Immanuel Sermon Audio
Luke 12:49-59
Take your Bible and find the Gospel of Luke chapter 12. We're going to look at the last few verses in Luke chapter 12. While you turn there, while you get your bulletin out, I'll share with you that in the next couple of weeks, two Sundays from this morning, we're going to begin a new series, it's just going to be four weeks, it's going to be called "Grow Up." Is that subtle enough? Grow up striving for maturity in Christ. And we're just going to spend a couple of weeks talking about a few things that the New Testament has to say about maturing as followers of Jesus, about not being content to be infants or children in our faith. And so we're going to talk about that for four weeks. But this morning we're in Luke, and this morning the passage that we are looking at in Luke is a great reminder of why we normally, what we normally do on Sunday mornings is pick a book of the Bible and trudge through it. Every now and then we throw a series in and we talk about different things. But that's not our typical Sunday morning practice. We typically just dig through a book and we're in the Gospel of Luke. The reason that's important is because the verses we're looking at this morning would never be preached if we weren't going through a book. I got asked to speak. This was actually why we still lived in Oklahoma at a children's camp at Falls Creek. And so they said the theme is Hebrews 12. We want you to just kind of reference Hebrews 12 at some point, but preach on whatever you want. You've got to get six messages ready. Honestly, not one time did it ever cross my mind to preach these verses. Never. Never what I preach these verses in that context. A few weeks back I preached the funeral for one of our longtime members, Shirley Glass. And as a pastor you sit down to prepare a funeral message. And when you've done several you sort of have some sort of, you know, ready to go and you can tweak them and adjust them. This is not one of them. This is not one that you whip out at a funeral or a special occasion like that. But they are important verses. And they're verses that we need to hear. And so this is the value of trudging through a book verse by verse, passage by passage. Luke chapter 12 verse 49 to 59. Here's the big idea of what we're about to look at. Jesus is a divisive figure. Neutrality is not an option. And eternity is at stake. Jesus is a divisive figure. Take the image that we have for some strange reason ingrained in our brains of Jesus, sort of the hippie guy who just loves everybody and wants to give big hugs and everyone get along. Get rid of that. This is not the Jesus of the Bible. He's divisive. Neutrality is not an option. We've seen this several times in the gospel of Luke already. And these things matter because eternity is at stake. That's the big idea. Look with me at Luke 12 beginning in verse 49. Jesus speaking and He says this, "I came to cast fire to the earth and wood that it were already kindled. I have a baptism to be baptized with and how great is my distress until it is accomplished. Do you think that I've come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. From now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two or two against three. They will be divided. Father against son, son against father, mother against daughter, daughter against mother, mother in law against her daughter-in-law, daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law." He also said to the crowds, "When you see a cloud rising in the west you say it once a shower is coming in it, so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing you say there will be scorching heat and it happens. You hypocrites. You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time? Why do you not judge for yourselves what is right? As you go with your accuser before the magistrate, make an effort to settle with him on the way lest he drag you to the judge and the judge hand you over to the officer and the officer put you in prison? I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the very last penny. This is the word of God. Let's pray. Father, we look at these verses and we hear Jesus saying things that are strange and controversial and divisive. We pray for humility this morning to let your word speak to us. We pray for your spirit to give us wisdom so that we can understand what Jesus is saying. And Father, we pray that you would apply these truths to our hearts and that we would leave changed. We pray in Jesus name, amen. We are talking about division. Things that divide us and I thought this week about things that divide us where we live in the United States. One obvious thing that causes division in the United States is politics. People are divided about politics and that includes a lot of different topics. That could include social issues. That could include taxes. That could include wars. That could include the economy. But those issues divide us as Americans. If your family is like my family, then you have certain people in the family that you just know. We don't talk about certain things with these people because they're just going to be really divisive. And we'd like to remain family and be able to eat Thanksgiving dinner without yelling at each other. So we're just going to sort of agree, to disagree and not to talk about these things because they can be so divisive. Political issues are divisive. Sports are divisive, right? You think, oh well, you know, maybe, yes, they're divisive. When I was in Kentucky, I met some serious fans of the big blue, University of Kentucky Wildcats. It was serious. I