Light in the Darkness

Now he was casting out a demon that was mute. When the demon had gone out, the man spoke.

The demon was causing a muteness. The man could not speak because of the demon. When the demon is removed, the man can speak. There's something very helpful there. It's very obvious. Everyone watching noticed something significant just happened. A powerful something just happened. They respond. The people marveled. That sounds pretty good. But what follows is doubt, denial, a complete misunderstanding of what actually happened. There's a real question that's pressing in on us. Have we responded to Jesus the right way? Have we seen who he really is? Have we responded to him the right way? To be very clear, marveling is not enough. We have to believe him. We have to believe him and keep his word. Let's look at the first problem in more detail. Notice here, Luke is giving us a narration of what's happening.

but some of them said he cast out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons.

Okay, this is the first point, deny him. They have completely recognized that Jesus in casting out demons must be doing it with the power of demons. Now this is outstanding. Jesus, the creator of the man who he healed, Jesus, the creator of all angels, and demons are angels that rebelled. Jesus is showing his absolute power and authority as the one creator God. There is a hierarchy of being we need to be aware of. God, angels, and man. Hebrews 1 makes that very clear. We are beneath the angels. We are made in the image of God as a special privilege, status, and position we have among all creatures, but they are greater than us. That's very important as we understand the story. Jesus sent out apostles and disciples to cast out demons in his name. Only in his name could they do this. Now he is exercising that authority as the only God, the one creator God. And this shows how twisted the people in the crowd are who are saying this. He cast out demons by Beelzebul. If you're familiar with the Old Testament, Beel, that's just like Beol, the word Lord, oftentimes a pagan idol of some sort. Zabod, there's the Lord of the Flies is actually what's in picture here. They're recognizing there's a great power, a great demonic power, and they are saying Jesus can only do this because he is working on the wrong side of good and evil. Now, why would they come to that conclusion? We really should have, we have to answer that. What would lead someone to come to the conclusion, all right, a great event just happened, a demon was just cast out, a mute man can now speak, what are my options? Well, he's either God, and I must follow him and worship him, or anything else. We become very creative over here. Here, they get so creative, they say he is doing this with demonic power. Notice here, we're skipping verse 16, we're gonna go down to verse 17. Verses 17 through 26 is Jesus responding to this accusation. Already, the Creator God has cast a demon out, but if you're there thinking he is only doing this through the power of Beelzebul, you immediately are scared because he knows their thoughts. That should terrify us. He knows our thoughts. He said to them, notice first, he just applies general common wisdom.

Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste in a divided house. Fails.

Well, this is true. A house with a mom and dad that are constantly fighting, that house is in ruins. It fails. A government that has two opposing forces is going to fall. A church that's always bickering and divided is going to fall. We see he's applying just a basic principle. If I'm working with the power of demons and I'm fighting demons, it's a house divided. That doesn't make any sense. Verse 18,

and if Satan also is divided against himself,

he's applying it here specifically,

how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul. And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges.

It applies to basic wisdom. A house divided cannot stand, and if Satan here is trying to cast out other demons, that's a divided house. That doesn't make any sense. You say that I cast out demons. Here, I believe he's even applying anyone who's in the tribe of Israel, your sons, not just your immediate sons, the other children of Israel. When they cast out demons, by whom do they cast out demons? Because this was something that happened. They will stand as your judge. Verse 20, but if. This verse needs to sink in. But if, this is the condition, this is the line in the sand that brings clarity.

But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

And you just said the son of God was an agent of Satan. The weight falls. The Lord willing, the scales fall off the rise here, but notice the importance. If it is by the finger of God, if Jesus is acting in the goodness of God, restoring creation, restoring this man, overcoming those rebellious demons. If it is by the finger of God, God is working here. The kingdom of God has come upon you. There's a moment of reckoning how wrong they are. Your assessment about Jesus is wrong. If we pull back and just see Jesus has come to do the work of God. He is the outstretched right arm of God that is at work among us. He is the son of God who has come to bring about the kingdom. He's come to undo the work of Satan. Let me go back to Galatians, or Galatians, Genesis three. Satan comes, he deceives. He tempts, he throws God's creation of goodness and order into chaos. We're cast out of the garden, we're removed from God. We now have sin, we're all born with sin. We're all born with an inclination to rebel against God. Satan is our enemy, sin is our enemy, death is our enemy. And Jesus has come to destroy all our enemies. He's the son of God who has come and he alone can overcome these enemies. He overcomes sin by dying for our sin on the cross. He overcomes death by rising again. He overcomes Satan by crushing his head. He undoes the power of Satan. And here's just a little small sample of it. This is not four blind men all getting some aspect of an elephant. This is seeing God at work and completely getting it wrong. It's terrifying because we're all born with a twisted heart. We're all born with sin in our minds and our hearts that cause us to do one of the most dangerous things, suppress the truth. That if is everything. We suppress the truth and we'll come up with anything to get away from the Son of God who alone can save me and who is worthy of all my worship. Our sin causes us to suppress the truth and twist it. This instance here of getting it so wrong is a warning for all of us. Let's just pan out a little bit. I don't know if anyone here is assuming Jesus is working on the side of Satan. I kind of doubt it. There have been some really wrong views of God. One Christian historian described a movement that dominated most of the 20th century.

