Discerning the Time Luke 12 Vs 49 59

12 verses 49 through 59. Luke chapter 12 verses 49 through 59. I came to send fire on the earth and how I wish it were already kindled but I have a baptism to be baptized with and now how distressed I am till it is accomplished.

Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you not at all but rather division for from now on five in one house will be divided. Three against two and two against three. Father will be divided 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 her mother-in-law. Then he also said to the multitudes whenever you see a cloud rising out of the west immediately you say a shower is coming and so it is and when you see the south wind blow you say there will be a hot weather and there is.

Hypocrites you can discern the face of the sky and of the earth but how is it you do not discern this time? Yes and why even of yourselves do you not judge what is right? When you go with your adversary to the magistrate make every effort along the way to settle with him lest he drag you out to the judge and the judge deliver you to the officer and the officer throw you into prison.

I tell you you shall not depart from there till you have paid the very last mite. This is the word of the Lord. Let us pray. Father we're thankful that Jesus has come to save us even if it meant he died on the cross for our sin and faced your wrath so that we may be forgiven and we're thankful that he is risen and we pray that we would listen to what he has to say and that respond in faith that we urgently need to in Jesus name.

Following the Crucified Messiah Means Rejection

So this passage follows of a long section on what and how do Jesus disciples live in this world right. This passage focuses on what kind of ministry is Jesus ministry because there are a lot of misconceptions on what is Christianity.

I'm sure some of you might have had a chance or an opportunity to share the gospel with an unbelieving friend or family and you share the whole gospel then there is the existence of sin and whenever we sin we rebel against God and there's the holy God and that's the biggest problem because if you sin against the holy God only the judgment waits but there's one way in which you can be rescued from that judgment and that is placing your faith in Jesus who took on your sin so that you do not have to pay for your sin yourself but by believing in Jesus you're forgiven and you're made righteous right.

You've shared that and then there's this urgency right and and and they might even nod their heads and they might say well it sounds good and when you ask them so what do you think are you do you feel like you would respond to what Jesus has to offer for you today they say nah I'm good or something like I'm glad it works for you.

I've even heard you know I would like to live my life a little more and then maybe commit to him later in life. You might have all heard all of those things. Today's passage however shows this urgent need to discern what Christianity is all about if if what Jesus claims is true and what Jesus has accomplished on the cross is true sharing the gospel is as urgent as telling your neighbor that his house is burning down and that you need to leave now.

You need to respond now. You need to make the decision now. But for them to reject that it would be like yes but let me finish my dinner it's as ridiculous as that. But today Jesus shows what not only non-believers need to discern but also what Christians need to discern.

And what Christians need to discern is that when you're following Jesus there is persecution. There is rejection. There's even rejection by the ones closest to you. When in 2019 Lauren and I visited my family in Korea I still have some family living.

There are my grandparents and some aunts and uncles. They're not Christians. I think only one one pair of aunt and uncle they're Christian. But you know by that time I was in seminary and I was done with one year right.

So it seemed pretty certain that I would go into ministry after hoping pastoral ministry. My grandparents however did not like that but because they're passive aggressive they didn't say anything about it while we were there.

But after we left my grandparents threatened to disown me if I continue with seminary. That was possibly one of the first rejections I've experienced for being a Christian. I knew what God has called me to do.

It was clear and I knew God has provided us with the opportunity to get a seminary education. I didn't have to go into debt for that and I knew where God wanted me to be. But there was this threat that if I don't basically renounce what God has called me to do then I wouldn't be part of that family.

Of course we cordially declined to drop out of seminary. But really that that is one of the first rejections I've experienced. And that's because of my devotion our commitment to Christ. When you make a decision for Christ Jesus Christ is your first and foremost.

Not only that he is your one and only there is no competing loyalty or allegiance to anyone or anything else. And that also includes family. And that is difficult. It's not to say it is easy. Your family is there are some of the closest people earthly relationship that you have.

But some of you may have experienced it yourself. But we still need to discern. When we make a decision for Christ we need to discern well to whom we actually belong. So the main point of this message is what do we need to discern regarding Jesus ministry.

What do we need to discern regarding Jesus ministry. First we need to discern that following the crucified messiah leads to rejections from the world. All we need to discern that following the crucified messiah leads to rejections from the world.

Jesus’ Fire, Baptism, and the Cross

In this section Jesus addresses addresses specifically his followers. Verses 49 to 50 set the context of the crux of Jesus ministry. I came to send fire on the earth and how I wish it were already kindled now.

Oftentimes when people think of Jesus ministry we think of it as peaceful and wholesome. Nice friendly. With this first Jesus totally shatters this view. Fire here means judgment and also the work of the spirit.