don't have any professional sports teams in Kentucky, but they love the University of Kentucky. And one time there was some kids in our youth group doing sort of like a Christmas pageant. And I don't remember the reason, but one of the kids needed a basketball jersey. And they asked me because I was their Sunday school teacher, do you have a basketball jersey that we can borrow? I said, yeah, I've got a Kansas jersey. So this poor girl puts on the Kansas jersey and walks up there on stage in this play to and there was her dad and he was not amused. He did not think it was funny, not at all. Later, a couple of years later, this is funny, his younger daughter who was a drummer got a drum scholarship to the University of Louisville arch rivals. And it took him a while to say to himself, do I want to pay for UK or do I want to send you for free to UofL? That was a tough decision for him. She went to UofL. He still wears blue in Oklahoma. One of the first questions the search team asked me is, are you going to pull for OSU or OU, the other university in Oklahoma for Cory? Oh, you are OSU. And I said, I could care less about oh, you are OSU. And they said, that's good to hear because our previous pastors have taken sides and people get really mad about it. In fact, on Bedlam Sunday, they won't come to church if the pastors are no U fan in there and OSU fan because they don't want to get it rubbed in their face or vice versa. And I said, well, look, you're hiring a Kansas fan in basketball. I'm going to rub it in everybody's face and in football, I'm going to be quiet. And we laugh about it, but the reality is it can be divisive. It can be divisive. Thinking about divisive things, politics or divisive sports or divisive. I didn't want to put this on my list, but if I'm just being honest on a Sunday morning, I have to say church is divisive for a lot of people. And that's really sad. That's unfortunate. I wish I didn't have to throw that out there. But the reality is that you've experienced things. Maybe here at Immanuel in the past, maybe at other churches and other towns or other churches here in Odessa, but church can be incredibly divisive. It can be over money and how much to keep or how much to spend or what to spend it on. It can be over programs or ministries or schedules or styles. It can be over personalities, leaders. And should they stay? Should they go? Church can be incredibly divisive. I hope, just as a side note, I hope you pray for our church regularly. And I hope you don't take for granted the fact that right now we are not, I don't believe, a divided church with factions and groups vying against each other. And I hope you don't take that for granted. I hope you realize that that's a blessing and I hope that you pray that God would keep it that way in our church. We just had a new member class and one of the things we talk to them is we go through our membership covenant is this. I say to people, every time we have the class, you will not like everything about Immanuel. I promise. You won't like everything. That's okay. You don't have to like everything to be a member here. But we do ask members to not spread negative talk, i.e. gossip about the things that you don't like. Come to Corey, come to Chris, come to me, come to Terry, come to us with your concerns, but we don't want to be a divided, divisive, fragmented church. And the reality is, there are a lot of churches that are that way. They're divided. Whatever you think about when you think about division, politics, sports, church, whatever, it probably doesn't give you the warm fuzzies, right? It probably doesn't conjure up good feelings when you think about real division. And so it's a negative thing. It's a bad thing. And Jesus says in this passage, flat out, no way around it. I came to bring division. I came to bring division. You say, wait a minute. I thought the son of man came to seek and save the lost. That sounds pretty good. Now Jesus is changing his tune a little bit. And so I want you to think with me about what Jesus says in these verses. We're going to break them down into three smaller segments. First segment is verse 49 and 50. Jesus talks about bringing fire and a baptism that's in his future. I came to cast fire on the earth. Any of you guys, fans of the Hobbit read the book. You've seen the movie? Okay. When I read that, I think of the dragon smog. And there's a line in the book in the movie where smog says this, I am fire. I am death. It's really a heartwarming moment in the story. And he flies out of his mountain and he's going down towards this village in the middle of a lake. And he's getting ready to, as you see in the picture, breathe fire over all that live there. And you hear that and it's pretty clear. If you've read the Hobbit, haven't seen the movie, haven't, he's the bad guy, right? I am fire. I am death. There he is destroying a village. Look what Jesus says. Verse 49, I came to cast fire on the earth. I came to cast fire on the earth. You probably will not be surprised to learn that in the Bible, fire is often a reference to judgment. Judgment and fire. Those two ideas go together in the scriptures. And I gave you some verses in the Gospel of Luke. You can look those up later. Where people talk about fire and it's in the context of discussing judgment. Jesus is saying, I came to bring judgment to the earth. You understand this is the sister truth of Luke 19, 10. Luke 19, 10, the son of man came to seek and to save the lost. But according to the Bible, all that are lost will not end up being saved. And the only other alternative is judgment. Look, a