Luke 11 (Part 2) :14-54 • Confronting Unbelief

we're in Luke chapter 11 so go ahead and open your Bible or turn your device on to that chapter Luke chapter 11 so we'll get into the word here today I sometimes I sometimes raise some eyebrows when I'm talking to people who don't really know the Lord and I tell them that I'm not a very religious person and they're kind of like I thought you were a pastor yeah I am but I'm not a very religious person at least not from the standpoint that religion is defined as what Jesus was constantly having to kind of correct you know what we have here in the latter part of Luke chapter 11 is Jesus addressing himself to the Jewish religious leaders who had gotten caught up in a form of traditional ceremonial ritual religious practice that lacked any kind of meaning any kind of genuineness and they were just they were just locked into this system that was meaningless and hypocritical and so Jesus called them on it in this passage we're gonna be beginning here in verse 14 and we'll read through the end of the chapter it's quite a bunch of text but I think we'll get through it it says now he was casting out a demon that was mute and when the demon had gone out the mute man spoke and the people marveled but some of them said while he cast out demons by Beelzebul the Prince of demons while others to test him kept seeking from him a sign from heaven but he knowing their thoughts said to them every Kingdom divided against itself is laid waste and a house and excuse me and a divided household falls and if Satan also is divided against himself how will his kingdom stand for you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul and if I cast out demons by Beelzebul by whom - your sons cast them out therefore they will be your judges but if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons then the kingdom of God has come upon you when a strong man fully armed guards his own palace his goods are safe but when one stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil whoever is not with me is against me and whoever does not gather with me scatters when the unclean spirit has gone out of a person it passes through waterless places seeking rest and finding none it says I will return to my house from which I came and when it comes it finds the house swept clean and put in order then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself and they enter and dwell there and the last state of that person is worse than the first and as he said these things a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said blessed is the woman excuse me the womb that bore you and the breasts at which you nursed but he said blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it when the crowds were increasing he began to say this generation is an evil generation it seeks for a sign but no sign will be given it given to it except the sign of Jonah for as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh and Nineveh so will the Son of Man be to this generation the Queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon and behold someone greater than Solomon is here the men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it for they repented at the preaching of Jonah and behold something greater than Jonah is here no one after lighting a lamp puts it under us in a cellar or under a basket but on a stand so that those who enter may see the light your eye is the lamp of your body when your eyes healthy your whole body is full of light but when it is bad your body is full of darkness therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness if then your whole body is full of having no part dark it will be holy bright as when a lamp with its rays gives you light while Jesus was speaking a Pharisee asked him to dine with him so that he went in and reclined at the table the Pharisees were astonished to see that he did not first wash before dinner and the Lord said to him now you Pharisees Clint cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish but inside you're full of greed and wickedness you fools did not he who made the outside make the inside also but give as alms those things that are within and behold everything is cleaned for you but woe to you Pharisees for you tithe mint Andrew and every herb and neglect justice and the love of God these you ought to have done without neglecting the others woe to you Pharisees for you love the best seat in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces woe to you for you are like unmarked graves and people walk over them without knowing it one of the lawyers answer him teacher in saying these things you insult us also and he said woe to you lawyers also for you load people with burdens hard to bear and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers woe to you for you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed so you are witnesses and you consent to the deeds of your fathers for they killed them and you build their tombs therefore also the wisdom of God said I will send them prophets and apostles some of whom they will kill and persecute so that the blood of all the prophets shed from the foundation of the world may be charged against this generation from the blood of abel to the blood of zechariah who perished between the altar and the sanctuary yes i tell you it will be required of this generation woe to you lawyers for you have taken away the key of knowledge you did not enter yourselves and you hinder those who were entering as he went away from there the scribes and the Pharisees began to press him hard and to