Matthew 4: The Trial That Qualifies You for Blessing

Introduction

"There is no life without trials. There is no life without problems." Shigemasa Shigaki, senior pastor of Full Gospel Tokyo Church, preaches this Sunday on Matthew 4:1-11, the account of Jesus being tempted in the wilderness.

The pastor stops on a detail you should not skip past: Jesus was not dragged into the wilderness by the devil. He was led there by the Spirit, within God's plan. From there he lays down a conviction that runs through the whole message: a trial is not necessarily bad for you. It shapes your character, it gives you a qualification, and a blessing waits for you on the other side.

With a childhood memory, a detail from the book of Leviticus, and the story of the bankruptcy that nearly swallowed his company, he shows you how to go through a trial without "failing the exam," whether the exam comes from God or from the devil.

Message outline

1. Led by the Spirit, right after baptism

• Verse 1 begins with "Then." The pastor asks: when? Right after Jesus' baptism in the Jordan, when the heavens opened, the Spirit descended like a dove, and the Father's voice declared: "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:16-17).
• It is immediately after that moment that Jesus is taken into the wilderness. Not by the devil, but by the Spirit. After forty days of fasting, he is tempted.
• "We must not let this fact slip by": Jesus was tested by the devil within God's plan.
• Jesus was without sin, and he lacked nothing. But to become the Savior of humanity, he had to go through this trial. The pastor draws his conclusion: if even the Son of God was tested, it is impossible that we would not be.

2. A trial shapes your character

• Every time we overcome a trial, our character is shaped a little more and we become patient people.
• It is the same with faith. From the day you received Jesus Christ, your faith will not grow or mature unless it goes through the test of fire and the test of water.
• The pastor quotes a Japanese proverb: ill-gotten money does not last. Money earned easily flies away as if it had wings. Whoever climbs without effort and without skill always ends up falling somewhere. And whoever suddenly takes power without ever having suffered is killed by that power, which also destroys those around him.
• James 1:2-4 says it: count it all joy when you face various trials, because the testing of your faith produces patience, and patience must have its perfect work.

3. The butterfly he tried to help

• In second grade, walking home from school through a field, the young boy comes across a swallowtail chrysalis in the middle of hatching. The back of the chrysalis has already split open, but the butterfly cannot get out.
• "Nobody is helping it," he thinks. With no ill intent and a good heart, he widens the opening a little to make it easier. He goes on his way happy: "I did a good deed."
• The next morning, before school, he goes back to the field. The ants are already there. The butterfly is dead, its wings still crumpled. He chases away the ants, picks up the butterfly in his hands, and runs all the way to school to show it, in tears, to his teacher: "I helped it yesterday, so why did it die?"
• The teacher explains, calling him by his childhood nickname, "Shige-chan": when the chrysalis struggles with all its strength to break its shell, a fluid comes out of its body and gradually soaks into its wings. Only after that does it come out and its wings unfold. By opening it too early, he made it come out before that fluid had reached its wings, and the butterfly could only fall.
• "Even after hearing that, I think I cried all day." The lesson remains: the effort that breaks the shell is part of being born. A trial is not necessarily bad for you.

4. Two kinds of trials, one exam to pass

• There are two kinds of trials. Some come from God, to strengthen your faith, equip you, and bless you. Others come from the devil, who seeks to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10).
• "In both cases, we must not fail." Saying "it is a trial from the devil, there is nothing I can do" only leads to ruin.
• The first exam of life is often the school entrance exam. Passing it gives you the status of a student. A company entrance exam demands painful preparation, but it opens the door to the company you wanted to join.
• Midterm and final exams also give you a qualification. Whoever fails repeats the year and does not move up to the next class.
• Life itself is a series of exams. A trial serves to give you a qualification and a new strength. So you have to pass them, one by one.

5. Honey on the altar or the offering of a pleasing aroma

• The Bible forbids burning honey on the altar of the LORD (Leviticus 2:11). Honey is sweet and smells good. But burned, it gives off an unbearable odor. "If you don't believe me, try it once. The smell doesn't go away soon."
• The pastor applies this to the believer who has never been tested. Placed on the altar, he gives off a bad smell: at the slightest trial, he complains, grumbles, curses God, and blames him.
• The Christian who has been through fire and water reacts differently. He kneels and repents. He seeks the Word. He leans on the Lord: "Give me strength." He does not shift the blame onto others: "I must have made a mistake somewhere, I started without really praying."
• To do this is to present yourself as an offering. The animals burned on the altar gave off a pleasing aroma that God received. "The trials we go through are a pleasing fragrance offered before God."
• Jesus himself went through suffering all his life, not only for three and a half years: threatened with death by Herod, a refugee in Egypt, thirty years of poor life in Nazareth, then three and a half years surrounded by opposition. That is why his sacrifice on the cross was a pleasing aroma, powerful enough to forgive humanity's past, present, and future sins.
• Grumbling in the face of a problem amounts to burning honey: God turns his face away. But if you offer yourself to him in prayer and repentance, he receives you, gives you strength to overcome, and, since it is his exam, a blessing awaits you.