lot of people are happy to make Luke 19, 10 their theme verse. Son of man came to seek and save the lost. You can have that as your theme verse as long as you're willing to couple it with the idea that Jesus also came to bring judgment. And the divisive event that separates people is the cross. Take your Bible and flip back just a couple of pages to Luke 951. Luke 951. This is a transition in the Gospel of Luke we saw a few weeks back. When the days drew near for him to be taken up, talking about Jesus, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. This point on in Luke, everything is moving us straight to the cross. Jesus is marching knowing exactly what's waiting on him, straight to Jerusalem where he will be crucified and hung on a cross. That's where going back to Luke 12, this idea of a baptism comes in. If you've read the Gospel of Luke, you say, wait a minute, Jesus, you've already been baptized. John did that way back in the beginning of the Gospel. He's not talking about that kind of baptism. When Jesus talks about this baptism to come, he's talking about his death. Baptism is a reference to his death. And he's saying, yes, I came to seek and save the lost, but I also came to bring judgment. And the difference between which you experience, being sought and saved or being judged is how you respond to the cross. And I have this baptism, this death, this cross that is waiting on me. He's talking about this cross. Look at verse 50, I have a baptism to be baptized with. That's the cross. And how great is my distress until it is accomplished. I mean, great distress until it's done. We sang this just a minute ago in one of the songs that the band let us in. But do you remember John 1930 when Jesus is hanging on the cross and the last words out of his mouth before he dies or what? It is finished. That's the exact same Greek word that Jesus uses here when he talks about it being accomplished. The exact same word, he's saying, I'm under great distress until this baptism, this death is finished. How many of you remember getting a report card in elementary school? You remember that? Our daughter goes to STEM Academy and I still don't know how to read the report card they sent home. It's way different than the report card I got growing up. Mine looks something like this. Any of you remember report cards look something like this? This one has farm stuff down on the bottom left. I didn't have farm stuff. I would have failed that. But on one side, you get grades for reading, language, spelling, handwriting, arithmetic, on and on and on. And then over on the right are behavior issues. And if you have behavior issues in this kind of report card, you get a check. And whoever this kid was, some of these are good things, some of these are bad things. I remember on my report card, if you got checks, it was always a bad thing. Here's the thing, when I was in elementary school, I always did fine with the grades. The left side, no worries. I didn't really have a lot of trouble with the grades. But on the right side, I always had checks. And I usually involve talking too much in class, something like that. And I had all these checks. And so they give you this report card. I think the teachers did it just to be mean. They give it to you at the beginning of the day. First thing, you get to look at it and read it. And then all day long, you think to yourself, I got to take this to my parents. I wasn't worried about the grades. I was worried about the checks. And I carry that thing around all day long thinking, my dad's going to kill me. He's going to beat me silly. He told me not to get any more checks and I got more checks. And my grades are good, but I don't know if they're good enough to make up for the checks. And it was dread all day long. It ruined your day. Recess, no fun. Lunch, no fun. Free time, whatever. It's just a miserable day thinking, I got to take this home. My parents have to sign this thing and they have to see it. And I had this dread, this fear all day long. Why did I have it? I had that fear because I knew judgment was coming. Punishment was coming. And that's what Jesus is talking about here on an infinitely greater level. I have a death to die, verse 50, how great is my distress until it's accomplished. You need to understand that when Jesus says, I'm distressed until I finish the mission, he's not distressed about nails in his hands and his wrist. You understand that? He's not distressed about a crown of thorns being mashed down on his head. He's not distressed about hanging naked up on a cross in front of all of his friends and family. He is distressed about one thing, judgment. This word baptism literally means submerged. Jesus is about to be submerged in the wrath and the anger of God that should have fallen on you and me. Forget the nails. They talk about the nails and the thorns and the spear and the this and the that and the beatings. Yes, they were bad. They were nothing compared to the wrath of God being poured out on Jesus on the cross. That's what he's distressed about. I have a death to die. How great is my distress until it's accomplished. So he talks about fire. He talks about a baptism of death. Secondly, next group of verses, he talks about peace and division. Peace and division. This is 51 to 53. Those of you with kids. You ever ask your kids a question and get the exact opposite answer that you were looking for? You ever taught a Sunday school class maybe? This can be really awkward, especially if you're teaching adults. You throw a question out there to a group of adults and you just feel like you've teeted up for