Lesson 9 - The Temptation of Jesus

• After His baptism, Jesus was led by the Spirit to the desert for 40 days where was tempted by the devil (Matthew 4:1-11).
• Jesus faced three temptations.
• First Temptation - Jesus was asked to turn stones into bread to relieve His hunger.
• Second Temptation - Jesus was instructed to throw Himself off the parapet of a temple and have the angels protect Him as proof that He is indeed the Son of God.
• Third Temptation - the devil told Jesus that he owned all the kingdoms of the world and that he would give it all to Him if only He worshipped him.
• But Jesus, filled with the power of the Holy Spirit after his baptism, never gave in to the promptings of the devil. In the end, He was victorious.
• The three temptations of Christ can represent the three aspects of our life where we face temptation every day: the physical, the emotional, and the mental.
• Physically, we want to satisfy our hunger for pleasure, sex, and food.
• Emotionally, we want to satisfy our yearning for entitlement, superiority, and the pleasure of fame and pride.
• Mentally, we want to satisfy our desire for power, glory, money, and luxury.
• These desires and natural inclinations are not evil in and of themselves:

  
  

  • But they are the fastest and most convenient path for Satan to tempt us to do evil.
  • Because they are so desirable, the temptation to abuse and misuse these things can easily lead us to sin.
• Temptation is not a sin by itself. It only becomes a sin when we succumb to it.
• Temptation - the enticement to commit sin and do evil.
• The temptations of Jesus correspond to three kinds of temptations in human beings:

  • Physical
  • Emotional
  • Mental
• Controlling our desires is the key to victory against temptation.
• Temptations are part of our human condition. Temptations are the test of our faithfulness and love for God.
• Pride - seeking after one's own honor. Self-seeking and vanity are examples of pride. The chief of capital sins.
• Avarice - seeking after wealth by stealing, fraud, injustice, and stinginess.
• Envy - a certain sadness of the mind. It leads to hatred and resentment of others. We are envious when we resent the fact that another is better off than ourselves.
• Anger - as a Capital Sin, refers to a loss of temper. It is often reflected in fits of rage, quarreling, gossip, profanity, and property damage.
• Lust - impurity or sexual sins.
• Gluttony - an excessive consumption of food or drink, which can lead to a lack of self-control.
• Sloth - laziness in doing one's duty to God and to others because of an unwillingness to sacrifice or exert the effort required to perform the good work.
• Sources of Sin (Seven Capital Sins)

  • Pride
  • Avarice
  • Envy
  • Anger
  • Lust
  • Gluttony
  • Sloth