The Gospel of Luke 11:14-28 The Pharisees' Blasphemy

Here we are in Luke 11, 14 through 28. This passage has parallels because Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record similar incidents to this particular passage. But because Dr. Luke's account is rather different from the other two, it's possible, I would even say likely, that he's recording another time and another place. That being the case, however, what Matthew and Mark wrote do shed some valuable light because Jesus certainly would at times do or say something similar even though he was talking to a different group. And we can use the understanding that comes from Matthew and from Mark as we continue here to investigate Jesus in the Gospel of Luke.

So here's Luke 11.14, and he was casting out a demon, and it was mute. And the demon had gone out, and the mute man spoke, and the crowds were amazed.

So here's this man, what we see, and by the way, this is going to be the last time in the Gospel of Luke that Jesus casts out a demon. What we see is very interesting here is that demon possession does not always express itself in the same form. It doesn't always look the same way. In this particular man, he was simply unable to speak as possessed by the demon. I'm going to have a quick briefing on angels and demons, largely because this is the last time we're going to be looking at casting out a demon.

Angels were all created at one point in time, before the earliest days of Genesis chapter 1, or in the earliest days of Genesis chapter 1. They're called angels, sons of God, in different parts, particularly in the Old Testament and the older parts of the Old Testament.

We're in Morning Stars in Job, and they can embody themselves as men. What's interesting in scripture is that there's never an instance, regardless of touch by an angel, there's never an instance in scripture where they embody themselves in a female form. Angels were given an early window of opportunity to choose for or against the Lord. Now it's interesting, human beings are given the opportunity as each one is born and grows up to a place of being able to place their faith in the Lord. They're given that opportunity. The angels, on the other hand, were all created at once from any appearance that we have in Scripture. And they were given a window of opportunity to decide, are you going to be for or against the Lord?

And one-third of the angels, that's from Revelation 12.4, one-third of the angels choose to rebel and were cast out of heaven. Satan, the head of the fallen angelic hierarchy, kept access to heaven. Now the domain of the fallen angels then, sent to earth. Earth is their domain for a time. And by the way, they know that there will come a time when their time is up. And matter of fact, they even expressed that knowledge and fear when Christ came at his first coming. Now, you're not going to start torturing us yet, are you? Right?

So the Satan who is the head of that fallen angelic hierarchy is called the God of this world. Believe it or not, these demons are organized. Before the flood, some of the fallen angels chose to embody themselves as men, cohabiting with human women and having bizarre offspring. All these, along with all of humanity except the aid and the ark, were swept away by the flood. Now, there are two groups of demons, also called fallen angels, also called unclean or evil spirits. The spirits of those demons who left their domain, that is, those who embodied themselves as men before the flood, are now held in bondage in what is called Tartarus or the Abyss, the Abyssos, in the New Testament.

The remaining demons who are on the earth knew their time and ultimate destiny, and they knew who Christ was. It's very interesting, they know who Christ is, they know where they're headed, They know that there will come a time when their time is up. They know all that. They know how it's going to go. When Christ would appear, in more than one instance, we find the demon expressing, you're the Son of God, and declaring that. And Jesus didn't need that kind of declaration, right?

These fallen angels, which are demons, can possess a fallen human being. Notice I said fallen human being. I don't believe they can possess a Christian. either as a single demon or as plural demons. We have instances of one, as in this instance here that we'll see this morning. Mary Magdalene had seven demons. We saw an instance earlier in the Gospel of Luke of 2,000 demons in one man. So that can vary.

They seem to have gathered particularly in the time and location of Christ. It's like they're going to somehow present themselves. I'm not sure what they thought they were going to accomplish. Demons, by the way, are delusional. Remember that. So about casting out demons, demons have other activities besides just possessing. They have activities now that they're involved in. And part of that is the worship of idols, and part of that is the propagating of false doctrine among people. So demons have various activities. Possession is only one of them.

Demons that possessed humans seem to have been especially concentrated in this time of Christ and the apostles. Demon expression can vary over time. There are various other things that I kind of wonder about if demons are involved in this or that. It would be some speculation on my part, and I won't go into that. Demons are very limited spiritual beings.

