Spirit Matters
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Spirit Matters
Spirit Matters
Last week we left Jesus teaching his disciples how to pray. I hope it was helpful to you and you were able to incorporate the method of the prayer into your life.
A component of that prayer is a request that:
God’s name be kept holy
God’s kingdom comes soon
The last sentence we looked at last week went something like this, Luke 11:13 “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!””
They are hard words…Jesus calls them evil, wicked, sinful, BUT, they can ask…and they can receive…the Holy Spirit
What is the function of the Holy Spirit?
So far, we have seen a few references to the Holy Spirit, but Luke has not really prepared us for what this means.
There are some HB references to God giving his spirit, but they don’t really describe what that means.
Here is what we know from Luke so far:
Jesus will be filled with the Holy Spirit
They Holy Spirit is what enabled Mary’s pregnancy
Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit
Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit
Simeon had the Holy Spirit upon him and had been told by the Holy Spirit that he would not die until he saw God’s Messiah
John the baptizer taught that the Messiah would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire
Jesus is full of the Holy Spirit (post baptism in the Jordan river) and the Spirit leads him into the wilderness.
That is the record from Chapter 1 to the start of Chapter 4.
Through the rest of Luke, the Holy Spirit is referred to only four more times. It is used a total of 13 times in Luke. It shows up in Acts 95 times, another book written by Luke, so he is aware of the Holy Spirit.
Once was a few weeks ago when Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit.
Next was just last week when, as it turns out, we can ask for the Holy Spirit and God will give it to us.
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What is the function of the Holy Spirit?
To understand this, we are going to need to read and get the gist of the challenge.
Luke is certainly aware of how critical the Holy Spirit is, so I surmise that he is going to give us some narratives and teaching to explain it.
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WARNING: We are going to cover some ground today!
THE PACE OF JESUS IS GOING TO PICK UP!
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Luke 11:14-28
One day Jesus cast out a demon from a man who couldn’t speak, and when the demon was gone, the man began to speak. The crowds were amazed, but some of them said, “No wonder he can cast out demons. He gets his power from Satan, the prince of demons.” Others, trying to test Jesus, demanded that he show them a miraculous sign from heaven to prove his authority. He knew their thoughts, so he said, “Any kingdom divided by civil war is doomed. A family splintered by feuding will fall apart. You say I am empowered by Satan. But if Satan is divided and fighting against himself, how can his kingdom survive? And if I am empowered by Satan, what about your own exorcists? They cast out demons, too, so they will condemn you for what you have said. But if I am casting out demons by the power of God, then the Kingdom of God has arrived among you. For when a strong man is fully armed and guards his palace, his possessions are safe—until someone even stronger attacks and overpowers him, strips him of his weapons, and carries off his belongings. “Anyone who isn’t with me opposes me, and anyone who isn’t working with me is actually working against me. “When an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, searching for rest. But when it finds none, it says, ‘I will return to the person I came from.’ So it returns and finds that its former home is all swept and in order. Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the person and live there. And so that person is worse off than before.” As he was speaking, a woman in the crowd called out, “God bless your mother—the womb from which you came, and the breasts that nursed you!” Jesus replied, “But even more blessed are all who hear the word of God and put it into practice.”
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Keep in mind, he has just taught that if you pray, if you ask, knock, and seek, that God will give you the Holy Spirit.
Here we open with another kind of spirit, a demon, or as Luke calls them, and unclean spirit.
We have no background on this man, it is as if the event of casting out a demon is secondary to the teaching.
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They accuse him of being an agent of evil.
They demand another sign from heaven. (Important, that will come up later to show this whole section is connected.
Jesus knows their thoughts.
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Casting out demons is a sign that the Kingdom of God has arrived among you.
Strongman
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Then we get to this strange teaching about how unclean spirits function, but I think we can get caught up in the specifics of the demonology.
We need to pay attention to what happens.
The demon returns and the home is (empty), swept, and in order.
I added empty from Matthew, because that is an important aspect.
The person is cleansed of the demon, but they don’t put anything else in themselves.
That is why you pray for the Holy Spirit.
You can fix up your life, possessions, home, friends, family, but if nothing changes from the inside, then you are susceptible to wickedness again.
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Out of the blue…while he is speaking…someone breaks into a statement!
What was he going to finish saying!
NOTICE: HEAR and PRACTICE the WORD of GOD
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The people were asking for a sign, so Jesus addresses this...
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Luke 11:29-32
As the crowd pressed in on Jesus, he said, “This evil generation keeps asking me to show them a miraculous sign. But the only sign I will give them is the sign of Jonah. What happened to him was a sign to the people of Nineveh that God had sent him. What happens to the Son of Man will be a sign to these people that he was sent by God. “The queen of Sheba will stand up against this generation on judgment day and condemn it, for she came from a distant land to hear the wisdom of Solomon. Now someone greater than Solomon is here—but you refuse to listen. The people of Nineveh will also stand up against this generation on judgment day and condemn it, for they repented of their sins at the preaching of Jonah. Now someone greater than Jonah is here—but you refuse to repent.
Does anyone remember what Jonah said, this great preaching that Jonah gave and turned the entire city?
“Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”
That was it...
The king repents, the people repent, the cows repent!
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What was the sign of Jonah?
A fish?
No, Jonah died, went to sheol, cried to God from there, and God rescued him and remade him on the shore of the great sea.
