Luke 11

Luke 11:37-54

In this chapter, 1. Christ taught his disciples to pray, ver. 1-13.

2. He fully answers the blasphemous temptation of the Pharisees, ver. 14-26. 3. He shows the honour of obedient disciples to be greater than that of his own mother, ver. 27, 28. 4. He upbraids the man of that generation for their infidelity and abominance, ver. 29-30. 5. He instructs reproves the Pharisees and lawyers for their hypocrisy, pride, and their oppressing the confines of those that submitted to them, and their having and persecuting those that witnessed against their wickedness, ver. 37-54.

3. AND it came to pass, that as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. 2. And he said unto them, “When ye pray, say, Our Father” which art in heaven, “Hallowed be thy Name.” Thy kingdom come. “Thy will be done,” as in heaven, so in earth. 3. “Give us day by day our daily bread. 4. And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And “lead us not into temptation, but “deliver us from evil. 5. And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves; 6. For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to be before him; 7. And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee. 8. I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend: “yet because of his importunity, he will rise and give him as many as he

meccles. 9. And I say unto you, ‘Ask, and it shall be given you: Ask, and ye shall find: knock, and it shall be opened unto you. 10. For ’every one that afters, receiveth: and he that ferketh, findeth: and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. 11. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a fume? or if he of a son, will he for a son give him a serpent? 12. Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? 13. ‘If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the holy Spirit to them that ask him?

9. 1—13. Prayer is the great inflicted means of maintaining communion with God: it is as the breath of every spiritually living soul. There can be no farer proof of our being dead in trespasses and sins than the habitual neglect of it. The prayer, laid five without God, and must die without hope. Our Lord himself was much in prayer, to set us an example: and his disciples, deftious to follow him, are represented here as preferring their request to him, that he would instruct them both concerning the matter and manner of their prayers, and give them a form of directory, as John had done for his disciples. Men, Unless the Lord teach us to pray, and pour out upon us the spirit of prayer and supplications, we can offer no acceptable service.

10. Christ corresponds to grant their request, and gives them the following short but most comprehensive form of prayer:

Our Father which art in heaven; thou great Creator and universal Lord, whose throne is in the heavens, and to whom ten thousand times ten thousand angels and archangels pay their ceaseless adorations; to thee do we sinful worms and dust of the earth admits our prayer, regarding thee not only as our common Parent and Maker of all things, but in the more endeared relation of our reconciled God and Father in Jesus Christ. Hathrow to thy name: may I and every other commen cast thy glory; and, according to the displays of thy glorious perfections made in thy works and word, may we ever admire, adore, honour, love, and serve thee. Thy kingdom come: erect the throne of thy grace in our hearts; O visit us with thy salvation; give us the light of thy truth, and the effectual insistence of thy Spirit, that we may become thy faithful subjects and servants. Send forth thy gospel into the world; accompany it with thy mighty power, and make it effectual to the conversion of sinners souls; build us up together in thy faith, fear, and love, and prepare us daily, in the exercise of all holy conversation and godliness, for thy eternal presence; then come and take us to thy throne above, where, day and night for ever, we may serve thee in thy temple, and go out no more. Thy will be done, as in heaven, fit in earth; may we emulate the livery, constant, universal obedience paid by thy celestial holds. Let thy revealed word be our invariable rule; and may we, without partiality and without hypocrisy, desire to know and with delight fulfil what thou dost command: and in every dispensation of thy providence may our spirits be resigned, fulnessless, finished, content to wait thy leisure, and meekly calling our care upon thee. Give us day by day our daily bread: on thee, O Lord, we depend for the needful provision for our bodies during the days of our pilgrimage; let us, as thy children, be supplied by thy bounty; enable us to live in a constant dependence upon thee, content with the portion thou art pleased to assign us, and confident thou wilt not leave us to want any manner of thing which is good for us: and, whilst our bodies are fed by thy providence, let our souls be nourished with the better bread of life which cometh down from heaven. And forgive us our sins, many, great, and aggravated as they have been: blot them out through the Redeemer’s blood, speak peace and pardon to our guilty souls, and gladly thyself in mercy. And we are embellished, Lord, to hope for an answer of peace; for we also forgive every one that is indolent to us, readily passing by their offences and trespasses against us, as we hope to be forgiven ourselves, and pleading thy promise, that, when we are enabled thus to do, we shall assuredly find mercy with thee our most highly and justly offended God. Remember therefore the word wherein thou hast caused us to put our truth. And find us not into temptation; keep us from every fense laid for our souls, and suffer us not to fall under the trials we may be called to endure: but deliver us from evil, from the evil one, the evil world, and that greatest enemy our own evil hearts, deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Save us with thine uttermost salvation, and bring us at last to that eternal kingdom where no temptation nor evil can ever enter.

