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Anam_Luke_11_14-54.docx|
Luke 11:14-54 Key verse 11:29 THE SIGN OF JONAH “As the crowds increased, Jesus said, ‘This is a wicked generation. It asks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.’” Hello, my name is Louise Sung, and I’m from London UBF. I was invited to study the Bible 12 years ago by a Korean missionary, when I was at university. Through one to one Bible study I met Jesus personally and experienced the transforming power of God’s word. I thank God for the pioneering and persevering faith of Msn Beth and Joshua Kim from Dongkyo chapter. Without their devotion to Jesus I would not be here today. I am living proof of the power of God and his grace through the prayers of his missionary servants. As you may know, we have several families from Anam chapter in London UBF who are dying as grains of wheat on London soil in order to bring God’s salvation to UK students - Timothy and Maria Seok, and Andrew and Susannah Chaa. But you don’t have to travel to London to find lost and dying souls. God can use you wherever you are to bring his kingdom to earth through your life of faith. This is what the passage I have chosen to share with you is about. Thank you for inviting me to share God’s word with you. The Bible passage that I want to share is from Luke 11:14-54. The key verse is verse 29: “This is a wicked generation. It asks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.” In this passage Jesus teaches us that he alone is all we need to live victoriously and bring in the power of his kingdom. I pray that through this passage we may put our hope and trust firmly in Jesus, and nothing but Jesus, in order to bring God’s kingdom to a cynical, demanding and unbelieving generation. May God help us to refresh our faith in his forgiveness, love and power through his death and Resurrection, and be effective witnesses of God’s sovereignty. Look at verse 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.” Jesus met a man who could not speak because of a demon. He must have been incredibly frustrated, lonely and misunderstood. People may have judged him to be a terrible sinner for having such a great problem, but he could not explain his reality or how he felt. He was alone and without hope. But then, by God’s grace, he met Jesus, who came fulfilling the prophecies about the Messiah, opening the eyes of the blind, unstopping the ears of the deaf and making the mute sing for joy (Isaiah 35:4-6). Jesus’ healing was a sign of his divine identity. At first the people were amazed. It was an incredible miracle. But they were suspicious. They had seen exorcisms before from other religious leaders. They were not ready to automatically believe that Jesus’ power was from God. They said, “It is by Beelzebub, the prince of demons that he is driving out demons.” Actually, in one sense they were right to question the source of Jesus’ power. If Jesus is not from God, he must be from the devil. There is no middle ground. Jesus is not just a good man. He is either the Messiah, the Son of God, or he is an agent of Satan. Either we follow Jesus in absolute obedience as our Lord and our God, or we must reject him as a liar. We are with Jesus, or we are against him. Jesus himself said, “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me, scatters.” (v 23). Gracious Jesus accepted their doubt and answered them by pointing out the poor logic of their reasoning. Look at verses 17-18: “Jesus knew their thoughts and 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?’” How could Satan establish his kingdom if he was destroying it at the same time? Then Jesus invited them to consider the truth. Look at verse 20: “But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the Kingdom of God has come to you.” God is stronger than Satan, and his Kingdom is coming in through the power of God in Jesus. Jesus explained this in more detail in verses 21-22: “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 armour in which that man trusted and takes away the spoils.” Jesus compared Satan’s kingdom on earth to a strong man who is fully armed and stands guarding his house and possessions. Satan jealously guards what belongs to him. This is a profound spiritual revelation. Yet most of the time we are not aware of Satan’s rule over us. We think that our lives are moving along nice and smoothly. But we soon discover the reality when we try to change ourselves. As soon as we try to stop habitual sin, temptation to sin seems to increase! When we want to pray, our minds become busy and we can’t focus on God. When we want to sit down quietly and read the Bible, other things get in the way. When we resolve to live better lives before God, improve relationships with others, have a better attitude, we quickly discover the power of Satan’s grip on us. Our good intentions are not enough – we need Jesus’ power in order to be free. Jesus explained what happens when we try to clean up our lives in our own strength. Look at verses 24-26: “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.” It is possible to struggle