Matt 4 ⁸ Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. ⁹ And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” ¹⁰ Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’ ”¹¹ Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.

I was reading my devotional this morning on Matt 4, and as I read this passage, my spirit was enraged, feeling angry on the audacity of Satan in offering the kingdom of the world to Jesus if he would fall down and worship him!!! Look at that! That shamefully is the most audacious and disgraceful statement from a mere creation, though holding great power, to the Almighty God, the creator. And you know what brought the Son of God himself to such dire undignified stage? YOU, and I. Yes, it’s for the love of mankind that Jesus emptied himself of the heavenly glory and throne, and came to this earth, to be tempted and humiliated and engaged in these titanic epic warfare’s that few talks about.

Philippians 2:⁵ Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷ but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. ⁸ And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Why? It took a lot of humility in the mind of God-Man, to swallow that despicable words, “if you will fall down and worship me”. Those words are too much to take. Imagine, you were the Son of a millionaire landlord who owns a thousand acres of vineyard, and your dad hired thousands of employees in the farmland. One day, you visited your dad’s farmland, and was greeted by the thousands of employees, and the manager of these employees came to you and said, “Come and fall down to me and I will give you the entire farmland.” You go, “Excuse me! Who are you? You are only an employee! I am the owner’s son!”. This is exactly what happened in that transaction between Jesus and Satan in those exchange of words, which I found most offensive in the last exchange. How do you like to be in Jesus’s situation? It just makes you to be strong if you ever faced any persecutions or mocking’s in the world because of Christ. Look at him! He will give you strength.

How did Jesus take that? He made or offered himself to be vulnerable to Satan’s temptation, when he didn’t have to. He could have terminated Satan on the spot, but he didn’t. He is God! But at that point, he was tempted as a man. He is not just God at that point, he is God-Man. God cannot be tempted, but man can. Jesus was tempted in the capacity of a man! That’s where all the actions happened. Jesus represented the tribe of Adam to recoup the glory and power that Adam lost. You must have a man to defeat Satan because Satan defeated a man before, Adam. It’s like David and Goliath’s battle. If David lost, all of Israel perished and went under Philistines. If David won, and Goliath lost, all of Philistines would come under Israel. David is the representative head of Israel. Jesus was the representative head of mankind. He was the 2^nd Adam. To recoup the lost glory of mankind. All of the kingdoms of the world been lost to Satan in Genesis 3 when Adam and Eve yielded to Satan’s temptation and handed over the dominion of the earth that God originally gave to Adam. But Adam lost that dominion to Satan. Good news is, 2000 years ago, the Son of God himself came in the form of a man, became the second Adam, and wrought the Kingdom of the world back to God and brought in the whole race of Adam into God’s family again, through his death on the cross, when he became the substitute death for mankind. He redeemed mankind by his shed blood, and he was resurrected on the 3^rd day, glory to God.

Is that glorious? It took his blood to accomplish this task. The biggest and most glorious task was accomplished on the cross, far larger than the crossing of the Red Sea in Exodus. Jesus brought the whole tribe of mankind out of the kingdom of darkness of Satan, into his own Kingdom of light with his Father.

That epic battle with Satan is all in the mind and spirit. It wasn’t through some weapons. It’s the battle of the mind and will. Jesus won! That’s the 2^nd most epic battle, with the final most epic one is on the cross when he shed his blood and after being beaten severely, he yielded his spirit to God the Father. And he said “It’s finished!”.

Luke 23: ⁴⁴ It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, ⁴⁵ while the sun’s light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. ⁴⁶ Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last.

Amen and Amen. Praise and glory to Jesus!