Old Testament Reading: Isaiah 4:2–6

“In that day the branch of the LORD shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be the pride and honor of the survivors of Israel. And he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, everyone who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem, when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem from its midst by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning. Then the LORD will create over the whole site of Mount Zion and over her assemblies a cloud by day, and smoke and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory there will be a canopy. There will be a booth for shade by day from the heat, and for a refuge and a shelter from the storm and rain.” (Isaiah 4:2–6, ESV)

New Testament Reading: Luke 12:49-53

“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.” (Luke 12:49–53, ESV)

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Please excuse any typos and misspellings within this manuscript. It has been published online for the benefit of the saints of Emmaus Reformed Baptist Church but without the benefit of proofreading.

1. Introduction
   1. As we consider the teaching that Jesus delivered (primarily to his disciples) as recorded here in Luke 12, it is clear that Jesus was very concerned to prepare his disciples to walk faithfully in this world after his departure. Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. There he would be crucified and buried. On the third day, he would rise. Forty days after this, he would ascend to the Father, leaving his followers to serve him on earth as members of the New Covenant and citizens of his inaugurated kingdom. The teachings of Christ that we find here in Luke 12  were meant to prepare his followers to walk faithfully in the world after his exaltation and to avoid all hypocrisy. 
   2. Dear brothers and sisters, please recognize that these teachings of Christ delivered to the original disciples of Christ are also for us, for we live under the same New Covenant (the Covenant of Grace) and we are citizens of the same kingdom (the inaugurated, eternal kingdom of Christ, the Son of God). We would be wise, therefore, to pay careful attention to what Christ says.    
   3. As we have been working our way through Luke 12 over the past week, I have regularly drawn your attention to the fact that Christ here addresses the hearts and minds of his disciples. The very first thing that Christ addressed was the sin of hypocrisy. Hypocrisy, friends, is something we must avoid. And to avoid it, we must recognize it as a sin of the heart and mind. To avoid religious hypocrisy, we must be renewed by Christ in the heart and mind. Our belief in Christ must reside in the heart (see Romans 10:9-10). Our love for God and Christ must not be superficial but from the heart. And our obedience to God and Christ must flow from a heart renewed by the grace of God, by his word and Spirit. Superficial religion is bound to produce hypocrisy, and Christ has sternly warned us to avoid the hypocrisy of the Pharisees (see Luke 12:1). 
   4. And do not forget the many other sins of the heart that Christ has addressed – sins that will inevitably result in an inconsistent, hypocritical walk if they are allowed to remain in us. Christ has warned us about the fear of man, covetousness (which is idolatry), anxiety, distractions, and inattentiveness. Dear brothers and sisters, I pray that you will take these warnings we have received from Christ over the past several weeks to heart. Please reflect on the teachings of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Make a diligent search of your hearts for these sins and, by the grace of God and with the help of the Holy Spirit, cast them away in Jesus’ name. 
   5. Here in the passage that is open before us today, Christ prepares the minds and hearts of his disciples for their future walk in this world by dispelling false expectations concerning life in his inaugurated kingdom.
      1. Expectations are a very powerful thing, aren’t they? Expectations reside in the mind and heart. When our expectations are met, it leads to rejoicing. When expectations are not met, it leads to frustration, discouragement, and even despair. How important it is, therefore, to have expectations that are good and reasonable – expectations rooted in truth.
         1. This is true of all our relationships. Perhaps you have noticed that people will sometimes disappoint us. I see three possible reasons for this.
            1. One, perhaps your expectations of the person were too high. They failed to meet your expectations, but the fault was not theirs – it was yours. You expected too much from the individual, and so it was inevitable that they let would eventually let you down. Sometimes parents will expect too much from their children. Sometimes husbands and wives expect too much from each other. Sometimes church members expect too much from their pastors, and pastors of members. We must beware of this propensity to heap heavy burdens on others, burdens hard to bear. 
            2. Two, sometimes disappointment comes because a person fails to meet good and reasonable expectations. The truth is, we are human beings plagued by weaknesses and sin. In situations like this, we must be prepared to show love and grace to those who let us down. Instead of putting a spotlight or magnifying glass on the weakness or sin, we must patiently cover it by showing mercy and grace and grace to others.
