CHAPTER 11

(A.D. 33)

PRAYER

¹And it came to pass, that, as He was praying in a certain place (Jesus here does what He had admonished Martha to do have fellowship with the Father, which Mary did), when He ceased, one of His Disciples said unto Him (they evidently noted the ease with which He prayed), Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples (the answer to their request as given by Christ forms the basis for all prayer).

²And He said unto them, When you pray (meaning that there should be a set time for prayer each day), say, Our Father (this speaks of relationship, and that He Alone can supply our every need) which art in Heaven (help comes from Heaven; none comes from this Earth), Hallowed be Your Name (open with praise). Your Kingdom come (the Believer is to pray for this Kingdom to come, and for all the obvious reasons). Your will be done, as in Heaven, so in Earth (the Will of God, and not our will, should be the supreme goal of every Believer; the Will of God is not being presently done on Earth, but it will be when the Kingdom comes; then war, sickness, and suffering will end).

³Give us day by day our daily bread (physical sustenance and spiritual sustenance, which the Lord Alone can give).

⁴And forgive us our sins (this proclaims the fact that there are no perfect Believers, only a Perfect God; the best of us, whomever that may be, still live in a house of flawed flesh; consequently, we must constantly look to Christ); for we also forgive every one who is indebted to us (the Lord forgiving us is predicated as well on our forgiving others). And lead us not into temptation (in effect, states, help me in my weakness not to be led into temptation); but deliver us from evil (there is only One Deliverer, that is the Lord; man cannot deliver man, despite the claims of humanistic psychology; and God delivers through what Jesus did at the Cross, and our Faith in that Finished Work).

⁵And He said unto them (a continuance of the explanation regarding prayer), Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves (a meager request);

⁶For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him? (We as Believers must give the Message of Eternal Life to all of mankind, but the truth is, within ourselves, we have nothing to give.)

⁷And 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 to you (an obvious denial).

⁸I 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 needs (the argument of this Parable is that if a sufficiency for daily need can, by importunity, i.e., persistence, be obtained from an unwilling source, how much more from a willing Giver, Which and Who is the Lord).

⁹And I say unto you (telling us how to approach the Lord for whatever we need), Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you (all of this speaks of persistence and guarantees a positive answer, at least if its in the Will of God).

¹⁰For every one who asks receives; and he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks it shall be opened (he says everyone, and that includes you!).

¹¹If a son shall ask bread of any of you who is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?

¹²Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him (an egg containing) a scorpion?

¹³If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children (means that an earthly parent certainly would not give a child a stone who has asked for bread, etc.): how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them who ask Him? (This refers to Gods Goodness, and the fact that everything from the Godhead comes to us through the Person and Agency of the Holy Spirit; and all that He does for us is based upon the Cross of Christ, and our Faith in that Finished Work.)

BLASPHEMY

¹⁴And He was casting out a devil (demon), and it was dumb (the Greek Text implies a mute silence, which was a form of insanity). And it came to pass, when the devil (demon) was gone out, the dumb spoke; and the people wondered (in a moments time, the man was completely delivered and healed).

¹⁵But some of them said (some of the religious leaders in Israel), He casts out devils (demons) through Beelzebub the chief of the devils (concerns a startling accusation, which constituted the terrible sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit, for which there is no forgiveness; Beelzebub was the Philistine god of flies [II Ki. 1:2]; it meant the dung god, or lord of the dung hill; a most contemptuous and vile idol).

¹⁶And others, tempting Him (attempting to ensnare Christ in His speech or actions), sought of Him a sign from Heaven (strange, considering that they had just witnessed a sign of unprecedented proportions; they actually demanded a stunt, such as calling fire down from Heaven; what these foolish men didnt realize was, if He had done such, the fire would have fallen on them; but they were so spiritually insensitive, they couldnt see the danger they were in).

¹⁷But He, knowing their thoughts (presents the Holy Spirit informing Him of what they were thinking, which means that they had not been saying these things so that the crowd of people could hear), said unto them, Every Kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and a house divided against a house falls (division based on dissension is the sure destroyer of all).

¹⁸If Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? (This tells us unequivocally of the existence of such a kingdom of evil, all armed and thoroughly organized to carry out its dread purposes.) because you say that I cast out devils (demons) through Beelzebub (presents the absurdity of such an accusation).

¹⁹And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils (demons), by whom do your sons cast them out? (This means that by condemning Him, accordingly they were condemning themselves.) therefore shall they be your judges (the crowd knew that they had never heard of anyone casting out demons by the power of Satan).

