Luke 12:49-53

Luke 12:49-53 “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed! Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, 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 daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

Jesus, a man of peace, did not come to bring peace on earth. He came to bring peace with God to those who would accept him, but He did not bring peace to those who reject him, for they would be rejecting God's peace, the propitiation for their sins. The angels sang peace to men on whom his favor rests. His coming warns people they are not acceptable to God as they are. They must decide who Jesus is and accept him to have peace with God. If they reject Jesus as God's Son, they are under judgment, but if they accept him and place their trust in the work of the cross, they are acceptable to God, have peace with him, and will be "saved."

This need for a decision about Christ's divinity and purpose divides rather than unites people. History clearly reveals this dissension between Christians and the world. Christians have suffered much at the hands of worldly, unrepentant people, even death. Throughout history, people have banished Christians from their families, cultures, and lands for their beliefs. However, those who have made the world to suffer by their hands through the use of violence or force under the banner of Christianity are not Christlike in any way. They are pretenders, for Christ came to redeem, not to harm or to kill.

Jesus came with fire, a refining fire, a powerful fire of redemption. John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” To bring this baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire to the world, Jesus experienced a baptism of death on the cross: But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed! He endured the cross so He could bring God's refining fire to our lives: the Holy Spirit himself. This fire represents the very presence of God, the holy of holies within each individual who accepts the Lord Jesus as Savior. This is why we cannot rebuke or ridicule the Holy Spirit, for the very presence of God has come to reside within us. This awesome reality is nothing to take lightly. His fire separates and purifies us from the world, making us God's children. God's refining fire divides us from our natural families, from our cultures, from our lands. We have a new family, a new way of living, and an eternal abode. The Bible says we are "new creatures" made for a different land.

The world will never accept this paradigm. They will hate us for this belief in Christ as our Lord and Savior because this faith separates us, makes us different, and we become strangers here on Earth. We are aliens in our own land, just passing through. We are like Abraham, the epitome of a man of faith, always looking for the Promise Land. The Spirit of God tells us to keep moving and not to settle down and become comfortable in this land because it is not our home. He refines us as we move on, telling us about the Master and our home with him. Someday, either through our own personal demise or through the cloud-breaking appearance of Jesus, we will meet the Master face to face. Then our desire is to hear, "My good and faithful servant, you have followed me through the valleys and on the mountaintops, enter into my rest, you are home."