Untitled Sermon (11)

Scripture Introduction:

I was trying to figure out if I should break from Luke for a few weeks to focus a few weeks on the Christmas story. But after studying Luke 11 I realized that there are—I think—three Christmas sermons right there. Because in many ways the whole gospel of Luke is an extension of the Christmas story. Christ has come—what are we going to do with this? This is the greatest news ever—will we receive it? And in Luke 11 we have some significant opposition to Jesus. They are, if you will, spoiling Christmas. They are scrooges, they are grinches.

Today we will look at one particular attitude, disposition of the heart, that will rob us of the joy of Christmas. See if you can spot a theme here in Luke 11.

But let me set the text up just a bit more and give you a clue. Last week we saw Jesus driving a mute demon out of a man, and the response of some was to say he was doing that work by the devil. Others, though, seemed to try to remain a little neutral.

What’s worse?

Is neutrality a step in the right direction? Or is it maybe even worse than opposition?

Read Text

Luke 11:27–36 ESV

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!” But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, “This generation is an evil generation. It seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. “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.”

Sermon Introduction:

It has been said, “If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.” There are some situations where neutrality in situations of injustice is actually a choice on the side of the oppressor.

In the 50’s and 60’s MLK often spoke of the pain of those who remained neutral. One of maybe the saddest quotes from King is this, “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

But there is a difference here. Yes, there is an injustice happening to Jesus. But that’s not the point of the gospel story. We are not called upon to defend Jesus. We don’t rescue Jesus. We don’t fight for Jesus. He rescues us. He fights for us. We’re called to worship Him. And that’s what is happening in this text. Will we see His coming, His work, His rescue, His healing…will we see it as good news or will we kick against it. Will we see Him as the rightful King?

There are three things I see in this text that are ways of avoiding Jesus.

Placing familial connection over obedience

In one sense what is happening here in verses 27-28 is a fulfillment of Scripture. In Luke 1:28, and 1:42 Mary says, “from now on all generations will call me blessed”. This woman’s blessing is a fulfillment of that statement.

This was a proverbial way of paying tribute. We still speak this way some in our day. “Your parents must be proud of you.” And so this woman is blessing Jesus by speaking a blessing to His mother. But look here at how Jesus responds.

He’s saying, “Yes, but...” He’s affirming her response but defines that blessedness a bit more. Mary isn’t blessed by her blood relationship with himself—but by hearing the word of God and obeying it.

I think this is telling really—women will be blessed by childbearing—by giving birth to great sons. Women are blessed by what they accomplish in family. That was the predominant view of the day. But look at what Jesus is doing. He’s not denying the blessing of family…but he’s extending it. It’s not through “childbirth” it’s through obedience to Him. It’s through her relationship with Him. As Augustine said, “Mary was more blessed in accepting the faith of Christ than in conceiving the flesh of Christ.”

This is also, I believe, connected with what we saw last week. It’s about filling that void. You’re not blessed just by some sort of proximate connection to Jesus. “Blessed are you for having a Bible...” Yes, definitely…but. “Blessed are you for going to church and hearing the Word...” Yes, definitely…but. “Blessed are you for having a Christian family and being around good Christian principles...” Yes, definitely…but.” “Blessed are you when a demon is cast out of you…blessed are you when you get clean…when you get your marriage on track…when you raise your kids right…when you are a good financial steward…yes…yes…yes…BUT if we don’t fill that void with being united to Christ, with obeying Christ, then it’s going to fill back up.

We can miss on the blessing of Christmas—on the blessing of the incarnation—because we think just because it happened and because we have some closeness to the events that it becomes ours. But Jesus here is calling this woman into discipleship. Yes, my mother is blessed, but you can be as well. It’s not something that is reserved for her…it’s something open to every would be disciple.

The second thing we see here that can cause us to miss Christmas is perpetually looking for a sign.

2. If he gives me enough signs.

This is really the crux of what is happening in this passage. Now we know from many other places in Scripture that Jesus is very patient and gentle and very open to revealing who He is to those who are truly seeking. He’s not necessarily opposed to “giving a sign”…we see this with Thomas. We see how he interacted even with the disciples early on. Much of what He is doing is demonstrating that He is who He says he is. But there is also a type of unbelief that wants to keep the conversation going because you know eventually you’ll be able to poke a hole in something.

I like how one author stated it:

Luke, Volumes 1 & 2 The Sign of Jonah

that the people who demanded another sign would not have been convinced by it or by any number of signs. Their seeking of a sign was not an indication of their willingness to believe if only adequate evidence were provided, but a rationalizing of their unwillingness to believe the perfectly adequate evidence they already had.

He just hasn’t shown me enough! Famed atheist Bertrand Russell once said what would happen if he died and met God. Russell said, “I will say: 'I'm terribly sorry, but you didn't give us enough evidence.” But that’s simply not true. What would it take for you to believe? What would he need to do?

Let’s look for a moment at this asking for a sign. It’s less alarming than saying, “why Jesus is just casting out demons by demons.” This one is taking a more passive approach. Show me more. “I’ll remain neutral, until I get more evidence.” It sounds so noble. So honest. But really it’s dishonest. It’s making a decision by not making a decision.

Jesus here says that it is wickedness. And that’s why he goes on to talk about repentance. It’s a bit different in the gospel of Matthew.

