Luke's Gospel

Luke chapter 11 verses 14 to 28. 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. But some of them said, by Bell Zibal, the prince of demons, he's driving out demons. He's driving out demons, others tested him by asking for a sign from heaven. Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fail.

If Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand? I say this because you claim that I drive out demons by bellzable. Now if I drive out demons by bellzable, by whom do your followers drive them out. So then they will be your judges. But if I drive out demons by the finger of god, then the kingdom of god has come upon you.

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 armor in which the man trusted and divides up his plunder. Whoever is not with me is against me and whoever does not gather with me scatters. When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. And then it says, I were returned to the house I left.

When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order, and then it goes and takes 7 other spirits more wicked than itself. And they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first. As Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd called out, blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you. He replied, blessed rather are those who hear the word of god and obey it.

Well, good evening, everyone. Good evening. And welcome from me. My name is Ben. I'm a member here at Cornerstone Church.

It's good to it's good to be with you guys tonight. I was at Twinholm Baptist Church in Fullam this morning, preaching this exact sermon. So I made a few tweaks since then, so you'll get the slightly improved version tonight. Okay. Let me just pray again.

I know that's just prayed, but let me pray. Again before we start. Father, we thank you for your word. We've just sung about how it's alive and active, and we pray, please that it would reveal new things to us. And it would show us the lord Jesus, in his name we pray, our men.

Okay. So this passage, Luke chapter 11 14 to 28. This passage plays out a little bit like, a court case. It's like a court case that's going on, and it's against Jesus. So it's got the prosecution and their accusation that's made against Jesus.

It's then got Jesus's defense. And his response to the accusers. And then it's also got the jury, who are kind of the crowd going on here. And they, are sort of left to answer this question that's been raised this accusation. They've after they've weighed up all the evidence and they've heard both sides, then they've got to answer this question.

Who is Jesus? Who is he? Is he the god of the universe? The the son of David, the Messiah, or is he something else entirely? So that's kind of what's going on.

And this whole interaction, this whole court case, is framed by, this question, in sort of this accusation, this healing in verse 14. It's the backdrop to this whole thing. So it's like this healing that happens in verse 14 is bought out on a flip chart, and they're using it. The prosecution's using this healing as exhibit a. In their prosecution against Jesus.

This is their evidence on this flip chart. And this healing that happens in verse 14 is quite interesting because In a way, it kind of sums up everything about Jesus. It's like a mini portrait of his whole ministry in a sense because we'll see tonight that it reveals who he is, definitely. It reveals what he's like, and it reveals what he's come to this earth to do. So it's really like Jesus is on trial here in this court, not because of this 1 specific healing, but because of who he is.

Everything about him. And because it's a mini portrait of him, if you were in this crowd and you saw him do this little healing, Even if you had known nothing about him leading up to this, if you'd never heard of him before or seen him do anything, if you were just here in this crowd and saw him heal this man, There's probably enough just in this little healing to start to piece together who he really is, to start to build the picture and to see who he is. And that is what begins to happen in the crowd as we'll see. But that that point exactly is also what makes the accusation against Jesus so utterly ridiculous because you see his kindness and his power and his goodness displayed to this man, but instead he's accused of the opposite. It's it's pretty mental.

He's accused in verse 15 of working for beelzebul, which is a particularly nasty name that the Jews had to mock the devil, which means the lord of the flies, and where the flies congregate. Where do you see lots of flies hanging around? Dung heaps. Yeah? So they're saying to Jesus.

You'll know real lord. The only thing that you're lord of is human dung. You belong in the sewers is what they're saying to Jesus. And based on what he's just been doing, to say that to him is is just madness, isn't it? It's it's like imagine if there was a humanitarian aid worker who who gave up their job and their life and their house, and they went over to a war torn country and they were distributing medical supplies and serving the people there, and then you dragged that person into a court.

And based on what they were doing, you accused them of war crimes or of human trafficking. It it just makes no sense based on the good stuff that they're doing to accuse them of sounding so horrible, but that is exactly what's going on here with Jesus. Jesus is bringing life and freedom and healing, and he's accused of doing the devil's work. So let's take a look at this heating. Let's look at this exhibit a, which is presented in court, to the jury.

So in verse 14 here, it says Jesus was driving out a demon that was mute. So we've got this man who is suffering under demonic control. And he's mute so he can't speak. And in Matthew's Gospel, we learn that he's blind as well. So he can't see can't see Jesus.

