Sermon 8-17-25

Pastor Ray Lorthioir

Trinity Lutheran Church

W. Hempstead, NY

Based on the First Lesson and Gospel Lesson for the 10th Sunday after Pentecost:

Jeremiah 23:16-29 and Luke 12:49-53.

Troublemaker

Luke 12:49, “‘I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled!’” So, Jesus wanted to cast fire on the earth. This He most certainly did. And there has been trouble ever since.

But Jesus is not the only one who cast fire on the earth. If we go by sheer magnitude of death and destruction, Karl Marx far exceeds everyone else. And he did it in only 175 years. Coming in second, is probably the false prophet Mohammed. But it took him 1,400 years to accomplish his level of death and destruction. Hitler certainly ranks as a troublemaker, starting a world war. But facism is simply a racist variation of socialism, the same root from which Marx sprang. Following behind these big troublemakers is every preacher of nationalism, empire, religion or culture who has ever lived.

However, there’s two things about Jesus, Mohammed and Marx, that stick out above the rest. First, their ideas are international and global. Second, their ideas don’t go away. The movements they began refuse to die.

But the big three are not the same. One thing divides them. The trouble that Marx and Mohammed cause mostly falls on non-Marxists and non-Muslims. However, both these groups are not above consuming their own. Marxists in particular do this. They’re masters at terrorizing their own people into groveling compliance.

On the other hand, the trouble that Jesus caused mostly falls on His own followers. Most of the trouble that falls upon Christians comes from non-Christians. Nevertheless, in history Christians have not been above consuming their own. There have been religious wars among Christians. But unlike Marxists and Muslims, Christians do get tired of consuming their own.

There’s one other thing we can note. Both Marxism and Islam are reactions against the fire that Jesus cast. Both are anti-Jesus fires cast on the earth by an enemy of Jesus. Right now, Islam is being subjected to historical research as never before. What is emerging is that there was probably no man named Mohammed who lived in Mecca at the period of time pinpointed by the Standard Islamic Narrative. Instead, the roots of Islam can be traced to Middle Eastern Christian rulers who rejected both the divinity of Jesus and the teaching that Yahweh is a Trinitarian being. This is the historic Arian heresy.

Arians were labeled heretics and kicked out of the Church. And maybe to get even they started Islam. Abd al-Malik of the Umayyad dynasty came to power in 661A.D. He ruled in the Middle East and northern Africa. He was subject to the Orthodox Christian Byzantine Empire — which was the remainder of the Roman Empire in the east. But he rebelled in 692A.D. He went to war with the Byzantine Empire and won. To stick it to the Byzantines he issued a coin in 693 that had this statement on it: “There is no god but Allah and Mohammed is his messenger.” This is the first time this most important statement of Islam appears anywhere on anything. Also, the Byzantine cross was mocked in an image on coins he issued. 

Now consider. Mohammed supposedly died in 632A.D. He supposedly was the leader of an empire centered in the world class ancient city of Mecca. Yet, there are no coins from that time issued from an out of the way little place with no water called Mecca.

What’s also interesting is that Abd al-Malik had Christian crosses on his coins in the period from 661 to 680A.D. He was a Christian. But he was an Arian Christian. And something caused him to snap. What became Islam was the result. And it’s also most interesting that the Islamic empire in the Middle East, northern Africa and even Spain exactly corresponds with the areas of the Roman Empire most enamored of the Arian heresy. It’s becoming more and more clear that Islam started as rebellion against Catholic Christianity.

And historical research on Karl Marx is revealing that this man, living in Christian England, became enamored of Satan — even wrote poetry to Satan. Is there any surprise there? And notice. In most of the places Marxism went in the 20th century, there was a concerted attempt to destroy Christianity. Remarkably Christianity was officially permitted in China from 1980 onward. But in the last 20 years the current Xi Jin Ping regime has even rewritten the Bible because it considers Jesus to be such a threat.

