When Christ Divides
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
C. S. Lewis wrote, “Christianity, if false, is of no importance and if true, is of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.” There are two end points. Really, just one, because Christianity, if false, is of no importance. That goes over here to the left. If true, is of infinite importance. That’s over there to the right and it just keeps going on for infinity. It cannot be in the middle. There is no neutral ground when it comes to Christianity because there is no neutral ground when it comes to Jesus. As Jesus himself said,
Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
There is no wider gulf than these two points. There cannot help but be division when it comes to Jesus.
And this morning, that’s what we find Jesus saying to his disciples. In the passage that we are studying this morning, we find Jesus giving three warnings to his disciples of what is to come so that they may know what it means to follow in his footsteps. The first is a warning of inevitable damnation. The second is a warning of an imminent death. The third is immediate division. And Jesus is at the center of it all.
Three warnings to know what it means to follow in his footsteps:
Inevitable damnation
Imminent death
Immediate division
“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 distress 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 and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”
A Warning of Inevitable Damnation
A Warning of Inevitable Damnation
The first warning that Jesus gave was one of inevitable damnation.
“I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled!
If we were to read this in conjunction with the previous verses that we read last week, we see that Jesus warned the managers of the household about what would happen if they abused the servants of the house. He warned them what would happen if he received on himself the privileges but eschewed the responsibilities of being the servant-leader of the servants. They would be cut into pieces and given their portion with the unbelievers. Then he warned that those who know what is expected and don’t do it would receive a severe beating while those who did not know and still did not do it, would receive a light beating.
All three of these warnings we saw last week speak to an inevitable judgment—an inevitable damnation. And it was as if Jesus were saying, “speaking of inevitable damnation, fire is coming.”
The word “fire” is emphatic in this sentence. It starts the entire thought-process. “Fire, I have come to throw upon the earth,” is how we would literally read the sentence.
Jesus came to do two actions according to John the Baptist: Baptize with the Spirit and Baptize with Fire. Let’s go back to the ministry of John the Baptist in Luke 3. John was prophesying about the coming Messiah just before he was to be baptized. And he told the people who were listening,
John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
Those are the two actions Jesus came to perform. The first was to baptize with the Holy Spirit. The second was to baptize with fire. To those who would believe, Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit. But to those who would not, Jesus would baptize with fire—judgment, damnation.
We saw that in Luke 3:17, Luke wrote
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.”
He was explaining to his hearers what it meant to be baptized with the Holy Spirit. It would mean that he would gather them into his barn. But to be baptized with fire would be the throwing of the chaff in the fire. So it’s either this or that.
Have you noticed how often we see two choices and only two choices? How often Luke confronts us with the truth that there is no neutral ground?
Once again, Jesus is seen to bring a warning of damnation. He came to throw fire upon the earth. It is the inevitable judgment of God that Jesus was bringing. It wasn’t time for the fire just yet. But it’s coming is inevitable. But Jesus gave the warning then.
One may remember the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. God told Abraham and then the angels told Lot that the sin of the people was great and had arisen to God and it was time for destruction. The warning of damnation came before the act itself, but it was inevitable. It came in short order, and that was God’s prerogative.
One may also remember God’s warning to Abraham about the Amorites and Canaanites in the land. His people would be sojourners in a strange land, in reference to Egypt, but eventually God would give them the Promised Land, but first damnation would come upon the Amorites.
And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”
There was the warning and then the judgment. So it is with Jesus. He is giving a warning, but it was not quite time. As he said, “would that it were already kindled.” God’s wrath was not yet fully-kindled. The fire was not yet ready. But when it comes, it will be devastating.
After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was made bright with his glory.
And he called out with a mighty voice, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast.
For all nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxurious living.”
Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues;
for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.
Pay her back as she herself has paid back others, and repay her double for her deeds; mix a double portion for her in the cup she mixed.
As she glorified herself and lived in luxury, so give her a like measure of torment and mourning, since in her heart she says, ‘I sit as a queen, I am no widow, and mourning I shall never see.’
For this reason her plagues will come in a single day, death and mourning and famine, and she will be burned up with fire; for mighty is the Lord God who has judged her.”
