Dr. J. Vernon McGee's Notes and Outlines

Make stones into bread to satisfy needs of the body. There is nothing wrong with bread; it is the staff of life. The body has need of bread and Jesus was starving. What is wrong? To use His great powers to minister to Himself would be selfish. He must demonstrate the truth of the great principle, "Man shall not live by bread alone" (Matthew 4:4). This is contrary to the thinking of this crass materialistic age that lives only to satisfy the whims of the body. Modern man in our secular society says, "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die." And as far as man is concerned, that ends it all. Selfishness is the curse of a creedless secular society. Our Lord, in meeting this temptation, refuted the popular philosophy of the world.
The nations of the world derive their power through brute force and political intrigue. War is a way of life. Hate and fear are the whips that motivate the mob. This is satanic, and Satan offers the kingdoms of the world on these terms. Men must be changed to enter God's kingdom: "Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3). The answer of Jesus has a note of finality, "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve" (Luke 4:8; see Deuteronomy 6:13).

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh (for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds), casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)
The temptation to cast Himself down from the temple seemed a logical procedure for Jesus to impress the crowd as to His person and mission. But Jesus followed no easy way to the throne. He had to wear the crown of thorns before He wore the crown of glory. Stifler states succinctly, "There are two ways of despising God, one is to ignore His power, the other is to presume upon it." Both are sin. It is easy to do nothing and then mouth pious platitudes about God providing for the sparrows and that He will take care of us. But God says, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread" (Genesis 3:19). The missionary to a foreign land will have to study to learn the language, and then God will help him. We are partners of God, not puppets.

Dr. Edward Judson, after considering what his father, Adoniram Judson, suffered in Burma, said, "If we succeed without suffering, it is because others have suffered before us. If we suffer without success, it is that others may succeed after us." Jesus rejected a false and phony spiritual stance. His answer was devastating: "Ye shall not put the LORD your God to the test, as ye tested him in Massah" (Deuteronomy 6:16).

Actually, Jesus began His public ministry in His hometown of Nazareth where He was rejected and ejected. It was in the synagogue where He announced the fulfillment of Isaiah 61:1-2. He broke off the reading before He came to "the day of vengeance of our God" (compare Isaiah 61:1-2 with Luke 4:18-20).

A special thanks to Thru the Bible Radio Network for permission to create and post this version of Dr. J. Vernon McGee's Notes and Outlines. Visit Thru the Bible on the Web at www.ttb.org.

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