Pastor Scott Andrews | October 5, 2025
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Luke 11:45-54
I have to tell you, when we began Luke 11, I had no idea we would be in it this long, nor did I know where it would take us. Sure, I had read the chapter, but as we’ve traveled through it, we’ve been taken on an unexpected journey, from extreme highs to extreme lows. What do I mean? Well, this is my eleventh sermon in Luke 11. The first four were great because they were on the Lord’s Prayer – good stuff. Then in the fifth sermon Jesus gave us assurance, promising His Father would hear and answer our prayers according to His always good purposes.
But then, we got to verses 14 and following, and the last 6 sermons. Wow. Most of you know I don’t preach to tickle ears – we just take passages as they come. But did we have to start Luke 11:14 on August 17, when the students were just returning? And continue for six very challenging weeks? After the second week of these six sermons, a student waited patiently to speak with me. She began by asking, do you always preach this way? I asked, what do you mean? She said, you were so harsh – you should be like Jesus, who was loving and kind, accepting everyone. To which I replied, um, these were Jesus’ words – I was preaching what Jesus said. To which she responded, well, you’re not Jesus.
Despite the inconsistency of her counsel, I get it. Jesus was humble, loving, self-sacrificing. He left heaven’s home and divested Himself of the glorious display of His divine attributes. He took on human flesh and lived in a broken world. He was loving, kind, gentle, lowly, gracious, caring, giving – ultimately giving His life for the sins of undeserving people.
But, He didn’t accept everyone. He was willing to, but it would require a change, repentance – a denial of self-sufficiency. One commentator writes, “The conclusion of Luke 11 may appear offensive to those who hold a stereotype of ‘gentle Jesus, meek and mild.’” He goes on, “Such a profile poses a challenge for an age, like ours, that equates Christianity with ‘niceness’ and ‘tolerance.’”
Jesus confronted many, dare I say all in this world of sinful brokenness. And sometimes that brokenness appears as ugly arrogance. So, He reserved His harshest condemnation, His most sustained, scathing denunciations for the proud, self-righteous, religious elite. In short, those who didn’t think they needed Him. And so, this has been a series of six very difficult sermons – based on the very words of Jesus as He condemned the religious who sought to censor Him – cancel Him – and who would eventually succeed in killing Him.
Look where we’ve been. In verses 14-20, after casting out a demon, the religious elite accused Him of performing miracles under the power of Beelzebul, Satan himself. Jesus denounced them – a house divided against itself will not stand, but if I cast out demons by the finger of God, then you know the kingdom has come. From there, it gets stronger. It’s as if Jesus has had enough.
In verses 21-26, Jesus talked about the fruitless efforts of self-reformation. You can even be exorcised of demonic control, you can try to clean up your act, but in the end, such Pharisaical efforts will not work. We don’t need reformation, we need transformation. We need to be made new – we need the gospel to transform us from being spiritually dead people to spiritually alive people, with a new Master.
In verses 27-32, Jesus called out the crowds for demanding a sign from heaven. What do you think I’ve been doing? No other sign will be given except the sign of Jonah – as he was in the belly of the fish for three days, so also the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth for three days. And further, the wicked men of Ninevah who repented at the preaching of Jonah will rise up and condemn this generation for their unbelief – and someone greater than Jonah is here. So also, the Queen of the South will rise up and condemn this generation because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and someone greater than Solomon is here. And you have listened to neither Jonah nor the queen – nor the One who is greater.
In verses 33-36, He pointed out they had been shown great, undeniable evidence already, if they would only see it, receive it and believe it. The eye is the lamp of the body – if the eye is good, it will let in the light of truth. If it is bad, evil – it will keep it out. And you will remain in darkness. You have the evidence – open your eyes to see.
In verses 37-44, we found Jesus, having finished these difficult sayings was invited to the house of a Pharisee for lunch. There were apparently others there – but the Pharisee host was shocked Jesus did not follow the traditions of the elders by ceremoniously washing up for the meal. So Jesus, knowing his thoughts, launched into some very challenging, even scathing words. You Pharisees, you clean the outside of the cup, but inside is full of robbery and wickedness.
Then Jesus went on to pronounce three devastating woes against the Pharisees which peeled off the veneer of their self-righteous religiosity. Woe to you Pharisees – you pay tithes on seeds, but disregard justice toward your neighbors and loving God. In other words, you major on the minors, and ignore the majors.
Woe to you Pharisees, for you love the chief seats in the synagogues and respectful greetings in market places. In other words, you are completely self-absorbed – like it’s all about you. Third, woe to you Pharisees, you are like concealed tombs over which people unknowingly walk. In other words, you are both dead yourselves and dangerous to those around you – who come close to you. They become unclean by their proximity, because you only share words of death.
