[0:00] Amen. Amen.
[1:00] Amen. Amen.
[2:00] Amen. Amen.
[3:00] Amen. Amen.
[4:00] Amen. Amen.
[5:00] Amen. Amen.
[6:00] Amen. Amen.
[7:00] Amen. Amen.
[8:00] Amen. Amen.
[9:00] Amen. Amen.
[10:00] Amen. Amen.
[11:00] Amen. Amen.
[12:00] Amen. Amen.
[13:00] Amen. Amen.
[14:00] Amen. Amen.
[15:00] Amen. Amen.
[16:00] Amen. Amen.
[17:00] Amen. Amen.
[18:00] Amen. Amen.
[19:00] Amen. Amen.
[20:00] Amen. Amen.
[21:00] Amen. Amen.
[22:00] Amen. Amen.
[23:00] Amen. Amen.
[24:00] Amen. Amen.
[25:00] Amen. Amen.
[25:34] Please turn to Luke 11, 14 through 36.
[26:04] Now he was casting out a demon that was mute. When the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke, and the people marveled. But some of them said, He cast out demons by Bezabal, the prince of demons, while others to test him keep seeking from him a sign from heaven.
[26:23] But he, knowing their thoughts, said to them, Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a divided household falls. And if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand?
[26:38] For you say that I cast out demons by Bezabal, and if I cast out demons by Bezabal, by whom do your sons cast them out?
[26:50] 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 up upon you. When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are safe.
[27:04] 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.
[27:18] 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.
[27:30] And when it comes, it finds the house swept 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.
[27:42] As he said these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breast at which you nursed.
[27:53] 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.
[28:04] It seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation.
[28:17] 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, something greater than Solomon is here.
[28:30] 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.
[28:44] No one after lighting a lamp puts it 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.
[28:54] When your eye is 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.
[29:06] If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its ray gives you light. This is the word of God.
[29:17] Praise be to God. Praise be to God.
[29:48] If I wanted to attempt these verses, especially given how uplifting the first 14 verses, or first 13 of chapter 11 was, and then all these warnings and rebukes and random people calling out from the crowd.
[30:06] It was a little bit worried about these verses. But after studying them and then meeting with the elders and some others to talk through the verses and make sense of them, I realized that it's actually quite a unique passage, quite an exciting one, and an opportunity to learn and to be warned and encouraged by Jesus' own words.
[30:32] And so it is a blessing to preach these words or preach through these words today. And as we were singing the songs, I know Kimberly always reads the passage before Sunday morning to find songs that maybe fit the theme or the words.
[30:51] And so I was very encouraged by the two songs we sang, the last two songs that we sang, that spoke a lot about the light and Jesus overcoming the darkness.
[31:03] And I think it was very fitting because the title of my sermon is Light Invades the Darkness. And so I think the last few verses especially maybe grab our attention because they are more encouraging perhaps than the earlier verses.
[31:20] But as we move into these verses, I want to point back for a moment to the first part of chapter 11 and from Brent's sermon last week.
[31:32] He preached on the Lord's Prayer and he preached on persistence. And so he talked a lot about the pattern, the persistence, and the promise of prayer.
[31:43] The emphasis being the relationship between the Father and those whose hearts are aligned to his will, those who rejoice in the kingdom of God. As we learned, the Father desires to answer those who ask, who seek, and who knock.
[32:00] And I think there's a similar sentiment in Hebrews 11, 6, which says, Without faith it is impossible to please God, for whoever would draw near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
[32:15] And so we see that God is pleased by those who believe in him and who seek after him. And just as a father is delighted to provide for his children, we see that the Heavenly Father delights to give gifts to his children.
[32:31] The greatest gift being the Holy Spirit, as we saw last week. And so I don't think it's a coincidence, as Luke was writing this letter, that last week emphasizing those whose hearts are aligned to the will of God.
[32:46] In these verses, he is now emphasizing the relationship between God and those whose hearts are hardened against his will, rather than aligned to his will.
[32:57] We see in the entire book of Luke that the kingdom of God has come into the world, and that this kingdom threatens the status quo.
