Reading: chapter 11 verses 14-36
Ill:
Dedicated on March 13th 1904 a large statue of Christ;
• Was erected high in the Andes on the border between Argentina and Chile.
• It is called “Christ of the Andes,”
• The statue symbolizes a pledge between the 2 countries that as long as the statue stands,
• There will be peace between Chile and Argentina.
• Shortly after the statue was erected, the Chileans began to protest;
• They claimed that they had been slighted because the statue had its back turned to Chile.
• Just when tempers were at their highest in Chile,
• A Chilean newspaperman saved the day.
• In an editorial that not only satisfied the people but made them laugh, he simply said,
• “The people of Argentina need more watching over than the Chileans”.
• When an argument threatened to destroy the peace of two nations;
• A wise Chilean newspaperman saved the day.
Our passage this evening:
• Starts with a healing,
• Jesus was drove out a demon that caused the man to be mute.
• Note: this does not mean that every person who is mute has a demon;
• It simply means that the way the demonic spirit affected the man was by making him mute.
• When the demon left, the man who had been mute spoke,
• And the crowd was amazed.
•
• But instead of rejoicing with the man who has been set free;
• The healing is soon put to one side.
• And an argument regarding how the healing was done takes centre stage.
• The source, the root, the power of the healing is the main agenda in these verses.
(1). Slander (vs 14-28)
• When the enemies of Jesus were unable to oppose him by fair means;
• They resorted to unfair means – slander!
Ill:
• In the 18oo’s William Ewart Gladstone was a British Liberal Party statesman;
• And four times Prime Minister;
• Gladstone is also famous for his intense rivalry with the Conservative Party Leader Benjamin Disraeli.
• The rivalry was not only political, but also personal.
• e.g. Gladstone's nickname was GOM (which stood for ‘Grand Old Man’,),
• Disraeli publicly said it really stood for "God's Only Mistake".
• When Gladstone was interested in the reformation of prostitutes;
• His opponents said he was interested in them for very different reasons!
• Unable to oppose Gladstone by fair means;
• His opponents resorted to unfair means – slander!
Accusation (vs 14-16).
14Jesus was driving out a demon that was mute. When the demon left, the man who had been mute spoke, and the crowd was amazed. 15But some of them said, "By Beelzebub, the prince of demons, he is driving out demons." 16Others tested him by asking for a sign from heaven.
Verse 15: “The some of them said”:
• These people are identified for us by Matthew and Mark in their gospels,
• They are the Pharisees and scribes, the opponents to the ministry of Jesus.
• They responded to this exorcism by Jesus;
• By claiming that it was accomplished by the power of the devil.
So, this exorcism – this miraculous act of mercy:
• Cause two very different reactions:
• Amazement from the crowd,
• And accusation from the religious leaders.
• Who claim that it was accomplished by the power of Beelzebub.
Question: Who or what is Beelzebub?
Answer:
• Beelzebub was one of the names of the Philistine God Baal.
• We read about him in 2 Kings chapter 1 verses 1-3.
• The name Beelzebub,
• Means anything from ‘Lord of the Flies’ or ‘Lord of Dung’.
• A variant is Beelzebul, which means ‘Lord of the dwelling’.
• This meaning ties in with the illustration Jesus would later use in verses 18-26.
• To the Jewish people of Jesus day;
• The name Beelzebub was another name for Satan.
These religious leaders could and should have been rejoicing with the healed man:
• But instead they use the incident to condemn Jesus;
• They have already decided to condemn him despite the evidence before them.
Ill:
• A tribe in the jungle were all falling sick;
• A missionary doctor went into the village to try and help them.
• He suspected and soon discovered;
• That it was the contaminated water they were drinking that caused their sickness.
• To show the natives the missionary set up a table in the village;
• Then using a microscope he showed them the contamination that was in the water.
• Later that night when the village was quiet;
• And everyone appeared to be a sleep in bed.
• Somebody broke into the missionaries offices and smashed the microscope;
• For them no microscope no problem!
• The religious leaders had the same mind set;
• Get rid of Jesus and they foolishly believed that you would also get rid of the problem!
The religious leaders accuse Jesus of being in league with the devil:
• Instead of rejoicing that God had sent the deliver;
• They are only concerned with discrediting and condemning him.
• Please note the irony here in verse 16:
• “You performed this miracle by the power of Satan¨ they say.
• And, then they follow up with the classic line, “Now show us more miracles.”
• If the miracle is of Satan why do they want more!
• In verse 16: they say you gave us an earthly miracle now give us a heavenly one.
• Jesus knew that their motives were to trick and condemn him and so he refused.
Refutation (vs 17-22).
17”Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them: "Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall. 18If Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand? I say this because you claim that I drive out demons by Beelzebub. 19Now if I drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your followers drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. 20But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you.
21"When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe. 22But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armour in which the man trusted and divides up the spoils”.
