Luke 11:27

Speaking about Jesus, the Bible says in Luke 11:27-28, “And it came to pass, as he spoke these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked. But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.” Some of the people who heard Jesus speak opposed Him and denied His divine nature. This woman did not make that mistake. She recognized that there was something good and great about Jesus. Even so she did make one mistake. She should not have wanted to praise Mary, the mother of Jesus, the way that she did. She should not have emphasized the blessedness of Mary the way that she did.

Jesus told her not to think of Mary as being blessed. If you want to find the people of the world who have been blessed of God, then find those who have heard the Word of God and who keep it. It’s a great blessing to hear the Word of God. The Bible is the greatest book in the world. The Word of God is the truth given by the heart and mind of God. There are many, many people in the world who have never heard the Word. That’s one of the reasons that missionaries go to the far-off places of the world to try and help alleviate that problem. We live in a time of great opportunity and blessing because we have the entire Old and New Testaments to read and to hear and to learn from. In our day we can know things that in ages past prophets and kings desired to know but could not know them.

How blessed we are to be able to hear what we can hear from the Word of God. But Jesus said that those who are blessed are not those who hear only, but are those who “hear the Word of God, and keep it.” To keep it means to obey it and to put it into practice. Don’t be hearers only, but doers of the Word. If you hear the Word and do not put it into practice, then you are in a worse condition than those who do not hear it at all. Human beings will be judged according to the opportunities that have been given to them. If you have the opportunity to hear the Word of God and to hear the truth, then something wonderful has happened to you, and it did not happen by accident. The grace of God and the mercy of God touched your life and gave you such an opportunity. If you have heard the Word of God and put it into practice, then it has only been by the blessings of God. You could not have done that out of your own strength. It takes the grace of God and the blessings of God for anyone to be able to put into practice the teachings of the Word. You enter into that grace through faith.

Some people hear the Word of God and keep it. Others do not. Concerning those who do not, Jesus had certain things to say in the following verses. The Bible says in Luke 11:29-30, “And when the people were gathered thick together, He began to say, This is an evil generation: they seek a sign; and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet. For as Jonas was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the son of man be to this generation.” Why is it evil for people to seek a sign in order to believe? For one reason, a sign is something that you see with your eyes. But God has declared that the principle of faith is the only way to please God. “You are saved by grace through faith.” “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” Jesus said, “Blessed are those who believe without seeing.” Those who demand a sign in order to believe might very well be putting themselves into the same category as these people whom Jesus described as being “an evil generation.”

Jesus did say there would be at least one sign for those who demand a sign, and Jesus said that the sign would be similar to the way in which Jonas was a sign to the Ninevites. Remember that Jonah was swallowed by a great fish, but Jonah did not perish from that circumstance. He came up out of the fish and out of the sea and lived afterwards. That event was symbolic of the death and resurrection of Christ. The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead remains as the last and greatest sign given to all generations as proof that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Let those who seek a sign believe that sign, because according to Jesus, that’s the only sign that will be given to them. By the way, since Jesus did rise from the dead, He is alive, and you can know Him personally.

Jesus said in Luke 11:31-32, “The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation, and condemn them: for she came from the utmost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, a greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineve shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and behold, a greater than Jonas is here.” Normally, it is not a good idea to compare yourself to other people. Most of the time you should compare yourself to yourself and how well you are approaching your potential. You might be performing less and accomplishing less than someone else, but actually be doing better because you are closer to your potential than they are. But Jesus does point out that there will be at least one occasion where we will be compared to each other, and that’s at the judgment.

The people who lived in Palestine during the time of Christ had a great opportunity to find truth and hear the truth taught from Christ, but some of them did not desire it enough. There must be cooperation between the grace of God and the will of man. God will give you opportunities, but you can only enter into those opportunities by making a choice to do so and having a desire to do so. The Queen of Sheba had less of an opportunity because she had to travel so far to get to Palestine. She had less of a person to hear wisdom from, but she took advantage of her opportunity. What a contrast between the Queen of Sheba and some of the people who lived during the time of Christ! The Queen of Sheba will be at the judgment, and people will be compared to her to see how they measure up. Opportunity knocks: opportunity to hear wisdom and find wisdom. There is a question that we must all ask ourselves. Are we seeking those opportunities and desiring them, knowing that they come through the Word of Christ?