A God without wrath saves a people without sin through a Christ without a cross.

You see, at the heart of that theology which dominated much of the 20th century. There's really nothing that wrong with us, and God would never be that displeased with us, and therefore Jesus, he didn't die for sinners, he died to give us motivation, give us encouragement, give us a sentiment, an ideal. That's extremely dangerous. Another wrong view of God that's more pressing right now is from a man named Richard Rohr. He's a what we call a progressive moderate. I would call him a liberal. His advice,

meditate deeply, let go of beliefs, listen for the inner voice.

He says,

the Dalai Lama says in one sentence what Paul is trying to say in Romans, only the Dalai Lama says it better.

This is a so-called Christian priest. This is what he thinks the Dalai Lama says that's so profound.

Learn the laws well so you can break them properly.

Folks, that's dangerous. But doesn't it kind of get at that part of our heart that wants to figure out those loopholes? Don't we, that resonates just a little bit. He's trying to give you a hermeneutic so that you meditate deeply, you can let go of your beliefs, and well, if your heart denies what God says, maybe there's something wrong with the law. We can figure out how to break God's law. Both of these have a wrong view of man, that what's inside is good, but these have a wrong view of God, that he actually embraces what's so wrong with us. The real concern is it's so easy to make Jesus in our own image. We all are easily entangled and enticed to overlook some truth of Jesus. Now Jesus goes on and tells a story.

When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are safe. But when one stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil.

All right, this is a pretty simple story. There's a strong man and there's a stronger man. Who's gonna win? It's okay, you can say it. Okay, first, being a strong man isn't toxic. That's what our culture's gonna tell you. Being a strong man isn't toxic. Being a jerk is toxic. You're supposed to desire to be a strong man who can protect and provide and defend. Which one's gonna win, strong or stronger? There we go. It's a pretty simple story. The story seems to be here, there's a demon, he has a place, he has made a abode, he has made his home with this man. Jesus, who is stronger, defeated him. It's just that simple, let's not complicate it. What boils down here, very clearly though,

whoever is not with me, is against me.

Their accusation is against him. You're saying I'm doing these things with the power of Baal's above me. He's simply saying whoever's not with me is against me.

And whoever does not gather with me scatters.

This is significant. If you're gonna memorize one verse, I believe it's this one.

Whoever's not with me is against me. Whoever does not gather with me scatters.

There's a reality that as we come to Christ, he gives us a new identity. We're now in Christ. We walk with him. There's a reality that lies behind this two ways to live. You're either with Christ or you're against Christ. There's a lot of good things we could be doing, but if we're not doing them in Christ, with Christ, for Christ, we're against Christ. There's a lot of really good things humans do, but if we're not doing them in Christ, with Christ, and for Christ, we're still against Christ. We must believe in Jesus Christ. We must see who he is as the one God who saves us from our sins and believe in him. If you're not with me, you're against me. The other declaration, if you're not gathering with me, you're scattering. There's something clear about Jesus' disciples. They make disciples. A disciple of Jesus is constantly trying to gather other disciples to be with Jesus and with each other. The people who love Jesus want to be with Jesus, want to be with other people who love Jesus, and want to gather people. This is very like what Paul is saying when he gathers the elders in Acts 20. Watch yourself, watch your doctrine. There'll be people who want to draw people away from Christ. A godly Christian draws people to Christ with one another. It's work that bears fruit. He's making it very clear for these folks who have misunderstood everything about him. You're against me. Believe there's an invitation. Come be with me. Verses 24 and 26. Again, he's still answering the same problem. They think he has the power of demons to cast out demons. He now is going to tell us something about what happens with demons. This is insightful, this is helpful.

And when the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and finding none, it says, I will return to my house from which I came. And when it comes, it finds the house swept and put in order. Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself. They enter and dwell there. and the last state of that person is worse than the first.

