5 Then the devil took Him up to a high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the habitable world in a moment of time [[c]in the twinkling of an eye]. 6 And he said to Him, To You I will give all this power and authority and their glory (all their magnificence, excellence, preeminence, dignity, and grace), for it has been turned over to me, and I give it to whomever I will. 7 Therefore if You will do homage to and worship me [[d]just once], it shall all be Yours. 8 And Jesus replied to him, [e]Get behind Me, Satan! It is written, You shall do homage to and worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve.
Secondly, what happened to Christianity that it “married the world”? The Roman Catholic church became very powerful, a kingdom that is worldwide and tax exempt. But that kind of compromise is corrupting and we have seen the worst scandals imaginable from the Catholic church. So, the second thing that the mark of the beast does is force you to make a choice, who are you going to worship, who are you going to serve?
9 Then he took Him to Jerusalem and set Him on [f]a gable of the temple, and said to Him, If You are the Son of God, cast Yourself down from here; 10 For it is written, He will give His angels charge over you to guard and watch over you closely and carefully; 11 And on their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. 12 And Jesus replied to him, [The Scripture] says, You shall not tempt (try, [g]test exceedingly) the Lord your God.
We are absolute for the Lord, we do not compromise one iota when it comes to who we worship or who we serve, but we are not reckless. We do not do this in an ignorant, childish, reckless way. Rather we are like Daniel and his companions. If God wants to deliver me that is fine, if not that also is fine. Either way, I am taking a stand for the Lord.
13 And when the devil had ended every [the complete cycle of] temptation, he [temporarily] left Him [that is, [h]stood off from Him] until another more opportune and favorable time.
Satan only wins if you forsake the Lord and worship him. The pressure to get the mark of the beast is the threat of death, but it is mostly a bluff. Satan doesn’t get anything if you stand fast and die.
14 Then Jesus went back full of and under the power of the [Holy] Spirit into Galilee, and the fame of Him spread through the whole region round about. 15 And He Himself conducted [a course of] teaching in their synagogues, being [j]recognized and honored and praised by all.
Hmm, perhaps this is the second witness.
16 So He came to Nazareth, [[k]that Nazareth] where He had been brought up, and He entered the synagogue, as was His custom on the Sabbath day. And He stood up to read. 17 And there was handed to Him [the roll of] the book of the prophet Isaiah. He opened (unrolled) the book and found the place where it was written, 18 The Spirit of the Lord [is] upon Me, because He has anointed Me [the Anointed One, the Messiah] to preach the good news (the Gospel) to the poor; He has sent Me to announce release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to send forth as delivered those who are oppressed [who are downtrodden, bruised, crushed, and broken down by calamity], 19 To proclaim the accepted and acceptable year of the Lord [the day [l]when salvation and the free favors of God profusely abound]. 20 Then He rolled up the book and gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were gazing [attentively] at Him. 21 And He began to speak to them: Today this Scripture has been fulfilled [m]while you are present and hearing.
The Lord begins His ministry by proclaiming the year of Jubilee. What exactly does this mean that the captives are released or that the blind recover their sight or that the oppressed are delivered? In short it means that Satan is defeated. How stupid you are going to feel if you fell for Satan’s temptations. His power is going to be destroyed, his captives will be released, all those he has blinded will see and all those he is oppressing will be delivered.
22 And all spoke well of Him and marveled at the words of grace that came forth from His mouth; and they said, Is not this Joseph’s [n]Son?
How clueless are these people? You know Joseph? Do you know he came there from Egypt, do you know why he went to Egypt? You are impressed with Jesus’ teaching today, how about 20 years ago when he was 12? You think you know who Jesus is but he was there for 20 years in your midst and you were clueless the entire time of who He was.
23 So He said to them, You will doubtless quote to Me this proverb: Physician, heal Yourself! What we have learned by hearsay that You did in Capernaum, do here also in Your [own] town. 24 Then He said, Solemnly I say to you, no prophet is acceptable and welcome in his [own] town (country). 25 But in truth I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were closed up for three years and six months, so that there came a great famine over all the land; 26 And yet Elijah was not sent to a single one of them, but only to Zarephath in the country of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.
OK, this is way too much of a coincidence. The tribulation will be 3 1⁄2 years and we already gave reasons why we think that Elijah will be one of the two witnesses sent at that time. We already know that many of the Christians who were left behind had a very lofty opinion of themselves. John warned them in the previous chapter to not begin to say we have Abraham as our father. They despised the church in Philadelphia but then repented and the synagogue of Satan came and confessed that Jesus was truly in their midst. Yet here they are again becoming all uppity about Jesus being sent to someone of low estate.
