Transcription

Connor
You’re listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun and practical ways.

Chris
Good morning. Good morning. We talked all night through. Good morning. Good morning to you, by the way. How do how do we even know that they’re listening in the morning? We don’t know. We’re just guessing. Yeah. Well, I mean, it gets dropped at 630 in the morning.

Jeff
Well, some people pick it up at midnight. It depends on where you’re watching it. So if it’s on. Yeah. Yeah. So we can see like on YouTube, we can see what time of the day they’re watching or on, on the, the the Spreaker app. If they’re listening we can see what time they’re watching.

Chris
Listening. Son of a.

Jeff
Gun. Yeah. Probably a third of our people watch, watch or listen early in the morning. Like early early in the morning.

Chris
Oh cool. Yeah. Well well then in that case good morning for those people who’s listening in the morning. Yeah.

Jeff
And for the rest of you, he just put an earworm in your head. You’re going to be humming good morning the rest of the evening.

Chris
Yes. So hey listen, we’re going to start out with a segment and the segment is called where are our listeners from?

Jeff
Yeah. All right.

Chris
This is a cool one. Yeah. It says it’s fun to see where our listeners are from. Today we’re going to highlight some of our listeners by stating some fun facts about the city. So the goal of you would be to guess, can you guess before we reveal what place we’re talking about? It’s a city, okay? And I’m super.

Jeff
Excited about this. Yeah.

Chris
And I’ll go ahead and give a hint. It is in the United States. Oh, that’s a lot in the United States. Okay, okay.

Jeff
So that limits it down to the fourth most populous nation in the world okay okay.

Chris
Here it is. And where most of our listeners are listening from.

Jeff
I think we’re third most populous. Okay.

Chris
Number one, it is perhaps the only American city flag to feature different designs on each side. What? Yes. That’s incredible. Actually, I did not know that about this place. I wonder where it is. You want me to read all these?

Jeff
Go ahead. Oh, do you want me to read one?

Chris
Oh, that’s okay, I can read one.

Jeff
No, no.

Chris
I’m happy. Well, I’ll read number two. You could do three and four. All right. Number two, the state’s capitol building was originally designed as a tomb for the wife of a former governor during the early 19th century. Well, good thing.

Jeff
You said it was an American place. Because we would have thought it was in India. Wow. Right. Because that’s the Taj Mahal. That’s was a tomb. Oh.

Chris
Was it? Yeah. Well, so it was the great pyramids. That was a tomb.

Jeff
Yeah, yeah, but not for some dude’s wife. It was for himself.

Chris
But there is a pyramid for the wife.

Jeff
So the great pyramids are like, 50 times bigger than the wives pyramids.

Chris
Oh, geez. You had you had to bring that up.

Jeff
Well, that’s all I’m saying.

Chris
Pyramid discrimination.

Jeff
Yeah, exactly.

Chris
All right, go ahead and read the third one.

Jeff
It’s time to cancel those Egyptians.

Chris
That’s right, that’s right.

Jeff
Okay, here you go. It has often been referred to as the Smithsonian of the South.

Chris
Oh, does anybody know where it is yet?

Jeff
Oh, doo doo doo doo.

Chris
No. One more.

Jeff
And it is also the birthplace of President Andrew Johnson.

Chris
Wow. So if you don’t know what it is yet, Andrew Johnson.

Jeff
Do you know who Andrew Johnson was? No, he was Lincoln’s vice president.

Chris
Oh, really?

Jeff
Yeah. Because some people get Andrew Johnson and Andrew Jackson mixed up.

Chris
Yeah Jackson Jackson has the messy Harry’s on the $10 bill. That’s right, that’s right.

Jeff
That’s right. And Johnson was was Lincoln’s vice president and then became president.

Chris
Son of a gun. Yeah. Well the answer is doo doo doo doo. Raleigh, North Carolina.

Jeff
Hey, Raleigh people. Which, by the way, Raleigh also has is the headquarters of the Timothy Initiative. Oh, cool. Yeah. Yeah, I’m there all the time. So our Raleigh people send us a message. We should get lunch.

Chris
Oh, that’s cool.

