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The Temptation of Jesus Christ is a powerful lesson from the Bible, teaching us, not only what Jesus went through, but what we go through, as well. We learn in this lesson, to resist temptation, God gives us everything Jesus had. 

Harmony Of The Gospels Series 4

The Temptation Of Jesus Christ

For more information about Jesus see these books on the History of Jesus Christ.

For more detail on this episode, here are some recent popular books on the temptation of Jesus

Side Point: I promised, when we started this series, that we would handle the controversies and seeming contradictions in the Gospels. Since we're moving past one of those areas, I'd like to discuss it. I didn't feel led to teach a whole session on it, so we'll just cover it here and then move on to today's subject. The seeming contradiction comes in Mt. 1 and Lk. 3 when the lineage of Jesus is covered.  I tried to explain this conflict to a friend without having researched it. Because Mt. shows Joseph's father to be Jacob and Lk. lists him as Heli, I said it was common for people in the Bible to have more than one name. I was correct about that, but wrong in applying it to this situation. Moral:

Always check in the Bible what you're being told by mere people. People make mistakes. I do regularly!

What was wrong about my statement in this case was, all the names between Jesus' father, Joseph, and king David were different…over 14 generations. This was not simply someone having two different names; it was two different sets of relatives. What they taught me in Bible college is, one was Mary's line and the other was Joseph's. If that were true, then the Bible would not say they were both Joseph's ancestors. If the Bible is the perfect Word of God, how can a man have two different fathers? Isn't that the question?

In our culture, divorce and remarriage is common but the children generally keep their original Dad, at least legally. Back then, divorce was rare and remarriage of a divorced woman even rarer. But, at that time the whole world had no electricity, running water, hospitals, sewers, etc. It was common for people to die very young. A woman remarrying after her husband had died was well accepted. In fact, if she had no children from her first marriage, the brother of her dead husband was required to marry her. This allows for two sets of lineage to be correct.

Here's one way it could work: Jacob and Heli are not naturally related, but Heli's father dies. Jacob's father marries Heli's mother, making them step-brothers. Heli marries, but dies before his wife conceives a child. Jacob is required to marry Heli's widow and give her a child, which would be legally Heli's with respect to inheritance, etc. Joseph, then, could be Heli's legal child and Jacob's natural child. Both sets of lineage are correct. This is only one way to explain the "conflict" between the two versions. If someone is looking for reasons to distrust Scripture, this won't satisfy them. If we're looking at Scripture with the understanding that it's God's Word, when we see a possible conflict, we begin with the assumption that the conflict is in our understanding, not in His Word. On to the lesson…

Lk 4:1-13 (Mk 1:12-13, Mt 4:1-11)

Ever been tempted to do something you knew was wrong? I remember thinking during those times 'no one will see me.' Of course, we all know there are at least 2 witnesses to everything I do…me and God. When we're being tempted, though, it's easy to forget about that. I've been tempted a lot, as, I'm sure, we all have. "Don't think that!" "Don't look there! It's not my wife." "Don't watch that commercial, that movie, that scene!" "Keep those thoughts out!" It's a continuous battle. How do you feel when you're being tempted? If you're like me, you feel worthless. After all, how could a follower of Jesus have those kinds of thoughts? Let alone, a minister. One time, as I was leaving a meeting with another minister, the picture came into my mind to strangle him. I literally saw my hands around his throat, his face red and his tongue sticking out. The thought was very tempting. The meeting had revealed he had been lying about me to our boss and all my co-workers, undermining my reputation and my relationships. Though I can recall the picture vividly, it no longer is the temptation it was, because I have forgiven him. At the time, though, the jury was still out. It shocked me to even have that thought, let alone to find it tempting.

It never seems to fail that, right after a major success of some sort, a major testing time follows. They teach in business school to expect a let down after achieving a major goal. Jesus experienced that in our study topic. He had just been baptized. When He came up out of the water heaven opened up, the Holy Spirit descended on Him in the form of a dove, and the Father spoke from heaven saying, "This is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased." Oh, it was a big day for Jesus. That would be a big day for any of us! Immediately after that the holy Spirit leads him into the wilderness to be tempted for 40 days. Here comes temptation Slamming into our lives, throwing us off balance, trying to keep us from all God has for us. We're not alone! Jesus was tempted, too. His story shows us that…

Everything Jesus had to help Him overcome temptation, we have, today.

Continued at The Temptation Of Jesus Christ-2

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