Luke 12:49-56
I had occasion to preach on the passage from Luke 12 that we've just heard some few years ago at the 10 o’clock service. I want to start from the same reference point again, but trust that what I will say will be something new
When Isaiah prophesied the coming of Jesus, he wrote
He will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting
Father
Prince of Peace
When the
angels heralded his birth at Bethlehem, they praises with these words:
Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to
men on whom his
favour rests
and Jesus himself, before his crucifixion promised his disciples Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you.
Yet here in this mornings reading we have his word: Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but
division
So, what’s going on here? Of one thing we can be certain:
Jesus is not contradicting himself or anything in the Scriptures. The answer is
found, I suggest, in the opening words of the reading. I have come to bring fire
on earth. Fire can mean one of two things: refinement or judgment. And from the
words immediately following the reading, as well as its own content, I think we
may surely say that Jesus speaks of judgment. And whenever we read of God’s
judgment and element of division or separation is always involved- for example,
the separation of there sheep from the goats, the separation of wheat from
tares.
In verse 52, Jesus says From now on. There’s something new happening. I would
suggest two things.
1. Most fundamentally, Jesus will shortly be dying on
the Cross- that what verse 50 is on about- the ‘baptism’ he will have to
undergo. How distressed I am until it is completed he says. He has to undergo a
baptism-an immersion. He will on the Cross be ‘immersed’ in God’s judgment on
our sin. I believe that when he recoiled in terror in Gethsemane it was in
horror at the weight of sin he would have to bear.
He would have to
bear God’s wrathful judgement on our sin, and for those who entrust themselves
to Him; to those who believe that that was what he achieved at Calvary- for them
his suffering of God’s judgment means that they- we- will not have to pay for
our sins in terms of eternal separation from God. Those who refuse this fact
will have to pay for their own sins. Our Gospel starts not with Jesus
bringing people a happier life, a more fulfilled life. It starts with the
Cross-, and without sin and God’s judgment on sin the Cross-loses its point. How
distressed I am
That is part of the division that came about by
Jesus’ coming to earth. he came to bring about that division
2. There will be division between those who receive Jesus Christ and his
Gospel and those who refuse it. One Commentator on this passage says this:
Yet the inevitable result of Christ's coming is conflict
between Christ and the antichrist, between light and darkness, between Christ's
children and the devil's children.
Those who refuse or have not heard and
received the Lord and his Gospel will always be opposed to believers. For
believers belong to the Kingdom of God; unbelievers to the Kingdom of Satan. You
see: before the Gospel the whole world lay in Satan’s power. When the Pharisees
accuse Jesus of working with Beelzebub he responds by talking about a house
possessed by a ‘strong man’- that is Satan and he says: When
a strong man fully armed guards his own house his possessions are safe. But
Satan’s stronghold has been ransacked and he’s fighting mad. His house no longer
is at peace within itself.
So, I would say this. Don’t be
surprised if you find that being a Christian provokes conflict. Why, in other
lands, are Christians persecuted? What is it about being a Christian that marks
a person out? Why, in passing, aren’t we? Well, yes we may be ostracised a
little. But I suspect many Christians face outright hostility, maybe from
workmates, without recognising its source. And Jesus warns us that that
hostility might come from within our own families.
So; what do we
do? We have a Saviour; we have a Gospel; we have a mission- a point Paul drove
home some weeks ago, and maybe its because we are not active enough in our
mission that either individually, or as a church we do not attract opposition.
Now I don’t suggest that we set out to seek opposition for its own
sake. That would be to get our eyes off the ball Let’s keep our eyes on our
Gospel; on our mission. We shall make enemies; enemies of friends; enemies of
family; enemies from those churches which (as Paul reminded us) have no mission.
I came across one of those ‘pearly gates’ stories the other day. it
went like this:
Three men died and were waiting to receive entrance
through the pearly gates. The first man said to St. Peter, "I was a preacher of
the gospel, serving faithfully for 50 years." Peter told him to step aside for
further consideration. The second man said "I was also a preacher of the gospel;
I served my church faithfully for 40 years." Peter told him to step aside for
further consideration. The third man stepped up. "I was not a minister, just a
government worker with the Internal Revenue Service for 6 months." Peter told
him to step right in. The first minister objected, "Why does he get to go in
before two ministers?" Peter said, "The truth is, in six months the IRS agent
scared the devil out of more people that either of you did in a long lifetime!"
Our business is not first and foremost to bring peace on earth. We follow our
Master, and filled by his Spirit, we can literally scare the devil out of people
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