And even if he could see Jesus, he wouldn't be able to ask him for help. So he's completely powerless to save himself this man. That's a pretty good description, I think, of us, isn't it? Of mankind in general? Because we're we're spiritually blind.

We couldn't see us sin. We couldn't see god. And we were mute as well. We were unable to ask god for help because Romans 5 says that whilst we were still sinning Christ died for us, So whilst we were sinning, before we could ask god to intervene and step in, he did it. Before we even wanted him to save us, he did it.

So it's a good description, of us. And it's what makes exhibit a this case against Jesus. It's also a case against the cross. Is a bigger sort of thing going on here. So Jesus is, is here with this man, and he drives this demon out so this man can speak again.

And as he does that, Jesus' nature is revealed. We see who he really is. There should be no question about who Jesus is after he does this. Because firstly, he reveals he's god in power because he's he's he's driven this demon out. Now this is not something that you or I could do in our own strength, our own power.

This is not something that a mere human can do. Only god can do this. So Jesus is not just a good moral teacher that's nice at primary school assemblies to bring him out and sing some songs about him and teach a nice moral lesson about something nice, he said. He is he is god in power himself. And his power is demonstrated in the fact that there's no effort at all for Jesus to do this.

I mean, did you notice in verse 14 this epic Avengers scale battle that took place between Jesus and this demon, and there's sparks flying, and there's explosions, and there's craters in the ground, and all the buildings in the surrounding area collapse, and there's a big plume of smoke and dust. Did you see that in verse 14? No. You didn't see that because it's not there. It just says that was the point by the way.

This this woman was like, where? She was like, I can't see it. I was like, okay. You you can't see it. It's not there because there's no commotion at all.

Jesus just says, just tells him to leave and he and he leaves. There's no fight between evil. And and good. She doesn't have to roll his sleeves up. He doesn't have to break a sweat or or or get into a wrestling match.

He doesn't have to do anything. Verse 20 says that he did it by the finger of god. It's the lightest touch from god is enough to to overpower even the strongest demons. So he reveals his god in power. He he he is he's definitely god in power.

But secondly, he also reveals what he's like in character. What is this god like? Well, he's full of grace, isn't he? This man could do nothing to earn his salvation at all. He couldn't even ask for it.

He couldn't even go up to Jesus and say good teacher. What must I do to inherit eternal life? Couldn't even go up to him and say lord, have mercy on me. And yet, Jesus still has compassion and heals him. It's completely unmerited.

It's completely free. And look, this is this is a god with unlimited power. He can command even the demons with just 1 finger, and yet for a few precious seconds, this is what god's like. For a few seconds, he turns his full attention. The lord of the universe turns his full attention to this 1 man and loves him and heals him.

And we don't even know this guy's name. We don't know what he did leading up to this interaction. We don't know what he does sort of afterwards. He's just got this 1 verse to his name in all of Luke's gospel. So by kind of worldly accounts, this this guy should be completely insignificant.

But there are no insignificant people to god, and so he turns to face him and he loves him. That's what he's like. That's what this god's like. So he's powerful, he's full of grace, and thirdly Jesus reveals what he's come to do in this world. He is in the business of undoing Satan's work.

That's what he's coming to do. He's in the business of undoing Satan's work. He's he's rescuing people and he's restoring them to fullness again. And he's demonstrated that here with this man, but ultimately, that's what he's gonna do on the cross. So that's exhibit a, that's the, that's the argument the that the prosecution have wheeled out into this court case to present.

They're saying, look at this, look what Jesus has done. That's their case against Jesus. But actually, if you look at it, it's actually a really beautiful picture of of a loving and compassionate and saving God, isn't it? It could even be used by the defense. You could pick it up and put it down and say, well, that's our case.

That was your case. That's great. We're gonna nick that and use that because it should be it should be enough without question to see that god's good. Based on what he's just done there. And to some people in the crowd who who saw this healing, it it was enough.

They started to piece together who he was. So look at verse 14 again, which says when the demon left, the man who had been mute spoke, and the crowd was amazed. They were amazed. They they knew they'd just seen something amazing. This is not something that a normal person can do.

This is above and beyond. And in Matthews's gospel, it says that the crowd then started to ask them else, could this be the son of David? In other words, they they were thinking, is this the Messiah, based on what they'd seen? Is this the 1 that god is is gonna send into the world to save us? But there are some people in this crowd we know who reject that conclusion, and they don't want others to reach that conclusion.