            3. Three, many disappointments come as a result of a mixture of the two things mentioned above – unrealistic expectations, and the weakness or sins of others.
         2. I briefly mention the causes of disappointment in our ordinary human relationships only to contrast them with the disappointment that people will sometimes feel toward God and Christ.
            1. Perhaps you have heard someone say something like this: I feel as if God has let me down. If I had the opportunity to counsel a person who felt this way, I would eventually, and with care, want to explore what that person’s expectations of God and Christ were. It probably would not take long to see that the person harbored expectations for God and Christ in their mind and heart that did not square with what God has promised in the Holy Scriptures.
               1. I can imagine someone saying things like this:
                  1. I feel as if God has let me down. I trusted him, but I lost my job. 
                  2. Or, I feel as if God has let me down. I trusted him, but my child got sick.
                  3. Or, I feel as if God has let me down. I trusted him, but my loved one died.
                  4. Or, I feel as if God has let me down. I trusted him, but my life has gotten harder, not easier, after deciding to follow after Christ. 
               2. A Christian thinking this way would need to learn that God has not promised to give us a life free from such trials and tribulations now, but to be with us in the midst of the trials of this life and to work all things for good. The disappointed believer needs to see that Christ did not come to free us from all sickness or physical death now but to give us something far better – life eternal with him in the new heavens and earth. Then and there, “He will wipe away every tear from [our] eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things [will] have passed away” (Revelation 21:4, ESV).
               3. You see, God is perfectly faithful to keep all the promises he has made to us (see 1 Corinthians 1:9; 1 Thessalonians 5:24; 2 Thessalonians 3:3; 2 Timothy 2:13). It is vitally important for us to know what those promises are, and what they are not so that our expectations of him are right and true. 
   6. The passage that is open before us today is about expectations. You can see it clearly in verse 51. There Christ speaks to his disciples, saying, “Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division” (Luke 12:51, ESV). Here Christ addresses the expectations of his disciples concerning the future and he sets them straight.
      1. This was necessary, for many who followed after Christ at this time still harbored false expectations concerning Christ and his kingdom in their hearts and minds. Many hoped that Christ would overthrow Rome and bring peace to the nation of Israel on earth. 
      2. And it is not difficult to see where these false expectations came from. They came from a misinterpretation of Old Testament passages which speak of the Messianic bringing peace to his people on earth.
         1. I think of Psalm 72 which says, “In his days may the righteous flourish, and peace abound, till the moon be no more! May he have dominion from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth!” (Psalm 72:7–8, ESV). This is a Psalm of Solomon. It is a prayer that Solomon prayed for himself and the kings that would descend from him, but it is especially about the everlasting kingdom of the Messiah, David’s true son. This passages teaches that Messiah’s kingdom will stretch from sea to sea, that the righteous will flourish, and that peace will abound.      
         2. I think also of Isaiah 2:4. It too is a prophecy about the days of Messiah. It says, “He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” (Isaiah 2:4, ESV)
      3. So then, Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah do indeed move us to expect him to bring peace to the earth. It is not difficult to see why many who recognized Jesus as the Messiah, the King of God’s everlasting kingdom, harbored these expectations within their hearts and minds. There is evidence that even the twelve carried these expectations within them. In fact, Luke tells us in his second volume, the Book of Acts, that Peter still harbored these false expectations in his mind and heart after the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ and before Christ’s ascension. It is in Acts 1:6 that we hear Peter ask Jesus the question, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6, ESV). Peter still didn’t get it. And so Christ said to him, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:7–8, ESV).
      4. When the Holy Spirit fell on Peter and the others on the day of Pentecost, one thing the Holy Spirit did was to help them remember and understand the teaching of Christ that was delivered to them earlier (see John 14:26). It seems that it was not until then that the disciples of Christ fully understood what Christ meant when he said, “Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division” (Luke 12:51, ESV). 
      5. The meaning of this saying should be clear to us now. The meaning is this: these Old Testament prophesies which speak of the peace that Messiah will bring to the earth were not entirely fulfilled at his first coming but will be fulfilled at his second coming. Stated differently, while many expected the Messiah to bring a full and immediate fulfillment of prophecies such as Psalm 72 and Isaiah  2, Christ made it clear that these prophecies would be fulfilled progressively in two stages.