Jesus spoke of seeking wisdom and truth with the example of the Queen of Sheba, and Jesus used a similar kind of example to also speak of repentance. It is critically important to find wisdom, spiritual wisdom; and it’s just as important to find repentance. “Except you repent, you shall all likewise perish.” We remain under the guilt of our sins unless we are forgiven of our sins, and we only find the forgiveness of sins when we repent. God wants us to repent. He commands all men everywhere to repent. And God gives us opportunities to repent. The Holy Spirit works in the hearts of people to awaken them to their need of repentance. Often He uses the preaching of His Word to accomplish this, just like He did when Jonah preached to the people in the city of Nineveh. The working of the Holy Spirit and the preaching of the Word are opportunities to repent that God is giving to the people of the world. If the people in the city of Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah, how terrible it will be at the judgement for those who heard even better preaching and better messages and yet did not repent! The measure of your opportunity is the measure of your responsibility, and the measure of how you will eventually be judged.

In Luke 11:33-36 Jesus had some important things to say about light, spiritual light. Jesus is the Light of the world. As He stood there speaking to these people, Jesus knew that He was fulfilling part of His calling to be a Light to the world and Jesus saw how these people were responding to the Light. Darkness is a problem. The solution to the problem is light. Jesus said, “No man, when he hath lighted a candle, putteth it in a secret place, neither under a bushel, but on a candlestick, that they which come in may see the light. The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness. Take heed therefore that the light that is in thee be not darkness. If thy whole body therefore be full of light, having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee light.”

If someone does not allow the light to shine, then the darkness will not be taken away. The person who is supposed to be a light must understand the importance of allowing the light to shine. If someone has a light and then hides the light, the light is of no use. That’s one of the reasons for the darkness that exists today in the world. There are people who have lights, but who hide their lights and do not let them shine. That’s why Jesus said, “No man when he hath lighted a candle puts it in a secret place.”

Jesus also gave another reason that light will not take away darkness. It has to do with the fact that Jesus is talking about the spiritual darkness that exists inside of some people. If someone has darkness inside of him, such a person must allow the light in or the light will not come in. This decision to allow the light to come in involves a singleness of purpose. Jesus used the example of light in the physical world to explain the principle of light in the spiritual world. In the physical world consider the entire human body. The only way for the physical body to experience light and to be influenced by the light is for light to enter in through the eyes. You cannot sense light or be helped by light through your arms or your legs. The only way that your arms or legs can benefit from light is when the light comes into you singularly through the eyes. Once the blindfold is taken off, then your arms know where to reach to in order to grab a pencil or some other object, and your feet know where to walk to in order to get to a certain place.

In order to have spiritual light there must be a singleness of purpose. You cannot have both light and darkness at the same time in the same place. If you have light, then you have no darkness at all. It appears as though Jesus is talking about the difference between good and evil, which is similar to the difference between light and darkness. In order to have the light take away your darkness, you must have a singleness of purpose whereby you seek and desire to know and to be influenced by spiritual truth. There is no compromise allowed. You will seek one or the other, and you will be influenced by one or the other. Your own purpose and your own desire and your own choice will determine what happens to you in regards to your relationship with good and evil. Choose Jesus.

Jesus talked about the requirements for letting goodness and truth come into oneself, and then He came into contact with some of those who made a big effort to show a certain kind of human religion on the outside without ever having the right kind of things go on in the inside. The Bible says in Luke 11:37-40, “And as he spake, a certain Pharisee besought him to dine with him; and he went in, and sat down to meat. And when the Pharisee saw it, he marvelled that he had not first washed before dinner. And the Lord said unto him, Now do you Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter, but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness. Ye fools, did not he that made that which is without make that which is within also?”

The Pharisees had many, many religious restrictions and requirements that governed every facet of their daily lives. One such requirement was a ritual washing of the hands before eating. The Pharisees taught that through physical contact with the rest of the world, they became spiritually unclean. The uncleanness was due to the others with whom they had come into contact. It had become a way of expressing their own superiority and their own misguided self-righteousness. Organized religion without wisdom and the right emphasis on forgiveness of sins can quickly degenerate into the same kind of problems that the Pharisees had: thinking that the observance of religious ceremony makes a person more righteous. Nothing could be further from the truth. The real spiritual need that people have is to find cleansing from sin on the inside.

Notice what Jesus said about those who rely on religious ceremony that can only cleanse the outside of a person. Jesus said in Luke 11:40, “Ye fools.” We should call no man a fool because we are made of the same clay, but Jesus certainly has the authority to do so. How foolish a person would be to think that the faithful observance of religious ceremony and ritual could bring them spiritual cleansing. Spiritual cleansing is a result of that which happens on the inside of a person: in the heart and mind and soul.

We certainly need to be cleansed on the inside. “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” What Jesus said of the Pharisees is true of everyone until they are saved. Jesus said in Luke 11:39, “Your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness.” You do not have to stay that way. You can turn to Jesus and find the forgiveness and cleansing that He alone can give.

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