A Rending Fire

A Rending Fire

well, good morning, my name is Ben Lander and I am one of the pastors here and glad to be um With you this morning in Luke, chapter 12 verses 49 through 59? No, the other side. Okay, there we go. Um, so I wanted to um, before we get into the passage, it’s, I think it’s important to mention uh, that we as a church should be praying for Ukraine and uh, and I will be praying here shortly, but we, we really want to pray for our brothers and sisters in christ in Ukraine. They’re undergoing extremely difficult choices right now. They’re fighting for their country and um, and there’s just a lot of uh, difficulty as Russia has invaded their um, there’s quite a few christians there in Ukraine. Quite a few of our baptist brothers and sisters who are being lights and standing for the Gospel in their country. It’s challenging to see, but it’s encouraging to see there are many believers there who faced the reality that their freedom to worship will probably be severely restricted or diminished. Uh, if Russia is able to take over the country. And so we want to pray and they have a choice to follow christ and be faithful to him or to lose everything, possibly even their lives. And they are standing firm in the Gospel. It’s encouraging to see here’s a quote from the president of the Ukrainian baptist Theological Seminary is very encouraged by this. This was from two days ago and he said this, he said in response to, you know, what are you, what are you gonna do if Russia takes over? And he said this, He said, oh the church will go undergrounds. Um we had that under the soviet union. The church has not forgotten what it means to be persecuted. So we will rearrange, we will reorganize and we will do what we always do, preach the Gospel and that was so encouraging. So they are standing firm there in the Gospel. It’s a sobering reminder to us that eternity is what matters are passage today also is a sobering reminder for that from jesus. It’s eternity that matters and what it means to follow him. So what I’m going to do is I’m going to read our passage Luke. Chapter 12 verses 49 through 59. And then I’m going to pray and commit our time with Lord and also pray for Ukraine. So join with me in Reading Luke chapter 1249 through 59 I came to bring fire on the earth and how I wish you were already set ablaze but I have a baptism and to undergo and how it consumes me until it is finished. Do you think that I came here to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division from now on five in one household will be divided three against 22 against three. They’ll be divided. Father against son, son against father, mother against daughter and daughter Against mother. Mother in law against her daughter in law and daughter in law against Mother in law. He also said to the crowds when you see a cloud rising in the west, right away, you say a storm is coming and so it does. And when the south wind is blowing you say it’s going to be hot and it is hypocrites, you know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. But why don’t you know how to interpret this present time? Why don’t you judge for yourselves? What is right as you’re going with your adversary? The ruler make an effort to settle with him on the way. Then he won’t drag you before the judge and the judge to hand you over to the bailiff and the bailiff to throw you into prison. I tell you you will never get out there until you have paid the last penny, pray with me. Lord God, we do come before you. God above all Gods, King above all kings. Not only do we pray for you to speak to us during this time, but we also pray for our brothers and sisters in Ukraine. We pray for the country of Ukraine. Lord God deliver Ukraine from evil. Draw many to yourself that the people there would hope in God in you and not in the government. We pray that your church and believers would have courage to be lights in the midst of darkness. We pray that you would frustrate the plans of the wicked and that you would bring this war to end Father God. We also pray that you speak to us through this passage in your name. Lord jesus Amen. Amen. Okay. So remember from the I want you to kind of remind you the context. Okay, we’ve got this passage we’re working through in Luke chapter 12. It’s a long chapter. This is 49 through 59. And so it’s really helpful to remember where we’ve come from. And so the jesus first calls out the Pharisees, the lawyers, the legal experts for their hypocrisy and then he shares a story that illustrates that what is our heart focuses on That’s what we treasure. Do you remember that from Mike? What we focus on? We treasure. And he tells them, okay, don’t be anxious about the things like money and food and clothing, but put your trust and hope in God because he provides all of those things. And then there’s this challenge and exhortation to eagerly awaits his return and from last week dan challenges in the passage challenges all to work hard as his servants while we await the return of the master, right? Don’t be a lazy servant, but work hard. And this section of the passage then focuses on uh the responsibility, our responsibility, jesus turns and he’s preaching to the rest of them at the the whole group of people that were there. Okay, so he went from Pharisees two disciples to now the whole crowd and he’s preaching to this crowd and he begins to lay