Hearing is Believing Luke 11:27-36
Notes
Transcript
Hearing is Believing
Hearing is Believing
Last week, we looked at some responses to Jesus’ Ministry.
The first response was one of accusing Jesus of being in cahoots with the Devil.
The second response was that they needed more signs to believe in Jesus.
Jesus addressed the first crowd by revealing that if Satan’s kingdom was divided then it would be ineffective.
But he doesn’t really address the second crowd until the text we are going to look at this morning.
There are many reasons why people don’t believe in God.
But one of the ones that I hear often especially by the intellectual skeptics is that God knows what each one of us would need to believe, so why doesn’t he do that.
That’s just an confounded way to say, We need to see more to believe.
We need a sign.
We need you to give us more information and then we will believe.
Another personal miracle and we will get it.
Jesus we are going to Ignore all the miracles that happen everyday, but if you show us one more.
A different miracle.
Then we would believe.
But this is simply a moving of the goal posts.
To bring it back to last weeks text that moves forward this morning.
The crowd that wanted another miracle had just seen Jesus perform a miracle.
He cast out a demon from a man that was made mute.
And that wasn’t enough for them.
They needed something more.
This is a trap that we can all fall into.
Believer and unbeliever.
We want God to reveal to us something more.
Something that will convince the unbeliever to believe.
And something that will convince the believer that Jesus truly does love and care for them.
But the seeking of a sign will never be enough to satisfy
That’s the theme of these verses,
Signs are good, but they aren’t enough.
We need to trust in the word of God.
We need to hear Jesus speak and believe he is the Lord.
Not based on the ability he has, but on the Word’s he speaks.
Let’s pray and ask the Lord to open our Eyes.
This text begins with an interruption by a random woman in the crowd.
Why did she yell out?
Maybe she was uncomfortable with the tension in the air.
Jesus had just corrected some religious officials and a demon had just been cast out.
Maybe she wants to add a little levity to the goings on.
27 As he was saying these things, a woman from the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the one who nursed you!”
28 He said, “Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.”
Hear and Obey
Hear and Obey
This lady correctly asserts that the Mary is blessed.
Meaning the womb that carried Jesus and the breast that nursed him have been and will be blessed.
Jesus doesn’t correct her.
Mary is blessed. We read about her being blessed all the way back in Chapter 1.
She is recognized even today as having an important role to play in the history of redemption.
She is the one who carried Jesus.
Cared for Jesus.
Nurtured Jesus.
She deserves and gets blessing.
It is okay for us to acknowledge Mary’s blessedness.
I know that this may concern some of you that were raised within a different denomination, but the truth is we should recognize Mary’s importance as the one chosen by God to carry and care for Jesus.
But Mary’s motherhood of Jesus isn’t the point.
Instead, Mary’s true blessing was that she heard and obeyed Jesus’ word.
We look toward the object of Mary’s faith and blessing and we see the glory of Jesus.
Jesus recognizes this, and his response is “yes, but rather”
There is a greater blessing.
However blessed Mary is there is a greater blessing.
This has already been addressed earlier in Luke 8:21 “21 But he replied to them, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear and do the word of God.””
His response here is the same.
True blessing.
The greatest blessing comes to those who hear Jesus’ word and obey it.
What is the greatest blessing?
That they come to the knowledge and into a relationship with the King of the Universe.
Not just physically, but spiritually.
Lives are transformed when we hear the gospel and obey it.
It’s not enough that we hear the word of God.
It’s not enough that we come and sit in Sunday School, a church service, or even listen to preachers and teachers on the radio, television or podcast.
Hearing the word is a starting point, but does that hearing cause transformation.
Is what you hear and what you learn moving from your brain to your actions.
Do you keep/obey the word of God?
Do you kill the sin in your life?
Do you submit to the kingship of Jesus?
Do you seek the good of others?
Do you forgive those who sin against you?
Do you pursue holiness and honor God with your life?
What we hear should be apparent in our actions.
Here’s how Jesus puts it in another place.
Luke 8:15 “15 But the seed in the good ground—these are the ones who, having heard the word with an honest and good heart, hold on to it and by enduring, produce fruit.”
Truly hearing the word of Jesus will always bear fruit of obedience to his word.
Your salvation, if authentic, will always lead to good works and obedience.
Jesus is laying down the gauntlet and setting the stage for what he’s about to lean into in his teaching.
29 As the crowds were increasing, he began saying, “This generation is an evil generation. It demands a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.
30 For just as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so also the Son of Man will be to this generation.
31 The queen of the south will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and look—something greater than Solomon is here.
32 The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at Jonah’s preaching, and look—something greater than Jonah is here.
Demands a Sign
Demands a Sign
The crowd was growing.