So look at verse 15. There's but some of them said by beelzebul the prince of demons he is driving out demons. And in Matthews's Gospel, we're told that it was the pharisees who said that. Yeah? And we know the pharisees hate Jesus.

We've been going through Luke now for what feels like forever in these evening services. And we know the pharisees hate Jesus. I preached, on the, the, Sabbath when Jesus healed on the Sabbath in luke chapter 6. And in Loop chapter 6, Jesus is doing something that the pharisees consider unlawful on the Sabbath. But Jesus says, I'm the lord of the Sabbath And then he exposes the pharisees in front of the people.

He exposes their pride and their hypocrisy, and they hate him for it. They hate him for it. And they're furious because they believe that they are god's chosen representatives in this world, not Jesus. They they believe that they're the experts. No 1 can tell them what's what and what's right.

So every time Jesus exposed them, they they hated him more and more. And actually they've been looking for a way to kill Jesus ever since then. So when the crowd started to ask themselves, could this be the son of David? Is this the messiah? They felt like they needed to step in and, get some crowd control on the go just to regain some control over the people.

You know, they can't have god given away his favor so cheaply or so gracefully or so mercifully. What about all the the rules that you have to follow? What about all the traditions that we have? What about all the righteousness that you have to earn? Can't be given away to those who don't deserve it.

So they step in and they say, by beelzebul, the prince of demons he is driving out demons. And you imagine the shock of the crowd when they hear that. That's kind of a silence falls on the crowd. And they're like, what did they, what did he call them? What did they call him?

What did they just say about him? And I think this is this is a last ditch and desperate move, by the pharisees because they've been forced now into kind of an end game with g here, and it's probably this is probably their last religious hand that they've got to play against Jesus. This is the last kind of plausible argument that they could bring up against his deity because it's they can't deny what's just happened. So they have to do something about it. And it's interesting after this, and especially during, Jesus' sentencing to be crucified, The pharisees had to resort to false testimonies and kind of stirring the crowd up against him because after this, they had nothing sort of theological or scriptural left against him.

There was nothing they could put together that would resemble a case. Because as I said, in verse 14, what Jesus has just done is just elevated him into some kind of supernatural category. They have no choice but to accept that. But the thing is he has to be doing these things, either by the power of god or by the power of satan. He can't be doing them by the power of both.

So if he's 1 of them, He has he can't be the other 1. And if he's not 1, he's unquestionably the other 1. So it's a pretty dangerous place for them to be. They've they've got themselves into, sort of an end game here. But there's confusion among the crowd now as well.

There's confusion because the crowd have gone from starting to see who Jesus is and you've got to feel for the crowd a bit here because they're starting to put the pieces of the puzzle together and they're starting to see him. And then their religious authorities, who they kind of trust as the people who who understand and know the word of god, they stand up and say, actually, he's from Satan. So you can understand their confusion, can't you? And other people are trying to expose them as well by asking for a sign from heaven. Which is which is a bit weird because they're testing him, which means that they're trying to trap him.

But on the 1 hand, they're saying he's from Satan, and then they're trying to test him ask him for a sign from heaven. So even the people who are trying to trip him up or are getting confused. So this is just that kind of mass confusion. Is he from god? Is he from Satan?

Is he the son of David or is he Bialzebub? It reminds me a little bit if you know the story of the, the riot that happened in ephesus in the book of acts. Where the whole town's there, and they're all just yelling stuff at each other, and there's mixed messages going on, and half the people don't even know what they're yelling about. They've just turned up because it's quite exciting. And they're just yelling.

And they're like, why are you here? I have no idea. I'm just yelling. I'm just yelling. And it it's quite it's quite a funny scene, to be honest, but it's also a scary, really good way of scurrying the gospel that was being preached.

It's a scarily good way of obscuring the truth. And I would wager that something similar has gone on here. This crowd's just a little bit confused. But we know that Jesus is not a god of shrouded mysteries or confusion. He's the god of light.

He's the god of revelation and truth. So he takes the opportunity now to set the record straight about himself. He he engages the pharisees sort of head on in their endgame. He lines up his final chess move against them and lays out exactly who he is. So this is Jesus's response now in the courtroom.

