Instruction, Warning & Rebuke

We are in Luke chapter 11 tonight, so invite you to open your Bibles to the 11th chapter of Luke. We have been following our Lord in the later months of His ministry. As He's now engaged in intensive ministry activity in and around Jerusalem. This is within the last three to six months of His life. And of course, this time is known as a period of conflict and instruction. We've seen a heavy emphasis on both and tonight we're going to see both. We're going to see first of all instruction about prayer and then we're going to see some conflict with the religious leaders with the Pharisees. So let's begin in chapter 11 with the story, the teaching that Jesus gave, the instruction he gave about prayer. Remember that Jesus, although he is engaged in intensive ministry activity, he takes time out for prayer. And his time of prayer is so powerful that it causes his disciples to say, Lord, teach us to pray. And so Jesus gives them a model prayer. This is not a prayer that the Lord himself would pray. So the name, the Lord's Prayer is a misnomer. It's really the disciples prayer. It's a prayer designed to help the disciples know how they should pray. And it's not a prayer that was designed just to be prayed routinely by wrote memory, although it's fine to quote that as well as any scripture. But the prayer really is designed to give us categories, to give us things that we should include in our prayer lives. He's teaching how to pray. Now last time we were together a couple of weeks ago, we looked at the first four verses and the actual prayer itself. And we saw the action of prayer, what the Lord Jesus says prayer really is, what should be included in prayer. We saw six things, there are six requests here. Prayer is relationship, our father who art in heaven. Prayer is worship. How would be thy name? Prayer is submission. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Prayer is requests. Give us this day our daily bread. Prayer is confession. Forgive us our sins as we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And then sixly prayer is protection. Lead us not into temptation. So we saw those six elements. Those are the six things Jesus says to pray about. If you're wanting to develop and let's just run this rabbit trail for just a moment, if you're wanting to develop a prayer time, if you're wanting to develop a more consistent prayer life, this is not a bad outline right here. If you want to do a prayer list, form it around those six things. And then add to it things that you may know that you want to pray for. Certain requests. Give us this day our daily bread. There may be other requests for family and friends and neighbors and so forth that you would want to add there. But it's a good, good model. It's what Jesus intended it for. So that's the action of prayer. That's how we are to pray. But then Jesus talks about a couple of attitudes in prayer. And that's where we're going to really pick up tonight in verse five with the attitudes in prayer. Two of them Jesus mentions. The first one is persistence. Persistence is an attitude in prayer that we should have. Let's look at the parable that Jesus tells and then the application of it. The parable is in verses five through eight. Let's read it and then we'll talk about it a little bit. Verse five. Then he said to them, suppose one of you has a friend and he goes to him at midnight and says, friend, lend me three loaves of bread because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me and I have nothing to set before him. Then the one inside answers, don't bother me. The door is already locked and my children are with me in bed. I can't get up and give you anything. I tell you though he will not get up and give him the bread because he has his friend, yet because of the man's boldness or the word can be translated persistence, he will get up and give him as much as he needs. Okay, let's talk about this story a little bit so that we really understand what Jesus is teaching from this story. First of all it's a very common setting and there are some things that we have to understand about the culture that make the story more reasonable and make the friend sound maybe a little less harsh. You have to remember there were no 24 hour convenience stores in that day. There's no store that's open 24 hours a day. You can go and pick up a loaf of bread and so if somebody worked to come unexpectedly at night as is happening in this story the only place to go to get extra provision if you don't have any is to a neighbor and so that would be very common in that day. This man is not being out of line and going to his neighbor to ask for bread. He's not being forward in any way that would be expected. You also have to recognize that bread was basically baked every day and so you would fix enough bread for what you would expect to have for a day. A man with a larger family might have some leftover a man but with a smaller family might not have any extra and so it would be very common for a situation like this to take place. You also have to recognize and remember that there is a premium on hospitality in Eastern cultures. That way today still in in the Middle East you do not let your guests go without the best and so it would be a catastrophe for someone to show up at your home and you want to give them the best hospitality you possibly can but you don't have enough