BLESSED … YET MORE BLESSED STILL
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on November 11, 2020 under AM Bible Study |
AM Bible Study Group: November 11, 2020 from Luke 11:27-28
Theme: With Jesus, the greatest blessedness comes not through a unique experience, but rather through hearing and keeping God’s word.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
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As we make our way through the Gospel of Luke, we find a unique story. It’s a story told to us, in fact, only in Luke’s Gospel.
Jesus had cast a demon out of a man. The demon had made the man mute; and when He cast the demon out, the man was healed and spoke. Some of those who saw it marveled. But some others didn’t believe—and even accused Jesus of casting out a demon by the power of Satan. This became an opportunity for the Lord to teach the crowd some truths about the spiritual realms—and about the importance of believing on Him.
And in Luke 11:27-28, we’re told;
And it happened, as He spoke these things, that a certain woman from the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, “Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts which nursed You!” But He said, “More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” (Luke 11:27-28).
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Now; if you come from a Protestant background—as I do—then it might be that, at first, the words of this woman make you a little uncomfortable. You might think, “She’s not exalting Mary over our Lord, is she?” You might even be tempted to think that this passage is a warning against a kind of Mariology—that is, against placing the mother of our Lord in a position of being worshiped or prayed to, or trusted as a co-redeemer with Jesus.
There have been some erroneous and harmful doctrines and traditions that have formed around Mary over the centuries. And of course, we would want to make it very clear that Mary is—in no way—to be worshiped or to be prayed to or to be trusted, in any respect, for our redemption. Our salvation is by faith in the cross of Jesus alone. Mary herself was a fallen human being who was saved by grace through faith in Jesus’ sacrifice. But it’s important to remember that none of those doctrines about Mary were in existence at the time that this story was first told to us, and none of them really have anything to do with the passage before us.
What this unknown woman said in this morning’s passage was true. She said—speaking to Jesus—“Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts which nursed You!” These were figures of speech that spoke of the unique blessedness of our Lord’s mother. And indeed, she was blessed! Do you remember what the angel Gabriel said to her—at the beginning of Luke’s Gospel—when he came to her and made the announcement that she would bear the Christ? He said,
“Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!” (Luke 1:28).
In fact, the angel wasn’t the only one who said this. When Mary ran to meet her relative Elizabeth—who was, at that time, bearing John the Baptist in her womb—Elizabeth was then filled with the Holy Spirit and loudly greeted Mary with these words;
“Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord” (Luke 1:42-45).
And the angel and Elizabeth weren’t the only ones who said this. Even Mary herself expressed this truth—under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit—in what we often refer to as her ‘Magnificat’. After hearing all this, Mary—in humble worship—declared;
“My soul magnifies the Lord,
And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.
For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant;
For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed (Luke 1:46-48);
The mother of our Lord, and the mother of John the Baptist, and the angel were all united in this testimony of ‘blessedness’. And so, let’s add this woman’s testimony to that of the others. Perhaps as someone who was a mother herself, she heard Jesus’ gracious words that came from this Teacher, and saw His power and authority over the spiritual realms, and was overwhelmed with how wonderful it was that He was born into the world. What she said was absolutely true: “Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts which nursed You!” If only more of us said the same thing!—and in the spirit in which she spoke it!
And what’s more, what she said was also brave. Right at that time, she was in a crowd that had—mixed into it—those who were blaspheming our Lord; and who were also being rebuked strongly by His words. Some were blaspheming Him—declaring that He did His miracles in the power of Satan. Some were testing Him in order to trap Him—demanding that He prove Himself to their satisfaction with miracles that they wanted to see. Jesus responded to these unbelievers by warning them that it was not He but they who were under the influence of the devil. He warned them that if they didn’t repent of their unbelief and receive Him as they should, they were in danger of being occupied by several demons—and their situation would be worse than before. You can be sure that the tensions were very high, and angry words were being spoken. And yet—in the midst of all this—this reverent woman spoke up and declared a blessing regarding Him. We’re told that she even did so with a loud voice. What bravery of conviction this would have required!
And more still, it was—as far as she could understand at that time—a completely appropriate expression of worship of Him. She had been listening to Him teach. She heard how He answered those who were bringing accusations against Him. She marveled at His words. She was overcome by His power and authority. And in a way that was the best that she knew—as only a woman could fully understand and appreciate—she declared the blessedness of the fact that He had been born into the world.
She was a brave woman. She was a reverent woman. She declared our Lord’s greatness in a way that truly honored the woman that was His mother. She declared, “Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts which nursed You!”
I don’t think that we should diminish the truth of her words. I don’t think we should think of them as untrue or mistaken. And I especially believe we should not import a theological meaning to them that would have only made sense many centuries later in church history. We should respect what she said as something honorable.
