8/18/24 Luke 12:49-56 “Your Back Fire, to Be Safe!”

15 Aug 8/18/24 Luke 12:49-56 “Your Back Fire, to Be Safe!”

8/18/24   Luke 12:49-56         “Your Back Fire, to Be Safe!”

I would like to begin this today with a question that you all pretty much know the answer to because you have to live with yourself.  Are you an optimist or a pessimist?  Are you the person who never looks at the downside of a project and only to the positive and are sure a project is a success or do you only look at the negative side and see the project as a failure?  You probably don’t know me that well but I would say that I’m an optimist.  I’m the type of guy that if there is a 50% chance of rain or nasty weather, I say let’s go camping.  There is a good chance that it won’t rain.  My children will bear this out.  The down side of this is that, of course, 50% of the time we have had rain and we have to sit in a tent or camper and find other things to do. That is just the way I’m wired and I can’t do anything about it.  Since I have known Jesus Christ as my personal Savior, I have become even more optimistic.  After all, here we have the most powerful, most loving figure in the universe who wants to be our best friend, be my best friend and give us all the things we need.  How can you go wrong on a deal like that?  Today, we are going to look at a very troubling passage from Luke where Jesus tells us a few things that we don’t like to hear.  Let’s see if we can understand this passage in the way the God intended so that it will be Good News for us.  For some it might not be such Good News but we need to study this anyway.

Lou Little, who was the football coach at Columbia University, tells this story about a guy on the squad who didn’t play very well but he had a spirit that lifted up everyone on the team.  Coach was proud of this boy and marveled at how he and his father would walk arm in arm around the campus after a football game.  Then the boy’s father died unexpectedly.  After the funeral the boy asked if he could play in the game on Saturday.  He said he wanted to play for his father.  The coach decided to start the boy and then he would take him out after a few minutes and replace him with a regular.  But to the surprise of everyone, the boy played the entire game.  He played a very inspired game for 60 minutes.  After the game the coach sought him out and asked.  “What got into you out there?”  The boy replied, “Do you remember how my father and I used to go around the campus arm-in-arm?  He didn’t want anyone to know that he was totally blind.  This afternoon was the first time he ever saw me play football!”  I don’t know if this is what happens after we die but it sure is a nice thought.  I do know that when we come to know Jesus for the first time, our eyes are opened so that we can begin to see things as they really are and not what we are told by so-called experts or news media people or even some so-called Biblical scholars.  I think when we finally go home to Jesus; our eyes will be opened even more.  There is such a good life in this world with Jesus that I just don’t understand, I don’t understand why anyone would not want to know Him.

Now keep this good thought in mind as we move to the passage where Jesus tells us that He has come to bring fire on the earth.  What in the world is going on here!  Is Jesus coming to bring fire?  I want you to understand that I’m just a regular person like everyone else in the world.  I had to go and look this up in several versions of the Bible and they all say the same thing.  He came to bring fire.  As a last resort I went to the commentaries to find some meaning here and I finally got a little cooling water on my warm tongue.

Finally, I found a little meaning.  The text reads right and Jesus did come to bring fire, but we have to know what fire means in their language.  The fire that He brings is the one where His word will spread to others like a fire and He wishes that it was already done because He wants to be with all of us.  Also, this fire denotes judgment.  This is for all people who don’t get it and there will be many of them.  Maybe there is someone like this here today.  Jesus is constantly seeking you but it is your free choice to respond by accepting or rejecting Him.

This fire that is spreading is the fire of God’s word as it spread throughout the Roman Empire with Paul leading the way.  It is the fire that is spreading all through Africa today.  It is the fire that is spreading in China as we speak.  It is the fire that is being doused in this country by a bunch of people who want to be politically correct.  We have a serious crisis in this country and we really are not dealing with it very well.

Jesus also talks of the baptism that He must go through.  Remember that being plunged into water is a sign of distress and suffering.  We get so caught up with the word baptism that we sometimes get a little weird about it.  How many people tell us that it has to be a certain way?  Or you have to use special water?  Or you have to say certain words when you are a certain age?  Baptism means going through hardships and coming out the other side.  Jesus was going to have to go to the cross and die but He knew He would be coming out the other side as a totally changed being.  He would cease to be physical and become a spiritual being.  Does this mean that our baptisms won’t work according to this reading?  Of course not!!

When you come to the baptismal font, you come as sinners.  The water symbolizes the washing away of sins and the beginning of your walk with Jesus.  You are commanded to do this but it doesn’t necessarily mean that you have Jesus in your heart.  Sometime in your lives you come to the point, you come to the foot of the cross and you confess your sins to Jesus and ask Him to be your Lord and Savior.  When you get up from the cross, you are a changed person.  In the first instance we have baptism by water and in the second it is baptism by the Holy Spirit.  Baptism basically means change.  Somehow, you are changed.  Many of you know about this because you have been changed.  It really can’t be explained.  It must be experienced.  And it is a great and wonderful experience!

But also notice that Jesus is distressed by having to do this.  He doesn’t want to go to the cross.  We like to think that the first we hear of this is at Gethsemane but it is not.  Here we have it long before the prayers in the garden.  Once again, we see the human side of Jesus as I don’t think that anyone would want to go deliberately to the cross.

Now I’m going to startle you again.  We just talked about Jesus bringing the fire or the Word.  Then He asks, “Do you think I came to bring peace on earth?  No, I tell you, but division.”  Whatever happened to the title ‘Prince of Peace?’  This part can be a very long story but, in the end, Jesus is indeed the ‘Prince of Peace.’