First of all, they're created beings. They don't know everything. And in spite of what they do know, they make terrible decisions with respect to what they know. They know Christ is the Son of God. They know that they have a limited time. They know where they're going. when this time here is up. They are very limited beings. They don't know everything. They can't be all present. So those are things to be kept in mind.

Now the mute man spoke. The man had been mute because of a demon that possessed him. So when the demon was cast out, the man could speak again, which was amazing for others to see and hear. So everybody is amazed with the exception of a few. And let's look at those exceptions. While people in general were amazed, there were some who were far more interested in attributing Jesus casting out demons to Satan using a derogatory term.

And then there were also those who demanded a sign. So here's Luke 11, 15, and 16, but some of them said he casts out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of demons. Others, to test him, were demanding of him a sign from heaven. the rest of this passage actually Jesus takes off of verse 15 so what we're going to do is address verse 16 first and then go back to 15 okay so the Jews were always demanding a sign that was characteristic of the the Jews and it wasn't a good thing for them to do Jesus said looking for a sign is not a good thing this is a generation in Luke 11 29 This generation is a wicked generation.

It seeks for a sign. That's actually wickedness, to go looking for a sign. It's not a sign, if you will. It's not a sign of something spiritually good. One of the things this demanding sign tells us is that casting out demons, as amazing as it was to most of the people, was not a high enough order sign to be considered a valid sign.

So he goes and casts out a demon, and instead of saying, well, that's a sign, instead they say, well, we want something more impressive than that. Right? We want something more impressive than that. Give us something that we would say, yeah, that's really impressive. Right?

Verse 15 starts, however, the theme of the passage. So here's in verse 15, but some of them said he casts out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of demons. And that's what Jesus takes off on with the rest of this passage here. So here's Beelzebul. Let's talk about Beelzebul.

The Pharisees believe in Satan. The Sadducees do not. Of course, it's hard to say what the Sadducees believed in. They don't believe in a lot of things, or didn't. Those making this accusation to Jesus were of the Pharisee persuasion. Either Pharisees themselves or leaning with them, siding with them.

But this word, Beelzebul, in the King James, if any of you have that, it's Beelzebub, and that's from the Latin manuscripts. The translators of the King James, by the way, were better at their Latin than they were at Hebrew and Greek, so they tended to lean on Latin a lot.

And so that's where that comes from. It was a derogatory term for Satan. And what I mean by that is, see, the Hebrew is Baal Zebel. Baal was the pagan god of the Canaanites, okay? It could mean a few different things, but you'll get the idea quickly. Lord of the flies is one possibility. Another one is the god of dung, okay? Well, you get the idea, right? It's disgusting, no matter how you look at it. So it was a disgusting term.

Instead of saying Satan directly, they would make this derogatory, actually double derogatory, because Satan is derogatory, right? So Beelzebul was the derogatory term for the derogatory name of Satan, head of the hierarchy of fallen angels. These Pharisees, or Pharisee-inclined men, were severely insulting Jesus and discounting his miracle. This casting out of demons just proves that you're aligned with Beelzebul, the god of dung, the lord of the flies. They attributed a work of God carried out by Christ as a work of the Holy Spirit to Satan in the most derogatory and insulting way possible.

Imagine that. Here's Luke 11, 17-20, And he knew their thoughts, and said to them, Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a house divided against itself false. If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul. And if I by Beelzebul cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? So they will be your judges. Verse 20, But if I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. So let's take a look at that.

First of all, we see Jesus knew their thoughts. What that's telling us is these guys were saying that they thought secretly to one another as a joke. Let's just have this insult. But Jesus knew what they were thinking, even though they were talking kind of behind the crowd and just to one another. He knew what was going on in their heads. Apparently their speech wasn't public But an insult they thought was just among themselves.

Okay, and Jesus instead Brings up that point you guys think you're being private. I know what you're thinking. Okay With God, there's no such thing as private speech thought or action If you have questions about that s Jonah, okay. All right. I A kingdom or a house divided. Jesus tells them that a kingdom or a house divided will not survive. Essentially says it for each one. And he's talking about the people, of course, not just the building and the real estate.