Remember when john the baptist introduced Jesus as the one who is to come how he will baptize with fire and spirit. In Luke 3 16 this is a similar background. Jesus ministry culminates in a redemptive judgment.

The judgment of the world and the redemption of the world are the two sides of the same coin. In order to completely restore this sinful fallen world Jesus has to ultimately judge the world. That's important.

People often like to say it's judgment or redemption. In the end it has to be both in order to redeem the world. No sin can remain. And anyone or anything that has rejected Jesus cannot be left alone cannot be freed from the judgment to come.

That's because judgment and redemption come together. The wicked will be forever punished and the righteous set apart. That has to be the case for many of us who are surrounded by non-believers. And they're they're really nice people right.

They're friendly. But we have to remember that even the nicest non-believer the kindest most generous non-believer is rebelling against the king of kings and lord of lords. And on the day of judgment it's not just the day of punishment it's also the day of restoration.

All things are made new now what must come before this fulfillment. But i have a baptism to be baptized with and how distressed i am till it's accomplished. This is not the physical baptism because Jesus had already been baptized.

And there is no reason to think that Jesus needs to be baptized the second time. The baptism here represents his suffering and death. For example when john and james in mark 1038 asked Jesus to place them at his right hand and the left hand right.

When your kingdom comes place us as on your right hand and your left hand right. Make one of us secretary of defense the other one secretary of state right. And then 12 when they hear that they're angry.

But this is what Jesus says. You do know now you do not know what you're asking. Are you able to drink the cup that i drink or to be baptized with the baptism which you will be which i will be baptized.

The baptism here is the suffering that Jesus will have to endure. It's in one sense it's the cross. The baptism has to be endured in order for the restoration and judgment to happen. Jesus eagerly anticipates saving his people through his suffering on the cross.

What that means is the world can only be restored the wicked totally eliminated. And his people saved from their sin only through Jesus death in the cross. And this is because the core problem of sin is really that it has to be dealt with before the holy god.

The holy god can't ignore sin. Every other god can ignore sin. Not this god. He has to deal with it. But how does he deal with sin without destroying the whole world without destroying his own people he takes it upon himself and faces the wrath of god that we deserve.

It has to be paid for by him. That's the only way in which sin's curse is reversed. And hence the cross is the catalyst for the redemption of the world and the judgment of the world. Jesus has to go to the cross.

And he knows that even early in this ministry we're not even halfway done with the book of Luke. Well we're almost right now. Jesus explains the implication for his people. So what does that mean. That Jesus does have to suffer.

Do you suppose that I came to give you peace on earth. I tell you not at all but rather division. Now this does not mean Jesus does not reconcile us with god. Uh when Jesus died for you on the cross and you believe that you are reconciled with god you your relationship with god is fully restored.

He has nothing against you because everything that he had against you has been poured out on his son. Rather the division Jesus is talking about is between the believers and non-believers. So for those who faithfully follow Jesus thus there will actually be pain and suffering in this world and with this world because God's people are separated from this world they don't belong to this world anymore.

And if they don't belong to this world then the world would reject them. That's the division that Jesus brings. And verses 52 to 53 give us examples of such divisions. For from now on five in one house will be divided.

Three against two and two against three. The number here represent the number of people that belong in a family. Five people. And what what Jesus is saying upon their response to Jesus. Some of them even a family would be divided.

There is now a divide in the most intimate form of earthly relationship because of your response to Jesus. Three against two. Three people against two. Two people against three. Jesus is that dividing line.

Your loyalty to Jesus is the reason for that division and rejection. Well verse 52 is a general division of a household. Verse 53 actually delve into detail what that would look like in a familial relations.

Father will be divided against son and son against father. Mother against daughter and daughter against mother and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law and mother-in-law against daughter-in-law.

The division here runs deeply. First it runs both ways. It's not just one divided against the other and the other is just fine. And you know there's nothing really happening. Everything's fine. Father against son and son against father.

It's both ways. Second the division is comprehensive and it's and how it affects the whole family. It does not matter whether the gender of the person it does not matter whether it's blood relation or in-law.

Right. One's loyalty to Jesus completely changes your relation to everyone else. And this is not to say that christianity is a cult. Right. A lot of cults. When you when you join it you're uh you're psychologically relational emotionally you name it physically divided from everyone you once knew right.

Jehovah's Witnesses. Right. Uh you you cannot really interact too much with the ones outside of your faith. And even if if you leave Jehovah's Witnesses they will shun you. Even if your family that's not what it's uh prescribing here right.

