Jesus Condemns The Hypocrisy Of The Scholars Of The Law. EXPOSITION ON THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE study #100 (Luke 11:45-54)

In this study we will continue to look at the condemnation that comes from Jesus towards the religious leaders of Judaism. The difference we will see is that Jesus is approached by a scholar of the law or sometimes you will see them as lawyers. This lawyer comes to Jesus with a statement of concern because the things that Jesus had been saying about the Pharisees are also the very things that these scholars do as well. I believe we will see that these scholars must have thought that they were somehow in good with Jesus. They may have thought that they were accepted by Jesus in some way but in reality Jesus does not capitulate to people simply because of their association or family ties. Jesus seeks to tell the truth in every way and when the truth of God is distorted, Jesus has no problem calling out whoever it is that is distorting God’s truth.

I think we can learn well from how Jesus approached situations like this. I do not think we go out looking for a fight in theology but we must always stand for the truth of God’s Word and His Gospel. So as we look at this last section in chapter 11 we will notice that Jesus seeks to spread the truth in spite of the opposition from the religious culture of His time. Let’s look now at our first point for this study.

1.Jesus exposes the hypocrisy of LEADERSHIP ABUSE.
Look with me at Luke 11:45-46 that says Now one of the scholars of the Law answered and said to Him, “Teacher, when You say these things, You insult us too.” ⁴⁶ But He said, “Woe to you scholars of the Law as well! For you weigh men down with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves will not even touch the burdens with one of your fingers.

We see this form of leadership in many churches today. It is the idea of a leader demanding submission. Now this may come in an aggressive way or it can be subtle as well. It does not mean that every time this happens the leader gets up with a demanding speech to submit to him. This can happen from a person that demands complete control of the church either because they are popular or because they want to simply be in charge of everything. Some pastors want to be the leader in every area and never allows the people in the church to grow in the giftedness that God has given to them.

As I mentioned in the opening of this study, we see here that a scholar of the Law comes to Jesus with a concern. This stems from the fact that Jesus has been condemning the Pharisees for their hypocritical way of living and religion. The scholar of the Law says to Jesus in Luke 11:45 “Teacher, when You say these things, You insult us too.”

Maybe this particular scholar thought He was in the “in” crowd with Jesus. Maybe He thought he needed to make Jesus aware that He was also condemning them in what He was saying concerning the Pharisees. Either way we think of it Jesus did not look to hold back from what He was speaking concerning the truth of the message. In fact Jesus then goes into exposing the hypocrisy of the Scholars as well. In Matthew 23 we see the scribes and Pharisee included in each of the condemnations but here we see the separation. This doesn’t really mean anything, I am simply pointing out the difference in the accounts that we see.

Let’s read again how Jesus responds to this scholar in Luke 11:46 where Jesus says Woe to you scholars of the Law as well! For you weigh men down with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves will not even touch the burdens with one of your fingers.

Notice Jesus did not say, Oh I’m sorry I should have thought about how you would feel about this. Jesus did not say that He would take back what He said but rather went further into exposing hypocrisy. I believe this is an example to us on how we need to stand for the truth. Like I said, not that we are looking to go out and fight with others, to condemn others, to speak hatred towards others but we must speak the truth no matter what.

So what we see in the words of Jesus shows to us the abuse that the leadership of Judaism were practicing. They knew they were looked up to. They knew they had the upper hand because of having the education to interpret from a different language and even being able to read unlike most common people of that time. They used that to their advantage to teach others to do things they never would do. Not only that but they were unwilling to actually teach others how to do things instead just demanded compliance to their man-made laws. Many pastors do this. They are lazy or incompetent in leading others but they have no problem standing in the pulpit each week telling other to do things that they are either not doing themselves or not teaching others to do. This is what I call leadership abuse.

Ephesians 4:11-13 says And He Himself gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, ¹² for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ, ¹³ until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.

The leadership in the church should be equipping the saints for ministry. If a pastor or elder is not doing this then they are guilty of the very hypocrisy that Jesus speaks of here. It is not helpful to the health of the local church to have a person that seeks their own way of doing things without any accountability. This always seems to lean towards a leader seeking some self gratification instead of building up the church as he should. Let’s move on now to our next point for this study.

2.Jesus exposes the hypocrisy of INWARD EVIL.
Look with me at Luke 11:47-51 that says Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, but your fathers killed them. ⁴⁸ So you are witnesses and approve the deeds of your fathers; because it was they who killed them, and you build their tombs. ⁴⁹ For this reason also the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send to them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and some they will persecute, ⁵⁰ so that the blood of all the prophets, shed since the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, ⁵¹ from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the house of God; yes, I tell you, it shall be charged against this generation.’

This section here really exposes the reality of their outward hypocrisy. They looked to honor the prophets of old by taking great care for their tombs. They looked to honor the prophets of old but this was only a façade. Jesus shows that their true intentions were not pure or even honoring towards God’s prophets but rather full of evil and wickedness. Look with me at Matthew’s account of this condemnation in Matthew 23:29-33 that says “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, ³⁰ and say, ‘If we had been living in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ ³¹ So you bear witness against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. ³² Fill up, then, the measure of the guilt of your fathers. ³³ You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell?

The truth is that they hide behind their religious actions to look righteous themselves but in reality they are as guilty as those that did not believe God’s prophets and killed the prophets of God. Matthew’s account continues by saying in Matthew 23:34-36 “On account of this, behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will flog in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city, ³⁵ so that upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. ³⁶ Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.

The fact is that not only are they just like their fathers that killed the prophets before them , but they reject God’s prophets as well. They hated John the Baptist, they hate Jesus to the point that as we will see by the end of this study that they seek a way to destroy Jesus. These scholars were just as bad as the Pharisees in the point that they were not seeking to guide others into a life of holiness and righteous living. They looked to elevate themselves as the teachers, the leaders of the Law so that they would be exalted. This is nothing more than moral evil and a deception that Jesus warns about often. Jesus says in Matthew 7:15 Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

We must be cautious towards people that seem to want their way only. We must make sure that they are living in a way and leading in a way that is from God through His Word. It is because of these types of people that lead people away from God instead of towards God. This is what we will pick up in our final point for this study.

3.Jesus exposes the hypocrisy of FALSE CONVERSIONS.
Look with me at Luke 11:52 that says Woe to you, scholars of the Law! For you have taken away the key of knowledge; you yourselves did not enter, and you hindered those who were entering.”

This goes back to the fact that a wrong understanding of the Scriptures can create wrong actions. In other words if the false Gospel is preached then a person will most likely make a profession of faith in that false idea of salvation instead of the true Gospel. This may come in a works-righteous type of salvation, a universalistic salvation, a salvation that can be lost, a salvation that adds to the work of Jesus, a salvation that is emotional based or gives hope to the flesh alone. The false Gospel may sound good but it can and will produce false converts.

These scholars had the power of interpreting the Old Testament. Instead of looking to what the Scriptures say they interpreted off of their presuppositions. They would hold to their interpretation that would be built from their own standard. This goes back to the idea of following their own tradition over God’s commands. Mark 7:5-9 says And the Pharisees and the scribes *asked Him, “Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with defiled hands?” ⁶ And He said to them, “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me. ⁷ But in vain do they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commands of men.’ ⁸ Leaving the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.” ⁹ And He was also saying to them, “You are good at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition. 

We must understand that not all tradition in the church is bad but the tradition that goes against God’s commands must be refuted and done away with. I say this because this seems to be an issue in many churches and denominations of our time. They would rather go against God instead of going against tradition and the culture. This type of action will lead many and has led many to false professions of faith.

Notice that Jesus says in Luke 11:52b you yourselves did not enter, and you hindered those who were entering.

Not only are they not true followers of God but they are leading others away from God as well. All of what Jesus has said concerning the condemnation of the Pharisees and scholars of the law points to the fact that they are the false teachers that need to be avoided. These types of people are not of God and must be stamped out as false teachers. This was some harsh and bold words of our Lord. This had to be said because the people needed to hear the truth. This also had a secondary reason for being spoken which will ultimately lead these leaders to hatred for Jesus which proves the very point Jesus was just making concerning their true status.

This brings us to look at Luke 11:53-54 that shows to us the reaction of the scribes and Pharisees. This shows to us their true intent in their reason for coming to Jesus continually. These verses say: And when He left there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to be very hostile and to question Him closely on many subjects, ⁵⁴ plotting to catch Him in something He might say.