Israel became, after Solomon, a kingdom divided between two nations. Neither of them ultimately survived. It split into Israel, the northern kingdom, and Judah, the southern kingdom. And first Israel was hauled off by the Assyrians, and then Judah was hauled off by the Babylonians. The divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah began with a divided house, the house of David.

Only by multiple miracles of God will that kingdom be re-established. Because why? Because God promised that it would be. With Christ on the throne as its king, a descendant of David. So only miraculously, with a divided kingdom and a divided house, only miraculously will that kingdom be established and restored with the descendant of David. Why? Because God promised.

The first point that Jesus makes is that Jesus was and is not on the same side as Satan. So the first thing he brings up is there's division within the house. I'm not going to side with Satan. So that's not going to work. You guys have misjudged that.

Putting Jesus and Satan within the same house or kingdom is not going to stand. Jesus and Satan are certainly in opposition to one another and certainly not going to be reconciled. Jesus is going to provide several reasons, this is the first of them, why the Jesus-siding-with-Satan argument isn't going to cut it. Jesus-siding-with-Satan is certainly not going to be a stable alliance, as they accuse here. Now one thing to bring out, and Jesus brings it out here when he talks about the sons, right?

Exorcisms were actually reported among various Jews. Various Jews were actually casting out demons as one of the things they did. Jesus didn't only do that, but some Jews actually made a lifestyle or business out of it. So we have multiple records, and one of those is in Acts 19, 13 through 16. This is the seven sons of Sceva, right? And apparently this Jewish chief priest, he called himself, that's not official, but were casting out demons. And then they said, hey, we heard that you can cast out demons by the name of Jesus. And so they tried it. Didn't work out very well, but they apparently had had some success in the past casting out demons.

So Jesus could say to these Pharisees, or Pharisee-minded Jews, that by their accusation Beelzebub is casting out demons. That's their accusation. They're casting aspersions on the other Jews who cast out demons. And so you have others. Are you going to say that they cast out demons by Beelzebul as well?

And finally, verse 20, he talks about the finger of God. The finger of God is a phrase that's used only a few times in the Old Testament and only here once in the New Testament. It first comes up in the book of Exodus, the time when Pharaoh's magicians could not reproduce the miracles of the plagues. They called the miracles, believe it or not, starting out with gnats or lice, the finger of God. We can't reproduce it. This is God doing it. That still did not change Pharaoh's heart. But nonetheless, that's where it showed up first.

In Exodus, and again in Deuteronomy, the finger of God is made reference to the writing of the Ten Commandments on the tablets. So it is written there as well. So Jesus does things here, as recorded in the Gospel of Luke, by the finger of God, because he himself is deity. He himself is deity, working by the power of the Holy Spirit according to the will of the Father. The entire Trinity is involved with this. Now, if it's the finger of God, and that's what Jesus is saying it is, then he is proclaiming the Kingdom of God.

Jesus Christ, and I put those separately, The king of Israel had been presenting the gospel of the kingdom to the people of Israel, in the land of Israel, and those were done in order to validate his message. The kingdom had come upon them in the sense that the king of Israel, in casting out demons and in healing and performing other miracles, for example, feeding of the 5,000, feeding of the 4,000, etc. validate his message, and the kingdom was then offered to these men.

Were they accepting of it? Not so far, right? But it was indeed offered to these men. In that sense, the kingdom of God was presented to them. Here's Luke 11, 21. When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are undisturbed. This is a very interesting one. Let's talk about home security in New Testament times.

The culture of Israel in Roman times was such that there were no police in the usual sense. There's no calling 9-1-1. You can't even go outside and yell, 9-1-1! Or anything like that. There just were no police to respond. Someone attacking your home to hurt your family or to take things was actually a civil matter. If somebody came and took your stuff, you didn't call the police in and say, hey, I want my stuff back. You actually had to go to court and sue them to get it back.

And so you didn't want to get in that position. And so it was expected, it was assumed that you would be alert and that you would defend yourself and your house and family and earthly goods. That was your responsibility. That was assumed among the people of Israel.

This is where we get the thief in the night phrase and similar kinds of terms. You have this on page 3 of your handout. Here's Luke, as we're going to see in the next chapter of Luke, Luke 12, 39. But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have allowed his house to be broken into.

