05_39 Luke 11:14-28

Engage

PRAY

Have you ever met someone and known within the first couple of minutes whether or not you were going to hate each other or be best friends for life?

Freshman year of college. Spent an entire year getting involved in worship ministry.

Plenty of musicians but by the end of the year I was one of the go-to student worship leaders.

I was a musician. I enjoyed being known as a musician. Loved using my skills for worship.

If I were honest, a flesh part of me LOVED being the Worship Guy.

After freshman year I spent a year traveling with a ministry team.

It was a step of faith taking a year away from campus.

Things changed quickly at this school.

Anyone could have stepped up and taken the role of Worship Guy.

As the year was coming to a close and we were headed into Summer Camp season I began hearing rumors of another worship guy.

Everyone seemed to like him

Everyone said he was super nice and very friendly

Worst of all, everyone said he was a great musician and fantastic worship leader.

Flesh Tim: “This town ain’t big enough for the both of us”.

One day, as I was getting ready for lunch, I noticed that this guy was sitting alone and decided there was no better time to see for myself who this guy was.

So I sat down, introduced myself, fully prepared to hate this guy for stepping on my turf.

He told me his name was Tom but everyone called him Dusty.

As we spent some time chatting, within the first few minutes I knew we were going to be best friends.

Tom and I were able to both serve the worship needs of the school together.

When I couldn’t lead, he would

When he couldn’t lead, I would.

My favorite times were when we led together

Tom and I didn’t need to rehearse in order to lead well together

We just had a sense of where the other was going and worked well together.

Neither of us minded when the other one was leading and we loved taking the supporting role when needed.

Tom and I also loved getting each other in and out of trouble

Together we would egg one another on to do ridiculous things around campus just for the laughs.

Some things that to this day, I can’t share on record.

Even after we graduated and went our separate ways Tom would call me on my office number and we would catch up and crack jokes.

Had a code when we were on speaker: If I called him Dusty, it was safe to talk about anything

If someone came in the office though, I would call him Tom and he would switch to “office lingo”

Together we went through great times and very challenging times.

We were there for each other when life was hard.

We were there for each other’s weddings.

We still catch up every so often to this day.

I sat down for that lunch with Tom expecting us to be at odds.

Little did I know that we were going to be best friends for life.

To everyone else he was just Dusty

As far as I know, only two people call him Tom. Me and his mom.

Tension

Similarly to my story about meeting Tom, each of us approach Jesus with a certain level of skepticism or curiosity at first.

Each of us have our own baggage, sins, and history.

Each of us have our own perceptions and misperceptions of what he’s like.

There comes a point, however, where we have to make a decision about who Jesus is.

We can no longer sit on the fence.

We can’t watch from afar.

We either step out of the boat with Jesus or we leave Him.

In today’s passage Jesus is going to have a conversation with some religious leaders and fence sitters.

Fence sitting can look different for different people

If you’ve been a fence sitter, or you currently are a fence sitter, or you know someone who’s a fence sitter, you'll resonate:

(1) Some Fence Sitters want to marvel at Jesus’ work from a distance without having to commit ourselves.

We like the idea of Jesus

We like some of his teachings & ideals

We’re not convinced that we want to worship Him as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Mark Sayers - “We want the kingdom without the King.”

(2) Some Fence Sitters have a different Jesus in mind and so we’re trying to justify our rejection of the Biblical Jesus.

We want Jesus to look like us, think like us, affirm us.

We don’t like the Jesus that we see in the scriptures

So we make up our own version of Jesus & do everything we can to discredit the real Jesus or justify our own rejection of Him.

(3) Some Fence Sitters are really just pretending to sit on a fence but in reality we’ve already made up our minds.

We’ve been burned by the church or Christians

We’ve decided that Jesus can’t be who he says he is.

Even though God is literally working around us, we can’t see it.

We’ve closed our eyes. We’re willfully blind.

**TRANS - In Luke 11, Jesus is going to invite us to get off the fence and make a decision.

Teach

Luke 11:14–16 (ESV)

Now he was casting out a demon that was mute. When the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke, and the people marveled. But some of them said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons,” while others, to test him, kept seeking from him a sign from heaven.

Depending on how you count them, in total the NT records 33-37 miracles of Jesus.

There were clearly more, these are the only ones recorded.

16 involve healing

7 casting out demons

1 has to do with finances/money

5 involve food

3 involve control over nature

3 are resurrections

The pattern in Luke is to describe the miracle in depth.

Who, what, where, when, why

What did Jesus say, what did he do, what happened next, etc.