provoke him to speak about many things lying in wait for him to catch him in something he might say stop there let's pray Heavenly Father as we get into your word this morning we pray that you would open our hearts to hear your voice because that's the voice we desire to hear for you are the teacher the one who is above all speak in this place Lord God and direct our hearts to your voice we ask it in Jesus name Amen this whole passage this whole remainder of the chapter of Luke here 11 is about the religious leaders rejecting Jesus even though he came and showed them many signs in fact it's interesting Luke would mention this first sign because you'll notice that he very significantly mentions the fact that there was a man who was mute and and and he specifically says he had a mute spirit and so in other words this demonic spirit that invested this man could not speak and therefore the man could not speak and it says though that the people marveled and they were amazed when Jesus cast out the demon why so amazed well you have to understand that the Jews had a belief that if you couldn't get the demon to say its name you wouldn't have the ability to cast it out so when they exercised demons and they did from time to time they would try to get the demon to say its name if they did then they believed that they would have authority over that demon to cast it out of the person well you can imagine the unfortunate circumstances of someone who is invested with a mute spirit how do you get a mute spirit to say its name it can't talk so in the Jews reasoned then anybody with a mute spirit was beyond hope because there was no way you could get the demon to say its name therefore you couldn't cast it out there for the person would be forever lost in this you know abyss of demonic possession and so Jesus doesn't ask that this the spirit for its name he just simply casts it out of the person and the man starts talking and the people are amazed why because Jesus what they couldn't do so it's it's it's an interesting passage from the standpoint that Jesus has once again proven himself in such a way to the people as what should have gotten their attention and yet these religious leaders rather than saying wow that's amazing they just come up with an excuse as to how Jesus could do it they said no I we know what's going on he's just in cahoots with the devil this guy is casting out demons by the power of Satan that's what's going on and of course then Jesus goes on to begin to speak to the the ridiculousness I suppose and the illogic of that sort of a statement in verse 17 you'll notice that he begins to lay down this principle that says every Kingdom divided against itself and that includes every household which is a good thing to remember people who are married but every Kingdom or household or Nation whatever cannot stand if it is being divided against itself in other words if there's fighting going on on the inside and and whether it's a husband and wife or whether it's a king who's literally coming against his own army right kind of makes me think about the Democrats and the Republicans of the United States of America and you kind of wonder how long we're gonna last but the point is there's a principle here that has been laid down then every Kingdom divided against itself cannot stand and so Jesus is basically saying if Satan is divided against himself in other words if he's that cross differences with his purpose you know then then then his kingdom is doomed right and then he asked them a question he says well and by the way if I'm casting out Satan by Satan if I'm casting out his demons by his power then through whom do your sons cast out demons and obviously he's bringing out the fact or exposing I guess I should say the inconsistency of their argument because they have never once breathed a word about the fact that their own people were casting out demons by the power of Satan it was just because they didn't like Jesus and and so you know he basically then makes this statement in verse 20 if you look with me again there he says but if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons then the kingdom of God has come upon you and what he's saying is I've shown you how yours your comment is so stupid to think that I could be see casting out demons by the power of Satan and I've shown you how in consistence it is so I've really only left you with one conclusion and that is that you just this man who stands before you now able to speak who was unable before and who is under demonic possession he has now been set free by the power of God and if in fact he has been set free by the power of God then the kingdom of God is here but that is precisely what they refused to admit and that's really what this latter part of Luke chapter 11 is all about they're stubborn refusal to simply accept the fact that the kingdom of God was among them in the person of Jesus and that's why Jesus goes on in verse 21 to 22 to make another powerful statement he says when a strongman is you know who's fully armed he's guarding his stuff his stuff is safe as long as he's guarding it except there's only one threat right what's that one threat somebody bigger and stronger comes along right and says he's got a bigger gun or a bigger army or a bigger bomb or whatever he's got it's bigger and he's stronger and he says give me your stuff well the guy who was guarding his stuff has to say well you're bigger you're stronger all right and he allows him you know his enemy to come and take whatever he wants all right what's Jesus saying he's saying Satan has a kingdom