2. Christ directs them as to the manner of their prayers; to be fervent, persevering, and importunate; the effects of which he enhances in the case of a man, who, having a fudder visit from a friend on his journey, and nothing for him to one, should run to his neighbour’s house at midnight, and desire to borrow them leaves. At that unfeasible hour his neighbour would be apt to make many excuses, and endeavour to put him off, rather than disturb his family: yet, if he is very importunate, that will usually prevail; and, if but to be rid of his importunity, he will lead him what he asks. Now if one, who throes to much

reluctance to yield, is overcome by entreaty, much more will our gracious God, who is ever more willing to hear than we to pray, and wont to give more than we desire or deserve, answer the supplications of his people, if they faint not. Let them go to faith, nothing doubting; let them feel with diligence unwearied; let them touch aloud, with cries fervent and reiterated; and then they will surely find an answer of peace; their prayers shall be heard, their requests granted, and the door of mercy be opened.

3. Our Lord suggests yet farther encouragement to prayer from the consideration of our relation to God as our father. If the bowels of earthly parents yearn over their children’s wants, and none are found to inhuman as, instead of the bread and meat which they crave, to give them things noxious and poisonous. If men, by nature finish, feel such tenderness towards their offspring, how infinitely surpassing are the compulsion of our Father in heaven; and, as his power is equal to his love, much more will he supply all the spiritual necessities of our souls, and give his Holy Spirit, which comprises all blessedness, to them that ask him.

4. ¶ And ‘he was calling out a devil, and it was dumb. And it came to pass, when the devil was gone out, the dumb spake: and the people wondered. 15. But some of them said, ‘He caldeth out devils through a Beelzebub the chief of the devils. 16. And others, tempting him, ‘sought of him a sign from heaven. 17. But he, knowing their thoughts, said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation: and a house divided against a house falleth. 18. If Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? because ye say, that I call out devils through Beelzebub. 19. And if I by Beelzebub call out devils, by whom do your sons call them out? therefore shall they be your judges. 20. But if I ‘with the finger of God call out devils, no doubt ’the kingdom of God is come upon you. 21. ‘When a strong man armed keepseth his palace, his goods are in peace. 22. But ‘when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he rested, and divided his spoils. 23. ‘He that is not with me, is against me: and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth. 24. ‘When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, ‘he walketh through dry places, seeking rest: and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out. 25. And when he cometh, he findeth if weep and garnished. 26. Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in, and dwell there: and ’the last state of that man is worse than the first.

5. 14—26. The most amazing manifestations of Christ’s power and glory, and his noble acts of beneficence towards men’s bodies and souls, could not prevent the unenormed tongue of malice from calling upon him the most malignant aspersions. We have here,

6. The wicked inference drawn by the Pharisees, on seeing a most astonishing instance of Christ’s power in the dispossessing a devil from a man that was dumb, who immediately recovered his speech to the amazement of the spectators. To counteract the effects of this miraculous cure among the people, some of them, who could not deny the fact, suggested that it was performed by a confederacy between Jesus and the prince of the devils: whilst others challenged him to give a sign from heaven of his divine mission, as if all besides was unfaithful, or perverse and absurd are usually the objections of obstinate infidelity.

