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Questions Week 14, Day 5

by David Joynt on August 03, 2017


MATTHEW 4:8


Notice the elevation changes! The first temptation in the desert, the second at the Temple’s pinnacle, the third on a “high mountain.” The higher we rise, the greater the intensity of our temptations. Jesus was offered kingship in his ministry and then again by the crowd during his triumphal entry into Jerusalem. This third temptation presages the later moments. The more popular or powerful we become, the easier it is to command or coerce or manipulate rather than convincing, serving, and inviting others to faith and fellowship.


Have any previous temptations you’ve faced ever reappeared in stronger form

Tags: temptations

About the Author
David Joynt

Dave Joynt began his service as a pastor at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona in September 2014. This meant a move away from the Northeast, where he has a long history, growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and then serving congregations in Delaware and New Jersey for a total of 23 years.

Dave was nurtured in a great church in Bethlehem where his parents, Anne and Carey, served as elders. He graduated in classics from Lehigh University where his Father taught, and then from Oxford, where he met his wife Julia. Ordained in 1988, he completed a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1993.

He and Julia have a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Madeleine.

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