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Luke 11:1

And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.

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And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.

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Give us day by day our daily bread.

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And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.

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And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves;

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For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him?

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And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble ° me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot ° rise and give thee.

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I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth.

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And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

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For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

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If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him ° a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him ° a serpent?

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Or ° if he shall ask an egg, will he offer ° him a scorpion?

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If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father ° give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

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And he was casting out a devil, and it was dumb. And it came to pass, when the devil was gone out, the dumb spake; and the people wondered.

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But some of them said, He casteth out devils through Beelzebub the chief of the devils.

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And others, tempting him, sought of him a sign from heaven.

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But he, knowing their thoughts, said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and a house divided against a house falleth.

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If ° Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? because ye say that I cast out devils through Beelzebub.

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And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out? therefore shall they be your judges.

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But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you.

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When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace:

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But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils.

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He that is not with me is against me: and he that gathereth not with me scattereth.

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When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out.

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And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished.

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Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first.

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And it came to pass, as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked.

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But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.

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And when the people were gathered thick together, he began to say, This is an evil generation: they seek a sign; and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet.

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For as Jonas was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of man be to this generation.

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The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation, and condemn them: for she came from the utmost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.

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The men of Nineve shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.

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No man, when he hath lighted a candle, putteth it in a secret place, neither under a bushel, but on a candlestick, that they which come in may see the light.

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The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness.

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Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness.

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If thy whole body therefore be full of light, having no ° part dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee light.

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And as he spake, a certain Pharisee besought him to dine with him: and he went in, and sat down to meat.

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And when the Pharisee saw it, he marvelled that he had not first washed before dinner.

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And the Lord said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness.

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Ye fools, did not he that made that which is without make that which is within also?

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But rather give alms of such things as ye have; and, behold, all things are clean unto you.

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But woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass over judgment and the love of God: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.

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Woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye love the uppermost seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets.

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Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are as graves which appear not, and the men that walk over them are not aware of them.

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Then answered one of the lawyers, and said unto him, Master, thus saying thou reproachest us also.

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And he said, Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers.

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Woe unto you! for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and your fathers killed them.

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Truly ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers: for they indeed killed them, and ye build their sepulchres.

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Therefore ° also said the wisdom of God, I will send ° them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute:

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That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation;

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From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation.

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Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered.

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And as he said these things unto them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to urge him vehemently, and to provoke him to speak of many things:

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Laying wait for him, and seeking to catch something out of his mouth, that they might accuse him.

Luke 11:1

11:1 teach us to pray. In addition to the model prayer cited here, Jesus taught many other truths about how we should pray. Prayer should be: (1) believing prayer (Matthew 21:22); (2) watchful prayer (Matthew 26:41); (3) persistent prayer (Luke 18:1); (4) Christ-centered prayer (John 14:14); (5) Bible-centered prayer (John 15:7); (6) compassionate prayer (Matthew 9:38); (7) submissive prayer (Luke 22:42); (8) meaningful prayer (Matthew 6:7).

Luke 11:2

11:2 When ye pray, say. This model prayer is somewhat different from that in Matthew 6:9-13, especially in its omission of the final ascription, “For thine is the kingdom….” Evidently they were given on two different occasions, one as a component of the Sermon on the Mount, the other directly in answer to a specific question by one of His disciples (Luke 11:1). Possibly the prayer was shortened on the latter occasion because, by this time, He had adequately reminded the disciples of the model prayer previously given.

Luke 11:12

11:12 ask an egg. This is the only reference to eggs in the New Testament. By implication, however, even this one statement by Christ would indicate there is nothing intrinsically wrong in the eating of eggs.

Luke 11:13

11:13 give the Holy Spirit. Under the old covenant and the Mosaic economy (or “dispensation”—same word in the Greek), the Holy Spirit only came on specific individuals for specific missions. God had promised, however, that the day would come when “I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh” (Joel 2:28). The period while Christ was on earth was a transition time in which a group of people was being prepared for this outpouring. John the Baptist, for example, had been “filled with the Holy Ghost” throughout his short life (Luke 1:15), and now Christ was promising the Holy Spirit to all who would sincerely ask for Him. Soon, of course, the day of Pentecost would come (Acts 2:1) and all the disciples would be “filled with the Holy Ghost” (Acts 2:4). In the Christian economy now, the body of every believer is a “temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God” (I Corinthians 6:19).

Luke 11:18

11:18 through Beelzebub. See note on Mark 3:22.

Luke 11:24

11:24 return unto my house. Casting out evil spirits is of no value unless the Holy Spirit comes in. By extension, any kind of moral reformation is tentative at best unless it is the product of spiritual regeneration through Christ. Note also II Peter 2:20-22.

Luke 11:28

11:28 Yea rather. Jesus did not deny that “blessed is the womb that bare thee” (Luke 11:27), for indeed the angel Gabriel had said to her: “Blessed art thou among women” (Luke 1:28), and Elizabeth had echoed that blessing (Luke 1:42). The Lord Jesus honored and cared for His mother, but He could not encourage the incipient tendency to worship her that was evident in the exclamation of the woman in the company. More blessed are they who believe and obey the Word of God: that was the message He would convey. The real blessedness, even of His mother, was that she did “hear the word of God, and keep it.”

Luke 11:30

11:30 Jonas was a sign. Christ here and in Luke 11:32 confirms the historicity of the story of Jonah and the conversion of the wicked citizens of Nineveh.

Luke 11:49

11:49 wisdom of God. “The wisdom of God” is here used as a synonym for “the Scriptures,” which is surely the source of the true wisdom in all matters it addresses. The passage paraphrased is II Chronicles 36:15-16. It may be also that Jesus is here actually calling Himself “the wisdom of God,” thus asserting His right to paraphrase or expand on Scripture as He will.

Luke 11:50

11:50 foundation of the world. It is important to note that the blood of God’s prophets (beginning with Abel) has been shed “from the foundation of the world,” not beginning four billion years after the foundation of the world. This is an incidental, yet striking, confirmation that the world was created from start to finish in six literal days. See also Mark 10:6, etc.

Luke 11:51

11:51 blood of Abel. Abel, son of Adam, was thus the first prophet—that is, a man who supernaturally receives and then proclaims inspired words from God. Evidently, Abel was speaking God’s words to Cain, when the latter slew him in jealous wrath. The Zacharias mentioned is probably “Zechariah the son of Jehoida the priest,” who was stoned when he prophesied against the people under King Joash (II Chronicles 24:20-24). Thus the period encompassed by the Lord’s statement was the entire Old Testament period, since this Zechariah is the last prophet mentioned as having been executed for his testimony before John the Baptist. There may have been others (in Matthew 23:35, Jesus called Zacharias the son of Barachias, rather than Jehoida) but, if so, their martyrdoms have not been reported in the Old Testament. Barachias is not mentioned elsewhere in Scripture. It is possible that either Barachias or Jehoida could have been Zechariah’s father, the other being the grandfather.

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