Luke
11:24–32 We continue on in this pericope
of Luke
11:14-54, in which we first saw last week the increased rejection of
Jesus after He casts out a demon (Luke 11:14) and that the divide in the
human race is not based off of skin but spiritually, “He who is not with Me is against
Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters.” (Luke 11:23 cf. Luke 9:50)
What we will study this time in The
Saints and the Aint’s part 02…01. Personal Reformation Gone Bad (Luke 11:24-26); 02. Adhere to the Word of God (Luke 11:27-28); and 03. An Evil Generation Seeks a
Sign (Luke 11:29–32).
01. Personal
Reformation Gone Bad (Luke 11:24-26)
This is something
that happens at the beginning of every New Year for most people, who set out
with new resolutions that they commit to and by February they are already
forgotten. It happens every time we get pulled over by an officer for speeding,
and we promise to go the speed limit from now on. In no time we are back to
speeding. It is true of the majority of prisoners in prison, who swear that
they will never go back to a life of crime, yet when they get out, they find
themselves back in, like a pig going back to its mud hole (2 Peter 2:22).
Luke
11:24 Jesus
is picturing the soul of man as a house
that is need of an inhabitant, and if it is left empty, an unfavorable tenant
will take up residence. The demon
is cast out and “goes
through dry places,” διέρχεται διʼ ἀνύδρων τόπων. The “dry places” was a traditional term used by
the Jews, based off of extra-biblical writings (cf. Babylonian Talmud[1]
and the Apocrypha[2]) to describe where
the demons resided until they could inhabit a person’s body again. Not only was it a
traditional belief, but also Dr. Luke records for us in the temptation of Jesus
by Satan that it occurred in “the wilderness” (Luke 4:1). We studied last time
and saw that the strong
man in Luke
11:21–22 mentioned in Jesus’ illustration is the Devil. The palace is the world, the
kingdom of the Devil (2
Corinthians 4:4; cf. John 12:31; John 16:11). The household goods are the
unbelievers. Jesus is the stronger man, breaking into the house, binding
Satan and rescuing us and bringing us into the light and safety of His kingdom.
This is why when a person is truly saved by God from Satan,
they cannot be demon-possessed and will not go back into the world. But those
who are like this man that Jesus is using as an illustration who have a demon
cast out, that demon finds no place of “rest; and…he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’”
Luke
11:25-26 So the cast out demon returns, and sees that this person
tried to clean up his life spiritually on his own, without the aid of Jesus. When
you try to clean up your own life on your own, you will not succeed; you need
the power and strength of the Holy Spirit. If
the demon was cast out but not replaced by the indwelling Christ and His Spirit,
then that person’s condition will become worse when he is overwhelmed with even
more demons.
Luke
11:26 “seven” ἑπτά
here is used to describe that the fullness of an unregenerate’s heart is worse
than it was before he tried to morally transform his life without Christ. The demon-possessed man flees from Satan without seeking Christ,
and thus falls more hopelessly into the power of Satan again.[3] All those who are outside of God are in the dominion of Satan,
but that does not mean that every one who is in the dominion of Satan is
demon-possessed. Satan after his failed attempt to tempt Jesus “departed from Him until an
opportune time.” (Luke 4:13). We see
the same course of action by the demon after he’s cast out and watches for an
opportunity to return with more demons, thus making the relapse worse than the
original time (Hebrews
10:26–31; 2
Peter 2:20–22).
But when the
stronger sets free the captives of the strong man, the captives are truly free
(Luke 11:21-22).
The writer of Hebrews explains this for us in Hebrews
6:4–8. Moral reform
will never regenerate a person, for they will always revert back to their
pre-reformed behavior. That is why the Moral Majority that was founded in 1979
by Baptist minister Jerry Falwell and others never truly succeeded, because
without true regeneration, people will always return to their pre-reform
behavior. Throughout the Bible we see examples of this false repentance:
Pharaoh (Exodus 9:27;
Exodus 10:16–17); Balaam (Numbers 22:34); King Saul (1 Samuel 15:24; 1 Samuel 15:30; 1 Samuel 26:21); Judas
(Matthew 27:3–4;
Acts 1:18–19).
Paul tells us the difference between Godly repentance and false repentance in 2 Corinthians 7:10.
02. Adhere to the
Word of God (Luke
11:27-28)
Luke
11:27-28 After hearing all that Jesus had said, this woman was
deeply impressed and shouted out, “Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts
which nursed You!” She was essentially saying how lucky and
wonderful for Mary to have been the mother of Jesus. Dr. Luke records for us a
similar account that happened earlier in Luke 8:19–21, when Mary and the brothers of Jesus tried to
get to Jesus “And it was told Him by
some, who said, “Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside,
desiring to see You.” But He answered and said to them, “My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it.””
