WWUTT 2411 I Have Not Come to Bring Peace (Luke 12:49-53)

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In Luke chapter 2, the arrival of Jesus was said to bring peace on earth.

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But then in Luke chapter 12, Jesus said, I have not come to bring peace on earth, but a sword when we understand the text.

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This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible study in the Word of Christ. For he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

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Tell your friends about our ministry at www .wtt .com. Once again, it's Pastor Gabe.

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Thank you, Becky. In our study of the Gospel of Luke, we've been in chapter 12, where Jesus has been teaching mainly his disciples, but the crowds are present there as well.

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We're going to finish up this chapter this week, picking up the conversation where we left off. So I'm going to start in verse 49 and go to the end.

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Hear the word of the Lord. I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled.

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I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished.

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Do you think that I have come to give peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.

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For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three.

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They will be divided father against son and 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.

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He also said to the crowds, When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once,

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A shower is coming, and so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say,

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There will be scorching heat, and it happens. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?

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And 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.

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I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the very last penny.

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Now, as we've been reading this exchange that Jesus has had with his disciples and also the crowds, we've had a combination of Jesus talking to his disciples and Jesus talking to the wider audience as well.

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You'll notice here that in the portion that we're reading that closes out chapter 12, verse 54 says, he also said to the crowds.

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So there we know plainly that he's addressing everybody. In the section that we were looking at last week where Jesus was encouraging his disciples, exhorting them to stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, it was within that Peter said,

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Lord, are you telling this parable for all of us or just for us?

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So is it for just the disciples or is it for the whole crowd? Jesus doesn't exactly answer the question because he goes on to say, who then is the faithful and wise manager whom his master will set over his household to give them their portion of food at the proper time?

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But then at the end of that, in what we were reading last week, Jesus said, everyone to whom much was given of him, much will be required.

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And from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more. So Jesus saying who he was really addressing there was the one to whom much was given.

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But in this closing portion, we have this broken up into kind of three parts. We have verses 49 to 53, and we have to figure out exactly who

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Jesus is addressing there. Verses 54 then to 56, and that's addressing the crowds about being able to discern the time and then judging what is right.

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Verses 57 to 59, which is also addressing the crowd. And this is in view of what he was just teaching about the return of the master.

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You don't know on what day the master is returning, so therefore you must be ready. So in view of that, we go on to this next part in verse 49, where Jesus begins,

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I came to cast fire on the earth. So he still has in view the coming destruction and judgment that will be upon the earth.

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Now, like I said, there's occasions where he's teaching just to the disciples, other times where he's teaching the crowds. Back where we had the parable of the rich fool, verses 13 to 21, that was to everybody in the crowd because the point of that parable was, you never know on what day that your life is going to be up.

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So you need to be prepared and not be in a state of thinking, I'm going to eat, drink, and be merry, kick back and relax, but rather you need to be storing up treasure with God, for he is the one who will be your judge in the end.

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So everybody must be ready because you don't know on what day your soul will be required of you.

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Then the specific lesson in verses 35 to 48 was for the disciples and especially to the one that had been given much.

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But now here in verse 49, it's a very interesting way that this starts because Jesus says,

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I came to cast fire on the earth and would that it were already kindled.

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Obviously this is still going on with an end times perspective, the end of the world, the judgment of all things, but then in verse 50 saying,

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I have a baptism to be baptized with and how great is my distress until it is accomplished.

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So Jesus is saying there is a judgment that's coming and he knows that judgment is coming and it's he who's going to bring the judgment and what a horrible day it's going to be, especially for those who were not ready, who were not prepared, whom

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Jesus had talked about right there at the end of the last parable, verses 47 and 48.

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But then it's kind of like he comes back into the present. After he says there's a judgment that's coming, he says,

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I have a baptism to be baptized with. So it's as if he's saying first things first, there's some other things that need to be settled here.

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I love this note from Charles Ellicott regarding this statement of his,

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I came to cast fire on the earth. Listen to what Ellicott says in his commentary. There is a strange, unique abruptness in the utterance.

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We are compelled to assume a pause, a moment's thought, as in one whose gaze looks out into the future and who at once feels its terrors and yet accepts them.

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The fire which he came to send is the fire of judgment, which shall burn up the chaff.

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I'll come back to that in a moment. The baptism of fire, which shall purify and cleanse as well as destroy.

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The son of man knew that this with all its terrors was what he came to work.

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If the fire was already kindled, if judgment was already passed upon the unfaithful stewards and the servants who knew their

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Lord's will and did not do it, why should he wish to check it? What other wish or will was right for him than that it should complete what it had begun, even though it brought not peace, but a sword, not union, but division?

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That's a great question from Ellicott and a great way to view that.

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If you were to think of this in, let's say, cinematic terms, let's say somebody was making a movie.

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I'm not encouraging anybody to do this. You know my feelings on that if you've heard what I've said about The Chosen. So let's say that somebody's making a movie and you have

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Jesus sitting there and he's teaching his disciples everything that we've read here in chapter 12, especially concerning the lesson that we just read last week.