out in this section what his role is. And so verse 49, he says I came to bring fire on the earth and how I wish it were already set ablaze, but I have a baptism to undergo and how it consumes me until it is finished. Now. It’s very interesting, Jesus talks about this uh this language he uses is fire. And you see that there’s this uh this fire reference and so we need to kind of say, okay, what is he, what is he talking about here? And as you look at other parts of scripture, you begin to see what he means here. So psalm 21 9, there’s all kinds of references that talk about fire, But Psalm 21 9 says at the time of your appearing when jesus comes, you’ll make them like a fiery furnace and his wrath, the Lord will swallow them up and his fire will consume them. John the baptist when he was getting ready to baptize jesus in luke chapter three, you recall when we went through that passage verse nine says the ax is already at the root of the trees and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. And then very interesting verse 15, the people were waiting eagerly and expectantly and all were wondering in their hearts if john might possibly be the christ john answered them all. I baptize you with water, but one more powerful than I will come. The thongs of his sandals will not be worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire, his winnowing fork in his, in his hand to clear the threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. See again, these references to fire, and the point from this passage that jesus is making here is that he is a rending fire. There’s talk of the chaff and the wheat, there’s talk of him being this, this consuming fire, who will burn up the chaff. And he’s talking about judgments here. The reference to fire is oftentimes associated with the judgment of God. And so God is Holy Holy Holy, He’s an all consuming fire and he’s coming to burn out any impurity. The chaff is the outside of the wheat, it’s outside and it’s just kind of this, this little bit of chaff you pull off and then you’ve got the good stuff, okay, and the chaff is burned up and the wheat is brought into the storage house. It’s a symbol of the judgment that’s to come. The chaff, the worthless chaff, those who are sinners will be gathered up in burns in hell, the wheat, the good parts will be gathered up and brought into heaven, the good fruit. And so this agricultural picture that john the baptist is referring to and jesus is pointing back to with this talk of him being a fire is illustrating divine judgment, Jesus will judge each person and they will be found either to be chaff or to be wheats and his divine wrath is coming and but he says here in verse 50 it’s not yet time, so this is coming, but it’s not yet time I came to bring fire on the earth, how I wish you were already set ablaze, but I have a baptism to undergo and how it consumes me again, Jesus uses this reference this language of this fire consuming him. What is delaying the judgment, he has to undergo his own baptism by fire which was referring to his torture and his death, his giving of himself as a payment as an atonement for sin. And it says oh and how it consumes me again. That fiery passion that he wants to, he is consumed with, he is on this mission and he will accomplish it. He, this divine judgments delayed, he has to go first to the cross and he has to go and give his life. He has to be tortured and die and that he is filled with passion to finish that work to make a way for that sin to be atoned for no one can escape the fires the judgment of God on their own. So jesus here is describing his role as a rending fire, a cleansing judgment that spreads the good news and the baptism of his death in order to conquer death. And so he goes on to verse 51, he’s a rending fire, he’ll bring judgment and he says, do you think that I came here to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division from now on five and one household be divided three against two and two against three. And then he goes on to say father son, mother, daughter, all these different family relations three against two and two against three. So the result of jesus is coming. The result of this baptism of fire is a rending, a splitting, the result is division and what results from the message of the gospel is that some will believe in jesus and some won’t, some will give themselves to him and follow him and some will go their own way. And what happens is those who actually say, you know what I’m gonna follow you, jesus, There’s a unity and a oneness together in christ that happens. And it also happens the other way for those who uh reject jesus, there’s a unity now that they have to oppose and to be against him, Jesus is a rending fire and a choice must be made. This world is broken. It’s under the curse of sin and we see that Brokenness and we see that devastation around us all the time. I see that every day, every day that I go through life. I go to work. I see the Brokenness. I go to the grocery store, I see the Brokenness, I see the Brokenness in talking with the people of this church and the effects of sin is Brokenness. We see broken marriages, broken relationships, broken institutions, we see corruption and lies, we see division, we sang and we see it all over the place on social media, don’t we? But in person to we see it and I have seen brothers who don’t longer