The Dividing Line Luke 12:49-54; 19:29-40, Genesis 1-2 and Revelation 20:14-15

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1 1 The Dividing Line Luke 12:49-54; 19:29-40, Genesis 1-2 and Revelation 20:14-15 Who hasn t seen a version of that epic movie, The Alamo? There is a point in the movie when Davy Crocket draws a line in the sand and asks every man who is willing to defend and die at the Alamo to cross the line. Everyone steps across the line, in effect, sealing their fates. In the same way, Jesus is the dividing line of eternity. Every person who trust in him seals their fate, as those who refuse to trust him. Even in his earthly ministry, Jesus warned, Luke 12: 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 motherin-law. Look at the divisions in this chapter: 1 Openness vs privacy; hypocrisy vs truthfulness; light vs darkness Those who can kill the body vs God who can kill the soul Acknowledging God before people vs denying God before people Monetary wealth for personal consumption vs richness toward God Anxiety vs peace Treasure on earth vs treasure in heaven Readiness vs unpreparedness Trust in Jesus vs trust in anything else If you look at it, the entire Bible is about how God is dividing the world and all the people in it. This is Palm Sunday, the day we celebrate the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem the week before his crucifixion. It is one of the few incidents in Jesus life that occurs in all four Gospels. What is true about the whole Bible is also true in Jesus life. We call it a triumphal entry but it isn t triumphal, even welcome, by everyone. Luke 19: When he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount that is called Olivet, he sent two of the disciples, 30 saying, Go into the village in front of you, where on entering you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever yet sat. Untie it and bring it here. 31 If anyone asks you, Why are you untying it? you shall say this: The Lord has need of it. 32 So those who were sent went away and found it just as he had told them. 33 And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, Why are you untying the colt? 34 And they said, The Lord has need of it. 35 And they brought it to Jesus, and throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. 36 And as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road. 37 As he was drawing near

2 2 already on the way down the Mount of Olives the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, 38 saying, Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest! 39 And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, Teacher, rebuke your disciples. 40 He answered, I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out. First: Let s Start at the Beginning The first 2 chapters of the Bible detail creation and the last two chapters of the Bible (Rev 21-22) describe the new creation. Everything between these bookends tells us how we got here, why it is meaningful, what we should be doing, and how everything ends. At the heart of that historical redemptive story is the life of Jesus. Interestingly, when Jesus closes human history in the book of Revelation, he does so with a reference to the Old Testament Revelation 22:16 - I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star. This reference means that Jesus depends on the Old Testament to validate his Messiahship. Jesus asks, Do you want to know if I am who I say I am? Look to the Old Testament. In other words, there is an irony to understanding the Bible, God and us? To move forward we must move backward, all the way back to the very beginning. Who is Jesus in the Old Testament? And what do we know about him in connection with this business of dividing creation, history, people and eternity? The roots of division occur at the very beginning of the Bible. You know it well although you may never have looked at it like this Genesis 1:1-5 - In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 3 And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. Genesis 1:6-7 - And God said, Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters. 7 And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. Genesis 1:9 - And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear. And it was so.

3 3 This is how we get to know God in the Old Testament: Creator and Divider. Before we know anything about ourselves, we meet God and know that God creates and divides. And nothing in creation fights him. Nothing says, Don t create me. Nothing says, Don t divide me. Everything is created by God and everything is divided by God as he sees fit. And rather than arguing with him about any of it, the Bible concludes this this scene around God s throne in which all creation is praising him with these words: Revelation 4:11 - Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created. What is heaven s final judgement concerning God and his judgement? He is worthy to receive glory and honor and power because He is the Creator. All things exist by and for his pleasure and for this reason, only he can appropriately divide all things. It isn t until the sixth day that God creates us and this is how it happened Genesis 1:26-27 Then God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Did you see the unity and division there? It happens so fast and appears without as much verbiage as light and darkness, heaven and earth or land and sea, that we usually miss it. But don t miss it. God created us and then he divided us. Genesis 1:26-27 Then God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Perhaps this account will provide us with more detail about how it happened and better cement it in our minds. Genesis 2: So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22 And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made [h] into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said, This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. IMP: This is not the point of my message, but the point should be made. Humanity does not exist as men and women, equal yet different, in God s universe without precedent. The light will never be put out by darkness. The heavens will never cease to exist. The land will never succumb to the oceans. The divisions that God created are meaningful and permanent. And so it is with men and women. You will no more unmake light or the sky or land than you

