Jesus came to unite the body...BUT DIVIDE THE WORLD!

On today's podcast we continue through Luke and tackle some tough topics from Christ Himself. We break down how the Lord testifies that our faith is one of division of the World and we as Christians needs to be aware fo the world around us and our relationship with Him if we hope to succeed. 


Not Peace, but Division
49 “I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled! 50 I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished! 51 Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. 52 For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. 53 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.” 

Interpreting the Time
54 He also said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once, ‘A shower is coming.’ And so it happens. 55 And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat,’ and it happens. 56 You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time? 

Settle with Your Accuser
57 “And why do you not judge for yourselves what is right? 58 As you go with your accuser before the magistrate, make an effort to settle with him on the way, lest he drag you to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and the officer put you in prison. 59 I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the very last penny.” 


The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Lk 12:49–59.

Transcript

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 As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. Welcome back to the Iron Saints podcast with your host, Dan Willis. 2s Good morning Saints. We are back at it. It is a new day. We are almost there. We are almost through the week. Shorter week for some with the Easter Monday, but uh, nonetheless, it's Thursday. We're almost there. 1s Thank you so much for all you guys who have been leaving reviews. I am absolutely getting blown away with the amount of response that's coming in on this. Uh, one of the things that has come up is people have asked, you know, what else is going to be coming down the pipeline? And one of the things that I'm excited to announce is if you head over to the website 1s Sharpens iron.com, what you're going to find is that there is a blog there now. Well, first of all, if you know there's a website there and that website's going to have all kinds of stuff in it eventually. But uh, right now it has the podcast and it also has, uh, the new blog, uh, that I hope is going to add a little bit to your guy's walk. I'm going to try to tackle as many topics as possible, uh, both from my experience and scripture. Uh, so hopefully I have the podcast has been helpful for you. That's something that might be interesting for you to come and take a look at. Uh, it's the link for the website is also in the description of the podcast, wherever you're listening to this. So, uh, thank you so much for that. But for right now, let's get down to it. Let's head into Luke. We are going to get through it. We are going to finish. So back in Duluth today, grab your Bible, grab your coffee. Let's do this. 2s Okay, so yesterday we looked at the risk of not being ready and the constant call to watch for Christ. Today we're going to finish out the rest of chapter 12. Head into chapter 13. So, uh, for those of you that like to follow along in your Bible, uh, we're starting at Luke 1249. For those of you that just like to listen along, don't worry. I always read the passage I'm going to be reading from the ESV. I'm sure you guys have a lot of your preferred paraphrase or translation, but for me, the ESV is where I like to go. So Luke 12, verse 49, I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled. I have a baptism to be baptized, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished. Do you think that I've come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. From now on, in one house there will be five divided, three against two, 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. He also said to the crowds, when you see a cloud rising in the West, you say it once a shower is coming. And so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say there will be scorching heat and it happens, you hypocrites. You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky. But why do you not know how to interpret the present time? And why do you not judge for yourselves what is right? As you go with your accuser before the magistrate, make an effort to settle with him on the way, lest he drag you to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and the officer put you in prison. I tell you, you will never go out until you have paid the very last penny. 3s So there is a bunch of stuff to unpack here at the end of chapter 12. Um, probably the the nuclear bomb of, of this passage is the I come to bring to vision. This one rocks a lot of Christians because they'll refer to other passages in the New Testament of we're called to unity, we're called to mediate, we're called to bring people together. And that's true to an extent. Inside the church, that's the call to be of one body, to be united in that body, to be a holy Catholic church. And when I say Catholic, I don't mean Roman Catholic. I mean Catholic is an a single entity of Christ. Um, but this is not without speaking to it. The start of chapter 12 here, what it's speaking to is how the world is going to react to Christ coming and dying and rising again, that baptism by fire that we are going to be receiving shortly, or remembering that we've received shortly at Pentecost. Um, that baptism by fire is what is so crucial. And the message of Christ, the teaching of Christ and living a lifestyle for Christ is going to inside the church create unity, or it's meant to. And outside the church is going to create a sense of division. And that can happen for a variety of reasons. It could just be a disagreement. There are those that have ears to hear and eyes to see and those that do not. It can also create hostility and violence, as we see with the Pharisees, as we see with Rome, as we see with Hare. And, um, lots of examples of how just coming to Christ creates division. Um, and that's one of the things that we have to focus on. But even within our own homes, there can be division where, um, as, as your children grow or between a husband and wife, there can be differences of opinion, um, as a result of Christ and who you're following. So it's definitely something that is a reality that the church likes to kind of avoid. Well, we're accepting, we're loving, we're about unity. We're about division. 