This is the defense that he gives. What does he say to establish the truth about who he is? Well, look at verse 17, which says Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them. But Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them. Yeah.

Mind reading is something that Jesus regularly does. Particularly with the pharisees, actually. And they should have known Psalm 139, which says you have searched me, lord, and you know me you perceive my thoughts from afar. So god knows our thoughts from afar. And Jesus demonstrates to them that he knows their thoughts from afar.

They should have put the join the 2 dots together. Hang on a minute. Jesus is is replying to our thoughts. We haven't said anything, and yet he's addressing them. What's going on?

Hang on a minute. God knows our thoughts. That's what they should have done, decided to draw the dots together. The second thing he does is he uses simple logic. Look at verse 17 again.

He says any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined and the house divided against himself will fall. If Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand? He's asking the pharisees why on earth would Satan kind of give up valuable territory that he's just claimed. He's not gonna fight himself. This doesn't make any sense.

He's not gonna do that to himself. So, therefore, both those things. 1, Jesus, knowing their thoughts, and secondly, actually driving out a demon. These are both evidences. They're proof that He's doing these things by god.

He's not doing them by satan. So it should be clear who he is. That's his defense, It should be really clear who he is, but he's not done yet. He now turns the spotlight onto the pharisees, to get them to look at themselves. So look at verse 19.

He says, now, if I drive out demons by beelzebul, by whom do your followers drive them out? So it's exposing their hypocrisy here because obviously there are other people doing similar things by the power of god, and yet the pharisees aren't going to them and saying, woah, you're doing these things by beelzebul. They wouldn't they wouldn't do that. That would be crazy. That would probably be blasphemous of them.

And they would also be forced to admit that there's satanic work going on under their leadership. So there's no way they're gonna do that. But yet, somehow, they're still okay with coming to Jesus and saying, you do these things by beelzebul. So they're completely hypocritical. And then Jesus makes a comparison between the pharisees and pharaoh's hard heart.

And I think I think this is a pretty strong warning to them. And if they got this, then then they would feel the strength of it. So in verse 20, he says, but if I drive out demons by the finger of god, then the kingdom of god has come upon you. And the finger of god is in reference to the exodus. So Moses is telling pharaoh to let his people go and god is sending the plagues.

And pharaohs magicians are trying to keep up with these plagues, and they're trying to recreate them to show that, pharaoh is on is on the same level as god. He's not subordinate to god. Therefore, he doesn't have to listen to him. He doesn't have to let his people go. And they have some success these magicians, weirdly, but there's 1 thing that they can't do.

They cannot recreate the plague of gnats of all the things. Nats is the thing that they get stumped by. They can't do it. So they come with their tail between their legs to pharaoh, and they say to him, this is the finger of god. In other words, this is truly god himself, and we cannot match it.

But scripture says that after hearing this, pharaoh's heart was hard, and he would not listen. So back in the present day, Jesus is trying to show the pharisees that they're being pharaoh he is doing these things by the finger of god, but they are hardening their hearts and they're not listening. So Jesus is holding up this mirror to them. He's saying, take a look, look at yourself. You think you're follower of Moses, but you're actually a follower of pharaoh.

And I feel like that would be quite a strong message if that hit them. But he goes on. He's still not done. In verse 21, Jesus then gives us a little parable to explain what actually happened as he healed this man by the finger of god. How is it that the kingdom of god has come upon this man?

So in verse 21, he says 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 arm in which the man trusted, and he divides up the plunder. So Jesus is saying that the devil is armed and he's on guard. He's powerful and he's active. This man was safely in his grasp, and he was mute for many years, but Jesus is the stronger man.

It's infinitely stronger. And we saw that with how effortlessly he drove this demon out, didn't we? So when Jesus acts, he takes away the armor effortlessly that the, the devil thought was strong, and he divides up the plunder. The dividing up the plunder means he claims it for himself. And the plunder is the treasure.

Right? We know we know what plunder is. It's the most precious thing that the demon was guarding. And that has got to be the person themselves, because we're not in a war for physical land here, are we? We're not in a war for silver or gold.

It's souls that are the most precious thing. So Jesus doesn't just overpower demons, boot them out, and then leave the person as they are, and then go over here, boot another 1 out, and leave the person as they are. He boots the the demon out, and then he reclaims that person for himself. He wins them back, and they belong to him now. That is how the Kingdom of God comes upon you when Christ wins you back and claims you as as his own.

