Category: Luke 11

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Luke Luke 11

To find blessing

Bible

Everyone wants to find blessing in their lives from God. But how do we find blessing?

As Jesus was speaking to the crowd, a woman called out,

Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you. (Luke 11:27)

But Jesus answered her,

Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it. (Luke 11:28)

Obedience is not a popular word, even among Christians sometimes. We like to focus on the grace of God.

And certainly, apart from the grace of God, none of us would ever find his blessing because none of us ever deserve it.

Nevertheless, the key that unlocks that blessing in our lives is the obedience that comes from faith.

We can say, “I believe in God. I believe in his Word,” all day long, but if it doesn’t result in obedience, our words are meaningless. If we truly trust him, if we truly believe in him, we’ll do what he says.

The question is, do you trust him? Do you trust that if you obey him, that you will find blessing?

Do you trust, for example, that if you put off sex until marriage, that your sex life and your marriage will be better for it?

Do you trust that if you learn the “grace of giving,” (2 Corinthians 8:7) that your finances will not suffer for it, but instead be blessed by God?

Do you trust that if you submit to your husband as to the Lord, and that you love your wife as Christ loves the church, sacrificing yourself for her, that your marriage will flourish?

Or do you think this is all fluffy words with no real substance to it?

If you want to find blessing, you need to learn to trust God. That he knows what is best. That his way works.

And then you need to obey.

Is it easy? No. But the same grace that God extends to help us believe, is the same grace that gives us the power to obey. All you have to do is ask. As Jesus said,

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. (Luke 11:9-10)

How about you? Will you trust God, and obey?

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Luke Luke 11 Matthew Matthew 12

When we refuse to invite the Spirit in

The gospels

With Jesus condemning the Pharisees for saying that he was casting out demons by Satan’s power, the Pharisees then demanded a sign from heaven to prove he was doing it by God’s power.

Of course, even had he done so, they still wouldn’t have believed, so Jesus refused.

How do I know they wouldn’t have believed? Because while he refused to give them a sign right then and there, he did give them a sign to watch for, the sign of Jonah.

He told them just as Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and nights and came out, so would the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth, and come out.

This of course was referring to Jesus’ death and resurrection. But when Jesus rose from the dead, the Pharisees still hardened their hearts and refused to believe.

So again, Jesus condemned their hardness of heart.

He told them that the people of Nineveh and the queen of the South (the queen of Sheba) would stand in judgment over them because when they heard the message of Jonah and Solomon, they turned to God.

But now Jesus, who was greater than Jonah or Solomon, was here, and they refused to believe.

He then gave an illustration of what would happen if they refused to believe in him and rejected the gift of the Spirit that he would later give all believers.

When Jesus came to this earth, he overcame the powers of hell, and among other things cast out demons.

But he warned the Pharisees and all Israel, “Though I cast out demons and overcome the powers of hell, though I set all in order in preparation for the gift of the Spirit to come in, if you refuse him, then the powers of hell will return in force and your spiritual state will be worse than ever.”

Why? Because you’ve tasted the power of God in your life, you’ve come into contact with the only one who can save you, and you rejected him.

He then brings back an illustration from the Sermon on the Mount where he talks about how our eyes are the lamp of our body.

Here I think he’s talking as much of our spiritual eyes as our physical ones. And he’s saying, “Are you really seeing? When God speaks, can you see the truth he is giving? When you look at me, do you see me for who I am?”

If you do, Jesus says you will be full of light. But if not, you will be filled with darkness. So he warns,

See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. (Luke 11:35)

How about you? Have you put your faith in Jesus as your Lord and Savior? Have you invited the Spirit into your life?

If you harden your heart towards God, you leave yourself vulnerable to Satan’s destructive work in your life. But if you soften your heart and let the Spirit in, you’ll find life.

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Luke Luke 11 Mark Mark 3 Matthew Matthew 12

The danger of hardening our hearts

The gospels

In this passage, we see another confrontation between the Pharisees and Jesus. A blind and mute man was brought to Jesus, apparently because of demon possession. Jesus cast out the demon, and immediately, the man could talk and see.