The term the thief, as you see it through scripture, Conveys the element of surprise the thief is not going to come to you and say you know in about five minutes I'm going to come and bust your door down or break in through your wall, and I just want to let you know And I'm gonna surprise you he didn't do that did he right he'd come up completely by surprise hit fast and And then the other thing, John 10.10, the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. Frequently a thief would either kill or seriously injure the person that he thought was going to defend the house. Because it was that person who was going to defend the house who would come after him if he didn't kill him or injure him severely. So frequently when the thief came in, he was not just there to steal, he was also going to either kill the head of the house or severely injure them and leave them as close to dead as he could.

So you see 1 Thessalonians 5.4, also that the day, the day of the Lord, would overtake you like a thief.

2 Peter 3.10, but the day of the Lord will come like a thief. What is it? The element of surprise. And even Jesus at the beginning and towards farther on in Revelation says, I will come like a thief. Behold, I am coming like a thief.

We have and we'll see in Luke 22, even out on the open road, Jesus said in Luke 22, 36, and he said to them, but now whoever has a money belt is to take it along, likewise, and also a bag. And whoever has no sword, and this is an imperative, is to sell his coat and buy one.

So defending oneself out on the open road was another thing that Jesus actually said to do. Alright, so these pharisaical men, whether they're Pharisees or just persuaded, would agree with Jesus' statement. So Jesus made this statement in verse 21, they would agree, the pharisaical men would be right in sync. He said, okay, you're going to defend the house, that's what you ought to do.

The strong man, fully armed, would guard his palace and its possessions. And that's another thing. What's translated house here is a word that actually means palace. It's different from Mark and Matthew. It's actually his palace. And well, he should. So here's a model of Herod's palace in the western part of the old city of Jerusalem. What they didn't know, however, is he was setting them up. Jesus was setting the strongmen up as standing for Satan, and all the possessions in his palace were those who were demon-possessed.

So here's Luke 11.22, but when someone stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, he takes away from him all his armor on which he had relied and distributes his plunder. That someone stronger could come along in the account that Jesus gives and defeat the well-armed strongman, taking all his arms away, because you're not going to go in and take over a palace and leave people who are armed. You're going to take all the arms away and take away all the possessions as plunder. Strip the house of everything that's in it. That someone stronger is Christ. He overpowers the demons. that are all under Satan in his hierarchy. Christ takes away those humans who are under Satan's control. That's the word picture that Jesus has set up here.

So in Luke 11.23, he says, He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters. So we have with or against, gather or scatter. Ultimately, Christ is about picking sides.

Jesus said in Matthew 10.34, Do not think that I come to bring peace on the earth, to unify everybody and everything. I do not come to bring peace, but a sword. A sword is one of those things you're going to go one way or the other and divide people up. If you stand with Christ, you'll stand against others. If you stand against Christ, then you will oppose those with him.

If you're not gathering people with the Lord, then you're scattering them. He switches from a military sort of analogy to instead an agricultural analogy. But the point is the same. You're either doing one or the other at any time. And of course what he is talking about is these Pharisees are standing against him. These Pharisees are scattering and not gathering.

Here's Luke 11, 24 through 26. When the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and not finding any, it says, I will return to my house from which I came. And when it comes, it finds it swept and put in order. Then it goes and takes along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they go in and live there, and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.

Jesus' point here is casting out a demon is not final. That by itself doesn't solve a problem completely and ultimately. As a matter of fact, it could get even worse. So this passage is a warning here. Alright, the demons cast out, but we're not done. The risk is not over. In fact, casting out a demon, as Jesus says here, may open up a person to a plural infestation of demons plus more. And they could be even worse demons, right?

There must be a good and godly spiritual occupancy to displace what is made empty by casting out the demon. Where there is spiritual risk, ongoing spiritual risk, for the person who was once delivered. An example of that good and godly spiritual occupancy is Mary Magdalene. Mary born in Magdala, or from Magdala anyway. Mary Magdalene had seven demons, but she had a good and godly spiritual occupancy as she followed the Lord and therefore did not fall into demon possession again.

Here's Luke 11, 27 and 28. While Jesus was saying these things, one of the women in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts at which you nursed. But he said, on the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.

