Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
Everyone loves a good origin story, whether it's finding out where our favorite superhero started or getting to look back at the prequels of our favorite book series. We love to peel back the layers and just see where it all began, to see those humble beginnings. When we read through the Gospels, the story of Jesus's life and ministry, that's exactly what we find in the early chapters.
We find this beautiful backstory to who Jesus is. We learn about His character, about His drive, and how He stayed so focused on mission for the Father during His time here on Earth. When we start the Gospels, what we see is that Jesus had been living 30 years of His life in quiet submission, just living an ordinary life, just like you and I would.
He worked during the days, He slept at night, and He spent time with family and friends all before entering into the public eye. When He jumps into public ministry, He doesn't start with miracles. He doesn't start with trying to attain the masses. What He does is He finds John the Baptist. He goes down to the Jordan and He gets baptized.
Jesus Identifies with Humanity
This baptism of repentance wasn't something that Jesus needed to do. So it begs the question, why would He do it? Well, Jesus is starting His ministry by entering into life in humanity. He's reminding us that He is fully God, yes, but also fully man. He's identifying with us and associating with us. It's after this moment that the Spirit descends on Jesus like a dove, that the Spirit then drives Jesus into the wilderness.
There Jesus will fast for 40 days. He's aligning His heart with the will of the Father. He's stripping away physical needs to focus in on spiritual health. Though He started this time alone with the Spirit, He doesn't end that way. Because nearing the end of those 40 days, the devil shows up and he's there to try to take Jesus's focus from the Father and steer it away.
Satan's Temptations
He wants to ruin God's rescue plan. The picture that we're supposed to get is this retelling of Genesis chapter 3, Satan trying to deceive mankind to ruin the Father's plan for creation. But this time the story has a better ending. Satan is going to tempt Jesus three times.
For the first temptation, he's going to look at Jesus as He's hungry, desperate for food. He's going to say, you're the Son of God. You've got all authority in heaven. Just turn this stone into bread. Jesus looks at the deceiver and He says, Man does not live by bread alone. Again pointing His attention back to spiritual strength over His physical needs in this moment.
Then the devil's going to take Jesus, and he's going to bring Him to overlook all the nations. He's going to say, look at this wonderful creation and all the kingdoms of the world. He says, you deserve this. All their glory can be yours, and you can have authority over them. So long as you do one thing, bow down and worship me. Jesus's response turns back to Scripture, and that's our verse for today. Look with me in our Scripture, Luke chapter 4 verse 8.
Jesus is responding to the devil and replies, The scriptures say you must worship the Lord your God and serve only Him.
The Power of Scripture
Jesus is fully human in this moment, and the temptation is real. I want you to imagine, as the Creator of the universe, how strong of a temptation this must be, because Jesus does deserve that glory. But He's not going to sin and separate Himself from the Father.
He's going to look at the enemy, and He's going to use Scripture to keep His focus where it matters most. I hope that's a lesson for us as we go about life. We might not be face to face with the devil in the wilderness, but I can guarantee you that temptation is going to come. There's going to be times where we will look at things and we go, I want that, or maybe even, I deserve that.
In those moments, it doesn't matter how strong we feel like we are. We need to turn back to the Word of God and its truth. We need to find power in Him and His Spirit so that we might overcome temptation and set our eyes on what matters most—the God who loves us and cares for us and is with us through every step in this journey of life.