Everyone was astonished, but the Pharisees immediately tried to discredit Jesus’ miracle by saying he did it by Beelzebub’s (i.e. Satan’s) power.

It’s interesting to note here, by the way, that the Pharisees (and all of Jesus’ other enemies) never denied Jesus performed miracles. They only said that it was done by Satan’s power.

It’s only people who lived thousands of years after the fact that ever deny it happened. It’s easy to deny something happened thousands of years after it occurs. It’s much more difficult to do when it happens right in front of you. And the Pharisees never did.

All of this brings us to the main point, and we saw this earlier: some people simply won’t believe, no matter what they see. Not because they can’t believe, but because they don’t want to believe.

And because they don’t want to believe, they harden their hearts to God, and try to explain away anything that God does to show he is really there.

The Pharisees tried to explain away Jesus by saying he had a demon and that he was casting out demons by the authority of Satan.

But Jesus countered that in two ways.

First, Satan’s kingdom wouldn’t be able to stand if he were fighting himself.

Second, by casting out the demon, Jesus was showing he wasn’t on Satan’s side. Rather, he was fighting Satan.

Satan was the enemy, so Jesus was coming against him and making him and his demons scatter. And in binding Satan up, Jesus set people free.

Then Jesus warns,

And so I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.

Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come. (Matthew 12:31-32)

Mark explains Jesus’ words, saying,

He said this because they were saying, “He has an evil spirit.” (Mark 3:30)

In other words, the Pharisees had so hardened their hearts to Jesus, they couldn’t even see what God was doing anymore. Not only that, they were crediting the Holy Spirit’s work to Satan.

And that’s the danger of hardening our hearts. If we do it long enough, there comes a point where we can no longer hear the Spirit’s voice, nor recognize his work even when we see it. When that happens, all hope of salvation is lost.

This is what Jesus calls “the unpardonable sin.” It’s unpardonable because there is no hope once we’ve hardened our hearts to that point. Pharaoh in the time of Moses was a perfect example of this, and it led to his destruction.

When does a person reach that point? Only God knows. There have been people that seemed to be hardened beyond redemption and yet were saved. The apostle Paul was such a man.

Some Christians worry that they’ve committed the unpardonable sin. But if you are worried about it, it’s almost certain you haven’t committed it.

If you can recognize the sin in your own life and your need for forgiveness, you have nothing to worry about so long as you keep a repentant heart.

It is only those who have hardened their hearts to God that are in danger of the unpardonable sin.

How do we keep our hearts from hardening? Keep a humble and repentant heart before God. And live each day in communion with him as Jesus did: seeking the Father’s will, and following it.

How about you? Is your heart soft or hardened toward God today?

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Luke Luke 11 Matthew Matthew 7

Sermon on the Mount: The Father who gives good gifts…generously

The gospels

In America, there are some Bible teachers that say that if you want something from God, just claim it in Jesus name, and he has to give it to you.

For a lot of these people, God is like their personal genie. But God is no genie. He doesn’t have to do anything he doesn’t want to do. And whether people believe it or not, he doesn’t always want to give you what you want.

One key phrase we see in Matthew is that God gives “good gifts to those who ask him.” (Matthew 7:11)

Sometimes, though, we ask for things, and God knows they are not good for us. We ask for something thinking it’s bread, but it’s really a stone. Will God give us that stone?

Other times, we’ll ask for a fish when it’s really a serpent. Will he give us that serpent? Of course not. He is a good Father. He would never do that to us.

With that in mind, we can be bold in asking things of God, knowing that if something is good for us, he will give it to us in his timing. But if something is bad for us, he will tell us no.

So Jesus tells us,

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. (Luke 11:9-10)

Too often, we don’t receive because we don’t ask. We worry, “Am I being selfish? Shouldn’t I be praying about other things? Surely there are more important things to pray for than what I want.”

I think there are two points to be made here.

Number one, God is more generous than we realize. He loves us and wants to give his children good gifts.