provision and so this guy's frantic. I mean he really needs help. One other factor that enters into our understanding of the story is that in most homes in those days they were very small typically wealthy people might have a larger home but the average home was pretty small and so the children would often sleep in the same room as the parents. Now if you have put any children to bed recently then you understand this guy not wanting to be interrupted you understand this guy doesn't want his kids to wake up because it may take another hour to get him all back to sleep so you can understand his hesitancy to you know get out of bed because for him to get out of bed and get up and move around is probably going to wake his kids up and so you can understand a little bit of why this is taking place. Now having said that this friend shows up and even though the friendship itself is not enough to motivate this man to help the persistence the boldness in the request is what pushes it over the edge and this man is willing to risk waking up his kids he's willing to risk the inconvenience to himself because not just because this is his friend but because his friend is persistent. Now that's the parable that's the illustration now Jesus is going to apply it let's look at how he applies it in verse 9 so I say to you ask and it will be given to you seek and you will find knock and the door will be open to you for everyone who asks receives he who seeks fines and to him who knocks the door will be opened so Jesus is saying okay here's a friend who's gonna bother his neighbor at night make it inconvenient for him the neighbor's a little bit exasperated and irritated but because of the guy's persistence you know he keeps knocking okay he'll get up and helping now the application what is the picture that we get of God from that story is Jesus saying that God is like the friend who's in bed is he comparing the two what do you think? Contrast think think it's a contrast rather than comparison what do you think is that agree disagree throw anything at John or me or anybody what do you think okay okay God never gets irritated does he God never gets rushed or pushed does he wants us to persist and will pursue that part of the application just a moment but I want to focus on the story a little bit here God never God never gets irritated or exasperated so that does seem to be a contrast doesn't it does God ever sleep you're never gonna wake God up are you you're never gonna come to God and he's he's saying would you leave me alone I'm tired I need to sleep okay that never happens with God he never sleeps right and and so that's a contrast to isn't it are there any other contrasts you can see in this story does God have any children does he have children he does doesn't he who are the children it's the children who are asking him for the bread they're in the house with him we're never outsiders coming to ask the Lord for anything we're the children with him in the house and so I think this passage is full of contrast I think John you're exactly right it is not a comparison at all Jesus is not saying God is like this man who if you knock hard enough and bother him long enough he'll finally give in and say okay I'll answer your prayer it's really a contrast what he's saying is if you can you know it may inconvenience your neighbor even though he's your friend but you will never find God that way you there's a contrast here you can never bother God but then he does go on to say there's a there's a comparison here ask and it will be given seek you will find knock the door will be open to you and by the way those are all in the original language present tenses which stress the fact that this is continuous action the the point really is here that you're to keep on asking in other words ask earnestly you're to you're to keep on knocking or seeking you're to seek energetically you're to keep on knocking it's not just knock one time in the tip to away from God because you're afraid maybe you bothered bothering we are to to ask earnestly to seek energetically to knock intently and repeatedly why why why doesn't God go ahead and answer after the first time it's not hard of hearing you see the question that you have to ask in this passage why does Jesus use this example of persistence keep on keep on keep on and you'll get your answer why does God delay that's the real issue why does God delay answers to prayer why does why does Jesus say you need to ask earnestly you need to seek energetically you need to keep on knocking want you to depend on him okay yeah I think that could that can be one reason why God delays are we coming to God as just kind of sugar daddy whatever we ask we get or does he want us to really learn to have faith in him trust him okay you have on to something there Jerry any other reasons why you think God would delay and we would need to keep on asking keep on seeking keep on knocking they teach us to be patient okay yeah good okay exactly just because we're asking doesn't mean it's the right time so God may delay because it's not time for the answer yet and and God may want us to develop patience you know sometimes he's answered it but we don't recognize it yet yeah sometimes the answer doesn't look like what we were asking for does it and so that may be one reason why we don't recognize the answer any other reasons you can think of why God would delay