That was challenging. But Jesus isn’t finished with His denunciations, which brings us to our text today, sermon number 11 as we finally finish Luke 11. Read it with me – Luke 11:45-54.
Did you catch what happened there? Jesus is at lunch with not only the Pharisee, but apparently others, to include these lawyers. And when Jesus condemned the Pharisees with these three woes, a lawyer said, hey Jesus, when You say that, You insult us too. To which Jesus said, oh, I didn’t realize. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be so harsh. No. The lawyer said, hey, when You insult the Pharisees, You insult us too, to which Jesus said, Woe to you, too! You’re just as bad in your prideful, self-righteous religious pursuits. He gave the Pharisees three woes and now follows with three woes to the lawyers.
No, this is not fun. These are hard and difficult words. What is the message for us? Simply this: to remember who we were when God’s grace came into our lives and transformed us into His children. We didn’t to it – He did. We are undeserving recipients of His attention, and it should humble us – not make us proud and condescending. We should not be like these.
Now, who were the lawyers? They were often, but not always, from the sect of the Pharisees. They are called scribes, teachers of the Law, elsewhere and they were considered the professional class of the day. Remember, most of the Pharisees were laymen – but not all. The lawyers were professionally trained – they were the ones who deserved the title, Rabbi. You see, they were experts in the Mosaic Law, and the traditions handed down by the elders. If anyone knew both what the Law said and how to obey the Law, it was them. Which means, with such incredible understanding of the Law of God in the Word of God, they should have been the ones leading the people to the truth of God and the Messiah of God. They did the opposite. I’m going to finish with that thought – may we not be people who turn others away from the gospel by our lifestyles.
You see, they were supposed experts in the Law, but missed the truth the Law was never given to justify anyone – because no one could keep the Law. I’ve said this before, but all these attempts to post the Ten Commandments in courtrooms and classrooms across the country are ultimately self-defeating, because the Law cannot save anyone. All it does is condemn. I’m not against it – but when your third grader reads it, it doesn’t make him better – it just condemns him. That was its purpose – to remind him he needs Jesus. So when you post the law, post the gospel right next to it – since it’s the singular solution for lawbreakers. Romans 8:3 says, “For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh.”
Understand, in addition to receiving the Law, the nation of Israel also received the sacrificial system. That’s what Exodus and Leviticus are all about. Yes, Exodus recounts the story of Israel’s deliverance from slavery in Egypt. But as they arrived at Mt. Sinai, they received the Law – written by the finger of God on tablets of stone – summarized by the decalogue – the Ten Commandments. Then still in Exodus, they received the instructions for building the Tabernacle – which was both the place they would meet with God and hear His law – but also the place where they would offer sacrifices. Why sacrifices? For worship, yes, but also for atonement, when they broke the Law, because they would. And the book of Leviticus is all about those sacrifices. You read through Leviticus and get bogged down – there’s so much blood. Yep.
Of course, we know that the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin. The sacrifices were simply types – pointing to Christ, whose one sacrifice would deal with sin forever. (Annual Day of Atonement) All that to say, the purpose of the Law was never to take away sin. Why, because the Law was weak? Inept? No, because of the weakness of sinful flesh and our inability to keep the law. So, what was the purpose of the Law? To expose sin, in fact to promote sin, and break sinners, and drive us to Christ, who is our only hope. The Law was our tutor, our schoolmaster, to highlight our need of grace from Jesus alone.
Oh, but the Pharisaical system as expounded by the lawyers, the scribes, the rabbis – well, they said, not only do we know the Law, we know how keep the Law, and we do. To be clear, they didn’t. They simply made up all kinds of traditions and rules they followed – that gave them a sense of superiority in keeping the rules they made up. But so onerous were those rules – no one could possibly know and keep them all – except them.
And Jesus showed up and demonstrated how wrong they were. Not only did they not keep the Law, because they couldn’t, but they had an entire, extra-biblical system that weighed down the people. Jesus consistently took them to task, to include these three woes against the lawyers – which finally form our outline:
I. First Woe – You Weigh People Down (45-46)
II. Second Woe – You Oppose God’s Prophets (47-51)
III. Third Woe – You Fail to Enter the Kingdom (and prevent others from entering) (52)
IV. Postscript – Continued Opposition (53-54)
First, woe to you lawyers, for you weigh men down with your burdens hard to bear, while you yourselves will not even touch the burdens with one of your fingers. You won’t even brush it with a finger, is the idea. This was their core problem. Theirs was a system of self-righteous legalism. We’ve talked about it many times. The Pharisees had taken the 613 laws of the Mosaic Law and had added volumes of traditions and rules and regulations on how to keep those laws. If you want to be accepted by God, keep the rules. Instead of driving you to Christ, their system drove you to external, self-righteous performance. We talked about their elaborate system: Rules for washing your hands. There were volumes written on the Sabbath alone. Remember the Sabbath, to keep it holy. How do we do that? No problem, we got you covered.
