Luke 11 Devotional Bible Study

Learning and Teaching How to Pray

Luke 11:1-4 – Once Jesus was in a certain place praying. As he finished, one of his disciples came to him and said, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”

Jesus said, “This is how you should pray:

“Father, may your name be kept holy.
    May your Kingdom come soon.
Give us each day the food we need,
and forgive us our sins,
    as we forgive those who sin against us.
And don’t let us yield to temptation.”

The disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray because they saw Him praying. They saw He had a vibrant practice of praying and so knew He could teach them to have the same.

Do people see you as someone engaging regularly in meaningful prayer? Would someone want to learn how to pray from you? What about other spiritual practices?

To answer their question of how to pray, Jesus said they should include a few things in their prayers. They should pray for God to be honored as holy, for Him to reign, for His provision in their lives, for forgiveness for their sins and the grace to forgive others, and for strength against temptation.

Are you thinking about some form of all of those points as you pray? Is there one or more that you need to focus on including more often in your conversations with God?

 

Why Can I Ask God for Good Gifts?

Luke 11:9-13 – “And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.

“You fathers—if your children ask for a fish, do you give them a snake instead? Or if they ask for an egg, do you give them a scorpion? Of course not! So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.”

I can ask God for things because He’s a good father who wants to give me good gifts. Think about that; the God of the Universe, the Ultimate Being, wants to do good things for you. Isn’t that amazing? Isn’t that humbling? So you can keep asking because He wants to keep giving. And the greatest gift He wants to give you is Himself, His own Holy Spirit to live inside you so that He can be with you, empowering you, guiding you, always.

Pray for what you need. Pray for God’s blessings. Pray for the Holy Spirit to have more control in your life.

 

Jesus is So Much Stronger than Satan

Luke 11:17-26 – He knew their thoughts, so he said, “Any kingdom divided by civil war is doomed. A family splintered by feuding will fall apart. You say I am empowered by Satan. But if Satan is divided and fighting against himself, how can his kingdom survive? And if I am empowered by Satan, what about your own exorcists? They cast out demons, too, so they will condemn you for what you have said. But if I am casting out demons by the power of God, then the Kingdom of God has arrived among you. For when a strong man is fully armed and guards his palace, his possessions are safe— until someone even stronger attacks and overpowers him, strips him of his weapons, and carries off his belongings. Anyone who isn’t with me opposes me, and anyone who isn’t working with me is actually working against me.”

“When an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, searching for rest. But when it finds none, it says, ‘I will return to the person I came from.’ So it returns and finds that its former home is all swept and in order. Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the person and live there. And so that person is worse off than before.”

Jesus shows that the people who were saying He was casting out demons by the power of Satan were being illogical. Rather than thinking through what they were saying, they were just looking for a reason to oppose Jesus. Some people today doubt that Jesus was who He claimed to be. Yet we see that the teaching of Scripture is completely logical and reasonable if we take the time to think through it.

Jesus then illustrates that rather than working by Satan’s power, He is overpowering Satan by being stronger than he is. Jesus is able to overpower and take Satan’s possessions. And what are the possessions Jesus is taking away from Satan? It’s people! Jesus is taking people back from the devil by casting out demons and putting people back in their right minds.

But when the demons leave a person, that person is still not completely safe. The demons can come back, and in fact, the person can be left worse off than before if they keep their spiritual “house” empty. If they don’t fill the emptiness with the Holy Spirit, they remain open to the demons returning. If they try to stay neutral and don’t join with Jesus, they actually end up back in Satan’s control. If they don’t join with Jesus, they actually oppose Him. If they aren’t working with Him, they’re working against Him.

Has Jesus overpowered Satan in your life? Has He delivered you from bondage to sin and Satan’s influence? Have you allowed the Holy Spirit to fill you and keep you from returning to Satan’s power? Are you working with Jesus rather than against Him?

 

Why is Mary Honored?

Luke 11:27-28 – As he was speaking, a woman in the crowd called out, “God bless your mother—the womb from which you came, and the breasts that nursed you!” Jesus replied, “But even more blessed are all who hear the word of God and put it into practice.”

Mary, the mother of Jesus, was a great example to us. She was honored to be the mother of Jesus because she was obedient to God. She was chosen for that role in Jesus’ life because she was willing to do what God told her to do. Jesus is telling us here that we can be just as honored in God’s eyes as Mary was if we adopt her same attitude.

Are you putting into practice what you hear? Are you following God’s Word and being obedient? What part of God’s teaching do you need to practice more closely?

 

Signs from God

Luke 11:29-30 – As the crowd pressed in on Jesus, he said, “This evil generation keeps asking me to show them a miraculous sign. But the only sign I will give them is the sign of Jonah. What happened to him was a sign to the people of Nineveh that God had sent him. What happens to the Son of Man will be a sign to these people that he was sent by God.”

What happened to Jesus? He was resurrected from the dead, and people saw it! It was the miraculous sign God did to prove Jesus was right and innocent and didn’t deserve to die for the crimes the Jewish leaders accused Him of.

What happened to the prophet Jonah was a sign. He refused to go preach to his enemies, so God had a large fish swallow him for three days and then spit him out on the shore of the enemy’s territory. Did the people see the fish spit Jonah out? Is that how they knew God sent him? Did he smell and have sores from the fish’s digestive juices? Did he simply tell them what happened as he preached?

Either way, the people believed Jonah was sent from God and they repented. When the people saw, and when we read and believe that Jesus was resurrected, our response should be to repent. When people see the things God has done in us, and we become a sign to them of God’s power, they should repent.

Are you being a sign to other people? How can you let God’s work be a larger sign, or a brighter sign, in your life, pointing people to God?

