“The Seven Mountains In Jesus Christ’s Life And Ministry Provide A Framework For Christian Living!” [Pt. 1]

PRESENTER:  Dr. JoAnne P. King

Praise the Lord and Good Morning Saints. Today’s sermon entitled “The Seven Mountains In Jesus Christ's Life And Ministry Provide A Framework For Christian Living” was gleaned from the book of Matthew. 

In the book of Matthew, Jesus is presented as the King, the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies, and a new Moses-like teacher. Today’s message will be based on Matthew 4:1-11 which says: 

“Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

“And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. 

“And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. 

“But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. 

“Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, And saith unto him, if thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy food against a stone.

“Jesus said unto him, It is written again, 'Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.'

“Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them:

“And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.

“Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, 'Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.'

“Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.”

 

1. Background:

In Matthew the 3rd chapter, we learned that Jesus has just been baptized by John the Baptist in the river Jordan and has had a mountaintop experience in that a voice was heard from heaven saying: “That this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased!”  [Matt. 3:17] 

Jesus knew that this was the time for his ministry to begin. But before it could begin, He was drawn away from everything and everyone of this world to be alone with His Father God. He needed to be prepared physically, mentally, and emotionally for the ministry and all that it involved that lay before Him. His ministry would determine the eternal fate of every person who had ever lived or ever would live in this world. [What an awe-some responsibility!]

This is why the Holy Spirit led Him into the wilderness away from food and everything else. He got alone for forty days and nights to be with God. He went through whatever training was necessary for forty days and nights with the Father to prepare Him for what was to face Him in the coming months and years.  Once He had gained all the training that was necessary from God only one thing was lacking. What was lacking were the temptations that were to come from Satan. Conquering the onslaught of temptations that lay ahead would complete His preparation.  

Once the forty days were up, and He was at His weakest, this is when Satan appeared with his three temptations. 

1. Importance:

This message is important to every Christian as well, because when we are at our weakest, this is when Satan attacks us as well. So, make a note of this and notice the areas in which Jesus is tempted because Satan will attack us in those same areas. Satan doesn’t change his tactics because they have always been successful over thousands of years. Don’t let him trick you!  

The devil attacks anywhere and everywhere, in the wilderness when alone, and in the city when surrounded by others. But temptation is especially strong at certain points. You can almost always look for him to attack:

1. Right after a mountaintop experience.
2. Right before the launching of a new work.
3. 3.  During severe moments of weakness: physical and/or mental.

  III. During this sermon, I will answer 5 questions:

1. Why was Jesus led by the Spirit to be tempted?
2. B. What did Jesus do to handle temptation?
3. What was the first temptation by the devil?
4. What was the second temptation by the devil?
5. E. What was the third temptation by the devil?
6. I Why was Jesus led by the Spirit to be tempted?

Jesus was led by the Spirit to be tempted because anyone who has been called to the ministry must be trained and tested.   Certainly, the Son of God who had the greatest calling in the world had to be trained, tested, and required to undergo far more intense training than a normal person because of His assignment. I want you to understand that God does not tempt man but He allows man to be tempted for the same reasons He led Christ to be tempted. God allows man to be tempted: 

1. To prove and demonstrate his faith.  
2. To strengthen and prepare him for heavier responsibility. 
3. To demonstrate the mercy, grace, and power of God in a human life. 
4. To prove and demonstrate his faith.  
5. For one thing, Jesus had to learn obedience –the control of His body, mind, and spirit.  

In Heb. 5:8, it says: “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.”  

In today’s society, if you are the son of a wealthy person for example, you are usually spared the hardships of life. You are borne with a silver spoon in your mouth as the saying goes.  Meaning that the things that most ordinary people have to do, because you are born in a house of privilege, you are not required to do. Such as cut the grass, do chores around the house, etc. The privileged son’s parents have a gardener, a maid, butler, housekeeper, etc., therefore making it unnecessary for him to do those things. Personally, I don’t envy this child at all. I feel that this child will grow up spoiled and unable to take care of himself in the event of some misfortune. Every child should learn obedience.

Since Jesus was the Son of God, you might have expected Him to be treated like the above listed sons of today or the sons of kings during His day. No, this wasn’t and couldn’t possibly be the case with Jesus because:

1. Christ is greater than earthly priests. 
2. 2. Because He is a heavenly High Priest, sinless and able to deliver.
3. 3. Because other priests are earthly, sinful, and helpless to save.
4. Because He is a Priest after a higher order than that of Aaron.
5. Because He is perfect and able to save all men but other priests cannot.