And so that's the end of the court case against Jesus. The evidence has been presented against him. And the defense was, was sort of answered that. And we've seen Jesus show that he's absolutely god. There's no question about it.

And now it's time for the jury, who is the crowd in this instance, to make a decision about him, and the options are laid out by Jesus. Kind of takes the position of judge now. So look at verse 23, he says whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. That is an unbelievably unpopular thing to say in today's world, isn't it? But this is is where the robber hits the road with Christianity.

Because if Jesus had said whoever hates me is against me, and whoever persecutes my church scatters, then we could look at the pharisees, and we could look at we could look at people like that, draw a nice circle around them and go, yeah, that that makes sense. They are clearly against Jesus because they are kind of they hate him. So that makes sense. And they are scattering. So that kind of makes sense.

That would be an acceptable thing for Jesus to say. But he doesn't say that. That's not what he said. He said whoever is not with him is against him. So the criteria for being against Jesus is anything anything that is not with him, whether it's kind of, mediocre towards him or or kind of not a strong opinion or a strong opinion, whatever it is.

That is the criteria. If If you are not with him, then you are against him. There's no middle ground. It's not like a rich political landscape where you've got far right, far left, and a gradient of positions in between. It's a 2 party system in a way.

You're either with Jesus where you've bowed the knee and you follow him as your lord and your saviour, and you know who he is, and you know that he's won you back. Or if you're not that, then whatever else you are, you are by definition against him. Now there are plenty of people in in the world, and part of myself does this as well, who would go, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Hang on just a minute. Yeah?

I'm not I might not be for Jesus. That doesn't mean I'm against him. Yeah. I don't mind that people believe in him. In fact, I quite like some of his teachings.

That doesn't make me against him, though. And if that's you, then as I said, I get that. I can understand where you're coming from. But I'll try and explain. So If, for example, you don't bow the knee to the law of the country that you're in, then you are an open opposition against that law.

So if we're all in the UK now, we're all under UK law. You can't opt out of it. There's no gov website landing page with a form on says, would you like to opt out of UK law and you put in your details? You can't you can't be neutral towards the law. So if you break the law, and a police officer comes up to you.

You can't say to them. Oh, you know what? You know, I don't follow the law. You know, I've got some friends who do, and I I actually think it's a great idea if people do, but I personally don't really have a strong opinion either way. You will still be arrested if you try to say that to a police officer.

Yeah. You're either under the law, or if you're not, you are against it. So in the same way, you're either under Jesus or you're you're against him. And if you don't join Jesus in his mission to gather people to him, then you are by definition, whether knowingly or unknowingly, you are scattering his people away from him. Because if someone comes to you for advice about what they should do with their life, and you're not gathering with Jesus, then you'll probably say something to them like, oh, what what are you passionate about?

What what do you dream about doing? What you're not gonna say to them is serve the lord give your life for him, serve and love his people, put him first. So you'll be pointing people away from them. Or if somebody comes to you wracked with guilt about something they've just done and you, neglect to tell them about the forgiveness and mercy they have in Christ because of the cross, and you're gonna be scattering them, aren't you? If you're not gathering people with Jesus and they come with you burdened with guilt, you're not gonna tell them that actually Christ has died for their sin and he has presented you innocent in front of the throne.

The best you can do is is is help them to see the positives, fix what they can, and then sort of just move on from it. So you'll be scattering. You won't be gathering. Or if someone comes to you with great news about a promotion at work, then you can if you if you're not gathering, you'll congratulate them for their hard work, but you won't point them towards the giver, the 1 who actually gave them their intellect and their skills and their desires and their job and their promotion. So if you're not in the business of of gathering with Jesus, then no matter what you do, no matter how nice what you say sounds to people is, it's gonna always be pointing them away from him because it's not pointing them to him.

So I hope you can see that. And look, in a 2 party system, that's a horror, really. Because it means if you're not if you're not with Jesus, then you are in the company of those who are against him, whether you mean to be or not, and that Satan is a trick sister. He's the father of lies and deception. We know this.

He wants glory for himself that should rightly belong to god. But I think 1 of his greatest tricks is making people think that they are not on his side. So even though he hates god so much, that as long as god isn't getting the glory, he doesn't mind that people don't even recognize him. Yeah? They can cast their ballot against god without seeing his name anywhere on the paper that they just cast.

