To hear and obey. Luke 11:14-28
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
Our passage for this morning is one that calls us to make a commitment in our lives.
It is one that asks us, as reader of God’s holy word to answer a question.
The question we must ask ourselves through our text this morning is who’s side are you on?
If we think of this along the lines of a sports analogy, you can’t play for both teams.
Are you on team Christ, or are you playing for the world?
Are you following every whim and desire of your heart?
Or are you putting to death the sinful flesh, putting to death those sinful thoughts, sinful desires?
6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin.
What are you trusting in?
If we are trusting in worldly things, safety, treasure, etc, there is
always someone bigger and badder.
Rather trust in the Lord, you cannot worship two masters.
We may be able to push through things by sheer grit and determination for a time, but if we are doing it on our own it will be just that, for a time.
Blessing comes for those who hear and obey the word of God.
14 Now he was casting out a demon that was mute. When the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke, and the people marveled. 15 But some of them said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons,” 16 while others, to test him, kept seeking from him a sign from heaven. 17 But he, knowing their thoughts, said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a divided household falls. 18 And if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul. 19 And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. 20 But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. 21 When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are safe; 22 but when one stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil. 23 Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. 24 “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and finding none it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ 25 And when it comes, it finds the house swept and put in order. 26 Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there. And the last state of that person is worse than the first.” 27 As he said these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!” 28 But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”
You cannot serve two masters. 14-20
You cannot serve two masters. 14-20
Our passage begins with a very short mention of a miracle that Jesus performed.
14 Now he was casting out a demon that was mute. When the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke, and the people marveled.
While no less amazing, the brevity of this miracle, and each of Jesus miracles really are stated so for a purpose.
Do you notice that as you read, the miracles that Jesus performed were done so rather quickly?
The only time there is extended dialogues is for the purpose of teaching the disciples.
The reason for this is, while the miracles provide proof that Jesus is God’s son, the miracle is not the focus.
They intentionally kept short to draw attention beyond the miracle to to the one who makes the miracle possible to begin with.
God.
This matters even today.
There are groups/denominations, that rely heavily upon and seek after signs.
To the point of declaring people to not even be saved if they do not display certain gifts of the spirit.
The reason for the shortness of the miracles is scripture is to help us to not get lost in the miracles, but to rather marvel in the messiah.
Which is where many of the Jews around Jesus missed the point.
They marveled in the miracle, rather than the messiah.
We also notice as Jesus continue to approach the cross that opposition against him is growing.
We have already seen Jesus responding to peoples hearts, here we see opposition becoming vocal.
15 But some of them said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons,” 16 while others, to test him, kept seeking from him a sign from heaven.
If you have a KJV or NKJV you will notice a difference here in the name.
15 But some of them said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.”
The reason for this goes back to a translation difference once again.
In the Greek text, the word is beelzeboul
The Gospel of Luke i. The Beelzebul Controversy 11:14–26
the English form ‘Beelzebub’ comes from the Latin and is due to assimilation to 2 Ki. 1:2, 3, 6.
This name means Lord of the flies.
2 Now Ahaziah fell through the lattice in his upper chamber in Samaria, and lay sick; so he sent messengers, telling them, “Go, inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, whether I shall recover from this sickness.”
The Baals were gods of the Canaanites.
Beelszebul can be translated lord of the high places.
He is the prince of the the hostile spirits.
The Jews came to identify Beelzebul as one of the arch demons of hell, or even as Satan himself.
What these people were saying was a direct insult to God and to His chosen messiah.
To say that Jesus was casting out demons by Beelzebul was to say that he was Satan’s tool.
They were essentially accusing Jesus of witchcraft.
They denied Jesus deity and therefore could not explain his power any other way that to say it was from the devil.
Unbelief and denial of God continues on today.
Rather than acknowledging that his church is God’s agent for doing good in the world,
people think or say that what the church does is evil.
Culturally there are a number of people who believe the christian church to be bigoted, oppressive,
Of course it is true that many wrong things have been done in the name of Christ,
and that in its weakness and sin the church sometimes acts in ways contrary to the will of God.
But when the church is standing up for what is righteous—
defending the unborn, for example,
or proclaiming that Jesus is the only way to God,
or promoting biblical standards for sexual purity—
it is a wicked lie to say that the church is unloving or ungodly.
When such opposition comes, as it often does in a post-Christian society, it is an attack on Christ himself.
As if the miracle that Jesus performed was not amazing enough, the people want more.
Desiring to test him the kept seeking from him a sign from heaven.
These are the people who acknowledged Jesus as a good person, but did not go so far as to see him as the Son of God.
Their demand was that in order for them to acknowledge him as the messiah, he ought to give them indisputable proof.
They wanted to see Jesus raising up an army of men to overtake the Romans.
That in essence was their desire.
But what the didn’t know or see was that Jesus was raising an army, but his army will be spiritual not physical.
This same attitude of desiring perfect proof beyond the shadow of a doubt is still present today.
Whatever people may think of Christianity and the church, most people do not think they are hostile to Jesus Christ.
