Truth That Changes Lives

JP Jones: The means by which the light of Christ comes into your life needs to be maximized so that all the light of Christ can come in and enlighten all of your life.

Guest (Male): 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 two of Luke 11:12-13.

JP Jones: Over in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter seven, 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 two questions I’ve got to ask myself, two questions to ask yourself. 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? What parts are those, and 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, evaluating it. We look off into the future about what’s going on around the church in 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. And 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, and then I said, "Let’s just read them." So 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, "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 flow through our congregation in all of those ways." The promise that I thought of was Joshua chapter one where God says, "But 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 that 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 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.

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, "Jesus Christ, he was a great leader, 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.

The actual teachings of Jesus either lead us to humbly repent, or we get ticked off and reject the whole thing. Because here’s Jesus with a huge crowd that comes to hear him, and he goes, "You’re a wicked generation." I mean, didn’t anybody ever tell Jesus how to win a crowd over? Because it’s not calling them wicked. That’s 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." If you don’t know what the sign of Jonah is, maybe you ought to go back and read the book 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, no different than a generation right now, no different than this congregation right here.

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.

But unexpectedly, you know what the Ninevites did when they heard that? They repented. They repented, and so rather than judging them, God forgave them. The Queen of the South heard that Solomon had the wisdom of God, and the scripture says so she traveled, she lived in somewhere in Africa, she traveled all the way up Africa, the continent of Africa, and came to Jerusalem to see Solomon and to hear the wisdom of God that Solomon offered.

So Jesus says, "Listen, someone a lot greater than Jonah is here, and someone a lot greater than Solomon is here. It’s me, the Son of Man, the Son of God, the Messiah, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, the only one who can forgive your sins and give you salvation. And the Ninevites repented at the preaching of Jonah, and the Queen of the South traveled all over the world to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and you won’t even respond to what I have to say. You’re a wicked generation."

Wow, he singes their eyebrows. The point is, the expectation of Jesus is that when someone sees who he is and hears his message, they repent like the Ninevites, they seek him like the Queen of the South. And the good news is when someone repents, what does God do? He forgives. He extends mercy and grace. He restores. He reconciles. Repentance always benefits us.

So if you have been a person that has dug in your heels for some reason and has responded in stubborn pride for some reason and you’re resisting God for some reason, repent. Don’t say in your own reasonings, "I need more evidence. I need some sign from God. I need more answers. I need to hear another sermon." No, don’t do that. Repent.

Repentance is God’s gift and opportunity to us so that our sins could be forgiven and we could be restored to a right relationship with God. In fact, it’s such a good thing, I’m going to give us all an opportunity to do it right now.

So if there’s something in your heart and your soul that you’ve been stubbornly holding on to, if you’ve been keeping God at arm's length for some reason, don’t do it any longer. Just take this moment that God’s given you right now and say, "God, I repent. I turn to you. Forgive my sin." Let me just lead us in a prayer of repentance right now.

Father, we have been stubborn and resistant, but we want to be like the Ninevites. So we repent. We turn from our sin, and we turn to you. We humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, and we ask that you would exalt us at the proper time. Forgive us, restore us, heal us, reconcile us. Fill us with the grace of Jesus Christ and the salvation of Jesus Christ. Thank you for the grace of repentance. In Jesus' name, amen.

One last observation. Jesus is stringing these together, they’re standalone truths. Jesus talks about the reality of spiritual warfare and demons, and he has the authority to rebuke demons. Jesus talks about the fact that we’re blessed when we hear and obey the word of God. Jesus says that he expects us to repent when we see who he is and we hear his message.

Here’s a fourth observation. We need to let Christ’s light enter and fill our lives. Jesus says this: Luke 11:33, "No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden or under a bowl. Instead, he puts it on a stand so that those who come in may see the light. Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are good, your whole body also is full of light, but when they’re bad, your body also is full of darkness. See to it that the light within you is not darkness. Therefore, if your whole body is full of light and no part of it dark, it will be completely lighted as when the light of a lamp shines on you."

