No Turning Back — Anton Bosch

Jesus Sets His Face Toward Jerusalem

Let's turn to the word and we're in Luke chapter 9 and We're gonna be finishing off on Luke chapter 9 this evening. Luke chapter 9 and verse 51 through 62. Luke chapter 9 verse 51. Now it came to pass when the time had come for him to be received up that he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem and Sent messengers before his face and as they went they entered a village of the Samaritans to prepare for him but they did not receive him because he His face was set for the journey to Jerusalem and when his disciples James and John saw this they said Lord Do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them just as Elijah did?

But he turned and rebuked them and said you do not know what manner of spirit you are of. For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives But to save them and they went to another village. Now it happened as they journeyed on the road that someone said to him Lord I will follow you wherever you go and Jesus said to him foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests.

But the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. Then he said to another follow me, but he said Lord. Let me first go and bury my father. Jesus said to him let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.

And another said Lord, I will follow you, but let me first go and bid farewell Who are at my house. But Jesus said to him no one having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God.

Luke’s Threefold Structure of Jesus’ Ministry

So we have two accounts here the Samaritan situation and then these three people who wanted to follow Jesus. I think that the the verse that we start with verse 51 is a very Significant verse because this marks a the change and remember for the last couple of weeks we've been speaking about the fact that Jesus is going to begin to move towards Jerusalem and this is the point at which this now begins to happen and So there is a mark change between the first Nine chapters and then the next ten and then the final four.

So the ministry of the Lord Jesus Luke divides it up into these three phases of his ministry and they they they are obviously not time Related the first Nine chapters that we've been in that is about two years in his ministry.

It's going to take him about ten months to get to Jerusalem. And then the last four chapters happened very very quickly over a matter of of weeks. So Luke is not as much of the scripture is not in a chronological order.

It's not giving us a time frame and you can say well this has happened here. And what Luke is doing is he is grouping Things together that belong together. Topically and so in these next ten chapters Jesus is now going to Jerusalem and he is preparing his disciples for the cross and for their ministry, so he is now Focusing less on the crowds and more on the twelve who would then take on the ministry and not just the twelve.

But also we'll see in chapter 10 the 70 the next group of of disciples that that follow him and so verse 51 then tells us Or gives us this marker that things are changing now. It came to pass when the time had come for him to be received up.

So this is speaking about his Ascension. Now obviously as I said Luke is not dealing with things in in in in a sense of time frame. When would Jesus be? Received up. Well, it would be it would be after the cross.

And so if in fact 40 days after the cross he would be Received up. So this is this is 10 11 12 months away. From from this particular point not quite 12 months, maybe 10 or 11 months. The only way we can time these things is based on the Passover's.

And as we put these three gospels Matthew Mark and Luke Remember John is very different as we put them next to each other. Or on top of each other in fact. We can find where the Passover's happened and that gives us those are the only markers that we really have in Terms of of how Jesus ministry develops.

That's also how we figure out that his ministry was three or just Just over three and a half years long based on the on the Passover's and we know that he would be crucified on the final Passover of his ministry.

So so Luke is not saying he's about to be as to ascend he's it's another 10 11 months before he's going to ascend but that is the ultimate that is where this is now leading. Everything has come to this point where Jesus has been popular.

He has been proclaiming the message thousands are following him and now he is getting ready to go to the cross and to be To leave this earth and to return back to the father. And so it came to pass when the time had come for him to be received up.

That he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem. He set his face steadfastly to go to Jerusalem. In other words, he had made up his mind. He was determined that Jerusalem was his not not his next stop at Jerusalem was his intermediate goal.

Remember and obviously Jerusalem is speaking about the cross and so he is he is now and this is so Luke just inserts this here. He doesn't give us more Information but we must pay attention to this verse because Jesus has now got his face set on Jerusalem.

He's made up his mind. This is it and obviously he's not just making up his mind. He's being led by the Father by the Spirit. But he knows that this is this is the final stretch and so now he's getting ready for Jerusalem.

The Statement that he steadfastly set his face to Jerusalem is a fulfillment of a prophecy in Isaiah chapter 50 and verse 7 and I'm going to give you 6 so that we can get the context. Isaiah 56 is obviously a messianic prophecy speaking about Jesus and speaking about he's suffering.

And he says I gave my back to those who struck me and my cheeks to those who plucked out the beard. I did not hide my face from shame and from spitting so we can see that this is the this is the cross this is the the the trial and the beating and Ultimately the cross.

And then he says for the Lord God will help me. Therefore I will not be disgraced. Therefore I have set my face like a flint and I know that I will not be ashamed. So you can see different words. Luke says he said his face towards Jerusalem.

Isaiah prophesies he said his face as a flint. Remember flint is a is a rock. Probably the hardest rock that they knew in those days. He sets his face. We use that term stony faced. We say someone is stony faced.