We have already seen much of this but their hostility is becoming more and more obvious as we get closer to the time of the cross. Their intentions will become more hostile, more pointed towards trying to trap Jesus and ultimately this will lead to their influence on the crowd to crucify our Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus Condemns The Pharisees Hypocritical Orthopraxy. EXPOSITION ON THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE study #99 (Luke 11:43-44)

We really just continue our study from last time where we started to look at Jesus’ condemnation of the Pharisees hypocritical way of life. In our last study we looked at more of their wrong theology or their wrong doctrines concerning what it really means to be a follower of God. Their teachings would say that keeping their traditions and giving to God would show that you are truly a worshipper of God. But it was these two things that we looked at last study that Jesus showed to us that just doing these things for the sake of religion does not prove anything. In fact all it really shows to us is a life of a hypocrite that looks to serve themselves over God.

I said last study that if you have wrong theology or doctrine then that will lead to wrong actions. The thing is that if we find ourselves operating from the wrong perspective then we will find ourselves on the wrong path, doing things against God instead of for God. We at times may look to be doing things for God but when tested against what God has commanded we will find that we are disobedient and hypocritical in our actions.

Last study we looked at the first two points in this section which were Jesus exposes the hypocrisy of MAN-MADE TRADITIONS and Jesus exposes the hypocrisy of HALF-HEARTED OBEDIENCE. It will be with this same flow of teaching that we will see now the wrong orthopraxy from the hypocrites in Jesus’ time and ours as well. Let’s look now at our 3rd point for this section which is our first point for this study.

1.Jesus exposes the hypocrisy of SEEKING OTHERS APPROVAL.
Look with at Luke 11:43 that says Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seat in the synagogues and the respectful greetings in the marketplaces.

Now please do not get confused that I am not trying to say that we never want to please others. We all want to have the approval of our spouse, parents, children, teachers, mentors etc. What we see here is really what we see in much of evangelical preaching today. People want the respect of being a man of God without actually being a man of God. There are many people that stand in pulpits every week that have never been called to that position by God. They may have the position, the degree and the approval of others but they are unqualified according to God’s word.

The Pharisees had this problem on a much larger scale because they didn’t just simply stand in a pulpit but they were the religious system. Most of the common people would not be able to read the Hebrew or Arabic to translate what the Bible said so the Pharisees along with the scribes would be the voice for God. This has been a problem all throughout Christian history as well. The church in Rome which would later be known today as the Catholic Church kept the Biblical interpretation to their hierarchy. The common people did not know the language therefore they could not read it or understand it when it was spoken to them.

People today believe that only people with degrees and extensive theological training can really know what the Bible says. Even though those things may be good to have in learning the Bible, the Bible can be learned by any Christian that the Holy Spirit reveals the truth through reading and studying. But here we see in our text that Jesus condemns this action of seeking to be seen as better than others. Jesus says in Luke 11:43 Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seat in the synagogues and the respectful greetings in the marketplaces. 

To really get the full extent of what Jesus is getting to here we must go to Matthew 23. This will show us many things that we will look at to show the Pharisees true intention that our Lord exposes here. Look with me at Matthew 23:1-10 that says Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to His disciples, ² saying: “The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses; ³ therefore all that they tell you, do and keep, but do not do according to their deeds; for they say things and do not do them. ⁴ And they tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger. ⁵ But they do all their deeds to be noticed by men; for they broaden their phylacteries and lengthen the tassels of their garments. ⁶ And they love the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues, ⁷ and respectful greetings in the marketplaces, and being called Rabbi by men. ⁸ But do not be called Rabbi; for One is your Teacher, and you are all brothers. ⁹ And do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. ¹⁰ Do not be called instructors; for One is your Instructor, that is, Christ.

We must notice that Jesus says in Matthew 23:2-3 “The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses; ³ therefore all that they tell you, do and keep, but do not do according to their deeds; for they say things and do not do them.

This reference to Moses’ seat points back to the times when Moses would sit as judge over the people. You can read that in Exodus 18:13. So even though they did not have the same position as Moses did they would sit as judges over the people to guide the people to what the Law said. Now we have made the point that the Pharisees had a warped view of the Law of God and with that they also have a warped view of how to live that out. But here Jesus plainly tells the people to do and keep all that they say. This is that the Pharisees may have been living a certain way that was against God’s law but they seemed to be pretty diligent to follow what the law said when they sat in the place of judge over others.

There seems to be a point to only follow what they say but not what they do. We are very observant people visually. We tend to follow what we see instead of what we know. Jesus here exposes the fact that the Pharisees may be leading the right way with their mouth but they are leading wrong in their action. Again we know they had wrong doctrine in so many areas where they added to God’s law to help them in looking as if they we being obedient when in reality they weren’t.

The real problem that Jesus exposes is what we see Jesus say in Matthew 23:5-7 that says But they do all their deeds to be noticed by men; for they broaden their phylacteries and lengthen the tassels of their garments. ⁶ And they love the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues, ⁷ and respectful greetings in the marketplaces, and being called Rabbi by men.

Their problem is that they say things that may seem good and even godly but their actions are based off of being seen as the greatest by others. Jesus exposed this very directly in the Sermon on the Mount where He says in Matthew 6:1 Beware of doing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.

Then along with that He says in Matthew 6:2 that says “Therefore, when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be glorified by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.

Also Matthew 6:5 that says And when you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.

Then finally Matthew 6:16 that says Now whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. 

This exposes the true motive for why they do what they do. They are not doing as the Law had required but only were doing what made them look good towards others. It is this thought that really continues with an addition to where their actions really originate. Let’s look at our next point and our final point for this section.

2.Jesus exposes the hypocrisy of OUTWARD RELIGIOUSITY.
Look with me at Luke 11:44 that says Woe to you! For you are like concealed tombs, and the people who walk over them are unaware of it.

This really brings us back full circle to where we started in this study. All of what we have seen in the last study and this one points to the fact that the Pharisees only look like they are of God. The statement we see Jesus says here shows that they are actually only looking as if they are good when in fact the people that will follow them will not know of what wickedness they actually possess. They are good at hiding their true appearance and sinfulness.

When we look at Matthew’s account of this we clearly see the point that Jesus makes about this. Look with me at Matthew 23:27-28 that says “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. ²⁸ In this way, you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

See the Pharisees looked religious, they looked like they were following God because they have a sense of religiosity but in fact they were just the opposite. Jesus says they outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

For many people we tend to think of someone that is lawless as someone that is openly doing harm to others like rape, murder, robbery or physical harm of any kind. Here Jesus shows that hypocrisy and lawlessness comes in forms much different than what we think most of the time. The Pharisees would have been looked up to by most people as the interpreters of the law and those that upheld the law but Jesus exposes this false claim.

In fact Jesus goes even deeper into their wickedness in Matthew 23:29-33 where He says Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, ³⁰ and say, ‘If we had been living in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ ³¹ So you bear witness against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. ³² Fill up, then, the measure of the guilt of your fathers. ³³ You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell?

Jesus says that these Pharisees are just like those that were unbelieving in God’s word through the prophets of old. They are guilty of their unrighteous acts that seem to hate God’s commands and to not follow them. I just want to say here that anyone that says they love God but remains in their sin because they feel that God still loves them must realize that you are no different than a Pharisee. So often people call others Pharisees because they say something against the way they are living but that is not the actions of a Pharisee. The actions of a Pharisee is that you despise God’s law so much that when someone exposes that you are living against that law of God that you then turn in anger against that person. That person is most likely trying to get you to understand what the Bible says but you are so angered at the exposure of your sin that you turn against that person.

The Pharisees actions were not prescribed by God but only their man-made traditions. We too go to churches that have built law on top of law, rule on top of rule that is never found in the Bible. We go to churches that are all about doing the prescribed offering throughout the year but never placing their feet on the path of evangelism. We have churches that open the Bible but only uses the Bible as a guide to tell their stories. It is time we as a church quit living in these hypocritical ways and follow God’s way of living.

I’ll ask you this, will Jesus ask us the same thing He said to the Pharisees and scribes from Matthew 23:33 when He said You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell?

This question should resonate with you because if you say you are a Christian you can not be hoping in some profession of faith you made when you were 7, or a baptism that you had as a baby or the 2 or 3 times you were baptized when you were an adult, or your status as the pastor or teacher of the church. I hope that you will examine your own life and ask yourself if you are living for God? I mean truly living for Him not some form of religiosity.

