Casting Fire
Journey Through The Gospels • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Psalm 97.
As we journey through the Gospels with Jesus, we think on the goodness of God. We consistently keep before us the life and teachings of Jesus. We’ve been exposed to His truth and grace and how He continually and consistently brought wholeness to people’s physical and spiritual lives. We think on the great mercy and love which wrought our salvation. It seems His grace is endless, and in ways it is.
We see Him protecting the innocent. In this we also see Him judging the perpetrators. While redeeming and transforming those who have led lives of thievery, deception, immorality, and violence, we see Him judging and cursing those who have committed such crimes in the spiritual and religious realms. The Pharisees and Sadducees and Scribes were the top on His hit list. With stern words He warned us not to be like them.
The gentle Jesus who was a great teacher and triumphed women’s rights (because He acknowledged their value), the one who came to seek and save the lost; the Good Shepherd who would leave the 99 to find the one; also said:
49 “I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled!
Jesus said that! That wasn’t even John the Baptist.
Jesus was a hellfire and damnation preacher!
28 Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building,
29 but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all—
30 so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed.
31 On that day, let the one who is on the housetop, with his goods in the house, not come down to take them away, and likewise let the one who is in the field not turn back.
32 Remember Lot’s wife.
He laid it out straight and simple:
17 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Now that’s something John had said many times as well.
John also said:
11 “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
Jesus will baptize the earth and the people of the earth with FIRE!
The Holy Ghost and fire is not one baptism but two!
One, for those who repent and be baptized in water, Jesus will baptize in the Holy Spirit.
The second, those who do no repent, Jesus will baptize in a fire of destruction and judgment.
This is nothing to rejoice over.
This is nothing to take lightly.
It was the revelation that Jesus is the just judge who would cast me into the lake of fire that turned me to salvation.
The movies and plays and books have it wrong that the devil throws people into hell - it’s Jesus!
This baptism of the earth mentioned here however is a cleansing and purifying of the earth to make room for the new earth.
9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
11 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness,
God’s desire is to have relationship with us.
This is made possible through the work of Jesus who extends the offer of life to all who accept.
He wants all to accept - all to be saved!
Paul urged Timothy saying,
1 First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people,
2 for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.
3 This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior,
4 who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
The delay of His wrath is the display of His grace .
Yet, Jesus said in Luke 12:49
49 “I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled!
This is not what we expect in our modern Western Church worldview. But it’s written here in the gospels. It has been written for just as long and just as assuredly as the rest of Luke!
The book of Revelation opens with John on the Island Patmos, the last of the original 12 apostles, and Jesus stands before him. The book is called “Revelation” not “Revelations” because it is the Revelation of Jesus Christ.
The first 3 chapters record letters to the seven churches in Asia Minor. These letters served those churches in that day. They serve us today. They represent the church of Jesus Christ in different stages throughout the ages. They also speak to us today.
Chapter 4 records a description of the throne room of God, with God the Father on a great throne, 24 elders on 24 thrones before Him, and the four living creatures - Seraphim like those recorded in Ezekiel and Daniel.
Chapter 5 describes a scene in that throne room where God has a scroll in His hand:
Revelation 5:2-10.
And there was more worship of the Lamb.
I’m here to tell you that Lamb is Jesus. He is worthy today! He always has been and always will be worthy. He is the ONLY ONE worthy to open the seals! And He will!
Chapters 6 through 11 describe what will happen as he opens each seal!
With every seal, wrath and retribution are poured out on the earth that people would see the glory of God and have the opportunity to repent, yet though don’t, except for a remaining few near the end (11:13). What a merciful and wise and loving God to expend those who would never repent to reach the few that will!
The seventh seal that the Lamb peels back unleashes 7 trumpets of wrath.
Remember this is Jesus who will open the seals of the scroll, and that only Jesus is worthy to.
Revelation 8:1-5.
The next 3 and a half chapters describe what happens with each trumpet. Each one unleashes some form of judgement involving smoke and fire!
Trumpet 1: Hail and fire mixed with blood - 1/3 earth, trees, and grass burn up
Trumpet 2: Something like a huge mountain all ablaze thrown into the sea - 1/3 sea turn into blood; 1/3 sea creatures die; 1/3 ships will be destroyed
Trumpet 3: A great star blazing like a torch fell from the sky - 1/3 of rivers and springs become bitter
Trumpet 4: 1/3 of Sun, moon, and stars struck - 1/3 day and night without light
Trumpet 5: A fallen star opens the abyss and lets a demonic army of locusts
Trumpet 6: Release four angels to kill 1/3 of mankind by plagues of fire, smoke, and sulfur
Still no repentance.
Revelation 10:1 - 11:14 contain an interlude and describe the 2 witnesses
Trumpet 7:
15 Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”
28 “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.
29 Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit.
30 “And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke.
31 The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.
32 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls.
Jesus is the only one is worthy and able to save. He is also the one able to pour out judgment.
The world says that there is more than one way to the Father.
Jesus is the only way provided. There was only one plan and there’s only one man, the Holy Holy Holy Lamb of God!
Now why does Jesus wish the fire to be poured out upon the earth already?
Because it is a hard and terrible thing that must be done!
He recognizes that before that can happen, he must endure the cross.
After the end can come the beginning!
50 I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished!
He knows that after the earth is renewed and refashioned and purified by fire, it can then be inhabited by the redeemed! After the end of this world and the things of this world as we know it can come the new heavens and the new earth!
Revelation 20:8-15, Revelation 21:1.
Eternity is at stake. Not just for you, but for everyone you encounter.
As Jesus has already said in Luke 12, we must not be weighed down by the approvals of man or the things of this world. We must only want for heaven.
Jesus went on to say
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.”
Jesus, the Prince of Peace, the one whom the angels declared “Peace on Earth” to the shepherds about His birth, the one who said, “Peace I leave you” - also said that He came to bring division, not peace.
The peace of God, the peace that passes understanding, that peace only comes through Jesus.
But the relationship with God through Jesus will ultimately bring division with friends and family and a world that disapproves and disagrees.
We cannot serve two masters, we must be divided from our former master to be united with Christ.
That word peace brings the idea of prosperity and blessing. We are at peace when we are not struggling.
We can never have true peace apart from Jesus, because only through relationship with Him., only through believing in and submitting our selves in love (not fear) to Him can we be at peace with God. The things of this world, the affections of this world, the relationships of this world will pass away!
The church has softened her stance over the last 100 years or more.
We’ve preached ‘family values’ to the exclusion of gospel truth.
Jesus taught that our true family is our new family in Him.
Americans today are abandoning and no longer attending church so that they can spend time with family. Meanwhile, around the world, believers are beat upon by and cast out of their families for the sake of their belief in Jesus. The family of God is the only family they have left.
I am not saying to abandon your family - that would be against what the Bible teaches.
I am saying cling to Jesus and stick with the family of God, even if it means your family deserts you for it!
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?
Remember Jesus says this as He is telling them, BE ready, STay awake, and BE found faithful!
The end is drawing near.
Make every moment count!