The Kingdom’s Action Plan – Part VI
Key Verse: Luke 11:28
He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”
Additional Reading: Luke 11:24-28
This is rather an unusual incident in the life and teachings of Jesus. Jesus was teaching a crowd of people and explaining how demons will come back into a person with greater force than they had before they left if that person doesn’t fill their hearts by faith in Jesus.
As Jesus was speaking all this, a woman called out, “God bless your mother – the womb from which you came and the breast that nursed you” (Luke 11:27).
That kind of interruption can throw a speaker off his train of thought. For example, I was preaching one Sunday, and from the balcony, a young man yelled out a scripture that he wanted me to read! That kind of outburst was not a norm in our church, and it did throw me off for a moment or two. I decided the best way to handle it was to read the scripture he yelled out. He yelled another thing, and at that point, I said jokingly: “now you’ve crossed the line”. Everybody in the service laughed, and we moved on.
But Jesus wasn’t thrown off track by the interruption. He took those moments to highlight more of the Kingdom’s Action Plan: “He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.” (Luke 11:28). In other words, even more blessed than the blessing of being Jesus’s mother is the blessing of being Jesus’ brothers and sisters. Remember, Jesus said “Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.” (Mark 3:35 NLT). What a powerful word picture Jesus is painting for us who believe in Him and obey His teachings.
Jesus’ words deserve careful attention. He said to that woman who interrupted his teaching that day that the bigger blessing is upon the person that first hears the word of God. Every word that Jesus spoke was a word from God Himself, because Jesus was God, and the second person of the Triune God!
That crowd was more blessed than they could imagine by sitting before God Himself and listening to His words about the New Covenant of His Kingdom. As far as they knew, no one else would ever benefit from that day’s teaching.
But Jesus knew that there was a plan to write everything down so that future generations could read and know that they would need Him for their salvation. The development of the Bible, as we have it now, probably seemed slow to many of our forefathers. It probably seems like, at times, the Bible was never going to survive. But down through the ages, God protected His Word and according to Guinness World Records, as of 1995, the Bible is the best-selling book of all time with an estimated 5 billion copies sold and distributed. (Wikipedia).
Father, please help me to fill my mind with Your Words by reading and studying the Bible on a regular basis. I ask this in Jesus’s Name, amen.