What it's saying is fundamentally your identity and your devotion to Christ is so different from the world the rest of the world that you are naturally separated from them. Jesus followers highest priority and allegiance is Jesus.

This devotion inevitably separates us from the rest of the world. And we see that committing to Jesus may even lead to the breaking of the some of the closest relationships. And this might be explicit in some countries some cultures you've become Christian.

You're outward like outright disowned right. You have nothing to do with this family if you're a Christian. And it's so true in places like the Middle East uh former Soviet Union right. Um even China some parts of China.

And in certain cultures following Christ results in martyrdom. And what's more tragic is that uh you're killed by your own family members. For for the honor of your family right. That's an explicit rejection.

It's not like the Christian uh the new convert wants to get killed. It's just that one's priority and devotion to Christ can lead to that. And in in our nation uh the explicit disowning or rejection uh is more rare.

But we do implicitly reject those who follow Christ. You have different goals in life. Your goal is no longer just getting the most amount of wealth possible before you retire. Your goal may be different in raising your children.

There's a different parenting method because you're not just raising your kid to go to the ivy league college although that could be it if that is God's will. But your your primary goal in raising children is to make future disciples of Christ who would live in godly manner even when they're 18.

And that may rub your family members the wrong way. What do you mean he can't watch this. What do you mean. You're not sending your kid to this school. What do you mean. You're not sending this kid to this summer camp.

We do this as a family. That's the family tradition. Well we want to be faithful to God. And for for some of the parents out there uh you may not want your grandparents. I mean your parents. Right. Their grandparents.

The kids grandparents watching them without your supervision you don't know what they're going to indoctrinate. Right. Follow your heart. You can be whatever you want. I had to correct my uh family that no no no you don't get to tell Micah what he can be whatever he wants.

He can be whatever God wants him to be. And naturally you might have different pursuits. Your hobbies might change your friend groups. The ones you hung out with so closely in college or high school they don't have the same desires.

Their primary pursuit is no longer Jesus. You start to grow colder and you start to realize maybe they weren't really that close in the first place. But that's that's the implicit rejection of Christ.

I mean not rejection of Christ. Rejection that happens in your life. It's not like you're seeking to unfriend people that you were friends with. It's just that when you're chasing two different goals there is a division.

And that's to be expected for Christians. After all people would ask why in the world would you follow Christ if you can't do abc. And the answer to that is because what we gain is infinitely greater than what we have to lose when we follow Jesus.

When you commit to Christ you may lose your family but you still gain Christ. Your family will leave you because death happens to all. Your family may betray you because we're all sinful humans. But Jesus he'll never leave you.

And he won't die on you because he died for you already and he's risen. You may lose all of creation but you will have the creator. Recently some very influential people died last couple weeks right. Charlie Munger the second in command of Berkshire Hathaway one of the biggest investment companies in the world second to Warren Buffett himself.

He died at the age of 99 and he lived a long life. But what's the point of all those billions of dollars if you keep none of that. But for Christians doesn't matter how much you have you'll always have Jesus.

You'll have the creator himself. You may lose your parents but you will gain his the heavenly father. The father who will never disown you. The father who will never criticize you in a harsh manner. The father who will always be accessible to you no matter what you're going through.

And the father who will understand you in your hardship. You may lose your biological siblings but you will gain spiritual brothers and sisters in Christ. I'll tell you uh some when we were going through some of the hardest things.

The ones who were uh the most comforting to us were not our biological family although they were nice they texted us called us. But the ones who were of the utmost comfort were Christian brothers and sisters.

You may lose earthly friends but you will gain one true friend Jesus who will never leave you because he died to have you. That's what we gain. And that's worth any rejection. You may faith on earth because you will gain someone who will never reject you.

The Need for Non-Believers to Discern Jesus’ Ministry

Now what do the outsiders need to know about Jesus ministry. Non-believers need to discern the significance of Jesus ministry. Non-believers need to discern the significance of Jesus ministry. After addressing his disciples Jesus speaks to the crowd.

Then he also said to the multitudes whenever you see a cloud rising out of the west immediately you say a shower is coming. And so it is the west. Here is the mediterranean sea. Right. You know your geography of the middle east.

Well in ancient israel it was well known it was a well-known weather phenomenon to see the cloud forming in the west and it would move on land. Right. And it signaled that the rain was will be there.

Right. The rain is in the forecast. Similarly in verse 55 we see another widely dependable meteorological sign. And when you see the south wind blow you say there will be hot weather. And there is the south wind.

Right. It comes from the hot region. Or was so scorching dry that it was said that it would wilt the plants as it passed by. Right. So you know it's coming in sacramento. It's sort of like when we uh around april.