²⁰But if I with the Finger of God (Power of God) cast out devils (demons) (they could not question the Healings, Miracles or Deliverances), no doubt the Kingdom of God is come upon you (every evidence said that He was of God; His Power was undeniable!).

²¹When a strong man (Satan) armed keeps his palace (the world), his goods are in peace (represents freedom from hostile action, which Satan enjoyed until the First Advent of Christ):

²²But when a stronger than he (Jesus Christ is stronger) shall come upon him, and overcome him (referred to what Jesus did at the Cross [Col. 2:14-15]), He takes from him all his armour wherein he trusted (Jesus Christ defeated Satan totally and completely at the Cross, where He atoned for all sin), and divides his spoils (means that multiple millions have been Redeemed from Satans clutches, and instead of being captives of Satan they are now captives of Jesus Christ [Eph. 4:8-9]).

²³He who is not with Me is against Me (presents the fact that there is no neutrality with Christ): and he who gathers not with Me scatters (everything is either of the Devil or of Christ; there is no middle ground).

²⁴When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man (concerns the efforts of man, whatever they may be, to save himself other than by Christ and Him Crucified), he walks through dry places, seeking rest (concerns the unclean spirit which has gone out); and finding none, he says, I will return unto my house whence I came out (unless Christ affects the work, whatever it might be, it is not truly affected).

²⁵And when he (the evil spirit) comes, he finds it swept and garnished (means that it was filled with that other than Christ).

²⁶Then goes he, and takes to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself (concerns the reoccupation by demon spirits); and they enter in, and dwell there (proving that most of the world is controlled by demon spirits): and the last state of that man is worse than the first (this was the state of Israel after they had rejected Christ, which ultimately led to their total destruction).

²⁷And it came to pass, as He spoke these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto Him (the Lord was teaching the most solemn truths about the terrors of the spirit world of darkness, and this woman rudely interrupted with her carnal thoughts), Blessed is the womb that bear you, and the paps which you have sucked (it was true what the woman said, but out of place at this time).

²⁸But He said, Yea rather, blessed are they who hear the Word of God, and keep it (the Lord gently reproved her, pointing out that the natural man and natural relationships cannot be recognized in the kingdom of spiritual realities).

JONAH

²⁹And when the people were gathered thick together, He began to say, This is an evil generation (proclaims the unbelief of Israel; they were extremely religious, and yet did not know God Whom they spoke of constantly): they seek a sign; and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of Jonah the Prophet (the sign of which Jesus spoke was the resurrection of Jonah from the belly of the whale; likewise, Jesus would be Resurrected from the dead, but regrettably, Israel did not believe that sign).

³⁰For as Jonah was a sign unto the Ninevites (they must have heard of his deliverance from the great fish; he was entombed in this monster for three days and three nights; and so was a Type of Him Who was three days and three nights in the heart of the Earth), so shall also the Son of Man be to this generation (Nineveh was given forty days in which to repent; Jerusalem was given forty years; Repentance in the one case averted the judgment; unbelief in the other determined the destruction).

³¹The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation, and condemn them: for she came from the utmost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.

³²The men of Nineveh shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and, behold, a greater than Jonah is here (in Verses 29 through 32; the Lord Jesus testifies to the truthfulness of the Scriptures respecting the Queen of the South, plus Jonah and the men of Nineveh; and further, He affirms the fact of the Resurrection and the judgment to come, declaring that all those persons will rise from the dead; this supplemental statement establishes the historic truth of the Book of Jonah).

THE LIGHT

³³No man, when he has lit a candle, puts it in a secret place, neither under a bushel, but on a candlestick, that they which come in may see the light (Christ is the Light of the world; He did not hide that light, it shone fully on every man; but few accepted it, for the majority were so willfully blind that they remained unilluminated).

³⁴The light of the body is the eye (what a lamp is to a room, the eye is to the body): therefore when your eye is single, your whole body also is full of light (the emphasis is on the word single; it means singleness of purpose, which keeps us from the snare of having a double treasure and consequently a divided heart); but when your eye is evil, your body also is full of darkness (Jesus is the Light; if the eye does not see Him fully, moral and spiritual darkness prevails).

³⁵Take heed therefore that the light which is in You be not darkness (this speaks of deception; the Verse could be translated, take heed therefore that the light that is in you be not artificial light and, therefore, darkness).

