Luke 11

Luke 11:1

G. The Disciples’ Prayer (11:1-4) Between chapters 10 and 11, there is a time interval which is covered in John 9:1-10:21. 11:1 This is another of the frequent references by Luke to the prayer life of our Lord. It fits in with Luke’s purpose in presenting Christ as the Son of Man, ever dependent upon God His Father. The disciples sensed that prayer was a real and vital force in the life of Jesus. As they heard Him pray, it made them want to pray too. And so one of His disciples asked that He would teach them to pray. He did not say, Teach us how to pray, but Teach us to pray. However, the request certainly includes both the fact and the method. 11:2 The model prayer which the Lord Jesus gave to them at this time is somewhat different from the so-called Lord’s prayer in Matthew’s Gospel. These differences all have a purpose and meaning. None of them is without significance. First of all, the Lord taught the disciples to address God as Our Father. This intimate family relationship was unknown to believers in the OT. It simply means that believers are now to speak to God as to a loving heavenly Father. Next, we are taught to pray that God’s name should be hallowed. This expresses the longing of the believer’s heart that He should be reverenced, magnified, and adored. In the petition, Your kingdom come, we have a prayer that the day will soon arrive when God will put down the forces of evil and, in the Person of Christ, reign supreme over the earth, where His will shall be done as it is in heaven. 11:3 Having thus sought first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, the petitioner is taught to make known his personal needs and desires. The ever-recurring need for food, both physical and spiritual, is introduced. We are to live in daily dependence upon Him, acknowledging Him as the source of every good. 11:4 Next there is the prayer for the forgiveness of sins, based on the fact that we have shown a forgiving spirit to others. Obviously this does not refer to forgiveness from the penalty of sin. That forgiveness is based upon the finished work of Christ on Calvary, and is received through faith alone. But here we are dealing with parental or governmental forgiveness. After we are saved, God deals with us as with children. If He finds a hard and unforgiving spirit in our hearts, He will chastise us until we are broken and brought back into fellowship with Himself. This forgiveness has to do with fellowship with God, rather than with relationship. The plea And do not lead us into temptation presents difficulties to some. We know that God never tempts anyone to sin. But He does allow us to experience trials and testings in life, and these are designed for our good. Here the thought seems to be that we should constantly be aware of our own proneness to wander and fall into sin. We should ask the Lord to keep us from falling into sin, even if we ourselves might want to do it. We should pray that the opportunity to sin and the desire to do so should never coincide. The prayer expresses a healthy distrust of our own ability to resist temptation. The prayer ends with a plea for deliverance from the evil one.