them. Toss them a big old fat softball and somebody pipes up and says something that is completely wrong. That's awkward, right? Whether you're the teacher or a student in the class or the person who gave the wrong answer, it's really awkward. Jesus is about to throw a softball, okay? But he knows the guys are going to miss it. And so look what he says, verse 51. Do you think here's the question? Do you think that I came to bring peace on earth? Now that looks like it's just a tea ball waiting for you to hit it out of the park. You say, I've been reading my Bible. Luke 2, 14. The angels, when you were born, they said what? Peace on earth. And I remember I was paying attention just a few chapters ago in Luke when you sent us out to preach. You told us to go from town to town, house to house, and to proclaim what? Peace. So Jesus asked the question, verse 51. Do you think that I've come to give peace? And you know Peter's ready. We saw him last week up in verse 41. Give a stupid answer, make a stupid comment. He's ready again. And before he can even open his mouth, Jesus says what? No. You didn't come to bring peace? No. I did not come to bring peace but rather division. Here's how you make sense of this. Jesus came to make peace between God and his people. Peace between God and his people. So don't go back and scratch out Luke 2, 14. Go back and scratch out Luke 10 where Jesus sends him out to preach peace. Leave those there. Jesus is talking about, Luke is talking about in those passages, peace between God and his people. And that happens at the cross where Jesus takes their punishment, takes the wrath of God and deals with that for his people. Colossians 1, 20 says that Jesus made peace by the blood of his cross. However, Jesus also knows that there will be division between people. His kingdom will create division between people. Some will respond, repenting of their sin and believing in Jesus. Some will not. And that will divide people. Now you may hear Jesus right there and you may think to yourself. I don't know that I've really ever experienced this kind of division. I don't know that I've ever seen people really divided like Jesus talks about father and son and mother and daughter divided like that over the issue of following Jesus. Part of the problem is we may not be following Jesus very well. And if we follow Jesus like he intended us to, we might experience a little more division. But another part of the problem, you should not feel guilty about this. But another part of the issue for us is that we live in a place and a time is very unique. Right? You're not here by accident. God put you in this place and this time for a reason so you don't need to feel bad about it. But you live in a place and a time where the culture is sort of schizophrenic. And on the one hand, our culture has been deeply impacted by Christianity. Whether you want to admit that or not, it has been. Our country, our nation has been deeply impacted by Christianity. At the same time, we're secular enough as a society and as a culture that we sort of give people the freedom and the liberty to make their own spiritual decisions. Right? We believe in religious liberty. And we say if you want to be this or you want to be that or you want to do what you want as long as you don't hurt other people, follow whatever religion you want to follow. We sort of live in this odd place. And for most of you, when you decided to convert to faith in Jesus Christ, it didn't create a big rift with you and your family. And that's probably in large part because of where and when you live. But you understand in South America that there are people who if they make the decision to become a genuine follower of Jesus Christ, it doesn't just mean that they leave Catholicism behind. It means they leave their family and their culture and everything behind. You understand that there's places in Africa where it's not just an issue of will you follow Jesus, but there's also family allegiances, tribal allegiances, cultural allegiances. And when you say I'm following Jesus, you're breaking all of those. You have a decision to make. Jesus is going to cause division. In Asian cultures, the issue is often shame and saving face and respecting your family and your ancestors. And people realize if I make the decision to follow Jesus, I'm turning my back on all of this stuff in the Muslim world. There is no idea of religious freedom or separation in church and state in the Muslim world. It's all intertwined language and politics and culture and religion and all of it. And if you leave it, you leave all of it. Jesus knows this. Understand that our experience is unique compared to the rest of the world. And you can go almost anywhere else on planet earth and preach this. And people say, yep, we read it and think, really? They read it and say, I know. It's tough. Jesus is divisive. And He does separate people. He does divide people. Peace between God and His people, division between people. Last section of verses, verse 54 to 59, a couple of parables. Jesus talks about interpreting the weather and being brought before a magistrate or a government official. First of all, let me say this. Jesus in these verses is not talking about predicting end time events. I can't tell you how many times I read or I hear somebody talk about interpreting the times as if it's diagnosing or predicting or nailing a date down for the day Jesus is going to return. That's not what He's talking about at all in any way, shape, or form in this passage. He's not giving you calendar information. He's speaking in parables. Two simple parables