6. When a trial follows grace: the pastor's testimony

• The pastor observes: just when you have received a grace, strangely, an argument breaks out at home or a trial arises at work. God allows it so that you keep the grace you received and to train you to stand firm in greater trials.
• In his late twenties, he begins to get involved in world missions. In the first year he is an employee, but he struggles to take time off, and the mission costs him twenty to thirty million yen a year out of his own pocket. He leaves a company with very good conditions and founds his own.
• He works harder than everyone else and redoubles his efforts. Yet after a year, the company is on the brink of bankruptcy: in a few days, he will not be able to make it through the end of the month.
• One Friday, on a business trip to Seoul, he attends the Friday night prayer service, then stays behind to pray alone, for an hour or two, he no longer knows. He who had never cried for himself weeps and complains to God: "I left such a good company to do Jesus' work, why are you abandoning me? Unbelievers are mocking. If I were lazy, I would understand."
• In the middle of this prayer, which was more like grumbling, the Holy Spirit gives him Matthew 6:33: "But seek first God's Kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things will be given to you as well." He discovers that he had started out seeking the kingdom first, but everything had become centered on his company. As an employee, he had been more zealous in his church life.
• He makes a decision: "I am still young. Even if I have to lose everything, I want to be faithful to God." Back in Japan, however tired or busy he is, he no longer misses the Wednesday service or the Friday night prayer service, where he leads alone, and he serves every time.
• "I did nothing special. I only worshiped, praised God, and gave thanks in good times and bad." God sends him orders in unexpected ways, and the largest bank in Japan at the time comes all the way to his small office to prepare financing for him. The company, which had under thirty million yen in annual sales, reaches three hundred million in a year, ten times more.
• For the pastor, this is proof that a blessing from God always awaits after the trial has been endured.

7. The first temptation: overcoming by the Word

• The first temptation concerns desire. After forty days of fasting, you think of nothing but food. "We can endure anything except hunger." Soldiers endure a great deal, but not hunger. Even after three days of fasting, you think of nothing but eating.
• The devil's trap is clever: "You can turn these stones into bread. Eat, and everything is settled."
• Jesus answers: "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God'" (Matthew 4:4, quoting Deuteronomy 8:3).
• The way to overcome a trial is neither mental strength nor strength of any kind: it is the Word. But if the Word does not dwell in you day to day, how will you win at the moment of the trial? "So let us learn the Word."
• The pastor encourages his church: just by coming to the Wednesday service and the Friday night prayer service, you gain considerable knowledge of the Bible.

8. A gift received too early and the strength to endure

• Some have attended church for ten years, with zeal, without speaking in tongues. Others, who arrived only recently, already do.
• Whoever receives speaking in tongues or a gift of healing without having gone through any trial will inevitably be tempted. He starts to criticize: "Ten years and you still don't speak in tongues? I received it as soon as I arrived." He imagines himself to be chosen. Having gone through neither fire nor water, he hurts those around him and ends up losing himself.
• "Of course, if we could avoid trials, that would be ideal. But a pastor who has never been tested will inevitably fall somewhere." And when the pastor falls, the church falls.
• What matters most for a Christian is the strength to endure. Faith, hope, and love remain, and the greatest of these is love (1 Corinthians 13:13). Among the fifteen characteristics of love described in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, the first is patience, a heart able to bear things for a long time.
• Because you love God, you can endure. Because you love your family, you can wait. Because you love your friends, you can welcome them with patience. With that heart, you can overcome every trial and live in the great blessing God has prepared for what comes next.

Key takeaways

• Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Spirit, within God's plan. If the Son of God was tested, your trials are not an accident.
• A trial shapes your character and your faith, like the effort that lets the butterfly spread its wings.
• Whether the trial comes from God or from the devil, the stakes are the same: pass the exam, because it gives you a qualification.
• Grumbling smells like burned honey. Repentance, prayer, and trust make you an offering with a pleasing aroma.
• Temptation is overcome not by willpower but by the Word, which you need to learn before the day of the trial.

Personal application

1. What trial are you going through right now, and do you see it as an accident or as an exam that can qualify you?
2. Faced with this difficulty, does your reaction look more like burned honey (complaints, blame) or like the offering (repentance, prayer, trust)?
3. Is there an area where, like the pastor with his company, you have let something else take the place of God's kingdom?
4. What place does God's Word have in your daily life, so that it is there on the day temptation comes?
5. Toward whom do you need, this week, that patience which is the first mark of love?

Verses cited

• Matthew 4:1-11
• Matthew 3:16-17
• James 1:2-4
• John 10:10
• Leviticus 2:11
• Matthew 6:33
• Deuteronomy 8:3
• 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
• 1 Corinthians 13:13

Frequently asked questions

Why did the Spirit lead Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted?

For Shigemasa Shigaki, Jesus was not dragged away by the devil: it was the Spirit who led him, within God's plan. The Savior of humanity had to go through this trial. And if the Son of God himself was tested, we cannot expect a life without trials.

Does a trial come from God or from the devil?

The preacher distinguishes two kinds of trials: those God allows to strengthen our faith, equip us, and bless us, and those of the devil, who comes to steal, kill, and destroy. In both cases, he says, we must not fail: we have to pass the exam.

How did Jesus overcome the first temptation?

After forty days of fasting, the devil proposes that he turn stones into bread. Jesus answers with Scripture: man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. The way to overcome a trial is not mental strength, it is the Word, which you therefore need to learn starting now.