In 1 Peter 2:9, we are told what all believers are to God: “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”  As a member of the royal priesthood, you must be trained and tested as well.

2. The second thing Jesus had to do through his testing was to secure righteousness—the ideal perfection and sinlessness for man.

“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor. 5:21).

This great atonement text (which is inseparable from the great incarnation text of (2 Cor. 8:9) “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ: although He was rich, for your sake He became poor, so that by His poverty you might become rich” is packed with meaning. (1) Christ was sinless as a qualification, and so (2) in His death God made Him “to be sin” (i.e., and accursed sin offering), (3) “for us” (i.e. in our place, substituting Himself for us), (4) so that “in Him” (through the ministry of the gospel) believers become the righteousness of God.

3. The third thing Jesus had to do was to experience all the infirmities of human life so that He would be able to succour man.  

 

Webster’s dictionary defines succor as: One who provides assistance or relief in time of distress. “For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” (Heb. 4:15-16)

Further, Jesus “has been tested in every way as we are, yet without sin.” This phrase does not mean that Christ underwent every single human temptation that is possible to experience in our day, but that He experienced in every way the full force of our temptation yet without yielding to it. Jesus is indeed a worthy high priest who is superior to the OT priests and able to sympathize with our weaknesses. 

1. Christ met temptation by doing three things:
2. He spent time alone with God. There are special times when communion with God is absolutely essential: (1) after a mountaintop experience (Christ’s baptism); (2) before a great trial or time of temptation.  Note that Jesus spent forty days alone with God before the tempter came to Him; (3) periods of great service for God. 

 It is a great mistake to go before the public or to return from the public without spending a long time alone with God. The public at least some of the public, will lay accolades at the feet of God’s servant. Temptation lies just ahead. Preparation is essential.

1. He made sure He was led by the Holy Spirit. Note: Three facts about the person who really knows God and is set on serving God. 1) The more a person seeks to serve God, the more he can expect to be tempted. Note how heavy and intense the temptation was against Christ. 2) The more a person seeks to serve God, the more he needs communion with God. Time alone with God is essential. 3) Spiritual strength and maturity do not exempt a person from temptation. Everyone is tempted, even the Son of God Himself. No one is exempt.  
2. He relied upon the Scriptures. A quiet time in God’s Word—meditating, communing and worshipping—is an absolute essential for the believer. Because of the above three items, Jesus was able to quote the appropriate scripture at any and all times during the attacks of Satan. As we continue to study the events in the life of Jesus in Matthew, you will note, that when Jesus came down from the mountain after spending time with God the Father, He came down in the power and anointing of the Holy Spirit. Nothing on this earth could stop or deter Him. If we want to be successful in our assignment or Ministry, we must do the above three things as well.
3. The first temptation of Jesus Christ was to prove His deity by using His power for personal purposes. 

 

1. Christ was tempted to use His own power to meet both a personal and a world-wide need: hunger. He was hungry and His hunger was critical. He had not eaten for forty days. The devil tempted Him to create bread and feed Himself, and in this suggestion was the hidden idea that He could feed the world and prove Himself to be the Son of God. By such, He could secure what He was after: the loyalty and worship of men. Men would rush to serve any Messiah or man who could meet their physical and material needs. The devil wasn’t aware that Jesus already knew what was in man; that’s why He said in John 6:26, “I assure you: You are looking for Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled."  

 

1. Christ was tempted to trust Himself, not God, and to choose another way other than God’s way. God’s way was the way of faith which included both time—time to suffer the trials of life—and the cross. The devil was saying “trust yourself, take a shorter route." Feed yourself and the world. Your needs can be met, and you can have the loyalty of men immediately.”

There are two things wrong with the reasoning of this temptation.

1. 1.  Man needs more than bread. He needs more than physical life and physical needs being met.
2. Man needs God’s life. He needs eternal life and he needs his spiritual needs met.

Bread is a necessity of life. Jesus could have proven that He was the Son of God by using His supernatural power to create bread. He could have secured the loyalty of men by feeding them, that is, by meeting their physical needs. But He would have failed in at least two points.

1. He would have failed in meeting the spiritual needs of man.
2. He would have failed by teaching error—the error that the physical is more important than the spiritual, and that receiving is more important than giving.

There is a spiritual hunger that is just not met by bread. Man’s responsibility is the same as Christ’s was: to trust God and to seek the things of God as he walks day by day throughout life.