and Satan rather than being across purposes with his kingdom he wants very much to continue to steal kill and destroy and he's not going to let anybody get in and take his stuff unless they're strong I present to you exhibit a this man who is standing right next to you today who has been set free from demonic possession and I submit to you that it is because I am stronger that I am able to go in and pummel the enemy and plunder his goods here's a man who was in the enemy's camp and in the enemy's chains and he is now free I submit to you that I was able to set him free because I am stronger than the enemy that's the point of what he's saying and then he goes on to make a very important statement in verse 23 look what it says in your Bible whoever is not with me is against me and whoever does not gather with me scatters and this is the Lord's way of saying there is no neutrality when it comes to the person of Jesus Christ there's no neutrality there's no there's no situation where it's kind of like Jesus is okay you know I kind of like him he's all right I'm not really sure he's exactly who he says he is but you know I don't know how many of you guys have read the masterful book by CS Lewis called mere christianity but he brings out an argument in that book about how ridiculous it is for somebody to say I appreciate the teachings that Jesus brought but I don't believe that he is who he said he was he said you know because there have been people down through history who have said that they've said you know hey Jesus was a great moral teacher he wasn't God in human flesh but he was a great moral teacher there was only one problem with that Jesus claimed to be God in human flesh so if he isn't who he said he was then Jesus is not a great moral teacher you with me but you know why cuz great moral teachers don't lie Jesus clearly said he you know and we're gonna do this in the I am study that that both the women and the men are gonna be doing on Friday but Jesus clearly declared himself to be God in human flesh if that wasn't true he was either a deceiver or he was himself deceived or he was who he said he is right and so there's no neutrality he doesn't leave you with the option of saying he's kind of a good guy you know no he's like God or he's nobody and nothing and so that's why Jesus says here whoever is not with me is against me there is not a neutral stance and then Jesus goes on to kind of give a picture of what happens to somebody when they fall into that that attempt to be neutral about him he begins to tell this story and he says when an unclean spirit comes out of a person for whatever reason he says that it passes through waterless places and whoa and we don't even know what that means this is a spiritual reference about something we're not even sure about and he says that the spirit seeks rest but it doesn't find it and so then it basically says I'm gonna go back and take up residence where I was before which tells us that demonic spirits want very much to have a host they want to live in some kind of a host because somehow that it does something for them and and and then it says in verse 25 that when the spirit comes back to the house which is the person that it previously inhabited it finds that person or you should say the inside of that person swept and put in order because the demon hasn't been there and demons bring disorder right of every you know flavor but it finds things put in order but so the demon finds it difficult to go in and enter in there because things have been put in order so it says I'm gonna go find seven other demons even nastier than me and we're gonna go in and we're gonna inhabit that person and Jesus says that the person ends up being worst off then worse than they were at first and this is why there's no neutrality in the kingdom of God related to Jesus is because Satan tolerates no neutrality either see the the person who had the demon got rid of the demon however it happened but they didn't make a decision for Christ so the house was put in order yeah but empty it was empty the fact of the matter is you see when you and I come to know Christ as Savior the Bible says he gives his Holy Spirit to live inside of us his spirit literally comes to take up residence in us that's not an empty house that's a full house right and so if Satan comes along and finds an empty house he's gonna you know he's gonna or one of his demons he's gonna figure you know hey this is this is an easy entrance sort of a thing and by the way this is another reason why it is impossible for a born-again believer to be invested with a demon I don't care what you've heard I don't care what you've read I don't even care what you've experienced because experience does not Trump the Word of God there is no evidence in the Bible to suggest that believers can be invested with the demonic spirit and there's one significant reason why you are already occupied with the Holy Spirit of God you think a demon was to take up residence in you with God you think he wants to come in and live with God inside of you what a ridiculous idea listen when Jesus used to go around during his public ministry he'd confronted demoniac and those people that the demoniac would go just freak out and go ballistic you know start just screaming and yelling and falling at their feet as demons don't want to be around God they don't like him very much okay do you understand people that the very spirit of Jesus Christ now lives in you because you've put your faith in his finished work on the cross he now lives in you he's taken up residence in you if you're