7. Christ knew their thoughts, and what suggestions they were labouring to instil into the minds of the people, and confuses them with the most unanswerable arguments. It was as absurd to suppose so futile an enemy as Satan would ever concur in establishing that doctrine which radically overthrew his empire over the souls of men, as that any community or family should propose their establishment by division between the members that compose it, which must evidently tend to their mutual destruction. Besides, they condemned themselves herein, when they admitted that many of these own kindred and followers, by merceness were, in the name of God, enabled to cast out devils; and never supposed any disological combination in their case. This malignant opposition to him therefore tended most effectually to their own ruin and destruction; for, since the finger of God was evident in these miraculous works, and proved the kingdom of God was come, which the Messiah should erect in the world, in rejecting the evidence of his mission they excluded themselves from all the blessings and privileges of his kingdom. And to these further the real destruction of Satan’s power by his miracles and destroys, he illustrates the matter by a similitude, 9: 21, 22. As a strong man will not quit his palace, which he

holds with an armed force, unless he be vanquished by a superior fire, no more will Satan quit his hold of men’s bodies and souls till compelled by the power of the almighty Saviour. When the prey therefore is taken from this mighty one, it is a sure proof that his power is broken, and his interests ruined. Nor can there be any neutrality between Christ and Belial. They who halt between two opinions, who do not join Christ’s cause, admit the evidence of his mission, and profess his objecting, must expect to be treated by him as enemies, and to be scattered in his wrath.

The Redeemer’s victories over Satan are full daily seen; yet, we are bound to experience them in our own souls, or it had been good for us we had never been born. For by nature we are children of wrath, born slaves of corruption, and under the power of this wicked one. Our desperately wicked hearts are the palace where he sits enthroned, and there his defiance orders are obeyed; by every prejudice, every allurement, every temptation, he strengthens his interest against Christ and his truth, and darters with visions of peace the sinner’s soul, filling him with false confidences, keeping him in darkness with respect to his danger, hailing him asleep in security, suffering him to entertain no doubt of the goodness of his heart and the safety of his thief, and turning him away from whatever tends to disturb this deceitful repose. But, when Christ comes by his word and Spirit, the conduct begins, unusual distress and terms close the soul, the enemy struggles hard to keep his hold, but the stronger grace and power of the Saviour prevail, the strong holds of Satan are laid low, the sinner’s proud imaginations humbled, his false confidences, his own righteousness and self-sufficiency, levelled with the dust, Christ comes and takes possession of the heart, by his enlightening, satisfying grace differs the darkness of ignorance and error, and hoists the bonds of sin and corruption, taking the prey from the mighty, and employing to his own glory the body, soul, spirit, and all the faculties of the redeemed sinner.

3. Christ intimates to them their truly deplorable condition, under another similitude. They were like a man, out of whom the evil spirit departed for a while, making a settlement elsewhere; but, finding none to his mind, he returned to his former house, and found it ready prepared for his reception; where, entering with seven worse spirits, he took up his abode; and the case of that man was more desperate than ever. Thus now this Satan’s kingdom was shaken in Judea, he had retired for a while into the Gentile world; but when, after the resurrection of Jesus, and the preaching of his gospel among the heathen, he could find no rest there, his idols being demolished and his votaries converted, then would he return again to the Jewish people, who had rejected their Messiah, and find them ready to welcome him into their hearts: with sevenfold greater influence over them he shall take possession of them for his own, and, by hurrying them on to fill up the measure of their iniquities, will hasten the destruction of their country, and effectually ruin both body and soul in hell.

This also represents the state of every hypocrite and apostate. An outward reformation may be wrought, and Satan’s power for a time suspended; the house may be swept from grolier immoralities, and garnished with the form of godliness, with common gifts of speculative knowledge, or a fair show of protection, whilst the heart remains unchanged, unhumbled, and unholy: for a while they endure; but, when the hour of temptation comes, Satan finds a ready access, and enters with greater power than ever into the heart; the sins which were before his under the veil of hypocrisy break forth; apostate ensues: and these usually prove the vileth and most abandoned of all sinners, and will receive the greater damnation.

27. ¶ And it came to pass, as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lift up her voice, and said unto him, “Bleffed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast fucked. 28. But he said, Yea, ‘rather bleffed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.

28. 27. 28. Struck with the miracle the had seen, and deeply affected with the convincing force of evidence which appeared in our Lord’s discourse, a gracious woman of the company could not restrain the glowing rapture of her heart, and hurt forth into expressions of wonder and admiration at what she heard and saw, counting her inexperably bleffed and happy who was the mother of such a son. But Christ took occasion to point her to an unspeakably greater honour and happiness, of which she herself might become possessed: to hear the word of God and keep it, so to receive the love of the truth as to be saved thereby, was a far greater blessedness than, after the flesh, to have been found among his nearest relatives.