Luke 11:5

H. Two Parables on Prayer (11:5-13) 11:5-8 Continuing with the subject of prayer, the Lord gave an illustration designed to show God’s willingness to hear and answer the petitions of His children. The story has to do with a man who had a guest arrive at his home at midnight. Unfortunately he did not have enough food on hand. So he went to a neighbor, knocked on his door, and asked for three loaves of bread. At first the neighbor was annoyed by the interruption to his sleep and didn’t bother to get up. Yet because of the prolonged banging and shouting of the worried host, he finally did get up and give him what he needed. In applying this illustration we must be careful to avoid certain conclusions. It doesn’t mean that God is annoyed by our persistent requests. And it doesn’t suggest that the only way to get our prayers answered is to be persistent. It does teach that if a man is willing to help a friend because of his importunity, God is much more willing to hear the cries of His children. 11:9 It teaches that we should not grow weary or discouraged in our prayer life. Keep on asking … keep on seeking … keep on knocking … . Sometimes God answers our prayers the first time we ask. But in other cases He answers only after prolonged asking. God answers prayers: Sometimes, when hearts are weak, He gives the very gifts believers seek; But often faith must learn a deeper rest, And trust God’s silence when He does not speak; For He whose name is love will send the best, Stars may burn out, nor mountain walls endure, But God is true; His promises are sure. He is our strength. M.G.P. The parable seems to teach increasing degrees of importunityasking to seeking to knocking. 11:10 It teaches that everyone who asks receives, everyone who seeks finds, and everyone who knocks has it opened to him. This is a promise that when we pray, God always gives us what we ask or He gives us something better. A no answer means that He knows our request would not be the best for us; His denial is then better than our petition. 11:11, 12 It teaches that God will never deceive us by giving us a stone when we ask bread. Bread in those days was shaped in a round flat cake, resembling a stone. God will never mock us by giving us something inedible when we ask for food. If we ask for a fish, He will not give us a serpent, that is, something that might destroy us. And if we ask for an egg, He will not give us a scorpion, that is, something that would cause excruciating pain. 11:13 A human father would not give bad gifts; even though he has a sinful nature, he knows how to give good gifts to his children. How much more is our heavenly Father willing to give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him. J. G. Bellet says, It is significant that the gift He selects as the one we most need, and the one He most desires to give, is the Holy Spirit. When Jesus spoke these words, the Holy Spirit had not yet been given (Joh_7:39). We should not pray today for the Holy Spirit to be given to us as an indwelling Person, because He comes to indwell us at the time of our conversion (Rom_8:9 b; Eph_1:13-14). But it is certainly proper and necessary for us to pray for the Holy Spirit in other ways. We should pray that we will be teachable by the Holy Spirit, that we will be guided by the Spirit, and that His power will be poured out on us in all our service for Christ. It is quite possible that when Jesus taught the disciples to ask for the Holy Spirit, He was referring to the power of the Spirit enabling them to live the other-worldly type of discipleship which He had been teaching in the preceding chapters. By this time, they were probably feeling how utterly impossible it was for them to meet the tests of discipleship in their own strength. This is, of course, true. The Holy Spirit is the power that enables one to live the Christian life. So Jesus pictured God as anxious to give this power to those who ask. In the original Greek, verse 13 does not say that God will give the Holy Spirit, but rather He will give Holy Spirit (without the article). Professor H. B. Swete pointed out that when the article is present, it refers to the Person Himself, but when the article is absent, it refers to His gifts or operations on our behalf. So in this passage, it is not so much a prayer for the Person of the Holy Spirit, but rather for His ministries in our lives. This is further borne out by the parallel passage in Mat_7:11 which reads, … how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!

Luke 11:14

I. Jesus Answers His Critics (11:14-26) 11:14-16 Casting out a demon that had caused its victim to be mute, Jesus created quite a stir among the people. While the multitudes marveled, others became more openly opposed to the Lord. The opposition took two principal forms. Some accused Him of casting out demons by the power of Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons. Others suggested that He should perform a sign from heaven; perhaps their idea was that this might disprove the charge that had been made against Him. 11:17, 18 The accusation that He cast out demons because He was indwelt by Beelzebub is answered in verses 17-26. The request for a sign is answered in v. 29. First of all, the Lord Jesus reminded them that every kingdom divided against itself is destroyed, and a house divided against itself falls. If He was a tool of Satan in casting out demons, then Satan was fighting against his own underlings. It is ridiculous to think that the devil would thus oppose himself and obstruct his own purposes. 11:19 Secondly, the Lord reminded His critics that some of their own countrymen were at that very time casting out evil spirits. If He did it by the power of Satan, then it necessarily follows that they must be doing it by the same power. Of course, the Jews would never be willing to admit this. And yet how could they deny the force of the argument? The power to cast out demons came either from God or from Satan. It had to be one or the other; it could not be both. If Jesus acted by the power of Satan, then the Jewish exorcists depended upon the same power. To condemn Him was to condemn them also. 11:20 The true explanation is that Jesus cast out demons with the finger of God. What did He mean by the finger of God? In the account in Matthew’s Gospel (Mat_12:28), we read: But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. So we conclude that the finger of God is the same as the Spirit of God. The fact that Jesus was casting out demons by the Spirit of God was evidence indeed that the kingdom of God had come upon the people of that generation. The kingdom had come in the Person of the King Himself. The very fact that the Lord Jesus was there, performing such miracles, was proof positive that God’s anointed Ruler had appeared upon the stage of history. 11:21, 22 Up until now, Satan was a strong man, fully armed, who held undisputed sway over his court. Those who were possessed by demons were kept in his grip, and there was no one to challenge him. His goods were in peace, that is, no one had the power to dispute his sway. The Lord Jesus was stronger than Satan, came upon him, overcame him, took all his armor from him, and divided his spoils. Not even His critics denied that evil spirits were being cast out by Jesus. This could only mean that Satan had been conquered and that his victims were being liberated. That is the point of these verses. 11:23 Then Jesus added that anyone who is not with Him is against Him, and anyone who does not gather with Him scatters abroad. As someone has said, A man is either on the way or in the way. We have already mentioned the seeming contradiction between this verse and Luk_9:50. If the issue is the Person and work of Christ, there can be no neutrality. A man who is not for Christ is against Him. But when it is a matter of Christian service, those who are not against Christ’s servants are for them. In the first verse, it is a matter of salvation; in the second a matter of service. 11:24-26 It seems that the Lord is turning the tables on His critics. They had accused Him of being demon-possessed. He now likens their nation to a man who had been temporarily cured of demon possession. This was true in their history. Prior to the captivity, the nation of Israel had been possessed with the demon of idolatry. But the captivity rid them of that evil spirit, and since then the Jews have never been given over to idolatry.

