Jesus Is Baller

Matthew 4:1-11

It was hard to find a time for this today because of how busy my day was today, but I'm glad I'm taking a break from the craziness and writing this, and importantly devoting time to God. I've got a very big exam tomorrow that I'll be studying for the rest of today and possibly all of tomorrow till the exam. Don't you just love exams? The pressure. The unknowns. The expectations. The doubts. It's like a movie.

I just love what education has become. The original intent was to educate students so they can become more useful to society with whatever knowledge they gain. It was more of something people gained because they wanted it. Now it's a necessity and I think society is to blame. When I learn about people like Isaac Newton, Ben Franklin, and other brilliant minds of our history, they all seemed to be crazy about what they did (and yes some were literally crazy). It seems like that same kind of passion is just not there. It's more for other reasons we go to school. We want money, we want stability, we want a good life, etc. I guess I'm just making excuses to not study right now, but I can't help think this way when I'm studying for this exam for a good grade and not to actually learn the material. :(

Enough of that.

Anyways my daily bread for today comes from Matthew 4, which covers a lot of material. I decided to break up this chapter because I think it covers a lot of important topics. So today I covered Matthew 4:1-17, which talks about Satan trying to crumble Jesus.

Now the story is quite simple. Jesus is out in the desert fasting for forty days and forty nights. He starts to get hungry, yes Jesus getting hungry, imagine that. Then Satan comes to Him and starts harassing him with temptations. He first tells Jesus to turn the stones into bread, because after all, if He's really the Son of God, should He not be able to? Jesus replies, "Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God."

The story changes scenes and Jesus is atop of the holy city. Satan again comes along and tells Him to jump down because if He is God, then He should not die from the fall. Jesus then replies, "Do not put the Lord your God to the test."

Then Satan took Jesus to the top of a very tall mountain and showed Him the kingdoms of the world. He tells Jesus that all this will be given to Him if He worships him, Satan. Jesus replies, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written, 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.'" Then Satan leaves.

This is a simple story and is used for many sermons so bear with me if all this sounds repetitive. The first thing I liked about this story was the fashion Jesus replied to Satan's "dares." He could have said anything He wanted and in any fashion, but He chose to answer the scriptures that Satan used with scriptures! How baller is that. I joked about this one time with someone, but how awesome would it be if we were able to talk by using scripture only. Talk about knowing the word of God. That's something we should try to strive for.

It is interesting to note that Satan also knew the scripture very well. I guess he has to in order to fight his enemy, God. But that's telling us something. If Satan knows the word that well and starts attacking us the way he attacked Jesus, how are we going to battle that out? I can see myself standing there saying things like, "Did it? One sec let me look it up, that sounds correct." The only way to prepare ourselves for such challenges is equipping ourselves with the word. That's the only way. And this is something I always want to emphasize. Being a Christian is tough. Not just because of the life style, but because everyone is out there to attack you. How are you going to respond? I don't know? Christianity has been attacked for many many years, but it still stands and nobody has yet to disclaim anything the Bible says. Science, rumors, nothing. But what good is that when we, Christians, don't know the word? I think that's the one reason Christians are still victims. If we all knew the word and stood up like Jesus, what can the others say? Nothing. That's right, become a baller like Jesus.

There are probably other lessons you can draw from this text, but that's the one thing that I wanted to point out and really struck me. That and I confirmed the fact that Jesus is baller.

As always, my summary:

Satan Tempts Jesus in the Desert
1-4 Jesus was in the desert being tested by the Satan. Satan told Jesus to turn stone into food because Jesus was hungry from fasting. Jesus told Satan, “Man does not live on bread along, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
5-7 Satan uses Scripture to try to tempt Jesus to fall off from the highest point because God will save Him. However, Jesus told Satan to not test the Lord.
8-11 Satan took Jesus to a high mountain and showed Him the world saying that he will give all of it to Jesus if He served him. However, Jesus said to only serve the Lord, and so the devil left, having lost.