In 'Discerning the Times,' Peter Allison discusses Jesus' teachings in Luke 12:49 and the broader context of judgment, hypocrisy, and righteousness. Jesus speaks of bringing 'fire on the earth,' symbolizing judgment and division rather than peace, challenging the common perception of His mission. The sermon warns against the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, who focused on minor laws while neglecting justice and love. Allison emphasizes the importance of being prepared for Christ's return, living as faithful stewards, and laying up treasures in heaven rather than earthly possessions. The sermon ties the concept of judgment to Jesus' crucifixion, where He bore God's wrath for humanity's sins. It concludes with a call to make peace with God through Jesus, highlighting the urgency and necessity of accepting the gospel before the final judgment.

Luke chapter 12, beginning with verse 49. Verse 49, I come to send fire on the earth and how I wish it were already kindled. But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am, till it is accomplished. Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division.

For from now on, five in one house will be divided. Three against two, and two against three. Father will be divided 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 her mother in law." And then he also said to the multitudes, whenever you see a cloud rising out of the West, immediately you say, a shower is coming. And so it is. And when you see the south wind blow, you say there will be hot weather.

And there is. Hypocrites, You can discern the face of the sky and of the earth, but how is it you do not discern this time? Yes, and why even of yourselves do you not judge what is right when you go with your adversary to the Magistrate make every effort along the way to settle with him, lest he drag you to the judge, the judge deliver you to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison. I tell you, you shall not depart from there till you have paid every last mite." May Jehovah deal with us according to His mercy and teach us His statutes. Heavenly Father, Thank you for preserving your word and for bringing it to us in written form this morning.

We ask that you would teach us out of your word that you would open the eyes of our understanding and of our heart that we may hear and that having heard we may believe on Your words and him believe in him who sent you We ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Well, this morning we are at the end of an extended sermon that has been through in these last couple chapters. This chapter began with a warning to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. And you may remember that Jesus had been invited to dinner by a Pharisee, and he had gone in and sat down to eat. We don't know what that Pharisee's motive was, whether he was sincere in wanting to show hospitality to Jesus, maybe curious and wanting to hear more of him and hear more of what he had to say or whether it was some nefarious purpose to trap him and catch him in something he said.

We don't know, but we do know that he marveled when Jesus sat down to eat and did not wash his hands before sitting down to dinner. And Jesus in response pronounced three woes upon the Pharisees. Not exactly the move you would expect from somebody who had just been invited into the home of a Pharisee. He said that he called them hypocrites. He denounced them as hypocrites because they washed the outside of the cup, which doesn't pollute what you're drinking, but the inside of the cup which does affect what you're drinking was full of greed and wickedness.

He pronounced a woe on them because they tithed all the little things, the inconsequential things. In other words, they were very scrupulous about keeping the minutest details of the law of God, but they forgot the weightier manners of truth and justice and the love of God were entirely missing. They loved the honor of their position as rulers in the church, in the Sanhedrin. But they didn't care for the people that they were supposed to be caring for as shepherds. They were harming the people.

So when the lawyers then complained to Jesus that the things that he was saying were also stepping on their toes, then he proceeded to pronounce three more woes against the lawyers, the teachers, the doctors of the day." He said they laid heavy burdens on people with their teachings. Teaching things that were the commandments of men that weren't the commandments of God and imposing these heavy obligations on people to keep this law. Obligations that they themselves didn't keep. Burdens that they couldn't lift themselves. And not only did they corrupt the message that they were supposed to proclaim, substituting their own ideas for what God had said, But they killed the prophets who did send, who faithfully brought the message that God had given.

And so because of that, Jesus said judgment would be coming upon them. That on them would fall the guilt and the punishment for the blood of all of the righteous prophets shed from Abel to Zechariah. The beginning and the end, if you will, of the Old Testament. The teachers, these lawyers, who should have been imparting truth and knowledge, they were the very people who were taking away the key of knowledge from the people. And so while Jesus is pronouncing these woes and making them all enemies against him, seeking to how they could destroy him, of course they were afraid of the people.

