Matthew 4

Matthew 4

Introduction

Following His baptism, Jesus spent 40 days fasting and communing with Heavenly Father in the wilderness. After this experience, the devil tempted Jesus. Using scripture, Jesus resisted each temptation. The Savior went to Galilee, where He called Peter and others to follow Him and went about teaching, preaching, and healing.

Suggestions for Teaching

Determine pacing

Avoid the mistake of taking too much time on the first part of the lesson and having to rush through the rest of it. As you prepare, estimate how long each section of the lesson will take using the teaching methods you have chosen. Because you will almost always have more material to teach than there is time to teach it, determine which portions of the scripture block to emphasize and which to summarize.

Matthew 4:1–11
Jesus resists the devil’s temptations

Ask a volunteer to come to the front of the class. Challenge the student to focus on an item in the room for 30 seconds without looking away. Once the student begins, try to distract him or her from looking at the item. For example, you might display brightly colored items, make loud noises, or offer the student food. After 30 seconds, ask the student:
How did you do? Why were you able, or unable, to maintain your focus?

What did you think about during the 30 seconds?

Ask the class:
How is this experience like our efforts to stay focused on obeying Heavenly Father’s commandments? What could the attempts to distract this student represent? (Efforts to tempt us to sin.)

Why does Satan tempt us to sin? (See 2 Nephi 2:17–18, 27.)

Ask students to think about the ways Satan tempts them to sin. Invite them as they study Matthew 4 to look for a principle they can apply to help them resist temptation.
Explain that following His baptism, the Savior had an experience that helped prepare Him for His earthly ministry. Invite a student to read Matthew 4:1–2 aloud, using the corrections from the Joseph Smith Translation in the footnotes for both verses. Ask the class to follow along, looking for what Jesus experienced in the wilderness. (You may need to explain that in this context, the word commune means to “be with” or to have a close, spiritual interaction.)
How would fasting and communing with Heavenly Father have helped Jesus prepare for His earthly ministry?

After Jesus had spent this time in fasting and communion with His Father, what did Satan seek to do?

Divide students into pairs. Provide each pair with a copy of the following chart or ask them to copy it in their class notebooks or scripture study journals: