Luke 11 - Jesus Teaches and Warns

A. Teaching on prayer

1. (1) Lord, teach us to pray
a. Jesus prayed as was His custom, but a request came when He ceased - the disciples allowed Jesus to finish praying. They stood there and watched Him, drinking in the power of His prayer, until He was finished
b. There was something about watching Jesus pray that made them want to learn how to pray like Him. Is there anything magnetic in your prayer, or in your relationship with God? How you pray shows how you think about God. Jesus' prayer showed a lot about Him.

c. Just like the disciples, we need Jesus to teach us to pray. Prayer is so simple that the smallest child can pray, but it is so great that the mightiest man of God cannot be said to truly have mastered prayer

i. "It is on prayer that the promises wait for their fulfillment, the kingdom for its coming, the glory of God for its full revelation. . . . Jesus never taught His disciples how to preach, only how to pray. He did not speak much of what was needed to preach well, but much of praying well. To know how to speak to God is more than knowing how to speak to man. Not power with men, but power with God is the first thing." (Murray)
d. On a previous occasion, when teaching the multitudes, Jesus taught this same basic prayer (Matthew 6:9-13). The fact that He repeats it here shows how important it is; the fact that He does not repeat it the exact same way as in Matthew shows that it was not to be used as a precise ritual or magic formula for prayer
2. (2-4) Pray after this pattern
a. Our points out that prayer belongs among the people of God. Jesus assumed that His people would be praying together
b. When we say Father; we are using a privileged title, demonstrating a privileged relationship. In the Old Testament, we don't see great men and women of God pray to Him this way. Jesus opened up to us new and greater paths of intimacy with God

c. The right kind of prayer comes to God as a Father in heaven; it rightly recognizes who we are praying

to. To say that God is in heaven says:
i. He is a God of majesty and dominion: O LORD God of our fathers, are You not God in heaven, and do You not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations, and in Your hand is there not power and might, so that no one is able to withstand You? (2 Chronicles 20:6)
ii. He is a God of power and might: But our God is in heaven; He does whatever He pleases. (Psalms 115:3)

iii. He sees everything: The Lord's throne is in heaven; His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men. (Psalms 11:4)

d. Hallowed means "set apart"; it is a way of saying that there is no one like God, He is completely unique - not just a super person or a better person. Name means that God's whole character, His whole person, is set apart
i. "The name in antiquity stood for far more than it does with us. It summed up a person's whole character, all that was known or revealed about him." (Morris)
e. We should pray with a longing for God's kingdom; we want to see Jesus ruling and reigning on this earth, and we want it to begin with us
i. The ancient Jews used to say: "He prays not at all, in whose prayers there is no mention of the kingdom of God."
f. We should pray with a desire to see God's will done, and put first. "In heaven God's will is obeyed by all, spontaneously, with the deepest joy and in a perfect manner without a shadow of unfaithfulness. And the believer must pray that such a condition should also prevail on earth." (Geldenhuys)
i. This is prayer that puts God's interests first; it is His name, His kingdom, and His will that are primary. Our needs are addressed secondarily. Prayer isn't a tool to get what we want from God. It is a method to get God's will accomplished in us and all around us
ii. Some see the Trinity in these requests; the Father is the source of all holiness; Jesus brings the kingdom of God to us; and the Holy Spirit accomplishes God's will in us and among us

iii. Some see the three greatest things in these three requests; to pray Our Father requires faith, because he who comes to God must believe that He is; to pray Your kingdom come requires hope, because we trust it is to come in fullness; to pray Your will be done requires love, because love is the incentive to obey all of God's will

g. God also wants us to pray for our daily, practical needs - like our daily bread
i. When Jesus says bread, He means real bread, as in the sense of daily provisions. Early theologians allegorized this; they couldn't imagine a mundane thing like bread in such a majestic prayer like this
ii. Calvin rightly said of such interpretations which fail to see God's interest in the mundane: "This is exceedingly absurd" God does care about everyday things

h. We also need forgiveness from God; "As bread is the first need of the body, so forgiveness for the soul." (Murray)
i. God forgives sins, we forgive debts. What we owe to God isn't the same as what others owe to us
i. We constantly plead to God for strength and protection against temptation and the evil one; true prayer is always offered knowing how weak we are in our selves, and how much we need the power of God

i. Temptation is literally a test, not always a solicitation to do evil; God has promised to keep us from any testing that is greater than what we can handle (1 Corinthians 10:13)

j. This prayer is notable for its simplicity and brevity; it is a marvel of powerful prayer put in simple terms
i. The Rabbis had sayings like: "Whoever is long in prayer is heard" and "Whenever the righteous make their prayer long, their prayer is heard"
ii. One famous Jewish prayer began: "Blessed, praised, and glorified, exalted, and honored, magnified and lauded be the name of the Holy One"

iii. When we try to impress God with our many words, we deny who God is: a loving, yet holy Father; instead, we should follow the counsel of Ecclesiastes 5:2: God is in heaven, and you are on earth; therefore let your words be few

3. (5-8) Pray with boldness and persistence
a. In a situation like this, a whole family would live together in a one-room house. On one side of the house would be a raised platform where they would all sleep; down on the ground would probably be all their animals - a cow, perhaps some sheep and goats and so forth. There was no way the man could come to the door without disturbing the whole household
i. Anyone who knows what it is like getting all the kids to bed and finally getting some rest knows what an imposition this would be!
b. It took great boldness for the man to so shamelessly ask his friend in the middle of the night - he really wanted the bread
c. God often waits for our passionate persistence in prayer. It isn't that God is reluctant and needs to be persuaded. Our persistence doesn't change God, it changes us, developing in us a heart and passion for what God wants

4. (9-13) Pray with a childlike confidence
a. We are told to keep on asking, seeking and knocking. "All three verbs are continuous: Jesus is not speaking of single activities, but of those that persist." (Morris)
i. These descriptions speak of an earnestness and intensity; all too often, our prayers are merely wishes cast up to heaven, and this is not real prayer
b. Any human father loves to bless his children, and would never answer a simple request for something good with something evil. If that is case with us, how much more will God answer us, though sometimes it doesn't seem so!
c. God especially delights in giving the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him; we never need doubt God's desire to pour out His Spirit. The problem is in our receiving, not in God's desire to give

5. Are we ready to enroll with Jesus in His school of prayer? Andrew Murray, author of With Christ in the School of Prayer, has a great prayer for new students:
a. Blessed Lord! Who ever lives to pray, You can teach me to pray, me to ever live to pray. In this You love to make me share Your glory in heaven, that I should pray without ceasing, and ever stand as a priest in the presence of my God.
Lord Jesus! I ask You this day to enroll my name among those who confess that they do not know how to pray as they ought, and specially ask You for a course in teaching in prayer. Lord! Teach me to wait with You in the school and give You time to train me. May a deep sense of my ignorance, the wonderful privilege and power of prayer, of the need of the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of prayer, lead me to cast away my thoughts of what I think I know, and make me kneel before You in true teachableness and poverty of spirit.

And fill me, Lord, with the confidence that with a teacher like You I shall learn to pray. In the assurance that I have as my teacher, Jesus, who is ever praying to the Father, and by His prayer rules the destinies of His Church and the world, I will not be afraid. As much as I need to know of the mysteries of the prayer-world, You will fold for me. And when I may not know, You will teach me to be strong in faith, giving glory to God.

Blessed Lord! You will not put to shame Your student who trusts You, nor, by Your grace, would he put You to shame either. Amen

B. Jesus answers controversy about demons and signs
1. (14-16) The controversy arises: some accuse Jesus of being in league with Satan; others request a sign from Him
a. The Jews in Jesus' day had their own exorcists, who sought to cast demons out of people. But they believed that they had to have the demon reveal his name, or they could not cast the demon out.
b. This is why the multitudes marveled when Jesus cast out a demon that caused muteness; according to the Jewish thinking of that day, the demon was impossible to cast out because he made the man unable to speak, and unable to reveal the name of the demon

c. When people see this great work, there are two reactions: some attribute the working of Jesus to Satan (Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons), and some want to see more miracles before they will believe (testing Him, sought a sign from heaven)

i. Beelzebub is a difficult name to analyze; it may come from a similar sounding word that means "Lord of the Flies"
2. (17-19) Jesus answers those who attribute His working to Satan
a. Jesus shows that if He is an agent of Satan, and is working against Satan, then surely civil war has come Satan's kingdom, and Satan's kingdom will not stand - Satan won't work against himself
b. At the same time, Jesus observes that the Jewish leaders themselves have exorcists; are His accusers accusing them also?

3. (20-23) Jesus proclaims His strength over all demonic forces
a. Essentially, Jesus is answering the charge that He is in league with the Devil. He says, "I'm not under Satan, instead, I'm proving that I am stronger than he is"
b. In the picture Jesus presents, Satan is the strong man, who is guarding what belongs to him. Jesus' ministry, both in the case of casting the demon out of the man who was mute, and in the broader sense, is a defeating this strong man

c. Jesus is the one who is stronger than he (Satan, the strong man of verse 21); and He speaks about His work in overcoming Satan on several different stages:

i. He comes upon him - Jesus engages Satan in battle, even on Satan's "turf"
ii. And overcomes him - Jesus flat out defeats this strong man, showing all that He is stronger than he

iii. He takes from him all his armor in which he trusted - Jesus not only defeats Satan on our behalf, He also disarms him; Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it [the cross] (Colossians 2:15)

iv. And divides his spoils - Satan will never get to keep or enjoy the "fruit" of his temporary victory; Jesus' victory over the strong man is complete

d. If Jesus is stronger than Satan, we are confronted with the necessity of a decision: whose side will we be on? Will we be for Jesus or will we be against Him? Will we work for Jesus or will we work against Him?
i. "In the conflict against the powers of darkness there is no room for neutrality." (Geldenhuys)
ii. In this sense, to be undecided is to be decided. There is no neutral ground; we are either with Jesus or against Him. There is no luxury of a guarded neutrality

iii. If Satan is the strong man, and Jesus is stronger than Satan, there are two strong forces at work, trying to win our allegiance - we will embrace one or the other, intentionally or not

4. (24-26) Jesus tells more about the dynamics of demonic possession
a. The picture of a person delivered from a demon, but not yet filled with Jesus is a picture of a person who tries to be neutral - not for Satan, not for Jesus. Jesus shows us that this is an impossibility
b. Apparently, demons have a desire to inhabit bodies, but why? For the same reason why the vandal wants a spray can, or a violent man wants a gun - a body is a weapon that they can use in attacking God

c. Jesus points out the danger of delivering a person from demonic possession without filling their life with Jesus; they can end up worse than before

i. The heart of man has a vacuum-like nature to it; it has to be filled. If we "empty" our heart with evil, without filling it with Jesus and His good, evil will rush in again to fill it
d. Therefore, in answering those who accused Him or working by the power of Satan, Jesus tells them that He hasn't merely come to fight against evil, but to bring God's good into our hearts
5. (27-32) Jesus answers those who are seeking for a sign
a. People whose hearts are set on signs need to know the greatness of God's word; what really makes a person blessed is their hearing of the word of the God and their keeping of that word
i. About fifteen years after Jesus' time on earth, a man named Theudas arose among the Jews and claimed to be the Messiah. He persuaded people to follow him with the promise that he would part the Jordan river in two. He tried; needless to say, he failed, and the Romans dealt severely with him. But he knew what kind of sign the people wanted to see; Jesus says hearing and keeping the word is more important than signs
b. In addition, the generation that seeks for a sign (instead of God's word) is evil, and ripe for judgment
c. How did Jesus become a sign like Jonah was a sign? Because Jonah gave his life to appease the wrath of God coming upon others. But death did not hold him; after three days and nights of imprisonment, he was alive and free (Jonah 1-2)

i. And Jesus is that sign, both to His present generation and to ours; Jesus Himself is the sign; we are to believe in Him, not a sign
d. The queen of the South came to Solomon in 1 Kings 10; when she saw the great works that God had done for and through Solomon, she praised the God of Israel - she didn't say, "show me more and maybe I'll believe"
i. The queen of the South came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; she sought after God's word with a tenacity that shames us. The people who were asking Jesus for a sign saw His work right there in their own neighborhood, and didn't believe
e. The point is clear: the queen of the South and the men of Nineveh we both of Gentile origin; but they had a more open heart to the things of God than the religious people of Jesus' day, who would not believe and receive the work of God right before their eyes
C. Jesus' warnings to hypocrites
1. (33-36) Jesus warns about inner darkness
a. This section has application to both what went before it (Jesus answers those who thought His miracles were the work of Satan and those who wanted to see more) and what comes after it (Jesus deals with hypocrisy)
b. Just as a lamp is meant to be displayed out in the open, so that all can benefit from its light, so is the word and the work of God to be displayed. But when Jesus displays His word and works, the religious people of His day won't accept them!

