Wednesday, August 4, 2021 PM

Luke 11:24-32 and the Theme of Better or Worse

Well, we're gonna go ahead and start. I know a lot of folks having to stay home tonight, but we're gonna be in Luke chapter 11. Luke chapter 11, I'll be reading verses 24 through 32. Luke chapter 11, verses 24 through 32.

Let's go ahead and pray. Father, I thank you for the time that you've given to us. I thank you for the opportunity to gather together tonight and to read your word and pray together. I pray that you would be blessed by our fellowship.

And we pray for those who are sick and cannot be here tonight. I pray that you would comfort them and heal them and protect them and provide for all of their needs. And pray for those who couldn't come tonight for other reasons, Lord, we pray that you would encourage them and I pray that you would continually remind us of your faithfulness and your power and your sovereignty and that we would trust you.

And we thank you for your son, Jesus Christ. And it's in his name that we pray, amen. All right, so Luke chapter 11, beginning in verse 24. When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places seeking rest and finding none.

He says, I will return to my house from which I came. And when he comes, he finds it swept and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits, more wicked than himself. And they enter and dwell there.

And the last state of that man is worse than the first. And it happened as he spoke these things that a certain woman from the crowd raised her voice and said to him, blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts which nursed you.

But he said, more than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it. And while the crowds were thickly gathered together, he began to say, this is an evil generation. It seeks a sign and no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah, the prophet.

For as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so also the son of man will be to this generation. The queen of the South will rise up in 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 indeed a greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it. For they repented at the preaching of Jonah and indeed a greater than Jonah is here.

So my question for tonight is better or worse? Better or worse. It seems to be the theme of the passage. What about this man who was delivered but then seven times worse off in the end? Was he better or worse?

We have the exclamation from the lady in the crowd and there's a better or worse consideration there. Also the generation of Jesus compared to the people of Nineveh and the generation connected to the queen of the South and those who, the queen of the South compared to the generation of Jesus.

So we have some comparisons going on, some contrasts going on throughout this entire passage. Are there any curiosities that you find in the passage? Any questions? Yes. This is an interesting way of saying it.

For as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so also the son of man will be to this generation. It's helpful to remember as well that this passage in Luke 11 parallels very nicely with Matthew chapter 12.

Some of the same passages are given there with some added detail. Also some of the same themes show up though with different stories. So reading this passage and reading Matthew chapter 12 is helpful when we're trying to answer some of these questions.

Yeah, it is odd. How did Jonah and the queen of the South function as signs to Jesus' generation? What's the connection? Why was Jesus so quick to pop this woman's bubble? She was trying to say something nice about his mom.

He's like, pop. It's like, thanks for trying to pay a compliment. But I'm going to go ahead and just lay that aside because there's something else we need to think about. In this sense, there seems to be this situation where there is something here but something either better or worse to lay aside in comparison.

The context helps because in the previous passage, we read about Jesus casting out demons and his crowd is, some of them there are cynics. They are skeptics. They don't want Jesus to be who he says he is and they're a little concerned about the influence he's having.

And so they begin to throw around the rumor, oh, he's casting out demons by the ruler of demons, by Beelzebul, by Satan. Jesus shows the ludicrous nature of that illogical argument and he begins to deal with some of that skepticism, some of that unbelief.

Well, we find it again here in our passage. There is still skepticism. There is still unbelief. What do we know about the people of Nineveh? If we know anything about them, we know this. They repented.

They didn't keep on with their evil but they repented at the preaching of Jonah. And what do we know if we know anything about, I think her name was Candace, the Queen of Ethiopia, the Queen of the South.

What do we know about her, if we know anything about her? She came to see Solomon. She wanted to come to see the glory that God had revealed in this kingdom and she was amazed. Not even the half had been told her.

This is amazing. They, you know, the people of Nineveh and the Queen of the South had way less to go on. Think about this, far less to go on than Jesus' generation. But here are these skeptics and these unbelievers in his generation.

So we see that contrast. Now later on, past this passage, we're going, Jesus begins to try to explain a little bit about what's going on with all of these skeptics, these non-believers. I think we'll see in verse 35 and following that the inability of the skeptics to satisfy their skepticism is due to something wrong within them.

Not because of a lack of evidence outside of them, but something that was wrong within them. That the lights are not only switched off internally, but the bulbs have been removed and the power's been cut.