talk to sisters. The Apostle paul described it with this way he said that we are in aroma. The gospel is an aroma. It’s something that smells and to some it smells really good and the others, it’s the smell of death, the stench of death that people want to just get out of get away from because it smells so bad. There’s a strong reaction to the Gospel. To some. It’s so amazing and I want that and others it’s death. There will be division, jesus said, I have come to bring peace and hurt, no division. And as a church we can see that we’ve moved in this culture here in America into a post christian culture, difficult times are ahead. The culture is changing rapidly and there is a greater opposition. It will become greater, expect it be ready for it, it is here and it’s coming more, jesus is a rending fire. So don’t don’t be surprised by a church has that difficulty as oppression as persecution comes. Don’t be surprised by it. And also don’t yearn for what once was, what it might have been like in the past, where we’ve we’ve been progressing and we’re gaining more rapidly towards this post christian, this, this uh kind of secularist, humanist, uh, almost pagan society. I’ve been reading some robert p George who is a theologian at Princeton and he was describing the difference kind of and looking at what happened in the early century church, the roman and greek culture that the early christians were in and kind of comparing it with secular Progressivism of today, and how similar thoughts and ideologies are there. And this is a little academic, but it’s really good because it describes and gives you a picture of where we’re heading and what we’re experiencing now in in that paganism at the time, and also in in secular Progressivism, you see that the sacred is in this world, it’s, you know, this is this is great. And yet with christ, we see that the sacred is outside the world, that our hope is in heaven where aliens and strangers here in this earth and we look forward eagerly to what’s to come, not here, this will pass, right, but this our culture is saying, no, we gotta live it up right now, right here, this is where the sacred is also, you see that within this progressive secular and this paganism, that there’s many gods. And so you get to determine what’s true. You get to pick what you want and you kind of hodgepodge together this religion for yourself, right? But with Christianity, there is one God and that one God gets determine what’s true. And then lastly, there’s there’s many other comparisons. But today the culture would say live for what makes you happy, right? And that’s a pagan mystic kind of idea, Christianity’s services the path to greatness. There’s big differences between following christ and what this world in this culture is saying. Uh and so there’s this preaching of tolerance, right? But then when we take a stand, we say christ is the way the truth and the life, then there’s no tolerance for that view and so be ready. Don’t be surprised. Uh, 1st 2nd timothy chapter three it’s so encouraging because paul communicates to timothy. Hay hard times are ahead, verse one of chapter three says, but know this hard times will come in the last days they were experiencing persecution within this culture, this pagan roman greek culture that was against Christianity No, this hard times are ahead. But then he goes on to describe through the rest of the chapter, how to deal with that. It’s very encouraging. If you, if you turn there, you can kind of see that. But verse 12, in fact all who want to live a Godly life in christ will be persecuted again, persecutions coming and this message of the Gospel, it divides us Verse 14, but as for you continue and what you have learned and firmly believed. So yes, persecutions coming, but stand firm in what you have believed verse 16 all scripture is God breathed and profitable for teaching, rebuking correcting and training in righteousness. So the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. So paul in his exhortation, he’s saying timothy r and the church hard times are coming. Don’t be surprised by it. You’re going to be persecuted if you believe in christ but stand firm. And what do you stand firm on you? Stand firm on this, the word of God. How do we stand firm in difficult times? We do so by standing right here and that’s what we see with the believers in Ukraine today. That’s what, that’s what we see. And I don’t know if you’ve seen some of the video clips, it’s so challenging to my soul, but I saw just a couple of days ago, the people are now using in Kiev, they’re using the subway system, the tunnels as bomb shelters to get out of the way. And so I saw this video of a group of christians, they’re gathered right at the entrance of this subway down the steps and they’re singing, they’re singing together with the hope of the Gospel. And so as all these people are coming down the stairs, these fellow Ukrainians to get away from the missiles and the bombs, they’re hearing christians together singing of their hope. They’re standing firm on the word of God. We too, as our culture rapidly progresses away from God need to stand firm, not give up, not back off, not back down, you can fight or you can flight, right, We need to not flight, we need to to fight by standing firm on the word of God and to bring the Gospel to the people around us, Go to verse 54 of our passage, Jesus