Jeff
Because lunch is a lunch is a core value of.

Chris
Mine. Do you think that maybe the reason why people are listening from Raleigh is because they’re your friends? In the Timothy Initiative?

Jeff
I don’t have that many friends.

Chris
Oh, I have this many friends. That’s okay. Yeah. All right.

Jeff
I think that’s just because they’re good Christians down there.

Chris
I think that’s in North Carolina, and they.

Jeff
Love good Bible Guys podcasts. So let’s don’t mess this one up, Chris. Make it a good one. All right? Make it a good one. We’re going to try okay.

Chris
Well it actually says that today we’re talking from or teaching from Luke chapter 12 verse 49 through 59. And keep, keep in mind this whole week we’ve only been in Luke. Yeah. Because all of the passages chronologically, only Luke records.

Jeff
So then the title in mind, because I’m using the Life Application Study Bible. Yeah. Says Jesus warns about coming division.

Chris
Yes. And what is your say? And my title says it’s a subtitle says Jesus causes what division.

Jeff
So what is it? Well let’s read.

Chris
I think he is the cause of division. Let’s read it. Okay.

Jeff
Let’s read it right here. Ready?

Chris
Yes.

Jeff
Verse 49 says, I have come to set the world on fire, and I wish it were already burning. What? Wow! He says, I have a terrible baptism of suffering ahead of me, and I’m under a heavy burden until it is accomplished. Do you think I’ve come to bring peace to the earth? No. I’ve come to divide people against each other. From now on, families will be split apart. Three in favor of me and two against. Or two in favor and three against. Father, be a divided. Against son and son against father, mother against daughter, daughter against mother, mother in law, against daughter in law and daughter in law against mother in law. Then Jesus turned to the crowd and said, when you see clouds beginning to form in the West, you say, here comes a shower. And you’re right. When the south wind blows, you say, today will be a scorcher. And it is. You fools! You know how to interpret the weather. Signs of the earth and sky. But you do not know how to interpret the present times. Why can’t you decide for yourselves what is right? When you’re on the way to court with your accuser, try to settle the matter before you get there. Otherwise, your accuser may drag you off before the judge and you’ll hand over who will hand you over to an officer who will throw you into prison. And if that happens, you won’t be free again until you’ve paid the very last penny. There you go. Yeah.

Chris
So you sort of change topics there, didn’t he? He sure did, didn’t he. Yeah. He he shifted. He was definitely talking about what was in front of him. He was talking about like hey Mike coming and and even referring to the things that he’s about to do are going to cause division. And we’ll get to that in a second. And then he says, hey, you can tell you can you can read the times for weather and for wind, but you can’t read, you know, you can’t see what’s right in front of you that I’m talking about. Right, right. That’s what he’s talking about. And then and then he immediately just shifts and says, why can’t you decide for yourselves what is right? And then and then he says, when you’re on your way to court with your accuser, try to settle the matter before you get there. And by the way, I think those are probably related.

Jeff
I think he’s saying you need to get ready. Yeah, right. You need to make peace because you’re about ready to come before your accuser. Yes. That’s what I think he’s doing.

Chris
Yeah. Yeah, I think you’re right. I think.

Jeff
You’re right. Sending a.

Chris
Message. Yeah. And that’s hard to that’s hard to piece together I think.

Jeff
But sometimes it’s confusing. That’s why Peter had to ask yesterday, Lord, is this for us or is this for everybody. Right.

Chris
Well, because.

Jeff
Because they’re always trying to sort it out.

Chris
Well and those closest to him and then. And then what did Jesus say? He said for some there’s not really given to hear. And for some it is. And he spoke often in parables and and anyway, I really definitely think that this is one of the only times where Jesus points out something that’s going to be happening in the future that we can measure in our generation. Like, we definitely know what this is like 2000 years later. Yeah. So in Families to Believe In Jesus, three are against or three believe in Jesus, two are against. And he says this is going to cause great division. He’s speaking of, of course, you know, the thing that he came to do, which is go to Jerusalem, die on the cross for all of our sins, you know, raise from the grave and then be the way to heaven. And then, you know, he’s the answer to he’s the Messiah. You know, he’s he’s the answer to all things. And and he says that itself, which is coming that I’m about to do is going to cause division for generations to come. Yeah.