a believer Satan doesn't want any part of that story so you know there is nothing in the New Testament that would suggest that a believer can be invested with a demonic spirit nothing can Satan harass you you betcha can he make life miserable for you absolutely and well you not a chance you're already indwelt all right so I know there are a bunch of books out there today and all these other things telling people Christians how to get rid of the demons that are living inside of you well I'm just here to tell you it ain't true so suddenly all this is going on and then this woman speaks up there's this lady that just starts talking and she yells out and she said blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you and and so forth and it is this really an interesting statement I find it very interesting that you know Jesus he's still in the midst of his public ministry he hasn't even gone to the cross yet died for our sins and people are already trying to magnify his mother and this has been going on for a long time and of course you guys know that you know Roman Catholicism has done the biggest job and I'm not here to throw stones at Roman Catholicism some of you have come out of Roman Catholicism some of you were influenced by it in many ways shapes and forms and I it's fine you want to talk after the service I'll talk to you but this whole idea of magnifying Mary this has been going on a long long time and I want you to hear what this woman says and I want you to hear what Jesus says in response because she said blessed is the woman no she's talking about Mary whether she knows married by name or not she says blessed is the woman and I would respond by saying yeah Mary was pretty incredibly blessed what an amazing woman I'm looking forward to talking to her someday but I want you to notice how Jesus responds to this individual in verse 28 look in your Bible he says blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it which is to mean obey it or to do it so do you hear what Jesus is saying when he says blessed rather he's saying blessed more there is a greater blessing upon those who just hear the word of God and keep it so let's not be magnifying human vessels here right it's not about magnifying lifting up one another it's about focusing our attention on God his word and walking in obedience to that word I had somebody come up to me after first service and asked if I thought that Mary was grieved by all of the worship that has gone on toward her and I said I would have to say yes if she's aware of it I would say she's probably pretty grieved I mean Mary is is right now before the throne of God like all the other saints who died by faith and she knows that there's no sharing of God's glory she has seen the throne of her creator and she knows there's no there's no sharing of that glory and honor and yet people continue to extend it to her as the mother you know of Jesus but blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it now Jesus is going to now address those people who were asking for a sign look at verse 29 it tells us that that as the people and the crowds were increasing Jesus began to speak to them about how evil it is of that generation to actually seek a sign and he tells them he says you know no sign is going to be given to you except the sign of Jonah he doesn't explain what the sign of Jonah is here but elsewhere in Matthew's Gospel account we actually learned what the sign of Jonah is let me put it on the screen for you from Matthew chapter 12 is this for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth that's the sign of Jonah do you know what he's basically saying the people are going Jesus just do something amazing in and we want to watch you and then we'll believe and Jesus is basically saying first of all that's a very wicked thing to desire that why he'd been spending the entirety of his public ministry doing miracles miracles were not in short supply here was a man standing right there who once had a demon and now he doesn't and they're already making excuses for how that happened oh he's just in league with the enemy you see the point is if you don't want to believe it doesn't matter what miracles you see you're gonna find a way to explain them away miracles don't change hearts you can't you can't pray oh god please do a miracle for my dad so he comes to know you so I'm gonna make any difference he's gonna be if his heart is hard he's gonna find a way to explain it away and Jesus said you know what I will do one sign for you not what you're looking for but I will give you a sign it'll I'm gonna call it the sign of Jonah just as Jonah was three days in the in the in the belly of the fish the Son of Man is going to be three days in the in the heart of the earth and and and yeah then I will rise again and you will know it and you still won't believe it yeah I'll give you a sign you're not gonna believe that what did they do about the resurrection his disciples came in the night and took the body the guards the guards were asleep so they told us that his disciples came and took his body are you kidding me if they were asleep how did they know that a dumbest argument low work and if somebody brought that up in a court of law they'd throw them out on their ear I have some testimony to give I was sleeping but could I still give my testimony no I mean it's just about as dumb as you can imagine so anyway you know if somebody doesn't want to believe so Jesus emphasized the the the the lack of willingness to simply respond to who he is in the coming verses look at verse 31 and following he