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But that leads us to a question. Why did Jesus give the response that He gave?
If you’ll look at His first words to her, you see that He said—in the translation that I’m using—“More than that …” In the King James Version, it’s “Yea, rather …” This is from one Greek word in the original language; and it carries the idea that the statement that the woman uttered was correct as far as it went. It recognizes the truth of what she affirmed. But it indicated that more needed to be added. It would be as if Jesus heard this woman utter this loud, bold, honorable cry from the crowd; and turned to her and said, “That’s very true. Blessed indeed is the woman who gave Me birth. Blessed indeed is the woman who nursed Me. Blessed is she, in fact, above all women. That is a blessing that is her privilege alone. But let me tell you something that is even greater. Even more blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it! And that is a blessedness that is available to all.”
This passage, then, teaches us something very important in our faith in Jesus. It’s true that some have had remarkable experiences and privileges in the providence of God in this world. Mary truly was one of them. We should take it as fact that she was the most blessed among women; because it was her unique privilege to be with child by the Holy Spirit; and—as a virgin—to bear in her womb the Redeemer of mankind. She was the only one for whom that could be true. She was the fulfillment of the promise made long ago to Adam and Eve in the garden, after they fell in sin; that the Seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent. It was Mary’s privilege to bear—as it says in Daniel 11:37—“the desire of women”; because she, above all women, was the one chosen to bear the promised Christ in whom all the families of the earth would be blessed. It was from the substance of her own body that our Lord’s earthly body was made. She held Him, and nursed Him, and sang songs to Him, and raised Him, and nurtured Him. In terms of human flesh, she had the closest relationship to the humanity of our Lord that anyone could ever have. But as blessed as she was, ultimate blessedness in the sight of our Lord Jesus doesn’t lie in having a unique experience that none of the rest of us could ever have. True, ultimate blessedness lies in faithfully hearing and obeying God’s word.
Jesus said, “blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” Right then, the people in that crowd—in the presence of the Son of God in human flesh—were hearing the word of God from His very lips. But this greater blessedness didn’t come just from hearing, but also from doing. They needed to keep His words.
Now; is this true? Let’s see how this is confirmed in other things that Jesus said. Look back to Luke 6 and see what our Lord taught. In verses 46-49—as He was preaching in His wonderful ‘Sermon on The Plain’—He said;
“But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say? Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like: He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock. But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great” (Luke 6:46-49).
Only those who not only heard but also kept His words remained unshaken. Or look at Luke 8. In ‘The Parable of the Soils’, He told of how the different seeds fell on different types of soil. Only one soil produced fruit. He explained;
But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience (Luke 8:15).
Only those who hear God’s word in such a way as to keep it will bear fruit. Only they are the truly blessed ones. In fact, there was a time when crowds were listening to the word of God from Jesus—and His mother came to Him in such a way as to interrupt His teaching. Luke tells us in 8:19-21;
Then His mother and brothers came to Him, and could not approach Him because of the crowd. And it was told Him by some, who said, “Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, desiring to see You.” But He answered and said to them, “My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it” (Luke 8:19-21).
Our Lord loved His mother. He honored her in ways that were greater than any of the sons of humanity ever honored their mothers. But He gave a higher devotion to those who hear and obey God’s word than even to her.
And this means that you and I, dear brother or sister, can have a position of greater blessedness with the Lord Jesus than even Mary had as the one who bore Him—she who was blessed of all women. It’s if we will hear, and heed, and obey God’s word. “More than that,”, Jesus said—that is, more than the blessedness of even that unique blessing of Mary—“blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”
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Now; the Book of Acts tells us that Mary was among those who had believed on Jesus and were His disciples. Mary heard and kept the word of God. And in that sense, she was doubly blessed. She was blessed uniquely as the mother of our Lord; but more, she was blessed in an even greater way—that is, in the way that you and I can be even more blessed today—by hearing, and believing, and obeying God’s word.
As this passage shows us, the greatest possible blessedness with our Lord doesn’t come through having a privileged position that no one else can have, or by having a unique experience that no one else can experience. It comes in a way that is available to any fallen sinner who truly hears the word of God as it points to the crucified Lord Jesus—and who then responds in obedient faith by placing their trust in who the word of God says that He is, and by doing as He commands.
It’s absolutely true; ‘Blessed is the womb that bore Him, and the breasts which nursed Him’. But far more than even that, ‘blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!’ As it says in Psalm 1;
Blessed is the man
Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
Nor stands in the path of sinners,
Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night.He shall be like a tree
Planted by the rivers of water,
That brings forth its fruit in its season,
Whose leaf also shall not wither;
And whatever he does shall prosper (Psalm 1:1-3).
EA
