21 Jan

8/19/18      LUKE 12:49-56   “A VERY HARD PASSAGE ON WHY WE SHOULD TRUST IN JESUS”

Have you ever tried to put together one of those some assembly required pieces of furniture?  I cringe every time I do because it never seems to go right.  Either the directions will be wrong or there will be no directions at all or I just can’t follow them.  Either way it becomes a process of discovering only what the manufacturer knows.  I’m not very good at these things anyway so I struggle.  Most of the time, the problem is I make pilot errors by cutting a corner by taking a shortcut that isn’t there.  This can happen in our Bibles also.  Many of us know the Bible a little as we read it every day.  Every once in a while or in my case about every other day, you may come across a passage that is particularly hard to understand.  And that is what we have in this morning’s message from Luke.  We are going to look at one of the reasons that discipleship or following God is so hard and how can we deal with this hardship.  This is one of the passages that has set our world on its ears.

I recently read a story by Tim Zingale that made me think.  He tells of a family that is very typical of many families we have in our churches, in our country.  There was a father, a mother and there were several children.  They were sitting around having supper one night when Ruth, a high schooler, started to tell of her friend who said that Jesus was the Son of God and that salvation was free to anyone who trusted in Him.  Ruth ended by saying, “Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.”  Tom, an older brother, got angry and said that he didn’t want any of that church stuff at the supper table.  The father agreed and cited that some guy at work was always trying to corner someone on religion.  Just a little sidebar that guy could have been me at the Post Office a few years back.  Anyway, the father wanted none of that in his house.

The mother raised her voice and said, “A little religion would do all of them a lot of good.  The least they could do would be to get a Bible and check it out.”  She had a Bible that had been given to her as a child and she would help Ruth check it out after supper.

Younger brother, Bill, suggested that they attend church and ask the pastor.  He would know.  After supper Mother, Ruth and Bill gathered around the Bible and looked for answers.  After reading for a while, they decided that they would go to church on Sunday and talk with the pastor.  The father and the older son left the table in a huff and watched a football game, the deadly religion of football.

The other three went to church on Sunday.  They got to talk to the pastor and in time they learned to experience Jesus in their lives.  For them Jesus was the way, the truth and the life.  They became regular attenders in church.  The other two are still watching TV, a meaningless, empty football game.

This is the same as what we read in today’s Scripture.  There will be three against two and two against three.  I think that we all know families like this and maybe you are part of this kind of family.  And as hard as these types of situations are, we cannot despair.  For those of us who know Jesus, we are to keep praying for the lost and keep on trying to help the lost.  We are to pray unceasingly.  I praise the Lord for those who prayed for me before I came to know Jesus.

Anyway, in verse 49 Jesus is telling us that he has come to bring fire to the earth.  This probably means that He has come to judge the world as the term fire meant cleansing in the ancient language.  In verse 50, He tells of a baptism that He must go through.  This baptism is his death on the cross.  If you remember from a couple of weeks ago, Jesus was speaking to his disciples when thousands of other people gathered to hear Him.  This is part of that same conversation.  He tells all the people and not just the disciples that He wishes that this coming part was done.  He knows what is coming up in Jerusalem.  He knows that He is on the way to the cross.  He knows the heavy burden of judgment that He must bear.  He knows all of this stuff and it is almost as if the human side of Jesus is saying that He wished that it was over.

And this is because as we read in verse 51, Jesus didn’t come to bring peace on earth, but He came to make division.  Are you still with me on this?  This stuff is coming straight from the Gospel of Luke.  He goes on to say that families will be divided just like in our opening story.  Father will be against son and son will be against father.  There will be mother against daughter and daughter against mother.  Even the in-laws will be against each other.  Now for those of you who think that Jesus only came here to love and to make everyone happy, you must be squirming a little in your seats.  And that is ok also because we aren’t to get too comfortable with any of this.  It should always challenge us.

So now I come to the question, “How does this play out in modern times?”  I think that this is quite evident.  We live in a society where we are being dominated by the dark side.  I would be repeating myself if I went into all the areas of concern because all areas are of concern.  All we really have to do is look around a little because the enemy is everywhere.

One of the biggest concerns that we should have is the gentle slide into sin we have been on in the past few decades.  It’s so gentle a slide that we hardly notice it.  Satan figures that he has all the time in the world to get us so he is in no hurry.  A century or two ago, the people knew where they stood with God.  They knew what was right and what was wrong.  And people knew the difference.

Now look at us.  We live in a world where there is no wrong.  No matter what you do it is ok if you think that it’s ok.  Somewhere along the line we have decided that we can take the place of God.  We seem to think that we are a lot smarter than God.  So we should be able to do a better job.  We have redefined Jesus into a God that is all loving and caring.  He is part of a God that will take everyone to heaven no matter what.  Well I don’t know about you but the Bible that I read states things very differently.  First of all we have to believe in Jesus before we can be saved.  And if you don’t believe, then it is your choice as to where you go.  God doesn’t send us to hell, we send ourselves there.  We have been given all the tools to believe, now we just have to do it, believe.

And when you do start to believe, it will be one person at a time.  That is the way it has always been.  Then you will be having one brother being saved and another will not.  They may be saved later with the help of the Holy Spirit.  Families will be split.  I’ve seen it and I’m sure that you have seen it.

Pretty soon we will have countries being divided by the belief that some have in Jesus.  I think that you can see this in our country today.  We have Christians on one side saying that this is right or this is wrong.  We have people on the other side saying that everything is right and a loving God wouldn’t do such things to His people.  And this split could and will get much worse in this country.  It looks to me that we are heading for some sort of civil war.