Their house has been swept and put in order, but they have refused to let the Lord Jesus come in and take possession. Therefore He predicted that in a coming day, the unclean spirit would gather seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they would enter the house and dwell there. This refers to the terrible form of idolatry which the Jewish nation will adopt during the Tribulation Period; they will acknowledge the Antichrist to be God (Joh_5:43) and the punishment for this sin will be greater than the nation has ever endured before. While this illustration refers primarily to Israel’s national history, it also points up the insufficiency of mere repentance or reformation in an individual’s life. It is not enough to turn over a new leaf. The Lord Jesus Christ must be welcomed into the heart and life. Otherwise the life is open to entrance by more vile forms of sin than ever indulged in before.

Luke 11:27

J. More Blessed Than Mary (11:27, 28) A certain woman came from the crowd to hail Jesus with the words, Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts which nursed You! The reply of our Lord was most significant. He did not deny that Mary, His mother, was blessed, but He went beyond this and said that it was even more important to hear the word of God and keep it. In other words, even the Virgin Mary was more blessed in believing on Christ and following Him than she was in being His mother. Natural relationship is not as important as spiritual. This should be sufficient to silence those who would make Mary an object of adoration.

Luke 11:29

K. The Sign of Jonah (11:29-32) 11:29 In verse 16, some had tempte8ed the Lord Jesus, asking Him for a sign from heaven. He now answers that request by ascribing it to an evil generation. He was speaking primarily concerning the Jewish generation which was living at that time. The people had been privileged with the presence of the Son of God. They had heard His words and had witnessed His miracles. But they were not satisfied with this. They now pretended that if they could only see a mighty, supernatural work in the heavens, they would believe on Him. The Lord’s answer was that no further sign would be given to them except the sign of Jonah the prophet. 11:30 He was referring to His own resurrection from the dead. Just as Jonah was delivered from the sea, after being in the whale’s belly for three days and three nights, so the Lord Jesus would rise from the dead after being in the grave for three days and three nights. In other words, the last and conclusive miracle in the earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus would be His resurrection. Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites. When he went to preach to this Gentile metropolis, he went as one who figuratively, at least, had risen from the dead. 11:31, 32 The queen of the South, the Gentile Queen of Sheba, traveled a great distance to hear the wisdom of Solomon. She did not see a single miracle. If she had been privileged to live in the days of the Lord, how readily she would have received Him! Therefore she will rise up in the judgment against those wicked men who were privileged to see the supernatural works of the Lord Jesus and who nonetheless rejected Him. A greater than Jonah, and a greater than Solomon had stepped on the stage of human history. Whereas the men of Ninevah repented at the preaching of Jonah, the men of Israel refused to repent at the preaching of a greater than Jonah. Unbelief today scoffs at the story of Jonah, assigning it to Hebrew legend. Jesus spoke of Jonah as an actual person of history, just as He spoke of Solomon. People who say they would believe if they could see a miracle are mistaken. Faith is not based on the evidences of the senses but on the living word of God. If a man will not believe the word of God, he will not believe though one should rise from the dead. The attitude that demands a sign is not pleasing to God. That is not faith but sight. Unbelief says, Let me see and then I will believe. God says, Believe and then you will see.