If you had to move a chair across the room on the Sabbath, you were in big trouble. You couldn’t carry it, that would be working, you couldn’t drag it – you might draw a line in the dirt, and that would be plowing. Picking grain to eat was defined as reaping. They dealt with such Sabbath questions as:
- Can a man lift his child on the Sabbath?
- Can a man lift his child if the child has a stone in his hand?
- Can I scrape crumbs from the table on the Sabbath? If so, how many?
- Can I shut a window on the Sabbath? What if the window has shutters?
- Can I tie a knot on the Sabbath? What kind of knot?
- Can a wounded man be treated on the Sabbath?
- How many letters can I write on the Sabbath?
- How far can I walk on the Sabbath? A Sabbath Day’s journey.
By the way, one of my commentaries points out, regarding carrying something on the Sabbath, you could not carry something in your left or your right hand, in your bosom or on your shoulder. But, you could carry it on the back of your hand, or with your foot, or with your elbow, or in your mouth, or in your ear or in your hair, or in the hem of your shirt, or in your shoe or sandal.
It was ridiculous, and it tied terrible loads on the people. Everything was a matter of keeping the rules just right, and there were thousands of rules. In fact, some suggested what the lawyers said about the Law was more important than Scripture itself. Think about that – they added and elevated their fallible regulations to the infallible Word of God. As a result, people began obeying the rules of men rather than the laws of God – which they believed would bring salvation. The truth is, they were unable to keep God’s law, nor the additions to the law.
Terrible burdens on people. In Matthew, the picture Jesus paints is of a beast of burden being overloaded. Often, the donkey or camel would be so loaded down, you could hardly see it. The master would walk alongside, carrying nothing but a switch, and if the donkey stumbled, he’d get a swat. That’s what the Pharisaical system did – they did nothing but load people down – and these so-called spiritual leaders didn’t so much as lift a finger to remove the load, or help them carry the load – all they did was beat the sheep. Here, the word burden is used to speak of a ship’s cargo – there you go, carry that.
Listen, if you’ve checked out because of all this nonsense, check back in a moment. God loves you not because of all you do, but because of what Jesus has done. You don’t do stuff to get God to notice you, to like you. You do stuff because He already does love you, and our obedience is a response of grace.
Think about it. People already carry the weight of sin and guilt – it’s a heavy load to bear. Along comes the legalist and says, this is what you need to do to please God – these are the actions you need to perform; these are the hoops you need to jump through; these are the good deeds you need to carry. You see, the truth is, legalism says, let me increase your load.
I want you to hear some good news. Jesus comes along and says, there’s a better way. Are you tired of carrying the load? Are you tired of trying to do it all by yourself? Then come to Me, all you who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Let Me take the load of your sin and carry it for you. Let me do all that is necessary for you to be redeemed. That’s good news.
Churches, those in spiritual authority must be careful not to add legalistic burdens to God’s people. As one writes, “Above all, we must not present the Christian faith as a law to keep rather than a gospel to believe. The obedience we offer is not some desperate attempt to gain God’s favor, but a grateful response to the salvation he has provided through the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ.” (Philip Ryken)
Second, woe to you, for you build the tombs of the prophets, and it was your fathers who killed them. So you are witnesses and approve the deeds of your fathers. How? Because they killed them, and you build their tombs. Most agree Jesus is saying, you completed the job. One wrote, “They killed the prophets, you made sure they were dead.” To this day, you can walk down the Kidron Valley and see many such ornate tombs. But, how were they just as guilty as their ancestors who killed the prophets? In the same way. Their ancestors rejected the truth of the prophets much like the people of Jesus’ day rejected Him. Don’t miss it – Luke 24 will tell us all the Scripture – all the prophets pointed to Him. And they killed the prophets, and will kill Jesus.
