(Luke) 34 - the Sign of Jonah

Luke chapter 11 is where we left off, and let me just give a very broad picture of where we are and how we're moving. The Gospel of Luke, as you know, presents our Lord Jesus as the Son of all mankind. And Luke, as he tells us about the humanity of the Lord, breaks it up into three sections.

First he tells us about Jesus as the friend of all mankind, and this is where he goes out and does miracles and helps people and touches the oppressed. He is certainly the sinner's friend. And then in another section, he talks about the teacher of all mankind.

And in this section, he gives us many, many parables, and unlike the other section, which is stories where there's a miracle or another miracle, these are teaching, and he discourses, he has conversation. And that's the section we're in. And then he closes the book with Jesus as the Savior of all mankind.

And you know that takes up the final week of our Lord Jesus on the earth, and when he became our redemption. So in this section on the teacher of all mankind, we've divided it up. It's so hard, in a sense, to teach this section, because he keeps changing the subject.

So we've divided it up into subjects. And we're now looking at the fourth subject he was teaching, and we're on the subject of prayer. And the whole of chapter 11 deals with prayer.

And so we've been looking at that for the last two or three weeks, and hopefully this morning we'll finish up this chapter. Now let me just give you again the overview of chapter 11. Chapter 11, 1 to 13, he begins with the Lord's Prayer.

That's the key to the whole chapter. Someone came and said, Lord, teach us to pray. And he gave this great model prayer.

And he said, if you pray this way, then he gave two parables, one of a friend and one of a father. If you approach me as your friend and your father. Unlike the friends of earth, unlike the fathers of earth.

If you would come with this direction. And then he begins to tell how the entire prayer is relationship. And I pointed out, I'll just mention it now, we won't develop it, but there are four great sighs.

Four great yearnings that are expressed in the Lord's Prayer. Great desire. The first desire is the desire to do the will of God.

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. If I come in prayer with the heart yearning that God's will be done, then I've advanced in prayer. The second desire is this desire to be clean.

This desire to be right with God and holy. Hallowed be thy name. Forgive us our sins.

Lead us not into temptation. Deliver us from evil. It's just a yearning of the heart.

I want to be clean. And then through the prayer there's another yearning. And it's a yearning for the glory of God.

Thine is the power and the glory forever and ever. And if you come to the Lord with that prayer, I just want God to have glory. It doesn't matter what happens to my ministry or to my family as long as God is glorified.

And then the final desire in the prayer, it's not in the right order, but another sigh in the prayer, is a sigh for the sufficiency of Christ. That God is the source of everything. Give us this day our daily bread.

All of my needs are provided by you. And it's this picture of helpless dependence upon the law. And so you see how this is a wonderful beginning to a subject on prayer.

Prayer is relationship and the Christian comes crying to God, I want to do your will. I want to be clean. I want you to have glory.

And I want to depend upon you. I want your sufficiency. The second part of the chapter is where we are now.

And we call it the outworkings of that relationship. In other words, it's sort of the test of prayer. If I really pray the Lord's prayer, not just say the words, you know, but pray it as God intended me to pray.

With those sides, with that direction. If I really have that union with God, what will my life look like? And he gives four illustrations. How will I relate to Satan? How will I relate to God? How will I relate to the whole wide world? How will I relate to myself? And we've already looked at the first two sections.

How will I relate to Satan? If my heart is praying the Lord's prayer in reality, I will have victory over Satan. Because prayer is also warfare. Not mine.

But the stronger than the strong. Jesus goes against the devil. And by the finger of God, he gives victory to me.

Now, how will I relate to God? And then there was that little section on the word of God. Blessed is the womb that bore you. And he said, no, no, no, no.

Blessed are those that hear the word of God and keep it. Jesus did not, he was not moved when anyone flattered him or gave him compliments. He said, well, I don't want compliments.

I want someone to apply the word of God and relate to me through the word. That brings us this morning then to chapter 11, 29 to 32. How does this relate to the world? If I'm really praying the Lord's prayer, what will my relationship to the world be? Let's read together please from verse 29.

And I'll take it beyond 32 all the way to 36. As the crowds were increasing, he began to say, this generation is a wicked generation. It seeks for a sign.

Yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah. Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. The Queen of the South will rise up with the men of this generation at the judgment and condemn them.

Because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And behold, something greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment and condemn it.