People were flocking to hear and see Jesus.
But Jesus rebukes the crowd.
He says that they are an evil generation.
Now this may sound harsh.
But the truth is every generation is evil.
We are all depraved and fall short of God’s glory and his demand of perfection.
Those who don’t place their faith in Jesus are categorized as evil.
However, The people living during Jesus’ ministry were a truly evil generation.
Why would Jesus say this to them?
It’s not a very kind evangelistic tool.
If he wanted to have more disciples, this isn’t the way modern convention would say is the best way to encourage people.
Jesus doesn’t keep us guessing.
He tells us why they are a wicked generation.
They demand a sign.
They want Jesus to reveal who he is through more miraculous acts.
They want to verify the truth of Jesus’ claims.
Never mind the fact, that they had just seen him cast out a demon and open the mouth of the mute man.
That wasn’t enough for them.
They needed more.
But Jesus knows that it doesn’t matter how many signs he gives, their hearts are going to remain hard.
They aren’t going to be transformed.
There will always be another excuse to not believe and follow Jesus.
The ministry of Jesus wasn’t built upon signs.
The word signs here is an interesting word.
We witnessed it a lot throughout John’s gospel.
But a sign is not the thing.
The sign driving into El Campo isn’t El Campo, but it points to destination of El Campo.
This is the same thing here, the signs and wonders that Jesus did were not Jesus himself.
They simply pointed to the message that Jesus proclaimed.
The fact is they would have never believed based on the number of signs given.
Like I said earlier, they would have continued to move the goal posts.
Wanting or demanding more of Jesus.
All the while never truly believing.
But Jesus does tell them that they will get a sign.
The sign of Jonah.
I’m not sure how Jonah entered the chat, but Jesus reassures them that this is the sign they will receive.
What is the sign of Jonah?
This is something that scholars and theologians disagree about often.
First we need to know at least the highlights of Jonah’s Story.
Jonah was a prophet of God who was called by God to go tell his enemies to repent and turn to the Lord or they would perish.
He didn’t want to do that, so instead he fled in the opposite direction on a ship.
The Lord caused a storm to rise up and the ship was going to sink, that is until Jonah was tossed overboard and swallowed by a big fish.
He spent 3 days in this fishes belly where he finally repented and was spit up on dry ground.
He then reluctantly obeyed the Lord and the whole town repented and were spared by the Lord’s Judgment.
So what does the Sign of Jonah Jesus refers to mean?
There are three options.
The first is that the sign will be Jesus’ death and resurrection.
This being a mirror of Jonah being in the belly of the whale.
The greatest sign they will receive is Jesus’ resurrection.
Second, it could be the preaching of repentance.
This mirrors Jesus’ requirement that to follow him they must deny themselves.
Jonah went out to preach about God’s Judgement and now Jesus is doing the same.
Third, it could be a combination of both.
I tend to lean more towards the 3rd option.
Luke is ambiguous in what the sign means, but Matthew’s Gospel gives us a little more insight.
Matthew truly focuses on the death and resurrection being the sign of Jonah, but Luke’s ambiguity makes me think that it could, at least in this context be both.
Jesus then says, Luke 11:30 “30 For just as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so also the Son of Man will be to this generation.”
This is why I think it’s both the resurrection and the preaching.
What sign was Jonah to the people of Nineveh?
They didn’t know about his time in the belly of the fish.
All they knew and heard was his preaching of repentance.
So Jesus’ preaching of repentance and the kingdom of God is the sign not for the people, but against them if they don’t believe.
Jesus is the ultimate sign they are looking for.
How is Jesus the sign they are looking for?
Because everything and everyone who came before him was a simple shadow of his greatness.
He gives two examples.
Let’s look at them one more time.
Luke 11:31–32 “31 The queen of the south will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and look—something greater than Solomon is here. 32 The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at Jonah’s preaching, and look—something greater than Jonah is here.”
He begins with a lady known as the queen of the south, she is also referred to by the Queen of Sheba.
In 1 Kings 10, Solomon is visited by the Queen of Sheba.
1 Kings 10:1 “1 The queen of Sheba heard about Solomon’s fame connected with the name of the Lord and came to test him with difficult questions.”
To travel from where she lived to Solomon would have taken months for this caravan to arrive.
Solomon had made a name for himself so great that a foreign ruler was going to come and meet him.
She wanted to ask him questions b/c of his vast wisdom.
Here’s what we know from Scripture about Solomon’s wisdom.
1 Kings 4:29–31 “29 God gave Solomon wisdom, very great insight, and understanding as vast as the sand on the seashore. 30 Solomon’s wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all the people of the East, greater than all the wisdom of Egypt. 31 He was wiser than anyone—wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, Calcol, and Darda, sons of Mahol. His reputation extended to all the surrounding nations.”
