Was Jesus All About Peace?

Welcome back to Coffee with a Calvinist. My name is Keith Bosky and I am a Calvinist. This is your daily opportunity to study the Bible over your morning coffee. Today we're going to be in Luke chapter 12 and we're going to be focusing on verses 49 to 53.

Peace, Reconciliation, and the Question of Jesus' Mission

And the question of today is, did Jesus come to bring peace on earth? Did Jesus come to bring peace on earth? Oftentimes the question about peace comes up among people and people say, well as Christians we're supposed to be peacemakers and that is true.

But what is the peace that we're supposed to be focused on? Are we supposed to be focused on peace between men and men or men and God? Well certainly peace between men and men is good and we are to exercise the ministry of reconciliation, but our primary concern is reconciliation between men and God.

Because if men will be reconciled with God, then it is natural that men would be reconciled one with the other. But if men are not reconciled with God, then even if they are reconciled with one another, it's not that grand a victory.

Because as long as men remain at war with God, they remain in their sins. And so let's read the text and see what it is I'm bringing up today. And by the way, I want to remind you what's going on this week.

You notice I'm in my favorite superhero t-shirt. I've got this crazy cartoon background behind me because this is Camp Week and I'm trying to keep these videos a little shorter this week because every day I'm gonna be working with about 30 youngsters at Sovereign Grace Family Church in our annual karate camp.

And we're looking, we're having a great time and I'm looking forward to each day. And so that's what this is all about, trying to give a little bit of a reminder as to what's going on by wearing my favorite superhero shirt and with a little bit of a cartoon background behind me.

Christ Brings Division, Not Earthly Peace

So this is what Jesus said. He says, I came to cast fire on the earth and would that it were already kindled. I have a baptism to be baptized with and how great is my distressed until it is accomplished.

Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. For from now on in one house there will be five divided. Three against two and two against three. 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, daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.

You say, what is this talking about? Well, Jesus is talking about the result of those who believe in him versus those who do not. And they can be even within a single family. And for those who have experienced this, this rings very, very true.

Some people have a family where many people in the family are believers. Maybe they all attend church together. Maybe they've all sort of been in the faith together and they have a heritage of Christian faith.

But then there are other people who come out of homes that are not Christian and they didn't grow up in a Christian home and they don't have parents who are Christians. And they get saved and lo and behold the relationship with their parents changes.

Because now they're a person who is no longer living for the world. They're no longer living for the things of the world. They no longer have the same desires, ambitions and goals as the world has. And now their desires, ambitions and goals are Christian in nature.

Their desires are for heavenly things. Their ambitions are to please God. Their goals are to seek after Christ and to live a holy life. And the people that they were related to that do not have that same desire see them as almost as like an enemy.

The True Division Is Between Believers and Unbelievers

That's what Jesus said. He says, I didn't come to bring peace on earth but rather division. What kind of division does Christ bring? He brings a division between the believers and the unbelievers. And that's what we're seeing right now in the world all around us.

We're seeing all kinds of division in the world. And a lot of people say, well it's political division. And there is political division. There is a tremendous amount of political division in the world.

There's tremendous amount of people who are divided over things that shouldn't be the major focus in life. People who are divided over race or people who are divided over particular political issues. But really at the heart of many, many things is the issue of the gospel.

I recently read a book by David Horowitz which was entitled Dark Agenda, where he has analyzed the last century of how so many of the actions in politics have been intended to push out references to not God in general, but references to Christianity.

References to the Christian God. And as we see and have seen, that is continuing to be, that is continuing to grow and to be seen all around us. That this desire to see God pushed out of the public square, to see not only God but the true God, the God of Scripture, the God of the Bible, the Trinity.

We see that language being pushed out of the square, out of the public square, certainly out of academia, out of even grade school. Children are, from the very youngest age, being taught that the stories of the Bible are mythological, they're not true, and all of those things.

And there's a divide, right? There's a divide between people who believe the Bible and who don't believe the Bible. There's a divide between those who trust in Christ and those who don't trust in Christ.

There's a divide between people who believe trusting in Christ is the only way to be reconciled with God, and not trusting in Christ doesn't, or those who don't trust in Christ. And so there's this huge divide in the world.

The Only Division That Ultimately Matters

And I've made this point many times, and if you've heard me preach you probably heard me say it, so I just want to remind you this today. Of all the divisions in the world, political and whatever other kind of division any man can dream up, whether they be national, racial, social, economic, whatever divisions man can find, and man is very good at finding divisions, the only division that really matters is whether or not someone's in Christ.

Because if you are in Christ, you are my brother or my sister in Christ. You are part of the body of Christ. And if you are not in Christ, then there's a division between us, even if we're family. And that's the funny thing, is there are family members that I have that are blood relatives that do not know Christ.

And while I love them, I know that unless they receive Jesus Christ, unless they are born again, unless they come to repentance and faith, we will not be spending eternity together. Because outside of Jesus Christ, there is no salvation.

No one is going to be saved because they fancy themselves a good person. The Bible says there's none good, no not one. There's none who understands, there's none who seeks after God. So the reality is there are only two types of people in the world.

There are the wheat and the tares. There are the sheep and the goats. There are those who are in the ark and those who are outside of the ark. That's my favorite analogy from Scripture when thinking about who Jesus is.

Jesus Christ is like the ark that Noah got into. When Noah got into the ark with his family, he was safe from the wrath of God. Everyone outside of the ark received the wrath of God. They were crushed by the deluge and they were destroyed by the wrath of God.

But Noah and his family inside the ark were perfectly safe from the wrath of God. And that's a picture of Christ. If you are in Christ, the Bible says we believe and we are in Christ. If you are in Christ and part of the family of God, you are safe from the wrath of God.

And if you're outside of Christ, you're not. So my encouragement first to you would be to repent of your sins and trust in Christ. Run to Jesus. Trust in him. Believe in him. For there is no salvation.

For there's no other name under heaven given among men by which you must be saved in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And at the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that he is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

You will bow the knee now or you will bow the knee at judgment. If you bow the knee now, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, then your eternity will be with him. If it's a judgment, you'll be bowing, screaming, begging for mercy, and there will be none to be found.

So I encourage you to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ while you still have time. The Bible says today is the day of salvation. Yes, as a Calvinist, I can still plead for you to believe. I can still call on you to believe while at the same time knowing that no one will believe unless the Lord God of heaven and earth so chooses to open your heart.

So I pray for you that God would open your heart and I pray that you would believe on him and believe in the one whom he has sent. So again, just finishing up the thought for today. Is there a division in the world?

Yes, but it's not the one that most people are concerned about. The biggest division in the world, the one that we ought to be concerned about, is whether or not you're in Christ or outside of Christ.

And Jesus said there will always be a division. There will always be enmity between those who are in Christ and those who are outside of Christ. Sometimes even in one's own household. Sometimes even, as the text here says, even between father and son.

It's a struggle. It's difficult. And if that's the situation you find yourself in, pray for those who are outside of Christ. Pray that God would open their eyes. Pray that God would open their hearts and continue to be an example of Christ to them, pointing them to Jesus Christ every opportunity that you get.

Closing Encouragement and Call to Share the Video

I hope today has been an encouragement to you. I pray that every one of these videos is helpful to you, and I do pray that if they are, that you'll take the opportunity to like, comment, share, and subscribe on these videos.

And again, I want to thank you for watching today. My name is Keith Foskey, and I am a Calvinist, and I want to say I hope you have a good day.