Because they repented at the preaching of Jonah. And behold, something greater than Jonah is here. No one, after lighting a lamp, puts it away in a cellar nor under a basket, but on the lampstand, so that those who enter may see the light.

The eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is clear, your whole body also is full of light. But when it is bad, your body also is full of darkness.

Then watch out that the light in you is not darkness. If therefore your whole body is full of light, with no dark part in it, it will be wholly illumined as when the lamp illumines you with its ray. I think the key to understanding this passage is that expression in verse 29 that no sign will be given except the sign of Jonah.

We need to understand the sign of Jonah. I suggested last week a couple of comments on this, but we'll pick it up here. What is the sign of Jonah? According to this passage and Matthew's sister passage on the same topic, the world, the generation as Jesus called it, was a sign-seeking generation.

And the idea was this was their claim. It wasn't true, but it was their claim. If we have a sign, then we'll believe.

Show us a miracle. Show us some wonder. Do something dramatic and sensational.

If we can see the spiritual world made visible, if we can see some evidence, some proof, then we'll believe. Jesus said, no, that's just an excuse. You're a wicked generation to go after a sign.

The reality is the only sign that you will have is the sign of Jonah. Now, Matthew, in his development, sheds a little more light on it. So let me just read for you Matthew 12, 39 and 40.

It's the same subject, but he adds this. He answered and said, an evil and adulterous generation craves for sign. No sign will be given but the sign of Jonah.

Then he adds this. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. According to Matthew, the sign of Jonah is the resurrection of our Lord Jesus.

Now it goes beyond that, but that's the starting point. You remember the story. Jonah was running away from the will of God.

God gave him a very hard mission. He didn't want to do it. God told him to preach mercy to the Ninevites.

He didn't want mercy. He wanted them judged. They were a wicked nation.

He didn't want them forgiven, and so he ran from God. And you know the story. God sent a great storm, and Jonah was thrown out of the boat into the stormy sea.

And the boat full of mariners were eyewitnesses to the great fish that came up. And it gobbled up Jonah and went down to the bottom of the sea. And they saw that.

They testified to that. Well, they went home, and they told everybody, you should have seen it. This guy, Jonah, was in the boat, and there was a storm, and we threw him out, and a big fish came and gobbled him up, and all of a sudden the storm stopped.

And it was something. And boy, we couldn't get to shore fast enough. And he's gone.

We don't have to worry about him. Three days later, he shows up. He shows up preaching the message that he was called to preach.

Well, they couldn't believe it because he's dead. He's gone. He's buried.

And they knew it. And when he showed up on the shore, I have one commentator, I'm not sure I agree with him, but he said he was partially digested and bleached white and all that kind of thing. I don't know if that's the case.

That is what scared them. The thing that scared them was this guy is dead, and he's not dead anymore. He's alive now.

And so the whole country repented because they saw a resurrected man. And so Jesus said, One greater than Jonah is here. See, Jonah is only a prophet.

I am the Son of God. And you're going to see someday that on the third day I'm going to come back too. And I wonder if you'll repent when you see me standing here.

That's the idea of the sign of Jonah. But that's not how Luke develops it. Is the sign of Jonah the resurrection of Jesus? Yes, but watch how Luke develops it.

In verse 33, chapter 11, 33. No one, after lighting a lamp, puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on the lampstand, so that they who enter might see, might see the light. Now, why does he move from Jonah to the lampstand? You see, he's not talking about Jesus alive on the streets of Jerusalem.

He's talking about Jesus alive in you. Jesus alive in the Christian. Jesus alive in me.

Perhaps the way Matthew develops it, it's a little more clear what he's talking about. You'll almost be able to quote this. It's so famous.

Matthew 5, 14. You are a light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.

Nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand. It gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men.

Remember that verse? Let your light so shine before men, in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father, which is in heaven. Now, for years I misunderstood this truth. I thought God was saying, don't hide your light under a bushel.

You're a Christian. Let it show. I remember when I was at school, I came to the Lord very young.

Sixteen years old. Not young enough, but as a teenager in high school. And it was through that, there was a big group called Youth for Christ at the time.

And the fellow who actually opened the scriptures and led me to the Savior, he was big on this. Now, let your light shine. Carry your Bible to school.

Carry gospel tracts in your pocket. Carry little buttons. I did look like an advertising agency for the Lord.