So this is unsolicited. She just kind of puts that out there. This woman says, you know, blessed is the womb that bore you and, you know, the breasts who nurse you regarding Jesus' mother, whom we know to be Mary, the wife of Joseph. Now it's interesting, this would be the opportunity, this would be the opportunity for Jesus, if Mary was blessed above all women and to be revered and all those things, as the Catholic Church teaches, right?

This would be the opportunity for Him to say yes. But what does He do? On the contrary, Jesus placed the blessing priority not on Mary, but on those hearing the word of God and observing what they hear. He passed up an opportunity to exalt Mary. Isn't that interesting? And he says, on the contrary, even, OK? On the contrary. Only one person could bear a nurse Christ, and that was Mary. She's mentioned for the last time in Acts chapter 1 by name. After that, she's called a woman a couple of times. That's it.

But we have the opportunity to hear the Word of God and observe it, and Jesus says that's of greater importance. So here's today's take home. Mary was indeed blessed among women to be chosen for that once in all of time privilege of bearing our Savior, the Messiah. That was an amazing privilege to give what was probably a young teen Village girl in an obscure village Amazing thing but we're called to behold and look unto Christ and to abide in him and to keep our focus on him and walk in him there where we are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places and Where we are seated with him One of the things that's key, here at Holly Hills we teach a lot of content. And I will tell you things, as the elders and teachers will teach, we will tell you things, oh it has this Greek grammar, and this word means this, and this is the historical detail, and here's the cultural pattern, and we'll tell you lots and lots and lots of different things. But once having believed that ongoing fellowship with the Lord, with him personally is what it's all about. That's what it's aimed at.

If we just go around collecting all sorts of information about the Bible, and even if we go around collecting these identification truths, and if we go about saying grace, and use all the right words, it is the personal fellowship with the Lord that we need to look at.

And also in today's take home, wrongly attributing is a big, big problem in Christianity. That is, the Pharisees went and they said, OK, Jesus, you know, you're really doing this by the power and in cooperation with Beelzebul, right? But Christians are still wrongly attributing regarding Christ and Satan. Some blame Satan and demons for things that don't feel good. So one of the things that's happened among a number of Christians is to say, if it doesn't feel good, if I don't feel blessed, then it's from Satan.

And if I feel blessed, then it's from God. And they use that as the criteria for discernment. I've seen it. I've talked to people. And so instead of having biblical discernment where things are compared to scripture, it's how do I feel? And they swallowed the, trust your feelings, Luke, right? And they'd swallowed the, it can't be wrong if it feels so right. They swallowed that. Feeling blessed and so happy.

For many Christians, this has become discernment. Nancy and I have seen it even in the last several weeks. It might be God who is directly responsible for the things that don't feel good. Do I blame Satan, or is God actually disciplining me? Do I blame Satan for this thing that doesn't seem like it's going so well? Or do I say, Lord, you've allowed this trial in my life.

Thank you. Because I know it's because you love me. So we have facts, faith, and feelings. So we have faith in the facts is like the train in the tracks. And what are the biblical facts about any situation? Putting our faith in that and let the feelings and experiences follow. We use God's word to judge the experiences and the feelings, not the other way around. What happens if we put our trust in feelings and experiences is that ends up guiding and leading us and we make an idol of feelings and experiences.

And our culture has been telling us to do that. And many churches are swallowing it. They're biting the hook. Many Christians have fallen under this. Ultimately, seeing who Christ is, who He really is, is always the issue in life. Always. Him personally. It always was, it always will be the issue.

Looking away from everything that distracts and looking to and beholding Him through His Word is exactly what God has in mind. That we have an intimate walk with Him based on His Word. Measuring everything by His Word. but it's aimed towards fellowship with Him.

Let's pray. Lord, we thank You as we look at this passage. We see just the need to look at You truly and to put our trust in You as we behold You through the Word. And we just thank You that just as our identification with Christ and His death, burial, and resurrection Ascension and seeding is the ultimate in intimacy. We have that in our position. We pray, Lord, that you would teach us to make that true of our condition, moment by moment, every moment, every day. We entrust everything to you, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.