to live a morally good life, but if we do so in our own strength we become hypocrites. Outside we may look good, but inside we quickly become proud, and critical and judgemental of others, sinning secretly and becoming trapped in our own hypocrisy. Striving to be morally good in our own power is like cosmetic surgery - it’s superficial; there is no genuine change. Miraculous signs and outward morality are not enough. What we need is the transforming and regenerating power of Jesus. Look at verse 27: “As Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd called out, ‘Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you.’” According to her worldly value system she was thinking how great to have a clever and influential son like Jesus. But Jesus answered, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.” This is how we receive the transforming power of God. Real power and grace don’t come from outward appearances, but through listening to God’s word, believing it, and acting on it. Jesus clearly pronounced the problem of his generation, and ours. Look at verse 29: “This is a wicked generation. It asks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.” If we think about Jewish life at the time of Jesus, we would say that outwardly it looked quite good, not wicked. When we think of the word ‘wicked’, we think of things like the attempted rape of angels in Sodom and Gomorrah, or child sacrifice to pagan gods. At the time of Jesus there was a lot of Jewish missionary activity, Temple practice, prayer, charity, festival observance etc. What is the ‘wickedness’ that Jesus is speaking of? Look again at verse 29: “It asks for a miraculous sign.” Asking for a miraculous sign is wicked. There is nothing wrong with wanting to be sure about God and certain of his reality and truth. But the people had already seen many miraculous signs, such as lepers being healed, lame men walking, thousands being fed from nothing, and a mute man speaking. They had heard Jesus himself preaching with all the grace and authority of God. Their problem was not a lack of signs, but their unwillingness to believe and accept God’s authority. They were not prepared to become disciples of Jesus and repent, and allow God to change them. This rebellious unbelief is what is wicked. We are all here because we love Jesus and want to learn from him. We don’t think of ourselves as rebellious or asking for signs. But in reality, do we really believe that God loves us? Do we sometimes doubt that he cares for us, or feel that maybe he cares for others more? Do we wonder whether we should be doing more to please God and earn his love for us? Do we feel frustrated or dissatisfied in our faith because we are not bearing visible fruit? Maybe we would like to feel Jesus’ reassurance through receiving his blessing. I confess that I often feel so weak before strong characters in the workplace, so useless compared to fruitful co-workers. I am aware of the lack of spiritual power in my life. Sometimes I feel far away from Jesus even though I pray and study the Bible earnestly. I crave some kind of assurance from him, through his word or from the Holy Spirit. I thought about David’s bold confession of faith when he was being persecuted by Saul: “With your help I can advance against a troop; with my God I can scale a wall.” (Psalm 18:29) and I wished I had the same faith. I sometimes think that if I had greater assurance of God’s love for me I could do anything for him. What does Jesus say to me? Look at verse 29 again: “This is a wicked generation. It asks for a miraculous sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah.” What is the sign of Jonah? Jonah is the reluctant prophet who ran away from God, was swallowed by a huge fish, repented, and after three days inside its belly was thrown up on the shore to take a hard message to an enemy people. Jonah’s message was, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned.” (Jonah 3:4). In response to this message, the people of Nineveh repented in sackcloth and ashes from the highest to the lowest. Maybe the people of Nineveh didn’t know Jonah’s history, but anyway they repented sincerely. But the people of Jesus’ generation knew Jonah’s history. They knew that his career as a prophet should have been over when he was thrown into the sea and swallowed by a huge fish. Yet God didn’t send the fish to eat him, but to deliver him so he could bring the chance of life to a sinning people. The sign of Jonah then, is the resurrection of the dead from the dead. The sign of Jonah points to Jesus’ own death and Resurrection. Jesus would go to the cross, not simply to die, but to die as the atoning sacrifice for us, to bring us forgiveness for our sins and reconcile us with our Creator God, who loves us so much that he gave us his only Son. But this is not the end of the story. After three days, Jesus rose from the dead, victorious over the power of sin and death, giving us a real and living hope so that we do not need to live in fear of death and all its shadows anymore. Jonah is a sign pointing to the Resurrection of Jesus. He is a sign of