We can even look into the world.  We have countries that will not tolerate Christians under any circumstances.  And this doesn’t come from just the Muslim countries.  The Hindus hate us and so do the Buddhists.  As we read Jesus didn’t come to bring peace but He came to divide.  This starts with families and goes right to the world.

I think that one of the great things about reading the Bible is when we find the Good News where there doesn’t seem to be any.  Jesus goes on here in Verses 54-56 to tell his audience that they know of how to interpret things of the world like the weather.  In this area of the world everyone knew just what a westerly breeze meant.  It meant that there would be moisture coming from the Mediterranean Sea.  This is no different than what a farmer can tell us today when we get an easterly breeze in this part of the country.  Everyone just knew this because it was part of their livelihood.  And when the breeze was from the south, it meant that it was going to be hot because the wind was coming off of the desert.

These are the things they knew for certain.  They knew when it was going to rain.  They knew how to read their world.  They knew the Scriptures.  They knew the law.  Jesus goes on to tell them that they are so smart in some areas, then why do they not know that God is working through Jesus Christ?  The really sad part of the answer to this question was that in many ways they did know who Jesus was.  They just couldn’t understand it.

So just how well do you understand this?  When your families are split because of your love of Jesus, then how well do you understand?  These are good questions and these are questions that we all have wondered about.  Today I think that we are the same as the ancients in that we all know how to pray, study the Word, and further His Kingdom.  We know but we don’t do.  I think that there are three things that you can do that will help.

The first and most important is to be committed.  Jesus called you to be reborn in the Spirit.  Many of you are and that is good.  But you may still falter.  Then it is the time to remember your rebirth.  You need to be constantly reminded about how good it was and how good it felt to have a new life.  Remember how all of your burdens were lifted away as you accepted Jesus.  If you haven’t done so yet, ask Jesus into your heart so that at last you can feel the peace that is meant for all of us.  This is good and this is life changing.  For those of you who don’t remember your rebirth, just think of someone you know who is lost.  How are they doing?

The next thing you need is the strength to get through when the going gets tough.  My family has always supported me in my relationship with Christ.  But my old friends sure didn’t.  Most of them scattered like dandelion seeds in the wind.  They wanted nothing to do with me and they still want nothing to do with me 25+ years later.  Rejection is hard for any of us to go through.  But it happens.  You need the strength to get through by knowing Jesus.  You do this by reading His Word.  You do this by praying unceasingly.  I think that I told you that when I became a Christian, I didn’t even know how to pray.  So I asked Jesus and He has shown me and I praise Him for that.  Jesus will help you to get through any and all situations.

And finally comes the testing that you get as you grow in Jesus.  It isn’t just that your families may be divided.  God may be telling us that you have to stop the things that you used to love to do.  After you come to the Lord and you still sin, you will be convicted and will want to change.  By continuing to pray and fellowship with other Christians, you can overcome these previous habits.

But this may take time.  And that is ok.  I have heard people say that someone can’t be a Christian because they still drink too much alcohol, or they still take drugs, or they still are engaged in some other sinful behavior.  Well, I say that this might be just plain wrong.  I know from experience that it takes time to unlearn these things especially if you are addicted.  Addictions don’t usually suddenly go away.  And each one of us is subject to God’s timing.  So let us not sit back in our easy chairs and judge people.  Instead, let’s extend our hands in the nonjudgmental way of Jesus Christ.  Most of these people need help and not judgment.

Jesus came to divide the world so that He could unite it through His dying on the cross.  Jesus wants you to talk to Him in your daily prayer life.  He wants you to read about Him in your devotional life.  He wants you to be strong in Him in your fellowship life.  He wants you to be part of anything that will raise you up as we are all raising Him up.

I would like to close with a quick story from Tim Richards.  He tells of a mile race that was run by some high school students at a track meet.  At the pistol shot, they were off.  There was an exceptionally talented student that won the race and set a new state record in the process.  He was so fast that only a few people finished the race as many dropped out because they were so far behind.  Then the crew started to set up the hurdles for the next race when the judges yelled, “Get those hurdles out of the way.  The race is not over yet!”  Sure enough there came a lad who was struggling so hard that he barely made it over the finish line.  When he did, he tripped and fell, skinning himself up on the cinder track.

One of the judges ran up to him and said as he helped him up, “Why didn’t you drop out?  What are you doing in a mile race anyway?”  It was obvious to all, that he wasn’t a miler.  The boy answered between gasps for air that his school’s good miler had gotten sick and couldn’t run.  The coach had promised that the school would have someone in every event so he had asked the boy to run the mile.  Then the judge asked, “Why didn’t you just drop out when you saw how badly you were beat?”  The boy turned and looked at the judge and said, “Judge, they didn’t send me out here to quit.  They didn’t send me out here to win either.  They sent me out to run this mile and I did.”

You have been sent out to live this life in Jesus.  You haven’t been sent to quit or win.  But you have been just sent by Jesus himself.  I ask you to keep going no matter how hard it gets as the end goal is well worth it.  Remember that you have your friends in Jesus to fall back on.  You have the Bible and its teachings to fall back on.  But most of all you have Jesus to fall back on.  And that is the best news that any of us can have.  I praise the Lord for that.  When the going gets tough; trust Jesus.  Thank you Jesus for first loving us.  Let’s pray.