29. ¶ ‘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. 30. For ‘as Jonas

was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of man be to this generation. 31. The queen of the fourth shall rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation, and condemn them: for ’the cause from the utmost parts of the earth, to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, a greater than Solomon is here. 32. The men of Nineveh ‘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. 33. ‘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. 34. ‘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. 35. Take heed therefore, that the light which is in thee be not darkness. 36. 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.

6. 29—36. As they were so obstinate in rejecting the signs he had given them, and still demand one from heaven, as a fuberling for their unbelief, Christ rejects their petition, and, before the people, who were gathered thick around him, assures them,

7. That no sign shall be given them from heaven but only that of which Jonas was the type and figure, even the resurrection of the Son of man from the dead; and their rejection of that would seal them up under final impenitence.

8. He warns them of the dreadfulness of their guilt, and the aggravated ruin which must be the consequence of rejecting him and his gospel. As he was far greater than Solomon or Jonah, the queen of Sharia who came so far to hear the wisdom of the one, and the Ninevites who repented at the preaching of the other, would rise up in a judgment-day to upbraid and condemn their perverseness and unbelief.

9. They had yet the light of truth among them; they were therefore inexcusable if they abode to darkness, and willfully shut their eyes against conviction. They who embraced the gospel, receiving it in the light and the love of it, would be infinitely blessed and benefited thereby; those who rejected it would be given up justly to the blindness of their heart, and left to fall into eternal darkness. Nov. (1.) The gospel is the lighted candle, set up on the candlestick of the public ministry, to guide the highest souls into the paths of everlasting peace. (2.) What the eye is to the body, that faith is to the soul, enabling us to see the great things which pertain unto our eternal life, and to embrace them; and, as the blessed effect thereof, we are enabled to walk in comfort and holiness, growing in grace, till the blessed day comes when no cloud of ignorance, or foot of sin, shall hide the full lustre of the beatific vision. (3.) Whilst the heart remains under the power of native corruption, the understanding is darkened, the judgment corrupted by depraved affections, and all the glories of the gospel-day shine around such in vain: as the fools brightest beams convey no light to the person whose organs of vision are obstructed by vicious humours. (4.) We have great need to beware how we trifle with the gospel; lest we provoke the Lord to withdraw the light of truth from us, and seal us up under judicial blindness and hardness of heart; and then, how great is that darkness!

10. ¶ And as he spake, a certain Pharisee be thought him to dine with him: and he went in and sat down to meat. 38. And “when the Pharisee saw it, he marvelled that he had not first washed before dinner. 39. And the Lord said unto him, “Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter: but ‘your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness. 40. Ye fools, did not be that made that which is without, make that which is within also? 41. But rather ‘give alms of such things as you have: and behold, all things are clean unto you. 42. But ‘wo unto you Pharisees: for ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and ‘pals over judgment and the love of God: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. 43. Wo unto you Pharisees: for ‘ye love the uppermost feats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets. 44. ‘Wo unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites: for ‘ye are as graves which appear not, and the men that walk over them are not aware of them. 45. ¶ Then answered one of the lawyers, and said unto him, Maller, thus saying, thou reproaches us also. 46. And he said, ‘Wo unto you also, ye lawyers: for ‘ye lade men with burdens grievous to be born, and ye yourselves touch not

the burdens with one of your fingers. 47. “Wo unto you?” for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. 48. Truly ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers: for they indeed killed them, and ye build their sepulchres: 49. Therefore also said the wisdom of God, “I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute: 50. That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation; 51. From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, it shall be required of this generation. 52. “Wo unto you, lawyers? for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entred not in yourselves, and them that were entering in, ye be hindered. 53. And as he said these things unto them, the scribes and Pharises began to urge him vehemently, and to provoke him to speak of many things: 54. Laying wait for him, and seeking to catch something out of his mouth, that they might accuse him.

We have here,

1. The invitation which one of the Pharises gave our Lord to dize with him, which he accepted, went to the house, and let down to meat.