And they were afraid of the people and they were afraid of the people because just in this time that Jesus had been there at this house as an invited guest, an innumerable crowd had gathered around such that people were getting trampled. So this is a big, big crowd. And so Jesus turned to this crowd and he warned them now to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. So he'd condemned the Pharisees for their hypocrisy. And now he's warning the crowd to beware of their leaven or their hypocrisy and he puts it that way because of the way leaven works.

It isn't always visible. It's not obvious. It's insidious. It's hidden. It permeates though in a way that you can't see it.

You see the effect of it but you don't see it happening. And this Hypocrisy of the Pharisees, he's saying this doctrine of the Pharisees is, in their teaching, do the same thing. They have the same effect. They permeate in the same kind of way, imperceptibly. But you certainly see the effect.

So Jesus said, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is to create a public impression that is at odds with somebody's real purposes or motivations. It's play acting. And you remember if you were here that this word for hypocrisy is the word that we, is the word for an actor. An actor was somebody who was making it seem like he was something that he wasn't.

So in that sense, it means play acting. But those people who are play acting can begin to deceive even themselves that they really are who they are pretending to be. And so not all hypocrisy is people who knowingly are saying one thing and brazenly doing another. Many times it's people who sincerely believe that they are what they are, what they're saying. But they're wrong.

They're wrong. They, it's people that no longer believe that they're play acting. It's like an actor who now believes that he is the person whom he is pretending to represent. He sincerely believes that's who he is. We would say if somebody there, they're deceived.

And so Luke 12 then, This chapter, this whole chapter has been Jesus' message to the people that came on the following this dinner that he'd had with the Pharisee. And the overall overarching trajectory of this message is that there is a judgment coming. We could summarize his message this way, beginning at the beginning of chapter 12. First, don't fear. Don't fear.

Don't fear those that can only kill the body because our life doesn't consist merely of our body. We are to fear the one who has power of body and soul. We are to fear the one who can cast us into hell. That is the place where God's unmitigated wrath is poured out for all eternity in everlasting judgment with no mercy. That's what hell is.

The place where God's unmitigated wrath is poured out for all eternity in everlasting judgment with no mercy. See, Jesus went on to say that the reason we don't need to fear what happens to our body is that God knows us. He knows us so well that not even one hair can fall from our head apart from His decree. And so we don't need to fear. The Lord not only knows us but He cares for us.

He cares for the sparrows, Jesus said. And we're worth far more than those little sparrows. So Jesus, God will care for us too. That's why we don't need to be afraid of the things that happen to our body. Because God is sovereign over everything that happens.

He's caring for us. What we need to be thinking about is the judgment that is to come. That's what we need to be fearing. And the one who is the judge. Jesus' second point was that we should confess Christ before men.

Those men who confess Christ before men, Christ will confess before the angels. See, He's bringing them back to the judgment again. There is going to come a time when we will stand before the Judge of all the earth and give an account of every idle word, every idle minute, yes, there will be great weeping in that day." Jesus says, in that day those who have not confessed Me before men, Christ will not confess before the angels who are surrounding this judgment throne. These men will be disowned at the final judgment. And he goes on to say, by the way, when you're dragged in front of the judge and have an opportunity to confess Christ before them, don't worry.

Don't worry about what you're gonna say because the Holy Spirit will be there to guide you. Remember, be worried about this final judgment. Be worried that you confess Christ before men. Thirdly, he said, beware of covetousness because it's going to lead you in the wrong direction. You will lay up treasure on earth instead of being rich toward God.

And what is more important in the day of judgment? Rich is more important, that you had bigger houses and more cars than anybody else, and that your house was the biggest one in the neighborhood, and that you had nicer toys than all of your friends, Or that you were rich toward God? That you were a good steward of all, that God has entrusted to you with your life, and your health, and your wealth, and your gifts, and your abilities. Beware of covetousness, because it will take our eyes off of what is most important this coming day of judgment and put our eyes on things that aren't so important, that really in the end don't matter. Jesus encourages them to lay up treasure in heaven.

