WEBVTT 00:01.000 --> 00:04.700 Grace mercy and peace to you from God, our Father and from our Lord, 00:04.700 --> 00:05.400 and Savior 00:05.400 --> 00:06.600 Jesus Christ. 00:06.900 --> 00:07.400 Amen. 00:08.900 --> 00:14.900 Jesus said I have come to bring fire on the earth and how I wish it 00:14.900 --> 00:19.500 were already kindled but I have a baptism to undergo and how 00:19.500 --> 00:22.300 distressed I am until it is completed. 00:23.500 --> 00:27.200 Do you think that I came to bring peace on Earth? 00:27.700 --> 00:33.600 No, I tell you but division from now on, there will be five in one 00:33.600 --> 00:37.800 family divided against each other, three against two and two against 00:37.800 --> 00:42.600 three, they will be divided father against, son, and son, against 00:42.600 --> 00:46.100 father, mother against daughter and daughter, against mother 00:46.400 --> 00:50.900 mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against 00:50.900 --> 00:51.900 her mother-in-law. 00:53.300 --> 00:54.500 This is our text. 00:56.900 --> 01:00.600 I don't know about you, but to me when I read that paragraph, it 01:00.600 --> 01:01.900 doesn't sound good. 01:03.800 --> 01:05.500 Fire and great division 01:06.100 --> 01:08.400 Jesus says that's why he came. 01:08.700 --> 01:13.300 He even says, he can't wait until this fire of division is kindled. 01:14.600 --> 01:17.600 Why does our Savior talk this way? 01:19.700 --> 01:23.600 Let me tell you a story this morning about a woman named Muneera. 01:24.500 --> 01:30.000 Muneera, grew up in Tajikistan in Central Asia. Officially Tajikistan 01:30.000 --> 01:35.200 has freedom of religion, but the tajik people who embrace Christianity 01:35.800 --> 01:39.900 often face fierce and violent opposition, especially from their own 01:39.900 --> 01:40.800 families. 01:41.600 --> 01:47.300 That's what Muneera experienced two decades ago when she came to faith 01:47.300 --> 01:48.600 in Jesus Christ. 01:50.100 --> 01:56.200 Muneera was 19 years old, when God brought her to faith and at first, 01:56.200 --> 01:58.100 she felt an overwhelming 01:58.100 --> 02:00.100 peace. Yet soon 02:00.100 --> 02:02.300 the gravity of her situation hit her. 02:02.300 --> 02:06.100 She knew that her family would not understand her reasons for turning 02:06.100 --> 02:07.200 away from Islam. 02:07.300 --> 02:10.300 So she kept her faith private for about six months. 02:10.500 --> 02:14.500 Reading her Bible in secret, quietly slipping away to attend 02:14.500 --> 02:16.100 underground church services. 02:17.300 --> 02:20.600 But at the end of those six months, something significant happened. 02:20.800 --> 02:24.100 Muneera's family announced that she was to be married. 02:24.800 --> 02:26.800 They had arranged a husband for her. 02:29.000 --> 02:33.900 And now the time had come where she had no choice, but to openly 02:33.900 --> 02:36.100 confess her faith in Christ. 02:36.900 --> 02:39.900 And when she did the response was terrifying. 02:41.000 --> 02:46.400 Her grandfather immediately began to beat her and for 15 minutes 02:46.400 --> 02:47.800 continued the beating. 02:48.500 --> 02:52.700 And the next day, her father who had been absent returned home and he 02:52.700 --> 02:56.500 took up the beating, finally flinging her into her room and yelling. 02:56.700 --> 02:59.900 You'll never leave unless you repent and he 03:00.000 --> 03:02.500 locked her in. For the next six 03:02.500 --> 03:06.500 months leaders from the local mosque visited Muneera in her room 03:06.900 --> 03:10.800 praying out loud and pressuring her to return to Islam. 03:11.900 --> 03:20.100 She resisted finally her father reached the breaking point. Muneera you 03:20.100 --> 03:22.900 have five minutes until I kill you. 03:23.600 --> 03:27.700 Who do you choose your family or Jesus? 03:29.300 --> 03:30.200 After everything 03:30.200 --> 03:31.000 she'd been through 03:31.000 --> 03:32.800 Muneera was tired and broken. 03:32.800 --> 03:34.600 Her strength was gone. 03:35.800 --> 03:39.100 But somehow God gave her the courage to be faithful. 03:39.500 --> 03:43.000 Her father had threatened her life and asked her to choose between her 03:43.000 --> 03:49.900 family and Jesus. Muneera simply replied Jesus my Savior. 03:51.600 --> 03:58.500 And now Muneera's father whom she loved so much really beat her, for 03:58.500 --> 04:03.000 what seemed, like hours all she could do was sob and sob and endure 04:03.000 --> 04:03.800 the strikes. 04:03.900 --> 04:08.400 She wondered how her family could have come to hate her so much. 04:09.500 --> 04:13.200 And then suddenly her father dragged her out to the car beaten and 04:13.200 --> 04:15.700 bloody and thrust her into the back seat. 04:15.800 --> 04:18.899 He threw a shovel into the back seat with her and announced that he 04:18.899 --> 04:20.899 was going to bury her alive. 