What we first have to remember is who Jesus is talking to at this time.  He is talking to his disciples and others who might happen to be listening.  These people have lived under the oppressive rule of the Romans all their lives.  This was not easy as the Romans demanded total allegiance to the Emperor, they demanded very high taxes from everyone and they expected people to obey them in all things.  The disciples and others at this time were thinking that Jesus was indeed the Messiah who would free them from the terrible regime.  It is kind of what is going on today!

But we all know that isn’t what Jesus was or is all about.  Even here it can be confusing if you are a literal reader.  We have been talking fire and no peace.  Let me remind you of what it is like to be in the process of not knowing Jesus to knowing Him.  Remember now that I have peace and many of you have peace with Jesus.  But how did you get that way?

First of all, before we know Jesus, we know that God’s grace is everywhere.  There is no place in this world that we can go that there isn’t God around in some form.  John Wesley called it prevenient grace.  It is everywhere.  As we wander all over the world before we know Jesus, God is working on us through this grace, prevenient grace.  All the time God is working on us!  Many people or maybe most people flat out reject God but God keeps working.  You will not find peace until you accept Jesus into your life as your Savior.  There is no peace for those who don’t know Jesus, period.  None!  If they tell you that there is, it is because they don’t know what real peace is in the first place.

I would like you to test this a little.  As you go about your week try to watch one of the national news broadcasts.   Look into the eyes of people who are demonstrating for this or against that.  Look at the eyes of the people who want to change our way of life in this country to that which is not compatible to the teachings of Jesus.  You will not find any peace in those people who are against Jesus and the Bible.  I don’t care if it is politically incorrect to say such things.  It is the truth.  They have no peace!

After we find this peace by coming to know Jesus, then our families may turn against us if they don’t know Jesus.  At this time Jesus may use us as a tool to help our families get to know Him.  In this process some may go back to the place where many will turn against Jesus but Jesus will keep working through us to try to bring peace to everyone.  The bottom line here is that Jesus loves you so much that He will risk broken family relations in order that we all come to know Him and His great peace.  Too many people stop at this point because their families are more important than Jesus.  You have to remember that Jesus is first and foremost in everything and He only wants what is the very best for you.  The best is that sometimes it is hard on us as Jesus uses His best tactics to keep our families from going to the wrong place.  Life is not easy following Jesus because sometimes it hurts because our family members won’t hear the words of Jesus.

Now Jesus has been telling the people about all the things that will happen and they, including the disciples, don’t really have a clue.  These followers could forecast the weather with accuracy but they couldn’t see what Jesus was talking about in His teachings.  They could understand the physical world but they couldn’t make sense out of the spiritual world even after Jesus had given them detailed instructions.  They didn’t get it.

I remember my dad when he would do a little weather forecasting.  He had an old barometer and some common sense.  I would guess that he could predict most weather better than any meteorologist today.  He could at least forecast tomorrow’s weather as well any current weathermen.  He couldn’t predict hail or tornadoes or those types of things but generally, he was pretty good.  I’m sure that you all have known people like this and maybe we have people like this in our midst today.

We also have scientists who can do all sorts of things.  We have doctors who can treat lots of diseases with success.  We have all these kinds of things going on in this wonderful world and all these people can be proud of what they do.  Even with all our science and knowledge, we still have many people who choose to ignore any or all parts of the spiritual world.  It worries me, it makes me sad that we have so many people right in our midst, who continue to turn their back on Jesus.

If there is anyone who can’t really make up their minds, I would like to say this.  Yes, the Bible was written by men but they were inspired by the Holy Spirit in every word they wrote.  In my 73 years I have seen lots of things, but the only thing that I can rely on as the truth is the Bible.  Jesus went to the cross in a most dreadful fashion and died an agonizing death so that you might be free from your sin debts.  He did all this and then, He was raised again from the dead so that you may have the hope of eternal life.  It is all so simple, so easy for anyone who wants the hope, the courage, the fortitude that comes with knowing Jesus.

In this world we get to live our lives as we please and the best way and the happiest way is with Jesus.  He is always there for you.  We live out here on the prairie and there is something about fire that we should learn at a young age.  If you don’t know this, then listen up.  We don’t have to go very far out our doors to get into range land and this could save your life.  If there is a wild fire that is coming for you or your place, the best way and sometimes the only way to stop the fire is to build a back fire.  This means that you purposely build a fire around you or your buildings so that everything is burnt.  In this way when the wild fire is upon you, there is no fuel for it and it will either go out or go around you.  Back in the olden days when there was always a threat of wild fire, this would be a basic lifesaving action.

When we come to judgment day, the world is going be destroyed by fire or worse and it will be a total disaster.  There will be no place where it will be safe.  However, God has given you a back fire in the person of Jesus Christ.  This is a place where you will be able to stand and you will be safe from all the wrath that God pours out.  Even though we are all sinners and fall short of the glory of God, He has provided Jesus for you to be saved.  That is because He loves you and He wants all of us to join Him in a place that will be every bit as nice as the Garden of Eden was for Adam and Eve.  You have been given the gift of faith so that all the evil of the world will pass by you on their way to oblivion.

You know that is a lot of love that you get when you don’t deserve a bit of it.  But that is the kind of God that you love and serve.  He is so gracious and kind to His people that it makes us wonder why.  Well, you don’t need to know why.  It just is.  The love that Jesus has for you will never ever end and that is a promise.  Thank you, Jesus, for first loving us.  Let’s pray.