JESUS ANSWERS THEIR ACCUSATION WITH THREE ARGUMENTS:
(a). Their accusation was illogical.
• Would Satan fight against himself and divide his own kingdom?
• Jesus shows these religious leaders the stupidity of what they are saying.
• Ill: No general wanting to win the war would send his soldiers to the front lines
• With orders to shoot their own comrades.
• In the same way, the accusation:
• That Jesus is winning battles against Satan by Satan’s power is patently absurd.
(b). Their charges are self-incriminating.
• Jesus reminds them that he wasn’t the only one who exorcised demons.
• They themselves performed exorcism.
• We are not told if they were successful or not;
• And so rivalry and jealousy may be fuelling the religious leaders argument.
Note:
• If they condemned Jesus then they were also condemning themselves!
• Because they were doing exactly the same activity that Jesus was doing?
• So by their own logic, did that mean that they are they in league with Satan too?
• And, so Jesus exposes their hypocrisy.
If they stopped to think and applied rational logic;
• This exorcism would show them that the kingdom of God is present;
• And not as they were saying, the kingdom of Satan.
(c). Their accusation is actually an admission of Jesus’ power.
• So Jesus illustrates his argument with a story that everyone would know;
• His point is simple, he could not defeat Satan unless he was stronger than Satan.
Ill:
• People with lots of possessions regularly posted armed guards;
• To prevent their houses being plundered.
• These houses were safe from thieves and robbers;
• Because they were protected by somebody stronger.
• In this short parable, Satan is the householder;
• And Jesus is the man coming to plunder his poorly guarded house.
• The point is obvious: since Jesus is spoiling the devil’s kingdom,
• He can’t be Satan’s lesser minion; He must be stronger than the devil.
Application (vs 23-28):
23"He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me, scatters.
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.' 25When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. 26Then 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."
So far, Jesus has answered his critics with what amounts to an appeal to their reason:
• But the religious leaders do not want to listen to reason;
• They have made their minds up and do not want to be influenced by the facts!
• The crowd scared to go against the formal, dead religious establishment;
• Were attracted to the reality of Jesus and his message.
• Yet they assumed they could have the best of both worlds;
• Remain in their religion and yet experience the life and miraculous that came with Jesus.
• So Jesus does what is sometimes called “shaking the fence.”
• Because the crowds who followed Jesus were, for the most part, fence sitters.
So Jesus puts his hands on that fence and gives is a long, hard shaking.
• Here Jesus shakes the fence of neutrality,
• And as a result people who are sitting on that fence will fall on God’s side or Satan’s side.
• There is no other side.
• And, there is no middle ground of impartiality.
• Jesus makes it very clear that it is impossible to be natural in this spiritual warfare:
• In fact to be natural means standing against him!
• There are two spiritual forces at work in the world;
• And we must choose between them.
• Satan is ‘scattering and destroying’;
• Jesus is ‘gathering and building’.
• We must make a choice and if we make no choice;
• We are really choosing to side with him.
Ill:
• Open-air Bournemouth.
• “Hold on – I didn’t say those words, Jesus did!”
Jesus goes further to explain the impossibility of remaining neutral, by way of a story:
• An evil spirit comes out of a man,
• Immediately the man’s condition improved.
• The Spirit goes off looking for somewhere else to dwell;
• But he could not find anywhere.
• So then the evil spirit says, 'I will return to the house I left.'
• When it arrives back at the man, it finds the house swept clean and put in order.
• But because the man ignored God the one who had liberated him;
• Not only was he was defenceless against the spirit returning.
• But the spirit returns and takes seven other spirits with him,
• And they go in and up home there.
• And the punchline of the story used by Jesus says:
• The final condition of that man is worse than the first.
Point:
• You cannot be neutral when it comes to Jesus;
• We must be for him or we are against him!
Quote: C.S. Lewis said it well,
“I’m trying to prevent anyone from saying the really silly thing that people often say about Him (Jesus); ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That’s the one thing we mustn’t say.
A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things that Jesus said wouldn’t be a great moral teacher. He’d either be a lunatic - on the level with the man who says he’s a poached egg - or else he’d be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for being a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call Him Lord and God. But don’t let us come with any patronizing nonsense about Him being a great human teacher. He hasn’t left that open to us. He didn’t intend to!”
(b). An interruption (vs 27-28):
27As Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd called out, "Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you."
28He replied, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it."
A blessing (vs 27)
• A woman in the crowd called out,
• “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that nursed you.”
• This was a typical Jewish blessing;
• But the woman who spoke them did not know how true her words were.
• She was indirectly referring to Mary;
• And she was indeed blessed of God.
Note:
• Our word ‘bless’, blessed’, and ‘blessing’;
• Are found over five hundred times in the Bible.
• If the word was ever removed from our vocabulary,
• Our prayer life, congregational worship and preaching would be greatly affected!