[33:10] And so many of the people in Israel, they disliked Jesus, or they distrusted him. I think for the leaders, they found that their customs and laws, they were comfortable with them.
[33:24] They were comfortable with the power and control that they had and held on to by greed and malice. And so they were jealous of Jesus' power to cast out demons. They were threatened by his righteousness and unwavering righteousness.
[33:39] And so they were afraid of his kingdom. They feared him. And similarly, the people in Israel, with their own traditions and the conveniences that they had, they had grown accustomed to their sin, to the injustice around them.
[33:57] And so they found themselves unsure where their allegiance fell, to the kingdom of Israel or to the kingdom of God. And they wondered, why do these seem to be two different things?
[34:08] Wasn't the Messiah coming into the world to restore Israel to her former glory and preeminence? If so, why was Jesus using the power of God, or rather, why wasn't he using the power of God, to overthrow the Romans and to restore the kingdom?
[34:26] But as we know, Jesus wasn't here to consolidate power, and he definitely wasn't here to turn a blind eye to evil. Instead, he was here to overthrow Satan, and so to restore the kingdom of God to what it was always meant to be.
[34:44] And this made him a threat to those who loved power, those who loved comfort, and those who loved sin more than they loved God. And so I think we see in verses 14 to 36, the dangers of a hardened heart, and then the dangers of darkened eyes, which can no longer discern the chasm that separates the kingdom of God from the kingdom of darkness.
[35:11] I think also these verses reveal Jesus as the Christ, the one who came into the world to scatter darkness and fill us with the light of the Holy Spirit.
[35:22] As John 1, 5 and 9 says, the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.
[35:36] And that's what we see, the light coming into the world and darkness scattering. But before we turn to examine the text, I want to take a moment to pray that the light would guide us to understand his word and be encouraged by it.
[35:52] Let's pray. Lord Jesus Christ, we do thank you that you are the light of the world, that you have given us eyes to see and ears to hear and hearts to receive of your word.
[36:05] And so I pray that you would remove any hindrances, any distractions, anything that would keep us from being able to see and hear and to receive and be encouraged.
[36:17] Lord, let your word challenge us. There are warnings here that are meant to challenge us. And there are encouragements here that are meant to give us hope.
[36:28] And I pray that they would do so for your glory and our good. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. I want to start by looking at verses 14 through 28.
[36:40] I'm only going to have two sections here today. I think this is my first time preaching a sermon with only two sections, so we'll see how it goes. But I've titled this first section, Light Scatters the Darkness.
[36:53] Starting in verse 14, we see Jesus cast out a demon from a mute man. And when the man began to speak, the people marveled. They marveled at Jesus' power to cast a demon from a mute man and to make him speak.
[37:10] And immediately we see that some of them feel threatened by his power. And so they said that he cast out demons by the power of Beelzebul, also known as Satan.
[37:24] Others, they wanted to test him. And so they asked him for a sign from heaven, as though casting out a demon was not sign enough. Although all the healings that he had done in the previous verses were not sufficient enough to demonstrate his power.
[37:41] But we see in verses 17 that Jesus, he knew their thoughts. He knew their hearts. And so he challenges them. He asked, can a kingdom divided or a divided house stand?
[37:54] The rhetorical question, clearly not. No kingdom at war with itself. No house in disorder can stand. It will quickly fall. And so Jesus not only rebukes their flawed logic, but then we also see that he rebukes their hypocrisy.
[38:11] In the previous verses, when Jesus sent out the 72, those were Israelites, the sons of Israel, who went and cast out demons. And if they cast out demons by the power of God, how could they then accuse Jesus of casting out demons by the power of Satan?
[38:29] Clearly, they were deceived by their hard hearts. And so Jesus warns, if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
[38:45] This phrase, finger of God, only appears in scripture a few times, but maybe the most poignant is in Exodus 8, 19. When the magicians, after seeing God's wonders, declare, certainly this was by the finger of God.
[39:03] And yet Pharaoh hardened his heart and refused to accept that this was indeed the power of God he witnessed. And so just like Pharaoh, the people around Jesus had hardened their hearts against the power of God.