in verse 54 to 59. The first parable is about the weather. And it's very simple. He looks at these people and he says, look, verse 54. When the clouds rise in the west, you know it's about terrain. The wind is blowing off the great sea, the Mediterranean sea, the clouds are coming up. You know it's about terrain. You've figured that out. And he says, if the wind is coming out of the south from the desert, you know it's about to get hot. So you don't have doppler radar and you don't have storm track and tornado sirens and all the things we have. But you're smart people. You've figured out these things. Wind this way means rain, wind this way means heat. You fools. If you can figure out that, why can't you figure out what standing right in front of you? I've performed miracles for you to see. I've taught directly in parables with stories. I've fed multitudes of people. I've healed the sick. I've raised the dead. I've done everything that you need to have done to figure out what's happening and you still have no clue. You missed it. You don't know how to figure out what's standing right in front of you. The weather you got, the Messiah you have no clue. And then he tells another parable about a magistrate and somebody dragging you, an accuser, bringing you before this official. And the idea and the parable is that whatever you've done, you really did do it and you really are guilty. It's not just like somebody's bringing trumped up charges on you. You did something or said something you shouldn't have done and now somebody is hauling you before the judge to make it right. And Jesus, understand this. This is not Jesus giving legal advice for whatever legal situation you find yourself in today where he says settle out of court. This is Jesus teaching something very, very important and a parable when he says settle out of court. And here's the idea. He's still talking about fire and judgment that we saw in the first verses. The topic hasn't changed. And here's what he's saying. In the end, you're going to stand before the capital M magistrate, the judge. And the charges are going to be brought against you and it's not going to be pretty because the Bible says in Romans 3, 23 that all have sinned. And the Bible says in the book of James that if you've only broken the law in one place, you're guilty of breaking the law. You say that doesn't sound like fairness. That doesn't sound like justice. Of course it does. When we convict somebody of first degree murder in our human courts, they don't get to turn around and plead with the jury and say, I paid my taxes every year. I have never once robbed a bank. The jury's going to say, great, now we're going to kill you. Now we're sending you to prison for life. You're a law breaker. You're guilty. And Jesus is saying, look, you're going to have to stand before the judge and you're guilty. And so it would be very wise on your part, if at all possible, to settle matters before you stand before the judge. Why don't you take the plea deal? Because it's pretty good. Here it is. The Son of Man will pay your penalty. He'll die your death. He'll take the baptism that you should have received, the death. He'll take the wrath of God that should have fallen on you. He'll pay the penalty. It's free. You don't have to earn it. You don't have to pay for it. He'll pay the price. What he asks of you is repentance and faith and following him. That's the deal. And it's on the table. And Jesus is saying, very seriously, very sternly, looking people right in the eyeball, shooting them straight, do you think that I just came to make everything a big piece, love, happiness party? No. I came to make peace between God and His people. Amongst yourselves, there's going to be division. And you've got a big problem, because one day you stand before the judge guilty. So you can stand there before the judge on your own merits and you can argue and you can make your case. And let me just tell you, Jesus is saying, that ends badly. You will pay the full penalty. You will not get out of one penny. But you can take the deal, the plea offer. And you can turn from your sin and trust in the Son of Man who came to seek you and save you. And He gives you life and He gives you hope and He gives you eternity. Let me pray for you. Father, we confess this morning that we are guilty. We are in desperate need of your grace. Father, I pray for those of us who are in the room this morning as we have looked into your Word. And I pray that you would help us to examine ourselves. Father, that those of us who have made the decision to follow Jesus, that we would renew that commitment today, that we would thank you for your grace, thank you for your patience, thank you for your faithfulness to your people. And Father, we also pray for those who are here in the room who have never trusted in Jesus. They have never taken this deal. They never left their sin behind and trusted in Jesus. And Father, we pray that they would do it today now. That you would open their heart to the truth, that you would draw them to yourself and that they would run to the cross. Father, we thank you that the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. Father, we want to have our eyes open to the reality that Jesus is a divisive figure, that no one can be neutral. And Father, that you would impress on our hearts that eternity is at stake. Father, as we sing, we pray that your Spirit would work in us to confirm your Word, to convict us of sin, and to move us into the past of righteousness. We ask for your Spirit to work and we ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.