The Gospel Of Luke
Chapter 11
(V1) There was something about watching Jesus pray that made them want to learn how to pray as Jesus prayed. They stood there and watched Him, drinking in the power of His prayer, until He was finished. There was something magnetic about the prayer life of Jesus, and they way He prayed showed something of His relationship with God the Father.
NOTE- Jesus never taught them how to preach but pray as being able to talk with people is not as important as talking with God.
Prayer is one of the most important things as Christians we can do. Imagine someone famous that you admire. In one scenario you have read every biography, newspaper article etc about that person, memorised everything there is to know. And In scenario two rather than read everything you could, you have spoken to that same person everyday on the phone. So when the day comes when you finally get to meet your hero who do you think they would rather sit and chat with ? The person who has read everything there was to know about them or the person who they spoke to on a daily basis’s and now can put a face to the voice. This is like prayer I would hate to get to Heaven and Jesus not ever having spoken to me before this encounter.
(V2-4) On a previous occasion Jesus taught this same basic prayer Matthew 6:9-13. The fact that He repeated it here showed how important it is. The fact that He did not repeat it the exact same way as in Matthew shows that it was not to be used as a precise ritual or magic formula for prayer.
Father – There is no evidence of anyone before Jesus using this term to address God because it was considered too intimate.
Our Father – and not “My Father.” “The whole prayer is social. The singular pronoun is absent. Man enters the presence of the Father, and then prays as one of the great family.
Hallowed be Your name – Hallowed or holy means set apart. It is to say that there is no one like God, as He is completely unique.
Your kingdom come – Every time we pray this, it’s asking Jesus to come back and start the Great Tribulation from Revelations.
Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven – In heaven there is no disobedience and there are no obstacles to God’s will, on earth there is disobedience and there are obstacles to His will. The children of Jesus’ kingdom will want to see His will done as freely on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us day by day our daily bread – When Jesus spoke of bread, He meant real bread, as in the sense of daily provisions. Early theologians allegorized this, because they couldn’t imagine Jesus speaking about an everyday thing like bread in such a majestic prayer like this. So, they thought bread referred to communion, the Lord’s Supper. Some have thought it referred to Jesus Himself as the bread of life. Others have thought it speaks of the word of God as our daily bread. But I just think its bread God does care about everyday things, and we should pray about them. Remember that in this time people often went hungry from day to day.
And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who has sinned against us – Jesus here is saying that it’s just assumed that as we are forgiven for our sins we will do the same. Think of the unforgiving servant – Matthew 18
And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one – Temptation literally means a test, not always a solicitation to do evil. God has promised to keep us from any testing that is greater than what we can handle 1 Corinthians 10. God, while he does not ‘tempt’ men to do evil James 1, God does allow his children to pass through periods of testing. But Christian, aware of their weakness should not look for such testing, and should pray to be spared such testing in which they are vulnerable.
(V5-8) In the custom of that day, a whole family lived together in a one-room house, and. On one side of the house was a raised platform where they all slept, in the same bed; down on the ground were all their animals – a cow, perhaps some sheep and goats and so forth. There was no way the man could come to the door without disturbing the whole household.
It took a lot of boldness for the man in the story to so shamelessly ask his friend in the middle of the night; he really wanted and needed the bread.
(V9-13) The man didn’t get up because his friend outside was such a good guy, but only because of his persistence. In Colossians 4 it tells us to have earnest prayers, the literal translation here is the stretching to extreme. An example is when you drop the remote behind the couch and you can just reach it with the tips of your fingers so you try to stretch your arm to beyond its reach to grab it. This is what God wants in your prayers to stretch beyond your reach.
(V14-16) Jesus cast out a demon from a man who couldn’t speak –The Jews in Jesus’ day had their own exorcists, who sought to cast demons out of people. But they believed that they had to make the demon reveal his name, or they had no authority over the demon to cast it out and this is why the crowds were amazed.
When people saw this great work, there were two reactions. Some attributed the working of Jesus to Satan and some wanted to see more miracles before they would believe.
(V17-19) The point was that Satan would not work against himself and His accusers had to answer how Satan benefited from the work Jesus had just done.
(V20-23) Jesus engaged Satan in battle, even on the ground of what seemed to belong to Satan such as demon possessed people. His message was, “I’m not under Satan’s power. Instead, I’m proving that I am stronger than he is by casting him out of those he has possessed.”
If Jesus is stronger thanSatan, then each person is confronted by a decision – with whom will they partner? Will we be with Jesus or will we be against Him? Will we work for Jesus or will we work against Him? You see in Christ there are no grey areas ! Its IN or OUT.
(V24-26) This is the picture of a person delivered from a demon, but not yet filled with Jesus. It is a picture of a person who tries to be neutral. They say they are not for Satan, but they are also not for Jesus. Jesus shows us that this is impossible.
I will return to the person I came from – Apparently, demons regard neutral people as opportunities. For some reason they want to inhabit bodies. We can suppose that this is for the same reason why the vandal wants a spray can, or a violent man wants a gun – a body is a weapon a demon can use in their attack against God.
Therefore, in answering those who accused Him of working by the power of Satan, Jesus told them that He had not merely come to fight against evil, but to bring God’s good into our hearts. He did not come to merely empty the house, but to fill it with Himself.
(V27-28) While not dishonouring His mother, Jesus pointed out the greater and more important connection between Himself and those who hear the word of God and keep it.
(V29-30) Jesus just mentioned the blessedness of being one who heard and did God’s word; the contrast is the one who seeks a sign, like the people from Verse 16 Jesus condemned their seeking after a sign, especially when countless signs had already happened before their eyes. It is easy to overestimate the power of miraculous signs to change the heart of sceptics.