I had signs all over the place. And the idea was, don't hide your light under a bushel. That's not what Luke says.

That's not what Matthew says. Matthew doesn't say, don't hide your light under a bushel. Matthew says, you can't hide your light under a bushel.

A city on a hill cannot be hidden. You can't hide it. It's not possible.

Now, one reason I know you can't hide your light under a bushel, because in those days, lights were candles, and bushels were straw. Alright, use your sanctified imagination. Hide your light under a bushel.

You put a candle under a straw bushel, and it's going to burn up in flames. And his whole point was, if you really have the light in your heart, you are a testimony. You can't hide it.

You can't stop it. It's there. You are the sign of Jonah.

You see, what he's saying is, the world is looking for a sign. And he said, the only sign it's going to get is the sign of a living Savior in a Christian. And if there's a living Savior in a Christian, that Christian will glow.

That Christian will shine. And that's the only sign the world's going to get. We are the testimony.

And to tie it into the prayer, the whole point he's making is this. If my heart really prays the Lord's Prayer, I mean, as God says it here, where I'm breathing, I just want your will. I want to be clean.

I want your glory. I want to depend upon you. If I live that way, I don't have to worry about ramrodding the gospel down my neighbor's throat.

He's going to see it. He's going to see it when I rake the lawn and mow the lawn. He's going to see it when I just get the mail.

They're going to see it. And there's no possible way to hide it. Quite honestly, you hear a lot of messages how much the world needs more preachers and more priests and more ministers and more missionaries and more Bible schools and more seminaries.

No, it doesn't. The world needs more people to pray the Lord's Prayer in reality. The world needs more people who will just come before the Lord as their friend and their father and pour out their hearts to the Lord.

That is a testimony, and it cannot be hidden. It's a city on a hill. It's the sign of Jonah.

It's life for those who are truly seeking after life. Hold that a moment, please, and glance at verse 29 to 32. The responsibility for the world is to seek the light.

In verse 31, he says, A greater than Solomon's here. In verse 32, he said, A greater than Jonah's here. Matthew adds one to that and says, A greater than the temple is here.

The point is that the world's responsibility, the sinners, are responsible to seek the light. See, according to verse 29, they were sign seekers, but they were all sinners. He said, You're not going to get any other sign, only the sign of Jonah.

And then he tells about Jonah. In Luke 11.31, he tells us about the Queen of Sheba. A very interesting story in the Old Testament.

The Queen of Sheba went halfway around the world because she heard about the wisdom of Solomon. And she wanted to find out for herself. And so, without excuse, she just got up and went halfway around the world because she heard a report of wise Solomon.

And when she got there, she said, The half has not been told. Or she found. And Jesus is saying, Someone greater than Solomon's here.

You guys won't go down the street to check it out. In the Old Testament, the Queen of Sheba went halfway around the world to see the wisdom of a human being created in the image of God. And now here God is in the flesh.

And you won't even give him a second look. And so the world has a responsibility to seek the light. And there's no excuse for anyone.

The whole nation, verse 32, the whole nation of Nineveh repented because Jonah stood on the shore as one raised from the dead. Jesus is saying, One greater than Jonah's here. You're going to see the day when I'm going to come back from the dead.

I wonder if you'll repent then. He said, You have much more light than they had. And the Nineveh is going to rise up at the judgment to condemn you because with a little light, they repented.

And with great light, you're rejecting. With a little light, the Queen of Sheba went halfway around the world to seek out that light. And with great light, you are not responding to seeking the light.

Then Luke does an amazing thing. He shifts his emphasis. You see, they say the world has a responsibility.

It's not my fault. If they don't seek the light, it's not my fault. Yeah, but I have a responsibility too.

See, they have a responsibility to seek. I have a responsibility to shine. And so he comes in verse 34.

The eye is the lamp of your body. If the eye is clear, your whole body is full of light. When it's bad, your body is full of darkness.

Watch out that the light in you is not dark. If therefore your whole body is full of light with no dark part in it, it will be wholly illumined as when a lamp illumines you with its ray. The responsibility of the world? Seek the light.

The responsibility of the Christian? Shine. Now, how in the world do we do that? If it's my responsibility to shine, how do I meet that responsibility? Look at verse 34. I must make sure my eye is clear.

