Messianic Perspectives

Liz Aiello: We often hear prophetic teaching about God's plan for the end times. But did you know Satan also has a plan? Stay tuned as Dr. Gary Hedrick discusses Satan's plan for the end times right here on Messianic Perspectives.

Shalom and welcome to Messianic Perspectives, a daily program where we look into the scriptures from a distinct first-century Jewish point of view. This is Liz Aiello. Today our Bible teacher is Dr. Gary Hedrick, president of CJF Ministries in San Antonio, Texas. You can reach our offices by dialing 1-800-926-5397.

Gary's subject today is Satan's plan for the end times. I'll be back a little later with information about a special offer, so have your pencil and paper ready. And now with today's installment, here is Gary Hedrick.

Dr. Gary Hedrick: All right, thanks, and welcome, Chaverim. Welcome, friends, to another edition of Messianic Perspectives. Whoever you are and wherever you are, it's good to have you with us today as we continue this series of studies on Satan's plan for the end times.

On the last program, we were looking at this passage in Matthew chapter 4. It says in verse one, "Then Jesus was led up by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil." We said last time the Spirit of God led him into the wilderness. That means whenever you and I find ourselves in a wilderness experience, whenever we're going through adversity, it doesn't necessarily mean we're out of God's will. Although there are Bible teachers and preachers who suggest the opposite, it just isn't so.

But here in Matthew chapter 4, the Spirit of God is the one who led Jesus out into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Verse two: "And when he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, afterward he was hungry," it says. And then in verse three, it says the devil came to him. He waited until after the Lord had fasted for 40 days and 40 nights because he thought that was when the Lord would be his weakest. That's when the devil strikes. He strikes at our weakest point.

By the way, that's where the devil attacks a church. He'll strike at the weak point, the weakest link in the chain. And that's how he attacks individuals. He will exploit your weaknesses. He will take a weakness in your life and turn it into a stronghold. Now, beginning in verse three, we have a series of three temptations. This is what I want you to see, because this is a perfect example of a passage that cannot be properly understood unless you look at it from a Messianic perspective.

Each of these three temptations has to do with something about our Lord's mission as the Messiah. In fact, here in the wilderness, our Lord stands in contrast to Adam in the Garden of Eden. Adam, in the Garden of Eden, did battle with the serpent and lost. So now Jesus stands here in the wilderness, somewhere in the Middle East. It's possible that it was actually the site of the ancient Garden of Eden. It is very possible, but we don't know that.

We do know that in First Corinthians 15:45, Paul says Jesus is the last Adam. He says the first man was of the dust of the earth, and the second man was from heaven. So here in the wilderness, Jesus is the last Adam. He has come to reclaim what Adam lost in the fall. He has come to do battle with the devil. And it's interesting that the devil zeroes in on this issue of what kind of Messiah the Lord was supposed to be because all three of these temptations have to do with his role as the Messiah.

We don't have time to read through this whole episode, but let me give you an outline of the three temptations. First of all, the devil tempted Jesus to turn stones into bread. That's in verse three. Jesus was hungry after 40 days and 40 nights. That's understandable. And after all, as the Son of God, if he wanted to turn stones into bread, he could easily do so. But the role of the Messiah was not to use his supernatural powers for his own personal benefit.

The role of the Messiah when he came the first time was to minister to others and to be a servant. So the Lord responded with scripture, saying that man does not live on bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God, from Deuteronomy 8:3. So then the devil said, "Okay, if you want to use scripture, we'll use scripture." After all, he's quite a Bible scholar in his own right. The devil knows the Bible.

So he took the Lord to Jerusalem and he set him on the pinnacle of the temple, the highest point of Herod's temple. It was 15 stories high, roughly 150 feet above ground level. And so this second temptation was he told the Lord to jump from the pinnacle of the temple and let angels catch him before he hit the ground. The devil even found a scripture for it. He quoted from Psalm 91, where it says the Lord will send angels to lift us up and to keep us from dashing our foot against a stone.

It's easy to see how this would be the ultimate publicity stunt for someone who wanted to prove that he was the Messiah right there in the center of Jerusalem on the Temple Mount, with thousands of people watching. But again, this wasn't what Jesus was about. He wasn't campaigning for the office of Messiah. He wasn't up for election. He wasn't after popular recognition. He had come to offer himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the world.