No thief can steal treasure in heaven. They can steal anything you put here on earth. If you bury it, they can find it. If you put in a safe, they can drill it. The best safes, they say, 30 minutes, can keep a thief out.

In heaven, nobody can steal that treasure. No moth can ruin it by laying eggs in your expensive woolen clothes. I don't know how many of us have woolen clothes anymore, but if you did have them it was always a problem. You'd take them out one year and there'd be holes in them. Nice piece of cloth, nice clothes, expensive clothes ruined by a little moth or rust, you know, your gold doesn't rust, you can leave it in the bottom of the ocean for centuries, millennia and pull it out and it's still pretty much there.

But thieves take it. So you say, well, I can avoid the theft by buying other metals, iron and other things. Those are great metals too, except they rust. And you let them sit out for very long and you really don't have anything anymore. It's just a pile of red sawdust.

Okay, rust ruins it. So Jesus says lay up treasure in heaven where all these things can't happen to it. It's safe there. It's safer than the Federal Reserve vault in the bedrock of Long Island, New York City. This is probably one of the more secure safes I've ever read about.

I Don't have time to explain all that takes to get in there, but it's an amazing safe. But Jesus is saying even that can't compare to a treasure in heaven. Fourthly, he tells us to live as those who remember that Christ is returning and will judge all things. We're to live in that knowledge day by day. He gives, Jesus gives us the true perspective of our situation.

It's very easy to get caught up in the affairs of this world. What we're going to eat, what we're going to wear, what car we will drive, what movie we're going to watch, the next time we can get together with our friends, or growing our income and building a nest egg, or growing our company and hiring more employees, winning the next account, and so on and so forth. It's so easy to get caught up in all of these things of life here on earth that we forget the big picture. That we've been created by God and set on this earth as His stewards. And our chief purpose is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever.

And that Christ will return and assess our performance as His stewards. And So our life, Jesus said, should reflect that reality. It should reflect that purpose for which we've been created. And we don't know when this day will come. We're told that it's going to come as a thief in the night.

And so we need to be ready. Always ready. Our waist girded, our lamps burning, waiting for the return of the Master. Always ready. Jesus warns us against the danger of thinking, oh the master is delaying and coming.

It's been a long time. Things are just going to keep on going the way they have been going. Certainly I'm pretty safe for the next years, the next couple years. Certainly safe for the next hour. He's probably not going to return in the next hour.

I can do this other thing. We don't always have to be ready, dressed for action, equipped for action, always thinking about what the Master would want us to be doing, us as his servants. Jesus warns against the danger of that kind of thinking. And he compares that thinking to a overseer, a servant who has been put over the house while the master is away. He compares that kind of thinking to a servant who says, oh, the master's not coming back for a while.

I'll beat the other servants, make them do what I want them to do, and spends his days eating and drinking, getting drunk and feasting. Jesus said, the master's going to return when this unfaithful steward is not ready for it. And he will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the unbeliever." You see there's a hypocrisy there. This person, this overseer, was outwardly a believer. He was a servant of the Master.

He was in charge of this Master's possessions. In other words, we would say today he was a member of the church. He was a nice guy, helping people with his labor, his time, and his money. But he was fooling himself. He was a hypocrite.

He was pretending to be something that he really wasn't. He was pretending to be a servant of the Master. He was doing all these things, and He probably had deceived himself. It wasn't that he was doing something knowing he wasn't a servant of the Master. He had deceived himself.

But he was a hypocrite nonetheless. He thought he was a servant of Christ. But He wasn't. That's why Jesus says, He will come, cut him in two, and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. He was speaking there about somebody who was in the church.

Somebody who outwardly looked like a servant of the Master. There was another principle of judgment that Jesus also taught us out of that parable. And then that was that to whom much is given much is expected. The example that you have had maybe growing up in your in your example you've had in your life the family that you might have grown up in. The knowledge that you've been given, the instruction that you've had, maybe being baptized as a baby.

These are all, that's a means of grace. That's a real thing. It's not just a show that we do here because it seems like a nice thing to welcome a baby in. No, that's a sacrament and grace is conferred by faith through that. It's not merely in the application of water.