first brings up the Queen of the South he says the Queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation condemn it for they came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon and behold someone something greater than Solomon is here and then he brings up the example of the men of Nineveh the men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it for they were at the preaching of Jonah and behold something greater than Jonah is here alright interesting to two examples and Gentiles he says first of all the the Queen of the South which you may know from your Old Testament reading as the queen of sheba she traveled the long distance to go hear Solomon because she wanted to hear his wisdom she heard about it she wanted to go hear it for herself and then he brings up the men of Nineveh you guys understand who the Ninevites were Nineveh was the capital city of Assyria and they were hated by the Jews because the Assyrians are the army that came in originally and literally obliterated the Northern Kingdom of Israel and they would have made their way down into the southern kingdom of Judah and done the same had the Babylonians not risen to power and obliterated the Ninevites or the Assyrians but so Nineveh was was a hated people of the Jews and so Jesus is saying the queen of the south or the queen of sheba a Gentile and the men of Nineveh hated Gentiles are going to rise up and they're going to condemn you at the last day because they responded with no miracles Solomon didn't do any miracles he just simply spoke wisdom and the Queen of Sheba was so impressed she got her entire group together and travelled over a long distance just to hear Solomon and and the men of Nineveh the people of Nineveh they responded to the preaching of Jonah which is crazy because you know his message was there was no grace or mercy in it it was a it was a message of condemnation Jonah got into Nineveh and he didn't want to be there but he started walking through the Nineveh and he started basically saying you guys are dog meat it's over for you God's gonna nuke this place in a very short period of time so just want to let you know that goodbye and he just kind of walked out of thing he didn't do any miracles there was no sign from heaven there was no fire there was no booming voice from the heavenlies he just simply said you guys are dead good news huh yeah and you know what the people did they repented from the King on down they repented not one single miracle and they repented at Jonah Jonah must have been a mess he'd been just been three days in the you know fish can you imagine what he looked like we tend to look at people when they don't look very good and we kind and they say something stupid like the world is coming to an end and we go yes all right fine hey you know we and it's just easy to just brush him off isn't it and you got imagine what Jonah probably looked like he was probably a rack and they repented do you see why Jesus said these Gentiles who responded with no miracles are gonna rise up at the last day and they're gonna condemn you because not only did you see miracles but God in human flesh walked among you and you didn't recognize him and yet they're sitting here and telling Jesus just do a miracle to prove you you are who you say you are and then he says this verse 33 no one who is lighting a lamp you know hides it puts it in the basement or under a basket or something like that and this is kind of an enigmatic statement let me explain it to you he says no when you light a lamp you put it in a place where people are gonna see the light and then he makes this weird kind of a statement in verse 34 saying that an eye your eye is the lamp of your body and when it's healthy it lets the light in but when it's bad it doesn't let the light in and you end up being full of darkness so what's Jesus saying with those verses here well he's continuing to respond to the people who say that he's in cahoots with the enemy that's the context of this whole passage and he's basically saying you think that that that what I'm bringing is darkness you've accused me of being part of the enemy and bringing darkness into you but here's what's really going on I'm bringing light I'm bringing the light of God to you but you can't see it because your eyes are dark and you refuse to look upon the and because of that your whole life is full of darkness because you're just unwilling to see the light the light of God's Word the light of God's glory the the the light that he he shines for all of us to open our hearts to and that's why he said when your eye is bad your body is full of darkness and what your life is just consumed in darkness because you're just unwilling to see it you know that's why Christians we ought to be always praying Lord just opened my eyes to see the light of your presence open my eyes to see the light of your word open my eyes I want to see I want to see I want to see give me light to see give me eyes to be open to see all that you are and all that you're doing and all that you have said to us I don't want to miss out I don't want to close my eyes and say no I don't want to look at that because that's gonna only bring darkness into my life and I don't I don't want that in my life and then in the the final verses Jesus begins to speak here directly to the Pharisees and this section includes six woes and it begins with Jesus getting an invitation from a Pharisee to go to his home and have dinner and the first thing that happened you got to understand the Pharisees used to engage in these elaborate hand-washing traditions and