They are spiritually open, and thus they are willing to consider what Jesus has to offer.
But before they make a commitment, they think they need a sign that Jesus really is the Savior and God that he claims to be.
This kind of skepticism may seem less evil than outright antagonism, but it is no less dangerous.
Whether we deny Jesus altogether or simply dismiss him until we get more evidence, we do not trust him by faith.
In fact, the skeptic may not actually be any closer to God than the antagonist!
Many people who say that they are skeptics have no sincere desire to know God at all.
They are only using their skepticism as an excuse for avoiding the hard realities of sin, death, and judgment.
Pastor and author J. C. Ryle once said, “It is always one mark of a thoroughly unbelieving heart, to pretend to want more evidence of the truth of religion.”
The truth is that God has given more than enough evidence.
What holds people back is the pride of their own skepticism.
Perhaps you are in this place today, wanting to have more evidence before giving your life over fully to Christ.
I can tell you, no further evidence will come before taking a step of faith.
Jesus first asks for obedience.
The Apostle Paul in addressing the church in Corinth wrote
20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
Jesus responds to these people in a series of three illustrations and a final call to obedience.
A kingdom divided cannot stand.
A kingdom divided cannot stand.
The first illustration, Jesus tells of a kingdom.
English Standard Version Chapter 11
Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a divided household falls.
In saying that the kingdom is laid waste, Jesus is stating that the kingdom becomes uninhabitable.
It becomes depopulated.
Largely because of conflict.
We can think recently, what happened when the conflict began with the war in Ukraine?
Millions of people fled the country, to get away from the conflict.
The first thing that Jesus is pointing to with this first illustration is the peoples rejection of God.
Abraham Lincoln borrowed Jesus’ statement that “A house divided against itself cannot stand,” in a brief speech when he unsuccessfully ran for the Senate against Stephen A. Douglas.
He used it to convey his belief that the union could never survive with both free and slave states;
the nation would have to opt for one or the other.
But when Jesus first spoke those words he was not speaking simply of a political and moral issue dividing a particular country at a point of history;
rather he was speaking of a tremendous spiritual divide that confronts every individual of all time.
And he contends that one must opt for one side or the other;
there is no neutrality possible in this spiritual battle.
The people who were condemning Jesus were accusing him of being just such a person, one that was working against his own household.
Why would Satan try to undo the very work that he had been doing?
One of his cruel demons had muted a man made in the image of God, accomplishing the devil’s purpose of silencing the man’s praise.
Why then would Satan deliver the man from the very bondage he had worked so hard to bring about?
This did not make any sense!
A self-divided kingdom cannot stand.
It was unreasonable for people to say that this miracle was the work of the devil.
In their denial that Jesus was doing the work of God, they were in defiance of common sense.
Jesus was not the only one casting out demons in that day.
There were others who did the same.
Jesus is using this common sense approach to make the statement that if it was the power of satan that was needed to cast out demons,
then it was those who were doubting him, their fellow people who were also doing the work, that were working in the same power.
It takes a stronger man to conqueror another.
It takes a stronger man to conqueror another.
Jesus drives his point home by adding in a second illustration.
21 When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are safe; 22 but when one stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil.
Satan is the strong man armed. He is a powerful spiritual master. His homestead is the heart of unbelievers.
All of an unbeliever’s powers and faculties are Satan’s possessions, at his use. Further, these possessions, securely under Satan’s rule, are undisturbed, or “at peace.”
The unbeliever, dead in his sins, under the sway of the prince of the power of the air (Eph. 2:2) is unaware of his own desperate condition. As Matthew Henry describes it (Matthew Henry’s Commentary [Revell], 5:697):
The sinner has a good opinion of himself, is very secure and merry, has no doubt concerning the goodness of his state nor any dread of the judgment to come; he flatters himself in his own eyes, and cries peace to himself. Before Christ appeared, all was quiet, because all went one way; but the preaching of the gospel disturbed the peace of the devil’s palace.
Christ is the stronger man who attacks the devil and overpowers him. As Paul puts it, at the cross Christ “disarmed the rulers and authorities” and triumphed over them (Col. 2:15).
What no mere man could do, Jesus Christ did in His death and resurrection.
Satan is now a defeated foe, although he is still allowed to reign until his being bound at the second coming of Christ.
This means that Jesus Christ is the only one powerful enough to save a soul from Satan’s dominion and power.
Which leads to Jesus first call to obedience in verse 23
23 Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
Neutrality is not an option.
You can’t straddle the fence by saying, “I’m not a committed follower of Jesus, but neither am I a follower of Satan!”
You also can’t say, “I don’t follow Jesus or Satan. I’m my own master.”
Jesus makes it plain: Either you follow Him or you are against Him and in Satan’s camp.
Those are the only options.
Neither of those options work, blessing only comes through obedience to God because it is His power that sets us free.
This is what Jesus shows us with his third illustration.
24 “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and finding none it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ 25 And when it comes, it finds the house swept and put in order. 26 Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there. And the last state of that person is worse than the first.”
How many times have you in your own spiritual life, felt like you were getting a handle on a sin, only to have it seem to come back with a vengeance?