For this reason, the wisdom of God, contained in the OT, said, “I will send to them prophets and apostles and some of them they will kill and some they will persecute.” And that’s exactly what they did and continued to do, evidenced by building tombs and continued opposition to God’s prophets and even the apostles to come. So, all the blood of the prophets shed since the foundation of the world will be charged to this generation. Remember, Jesus had said the men of Ninevah who had repented at the preaching of Jonah, the Queen of the South who had traveled to hear the wisdom of Solomon would together rise to condemn this generations. Now, Jesus adds to their number – every prophet and every apostle who comes with the word of God, the message of God, who were killed and are killed will also rise up against this generation who denied, opposed and eventually killed Jesus. Hard words, that still apply today. Oppose Jesus, oppose His followers, and judgment is coming.
All the blood of His prophets shed since the foundation of the world will be charged to their account. From Abel, who was the first murdered in Genesis 4 by his brother Cain for his commitment to truth of God; to Zechariah, either referring to the last one killed in the last book of the Hebrew OT – II Chronicles 24 – who was killed between the altar and the Temple; or the writer of Zechariah whose death is not recorded lest it be here – all of them will be charged to the account of these opposing Jesus.
Third woe, woe you lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge; you yourselves did not enter, and you hindered those who were entering. This is a most serious charge. In Matthew 23, Jesus said it this way, which helps understand what He said here, “Wot to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people; for you do not enter in yourselves, not do you allow those who are entering to go in.”
The key of knowledge is the truth of all we’ve been talking about: the law, its purpose, and the hope of the gospel found only in Jesus Christ. To shut off carries with it the idea of shutting a door tightly and locking it. Through His entire ministry, from the beginning, Jesus had declared to the people the kingdom of heaven was at hand – it was present, it was available – it was there for the taking. Jesus was the way, the truth, the life. He was the door to the sheepfold. Along came the Pharisees, and they denied Him. They denied His messiahship. They stood between Him and the people saying, He is not the way – He is not the Messiah – don’t listen to Him.
Understand, this is what His followers do – they make the kingdom available to people – they don’t make it unattainable. They declare it like Jesus did – the kingdom belongs to broken, mourning, gentle, hungry, thirsty people. Meaning, there is nothing you can do to earn it – you simply have to realize your own spiritual destitution, your own poverty, and hunger and thirst for a righteousness you cannot produce – because theirs, Jesus says, and theirs alone is the kingdom.
He spent His entire ministry making His kingdom available to the broken people of society. And the lawyers and Pharisees spent their entire lives shutting those same people out. The picture is this – they stood at the door and prevented people from coming in. You don’t have what it takes, you can’t enter here. By their insistence on external performance, they were driving people away from God rather than inviting them to Him.
But notice something very important – these self-professed caretakers of the kingdom had not even entered themselves. The complete picture is this – while they were standing at the door as guardians, keeping people from Jesus, from the kingdom, they didn’t realize they were standing outside the door of the kingdom. They had not entered, nor would they.
They were the spiritual leaders. They were the ones supposed to have the spiritual answers – they were to act as guides, showing people how to get to God. They were supposed to stand at the entrance to heaven, pointing others to the way. But they themselves didn’t know the way, and they pointed people away from the door, in the wrong direction. Is it any wonder Jesus says, woe to you, lawyers. Can you imagine the condemnation they’ll receive at the judgment?
The postscript in the last couple of verses of the chapters is the same. Can you imagine the fury of the Pharisees and lawyers as Jesus left lunch that day? They began to be very hostile – questioning Him, plotting against Him to destroy Him. And the shadow of the cross continues to rise. There is an interesting thought to be gained here. Sometimes, loving people is not to tell them what they want to hear, but to tell them the truth they don’t want to hear.
Nothing is more damaging to the work of God than false believers. People who wear the phony, superficial religious garb, who even know the religious talk, but don’t live it. Lots of external piety, but no internal reality. People who talk the talk, but don’t walk the walk. How many people have you known who want nothing to do with Christianity because of Christians? Even the French atheist Voltaire said, “Show me your redeemed life, then I’ll believe in your Redeemer.”
Untold damage has been done to the cause of Christ because of people who name the name of Christ, but don’t live the life of Christ. And that damage is multiplied when the hypocrisy comes from so-called spiritual leaders. If you have been in the church over the past 25 years or so, you know many Christian leaders have fallen, whose names and actions have been splattered all over the media. Stories of immorality, financial irresponsibility. No integrity.
I’ll never forget the time in Bible college when I was sharing Christ with a waiter named Joe. Joe was a college student, and after listening to what I had to say, he asked me this: Isn’t Jeff a Christian? Jeff was another waiter who went to another Christian college in town. I said yes, to which Joe responded – Jeff’s no different than us, why do I need to change? And he turned and walked away. I didn’t make any of that up for effect – I didn’t even change their names – and those were his exact words. Jeff had the key, and shut off the kingdom to Joe.