Now he is not talking about whenever he casts a demon out and gives the person the Holy Spirit. He's speaking of if a demon is removed and there's rescue but not regeneration, the demon's gonna return. That's somewhat confusing. Let's put it this way, there's a way in which there's real problems that humans get themselves entangled with. You know, we call alcoholism sometimes being involved with spirits. There's a way in which you can get inclined and entangled in sin and humans can clean themselves up pretty well. And then when they return to those sins, the last day is worse than the first. There's an assumption in this story. We are created to be indwelt by another spirit. God pre-designed human beings to be indwelt by another spirit. It's either the Holy Spirit or it's the demonic spirit. I don't believe Jesus referred to the times that someone would have a demon cast out, be renewed, be regenerated, and the Holy Spirit would then fill that person. You know, I believe this would be something like what these guys might do when they cast out demons. There's not a regeneration. There's not a new life. There needs to be a concern. There's a rescue, but not a regeneration. What does this teach us? First, Jesus is the hero and the champion we have all been waiting for. He's the God who came to be with us, to walk among us, to rescue us. We need to submit to him. The challenge here is how do we look at Jesus and not perceive him truly? We will never have our heads wrapped around Jesus. That would mean you've mastered Jesus. You can't do that. He can master you. But here, are we coming to Jesus with a posture of submission? a teachable spirit, a desire, teach me who you are. An open-handedness to say, show me who you are, Jesus. Not who I perceive you to be, not who I want you to be. Not in my lies. There's something important here also about demons. They're real. We live in a very materialistic age and we pretend they're not real. They're real. They're involved in our sin. We don't need to cast out demons when there's just sin. No, our sin's our problem. Demons know how to play with it. They lie to us, they tempt us. We can't pretend there's no demonic activity out there. That would make us have blinders. No, there's a reality. We have great enemies. The sin itself deceives us. Demons that deceive us. What's the one solution? Listen to Jesus, who speaks truth and words of life. Listen to Jesus, who speaks truth and words of life. Let's continue with our second point. Verses 27, 28, much shorter verse. A bit of an interruption, but a divinely inspired, a divinely recorded interruption right here.

As he said these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, blessed is the womb that bore you and breast at which you nursed.

That's true. How do we know it's true? Luke recorded it as true. When Elizabeth shows up with John the Baptist in her womb and he starts doing somersaults, what does Elizabeth say to Mary?

Blessed are you among women.

What she's saying has actually already been recorded as true. Notice how Jesus responds. Blessed rather. There's not a denial of Mary being blessed, but the whole focus here isn't on Mary the blessed one who received the promise of God by faith. That's why we don't go to Mary in prayer. She doesn't want you to.

Blessed are those who hear God's word and keep it.

He's done this before. If you just go back to Luke 8, verse 21. Folks press in on him and they say, Jesus, your mother and your brothers, they're coming to you. And he says in verse 21,

my mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.

Twice, we have Jesus recognizing and identifying his family as those who hear the word of God and do it or keep it. And I would say those two things have the same basic meaning. All right, so what does it mean to hear the word of God? This is the first requirement. At some level, the blessing of God and hearing it is the first access. It is burdensome as we contemplate this, that hundreds of millions of people do not have access to God's word. That's either because it's inconvenient, there's persecution, or they just don't wanna hear it. God commands the church to make sure everyone has access to hearing God's word. I wanna just take a moment here and make sure we're thinking about this as a church and that We should be praying, as Ben just did in the pastoral prayer, that we would know how to participate with those who are going out. We should be praying that we would actually be able to train up and build up those who would be going out. It is part of our great commission. We should be wanting to make sure the word of God is being heard here in our city, but we also should be hopefully praying that God would make us healthy enough to be training up others who would be going out to make it heard. Let me be very clear, that will be costly for us, church. To train up those who want to go out and proclaim the gospel will be costly. The other way in which I fear we aren't seeing enough people go out is believers just aren't taking on the faithful discipleship. We need believers to take on the call of being a faithful disciple. If we go and see what's required of an elder, what is it other than being a faithful, godly disciple of Jesus Christ? Are you following Christ in such a way that you're faithful in the way that God would say you're ready? Your church would say you're ready? Are you pursuing God and godliness enough to say you go and proclaim the gospel? We need to be a church that's sending, and I want us all to be pursuing the kind of life that's denying ourself, carrying the cross, following Christ. and we may proclaim them. There is a blessing here. Paul tells us in Romans 3 too. One of the great advantages of being an Israelite is that they had the oracles of God. It is a great blessing to hear the word of God. But that's not all. You must hear it and keep it. Do it. Hold it fast, hold it near. There's a TV episode that I've enjoyed. The main actor shows up at a rental car service request his car, they say,

well, sir, we see your reservation, but we don't have your car. What do you mean, you have my reservation, but you don't have my car? Well, your car's not here, we have your reservation. Well, isn't that what a reservation is? If you keep it, if you have a reservation, they're gonna keep the car.

