THE COMING CROSS

LUKE 12:49-59

1 Cor. 1:18 [ESV]. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

  I. Word of the cross to those being saved (12:49-53)

      A. Fire of affliction (49)

Ps. 66:12 [ESV]. you let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water; yet you have brought us out to a place of abundance.

Is. 43:2 [ESV]. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.

Dan. 3:17 [NIV]. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king.

Heb. 11:34 [ESV]. quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.

1 Pet. 1:7 [MKJV]. so that the trial of your faith (being much more precious than that of gold that perishes, but being proven through fire) might be found to praise and honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ,

1 Pet. 4:12-13 [ESV]. Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.

 13. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.

      Edersheim wrote, “Oh, how He longed, that it were already kindled! But between Him and it lay the cold flood of His Passion, the terrible Passion in which He was to be baptized.”

      The Son of Man went through the fires of affliction when He hung in the blazing sun upon the cross. Those who followed Jesus would pass through the refiner’s fire.

The Encyclical Epistle of the Church at Smyrna Concerning the Martyrdom of the Holy Polycarp

“Then, the proconsul urging him, and saying, ‘Swear, and I will set thee at liberty, reproach Christ;’ Polycarp declared, ‘Eighty and six years have I served Him, and He never did me any injury: how then can I blaspheme my King and my Savior?’”

“But again the proconsul said to him, ‘I will cause thee to be consumed by fire, seeing thou despisest the wild beasts, if thou wilt not repent.’ But Polycarp said, ‘Thou threatenest me with fire which burneth for an hour, and after a little is extinguished, but art ignorant of the fire of the coming judgment and of eternal punishment, reserved for the ungodly. But why tarriest thou? Bring forth what thou wilt.’”

“Immediately then they surrounded him with those substances which had been prepared for the funeral pile. But when they were about also to fix him with nails, he said, ‘Leave me as I am; for He that giveth me strength to endure the fire, will also enable me, without your securing me by nails, to remain without moving in the pile.’”

      B. Baptism of suffering (50)

Mt. 3:11 [NIV]. I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

Mk. 10:38 [NIV]. "You don't know what you are asking," Jesus said. "Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?"

      Jesus set His face to the cross. Jesus came to finish the will of the Father (Jn. 19:30).

      C. Sword of division (51-53)

Ps. 41:9 [GNB]. Even my best friend, the one I trusted most, the one who shared my food, has turned against me.

Ps. 55:12-13 [GW]. If an enemy had insulted me, then I could bear it. If someone who hated me had attacked me, then I could hide from him.

 13. But it is you, my equal, my best friend, one I knew so well!

Mt. 10:21 [CEV]. Brothers and sisters will betray one another and have each other put to death. Parents will betray their own children, and children will turn against their parents and have them killed.

Mt. 10:34-38 [ESV]. Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.

 35. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.

 36. And a person's enemies will be those of his own household.

 37. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

 38. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

      The cross that stood in the center of Calvary is the great divider in mankind. No one can be neutral concerning the cross.

      Ravi Zacharias commented, “In his book The Kingdom of God in America, H. Richard Niebuhr wrote, ‘We want a God without wrath who took man without sin into a kingdom without justice through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.’ Likewise, Malcolm Muggeridge wrote in the waning years of his life: I can say with complete truthfulness that everything I have learned in my seventy-five years. . . everything that has truly enhanced and enlightened my existence has been through affliction and not through happiness whether pursued or attained. . . It is the cross, more than anything else, that has called me inexorably to Christ.” (Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, 2007)

 II. Word of the cross to those being lost (12:54-59)

      A. Interpret the times (54-56; shower from the west, scorching from the wind)

1 Chr. 12:32 [GW]. From Issachar's descendants there were 200 leaders who understood the times and knew what Israel should do. Their relatives were under their command.

Mt. 16:2-3 [NIV]. He replied, "When evening comes, you say, `It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,'

 3. and in the morning, `Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.' You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.

      The hypocrites that heard Jesus speak could interpret the signs of the sun but missed the Sun of Righteousness. The lost could understand the clouds but did not know the One who would return in clouds of glory.

      The most astute could not discern their own spiritual condition and judge rightly. Those who listened to Jesus had deliberately conditioned their hearts not to hear the Words of life.

      B. Brevity of time (57-59; courtroom of God–Mt. 5:25)

      Here, Jesus urged the lost to answer God’s invitation to salvation before that day at the judgment bar of God when it would be too late.

Rom. 3:19 [GNB]. Now we know that everything in the Law applies to those who live under the Law, in order to stop all human excuses and bring the whole world under God's judgment.