Right. We interpret that first day of 80 degrees like ah winter's gone. Right. We don't have spring here. Right. It's like the first day of 80 degrees in april. Okay uh time to put the coats away and get the short sleeve shirts out.

Hawaiian shirts. Right. Right. Now these two weather interpretations lead to a review. Right. This jesus is not saying this to teach the ancient israelites how to prepare for the next weather. It's a rebuke.

Verse 56. Hypocrites you can discern the face of the sky and of the earth. But how is it. You do not discern this time the rebuke. The rebuke is centered around the vast majority of the crowd who's who's following jesus here.

Right. And it's their inability to discern and judge the significance of jesus ministry. The time here is the time of the coming of the messiah. So the rebuke is sort of like this. These people are able to interpret weather phenomena and act accordingly.

Right. They will respond when the rain is coming. They will respond when the scorching heat comes and it brings hot weather. Yet when they witness jesus divine miracles and teaching they have failed to discern the importance of jesus and his ministry something more obvious something more palpable something that's been promised in the old testament.

And they see that through jesus and his ministry. Yet they will not respond. However they will respond very well with the clouds forming in the west. They will respond very well with the scorching wind from the south.

But when it comes to jesus and his ministry something that is vastly more significant they're failing to respond. They've seen jesus healed. They've seen jesus cast out demons. They've seen jesus raise the dead.

Yet they have failed to respond in faith. They've heard jesus teach with authority unlike any of the scribes and pharisees. They've experienced his wisdom far beyond that of solomon's. Yet they remain idle to them.

Jesus is just a spectacle to behold not the king to bow down to. He's just the weekday entertainment. Look what he did this week. Wow. That's better than last week. They could discern the weather. But they missed something far more important in their lives far more important than the coming rain and the scorching wind.

They missed god's palpable presence among them. Ironically while they did not miss the change in the weather they missed god who was in front of them. They did not miss the faces of the weather change.

But they missed the face of god. Now it is one thing to desire to investigate more about jesus after hearing about him for the first time. And i think that's actually in the bible. Count the cost. Think about.

Think about what you're going to lose when you're committing to christ. But it's another thing to linger and not commit. Despite seeing much evidence of jesus divinity and accomplishments and remain. I think indecision is one sense what jesus is warning against.

It's not the lack of this evidence that people are not choosing to follow christ. But these people have seen a lot yet they do not want to commit to him. And in in one sense that's deeply troubling because at the core what's person is saying is i understand that god provided evidence.

After all for these people god came to them. The problem is that of pride. God has to show evidence that fits my standard. It has to be according to my understanding or i won't commit. And jesus shows how foolish that is.

You're willing to respond to weather changes but you cannot respond to the change in the time of the world history god's redemptive history. There is someone so important that the world would not be the same after me.

You're not going to respond. You will just follow jesus around as a show to watch not a person to bow down to to worship to trust. Now how do we. What do we need to do in response to jesus. We need to discern decisively to respond to christ who can remove our debt.

Responding Now to Christ Who Cancels Our Debt

We need to discern decisively to respond to christ who can remove our debt. Although this section sounds very much like matthew 5 what's following here verses uh 57 through 59 its context leads us to a different interpretation.

While matthew 5 was about a personal responsibility in repaying what you owe to another person another human being this section is about our personal responsibility in settling with god. Because we can't possibly pay what we owe him we're indebted to him.

It is an exhortation to respond to god now while you can. The parable begins in verse 58 when you go with your adversary to the magistrate make every effort along the way to settle with him lest he drag you to the judge and the judge deliver you to the officer and the officer throw you into prison.

Uh the magistrate here would be like a financial officer right. Who could settle this. Who could hold you accountable to pay what you owe. The adversary here is the person you owe your money to and in this parable this adversary is god.

Every one of us owes god our full devotion whether you believe in him or not. Because he's the creator god we owe him our full devotion. And in this parable we cannot possibly give him what we owe him.

And that's because in real life it's because of our sinfulness we're just not perfect and hence we are indebted. We owe him. However jesus says there's an opportunity to settle with him before you're taken to the magistrate there's still time for you to go to god before he judges you which is illustrated by the adversary dragging you to court and deliver you to the officer in prison.

Now what will happen if you don't respond. I tell you you shall not depart from there till you have paid the very last might when you're sent to prison. However it is too late to respond to god's offer.

Here the very last might is basically the smallest unit of currency. It was a copper coin worth about one of one 128 so one over 128 of a denarius which is a day's wage right. A mic would be about 1 .25 cents.