2. The Pharisee observed, and was much offended, that Christ did not walk before he sat down at the table, according to the tradition of the elders, which he and his brethren so scrupulously observed.

3. Christ, who knew this proud Pharisee’s thoughts, took occasion freely to reprove their folly and hypocrisy, who had placed the substance of their religion in their ulects and superfluous observances, whilst they neglected the great and most important commands of God. He denounces therefore his woes against them. [1.] For their hypocrisy, in shewing such solicitude to observe the various wallings of their copy and platters, in conformity with the traditions of the elders; whilst they took no pains to cleanse their souls from the deep pollutions of sin, from the inward extortion and covetousness, which rendered them abominable in the sight of God. What egregious folly! If God required outward cleanness, must he not much more expect internal purity? The way to have a sacrificed use of their creature-comforts was by charitable distribution to the poor, (Deut. xxvi. 12—15.) and when this proceeded out of a pure heart, and faith unfeigned, all things would then be clean unto them (Tit. i. 15.) but without this, all the water in Jordan would never cleanse them from their filthiness. [2.] For their injustice and irreligion: whilst they pretended the most scrupulous regard to God’s service, tithing even the herbs in their garden, they lived in the good violation of the most wrigley precepts of the moral law; passing over judgment, partial as magistrates, extortioners in their dealings, and as void of the law of God, as of charity to their neighbour: duties, which being of the first importance, demanded their chief attention. [3.] For their pride. They were fond of preeminence; expected the most honourable seat in places of worship, where humility was especially required; and affected founding titles of homage to be paid them in public, as if they were beings of a superior rank. [4.] For their inward filthiness. Notwithstanding all the specious appearances of devotion and piety which they wore, their hearts were a sink of uncleanness; and as graves concealed, which men, ere they were aware, walked over, and were defiled by them; so did their principles, practice, and conversation, corrupt those who followed their destructive ways.

4. One of the lawyers, or Scribes, whose office it was in general to expound the law to the people, conceived these reproves on the Pharises included reproaches on them also; and our Lord, without respect of persons, does not spare them. They were alike culpable, and the same woes and wrath hung over them. [1.] Because they added to the divine precepts an innumerable loud of human traditions; and whilst to themselves they were abundantly indulgent, and made the path of self-denial sufficiently easy, they exacted with rigour a scrupulous conformity from others to their human impositions. [2.] Because they pretended reverence for the memory of the prophets, and erected noble monuments over the graves of those whom their fathers had murdered; but even the care of the prophets tombs perpetrated the memory of their ancestors crimes, which they were ready to repeat, being actuated by the same malignant spirit; therefore also said the wisdom of God, Jesus the divine Lege, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, I said God than prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute, exceeding all the outrages of their forefathers; more bloody-minded and inveterate against the mindless of the gospel; filling up hereby the measure of their iniquities, and bringing upon themselves the vengeance due for all the righteous blood shed from Abel to Zacharias, who for his fidelity was

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floned in the very courts of the temple, (2 Chron. xxiv. 20—22.) At the hands of this generation, faith he, shall it be required: and the prediction was fearfully verified in the dreadful and utter destruction shortly after poured out upon their city, temple, and nation. [3.] Because they had taken away the key of knowledge; arrogating to themselves the right of expounding the scriptures, they misled the people by corrupt glosses. They perverted the tears which had the plaintiff reference to the Messiah, and the clearest accomplishment in Jesus; infilling wrong notions of his temporal kingdom, they prejudiced the people against Christ and his gospel; and refusing to enter themselves into the number of his disciples, they used all their art and influence to prevent others from joining them who were disposed to acknowledge his mission and character.

5. Cut with their sharp rebukes, which unhumbled sinners regard as affronts and reproaches, they began to urge him vehemently, with captious questions, and to prevote him to speak of many things; trying to suffer his temper, or draw from him some unguarded expression, whereon to ground some accusation against him; either to render him odious to the people, or obnoxious to the government; but his patience and prudence disappointed their malice. Now, Fidelity in reproving men’s sins will often procure us inveterate enemies; and we have need watch over the temper of our hearts, and the door of our lips, when in the midst of those who we know lie in wait for our halting.