Luke 12:49-53 Fire, Baptism, and Division
Good morning! Turn with me in your Bibles to Luke chapter 12. We are going to start at verse 49, and that’s on page 872 in the pew Bibles.
There was a book written some years ago by a man named FF Bruce entitled, “Hard Sayings of Jesus.”
I haven’t read it but I can’t imagine anyone being able to lay out seventy different sayings of Jesus that they considered hard without considering this one from our text in the Gospel of Luke this morning.
In our brief text today Jesus describes a fire, a baptism, and a lack of peace, three things that are worth our consideration this morning. I tried to use the text for the whole rest of the chapter so we wouldn’t be stuck with three points but I didn’t make it, sorry.
Let’s look at Luke 12:49-53 together.
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.”
Let’s pray.
It is a great temptation in the work of interpreting Scripture to confine the meaning of a particular image to only one meaning throughout the whole of Scripture. Meaning, that if a particular author uses the image of light then when another particular author uses the picture of light that they both mean the same thing.
Here in verse 49 of our text Jesus uses the image of fire. “I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled!”
Fire is used elsewhere in Scripture to refer to God’s judgment or His wrath but is that what Jesus means when He says “I came to cast fire on the earth?” I don’t think it is.
Some people when they read this phrase think of the Holy Spirit and His coming on the day of Pentecost when He appeared as tongues of fire as described in the book of Acts a year or so after our text for this morning. Is that what Jesus meant when He said that He came to cast fire on the earth, the coming of the Holy Spirit? I don’t think it is, it doesn’t fit the context.
Let’s think about the picture for a minute. What does fire do? It’s used for a lot of things but they are a result of the two basic functions of fire: it consumes that which is combustible, and it purifies or reveals that which isn’t.
Paul uses this picture in 1 Corinthians 3:12-13, I think I mentioned this last week or the week before.
12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— 13 each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.
So what is this fire that Jesus is eagerly desirous to have kindled, is it the fire of God’s wrath, is it the fire of the Holy Spirit? It’s neither, it’s the fire of the gospel, it’s the culmination of His mission here on earth.
JJ vanOosterzee wrote that, “the fire was not to blaze up in its full power until after His death and resurrection.”
The world is content to agree, for the most part, that Jesus really did live and He really did go around doing good and teaching others about God. But that is not a fire that has the power to neither consume nor reveal anything. Jesus came to earth to die, to die the death that we all deserve because of our sin. He willingly left heaven to become a man, like us only without sinning, and He willingly gave His life on the cross in our place. He really did die and three days later He rose again.
Up until this point in Jesus’ ministry he had been preaching the good news of the kingdom but the people, even the disciples, didn’t understand what it would take to enter it. It would take His death on the cross.
Jesus knew that this fire of the gospel would not be kindled and would not spread until after His atoning death on the cross.
Why would Jesus be eager for this fire? Because He knew that only through these flames can all impurity be purged from the earth.
The image of fire here is pretty straight forward but in the same breath Jesus says in verse 50, I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished!
So Jesus has mentioned the fire and when He mentions His baptism what element do you think He’s referencing? Water… Wrong. It’s earth.
Jesus was already baptized in the Jordan River by John long before this sermon, so what baptism could He mean?
When we get baptized as believers in Jesus what are we symbolically showing? We are outwardly displaying our inward death to sin and resurrection into new life in Christ.
Paul wrote in Romans 6:3-4, Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
Jesus was not distressed waiting for a baptism of water but of earth, of death, burial, and resurrection.
And He knew full well that the true fire of the gospel would not be kindled until then, until His work on earth was completed.
As far as hard sayings of Jesus go, those two are a walk in the park compared to the next one…
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.”
I’m glad were not quite to the Advent Season yet, because it would be pretty tough to preach this text at the same time as talking about Jesus being the Prince of Peace.
How do you reconcile these two thoughts?
What was the song of the angels to the shepherds? “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom He is pleased.”
Every Christmas we read Isaiah 9:6-7, For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end…
So how can Jesus say that he did not come to bring peace but rather division?
The fact is simply this: peace with God through faith in Jesus Christ creates enmity among men.
Romans 5:1-2 says, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
It’s this peace by faith in Jesus that has divided friendships and families for centuries.
JJ vanOosterzee wrote, “When the Holy One of God comes into personal contact with an unholy world, a shock and strife is inevitable, and that not only against Him personally, but also among men themselves, inasmuch as these begin to distinguish themselves into adversaries and subjects of His kingdom.”
I’m sure there are many stories in this room of this kind of division where those we love just cannot tolerate any more talk about Jesus or about His church. How many of you have been asked, “What happened? You used to be fun and now you’re all about Jesus like some kind of religious fanatic…”
When we stand for Christ we will find others, even those of our very own households standing against Him. That is the kind of division that Jesus was talking about.
Jesus wasn’t advocating division but rather predicting the inevitable.
Jesus knew this kind of division personally, His own brothers did not believe in Him, at least not at first, they thought He was crazy.
But that is the great blessing of being part of a church family: we all get to be crazy together and fan the flames of the gospel so that it will spread and others might know Jesus and put their trust in Him regardless of the opposition we might face.
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.
Jesus took His mission personally. He knew what it would cost Him, and He knows what following Him will cost us, and on both counts it’s worth it. Amen.