and encourage us to keep on keep on seeking asking knocking form of spiritually growing up okay all right wants to know the intent of our heart yeah are we really serious about this you know or is there an impure intent sometimes when when God delays and we keep asking you ever had this happened to you where you begin to become convinced that maybe your request is wrong or maybe it's not pure maybe it's it's got some impure motives and the very delay and asking process serves to purify to hone your request fine tune your request and God is doing a work in our hearts which really goes back to what Jerry said earlier which is really leading us to depend on him more and develop us spiritually and as Aubrey said to grow us because sometimes the very act of God delaying his answer causes us to really examine our heart our motives our requests and we end up growing more because of that I mean and I'm sure we've just touched with with all of your good suggestions just touched on the surface of the many reasons why God and his wisdom sometimes sees fit to delay answers to prayer so that he encourages us not to give up to keep on asking keep on seeking keep on knocking and you will receive you will find the door will be opened doesn't mean you will always get exactly what you're asking for but it does mean God will answer your prayer and I've said this before we will we will come to understand that God answers all of our prayers when we finally admit the fact that no is an answer it is an answer and God does answer all of our prayers so you know God may at times delay and then say no and then sometimes the answer is not ready for us my life is not started praying for a God who like he wasn't available when I said okay I have been working with her for a long time so to bring through that you know can I think something to show that he really is the one in control you know they hate my happens and you walk away and you really say that it's him but it's his for sure yeah I think a lot of times that's his way you know you ask for it you ask this is what you will want you just put your actions on that you know not going to door so they don't go away and then something shows up before it you yeah okay good and one one reason that we've kind of hinted at and hit all around it and haven't really come out and said it sometimes God delays answers because they're sin in our lives you remember when these relights were going into the land of Israel and they took the city of Jericho which remember Aiken had violated God's ban on the things in Jericho because the first fruits of the land the first results of the spoils from the battle were to be given to God and and they went up to the next battle to the city of I and all confident they would take it I mean God promised them the land the first battle was successful and they're defeated miserably and Joshua in Joshua chapter 7 is crying out to God why what's happened and God remember what God told him they're sin in the camp get up off your face Joshua quit praying don't pray until you deal with the sin and so sometimes God's delays may be because they're sin in our hearts and lies that we need to deal with before we can even ask the request in a way that God will answer so lots of reasons why God delays so there are lots of reasons why God says persistence is a key attitude in prayer to keep asking keep seeking keep knocking don't give up and the real question we need to ask ourselves is is this are we this persistent and earnest about prayer or do we knock one time and then quietly tip to a way are we this persistent in our prayer and it's not just you know banging the door down to get God to respond that's not the issue the issue is letting God accomplish all that he wants to accomplish in that time of waiting for the answer and not giving up and we've seen a number of things that God may be seeking to accomplish in that time prayer is not overcoming God's resistance that's not the point of the story prayer is not banging on the door until finally he takes notice and you know we'll do something for me that prayer is not overcoming God's resistance prayer is laying hold of his highest willingness because God wants to meet our needs but there are any number of reasons why he may not do so at the first request so keep on asking keep on seeking keep on knocking the the attitude of persistence the second attitude that Jesus deals with is the attitude of of confidence attitude of confidence when we come to our father we can have confidence that he will give us what is best notice again a story that Jesus tells not a story but an illustration that Jesus gives verse 11 which of you fathers if your son asks for bread will give him a stone or if he asks for a fish will give him a snake instead or if he asks for an egg will give him a scorpion okay here here is a illustration of Jesus of children asking for something beneficial helpful food which of you fathers if your child asks for food will give something that would be harmful rather than a piece of bread you give him a stone and you laugh as they bite into it and their tooth cracks you know okay who would do that what kind of father would do that what kind of father if if a son is asking for a fish something to to eat would give him a snake that could harm him or or might be deceptively disguised as a fish who would do that or if he asks for an egg give him a