But the only sign I will give them is the sign of Jonah – The sign of Jonah was that he died and after 3 days he was resuscitated after being in the belly of the fish ( Not a whale) then travelled to Nineveh to preach to them to repent before God destroyed their city.
(V31-32) The queen of Sheba came to Solomon in 1 Kings 10. When she saw the great works that God did for and through Solomon, she praised the God of Israel. She didn’t say, “Show me more and maybe then I will believe.”
NOTE- Sheba was the empire that would now days be Ethiopia and Southern Egypt. She is also spoken of in the Quran. (So not the queen of cat food)
The point is clear: the queen of the Sheba and the people Nineveh were both Gentiles, but they had a more open heart to the things of God than the religious people of Jesus’ day, who would not believe and receive the work of God right before their eyes.
(V33-36) Just as a lamp should be displayed out in the open so that all can benefit from its light, so the word and work of God should be displayed. Yet when Jesus displayed His word and works, the religious people of His day would not accept them. Some saw His brightness, some did not, and others thought the light wasn’t bright enough and demanded to see more.
Your eye is like a lamp that provides light for your body – Like a lamp, the eyes of the crowd could clearly see Jesus and His miracles.
If the darkness comes from within a man and prevents him from seeing the light of Jesus, it doesn’t matter how bright and glorious Jesus is – he can’t see it. (Spurgeon)
(V37-41) Though Jesus experienced increasing conflict and opposition from the religious leaders, He didn’t hate them in return. Jesus accepted this invitation to eat with a Pharisee.
without first performing the hand-washing ceremony – Jesus was not unhygienic when He hadn’t washed before dinner. He did not follow the rigid requirements of ceremonial washing practiced by many Jews, and which the Pharisees saw as a even greater sin than sex outside of marriage !
The Hand Washing Ceremony
For these ceremonial washings, special stone vessels of water were kept because ordinary water might be ceremonially unclean. It was jars like these Jesus used when He turned into wine at the wedding in Cana.
In performing the ceremonial washing. One first began by pouring the water over the hands starting at the fingers and running down towards the wrist. Then each palm was cleansed by rubbing the fist of the other hand into it. Water was poured over the hands again, this time from the wrist towards the fingers.
A really strict Jew would do this not only before the meal, but also between each course through the meal. A rabbi who once failed to do this was considered excommunicated. Another rabbi was imprisoned by the Romans and used his ration of water for ceremonial cleansing instead of drinking, nearly dying of thirst.
clean the outside.., but inside you are full …wickedness – Now there is nothing wrong with tradition but the Pharisees had become more interested in tradition and their rules that they had forgotten all about doing good.
(V42-44) Woe to you – Jesus spoke harshly here offering divine warning rather than a personal anger.
A tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs – The Pharisees were so careful in their outward obedience that they would literally tithe from their herb gardens, counting out seeds and leaves, and giving a tenth of each to God. Again showing that they were so legalistic about all the tiny rules, that they forgot to Love your neighbour. Jesus never said tithing was wrong, instead, what was wrong was what they weren’t doing.
You love the most important seats in the synagogues – Unlike today where we all fight to sit at the back of the church, In biblical times to be seen at the front was to show everyone that you were a good Jew.
(Taken from New King James) 44Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like graves which are not seen, and the men who walk over them are not aware of them.”
Hypocrites – Great translation, here as the original word hypokrites in Greek refers to an actor, someone playing a part. Jesus exposed the corruption that was covered by the spiritual image of the scribes and Pharisees.
like hidden graves in a field. People walk over them without knowing – Walking over a grave ceremonially defiled a Jewish person, even if they didn’t know it was there. According to Numbers 19:16, everyone who touched a grave was ceremonially unclean for seven days. For this reason, the Jews sought to mark graves clearly, usually using whitewash, so everyone would know where they were and would avoid them.
(V45-46) The expert would have better to keep his mouth shut, but as he drew attention to himself, Jesus spoke to him as well.
Because of the way that they interpreted the law, these experts in the Mosaic law laid heavy burdens on people yet with elaborate loopholes to then get out of these crazy rules.
NOTE – For example, they taught that on the Sabbath, a man could not carry something in his right hand or in his left hand, across his chest or on his shoulder. But you could carry something with the back of your hand, with your foot, with your elbow, or in your hair, or in the hem of your shirt, or in your sandal.
Another example is how Rabbis took the command to respect proper sanitation in the army camp of Israel found in Deuteronomy 23 and then applied this to Jerusalem, as they said it was the “camp of the Lord.”
But when this interpretation was then combined with the strict Sabbath travel restrictions, it resulted in a large part of the inner Jerusalem not being able to go to the bathroom on the Sabbath as it would be too far to be allowed to walk.
(V47-51) They say everyone that they honour the Old Testament prophets but they then go and reject the living prophets, and in doing so they showed that they really were the children of those who murdered the prophets in Old Testament. Jesus here spoke of all the righteous martyrs of the Old Testament. Abel was clearly the first, and in the way that the Hebrew Bible was arranged, Zechariah was the last as 2 Chronicles is the last book of the Hebrew Bible.
(V52) Their legalistic approach and giving the people a list of rules by which they could supposedly save themselves, but didn’t help them at all.
(V53-54) The religious leaders responded the way many do when they are faced with the correction and the truth of God. Instead of humbly receiving the correction, they responded with anger and accusations.
AMEN
The Lord’s Prayer, Traditional Words
Our Father, which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come.
Thy will be done in earth,
As it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive them that trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
The power, and the glory,
For ever and ever.
Amen.