1s Doesn't quite match the the poster board that we would like to set up, but it's a reality that we need to face. And this is this is the version, Luke. But I actually have a tattoo from Matthew 1034, which is essentially the same passage. Do not think I came to bring peace, but a sword, and it's the idea that there is constantly going to be battle and division. And if you're not prepared for that, as a man heading into the world, you're going to get blindsided, right? If you expect that walking the world with Christ is going to create a sense of unity, and people are going to be drawn to naturally, and it's going to be peaceful, and it's going to be a really easy thing to do. Uh, this might be your wake up call, because that ain't going to be how it plays out. Um, Jesus himself was persecuted. Jesus himself, wherever he went, there was division because of him being there. So, um, you're going to experience the same thing when you bring Jesus into a place. Now, um, the rest of the passage is kind of interesting as well. So I just want to touch briefly on those points at two before I give you guys a challenge. So in interpreting the time, why is he talking about this? Well, you have the ability to look into the skies and the heavens and see what's going on. But you're in a enabled to look around you and see what's happening. And I think that, you know, right here when he's talking to the crowds around and he's saying, I'm standing right in front of you, you can see me, I'm Christ, you can see the things I'm doing, and you don't realize what's happening right now in front of you. Okay, that's one aspect of it. But we in many ways have that same challenge today where we we are able to look at, uh, social media and we have all of this knowledge at our fingertips with the internet, and we know so much there's a pride in, in our age of knowledge and, and how far we have come. And yet at the same time, we are unable to look around us in the present time and see where Christ is and what he's trying to accomplish. So that'll be part of the challenge today as well. I just wanted to touch on that. And last but not least, there's a tiny little parable tucked in at the end here about, uh, a judge and an accuser and settling before you go to court. Um, there's a bunch of different interpretations on this one, but for me, the one why this is so important and 13 helps give some context to it. So we'll see a little bit more tomorrow on this. But this is a parable. This is him saying, if you had to pick the three people in the parable, you're always trying to figure out who's who, right? The judge is God. Okay, great. So the accuser is Christ. More the Holy Spirit take your you pick up the two. But, uh. And you are obviously the prisoner. But in this he's saying on your way to go see God. But when you're dead, right, you can go see God. Uh, why don't you make an effort to settle with the accuser on the way? If the Holy Spirit's the one accusing you, saying you have sit in your heart and you've yet to come to Christ, you've yet to accept that baptism that's being offered. Um, why not make an effort on the way to court to settle? And what would settling look like? Not not selling. Like all settle for Jesus, but settling in the legal term right of I'm going to settle the debt that is due. And the easiest way for me to do that, and the best way for me to do that is to just simply take Christ, take that sacrifice, take that that blood that was shed and live in it. 2s So cool little parable to finish at the end. So the challenge for today then is going to be one from each 1s challenge yourself as you're out and about today to see whether or not the vision is something that you face in the world. If it is something that you see that you are facing, question whether or not that's because of your personality or because of Jesus. If it's because of Jesus, good on you. 1s If it's not, maybe wrestle with what's going on there. Um, 1s if you're fighting that you have no division in your life, no division in your walk. Again, same thing. Question whether that's because there's no Jesus in your walk daily where you're going or. 1s Is it just that you're surrounded with people that are. No. Jesus, you're not in the world. You're just. You're constantly in the body. You've got your your church family and you've got your home family, and they're all Christians. And that's why there's no division, which could also be an issue. Okay. So challenge number one. 1s Find the division in your life and make sure that Christ is the reason for it. To interpreting the time, take a look around you. Look at what's going on in your life. Look at the people. Look at these circumstances and see what Christ is doing. We believe that Christ is alive. Who believed that the Holy Spirit is working here and now. We believe that God is in control yesterday, today, and forever. If those things are true, then the evidence of them being around you and working in your life should be there. Take the time. Be still. Even if it's just for a minute, five minutes. Be still and look around and think, what is God doing here? What is he doing? What is his purpose? What is his hope? What is his aspiration? And last but not least, guys, if you have a debt to settle, do it before you go see the judge. My hope is that all of you listening here would constantly be settling your debt. 2s Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. You know that prayer that we're supposed to play? Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. But that that line is how we were taught to pray. And it's crucial and it's essential. And it's exactly what he's getting at at the end of 12 here. All right, let's get to prayer. Okay, man, as always, if you have prayer requests, please don't hesitate to email. If you're listening to this on our website, feel free to reach out on the website. There are sections for you to do that there. Um, or DM me on any of the social media networks that are in the description below. I make a point to go through those daily. If you guys have them, they are going to be anonymous. Uh, we had had the option to, you know, have your name or your first name, but for the most part, it seems like, folks, we want to be anonymous. So I am going to continue to lift up prayers, but it will be done anonymously, uh, moving forward, just so people can offer up their prayers without, um. 2s Need to worry, but we'll put it that way. Um, some things are personal and some things don't need to be shared on the internet. But the prayer is the Holy Spirit knows who it's for. So, uh, let's get down to it. Lord, thank you so much for the body. Thank you for men that are willing to struggle. Thank you for men that are willing to struggle and fight for their marriages. Lord, there are several men that are going through a hard time in their marriage. They're they're finding it difficult to love on their bride the way that you love on yours. And I pray that you would do a work in their heart, Lord. And that that that love that they show their bride would also change her heart. It would bring 1s her back to him. Um, I lift up those men that are struggling, um, with illnesses, um, either for themselves or their, their loved ones, those that are close to them. Lord, I pray that you would be with them. Pray that you would be that great healer, great physician. Be in a time. Be in that place, Lord, and lift them up. Lord, I pray for those that are struggling to see you in their walk, that are struggling to see you in their day to day. I pray for those that are just looking to give up on life as a whole. Lord, that you would be with them, that you would show them you have a purpose, you have a place in their life, and you have a desire for them to walk forward. Lord, in your name we pray. Have an amazing day guys and I will catch you tomorrow with another episode. Take it easy. Thank you for listening to the Iron Saints podcast. If you are looking to share your prayer requests, check the description for social media or email to contact the show. Blessings on you all! Until next time.