It is a grace that is always received by faith, but it is grace nonetheless. It's a blessing. And to whom much is given, Jesus said, much will be expected. It's not only the things that we have done that count, but it is also what we have done it with, what has been given to us. Because when much has been given to us, then much is expected.

And so remember the talents the parable the talents that Jesus told there was one talent five talents and ten or or one You know and And the one who had a lot of talents, he doubled his talents. He got a lot more. But Jesus didn't look at the one who had the most number of talents at the end. He looked at the percentage of increase. And the two that had doubled their talents, even though the one had more at the end than the other one, Jesus rewarded them both because they both had doubled what had been given to them.

So that brings us to this text that's before us. This has been a long summary, a long overview, Because see, it's easy to lose sight of the big picture when we're looking at the individual trees as we walk through here. Someone who spends all their day looking under the hood at the nuts and bolts and parts of a car. Fixing engines. It's easy to miss the big picture of all of Houston and all the traffic jams and where all the cars are going and the people commuting to and fro and and to forget the what's the real purpose of having a car in the first place.

Those are two very different things. So I wanted to spend that overview so that we are reminded of this main theme. We don't miss the message. That Jesus has been teaching and presenting through this whole sermon that he's given to this crowd, which has been interjected at time points with private comments to the disciples. And so with that background, when we turn to this text this morning, where Jesus tells the disciples that He came to bring fire on the earth.

What does He mean by that? I came to bring fire, verse 49. I came to send fire on the earth and how I wish it were already kindled. Well, fire is used in the scriptures for a number of different things to represent. A number of things are compared to fire.

One is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit was poured out at Pentecost, there were tongues of flames of fire that were visible as that happened. We talk about the fire of the Holy Spirit. That's a biblical connection. Fire is also sometimes used to refer to the truth of the Word of God.

Jeremiah said that the truth became fire in his bones. He said, then he said, Jeremiah said, I will not make mention of him, of God, nor speak any more in his name, but the word was in my heart, like a burning fire, shut up in my bones. I was weary of holding it back, and I could not. Couldn't hold that fire. It burned right through him.

So we could be talking about truth. It's also used to refer to trials, the fiery trials of persecution where God's people are in some cases even tortured or put in prison. Physical suffering for the sake of the gospel. That's sometimes called the fire of persecution. Or the fire is also used to refer to the process of refining, that we are refined, that it's like the Lord is cleansing us.

You know, when you refine a metal, you heat it very hot under a fire, and you can separate the impurities from it. And so the scriptures speak of our being purified as being refined as it were by fire. That's not a refining, that's not a fire to destruction, that is a fire to purification and sanctification. It's to remove the imperfections in the dross. But there's also in scripture, fire is used to refer to judgment.

Works, Paul speaks about that, are tried by fire. Those that are wood, hay, and stubble burn up in the judgment. Those that are in precious metals, silver and gold, they last through this fire of judgment. Peter talks about the earth being melting with a fervent heat and burning up. We speak about hell being hell fire.

The fires of hell. In fact, hell in the New Testament in that sense was used the word Gehenna, which was a burning dump that was on fire all the time. And so fire can be used to refer to judgment. I think in this passage here, what Jesus is saying, He's using fire to refer to judgment. That has been the theme overall over this whole passage, this coming judgment, and how we are to think about it, how we are to live in light of it.

Jesus then goes on to speak about judgment. And we see something, this is the way the Hebrews often wrote their poetry and we still listen proverbs if you've been part of that series how proverbs often speak in parallel thoughts. The words don't always rhyme like we expect English poetry to but the thoughts are parallel. It'll say one thought, and then it'll say the same thought, express the same idea in a slightly different words. And it may add some nuances or some context that explain the first thought.

But there's two parallel statements, and I think that's what we have here as well. I came, Jesus said, to send fire on the earth and how I wish it were already kindled. But I have a baptism to be baptized with and how distressed I am until it is accomplished. He talks about that baptism that he would have to undergo. And he said to the disciples at one point, are you able to go through this baptism that I have to go to?