And he then makes the hilarious line,

well, anyone can take a reservation, it's really keeping it that matters, right?

Everyone can make a promise, it's keeping the promise that matters. Everyone can embrace the word of God and hear it, but it's keeping it that matters. Are we holding fast to God's word? It's so helpful that Jesus has been boiling it down for us the last few sermons in Luke. To make it simple, there's two commands that summarize the whole law.

Love the Lord your God, love your neighbor.

There's one thing that's necessary, communing with God, being in his presence. He even gives us the very clear instruction, praying God's will his way. There's a ways in which we know we're keeping it. Seeking to be faithful without loopholes. Seeking to be faithful without excuses. Seeking to be faithful, holding fast to his word. If we want to make sure we see Jesus without the blinders, we're going to submit fully. to keeping his word. Our third point, demand more. Demand more. Notice there's a bit of a scene change after Jesus has given a fairly awkward but clear correction. The real blessing is hearing and keeping God's word. That's who belongs to me and my family. He then addresses that second problem. Let's go back to verse 16.

while others, to test him,

that's always a clue, right? We wanna make sure we're realizing whatever happens next isn't good.

Kept seeking from him a sign from heaven.

Keyword sign. Let's read verse 29.

When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, this generation is an evil generation. It seeks for a sign. but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.

We see here Jesus is correcting that particular problem.

For as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so the Son of Man be to this generation. The Queen of the South,

which I believe is the Queen of Ethiopia,

will rise up in judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.

All right, let's back up and just make sure we're tracing the parallels. Jonah and Solomon are the different signs. The signs are those who proclaim the word of God to other people. There's a reality of, there's books of the Bible that we call the Old Testament, the old witnesses, the previous witnesses, the promises that are all pointing to Jesus. All of those prophets are pointing to Jesus. We are full, we have so many ways in which God has given us signposts, pointing us to Jesus. What's interesting about the two examples Jesus just gave, notice they both preach to Gentiles. The people who receive the word of God, the signs, they did not have the Old Testament. Just go back for a moment, Jonah, chapter three, verse four, you can go look at it later. This is the message of Jonah. Yet 40 days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. That was the good news that led people to repentance. Let me read that again so you can hear the good news. Yet 40 days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. Remember, Jonah did not wanna go to Nineveh, because he didn't like Nineveh. They were evil. They were wicked. They did not have any part of the Old Testament. But when they heard that the true God was going to exercise his righteous wrath against their sin, they repented. When the queen of the south, the Ethiopian queen most likely, comes and hears Solomon, she doesn't have any of the Old Testament. She just knows it's the word of God. That's why they stand in judgment to this generation, and to us, if we don't believe. This generation he's speaking to, they're all Jews, they've been taught the Torah from the very beginning of their lives. They've been given all the signposts, Moses, David, Jonah, Solomon, all the signposts, and now all of a sudden, the one whom they should have been ready to see, they've seen. And what did they say? I think you could do better. Show me something else. You see how wicked that is? He's the very son of God who just healed a blind man. There's a skepticism here. There's a doubting. There's a desire to always say, no, God, you need to pass my test if you want my loyalty. Well, Jesus will have none of it. He calls them very clearly, you're an evil generation, you've had the prophets, you killed the prophets, he'll say in other places. Let's go back here, notice there's another parallel. Verse 31, behold, something greater than Solomon is here. Verse 32,

the men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.