King James says single. Blessed are those who have a single eye. Another translation says healthy.

Make sure your eye is healthy. Look at the illustration. In verse 34, the eye is the lamp of the body.

That makes a lot of sense. I do not have an eye on my foot. And what that means is if there's a stumbling stone in the street, my foot can't see it.

The only hope for my foot is that this eye will fill my body full of light so that my foot knows there's a stumbling stone in the street. My body does not have an eye, so I'm going to bump into a wall unless this eye is working. If this eye is taking in the light, then my body will know, and I won't have to bump into a wall or fall down a flight of stairs.

My whole body depends on my eye. And the light comes into the eye, and so the whole body is taken care of. It's full of light because of the eye.

What Luke is illustrating is this, by the single eye. Of course, in the context, he's talking about the prayer, the Lord's Prayer. If someone is focused on the Lord, if they have a single eye, their whole body is full of light.

When I see my neighbors, at least one I know is struggling with coming to the Lord, and I don't know the spiritual condition of some or the other, what's my responsibility? Am I supposed to go over there and take my Bible and sit them down and quote Bible verses at them? My responsibility is to have a single eye, to make sure I'm praying the Lord's Prayer, to make sure my focus is on the Lord. If my eye is single, my whole body is full of light, and I've given my neighbor the sign of joy. If your whole body is full of light, if you're focused on the Lord, you've given your neighbors the sign of Jonah.

I'm so glad it's called a single eye, because for years in my Christian life, I thought the more compound my eye, the better Christian I'd be. I was like a dirty old fly with a compound eye. What I mean by that is, I wasn't looking to the Lord, because I was told there are many things in the Christian life.

So I had one of my eyes on the family, and one of my eyes on missions, and one of my eyes on stewardship, and one of my eyes on evangelism, and another one on soul winning, and another on discipleship, and another on Christian ministry, and Christian service, and another on Bible study, and another on quiet time. I was looking all over the place, and running in circles. And if anybody looked at my life then, they wouldn't say, Oh, I'd love to be a Christian like Ed's a Christian.

They're probably saying, I'd never want to be whatever he got involved in. That guy's running crazy, and he's tired all the time, and there's no peace in his heart, and he's irritable. There's no life there.

1965, when I crashed, God sent along a dear faithful brother, and he was there, and he picked me up, and he turned me to Christ. And since 1965, well, I can't say that 100% on and off. I hope more on than off, but since 1965, at least I've had it in my heart to have a single eye.

I don't have to worry about the light anymore. See, your body's full of light if your eye is single. And that's what he's talking about here.

The world needs a sign. They're looking for a sign. They're looking.

And he said, the only sign they're going to get is the sign of Jonah. The sign of Jonah's resurrection. Not Jesus risen standing on the street.

Jesus risen in your heart, in your life, in my life. And we are the resurrected Christ. You say, well, how in the world can I guarantee they're going to see it? If I have a single eye? If I have a single focus? My eye's healthy? If I'm focused on the Lord, then everything else is taken care of.

And so that's how the relationship of prayer ties in to how it relates to the world. Let's say, by the way, let's say that I fail in my responsibility. Let's say I don't look to Christ.

My eyes are not on the Lord. I'm not praying the Lord's Prayer. Well, then the light in me is darkness.

It's not light. Then what's the world's responsibility if I fail? It's not their fault. It's my fault.

No, it's still their fault. You say, how so? Because the Queen of Sheba went halfway around the world in order to search out the light. They still have a responsibility.

Even if I fail, I'll answer to the Lord for that. But they still are without excuse because there's somebody somewhere who's letting Christ live in them. And the sinner has the responsibility to search that out.

And if they're hungry, they will. So that's how we're going to have a ministry to the world. Just pray the Lord's Prayer.

Just be focused on the Lord. Does that mean you'll never sit down with someone in an open Bible? No. It just means you won't have to work it up.

And you don't have to go through all... Peter said, Always be ready to answer those who ask you. You don't have to be the initiator. They'll initiate.

And then you'll do it in the most natural way. And you'll be able to share the Savior with it. Glance, if you would, please, at verses 37 to the end.

The closing of this section on prayer. If I'm really praying the Lord's Prayers, I ought to pray it. I'm going to have victory over the devil.

I'll be relating to God through His precious Word. My whole body will be full of light so the world can see it. How does that relate to me? Now, rather than reading this lengthy section, let me just trace the thread as it runs through.