and they believed that if you didn't wash your hands just so then if you ate because they didn't used utensils and those you know I just picked it up and dished it dipped it in the stuff and ate it and that's the way they ate their meals so they believed that if you didn't wash your hands just so you would become unclean right and so this Pharisee notices that Jesus doesn't engage in these elaborate pharisaical hand-washing traditions and he's just you know amazed at this and so in verse 39 Jesus begins to speak and the Lord says to him now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish but inside you're full of greed and wickedness you fools did not he who made the outside make the inside also and this is Jesus talking to a legalist because this is what legalism does it's concerned about the outside its how I look to my fellow man do I look holy do I look righteous you know that's the way I want to appear forget how I what's going on the inside I'm not gonna talk about my heart because you can't see my heart right God can but we're just gonna kind of put that in on the backburner I just want to be concerned with the way you see well that was the life of the Pharisees it was all about externals how do I look do I look good do I look holy and Jesus confronts and he says you know you guys are just masters at cleaning the outside of the the dish if as it were but inside it's gross have you ever gotten a like a glass at a restaurant and there was still like lemonade pulp or something on the inside and we're like yuck and what do you do do you just go okay no problem no you send it back don't you you pick it up you know you say here you need to put this through the washer again it didn't come clean all the way I mean we consider it a really gross thing if like a plate or a cup or something like that has some goopy on the inside so and Jesus is telling these guys this is what you're doing because you know you got to care about the inside and he says didn't the God who make the outside make the inside too why are you not concerned about the inside well it's because they didn't care about God and so he begins to level these six woes at them verse 42 is the first one woe to you Pharisees he says for you tithe you mint and ruin and herbs I'm gonna give you I'm gonna give God ten percent of my mint or you know he says but you've neglected love of God why are you doing these duties and you're neglecting the love of God and so the first statement kind of covers the essence of what I consider to be empty religious observance you know we do it because it's tradition and we're supposed to do it and you know that's what religion does it it causes people to become fixated on all of the little details of what they consider to be their religious duty all the while ignoring you know what's really important which is how is my heart before God how's my heart doing forget about the externals how's my heart doing he goes on the second woe is in verse 43 he's woe to you Pharisees you loved the best seat in the synagogue's and getting greetings in the marketplaces because you see they would greet them using titles you know that we're honoring you know and this is really all about you know using God to get me noticed good morning Reverend how are you today good to see you Reverend Reverend if you call me that I'll smack ya do you know what Reverend means it actually comes from the Latin and it refers to someone who is to be revered what's all that about well I think it's skating awfully close to the edge of what Jesus is talking about here if not over the line and and minoo that's that was what the Pharisees loved calling them by special titles you know next verse 44 woe to you for your like unmarked graves and people walk over them without knowing it this is an interesting statement now it's actually in the Book of Numbers in the Book of Numbers God tells his people if you touch in a dead body a corpse or walk over the grave of a corpse without knowing it or touch the the tomb you will be rendered ceremonially unclean so what the Jews used to do is they used to marked their graves so people wouldn't accidentally walk close to them or touch them or walk over them and they would paint them with like white or you know put some else some become some kind of a marker that would make people aware of the fact that there's a dead person there and so Jesus says to the Pharisees you guys are like unmarked graves in other words people don't know that when they come near you they're being made unclean why because you yourselves are unclean you are just like that grave that is full of bones and and and deterioration and decay and disease spiritually speaking so obviously it's not a very nice thing to say to him you know but he's being truthful verse 45 one of the experts in the law speaks up he says he's a teacher and saying these things you insult us all so look out and Jesus responds here in verse 46 woe to you lawyers also for you load people with burdens hard to bear and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers you know this is what by the way lawyer you know means expert in the law they were tasked with the job of teaching the people the law of Moses and here's what Jesus is saying and this is what legalism does he says you're just simply loading people up with rules that's all you're doing you load them up with rule after rule after rule after rule and you know what you can't even keep them all it's impossible you can't even keep them all and you load people up with rules that you yourself can't keep do you guys remember in the book