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Jesus, lesson to them to stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning. And as he's been saying this, he gets to the end where he talks about the judgment that will come upon that unprepared wicked servant, that servant who knew his master's will but did not get ready or act according to his will, he will receive a severe beating.

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And Jesus finishes that out, talking about how everyone to whom much was given of him much will be required.

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And as he finishes saying that, as you're watching this cinematically, his eyes kind of trail off into the distance.

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Like Ellicott says, it's as if Jesus is looking into the future. And he's realizing what it is that he's talking about, not like he's come to a startling awareness exactly, but recognizing future things that are to come.

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Exactly what it is he's speaking of. The disciples don't fully know it. They don't fully understand what he's referring to.

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Hence, Peter having to ask, Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for all? Like, who is this even applying to?

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But Jesus sees into the future that great judgment that is coming, that horrible day.

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And what a day of dread it will be to the one who does not know Christ, or who even knew the right way to go but didn't do it, as he had just talked about.

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And so as Jesus is viewing that day, as he knows that day is coming, and he is even the judge for that day, he says,

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I came to cast fire on the earth. And would that it were already kindled.

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And this is not Jesus saying, I just want to bring judgment down right now. Let's just do this.

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You guys are undeserving. Here we go. That's not what Jesus has in view here. When he says, would that it were already kindled, what he would desire is that his church would be fully realized.

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Finally, everybody who had been predestined from before the foundation of the world has come into the fold, has been drawn by the

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Father, has come to the Savior, and everybody who is going to be justified is justified.

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The church is done. It's full. That which God intended to complete has been completed.

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That's what Jesus is essentially saying when he says, and that it were already kindled.

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Because if it were already kindled, then the time would be over. The church would be gathered. The work would be done.

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But as he comes back into addressing the disciples who are right there with him, he says, but first things first,

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I have a baptism to be baptized with. There are things that need to happen before that day comes, when the church has been gathered and the judgment of God comes out on the rest.

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And this, by the way, is a fulfillment of something that John the Baptist had said regarding the

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Christ. Matthew 3 .12, his winnowing fork is in his hand. Well, let me stay in the context of Luke.

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So Luke 3 .17, his winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.

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Those were the words of John the Baptist about the coming Messiah. And Jesus is saying this of himself.

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He is that one who holds the winnowing fork, who will clear his threshing floor, who will gather the wheat into his barn.

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So again, all of this pointing to the fact that the church has been gathered. It's there. And once the church is there, once everyone whom

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God means to save is saved, now judgment pours out on the wicked.

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So all of the wheat has been gathered into the barn, the chaff now ready to be burned with unquenchable fire.

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But for that day to come, there's an order to these things. There are things that the

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Father has set according to his will. And so, verse 50 again,

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I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished.

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So you can probably understand then why Jesus would desire that the fire were already kindled.

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Because then the baptism would be over, and he wouldn't have to go through that because he would have already gone through that.

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This is the crucifixion that he dreads. His death that he is going to undergo when he gets to Jerusalem, and he will be arrested, and he will be tried in a monkey trial.

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He will be falsely accused. He will be crucified. The sinless Son of God is going to be put to death by the creatures that he made thousands of years before.

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What's most distressful about that is not that he's going to go and die. What's most distressful about that is that he is taking the wrath of God upon himself when he dies.

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In our place he dies, and he takes upon himself what we deserve for our sin, the judgment of God, as the sacrifice on the cross for our sin, shedding his blood, and in shedding his blood, giving his life.

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Because as said in Leviticus, the life is in the blood. So whenever we talk about the wonderful blood of Jesus, there is a fountain filled with blood flowing from Emmanuel's veins, as the great hymn goes, or nothing but the blood of Jesus.

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What can wash away my sins? Why is it that the blood of Jesus washes away sins?

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It's not because there's something magical in his blood. It was human blood.

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But the blood is the life. So when the blood is shed, the life is given.

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It wasn't enough that Jesus could have cut himself and just, you know, smeared a little bit of his blood on you, and then there, your sins are atoned for.

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It's the fact that he's giving his life. When an animal was sacrificed on behalf of somebody else, the sacrificial system, as it was implemented in Israel, and you had to have a certain sacrifice.

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It had to be blemished. It had to be the firstborn of the flock. And when you brought that sacrifice, and the neck was cut, and the blood was spilled, it wasn't just enough that you jabbed the animal somewhere and got a little bit of its blood.

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The blood is being spilled because the life is being given. And seeing the blood drain out of the animal is seeing the life being given to atone for sins.

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Of course, in Hebrews, we read that the blood of bulls and goats never had the power to forgive sins anyway. But all of this was pointing toward the

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Lamb of God, Anius Dei, he who was going to give himself as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

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Hence why John the Baptist said of him, Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.

