Notes
1. Neutrality (vv. 14-26)
Manuscript
A few weeks ago a tornado touched down in Wynnewood, just outside the city. You may have received a tornado warning alert on your phone about it. A couple of months ago, I learned that there is a significant difference between the way Midwesterners and Northeasterners respond to a tornado warning. Pastor Walter and I were in Kansas City for some meetings about how to start a pastoral residency program in your church when a tornado warning was issued. Suffice it to say, the Midwesterners took the warning very seriously. Someone even got up and explained to everyone in attendance the difference between a tornado watch and a tornado warning. A watch is when a tornado is possible; a warning is when the tornado is happening or imminent. Now, the Midwesterners took this tornado warning very seriously, whereas Pastor Walter, who is a native Philadelphian, could not have been less concerned. He responded to the warning much like most of you probably responded when you received the tornado warning on your phone a couple of weeks ago. A glance at your phone, a shrug of the shoulders, a “hmm” sound if you’re an especially conscientious Northeasterner, and then on with your day. The warning meant very little to you.
Like that alert on your phone, our passage this morning is a warning. It’s a warning, and from the outset I want to urge you, and myself, to receive it like Midwesterners, not Northeasterners. You can hear the warning throughout the passage. You can hear it first in Luke 11:23 – Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. Warning: There is no neutrality when it comes to the Lord Jesus. You’re either with Him or against Him. You can hear the warning again in Luke 11:32 – The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. Warning: If you do not repent and turn to Jesus Christ in persevering faith, then on the judgment day the men of Nineveh who did repent at Jonah’s preaching will stand up and condemn you. And then you hear the warning again in Luke 11:35 – Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness. Warning: If you respond to the light of Jesus Christ’s teaching with the darkness of unbelief, there will be only darkness for you forever. The Lord Jesus Christ is gentle and lowly in heart, but He also issues the most solemn and serious of warnings. And we dare not respond to Him like Northeasterners ignoring a tornado warning. And that brings us to the big idea of our passage this morning: Don’t reject the Lord Jesus. Don’t reject the Lord Jesus. Our passage provides us with a window into four different ways to reject the Lord Jesus so that we can heed the warning. Four ways to reject the Lord Jesus: 1. Neutrality (vv. 14-26) 2. Distractions (vv. 27-28) 3. Signs (vv. 29-32) 4. Unbelief (vv. 33-36).
NEUTRALITY (vv. 14-26)
The first way to reject the Lord Jesus is by remaining neutral toward Him. Our passage begins with the Lord Jesus casting out a demon that made a man mute. When the demon had gone out and the mute man spoke, the people who were gathered around marveled at the Lord Jesus’ power and authority. “Marveling” is a seemingly neutral response. They acknowledged that the miracle happened, but they didn’t repent of their sins and confess Christ as Lord. They marveled. Others in the crowd, however, had a more overtly negative response to the Lord Jesus. They accused Jesus of casting out the demon by the power of the Devil, the prince of demons. Luke 11:15 – But some of them said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons…” Unbelief really is irrational. The Lord Jesus knew their thoughts and countered their ridiculous accusation with two simple arguments. Luke 11:17-19 – But he, knowing their thoughts, said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a divided household falls. [18] And if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul. [19] And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges.” As the ESV Study Bible says, “The idea that Satan was working through Jesus to undermine his own work is absurd.” Also, if demons are cast out by the power of the Devil, then how did God’s people before the coming of Christ cast them out? The Lord Jesus has a far better explanation for His ability to cast out demons: the kingdom of God has come. Luke 11:20 – But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. The far better explanation for Jesus Christ’s ability to cast out demons with a word is that though Satan has been the “god of this world” (2 Cor. 4:4) since the fall of Adam and Eve, and though we were all born into the kingdom of the Devil, Jesus Christ is the Son of God who invaded enemy-occupied territory. He lived, died, and rose to plunder Satan’s kingdom, transfer people into the kingdom of God by grace, and will come again to finally destroy the Devil and establish God’s kingdom forever. The far better explanation is that the kingdom of God has come upon you.
And this leads us to the first way to reject the Lord Jesus that we must avoid: neutrality. After saying that the kingdom of God has come near in the casting out of demons, in Luke 11:23, Jesus says, “Whoever is not with me is against me…” There are only two kingdoms: the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of Satan. You will either belong to one or the other. Since Christ is King and the kingdom has come, the options are crystal clear: Christ or the Devil. To remain neutral is to reject Jesus and remain in the kingdom of Satan. That’s why the Lord Jesus warned in Luke 11:23 – “Whoever is not with me is against me…” Jesus’ words, “whoever is not with me is against me,” reveal that one way to reject Jesus is by trying to be neutral toward Jesus.
