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.

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Following Jesus Requires Us To Deny Self. EXPOSITION ON THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE study #84 (Luke 9:57-60)

What we will see in this section of Scripture is not a suggestion of whether you want to take the hard road of following Jesus as a Christian but rather that the road for a Christian will be hard. This comes to us in many different ways. It may come along as persecution, temptation to sin, the pull to be worldly or just everyday problems. There is never a promise of a life of ease for a Christian and there is no room to hold on to our old lives. We must be willing to give it all up at the moment of salvation. Now the process of sanctification will help us throughout our lives to realize the things we must give up but the willingness to give up anything must be in our heart. If that is not there then as we will see, that will set you apart from who it is that is considered true followers of the Lord Jesus. Once again it isn’t that Jesus requires us to give everything up all at once but rather through the process of sanctification that we all are in at different levels.

Please don’t take my words as being legalistic because that is not the intention. The intention is that Jesus calls all Christians to a life free from the external pulls from the flesh and the world. With that in mind we must understand that we will all struggle to stay in that direction all of the time but it must be the willingness and direction of our life as Christians. We will look at this Scripture with our thoughts on other passages that Jesus has already taught concerning what following Him actually means.

I want to first look at our Scripture for this study. Look with me at Luke 9:57-62 that says And as they were going along the road, someone said to Him, “I will follow You wherever You go.” ⁵⁸ And Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” ⁵⁹ And He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.” ⁶⁰ But He said to him, “Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God.” ⁶¹ Another also said, “I will follow You, Lord, but first permit me to say farewell to those at home.” ⁶² But Jesus said to him, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

We will only look down to verse 60 for this study because there was way to much to talk about in each of these points so I split this section into 2 studies. So we will look at 2 points for this study and 2 for the next that will walk us through this topic of following Jesus.

To open up the first 3 points I want us to remember back at the parable of the Sower or soils that Jesus spoke on back in Luke 8. There were 4 soils, 3 represented the different types of people that reject the Gospel and one represented the true Christian. In those 3 that reject the Gospel there is one that Jesus explains in Luke 8:14 as the seed which fell among the thorns, these are the ones who have heard, and as they go on their way they are choked with worries and riches and pleasures of life, and do not bear ripe fruit.

I believe we will see that these first 3 people in our study for this time and for the next study, fall into this category in different ways. This is somewhat like subpoints of that category of those that just can’t let go of the world.

With that we will look at our first point.

1.Following Jesus requires FORSAKING yourself.
Look with me at Luke 9:57-58 And as they were going along the road, someone said to Him, “I will follow You wherever You go.” ⁵⁸ And Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”

The idea of forsaking self is not new to our thinking. In fact it was just earlier in this chapter where we dealt with very thing from Luke 9:23-24 that says And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. ²⁴ For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.

We took 3 separate studies to look at Luke 9:23-27 that deals with this same idea. Here is the link to each of these: Discipleship Is Denying Self, Discipleship Is Taking Up Your Cross Daily, and Discipleship Is Following Jesus.

The fact is we could go through many teachings our Lord has done up to this point in His ministry and see that He has taught on what truly following Him looks like. But I believe each time we see Him speak on this subject that we get a little deeper understanding of this idea of authentic discipleship. Here Jesus encounters 3 different people who either want to follow Him or have the potential to follow Him. The problem will be seen in their inability to let go of their old life.

We need to remember that Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem for the last time. He knows that He will go there and encounter opposition eventually. At first many accept His message, His power, His authority but soon afterward they will turn on Him because of the influence of the religious leaders of Judaism. Clearly we see that they are traveling as they encounter this first individual. Look again at Luke 9:57 that says And as they were going along the road, someone said to Him, “I will follow You wherever You go.”

This seems to be such a positive action from this unknown man but in reality it’s not what it seems. Matthew gives us a little information on who this is from Matthew 8:19 that says Then a scribe came and said to Him, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.”

Clearly we see this is not just some random person that comes up to Him but rather one of the scribes of the Judaism. Scribes were learned men who studied the Law, transcribed the Law and even provided commentaries on the Law. They had the important task of preserving the Scriptures as they copied them down. So this scribe is not a person that is just looking at Jesus from some superficial standpoint or because of the miraculous but seems to have a grasp that Jesus is at least a Teacher of the Law.