Solomon was one of the greatest sages to ever exist.
He is credited with writing the book of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes in the Scriptures
He was sought out for his wisdom, for his knowledge.
And Jesus says here, Though Solomon’s wisdom was great, mine is greater.
Solomon’s wisdom was given to him by God.
But as we have witnessed throughout the gospel of Luke, Jesus is God.
So his wisdom is given it’s inherit to who he is.
Solomon had great derived wisdom.
Jesus is wisdom incarnate.
He demonstrates this by his teaching.
Through his parables and through his preaching he demonstrates to know the heart of God.
To have wisdom too deep for many to fathom.
He’s greater than Solomon.
Solomon had wisdom, Jesus is wisdom
Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 1:30 “30 It is from him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became wisdom from God for us—our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption”
And in Colossians 2:2–3 “2 I want their hearts to be encouraged and joined together in love, so that they may have all the riches of complete understanding and have the knowledge of God’s mystery—Christ. 3 In him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”
I want to pause real quick just to marvel at this truth.
We as his disciples have access to his wisdom.
He grants us wisdom if we ask for it.
The Holy Spirit that we have been sealed with leads us in wisdom.
The fact that we have a direct line to divine wisdom is a great gift from our wonderful savior.
This wisdom is granted to us through our relationship with him and through his Word.
This is how we get to know the heart of our Lord and the calling he has set before us.
We don’t need more than he’s already given us to know the gift of salvation and the need of a savior.
We know about his sacrifice.
His burial, his resurrection, his ascension.
We can live this life knowing that the King of the universe gives us life and wisdom.
And we didn’t have to live at the same time as him to recognize this, but the people he ministered to directly missed it.
And yet the people asking for a sign miss it.
They didn’t travel months to hear him, rather he came to them and they are still too dense to see his greatness.
They still need something more, even though his greatness is on full display through his teaching, preaching, and the signs he’s already demonstrated.
That’s why this Gentile queen is going to rise up at the judgment and condemn them.
They had greatness before them and still couldn’t see the truth of who he is.
This is like those today who read Jesus’ words.
and they may even acknowledge him as a good teacher, but they walk away from him b/c they can’t see to where this truth comes from.
His wisdom isn’t enough for them.
They need him to put on a show.
And it’s not just he queen of the South that’s going to stand against them it will also be those who repented at the preaching of Jonah.
They will stand up and against this evil generation b/c they repented.
They heard the preaching of Jonah and repented of their sin.
Now this sermon wasn’t anything like the preaching of Jesus.
In fact, it’s one of the shortest proclamations in all of scripture.
This is what happened when Jonah finally got to Nineveh.
Jonah 3:3–5 “3 Jonah got up and went to Nineveh according to the Lord’s command. Now Nineveh was an extremely great city, a three-day walk.
4 Jonah set out on the first day of his walk in the city and proclaimed, “In forty days Nineveh will be demolished!”
5 Then the people of Nineveh believed God. They proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth—from the greatest of them to the least.”
This is how little the Ninevites knew about God.
How little they knew about theology.
How little they knew about godliness and the commandments of the Lord.
All they hear is “In Forty Days Nineveh will be demolished!”
They repented and turned their hearts toward the Lord.
Jesus is demonstrating how ridiculous it is that these people standing before him have witness great things and still want more, while the all the Ninevites knew was that their city was going to be destroyed and they repented.
And not just some of them.
Everyone from the wealthy king to the poor peasant.
All repented.
Jesus is now saying that not only is he greater than Solomon, but he’s also greater than Jonah.
He is a better preacher.
He is a better teacher.
His repentance is greater.
Everything that Jesus is offering is greater than what Jonah offered.
Jesus is willing to give of himself.
His repentance is a repentance that grants us not just the stayed hand of judgment of God, but also grant us fellowship with God.
The truth that Jesus is greater doesn’t just make him greater than Solomon or Jonah.
Jesus is greater than anything and everything this world has to offer.
He is the creator and sustainer of all creation.
He is the author and perfecter of our faith.
He is the suffering servant who bled and died for us to have redemption and forgiveness.
He is the holy God of the universe that offers himself to us.
He has come to overthrow the devil, defeat death, and offer life to all who believe.
Why is Jesus’ teaching and preaching so important?
B/c there will be judgment.
There will be a day when all of us have to stand before God and give an account to him for what we believed about Jesus.
He’s telling those standing there before him, and even us sitting here today.
That we don’t want to miss out on what he’s preaching.
Judgement and condemnation waits for those who do not believe in the Son of God.