Honest question: are you trying to be neutral about Jesus? Maybe you’re like the people who marveled at the exorcism. You believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and He has really improved your life. But if you’re honest, you’re still lord over your life. Jesus isn’t your Lord; He’s your healer, your therapist, the one who helps you find fulfillment. He isn’t Lord over your money, your sexuality, your decisions, or how you treat people. You appreciate the help He’s given, but you don’t love Him with your heart, soul, mind, and strength. That sort of supposed neutrality is actually a more subtle way of rejecting the Lord Jesus and remaining in Satan’s kingdom. It’s like marveling. Don’t do it. Don’t do it because in the next section of our passage Jesus makes clear that when we try to remain neutral toward Jesus, experiencing His healing benefits without bending the knee to Him as Lord, the results are disastrous.
In Luke 11:24-26 Jesus says, “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and finding none it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ [25] And when it comes, it finds the house swept and put in order. [26] Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there. And the last state of that person is worse than the first.” You see, it’s not enough for Jesus to fix up your life, fulfill your longings and desires, or bring healing into your life. If Jesus heals something in your life, but you don’t actually embrace Him as your Savior and King, you’re just a more orderly home for the Devil to dwell in. If Jesus heals something in your life, but you don’t give Him your life, it’s like getting a Jesus vaccine. You know how some vaccines, live attenuated vaccines, give you just a weakened version of the virus or bacteria to train your immune system to fight the real thing. If you remain neutral toward the Lord Jesus, if you just embrace Him as a “Life Improver,” then it’s as though you get inoculated against receiving the real Jesus and being transferred out of the kingdom of the Devil and into the kingdom of God by grace.
So, don’t reject the Lord Jesus because the kingdom has come. Don’t remain neutral or merely be amazed by Him. There can be no neutrality. To remain neutral is to reject Him and be worse off than you were before. Instead of rejecting Him, push all your chips onto His square. Embrace Him as your only hope in life and in death. Ask Him to transfer you from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God by His grace. Follow Him as Lord. The second reason not to reject the Lord Jesus is…
DISTRACTIONS (vv. 27-28)
If the first way to reject Jesus is by trying to remain neutral toward Him, or by simply calling Him a devil, the second way to reject Jesus is to get distracted and miss the point. The Lord Jesus has just cast out a demon and announced that He is the King, that He has brought God’s kingdom near, and that everyone must decide: Satan or Jesus, with no neutrality possible. It’s powerful stuff. And in response to all this, a woman in the crowd raises her voice and says, “Jesus, blessed be your mom.” Luke 11:27 – As he said these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!”
Jesus Christ is bringing the crowds to a point of decision. “It’s Satan or Me,” and this woman responds by saying, “Blessed is the woman who carried you to term.” We know that this is a complete distraction and a missing of the point by the way the Lord Jesus responds to her. Luke 11:28 – But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” Jesus’ mother isn’t the point. The point is not rejecting Jesus. Mary the virgin is not the point. The point is hearing Jesus’ call to repent and enter His kingdom by grace and then heeding it.
Sadly, for hundreds and hundreds of years, people have allowed Jesus’ mother to distract them from the Lord Jesus. Both the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions have, in various ways, been distracted from their devotion to and confidence in the Lord Jesus by venerating Jesus’ mother, praying to Jesus’ mother, and believing things about Jesus’ mother that Scripture does not teach. While I do believe there are genuinely born-again Christians in those traditions despite their grave errors, their example, along with the example of the woman in our passage, serves as a warning: another subtle way to reject Jesus is to become distracted from simply hearing His Word and keeping it.
Is there anything distracting you from hearing the Word of God and keeping it? Hear His Word in the reading and preaching of the Bible, receive it by faith, and keep it. Don’t reject Jesus by becoming distracted from hearing the Word of God and keeping it. The third way to reject the Lord Jesus that we are warned to avoid is…
SIGNS (vv. 29-32)
Luke 11:29-30 – When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, “This generation is an evil generation. It seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation.”
What is the sign of Jonah? How will the Lord Jesus be a sign to “this generation” in a way similar to how Jonah was a sign to the people of Nineveh?
You may remember that Jonah was an Old Testament prophet whom God assigned to preach to Nineveh. Nineveh was a great and wicked city in the Assyrian Empire. Jonah was sent to call them to repent or be destroyed. Jonah hated the Ninevites. He wanted them to be destroyed, so he didn’t want to call them to repent because if they did repent, they would not be destroyed. So Jonah bought a ticket and boarded a boat traveling in the opposite direction from Nineveh.
However, the Lord hurled a terrible storm at Jonah. After the people on the boat learned that the storm was on account of Jonah, Jonah told them, “Throw me overboard and the storm will stop.” They threw Jonah overboard, the storm calmed, and Jonah sank down into the depths. But the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah and save him from drowning. Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of the fish. From the belly of the beast, Jonah repented, and the great fish spat Jonah out onto dry land. Jonah went to Nineveh as commanded, preached against them, and, to Jonah’s shock, the wicked Ninevites repented and turned to the Lord!
So, what is the sign of Jonah? The sign of Jonah refers to two things: Jesus’ three days in the grave and subsequent resurrection, foreshadowed by Jonah’s three days and nights in the belly of the fish, and the need not to reject Jesus but to repent and believe in Him, just as the men of Nineveh repented and believed Jonah’s message. As Jesus says in Luke 11:32 – “The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.”