also said to the crowds, when you see a cloud rising in the west, right away, you say, hey, a storm is coming and so it does, and when the south wind is blowing, you say it’s gonna be hot and so it is, you hypocrites, you know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky, but you don’t know how to interpret this present time. The second point here that jesus is making that luke is reaffirming, is is that they need to recognize the signs the crowds were there, they could tell when he was coming, they could tell and they could see the storm front was building, the wind was changing, it’s getting cold, there’s a storm coming, but they couldn’t recognize that he was the messiah and he was standing right before them, the evidence is clear, Jesus wasn’t hiding it, he was doing all kinds of things, he fulfilled all these prophecies and he did miracle after miracle after miracle that he went into a town and he’d go through and clear out the whole thing of anybody who was sick, demon possessed or uh ill every single one they’d line up, clear out the hospital, right, They didn’t have hospital, you know what I’m saying? Anybody who’s sick, not a single one went away, not being healed, Jesus did so many things and he’s saying you hypocrites, you’re listening to these religious leaders and you’re telling these things, but you’re not looking right in front of you and seeing the signs, seeing the characteristics, I am God, I am the messiah. There’s a tree in my yard when we first moved into our house and I had no idea what kind of tree it was no idea. And so what do you do when you don’t know what kind of tree you, you kind of look at the leaves, you look at, okay, this is the this is what happens in the springtime and flowers, these white flowers and then in the summertime, it it has these little shoots with these small little buds that come out and they anyway, so then you go and you compare those characteristics of that tree to the characteristics of other trees that are listed. And boom, I found out it’s okay, it’s a type of crab apple tree. There we go. Now. I know people could tell when it was about to be storm, we can find out what kind of trees are in our yard through the characteristics and jesus here is saying it has been made clear, it is plain. I am messiah. I am God. Just look and see, look through the scriptures and see, look at what I’m doing and see I am God, recognize the signs. We too need to recognize the science and recognize that he is gone. The people here were listening to the religious leaders and just ignoring the scriptures. Religious leaders are being called out for being hypocrites. And so now Jesus is saying, Hey, look at the Science Acts 1711, the people were of more noble character than those in Thessaloniki. Why? Because they received the word of God with eagerness and they examined the scriptures daily to see if those things were true. So jesus is rebuking the people here all the whole crowds because they weren’t looking to the scriptures to see if the things he was saying was true. They weren’t seeing the sign of the times. There were so many prophecies. I challenge you this week. Read Isaiah 53 Okay, one chapter Isaiah 53. And as you read through that chapter one chapter that was written 600 years before christ came count how many different prophecies were fulfilled in just that one chapter alone through jesus. When you read that, you can’t help but think jesus, jesus, jesus, they all this all is pointing so clearly to jesus being the messiah the fulfillment And so he’s challenging them, recognize the times and then he goes on to verse 57, Why don’t you judge for yourselves? What’s right as you are going with your adversary to the ruler, make an effort to settle with him on the way that he won’t drag you before the judge. The judge hand you over to the bailiff and the bailiff throw you into prison. So I tell you, you will never get out of there until you have paid the last penny. So Jesus goes back to and refers again to this judgment situation And he uses these words to this, this adversary. It’s also very similar to what is said in Matthew Chapter five, Matthew chapter five verse 22 Says in the light of the fires of hell, one should reconcile with his brother. So, Matthew five focuses on reconciling with your brother Luke chapter 12 Year focuses on reconciling with your adversary. The main point of both of those passage, this one and that one is to be reconciled before. It’s too late. You have a chance to be reconciled, you gotta do it before, it’s too late. One passage emphasizes your brother, the other your adversary. So who in this passage is the adversary, who is jesus talking about, there’s a little bit of debates, but but what I believe is that jesus here is talking about himself as the adversary, he’s surrendering a rending fire, He has come to bring that judgments and they have a choice before them. They have sin which causes them to be an adversary to jesus and he’s challenging these crowds, he’s come to bring fire. Some will follow him and some won’t. Each person is responsible for the choice that they make. And so before you stand before the judge be reconciled as you go along the way, be reconciled. Don’t wait till you get before the judge, because when you get before the judge, it is too late. Your chance is gone. So reconcile now with God is the third theme of this passage here