of Acts when there was a group of Christians who wrongly believed that the Gentiles who are coming to faith needed to be circumsized right and they saw they had this confab in Jerusalem to talk about it and they were saying yeah the new believers the Gentiles they need to be circumcised they need to first become Jews so then they couldn't come Christians and Peter stands up and he goes why are we putting a burden on the people that we ourselves have not been able to bear is he he got it he understood and this is what Jesus is talking about because that's what legalism does it puts rules on people and it just creates this hypocritical sort of a situation verse 47 woe to you he says you tombs of the prophets whom your father is killed so your witnesses and you consent to the deeds of your father's for they killed them and you build their tombs and then he begins to speak about how the wisdom of God spoke ahead of time saying I'll send them prophets an apostle some some of whom they will kill and and then he says so you know what he says all of the blood that was shed murderously is going to come on this generation what generation the one that was right there when he was talking why did Jesus say that why did Jesus say all of the blood that has been shed is going to come and be put on this generation here's why yeah those other people killed prophets and of course we know that many of the Apostles were killed for their faith and dunna de but this generation they killed the one who sent them all they killed the Lord of life they sentenced him to death do you see the much greater issue that's going on here the much greater crime of this generation and and then the last whoa verse 52 woe to you lawyers you've taken away the key to knowledge you did not enter yourselves and you are hindered or you hindered those who were entering how ironic isn't it that the teachers of the law who are the ones who were to give knowledge were actually withholding knowledge and the key to knowledge I mean what a what a crazy sort of a thing is that but once again that's what legalism does because it takes understanding and it substitutes it with a list of rules you want you want to serve God fine get your life get your act together do this do this do this do this do this and don't do those things but that doesn't that doesn't pass along knowledge that's just rules it's just commandments do this do this do this do this you're not gonna get to know God that way nobody gets to know God through legalism legalism doesn't foster a knowledge of God it fosters a knowledge of rules and that's all and that's what Jesus is saying to these men you have taken away the key to knowledge and you have replaced it with rules and you know guys it didn't stop with the Jews legalism and this rule keeping mentality has invaded the church many many times throughout the course of you know well ever since the church began back on the day of Pentecost but there are so there are many people who would reduce our life in Christ to just a set of rules and it's easy to do that we default fairly easily to rules but we have learned I hope we've learned the loving and serving and knowing God is not about keeping rules it's about knowing the Lord personally that's the cool thing is that God can be known God can be known in personal intimate relationship and and and it's it's all about the life that he merges from that knowledge let me end with the passage another one from Matthew chapter 7 up on the screen for you Jesus is speaking here he says not everyone who says to me Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven but the one who does the will of my father who is who is in heaven but he says on that day many will say to me Lord Lord did we not do see this is what the legal estas he's all about what he does all about doing did we not prophesy in your name we did that you know and did we not cast out demons in your name yeah we were doing exorcisms all over the place and did we not do many mighty works in your name - and look what Jesus responds he says then I will declare to them I never knew you yeah but Lord didn't we do all these things yeah you notice that he never denies that they'd actually did those things he just comes back and says I never knew you so it's you know the legalist will tell you it's all about what you do and Jesus tells you it's all about who you know do you know the Lord we know him not by keeping rules we know him by opening our heart to him and saying Lord I want to know you know know who you are I want to live for you not not following a list of rules but following your spirit I want to live for Jesus I want to make you number one in my life so Lord deliver me from the performance track of trying to please you by the things that I do help me Lord to love you with a whole heart because you loved me and you gave your life for me and you've invited me to be your child and to get to know you personally to talk to you to pour out my heart to you to tell you when I'm sad to rejoice together when I'm happy to talk with you about the ups and the downs and just to hang out with you and enjoy your presence I want to know Christ don't you in true intimate experience of fellowship we sang this morning let us experience the glory of his presence

Channel: Calvary Chapel Ontario

Views: 12,451

Rating: 4.8778625 out of 5

Keywords: Bible, Bible teaching, Thru-the-Bible, verse by verse, Calvary Chapel, Bible study, Christianity, New Testament, Old Testament

Id: HyuloSePIkw

Length: 46min 27sec (2787 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 09 2019