Discerning the Time Luke 12 Vs 49 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 bite. 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 justly.

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.

Amen. 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've shared 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 they might even nod their heads, and they might say, well, it sounds good, and when you ask them, so what do you think?

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 heard all of those things. Today's passage, however, shows this urgent need to discern what

Christianity is all about. 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, right?

In 2019, Lauren and I visited my family in Korea. I still have some family living there, my grandparents and some aunts and uncles.

They're not Christians. I think only one pair of aunt and uncle, they're

Christian. But 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 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, they're 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. Or we need to discern that following the crucified

Messiah leads to rejections from the world. In this section, Jesus 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 verse, 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. 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.

They're really nice people. They're friendly. We have to remember that even the nicest, kindest, most generous non -believer is rebelling against the

King of kings and Lord of lords 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 a second time.

The baptism here represents his suffering and death. For example, when

John and James in Mark 10 38 asked Jesus to place them at his right hand and the left hand.

When your kingdom comes, place us on your right hand and your left hand.

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 not know what you're asking.

Are you able to drink the cup that I drink or to be baptized with the baptism 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.

When Jesus died for you on the cross and you believe that you are reconciled with God, 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, 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

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 in 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 join it, you're psychologically, relationally, emotionally, you name it, physically divided from everyone you once knew, right?

Jehovah's Witnesses, right? You cannot really interact too much with the ones outside of your faith and even if you leave

Jehovah's Witnesses, they will shun you even if you're family. That's not what it's 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 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, former

Soviet Union, right? Even China, some parts of China.

And in certain cultures, following Christ results in martyrdom. And what's more tragic is that you're killed by your own family members for the honor of your family, right?

That's an explicit rejection. It's not like the Christian, the new convert, wants to get killed.

It's just that one's priority and devotion to Christ can lead to that path.

And in our nation, the explicit disowning or rejection is more rare.

But we do implicitly reject those who 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 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 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 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, 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.

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, it 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 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, when we were going through some of the hardest things, the ones who were 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.

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 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, 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, 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, time to put the coats away and get the short -sleeved shirts out,

Hawaiian shirts, right? Right? Now these two weather interpretations lead to a rebuke, right?

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 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's 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 miss 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 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.

In one sense, that's deeply troubling, because at the core, what the 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 standards. Understanding and Jesus shows foolish that is 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 will just follow

Jesus around as a show to what do we need to do?

We need to discern decisively to respond to Christ who can remove 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 versus 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.

The magistrate here would be like a financial officer 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. 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 mite.

When you're sent to prison, however, it is too late to respond to God's offer.

Here, the very last mite 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 mite would be about $1 .25 if we say, 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 think there's a chance to get out of this prison.

Let me tell you about debtor's prison. In ancient Israel, owing money was not a badge of honor, right?

Debt was not a great thing, right? Nowadays, everyone owes everyone money.

Our nations are bigger than ever and we're careless about it. That's not what 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, they would stay there unless their family or friends, right, paid 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,

Cor Deus Homo, which means in Latin, why God man, right?

The question is, well, why did God become man, right?

That's the question, and he has just all these logical arguments he made, 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?

Well, we must show through our utmost devotion to him, right?

In 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 not even able to pay

God back what we first owed, but when we sin, 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 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 redeemed has been paid for.

A record of it was nailed by false against us no more.

A 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 did sin this way. It wasn't the first time I told him it would be the last time

I've sinned, but no, 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 debt, it would make him unjust.

It would be against his character and nature to hold against you for your sin.

Through Christ, our debt against God is canceled.

This is the only path to freedom from debt. As Anselm 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, 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 a 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 deterrence 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.

But what you can be assured is God is on yours, nothing against him.

You are fully reconciled to God. He is yours and you are his.

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.