         1. Is it true that in the days of Messiah “the righteous [will] flourish, and peace [will] abound, till the moon be no more!” Is it true that Messiah will “have dominion from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth”, as Psalm 72:7–8 says? Yes, it is true. But the question is, how will this happen, and when?
            1. Many who lived in Jesus’ day expected this prophecy (and others like it) to be fulfilled by Messiah immediately upon his arrival and all at once. But Christ made it clear that this peace and dominion would come progressively and in two stages.
               1. First, Christ’s everlasting kingdom of peace would be inaugurated. The Spirit of peace would be poured out on all flesh upon Christ’s ascension to the Father’s right hand in heaven. The gospel of peace would be proclaimed to all nations. Christ’s kingdom of peace would progressively spread on earth, therefore. But in these last days – the days between Christ’s first and second comings – the peace will be confined to the church where the everlasting kingdom of Messiah is now manifest. It is in the church that the righteous will flourish. And in these last days – the days between Christ’s first and second comings – the world will remain hostile towards God and the people of God.
               2. Secondly, Christ’s everlasting kingdom of peace will be consummated when he returns. It will be at the return of Christ that peace will fill the earth from sea to sea. It will be at the return of Christ that the righteous will flourish in all the earth. 
   7. I trust you can see why it was vitally important for the expectations of Jesus’ disciples to be set straight. If they expected that the full glory of the kingdom of Messiah would soon come, immediately and in full, they would be ill-prepared, sorely disappointed, and given to despair when faced with trials and tribulations of various kinds, persecutions, and continued to hear of wars and rumors of wars in the world. These false expectations would need to be corrected in the minds and hearts of Jesus’ disciples if they were to serve him faithfully in the world after his ascension to the Father’s right hand.  
2. “I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled!”
   1. And so Christ said, “I came to cast fire on the earth”, and he expressed his desire that the fire was already kindled.
      1. What is the fire that Christ came to cast on earth?
         1. Fire often symbolizes judgment. Think of the fire that fell from heaven on Sodom and Gomorrah. Think of the way that Peter speaks of the final judgment when he says, “But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly” (2 Peter 3:7, ESV). Think also of the many times fire is used in the Book of Revelation to symbolize God’s judgment – both the partial judgments of God and the full and final judgment. 
         2. But fire also symbolizes the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures and the work that the Spirit does both to save and sanctify God’s people. It was in Luke 3:16 that we heard John the Baptist speak of Jesus. “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.” In Acts 2:3 Luke tells us about the fulfillment of these words. It was on the day of Pentecost when the ascended Christ poured his Spirit out on his disciples. They were assembled in one place on Sunday, the Lord’s Day, the fiftieth day, or seven sevens, after Christ’s resurrection, that “divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them” (Acts 2:3, ESV).
         3. So, fire symbolizes judgment and fire symbolizes the pouring out of God’s Spirit on God’s people to save and to sanctify. Which of these things did Christ have in mind when he said,  “I came to cast fire on the earth”, and expressed his desire that the fire was already kindled? I’m not so sure we need to choose.
            1. Fire, as you know, has both life-giving and destructive capacities depending on the context. Fire can be used to heat, to cook, and to refine. Fire can also hurt, destroy, and consume. 
            2. When Christ said,  “I came to cast fire on the earth”, I think it is right to understand him to mean that he would send forth his Spirit both to save and sanctify his people and that he would judge the world by his Spirit. The same Spirit who saves God’s elect by warming their hearts to God and Christ as he is offered to them in the gospel and sanctifies God’s people by the refining fire of God’s word also delivers the judgments of God to people and nations who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.      
            3. So then, Christ announced that he was about to kindle a fire. This fire, as we will soon see, would divide. Some would be warmed, comforted, enlivened, and refined by this fire. Others would be consumed by it.  
3. “I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished!”
   1. And where would this fire be kindled? Where would it start? From where would it spread? Answer: This fire would be kindled at the cross of Christ.
      1. Christ spoke of his crucifixion when he said, “I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished!” (Luke 12:50, ESV)
         1. This baptism of which Christ spoke was no water baptism, but a baptism in the wrath of God poured out, in death, and in the grave. In other words, this baptism was for Christ a baptism of fire. 
