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January 12 - Luke 11 · A Chapter a Day Bible Reading

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  Hello friends, it's Sean here and it is Monday the 12th of
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  January. Welcome to the new week.
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  Great to have your company. I am back to work this week, how
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  about you? Maybe you are still on holidays.
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  Wouldn't that be wonderful for you if you are heading back to
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  work with me? Let's do it together.
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  This is a different kind of a work week for me.
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  I'm working from home, doing a bit of project work, so boy does
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  that mean I can work in my P's. Is that what working from home
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  means? Or maybe just unlimited cups of
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  tea? We shall find this week as that
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  all unfolds. But no matter what I'm wearing
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  or doing or drinking, we are doing one thing and that's for
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  sure. Which is continuing in our
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  journey through the book of Luke.
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  Following along as Luke describes Jesus life and his
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  ministry as he has meticulously read the first hand accounts and
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  processed it all together, done his research and provided for us
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  this beautifully organised, logical explanation of Jesus
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  life and ministry. So why don't you and I, friends,
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  get our travelling shoes on and head back to those days, to
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  those streets, to those crowds, to those fields, to those
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  arguments, to those teaching moments and hear what our Lord
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  and Saviour has to say to us today, in our moment as we read
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  together Luke Chapter 11. Once Jesus was in a certain
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  place praying, as he finished, one of his disciples came to him
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  and said, Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his
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  disciples. Jesus said, this is how you
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  should pray, Father, may your name be kept holy, may your
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  Kingdom come soon. Give us each day the food we
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  need, and forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against
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  us, and don't let us yield to temptation.
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  Then, teaching them more about prayer, he used this story.
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  Suppose you went to a friend's house at midnight wanting to
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  borrow 3 loaves of bread. You say to him, a friend of mine
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  has just arrived for a visit and I have nothing for him to eat.
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  And suppose he calls out from his bedroom.
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  Don't bother me, the door is locked for the night and my
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  family and I are all in bed. I can't help you, but I tell you
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  this though he won't do it for friendship's sake.
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  If you keep knocking long enough, he will get up and give
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  you whatever you need because of your shameless persistence.
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  And so I tell you, keep on asking and you will receive what
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  you ask for. Keep on seeking and you will
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  find. Keep on knocking and the door
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  will be opened to you, for everyone who asks receives.
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  Everyone who seeks finds, and to everyone who knocks, the door
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  will be opened. You fathers, if your children
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  ask for a fish, do you give them a snake instead?
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  Or if they ask for an egg to give them a scorpion?
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  Of course not. So if you sinful people know how
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  to give good gifts to your children, how much more will
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  your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask
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  him? One day Jesus cast out a demon
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  from a man who couldn't speak. And when the demon was gone, the
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  man began to speak. The crowds were amazed, but some
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  of them said no wonder he can cast out demons.
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  He gets his power from Satan, the Prince of demons.
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  Others trying to test Jesus demanded that he show them a
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  miraculous sign from heaven to prove his authority.
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  He knew their hearts, so he said Any Kingdom divided by civil war
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  is doomed. A family splintered by feuding
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  will fall apart. You say I am empowered by Satan.
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  But if Satan is divided and fighting against himself, how
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  can his Kingdom survive? And if I am empowered by Satan,
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  what about your own exorcists? They cast out demons too, so
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  they will condemn you for what you have said.
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  But if I'm casting out demons by the power of God, then the
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  Kingdom of God has arrived among you.
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  For when a strong man is fully armed and guards his palace, his
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  possessions are safe until someone even stronger attacks
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  and overpowers him, strips him of his weapons, and carries off
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  his belongings. Anyone who isn't with me opposes
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  me, and anyone who isn't working with me is actually working
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  against me. When an evil spirit leaves a
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  person, it goes into the desert searching for rest.
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  But when it finds none, it says I'll return to the person I came
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  from. So it returns and finds that
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  it's former home is all swept and in order.
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  Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than
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  itself, and they all enter the person and live there.
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  And so that person is worse off than before.
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  As he was speaking, a woman in the crowd called out.
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  God bless your mother, the womb from which you came, and the
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  breasts that nurtured you, Jesus replied.