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And in doing that, he takes the wrath of God upon himself. The wrath of God that is burning, that is kindled against all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of man.

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So on the day that Christ returns, he's going to pour out God's wrath on the ungodly.

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But first he has to go to the cross to receive God's wrath upon the ungodly.

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And it's Jesus who's going to give himself as the substitute for the ungodly.

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The Apostle Paul saying in Romans 5 .8, God shows his love for us and that while we were yet sinners, while we were ungodly,

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Christ died for us. As we read in 2 Corinthians 5 .21,

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For our sake he became sin, who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

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And that does not mean that Jesus made himself a sinner. He doesn't become a sinner for us, but he is the substitute for us.

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We deserve to die. We deserve the wrath of God, but he put himself on the cross and gave his life in our place.

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And what a horrible thing to have to undergo the wrath of God for the sins of all those who are going to be saved.

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But this is the baptism that Jesus has yet to undergo. I have a baptism to be baptized with and how great is my distress until it is accomplished.

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The apostles never said anything like that about the life that they were going to give for the preaching of the gospel, because they were not going to take on the wrath of God.

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Christ did that for them. So God's wrath would not be poured out on them. When they died, it would be because they share in the sufferings of Christ, and in that we rejoice, they said, as we read about in Acts 4 and 5.

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So they rejoice to be considered worthy of the name. If they were being persecuted for the name of Christ, they were sharing in the sufferings of Christ, and that was a joyful thing for them.

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For Jesus, though, he sees the dread of the cross. Now, Hebrews tells us in Hebrews chapter 12, that for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

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So certainly he did this with a heart to please the Father. There was a joy in it in a certain sense, but the joy that he was going to receive looking past it, not in the moment of, because what a dreadful thing for him, that he was going to take the wrath of God on our behalf.

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I have a baptism to be baptized with first, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished.

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Verse 51, do you think that I have come to give peace on the earth?

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No, I tell you, but rather division. Now, it's very interesting that we're reading that in the same gospel, where 10 chapters before you had the angels that appeared to shepherds in the field and said to them, glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace and goodwill towards men.

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The birth of the Savior was bringing peace, but here Jesus is saying, do you think that I have come to give peace on earth?

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No, I tell you, but rather division. But wait, the angel said peace on earth. The peace that we have in Jesus Christ is peace with God.

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It's not peace with one another. I mean, it is peace with one another in the sense that we're not only reconciled to God, but we're reconciled to the people of God.

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So brothers and sisters in the Lord, we should have peace with them, but with the world, there will not be peace.

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So there's peace between us and God. There's peace between us and the people of God, but we are not of this world, are we?

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As the old spiritual goes, this world is not my home. I'm just a passing through. As Peter says in 1

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Peter 1, we're strangers and exiles on the earth. As Paul says in Philippians 3, our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a

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Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. So peace with people in the world, that won't be the case.

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I tell you, I have come to bring division, Jesus says. From now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three.

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Not to read into the parable too deeply, but the majority would appear to be the unbelievers, because remember what

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Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount. Narrow is the way that leads to life and few will find it.

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Broad is the way that leads to destruction and many will find it, for that's the easy way. So three divided against two.

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They will be divided father against son and son against father. That's an astonishing thing for Jesus to say, because family was everything to Jews.

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I mean, kinship was everything. They carried around papers that showed their lineage, so they could prove who they were, who they belonged to, so they would be known what land belonged to them, what they had the rights to based on the land division.

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So lineage and family and even closeness within the family, this was very important to Jews.

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But here Jesus is saying that he will divide father against son and son against father. Mother against daughter and daughter against mother.

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Mother -in -law against her daughter -in -law and daughter -in -law against mother -in -law. And you have three right there, right?

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Father against son, son against father. Mother against daughter, daughter against mother. And then mother -in -law against her daughter -in -law and daughter -in -law against mother -in -law.

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So there you have the three against two. Neither blood nor the law will unite you.

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The only way that we are truly united is in Christ Jesus.

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His blood is even thicker than human blood. It is by his blood, as I said once again, that we are reconciled to God and we are reconciled to each other.

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Let us be looking forward to that day as the day when we will be delivered and we'll enter into the kingdom of God forever.

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But we must also have that day in view because those who do not know Christ will perish on that day.

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And so we want them to know the gospel of Christ, come to faith in him so that they will not perish in judgment, but have everlasting life.

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Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we have read here and I pray these are startling reminders to us, even as Jesus was looking into the future and seeing the destruction that was going to come upon the world and even looking into the present and seeing what he had yet to accomplish.

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So we would recognize those things as well. We know of the judgment that is to come and we see the work that is in front of us to share the gospel of Christ with others so that they may come to faith and believe and so be saved.

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Keep us holy in these days, walking in paths of righteousness for your name's sake. In Jesus' name we pray.

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Amen. Thank you for listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. If you'd like to support this ministry, visit our website www .wutt

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.com and click on the Give tab in the top right corner of the page. Join us again tomorrow as we continue our