Jesus talks in Luke of a person who only drags himself out of bed because his neighbor keeps pounding on the door asking for some bread.

Far from saying that God has to be pestered consistently before he will answer, Jesus is contrasting God with the man in the story.

Jesus was saying, “If that man, though he is tired, will drag himself out of bed because his neighbor keeps pounding on the door, how much more will God gladly answer the prayers of those who come to his door?”

The second point is this: God wants us to know him better. To learn to trust him. To know his goodness towards us. And asking is part of that process.

As we ask, we start to find out more of what his will is for our lives. We start to understand from his answers just what is good and what is not so good for us.

And through the yeses and nos and the results that come from his answers, we learn to trust God’s judgment and wisdom.

But if we never ask, we’ll never learn these things.

So ask. Seek. Knock. More doors will be opened than you expect.

And more importantly, you’ll find yourself in a closer relationship with God as you understand him and his will more.

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Luke Luke 11 Matthew Matthew 6

Sermon on the Mount: A daily spiritual battle

The gospels

Every day, we are fighting a spiritual battle. That’s why Jesus instructed us to pray,

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. (Matthew 6:13)

We’re living in an evil world, in which the prince of darkness dwells. And he is hostile to us. He will do anything to bring us down from within or without.

From within, he tries to get us to fall to our own sinful nature, to give into the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.

And so we are to pray that God would lead us. That we would keep our eyes on him, following him, rather than our own sinful nature.

Everyone knows their weak points. And to some degree, it’s good to be aware of them. To avoid doing things that would bring you to the point of temptation.

But if we spend all our time focusing on what we shouldn’t be doing, chances are that the temptation will only grow.

If on the other hand, we keep our eyes on God, we’re much more likely to avoid temptation. It’s not enough to just avoid sin. We need to follow God.

But beyond temptations, Satan wants to hurt us. He will attack us, and many times he’ll use the broken people of this world to hurt us.

Other times, he’ll whisper his lies into our mind, saying things like, “You’re no good. God can’t love you. You messed up too badly this time. He can’t forgive you.”

So Jesus tells us to pray, “Deliver us from the evil one.”

We are in a war against an enemy that hates us. So let us remember the words of Peter, who said,

Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. (1 Peter 5:8)

And let us pray that God in his grace would limit his influence on our lives.

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Luke Luke 11 Matthew Matthew 6

Sermon on the Mount: Not an option

The gospels

This is one of the hardest passages in scripture for many people to deal with. Jesus teaches us to pray,

Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors…

For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. (Matthew 6:12-15)

Very strong words, and ones that Jesus will expand upon in other passages.

But let’s start with the prayer. “Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors.”

Many people pray this so often, that they don’t think about what they’re saying. But imagine praying this.

“I’m really angry at my sister. She said something really hurtful, and I can never forgive her. So Lord, please, please, in the same way that I refuse to forgive my sister, don’t forgive any of my sins either.”

That’s essentially what you’re praying when you pray the Lord’s prayer.

You’re saying, “God, inasmuch as I forgive others, forgive me. But if I don’t forgive others, please don’t forgive me.

Inasmuch as I pour out unforgiveness and ‘ungrace’ in the life of those around me, pour out your unforgiveness and ‘ungrace’ in my life.”

In God’s eyes, forgiveness is not an option. You cannot hold on to unforgiveness in your life and expect God’s grace and mercy in yours.

Why? Because God has forgiven you though you didn’t deserve it, and he paid a massive price in order to do it. It cost him the life of his Son.

You could do nothing to earn his forgiveness. You could do nothing to ‘pay back God’ for all the wrongs that you have done. And yet he extended his mercy to you.

Since God did that for us, how can we possibly withhold forgiveness and mercy from others?

To withhold forgiveness from others means that you truly don’t understand God’s forgiveness in your life. It’s to downplay your own sin and to say, “My sin wasn’t so bad; that’s why God could forgive me.”