         2. A great fire was kindled at the cross of Christ. 
         3. This fire would soon spread from Jeruslam to Judea and Samaria and the ends of the earth. It would spread as Christ’s Spirit-filled disciples took the gospel of peace to all nations. It will continue to spread until Christ returns. And when he returns, he will rescue the godly and pour out the fire of God’s wrath upon the earth and upon all who are not united to him by faith.    
         4. How can it be that the fire of God’s wrath which was kindled at the cross has such a differnt effect on people so that it warms and enlivens some and consumes others? The answer is found in Christ and in one’s relation to him. When the wrath of God was poured out on Christ on the cross, he shielded many from it as he died in their place and as their substitute. These are the elect of God who by God’s grace place their faith in Christ in due time, being effectually called by God’s word and Spirit. All who reject Christ and die in their sins have no such cover or shield. The holy and righteous wrath of God will consume these.
4. “Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.”
   1. And this is why Christ said, “Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.”
      1. These last days – the days between Christ’s first and second comings – the days of the New Covenant and the inaugurated Kingdom of God – will be marked by division and hostility on earth.   
      2. And where will the division be found? Christ tells us in verse 52: “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.”
         1. It is very important to see that Christ drew the line of division through the family. 
         2. This should shock us for it is contrary to the way the world operates.
            1. Where is the greatest unity typically found in the world? Is it not typically found in the family? Perhaps you have heard the expression, blood is thicker than water. The meaning is that blood relations should be the strongest of all. Mothers and fathers are typically devoted to sons and daughters, and sons and daughters to brothers and sisters, etc. And the world will work out from the immediate family to the extended, and from the extended family, to the community, and from the community to the nation. Nationality, race, or ethnicity, has been a source of unity throughout the ages, as I am sure you know. But Christ drew a line of division right through the middle of all that worldly unity. Why? Because the division Christ is here speaking of is the division between those who belong to him and those who do not. The division is between those who are members of the covenant he mediates, and those who do not. The division is between those who are citizens of his kingdom and those who are not. And belonging to Christ as members of the new covenant and citizens of his eternal kingdom has nothing at all to do with blood relations, that is to say, physical birth. What is it that unites us to Christ, his covenant, and his kingdom? It is only faith. And we are enabled to place our faith in Christ only because of the new birth that God gracious gives by his word and Spirit. And it is when we believe that the blood of Christ is applied to us for the forgiveness of sins. So then, the dividing line of Christ’s kingdom does not agree with the dividing lines of the world. The world is divided up according to families, communities, ethnicities, and nations. But God people are distinguished from the world by their union with Spirit-wrought, faith bound, union with Christ. It is not natural birth that matters, but new birth. It is not natural bloodlines that matter, but the atoning blood of Christ applied to the believer by the Spirit of God and received by faith alone.            
         3. When Jesus drew the line of division through the family, it shocked the world. And this line of division would have been especially shocking to the original followers of Jesus, who were mainly Jews who were born and raised under the Old Covenant order.
            1. The Old Covenant had its own lines of division to distinguish between those who were in and out, covenantally speaking. What were the lines of the Old Covenant that mattered most? I can think of three:
               1. One, there were the lines drawn on the earth or on a map that demarcated the boundaries of the land of Israel. Israel was the land given to the Old Covenant people of God. Being in or out of the land of Israel mattered greatly under the Old Covenant. 
               2. Two, even more important were the lines of genealogy or physical descent. Being a Hebrew, a descendant of Abraham, mattered greatly under the Old Covenant order.
               3. Three, there was the particular line of genealogy or physical descent through which it was promised that the Messiah would one day come into the world. This line was especially important, for it was only through belief in the Messiah who would be born into the world in this line – the line of Abraham, Judah, and David – that those who lived under the Old Covenant order would be saved.
            2. The thing to recognize is that when the Messiah was finally born into the world for us and for our salvation, and once he had completed the work of redemption through his obedient life, death on the cross, and resurrection on the third day, these lines of division melted away. Now, the only dividing line that remains, covenantally speaking, is Christ. Under the New Covenant, where you live does not matter. And neither does it matter whom you were born. 
