The Gospel of Peace Brings Division

Thistlebend Quiet eMoment

by Laurie Aker

Focus Scripture: Luke 12:49-53 ESV

“I came to cast fire on the earth,

and would that it were already kindled!

50 I have a baptism to be baptized with,

and how great is my distress until it is accomplished!

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.”

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“Do you think I have come to give peace on earth?

No, I tell you, but rather division.”

Division?!

Why?

This is not what we want.

We want peace and harmony.

God’s ways are not our ways.

Does it have to be this way?

War…division…death…?

Jesus is on His Father’s mission.

He is accomplishing His Father’s will and purpose.

It is very hard for us to digest the

devastating truth of mankind’s sinful depravity. Our sin

is a serious and grave offense against a righteous and holy God.

It has brought with it terrific and devastating consequences,

which we will never fully comprehend.

The depth and darkness of our sin required radical measures:

the life, death, burial, and resurrection of

God’s one and only Son.

2 Corinthians 5:21

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin,

so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Romans 6:23

The wages of sin is death,

but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:32

He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for

us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

The purpose of the glorious gospel is to rescue and redeem mankind

and unite them in Christ, but whenever the gospel preached

there is great division.

2 Cor 2:15-17

For some we are the aroma of Christ to

God among those who are being saved and among

those who are perishing, 16 to one a fragrance from

death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.

Who is sufficient for these things? 17 For we are not,

like so many, peddlers of God’s word,

but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by

God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.

The gospel of peace will continue to bring division.

It will be resisted, rejected, and opposed.

It has many enemies and vicious foes.

It will stir up hatred, enmity, and strife within sinful men,

because the darkness hates the light.

But God uses all of this for good.

His ways are higher than our ways.

TAKING THE TRUTH TO HEART

Jesus did not promise His disciples peace.

He sent His disciples out as sheep in the midst of wolves.

We need to expect the same.

We have been sent to bring the gospel into the world.

It will not be easy, we will be disappointed,

our hearts will be broken, but we are not alone.

We don’t do this in our own strength.

Comfort your hearts with this beautiful prayer of our Lord.

John 17:9-20

9 I am praying for them. I am not praying

for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they

are yours. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am

glorified in them. 11 And I am no longer in the world,

but they are in the world, and I am coming to you.

Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have

given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.