Luke 11:33

L. Parable of the Lighted Lamp (11:33-36) 11:33 At first we might think that there is no connection between these verses and the preceding ones. But on closer examination, we find a very vital link. Jesus reminded His hearers that no one puts a lighted lamp in the cellar or under a basket. He puts it on a lampstand where it will be seen and where it will provide light for all who enter. The application is this: God is the One who has lit the lamp. In the Person and work of the Lord Jesus, He provided a blaze of illumination for the world. If anyone doesn’t see the Light, it isn’t God’s fault. In chapter 8, Jesus was speaking of the responsibility of those who were already His disciples to propagate the faith and not to hide it under a vessel. Here in 11:33 He is exposing the unbelief of His sign-seeking critics as caused by their covetousness and fear of shame. 11:34 Their unbelief was a result of their impure motives. In the physical realm, the eye is that which gives light to the whole body. If the eye is healthy, then the person can see the light. But if the eye is diseased, that is, blind, then the light cannot get in. It is the same in the spiritual realm. If a person is sincere in his desire to know whether Jesus is the Christ of God, then God will reveal it to him. But if his motives are not pure, if he wants to cling to his greed, if he continues to fear what others will say, then he is blinded to the true worth of the Savior. 11:35 The men Jesus was addressing thought themselves to be very wise. They supposed that they had a great deal of light. But the Lord Jesus warned them to consider the fact that the light that was in them was actually darkness. Their own pretended wisdom and superiority kept them from Him. 11:36 The person whose motives are pure, who opens His complete being to Jesus, the Light of the world, is flooded with spiritual illumination. His inward life is enlightened by Christ just as his body is illuminated when he sits in the direct rays of a lamp.

Luke 11:37

M. Outward and Inward Cleanliness (11:37-41) 11:37-40 When Jesus accepted the invitation of a certain Pharisee to dinner, His host was shocked that He had not first washed before dinner. Jesus read his thoughts and thoroughly rebuked him for such hypocrisy and externalism. Jesus reminded him that what really counts is not the cleanliness of the outside of the cup but the inside. Outwardly, the Pharisees appeared quite righteous, but inwardly they were crooked and wicked. The same God who made the outside of man made the inside as well, and He is interested that our inward lives should be pure. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart (1Sa_16:7). 11:41 The Lord realized how covetous and selfish these Pharisees were, so He told His host first to give alms of such things as he had. If he could pass this basic test of love to others, then indeed all things would be clean to him. H. A. Ironside comments: When the love of God fills the heart so that one will be concerned about the needs of others, then only will these outward observances have any real value. He who is constantly gathering up for himself, in utter indifference to the poor and needy about him, gives evidence that the love of God does not dwell in him. An unknown writer summarizes: The severe things said in verses 39-52 against Pharisees and lawyers were said at a Pharisee’s dinner table (verse 37). What we call good taste is often made a substitute for loyalty to truth; we smile when we should frown; and we are silent when we should speak. Better break up a dinner party than break faith with God.