That's the problem. And again, we're gonna do some comparison with Matthew 12 when we think about this. Let's start with this story about the unclean spirit. Jesus just cast out a demon as we saw in verse 14 and starts this argument about, oh, he's doing it by the ruler of the demons and so on.

And he takes this opportunity to talk about what constitutes actual deliverance. When you read this little story in verses 24 through 26, we see that a false deliverance, or shall we say an incomplete deliverance, leaves one far worse off.

It turns out that only getting relief of the symptoms is not real healing. There is a relief of the symptoms, a relief of the immediate problem in the life of this man in Jesus' story, but that's not actual deliverance because he was still left exposed to the demons to come back and afflict him.

To borrow from the parable at the end of the last passage, if the stronger man does not safely deliver you into his kingdom, the evil one will repossess your sorry soul and you'll be in much worse shape.

Jesus has been going through town after town, village after village, region after region, and he's been preaching the gospel, attended by powerful signs and wonders. He's been feeding the hungry, healing the sick, restoring the lame.

He's been healing the blind. He's even raised the dead. He's been casting out demons. He's been doing all these amazing things everywhere he's going. And what has he been doing except as he comes, showing that he is the one who will bring them out of exile.

He is the one who will bring them up out of the curses of the old covenant. Everything that they were experiencing, from the famine where the hunger came from, from the oppression of the foreign government, the Romans, what they were experiencing in terms of disease, what they were experiencing in terms of their poverty and all of their issues, is line for line exactly what God said would happen to Israel in Deuteronomy 28 when they were not faithful to the old covenant.

They're not being faithful, but God is. God is keeping his promises. He told them, you don't live up to the covenant that I make with you. These are the punishments. And they were all going on during the times of Jesus.

Jesus comes, of course, he's going to shed his blood for the new covenant. And he's showing them, I'm the deliverer. But this alleviation of the symptoms, which were a sign that he was indeed the savior, that in him who is the faithful keeper of the covenant are all the blessings of God.

This is a sign that he's the covenant keeper that they need. These signs, these alleviation of their problems is not a full deliverance. It's not a full deliverance. It's not a full salvation. Unless they have that full salvation, they're gonna be worse off than they were beforehand.

Now consider the passage in Matthew, which gives us a little bit of a coordination in Matthew chapter 12, verses 39 through 45. Matthew 12, verses 39 through 45. Jesus has the same story about the unclean spirit.

And he applies it directly to this present generation that he's talking to. The one who has been privy to all of these signs and wonders and preaching of the Messiah himself, God's perfect revelation of himself to these people.

And they're still asking for signs. Nothing's ever good enough. So verse 43, when an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places seeking rest and finds none. Then he says, I will return to my house from which I came.

And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself. And they enter and dwell there. And the last state of that man is worse than the first.

So basically the same story. Now notice the extra at the end, what does it say? What does it say? So it shall be with this wicked generation. Everywhere Jesus went, he was casting out demons, casting out demons here, casting out demons there, cast out seven demons out of Mary of Magdalene, cast out a thousand or more demons out of that guy named Legion, right?

He's casting out demons all over the place. And he says that those who are basically just satisfied with the alleviation of the symptoms are gonna have it worse. Because so it shall be with this wicked generation.

Now, who's he talking about? Is he talking about that other generation or is he saying, does he say this wicked generation? The ones right in front of him. The ones right in front of him. And in some ways, the record of the fall of Jerusalem can only be explained, parts of it can only be explained by mass demon possession.

The kinds of things that were going on that the historians, the firsthand eyewitnesses observed, the kind of insanities that went on, some of which are not fit to read in front of children, can only be described in terms of demon possession, which is an interesting look.

But Jesus doesn't lie. He said this is the way it was gonna be with this generation. And it happened. I believe it did because I believe that Jesus tells the truth. So what Jesus is saying here is that a false deliverance leaves one far worse off.

Now, that's a scriptural principle that we can see in other passages of the Bible. That if somebody just settles for a relief of the symptoms, but doesn't actually repent and come to faith in Christ, that the state of that person is worse off in the end, having been given so much opportunity and revelation of the scripture, but then rejected it.

Now, what about this woman who says what she says to him? Blessed is the woman that bore you in the breast which nursed you. But he said more than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.

So certainly Mary was a blessed woman, favored among women for bearing and nursing Jesus. That bare fact, however, is not in any way better than actually following Jesus and living the life of God. There is a life-giving blessing of motherhood and then there is the better life-giving blessing of hearing and following God's word.

Recall at the end of Matthew 12, where they come to him and say, your mother and your brothers are outside waiting for you. And he says, well, who are my brother and my brothers except those who hear the word of God and do it.