In other words their face is rigid. It doesn't move. It doesn't change doesn't show emotion. Now Jesus has set his face to Jerusalem and he's and and he's put his eyes on the goal. Remember for him the goal is the cross.

Well, that's the intermediate goal but the goal for him the immediate goal is the cross and he set his face towards that cross and Nothing was going to deter him. He was he was focused on this one thing that God had called him to do.

This is this was the purpose of his whole life and in the article. This week I speak about the the centrality of the cross and the fact that that was what it was all about. The book of Hebrews says that a body you have prepared for me quoting from the old from the prophets the body you've prepared for me.

I've come to do your will o 'god. What was Jesus's body prepared for? Well, it wasn't prepared so he can perform miracles. It was prepared for the cross. Everything was for the cross and you may remember that.

Sometimes at Christmas time we speak about the this beautiful baby born and we remember the the the beautiful Pictures of this baby and best Liam's manger, but in fact, he was born to die. He wasn't born to to live but he was born to die on the cross.

And so now he sets his face and he says I'm going to fulfill the will of the Father and I'm going to lay down My life. Now, this is very important that we remember this because when we get to the last part from verse 457 onwards this is going to come back so again, we have Luke drawing these contrasts the contrast here is between Jesus and those who would be disciples.

All right, so verse 51 then it came to pass when the time had come for him to be received up that he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem. Now I think I mentioned it's going to take 10 or so months to get there.

And but he is he's journeying now. And if you look at the other Gospels also, you'll see that he is constantly working. Closer and closer and closer to Jerusalem. Jerusalem was probably three days four days journey from Galilee.

He could have got there there in a few days, but he is he is preaching all the way down. Remember he is up in the north and now he's going through Samaria, which is between Galilee and Jerusalem. Jerusalem is down in the south.

And so he's going from the north down to the south and he is preaching all the way and he's going to take These ten odd months to do that. And so he sent messengers before his face. There's no connection between this and the previous verse which said that he set his face towards Jerusalem.

It simply says that he sent an advance party now. Remember Jesus is not traveling light if you will he is traveling with Hundreds, maybe thousands of people following him. So if they were to overnight in us in a town.

That would that would be a major Event and a major issue. Where's everybody sleep? What's everybody gonna eat and all of these kinds of things? And so Jesus sends an advance party it's not just for himself and he's 12, but it is.

It's so that everyone can understand in fact Jesus is coming and he's coming with with this with this crowd and and and you need to get ready. You need to prepare for him and for and for those who are with him.

So he sends messengers before his face and as they went they entered a village of the Samaritans to prepare for him. Now The remember that while there is the city called Samaria, which is the capital of the area of Samaria it is a big area and Consisted of a number of towns not just one city, but a number of towns in this area.

The Samaritans, of course didn't like the Jews and the Jews didn't like the Samaritans. Now there's a connection between this and the previous section that we dealt with last week where There's sectarianism that we spoke about and of course, there is this sectarianism going on here for those who Who don't know the the background to the Samaritan problem?

Is that when the ten northern tribes were taken in captivity to a Sarah remember? There are two captivities. The northern tribe was taken first and then I've forgotten now 40 or 50 years later. The southern tribes are taken to Babylon.

So there are two separate one goes to Syria and the others go to Babylon. When the ten northern tribes are taken to a Syria Syria sends Their own people not just the Syrians, but other people that were part of the Empire To Israel so they kept they taken all the Jews or most of the Jews away and carried them to a Syria now the land is vacant and so they bring people in from the surrounding nations and from other parts of the Empire to the place of the Jews and so these are Gentiles now living in that area and In that process they marry Jewish men and women so there's intermarriage.

So that is the first problem. So they are a mixed race. They are not Jews and remember that there were specific Commands in the law that Israel was not to marry foreign nations specifically because of the danger of those mixed marriages resulting in idolatry.

And that in fact is what happens and so the the Samaritans bring their religion and They mix it with Judaism and they form their own version. The the other problem was that at this time the temple is still standing in Jerusalem.

It had not been destroyed yet. And so The other problem is that they can't go to the temple in Jerusalem because they are impure because they are not pure Jews. And their doctrine is suspect because it's been mixed now with idolatry and all sorts of other stuff.

And so the the answer to that was for them to build their own temple. So they developed their own version of Judaism. They build their own temple in Mount Jerusalem. You remember Jesus comes to the woman at the well in Samaria.

She's a Samaritan and she says Where should we worship on Mount Jerusalem or in Jerusalem? That's the this problem. So they had their temple in Jerusalem. The Jewish temple was in Jerusalem and Jesus says You don't even know what you're talking about because the true worshipers worship in spirit and truth.

But you see where that where that comes in so they built their own their own temple the the Jews. About a hundred and forty odd years before Jesus comes Attacked the Samaritans and destroyed their temple.

