As we will note in our passage today, Jesus said that the generation of people 2000 years ago was wicked.
Wicked means evil or ungodly!
What wicked things is our generation involved in today??
We will note later at the end of this message what God says will happen to our wicked generation.
As we continue to study Luke 11, we will note what Jesus has to say to the wicked generation 2000 years ago. Jesus actually cites another wicked generation about 4000 years ago.
Before reading our passage for today, let us pray our commitment to God’s Word ….
Open your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 11 and read along with me verses 29-32….
The generation about 2000 years ago was called wicked by Jesus Christ. What did Jesus mean by that? The answer of course is in the context of the rest of what Jesus said. Jesus cited Jonah and the Ninevites, who were wicked.
Turn briefly with me to the Book of Jonah in the Old Testament….
Jonah 1:1…
Jonah 3:1….
From Jonah 3:7, the Ninevites were wicked because of 3 things: they didn’t call on God, they did evil things, and they were violent!
Let us now go back to Luke 11.
And so, based on Jonah, Jesus was saying in v29 that the people of 2000 years ago were wicked like the Ninevites of old because they:
- did not call on God
- did evil things
- were violent
But because God is a loving God, Jesus noted in
v30: God gave Jonah to the Ninevites and Jesus Christ for future generation.
Now, look again at v31, what is Jesus saying here?
There is really no need to explain the Queen of the South because Jesus noted that she got her wisdom from Solomon. How wise was Solomon? Remember that Solomon prayed for wisdom and God told him in 1 Kings 3, “I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be.”
What’s the main point of v31? Jesus Christ, the sign for wicked generations, is wiser that Solomon, the wisest man in the world!
Jesus closes His lesson with powerful truths in v32!
We can note 5 fantastic truths in v32:
1. A simple man named Jonah preached repentance from evil!
2. The Ninevites turned away, repented, from their wickedness!
3. An unrepenting wicked generation will be condemned!
4. Not only were the Ninevites forgiven, they will stand and judge wicked people!
5. Jesus Christ is greater than Jonah!
What’s the point of Luke 11:29-32?
Jesus preached repentance from wickedness. That generation during Jesus’ time was condemned because they did not listen to Jesus who is greater than Jonah and Solomon, whom they knew!
Here’s a simple formula to remember: God reveals truths but people reject those truths = judgment!
As we had noted earlier, our generation is also wicked, ungodly, like the Ninevites of old and the generation during Jesus’ time. Our generation today does not acknowledge Jesus Christ who is God. We do evil things and we still live in a violent world!
We don’t think about it; we don’t want to think about it, but the reality of a violent world can be summed up in this picture…… showing weapons of mass destruction.
What does God say about our wicked world? Turn with me to The Letter to the Romans, look with me at Romans 1:18..
Now turn to Revelation 20:11-15…
What’s the bottom line from all of this?
God always reveals truth with love!
From the very beginning of our world, God always reveals truths about evil, man’s wickedness, and the resulting judgment, but God also always reveals His Holiness and mercy!
There are 2 things we need to do to respond to this truth about God.
1. Have we personally believed in the truths about the eternal judgment of sin and the great mercy of God through Jesus Christ?
There is a place called hell where all wickedness, the devil, all the demons, and all who have not been cleansed by the cross of Jesus Christ will eternally go to. If your name is not in the Book of Life, you will end up eternally with the devil and all his demons. Your name is not in the Book of Life if you have never been born again by receiving Jesus Christ as your only Savior and God!
The second thing we must do is to follow the example of God! God always reveals truth with love! How about us?
2. As Christians, we are to share truths, in love, to other people!
How do we do this? Always remember 2 things:
We must depend on the truths from Jesus Christ (daily study God’s Word).
We must yield to God the Holy Spirit within us.
God will judge the wicked, and we must tell people that this is true! But is that all we tell them? Do we tell people truths to judge them and to scare them?
Yes the truth of hell and eternal judgment is scary, but God provides a way to escape eternal judgment! God gives grace through Jesus Christ!
We must tell people of eternal judgment because we love them and offer God’s only salvation through Jesus Christ.
Perhaps you can share this illustration:
Early on the morning of May 9, 1980, a ship in Tampa Bay hit a bridge. 35 people were killed when the Sunshine Skyway bridge collapsed. Twenty-six of the victims of the Sunshine Skyway collapse were passengers on a Greyhound bus. Six cars and one pickup truck also plummeted from the Sunshine Skyway bridge when it collapsed.
A photograph from the disaster shows a yellow Buick driven by Richard Hornbuckle of St. Petersburg stopped 14 inches short of the Sunshine Skyway bridge's edge.
Now, if you heard that morning that this bridge collapsed and you knew a loved one who traveled that bridge everyday, wouldn’t you frantically contact them to tell them about the disaster? And why would you do that? – because you love them and you don’t want them to get hurt.
