The Latter Judean Ministry-Part II
AS WE SAW in the last study, our Lord with His disciples went from Galilee into Judea at the Feast of Dedication of the year A.D. 29, which celebration occurs around the time of our Christmas.
The Lord wanted to give the people of Judea another opportunity to hear the truth. Hence He sent out seventy disciples, two by two, to preach the gospel. This commission they carried out. Finally, Jesus came to the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, where He at times made His home when in that part of the country (Luke 10:38-42).
The events narrated in Luke 11:1-13:21 occurred during, or at the close of, this latter Judean ministry. In this article we shall therefore continue our study of the events recorded as found in Luke, chapter 11.
Jesus' Teaching the Disciples to Pray
In 11:1-4 we are told that the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray as John had taught his disciples to pray. This is the only intimation that we have that John did teach his disciples how to pray. It seemed that the disciples felt their need of instruction along this line, and that Jesus had not possibly prayed with them as John doubtless had done with his disciples. Jesus had taught His disciples when He was in Galilee how they should pray. This appears in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt., chaps. 5-7), which was delivered between the first and second tours of Galilee.
The reason why Jesus probably did not pray with His disciples is that He approached God from a standpoint different from the way in which the disciples should approach Him. The disciples were taught to say, "Our Father, who art in heaven." Jesus never approached God that way. He addressed God as "Righteous Father" or "Holy Father." When we see Jesus praying, He is alone and never with any of His disciples.
But when they asked Him to teach them to pray, He told them how to do it. His Instructions in Luke 11:2-4 are briefer than the model prayer, which He gave them in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 6:9-15).
Jesus' Encouragement to the Disciples to Pray
Since the disciples had asked to be taught how to pray, the Lord Jesus gave them encouragement to pray. This He did by giving the parable of the man who has a visitor at midnight, and who does not have food to set before him. The host, therefore, goes to his friend at that hour of the night, imploring him to give him bread to set before his guest. Though the man probably would not arise and give his neighbor the bread requested simply upon the basis of their friendship, because of the urgency and the need, he will arise and give him as much bread as he needs. This story Jesus used to emphasize the thought that the urgency of the case and the persistency of the petition will have an influence upon the Lord's answering a petition; Of course, this was put in an every-day manner in order to enforce the lesson. This teaching is found in verses 5-8.
Our Lord further comments upon the matter of prayer in verses 9-13. In verse 9, He assures us that, if we ask, the petition will be granted; if we seek we shall find; and if we knock the door shall be opened. No one will ever be denied or disappointed. Thus we are given perfect assurance that every petition will be granted, and that all seekers will find; but we know from actual experiences that there are petitions that seem not to be answered. Someone has said that sometimes the Lord's answer to us is "no;" at other times it is "yes;" and at other times He tells us to wait. Such thoughts are involved and closely connected with the teaching of verses 11 and 12. We may desire a certain thing. The thing for which we make request might be injurious to us. It might, in the language of verse 11, prove to be a scorpion or a stone. If we ask for bread, God will not give us a stone. He will give us the thing that we need, but we must come to Him in faith, doubting nothing. The Lord supposes that we come asking, without doubting. James says that, it we ask with doubts, we never receive, but our Lord assumes that we come in simple childlike faith and ask for the necessities of life. George Muller demonstrated beyond a peradventure what simple prayer, the prayer of faith, will do. In Luke 11:13 the Lord said: "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" The possession of the Holy Spirit evidently is the quintessence of all good gifts. It is He who produces the fruit of the spirit in the lives of those who are consecrated to Him (Gal. 5:22,23). In contrast with the fruit of the Spirit are the works of the flesh, which are enumerated in Galatians 5:19-21. One who has the Holy Spirit, and who is allowing Him to have full course in his life, will have, not only the good things of this life (Matt. 7:11), but will also have the fruit of the Spirit, which makes life worth while.
Calumny of the Jews Refuted
In Luke 11:14-26 we have an account of our Lord's casting an evil spirit out of a man, whom the demon had rendered dumb, and the reaction from the multitude to this miracle. We must not confuse this case, which occurred in the latter Judean ministry, with the one recorded in Matthew 12:22-37, which occurred in Galilee at least a year and a half prior to this time. At the same time, we recognize that there are comments in the two accounts that are very much alike. This is natural, because they both were cases of casting out demons. Our Lord treated them similarly, although there were certain elements that were peculiar to each case. Naturally, He would speak the general truths regarding them on both occasions. These indisputable facts explain the similarities and at the same time the dissimilarities in the two records.
The New Testament attests the fact that there is such a thing as demon possession, that there is such a one as a personal devil, and that he, Satan, has a kingdom. These basic facts are denied by the rationalists; but they are imbedded in the New Testament records as well as in actual life, even today, which convinces us that the records of the New Testament, as well as those of the Old Testament, on these points are correct. The demon cast out by Christ on this occasion produced dumbness on the part of the man possessed. When the demon was cast out, the man spoke. This caused the multitude to marvel. Obviously, they had never seen anything like that before.