If you are here today and have seen Jesus only as moderately important and have not fully trusted in him to be Lord and Savior of your life, please understand that there is no neutral ground. Anyone who is not for him is against him. Damnation is your destiny. But Jesus can be your Savior.
A Warning of Imminent Death
A Warning of Imminent Death
This leads us right into the second warning Jesus gave. He warned of his imminent death.
I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished!
Again, that word “Baptism” is the emphatic word in the sentence. “Baptism, I have to be baptized.” We think of baptism in one particular way; we get dunked under water. But baptism was used in a euphemistic way in Jesus’s day. It was a way of speaking of death. In fact, baptism itself was often used of drowning, but it was quite often used to describe a horrible death of whatever sort.
You may remember when James and John asked if Jesus would put them on his left and right hands in the kingdom and Jesus responded with,
Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?”
So baptism was a euphemism for his imminent death. But notice what Jesus said about it. The distress that he feels about it is great and is going to continue to be that way until it is accomplished.
I want us to focus on two aspects of that statement for a moment. The first is his distress and the second is the accomplishment.
Jesus’s distress does not mean that Jesus was worried or anxious about what was going to happen to him. But it does mean that it was on the forefront of his mind. It is occupying his attention. There is much to get done before he goes to his imminent death. There is much to teach. Have you noticed that the narrative has slowed way down? It used to be there were stories of healing or stories or going somewhere and doing some miracle, and there were teaching segments scattered in. But now those stories, those narratives, have slowed way down. There’s hardly any narrative. It’s almost all teaching!
There are still a few to heal. We are in chapter 12 at the moment; Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem is written about in Luke 19. That’s seven more chapters from now. Between now and then only 4 more healings will take place (technically one of those healings is of the 10 lepers). Jesus is moving his ministry away from the healings and onto the preparation of his followers.
But it’s more than preparing his disciples. It’s knowing what it means to be baptized with this type of death. This wasn’t just any death. Remember what we just saw about Jesus’s ministry of baptizing with fire? It’s meaning of damnation? This was the death which would absorb the wrath of God that was pointed at the world.
In other words, for those who would believe, Jesus would be the one who would be baptized in fire. For those who would trust in him, he would save them by taking the fire they deserved and putting it on himself. What a weight to bear! And yet, he was willing to bear it.
Every moment that passed, every day that rolled on, he was getting a step closer to catching the very wrath that would be thrown upon the earth. So, “would that it was already kindled” is not only saying that Jesus was wanting God’s justice and judgment to be done, but that he was wanting it to be over with as well because he would face it for all who believe. Though it was distressing, it was also desirous.
But that second part is that it would be distressing until it was accomplished. Once he faced God’s wrath, God’s wrath would be assuaged. This is what it means to have Jesus as our propitiation. It mean’s God’s wrath was satisfied upon Jesus’s baptism, upon his death.
In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
At that moment, every sin would be put to death. It would be forgiven. It would be removed. It would be “paid in full.” And that is the word that Jesus used. Until it was accomplished. It’s the same word that John used when he recorded Jesus’s last words. “It is finished.”
The distress of the imminent death came because of Jesus’s knowing that he would face God’s wrath on behalf of God’s people who believe and whom he loved, and it would be his to face until it was finished. And it was finished at his death.
Behold the man upon a cross
My sin upon his shoulders
Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice
Call out among the scoffers
It was my sin that held him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I know that it is finished.
But what do you do with this information? What have you done with it? Do you accept Jesus’s finished work on the cross and receive his salvation from God’s wrath? Or do you reject his finished work on the cross and wait until the fire is thrown down upon the earth and you with it? There’s no middle ground.
This is why Lewis said: “Christianity, if false, is of no importance and if true, is of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.”
A Warning of Immediate Division
A Warning of Immediate Division
But that leads us to the third warning. The first was about the inevitable damnation, the second was on the imminent death (in which Jesus would take the inevitable damnation on our behalf), and now the immediate division.