04:22.100 --> 04:25.000 Fortunately for Muneera, even in his rage 04:26.200 --> 04:30.000 her father, restrained himself, remembering that there were still two 04:30.000 --> 04:31.700 days left of Ramadan. 04:32.400 --> 04:36.500 The Islamic holy month in which Muslims are particularly forbidden 04:36.600 --> 04:40.900 from certain sins, including arguing, fighting and cruelty. 04:42.100 --> 04:44.600 And so, he restrained himself for a time 04:46.000 --> 04:48.700 allowing Muneera the next day to escape 04:49.800 --> 04:55.200 and to leave her home forever. And to find refuge and hiding with the 04:55.200 --> 04:56.200 Christian family. 04:58.400 --> 05:03.500 Do you think I came to bring peace on Earth? 05:04.900 --> 05:12.100 No, I tell you but division you sons and daughters. 05:13.500 --> 05:16.800 What's Muneera better off with her family's love 05:17.800 --> 05:21.100 or with the love of God, in Jesus Christ? 05:22.400 --> 05:27.700 You know, the answer even though it is such a painful one. That's why 05:27.700 --> 05:31.200 Jesus said, he wished, the fires were already kindled. 05:31.400 --> 05:35.800 Because though, it grieves, God, that any of his creatures, perish in 05:35.800 --> 05:40.100 their sin and unbelief and though it grieves God to see such hatred 05:40.100 --> 05:41.900 and mistreatment among men. 05:42.700 --> 05:47.500 It is better that some are saved than that all perish. 05:49.500 --> 05:54.800 Earlier this summer on Sunday, June 5th, Sunday, June 5th, more than 05:55.100 --> 05:59.800 50, Christians were brutally murdered and many more injured in an 05:59.800 --> 05:59.800 attack 06:00.000 --> 06:04.800 by masked gunmen. A great crowd of worshippers was gathered inside 06:04.800 --> 06:05.200 St. 06:05.200 --> 06:10.300 Xavier Catholic Church in South West Nigeria celebrating the Festival 06:10.300 --> 06:13.200 of Pentecost when the attack came. 06:14.800 --> 06:20.100 Grenades were thrown into the church, came hurtling into the church, 06:20.100 --> 06:23.400 exploding in the midst of the congregation and killing many. 06:23.600 --> 06:27.700 And, as the panicked, worshippers attempted to flee the church more 06:27.700 --> 06:31.700 were gunned down just outside the church door. The governor of that 06:31.700 --> 06:36.800 state described the attack as vile and satanic. Videos of the scene 06:36.800 --> 06:40.800 appeared on the internet and on the news, showing worshippers lying in 06:40.800 --> 06:44.300 pools of blood while the people around them wailed. 06:46.500 --> 06:49.900 Do you think I came to bring peace on Earth, 06:50.500 --> 06:52.400 Jesus, asks, in this text? 06:53.200 --> 06:56.700 Do you think I came to bring peace on Earth? 06:59.000 --> 07:00.400 Well Jesus 07:02.500 --> 07:05.800 we praise you, as our Prince of Peace. 07:06.800 --> 07:08.800 The angels rejoiced on the night 07:08.800 --> 07:12.900 when you were born glory to God in the highest and peace on Earth to 07:12.900 --> 07:17.500 men upon whom God's favor rests. What about peace 07:17.500 --> 07:19.500 be with you and my peace 07:19.500 --> 07:23.400 I leave with you? Whatever happened to, he breaks the bow and shatters 07:23.400 --> 07:27.100 the spear and he makes wars cease to the ends of the Earth. 07:27.200 --> 07:27.900 What about 07:27.900 --> 07:31.800 I will lie down and sleep in peace for you alone 07:31.800 --> 07:32.200 O Lord 07:32.200 --> 07:35.100 make me dwell in safety. And somewhere 07:35.100 --> 07:40.000 I know that you the wolf will live with the lamb and the leopard will 07:40.000 --> 07:44.200 lie down with the goat, the calf, and the lion, and the yearling 07:44.200 --> 07:49.000 together, they will neither hurt nor harm in all my Holy Mountain. 07:51.100 --> 07:52.100 So where is it? 07:53.800 --> 07:56.300 Where is your peace Jesus? 07:59.100 --> 08:01.400 The peace that Jesus brings 08:02.600 --> 08:05.000 is peace with God. 08:07.000 --> 08:14.400 Peace with God, is the most important and greatest thing in the world 08:15.200 --> 08:15.700 for us 08:15.700 --> 08:19.400 sinners. You were God's enemies. 08:20.400 --> 08:23.600 Through his suffering and death on the cross 08:23.600 --> 08:28.800 Jesus has taken all of your sin and enmity and disobedience 08:29.200 --> 08:32.000 in your place on the cross. 08:32.799 --> 08:38.700 He has taken all of this upon himself and in his own body, in great 08:38.700 --> 08:42.799 pain and duress in the fiery baptism of the Cross. 08:43.200 --> 08:48.000 He has endured your punishment as a wicked enemy of God. 08:49.200 --> 08:49.400 St. 08:49.400 --> 08:50.400 Paul has written. 