Jeff
And people are going to hate each other over me.

Chris
And they do.

Jeff
And they do. They do.

Chris
Well, you just you just told me a story about Christians getting persecuted overseas and stuff. I can’t repeat stuff you can’t repeat. And the worst of ways, it’s.

Jeff
Well, I mean, I can repeat it. I just don’t want to bum people out here today. But you.

Chris
Know, we and it’s pretty raw for for this podcast, I would say we.

Jeff
Have a lot of leaders through the Timothy Initiative around the world that are responsible for tens of thousands of new believers. And in some of the places, northern India, northeast India, there’s a tremendous amount of persecution against Christians where they’re hunting them down and horrifically torturing them. I don’t want to get into it, or in Myanmar or in I mean, I can just I can Afghanistan, Pakistan, different places, just horrific Boko Haram, some of the things that they’ve done to, to Christians over the last few years has just been horrific. And here you have humanity who hates Christians because they hate Jesus and they don’t even know it, right? Right. But they do. And this is what happens. So Jesus didn’t say I came to cause it, but the cause is because I came, right? Right. That’s what he’s saying there. So but that first two sentences are unbelievable. When Jesus goes, I’ve come to set the world on fire and I wish it were already burning right. I have a terrible baptism of suffering ahead of me, and I’m under a heavy burden until it’s accomplished. Jesus is like, I kind of wish this world was gone.

Chris
Yeah. And by the way, that that that is that could be taken in so many different ways. The world burning, right? Set the world on fire. That could be a positive thing, right? I’ve come to set the world on fire for Christ. Right? Yeah. You know, but but then everybody thinks, well, I mean, I do. I think of the Joker, remember the Dark Knight? Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. When he said, he said some people just want to watch the world burn. Yeah. Right. And that was Joker, right? He was just somebody who wants to watch the world burn.

Jeff
In the book of revelation, the Bible says that everything that exists will be burned up, and then God will make a new heaven and a new earth. I think that’s what Jesus is referencing here, is I just wish we were to the good part. Well, that’s what I think he’s saying, because he says, I have this terrible baptism of suffering ahead of me. So in order to get to the good part, Jesus has to get to the bad part, right? So he’s he’s going to not only the suffering in his own body, which is horrific from a human standpoint. That’s the worst part to you and me is the suffering. But what he took in his body the beatings, the shame, the humility, the agony, the pure suffering. But even worse than that was, you know, Paul tells us that Jesus became sin for those who knew no sin. You know, even though he knew no sin, so that we could become the righteousness of God in him, he became sin for us. And. So he became the embodiment of sin so God could put out all of his anger and judgment and wrath on sin in the body and in the person of Jesus Christ. And that’s why the Bible says God turned his back on his son, right.

Chris
Right, right, right. Yeah.

Jeff
That moment and Jesus said, why have you forsaken me? That’s the agony, Jesus. Because in all of Jesus existence, through eternity, he’d never been separated from his father.

Chris
Yeah. And I seem to only really talk about that moment at Good Friday, which is an appropriate time to talk about it. Sure, sure. But yeah, it is, it is, it is the part of Good Friday in the service where if you really, truly try to wrap your brain around it, that was actually the the biggest devastation of the cross. Oh by far. Right. It wasn’t it wasn’t just the physical torture.

Jeff
1 million to 1. Right.

Chris
That versus torture versus torture. Right? Yeah. The fact that God the Father and God the Son were, you know, separated through sin when Jesus became sin. Right?

