Are You Gathering or Scattering?

Series on Luke

IV The Imperatives of the Kingdom

A Increasing Opposition

6 Strength and Spoils

Text: 11:14-28

Introduction

The Lord Jesus ended his teaching on prayer saying the Lord will give his Holy Spirit to all who ask him. The Holy Spirit is the one who makes us take sides in the eternal conflict. That is what this text is all about, the war between the natural and the supernatural. The secular humanist philosophy of our time says humans are all the same as animals. They say that they are the product of evolution, and anybody who lays claim to the supernatural is crazy. This text tells us that there is a decision to be made between the natural and the supernatural. There is a real conflict and the hour of decision is here. This is the primary point of this text. It makes us ask the question, “Who Is on the Lord’s Side?” It resurrects the eternal command of Elijah, choose you this day whom you will serve. I remember what many of you cannot. During the Second World War the invasion which took place made us all take sides, but between 20 and 30 years later when we were engaged in the conflict in Vietnam, the country was divided.we could not make up our mind about the war and the end result was capitulation. What this text says is that there is an eternal warfare in which you cannot afford to be on the fence. What we have here is an invasion and an imperative to take sides between the natural and the supernatural. The text presents to us the beachhead, the blockade and the battle.

I The Beachhead

What we see here is God’s invasion of Satan’s domain. Jesus describes it in verses 21-23, “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 the spoils. “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me, scatters. That which belonged to God Satan has taken over so that he is called the god of this world. In John 12:31 Jesus declares, Now is the time for judgment on this world, now the prince of this world will be driven out. Jesus is establishing a beachhead. The war has commenced. We have mentioned previously that demonic activity in the Bible is concentrated in the ministry of our Lord. The reason for this is that we have an invasion here. It is not a new invasion for God has been skirmishing or progressively invading for a long time but this is a decisive invasion. The title given to Satan is Beelzebub. This comes from the name beelzebul which originally meant lord of the high place in the Cannanite religion, but came to mean Lord of the house or residence. Beelzebub is merely a derogative form meaning lord of the flies. So Jesus talks about taking over Satan’s house. The main point here is that men are confronted with a decision. The Lord says that he has come to conquer the devil, to take his armor and to distribute his possessions. These possessions are not just things but people. In other words Jesus has come to deliver people. This is exactly what he is doing in delivering this man from a spirit of dumbness. The ministry of our Lord confronted men with a decision once they saw his supernatural power. This is the beachhead, the confrontation, the hour of decision.

II The Blockade

We have heard a lot about blockades in current international relations. The aim is to stop action on another front, and the most effective way to do this, ordinarily, is to discredit your enemy. So here in verses 14-20 we see Satan mounting a blockade to Jesus’ invasion, 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 Beelzebub, the prince of demons, he is 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 fall. If Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand? I say this because you claim that I drive out demons by Beelzebub. Now if I drive out demons by Beelzebub, 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 to you. This is a way to keep people from making a decision to follow Jesus. You discredit his ministry. First you charge that Jesus is evil and in league with Satan to which He replies how can I be evil if i am destroying evil. In this respect I am no different from you and your own sons. Since you cannot demonstrate His ministry is evil, how about saying it is unproven? Maybe it’s good but you must prove it by a sign. This Jesus ignores first because his power over the Satan is a sign, but then, later, He adds later that no sign shall be given to this evil generation except the sign of the prophet Jonah which is the sign of his resurrection. The point of the blockade is to confuse people as to who He really is and to prevent a decision to follow Him. Here Jesus is facing real enemies so he says that he that is not with me is against me. This is the opposite of what he said on a previous occasion because he now wants to confront people with a decision. This decision will not be fully clear until he has died and risen again and it becomes is clear that he is Lord of all. The beachhead having been established and the blockade being doomed to failure Jesus states the battle.

III The Battle

The battle is for the souls of men according to Jesus words in 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. Unless they give to Him their undivided allegiance they will remain under the power of the devil and will suffer more and more. The comment of the woman in verses 27 and 28 emphasizes the nature of this decision, 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.” She says in a typical eastern compliment, blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you, and this is to exalt his physical heritage, but Jesus sees that as unimportant as His reply shows. Jesus says, blessed rather are those who hear the Word of God and obey it. In Matthew’s account this is the place where Jesus mother and brothers come seeking him and he says who are my mother and brothers? And pointing to His disciples He says whoever does the will of my father in heaven, these are my mother and brothers and sisters. The whole point here is to say that regardless of your family and your heritage, regardless of your training and your context, you must make a decision. This is the hour of decision. The battle is engaged. This is a war and you must take sides. If you do not stand for Jesus your fate has already been determined. You will be part of the kingdom into which you were born, Satan’s kingdom.

Conclusion

In Matthew’s account of this Jesus mentions the sin against the Holy Spirit. He says all manner sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven but not the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. There is much discussion over the meaning of this statement, but I am sure that what He is saying includes what is in our text, namely, that people are ascribing to the devil what comes from God. In other words they are making a decision to reject Jesus and to retain their own lifestyle, whatever that may be. What Jesus is really saying here is that the unforgivable sin is not believing in him, but that is tantamount to reversing the priorities in life so that there is no real place for Jesus in our experience. Thus we establish our own values. This is the real battle which Jesus faced in his own time and if we do not take a stand with Him we take no stand at all.