Judgment and the Judge
Notes
Transcript
Intro
We have to be reminded that there are consequences in this life. Blew the piston rod right out of my engine because I didn’t change my oil.
Need: Live in a culture where consequences aren’t severe or they don’t exist at all. That’s not real life, and that’s not how God intended things to be. There are consequences in everything that we do. We must pay attention to them.
Main Idea: Understand the consequences in this life
Jesus is continuing his speech to the crowd. And his speech is difficult to swallow.
Luke 12:49-59
Truth #1: Jesus’ sacrifice leads to separation (49-53)
Exp. The first two verses are synthetic parallelism where he is finishing the thought of the first one. Verse 49-50. Fire and water represent God’s judgment in Scripture. Both represent his death on the cross. God’s judgment is poured out onto Christ. Wishes it were already kindled. Why? 2 reasons: bring righteousness to unrepentant and he’s in distress. Death is closing in. Then he asks question. Verse 51. Conflict with Luke 2? He explains in Verses 52-53. Some will follow. Others will not. Families will be divided as the repentant are separated from the unrepentant.
Ill. Neyland stadium. Playing Florida. Orange shirts and then blue shirts. Obvious distinction. Separation.
Arg. This is a natural response to him uniting those in him. There will be those who are not in. Psalm 1:3-6
3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. 4 The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. 5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; 6 for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
Arg. Harder for us to understand. But in a Middle Eastern context where believing something else would get you ostracized is different. Be disowned. Threatened.
Ill. Family in Pakistan. Families will be divided.
Christ - Christ’s sacrifice will lead some to believe but not others. He will separate the wheat from the chaff. Not everyone will come to faith in Christ. Jesus is bringing fire and baptism as to take God’s judgment on himself. Not to be placed on you.
App. What do we do? Choose which side you are on.
Receive Jesus’ gift. He took the wrath of God for you. Another fire is coming at the end, which we will get to. Follow Christ now.
Truth #2: Ignoring Christ leads to ignorance (54-56)
Exp. His indictment to the crowd continues. Verse 54-55. First, they are able to predict the weather. A phenomenon we cannot relate to. Verse 56. Hypocrites. He’s not saying they say one thing and act another. He calls them hypocrites because they can interpret the earth but not the present time. What does he mean? Luke 12:40
40 You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”
Exp. The Son of Man is in front of them! They are clearly not interpreting God’s plan of salvation which is right in front of them. He gave woes to Pharisees about making it difficult, but Jesus is the key to understanding. Ignore him, and you can’t understand what God is doing. They have incomplete picture of what God is doing. Their incomplete picture is because they are ignoring the Son of Man’s role in this plan.
Ill. Imagine I gave you directions to my house, but you decided to ignore specific details. You will end up far away from my house. Better yet, I was leading you there, and you ignored me.
Arg. Jesus has been showing them the way, but they were unwilling to see God’s plan of salvation through Christ. Therefore, they were ignorant of his plan.
App. What do we do?
Understand God’s plan in this time. Do not interpret world events and world leadership without Christ and his plan. Iranian conflict. Peace will not occur fully until Christ returns.
Trust he is sovereign. No power on earth is greater than him.
Christ - He is the Son of Man who ushers salvation. Ignoring Christ leads to ignorance because ignoring salvation denies the work of the Holy Spirit rendering repentance impossible.
Truth #3: Unresolved strife leads to judgment (57-59)
Exp. He also addresses conflict among the people. Verse 57-59. When strife among brothers and sisters occur, we are tempted to use secular means to resolve the conflict. Notice in the parable, Jesus gives instruction. “As you go…make an effort to settle with your accuser.” You should be able to resolve before going before the judge.
Arg. Paul even warns against this behavior in 1 Corinthians 6:1-7
1 When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? 2 Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? 3 Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life! 4 So if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church? 5 I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers, 6 but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers? 7 To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded?
Exp. We must read this parable in light of what Jesus has been preaching. There will be separation between the repentant and unrepentant. Those united in Christ should resolve amongst each other. What does the secular world have to offer the brotherhood of the saints? Nothing.
Ill. What if I set Christian to determine the pitch clock rule in baseball? He has no idea how to resolve that. Secular means cannot resolve what Christ has brought together.
Christ - He says he came to bring division, but he is the one who brings the peace among them. He is also the judge who will by no means clear the guilty. Acts 10:42
42 And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead.
Christ - Jesus is the judge. Salvation brings division among families, but brings together a new family. Allowing strife to exist there will lead to the judge acting.
App. What do we do?
Settle disputes among each other. Go to each other. Settle disputes. How?
Humble yourselves. No Christian should have the “upper hand” on another Christian.
Conclusion
Wrestle with this text. Trust in God’s plan.
