Truth That Changes Lives

JP Jones: Jesus Christ has the authority to transform a person's life, to set someone free from bondage.

Greg: Thank you for joining us on Truth That Changes Lives. Pastor JP Jones is the senior pastor of Crossline Community Church in Laguna Hills, California, and a professor in biblical studies at Biola University. Today on Truth That Changes Lives, Pastor JP will be giving us a message from a series entitled Read the Red. Let's listen in as JP gives us part one of Luke 11:12 through 13.

JP Jones: If you have your Bibles, would you turn to Luke chapter 11? We're in this series called Reading the Red where we're going through the teaching discourses of Jesus, really examining the words of Jesus. What did Jesus actually say about what is the gospel, how do we know God, and how do we live a life transformed by Christ's power and grace? How do we move away from the world and move away from religion to an authentic relationship with Jesus Christ?

In Luke chapter 11, Jesus gives us a teaching. It's really Luke 11, 12, and 13. We're going to be looking at it over the next couple of weeks. These are standalone truths. Each one of the principles that Jesus teaches is a mini-message on its own, but he strings together 10 or 12 of them. We saw the first one last week when we talked about prayer. In the first part of Luke 11, what we learned is that the key to answered prayer—praying in a way that we know God hears us and answers us—is to pray persistently, trusting in God's goodness as our heavenly father.

The key to answered prayer is to pray persistently, trusting in God's goodness as our heavenly father. Now Jesus switches from talking about prayer to talking about several other aspects of discipleship or of a life centered around following Jesus as the Lord of our lives. Here's the first principle that we're looking at this morning. It has to do with the spiritual battle and spiritual conflict. Jesus tells us that demons are real, but Jesus has authority to rebuke and drive out demons.

Luke 11:14: "Jesus was driving out a demon that was mute. When the demon left, the man who had been mute spoke, and the crowd was amazed. But some of them said, 'By Beelzebub, the prince of demons, he is driving out demons.' Others tested him by asking for a sign from heaven. Jesus knew their thoughts and he said to them, 'Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall. If Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand? I say this because you claim that I drive out demons by Beelzebub.

Now, if I drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your followers drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you. When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe. But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted and divides up the spoils. He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.

When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, 'I will return to the house I left.' When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first.'" So, it is somewhat of an enigmatic teaching of Jesus about this whole theme of spiritual warfare, the reality of demons, and his authority to rebuke and drive out demons.

What Jesus essentially is saying is that there is a reality beyond what we physically see. There's a spiritual reality. The Apostle Paul confirms this and says the same thing in Ephesians chapter 6 where he says, "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the full armor of God that you might stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle isn't against flesh and blood; it's against the spiritual forces and powers and principalities of darkness. Stand firm, therefore, with the full armor of God that you might resist on the evil day and having done everything to stand."

There's a spiritual battle, and Satan and demons are real. Like any truth, we can become sidetracked and develop an extreme view and be off-base in our understanding of that truth. There are two extremes we've got to avoid. One extreme is to have a completely secularized understanding of spiritual conflict. A secularized understanding would be to dismiss the reality of Satan and demons and to say that all conflicts and struggles are purely natural, emotional, or psychological.

There may have been demons in the Bible, but we in our enlightened and rational perspective now know that that's not really the case, and that really people just have psychological trauma, physical problems, or relational conflict, but there's no Satan or demons or spiritual reality behind any of that. That would be an unbiblical understanding. Equally, it would be unbiblical to say every problem is demonic, every struggle is Satan attacking you, and every type of conflict or temptation is the devil trying to pull you into some spiritual trap.

You're extreme either in rejecting spiritual battle or you're extreme in saying everything is demonic. Jesus encountered demons. In fact, any honest evaluation of the Gospels sees Jesus dealing with, teaching about, and having victory over the demonic hierarchy. In this particular passage, Jesus has set a person free. That's what we can't lose sight of. It's Jesus's authority to rebuke the demonic. It's Jesus's authority to set people free. Here was a person who was being harassed and influenced by some demon, by some evil spirit, and Jesus sets the guy free.

If you are under some type of spiritual bondage, the good news of the gospel is Jesus Christ can set you free. In this particular demonic activity, the satanic bondage wasn't just manifested in some kind of spiritual darkness; there was a physical manifestation. The person was mute. So an honest biblical theology of evil spirits demonstrates that Satan and his demons can have an effect upon us spiritually, emotionally, relationally, and even physically.