The occasion of this section was a luncheon. I studied this with my son two days ago. I love to study with my son.

And his comment after we studied this was, Quote, What a bummer of a luncheon. Unquote. And he's right.

Look at verse 37. Now, when he had spoken, a Pharisee asked him to have lunch with him. And he reclined at the table.

So this is an invitation to a luncheon. According to the record, there were three groups at the luncheon. Verse 38, the Pharisee, and later we find out Pharisees, were there.

Verse 45, lawyers were there. Scribes. You might have scribes in your Bible.

And then in verse 37, Jesus was there. Matthew calls attention to the fact that the disciples were with him. So it's a big luncheon.

The Pharisees are there. The scribes are there. Jesus is there with his disciples.

Well, what was the conversation at this luncheon? It's made up of... 46, Woe to you lawyers, or scribes as well. 47, Woe to you. 52, Woe to you lawyers, scribes.

Now, when I first read this, I found myself reading it as if it said, Verily, verily, I say unto you. It's not, Verily, verily, I say unto you. Truly, truly, I say unto you.

It's, Woe. This is a curse. This is a terrible thing.

First I thought, Verily, verily, I say this to the Pharisees. But these are, Woe. Last week, after the Bible study, I was invited to a wonderful lunch.

We had just a wonderful time. Just imagine if I did what Jesus did at that luncheon. If I just started blasting, Woe, woe, woe to you, for this and that and the other things.

Like my son said, that would have been a bummer of a luncheon. Well, just imagine. That's what happened.

He was invited to lunch, and the feathers began to fly everywhere. He just began to condemn them. Let me show you what set it off.

What it's all about, and how it ties into the main theme. Verse 38, When the Pharisees saw it, he was surprised that he had not first ceremonially washed before the meal. But the Lord said to him, You Pharisees clean the outside, the cup and the platter, but inside you're full of robbery and wickedness.

You foolish ones. Did not he who made the outside make the inside also? Give that which is within as charity. All things are clean for you.

We don't hardly get into this, because it sounds like Jesus didn't wash his hands before he ate. And that was the issue. Well, that's part of it.

But it's bigger than that. It's not washing your hands. This was the ceremonial washing of the hands.

In other words, it's more than getting dirt off your hands. It had to do with flushing demons. And they believed that there were demons that would get into your food if you didn't go through this little ceremony.

This is not in the Bible. This is the Pharisees' tradition that they added to all of that. And so it bothered the Pharisees.

Now, notice, though it bothered the Pharisees, he didn't say anything. He's just thinking this. Jesus is reading his mind.

He didn't say a word. He just looked at them and went... He was thinking. And Jesus knew exactly what he was thinking.

And so he addressed it. It looks like Jesus was rather rude at this luncheon. But the reality is, that whole luncheon was a setup.

Matthew lets us in on that. The whole thing was a setup in order to ensnare the Lord Jesus. Now glance at verse 39 and 40, please.

And you'll see the overall charge against the Pharisees and the scribes is externalism. They were going through the forms. They were going through the motions.

Going through the mechanics of it. But they were neglecting the inside. If it looked okay on the outside, they have done their religious duty.

But they were not at all concerned with love and justice and mercy and compassion. The things on the inside. They took great care in cleaning their plates.

Matthew calls attention to the food on the plates. Luke doesn't mention that. He says, you clean the plates and then you serve poison.

You don't care what's on the plates. You don't care what you eat. And you don't care what comes out of your heart.

All you care about is that it looks good on the outside and shiny. But verse 39, inside, you are full of robbery and wickedness. So the three woes that he gives to the Pharisees strike at the nerve center of this externalism.

Let me just show you the woes and give you the heart of it and we'll move on. Woe number one is in verse 42. Tithing, you know, is an Old Testament picture that illustrates surrender.

I give God a portion as a picture that I have really given Him everything. And so tithing is just a picture of surrender. Someone says, are we supposed to tithe today? You're supposed to be surrendered today.

Surrender to the Lord. Your heart is, I've given everything to the Lord. The tithe is the test of the surrender.

Am I really surrendering? Well, you have a hard time giving 10%? Then maybe you're not really surrendering. It's the test of the reality. Well, you see, these Pharisees, they were so surrendered, they would take their garden carrots and divide it up into 10 pieces.