scorpion which is a poisonous animal why why would you no father would ever do that okay now here's the point and this is what gives us confidence in coming to our father if you then verse 13 though you are evil okay though though we have a sinful nature though we do wrong things but if you even though you are evil know how to give good gifts to your children nobody in the right mind would do that to a child how much more will your father and heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him the point is this if sinful people love their children enough not to harm them but to to give them what is best for them certainly our father who is holy who never has had a sinful thought inclination motive or anything simple certainly our father will give us the best of gifts and some have some have agonized over the idea that he says he'll give us the Holy Spirit is let me ask you how many times do we get the Holy Spirit once when that salvation what do we call that that giving the Holy Spirit at salvation what do we call it the gift of the Spirit okay I'm thinking also something else I heard ceiling ceiling is tied to it indwelling indwelling is what we call that the Holy Spirit comes to live in us or to to maintain an abiding presence with us at all times and Jesus said in John chapter 14 when he comes he will abide with you forever he doesn't come and go come and go come and go he's with us forever so Jesus obviously here is not saying that you have to ask for the Holy Spirit's presence and the and the father will give it to you time and time and time again we get the Holy Spirit one time it's indwelling takes place at the moment of salvation there's an interesting parallel passage to this in in Matthew chapter seven it's the same incident or same story same prayer being taught and there it says how your father will give you good gifts and the idea is the father gives us what is best for us all of his gifts including the the help the power the enablement the guidance of the Holy Spirit it's not like the Holy Spirit leaves us and we have to get him again it's that he's always with us but the gift of the Holy Spirit is sometimes referred to in the sense of a fresh enablement a fresh sense of his presence his power his leading and it's in that sense here that he gives us the Holy Spirit and answer to prayer he gives us a fresh sense of that enablement or power or guidance or whatever we need from the Spirit at the time the the Spirit is his best gift and so he gives us his good gifts and that includes the Holy Spirit okay prayer as Jesus taught it should be prayed with persistence allowing God to delay his answer and do the work in us he wants to do while we're waiting and prayer should also be prayed with confidence that we have a father who knows what we need and will give us his good gifts okay questions comments on on the disciples prayer all right ready to move on then let's move into verse 14 the next scene is what we're going to call a warning about religion Jesus gives a warning about religion and here is going to be conflict okay Jesus is going to have some conflict with the religious leaders again which is going to lead to some of the sharpest statements Jesus will ever make in the gospels in the rest of this chapter what we're going to see is Jesus driving out of demon and the Pharisees attribute that to the power of Satan does that sound familiar haven't we seen that before I mean I know this is what study 56 or something so it's been a while but we saw this before didn't we in Jesus ministry and it's these kinds of things in the gospels that sometimes lead people to think oh this is the same same thing that happened in Matthew 12 but it's not in Matthew 12 Jesus was in his great Galilee in ministry and so he was up north in Galilee and the Pharisees accused him of doing a miracle in the power of Satan and but now this is a whole different time and setting it's later in his ministry and he's in Judea so do you see what's happening here you see what the Pharisees are doing they tried this accusation with one crowd up in Galilee now they're going to try it on their home turf this is their home turf this is this is their territory in Jerusalem and around Judea and this is a different crowd and so they're going to bring this up again this is the second time they have specifically accused him of this and it just shows their venom their hatred toward him so let's see let's see what happens verse 14 Jesus was driving out of demon that was mute when the demon left the man who had been mute spoke and the crowd was amazed now what what Jesus is going to warn them of here after this miracle is the danger of choosing the wrong side okay the danger of choosing the wrong side but let's look at the miracle first here's a man who is mute because he is possessed with a demon that has hindered him from speaking if you would just imagine for a moment what that would be like can you can you imagine what it would be like not to be able to speak not to be able to express the deepest desires of your heart to anybody not to be able to warn a child of danger not to be able to express anything to anyone just imagine what this man had gone through not even to be able to cry out to Jesus but Jesus heard the cry of his heart didn't he and I think Jesus when he saw people like this just had compassion for what they were going through and obviously Jesus is