Jesus Condemns The Pharisees Hypocritical Orthodoxy. EXPOSITION ON THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE study #98 (Luke 11:37-42)

The section of Scripture we come to in this study goes right along with the direction that Jesus has been speaking on concerning the topic of what a true recipient of God’s kingdom look like. We have no doubt learned that there are only two kingdoms, one is God’s and the other is Satan’s. We know that Satan is no match for God so there is no real threat from his kingdom on God’s but that does not mean he doesn’t try to discredit God by infiltrating the true followers of God. In fact every other religion does this but there are those within the realm of Christianity that does this as well. They are not true followers of God but they pose to be.

In this study we begin a section where Jesus will first condemn the Pharisees for their hypocrisy then Jesus will condemn the scholars of the law that we will study on in a couple of studies. This condemnation is towards the Pharisees but what Jesus condemns is what He condemns in all people that may be associated with religion that aren’t true followers of His. There is a lot to cover in this section so this will take us a couple of studies for us to cover just the things that Jesus says to the Pharisees.

We will split this section towards the Pharisees with Jesus’ condemnation of their hypocritical beliefs(orthodoxy) and their hypocritical actions(orthopraxy). What we must understand is that wrong beliefs will always lead to wrong action. A person may be sincere in their action but if they are coming from the view of a wrong belief then they will still be looked at as a hypocrite due to their lack of discernment in the word of God. With that thought we will look at the first of 4 points. We will cover two points in this study and two in the next study so let’s look now at our first point for this study.

1.Jesus exposes the hypocrisy of MAN-MADE TRADITIONS.
Look with me at Luke 11:37-41 that says Now when He had spoken, a Pharisee *asked Him to have a meal with him. And He went in and reclined at the table. ³⁸ But when the Pharisee saw it, he marveled that He had not first ceremonially washed before the meal. ³⁹ But the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but inside of you, you are full of robbery and wickedness. ⁴⁰ You foolish ones, did not He who made the outside make the inside also? ⁴¹ But give that which is within as charity, and then all things are clean for you.

Before we get started I do want to mention that there is a parallel account to what we see here in Matthew 23. In fact that entire chapter speaks of the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and scribes so I encourage you to go read that chapter even before we get into this study. We will reference things in that chapter throughout this study.

This entire study will show to us the Pharisees hypocrisy but it should also be a warning to us to make sure that we do not fall into these traps of having just a form of religion over being truly obedient to live for God. The first passage as we have already read, shows to us the problem with most Christian sects even in our time. So many people seem to have so connection to Christianity but with little or no fruit of that being a reality in their life. Everything we will see about the Pharisees point to the fact that they wanted to look religious but was not concerned with obeying God’s commands to do so.

This section of Scripture opens up with Jesus being asked by a Pharisee to join him for dinner. Of course as our text says, He went in and reclined at the table.

This is not the first time we have seen a Pharisee ask Jesus to join them in a meal. Luke 7:36 says Now one of the Pharisees was asking Him to eat with him, and He entered the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table.

When we studied that section of Scripture I made the point that most of the time the Pharisees were only looking to find fault with Jesus. They knew that the people looked at Jesus as a Teacher of the law so in some sense they did want to look like they too were wanting to be involve with Jesus. But sadly what we see continually is their hypocrisy of trying to find fault with Jesus. These attempts always back fire as we will see again in our text for this study.

We see here that the Pharisee saw that Jesus had not first ceremonially washed before the meal.

There was other times where this was an issue with the Pharisees. Matthew 15:1-2 says Then some Pharisees and scribes *came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, ² “Why do Your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.

At that time Jesus did not hold back but exposed their hypocrisy of keeping tradition made by man rather than keeping the commands of God. Jesus tells them in that account from Matthew 15:7-9 You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you: ⁸ ‘This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me. ⁹ But in vain do they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commands of men.’”

This is at the heart of every false teaching. False teaching may not be harmful by nature but the false teachings corrupt the true message of the Gospel. There was nothing harmful to wash your hand before a meal in fact it is sanitary to do so. But it was not the sanitary part the Jews were concerned with. They were concerned with what this ceremonial washing meant. This traditional washing was not a mandate from God but was a passed down oral law made up to keep themselves clean from the defilement of Gentiles and other pagan religions.

This tradition was in relation to the laws of the Old Testament that were given to priest concerning washing before sacrifices but there is no such law given by God for everyday life or the common person. These Pharisees would make laws like this to elevate their status and to look as if they were holy before others. This is where we will see Jesus expose this hypocrisy when He says in Luke 11:39-41 Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but inside of you, you are full of robbery and wickedness. ⁴⁰ You foolish ones, did not He who made the outside make the inside also? ⁴¹ But give that which is within as charity, and then all things are clean for you.

It is clear here that Jesus shows that no matter how much they try to look holy for others they are really corrupt inwardly. Jesus warned about this type of false teaching in Matthew 7:15-20 where He says Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. ¹⁶ You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? ¹⁷ Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. ¹⁸ A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. ¹⁹ Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. ²⁰ So then, you will know them by their fruits.

They might look good in front of others but God knows what is really on the inside of them. The people looked up to the Pharisees and scribes but Jesus wanted the people to know that they can’t be trusted. He says this of them often and we too must be cautious that we aren’t living this way and not following those that do. Let’s look at more of this from what Jesus says next as we move to our next point.

2.Jesus exposes the hypocrisy of HALF-HEARTED OBEDIENCE.
Look with me at Luke 11:42 that says But woe to you Pharisees! For you pay tithe of mint and rue and every kind of garden herb, and yet disregard justice and the love of God, but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.

In Jesus’ continue condemnation of the religious leaders of Judaism, we will look at 3 more negative attributes that come along with a hypocritical religious person. We will see one here and the other 2 in the next study. Be assured that there are many other attributes that hypocrites have but these are the ones we see here in our Luke text.

Here we see Jesus begins to speak words of grief or denunciation when He uses the word woe. This is a word that proceeds a message of condemnation and judgement on a person. Here Jesus exposes the Pharisees hypocrisy in their limited obedience. Jesus says here that they pay tithe of mint and rue and every kind of garden herb, and yet disregard justice and the love of God.

In other words they easily open up themselves to giving to God in every little thing. They do not just give money but they give tithes on everything they have. This is a good thing to be giving to God and trusted that God will provide for you because of your faithfulness to give. But as we see they had a big problem because it seems that they have chosen what we see as the easier path. It is easy for most people to give because that is the way you have been taught. In fact many people believe that if you don’t give then you will never be blessed by God but that is a false ideology that is not the foundation of why we give.

We give to God out of our love for God not because there is some set amount that we must give or else. 2 Corinthians 9:6-8 says Now this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows with blessing will also reap with blessing. ⁷ Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. ⁸ And God is able to make every grace abound to you, so that in everything at every time having every sufficiency, you may have an abundance for every good deed.

This is the foundation of Christian giving. In our text the Pharisees chose to give but neglected to do the things that would require effort to forgive others, have mercy on others and show love to others. Jesus says they disregard justice and the love of God, but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.

It is not enough to come to God with half-hearted devotion. When the person we know as the rich young ruler approached Jesus with the question of how he can inherit eternal life, Jesus asks him about his obedience to God’s moral laws. The man replied in self righteousness that he had kept all of those from his youth. Jesus then says in Luke 18:22 “One thing you still lack: sell all that you possess and distribute it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven. And come, follow Me.”

Jesus was not confirming that this man was perfect in any way but that he lacked still something that he did not see about himself. He chose the things that may have seemed easy to follow but did not have the passion to allow God to be Lord. Verse 23 says there in Luke 18, But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich.

This man is an example of a person that looks like a Christian but lacks the attribute of being the Lord’s slave. To be a true follower does not mean you have all the answers, know all things, never make mistakes or will never fall into traps set by Satan. Being a true follower does mean that when we are shown where we are wrong, we will look intently into that wrong view and correct what we are doing. The Pharisees had no concern to do this. They were happy being on top of the religious ladder teaching their form of godliness that was made from their own point of view.

They first looked at being close to God as something external and something that they get to choose how to live out. If they wanted to give and neglect others then their laws protected them but this is nothing other that superficial doctrine that will lead to superficial action. This is where we will leave this study and tie in this concept with what we will look at in our next study.

