- LESSON TEN - A SMORGASBORD OF
CHALLENGES
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- (Luke Chapter Eleven)
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- Jesus came to announce the coming of the
Kingdom of God to those who would hear. He must teach the
parameters of this Kingdom, and explain how its citizens
should live. As The Son of Man, the Ideal Human Being, He
must demonstrate, by His life, by His actions, by His
words, by His interactions with the events of this life
and the challenges coming from those around Him, the
meaning of this Kingdom: for Himself as its Prince and
for those who were to be His followers.
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- So, in the Eleventh Chapter of Luke, we
find a "smorgasbord" of issues, people, and challenges
presented to Jesus. Let us see how He reacted to each of
these.
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- First came His own disciples, who desired
to be taught just how to pray. Next He met scoffers and
doubters. When he exorcised a demon from a dumb man, some
said He acted through the power of Beelzebub, the prince
of the demons. Others, not satisfied with the miraculous
exorcism, demanded a miraculous proof, a sign, that Jesus
was "for real." Jesus must deal with each of these. Then
a certain woman spoke up with a fatuous bit of praise
while totally misunderstanding His true mission. He must
correct her, kindly but positively. He also must try to
correct those who thought they were right, but actually
were totally wrong in their understanding of the truth.
And Pharisees and students of the Torah (the Mosaic Law),
promoters of a punctilious interpretation of that Torah
were hypocritically mistaking the letter for the inner
meaning. And to each of these, Jesus must respond
differently.
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- To
His own disciples, willing but still ignorant of the
essence of effective prayer, He must patiently teach
them: both the things for which they should ask, and also
the attitude of sincere commitment (perseverance) which
must characterize true prayer.
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- To
those who accused Him of performing miracles by the power
of the Evil One, He must clearly demonstrate the absolute
ridiculousness of such a charge.
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- To
those who demanded a sign to prove His authority, Jesus
gave answer: both by refusing such a sign and also by
pointing out how they were to be shamed by the faith of
others.
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- To
a woman who offered empty praise, He must tactfully but
positively lift her awareness of something
higher.
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- And to the hypocritical Pharisee He must
cut to the infection with the scalpel of
truth.
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- Let us look briefly at each of these, and as we do so, let us see their application to a life lived in true citizenship in the Kingdom of God which He, "The Son of Man," would teach.
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- PRAYER. (11:1-13)
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- First Jesus demonstrated true prayer by
the example of Himself. He had been praying. They, the
disciples, did not interrupt; but when Jesus finished,
they asked for the help of instruction. So (Vs. 2) He
reiterated the so-called Lord's Prayer. Matthew tells us
that Jesus had previously given this prayer as part of
His Sermon on the Mount. Now He repeats, but only a
bare-bones version.
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- He says simply, "Father, Hallowed be Thy Name." Notice the juxtaposition of (1) filial familiarity ("Father") with (2) profound reverence for God's Holiness. Devout Jews, whenever they speak of the Deity, immediately add: "Baruch ha-shem": "Blessed (be) the Name." But this is more than "blessed": it is an expression of reverence.
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- Notice how the two balance each other.
Our reverence for God does not inhibit our turning to God
with the confidence of a little child approaching his
parent; on the other hand, that confidence must not
diminish our profound respect for God's absolute
Holiness.
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- (3) We are to pray for the coming of
God's reign. This means, first, that it is an expression
of our submission to God's will in all things in our
lives; second, it means prayer for the return of Jesus in
power to bring in more perfect righteousness. And this
prayer for God's reign must precede, both in order and in
significance, our prayer for our (4) sustenance: our
daily bread.
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- (5) Next, notice that we are to pray for
forgiveness for our sins. What does this mean? It is to
appreciate this forgiveness like the cancellation of
another person's debt to us. Does someone owe us, say,
one thousand dollars? But he comes to us with an
hard-luck story about his inability to pay. Are we
willing to cancel that debt? Perhaps we had a need for
that thousand dollars ourselves. Forgiveness will be
costly. Likewise, when we ask God to forgive our sins,
ought we not consider how our sins are costly to God:
they cost Him to forgive us.
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- (6) Finally, there is the lesson of
persistency in our prayers. Jesus told the story of a man
forced to arise at night to fulfill a need - all because
of the friend's persistency. Is God unwilling to give us
what we need? No. But He may be testing our sincerity in
asking Him. But when we pray in sincerity and with
persistency, we can have the assurance that God has heard
and will respond in the time and in the way best suited
to our particular needs.
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- DID JESUS USE SATANIC POWER? (Vss
15-26)
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- Among the multitudes who witnessed an
exorcism were some who accused Jesus of using the power
of Beelzebub the prince of demons. The charge was
ridiculous, but Jesus must answer it. This He did in
several ways.
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- First he indicated that even Satan will
not work against himself, for it would defeat his evil
purposes. In the second place, Jesus used an ad hominem
argument, saying, "Suppose, as you suggest, that I did
use satanic power. You must admit I did cast out the
demon. But do you or your sons succeed in like exorcisms?
If not, then you must admit that I am more successful
than you." In the third place, Jesus pointed out that the
other alternative was that He was acting by the Holy
Spirit of God in His miracles. He was thus showing that
He, The Son of Man, was stronger than Satan. Finally, He
warned that their unbelief could result in sevenfold
greater demon-possession than before.
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- NEED OF FURTHER SIGNS? (vss. 14, 16,
29-36)
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- Not satisfied with the evidence of an exorcism before them, some of the multitude wanted the further evidence of a sign from heaven attesting to the legitimacy of Jesus. The answer was blunt: "no sign." Then He challenged them by heathen people, who exhibited far more faith on far less evidence. The city of Nineveh repented at only the spoken word of Jonah; while the queen of Sheba came from a far greater distance to hear Solomon, not nearly so great as Jesus. Then Jesus challenged them to live according to the light they had, lest a greater darkness come upon them.