Believers often face the very same temptation but we are told in 1 Cor. 10:13: “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” 

 

1. Believers are tempted:
2. To prove who they are and to act in their own strength and their own ability.

 

2. To meet a real need (personal or community) in a wrong and illegitimate way: misusing one’s position and abilities.
3. To stress physical needs over the spiritual needs of men to feed them bread only, never bringing them to the cross.
4. To trust self, not God, trusting one’s own strength and abilities.

There are four clear lessons in this temptation: They are:

1. 1. Temptation often attacks an area of desperate need such as hunger. There is a right and a wrong way to meet any need. It is often felt that if a real need can be met, then how it is met is excused. That is, the end justifies the means.
2. Man must learn that he does not live by bread alone. The physical alone will not satisfy. Man is spirit, therefore, he needs God and is dependent upon God. Thou shall eat, but not be satisfied.”  Hag. 1:6: “Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; …”
3. 3.  Temptation is to be resisted by using the Word of God. The believer must study and learn the Word of God in order to withstand temptation. 119:11 “Thy word have I hid in mine heart that I might not sin against thee.”
4. When needs arise, a person must always strengthen himself against temptation. The greater the need; the greater the attack of temptation.

 

VII. The second temptation of Jesus Christ was to prove His deity by the spectacular.

The devil tempted Christ to prove that He was the Son of God by doing two more acts.

1. Jesus was tempted to test God. He was tempted to do the spectacular. He was to jump off the towering pinnacle of the temple and let God send His angels to catch Him in mid-air and lift Him gently to the ground. Since He was God’s only Son, God would certainly bear Him up (so the devil reasoned). [Psa. 91:12]
2. Jesus was tempted to attract attention by the spectacular. The worshippers at the temple, seeing such a spectacular event, would accept and proclaim Him to be the Son of God.

 

There are two things wrong with the reasoning behind this temptation.

1. God’s will, His power, His protection, His promises are not to be presumed upon or taken advantage of or misused. God is not to be tested or tried; God is to be trusted. His will and His Word are to be trusted and obeyed just as they are laid down; all things are to be done exactly as He says. 
2. 2.  God is to be trusted, not the spectacular. God wants men to believe Him because they love Him as their Father, not because of events and happenings, whether they be spectacular or commonplace.  

If Jesus had given into this temptation, He would have failed in at least two points.  

1. He would have tempted God to misuse His power. Jesus would have placed Himself in a threatening position and risked His life, expecting God to save Him. This act would have abused God’s will and misused what God had promised. This act would have ignored what God really wanted and had really said. 
2. 2.  He would have centered people’s attention on the spectacular. The mission of Christ was to focus people’s attention on faith in God—in particular, their desperate need for God and His eternal kingdom.   

It tells us clearly in 1 John 2:15-16, what Satan’s tricks are: “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.  If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.”  

Three things are essential in order to conquer this temptation.

1. Living with God moment by moment—genuinely living in constant communion with Him. 
2. 2.  Living in God’s Word—really knowing His promises in order to use them as they were meant to be used. (Note:  Jesus and NT writers warned believers of impending persecution. The warning may seem to conflict with some texts; however, both the warnings and the proverb are true. This warning must be balanced with Paul’s acknowledgement that some unbelievers will respect Christians for their honesty, kindness, and wisdom, all of which produce peace when rightly received. The manner in which Christians responded to persecution, suffering, and death was one of the ways in which Christianity undermined paganism in the Roman Empire.
3. The power of Satan is a limited power.  He can only tempt; he cannot force a person to sin. He could not push Christ off the pinnacle. He cannot push man into sin. The lust or desire is from within man. Satan’s temptation can only stir and arouse the desire and lusts. Satan cannot cause a man to lust. Therefore, if a person is living in communion with God and living in God’s Word, he will be stirred to obey God more than he is stirred to yield to the temptation.

The temple or house of worship is a place of special interest to the devil. It is the place where the worship of God is centered. Therefore, to cause some diversion, pride, or false teaching—anything that detracts and leads people away from God—defeats God’s purposes and ruins people’s lives, sometimes eternally. Satan knew Scripture and knew it well. It is possible to know the Scripture and not know God. It is even possible to know the Scripture and to stand against God, abusing and misusing His Word.  

 

 VIII. The third temptation of Jesus was to prove His deity by compromise.  

The devil tempted Jesus Christ to prove that He was the Son of God by compromising.