 

Refusing to Put in the Effort

Luke 11:31-32 – “The queen of Sheba will stand up against this generation on judgment day and condemn it, for she came from a distant land to hear the wisdom of Solomon. Now someone greater than Solomon is here—but you refuse to listen. The people of Nineveh will also stand up against this generation on judgment day and condemn it, for they repented of their sins at the preaching of Jonah. Now someone greater than Jonah is here—but you refuse to repent.”

The Queen of Sheba put in the effort to learn by traveling a long distance to hear Solomon’s teaching. Are you willing to put in some effort to hear God’s teaching? You don’t need to go to a distant land. You can just pick up your Bible or turn on a YouTube video of someone preaching the Word. It doesn’t take much effort at all, and you can receive more truth and wisdom than even the queen received. If we don’t put in the effort, she will testify against us and say, “I was willing to put in the effort to hear Solomon, a human teacher; why are you not willing to put in less of an effort to hear Jesus, God Himself, speak in the Bible?”

The people of Ninevah will say, “We repented at the words of a human preacher who didn’t even care about us; why are you refusing to repent when the God of Love invites and warns you?”

 

Be the Bright Light

Luke 11:33 – “No one lights a lamp and then hides it or puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where its light can be seen by all who enter the house.”

Jesus has lit your lamp. He’s given you spiritual life! We shouldn’t hide that fact or try to make it seem less important than it is. We should let God’s work shine bold and bright in our lives! Why? Because when we do let that light shine, everyone will have an opportunity to see it and enjoy it and enter into God’s light for themselves.

How can you uncover your light and let it shine brighter for the people in your life?

 

Attending, Not Conforming

Luke 11:37-38 – As Jesus was speaking, one of the Pharisees invited him home for a meal. So he went in and took his place at the table. His host was amazed to see that he sat down to eat without first performing the hand-washing ceremony required by Jewish custom.

Jesus knew the Pharisees were His enemies, so why did Jesus go to dinner at the Pharisee’s house? Because He was invited! But did He do what the Pharisee wanted Him to do? No. Jesus knew that the hand-washing ceremony was just a human ceremony; it wasn’t required by God.

Jesus accepted the invitation, but He didn’t conform to His host’s wishes. It makes me think of how we should behave in the world. We’re here. We’re attending. We’re participating in this society. But we shouldn’t change our behavior to please those around us. We live only to please God.

 

Inside Change, Not Outward Show

Luke 11:39 – Then the Lord said to him, “You Pharisees are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and wickedness!”

Jesus goes on to talk about how the Pharisees like to be respected by other people and how they tithe even on the smallest gains in their life, but they ignore the matters of the heart – loving God and caring for other people.

Like the Pharisees, we can all follow the rules and be religious and seem upright and respectable… but not have any passion for God or people inside. But if we pray and ask God to change our hearts, then our actions will follow, and we’ll have both the inside and the outside being clean for the Lord.

 

How to Clean the Inside

Luke 11:41 – “So clean the inside by giving gifts to the poor, and you will be clean all over.”

Jesus said the Pharisees were full of greed. How could they cleanse themselves from their greed? By actively giving money away to the poor! It’s hard to be greedy when you’re practicing generosity.

We can follow that same method of cleansing. What wrong attitude are we full of? Do you have a lot of negativity in you? Make it a practice of encouraging! Are you an anxious person? Practice doing new things so that you have to trust God to get you through it. Are you depressed? Look for opportunities to befriend someone else who needs cheered up. Are you lazy? Give up your hobbies for a time and take on more tasks to serve someone else until being more hardworking is a habit for you.

 

Insults and Burdens

Luke 11:45-46 – “Teacher,” said an expert in religious law, “you have insulted us, too, in what you just said.” “Yes,” said Jesus, “what sorrow also awaits you experts in religious law! For you crush people with unbearable religious demands, and you never lift a finger to ease the burden.”

Jesus agreed that He had just insulted the experts in the law, and He didn’t apologize for it. In effect, He said, “Yes, I am insulting you, and here’s why…”

We can’t be afraid to insult people in telling them the truth. We don’t try to be mean in what we say or attack someone for things they can’t change. But we do point out the things they can change, and don’t worry if they’re offended.

Why was Jesus insulting these religious leaders? Because they were teaching people they had to do more than God required. They were making people feel like they couldn’t please God because they couldn’t do all that the teachers were telling them to do. If God’s law said that people were required to rest on the Sabbath, the religious law experts were defining what that meant more strictly than God ever intended. Rather than just saying that people couldn’t work, they were saying people couldn’t do enjoyable activities that required physical exertion. “No going for a walk on the Sabbath. No preparing food. No making a fire. No scooting your chair into a different position. If you do, you’re disobeying God!”

They were making people feel guilty for things God didn’t care about.

Is there anything in your life that people have made you feel guilty about, when God never said anything about it?

 

Handling Hostility with Humility

Luke 11:53-54 – As Jesus was leaving, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees became hostile and tried to provoke him with many questions. They wanted to trap him into saying something they could use against him.

When we speak the truth, and others don’t want to hear it, don’t be surprised if they become hostile and try to ask tricky questions to convince you you’re wrong or to prove their point. How should you handle this hostility?

We have to remember to be loving and humble. We speak the truth, but we don’t get argumentative. We continue to show the person we love them and speak gently. If we don’t know how to answer a question, we have the humility to admit we’re not sure how to answer but will think about their question and get back to them. We don’t need to have all the answers on the spot; we just need to faithfully point to the One who does have the answers.

In Luke 11, I skipped commenting on some passages (verses 34-36, 47-48) because I admit I have no clear idea of what Jesus is teaching in those parts. I want to understand what He’s teaching, but if I don’t know right now, I’m okay admitting I don’t know. I understand enough of what Jesus does teach to accept His word as true without having to understand all of it.