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- THE SPECIOUS COMPLIMENT (vss.
27-28)
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- And in the midst of the long reply of
Jesus, a woman in the crowd interrupted to utter an empty
compliment. A first-century feminist, she directed her
praise not to Jesus directly, but to the woman who gave
birth to Him and who had nursed Him. It would seem that
it was intended to redirect the thoughts and words of
Jesus to a purely human characterization of Him and of
His work.
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- Notice the interesting reply of Jesus. He did not argue with the woman: he agreed with her. He said, "Yes, you are right. My mother is worthy of praise." But then he went on to direct the woman's thoughts: to what God was having to say and to obedience to His will. "Rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God, and keep it."
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- HYPOCRISY (vss 37-54)
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- Jesus reserved His scorn for the
Pharisees, the students of the Law and the lawyers, the
teachers of the Torah, the Law.
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- It
is first of all significant to observe what brought on
the vituperation of the Lord. The Pharisee had invited
Jesus to dinner, which He accepted. When He arrived, He
did not engage in the ceremonial washing before eating,
at which the Pharisee marveled. Evidently the Pharisee
either expressed his astonishment verbally, or by gesture
or expression of face showed his displeasure. This
brought forth the lecture of Jesus, first to Pharisees in
general, then to lawyers when they chimed in.
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- Was Jesus being discourteous toward His
host who had invited Him? Two points to be noted: (1)
Jesus was responding to the marveling of the host; and
(2) He criticized Pharisees as a class, not singling out
the host in particular.
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- First Jesus called the Pharisees "foolish." They were missing the true character of God by their failure to understand the true essence of conduct.
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- Then He pronounced three "Woes" upon Pharisees.
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- The first woe was because the Pharisees,
in their punctilious attention to details of the Law were
missing its true essence, which involved justice and
love.
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- The second woe was because of their
pompous pride, loving seats of prominence and public
recognition.
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- And the third woe involved the deception
of the people, for the Pharisees were seeking to impress
the people with their own righteousness, which was
false.
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- "If the shoe fits, wear it!" The lawyers present also felt the sting of the words of Jesus, as they sensed that the divine words could apply to them as well. And so their protest drew forth three more "woes" from Jesus, woes which peculiarly fit them as well.
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- Woe to the teachers of the Law, because
they were insisting that the Jewish public fulfill all
the minute requirements of the Law, which they themselves
did not (and could not) keep.
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- Woe number two to the lawyers, because
they were proving themselves true successors to their
ancestors who had killed the prophets. This woe, said
Jesus, would involve that the pent-up sins of the race,
down through the centuries, would be poured out upon them
in their generation.
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- And woe number three: even if some of the
people desired to serve God in truth, the lawyers, by
insisting upon attention to minutiae, were closing the
door of blessing to their hearers.
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- But notice: no specific "woes" (or punishments) are set forth. Therefore we may infer that these "woes" are intended as warnings. Let the Pharisees and lawyers amend their ways. Repentance on their part would bring forgiveness. -- When God warns us of the error of our ways, do we take immediate steps to repent: that is, to change our ways?
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- SOME CONCLUSIONS
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- So
Jesus, the Ideal Human Being (The Son of Man), showed how
to live in perfection. He taught how to pray; he taught
how to condemn. He demonstrated how to answer a
ridiculous charge (by demonstrating the foolish outcome
of their argument); He also indicated the utter folly of
using further signs. By acting to deflect the thoughtless
praise of the unnamed woman, He seized another
opportunity to challenge to an higher calling.
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- And finally, when He had spoken frankly
and fully, He knew how to remain silent in face of the
jeers, jibes, and traps laid by His opponents (Vss.
53-54). A remarkable demonstration of One in complete
control of Himself.
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- And what lesson do we have from this
chapter? Do we pray as Jesus outlined? Do we pray with
complete dedication and persistency? And when we are
accused of false motives, can we show by a "reductio ad
absurdum" the folly of those charges? When asked to
defend ourselves for our testimony, can we insist on
leaving that issue with God? Can we turn a fatuous
compliment into a challenge to an higher responsibility?
And when called upon to do so, can we express our disdain
of all hypocrisy without descending to personal
name-calling or insults?
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- Jesus could and did do all this. Can we?
Can we be so completely committed to Him, to His will, to
His leadership, as to demonstrate that we are truly His
disciples?
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- This chapter can be more carefully
studied by us all, including especially this writer. It
behooves us all to do so, again and again.
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- QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW, STUDY, AND
DISCUSSION
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- 1.
Review of preceding text: What points in the preceding
discussion especially seemed to speak to you in your
situation? Would you care to discuss?
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- The following questions are based on Luke
Chapter Twelve:
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- 2. What is the "leaven of the Pharisees"? How serious, how pervasive is this leaven? (Cf. 12:1 with 12:56.) Is it a warning to all of us?
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- 3.
There are two kinds of fear. Jesus warned against one; he
urged the other. What are they? (Vss.
4-12.)
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- 4. Verses 15-21 are addressed to the "multitude"; verses 22-34 are addressed to the disciples. Although similar, there is a difference in emphasis. What do you see as difference?
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- 5.
When Jesus told a parable (verses 35-40) Peter asked
whether it was directed to disciples or to multitude. By
His answer, (vss. 42-48), to whom do you think Jesus was
directing His reply?
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- 6.
What do you make of the statement of Jesus in verse 49?
In making answer, consider also verses 50-59 for possible
interpretation.
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- 7.
Try to memorize 12:8-9.
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- ---
Norman L. MacLeod Jr.
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