[39:18] They had refused to accept it. And so in verse 21, Jesus has another warning for them. Though a strong and well-prepared man may feel safe, a stronger man will overcome him and take away the things that he is trusted in.
[39:36] In other words, trusting in their self-righteousness, they may have confidence, but when it is stripped away, their hearts will be revealed. The children of Israel, trusting in their heritage, being the children of Abraham, trusted that they received righteousness through Abraham.
[39:55] But it's a false assurance if they are not truly children of God. The kingdom has come upon them, as Jesus says in verse 20, and he has taken away the armor of their self-righteousness and false confidence.
[40:09] And although they may try to hide, the truth will reveal their hypocrisy. Jesus knew their thoughts and hearts, and he warned them, when the truth is made plain for all to see, anyone who is not with me will scatter.
[40:25] Like mice, when you turn on the light, they will flee before the presence of the righteousness of God. The implication of this is that anyone who is not part of the kingdom of God is part of the kingdom of Satan.
[40:42] And Jesus has come to crush the kingdom of Satan once for all. And we know that anyone who is not with him will scatter before him. And so the people have to make a choice.
[40:55] Either accept him as the Christ and embrace the kingdom of God, or reject him and continue to embrace the kingdom of Satan. There can be no neutral position.
[41:07] Anyone who is not with Jesus, as he said, stands against him. In verse 24, Jesus said, It is not enough to remove the unclean spirit, for it will quickly return.
[41:23] When the unclean spirit, he says, has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking to find 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 and put in order.
[41:37] Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself. They enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. What does Jesus mean by this warning?
[41:52] He means that although, like those who responded to the baptism of John by repentance, by repenting of their sin, they only did so because the sin was wrong.
[42:07] They only did so because they wanted to receive something. But letting go of that one sin, through an act of self-righteousness, only prepared them to receive much greater sin.
[42:22] Maybe you've experienced this in your own life. You repent of one sin, things seem to go well for a while, and then you find yourself struggling with far greater sin a short time later.
[42:36] This is the warning that Jesus has. If they trust in their self-righteousness, this will never last. Instead, instead, the unclean spirit must be replaced with something better and lasting.
[42:51] And so the solution Jesus has in mind is that the evil desires of the heart must be replaced with a new affection for something greater, or more likely, someone greater.
[43:03] But suddenly, a voice cries out from the crowd, interrupting him, and says, Blessed is the womb that bore you. Perhaps one person from the crowd was able to see that Jesus was, in fact, good, and felt that it would be a great honor to be the mother of such a man.
[43:25] It would be an honor to be his mother, to have the heritage of such a son. This reminded me of Mary's song from Luke 1, 48, and perhaps is what Luke had in mind.
[43:37] Mary said, From now on, all generations will call me blessed. Truly, Mary was blessed, being the mother of Jesus. But this did not grant her eternal life, only the blessing of being the mother of Jesus.
[43:53] And so Jesus corrects them. The true and lasting blessing is to hear the word of God with faith. And to keep it. So what then is the point of this first section?
[44:08] We see that Jesus has come into the world preaching the kingdom of God. We know that he healed the sick. He cast out demons. And even in Luke 5, he forgave sins. Yet many continue to reject him.
[44:21] Jesus knows their hearts and their thoughts. He knew that they were unhealthy. That they had rejected the truth because it threatened their traditions. The conveniences of the life that they were living before encountering the kingdom of God.
[44:37] And so he cuts through the deception. He gave them a choice. Either accept me or deny me. There is no middle ground. Good and evil cannot coexist.
[44:49] You are either with Jesus or against him. You either welcome his Holy Spirit or you welcome the evil spirits. We know that the kingdom of God will be victorious over all.
[45:03] And those who align themselves with evil will scatter and ultimately be cast out of his kingdom and into darkness. And so I ask you today, do your traditions and preferences give you hesitation when Jesus calls you to repent and follow him?
[45:23] Does the prospect of straining the relationships that you have with family, friends, and co-workers give you pause when Jesus calls you to follow? When your social, cultural, religious traditions and norms that you love and hold dear are at odds with the word of God, which will you accept?
