51st Post Jesus Mission Con't - Luke 12:49-53

Luke 12: 49 - 53; Matthew 10: 34 - 36; Mark 10:38.
This passage led to a large discussion, concerning this topic. We will take this passage apart piece by piece and look at each part, by themselves. The first part "I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!" God sent John the Baptist ahead of Jesus to get the people ready to receive Jesus. John did what he could, but the people would not follow him in the huge crowds that would have been needed to make Jesus' ministry easier. John the Baptist had large crowds following him, but the work was not complete when Jesus came. Jesus found the people, to be for the most part uneducated and unresponsive. When Jesus performed miracles He wasn't sure if it was the miracles that brought the people, or His actual teachings. Jesus miracles coincided with His teachings. When a fire is already kindled, this means that it is ready to burst into a blazing fire very quickly. The fact that Jesus uses the word wish, here states that He did not expect to have to gather the wood, build a place to hold the fire and then actually go through the motions of starting that fire. Jesus thought He would be able to build on what John the Baptist had already started. The people looked at John the Baptist to be one teacher and Jesus to be another. Two with similar messages but different. In the previous section "Jesus' Relationship with His Father", you will notice that Jesus was building a chain of command between His Father (God), and Himself. John the Baptist was supposed to start the chain of command with Jesus continuing it and then passing it onto the disciples after Jesus ministry was finished. I am running out of space, this will be continued on next post.