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  But even more blessed are all who hear the word of God and put
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  it into practise. As the crowd pressed in on
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  Jesus, he said, This evil generation keeps asking me to
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  show them a miraculous sign, but the only sign I will give them
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  is the sign of Jonah. What happened to him was a sign
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  to the people of Nineveh that God had sent him.
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  What happens to the Son of Man will be assigned to these people
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  that he was sent by God. The queen of Sheba will stand up
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  against this generation on Judgement Day and condemn it.
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  For she came from a distant land to hear the wisdom of Solomon.
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  Now someone greater than Solomon is here, but you refuse to
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  listen. The people of Nineveh will also
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  stand up against this generation on Judgement Day and condemn it,
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  for they repented of their sins at the preaching of Jonah.
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  Now someone greater than Jonah is here, but you refuse to
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  repent. No one lights a lamp and then
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  hides it or puts it under a basket.
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  Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand where it's light can be
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  seen by all who enter the house. Your eye is like a lamp that
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  provides light for your body. When your eye is healthy, your
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  whole body is filled with light, but when it is unhealthy, your
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  body is filled with darkness. Make sure that the light you
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  think you have is not actually darkness.
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  If you are filled with light, with no dark corners, then your
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  whole life will be radiant, as though a floodlight were filling
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  you with light. As Jesus was speaking, one of
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  the Pharisees invited him home for a meal.
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  So he went in and took his place at the table.
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  His host was amazed to see that he sat down to eat without first
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  performing the hand washing ceremony required by Jewish
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  custom. Then the Lord said to him, You
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  Pharisees are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and
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  the dish, but inside you are filthy, full of greed and
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  wickedness. Fools, didn't God make the
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  inside as well as the outside? So clean the inside by giving
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  gifts to the poor, and you will be clean all over.
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  What sorrow awaits you, Pharisees?
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  For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from
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  your herb gardens. But you ignored justice and the
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  love of God. You should tithe, yes, but do
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  not neglect the more important things.
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  What sorrow awaits you, Pharisees, for you love to sit
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  in the seats of honour in the synagogues and receive
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  respectful greetings as you walk in the marketplaces?
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  Yes. What sorrow awaits you, for you
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  are like hidden graves in a field.
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  People walk over them without knowing the corruption they are
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  stepping on, Teacher said an expert in religious law.
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  You have insulted us too, in what you just said.
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  Yes, Jesus said what sorrow also awaits you, experts in religious
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  law, For you crush people with unbearable religious demands and
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  you never lift a finger to ease the burden.
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  What sorrow awaits you For you build monuments for the prophets
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  your own ancestors killed long ago.
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  But in fact you stand as witnesses who agree with what
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  your ancestors did. They killed the prophets, and
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  you join in their crime by building the monuments.
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  This is what God in His wisdom said about you.
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  I will send prophets and apostles to them, but they will
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  kill some and persecute the others.
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  As a result, this generation will be held responsible for the
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  murder of all God's prophets from the creation of the world,
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  from the murder of Abel to the murder of Zechariah, who was
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  killed between the altar and the sanctuary.
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  Yes, it will certainly be charged against this generation.
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  What sorrow awaits you, experts in religious law?
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  For you remove the key to knowledge from the people.
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  You don't enter the Kingdom yourselves, and you prevent
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  others from entering. As Jesus was leaving, the
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  teachers of religious law and the Pharisees became hostile and
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  tried to provoke him with many questions.
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  They wanted to trap him into saying something they could use
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  against him. Our Jesus, we hear so clearly
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  your disdain for hypocrisy. You do not want someone with
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  shadows in their heart to be spruiking their own perfection.
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  But instead, we read here that you want us with humility, with
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  light inside of us, coming back again and again and again to you
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  in conversation, in prayer, asking for everything that we
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  would need from you. So Jesus, I pray that you
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  reclaim our hearts today, our hearts that are so easily
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  corrupted by our lives and the noise around us, so that our
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  hearts can be drawn ever nearer to you, and our hearts can love
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  like you, and our hearts can break for the things that break
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  yours. And our hearts can be more like
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  you, attuned to your Kingdom priorities.
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  So today we put aside our own desires and we come empty handed
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  on our knees before you. We love you, and we want our
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  lives to be entirely in worship of you, a wonderful, saving God.
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  We pray all of this in your name, Jesus, Amen.