Lesson 4 – The King Tested for Service
Read Matthew 4 – www.bible.com/bible/59/mat.4

As with any leader we elect to office, we want to know if that leader is qualified to take the role he is wishing to take. In this chapter we see four tests of qualification for Jesus to be King.

The first test is of His moral character – is He able to remain pure in the face of temptation. In Jesus’ case, because He was sent to die for the sins of all mankind, the test would be to see if Satan could defeat God in human flesh. Just one moment of giving in to the temptation changing something God had planned from eternity past – whether to ease His hunger, take a shortcut to supposedly the same end, calling attention to Himself in a different way – would have been enough to disqualify Him from His mission. Even though Satan tried to make it all sound acceptable, Jesus did not falter from His path of truth.

The second test is one of prophecy-fulfillment – is He the right person. For hundreds of years God had been writing little details into the books by the prophets – all of which Jesus fulfilled. Many of these were little hidden jewels of information that even those prophets wanted badly to understand – in 1 Peter 1:10 we’re told they searched carefully to see all the little clues, but they couldn’t find them all. So for Jesus to move to a little town just so a little-known prophecy could be fulfilled proved He was the right man, for no detail was too small for Him to leave undone.


The third test is one of leadership skills – who are the people whom He draws into His inner circle. If you were going to apply to be king, whom would you choose to be your closest followers? Perhaps a financial genius, a great speech writer, an excellent entertainer, someone who knew politics and economics would top your list. Jesus chose people based on who they would become in the future rather than who they were when He met them. The book of Acts shows the results of Jesus’ choices.

The fourth test is one of ministry – can He do what the Messiah God had promised He would be able to do. Jesus did not go to the political centers, the power centers, to show His plan for His kingdom. Instead, He went to the people. He did things for them to show He was capable of leading them and providing for them. He showed the people what He could do in their physical lives so they would understand His power and be willing to follow Him to the spiritual kingdom He offered them.

*How do you see the four tests or temptations Jesus faced in your own life? ____
*Read about Adam and Eve’s temptation in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3:1-6 (when sin first entered God’s perfect world). Do you see any similarities between how Satan tempted them and how he tempted Jesus?