1. Jesus was tempted to compromise His ministry and His mission. He was tempted to secure the world without the cross, without paying the price. He was tempted to choose another way instead of God’s way—to achieve His purpose by another route. He was attracted to use the wrong means for reaching the end of universal sovereignty. If He bowed down and worshipped the devil, the kingdoms of the world and the loyalty of men were to be His.
2. Jesus was tempted to compromise His life and His loyalty. He was tempted to switch loyalties. He was offered the world and the sovereign leadership of the world, if He would just do one thing: worship the devil. What does this mean? It means that Christ was tempted to allow the world (including man) to remain corruptible and dying with no hope of life eternal with God. It was a temptation to allow the world to continue as it is, and to allow the devil to continue his work within the world in order to frustrate God’s eternal plan for the world.

There are two things wrong with the reasoning behind this temptation.

1. Compromise with the devil and the world is not God’s way. God’s way is to conquer the corruption and death of this world.
2. God alone is to be worshipped, not the devil nor the world and its power.

If Jesus had given in to this temptation, He would have failed in at least two points.

 

1. He would have secured the kingdoms of this world through compromise, not by God’s hands. God had promised Him the world and the loyalty of its citizens, but it was to come by way of the cross. The way of God was far better, for the kingdoms promised by God were to be eternal. 

 

2. He would have switched His loyalty from God to the devil. He would have forsaken God for this world and its prince, Satan. I am reminded of the scripture: “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give to exchange for his soul?”  Mt. 16:26

 

Notice four significant lessons in this point.

 

1. A believer is often tempted to compromise both his life and his work or ministry. The tempter, Satan, wants a person’s attention and energy and effort. He wants a person given over to this world and to this life only. 

 

2. Satan deceives and lies. The kingdoms of this world are only temporary—for a few short years. The life of a person and the life of the world itself is short, ever so short. It all ends. The scriptures tell us that Satan is the father of lies!

 

3. Believers cannot receive from Satan what God has promised them, that is, eternal life.
4. Temptation must be resisted immediately. Jesus did not hesitate a moment in resisting temptation.

 

1. CONCLUSION:

 

This message is important because Jesus Christ shows us through example that temptation in all of its forms can be conquered. How? Jesus resisted the temptation the only way He could: by doing exactly what the Word of God said. He simply obeyed God; therefore, He never got out of the will of God.  The devil was defeated and temptation and sin were conquered. 

 

Note that the devil left Jesus alone for a while and some angels came and ministered to Him.  

Following Jesus’ example, when we are tempted, we must resist the temptation by following the Word of God and obeying it. In that way, we too, will never get out of the will of God. Satan will be defeated and the sin that confronted us will be conquered. When we have done this, like Jesus, the devil will leave us alone for a while and angels will come and minister to us.

 

Thoughts to remember: The greatest takeaway from Jesus being taken into the wilderness is that spiritual trials and seasons of isolation are essential preparation for your life's calling. Instead of avoiding these "desert" periods, you can use them to strengthen your character, reaffirm your true identity, and weaponize foundational truth. 

 

The wilderness experience offers three highly actionable lessons for life:

 

• You Must know your identity: You are a son of God…

The takeaway is that your worth and mission are established before the trial begins. Knowing exactly who you are keeps you from surrendering to deception.

• Truth is your ultimate weapon: 

During His 40 days of fasting and confrontation, Jesus combated every lie by quoting Scripture. It serves as a blueprint: relying on proven foundational truths--rather than feelings, panic, or shortcuts--helps you overcome the most intense trials.

• Faithfulness beats world success: 

Satan tempted Jesus with quick fixes and shortcuts to power. Jesus showed that it is always better to endure the hard path of obedience than to compromise your integrity for immediate, easy gains. Many believers reflect on these principles during reflective seasons of the church year, like Lent. 

 

Additionally, the devil is a conquered enemy.  “…That through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil” [Heb. 2:13].  

There is always an escape from temptation. God knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation… [2 Pt. 2:9] When temptation is resisted, the devil flees and the believer is relieved for a while. “Submit yourselves therefore to God.  Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”  [Jas. 4:7]

 

I pray that the messages of the “The Seven Mountains In Jesus Christ's Life
And Ministry Provide A Framework for Christian Living” will fall on rich ground and take deep root and produce much fruit. Give the Lord a praise offering for His instructions to us. Amen and so let it be done!