Your sin was bad enough to separate you from God for all eternity in hell. Your sin was so bad, that it cost Jesus his life on the cross. How then can you say, “My sin wasn’t so bad?”

If you cannot forgive others their sins, then quite simply, you are taking your own sin too lightly.

No Christian who has a strong sense of just how bad his sin is, and how much God has forgiven them can possibly withhold forgiveness from another.

Two things to meditate on.

First, how seriously do you take sin in your life? Do you realize that it was and is serious enough to send you to hell?

Second, if God forgave you for such serious offenses, how can you not forgive those who have committed serious offenses against you?

Is it easy? No. Depending on the level of hurt you experienced, it’s difficult, if not impossible…in your own strength.

But the same mercy and grace that God poured in your life so that you could be forgiven is the same mercy and grace that he will pour in your life so that you can forgive others…if you’re willing to be changed.

Are you? It starts with a prayer.

Lord, I’ve been hurt, and right now, I don’t even have the desire to forgive. But you forgave me though I didn’t deserve it, and you paid a great price so that I could.

Help me to understand that more. Let it sink into my heart and my mind. And give me the desire to forgive. Change me. In Jesus’ name, amen.

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Luke Luke 11 Matthew Matthew 6

Sermon on the Mount: Praying for our needs

The gospels

One of the most amazing things to me is that the God of this whole universe cares about me, even the simple and perhaps mundane things. Yet he does. And so Jesus tells us to pray,

Give us today our daily bread. (Matthew 6:11)

Jesus will talk about this in more detail later when he talks about anxiety, but God does care that we have what we need to live. Food. Clothes. A place to stay. Of course, all of these things require money. And to have money, we need a job.

So often we worry about these things. It is, I must admit, something that I’m thinking about constantly as I interview for a new job next week.

But God doesn’t call us to worry about these things. To let these things dominate our mind. Rather, he calls us to pray about them and leave them in his hands, knowing that our heavenly Father loves us and will meet our needs.

How often do we worry about things instead of praying? (I’m speaking to myself too, by the way).

I suppose the big question we need to ask is, “Do I really think my Father really cares about me? That he really will give me all I need?”

Because if we would just realize this, all our worries would shrink and disappear.

How about you? Are you worrying about the circumstances of your life, or are you praying?

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Luke Luke 11 Matthew Matthew 6

Sermon on the Mount: His Kingdom, His Will

The gospels

I was in a quandary this morning. I was asked in for an interview for a job that would be higher paying and have better benefits than the one I have now. Whether I’ll get it or not, I don’t know.

My current company, however, seemed to be doing whatever they could to prevent me from going to the interview. They denied me a day off, for reasons that were not clear, and so I was trying to find a way to go to the interview without breaking conscience.

In the end, by God’s grace, everything worked out. With the vice-principal’s and head English teacher’s help (I work at a junior high school), I was able to convince my employer to give me a half-day off for which I’m truly grateful.

As for whether I’ll get the job or not, we’ll see.

What does this have to do with this blog? Well, we’re praying, “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

I’ll be honest. I was very stressed this morning. I felt like I was being treated “unfairly” as I mentioned several blogs ago. And as I said then, I couldn’t control my circumstances. All I could control was my attitude, and it was difficult.

But in the end, I had to say, “Lord, your will be done.”

I didn’t know what my current employer would say when I went to work this morning, and even now, I don’t know if I can even get this job I’m interviewing for.

But I’m praying, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Your will in heaven is perfectly done. I pray that it would be perfectly done on earth, and especially right now, in this situation.

If you want me to get this job, work everything out. If not, help me to accept your will.”

But another part of this prayer is “Your kingdom come.”

As important as getting this job is to me, my first priority needs to be his kingdom.

Honestly, I feel I can do more for God’s kingdom with this job. I’d have more time to do the things I think God wants me to do, to go along with the better pay and benefits.

I read further than this passage today, I will admit, because I was reading where Jesus was saying not to be anxious about this life.

And the thing that caught my eye was Matthew 6:33, where he says to seek God’s kingdom first. And if we do that, everything will fall in place.

