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Weekly Message | May 9th, 2010
Passage: Luke 11:14-32
Key Verse(s): 20
The life and ministry of Jesus marked the full-fledged arrival of the kingdom of God to the world. Last week, we learned about the content and attitude of prayer according to Jesus. Jesus taught the disciples to pray, “Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.” In today’s passage Jesus helps people to understand the spiritual reality of evil and the spiritual reality of the kingdom of God. In my office at UT I have a framed Thomas Kinkade puzzle. It is a beautiful mountain scene with a distant waterfall, a lake, and a small cabin. I tell my Bible students, “That’s my home in the kingdom of God.” Sometimes we narrowly think about the kingdom of God in this way, only as a far-off distant reality that we will someday enter. But Jesus’ teaching is much more than that. To Jesus the kingdom of God is also in the here and now. The kingdom of God is a necessity in facing the power of evil in this world and overcoming it. Let’s think about how the kingdom of God comes, how to respond to it, and how to advance it in and through our lives.
First, the kingdom of God comes by the finger of God. (14-20)
Jesus was en route to Jerusalem to the cross, but he ministered to individual people and the crowds to the end. He was in an ongoing spiritual battle with demons. Look at verse 14: “Jesus was driving out a demon that was mute. When the demon left, the man who had been mute spoke, and the crowd was amazed.” It states clearly that Jesus had to drive out a demon that was mute. Demons are not cooperative. They do not just voluntarily leave if asked politely. They must be driven out. Many of the demons Jesus encountered were talkative and offensive, but this particular demon was mute. The demon had major communication problems. He was relationally challenged. The demon oppressed the man’s spirit and crushed his humanity. If the man could have spoken, he might have cried out in misery, but he was mute. It is easy to ignore such people, but Jesus took the time and spent the energy and showed his love to drive out the demon.
Look at verses 15-16: “But some of them said, ‘By Beelzebub, the prince of demons, he is driving out demons.’ Others tested him by asking for a sign from heaven.” In the crowd, there were those who blatantly ridiculed and opposed Jesus. They attributed his work to black magic and the devil’s trickery. They were determined to discredit Jesus. Others were skeptical and wanted him to prove himself with a more spectacular miracle like stopping the sun from shining. Jesus however was not intimidated or discouraged. He was not angry or frustrated. Instead he continued to reach out to people’s heart in truth and love. Jesus knew their thoughts and that many were trapped in the devil’s deception. He did not rebuke them or lecture them one-sidedly. Jesus spoke in a conditional style—using the word “if” three times—to reason together with them.
Jesus began with a major premise, look at verse 17b: “Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall.” He stated an obvious and logical principle. A kingdom or nation in civil war too long will be wasted. Even a much smaller unit like a family who is constantly fighting and arguing will fall to pieces. Jesus applied this principle to the spiritual world saying, “If Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand?” Satan reigns over a well-organized, orderly army of evil spirits. Satan does not divide his forces and tell them to destroy each other.
Jesus then directly but humbly proposed the most reasonable conclusion based on the evidence. Look at verse 20: “But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you.” The finger of God is a poetic reference to God’s almighty power. God does not need his entire arm, or even a hand, but just one finger to utterly defeat his enemies. This finger of God, the power of God, was the working force in Jesus’ ministry. The kingdom of Satan was being destroyed by the finger of God, and God’s victory is made full and complete in Jesus. No power can stand against him. Jesus’ miracles are audio-visual displays of God’s victorious rule that powerfully enters into the world through the life, ministry, teaching, and preaching of Christ and the gospel. God’s kingdom has arrived. It is here. It is working and forcefully advancing in the lives of people.
Here it is significant that the coming kingdom of God is presented against the backdrop of the work of demons. In Jesus’ time peoples’ problems were described in very spiritual ways. The man had a demon that was mute. In today’s culture, the spiritual aspects of people’s problems are not in the forefront anymore. With our wealth of medical knowledge and advanced technologies, such problems are described physically and scientifically. The sin and evil in people is morally neutralized. Satan is not seen as responsible and neither is the person. Nobody is responsible; so nothing is done. When my neighboring college students get loud and obnoxious late at night, they have no sense of responsibility for their sin and are totally unaware of their inner demons who like to drink and who enjoy getting angry, stupid, and out of control. Others have couch potato demons who are very lazy and love to sit around and do nothing all day long. This kind of recognition sounds kind of silly, even preposterous, but understanding and even personifying the reality of evil at work is the first step to properly recognize, face it clearly, and begin to overcome it.