Jeff
And so I think that what he’s saying is, I’ve come to set the world on fire, and I wish it were already burning. Jesus sees the end of this broken world as a good thing, right? And in order to bring all of this to an end, because when you read the book of revelation, the last, the last phrases, the last few verses says, and behold, I make everything new. Right. There’s a new heaven and a new earth. God comes and he’s a king among all of his people, and we have access to the throne of God. All these things. And there’s no more death and no more tears and no more crying. It’s absolute, total perfection. It’s back to Paradise like he’d always intended. Only now there’s no sin, right? We’ve chosen God. We’ve. We’ve stepped into his mercy and his grace. But it all is going to be burned up by fire. And so to us, that sounds like a horrible thing. A terrible thing to Jesus. He’s like, oh, guys, you just can’t imagine how good that’s going to be. Unfortunately, I’ve got this terrible baptism of suffering. You know, the word baptism means to be plunged into. Right. He’s not dipping his toe into suffering. He’s going to be plunged into this horrible suffering that’s ahead of him. He’s under a heavy burden until it’s accomplished. And I love that phrase until it’s accomplished, because that’s what he said.

Chris
It is done.

Jeff
It is finished to Telestaff.

Chris
That’s really good. Yeah. I want to read a note here from the Warren Wiersbe Bible is what I have today. On verse number 49, it says Luke opened his book announcing Peace on Earth. He’s referring to chapter two, verse 14. He says, but now he has the Lord seemingly contradicting this promise. Jesus does not give peace to those who trust him. Romans five one but often their confession of faith becomes a declaration of war among their family and friends. Jesus is a cause of division. That’s how they were lit. John seven. John nine. John ten. But even if there is not peace on earth, there is peace in heaven. Luke 1938. Because of the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. So it’s just a great reminder that there’s peace in heaven. It’s really exactly what you just said, right? So yeah, me and Warren.

Jeff
We’re just like.

Chris
This. Yes, yes, that’s right, that’s right. Same thinking you and Wesley. Yeah.

Jeff
He was brilliant, by the way, I miss him. He was phenomenal.

Chris
Yeah. For sure.

Jeff
Yeah. So I think that’s the transformation study Bible is what that is. That’s the Warren Wiersbe transformation. Transformation?

Chris
Well, you would know it’s your Bible. I grabbed it off your desk. Yeah, I think that’s what it is because I forgot my so other Bible.

Jeff
So Jesus. It’s weird. It’s weird for us to hear him say I didn’t come to bring peace. I’ve come to divide people against each other. And again, that’s not his motive. That’s the result. So.

Chris
And keep in mind, too, he might have been speaking into the fact that they wanted him to deliver military oppression. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. So the fact that the fact that they were waiting for the Messiah to become a military leader, to deliver them from Roman oppression, you know, that whole idea. Yeah. You know, to bring peace finally, amongst the strife that could that could have something to do with it.