08:50.400 --> 08:54.600 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your mind's 08:54.600 --> 08:59.600 because of your evil behavior but God was pleased through 09:00.000 --> 09:06.300 Christ; to reconcile to himself all things, things on earth, and things 09:06.300 --> 09:08.900 in Heaven, by making peace 09:09.300 --> 09:13.100 through his blood shed on the cross. 09:14.600 --> 09:16.100 Through Jesus blood 09:17.300 --> 09:19.500 we have peace with God. 09:21.200 --> 09:23.200 His anger has passed us by. 09:23.800 --> 09:26.200 We are reconciled. 09:26.900 --> 09:32.200 Don't you doubt for a minute that the blood of Jesus has reconciled 09:32.200 --> 09:34.400 you to your God forever. 09:34.800 --> 09:41.800 God now looks on you as his friend as his dear child and nothing can 09:41.800 --> 09:46.300 take away or destroy the peace that Jesus has one for you. 09:46.600 --> 09:50.600 He himself has established it in his blood. 09:51.800 --> 09:53.700 Nothing can take his piece from you. 09:54.400 --> 09:59.700 No, earthly, trials, no hatred of your own family, no beatings from 09:59.700 --> 10:00.900 your own parents. 10:01.300 --> 10:04.200 No homelessness, no shame or embarrassment. 10:04.200 --> 10:09.300 No loneliness, no pain or injury, no disease or even death 10:09.300 --> 10:16.200 can rob you of the everlasting peace of a redeemed and baptized 10:16.300 --> 10:16.900 Christian. 10:18.200 --> 10:23.800 If God is for you who can be against you. If God is on your side, what 10:23.800 --> 10:25.400 should make you afraid? 10:25.400 --> 10:30.100 Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or 10:30.100 --> 10:31.600 danger or sword? 10:31.700 --> 10:32.400 No. 10:33.200 --> 10:40.200 For in all this, we have peace with God through Jesus Christ. 10:41.400 --> 10:46.800 And when everything is said and done, that will be all that matters. 10:47.900 --> 10:55.400 that is what matters most. Though, as Muneera knows and you know, the 10:55.400 --> 10:59.500 divisions that we suffer in this age are painful and real. 11:01.500 --> 11:05.500 Do you think that Jesus came to bring peace on Earth? 11:06.600 --> 11:07.100 No. 11:08.200 --> 11:14.100 Not on Earth, not in this age wherever the good news of the cross of 11:14.100 --> 11:18.900 Jesus is proclaimed and believed there will be opposition and hatred. 11:18.900 --> 11:22.800 There will be division sometimes even in families the most painful of 11:22.800 --> 11:25.900 all and sometimes there will be persecution. 11:26.200 --> 11:32.500 Jesus has warned, you will be betrayed, even by parents, brothers, 11:32.500 --> 11:37.900 relatives, friends and they will put some of you to death. All men 11:38.000 --> 11:43.200 will hate you because of me, but not a hair on your head will perish 11:43.800 --> 11:50.300 by standing firm, you will gain life. And he assures us, I have told 11:50.300 --> 11:51.400 you these things 11:51.700 --> 11:57.200 so that in me, you may have peace. In this world 11:57.200 --> 11:59.800 you will have trouble but take heart 12:00.700 --> 12:02.800 I have overcome the world. 12:04.400 --> 12:06.000 Take heart Muneera 12:06.700 --> 12:08.300 dear sister in Christ. 12:09.200 --> 12:10.800 Take heart, all of you 12:10.800 --> 12:14.900 redeemed of Christ. The strife will not be long today 12:14.900 --> 12:20.800 the noise of battle the next the victors song. And then at long last 12:21.300 --> 12:24.800 peace and unity will reign supreme 12:25.200 --> 12:28.300 never to be challenged or disrupted again. 12:30.000 --> 12:30.600 Today 12:30.700 --> 12:35.300 here in this place, you who have shared Christ, peace with one, 12:35.300 --> 12:36.600 another will receive 12:36.600 --> 12:43.700 again this bestowal of Peace, this proclamation of Peace here at our 12:43.700 --> 12:48.600 Lord's altar. Peace with God forever. 12:49.900 --> 12:53.300 The peace that comes through Jesus blood. 12:54.400 --> 12:55.000 Amen. 12:56.700 --> 12:57.600 Let us pray. 12:59.700 --> 13:03.500 Righteous and all merciful God hasten 13:03.500 --> 13:08.500 the day of your Son's coming that all strife and suffering among us, 13:08.500 --> 13:13.900 may cease. Strengthen those who endure severe hardship and persecution 13:13.900 --> 13:15.200 for the sake of your name. 13:15.900 --> 13:22.000 Grant them, true peace in the very midst of Earthly strife. Console all 13:22.000 --> 13:27.100 who mourn the unbelief of members of their own family and grant each 13:27.100 --> 13:30.100 of us grace to stand fast in faith 13:30.100 --> 13:36.200 in Jesus Christ, who alone is our peace in his precious name we pray. 13:37.000 --> 13:37.600 Amen.