So, at the very least, we need to have a biblical worldview that includes the reality and possibility of demonic oppression. We need to understand, which is the emphasis of the passage, that Jesus has authority to rebuke demons. Jesus has authority to set people free. In fact, you may be here at church today for the very reason that God wants to set you free. God doesn't want you in bondage. Galatians 5:1 says, "It was for freedom that Christ set us free." God wants you to walk in the very freedom of Jesus Christ, but you will not find freedom on your own terms.

That's what Jesus is addressing when he talks about the fact that evil spirits may get cleaned out from a person's life. They leave, and then they come back and find the house all in order, so they invite more demons, and the last condition is worse than the first. I think what Jesus is addressing there is someone who is seeking some humanistic, secular solution to their life struggle when the real problem is the demonic. They find temporary relief, but it's only temporary because the real problem is spiritual.

The only lasting solution is going to be spiritual. So if you attempt some secular solution or humanistic solution, you only set yourself up to be vulnerable to a deeper spiritual problem. In fact, it kind of sets up the occasion. Many of you may have had conversations with people. I know people like this, and some of you may even be like this, who have told me, "Oh, I tried Christianity, but it didn't work for me," or, "I used to be a Christian and I gave up on that because it didn't work."

How many of you have talked to somebody like that who's said something like that? Just raise your hand up high. Yeah, a lot of us. Now, what I know when someone says that is they might have tried church, they might have tried religion, they might have tried self-improvement, but they didn't really experience Jesus Christ. Because the Bible says when Christ sets a person free, they're free indeed. Jesus Christ has the authority to transform a person's life, to set someone free from satanic bondage.

Satan and demons are real, but Jesus has authority to rebuke them and Jesus has authority to set people free. This morning, Jesus wants every one of us to walk in his spiritual freedom, and he has the authority to lead us into that experience. The next observation, seemingly on another track, is occasioned by this situation because Jesus has set this person free from a demonic spirit. They were mute, they couldn't speak, and then they began to speak. The evidence of their healing was obvious to everyone.

Then Jesus gives this teaching on the fact that he has authority to rebuke demons. Jesus says that we're blessed when we hear and obey the word of God. Verse 27 in the passage says, "As Jesus was saying these things"—what things? The things about demons and his authority to rebuke demons and set people free. As Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd called out, "Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you." And he replied, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it."

At first, it sounds like he's putting this woman down. But this is what I think is happening. This is a spontaneous proclamation that this woman is making. She's just seen before her eyes a person set free. The guy couldn't speak. He was under demonic bondage. Jesus rebuked the demon and set the person free. The person speaks. Jesus teaches on spiritual freedom in Christ. The woman spontaneously says, "Blessed is the woman who gave you birth."

It wouldn't be that much different from when just a few moments ago, Dean standing up here, our children's pastor, said that last summer a bunch of kids came up to the front and gave their life to Jesus Christ. What was the spontaneous response of this congregation? Everybody applauded. You see, it's kind of a spontaneous statement. Sometimes when we are with God's people, we're in fellowship with the church, we hear a testimony of how God's changed someone's life, or we see for ourselves God at work, there's just a spontaneous response of praise or an expression of appreciation to God.

I think that's what this woman is saying. She heard Jesus give a teaching, she saw Jesus do a miracle, and she said, "Blessed is the woman who gave you birth." Then Jesus says, "Now I'll tell you what's really blessed and I'll tell you what's really important. It is hearing and obeying the word of God." In other words, what Jesus says is it's not what we say on Sunday; it's how we live on Monday that really matters. I don't need a show of hands on this one, but how many of you have said things at church on Sunday that you didn't live—you did not live out—on Monday?

Because I'd be raising my hand if I was going to say a show of hands on that. Jesus is saying that that's what really matters. That's what discipleship is all about. It's hearing, receiving, and obeying the word of God. It's not just what we can proclaim, whether from pure motives or from just being caught up in a crowd mentality. No, it's how we really live. Are we receiving God's word into our lives and are we living it out? Are we being obedient to God's word?

Jesus had a lot to say about that. In John chapter 8, Jesus said, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free." Right before that, he said, speaking to those who heard him and believed, "If you abide in my words, you are truly disciples of mine." In John chapter 15, Jesus said, "If you abide in me and my words abide in you, then you'll live a life that glorifies God and bears much fruit."