            3. National borders, ethnicity, and genealogy do not function as lines of demarcation under the New Covenant. Faith in Christ is the only thing that distinguishes God’s covenant people from the world in this New Covenant era, and that is why Christ has warned that he came, not to bring peace on earth, but division. And under the New Covenant dispensation, the division will appear even within families, as a husband believes while a wife does not, or children believe, and parents do not.
               1. As an aside, this is why I am a Reformed Baptist and not a Reformed paedo-baptist. I’m afraid that our Reformed paedo-baptist friends have failed to appreciate this great difference between the Old Covenant and the New. Under the Old Covenant, all who were born in the line of Abraham were members of the Old Covenant, and the male children were rightly given the sign of the covenant, namely, circumcision. But under the New Covenant, this genealogical principle has passed away having been fulfilled by Christ. The thing that makes one a member of the New Covenant and a partaker of its blessings is faith in Christ alone. The sign of the New Covenant, which is baptism, is only to be given to those who make a credible profession, therefore, something that our infants and small children cannot do. Though they might trust in Jesus from a young age, we must wait until they can make a credible profession of faith before giving them baptism and the Supper. This is what Christ has ordained, saying, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18–20, ESV) 
   2. I’m sure there are some who upon reading these words of Christ, “Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division”, think to themselves, this doesn’t sound like something Jesus Christ would say. 
      1. After all, doesn’t Christ command his people to be peacemakers? Indeed he does! In Matthew 5:9 Christ says, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” 
      2. And what about the commands of the New Testament instructing Christians to pursue peace? Take, for example, Romans 12:18, we Paul says, “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all” (Romans 12:18, ESV).
      3. And what about the many, many statements in the New Testament wherein peace is pronounced on the people of God? Again and again, Paul says things like this to the church: “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:2, ESV).
      4. Friends, there is no contradiction between these verses that I have just read and the words of Christ, “Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.” All of these sayings must be interpreted in context. When all is considered, here is what we must believe.
         1. One, Christ came to bring us peace. He came to bring peace between us and God by removing the guilt and stain of sin. He came to bring peace among men by erasing the old national and ethnic lines of demarcation. This peace that Christ came to give us is experienced now in the church where “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for [we] are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28, ESV)
         2. Two, Christ was a peacemaker, and as disciples of Jesus Christ, we are called to be peacemakers. Notice that Christ did not say, I came to be divisive, but rather, “Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.” There is a great difference between bringing or giving division and being divisive. Divisiveness is sinful and must always be avoided. But sometimes division cannot be avoided. In fact, there are times when avoiding division would be sinful, for there are times when avoiding division would require you to compromise on the truth. This agrees with what Paul has said: “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all” (Romans 12:18, ESV).
         3. Three, the thing that brings the division that Christ speaks about here in Luke 12 is the gospel itself. The gospel is a gospel of peace! It is the good news that through faith in Christ, peace with God is found. But the gospel is also a dividing line.
            1. When the gospel is preached, men and women are forced to choose a side. 
            2. When the gospel is preached, men and women might take offense. After all, the good news of Jesus Christ includes the bad news that all are dead in their sins and guilty before God apart from Christ.
            3. The gospel will bring division between the believer and the non-believer because belief in the gospel will result in a new way of life. The non-believer will think it strange “when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you…” (1 Peter 4:4, ESV)
            4. This division within families that Christ spoke of would be experienced in a pronounced way by the first disciples of Jesus. As has been said, the first disciples of Jesus were mainly Jews. And we know that a great division arose amongst the Jews in the early days of the church over the question of Jesus as the Messiah. Some believed he was the Messiah and confessed him Lord. But many remained in unbelief. Some of the unbelieving Jews persecuted Christ’s followers sharply.   
5. Conclusion
   1. So how does this text apply to us today?
      1. One, in general, I do believe this text should move us to ask ourselves the question, are my expectations of God and Christ right, being founded in the truth of God’s Holy Word?
      2. Two, in particular, we should not be surprised to experience division in the world as followers of Jesus Christ. 
      3. Three, we must beware of any theological system that draws dividing lines (covenantally speaking) in a place other than what Christ has drawn them.
         1. Reformed paedobaptism 
         2. Dispensationalism
         3. Reformed confessionalism  
      4. Four, when we inevitably experience division in the world over the cross of Christ and the gospel of Jesus Christ, we must strive to be peacemakers. “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all” (Romans 12:18, ESV).