Now I want to be very clear here, a true follower of Christ, cannot be possessed by an unclean spirit.
In the question I asked, I am referring to a Christian, struggling with their own sinful flesh.
Some will pull these verses out of context to say that an unclean spirit can possess a Christian, and that is simply not true, because what did Jesus just say prior to this?
A divided kingdom cannot stand!
Men cannot have true lasting change by their own will power or moral reformation.
Even though men can get free of problems such as drug abuse, alcohol abuse, anger issues, pornography or any other addiction through self-help programs,
this is not the same as salvation from sin and Satan.
The focus of those programs is never the glory of God, but rather, the happiness of self.
Satan is not unhappy if a drunk becomes sober and still goes to hell.
What that sinner and every sinner needs is the deliverance that only Jesus Christ can give.
As John Calvin put it,
“Let us … learn that, as we are all subject to the tyranny of Satan, there is no other way in which [God] commences his reign within us, than when he rescues us, by the powerful and victorious arm of Christ, from that wretched and accursed bondage”
(Calvin’s Commentaries [Baker], “Harmony of the Evangelists,” 2:72-73).
There is a spiritual battle raging with two and only two sides.
Jesus Christ and only Christ has authority over Satan’s power to deliver us from bondage to Satan.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones points out,
“we must always remember that there are other powers, beside that of Christ, which can give ‘results.’ … It is possible for men and women to get relief from many of their ills and troubles apart altogether from the gospel”
(Evangelistic Sermons [Banner of Truth], p. 179).
This is especially important in our day when truth and doctrine are set aside as of no consequence.
We don’t really care about doctrine.
We want to know, does it work?
What will the gospel do for me?
Will it help my troubled marriage?
If not, I’ll go to the world if it will get me some results.
The truth of the matter is, it is not going to work, if Christ is not truly at work in you.
If we get “help” from any other power than Jesus Christ and His gospel, we have not gotten true and lasting help.
You may get a clean and well-ordered house, but you don’t have transformation of your soul.
You may have a sense of peace and freedom from the troubles that plagued you, but you don’t have eternal life.
You have a temporarily empty house, whereas the sinner who repents and trusts in Christ has the Holy Spirit as the new permanent occupant (11:13).
Even more alarming, you may feel content enough without Christ that you assume that all is well in your soul.
Not having a desperate sense of need, you will not flee to the cross to lay hold of the only true Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
whose shed blood is necessary to deliver you from Satan’s power.
In that sense, your last state is worse than the first.
Luke presses you to answer the question: Is Jesus Christ who He claimed to be or not?
Is His authority as the Messiah sent from God established by the miracles He performed?
Is Jesus the Son of God in human flesh?
If so, you must commit yourself to follow Him whatever the consequences or results.
You may suffer trials, persecution, and even death.
But if Jesus is truly Lord, if He alone defeated Satan’s power,
then you must commit yourself to Him and to Him alone,
not to Him and to some human “deliverance” or program.
How do you do this?
Jesus answers this in his response to a woman calling out to him from the crowd.
27 As he said these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!” 28 But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”
It is interesting that right in the context of Jesus’ teaching about demons, this woman extols Mary!
She may have been well-meaning, but clearly she was misguided.
She was trying to give praise to Jesus by saying, “Your mother is a woman truly blessed to have a son like you.”
Of course, that was true; Mary was blessed by God to be the mother of Jesus.
His response does not deny this, but He does correct the direction of this woman’s thoughts.
He says in effect, “Natural family ties to Me are not the point; the point is to hear God’s Word and do it.”
The person who is decidedly with Jesus doesn’t just offer insincere talk about religion or morals;
rather, he hears what Jesus says and acts on it.
This is not to teach salvation by works because the Word of God that we must obey clearly teaches that we are saved by grace through faith alone.
But the Bible is also clear that saving faith is obedient faith (Rom. 15:18; 16:26).
I want to say that again, the Bible is clear that saving faith is obedient faith.
Paul concludes the book of Romans
25 Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages 26 but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith—
Jesus’ clear authority over demonic forces shows that He is both Savior and Lord.
Therefore, each person is forced to choose sides in the heavenly war.
Having heard the Word of God, we must now act on it in obedience to Jesus or else we are opposed to Him and in league with Satan.
Conclusion
During that part of the Naval War College course known as Fundamentals of Command and Decision, the instructor was stressing the importance of being able to make sound decisions under pressure. A visiting officer from a small foreign navy spoke up. “Talk about decisions!” he said. “I was 700 miles out to sea in my destroyer when I received a dispatch from my base: ‘We have just had a revolution. Which side are you on?’” (Reader’s Digest [5/83].)
Which side are you on this morning?
Are you hearing God’s word?
William Barclay
Either, what Jesus said about Himself is false, in which case He is guilty of such blasphemy as no man ever dared to utter; or, what He said about Himself is true, in which case He is what He claimed to be and can be described in no other terms than the Son of God. Jesus leaves us with the definite choice—we must accept Him fully or reject Him absolutely. That is precisely why every man has to decide for or against Jesus Christ.