Be filled with the Holy Spirit

"Be filled with the Holy Spirit" Luke 4:1-13 Well-armed are those who go against the worst temptations of the devil filled with the Holy Spirit. Jesus was returning from the Jordan, where He had been baptized and where He had heard the voice from heaven that had designated Him as the Favorite Son of God.

I. There was never a time in our Lord when He was not filled with the Holy Spirit.

A. It is the Trinity that God is one and triune.

1. It is a unity made up of three divine persons related to each other: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

2. This principle is known as the communion of three persons in one God.

3. A person filled with the Holy Spirit is empty of known sin and self and in him dwells only the Word of God.

4. When Jesus returned from the Jordan where He had been baptized, He was "led by the Spirit into the wilderness."

5. (v. 2-3) There He was for forty days, being tempted by the devil and in these "days" the Lord "ate nothing" (first).

6. At the end of the forty days, He suffered the threefold temptation with which we are most familiar.

7. This threefold temptation took place in three different places: the desert, a mount, and the temple in Jerusalem.

8. The true humanity of Jesus is reflected in the words "he hungered."

9. This was the target of the first temptation.

10. Satan suggested that the Lord use His divine power to satisfy His physical hunger.

11. The subtlety of the temptation was that the act itself was perfectly legitimate.

12. Jesus does not owe obedience, the Lord is the creator of everything, He is not due to anyone, or anything.

13. Jesus obeys the Father in His nature.

14. (v. 4) Jesus resisted temptation by quoting Scripture (Deuteronomy 8:3).

15. More importantly, that the satisfaction of physical appetite is obedience to the word of God.

16. Jesus did not argue (Deuteronomy 8:3).

17. A single text serves to silence when used with the power of the Spirit.

18. (v. 5-7) In the second temptation; the devil... He showed Jesus in a moment all the kingdoms of the inhabited earth.

19. Satan does not need much time to show all that he has to offer.

20. It was not the world itself that he offered, but the realms of "this world."

21. There is a sense in which it "has power" over the "realms of" this world.

22. Because of man's sin, Satan has become “the prince of this world" (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11), "the god of this age" (2 Corinthians 4:4) and "the prince of the powers of the air" (Ephesians 2:2).

23. God has purposed that "the kingdoms of this world" will one day become "the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ" (Revelation 11:15).

24. So, Satan was offering Christ what was going to be His anyway.

25. (v. 8) Therefore, the Lord quoted Deuteronomy 6:13 to show that as a Man He was to worship and serve God alone.

26. (Luke 4:9-11) The third temptation, Satan took Jesus to Jerusalem to the eaves of the temple and suggested that He "cast Himself down."

27. (Psalm 91:11-12) (Matthew 4:6): He will command his angels about you, and in his hands, they will hold you, that you may not stumble over your foot in stone; (Psalm 91:11-12) For he will command his angels about you, "That they keep you in all your ways." (V.12) In their hands they will carry you, so that your foot does not stumble in stone.

28. (a) The temptation was for Jesus to prove that He was the Messiah by a spectacular sign.

29. He could get glory without suffering.

30. He could overlook the cross and nevertheless reach the throne.

31. But this action would be outside of God's will.

32. They were means of personal glory by casting aside God's will.

33. This temptation comes to us in the desire to attain a religious renown apart from the fellowship of His sufferings.

34. We look for great things for ourselves and then run and hide when faced with difficulties.

35. When we ignore God's will and exalt ourselves, we "tempt God."

36. (v. 12) For the third time Jesus resisted temptation with a quote from the Bible.

37. (Deuteronomy 6:16) "You shall not tempt the Lord your God."

38. (v. 13) The devil left Jesus "until a time."

39. Temptations do not come continuously.

40. Jesus is God and God cannot sin. Amen.