Like I said, I don’t know how things will fall out. But as God gives me grace, my prayer is, “Your kingdom come, your will be done. In my life. And in the world around me.”

Lord, you know my stress. You know my worries. But you are Lord of all. Lord of my employer. More importantly, Lord of me.

Let your will be done. In my job situation. With my future. And let me always keep in focus your kingdom above all things. In Jesus’ name, amen.

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Luke Luke 11 Matthew 6

Sermon on the Mount: The one who is worthy of our honor

The gospels

We now hit the second part of the Lord’s prayer, or as some have correctly pointed out, what’s really the “Disciples’ prayer.”

Jesus said to pray, “Hallowed be your name.”

Although I’ve been a Christian a long time, and I kind of like the word “Hallowed” in the Lord’s prayer, it really isn’t a word we use nowadays. I doubt very many people ever use it outside the Lord’s prayer.

What does it mean? Basically it means to recognize and revere something or someone as holy. Which brings up the next question. What does “holy” mean? Essentially, it comes down to his perfection and purity in nature and character. There is no flaw in either.

This is in contrast to us who are far from perfect and far from pure in our nature and character.

So when we look at God in his perfection and purity, we are to stand in awe of that and honor him for who he is.

But to merely stand in awe is not enough. As we admire his perfection and purity, it should also stir something in our hearts that desires to be like him.

Just as a child longs to be like their father or mother, so we should have a heart that desires to be like our Heavenly Father. That strives to be like him. That desires to please him. And that groans at our imperfections and our impurities.

To pray “hallowed be your name,” leaves no room for us to live a life of sin. To say, “Well, God will forgive me for my sin, so I’ll just do my own thing.”

To pray “hallowed be your name,” if you are a true child of God, is to say, “Lord I so stand in awe of you, and I love you so much, that I want to be like you. Help me.”

And he will. God takes great delight when his children imitate him.

And though we may occasionally fall into the muck and mire of our sin (as we inevitably will), he will lift us out of our brokenness, wash us clean with the blood of his Son, take our hand, and lead us forward, teaching us and giving us the power to become more like Him.

How about you? Do you stand in awe of God, and desire to become more like him?

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Luke Luke 11 Matthew Matthew 6

Sermon on the Mount: Our Father

Father and child

I suppose I could breeze through the Lord’s prayer, but I just felt it might be good to take it a line at a time.

In these passages, Jesus teaches us how to address God. In Matthew, he says, “Our Father in heaven.”

In Luke, he simplifies it to “Father.”

Why did Jesus tell us to address God as Father?

I think the reason is because he wanted us to know it was okay to draw close to God.

It is by no means wrong to call God things like, “Sovereign Lord.” It is in fact appropriate, for that is what he is. Peter himself addressed God that way in the book of Acts. (Acts 4:24)

But to call God that does seem to put some distance between you and him. Certainly, a king and his servant have a relationship, but it almost never is a relationship where the servant can ask for the king’s attention at any time.

But a king’s child can. He has access that a mere servant doesn’t have. More than that, he has the confidence that his daddy loves him and delights in him.

Our Father is a great king. He rules in heaven and his dominion extends throughout the universe and beyond.

Yet he always has time for you because he is not simply your king; he is your Father.

The problem that many people have, however, is they can’t truly understand what it means to say God is our Father.

They can’t understand because their own earthly fathers were imperfect. They never listened. They never loved. They never cared. They never provided. They were never there. Or in some cases, were even abusive.

And we take all these negative images of our fathers here on earth and overlay them on God.

But God isn’t our earthly father. He is our Father in heaven. And all the things your earthly father isn’t or wasn’t, God is.

He cares. He listens. He loves. He provides. And he is always there.

What image do you have of God, when you hear “God is our Father?”

Hopefully you have a positive one that allows you to draw near.

But if you have a negative one, understand that God is different from the father you know.

Pray that God would heal you from the hurts your father caused you. Pray that you can forgive your father. And pray that God could reshape your view of what a father is so that you can truly understand who God is.