Luke is a doctor & historian. Loves detail. Very thorough.

At the end, only a short description of the response of the crowd.

In this case, however, the miracle happens in less than one verse.

This is the shortest miracle description BY FAR.

It is recorded in three of the four gospels.

Luke chose this miracle to focus in on the response of the crowd.

At the start of Jesus’ ministry, he works hard to fly under the radar.

He knows his message will be controversial

He wants to make sure as many people hear it as possible before the religious leaders & authorities get involved.

As news of his miracles spread and his popularity sky-rockets, Jerusalem takes notice and he begins to encounter a variety of responses.

Some want to test and verify his words

Some want to put this “nobody” in his place.

The opposition to Jesus begins to mount and will ultimately end in his execution.

In this section as well as the next couple of chapters, Luke will record some of Jesus’ conversations and debates with these religious leaders.

Immediately after casting out this demon that was causing the man’s muteness, Luke tells us the crowd responds in three different ways.

(1) Some Marveled - they’re intrigued! They’re curious! They’re amazed! Not necessarily convinced yet, However.

(2) Some Accused - they don’t like Jesus, they’re trying to find a reason to discredit him.

(3) Some Tested - Apparently authority over the demonic realm and the healing of a mute man is not proof enough!

In the next couple of weeks we’ll see Jesus address those who are just marveling & those who want more proof.

In today’s passage, Jesus is going to focus in on that middle one: The accusers.

The Accusers

So what is the accusation?

Luke 11:15 ESV

But some of them said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons,”

Beelzebub was a derogatory term used for Satan

Means “Lord of the Flies”

Encompassed all things evil.

The thought was that the only reason Jesus had authority over demons was because he was actually a servant of Satan himself.

Like a supernatural double-agent.

Jesus’ response is brilliant:

Luke 11:17–20 ESV

But he, knowing their thoughts, said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a divided household falls. And if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul. And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

In essence, Jesus is saying there are only two possible explanations for how He could cast out demons:

(1) By the authority of Satan.

(2) By the finger of God.

So he asks them:

Can a kingdom that is divided stand?

Can a household that is divided survive?

How then could Satan’s kingdom stand if he’s divided?

It Can’t!

(Btw, Abraham Lincoln borrows this same argument in his 1858 speech)

Here’s the kicker:

Either way Jesus is the hero!

Either Satan is divided and his kingdom is falling

Or God’s finger is upon him, and Satan’s kingdom is finished!

A new kingdom has come - God’s kingdom

And it’s time for everyone to decide which kingdom they will be part of!

So essentially, which of these are you opposed to?

Jesus closes with this short parable:

Luke 11:21–23 ESV

When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are safe; but when one stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil. Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.

The “strong man” in v.21 is Satan.

He is in charge of this world

He is fully armed

He is guarding his palace & his possessions.

Nobody has been able to overpower him so far.

But then another man comes

He overpowers him

He disarms him

He takes away his stuff

Which of these two men is the stronger one?

JESUS!

The fact that he can overpower, disarm, and free those who have been enslaved by Satan shows he is the stronger one!

His authority is on display for all to see and it’s time to get off the fence and make a decision

Earlier in ch9 Jesus is teaching his disciples and he says that if someone is not against them then they are for them.

Here Jesus tells the fence-sitters that it’s time to make a decision.

To see what they’ve seen and NOT choose to join him means they are against him.

They’re not helping gather, they are actually scattering!

They’re not in line with God’s work, they’re in line with Satan’s!

Apply

Ultimately, those of us sitting on the fence need to make a decision.

Either Jesus is who he says he is or he’s not.

It’s not enough for us to marvel from a distance.

We need to get in the game.

It’s not an option for us to pick and choose which aspects of Jesus we like and reject the rest.

He doesn’t leave that option to us.

C.S. Lewis tells us, he’s either a Liar, Lunatic or Lord.

He’s either Mad, Bad, or God.

Either he lied about being God.

Or he was crazy because he believed it.

Or he actually is God.

We don’t need more signs, he’s shown plenty of them - What we need is to make a decision.

For those of us who HAVE made the decision to submit ourselves under the Lordship of Jesus.

I wonder if you’ve been sitting on the fence of his calling on your life?

Similar to those trying to choose whether to submit to Jesus, you try to pick and choose which aspects of the Way of Jesus you’re going to submit to.

You can’t sit on the fence.

Either Jesus is Lord over all of your life, or none of it.

I wonder if there are any of us that need to spend some time in confession and repentance this morning.

Let me pray and we’ll spend a few minutes reflecting and responding.

PRAY