As always Jesus knows the hearts of men as 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.

Even though this scribe seemed to have good intentions, Jesus knew that there was something lacking in His commitment. Jesus responds by saying in Luke 9:58 “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”

I do want to point out that we do not have Biblical commentary on why Jesus said this but all 3 of these situations need to be looked at in light of Luke 9:23-27 because that text gives us the foundation of what true discipleship looks like. So with that we can look back at those verses with the fact that Jesus says to first deny oneself. The statement Jesus says to this scribe seems to line up with that very statement. Jesus knew that the scribes were looked upon as very important people in Judaism. They were the one’s that would interpret the Law from Hebrew to Aramaic. They were looked upon from the common people as people of high knowledge and status so the test would be of whether this scribe really wanted to follow.

Jesus let’s him know that if he really wants to follow then he need to expect that the comforts of life, the status he has will not be as it is. This is a lesson of denying oneself. This looks different in some aspects for different people and here this man needed to know that the ease of life, the high view from the people was not going to be what he had anymore. Jesus was not saying that all followers would end up homeless or in poverty but that we must be willing to give up whatever it is that places self on the throne instead of God.

Before we move to our next point I want to us to notice that there is no indication of whether or not this man or the other two decides to leave everything behind to follow Jesus. Let’s look at our next point.

2.Following Jesus requires leaving the FUTURE to God.
Look with me at Luke 9:59-60 And He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.” ⁶⁰ But He said to him, “Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God.”

This man does not approach Jesus but rather Jesus approaches Him. Matthew indicates that this is one of Jesus’ disciples. This is not one of the 12 by the fact that Matthew says another of the disciples. These 2 men seemed to have been following Jesus as true learners of the Lord Jesus. But it was at this time that there seems to be a shift in the chance to commit to more than just being in the crowd. Jesus says to this disciple, “Follow Me.”

This is interesting that this is the same way Jesus called many of the 12 disciples as well. This seems to be the same kind of call, not to be of the 12 but to be fully committed to Christ. I would agree that by the answer of this disciple it seems that he was not willing to truly commit. Does this indicate he left from following Jesus, maybe but we can’t be 100% sure. What we do see is that he makes an excuse to not follow in that type of commitment. He says in Luke 9:59 “Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.”

This seems like a fair request but the problem is that if his father was already dead then this man would not have even been in front of Jesus or traveling with him. The implication seems to point that his father was not dead yet but that this man wanted to secure his future with the inheritance that may be coming his way when his father does die. I think we see clearly that this man was not ready to make a true commitment to Christ. He wanted the benefits of being a part of the crowd but was not willing to truly follow. He wanted to look like a person that was truly following Jesus but in reality he had not came to that point of full commitment. He was unlike the disciples that were called by our Lord.

Matthew 4:20 says of Peter and Andrew after Jesus calls them that they immediately they left their nets and followed Him.

The also James and John in Matthew 4:22 immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed Him.

Matthew when called left everything behind, and rose up and began to follow Him, Luke 5:28 says.

Like I said not everyone is called to leave everything in an instant but that should be our willingness as Christians. *Jesus tells this man in Luke 9:60 “Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God.”

This statement is not meant to be harsh but is pointing this man to what truly following is. Following Jesus is not living for our future plans but living in the present to proclaim the Gospel everywhere to all people. This man was unwilling to follow Jesus because he wanted just a little more from his own life, maybe it was an inheritance he was waiting for, maybe he wanted to make sure that his mother was taken care of after his father passes on or maybe he just was making an excuse to not commit in the way that was needed to continue with Christ.

These two men are examples to us that shows us things that hinder us from truly following Christ. Maybe you are in one of these groups of either lacking complete denial of self or living life for future hopes and dreams. Being a Christian is not just saying I “believe” in Jesus or it isn’t just attendance at church once or twice a week, or it is not about the amount of money or time you give to the church. Being a Christian is about Jesus being your Lord and that means that He is Lord over your life, your future and even your family as we will see next study.*

Have you ever came to a time in your life where you denied self and left that old self there? Have you maybe stepped back over into those old ways and found yourself living in an unrighteous lifestyle? Today is the day to ask God to forgive you, repent from your sin and self and trust Jesus as Lord and Savior so that you will have eternal life.