And that is, to be honest, that's the urgency of evangelism. Because if whoever is not with me is against me is true, then it's urgent, isn't it that we get a UV torch out and shine it on the ballot paper people are casting? To show whose name is really at the top, to show them who they're really, standing alongside. And that that is, again, another unbelievably popular thing to say. That would probably even be branded as hate speech today.

They're saying, Ben, how dare you suggest that people are in the company of the devil. But Jesus doesn't mince his words when he's speaking to people who thought they were standing alongside god they're actually standing alongside the devil. In John 8, Jesus is in dialogue with some Jews who wanna kill him. But he's in dialogue with them about who their real father is. And they say they're they're saying to him, the only father we have is god himself.

So they think they're standing in the company of god, doing god's work, But Jesus turns to them and he says, you belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desires. So not only did they not really understand where they were, they couldn't even see the work that their hands were doing was for the devil and not for god. So how blind is this world that we live in? If you need more, I mean, just look at this story that we're looking at if you want evidence that the world is blind. Here is Jesus, the son of god, performing a miracle saving people, and people say you're the devil.

We're in a seriously blind world. But we need to remember who Jesus revealed himself to be. He is full of grace, and he has come to rescue sinners He's come to rescue the blind people. So he knows that the people in this crowd who have witnessed this miracle, he knows that they're blind and they can't see whose company they stand in. So he's patiently and lovingly revealing, the truth to them so that they would come back, in repentance to their true father.

I didn't strike you, by the way, as unbelievably restrained of Jesus. When someone calls the son of god himself, the devil. I mean, could there be anything worse than to to look at god and point in calling? I think there could be much worse that you could do to to the lord Jesus than that. But his immediate judgment, his immediate response is not judgment, is it?

It's not wrong. He didn't even lash out on them in anger. Jesus' immediate reaction to those who stand against them is not wrath, but it's mercy and it's compassion. He calmly explains who he is to them. He exposes their wrong position, not so that they would feel, just terrible about themselves.

But with the purpose of inviting them back to him, and he does that in verse 28. But we're still not done here. There's 1 more thing for Jesus to do. So now that he's explained who he is, now that he's shone the light on where you stand with him, He then tells another parable that helps us understand how we get right with good. And this parable tells us that we're not able to tidy ourselves up.

We need to be more than simply sweep clean and put in order. We have to be washed. So this is the parable look at verse 24. When an impure spirit comes out of a person, 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 7 other spirits more wicked than itself. They go and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first. So impure spirits They originally turn their back on god.

They think they can find greater satisfaction, elsewhere away from god. But the reality is that they're so parched, without him, but they're continually restless and continually dissatisfied wherever they go. So notice how the grass looked greener. So the the steaming is in this person and he's dissatisfied and he's he's restless. And it looks at, another place and it goes, oh, that looks much better over there.

But where is the place that it went to? Is it a lush green valley? Is it a beach? No. Left the person to go through arid places.

Yeah. How dry must the place you're in be for an arid place to look better than where you are? Yeah. Arid means like the barons, scorch dry dead. So from where it was, even a barren dead place looked like a better place to be.

So it leaves the person and negotiates this dead place. But of course, it doesn't find satisfaction there or rest. There is no lasting satisfaction outside of god. There's no lasting rest. There's no life outside of god.

It gets there, and it goes, oh, this is rubbish. This isn't as good as I thought it was gonna be, and it looks back and treats the person it's there. And they go, oh, that looks good over there. Even though it's literally just come from there, but the grass looks greener again. So then it decides to go back.

And, you know, that parable personally makes me young for the cross because the cross breaks that cycle. Because of the cross, We don't have to wander around restlessly, always hungry and never full, kind of moving from disappointment always, firstly, never refreshed, always exhausted, never rested. Jesus says to us now, come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, I will give you rest. And everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. But Jesusquenches our first eternally.

He's eternally satisfying. He's eternally restful. He's eternally life giving. And he is the thing that everyone in this world is in a bad race to get. Because the things people want in this world are satisfaction, rest, joy, all of these things that people scramble around to try and get, they're all found in the lord Jesus.

And if you look for them elsewhere, you will move from are replaced, are replaced by the, like the demons. So how is it then that we get this eternal rest and this eternal life giving water. How do we get there? Or we must be washed by the lord Jesus Christ. Is not enough to simply sweep clean your life.