• Our word ‘bless’, blessed’, and ‘blessing’; are friendly words;
• That we are accustomed to hearing and using.
Question: What do they mean?
Answer:
• An act of God that brings glory to God.
• By accomplishing his will and helping his people grow and do his will.
• That was literally true of Mary, she was indeed blessed of God.
• As she sought to do his will and glorify God in her life!
A response (vs 27)
• But, Jesus pointed her (and the others in the crowd) to a greater blessing.
• He said, "More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!"
• Ill: Mary’s one command in the New Testament:
• “Whatever he tells you to do, do it”
Ill:
• Think about the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount;
• The greatest sermon ever preached;
• It is the largest block of Jesus' teachings in the New Testament.
• In the 1st century of Christian churches, it was the most cited part of the New Testament.
• How would you have finished it?
• Jesus finished it with a story (too often we delegate it to the kids).
• The wise & foolish builders.
• The application not the accusation of truth that sets us free!
(c). A History Lesson (vs 29-36):
29As 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. 30For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of Man be to this generation. 31The 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. 32The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now one greater than Jonah is here.
The crowd swells as they are attracted by the excitement of the controversy that is taking place:
• But Jesus was never too impressed by big crowds;
• Although his disciples were.
• We tend to think of success numerically (more people must be doing right);
• But Jesus was more interested in the quality, the motives, the hearts of the crowd.
Jesus uses three illustrations to teach the people;
(illustration 1). Jonah (vs 29-30 & 32)
The religious leaders kept on asking Jesus for a sign to prove that he was the Messiah.
• We might ask if they were blind or stupid;
• Hadn’t Jesus just given them one?
• Jesus performed miracles to help those in distress or to meet people’s needs;
• He would not perform a miracles as a sort of ‘circus act’.
• To those who came looking for the spectacular;
• Then the only sign Jesus promised them was ‘The sign of Jonah’.
Ill:
• I guess the story of Jonah is one of the first Bible stories we learn about as children.
• Jonah was a man from the Old Testament;
• Who instead of obeying God, tried running away;
• He got on board a boat going in the very opposite direction to which he was told to go.
• God sent a storm, the sailors realised this was no ordinary storm;
• And they drew lots to see who had upset the Gods.
• The lot fell on Jonah;
• And he was reluctantly thrown overboard and into the sea.
• He did not drown because he was swallowed by a large fish.
• This fish transported him (submarine style) to Ninevah;
• When they arrived at the coast of Ninevah;
• The fish puked him up on the beach.
• Jonah then went and preached to the Ninivites;
• Jonah was a physical sign to the Ninevites (ill: bleached white skin);
• Jonah (the Jew) preached;
• And amazingly (Gentile enemies) the entire city listened and repented!
• After having spent 3 days and 3 nights in the belly of the great fish;
• Jonah is a picture, a type of death, burial and resurrection.
• Jesus is symbolically telling the people;
• That the greatest miracle they will ever see is his resurrection!
(illustration 2). Solomon (vs 31).
31The 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.
• The emphasis in this illustration is on the wisdom of the king;
• Not the words of the prophet.
Ill:
• In 1 Kings chapter 10 we read about the Queen of Sheba
• Question: Where was Sheba?
• Answer: It may have included parts or all of modern day Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Yemen.
• The point Jesus is making is:
• The Queen travelled far to listen to the wisdom of Solomon.
• Unlike his Jewish hearers;
• They have not had to travel at all (God has come to them);
• Not only that they;
• And they are listening to one even wiser than Solomon.
The important thing in these illustrations is that they involve Gentiles:
• Jonah preached in Nineveh and the Gentile Ninivites believed.
• Solomon spoke to a Gentile Queen and she marvelled and received his words gladly.
Jesus said at the judgement day:
• These Gentiles will testify against his Jewish listeners;
• Who despite all the privileges refuse to believe!
(illustration 3). Light (vs 33-36).
33"No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl. Instead he puts it on its stand, so that those who come in may see the light. 34Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are good, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are bad, your body also is full of darkness. 35See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. 36Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be completely lighted, as when the light of a lamp shines on you."
• Third illustration is not from history;
• But from daily life.
• It is an illustration that Jesus has used before.
• It is also an illustration that is used often in the Old Testament.
Ill:
• Psalm 119 verse 105.
• “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path”.
God’s word is light that shines in a world of darkness.
• Ill: Naturally speaking not even the brightest sun is able to make a blind man see.
• Ill: But God’s light (his word) moves us from spiritual blindness to sight.
• Jesus is making a direct appeal to his hearers:
• To believe what they are seeing i.e. healing of the man.
In verse 33: Jesus says he is the light shining through what he says and does;
• Those who see him respond negatively or positively.
• According to the light they already have.
• If they have already decided to write Jesus off as a fraud;
• Then what they ‘see’ will confirm that.
• Whereas if you come seeking the light (the truth);
• Then what you discover in Jesus ‘see’ will also confirm that.