So that was the second temptation: to throw himself down from the highest point of Herod's temple and let the angels catch him. And Jesus answered with another scripture. He quoted the scripture that says we're not supposed to put the Lord our God to the test. But then there was a third temptation. In verse eight, the devil and Jesus are standing on a high mountain. And the devil shows him all the kingdoms of this world with all of their riches and all of their splendor.

He said, "I will give you all of this if only you will bow down and worship me." The devil knows that Jesus is the Messiah sent by God to oppose him. He also knows that the role of the Messiah is ultimately to rule over a worldwide Messianic kingdom of universal peace and prosperity. So what he's telling Jesus is, "I can give you the kingdom now. You don't have to do it God's way. You can do it my way."

Why waste your time being hungry out here in the wilderness when I can give you the world? All you have to do is bow down and worship me, acknowledge me as God. And it says Jesus answered and said unto him, "Get thee hence, Satan, for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." And it says at this point, the devil gave up and left him. And then angels came and ministered to him, it says here in Matthew chapter 4.

The point is that the devil is not only clever, but he has a very thorough understanding of the Messianic mission. Because in those three temptations, he was using three different techniques to try to get Jesus to deviate from the mission to which God had called him. And make no mistake about it, Satan still understands the Messianic mission. He still wants to thwart God's plan for the end times. He continues to be very much involved in the affairs of this world.

In fact, the Bible calls him the prince of this world. That's why he leaves his ugly footprints all over this world. Wherever you see warfare, pestilence, strife, heartache, tragedy, injustice, racial hatred, those are all his footprints. Wherever you find suffering and destruction and pain, you know old Slewfoot's been there. And by the way, this passage in Matthew chapter 4, the very way it's worded and what it says, bears the marks of divine inspiration.

If this was just a human book, if this Bible was the product of human effort and human ingenuity, do you think this confrontation between the devil and Jesus would have happened the way Matthew says it happened? I could have written it a whole lot better than the way Matthew has it. If I had written it, it would have been like Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader with their lightsabers fighting back and forth and sparks going everywhere and flinging bolts of lightning back and forth at each other.

I would have made it a whole lot more dramatic than it is. And the way Matthew writes it under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the devil did everything in his power to make it dramatic. He wanted it to be a dramatic confrontation. But what did Jesus do? He just quoted scripture. He quoted the Bible. That was it. Nothing melodramatic, no special effects, no lasers or lightning bolts, just a humble Jewish carpenter from Nazareth quoting the Bible.

Only God would have written it like this. That's what I mean when I say anywhere and everywhere you look in this Bible, you find the marks of divine inspiration. No human being or any group of human beings could have produced a book like this. And if Jesus had thrown thunderbolts at the devil or commanded a legion of angels to come down and take the devil into custody, either one of which he could have easily done, then you and I might have thought, well, how can we ever hope to cope with the attacks of the devil?

We don't have supernatural powers. We can't hurl lightning bolts at the devil. So there's not much hope for us. That's what we might have said, but that's not what the Lord did. He quoted scripture. That was it. And guess what? You and I can do the same thing. I may not be able to command the winds and the waves, and I may not be able to throw thunderbolts, and I may not even be able to walk on water like Jesus did, but there's something I can do.

I can quote scripture. I can study and memorize God's word. I can internalize it. I can obey it. And I can use it in spiritual warfare just like Jesus did. That's why in Ephesians chapter 6, Paul calls the Bible the sword of the spirit. It's one of the weapons we use in spiritual warfare. It's our main offensive weapon, as a matter of fact, the Bible, God's word. And we can use it. Well, we're out of time. We'll finish this up on the next program. Until then, this is your friend Gary Hedrick saying, God bless you, take care, bye-bye.

Liz Aiello: Thank you, Gary. And thank you, listener friend, for tuning in today. Today, we've been listening to our Bible teacher, Dr. Gary Hedrick, talking about Satan's plan for the end times. If you found today's program especially helpful and insightful, you'll be glad to know that we have placed the entire series of programs on compact disc. The title is Satan's Plan for the End Times.

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And as always, when you're in touch with us, please mention the call letters of this station. If you're listening to our webcast or podcast, we need to know that too. I'm Liz Aiello. Join us next time, won't you, as Dr. Gary Hedrick continues our series of studies on Satan's plan for the end times right here on Messianic Perspectives.