Over in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 7, Jesus said, "Let me tell you about two kinds of lives. One person built their house on the rock, and the rains came and that house stood strong because it was built on a solid foundation. That's the person who hears my words and practices them. But another person built their house on sand, and when the rains came, it washed the house away. That's the person who heard my words but didn't put them into practice."

So Jesus here in this statement is saying it's not so much what we proclaim in a given moment of excitement; it's living a consistent life of both hearing, receiving, and obeying the word of God. So, I've got to ask myself two questions and you ask yourself two questions. How am I doing about hearing and receiving God's word? Am I hearing it? Am I receiving it? Am I taking it in, not just on Sundays, but do I have a habit of reading and meditating and studying God's word for myself?

And am I regularly expressing it and living it out? Am I obeying it? Am I abiding in it? Are there parts of my life where I'm hearing the word but I'm not obeying it? And what parts are those? How can I be more of a doer and not just a hearer? Because Jesus said that's the key to being blessed. Blessed are you if you hear and obey my word. Every Monday, we have our staff meeting at church and we spend time talking about the previous week's ministry, kind of evaluating it.

We look off into the future about what's going on around the church and different ministries and how we can be working together as a team. We spend time praying for people individually. We pray for God's vision for our church. We also have a little time of devotion. I take some time to teach our staff or build into our staff on some spiritual truth. This past staff meeting, I asked all the staff as we sat around in a semicircle, I said, "I'd like everyone to think of a Bible promise. What's your favorite Bible promise?"

I had everyone look it up. Then I said, "Let's just read them." We went around and everybody read their favorite Bible promise. Just hearing that in itself was cool. All the great promises of scripture of what God has promised for us. Then I said, "Okay, this is what I'd like us to do. I'd like us to take that promise and turn it into a prayer. Let's pray for Crossline. Let's pray for our church that every one of those promises would be fulfilled and that God's blessing would just flow through our congregation in all those ways."

The promise that I thought of was the one that came to my mind when I did this spiritual exercise. It was Joshua chapter 1, where God says, "This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, and you shall be careful to obey all that is written in it. And then I will make you prosperous and I will give you success." Did you know that there's a promise in the Bible where God promises to make us prosperous and God promises to give us success?

The condition is to be careful to read, to meditate, and obey God's word. Jesus says here in Luke chapter 11, "Blessed is the person who hears and obeys the word of God." Now, it's one teaching discourse. Each one of these truths is kind of a standalone spiritual truth. Jesus talks about the fact that he has the authority to rebuke demons and set people free. Jesus says we're blessed if we hear and obey the word of God. Here's the third observation in these teachings of Jesus.

Jesus expects people to repent when they see who he is and hear his message. Jesus expects people to repent. Verse 29: "As the crowds increased, Jesus said, 'This is a wicked generation.'" I'm just going to stop there and make an observation. Remember how I told you that in my experience of people I talk to all the time, whether it's at the gym or Starbucks or wherever, when somebody says, "Oh, Jesus Christ, he was a great leader, a great teacher; in fact, Jesus was the greatest teacher who ever lived."

When anybody says that, I've just said to myself, "That's a person who's never actually studied the teachings of Jesus." Because the actual teachings of Jesus either lead us to humbly repent or we get ticked off and reject the whole thing. Here's Jesus with a huge crowd that comes to hear him and he goes, "You're a wicked generation." Did anybody ever tell Jesus how to win a crowd over? Because calling them wicked is not the way you get people to listen to you.

Jesus pulled no punches. He's just telling it like it is because what he's leading to is something really important that his audience needed to hear and we need to hear. "This is a wicked generation. It asks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of Man be to this generation. The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon's wisdom, and now one greater than Solomon is here.

The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now one greater than Jonah is here." Jesus says this is a wicked generation because all it wants is more information, more miraculous signs, more evidence. The generation that Jesus was speaking to is no different than any generation in any culture. It's no different than the generation right now, than this congregation right here.

Here's the deal: what Jesus expects is when a person sees who he is and hears his message, Jesus expects that person will repent. He uses two examples from the Old Testament, the Hebrew scriptures. He uses Jonah and the Queen of the South. In the book of Jonah—it's a real short book, you probably read the book of Jonah in 20 minutes—God tells Jonah to go preach to the Ninevites that his judgment is coming upon them. Jonah didn't like the Ninevites, so he didn't want to do it. So he ran off in the other direction.

