Bible reading
14 And He was casting out a demon, and it was mute; when the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke; and the crowds were amazed. 15 But some of them said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons.” 16 Others, to test Him, were demanding of Him a sign from heaven. 17 But He knew their thoughts and said to them, “Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and a house divided against itself falls. 18 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 by Beelzebul cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? So they will be your judges. 20 But if I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. 21 When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are undisturbed. 22 But when someone stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, he takes away from him all his armor on which he had relied and distributes his plunder. 23 He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me, scatters.
24 “When the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and not finding any, it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ 25 And when it comes, it finds it swept and put in order. 26 Then it goes and takes along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.”
27 While Jesus was saying these things, one of the women in the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, “Blessed is the womb that bore You and the breasts at which You nursed.” 28 But He said, “On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.”
Source: Luke 11:14-28 (New American Standard Bible)
Bible Study summary
The passage that we will be looking at is a passage regarding the power struggle between the power of God and the Power of Satan working in one’s heart.
Firstly, we will need to address the part where we see how the crowd are accusing Jesus that he is casting out demons by the power of Beelzebub the price of demons. Why would the crowd say such a thing? Why would Beelzebub help Jesus to drive out demons? If we were to look at it through the perspective of the crowd, we can see that their reasoning is that Beelzebub and Jesus are conspiring with one another to lead the people astray. We can see that Jesus was quite patient with his accusers and neither denied nor affirm their claim, but rather he made his accusers think of what they have said.
Jesus in verse 17 brought to their attention that if one kingdom is divided against oneself it will fall. In verse 19 Jesus also asked the crowd a question where if it were true that Jesus is using the power of Beelzebub to drive out demons, then by whose power does the Jewish exorcist cast out demons. There needs to be a matter of consistency where they need to question whether there is a possibility that their own exorcist is using the power of Beelzebub to cast out demons. Jesus also described how strongly Satan guards his own house and possession, in verse 21 we see Satan is described as fully armed to make sure his house is defended and will not let anyone take his possession which is the souls of men be taken away from him. Through this description Jesus is pointing out to the crowd that it is unlikely for Satan to let anyone take his possession away, which makes it unlikely for Satan to work with anyone to take away his possession. Jesus is also pointing out to us that we too need to guard the word of God in our hearts just as strongly as Satan does to his possession, so that we won’t be scattered.
If one is saved from the Evil one will that person be forever free? Will that be the end of the story after one is cleansed? In verse 24 the Lord Jesus is letting us know that this is not the case. In this section the Lord Jesus tells us that when an impure spirit comes out of a person it will wander around for some time unable to find a resting place before deciding to come back to where it was driven out of. Then seeing how this person has cleaned up his life and being put in order, the impure spirit will take with him seven other spirits to live in him. This causes the end state of that person much much worse than the first.
So, what must we do to not end up in such a state? Well we must make sure our house is occupied; it needs an occupant. Now who or what will that occupant be? If we look back in Luke 11:13 we see that we are to ask for the Holy Spirit to be given to us. It is the Holy Spirit that needs to dwell in our hearts, and to live and be the occupant of our house. Either the house is being filled by the Holy Spirit, or if we leave it empty it will be worse in the end.
So how does one keep the Holy Spirit to continue to dwell in our heart? As we saw earlier it is that we need to guard the word of God in our hearts. In Deuteronomy 6: 6-9 we see that it is a similar picture on what it means to guard the word of God, which is that it must be in our heart. And we are to teach diligently to our sons and daughters. Similarly, we see in Deuteronomy 11: 18. It is to impress the word of God in our life. What does impress mean? It means that it is to be part of our life, our heart and soul. In verse 22 and 23 it says that if we are to hold fast to his word and commandments, in verse 23, that Yahweh our God will drive out our enemies. So, if we guard the Word of God by living it and teaching it then he will drive out our enemies. Which also ties into Luke 11:23 where those who are not with me are against me. Where you either believe or not believe, and to believe is to live out the word of God, where he will keep us safe from our enemies.
This passage is an important lesson for us to seek his word, and to not just listen to it but to also act on it. We can’t be filled with the Holy Spirit unless we are willing to live out his commandment to us. And only through living out his commandment will he then set us free and protect us from our enemies.
Bible study by Lewis
Summary by Nathanael