What was he referring to? He was referring to his crucifixion, to his passion, His being hauled before Pilate and Herod and the Sanhedrin and subjected to torture and to a very unjust trial and then being crucified on Calvary. It says, I have a baptism to be baptized with and how distressed I am until it is accomplished Jesus was distressed as as a human he was experiencing the distress of that Now that doesn't mean he was anxious. He wasn't sinfully anxious, but he was distressed. It was a grief to him.

It was a trial. He truly died. He truly was crucified. And those things are excruciatingly painful. It was a judgment that he would be enduring.

His baptism culminated in the wrath of God being poured out on Christ, the wrath of God for all the sins of all of his people for all of history. All of the sins for all of his people for all of history Christ bore in his body on the cross in his own flesh. He bore the judgment of God. He said, I came to send fire on the earth. And we're saying that this is a judgment.

Now, didn't He come to bring peace? Isn't that what we say every Christmas? Isn't that what the angels proclaimed when they announced His birth? Jesus told His disciples In John 14, peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you.

Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Jesus told them, my peace I give to you. In John 16, he said, these things I have spoken to you that in me you may have peace in the world you all have tribulations, but be of good cheer I have overcome the world and Zacharias when he when his mouth was opened at the birth of his son John and he prophesied about John who was to come to prepare the way for the Messiah. He said that this Son would give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death to guide our feet in the way of peace.

John the Baptist as he prepared the way for Christ, would guide our feet into the way of peace. And then of course the angels sang at his birth, glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men of God's good pleasure. So how do we reconcile this, this clear message that Christ came to bring peace with this statement here that he came to bring judgment, he came to bring fire on the earth, he came to divide. Well, he came to bring peace with God by taking God's wrath for our sin. And in that sense, he came to bring judgment, God's judgment upon himself for the sin of his people so that we may be reconciled to God and have peace.

And that's the gospel, that is this wonderful news that there is peace with God, that although we are guilty, though our sins are a scarlet, though we like sheep have gone astray, we have gone each to our own way, the Lord has laid on Christ our iniquity so that we can have peace with God. But our peace was bought because Christ bore the wrath of God, the judgment of God. But those outside of Christ will bear God's wrath themselves. It is a wrath that they can never satisfy. You see, Christ came to do the will of God.

It's Christ's delight to do the will of God. And it is the will of God to punish those who do evil to punish every sin against his perfect law and Christ was accepting of that He is willing to see the judgment of God. You remember the parable of the wedding feast that he told? This where they were to invite all these people to come and none of them would want to come and the master of the wedding finally said, well forget all those people, go out to the highways and byways and bring them in. And then there was one person that came in who didn't have a wedding garment on.

And in the parable that Jesus told, this man is cast into outer darkness where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth. Christ delights to do the will of God. And the will of God is to bring judgment on all wickedness. He told the parable of the vineyard, you remember, where the vineyard is leased out to these leasers, renters. They are there to care for the vineyard while the owner is away.

And the owner sends his messengers to collect the rent and they mistreat them and they abuse them and they kill some. And then he sends his own son thinking, well they will honor him and they kill him. And then what is the point of the parable? Jesus is gonna come back, and what's he gonna do with those wicked tenants? He's gonna execute them.

Cast them into outer darkness. Jesus wept over Jerusalem. In the Gospel accounts, they each record it, the ones that cover it in slightly different ways, but in Matthew 23, as he sees Jerusalem, and he contemplates this judgment of God that is coming upon them. In verse 37. He's in the temple.

He's looking out over this beautiful city with this magnificent temple. But they're hypocrites. They're hypocrites. He says, Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, The one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her. How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you, you were not willing." They resisted the will of God.

See, your house is left to you desolate. Your house is left to you desolate. And you shall see me no more, till you say, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. And then he goes on, he left the temple, and that's when he goes on to give that Olivet Discourse about the destruction in Matthew 24, the first 35 verses about the destruction that was coming upon Jerusalem Because of their rejection of him as the Messiah because of their wickedness And Jesus comes and said then to the multitudes, He'd been talking about this coming to bring division. He's coming to bring division because there's going to be a dividing between people that believe in Him and on whom whose sins are poured out on Christ, God's wrath for their sins are poured out on Christ, and the people who don't believe in Him and who bear God's wrath themselves.