Jeff
The he quotes then from Micah. Right. Micah chapter seven, father, be divided against son and son against father. So this is something Micah had said, and he’s quoting what Micah said in saying that God has always said that when the Messiah comes, there’s going to be a division on earth, and it’s because it’s not that Jesus came and he delights in the fact that fathers are and sons are divided, mothers and daughters are divided. Households are divided. That’s not what he’s he’s not delighting in this. I think he’s grieving over it. It’s the result of the fact that there’s a battle between light and darkness. The forces of good and evil, and that at that point he demands a response. There is no neutrality with Jesus, so he’s demanding a response. And so you and I are invited to say, yes, Jesus, I’m in with you or I’m not. I was with a I was in Nepal. We were up about 11 12,000ft in the Himalayas. There’s a hole along this ridge. There’s ten villages, mostly of similar family members. There’s only a couple families in these ten villages. And I was with a little church. It was only about nine months old, this little church. And there’s maybe 85 people that live in this little village. 40 of them are new believers, been been new followers of Jesus in the previous, you know, nine months or so in that group, there was a man and a woman. They were 85 and 86 years old, and they were formerly Hindus. That’s what Nepalis are. It’s called the Hindu kingdom. And so I asked him, I said, can I come to your home? And I want to talk to you about Jesus, your faith. And he said, oh, that’d be great. Jeff
So we come into his home through the translator. We’re talking we’re sitting inside this little hut. It’s a Quonset hut. I’m sitting on like a chair made out of a tire, and he’s sitting on his bed, and there’s these little niches like shelves in the wall. And I said, tell me about when you found out about Jesus. And he’s talking about this young woman named Ganga. She’s a like a great niece of his. And she’s 20. She’s just become a Christian. She came to the village eight, 8 or 9 hours away and began to share the faith, her faith with him, because she was related to them. She wanted them to know about Jesus. And he said, I heard her talk about Jesus and heard her talk about Jesus. And I thought this was crazy. Every week she kept coming back 8 or 9 hours every week come back all ten of these villages sharing their faith. Finally, he said, I started seeing people come to faith in their lives are changing. And then I heard her say that our sins can be forgiven. He said, I never thought a God would forgive sin. And she said that Jesus loves us. And he said, I never thought a God would love me. All of my sacrifices were only to appease the gods I was afraid of. And I found out that this God loved me and he would forgive my sins. And he said, I wanted that God. And he got misty eyed. And I said, so what did you do? He said, I called on Jesus and I gave him my life. And I said, so then did you have other gods? And he pointed at those little niches on the wall that were all empty, those little shelves. Jeff
And he said, yeah, I used to keep all my gods. There I was Hindu, and I said, so what’d you do with all those gods? And he shook his finger and he says, oh no, it’s only Jesus or no Jesus, right. What a beautiful phrase. Here’s this, here’s this 86 year old man, Hindu. The gospel got to him just in time. He might not even be alive now. And he knew he’s only been a believer for four months and he’s like, it’s only Jesus or no Jesus. Well, then the funny thing was, because of the kind of questions I was asking, he thought I wasn’t a Christian. So then he began to try to lead me to Jesus. He’s only he’s only believer for four months. But he wanted me to know Jesus like he knew Jesus. He starts sharing the gospel with me, all this stuff. And I said, oh, I’m a pastor. I’m a Christian. I’m a friend of Ganga’s the leader. And then he began to celebrate. But for a minute he thought, you’re asking dumb questions. You must not be a Christian. He’s trying to lead me to Jesus. Right? But it’s only Jesus or no Jesus. Yeah, and the division that that has caused in some of these villages. Oh, is tremendous. Is either you’re all in with Jesus or you really don’t have Jesus. Right? And that’s what Jesus is talking about in this passage. It’s not that he came to delight in the division. It’s that’s the cost. If you’re in with Jesus, you have to be all in with Jesus. And the cost is then that there are going to be people who are going to be against you because of it. Yeah.

Chris
And keep in mind that Jesus, on several different occasions talked about how there will be division, you know, didn’t he say like he came to his own people and his own people didn’t receive him? Yeah, right. And he says, you know, hey, there’s there’s going to be people are going to hate you for my sake. They’re going to persecute you for my sake. So he was very excuse me. He was very open about the prediction of what that was. Going to cause. And I think that Jesus, you know, speaks into the future here to every generation. Because you’re right, you know, what does C.S Lewis say? There’s no there’s no neutrality with Jesus because either he’s a liar or he’s a lunatic or he’s Lord, right. Because of his claims. Right? He didn’t just claim to be a nice person, right? He didn’t claim to be just a person.

Jeff
I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me, right? Yeah, yeah, that’s pretty strong line in the sand, right? So he doesn’t leave us the luxury of of we should when we get to that point in, in this thing, we should use the quote, the exact quote. But he says something to the effect of Jesus doesn’t leave us the luxury of just saying he’s a really good teacher or a nice man, right? Either either he’s a liar and we don’t have to follow a liar, or he’s a full blown lunatic. He’s a nut. We don’t have to listen to nuts, or he really is who he says he is, but he doesn’t leave us the ability to just go, oh, he’s a nice.

Chris
Guy, right? Right. That’s exactly right. Which, by the way, is a great lesson because there are people who want to take him as a watered down or some kind of guru. Yeah, yeah, yeah, like like there are plenty. Let me say it this way. There are plenty of people out there who try to pass Jesus off as not the Son of God as but but just a either a prophet or a good teacher, teacher or somebody, somebody who gave good advice. And that is not who Jesus claims to be either. Hey, the finger wave, it’s either it’s either Jesus or no Jesus or no Jesus.

Jeff
That’s all Jesus or.

Chris
No Jesus, all Jesus or no Jesus. Yeah, yeah. Well, I think that’s I think that’s a good place to end. I think we’re right at our time. So that’s great. All right. Well we will see you next time hopefully on Monday on The Bible Guys.