          1. Illustration

              a. Adversary

Jn. 12:48 [ESV]. The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.

              b. Judge

Acts 17:31 [HCSB]. because He has set a day on which He is going to judge the world in righteousness by the Man He has appointed. He has provided proof of this to everyone by raising Him from the dead.

              c. Offer

2 Cor. 5:20 [CEV]. We were sent to speak for Christ, and God is begging you to listen to our message. We speak for Christ and sincerely ask you to make peace with God.

      Bliss wrote, “He who might have been a magistrate to pacify, is now only a judge to condemn.”

              d. Sentence

Mt. 13:41-42 [WNT]. The Son of Man will commission His angels, and they will gather out of His Kingdom all causes of sin and all who violate His laws;

 42. and these they will throw into the fiery furnace. There will be the weeping aloud and the gnashing of teeth.

              e. Prison

Lk. 13:28 [BBE]. There will be weeping and cries of sorrow when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves are shut outside.

Lk. 16:26 [WNT]. And, besides all this, a vast chasm is immovably fixed between us and you, put there in order that those who desire to cross from this side to you may not be able, nor any be able to cross over from your side to us.

          2. Invitation

2 Cor. 6:2 [CEV]. In the Scriptures God says, "When the time came, I listened to you, and when you needed help, I came to save you." That time has come. This is the day for you to be saved.

      Edersheim explained, “What common sense and common prudence would dictate to every one whom his accuser or creditor haled before the magistrate: to come to an agreement with him before it was too late, before sentence had been pronounced and executed.”

      Barclay wrote, “Make. . . peace with God while yet there is time.”

      Jesus warned the lost not to wait too late to settle the account with God. The lost could make arrangements with the Son of the Judge to receive a judicial pardon and adoption into His family.

      Billy Graham imagined: “God the Judge is seated in the judge’s seat, robed in splendor. You are arraigned before Him. He looks at you in terms of His own righteous nature as it is expressed in the moral law. He speaks to you:

GOD: John (or) Mary, have you loved Me with all your heart?

JOHN/MARY: No, Your Honor.

GOD: Have you loved others as you have loved yourself?

JOHN/MARY: No, Your Honor.

GOD: Do you believe you are a sinner and that Jesus Christ died for your sins?

JOHN/MARY: Yes, Your Honor.

GOD: Then your penalty has been paid by Jesus Christ on the cross and you are pardoned. . . . Because Christ is righteous, and you believe in Christ, I now declare you legally righteous.”

      God as the Judge always rules in behalf of His adopted children (Rom. 8:31-33). God can be just (Rom. 3:26) in justifying the guilty because the Advocate, Christ Jesus (1 Jn. 2:1), is the Judge’s only and beloved Son who perfectly satisfied the punishment for the crimes committed by the adopted children. David Smith wrote, “Our Advocate does not plead that we are innocent. . . . He acknowledges our guilt and presents His vicarious work as the ground of our acquittal.” William R. Newell wrote, “Shall any stand before God’s High Court and condemn whom He has justified? Never! Satan may accuse us in our consciences; but the day of our condemnation was past forever–when Christ our Substitute ‘bore our sins in His body on the tree!’”

      Like a key, faith in Christ opens the door of the prison and sets the captive free. Man in the poverty of sin can never pay (Mt. 18:25) for freedom from the penalty of sin. Man can only accept a salvation offered freely as a gift by Christ who purchased redemption and satisfied God’s justice by taking the sinner’s place (Rom. 3:24).

      In the book Born Again, Charles Colson told of the day he stood before Judge Gesell and offered a plea of guilty for his part in obstructing a trial. When the gavel fell days later, the judge imposed a sentence of one to three years in prison. But Chuck Colson had a circle of Christian friends who nurtured his new Christian faith. One of these, Al Quie–a veteran of twenty years in Congress, called Colson in prison and said, “There’s an old statute someone told me about. I’m going to ask the President if I can serve the rest of your term for you.”

      Faith in Jesus Christ will cancel the debt of sin and release a sinner from standing before the Great White Throne Judgment of God (Rev. 20:12). The account of a guilty sinner can be settled before that courtroom comes into session.

      Years ago in San Francisco a young boy rode down a hill on a homemade cart. Just as he was about to be struck by an automobile, a man threw himself in front of the car, saving the boy’s life, yet injuring himself. The young man grew up into a life of crime, and later went before a judge for sentencing. The judge walked into the courtroom and the boy noticed that it was the same man that saved his life. “How lucky I am, he thought. This man saved my life once, and now he will save it again.” But the man pronounced a sentence of death, and said, “Son, there was a time when I was your savior, but today I must be your judge.”