And this is going to divide. It's going to divide families. It's going to divide mother and daughter, daughter-in-law and mother-in-law, father and son. That's what Jesus meant. He then said to the multitudes, whenever you see a cloud arising, you immediately say a shower is coming.

And you can discern what's coming. How come you can't discern What's happening in this time? How can you not discern that there is judgment coming upon you? And he calls them hypocrites. Hypocrites.

You can discern the face of the sky and the earth, how is it that you do not discern this time? How is it that you can sit there and be so blind to the judgment that is coming upon you, to the wrath of God that will be poured out on you, to this day of judgment that God has appointed wherein all men will be judged, but which often has an earthly type foreshadowing it. We need to be those who analyze our own lives and who analyze the culture that we are living in so that we can discern the time so that we are not distracted by by covetousness for this world's goods so we are not overtaken by our love for this world. But rather are like the servant who are watching, who are always dressed for action, always equipped for action, and always continuously watching and ready for the master to return. And lastly, Jesus closes with the altar call.

He doesn't call it that. But he closes with this argument. If you're guilty and you're on your way to court, you've been arrested and you know that you're guilty as you've been arrested. Anybody who has sense is going to try to make a plea bargain, is going to try to make a plea bargain. He's going to try to make peace.

And that's what Jesus says here. Why? Even of yourselves, do you not judge what is right? When you go with your adversary to the Magistrate, make every effort to settle along the way to settle with him, lest he drag you to the judge and the judge deliver you to the officer and the officer throw you into prison. Make every effort to settle.

If there is an offer of a settlement, you take it. That's the smart thing to do. That's the smart thing to do. Jesus is saying, why? Even you know that.

If you know that there is a judgment coming, and you know that you are guilty as charged, and we are all guilty as charged. Every single one of us that is descendant of Adam is under God's wrath and condemnation for our sins. If we know that, Jesus says, why don't you settle? Christ has come and offered to bring peace. It is the offer of the gospel to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and the wrath of God for our sin is poured out upon Christ.

And we are brought into a living, saving relationship with the God who made us. And we have peace with God. And we are passed from condemnation. No longer under that condemnation. If we know that that judgment is coming, Jesus says, you're a fool to not make peace while you have the opportunity.

I tell you, you shall not depart. He said, when they drag you before the judge and deliver you to the officer and the officer throws you into prison, I tell you, you shall not depart from there until you have paid every last mite." It's an everlasting judgment. Because for a couple reasons. First, we have sinned against an infinite Almighty God. But also, unless Christ changes us and sanctifies us, we go on sinning.

The fact that people die doesn't mean they stop sinning. Life does not consist merely of the body. We are a living soul. God breathed into Adam the breath of life and he became a living soul. And when the body turns to dust, that doesn't mean that soul stops sinning.

That soul is still at enmity against the God who made it. And so, unless and until Christ changes our hearts and makes us new creatures in Christ, people will go on sinning. They will go on rebelling against the king of kings. When they die, that is simply the end of the day of grace. There is no more offer.

It is too late. The sentence is executed and the judgment falls and there is no deliverance until you have paid every last might. But how can they ever pay every last might? Because every moment they exist, they continue in sin against their creator. You see what a helpless and hopeless condition that is.

So their judgment continues for all eternity. Is an everlasting judgment. God is a just judge. But He's also very merciful. He will never let the wicked go unpunished, but He's also very merciful, very merciful.

And today, if you are living, if you are breathing, he offers to you peace through Jesus Christ. And Christ, as our High Priest, offers to take God's wrath for our sin upon Him. Make peace. Make peace with the Judge before the day of grace is over. Almighty Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are a faithful God, and that you sent your Son to bring this Gospel, this message, to live as we do, to experience all that we experience, yet without sin, in order that He may bear our sin, becoming sin for us, that we, that He who knew no sin, could become sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God.

Father, your love and your grace is amazing to us. We praise you for it. In Jesus' name, Amen.