before jesus comes back before he returns before we die and we stand before God, the judge, we need to be reconciled because when we’re in trouble and you stand before him, it’s too late to do anything about it. This, this passage here is not talking about a purgatory type situation, it’s not talking about trying to work off the means to pay our debt. That’s not what he’s talking about here at all. We absolutely have no means whatsoever to pay for our debt. When you’re in prison, he’s talking about here, you have to pay for your last penny, but you’re not earning anything, there’s no way for you to work and to pay that off. So what that means is that the prison for sinners is eternal, jesus is a rending fire and you have to make a choice. Either you will surrender and follow him or you’ll go your own way. And jesus strongly warns the people and he warns us here be reconciled before. It’s too late. I don’t know about you, but as I’ve shared this message, shared the gospel, the good news of the Gospel of jesus christ with people around me with friends I’ve heard many times. That’s that’s great. But I want to do some things first. I want to live life first. I wanna have fun first. I want to try some things. First, surrendered your life to christ and being doing whatever his will and his bidding is that seems awfully, you know like I’m not in control and I can’t choose right. It seems difficult, it doesn’t seem like a lot of fun. How little do they really know? But but they want to live it up right? And they’re like, I’ll do that later. It’s too late if they stand before the judge and they haven’t been reconciled. Just as jesus challenged us last week with the words to the servants, to the wicked servants. Don’t be lazy, work hard while your master’s away. So too, he challenges us here to reconcile with God. Now before he comes back, do not wait. Which brings us to our application points this morning from the passage 1st 1 is simply to surrender and follow Jesus. Just as I mentioned, if you are new if you are have been here for a while and you are exploring and what it means to know, christ, what it means to follow christ no this I plead with your judgment day is coming one day you will have to stand before the perfect and holy judge who is an all consuming fire, who will burn up the chaff any impurity. You will have to give an account for your every single word, thought action indeed any wrong that you have done. And jesus himself came here to this earth and he was consumed with his mission and his mission was to give his life as an atonement as a payment for that debt that we owe every single penny. We oh jesus is there to offer payments for that sin. There is a way to be reconciled to God and it is to submit your life fully and completely to him and he will pay for that. He will cleanse you from the sin that you’ve done, he will make you whiter than snow and then you will be reconciled with the judge. And then when you stand before the judge he will say your debt has been paid. It’s taken care of. I like this quote from William James, he says when you have to make a choice and you don’t make it. That in it of itself is a choice. Do not delay, surrender your life to christ For those of you who have followed christ who have surrendered your life to him. The application is stand firm difficult times are ahead, stand firm and be guided by the scriptures as to what is true. We’re in an age of lies, misinformation, conspiracy theories, media dishonesty uh and oftentimes don’t know about you, but I’m like okay, I read one thing, I read the opposite thing, what is the true story here? I don’t know, but what we do have is we know and can be certain that this is true and that this is what we can stand upon. This is God breathed words to us and it is true and it is right and this is what we can stand on. Don’t allow tribalism to divide us as followers of jesus, stand firm together on the word of God, let us stand firm, let’s proclaim the gospel to those who around us, anyone who will listen to bring as many with us as we can into heaven by proclaiming the good news, Which is the 3rd application there with jesus as hell, be a messenger of the good news to share your story, share how christ has changed you and transformed you um share your testimony, I do this often with people and here’s here’s a way God has changed me and it can be all different kinds of ways anyway that God has changed you transformed your life anyway that jesus has come in and helped you, you can proclaim and give testimony to that and it’s powerful because it’s a story of God changing you and that God wants to offer that same thing to anyone who believe. And then lastly reconcile with christ and with your fellow christian. If you’ve allowed anything to become that come between you and your brother or sister in christ, reconcile, seek them out, reconcile with them. If you’ve allowed anything to come between you and your relationship with God, reconcile with him, repent, turn back to him, turn back to christ and reconcile yourself. He’s a rending fire. He’s comin brought division. We can stand firm on his word and be reconciled to him and follow him. Let’s pray Lord jesus, We do thank you for this sobering message. We do thank you for your word and we desperately need your help and so we gladly yield and surrender ourselves to you. Once again in jesus name. Amen.