One for the priest, now we can eat. And they would take their lettuce and chop it up. This part goes to the temple and to the priest.

And that's the idea there of the cumin and the rue and the mint. Even their herbs, they would tithe because they were so surrendered to the Lord. And so they were meticulous in making sure that all of this was done, but they neglected the heart, the inside.

And so Jesus called attention to that. He said, you're pretending to be surrendered. You're not surrendered.

Rule number 2, verse 43, they loved the chief seats. They make sure they're up in front and everybody can see them. They pretended to have character.

They wanted respect, but they didn't have character. And they wanted people to applaud them and they just wanted the front seat. And it wasn't real.

Rule number 3, verse 44, He's strong. He said, you're just covered graves. Nobody knows you're dead.

And they come to you because you're the religious leaders and they come to you for life. But you're really dead. That's the greatest pretense of all.

It's one thing to pretend you're surrendered. It's another thing to pretend you have character. They pretended they were alive.

And they were not alive. They were dead. And so Jesus just pointed that out.

And then the scribes said, well, you know, you've insulted us too. Because the Pharisees come to us to find out what the law means. We're the ones that instruct the Pharisees.

So you've insulted us by all of this. And so Jesus said, we don't want to leave you out. So in verse 46, Woe to you lawyers as well.

You weigh men down with burdens hard to bear while you yourself will not even touch the burden with one of your little fingers. This is such a terrible thing. They kept piling on the rules, you know.

Do this and do that. Don't do this. They multiplied the ways a person could offend God.

And they didn't even have one suggestion on how they might please the Lord. And it was so oppressive to give them all of these rules. And then they wouldn't follow them themselves.

And then verse 47, Woe to you! You build the tombs of the prophets. It was your fathers who killed them. Verse 50, So that the blood of all the prophets since the foundation of the world may be charged against this generation.

You see what they were doing there. They were rejecters just like their fathers. But they didn't want to admit it.

So they built monuments to the prophets their fathers killed. And they had Moses Hall and Isaiah Cafeteria and Elijah Building and so on. And they were building monuments to these prophets.

And Jesus said, You're going to end up killing me. All of the martyrdoms, they've been martyring the picture of Messiah. And now you're going to martyr Messiah.

You're just like them. You build all the monuments. You want people to think you're something.

But really, you're just rejecters as well. And then verse 52, Woe to your lawyers! You've taken away the key of knowledge. You yourselves did not enter.

You hindered those who were entering. Bad enough you're not entering in yourself. You're not letting others enter in either because of your teaching.

One of the things Jesus is calling attention here is to the responsibilities teachers have. Boy, there's so much said in the Bible about the leadership and the teacher. Everybody's going to answer to the Lord, but it's something.

I remember one time, let me just fill in this little story. I won't mention any names. You probably wouldn't know them anyway.

Sandy, you might know what I'm talking about. But every group has their resident gossip. And so our little group has a resident gossip.

And I thought one day, you know, I'm going to have to deal with this resident gossip. And so I thought, well, James chapter 3, the tongue chapter. I'll fix that gossip.

And I went through the tongue chapter and I'm getting all this thing. And I was going to share with this brother or sister that they should really watch their tongue. And I opened to the James chapter all set to get my ammunition for the gossip.

Here's James chapter 3, verse 1. It said, Woe unto you teachers, for theirs is the greater condemnation. That chapter is not written to gossip. It's written for teachers.

And the rudder, you know, tongues like a rudder and a little rudder can move a great ship. A teacher has influence over a great body of people. And so they're the ones, that whole tongue chapter.

By the way, I didn't make the call. You can guess what. But the point is, that's what these scribes were doing.

They're the teachers. Don't forget now, the key to knowledge is not knowledge. A lot of people have knowledge.

They don't have the key to knowledge. Just getting facts. You can have all the facts.

Just knowing that your life is hid with Christ and God and that you're crucified with Christ and that you're seated with Christ in the heavenlies. You can know those facts. But have you ever entered into those facts? See, the key to knowledge is entering into the truth.

They not only didn't enter in, they kept the key from everybody else so that nobody else could enter in. Now, how do those six woes, three for the Pharisees, three for the scribes, tie into this relationship? You know what I'm saying? If I'm really pouring out my heart to the Lord, I have victory over the devil. If I'm really pouring my heart out to the Lord, I'm knowing Christ through the Bible.