The Pharisees were hypocritical in these area but there are two more that we will look at in our next study. If you find that you have a “belief” about God but your actions don’t line up with God’s then you may be in the camp of the Pharisees. I have been called a Pharisee simply because I speak the truth about something that someone doesn’t like but that is not what a Pharisee is. A Pharisee is someone that changes God’s commands to fit their lifestyle, they are the ones that condemn others for living in sin in one area of life all the while they are living in sin in another area. Please examine your life and see if you are truly following the Lord Jesus as Lord and not just some religious attachment to your life.

Being Fully Illumined By The Light From God. EXPOSITION ON THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE study #97 (Luke 11:33-36)

Much of what we have seen in the past several studies has been connected to the reality that there are only two kingdoms, one is God’s Kingdom and the other is considered Satan’s kingdom. The reality is that Satan’s kingdom is no kingdom at all. He is under the control of our God and therefore he is really no king and nothing other than what God allows him to be, all for the glory of God. This reality of God’s kingdom being the only kingdom with real power and authority has been the focus point of what Jesus has been speaking of since Luke 11:17 where he said “Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a house divided against itself falls.

Since that statement we have seen Jesus speak of the power of God over Satan, Jesus has spoken on the fact that a real Christian will prove their true status by obedience to God’s word and then we have seen that judgement that will come to those that continually reject Christ in spite of their exposure to the reality of who He is whether it be by a witness that shares the Gospel or by direct knowledge that they see in the Bible.

In this study we will see that Jesus will once again speak of the reality that a Christian can not continue to live in darkness or evil deeds. When we try to live in fleshly desires and passions we will find that everything will be seen in the eyes of that sinful lifestyle. I want to be clear from the start that I am not saying that we will never sin but rather that our life as Christians should never be filled with sinful patterns of life. When we allow that to happen, as we will see in this study, that our view of what sin is and isn’t becomes dim to us. This is where people begin to capitulate with the world on what sin is, which is one of the major issues in the church today. This will make more sense as we get into the Scripture for this study so let’s look now at our first point.

1.SHINING the light from God.
Look with me at Luke 11:33 that says No one, after lighting a lamp, puts it away in a cellar nor under a basket, but on the lampstand, so that those who enter may see the light.

Jesus begins here with a very simple analogy of how a Christian should in fact be living out their life. This is not giving to us two choices on how we are to live but really continues the fact that their is only two kingdoms. We see one that gives light and another that does not give light. The eventual direction of this section points to a practical application that we must understand but first Jesus simply shows a comparison of how these two kingdoms live.

The contrast between light and darkness will be the main focus in all that Jesus says in this section so here He begins by simply showing that there are no true followers of His that will be living in a way that hides the light that comes from God. There were many religious leaders that would have elevated themselves so far above the people that they did not even care for those people at all. In fact they really didn’t care about God either. If they really cared about God and His word then they would not be living by their own traditions and edits to the Law of God.

But they associated themselves as the superior and elite group of Judaism. They made themselves the sure recipients of God’s kingdom when in fact they were living in opposition to God’s commands. Here Jesus is making a clear picture by saying No one, after lighting a lamp, puts it away in a cellar nor under a basket, but on the lampstand, so that those who enter may see the light.

We all know what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount about this in Matthew 5:14-16, He says there You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; ¹⁵ nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. ¹⁶ Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

This idea has many implications but simply put is that we must be living a life that represents that we are truly from God. Not one non-Christian will be able to spread the light of God because they are not connected to the source. They may have some good thoughts about God, they may say things that sound good to our conservative ears but in reality they do not share the same message as we do. Philippians 2:14-15 says Do all things without grumbling or disputing, ¹⁵ so that you will be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world.

If we say we are following Christ, if we claim to be a Christian then that light must be evident in our lives. We must not hide who we are and we should not be living our lives in such a way that the light is diminished and never seen. Once again there are times in our lives that we may not live in this way like we should, there may be times we find ourselves in sin but we must never stay in that way of living because it will change your worldview and your view of God and sin. This is the direction we will move into now in our second point.

2.SIN diminishes the light from God.
Look with me at Luke 11:34-35 The eye is the lamp of your body; when your eye is clear, your whole body also is full of light, but when it is bad, your body also is full of darkness. ³⁵ Therefore watch out that the light in you is not darkness. 

Once again this is not something that is extremely hard to understand here but we must look at this in the context of what Jesus has been speaking about in this section of Scripture. We looked at in our first point the importance of shining the light of God and now we will see the importance of that light being a reality in our lives.

To start with in this point I want to look at the meaning of the word clear here. Some other versions of the Bible may use words like healthy, good, single or unclouded here. The Greek word will give to us a better understanding of what Jesus is trying to get across here. This is the Greek word haplous (hap-looce’) which means to have a single focus. The idea of this word is to show the opposition of being divided in devotion to another. We remember that Jesus has been showing to us the difference between two kingdoms which are of course, God’s kingdom and Satan’s kingdom or another way of saying it would be the world system.

What Jesus says here is right in line with what He has been speaking on already. So with that thought we notice here that Jesus says that the eye is the lamp of your body; when your eye is clear, your whole body also is full of light.

The eye is used consistently in relation to not only what we see but also what we perceive. The eye is the window to the soul. So when we allow our eye to be clear or singularly focused on the light that God gives to us then our whole body also is full of light.

We may wonder at what all of this means so we must look back in the context to see what it is that gives to us this light. Before we get to the context let’s remember that light is always associated with God. 1 John 1:5 says And this is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. 

Jesus says in John 8:12 “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will never walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”

Then about the Holy Spirit Jesus says in John 16:12-13 “I still have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. ¹³ But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak from Himself, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.

In other words His ministry will be one that brings illumination to things that were once not known. Then we know Psalm 119:105 that says Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

So what Jesus says here about our eye being the lamp to our body and if the eye is clear or only focused on one thing then that will light the whole body is in association with our focus being solely on God and His word. Remember that Jesus said in Luke 11:28 blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.

God’s word, His kingdom and His will should always be our focus. When we are concerned with what God says and not this world then our view of sin, our view of cultural topics will be from the standpoint of God’s light that He has given to us through His word.

With that we do have the flip side to that as well. Jesus continues in Luke 11:34b by saying but when it is bad, your body also is full of darkness.

This darkness is where we all start off from. We are all sinful, we are all wretched sinners that deserve to be cast away from God but there is a connection that Jesus is making here that we too need to notice. If we say we are following God and yet our actions tell a different story then it most likely shows that you are viewing your status from a darkened viewpoint.

People that justify their sins or the sins of others in spite of what God’s Word says is operating from a darkened standpoint and may not even be a true Christian. We have already read 1 John 1:5 and now we will see the next two verse, 1 John 1:6-7 says If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not do the truth; ⁷ but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.

When we live in sinful patterns, when we minimize sin in our lives and others then we are doing nothing but living a lie that has been justified from our sinful point of view. We see the Greek word for bad in Luke 11:34 which is ponéros (pon-ay-ros’). This word means evil or wicked. So again we see that you are either singularly devoted to God or you are considered evil, there is no middle ground.

This shows to us that we are to shine God’s light by first not being a “closet” Christian and then not allow sin to diminish the light that God has given. This brings us to a brief but important last point for this study.

3.SHARING the light from God.
Look with me at Luke 11:36 that says If therefore your whole body is full of light, with no dark part in it, it will be wholly illumined, as when the lamp illumines you with its rays.

When we allow God’s light to be our focus, not listening to the world, not listening to the flesh, not listening to the culture then the light will illuminate as it should. In other words the way we live, the way we talk, the way we witness will be evident that God’s light is within you. It is hard to share the light if you hide it, it is hard to share the light if you have a darkened worldview but when God is your focus then the light will wholly illumine you and those around you.

Notice the emphasis that Jesus makes here concerning how we are to never stay in the darkness. He says If therefore your whole body is full of light, with no dark part in it.

In other words do not go into the darkness. Do not go near the darkness. This means we are to flee from sin, flee from the cultural views of salvation, sexuality and religion. We must allow God to illumine us and nothing else. We must not connect with cultural views in hopes of bringing some people to the good side. When we connect ourselves to worldly and fleshly ideologies then we are in reality working in the kingdom of Satan.

As we have already mentioned Matthew 5:16 says Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

It is your place to do this in the world. It is not your pastor’s job to shine the light to your friends, family or co-workers, it is your job, it is my job to do so. If we are fully illumined then we will understand what it is that we should be doing in God’s kingdom. If you do not know what you are to be doing then get into the Word of God daily and that will give the light for you to know how it is that you can share this light from God to others.