³⁶If your 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 does give you light (the problem with the Church is part dark and part light).

PHARISEES

³⁷And as He spoke, a certain Pharisee besought Him to dine with him: and He went in, and sat down to meat.

³⁸And when the Pharisee saw it, he marvelled that He (Jesus) had not first washed before dinner (the washing spoken of here had nothing to do with sanitation; the Pharisees taught that a demon sat on unwashed hands, and unless a certain ritual was performed, the demon could be ingested while eating).

³⁹And the Lord said unto him, Now do you Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter (outward show); but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness (presents a scathing denunciation).

⁴⁰You fools (what an indictment! and He said this to the mans face), did not He (God) Who made that which is without make that which is within also? (The inward man must be changed as well, and can only be changed by the Power of God.)

⁴¹But rather give alms of such things as you have; and, behold, all things are clean unto you (the Greek here reads: But rather the things that are within, that is the heart, the will, the affections, then all other actions proceeding from a heart truly given to God, will be acceptable to Him; otherwise such actions will be dead works; thus, the Lord perpetually taught the necessity of the New Birth).

⁴²But woe unto you, Pharisees! (Once again, this is a scathing denunciation.) for you tithe mint and rue (leaves of certain plants) and all manner of herbs (meaning that they were meticulous to pay their tithes), and pass over judgment and the Love of God (the giving of money will not take the place of righteous living): these ought you to have done (you ought to pay your tithes), and not to leave the other undone.

⁴³Woe unto you, Pharisees! for you love the uppermost seats in the Synagogues (position of importance), and greetings in the markets (to be greeted as a superior).

⁴⁴Woe unto you, Scribes (supposed to be experts in the Law of Moses) and Pharisees (supposed to be the religious leaders of Israel), hypocrites! (You arent what you claim to be.) for you are as graves which appear not, and the men who walk over them are not aware of them (according to the Mosaic Law, it was wrong to touch anything that pertained to death because it represented sin; Jesus was saying that these religious leaders of Israel were like covered-over graves, with men walking over them and being defiled, and not aware of it; in other words, the religious leaders of Israel were sin and, therefore, death and a defilement to Israel).

⁴⁵Then answered one of the lawyers (supposed to be experts in the Law of Moses), and said unto Him, Master, thus saying You reproach us also (insult us).

⁴⁶And He (Jesus) said, Woe unto you also, you lawyers! for you laden men with burdens grievous to be borne (kept adding things to the original Law of Moses), and you yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers (they did not themselves live up at all to that which they demanded of the people; such is religion!).

⁴⁷Woe unto you! for you build the sepulchres of the Prophets, and your fathers killed them (they built gorgeous tombs for the Prophets of Old who had long since died, but in truth their hearts were just as murderous as their fathers of the past who killed the Prophets).

⁴⁸Truly you bear witness that you allow the deeds of your fathers (means they were following in the same vein): for they indeed killed them, and you build their sepulchres (it is far easier to admire dead Saints than to identify ones self with living ones).

⁴⁹Therefore also said the Wisdom of God (Christ [I Cor. 1:24]), I will send them Prophets and Apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute (I is emphatic, and speaks of the Divine self-consciousness of Jesus; in other words, the Redeemer identifies Himself with God, and actually as God; they refers to the religious leaders of Israel who killed the Prophets and the Apostles):

⁵⁰That the blood of all the Prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation (the generation of which Jesus spoke was the generation of His day; the reason such judgment was called down upon their heads, which was fulfilled in A.D. 70, was that they rejected the One Whom the Prophets had predicted would come, namely Christ);

⁵¹From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zachariah, which perished between the Altar and the Temple (God keeps an account of every injustice, no matter how large or small): verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation.

⁵²Woe unto you, lawyers! for you have taken away the key of knowledge (they took the Word of God from the people, substituting their own glosses; such characterizes much of the modern Ministry as well!): you entered not in yourselves (you are not even Saved yourselves), and them who were entering in you hindered (by teaching error, they kept the True Word of God from the people, thereby hindering them; once again, it is the same presently!).

⁵³And as He said these things unto them, the Scribes and the Pharisees began to urge Him vehemently (trying to get Him to say something by which they could accuse Him), and to provoke Him to speak of many things:

⁵⁴Laying wait for Him, and seeking to catch something out of His mouth, that they might accuse Him (speaks of all types of verbal traps they laid for Him, but all to no avail!).