· God could have prevented it, but since He didn’t, He must have led you to it because He trusts you and wants to prove you. Not so that He will know your faithfulness, but so that He can show you off as a trophy of His grace and strength before Satan, and prove His faithfulness to you in the midst of that temptation.
That is a truth we learn by looking at the temptation of Jesus. But there is one more. I dare say there are many more, but there is one more I want to point out. Turn back to Mark 1.
III. Jesus was ministered to by the angels (v13)
Mark uses an imperfect verb here to indicate that Jesus did not receive the attention of the angels after His temptation, but they were caring for Him throughout. Now you say, “What makes you think God will send those angels to care for us like they ministered to Jesus?” Hebrews 1:14 says that their job is to take care of you. It says, “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?” That is you, if you have been born-again by faith in Christ. You are the inheritor of salvation – God has sent the angels out to render service for your sake.
Jesus was being tempted by Satan, but that did not prevent Him from being ministered to by the angels. And it doesn’t prevent you from receiving their attention either.
Jesus was in the wilderness, but He was still being ministered to by the angels. We read in 1 Kings 19 how Elijah was running for his life from Jezebel, and he ended up out in the wilderness, sitting under a juniper tree, and he started praying that God would just take his life right then and there. I have always wondered, if he wanted to die, why didn’t he just hang around and let Jezebel do it? Here he was, out in the wilderness, under the juniper tree, crying out for God to take his life. But God didn’t take his life – instead, He sent an angel to him with the food he needed to strengthen his life.
Jesus was surrounded by the wild beasts, but He was still being ministered to by the angels. While some have attempted to paint this scene with a brush of serenity, as if Jesus was surrounded by loving and tender animals, the biblical evidence is to the contrary. While there is certainly coming a day when He will reign over a perfect world described in Isaiah 11:6-9 as a time when the wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat,
and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; … and the child will play by the hole of the cobra, etc. But Isaiah says that in that day, “the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.” This was not the day in which Jesus was being tempted.
The wild beasts here indicate the horror and danger of the wilderness and hostility between man and beast. But even in the midst of such danger and hostility, the angels were ministering to Jesus. Daniel proclaimed from the den of lions that "God sent His angel and shut the lions' mouths and they have not harmed me.” (Dan 6:22). So the angels were at the aid of Jesus in the midst of the wild beasts of the wilderness. Mark’s readers would take great courage in this, for they were living in the days of Nero, who would take the Christians and cover them with the carcasses of dead animals and throw them to the wild dogs to ripped apart. They would understand that even in the midst of those horrors, God’s angels would care for them, and even usher them to glory if they met their deaths there.
Sometimes when you are being tempted, and tested, and tried, you feel like you are all alone out in the wilderness. You feel like you are being attacked by wild animals. But you aren’t alone. In the midst of those hostile attacks, you have the presence of God’s ministering angels caring for your needs, just as Jesus did.
Matthew Henry wrote this:
God makes use of the attendance of the good spirits for the protection of his people from the malice and power of evil spirits; and the holy angels do us more good offices every day than we are aware of. Though in dignity and in capacity of nature they are very much superior to us,—though they retain their primitive rectitude, which we have lost;—though they have constant employment in the upper world, the employment of praising God, and are entitled to a constant rest and bliss there,—yet in obedience to their Maker, and in love to those that bear his image, they condescend to minister to the saints, and stand up for them against the powers of darkness; they not only visit them, but encamp round about them, acting for their good.[3]
Of course, you realize God doesn’t need the angels. One divine decree and His will is done with or without any outside agency working on His behalf. Christ has promised His own presence and protection to us, saying “I will never leave you nor forsake you,” (Heb 13:5), and “I am with you always, even to the ends of the age” (Matt 28:20). He has promised that the Holy Spirit will indwell forever those who are His by faith. And His presence and protection is more than enough for us. Calvin said that knowing this, it would be improper for us to look round for more help. But God has created the angels and commissioned them for our benefit. Calvin goes on to say that if God in his “infinite goodness and indulgence” has chosen to provide His angels to aid in our weaknesses, “it would ill become us to overlook the favor.”[4] So we should thank God for the ministry of the angels on our behalf in the face of temptation, but we should never be so focused on their activity that we lose sight of the greater activity of God Himself, as it is written in 2 Chronicles 16:9, “For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His.”
Now, I don’t know but what this very day and this very hour, there may be one or more of you who find yourselves undergoing tremendous spiritual attack. Your enemy the devil is trying hard to devour you and destroy your testimony for Christ. But I want you to know today on the authority of God’s word that you have been permitted to undergo this time of testing and enter this proving ground by the sovereignty of God because He believes you can handle it in His strength and in His grace. He wants to use this dark night of your soul to prove Himself strong on your behalf and to demonstrate your faithfulness to Him for the enemy to see and recognize. So you can take comfort in knowing that God has neither abandoned you nor forsaken you, but has brought you to this point for His purposes, and you will experience victory if you abide in Him through it. And He has not only granted you His presence, His power, and His protection, but has commissioned an invisible spiritual host of angels who encamp about you to minister to your every need through the trial. And I want to challenge you today to cast yourself upon the Lord, and declare your absolute dependence upon Him and all the resources of Heaven to bring you victory in the battle. You can’t do it yourself. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 10:12 that if you think you stand in your own flesh and your own human abilities, take heed lest you fall. You can’t do it alone – but you don’t have to. Christ has won the victory for you and delivered the final and fatal blow to Satan through His death and resurrection, and His victory will be appropriated to you in your hour of need if you remain steadfast and faithful to Him as you endure it.
[1] James R. Edwards, The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel According to Mark (
[2] Mark Corts, “When Do We Most Please God? Matthew 3:13-17,” (Winston-Salem, NC: ShareLife, 1999). Audio Tape of sermon preached at
[3]Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry's Commentary : On the Whole Bible, electronic ed. of the complete and unabridged edition. (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1996, c1991), Ps 34:11.
[4] Cited without reference in David Jeremiah, What the Bible Says About Angels (Sisters, Ore.: Multnomah, 1996), 73.
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