Jesus Is Greater Than All, The Sign Of Coming Judgement. EXPOSITION ON THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE study #96 (Luke 11:29-32)

As we come into this next section of Scripture I want to be careful to not look at this from just a prophetic standpoint. Many people look at what Jesus says concerning Jonah as the primary thing to grab a hold of in this passage of Scripture but I believe there is even more to what Jesus says here in the context of our Scripture. We must remember that Jesus has been in a conversation with some of the religious leaders of Judaism concerning two different kingdoms. This all started back in Luke 11:14 where Jesus was healing a demon possessed man. The Pharisee’s were then trying to convince the crowd that Jesus was demon possessed which gave Him the power over that other demon.

Throughout this conversation we have seen several distinctions that has shown us that you are either in God’s Kingdom or you are not. This means you are either a recipient of eternal life and will spend eternity in Heaven or you will be judged by your sins and spend eternity in Hell. We ended in our last study with the truth that those that are true Christians will be living a life of obedience to God’s word. These will receive eternal life but the other side of the coin is that there is a judgement that will come that will send the wicked to Hell.

Jesus reaches back to two Old Testament people to show that judgement will happen just like it did in their day. But the judgement that will come now will be greater because Jesus who is greater will pay the price for the penalty of the sins of all who believe. The good news is that in the middle of this teaching we will notice the mention of repentance that will drive some to look at where they are spiritually and live differently than they are at the moment. So with that let’s look now at our first point for this study.

1.The SIGN of Jonah.
Look with me at Luke 11:29-31a that says Now as the crowds were increasing, He began to say, “This generation is a wicked generation; it seeks a sign, and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah. ³⁰ For just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. ³¹ The Queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon.

For most people this is the only focus of this entire passage of Scripture. Some people may provide some other smaller details within this passage but always will lead back to what Jesus says concerning Jonah being a sign. I do think this is the foundation for this entire section but we must look at this section as more than just a prophecy of Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Don’t think though that I am minimizing that fact of the death and resurrection of Jesus because I know that without those truths we have no Gospel. But again I do believe that we will see in this point the foundational point of what Jesus is trying to convey throughout the remainder of this section.

We see once again that the crowds were increasing when Jesus began to speak or continued in one place for any amount of time. This is common in Jesus’ ministry simply because He spoke like no other, He was healing like they had never heard of or seen and many people wanted to hear what Jesus had to say and see Him with their own eyes.

As the crowds begin to gather more and more, Jesus starts off by saying This generation is a wicked generation. I want to make clear that the generation that Jesus is speaking of is the one right in front of Him. But they are no different than other generations because we are all sinful. The difference was though that they had the evidence right in front of them. The Messiah was there in their midst and yet they continually rejected Him. The Pharisee’s were on His trail for most of His ministry looking to trap Him or condemn Him in some way.

Here Jesus speaks of the wickedness of this generation because He says it seeks a sign. They were always wanting Jesus to perform for them, do what they wanted and prove to them by miraculous actions who He claimed to be. But Jesus was clear that they would not receive what they wanted. He says here in Luke 11:29b yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah.

I do want to look at Matthew’s account of this because he gives to us more information on what Jesus means concerning this sign of Jonah. Matthew 12:39-40 says But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation eagerly seeks for a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet; ⁴⁰ for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 

Clearly we see why this passage is the focus for most people. This sign of Jonah is a sign showing that just as Jonah was in the belly of a sea monster for three days and three nights that Jesus would be dead for that amount of time and then resurrect. This was a prophetic word of His death and resurrection. We also know that this is not the first time we have heard Jesus speak of this but this was another place to look at the fact that Jesus knew exactly what was going to happen to Him.

But there is more to this section that just that prophecy. Jesus continues on to say in Luke 11:30 For just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation.

The fact is that yes the sign of Jonah points to Jesus’ death and resurrection but it also points to coming judgement as well. Jonah when he entered the city of Nineveh did not go there with words of peace and prosperity but judgement. Jonah 3:4 says Then Jonah began to go into the city, one day’s walk; and he called out and said, “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”

This was a call of the coming judgement that God was going to pour down on Nineveh. We will pick up more of this story in our next point but for now notice that Jonah who had been in the belly of the sea monster had come out with a word of judgement that we know of course will lead people to ask for God’s mercy.

That is what we will see as we move along but first Jesus also says in Luke 11:31a The Queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon.

With the thoughts of a coming judgment we see that Jesus continues to press the point that this generation is evil and wicked by now showing to them an example of someone that had very little knowledge of God if any before her meeting with Solomon. Just like the Ninevites, the Queen of the South will stand in judgement because she came to a saving knowledge of who God is and His salvation. She may had went to Solomon because of his wisdom but she returned with knowledge of the Savior. She says to Solomon in 1 Kings 10:9 Blessed be Yahweh your God who delighted in you, to set you on the throne of Israel; because Yahweh loved Israel forever, therefore He made you king, to do justice and righteousness.

She attributed the wisdom, wealth and prosperity that Solomon had to God’s provision but yet the religious leaders of Jesus’ generation attributes His works to Satan. The message is that they will face judgment and both the Ninevites and the Queen of the South will stand against them as pagan, unlearned of God before to those that turned from their wickedness of seeking worldly wealth and prosperity. This idea of repentance is what we will look at now in our next point.

2.The REPENTANCE from the preaching of Jonah.
Look with me at Luke 11:32a that says The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah.

There is no Gospel without the Good news. Yes we must tell of the coming judgement but we must also tell of the offer of repentance from those wicked ways. Here Jesus uses the men of Nineveh as an example of people that repented from their wickedness.

Jonah was told by God in Jonah 1:2 to “Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before Me.” 

The people of this city were pagan and evil. They did not know God but had probably heard of the God of Israel. When Jonah comes into the city preaching a message of doom and judgement this turned the people to God. They did not look to continue their lives as they wished but began to fast and mourn over their wickedness. In fact the king of Nineveh said this in Jonah 3:7-9 “In Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let man, animal, herd, or flock taste a thing. Do not let them eat, and do not let them drink water. ⁸ But both man and animal must be covered with sackcloth; and let men call on God with their strength that each may turn from his evil way and from the violence which is in his hands. ⁹ Who knows, God may turn and relent and turn away from His burning anger so that we will not perish.”

The point I want to make here before we move into our last point is that even the most wicked and unlikely people can be saved. The Ninevites were evil and the Queen of the South would be someone that the Jews despised because she was a Gentile as well and a woman. Both of these groups are called out as examples of people that repented of their sins, turned to God and has received salvation. They did this simply by the word that came from God through His prophet but this generation has a greater voice than either of those generation did as we will see in our last point for this study.

3.The GREATER One than Solomon and Jonah.
Look with me at Luke 11:31b that says And behold, something greater than Solomon is here. Then look at Luke 11:32b that says And behold, something greater than Jonah is here.

Everything that we have looked at in this study concerning what Jesus says about judgement and repentance points back to the fact that this generation has been given more light concerning the work of the Messiah. This shows us that they will be judged with a stricter judgement than others. Remember we talked about this back in Luke 10 as well. Jesus says there in Luke 10:13-15 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles had been performed in Tyre and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. ¹⁴ But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the judgment than for you. ¹⁵ And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will be brought down to Hades!

More and more Jesus is telling the people of this generation that their exposure to the light of God is greater so because of their rejection they will also receive a greater condemnation. Here again we see Jesus clearly tell them that they are rejecting Him as Messiah even though they have seen the proof of His claim to be the Son of God. If the Ninevites and the Queen of the south had not repented then they too would have received what they deserved which is what we all deserve, that is God’s judgement against our sins.

But those pagan, wicked Gentiles that never had a connection with God had turned from their wickedness and trusted in God for salvation. They had mere sinful men like Jonah who disobeyed God and Solomon that lived for fleshly desires but this generation Jesus says has something greater than Solomon and something greater than Jonah. That something is not just greater in some type of social status but He is the very Son of God, the long awaited Messiah that is the King of all creation for all time.

We must understand as well that we may not have been a part of the generation that Jesus specifically speaks to here but we no doubt have even greater revelation. We know Jesus died, resurrected, ascended to Heaven, gave the Holy Spirit to us, has formed His church on Earth and we have seen the perseverance of the work that He began while He was here on Earth. We must know that we are not in some different place than the people of that generation but rather we too stand in judgement because of the light we have seen through the work of the Gospel.