The ESV Study Bible describes the twofold sign this way:
The sign of Jonah refers first to Jonah’s “three days and nights in the belly of the great fish” (cf. note on Matt. 12:40), which foreshadows “the Son of Man” being “three days and three nights in the heart of the earth,” that is, a reference to Jesus’ death and resurrection (cf. Luke 16:30-31). Additionally, “the sign of Jonah” draws attention to the need for a concrete response of repentance, as was the case with Nineveh in response to Jonah’s message.
The crowds wanted a sign from heaven before they would believe in the Lord Jesus. Perhaps you feel similarly. You think, “If there were just a little more evidence, if He would just answer this one prayer I’ve been waiting for, if He would reveal Himself to me in this way, then I’d go all in on Jesus.” Those desires and demands for a sign are just another way of rejecting Jesus because He has already given you the one sign you need to repent and believe in Him: the sign of Jonah.
The Lord Jesus Christ went into the earth, just as Jonah went into the belly of the fish, in order to taste the judgment your sins deserve. But at God’s word, just as the fish spat Jonah out onto dry ground, the grave gave up the Lord Jesus Christ, and He is risen to secure eternal life for all who trust in Him. Jesus Christ’s resurrection is undeniable. It is the only intellectually satisfying explanation for the existence of Christianity, and it is your only hope in life and in death. Don’t reject the Lord Jesus by demanding more signs. He is risen. It is the only sign you need to repent and believe in Him. The third way to reject Jesus is to demand more signs.
UNBELIEF (vv. 33-36)
What the Lord Jesus says next about light and darkness may, at first glance, seem off-topic, but it has everything to do with not rejecting the Lord Jesus. Luke 11:33-36 – “No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light. [34] Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. [35] Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness. [36] If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.”
The Lord Jesus Christ is comparing His teaching to a lamp. This is a somewhat common image. The Bible describes the preaching of Christ’s message as the light that rescues us from darkness. 2 Corinthians 4:4-6 – In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. [5] For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. [6] For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
The Lord Jesus Christ’s teaching, His gospel, is similar to a lamp. When someone lights a lamp, lighting it is not enough. The light must be seen, not concealed, to be helpful. In a similar way, the light of Jesus’ gospel is shining, but it is not effective when it is met with the darkness of unbelief. That’s the final way to reject the Lord Jesus: to respond to the light of the gospel with the darkness of unbelief.
Think about everything we have seen in this passage. The crowds saw undeniable demonstrations of Christ’s power. They heard His teaching. They witnessed His authority over demons. They were confronted with the reality that the kingdom of God had come near. Yet many still rejected Him.
Why? Not because the light was absent, but because their eyes were closed to it.
Jesus’ warning is deeply sobering. It is possible to be around the light, to hear the truth, to witness God’s work, and yet remain in darkness. That is why He says, “Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness.” This is not merely a warning for atheists or people hostile to Christianity. It is a warning for anyone who assumes that exposure to truth is the same thing as embracing truth. The light is shining. The question is whether you will receive it.
If you reject Christ through neutrality, distractions, constant demands for more evidence, or outright unbelief, the result is darkness. But if you receive Him by faith, the whole of your life is flooded with light. The gospel does not merely improve your life. It gives you a new heart, a new kingdom, a new family, and a new future.
CONCLUSION
Our passage is like a tornado warning blaring on your phone. The warning is clear: don’t reject Jesus. Don’t reject Him with neutrality, distractions, demands for signs, or garden-variety unbelief. So, what should we do with what we’ve heard?
First, if you’re currently rejecting Jesus in any of the ways described in our passage, receive the warning. Repent of your sins, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and push all your chips onto His square. Don’t remain neutral, don’t demand more signs, and don’t respond in unbelief. Receive the light of grace and be saved by His grace, welcomed into His kingdom, and adopted into His family by grace. He warns because He loves you. There are only two kingdoms. You have to decide. I’m pleading with you to choose Christ.
Second, if you’re currently a genuine believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, heed the warning as well. Jesus’ warning about the eternal danger of rejecting Jesus is one of the ways that Jesus keeps you from rejecting Him and keeps you in His kingdom. If He didn’t love you, He wouldn’t warn you. Heed His loving warning. It is a means of keeping you in His grace.
Third, if you’re currently a genuine believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, be a warning to others. The martyred missionary Jim Elliot, in July 1948, wrote this prayer in his journal: “Father, make of me a crisis man. Bring those I contact to decision. Let me not be a milepost on a single road; make me a fork, that men must turn one way or another on facing Christ in me.” Jim Elliot prayed to be a fork in the road so that people saw Christ in him and had to choose the kingdom of Christ or the kingdom of Satan. Jim was a warning for Christ.
If you’re a believer in Christ, in light of what we’ve learned today, be a fork in the road so that men and women must turn one way or another when they encounter Christ in you.