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 and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”
I say this is immediate division because Jesus said in verse 52 that this was “from now on.” It started immediately. The moment you and I trust in Christ is the moment we entered into a battle, and that battle is often closer to home than we’d like.
You see, Christ both unites and divides. What is naturally united, is often supernaturally divided. At the same time that which is naturally divided will find that they are supernaturally united.
Jesus is certainly the Prince of peace, that peace is only available to those with whom God is well-pleased. Those who are hostile toward God cannot have peace in this world. Whoever is hostile toward God is inevitably going to be hostile toward’s God’s children. Whoever is at war with God will be at war with God’s children. Does that mean that every hostility is a sign of not being God’s child? No. Nor does it mean that every one who is the recipient of someone’s hostility is a child of God. It is only to say that peace is impossible so long as one is hostile toward God in his mind and spirit.
The saying is trite, but it’s true. Know Jesus. Know peace. No Jesus. No peace.
So while he is the Prince of peace for the believer, he is the enemy of the unbeliever. So there will be an immediate division among the believer and unbeliever. Thus, if there are two believers in a household, the other three would be against them, or vice-versa. Those whom one would think would naturally have a good relationship are now supernaturally at odds.
So, the cost of peace with God through Christ is division with non-believers, even those whom we love dearly. That doesn’t mean that we are hostile toward them, but that they will grow hostile toward us.
As Paul wrote the Corinthians
Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?
What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?
What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you,
This is not just about marriage. This is about partnering with the unbeliever. We’re just asking for trouble if we partner with unbelievers. Our mindsets are different. Our ethics are different. Our loyalty is different. We aren’t hostile toward them, but hostility will come. If we find agreement with the unbeliever, it will be in the most trivial of areas. As J. Gresham Machen wrote in Christianity and Liberalism, “In the sphere of religion, as in other spheres, the things about which men are agreed are apt to be the things that are least worth holding; the really important things are the things about which men will fight.”
Everyone likes to think that he/she is the exception to the rule. You’re not. No one is. As Christians, we will have enough trouble with division in the natural relationships we have with non-believers that we already know. We need not go out and seek more division by becoming unequally yoked with non-believers we don’t yet know. And by partnerships, I don’t mean we can’t be acquaintances with non-believers. But deep friendships, marriage, business partners, those types of deeper relationships will certainly be stressed by the supernatural division between believer and non-believer.
Conclusion
Conclusion
As we close out this section of Luke, we’ve seen Jesus give us warning so that we might know how to follow in his steps. He warned his disciples about the inevitable damnation of God’s wrath. He warned them about his imminent death that would absorb the inevitable damnation for those who believe. And he warned that immediate division would come.
But take heart, because Jesus not only divides natural relationships supernaturally. He unites unnatural relationships supernaturally as well.
Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands—
remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility
by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace,
and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.
And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.
For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,
built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone,
in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.
In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
While Paul is specifically referring to Jews and Gentiles in this passage, the implication and application is toward all who are divided. The moment that Christ is in the lives of those divided, there is a supernatural unity that is formed. We, as believers are supernaturally united in Christ. The Holy Spirit is united in and with us. Neither Christ nor the Spirit can ever be divided.
And Paul talks about this unity between Jew and Gentiles for one and a half chapters. He talks about the supernatural power of Jesus to unite those people who are naturally divided. And he ends with these remarks:
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,
with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,
eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—
one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.
Beloved, we have enough division that comes because of Christ; let us be eager to maintain the unity that comes from Christ and in Christ, through his Spirit.
Prayer
Our heavenly Father,
Would that we would take to heart what Jesus has said. Let us understand what it means to follow after him as disciples, as those who follow in his steps. Let us realize the inevitable damnation that is coming upon this world for all who do not believe upon the name of your Son Jesus Christ. May it light a yearning for their salvation.
Let us be reminded daily of the baptism with which Jesus was baptized so that we would not face an angry judge, but a smiling Father.
And let us realize that though there is division in natural relationships because of Jesus, may we also realize that there are now supernatural relationships as well. May we be eager to maintain those supernatural relationships and while also striving to save the natural ones through the gospel of Jesus Christ.
This we ask in Jesus’s name. Amen.