Authority of Jesus. - Luke 11:14-32.

Please remember these are only notes so don't expect correct grammar or good flowing English.

Some of the structure and words of this message are owed to Roy Clements. Although some may feel sorry about what has happened to him we can be grateful for his skill in opening up some passages of the Bible.

‘Its all relative’.

Very common catch phrase.

Meaning?

•        no real truth and falsehood,

•        no real right and wrong.

•        just make up your own morality to suit yourself.

•        everyone has the right to invent their own standards.

•        do what you feel like.

•        invent your own spiritual values -

•        make yourself your own God.

In 1994 Church Vicar sacked for not believing in God.

He said he does believe in God

•        - his spiritual feelings and opinions - that is God.

•        but he said there is no God greater than us who has shown us the purpose of life.

Religious cults

·        leader is everything - he becomes God.

·        Soon degenerates into the worship of fleshly desires  - money and sex.

In politics today -

•        the image that counts rather than the policies.

We seem to live in a world without signposts or compass bearings.

In 1960s we were told we had come of age.

I don’t see us coming of age, but Adam trying to be God again.

It was really an attempt to excuse our decadence.

--

Free falling through space is very exhilarating.

But you can’t ignore gravity for ever.

We are accountable to a personal God.

He loves us and is very interested indeed in how we turn out.

He has made his purpose known to us - Bible.

At great cost to Himself - cross he has given us a way to be forgiven and saved.

We ignore it at our peril.

We are answerable to Him.

N.T. witness is that Christ is the Saviour of the world and Lord of all.

With Him the kingdom of God has come and we must acknowledge that in our lives.

In this passage we see four ways in which people tried to avoid his Lordship.

It all started when he healed a dumb man.

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. 15 but some of them said, “by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, he is driving out demons.”

1.       Firstly, some tried to avoid the authority of Jesus by trying to find an alternative explanation for his power to save.

‘He is league with Beelzebub.’

‘Lord of the flies’ - William Golding’s book.

Prince of demons.

To call Jesus Beelzebub was to attack Jesus.

John allegro said that the N.T was written under the influence of a magic mushroom.

Disciples were all drug addicts - on LSD - hallucinations led them to write the N.T.

•        No scholars take any of these books seriously -

•        but you will find them in the religious sections of bookshops.

2.       Secondly, others demand a greater sign from heaven.

Luke 11:16

16        Others tested him by asking for a sign from heaven.

They’d already seen the dumb man speak .... lets see another one - something in the sky.

If you would only put something in the sky then we’d believe.

Problem is that if there was a sign in the sky people would soon take that for granted and be demanding yet another sign.

If we look up into the sky do we see signs?

·        Sun shining. stars shining.

·        Burning with amazing brilliance.

·        They haven’t been burning forever

•        so someone must have made then and set them burning to give us heat and light.

Obvious that God exists.

Signs are very clear.

Men are so used to seeing them that some say -

- we must see another sign before we believe.

Just an excuse for not accepting God.

[Jesus says: 29b “this is a wicked generation. it asks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.]

3.       Thirdly, others would avoid Jesus by being non committal.

23 “he who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me, scatters.

You can’t be non committal.

Some do not oppose Christ but they do ignore.

They say: Fine for some but I can’t be bothered.

Jesus is saying: you might as well be opposed.

Christian message is greatly weakened by people who neglect Christ.

Why?

Because to ignore Christ is to say

•        it doesn’t much matter.

To say ‘it doesn’t much matter .. is actually to deny that Jesus is Lord and Saviour,

because if he really is Saviour and Lord

•        then it certainly does matter very much indeed.

That is why Jesus says:

23 “he who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me, scatters.

Notice what Jesus says next:

24 “when an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ 25 when it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. 26 then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. and the final condition of that man is worse than the first.”

He is talking about spiritual emptiness.

If you are spiritually empty then, you may be making room for evil to come in and take over.

Thirty years ago the Bible and Christ were no longer taught in our schools.

Ignored.

It wasn’t that they said: ‘Lets be evil ..’.

They just decided to ignore spiritual things - empty.

Secular society = society empty of spiritual values.

But what happens?

Vacuum will get filled by other spiritual influences.

In our society we have seen -

•        the gradual rise of fascination with evil things to fill the vacuum.

Magazines whose main selling point is fascination is the devil, black magic, torture and hell.

Our society claims to be secular -  don’t teach the truth of Christ.

So what happens is that alternative spiritual forces make their home in our midst.

Message for you and me is not to let our lives get spiritually empty

·        We open ourselves up to real dangers.

·        Receive Christ!

4.       Fourthly, those who avoided commitment to Christ by applauding Him but not letting it affect them.

Admiring spectators.

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.” 28 he replied, “blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”

Mary must have been blessed to have a son like you!

I wish you were my son!

Admiration of Jesus.

Jesus’s response is that mere admiration is not enough - ‘hear the word of God and obey it’.

People admire Jesus today.

•        Not against Him,

•        not ignoring Him,

•        they do admire Him,

•        but they are not committed to Him.

How do they show their admiration?

They may even come to church from time to time, but they are not prepared really to obey the word of God.

But if we are only admirers of Jesus, how can we ever -

- by his grace -

So what does the Lord require of us?

31 The Queen of the South will rise at the judgement 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. 32 the men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgement with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now one greater than Jonah is here.

Queen of Ethiopia went on a long journey

- to Jerusalem -

•        to seek out the wisdom of Solomon.

How much more should we seek the wisdom of God!

The Lord calls us to seek Him.

Not that he is hiding -

•        but he wants us to be earnest and sincere -

•        not casual and ‘couldn’t care a less’.

Therefore the Bible exhorts us to seek.

Isaiah 55:6 Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on Him while he is near. (NIV)

Notice also the people of Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah.

So Christ calls us to repent.

Turn away from a self-centred life with its wrong-doing and return home to God.

Isaiah 55:7 let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. let him turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. (NIV)

I myself could not on my own authority call anyone to repent.

I simply do not feel worthy to do that.

But what I must do is proclaim the fact that Christ is Lord and Saviour.

He gave his life for our forgiveness on the cross.

He wants to deliver us from evil and take us to heaven when we die.

His call to us is:

•        to seek Him while he may be found,

•        call upon Him while he is near,

•        forsake anything wicked in our lives,

•        return to Him and he will abundantly pardon.

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