[45:44] Your traditions or the word of God? Do you find Christ calls us to things that feel out of touch, unreasonable, or sometimes legalistic?
[46:00] When the conveniences of sin, how convenient they often are, are at odds with the difficulty of obedience, which will you choose? Will you concede and reject Christ because he asks too much?
[46:14] Will you call good things evil and evil things good? Or will you reject this world and follow Christ, no matter the cost? Yes, the cost is great.
[46:27] And like the crowd around Jesus, we often fall short. We often fail. At times we deny him. But there is hope in these words. Jesus came in the world to cast out demons and evil spirits and to break through the hardest of hearts.
[46:43] He came to replace our evil spirits with the Holy Spirit and so to give us a new affection for righteousness. Yes, it will be difficult, but we know that he who calls us is faithful to sanctify us completely.
[47:01] And so as we continue into the next verses, we see the commotion and noise of the crowd only growing louder at Jesus' rebuke.
[47:15] I've titled section two, Light Shines in the Darkness, and we'll pick up in verse 29. We see in verse 29 that Jesus certainly did not shrink back from the crowd, rather offering a louder rebuke.
[47:31] He says, this generation is an evil generation. It seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.
[47:42] He found that all they wanted was another sign. What he had already done was not sufficient.
[47:53] And he knows that the only reason it was not sufficient was because their hearts were hard, because they would not receive what they had already seen. And so he said, no new sign would be given to them except the sign of Jonah.
[48:08] And then he reminds them how the evil people of Nineveh received the preaching of Jonah. He reminds them how the queen of the south, the queen of Sheba, as she's called in the books of Samuel, traveled all the way across the Arabian Peninsula to hear the wisdom of Solomon.
[48:27] And yet God stands before them revealing greater wisdoms and they reject him. And so they stand without excuse, though the Gentiles were quick to accept the truth.
[48:41] God's own people did not recognize the very Son of God. But Jesus doesn't leave them without any sign. He instead reminds them of the scriptures which foretold the kingdom of God.
[48:57] He points to Jonah. Jonah spent three days in the darkness and depth of the sea in the belly of a whale. to those who grew up in Hebrew culture, they would know that this was a clear sign of death.
[49:13] To be in the darkness of the water for three days indicated death. But God raised him from the dead that he may preach mercy and repentance to the Ninevites and they received his preaching.
[49:27] They repented and so God showed mercy. Soon Jesus, later in the book of Luke, will also spend three days in the grave and God will similarly raise him from the dead to preach faith and repentance to the people of God.
[49:45] And perhaps some of those in the crowd, though they rejected him during their lifetime, during his lifetime rather, perhaps when they see the risen Christ, they will accept him.
[49:56] But for now, as we continue into verse 33, Jesus offers another illustration to warn the crowd of the eternal danger of hardened hearts and blinded eyes.
[50:12] The light had come into the world. He proclaimed the power of God for all to see. And rather than embracing the light of Christ, they tried to hide him.
[50:24] they tried to extinguish him. Rather than seeing the goodness of God in the light of Jesus, they saw through dark-tinted sunglasses that twisted light into darkness.
[50:39] With unhealthy eyes, their whole body was filled with darkness and so they were unable to see that Jesus was the Son of God. This reminded me of John 3, 19 through 20.
[50:51] Just after everyone's favorite verse, John 3, 16, Jesus says, the light has come into the world and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
[51:04] For whoever, rather, for anyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light lest his works should be exposed.
[51:15] Jesus threatened to expose the truth of their hearts, their hypocrisy, and so they hated him. But Jesus does warn those who were listening, be careful, in verse 35, lest the light in you be darkness.
[51:34] And so I ask, how can light be darkness? Aren't they mutually exclusive? How can light be darkness? Light and dark cannot coexist.
[51:47] Darkness scatters before the light. When you turn on the light, the light instantly fills the room and the darkness disappears.
[51:58] Although light may enter blind eyes, blind eyes cannot see the light. Jesus' warning is that when the hard-hearted reject the truth, they are blind to the light of Christ and all they see instead is darkness.