That is the pure wrath of God will be poured out on all who don’t believe.
Those who have heard the message of repentance.
Turn from your sins and embrace the love, grace, mercy, and compassion of God.
This may be the last chance you get.
Our time is short.
Don’t stand before the Judgement seat and try to tell God, if you would have only done _______ I would have believed.
If you would have shown me one more sign, I would have believed.
If you would have visited me, healed my loved one, saved my marriage, gave me that promotion, whatever it is, then I would have believed.
If the evidence and the proof of God’s love for you isn’t sufficient in the the death of Jesus nothing ever will be.
And you will face the judgement of God as he pours out his wrath on all who will not believe.
Jesus has brought the light and hope of salvation into the world.
Readily available to all who believe.
We need to stop looking for excuses not to follow him and realize that he is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
He comes proclaiming
Freedom To the Captives.
Hope for the Hopeless.
Life for those who are dead
Reconciliation to our creator.
That’s the best news ever.
and we should rejoice in it.
========
Jesus concludes his confrontation with these words.
33 “No one lights a lamp and puts it in the cellar or under a basket, but on a lampstand, so that those who come in may see its light.
34 Your eye is the lamp of the body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is also full of light. But when it is bad, your body is also full of darkness.
35 Take care, then, that the light in you is not darkness.
36 If, therefore, your whole body is full of light, with no part of it in darkness, it will be entirely illuminated, as when a lamp shines its light on you.”
Light and Darkness
Light and Darkness
Jesus here is speaking about the message that he brings.
He hasn’t hidden it.
He’s been absolutely outspoken about the reconciliation and redemption that he brings.
He’s not hiding the light of the gospel that they may have to go and seek it out, no He’s proclaiming it right their face.
He’s offering the invitation to come and see it’s light.
Look there like we’ve seen over the past couple of weeks.
There are only two categories for someone to fall into.
Either they are for Jesus or they are against Jesus.
Here he puts it this way, their eyes either have the light.
That is they have been transformed by the gospel and are following after Jesus or they are living in darkness.
The eye is key here.
He says those who have been transformed by the message of the gospel are living in the light.
They have been made new.
They have been made healthy
Our lives and body are full of the light of Jesus.
The way we live, work, and play reflects the one who saved us.
But there are those, the ones who have rejected the gospel that are full of darkness.
They are enemies of God.
They haven’t been changed by the light of Jesus.
That means that even the good deeds they do.
Are tainted by darkness.
So it doesn’t mean that they don’t do good things, but that these things don’t honor God and are therefore by default wicked.
In addition, he has a warning.
There is true light and there is false light.
That’s what he means when he says
Luke 11:35 “35 Take care, then, that the light in you is not darkness.”
It sounds like a pretty cryptic phrase, but think of it this way, we are often self deceived.
It’s easy for us to think that what we are doing or what we believe is right.
But Remember who he’s talking to.
He’s talking to those who don’t believe him.
He’s talking to those who look at him and demand a sight.
Those who don’t believe he is who he claims to be God in the flesh.
So don’t be decieved.
Either you are with Christ or you are against him.
Either you are living a life submitted to his Lordship or you are at odds with him.
Where do you stand?
Do you truly believe that Jesus is the savior of the world and the Lord of your life or are you self-deceived thinking that you can trick or fool God?
B/c Jesus tells us that if we have been transformed by the light then we can have no part with darkness.
Light and darkness cannot coexist.
Living wickedly or even just trusting in Jesus a little bit doesn’t work if you are to be a part of the kingdom of God.
We can have no part in darkness.
We need to make sure that our belief in Jesus isn’t tainted by our own self-righteousness.
That it is stained with our sinfulness.
That we continue to live a life that pursues holiness.
That pursues righteousness.
That chases after the things of God.
To live for Christ means that we are not partaking with evil.
Belief in Jesus isn’t simply one subsection of our life.
Not it’s the entire thing.
We cannot be followers of Jesus with one foot still in the grave.
I want to offer you some hope.
There will be times when we sin.
there will be times when we fall short.
And in those times God has grace and mercy for us.
This isn’t a call to live perfect lives.
It’s a call to make every effort to pursue light.
It’s a call to kill the sin that entangles you.
It’s a call to trust that Jesus is the one who saves you.
It’s a call to rely on his grace and mercy to sustain you.
It’s a call to truly believe in the message and hope of the gospel.
That’s what Jesus is calling us to.
He wants us to trust and believe in him.
Do you trust in him completely?
Do you believe that he is the savior of the world.
Are you listening to his words?
Are you devoted to his teachings?
Are you pursuing him will all that you have?
There is no time to wait.
Respond to him.
Repent of your sin and follow after Jesus.
Let’s pray.