If we save you know minimum wage is 20. You know for mcdonald's workers right. Jesus makes clear that every last bit must be paid before getting out of the debtor's prison. So now lest you lest you think there's a chance to get out of this prison.

Let me tell you about debtor's prison. In ancient israel only owing money was not a badge of honor right. That was not a great thing right. Nowadays everyone owes everyone money our nations and bigger than ever.

And we're careless about. That's not how it was back then. In fact indebtedness was a crime. Hence people who owed money and did not repay were sent to debtor's prison and this was a serious punishment.

Oftentimes it would stay there unless their family or friends right paid what they what what you owed right now. Here's the problem for this fellow in the parable there's no mention of family or friends paying for him.

Rather he has to stay there until every last bit is paid off. The question is how are you going to pay for it if you're not making any money in debtor's prison. Implicitly if this man fails to settle with god before the set time where he's sent off to the debtor's prison he will never get out.

He's not going to make any money in prison. So how is he going to pay for it to get out if he's not going to be able to earn any income. In one sense we're all indebted to god. That's how we need to view sin.

Sin is much more than indebtedness. But in this passage that's the angle that we see a medieval theologian anselm makes this argument well in his book for deus homo which means in latin why god man. Right.

The question is well why. Why did god become man. Right. Why did god become a man. That's the question. And and he has just all these logical arguments he makes why god had to become man. And one of them is this.

As creatures we owe our creator a debt of gratitude. And that's because god did not have to create us. God did not have to create us. He did not owe us anything. He didn't have to create us. He wanted to create us.

He didn't need to create us. So what is this debt of gratitude. We. Well we we must show through our utmost devotion to him. Right. And everything in obedience. However when we sin we incur more debt because not only do we initially owe god everything because he created us but when we dishonor the infinitely honorable god we now must owe him an infinite payment of debt.

Right. There's even more debt because we sin. The problem is we're there's even more. So even our obedience even after we sin is not even close to make up for the infinite debt we have incurred. And the question is what hope do we have.

How do we pay for this. And anselm says we must look to god to take care of our debt for us. Because we cannot possibly pay god even a fraction of what we owe him. We must rely on god's grace and mercy in order for us to be free from our debt.

And this is why god became man. Right. Jesus had to take on our debt and pay for it on the cross. The infinite took the form of the finite to pay for the infinite debt that we couldn't pay. Jesus took all of our debt against god and paid for it himself on the cross.

And and this is why paul says in colossians 2 14. Jesus has destroyed what was against us a certificate of indebtedness expressed in decrees opposed to us. He has taken it away by nailing it to the cross.

Jesus cancels our debt not by fiat by just saying oh you're good. But through his death on the cross there is an event of transaction that you can look to to see if your debt is canceled or not. There is a receipt of debt payment.

Everything we owe god everything we owe the holy god because we have rebelled against him has been paid for on the cross. It was nailed. Even the record of it was nailed. And god holds against us. No more.

Your record of debt was decisively nailed on the cross. Now how do you know if god is against you or not. Some of us might think we had a hard week man god must be punishing me. After all i i did sin this way.

It wasn't the first time i told him it won't be. It would be the last time my last time i've sinned. But no i i failed him again. But how do we know that it's not god. Because your record of sin has been fully paid for by christ.

Your debt is canceled for god to hold it against you. Any record of canceled that it would make him unjust. It would be against his character in nature to hold against you for your sin which has been paid for on the cross.

That's the reason. And only through christ our debt against is canceled. This is the only path to freedom from death. As ansem said nothing we bring to the table is even close enough to cancel our debt against god.

And that's the point. We can't do it in our own good deeds. We can't do it on our own. Only god's gift of debt cancellation through jesus christ frees us completely. This means if you have not made the decision to trust him your time to trust jesus is now.

If you do not take his offer now of true debt forgiveness there may not come another time. It may be too late. You may find yourself in the debtor's prison for all eternity. The urgency to respond to jesus in faith is now.

And for anyone who does not believe in jesus need to make that decision. There may not be in the next day. We never know. But what we do need to discern is how crucial this decision is in receiving the debt cancellation offer through jesus christ.

And only then you'll have the assurance that god holds nothing against you. When bad things happen to you it's not god punishing you. After all we live in a fallen world things go wrong to no fault of you yours or anyone around you.

Surely not god. But what you can be assured is god is on your side. After all you owe nothing against him. You are fully reconciled to god. He is yours and you are his. Let us pray father. We are thankful that my brothers and sisters in christ here have made that decision have felt that urgency and have made the decision to settle their infinite debt with you by believing in jesus christ help them to live that way.

Knowing that god does not hold anything against them anymore because it's been all paid for help them to live in the freedom.