If you have not repented of your sins, began to live for the Lord Jesus today I encourage you to do so. Please don’t think that some form of religiosity will get you to Heaven or your giving or your baptism. Do you follow Christ, do you deny self daily and live for Him in spite of the culture or this worlds views. Today is the day to start following, please do not put it off, He is here to forgive you and to give to you His Holy Spirit.

Conversion Is Not About Morality But Obedience To God’s Word. EXPOSITION ON THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE study #95 (Luke 11:24-28)

In our last study we looked at the fact that Jesus made a clear indication that God’s Kingdom is stronger than Satan, more authoritative than Satan and is unmatched in every way. Satan is not real threat to God or His Kingdom. Satan is the enemy but he will never stand a chance against God and His Kingdom. Therefore there is a clear message we learned from last study that will really carry over to this study as well. That message is that you are either in the Kingdom of God or you are not. The last verse of our last study was Luke 11:23 where Jesus says He who is not with Me is against Me and he who does not gather with Me, scatters.

This shows that many people may be associated with Jesus in some way. This may be that you are born into a Christian family, you may be an active member of a church that bears the name of Christ or may have some form of respect for Jesus but this does not mean that you have been truly converted. The point that we will see in this study is that a person can change their behavior in some ways but this still doesn’t show to us the reality that they are a part of God’s Kingdom. The truly converted person will be seen as a person that hears God’s word and is obedience to God’s word.

Most people think themselves to be blessed and in the Kingdom of God simply because of some form of morality or because of some association with Christ. We must be clear what the Bible shows us concerning those that are truly a part of God’s Kingdom. It will be this that we will see in this study as we look now at our first point for this study.

1.The FLIPPANT actions of false converts.
Look with me at Luke 11:24-26 that says “When the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and not finding any, it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ ²⁵ And when it comes, it finds it swept and put in order. ²⁶ Then it goes and takes along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they go in and live there, and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.”

The truth of a person will be seen over time. A person can claim to be saved and then fall away into sinful patterns of life later on in life. This does not mean we doubt every person that makes a profession of faith in Christ but we must know that if a person goes into living a lifestyle worse than they did before, that is most likely an indication that they were never saved.

These verses are the reality of how this happens. A person may be able to become moral, stop whatever addiction that they have been trapped by, look good every Sunday sitting in church and still never truly been saved. I have seen people personally that has done this very thing. I had a guy I worked with years ago that told me he was a Christian. He told me his story of being freed from drugs and now being on the right path. Some months later I started to notice his weird behavior. To make a long story short, he had fallen back into drugs once again. Now I know that substance abuse is very strong so I’m no stranger to that reality but when he fell into it, he fell hard. He eventually got fired from that job and I lost contact with him.

Fast forward some years later and I ran into him again at another place of employment. Again I hear the story of how God has delivered him from drugs again. He had just been released out of drug prevention programs both times I was around him. Again several months later it was an almost exact situation. This time he even tried to get violent with me when I confronted him about his issue. Eventually he was fired from that job and again have had no real contact with him since.

I think about him every once in a while because I really tried to get him to see that the Gospel was more than God just cleaning up his life but he never really listened. I hope that he has come to that place now. I use this story as an example of what we see in this passage of Scripture. This person seems to have been released from the unclean spirit. They have cleaned their life up and everything seems to be going good until that addiction, that sin comes back into their life. The person that is only looking to be a better person when they come to Christ is not a truly converted person.

Being a better person morally will happen but that is not the singular focus of a truly converted person. This person could easily be associated with the person that Jesus explains in the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13:20-21 where Jesus says And the one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; ²¹ yet he has no root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away.

These people have no depth, no root and therefore no Godly fruit. They had morality and goodness but had nothing other than a false hope in a lie. When things go differently than they thought it should, they fall away from the faith. So we have the flippant actions of a false convert and now we will see another negative action in our next point.

2.The FLAWED actions of false converts.
Look with me at Luke 11:27 that says Now it happened that while Jesus was saying these things, one of the women in the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, “Blessed is the womb that bore You and the breasts at which You nursed.”

I used the word flawed here because these people have a wrong understanding of what truly being a part of God’s kingdom is. They see that they are attached in some way either through family ties or some religious activity as being why they are blessed by God or converted. It was a the hopes of every Jewish woman that they would have a son that was great, powerful and loved by others. They wished for the blessing of being the mother of the deliverer of their nation.

This woman screams from the crowd “Blessed is the womb that bore You and the breasts at which You nursed.” In other words this type of thinking brought many to understand that Jesus’ family must be the most blessed of all especially the mother of Jesus. Now we do know that we read all the way back in Luke 1:28 that the angel greets Mary this way: “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.”

We also know that Elizabeth greeted Mary by saying in Luke 1:42 “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!

So we have no doubt that God’s grace had poured down onto Mary but it was not because of anything she had done. This was a blessing from God given to a sinner just like we are. I know this goes against many peoples idea of Mary but I am speaking only what the Bible teaches us not Catholic or unbiblical traditions of man.

We must understand that Jesus is not trying to undermine the truth of Mary’s blessedness from God but rather the wrong idea of the Jewish teaching that showed some type of family attachment as being a sign of a person’s true status with God. For people in our time they think because they were born in a Christian family or because they have “always been a Christian” then they have a free pass into God’s blessed. But as we have briefly seen this is a flawed view of being blessed by God and Jesus will expose this even more with what He shows us concerning those that are truly blessed by God in our next point.

3.The FAITHFUL actions of true converts.
Look with me at Luke 11:28 that says But He said, “On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.”

Jesus refutes the claim that His mother is blessed simply because of being His mother. Like I said in the last point, this is Jesus’ answer to the tradition of the Jewish woman to be blessed because of having a great son. Jesus shows to them what truly being blessed is by saying “On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.”

Obedience to God’s Word is a singular action that all Christian will have. They will not be obedient in perfection but they will live a life of obedience. No one that is considered blessed can be blessed simply because of family ties, or race, or any other connection from a superficial standpoint. Being blessed comes to those that God has given salvation and it is these that exhibit a life of obedience to Him. Jesus similarly said this many times in His ministry. He says in Luke 6:46-49 “Now why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? ⁴⁷ Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and does them, I will show you whom he is like: ⁴⁸ he is like a man building a house, who dug and went deep, and laid a foundation on the rock; and when a flood occurred, the river burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. ⁴⁹ But the one who heard and did not do accordingly, is like a man who built a house on the ground without any foundation; and the river burst against it and immediately it collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great.”

Again He says in Luke 8:21 “My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it.”

James tells us in James 1:22-25 But become doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. ²³ For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; ²⁴ for once he looked at himself and has gone away, he immediately forgot what kind of person he was. ²⁵ But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of freedom, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this man will be blessed in what he does.

Why can a Christian live a life of obedience? Simply because they have been transformed by God and has been given the Holy Spirit of God to live out a life of obedience. So we clearly see that Jesus has continued to show the crowd that being in God’s kingdom is not superficial, it is not just some fleshly attachment but it is a blessing that is from God. The proof of those that have been blessed and are continually blessed by God are those that hear the word of God and keep it.

This is not some new idea or teaching but only goes against the tradition of the Jewish culture. We to have many traditions in our Christian culture. Many people believe they will go to Heaven simply from believing things that have been passed down as true like, God is a loving God so He won’t send me to Hell or God is a forgiving God so I’m sure He will forgive me because I’m not that bad. People need to hear the truth and Jesus spoke that very truth. A life of obedience is what a Christian should be striving for because it is only those that will be blessed now and for all eternity.

I want to close by reading Psalm 1. This Psalm really says it all concerning how we should be living our everyday life as Christians. Notice that the Psalm speaks of the life of a blessed person and the life of a wicked person.

Psalm 1:1-6 says
How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the way of sinners,
Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
² But his delight is in the law of Yahweh,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
³ And he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season
And its leaf does not wither;
And in whatever he does, he prospers.
⁴ The wicked are not so,
But they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
⁵ Therefore the wicked will not rise in the judgment,
Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
⁶ For Yahweh knows the way of the righteous,
But the way of the wicked will perish.

