The example of Jesus handling temptation in the wilderness is an encouragement to each of us. Have you ever thought about this? The only way the disciples would have any knowledge of this event is Jesus told them. He was by Himself for 40 days. Why did Jesus share this? To encourage His disciples as they faced temptations.
Jesus endured three particular temptations: (1) Changing stones to bread so He could eat, (2) Jumping from the Temple and allowing God to save Him so people would believe who He was, and (3) falling down to worship Satan to receive the kingdoms of the world (and bypass the cross).
We discover help in resisting our temptations by seeing how Jesus handled temptation. Here it is: Don’t be surprised when temptation comes, be prepared.
In response to each of the temptations, Jesus said “It is written…” followed by a quote of Old Testament scripture. In other words, Jesus previously memorized verses in the Bible so He could use them as a defensive weapon against temptation.
In the spiritual battle that is being waged all around us, our greatest weapon is the Word of God. It is not as though we have been left unarmed to deal with temptation, we have the very words of God to enable us!
Time and again, when Jesus was confronted with temptation by Satan He responded plainly and simply with the word of God. In fact, in verse 4 Jesus gives us the twofold example of responding with the word of God while telling us that we shall not live by bread alone, but by every word which proceeds from God.
Preparation is important to defend against any attack. Have you ever heard of Rick Rescoria? He is one of the greatest heroes in modern American history. Long before 9-11, the 62-year-old head of security at the Morgan Stanley Bank, developed an evacuation 
plan for the bank. The bank’s offices were situated high up in the South Tower at the World Trade Center. Rescorla was convinced that Osama Bin Laden would use jet planes to try and destroy the World Trade Center. The plan and its preparation were hugely unpopular with the Morgan Stanley staff, many of whom thought Rescorla was mad. On September 11, 2001, American Airlines Flight 11 hit World Trade Center Tower 1 at 8:46 am. Rick Rescorla ignored building officials’ advice to stay put and began the orderly evacuation of Morgan Stanley’s 2,800 employees on 20 floors of World Trade Center Tower 2, and 1,000 employees in WTC 5. Rescorla reminded everyone to “be proud to be an American … everyone will be talking about you tomorrow”, and sang God Bless America and other songs over his bullhorn to help evacuees stay calm as they left the building. Rescorla had most of Morgan Stanley’s 2800 employees as well as people working on other floors of WTC 2 safely out of the buildings by the time United Airlines Flight 175 hit WTC 2 at 9:07 a.m. After having reached safety, Rescorla returned to the building to rescue others still inside. He was last seen heading up the stairs of the tenth floor of the collapsing WTC 2. His remains were not recovered. As a result of Rescorla’s actions, only 6 of Morgan Stanley’s 2800 WTC employees were killed on September 11th, 2001, including Rick and three of his deputies who followed him back into the building.
The Bible is our only and most stable rudder as we sail together through the storms of this life. Here, at Faith Baptist Church, let us remain deeply committed to the teaching and preaching of God’s holy Word.
Memorize God’s Word so you can defend against temptations. I’ll have a later blog post to talk specifically about how to memorize Scripture and what Scriptures to memorize.
What verses have you memorized that have helped you in your temptations?