Jesus says here…I’m not going to be giving you the signs you are asking for. But I’ll do this. I’ll give you the sign of Jonah. Now Luke doesn’t make it explicit what this is. But Matthew does. Matthew speaks of Jonah being three days in the belly of the fish—so the son of man will be three nights in the heart of the earth. His death and resurrection will be the definitive sign.

But for Luke he’s concerned with this theme of repentance. He’s looking at those who had very little information and they responded positively. Queen of South…queen of Sheeba, truly sought knowledge from Solomon. Ninevites repented at a pretty simple message from Jonah.

What if we have too much information. I need more Bible study…we hear this often.

LifeWay did a study a few years back and asked what are they looking for. I also saw something a few months ago…a study that was done on millennials and the ones who are attending church and those who aren’t. What are they looking for? It might not be what you think it is…they were actually wanting truth—they were wanting good solid Bible study. But what do we mean by that…what do millennials mean by that?

I think sometimes when we think of deep Bible study we mean get out the Greek, learn some words, bust open a concordance, etc. And we sometimes have those types of studies and few people show up…or they do and they get bored. What’s happening? I think often the church doesn’t have a huge gaping hole in Bible studies but in Bible application and Bible living. Do what the Bible says.

I have a challenge for you. In 2022 vow to turn off the cable news, the talk radio, the stuff that gets your really fired up and keeps you informed. Turn it off for a whole year…and instead read one chapter of Proverbs every day and do everything you possible can to apply it.

And by January 5th when you’ve already blown it a million times—then you’ll be in a spot to really desperately apply the gospel of Jesus. And Jesus won’t be a means to some political victory to help us conquer all the wickedness out there but he’ll be your desperate need of the soul to conquer the besetting sins within.

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Notice what is happening here in this verse. The Bible is not a passive instrument which we dissect. You don’t go deep into the Word. The Word goes deep into you. That is what Hebrews is saying. God’s Word will search you out into the depth of your being. It goes deep.

I’m convinced that sometimes our “deep Bible study” is actually a smoke screen to avoid the real deep work of the Spirit. We can puff ourselves up with knowledge and pride ourselves on “knowing truth” but in reality our deep dive is nothing more than learning to use bigger gongs for our clanging cymbals.

What this all means is that we do need to labor to learn what the Word of God means. We absolutely must. We cannot cut corners of interpretation because to do so will mean that the medicine applied to our souls will be diluted. But we must never be satisfied as if that is the end of our labors.

The Spirit of God intends to use the Word of God to go deep into our hearts. We have to learn to ask tough questions. We must learn how to apply the gospel to those deepest and darkest parts of our stories of shame and sin and even victory. That is what people are crying out for when they say, “I want deeper Bible study”. They don’t mean word studies. They mean a different kind of deeper.

There is a really good chance that every single one of us in here know enough about Jesus to be saved, and to take the gospel to our neighbors and the nations. We have all the signs we need that Jesus is who He said he was. We have more than the queen of the South…far more than the people of Nineveh.

So the second way we can miss the glories of Christmas is by straddling the fence....waiting for some more evidence from Jesus, not applying what information we do have. Listen, you aren’t going to be judged for the stuff in the Bible you didn’t understand and didn’t live out. But we’re going to be held to account for what we did know and did nothing about.

The third thing that can ruin your Christmas is having one little light bulb burn out on your Christmas tree.

That happened to Nikki and I with one of our trees this year. A pre-lit tree. Okay that’s not totally true—it wasn’t one bulb it was a whole line of bulbs that had shorted out. But the illustration still works. If one bulb is out then the whole Christmas tree won’t light up. You can blame the power switch, you can blame all the other bulbs, you can blame the electric company, but it’s that one bulb bringing down the whole thing.

This is, partly, what Jesus is talking about in verses 33-36. What does he mean here by light? Often we think of it as our witness for others—lighting a candle, spreading that light in darkness. But that’s not quite what is happening here. Jesus is the light here and he has done all of his work out in the open for all to see.

If things are dark in a room one of two things is happening. One, the light is off. Sir, I could see if you’d turn on the lights. Or secondly, you’re blind and the problem is with your own eyes. The light is on but you can’t see it. I like how one commentator said it:

Luke, Volumes 1 & 2 The Lamp of the Body

When the eye is sound and right and light is shining, the eye enables you to make full use of the light—you can see where you are, how to walk and how to do your work. But when there is something wrong with your eye you cannot make use of the light even when you are irradiated by the brightest light. Your whole body is then, as it were, wrapped in darkness, for you cannot see where to put your feet in order to walk, where to take hold with your hands to perform your work, and so forth. So, for all practical purposes, when your eyes are “wrong” you are in utter darkness

What does he mean then in verse 35. “be careful lest the light in you be darkness.” This is, again, speaking to those who are often “in the light”. It’s to those who know truth—who are seeing the signs but not seeing them.

He’s saying that the fundamental problem is that of the heart. This is why I pray as I do. Open their eyes. Open the eyes to see.

2 Corinthians 4:6 ESV

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

I once was blind but now I see. What changed? He was given eyes to see. There’s really one thing I think to do with this passage…ask that question. Maybe the issue isn’t “out there” maybe it’s “in here”. Maybe it’s not that there is darkness…but that I can’t see the light.

Gospel hope for you…God uses the preached word to do this very thing. To open our eyes. Maybe you can see this morning just a glimmer. Respond.

Gospel hope for those of us praying for beloved unbelievers. Open their eyes that they can see. Help us not to bang notions in peoples heads. Present the truth…pray they can see.