In addition, Hindus and Buddhists get in on Jesus Derangement Syndrome. Hindus in India have been brutal with Christians. They consider Christians to be a threat. In Myanmar the Buddhists have a real thing against the Christians there. Buddhists tried for centuries to convert the tribe living in the uplands of that country, but failed. However, when Christianity was first preached to that tribe in the mid 19th century, it took off like a rocket. Those people are all Christian these days. And they are persecuted by the Buddhists.

Jews are not persecuting Christians. However, current historical research is revealing that the Jewish Talmud was likely written in opposition to Jesus and His Gospel. Rather than the early period attributed to its composition, historical research is revealing that the Talmud might have been composed and circulated from about 1,000A.D. onward.

So, what’s going on with all this Jesus Derangement Syndrome? For it’s not just in this visible domain that there is a strong reaction to Jesus. The spiritual realm is also in convulsions. We know this from passages such as this one from Mark 1:21-27, “And they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and was teaching. 22 And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes. 23 And immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, 24 “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are — the Holy One of God.” 25 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” 26 And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice, came out of him. 27 And they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, ‘What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.’”

Through the mouth of a possessed human being, the unseen rebellious spirit revealed its terror of Jesus. For it knew exactly who Jesus is — Creator God, Yahweh, come in the flesh. From such incidents as these, we know that in the unseen realm there was and remains a great terror about the judgment that will come upon rebellious spirit creatures. Indeed, the time allowed to rebellion grows shorter by each passing earthly day. The Day of Judgment is coming.

On the other hand, with each passing day we come closer to Yahweh’s gracious end game — the full establishment of His Kingdom in all realms of His creation. What will this Kingdom be? Jesus tells us in Luke 12:50 “‘I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished!’”

To this day the term baptism is used in more than one way. For Lutheran Christians Baptism is the Sacrament by which Yahweh pours out His grace to us through the forgiveness of sins, and by which He claims us for His eternal family. It is the Sacrament by which we are connected to the death of Jesus and His resurrection. Thus, Paul wrote in Romans 6:2-4, “2. . . How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”

However, in the general culture the term baptism can mean being totally immersed in something new and difficult. Thus, we speak of a baptism by fire when soldiers are thrown into combat for the very first time. It was this sense that Jesus meant when He spoke of the baptism He had to undergo. 

For, Jesus was heading into a final combat with the forces, spiritual and human, in rebellion against their Creator. In this combat all the consequences of rebellion were loaded on Him. Jesus received all the righteous judgments due those who have said to Yahweh, “I don’t want you to be my God. In fact, I don’t want any God. I want to be my own god.” Being baptized into the all the evil due those who choose rebellion is what Jesus spoke of. No wonder He was greatly distressed.

But Jesus’ baptism into judgment and the final end horror of rebellion had a purpose. As we read in 2Corinthians 5:20-21, “20. . . God [is] making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.  21 For our sake he [God] made him [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him [Jesus] we might become the righteousness of God.”

As we’ve said many times, only righteousness can stand before righteousness. If one of Yahweh’s creatures is not equal to Yahweh in righteousness, that creature will be judged, condemned and sent out of His presence into the eternal darkness of rebellion. Only those creatures equal to Yahweh in righteousness will be welcomed into the Kingdom of God, the place of pure goodness and everything good.

So, here are the questions we have to ask ourselves. Am I as good as my Creator? Am I as faithful to Him as He is to me? Am I as righteous and faithful to those around me as He is? If the answer is no — and that’s the only possible answer — what then? Is there any way out of the eternal darkness coming for us?

We just read the answer to that question. Be reconciled to God. But how are we to be reconciled with someone we can’t see and can’t appear before? Again, we just read the answer. The only reconciliation possible with Yahweh is through Messiah Jesus. Messiah Jesus suffered all the judgment due all human rebels. He paid the penalty for all human rebellion in real time on this earth on a Roman cross.

Now, it could also be said that we can’t see Jesus and can’t appear before Him. But this is not quite so. Jesus walked this earth with us. He made all His work known to His chosen human witnesses who saw it all. It’s on their testimony that the whole edifice of Christianity rests.