able to see that this particular person's malady is caused by demon possession and so Jesus casts the demon out and there's tremendous relief and joy you can imagine that says the crowd was amazed and that isn't until the the sharp tongues of the Pharisees chime in and verse 15 notice what happens but some of them said by B. L's above remember we saw that before that's Lord of the Flies a name that was given to the main Phoenician God bail and was often used in the culture of that day of Satan so they're basically saying by Satan the prince of demons he is driving out demons so the accusation is made and we'll see later on it's it's by the Pharisees because Jesus is going to address the Pharisees a little bit later on the the accusation is made okay you're doing a miracle and that we can't deny the crowd is amazed the Pharisees see some of their follow were slipping away possibly oh they're going to gravitate back to Jesus again we got to stop that and so they pull this this old trick out of the hat they used up in Galilee will will this try to convince them that he's doing it by the power of Satan and so they accuse him of doing his miracles by the power of Satan verse 16 others testing by asking for a sign from heaven and that's exactly what they had done before in Matthew 12 and they're not asking for a run of the mill miracle remember we looked at it before in Matthew 16 also we saw when they were asking for a sign they were asking for a sign from heaven they were asking for something spectacular like Elijah did call down fire from heaven something we can see something we can you know say this is a real sign that's what we're asking for make the sun go dark you know something like that some kind of sign shows that from heaven well Jesus response is classic I mean the way Jesus turns them into pretzels it's just unbelievably not unbelievably for Jesus but it's just for us it's just a marvel I you look at what he does and how he answers them and you just marvel at how his infinite wisdom displays itself and you know the Pharisees are in deep trouble when they try to match with Jesus verse 17 Jesus verse 17 and 18 is going to say your accusation is illogical that makes sense notice what he says he knew their thoughts and said to them any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined and a house divided against itself will fall if Satan is divided against himself how can his kingdom stand I say this because you claim that I drive out demons by BL's above so your your accusation is illogical why would Satan fight against himself why would Satan try to destroy his own kingdom that doesn't make sense and so he's got him under heels and then he answers a second time and he says your accusation is not only illogical it's self incriminating notice verse 19 he says now if I drive out demons by BL's above by whom do your followers drive them out so then they will be your judges you see there were there were people in that day who claimed to have the power to cast out demons some who evidently did do that remember even the Cypals one time said we saw someone casting out of demons not one of us and we rebuked him so there were people that that God gave the ability to do that and he said some of them are your followers and you don't claim that that's done by satanic power and do you see the beauty of what Jesus is doing here what what's Jesus doing what's he turning on them against them their own argument they're basically trying to turn Jesus followers against him and he's turning their followers against them or pitting them against each other see they're trying to discredit Jesus among his followers and Jesus basically is saying okay you've got followers who cast out demons do they do it by the power of BL's above oh wait a second is he's backing them into a corner there's no response they can give to that if they say well no they don't do it by the power of BL's above then they're admitting that he doesn't either if they say yeah they do then he's pitting them against their own followers I mean he just trapped them the beauty of Jesus argument is just amazing so your your argument is illogical your argument is self incriminating and then verses 21 and 22 your argument actually is an omission of my power and notice how he says this verse 21 when a strong man fully armed guards his own house his possessions are safe but when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him he takes away the armor in which the man trusted and divides up the spoils now the idea is the only way a man is going to break into someone else's house if that man is armed and protecting his house is if he's stronger and can disarm him you see what Jesus is saying the only way I can invade Satan's territory and cast out his demons is if I am stronger than him and I disarm him am I doing it by his power no actually what you're saying uh shows that I am powerful more powerful than Satan and I'm not doing it by his power I'm actually defeating him so Jesus just blows them away with his answer and notice how he summarizes it verse 20 we skipped verse 20 here's the alternative if Jesus is not doing this by the power of Satan here's the alternative verse 20 but if I drive out demons by the finger of God then the kingdom of God has come to you what do you think Jesus meant when he said if I drive out demons by the finger of God that's an interesting expression