YouTube and Podcast teaching for….The Authority Of God’s Kingdom. EXPOSITION ON THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE study #94 (Luke 11:14-23)

The Authority Of God’s Kingdom. EXPOSITION ON THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE study #94 (Luke 11:14-23)

We come now to a pretty lengthy section of Scripture that we will work through in this study. There is a turn from what we have looked at in the last two studies concerning prayer to look at the section of Scripture that shows that a kingdom can not be divided. As I began this study I was trying to understand the text but along with it I was trying to look at what the point of this section really points to. I believe that what we see is that Jesus is showing that God’s Kingdom has the most power, the authority and it is unmatched. We know within ourselves that we have no way of defeating Satan. But in God we have the power to defeat Satan not because of some super faith or some formula but simply because God is more powerful than Satan.

In this study we will draw four points from the text that shows to us the unmatched power of God through Christ. We will look further at these truth in our next study as well as we look further in our text but for now let’s look at our first point.

1.The crowds ASTONISHMENT.
Look with me at Luke 11:14 that says And He was casting out a demon, and it was mute. Now it happened that when the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke, and the crowds marveled.

The setup to the main focus of this study we come to another place in Luke where Jesus is casting out a demon. In fact we will refer to a parallel passage of Scripture in Matthew 12:22-29 where we see Matthew’s account of this healing and discussion. The fact is that it is not new to us to see Jesus healing or casting out a demon. This has been something that we have seen a lot of in Jesus’ ministry up to this point but there seems to be a heavier presence of demons as Jesus approaches the time of His death.

We will also see that there seems to be a worse time of persecution towards Jesus in accusing Jesus of breaking God’s law and being associated with Satan in some way. That will be seen a little more in our next point but for now I want us to look again at the crowds response to what Jesus is doing. I know we have mentioned this many times in our exposition of Luke but I just can’t pass by the fact that no one ever discredited the miracles that Jesus did. There was no uproar that Jesus was a fraud or that He wasn’t able to do what He proclaimed. The problem was never if He was doing these miracles but rather the jealousy of the religious leaders.

Here we see that Luke says this man was mute but Matthew 12:22 says this demon-possessed man who was blind and mute. There is nothing significant to pull from this account but I mention this because of the obvious addition in the description of this man. Clearly we have a man that is blind and mute. Matthew’s accounts says He(JESUS) healed him, so that the mute man spoke and saw.

Luke confirms that when the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke. This was a miracle indeed because this man might had never spoken or had never seen. The reaction from the crowd is just like other times. Luke says here the crowds marveled, Matthew’s account says in Matthew 12:23 the crowds were astounded, and were saying, “Can this man really be the Son of David?”

We notice that Matthew’s account brings along an addition that probably prompts the Pharisee’s anger and jealousy even more towards Jesus. The question of whether or not Jesus could really be the Son of David did not sit well with the religious leaders. They had been on the hunt to destroy Jesus, to trap Jesus and to hope that His ministry would end just like the ministry of John the Baptist at his death. But their hopes had not come true. In fact Jesus’ popularity was growing even though we know it will only be for a short time. So with this thought in the minds on the Pharisee’s we will move to see how they react from what was said here. We look now at our next point for this study.

2.The Pharisee’s ACCUSATION.
Look with me at Luke 11:15-16 that says But some of them said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons.” ¹⁶ And others, testing Him, were seeking from Him a sign from heaven.

This is something that we have seen over and over in the life of Jesus as well. The religious leaders have for some time now been looking for the opportunity to discredit what Jesus is doing. They can’t deny the miracles that He has been doing so as we see here they look to associate what Jesus is doing to the work of Satan.

The crowd as always is astonished at what they have experienced. They have even brought into the question of whether or not this shows that He is the Messiah as we saw from Matthew’s account. But this fuels the Pharisee’s rage against Jesus and they attempt to speak falsely about Jesus by saying “He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons.”

This is not the first time this conversation has came up. This is not the first time Jesus has been accused of being a part of Satan’s kingdom. Mark 3:20-22 records for us: And He *came home, and the crowd *gathered again, so that they could not even eat a meal. ²¹ And when His own people heard this, they went out to take custody of Him; for they were saying, “He has lost His senses.” ²² And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons.”

We see here that not only do they attribute the miracles of Jesus to the work of Satan but they also believe that He is possessed by Satan. This is blasphemy of the highest kind towards our Lord. But they not only speak evil of Jesus but they also do what they can to try to trip Jesus up. In Luke 11:16 we see that others, testing Him, were seeking from Him a sign from heaven.

This again has been something that they continue to try. Paul knew this as well in his time. He says in 1 Corinthians 1:22 For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom.

A little earlier in Jesus’ ministry He had fed the group of 5000 men and others. Then when Jesus left the area many people followed Him to other cities. Jesus calls out their superficial and hypocrisy by saying in John 6:26 “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.

Jesus goes on to tell these superficial followers that they need to be looking for the food that God has given to them that gives to us eternal life. They wanted to know what this gift was that Jesus spoke of so Jesus says in John 6:29 “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.”

This prompted the crowd to question Jesus in John 6:30 where they asked “What then do You do for a sign so that we may see, and believe You? What work do You perform?

To me this just baffles me to think that the same people that just saw Jesus feed the 5000 would bring into question about a sign that He would perform for them to prove that He is from God. Of course we know that Jesus never played into their hand. He always had the upper hand simply because of His omniscience of the motives of these people. This leads us to look at the fact that Jesus was working in a different kingdom than they thought and a different kingdom than they were a part of.

3.The Kingdom of God’s AUTHORITY.
Look with me at Luke 11:17-22 that says But He knew their thoughts and said to them, “Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a house divided against itself falls. ¹⁸ But if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul. ¹⁹ And if I by Beelzebul cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? For this reason, they will be your judges. ²⁰ But if I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. ²¹ When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are undisturbed. ²² But when someone stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, he takes away from him all his armor on which he had relied and distributes his plunder.

Clearly Jesus always knew what the people were thinking and what their motive was. We remember John 2:24-25 says But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, ²⁵ and because He had no need that anyone bear witness concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man.

Jesus was always in control of what was going on. He did not operate on man’s timeline nor into conversations without knowing how they would go. With this omniscience of our Lord, Jesus speaks to them directly concerning their accusation of Him being associated with Satan’s kingdom. The things that Jesus says points to the fact that no kingdom would ever seek to destroy their own because if they did then they would lose the enforcements to be able to defeat their enemy.

Just think if a military convoy decided to take out some of their own troops to trick the enemy just to find out that they not do not have enough people to go up against the enemy they set out to attack. This is not logical and is insanity in a sense. Jesus shows the people that this type of thinking is not smart, logical or reality. In the middle of this Jesus asks them a question that He really isn’t looking for an answer from them. He says in Luke 11:19 And if I by Beelzebul cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? For this reason, they will be your judges.

The point is that no one else is out their casting out demons so if they think they are so close to God then why is their no others doing the same? Even though they do not answer we can conclude that their sons were not casting any demons out because they were not doing God’s work. They were in fact doing the work of Satan themselves by deceiving the people. Jesus finalizes the point by saying in Luke 11:20 But if I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

Jesus moves away from their insane assumption to the reality of what is going on here. Jesus is in fact working in the power and authority of God through the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus continues by showing them the fact that God is stronger than Satan and that is the very reason why He is able to cast out demons. Jesus says in Luke 11:21-22 When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are undisturbed. ²² But when someone stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, he takes away from him all his armor on which he had relied and distributes his plunder.

Jesus is God the Son therefore He has the power to cast out demons because He is simply more powerful than Satan. There is no match for God’s Kingdom. This brings us to look now at our last point for this study.

4.True followers AUTHENTICITY.
Look with me at Luke 11:23 that says He who is not with Me is against Me and he who does not gather with Me, scatters.

Jesus says this in relation to what He just spoke on. The fact is that you can not be a lover of the world and a lover of God. You can’t follow the path of righteousness and still keep one foot in the way of the flesh. These Pharisee’s were always looking to rub elbows with Jesus to make them look good but the people needed to know that you can’t say things against God, look to redefine God’s law and still be a true follower of His.

In Matthew’s account of this we have a little more detail into why Jesus said this. Look with me at Matthew 12:30-32 that says He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters.³¹ “Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. ³² And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.