God got Jonah's attention; he gets swallowed by a great fish. He decides to get right with God. He decides to obey God. He gets regurgitated back up on the land. He goes to the Ninevites. He preaches to the Ninevites that God's judgment is coming. Unexpectedly, the Ninevites repented. They repented, and so rather than judging them, God forgave them.

Greg: What a great message for all of us today. Pastor JP provides us with great insight. That is why we'd like to make it available to you on CD. Just get in touch and mention today's date. We'll send it your way for just $5. Or if you'd like to support this ministry, you can write us at Truth That Changes Lives, 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California 92653, or give us a call at 949-916-0250. That's 949-916-0250. For your gift of $25 or more, we will send you a signed copy of JP's new book, Facing Goliath. Please join us every Sunday at 9:00 or 11:00 AM at Crossline Church in Laguna Hills. The address is 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California 92653. Or check us out on the web at crosslinechurch.com. We're going to get to the address and phone number again in a minute, but before we do that, Pastor JP, do you have any insight from today's message?

JP Jones: Thanks, Greg. We're in a series called Read the Red. We're looking at the teachings of Jesus Christ. What did Jesus emphasize about God and salvation and discipleship? Right now, we're in a teaching discourse of Jesus that's found in Luke chapters 11, 12, and 13. It's an extended teaching of Jesus where he incorporates many elements of the whole life of discipleship. What Jesus tells us, first of all, is that we connect with God through prayer and that God is good and hears and answers our prayers. He gives us good gifts like a father would want to give good gifts to his children. God gives good gifts to us in prayer.

Then Jesus begins to talk about the reality of the spiritual battle. Every person is in a spiritual battle because we're no longer in the garden. Because of the fall, sin has been ushered into this world and there's an evil one who stands behind even the fall, who brings temptation into this world and he continues to seek to destroy the work of God, the kingdom of God, and attack the children of God. So we live in a fallen world. Sin affects us, sin affects our bodies, sin affects our minds, and there is an evil one who is seeking to rob us of our identity in Christ.

In fact, Jesus calls him the thief in that famous passage in John chapter 10, where Jesus said he came to give us an abundant life. He says the thief comes to kill, steal, and destroy, but I have come that you might have life and have it abundantly. So here in Luke 11, Jesus talks about Satan, who is the father of lies. He's Beelzebub, he's the prince of demons, and he actually seeks to influence people. There is a demonic attack upon believers, and believers, while they cannot be indwelt by demons, believers can be influenced by demons. So there's a spiritual conflict.

That might sound as a surprise to some of us. That might sound like something out of a Hollywood movie, but it's biblical truth. It's biblical reality. There is a real enemy, Satan, who has a host of demons who seeks to destroy the work of God, the kingdom of God, and seeks to attack the children of God. If you're a follower of Jesus Christ, you have a target painted on you. Jesus says that there is a spiritual battle, but there's victory through your identity in Christ. There's victory through what Jesus Christ has accomplished for us.

So Jesus teaches us in this section that there is a spiritual conflict, but there are resources for spiritual victory. When we stand in Christ and follow Christ, we can walk in the victory that he gives to us. Then Jesus says that there is an affirmation or a sign to his kingdom, which is like the sign of Jonah. When Jonah was in the belly of the whale for three days and then he came out, there's a sign for Christians that affirms the reality of the kingdom and the reality of the king, and that sign is the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Just like Jonah was a sign, there is a kingdom sign, which is Christ's resurrection. So Jesus is talking about discipleship, he's talking about spiritual realities, and he's calling us to live every day dependent upon him, focused on Jesus as the king and living for the sake of the kingdom. Would you commit yourself to that with me right now in prayer? Lord Jesus, thank you that you're the king. Thank you for the kingdom call of discipleship. Fill us with the Spirit. Live your resurrection life in us and through us as we follow you. In Jesus' name, amen.

Greg: We want to help you in your relationship with Christ. Please get in touch with us at Truth That Changes Lives, 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California 92653, or call us at 949-916-0250. On the internet, you'll find us at crosslinechurch.com. We hope to see you at one of our services every Sunday at our new campus in Laguna Hills. For more information and directions, please go to crosslinechurch.com. Please join us next time on Truth That Changes Lives.