If I'm really pouring my heart out to the Lord, I'm a shining light. How does that apply to me, personally, in my own life? You see, all of this luncheon was against hypocrisy. If I'm really pouring my heart out to the Lord, I'm real.

I don't have to play the game. I don't have to learn the script. I don't have to play act.

And what he's saying is, if you're really looking to the Lord, you don't have to pretend surrender just on the outside. You don't have to pretend character and respect and try to earn or get out into a place where people will applaud you. You don't have to pretend to have life.

You have it. And you don't have to burden other people by giving them rules and regulations and restrictions. The opposite's true.

You can give them the Gospel and tell them how to please God, not how they offend God. It's the reality he's talking about here. What monument will I leave? I hope it's not a monument of rejection.

I hope it's a monument that I've been a receiver of the Lord and of His goodness. And then the whole thing becomes redemptive. It's my prayer that I not only have knowledge, but that I have the key to knowledge, that I use the key to knowledge.

I enter in myself and I don't keep it from anybody else. But then I give it to everybody else. And so how will it relate to me? I will be real.

It will be automatic. It will be intuitive. I won't have to work it up.

I won't have to struggle and strain and agonize to have it. It will be supernaturally natural. And it will be as natural as breathing.

What a wonderful chapter. I hope you've enjoyed chapter 11. What a wonderful chapter.

Chapter 11 is. Such a simple thing. If I seek the Lord, I don't have to worry about Satan.

I don't have to worry about knowing God. I don't have to worry about being a testimony to the world. And I don't have to worry about faking anything.

And it all comes because of that focus on the Lord Himself. Let me just introduce... I'm not going to give you this, but for next time, your homework. The next section, he's going to change topics.

I want to just tell you what the topic is. It's from chapter 12, verse 1 to 13, 9. You'll notice this whole section is one discourse. One conversation.

It's broken up, but it's one. I could never teach like this. Our Lord Jesus was just a master at teaching.

And what He did was, He begins to talk, and while He's talking, somebody interrupts Him. And then He answers their question, and someone else comes in and says something else. And then He answers their question, and someone comes down and brings in a crisis.

Did you hear the talk? And so He begins to talk about that, and He never gets off the subject. Now see, I say at the end, any questions are common. There's no way, as I'm going along... But that's how Jesus did it.

Notice verse 1 of 12. He began saying to His disciples, verse 13, someone in the crowd, and someone breaks it up. Verse 22, He's back.

He said to His disciples, 41, leave it to Him, Peter said, verse 54, saying to the multitudes, 13-1, somebody comes with this report that the power fell out. And in all of this, He keeps the subject. Now what is the next topic we're going to look at all the way, 12-1 to 13-9? As we have looked at how to deal with those who differ with us, discipleship, missions, prayer, now we're going to look at life.

His view, not just existence, kingdom life. And this is the great section on, almost what He's saying is, when you're interrupted, like my servants being interrupted, when everything comes into your life, how do you respond? And this whole message, it's a marvelous message, on kingdom living. And so that's the next subject.

Comments or questions? Alright. You know, because of chapter 11, and I hope one of the things that God does through this little discussion is, and I'm so serious about this, I hope it takes you back to the Lord's Prayer in a living way. Everything the Bible says about prayer is included in that Lord's Prayer.

And I thought I'd like to close again this morning as we have for a couple of weeks with the Lord's Prayer, but a little differently this time. If you don't mind praying this way, I don't want to, you know, break up your prayer. Somebody came to the Lord Jesus at the beginning of the chapter and said, Lord, teach us to pray.

And then He gave this great model prayer. And sometimes when we pray it, we sort of recite it and we say it so fast we don't even think about the words that we're saying. And so what I'd like to do is pray the Lord's Prayer with you.

Have you pray it with me. But I'm going to keep breaking it up with the sentence, Lord, teach us to pray our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Lord, teach us to pray thy kingdom come, thy will be done.

Lord, teach us to pray. And if that won't throw you off, join me, please, and let's pray that way. Lord, teach us to pray our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

Lord, teach us to pray thy kingdom come. Lord, teach us to pray thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Lord, teach us to pray give us this day our daily bread.

Lord, teach us to pray forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lord, teach us to pray lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. Lord, teach us to pray for thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever and ever.