the power of God over death. The sign itself demands our response. What should be our response to this sign? We must repent of our unbelief, our doubt, our subtle rebelliousness, and believe in God’s love for us in Jesus. Jesus alone makes us a new creation through his death and Resurrection. We may seek other signs of God’s love. We want evidence of his love in a happy marriage, a good job, clever children, many Bible students, an outwardly prosperous life. But Jesus says it is wicked to demand proof of his power and love in anything apart from the Cross and Resurrection. The sign of God’s power and love is the gift of Jesus who died on the cross for love of God and love for us. We must repent of seeking other assurances and signs. Jesus explained how his power and love works through us when we have faith in his Cross and Resurrection. Look at verses 33 -36: “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 its stand, so those that 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 are bad, your body also is full of darkness. See to it then, 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.” What Jesus is saying is that God can use us to bring his salvation to others when we are living by faith in Jesus. Striving in our own strength to be good or kind or generous doesn’t help us or others. It is a burden for us and burdensome for others. Our own efforts are dark compared with the life-giving light of Jesus. We must repent of our sign-seeking, doubting attitudes, and obey the word of God, Jesus, who reveals the sovereign love and power of God through his death and Resurrection. In verses 37-54, Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for their hypocritical and powerless religious lives which were legalistic and burdensome, and made them blind to their Saviour and Messiah, who was living right before them. This passage has some personal significance for me. Just over two years ago my shepherd asked me if I could marry Jonathan Sung. I felt ready to do whatever God asked of me, but I didn’t know whether it was his will for me to marry this man. I was only given a couple of hours to make a decision. So I went home and prayed earnestly for God’s direction. I opened my Bible and turned from page to page to find God’s word on this matter. But I heard nothing! I couldn’t find the direction of the Holy Spirit at all. I asked God, “Oh Lord, please show me what to do! You know I only want to please you, but I don’t know the right thing to do. Please help me!” Still I heard nothing. Then I picked up a message that had just been given to me by missionaries passing through London on their way to an African conference. The message was on Luke 11, and I read the key verse: “This is a wicked generation. It asks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.” I knew God was speaking to me, and telling me, “To marry or not to marry, this doesn’t matter. The question is, do you believe in the Resurrection?” God told me that I am free to make my own choices, but whatever I do I must do by faith. I had prayed that God would let me marry for his glory. Now he was giving me the opportunity. But I must be clear that first and foremost the gift of marriage was from God. Then I didn’t need to worry about our compatibility, or whether we would love each other. If I believe in the Resurrection of Jesus, I could trust God to give life to a marriage to a stranger who was also following God’s direction. Because of the Cross of Jesus I can have confidence in his love for me and trust his good sovereignty for my life. Because of the Resurrection of Jesus I should not be afraid to die to myself and to the world. Then I can be used by him to testify to his Kingdom by dying by faith in the power of his Resurrection. As his people, that’s actually all we can offer him. We can die by faith wherever we are in order for God’s Resurrection power to be revealed. We can do anything if we have faith in his love for us through Jesus’ death and resurrection! Through meditating on this passage and writing this message I found my sin of doubting and demanding, and my lack of faith in the power of his Resurrection. As a consequence I have become fearful, powerless, and in danger of living a hypocritical, religious life. I repent of doubting Jesus’ love for me. I thank God for the chance to reflect on his life direction to me once more, to trust in his love for me and in his life-giving power through the death and Resurrection of Jesus. In conclusion, Jesus tells us that we do not need any miraculous signs as evidence of his love and his divine power. His Cross and Resurrection are ample proof of his abundant love and sovereign authority over all creation. We must repent of doubting his personal love and power for us individually. We must repent of judging God’s love for us by comparing our spiritual and physical lives with others. We must repent of striving to earn God’s love by living morally good lives in our own strength, and simply accept the love of God in Jesus, who died and rose again for us, amen. |
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