Verse 25, the demon found the house sweat clean and tidy. But this passage did not belong to Christ. We have to be washed from the inside out. In John 13, Jesus is washing his disciples feet, which is a crazy thing for him to have done. It was kind of a servant's job.

The rabbis wouldn't have got down to clean the feet of of their is it should have been the other way around. But yeah, here is Jesus, and there's kind of a stunned silence as he's going from person to person, until he gets to Peter. And Peter says to him, no. You shall never wash my feet. And he's saying that out of love, he's saying that out of reverence and respect, for his lord Jesus.

But Jesus answers him unless I wash you, you have no heart with me. Unless I wash you, you have no part with me. Unless Christ washes you, you have no part with him. You are not clean. You might have a sweat clean and tidy life.

It might look nice and ordered to the outside viewer, but unless you've been washed by Christ, then all you've done is kind of sweep the dust into the corners or just kind of move it around or put it under a rug, but you haven't dealt with the mold that's in the corners. Or coming up under the floorboards. In Matthew 23, Jesus says, woe to you teaches of the law and vow sees. You hit the crease. You clean the outside of the cup.

But inside, they are full of greed and self indulgence. Blind pharisee. First clean the inside of the cup and then the outside will also be clean. So that way around, we have to be washed cannot be swept clean simply. And the final condition, this says, if the person is worse, than they started with the final condition is is worse because at the beginning, at least they knew they were dirty.

At first, they thought, I, I am, I am, I am dirty. I'm filthy. I need to be clean. They had the right diagnosis about themselves. They just had the wrong medicine.

They thought they could sweep themselves clean, and they fooled themselves into thinking they're clean before god. But Jesus says unless I wash you, you have no part with me. So what about you then? Let's move away from the crowd and talk about us instead. What about you?

What does your life look like? Is it tidy and sweat clean? Has Christ washed you? Has he claimed the plunderer of your life? Or are you keeping it away from him?

Because even if you're Christians is a good thing to think about, you know, are there any areas of your life that you think you have nailed down that that are swept clean, that Jesus doesn't have to clean. I'll put it another way. Do we only come to Jesus for giveness and cleansing when we do that particular thing, but the rest of the time, we we think we're okay. I think as Christians, we we we can get into a danger of thinking of Jesus as like a maid or a cleaner that comes and visits us every Sunday and gives us a deeply And then the rest of the time, you know, we sort of have a good handle on the situation. But that's wrong.

It's the wrong way to think about Jesus. We need Jesus to clean us completely and totally. There's nothing we can keep clean ourselves. So verse 27 here, after Jesus has just explained that our actions are not enough. A woman in the crowd shouts out.

Bless it is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you. So in other words, blesses is the 1 who did this amazing thing. Isn't she great? Look at what she's done. She hasn't listened to a word Jesus has said because he replies blessed rather are those who hear the word of god and obey it.

Blessed are those who hear that they need to be cleansed by the blood of the lamb. That is what scripture says over and over again. So blessed are you when you've heard that and you repent of your sin and you come to the cross for forgiveness. You don't hear about the lord Jesus. Go home and sweep your your house again.

You hear about the lord Jesus, you understand your desperate need to be cleansed by him, and you come to the cross for forgiveness. So the healing of this minor verse 14 as we saw was a little portrait, wasn't it of the cross. It's a little picture of the cross. And you like this man were blind and mute before the lord Jesus. You could never do anything to deserve your forgiveness.

But on the cross, Jesus has rescued you, and he has claimed you as his own. Is reached out with the finger of god. And if you accept his invitation in verse 28, or hear the word of god no made it, and the kingdom of god will come on you and you will belong to Jesus. So the court case is over. And we've seen that Jesus is god.

We've seen that he's full of grace. We've seen that he rescues people. And the question for you, the jury is have you been washed by him, or have you been keeping yourself tidy? Let me pray. Our father and heather, we thank you for the lord Jesus and his grace.

We thank you for how he healed this seemingly insignificant man. And claimed him as his own. We thank you that that is a picture of the cross that we might feel insignificant to you. We are of great worth and great significance you. Please help us to understand our need to be washed by Jesus and forgive us when we think we can tidy ourselves up.

Please cause us this week to consider our position before you and to join Jesus in gathering people to his name to tell others about their need to be washed by him, and the grace and mercy they can have in him. In his name, we pray, our men.