The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

Luke 4:9-13, “9 And he led Him to Jerusalem and had Him stand on

the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, ‘If You are the Son of God,

throw Yourself down from here; 10 for it is written, “HE WILL COMMAND

HIS ANGELS CONCERNING YOU TO GUARD YOU,” 11 and, “ON their

HANDS THEY WILL BEAR YOU UP, SO THAT YOU WILL NOT STRIKE

YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.”’

12 And Jesus answered and said to him, ‘It is said, ‘YOU SHALL NOT PUT

THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.’

13 When the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him

until an opportune time.”

The devil has failed in his first two attempts to get Jesus to sin. But he

is not giving up. The pinnacle refers to the edge of the Temple mount.

I’ve been there and it is a long way down! “If You are the Son of God –

and You are—throw Yourself down…” God Himself will protect You.

Has He not written such? In the first two temptations, Jesus answered

the devil with Scripture. Now, Satan uses Scripture to foundation his

case. But the Scripture Satan quoted omitted two Hebrew words that

translate “in all Your ways.” What Satan was proposing to Jesus was

neither Jesus’ way nor that of His Heavenly Father. Three things need

emphasis here: 1) always be sure that what you are doing is God’s

will and direction for your life; and 2) read the Scriptures carefully.

Just leaving out (or adding in) some words can change the meaning;

3) Don’t presume on the LORD’s protection. The snake-handlers of

Tennessee play with poisonous snakes in their churches, believing

that they are protected by the LORD. Yet, many have died from

snake-bites. God does not exist to play magic tricks. He is serious!

And Satan doesn’t quit. He just withdraws until “an opportune time.”

We love and pray for you every day,

Nana & Dado III

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.

Springdale, Arkansas

Dear Grands,

Luke 4:5-8, “And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.

6 And the devil said to Him, “I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. 7 “Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours.”

8 Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD AND SERVE HIM ONLY.'”

Satan lost round one. Jesus would not turn the stones into bread. But Satan

does not give up easily. Have you noticed that in your life? He keeps coming

back with more alluring propositions. Here he (not the Spirit, but the devil)

led Jesus up into space and in a split-second, and there he promised everything

in exchange for a simple worship (bowing) before him. Sounds simple, doesn’t

it? But think! If Jesus were to bow before Satan, would Satan not be the one

to whom everything belonged? Would it not be Satan who would then be in

charge? Satan doubts whether Jesus will comply with his offer because he

says, “if You worship before me…” , maybe You will, maybe You won’t. Jesus

never changed His tactic with Satan. He again relied on the Word and repeated

Deuteronomy 6:13. Whatever temptation you and I encounter, we can always

rely on the Word of God as the source of true information and power to resist.

“Ask the Savior to help you,
Comfort, strengthen and keep you;
He is willing to aid you,
He will carry you through.”

–Horatio R. Palmer

Always loving you, praying for you daily,

Nana & Dado III

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.

Springdale, Arkansas

Dear Grands,

Luke 4:3-4, “And the devil said to Him, ‘If You are the Son of God,

tell this stone to become bread.’

4 And Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, “MAN SHALL NOT LIVE

ON BREAD ALONE.”’”

Remember what we said about the salesman and why he takes

a client to dinner? Well, a similar tactic is starving someone

until he gives in to what someone wants. This was Satan’s trickery

here, but with a strange twist. Remember that we said the

Greeks have four “conditional sentences”? Well, this one reads,

“If You are the Son of God, and You are, tell this stone to become

bread.” WOW! Even Satan cannot deny who Jesus is! But when

he says things like that to us, we want to say, “Boy, I’ll show you!!”

But, Jesus was listening to the Holy Spirit. Jesus is being tested for

His future ministry. So, He resisted the temptation by answering

with Scripture (Deut. 8:3). Very often we are tempted to respond

too quickly. When we do, our responses often come from ourselves

and not from God. We must slow down, take time to consult the Holy

Spirit, and reply with Scripture. If we have been reading the Bible,

the LORD will use what we’ve been reading and enable us to give a

clear and truthful response. Think about that. We don’t have to be

quick in answering everything. We just have to be accurate.

Love and prayers for you all,

Nana & Dado III

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.

Springdale, Arkansas

Dear Grands,

Luke 4:1-2, “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan

and was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness 2 for forty days,

being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days,

and when they had ended, He became hungry.”

The word full here (?????? pleres) can be translated as control, the

explanation of which is further expressed by “led around.” If Jesus,

who is Himself God, is being controlled by the Holy Spirit, how much

more should we! Notice, too, that the Holy Spirit’s purpose was to

subject Him to the temptation of the devil. This is the beginning of

Jesus’ ministry. He must be tested and proved adequate for undertaking

this ministry. Temptation (??????? peirazo) means a solicitation to do

evil. Temptation itself is not a sin. It is yielding to temptation that

constitutes sin. To add to the testing, He ate nothing during this time,

a period of 40 days. Nothing, however, is said of his drinking water,

which surely He did. Hunger shows Jesus’ humanity, while at the

same time, it pressured Him to give in to Satan’s solicitations. Yet,

He did not sin! Does the Holy Spirit allow us to be tempted by the devil?

He sure does! Our Christian faith has to be tested, too. Sometimes

the allure of the world, the flesh, and the devil seem almost too much

for us to overcome. That is when we must allow the Holy Spirit to

deliver us from thoughts, words, deeds –all those unholy, ungodly

things that Satan puts in our minds to do. Jesus overcame temptation

by yielding to the Spirit’s control, and His power enables us to overcome

also! Are you letting the Spirit exercise control over you?

We are praying for you daily; and we hope you are praying for us,

Nana & Dado III

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.

Springdale, Arkansas

Dear Grands,

John 21:15-17, “So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter,

‘Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?’ He (Peter) said to Him,

‘Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.’ He (Jesus) said to him, ‘Tend My lambs.’

16 He said to him again a second time, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love Me?’

He (Peter) said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.’ He (Jesus) said to

him, ‘Shepherd My sheep.’

17 He said to him the third time, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love Me?’

Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, ‘Do you love Me?’

And he said to Him, ‘Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.’ Jesus

said to him, ‘Tend My sheep.’”

Do you know why salesmen so often take their clients to dinner?

It’s because when they have eaten, they are more relaxed and

more amenable to buying their product. Jesus waited until breakfast

was over before He posed His questions to Peter. (There’s a best time

for everything.) Then, three times Jesus asked Peter if he loved Him.

Remember that Peter had denied the LORD three times. The most

significant about this question-answer interrogation is that Jesus used

agapao (love) and Peter answered with phileo. Agapao is the strongest

Greek word for love, and it had never been used in its verbal form by

pagans. Phileo had the meaning of “You’re a good friend of mine.”

Tending means feeding; shepherding means caring for. It took a lot

to get through to Peter, but he could never come to the place of responding

to Jesus with the same intensity of love. Surely, we will never love Jesus

as much as He loves us. But, we should love Him more than we do.

He has given us a responsibility toward others, and that responsibility

requires all that we can give it.

We love you!

Nana & Dado III

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.

Springdale, Arkansas