Hear and Keep the Word

In reply to a woman in the crowd, Jesus said, “Blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it”.  That’s the theme of this passage today, Lk 11:27-36.  Hear and keep the word.

Those who hear and keep the word…

They are blessed.

In v.27-28 the woman said, “Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked”.

This woman was shouting her approval and praise of Jesus’s mother.  The Pharisees, on the other hand, had been accusing him of casting out devils by Beelzebub.  They would eventually plot to have him executed.  For similar reasons, some of God’s best men who ever lived said that it would have been better if they had never been born, Jer 20:14-18 and Job 3:1-12.   

When Mary was with Elisabeth, she prophesied that all generations would call her blessed, Lk 1:48.  That’s true.  However, when Jesus heard this woman call her “blessed”, he quickly turned the blessing away from his mother to those who hear the word of God, and keep it.

They are not condemned.

In v.29-32, Jesus called them an evil generation.  He is very different than preachers today who would never say something like that to a crowd.  They’re trying to get up the crowd, not thin them out.

They were evil because they sought a sign.  They had already seen one that day, Lk 11:16, and didn’t believe him.  The evil generation of our day is going to seek a sign.  And they’re going to get it from the antichrist, 2 Thes 2:9.  This generation, unlike that evil generation, will believe the signs because they are going to be under strong delusion and believe a lie.

Jesus said that no sign would be given but the sign of Jonas.  See Matt 12:40.  Jesus was in the heart of the earth for three nights and days, like Jonah was in the whale’s belly for three days and nights.  In Jon 2:2, 6 Jonah was in the belly of hell and in corruption.  In Acts 2:27, 31 Jesus came out of hell.   

When Jonah preached to the Ninevites, Jonah 3, they repented, v.32.  Yet Jesus said, “A greater than Jonas is here”.  And they wouldn’t repent.

When the Queen of Sheba came to Solomon, 1 Ki 10:7-10, she heard and believed his wisdom.  And Jesus said, “A greater than Solomon is here”.  Yet, they wouldn’t hear and keep the word that he spoke.

They will condemn this generation.  You can hear them say, “Y’all had Jesus and wouldn’t hear him”?  See Jn 3:18-21.  They were evil and so they wouldn’t come to his light.

They are full of light.

In v.33-36 Jesus used the illustration of a lighted candle to make a point.  A man enters a dark room and lights a candle so he and the others who come in the room can see.  He doesn’t put it in a secret place, or hide it.  He puts it on a candlestick.  When others come in, they see the light, v.36, “as when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee light”.

The light of body is the eye.  It’s where light comes in.  If your eye is single, your whole body is full of light.  If your eye is evil, your whole body is full of darkness.

The single eye sees what the Lord wants you to see, the way the Lord wants you to see it.  The evil eye doesn’t see what the Lord wants you to see, or it sees what he wants you to see, but sees it the wrong way.

Jesus is the light of the world, Jn 1:1-9, 8:12.  And the words he preached are light, Ps 119:130.  They are like the candle lighting the room.  If the eye is evil, it’s like a blind eye, Matt 23:16, 17, 19, 24, 26.  They can’t see the light of the Lord or the word.

Jesus warned, “Take heed therefore that light which is in thee be not darkness”.  That evil generation’s deeds were evil, so they weren’t going to see the light.  Only some of them would.

Jesus said, “If thy whole body therefore be full of light, having NO PART DARK…”.  It’s possible, then, to have dark places hidden from the light because of some evil.  You see this in passages like Matt 16:6-12.

If you have no part dark, then your whole body shall be full of light like the bright shining candle.  And that’s what Jesus wanted them to see.  When Jesus spoke, the candle was shining bright.

All they needed was a single eye by which to see the light.  Jesus was not speaking his words in secret and he was not hiding them.  The trouble was with their eyes, not his words.

Jesus’s words are plain and they are lighting this place.  Let the light come fully into your body through your eye.  Hear and keep the word.

To study the previous lesson, click on Casting Out a Devil. To study the next lesson, click on Pharisees, Scribes, and Lawyers.