Luke 12:49-56_Sermon_Baptism By Fire

{ILS} Thanksgiving Table - conversation challenges 

• Size of the group and the limited spaces in the house

• Stress of preparing the meal and/or traveling to the location

• Compressed time to talk and 3-6 months worth of updates to give

• Balance of time and balance of topics

• Messages get lost in those challenges

• Get the feeling someone was going to say something regardless

{SCR} Luke 12:49 “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! 50 But I have a baptism to undergo, and what constraint I am under until it is completed! 51 Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. 52 From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, 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 daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

{MPT} Shared Burdens

• CROWD - Normally people are clamoring to get to Jesus

• To be fed 

• To be healed

• To learn

• “You don’t know what I’ve been through before you crossed my path”

• JESUS - In this case,  Jesus shares his burden with the crowd 

• I have a purpose that is larger than you can fathom

• There was great joy and affirmation in the first baptism

• The initiation of Jesus’ purpose

• There is great pain and rejection in the baptism to come

• The completion of Jesus’ purpose 

• “You don’t know what I am about to go through after we’ve met”

• The problem Jesus shares, is the people cannot see it coming

• {SCR} Luke 12:54 He said to the crowd: “When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, ‘It’s going to rain,’ and it does. 55 And when the south wind blows, you say, ‘It’s going to be hot,’ and it is. 56 Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. How is it that you don’t know how to interpret this present time?

{MPT} What do the people see, when they look at Jesus?

• What Jesus wants them to see 

• Gods example, committed to a difficult  journey

• What the people see - an opportunity

• If i could just get a second

{MPT} Jesus took human form - this is why I am here

• To clarify - the intention

• To simplify - the message No matter what it took

• To exemplify - the love and pursuit

{SCR} Luke 12:50 But I have a baptism to undergo, and what constraint I am under until it is completed! 

• To intimidate

• To manipulate

• To end all together

• But Jesus knows if the people start to understand the story and share it

{ILS} Thanksgiving Table - closing

• Those moments the grandmother shares something no one knew

• The choices and sacrifices she made - the reason we are here