Like Jesus, we must have eyes to see the work of evil going on in and around us. Like Jesus, we also need eyes to see the wholeness and healing that the kingdom of God can bring. We pray and struggle to find the pure and wholesome person each was uniquely made to be. Then we can clearly see how they have deviated from that state. We find wisdom and insight on how to pray and minister to them to bring the power of God’s healing to their lives. And when any kind of healing occurs, whether by prayer and God’s word, by medication or surgery, by psychological counseling, we should recognize it as God’s work. We should also really pray for doctors, nurses, pharmacists, social workers, psychiatrists, and the like, to be people who recognize God, his power, and coming kingdom in the healing work they do. Even at the University of Toledo, let’s pray for medical students and the Health-Science campus to be pioneered, to raise people who can participate in God’s healing work and coming kingdom.
Second, the kingdom of God comes through commitment to Christ. (21-28)
Jesus was not content to just reason with people, and he saw they needed some stronger medicine. He kept going deeper to help them understand spiritual realities and the implications of their mindset and choices. Look at verses 21-22: “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.” When a strong man, fully armed stands and guards his territory his property is safe and sound. When a stronger man comes along with superior weapons and skills, he is beaten and overcome. This is a picture of the spiritual battle between the stronger man Jesus and the forces of evil. The power of sin seems so strong and impossible to overcome. Sin and evil have a strong hold on people’s lives. Sometimes sin holds sway over only certain aspects of life. Sometimes the power of evil retreats to the small corners of our inner life, but Satan’s power is real and it is strong.
Verse 23 reads, “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me, scatters.” There is a war going on, and there is no neutral ground. If you are not on Jesus’ side, you’re in enemy territory. If you’re not helping, you’re making things worse. Jesus forced the issue to the point of making a commitment. Those in opposition had to reexamine their logic, and people content to sit on the fence were pushed to make a decision.
Jesus then continues with the story of an evil spirit who came out of a person. This evil spirit finds only worse conditions outside, can find no place to rest, and decides to return. When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. The evil spirit is so happy. He now has lots of room to play and party. It goes and takes 7 other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse.
Here we can think about the danger of God’s grace and revelation in our life when we are unprepared to commit and fail to invite Jesus into our life. God can forgives us, reveal himself to us, and help us to really sort out our life. But after that if we remain relatively uncommitted and unsure of things, if we do not actively invite Jesus and his rule into our life a dangerous situation emerges. Refusing to respond to God’s grace and revelation is not a matter of being neutral, but remaining in destructive hands. The kingdom of God comes through our growing commitment to Jesus and his work.
This teaching made the crowd uncomfortable and all became very quiet. But one woman was very impressed with Jesus. Look verse 27: “As Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd called out, ‘Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you.’” In fact, this verse is quite fitting to mention today on Mother’s Day. So I want to take this moment to appreciate and recognize the mother’s among us. All men, husbands, fathers and sons, and daughters; today is the day to appreciate the mothers in your life. We do not have many chances to deliberately do so, and we are by nature very forgetful of this. So take time to call, write a card, or even a poem to express your love and thanksgiving this Mother’s Day. But even more than this, the real joy of motherhood, what mothers really want, is for their sons and daughters to commitment to Christ.
Back to our story, look at verse 28: “He replied, ‘Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.” Hearing and obeying God’s word is more important than our family tree. The patient work of consistent obedience is more valuable to God than the honor of bearing a respected son. A person’s value or worth in the kingdom of God is their obedient response to the word of God. Jesus wanted the crowds not to miss this special moment of teaching and revelation they were being given. He wanted them to get off the fence, to hear and respond to the word of God. In doing so the kingdom of God could enter and begin to rule and shape their lives for God’s blessing and purpose.
The kingdom of God transforms our lives, but such big and drastic changes often happen in much smaller increments. The kingdom of God is powerful, huge, and overwhelmingly spiritual. At the same time it is simple and practical. On Student Night last Friday one sister shared her testimony for the first time. She spoke about the new found joy and meaning she had in her life due to Bible study. In small but very real ways, the kingdom of God came to her. Jesus wants to gather and bless each of us in every way. The best blessing is to enter the kingdom of God and dwell there permanently. There we have complete and final victory over the devil. How can we enter God’s kingdom? We need to hear God’s word and obey it. We need to continually grow in Christian maturity and commitment to Christ and his work. As we do, the kingdom of God comes, grows, and spreads.