c. Even as a bad eye will make a person blind, so their bad hearts are making them spiritually blind. You have to be spiritually blind to attribute Jesus' miracles to Satan, to ignore the works of Jesus that are right before your eyes, or to live as a hypocrite

i. When you are in darkness, there are two possible reasons why. There may be no light source, or the darkness may be within yourself. Jesus is letting these people know that the darkness is within themselves
d. Instead, when we have the light of God's word shining in us, and when we see and understand the work of Jesus around us, we won't walk in the darkness of spiritual blindness
2. (37-41) Jesus rebukes the Pharisees for their concern for only external matters
a. Jesus was not being unhygenic when He had not first washed before dinner; He was not following the extremely technical and rigid requirements of ceremonial washing practiced by many pious Jews
b. For these ceremonial washings, special stone vessels of water were kept, because ordinary water might be unclean. In performing the ceremonial washing, you had to take at least enough of this water to fill one and one-half egg shells. You started by pouring the water over your hands starting at the fingers and running down towards your wrist. Then you cleansed each palm by rubbing the fist of the other hand into it. Then you poured water over your hands again, this time from the wrist towards the fingers

i. A really strict Jew would do this not only before the meal, but between each course!
ii. The rabbis were deadly serious about this. They said that bread eaten with unwashed hands was no better than excrement. A rabbi who once failed to do this was regarded as excommunicated. Another rabbi was imprisoned by the Romans and used his ration of water for ceremonial cleansing instead of drinking, nearly died of thirst, and was regarded as a great hero for this

iii. If they were as concerned about cleansing their hearts as they were about their hands, they would be more godly men! But we always want to think there is something we can do to cleanse ourselves

c. These Pharisees were careful to maintain the appearance of righteousness, but not the inner reality of it; they are foolish ones because they could be outwardly clean but inwardly dirty
3. (42-44) Woe to the Pharisees
a. The Pharisees were so meticulous in their outward obedience that they would literally tithe from their herb gardens - counting out seeds and leaves, and giving a tenth to God
i. Legalism of this sort assumes that people will only know we follow God if we do all these things associated with rules and regulations. Instead, Jesus said that the real mark of a believer is the love they have for others in God's family
ii. But the Jewish leaders saw it differently. "The Mishna lays it down that it is more important to observe the scribal interpretations than the Law itself (Sanhedrin11:13)." (Morris)

iii. It is as if a solider did great in marching drills and put all their emphasis there, but wasn't any good in battle - this would not be a good soldier. Being good at all the outward things of Christianity doesn't mean you are a good Christian

b. Jesus does not say that this was wrong - instead, He says These you out to have done. What was wrong was what they were not doing - leaving the others undone
c. The best seats in the synagogues were the seats up front facing the congregation; this is where the leaders and prominent people sat. These people thought it was no good to be walking right with God if others didn't know they were walking right with God

d. These religious leaders loved giving the impression that they were so spiritual, but they actually were defiling everyone they came in contact with - just as a Jewish person would be ceremonially defiled by walking over a grave, even if they didn't know it was there

i. According to Numbers 19:16, everyone who touched a grave was ceremonially unclean for seven days. For this reason, the Jews sought to mark graves clearly, usually using whitewash, so everyone would know where they were and would avoid them
4. (45-46) Jesus rebukes the lawyers for their oppressive religious system
a. The lawyer would have done better to keep quiet; but since he drew attention to himself, Jesus will address him also!
i. Remember what a lawyer was; not so much someone who would represent a client, but would represent the Mosaic law - the lawyer would be the resident expert on the Old Testament law and how it applied
b. Because of the way that they interpreted the law, these experts in the Mosaic law laid heavy burdens on people
i. For example, they taught that on the Sabbath, a man could not carry something in his right hand or in his left hand, across his chest or on his shoulder. But you could carry something with the back of your hand, with your foot, with your elbow, or in your ear, your hair, or in the hem of your shirt, or in your shoe or sandal.
ii. Or, on the Sabbath, you were forbidden to tie a knot - except, a woman could tie a knot in her girdle. So, if a bucket of water had to be raised from a well, you could tie a rope to the bucket, but a woman could tie her girdle to the bucket!

iii. For example, ancient Rabbis took the command to respect proper sanitation in the army camp of Israel (Deuteronomy 23:12-14) and applied it to Jersualem, considering it the "camp of the Lord." When this interpretation was combined with Sabbath travel restrictions, it resulted in a prohibition against going to the bathroom on the Sabbath!

c. Sadly, today many Bible "experts" do the same thing - use the Scriptures wrongly as a tool of control and oppression
5. (47-51) These lawyers only admire dead prophets
a. Jesus observes that the leaders of His day would honor dead prophets while persecuting living ones like Himself
6. (52) Their most terrible crime - keeping others from God
a. Those who lead God's people in a legalistic way are guilty of a terrible crime before God: they keep others out of the kingdom
b. When you give people a list of rules by which they will save themselves, you aren't helping them at all

7. (53-54) The reaction of Jesus' enemies


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