It’s interesting just doing some cross-referencing in my study here. I’m aware that this analogy of light and darkness is used a lot in the Bible, but I didn’t realize how many times. I mean, just in the gospels alone, Jesus uses this metaphor over and over and over again to illustrate a very simple spiritual truth. He’s the light of the world. We are in darkness apart from Jesus Christ. Jesus is the light of the world.

When we cross the line and come into a relationship with Jesus Christ, Jesus’ light comes into our lives, and what was once dark becomes light. And so what we are to experience is the light of Christ, not just in that salvation experience, but throughout our lives of following Christ, we’re to continually allow his light to fill our lives, to dispel darkness, and then we ourselves become light to other people who are in darkness.

So Jesus says in breaking down this teaching, "You light a lamp so that it can shine and give light. You don’t light a lamp to put it off somewhere away from being able to give light, nor do you light a lamp and then put it out."

Recently, we had a power outage in my neighborhood, and everything went dark about 10:30 at night. Completely black, streetlights, interior lights, everything. And it was like we’re all at different parts of the house. Now it’s like, "Okay." And so we started in our own kind of, "Where are the flashlights?" and "Did we put them over here? Are they there?" I found a flashlight, but the batteries were dead, and I’m feeling my way around trying to remember where everything is so I don’t kick the furniture. It was that dark.

Finally, I found a candle, and I found some matches as I was feeling around in that drawer where you just throw everything. I knew there were matches in there, and after feeling around, I found them. And I lit the candle. All of a sudden, now there’s light. I tell you what I didn’t do. I didn’t do this. I go, "Oh, I have achieved my goal, which is lighting the candle," and then blow it out again and continue to walk around in darkness.

But you know what? It seems like there’s some people in the church who do that. They spend their lives in darkness. They come to a realization that only Christ has the light. They come to Jesus Christ, and they get the light of Christ, and then they just put the light out rather than letting that light shine and enlighten every part of their life.

That’s what Jesus says. He says, "I’m the light, and I came to not only enlighten your life but enlighten all of your life." And then Jesus talks about the fact that the eye is like the conduit to the life. I don’t think he’s using literal teaching here. He’s trying to make an understanding, a concept that physically through our eyes we take in information.

Well, there’s like a conduit to the inner man. Every person has a soul, an inner being. There’s a conduit to that. The eye is like the gateway or the conduit for the light. So if that’s the case, then with your eye you bring in the light of Christ. But if your eye’s all dark, you’re not bringing in light, you’re just bringing in more darkness.

So the means by which the light of Christ comes into your life needs to be maximized so that all the light of Christ can come in and enlighten all of your life. Now, just help me do the math here. If the only light of Christ coming into a person’s life is the hour and 15 minutes that they spend on a Sunday morning and they don’t even do that 52 weeks out of 52, they do it less than that. If that’s the only light, their whole life isn’t lit up. I mean, the math says that, right?

So I’m speaking to two audiences right here. Now, to one audience, if there’s no light of Christ in your life, that’s where you start. Jesus is the light of the world. He will enlighten your life. Open up your life to Jesus Christ. Let the light of Jesus Christ come into your life. Come out of darkness, come to light, come to salvation in Jesus Christ. Ask Jesus Christ to forgive your sins and to fill your life up with his light. It’s awesome. That’s the good news of the gospel.

Those of us who have done that, are we letting the light fill our lives, or are we settling for like a little tiny bit of light somewhere in us, but the rest of it’s just dark? I hope not. If your eye’s dark, then the rest of your life is dark, Jesus said. So let your eye be full of light, let my light fully come into your life, every part of your life, not just that little hole that you call salvation and going to heaven, but your marriage, your parenting, your finances, your future, your goals, your priorities, your recreational life, your thoughts, your dreams, your aspirations, your desires, your whole life. Let my light and my life fill all of you. That’s what Jesus is saying.

And then your light will shine, and you can be a light to somebody else. Because we live in a world where we’ve got neighbors and family members and friends and coworkers that are in darkness. And we get to be the light of Christ to them, but we can’t be the light of Christ to them if our lives aren’t filled with light.

So if there’s no light in your life, let the light of Christ come into your life. If you have the light of Christ, let the light of Christ fill your life. If the light of Christ is filling your life, be a light of Christ to others. That’s what Jesus is teaching.