So you see there's a similar theme there. So yeah, childbearing, what a blessing and what an amazing blessing to be the mother of Jesus. But there's something better than that. Something better than that for all of us.

You're saying that we have something better than Mary giving birth? Yes, hearing the word of God and then doing it, following Jesus. Jesus himself says it's a better blessing to receive the word of God and follow and live accordingly.

That's a better blessing than being Mary, the mother of Jesus. Wow, that's encouraging. And Mary herself knew that greater blessing as well, as we see her faithfully with the disciples, with the church in early Acts.

Thirdly, now we look at this thing about the sign. The crowds gather together. He says, this is an evil generation. Now, which generation is he talking about? Some other generation? The one he's talking to.

The one he's talking to. This is an evil generation. It's, why? It seeks a sign. And no sign, he says, no sign will be given to except the sign of Jonah the prophet. For as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so also the son of man will be to this generation.

So how was Jonah assigned to the Ninevites? Three days in the wilderness. So Jonah had a distinctive smell, appearance, demeanor. Yeah, nobody would want to be around Jonah. But here was a man who repelled against God, knew better to try to run away from God.

God stopped him with a storm. He got thrown off the ship through the casting of lots and he got swallowed by a big fish and he got hauled back towards Nineveh the hard way and he came out a broken man, ready to go do what he was supposed to do.

And so as he goes through, now, I want you to think about this. Jesus himself makes the parallel as Jonah in the fish, so the Messiah or the Christ in son of man in the earth. And so this is a sign. Now, all the Ninevites got was Jonah fresh out of the fish, preaching the message.

And his message was not robust. He was not going through healing people. What did he say? What was his very simple sermon? It didn't have three points. He didn't even say repent. He hated these people.

He was hoping they wouldn't. Yet 40 days and Nineveh will be overthrown. Obviously, there's probably some more, you know, two days left. Says who? Says the one that put me through the fish. Yet 40 days and Nineveh will be overthrown.

Well, Jesus, what happens with Jesus in his death and resurrection is a far greater sign. In fact, he says, greater than Jonah is here in verse 32. Jesus' death and resurrection is far greater than what happened to Jonah.

How many days did Nineveh get to repent before they, you know, before destruction? 40 days. Four days. How many years did Jerusalem and Judea get a chance to repent before their destruction hit? 40 years.

40 days and Nineveh will be overthrown. And Jesus said that all these things will happen in this generation, not one stone will be left upon another in Matthew 24. He said, you've got a generation. In biblical terms, that's 40 years.

He says, you've got a generation to repent. You've got a generation to repent from your trust in brick and mortar. You have a generation to repent from trusting in the gold that you have plastered all over this temple of yours.

You have this amount of time to believe in me. And just like Jonah, three days in the fish, boom, he's out. Here is the preaching, 40 days. So the son of man, out of the grave 40 years before the destruction of Jerusalem.

And of course he keeps on saying this generation, this generation, this generation, right? So I think it's fairly clear what he's trying to communicate. Even more so, the Queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them.

She's going to rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation. Why is that? She came from the ends of the earth. Right, because Jerusalem is the center of the earth. Right, that's the geographical assumptions here.

Okay, that the Jews, you know, right? All the maps had Jerusalem as the center of the earth. She came from the ends of the earth. They don't have to come to the ends of the earth. You know, they haven't had to travel at all.

Here's God's revelation of his truth. But she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And indeed, a greater than Solomon is here. Right, wisdom himself, wisdom in the flesh. Jesus Christ.

Two other things that we think about, the men of Nineveh, these were not Jews. These were Syrians. Syrians, they were not very nice. They were brutal, the brutal form of Gentiles. And the Queen of the South, of course, she's no Jew, she's a Gentile.

But they're coming and they're hearing the preaching of Jonah. And Jonah was no great preacher. But she was even going to see Solomon. And of course, he was the wisest man. But someone greater than Solomon and Jonah are here.

But this generation, he says, is an evil generation because they're still seeking a sign. What? They had the Son of Man. They had God the Son in human flesh right there in front of them, speaking to them, speaking with them, healing, delivering, giving food.

They all, we still need a sign. Disdaining God's revelation is spitting on his grace. Disdaining God's revelation is spitting on his grace. Christ's advent, his power, his preaching, his magnificent light only demonstrated how deep their darkness was and how fitting the coming judgment would be.