Those present reacted in two different ways. Some said that it was by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, that Christ was casting out this demon (vs. 15). Thus they put Jesus down on the level with the Jewish exorcist, who by magical formula and different methods attempted to cast out demons on certain occasions. As an example of such men, read Acts 19:11-20. Being accustomed to such exorcists, and not recognizing Jesus as the Son of God, naturally certain ones in the audience simply identified Jesus as one of the common Jewish exorcists. There is also reflected in their statement hostility and animosity against Jesus; otherwise they would not have been so very quick in asserting that He was performing His miracles by Beelzebub, the prince of demons.
On the other hand; there were those in the audience who openly showed their hostility against Jesus by asking Him to show them a sign from heaven. The implication of their request under these conditions is that they admitted that He had performed a miracle, but that it was one of a low order, one that originates from the earth; but now they challenge Him to demonstrate that He has power above the earth, in the heavens. But as the first group was rather passive in their attitude, these latter ones were aggressive in their hostility toward Him and in their effort to discredit Him in the eyes of the multitude. Jesus answered the first group in verses 17-26; the second group, in verses 29-32.
Our Lord showed the inconsistency of the position that His first opponents held. They admitted that He was casting out demons, but asserted that He was doing it by Beelzebub, the prince of the demons. "But he, knowing their thoughts, said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and a house divided against a house falleth. 18 And if Satan also is divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? because ye say that I cast out demons by Beelzebub." The word, Beelzebub, was the name of a Philistine god, but Jesus identified this Beelzebub as Satan, the real devil, the evil spirit opposed to God and man.
Satan was originally created the highest, the most beautiful, and the most powerful being whom Omnipotence could bring into existence (Ezek. 28:11-19). But he conceived rebellion against God in his heart, and by a whispering campaign led one-third of the angels to revolt with him against the Almighty (Rev. 12:3,4). These rebellious spirits constitute a kingdom, Satan's powerful kingdom. That this kingdom is well-organized and is under the supreme authority of Satan seems to be implied in the language of Paul to the church at Ephesus (Eph. 6:10-20). Verse 12 implies order and rank of these several spirits under Satan. No, Satan's kingdom is not divided. They may be compared to a well organized and disciplined army which obeys implicitly every command of its generalissimo.
In verse 20, Jesus advances, in His thinking, to an exposition of the situation by calling attention to the fact that, if He, by the finger of God, was casting out demons, then that fact was proof that the kingdom of God had come upon them. When using the conditional sentence, Jesus did not mean to imply that there was any doubt about it. This fact is clear from the original text which shows that Christ used a first-class conditional sentence on this occasion, which grammatical form shows that He assumed the correctness and the accuracy of His statement. He was, by the finger of God, casting out demons. That statement being true, then there was but one conclusion; namely, that the kingdom of God had come upon them.
The kingdom of Israel was coextensive with the kingdom of God in Old Testament times (I Chron. 28:5). This was the kingdom of God in its outward, material manifestation. John the Baptist, however, announced that the time had been fulfilled, and that the kingdom of God had come to hand. This kingdom of God is the reign of God upon earth, the spiritual reign which was inaugurated on the day of Pentecost by the coming of the Holy Spirit (Acts, chap. 2). During the lifetime of John the Baptist and of our Lord, preparations were made for the establishment of the kingdom. On Pentecost Christ, as the one Foundation of the church, was laid and upon Him and Him alone is the kingdom of Jesus Christ built. After Pentecost, we read of the existence of the kingdom. Philip preached the gospel of the kingdom (Acts 8:12). Paul likewise preached the kingdom of God and the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 28:30,31). We who are saved, who are born again, have been translated, out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of God's love (Col. 1:13). Thus the kingdom of God, as announced by Jesus on the occasion of which we are studying, came in its fullness on the day of Pentecost. It is here today. It has been here through the centuries and is here at the present time and will be here until the rapture of the church before the Tribulation.
Though we have the spiritual kingdom of God upon earth now, at the second coming of Christ--at the end of the Tribulation--the kingdom of God, in its outward manifestation, will be established upon earth. At the end of the Tribulation Jesus will come, will take over the world government into His strong and mighty hands, will lift the curse, establish His reign of righteousness, and rule for a thousand years (Rev. 20:1-6). Thus we see that there are the two phases of the kingdom of God. We who are in the spiritual phase of the kingdom as it exists today shall "through many tribulations" enter into the kingdom of God in its outward manifestation at the second coming of our Lord--as Paul taught the churches which he had only recently established (Acts 14:21, 22).