Resurrection…that is the sign.
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This speaks to a sign and to Jonah’s preaching (SPEAKING)
We have HEAR and PRACTICE
Now we have PREACH
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Luke 11:33-36
“No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light. Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.”
We have HEAR and PRACTICE
PREACH
And now SEE (eye).
Again, speaking of something inside.
You can ask for the Holy Spirit and Jesus is equating it to Light.
When you hear light, what do you think of?
Let there be light? God led them by light through the night?
This is the connection.
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Now we arrive at the section that is going to explain that whole demon goes to the desert, comes back with seven buddies and finds the house in order, but the house is empty.
This makes sense right? The body is a temple for something.
It was made for the Holy Spirit, but our body is unclean. Demons also need a temple, they take up residence in our bodies.
So, it does not matter how good we appear, what is inside can be insidious.
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Luke 11:37-41
As Jesus was speaking, one of the Pharisees invited him home for a meal. So he went in and took his place at the table. His host was amazed to see that he sat down to eat without first performing the hand-washing ceremony required by Jewish custom. Then the Lord said to him, “You Pharisees are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and wickedness! Fools! Didn’t God make the inside as well as the outside? So clean the inside by giving gifts to the poor, and you will be clean all over.
This is incredible!
Outside looks great, but inside: filthy, greed and wickedness
Watch this…Didn’t God make the inside as well as the outside?
How do you correct greed and wickedness.
Give gifts to the poor.
Apparently doing that will clean the inside and outside.
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Luke 11:42-44
“What sorrow awaits you Pharisees! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore justice and the love of God. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things. “What sorrow awaits you Pharisees! For you love to sit in the seats of honor in the synagogues and receive respectful greetings as you walk in the marketplaces. Yes, what sorrow awaits you! For you are like hidden graves in a field. People walk over them without knowing the corruption they are stepping on.”
You tithe, and yes you should.
But you neglect JUSTICE and the LOVE of God
You should have tithed and done these other things too!
Remember the story of Mary and Martha? Martha asks Jesus to change (fix) Mary, but his response is Mary has not neglected the more important thing.
They have the best seat, but it is like an unmarked grave.
Very intense!
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Luke 11:45-49
“Teacher,” said an expert in religious law, “you have insulted us, too, in what you just said.” “Yes,” said Jesus, “what sorrow also awaits you experts in religious law! For you crush people with unbearable religious demands, and you never lift a finger to ease the burden. What sorrow awaits you! For you build monuments for the prophets your own ancestors killed long ago. But in fact, you stand as witnesses who agree with what your ancestors did. They killed the prophets, and you join in their crime by building the monuments! This is what God in his wisdom said about you: ‘I will send prophets and apostles to them, but they will kill some and persecute the others.’
Yeah, ya think!
I love his response to his insulting them...”Yes…and”
You CRUSH and NEVER LIFT A FINGER
(I think many youtube Christians are like this, full of opinion, but never willing to do anything. Judging others, but never seeing their own death)
The unmarked graves comment is stunning in light of this…they would love to be remembered with great monuments, but they will be in unmarked graves.
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Last part...
Luke 11:50-54
“As a result, this generation will be held responsible for the murder of all God’s prophets from the creation of the world—from the murder of Abel to the murder of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, it will certainly be charged against this generation. “What sorrow awaits you experts in religious law! For you remove the key to knowledge from the people. You don’t enter the Kingdom yourselves, and you prevent others from entering.” As Jesus was leaving, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees became hostile and tried to provoke him with many questions. They wanted to trap him into saying something they could use against him.
His judgement is resolute: You are murderers, and God will hold you accountable for the murder of all the prophets.
Did they murder the prophets?
What murder are they going to be charged with?
Yes, later they will participate in the death of Jesus, but right now, have we seen anything they have done that would be considered murder?
Yes! They were charged with being the representative of God to the nations. And they represent only themselves, they think only of their own welfare. They look down on others.
WORSE: They not only hide the key to the knowledge of the Kingdom of God, they ACTIVELY PREVENT OTHERS FROM ENTERING!
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Did you catch the spiritual matters that showed up during these sections?
This whole section should be shocking to us.
There are Christians, some prominent, who say they are preaching the truth, they put burdens on people, but they don’t lift their own finger to do a dang thing about it.
His charge is this: you and I are representatives of the Kingdom of God (Bearing the Name) and we are expected to do it with these things in mind.
What have we learned?
Evil spirits are like flies, they just multiply and are relentless. When one fly finds a picnic, it goes and gets more friends and bring them along.
But the Holy Spirit, that takes careful consideration, and it takes a change of heart to work with God.
Hear the Word of God and put it into practice, then your house will not be empty.
Light up your house, don’t hide the light, let it illuminate you, things about you, your thoughts and your heart.
The work of the Holy Spirit is:
Giving to the poor
Easing burdens
Hating oppression and murder
Giving knowledge to people
When you see the opposite:
Corruption, greed, murder, withholding knowledge, but a beautiful outside, you are looking at the work of our enemy.
It has an appearance of wisdom, it looks good, it sometimes seems right, and we believe we have no power against it.
But we do.
Love.
WARNING: The next several weeks are going to be like this. The pace of Luke is going to shift and it will be teaching and miracle and chastising over and over again.
We are going to endeavor to get through them quickly and stop along the way at some interesting points.