The fact is that the Pharisee’s may have been speaking to Jesus but they were speaking against the work of the Holy Spirit that was working in Jesus to perform these miracles. Even though Jesus is God, He was human as well that used the empowerment by the Holy Spirit to do the work He came to do. I believe what we see here is that Jesus is showing that no person that is truly a follower of His would be attributing the works of the Holy Spirit to Satan. A true follower will be authentic not seeking to discredit God, His Work or His Word.

Many people need to hear this warning that Jesus speaks here which we will look at again as we come to a close, Jesus says He who is not with Me is against Me and he who does not gather with Me, scatters.

What Kingdom are you living in? Are you living your life with Jesus just somehow attached to your life or is your life consisted of a life that sets Jesus as Lord and King? It is this difference that changes everything for you. You are either a product of the Holy Spirit’s work of regeneration or you are still in your sins. I hope that today you will repent of your sins, your lifestyle and begin to follow God in Christ by the power of His Holy Spirit.

YouTube and Podcast teaching for….God Graciously Gives To Those Who Ask. EXPOSITION ON THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE study #93 (Luke 11:5-13)

God Graciously Gives To Those Who Ask. EXPOSITION ON THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE study #93 (Luke 11:5-13)

This section of Scripture that we will dive into in this study is really an extension to what we looked at in our first study here in chapter 11. We remember that one of Jesus’ disciples said in Luke 11:1b Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples. It was this statement that showed the importance of prayer for this disciple. Jesus was their example of someone that was always in prayer. Jesus in His humanity needed to pray for strength because of the weakness of the flesh. Jesus who is the Son of God had lived far from sin in eternity and now had come to earth in flesh. Jesus’ example of a person that prays often should show us our need to pray more than we do now.

We looked at the contents of this prayer in our last study that showed us our direction of prayer which is in knowing that God is sovereign over all things. He is the ruler of all things, He is our provider, the One that forgives, the One that gives to us mercy and the One that protects us. But often we are impatient with God in our prayers. We tend to pray for selfish desires expecting God to do what we say when we say it. Even when our prayers are not selfish we often times find ourselves discouraged because the fact that we are not seeing God move in the way we think He should.

Now that we have the model for what the contents of our prayers should be and the direction of giving glory to God, we now come to look at the fact that we must be persistent in coming to God. The lesson will point to the fact that when we ask, God will give. But there is always something that we must keep in mind in any prayer we pray and that is God’s will and purpose. If we go outside of the walls of God’s will in prayer then we will not receive what we ask for but if we ask in God’s will then we will receive. Let’s look at this as we work through this section of Scripture.

1.A lesson of PERSISTANCE in prayer.
Look with me at Luke 11:5-9 that says Then He said to them, “Which of you has a friend and will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, ⁶ for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; ⁷ and from inside he answers and says, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been shut and my children and I are in bed; I cannot rise up and give you anything.’ ⁸ I tell you, even though he will not arise and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs. ⁹ “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

The story that Jesus just told is given to us to show us the persistence we must have in prayer. I do want to point out that this is just a story. Not everything in this story is parallel to the reality of prayer but it is the principle that needs to be the focus. For instance God will not speak to us in the way this friend did to the man asking for help. God will never tell us to not bother him, God will never be asleep and unable to rise up to help us.

The story is not meant to be deceptive in this sense but the principle of the persistence is the focus. With that in mind I do want to look at the original word here that we see as persistence. It is the Greek word anaideia (an-ah’-ee-die-ah’) which means the shamelessness a faith-led believer has who is not halted by human fears. The idea shows a boldness with persistence. It isn’t that we come to God in arrogance or thinking that we deserve anything that we ask for but the idea is that we will not leave from prayer or go to prayer with the idea that God will not answer our prayers.

The boldness to continue to go to God in prayer about something shows that we trust God, it shows that we believe that we will receive what God has promised to us as His children. This story points to the fact that we must not give up on God’s promises. But let’s make sure that as we have seen already in our last study is that the reality of what our prayer consist of and that is God’s will and purpose.

This persistence will pay off in God’s time as we will receive what God has promised to us. This will carry us into the next verse and our next point.

2.We will RECEIVE what we ask for in prayer.
Look with me at Luke 11:10 that says For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened.

I do want to point out that many people use this verse to say that God will give to them anything they ask for. If you were to take this statement of Jesus alone then I could very well see why your theology of prayer would say that. But we must take the whole of Scripture to determine what we should be asking for.

For some people when they do not get what they ask for in prayer then they blame God. They say that God must not love them or that God isn’t even real because they did not receive what they asked for. James 4:3 says You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.

We see that when we don’t get the answer we want it is because we have prayed a selfish prayer. Some people say that God answers prayer with a yes at times, a no at times and wait at other times but we need to make sure that this is a biblical principle. I think this is a good assumption but we need to be certain that when we think that God did not answer with a yes then we need to examine our motive of our prayer.

James had previously spoke of this very thing concerning praying in chapter 1, he says in James 1:5-8 But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. ⁶ But he must ask in faith, doubting nothing, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. ⁷ For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, ⁸ being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

Be certain that this is not the name and claim it theology that is out in the Christian culture of our time. This is back to the same reality of prayer that we have been speaking of since last study. We must trust God will give to us what He has promised so when we do trust, we will pray for the right thing and therefore we will receive what we pray for. It is just as Jesus has said in verse 10 here in Luke 11, everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened.

The circles back to the fact that not only are we to trust God but we must be persistent and patient. Once again we see in James this very clear command. James 5:7-11 says Therefore be patient, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the soil, being patient about it, until it receives the early and late rains. ⁸ You too be patient; strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. ⁹ Do not groan, brothers, against one another, so that you yourselves may not be judged. Behold, the Judge is standing right at the door. ¹⁰ As an example, brothers, of suffering and patience, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. ¹¹ Behold, we count those blessed who persevere. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord’s dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful.

We must trust God and we must allow that trust in God to help us to continue to be faithful in ministry and in prayer. We can be patient in knowing that God will fulfill every promise that He has given to us in Christ. That goes back to know that God is a loving God who gives to us His grace daily. This leads us to look at our next 3 verses in our last point for this study.

3.God’s gracious GIVING in prayer.
Look with me at Luke 11:11-13 that says But what father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead of a fish? ¹² Or, if his son asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? ¹³ If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”

So the idea that our asking in faith, our asking in God’s will and us receiving comes into to full focus here. Our prayers are not selfish therefore we should not be asking God for selfish things. Instead our prayers are towards God, for the glory of God because of His gracious giving of all that we ask. Now we see here that we don’t see superficial things as what we receive but the Holy Spirit.

I do not think that we can find anywhere in the Bible that praying to God for someone to be healed or for some direction in a situation is sinful but that should not be our primary focus as to why we pray. Our prayers should be to help us in spiritual growth. To have this happen we need help because we can not on our own power grow. We need the Holy Spirit and when we come to God with the right attitude, motivation and direction then we will receive from God exactly what we need.

Jesus makes it clear here that not even us as sinful, wretched and evil people will give to our own children things that will harm them. So if we being evil and sinful will give good things to our children how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”

So often I hear people talk about how God is interested in the little things in our life and I would agree but never are we told to pray about those things. In fact Jesus says in Matthew 6:32-34 For all these things the Gentiles eagerly seek; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. ³³ But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. ³⁴ “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

We are to acknowledge that God is the giver of all of those things but that should not be the focus of our prayers. I have been guilty of this in the past and what we do when these things are the focus of our prayers instead of getting the Holy Spirit to help us to grow is we start to doubt. The more we focus on the things we think we need instead of what God wants to give to us, the more we turn from God’s will and start to live our life for those little things. We must keep our focus on God and what He wants for us as we pray.

As we come to a close for this study I want to magnify the fact that Jesus specifically uses the Holy Spirit as the center of what we ask for. In Matthew 6:7-8 Jesus says before His example of prayer or commonly known as the Lord’s prayer: And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. ⁸ Therefore, do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.

Jesus says in Matthew 7:11 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!

When we look at all of this combined with what we briefly hit on in this study, we conclude that our prayers must be centrally focused on asking for the Holy Spirit to work in our life. There are many ways the Holy Spirit works in us that include salvation, sanctification, illuminating of the Scripture, discernment, encouragement, unity with Christ, glorifying of God in the way we live and many more. I encourage you to think about how it is that you are praying. Follow Jesus’ example that shows us the urgency to pray daily, to glorify God, to thank Him for His provision, protection and for His gift of the work of the Holy Spirit in us who have been saved.