Hearing about the Lord Jesus Christ is just such a watershed experience, whether a person recognizes it or not. To hear about the unique person of Jesus Christ and what He came to do is a fork in the road of life. From that point, either you go down the path toward eternal life or you turn away toward eternal destruction. But you cannot hear about Jesus Christ and remain the same. He draws a line in the sand. Either you cross that line and receive the salvation He offers or you stay on your side of the line and eventually face His judgment.
Jesus has just warned the disciples of the need to be ready for His coming when He will judge every person (12:35-48). Those who have received the most light will receive the stricter judgment. Now (12:49-53) Jesus shows that His purpose was to cast fire on the earth and that fire would cause division, sometimes even among family members. So the disciples need to be prepared for conflict. Then (12:54-59) Luke records Jesus’ words to the whole multitude, where He chides them for being able to analyze the weather, but they ignore the signs of the times, namely that Messiah is in their very midst. He uses an illustration of a person who is going to get dragged into court with a losing lawsuit. If he’s smart, he will settle quickly before he loses everything. Even so, those who are in debt to God would be wise to be reconciled to Him now, before it is too late.
So the message for us is:
https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-62-divisive-jesus-luke-1249-59