isn't it what do you think he means with that his power okay he does have power okay proving that he's the son of God if he's casting out demons okay I really think yeah I think Steve you're right I think that's the idea of the finger of God is it's not like God is a body builder who's coming in with all his power and might and bowling people over and it takes that for him to do what he needs to do it's not even the arm of the Lord it's not even the hand of God all it takes is a finger the finger of God interestingly enough that is an expression that is used several times in the Bible to highlight not only God's power but the ease with which he demonstrates his power we've got a few verses on the screen for you that that give you that Psalm 8 3 when I consider your heavens the work of your fingers the moon and the stars which you've set in place the psalmist is using this figure of speech to demonstrate the awesomeness of God's power it's not like it took oh God could do to get the stars out there oh you had to do finger that's it the work of your fingers the universe is the work of God's fingers that's that's all it took another passage Exodus 819 the plagues the magicians said to Pharaoh this is the finger of God okay in one of the plagues which they are awestruck by they themselves use an expression which indicates this is power beyond what we have ever seen or experienced this is the finger of God okay one other passage Exodus 31 18 the giving of the law when the Lord finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai he gave him two tablets of the covenant law the tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God and here again is God's finger giving his law the idea is of awesome power power to create but it only takes his finger to give his law it only takes his finger to throw plagues on the Egypt that magicians can't match it only takes his finger and so Jesus picks up on that Old Testament expression and he says if I'm doing these miracles driving out demons by the finger of God it's an expression in the Old Testament which indicates the awesome power of God that with such ease he can create the universe with his finger if I'm driving out these demons by the finger of God if I'm in other words if I possess that same awesome power that that Israel saw in the plagues that the Psalmist was recognizing in creation if I'm demonstrating that same awesome power then what's the conclusion kingdom of God is here okay I am here to set up God's kingdom I am the Messiah okay that's an amazing answer and basically Jesus says you're on one side of the other there's a clear cut distinction here Jerry okay yeah yeah I began writing in the sand didn't I huh with this finger yeah and again you know we talked about when we were in that story that possibly Jesus was writing down her sin because every every indictment had to be written and inscribed and then possibly the second time writing theirs if you're without sin cast first stone and he starts writing out theirs and they turn out leave but again that that finger yeah that's an interesting parallel yeah okay our time is just about up so let me just let me just basically say this Jesus draws it to a conclusion in verse 23 when he says he who is not with me is against me he who does not gather with me scatters now you see what Jesus is doing he's making sure that people understand here's the line the sides are clearly distinguished okay one side says I'm doing it by the power of Satan one side says I'm doing this by the finger of God there's no in between you are either with me you either recognize I am God that I have the same power that that put the world into place and the universe was created I have that same power or you're with them who believe I do this by the power of Satan you're not with me you're against me so Jesus is making sure you know the Pharisees are trying to attack him Jesus is basically turning the crowd to see okay you got to make a choice you're with them or you with me and he's making sure the line is clearly drawn between the two so what Jesus basically is doing is saying you can be religious and be in danger of choosing the wrong side okay and be on the side that does not have the power of the finger of God on it you you can be religious like Pharisees were be on the wrong side and that's a danger of religion these were religious men religious leaders but Jesus is saying very clearly there are two sides here and they're on the wrong side this side has the power of God the finger of God they're on the wrong side so they will accuse him but he'll end up showing there in the wrong and he'll give three other warnings and we'll see those next week okay the spout for prayer father we amarveled our Lord again what a joy it is Lord take a look at his life in the gospels one an amazing thing it is to see how he made the issues so clear he drew the lines caused people to see where they were thank you father that we can come to you in prayer and that we're encouraged to come persistently and confidently thank you that we can know that if we are in Christ we are on your side father I pray that there would be no one here tonight that would be deceived because they're religious into thinking that they're okay because it is possible to be religious and be on the wrong side help us to learn from what we see our Savior teaching and warning it's in his name we pray amen