Third, the kingdom of God comes through repentance and seeking wisdom. (29-32)
At this point, the crowds began to grow, so Jesus shifted his teaching strategy but kept the same theme. Look at verses 29-30: “As the crowds increased, Jesus said, ‘This is a wicked generation. It asks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of Man be to this generation.’” The dominant mood of the crowd and the generation was wrong. Already Jesus had given so many signs, but people looked for an excuse not to face who Jesus was. People wanted something to titillate their curiosity and satisfy their lust for miracles, but the only proof they were going to get was the sign of Jonah.
Jonah was sent by God to Nineveh to preach the message of God’s judgment. Jonah was a very reluctant prophet. When he preached he did not have any affection and passion for the people. He just delivered the message because he was told to. His short message was, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned.” Amazingly, the Ninevites believed God and declared a city-wide fast of repentance and seeking God’s mercy. Their response was not because of the messenger or the quality of his message, but because the message itself was the word of God. God saw how they turned from their evil ways and had compassion on them. Through their repentance, they experienced the kingdom of God. Their repentance was for themselves, their families, their city, and their nation. This is the impact of repentance.
As if that were not enough, Jesus compared the crowds as being less responsive to God’s message than the notorious Ninevites, Jesus gave yet another vibrant and shocking example. Look at verse 31: “The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon's wisdom, and now one greater than Solomon is here.” Here Jesus highlights the active effort of a prominent figure in world history who sought to hear, learn, and accept the wisdom of God. The Queen of Sheba was a popular and powerful queen from southern Arabia during Solomon’s reign. She made great efforts to come, ask Solomon questions, and learn from him. She confessed the greatness of the God of Israel and his eternal power. Jesus’ point is that now one greater than Solomon, someone with even greater wisdom, was present, but the actions and desire of the crowds were falling far short of even this ancient, Gentile princess. Both the Queen of Sheba and the men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with these people and condemn them. Her effort to seek God’s wisdom and Nineveh’s repentance at the preaching of Jonah, show the kind of response Jesus was looking for in people. It is through repentance and seeking the wisdom of God that the kingdom of God comes into our lives.
In view of God’s clear signs around us these days, Jesus also challenges us to repent and seek God’s wisdom. God has given us some very clear and obvious signs of his hope and vision for Toledo UBF, just look around at this beautiful, renovated center. Last Saturday, we held a special dedication service where more than 200 people attended and were served with utmost hospitality. Dr. John Jun gave us the prayer topic to fill this house of worship. God wants our new center to be teeming with students experiencing the kingdom of God through 1-to-1 Bible study, Praise and Worship, Narrowgate, Student Nights, and other venues. Who will be a steward of this great vision and work to be done?
Personally, as I reflected on this and our recent Bible studies on stewardship, I was very convicted. Will I just look around waiting for someone else to do something? I realized how I have been sitting on the fence just managing the different aspects of my life without any clear decision or commitment. I realized how poor a steward I have been of my campus lecture position and the proximity of my life to students compared to others who have to work full-time elsewhere. I really repented and sought God’s wisdom on how to better fix my future direction and prayer according to the coming kingdom of God and my calling as a campus shepherd. With the prayer and support of my wife, M. Peter, Dr. Paul, and others; from now on I will focus more on serving God and the needs of Toledo UBF as a good and faithful steward. I want to do my part to connect students to the many capable shepherds we have, serve daily bread meetings, Narrowgate, and help raise up 24 world class leaders. In this way, God’s glory and dream for my life, to raise 318 trained disciples will become a reality.
In conclusion, verse 20 reads, “But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you.” This passage teaches us about the kingdom of God that comes through the miracles and healing power of God. The kingdom of God comes when we make Jesus our number one ally, stand with him, and commit our lives to him. The kingdom of God comes when we overcome our fence-sitting mentality, hear the word of God, and obey it. The kingdom of God comes through repentance and seeking God’s wisdom on behalf of ourselves, our family, our ministry, our city, and the world. The kingdom of God may come newly to each of us and spread to many others in our lifetime.
May 9, 2010; Greg Lewis; Toledo UBF.
Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.
