Blessed Are Those Who Hear and Keep It

In one paragraph

The pastor worked through the back half of Luke 11, tracing Jesus' sharp confrontation with the Pharisees and lawyers who had rejected what was right in front of them. He wove in a brief but careful look at a Greek word that changes how we hear Jesus respond to a woman in the crowd, and he closed by turning the Pharisees' failures into a mirror for the congregation. Before picking up where he left...

Read together

1. Luke 11 primary text for the sermon, covering the Lord's prayer, persistence in prayer, casting out a demon, the sign of Jonah, the lamp of the body, and the six woes against the Pharisees and lawyers
2. Luke 11:27-28 woman in the crowd blesses the womb that carried Jesus, and Jesus responds that blessed are those who hear the word of God and follow it
3. Colossians 3 contrasting list of things to put off and put on as Christ followers, referenced from the previous week's sermon
4. Luke 11:29-32 Jesus calls the generation wicked for demanding a sign and says no sign will be given except the sign of Jonah, referencing the queen of the South and the men of Nineveh
5. Luke 11:33-36 the lamp of the body, the eye as the lens, and the danger of inner darkness
6. Luke 11:37-54 Jesus dines with a Pharisee and delivers six woes against the Pharisees and lawyers
7. Colossians 3:12 used as the benediction, clothing yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness and love

Talk about it

1. The pastor spent time on the Greek word for 'keep' or 'follow' in verse 28, comparing it to a shepherd guarding sheep through the night. What does it look like in your own life to guard or keep the word of God the way a shepherd watches over a flock, rather than just hearing it and moving on?
2. Jesus told the crowd that the queen of Sheba traveled from the ends of the earth to hear Solomon, and the Ninevites repented at the preaching of Jonah, and yet both groups would condemn his generation at judgment. What does it say about us when people with far less access to the truth respond to it more seriously than those who have it right in front of them?
3. The pastor listed six woes and boiled each one down to a word: hypocrisy, ostentation, impossible demands, intolerance, killing the prophets, and taking away the key of knowledge. Which of those six do you think is the easiest trap for people inside the church today, and why?
4. The pastor mentioned that when he brought up praying for the Muslim world, some people might feel an inner resistance like Jonah, thinking they do not deserve our prayers. Have you ever caught yourself feeling that way about a particular person or group? What did you do with that feeling?
5. At the close of the sermon, the pastor said he does not get to be Jesus in this story or even a disciple, that the danger for someone in the pulpit is being the expert in the law, and the danger in the pew is being the Pharisee. Do you agree with that? Where do you tend to find yourself in this passage?