Indeed, Jesus had already ascended to the right hand of the Father when the Apostles first preached the Good News of reconciliation with God on Pentecost Sunday, A.D. 33. Jesus was nowhere to be found.

Nevertheless, it was through the message preached by the Apostles that the first members of the Church — all Jews — were reconciled to God. And they knew they were reconciled. For, the faith to believe Apostolic preaching and teaching comes from Yahweh Himself. Faith to confess one’s self reconciled to Yahweh through the blood of Messiah Jesus comes from Yahweh Himself. And, you know when such faith comes. For deep assurance of the truth you have heard about Jesus comes to you.  The truth not only makes sense to you, it becomes a powerful Truth much bigger than yourself and anything else in this world.

However, the truth about Jesus will be put to the test in your life and mine. And that’s what Jesus’ next statement was all about.  Luke 12:51-53, “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.’”

This is the trouble Jesus came to cause. The Good News of reconciliation with Yahweh through Messiah Jesus will go out to many. But it will be good news only to a fraction of those who hear it. There’s a reason for this. As Jesus explains in John 3:19, “‘And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.’”

This is the situation everyone charged with proclaiming the Word of God faces. Only some will find the narrow door that leads to life through the Word of God. The rest will ignore it, argue or become angry. For, who wants to be told that the path that they are on leads to the Second Death?

And, for this very reason, it’s much easier and much more lucrative to be a false prophet, telling people what they want to hear. In today’s first lesson, we’re clearly instructed in how to recognize a false prophet. Jeremiah 23:17, “They [false prophets] say continually to those who despise the word of the LORD, ‘It shall be well with you’; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, ‘No disaster shall come upon you.’”

Now, the Law of God instructs us in the behavior that is truly righteous. It instructs us in the correct way to view Yahweh, the creation and ourselves as part of Yahweh’s creation. It teaches us to discern between true righteousness and self-defined false righteousness. It also instructs us on the penalties for rebellion against Yahweh’s righteousness. Therefore, lying to people that their indulgence in sin and rebellion won’t influence their eternal destiny may make a false prophet popular, but it ultimately ends in terrible disaster for both false prophets and those who believe them.

On the other hand, Jeremiah 23:22 tells us that true prophets stand in the council of the Lord. They turn people from their evil ways and evil deeds by preaching the Law. But there’s only one problem. The sinful nature we’re all born with is stronger than the Law. This is why every true prophet of the Old Testament was persecuted in some way or another by his own people and his own government. It was true for Jesus also.

But, Yahweh knows about the power of the sinful nature, also called the flesh. Therefore, He has done something about it. We read in Romans 8:3-4, “3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” This is the work that Jesus accomplished on the cross. Therefore, while our sinful nature is stronger than God’s holy Law, Jesus the Messiah is more powerful than our sinful nature. His Holy Spirit conquers the sinful nature and brings us into the New Birth.

However, there’s still a division as Paul tells us in Romans 8:5-7, “5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”

This is why there will be division — two against three and three against two. Our flesh remains hostile to God. Households will be divided over Jesus, the Messiah. Nevertheless, Yahweh is calling those He has destined to come out of unrighteousness and into the true light. And this can only happen through Jesus. As Jesus Himself said in John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” And this statement in itself is a huge source of contention. However, if you enter the Kingdom of God through the power of faith, the New Birth in Messiah tells you that something is very different. Something is really good. The real Jesus is worth sharing, even if He causes trouble.

Now, the trouble that Jesus causes is different from the trouble all the other troublemakers have caused. For Jesus trouble leads to true righteousness. Jesus trouble leads to Yahweh. Jesus trouble brings forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. Jesus trouble ends in resurrected, righteous eternal life with Him and Yahweh who sent Him.

So Jesus started a spiritual fire. If it consumes you and me, we’re far better off for the trouble. And if you know this, risk the trouble of inviting someone else to consider Jesus. It’s worth the trouble. For Jesus said in John 14:27, “‘Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.’” Amen.

All Bible quotes are from the ESV.