Truly Following Jesus Series

It seems like nearly every week I run into people who have some sort of faith. They say that believe in Jesus or at least call themselves Christians, but don’t attend a church. Their faith is very personal, private, and even comfortable. They choose to follow Jesus on their terms, as long as He doesn’t expect too much.

I don’t often run into people who antagonistic to the faith - though, periodically, I will hear about them a bit on media outlets. I know there are those who may have had a bad experience with a Christian and so they paint all Christians with the same brush.

There are also others who are inquisitive about faith from an academic or logical exercise, but are unwilling to truly commit to faith in Jesus. For them it’s more about the adventure of the argument that intrigues them, but not the result.

There are many other types of people that we will encounter in relation to Jesus - some are ambivalent - live and let live; some are boldly evangelistic toward their anti-Christian rhetoric.

Open your bibles to Luke 11:14-36.

There is a lot going on in this passage - from exorcism to accusations, rebuttals to teaching, and even peculiarities and parables. There are also several different types of people in this passage. It seems like the main point that Luke is helping us to see is the differentiation between true followers and those who are not. We can see this a bit by a few decisive statements that Jesus makes:

Luke 11:23 “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.”

Luke 11:28 “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”

Then in a comparison between the current (mostly Jewish) generation to which He is speaking and some gentiles from the Old Testament:

Luke 11:31–32 “…something greater than Solomon is here. … something greater than Jonah is here.”

Then as he calls true followers to a life of integrity

Luke 11:35 “Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness.”

In light of these statements, we could summarize the message of this section as…

Theme: True followers of Jesus are those who hear His words, respond with belief, and strive toward holiness.

So, as we reflect on this passage and it’s theme together, let’s walk through these verses looking at 5 different types of people who are described here.

the sick

the slanderers

the skeptics

the swarm

the saved

And how Jesus addresses them, calling them to faith.

I wonder if in the process of considering these five types of people, if we’ll find ourselves there?

Let’s begin where the passage does, with the sick.

Luke 11:14 ESV

Now he was casting out a demon that was mute. When the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke, and the people marveled.

In considering this man, we don’t get to know much about what happens afterwards, but I think we can safely ask the question:

The sick want healing, but do they want Jesus?

Here, this sick person is not ill in the medical sense, but ill in the possessed sense. He had a demon that caused him to be mute. I’ve kind of wondered, how did He know it was a demon and not a physical malady? To that point, how often do we look at sicknesses around us and overlook the spiritual or demonic - maybe because it’s not crazy enough, and just assume it’s a medical condition.

Whatever the case, Jesus casts out the demon which allowed the man to speak. This prompted many around to marvel at the miracle.

Now, Jesus healed a lot of people and many of them turned their lives around. Some, as we’ve seen, even wanted to continue to follow Jesus. But I wonder, for those who had been healed did they really want all that Jesus had to offer or did they simply want benefits of a brief encounter? We may never know, but we can ask that question about us. Do we want Jesus or just _____?

The second group that we see here is what Anyabwile called “slanderers.” It seems like this passage helps us to see that…

Slanderers make accusations but don’t pay attention.

Luke 11:15 ESV

But some of them said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons,”

Beelzebul - sometimes known as the Lord of the Flies. Beezebul is not referenced anywhere in the OT, but several extra-biblical sources suggest that this was a name for a Canaanite deity. Luke doesn’t tell us exactly who these slanderers are. Maybe they are religious leaders or simply cynical people. It’s as though they want to attack Jesus’ character possibly because they are threatened by His power or popularity, but not pay attention to what He is saying. Beyond that, their logic doesn’t make sense - as Jesus points that out (which we will see in a moment).