Identity through
physical relationships was very important at the time of Jesus, for the whole
nation had great pride in the fact that they were the direct descendants of
Abraham (cf. John 8:33-39). But the reply of Jesus back in Luke 8:21
as well as here in our text in Luke 11:28
was one that shows us that human relationships are not that important, but
instead it is being obedient to the Word of God (Romans 2:28–29; Romans 4:9–12; Romans 4:16; Romans 9:6–13; Galatians 3:7; Galatians 3:29). Just as Jesus declared in Luke 8:4-15 and The Parable of the Sower, we saw that there were four soils (the
wayside, the rock, the thorns, and the good ground), but to that was needed the
observation and keeping of the Word of God with their profession of faith (Luke 8:8). James tells
us the mark of believers are those who display it by their actions in James 1:22-25.
So when Jesus corrected her by responding the importance of
adhering the Word of God, (“More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God
and keep it!”), He was saying that true blessedness comes from
hearing the Word of God and keeping it (cf. Luke 6:47–48; Psalm 1:1–3; Psalm 112:1; Psalm 119:1–6; Psalm 128:1; Isaiah 48:17–18; Matthew 7:21–25; 1 John 3:21–24; Revelation 22:14).
03. An Evil Generation Seeks a Sign (Luke 11:29–32)
Luke
11:29 “And while the crowds were thickly gathered together, He began to say,”
From the healing of the demon-possessed man in Luke 11:14, and the ongoing
discussion between the religious leaders and Jesus, there arose a great crowd
around Jesus. So Jesus took advantage of this opportunity to address the crowd.
Luke
11:29–30 Matthew and Mark both record for us other times that Jesus
said that Jonah was a sign of Him (Matthew
12:38–39; Matthew 16:1–4;
Mark 8:11–12). The
Old Testament uses types and shadows pointing to Jesus. Jesus Himself is all of
Israel reduced to one Human Being, one Man; He is the perfect representative of
Israel and all of mankind. Jonah was a type of Jesus, sent by God to a
group of people that were condemned to death by the righteous Law of God, yet
Jonah tried to run away from God, thus becoming the only Old Testament prophet
who tried to run from God. Jonah slept during a storm caused
by God, and was thrown into the sea, where he spent three days in a great fish
(Jonah 1:17),
a sign that Jesus would later liken to Himself in the grave (cf. Matthew 12:40). Jesus
did the will of God perfectly. So where Israel fails, Jesus succeeds. The
message of Jonah, which consisted of only eight words (six in Hebrew) “Yet forty days, and Nineveh
shall be overthrown!” (Jonah 3:4), was a sign to the inhabitants of Nineveh
and the whole city repented of their sins (Jonah 3:5-10). Jesus was a sign Himself
to the people, proclaiming the coming of Kingdom of God (Luke 4:18–19) through
His teachings and miracles. It is interesting to note that
while the nation of Israel largely rejected the message of Jesus, the
inhabitants of Nineveh listened and repented at the message of Jonah (Jonah 3:5-10).
It is an evil generation that seeks after signs and
wonders. We see this so prevalent even now, for it was last Saturday (09 Apr
16) that there was a large gathering of people in the Los Angeles Memorial
Coliseum, under the leadership of Lou Engle (see link here,
and here)
trying to revive the unbiblical 1906 Azusa Street Revival, where he stated
this: “Can you believe with us that
denominations will unite, that the races could come together, that God could
make us one, as the antidote to the terrific division in our day? Could you
believe with us for stadium Christianity where signs and wonders are breaking
out and mass evangelism explodes across our country- the Third Great
Awakening?”[4]
YHWH addresses this through Jeremiah in Jeremiah 29:8–9 when
He says, “Do not let
your prophets and your diviners who are in your midst deceive you, nor listen
to your dreams which you cause to be dreamed. 9 For
they prophesy falsely to you in My name; I have not sent them, says YHWH.”
Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 1:22 that the “Jews request a sign”
but never are followers of Jesus told to pursue and look for signs.
Luke
11:31–32 We can read about
the queen of the South (Sheba)
coming from far away to
hear the wisdom of Solomon in
both 1 Kings 10:1–2 and 2 Chronicles 9:1.
[1] Babylonian Talmud: Tractate Berakoth Folio
3a http://www.come-and-hear.com/berakoth/berakoth_3.html
[2] The Apocrypha:
King James Version. (1995). (Tobit 8:3). Bellingham, WA: Logos Research
Systems, Inc.
[3] Plummer, A. (1896). A critical and exegetical commentary on the Gospel according to S. Luke
(p. 304). London: T&T Clark International.
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