So, we see that Christ in this passage, he is fully human. We see he's born of a woman. He's the royal Son of Man. He's greater than Jonah. He's greater than Solomon. And therefore, he is in the perfect position to rightly evaluate and pass judgment on his own generation.

I think the main thought of the passage is this, falling short of true belief and true repentance is disastrous. Falling short of true belief and true repentance is disastrous. And we should desire every grace that brings us unto the Lord.

We have to trust in the revelation of Christ that God has given and he has given abundantly. Do not accept the claims, we need more proof. It has been demonstrated that in Jesus' own day, even after his death and resurrection, the people who knew it to be so still rejected it.

It is proven, it is shown that you can give all you have all the evidence and proof possible to a people, but that is not what brings them to faith and repentance. You can give all the, God has proven that he gives all the evidence of the person and the work of Jesus Christ to a people, to a generation.

But that is not what brings about faith and repentance. Faith and repentance, the Bible tells us, is a gift from God. It's grace from God. And so we ask for it. We ask for it. Do we, you know, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.

You know, we're asking the right person there. We always need more grace. And we, you know, we constantly pray this, don't we? We ask God to grant repentance and faith to those who are skeptics. Because all the proof that we need is there.

Romans one tells us that everyone knows that there's a God, that he's the maker. And that God has furnished all the proof that anybody ever needs. But it is the darkness in our hearts that suppresses the truth and unrighteousness.

And that's what we need God to undo. So this is a passage that reminds us of that for sure. Questions or comments? Neutrality is a myth. The Bible shows us that neutrality is a myth. Yeah, there's no neutrality in the universe.

It's either one side or the other. And Jesus himself said that at the big last part of his last passage where he says, verse 23 of chapter 11, he who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.

For Jesus Christ, who is more compassionate than we are, more patient than we are, more kind than we are, there is no neutrality. It's always been an either or proposition for him. And so we certainly need to learn from him in that regard.

This is why you'll notice that you can have some, you know, some pile of numbers, and people look at it and they're like, oh, that proves my point. You're like, no, that proves my point. Nobody's objectively considering all of the evidence in coming to a non-biased opinion.

Neutrality is a myth. We're either learning things from God's point of view, or we're coming up with something else. And, you know, so in the scriptures, there's only two types of people, those who are in Christ and those who are outside of Christ.

There is only two, you know, two camps. There is light, and then there is darkness, right? And we hear this again and again. And so we never find, you know, some neutral ground where everybody can meet in the middle and be objective.

That's not the way God made us. He made us in his image, right? So right off the bat, there was no neutrality. He made us in his image so that we would mediate his glory or manifest his glory by mediating his goodness.

We were designed especially for God. So we're either living especially for God, or we're betraying the uniform that we're born with, that we're designed with, created with. Like, so there's no neutrality.

The uniform is always on, and we're either in agreement with what that means, or we're operating in a way that is traitorous to that uniform. And that's the way the scripture presents it to us. I think she was trying to say something as nice as she could think of based on how she had been discipled and instructed.

Because after all, I mean, what if this woman believed that Jesus was the Messiah? Well, to her mind, it's like, wow, that's wonderful to be the mother of the Messiah. What an amazing blessing. But also, she's speaking from an Old Covenant perspective where the question was always, well, who is in Israel and who is out?

Kind of an ethnic question. All right, who is the physical genetic descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? Jesus is changing things through the New Covenant where it's not the question, who is in Israel?

The question is, who's in Christ? So it's a greater blessing, yes, for a Jewish, for a young Jewish woman to give birth to the Messiah, amazing blessing, but that's why it's a greater blessing in the New Covenant to be receiving God's word and then be able to follow it.

Because in the New Covenant, it's not about who's in Israel, it's about who's in Christ. Yes. Well, in the common Jewish understanding of where demons hung out, it was usually in the most awful places that you could think of, like wilderness, desert.

You will notice that Legion was not hanging around the town well, he was out amongst the tombs. You know, he was out in the cursed place and so on. So I think that that is, I think that more than anything else, that is a bit of storytelling that fits exactly with what they understood it to be.

But certainly there's the idea of dryness, scarcity, the sense of a place of death, and so on. Demons are never constructive, right? Yeah, so I'm out of my house from which I came. So, okay, so Beelzebul is the ruler of the demons.

Satan comes to steal, kill, and destroy, and that's how he trains his, right? Steal, kill, and destroy. And so that's what we find time and again, is it's just destructive. Damaging, bad. We have an opportunity tonight to pray for one another.