Okay, there's something greater than Solomon. There's something greater than Jonah. There's someone greater than Moses. Someone greater than David. It's Jesus. When Jesus goes in Luke 24, he's with disciples who don't recognize him after the resurrection quite yet, but he opens up the Bible and he explains to them how all the prophets and all the law and all the wisdom and all the Psalms are all pointing to him. If you're not a Christian, the challenge for your unbelief is how is the Bible is so united with the one theme that Jesus Christ came to save us sinners. 66 books, 40 authors, over 2,000 years, three languages, three continents. It's amazing how unified this book is because God is its primary author. And he set before us such clear promises and Christ fulfills them all. Have you taken God's word and sought to study it? Do you know who you really deny? Have you really taken up God's word to say, if you're true God, let me know. That's my challenge to you. Would you actually take up God's word and read it? There's a gospel study here, Wednesday at noon. I invite you. We're just looking at who Jesus is. I believe it's very clear. He's the savior of sinners. Christians, do we do this? Do we tell God that if he just did something more, we'd be more faithful? Maybe not directly. Maybe not just like that. But if we just thought, man, if I had this one thing. If I just felt this one part of my life was in order, then I start serving more faithfully. Once I have this thing ready, then I'll be more obedient. We want something more from God. We need to be careful. And wanting some sign. Man, another warning here in 1 Corinthians 1. Paul warns the church, Gentiles want wisdom, Jews want a sign, and he preaches the cross, which is always going to be a stumbling block, because the cross teaches us we're not as good as we think we are, and God is good enough to love us anyway. Do we desire to see Jesus? He's the final prophet. Our final point, embrace his light. Embrace his light. Notice there is no real break between 32 and 33. Jesus is continuing to give the same teaching. However, it clearly takes a different turn.

No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar and under a basket, but on a stand, so those who enter may see the light.

Now, this might be a little confusing to us because when we light candles, we usually do it for pretty. The other women's conference, there was candles and in no way was anyone dependent upon those candles for illumination, right? When we light something, it's for pretty. In this culture, at night, the only way you could see each other or the room you're in is if there's a lamp. And so again, he's just appealing to basic, clear logic and experience. You don't put a candle out and light it and then put something over it. Verse 34, he begins to apply.

Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. Therefore, be careful lest the light in you be darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays give you light.

There's a way in which you can apply this and interpret it to say, the eye, as I look, then that's the light. And I'm going to perceive things. I'm going to decide what's right or wrong. And I think we're going to get everything wrong if we think that's what's happening here. No, the eye is more of a window. We perceive. Again, these guys, they were all looking at the same thing. And they perceived it wrong. Why'd they perceive it wrong? Because there's darkness within. their filter after receiving the miracle of seeing Jesus save somebody from a demon was to accuse him of being a demon or to say you need to do a little bit more. No, the idea of the eye, it's a window. And what we do with the information we gain or take in is we filter it. And really the question is, what's inside of us? Is it darkness that filters it with corruption and twistedness? Or is it light? Jesus says, be careful that you're full of light. Christian, we cannot pretend that we can participate in darkness all week long and then hope we would come and actually be able to receive something that's light. We can't pretend to play with sin and somehow have that compartmentalized and protected and think that the things of God, the things of light and truth will still come in and have its proper effect. Here's the hard reality. We're getting better at whatever we're practicing. Are we practicing the things of God, the things of light? Are we practicing the things that distance us from God? Here we see the importance that there needs to be a light within, that there needs to be a way of seeing the truth and analyzing the truth and receiving the truth. We call this the doctrine of illumination. It just so happens that we're studying Monday night in the Bright Seminary class. You see, the Holy Spirit is the guide. Us, by ourselves, we're full of darkness. We won't see Jesus. Praise be to God. The Holy Spirit comes to indwell us. The Holy Spirit comes to renew us. The Holy Spirit comes, and the Holy Spirit is a spotlight. If you want to know one kind of metaphor for understanding the Holy Spirit's ministry, it's a spotlight shining ever so bright on Jesus so that we see him more truly, to believe more faithfully. Christian, are we practicing and protecting the things that will give us the pure heart to receive the things of God? Matthew 5, 8 is a helpful verse.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see the faith of God.

This morning, are we coming with blinders. We're willing to give up those blinders. The only way we give up blinders, we realize Jesus is glorious. Jesus is great. Jesus is full of power and love and kindness. And the way we will see him more truly is repent of the kinds of lies and patterns that keep us blinded to his goodness. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you that you are good. You've not left us in our own darkness. You've not left us with our own hearts that are self-deceiving. You've not left us under the power of Satan who traps us in lies. Lord, you have spoken. You've given us your word that is a lamp into our path. You've given us your spirit that illuminates our very eyes and our minds and our hearts so we can know you. Lord, forgive us and protect us for thinking you're difficult to know. Lord, give us the grace and encouragement we need to pursue you as the God who makes himself known, who desires to be known, to know us and to love us and to enjoy us and be enjoyed by us. Lord, help us to see your son more truly and more fully so that we can enjoy you and walk in your grace more faithfully. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Let us stand and sing our song of response. Be thou my vision.