Luke 11:42

N. The Pharisees Rebuked (11:42-44) 11:42 The Pharisees were externalists. They were punctilious about the smallest details of the ceremonial law, such as tithing tiny herbs. But they were careless in their relations with God and with man. They oppressed the poor and failed to love God. The Lord did not rebuke them for tithing mint and rue and every herb, but simply pointed out that they should not be so zealous in this particular and neglect the basic duties of life, such as justice and the love of God. They emphasized the subordinate but overlooked the primary. They excelled in what could be seen by others but were careless about what only God could see. 11:43 They loved to parade themselves, to occupy positions of prominence in the synagogues, and to attract as much attention as possible in the marketplaces. They were thus guilty not only of externalism but of pride as well. 11:44 Finally the Lord compared them to unmarked graves. Under the Law of Moses, whoever touched a grave was unclean for seven days (Num_19:16), even if he didn’t know at the time that it was a grave. The Pharisees outwardly gave the appearance of being devout religious leaders. But they should have worn a sign warning people that it was defiling to come in touch with them. They were like unmarked graves, full of corruption and uncleanness, and infecting others with their externalism and pride.

Luke 11:45

O. The Lawyers Denounced (11:45-52) 11:45 The lawyers were the scribesexperts in explaining and interpreting the Law of Moses. However, their skill was limited to telling others what to do. They did not practice it themselves. One of the lawyers had felt the cutting edge of Jesus’ words, and reminded Him that in criticizing the Pharisees, He was also insulting the legal experts. 11:46 The Lord used this as an occasion to lash out at some of the sins of the lawyers. First of all they oppressed the people with all kinds of legal burdens, but did nothing to help them bear the burdens. As Kelly remarks, They were notorious for their contempt of the very people from whom they derived their importance. Many of their rules were man-made and were connected with matters of no real importance. 11:47, 48 The lawyers were hypocritical murderers. They pretended to admire the prophets of God. They went so far as to erect monuments over the tombs of the OT prophets. This certainly seemed to be a proof of their deep respect. But the Lord Jesus knew differently. While outwardly dissociating themselves from their Jewish ancestors who killed the prophets, they were actually following in their footsteps. At the very time they were building tombs for the prophets, they were plotting the death of God’s greatest Prophet, the Lord Himself. And they would continue to murder God’s faithful prophets and apostles. 11:49 By comparing verse 49 with Mat_23:34, it will be seen that Jesus Himself is the wisdom of God. Here He quotes the wisdom of God as saying, I will send them prophets. In Matthew He does not give this as a quotation from the OT or from any other source, but simply presents it as His own statement. (See also 1Co_1:30 where Christ is spoken of as wisdom.) The Lord Jesus promised that He would send … prophets and apostles to the men of His generation, and that the latter would kill and persecute them. 11:50, 51 He would require of that generation the blood of all God’s spokesmen, beginning with the first recorded case in the OT, that of Abel, down to the last instance, that of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the temple (2Ch_24:21). Second Chronicles was the last book in the Jewish order of the OT books. Therefore the Lord Jesus ran the entire gamut of martyrs when He mentioned Abel and Zechariah. As He uttered these words, He well knew that the generation then living would put Him to death on the cross, and thus bring to an awful climax all their previous persecution of men of God. It was because they would murder Him that the blood of all previous dispensations would fall upon them. 11:52 Finally the Lord Jesus denounced the lawyers for having taken away the key of knowledge, that is, for withholding God’s Word from the people. Though outwardly they professed loyalty to the Scriptures, yet they stubbornly refused to receive the One of whom the Scriptures spoke. And they hindered others from coming to Christ. They didn’t want Him themselves, and they didn’t want others to receive Him.

Luke 11:53

P. Response of the Scribes and Pharisees (11:53, 54) The scribes and the Pharisees were obviously angered by the Lord’s straightforward accusations. They began to assail Him vehemently, and stepped up their efforts to trap Him in His words. By every possible device, they sought to trick Him into saying something for which they could condemn Him to death. In doing so, they only proved how accurately He had read their characters.