Sermon Tone Analysis

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

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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

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

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

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

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

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)