LUKE 4

After His baptism, the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness where He was tempted by Satan for forty days. In that time, He ate nothing and was hungry. Satan tempted Him: "If You are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread." Jesus replied, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.' "

Satan took Jesus to a high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world, offering them to him  if He would bow down and worship him, but Jesus rebuked Him and said: "You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve."

Lastly, Satan brought Jesus to Jerusalem, high upon the pinnacle of the temple, and provoked Him to throw Himself down. Satan twisted Scripture and misused several verses; but Jesus replied, "It has been said, 'You shall not tempt the Lord your God.' " 

After that, Satan left Jesus until a later time. 

News spread of Jesus, and all who heard him teaching in the synagogues glorified Him. One day He read from Isaiah in the synagogue at Nazareth:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."

And He closed the book and said, "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." Then they could not believe that He claimed to be the Messiah. Jesus told them that "...no prophet is accepted in his own country." And the people were filled with wrath, and they sought to throw Him off a cliff, but He evaded them.

Then Jesus cast demons from a man in the synagogue of Capernaum. The demons cried out: "Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are - the Holy One of God!" Jesus rebuked the demon and commanded him to come out, and the people were amazed that He had authority and power to command unclean spirits. 

Next, Jesus healed Peter's mother-in-law. Many others came to Jesus to be healed, and "He laid His hands on every one of them and healed them." Also He also cast out many demons, many saying: "You are the Christ, the Son of God!"

And He, rebuking them, did not allow them to speak, for they knew that He was the Christ.

COMMENTARY

Why was Jesus tempted? To demonstrate to us that He was sinless -- to prove that all power had been given to Him. Satan wanted Him to PROVE to man that He was the Savior by "throwing Himself down..," which "is not faith but presumption. Faith is quietly waiting upon God, doing His will." Faith is not seeing, but believing. Also, keep in mind, the doubters would have still not believed because they were always looking for a reason to disbelieve.

Satan tempted Jesus in every way: to turn stones into food, to satisfy the body (physical); to offer the kingdoms of the world, to gratify the desire for power and control (psychological); and to throw Himself down from the temple, to bypass the cross and suffering (spiritual)..., but each time Jesus rebuked Satan with TRUTH! Jesus was faced with every temptation and wrestled with the basic earthly problems of mankind, and He was victorious for mankind. He was filled with the Holy Spirit. When man is faced with  temptations, he needs to be armed with TRUTH and the Holy Spirit, too. 

When Jesus read from Isaiah in the synagogue and proclaimed the Scriptures fulfilled in their hearing, He did not continue to the end of the passage (sentence): "...and the day of vengeance of our God." He only read up to the portion of Scripture that had been fulfilled that day, because the remainder of the sentence  will not be accomplished until His second coming. That is a day of vengeance -- the Great Day of the Lord.

credit: Jesus Tempted in the Wilderness - James Tissot