4 4 will unmake men as men and women as women. Gender existence is not a cultural decision. It is a creation mandate. If you want to know more about this, you should read about it in a book by Nancy Pearcy, a onetime agnostic converted under the ministry of Francis Schaeffer s ministry in L Abri in Switzerland and now Western Christianity s pre-eminent evangelical Protestant female intellectual. Love Thy Body: Answering Hard Questions about Life and Sexuality. This is the point I am making. From the very beginning, God created and divided. His divisions are right, true and just because he is the Creator. By the way, who is the Agent of creation? Who created everything? Jesus! Hebrews 1:1-3a - Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. Jesus is the Creator of everything and the Judge to whom the Father has given all authority to act not only as Creator but Divider. Second: Let s Look (Again) at the Triumphal Entry Luke 19: As he was drawing near already on the way down the Mount of Olives the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, 38 saying, Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest! 39 And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, Teacher, rebuke your disciples. 40 He answered, I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out. The triumphal entry was not triumphal for everyone. Jesus entrance into Jerusalem divides the Jewish people among two crowds: those who worship Jesus and those who reject Jesus. It is not race, gender, nationality, language, politic, education, philosophy, You know where I m going with this. Third: Let s Look at the End of Time as We Know It Revelation 20: Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. 13 And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. 14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake

5 5 of fire. 15 And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. If light will never be darkness and sky will never be earth and land will never be water and men will never be women, what does that say about the division that occurs at judgement? There is coming a day when Eternal judgement is permanent. Revelation 6: Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, 16 calling to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, 17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand? Just as assuredly as we sit here today, we will one day be forever in heaven or hell. Conclusion: My point is two-fold? 1 - Can we trust Jesus with this division? Will he get it wrong? How long has he been doing this? What credentials does he present to be the Divider of humanity? More specifically, do you trust him? 2 Who do I know that is presently standing on the wrong side of Jesus? I know you are living faithfully before them. And I know you often invite them. But next Sunday has a natural invitation to it. People expect you to invite them. Take advantage of it. Community Groups: 1 Read Genesis 1:1-3; 6-7; 9 & One by one, name the divisions that God made. 2 What was the benefit of these divisions? 3 What is the benefit of the division of Adam into Adam and Eve? Without it, we would not be here. 4 - What gives God the right to make these divisions? He s the Creator. 5 Can his judgement be trusted? Why or why not? 6 What or Who is the dividing line for people in eternity? Jesus.

6 6 7 - Think about Luke 19: Why were the Pharisees so upset that so many people celebrated Jesus entry into Jerusalem? CG Leader: Read the following paragraphs before Sunday am The truth is that the Pharisees did hate Jesus, and He rightly isn t known for showing them a great deal of grace. He called them out for their hypocrisy. He exposed their inner tombs. But the hatred they felt for Him wasn t mere sour grapes at His approval rating, nor was it as principled as mere evil versus good. It was rather more craven. They hated Jesus not because He called them names, but because He threatened their security, prestige and income. He was going to ruin everything they had worked so hard for and getting everybody killed. The Pharisees had brokered a rather uneasy peace between the powers of Rome, and their own people. Rome, you will remember, had no great desire to remake the cultures their army had conquered. Any nation willing to submit to Rome s military and political authority could go on about their business. Israel, however, wasn t a nation given to separating their political and theological loyalties. Thus, the rise of the Zealots, that sect who, in the spirit of the Maccabees, sought to remove Rome s yoke. Thus, the uprising in 70 AD that led to the utter destruction of Jerusalem. It was the Pharisees who kept their finger in that dyke. And they made a decent living doing it. It was Jesus, however, who kept poking at the levee. His popularity, His talk of the kingdom, His affirmation that He was in fact the Messiah, this threatened the uneasy peace. If the people got behind Joseph s son, Rome would awake, and start killing Jews indiscriminately, not bothering to distinguish the Pharisee party from the Jesus party. This is how Caiaphas came, in a moment of treachery, to speak a gospel truth when he said, nor do you consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish (John 11:50). The Pharisees hated Jesus not because He made them look bad with the people, but because He made them all look bad to Rome. From: Have you ever experienced a division with someone over the gospel? If so, share that experience. 9 Who do you know who is on the other side of Jesus? 10 How are you intentionally reaching out to them with the gospel? 11 Take time today and regularly as a CG to pray for unsaved people.