[52:15] darkness. And so this is a bleak warning. It reminds me as well of Exodus. If you remember the story of Pharaoh, maybe you've not paid attention to the wonders before, but seven times witnessing the wonders of God, he hardens his heart against God.
[52:36] And then on the eighth time, it's no longer he who hardens his heart, but God who hardens his heart. He has hardened his heart to the point where he is consumed by darkness, unable to receive the light.
[52:55] This is Jesus' warning. Those who ultimately harden their heart against God are overcome by darkness and no longer perceive the light.
[53:06] No matter how brightly the light of Christ shines, their eyes are blind to see it. And like Pharaoh, they will face the crushing waters of the sea and then outer darkness because their hearts loved darkness more than light.
[53:27] Yet Jesus offers hope. He offers hope for those who are full of light. Rays of bright light will illuminate their hearts and minds to see the truth, to recognize the goodness of God and accept him as the Son of God.
[53:46] We can see in these verses that Jesus is deeply frustrated by the lack of faith that he finds in Israel. But he knows the Father's plan of salvation is always deeper than what hard hearts and blind eyes can see.
[54:05] He knew that the light that shines through the darkness is able to open the blindest of eyes and heal the hardest of hearts by the Spirit of God. Prophesied in Isaiah 35 verses 5 and 6, we know that it is Jesus who opens the eyes of the blind.
[54:28] It is him who opens the ears of the deaf, who makes the lame to leap and the mute to sing as we see in this very passage. And we know from the promises of Ezekiel 36 verse 26, one of my favorite passages in Scripture, it is God who removes the heart of stone and gives the heart of flesh.
[54:51] He alone gives a new spirit and fills us with his Holy Spirit who causes us to hear his word and obey it. But I think following the encouragement verses 1 through 13 with the warning of 14 through 36, Luke wants us to be encouraged that it is God who works in us to see, to receive, and believe, but also to remember.
[55:24] That doesn't negate our responsibility to knock, to seek, and to ask, to seek after the kingdom of God with all our heart and mind and soul and strength.
[55:42] Now some of you listening to this message today, maybe you're struggling with similar doubts to the crowd of Luke 11. Is Jesus really all that he claimed to be?
[55:55] Is he really God? Is he really able to save me from my sin? And so I ask you, what sign from heaven would convince you?
[56:08] What evidence would be sufficient for you to believe? I believe that the evidence that Jesus died and rose from the dead is overwhelming.
[56:20] We know from 1 Corinthians 15 that more than 500 people bore witness to him risen from the dead. We know that many wrote about it and suffered and died to defend it.
[56:35] The effect he has had on the last 2,000 years of history is evidence enough that he lived, he died, he rose, and he has the power to transform those who believe in him.
[56:48] And so I want to challenge you like these verses to take a serious look at your heart. The problem is not the evidence. The problem is a willingness to accept it, to see the kingdom of God revealed in Jesus with eyes wide open.
[57:09] If you can't see it yet, seek him, knock, pray, trust that he is faithful to answer. Cry out to him and he will answer.
[57:24] To those of you who have experienced the light of Christ, I present you a choice as well. Having, as these verses say, verse 36, your whole body full of light, will you hide the light of Christ?
[57:44] Will you try to put it in a cellar or under a basket? We know that the crowd around us is asking the same questions that they asked Jesus.
[57:56] They want to know if this hope and joy that is in you is from God or from Satan? Is it from God or from the world? They want to know if you can prove that Jesus really is God, that they must really believe in him to have life.
[58:14] And so I ask, will you let them remain in darkness or will you let the light of Christ shine forth? Will you speak up even when it's awkward and difficult, even when you face persecution?
[58:29] But I encourage you to not be ashamed of Jesus and his words. Rather, like Matthew 5, 16 says, let your light shine before others so they may see your good works and give glory to God.
[58:46] Let everything you do in word and deed bring glory to God. Proclaim his word with boldness. Be the beautiful feet and bright shining light of the gospel in a world consumed by darkness.
[59:04] And remember, Jesus came into this world to scatter the darkness, to fill us with his Holy Spirit. And it is by his Spirit that we are able to perceive the light and shine the light for all to see.
[59:19] Let's pray.