In our yard, we have some Malibu lights, and they’re solar-powered Malibu lights. So there’s no wiring behind them. They just have a photocell inside of them, and all day long, they are receiving the light of the sun, being energized by the light of the sun. And then when the sun goes down and it’s totally dark, guess what? Those things shine bright because they’ve been filled up with the light of the sun.

The next day, sun comes up, they receive more light. Next night, sun goes down, they shine with the light. We need to be like solar-powered Malibu lights as followers of Jesus Christ. Every day, we need to be receiving the light of Jesus Christ, and whenever we find ourselves in any kind of darkness, we shine forth with the light of Jesus Christ. It’s not our light, it’s the light of Christ we’re receiving, and then it’s the light of Christ we’re reflecting out.

So wherever you are in your spiritual journey, let the light of Christ fill your life and then express it and give it away to others. Jesus in this teaching in Luke 11:12 and 13 is giving kind of standalone messages, but he said something, I know he said something here that relates to every one of us wherever we are on our spiritual journey. If you’re hearing the word of God, obey it, because that’s the blessed life when you hear and obey the word of God. If the light of Christ is shining, receive it, let it shine and fill up your life, and give it away to others. And if you need to repent, repent and get right with God.

Guest (Male): 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 moment, 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. It's what's in red in the red-letter edition of the New Testament. The teachings of Jesus are dynamic, they're powerful, and what Jesus actually teaches oftentimes is different than what we think the Bible actually addresses. The teachings of Jesus are practical, and they call us to kingdom discipleship.

In Luke 11:12 and 13, Jesus is talking about the life of discipleship, the life of following Christ and living in Christ, abiding in Christ and living out our Christianity in the power of the Holy Spirit. He's addressed the issue of prayer, he's talked about the reality of the spiritual battle. And in the passage that we're looking at in this session in Luke chapter 11, Jesus talks about obedience. He talks about the repentance of the Ninevites at the preaching of Jonah, and he talks about the light of God shining out of our lives and us as his followers being children of light.

You see, living in Christ means that we obey God. It means that we've taken a step of obedience in faith. Putting our faith in Jesus Christ is a step of obedience. We repent from a self-directed life to a Christ-directed life. We obey God in believing the gospel. And Jesus says that we're blessed when we both hear and obey the word of God.

He then illustrates that with the story of Jonah preaching to the Ninevites because when Jonah was in the belly of the whale and then was launched out, so to speak, into the city of Nineveh, he preached repentance. And what happened was when the Ninevites heard that message, they actually repented. And their example is what Jesus uses to talk about obeying the word of God.

When we repent of our sin and turn to God, that's obeying God. Wherever we're living right now, if there's a section of our life, a part of our life, or the totality of our life that is not aligned with God's will, that's sin. And we need to repent. And repentance is a response of grace. It's internalizing the grace of God and turning our hearts over to Christ and surrendering to the authority of Christ and obeying the word of Christ.

And so we are to repent of sin in obedience. And when we do, the light of Christ shines out of our lives. The reality of Christ is real for us in our hearts, in our words, in our thoughts, in our actions, and it shines out to others. Are you walking in the light? Are you living a life of repentance? Are you obeying God? That's the life of discipleship, that's the life of a true follower of Jesus Christ.

And so Jesus unpacks that for us here in Luke chapter 11. And wherever you may be in your spiritual journey, there's a next step of obedience, there's a next step of repentance, and there's a next step of walking in the light of Christ. Would you talk with God in prayer and tell him that that's the desire of your heart?

Lord, thank you that you call us to salvation in Christ and you grace us with the opportunity to repent of our sin and the power to repent. And Jesus, thank you that as we obey you, your light shines increasingly in and through our lives. And so I pray for every one of us responding to this message that we'd walk in obedience, we'd walk in repentance, and we'd walk in the light of Christ. In Jesus' name, amen.

Guest (Male): We want to help you in your relationship with Christ. Please get in touch with us at truththatchangeslives.com, 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California, 92653. Or call us at 949-916-0250.

On the internet, you will 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.