They felt that it was a their righteous Anger, they're right to destroy it because they it was in competition with the temple of the true God. And of course this creates even more Animosity and so the two groups of people really hate each other and so it is it is to them that that Jesus comes now.

It's interesting that Most Jews who would travel from Galilee in the north down to Jerusalem in the south would bypass they would take a Detour around Samaria so that they did not have to deal with the Samaritans.

Some of those Jews who were very very Legalistic would even regard themselves as Ceremonially unclean if the shadow of a Samaritan fell on him that that is how much they Hated each other. So they would normally do take an extra day or so to go around that area, but Jesus obviously Doesn't have these prejudices and I think that that's one of the points of this of this passage.

Jesus is preaching the gospel and his gospel is not just for Jews, but it is for Gentiles also and it is for Half-breed, whatever you want to call these people Half Jews half Gentiles it is for them also.

Also just by the way They had rejected most of the Old Testament they only kept the first five books the law and that and a modified version of the law and rejected the prophets and the The poetic books and so on and so Jesus then sends messengers in and he says, you know Get get ready for us and it says they did not receive him.

Because his face was set for the journey to Jerusalem. So obviously these these disciples you go and prepare. They explain who Jesus is and they say well, you know, what's he going to do? And they say well, he's just passing through he's going to Jerusalem and He's intending to get to Jerusalem by time of the Passover now notice that they did not reject him.

Because he was a Jew. That Jesus had ministered to Samaritans on different occasions and remember the the woman at the well. Particularly and many were saved as a result of that incident because of her testimony and because of his word so it doesn't seem that they're rejecting him because he is a Jew, but they're rejecting him.

It says specifically because he had set his face to Jerusalem so what had offended them. Well, that's why I told you the long story about the background. What offended them was that he was not going to celebrate Passover with them.

But he was going to celebrate Passover with the Jews in Jerusalem and obviously as I said, it's a it's a long it's a long time off still but but this is this is the problem. So they it seems that they would have received him because Luke says specifically.

They did not receive him because he was determined to go to Jerusalem. So if he wasn't going to go to Jerusalem, it seems that they would have received him. Now, I think can you can you see the problem that?

They want Jesus obviously, he's Entertaining he's performing miracles. He's he's healing people. He's blessing people. He's feeding people. He's speaking great words of wonderful wisdom. But they don't want him on his terms.

They want him on their terms. They want him on their terms. And of course, this is a problem We've seen for in Luke and this is a problem that we have even today many people want Jesus. They want his miracles.

They want his great wonderful words, but they want him on their terms and Jesus says no I'm not going to play your game. I have a full mission to fulfill and my mission is at the cross of Calvary and so he sets his face to Jerusalem and because he's not willing to do what they want to do they Reject him now.

Remember I said that this is the beginning of this next phase. It would it begins and it's interesting that it begins. Unlike the beginning of Luke at the beginning of Jesus's life and the beginning of ministry Was marked with great acceptance people Flocked to him and they they they loved to hear him and and thousands followed him.

But as he now sets his mind and his heart towards Jerusalem Rejection begins to happen and remember that this was even amongst these disciples it wasn't long before this that Jesus said who do men say I am and they said you're all different kind of different things and He said, you know, who do you say and Peter says you're the Christ and then Jesus reveals the cross.

It's the same chapter chapter 9 Peter in Matthew says far be it from you Lord. So immediately when he begins to reveal the cross rejection comes and that is the the heart of the of the article. That that I wrote this week and I trust that you if you haven't read it that you will will read it.

The moment the cross comes into the picture Rejection is real people will accept him. The Jews will accept him without the cross the Greeks will accept him without the cross, but the cross becomes a point of rejection and So they would not receive him and when his disciples James and John saw this they said Lord you want us to come on fire to come down from heaven and Consume them just as Elijah did now.

Rejection, Judgment, and the Gospel of Grace

No, you remember in one Kings chapter 19 a king sends a a group of men soldiers to Elijah the Prophet and they they wanting Elijah to come and speak to the king and Elijah calls fire. He says if I'm a prophet well then let fire come down from heaven and fire came and consumed the 50 men and the king sends another 50 men and commands Elijah to come and and and stand in his presence and Elijah calls down fire again.

And so this is the event that they are referring to now remember that Jesus had been preaching for two years and He is preaching a non-violent Message he is meets preaching a message of peace. He is preaching a message of grace and of mercy and of love.

But the interesting thing is that they had forgotten what he's been preaching for two years but they remember what suited them that went back hundreds of years and. And that's just human nature is that we seem to have an amazing ability to retain In our minds the things that that suit us.

That suit our personality that suit our agenda and forget those things that he has just said to us and Even in if we come into a meeting and and and the Lord speaks to us through his word or we're reading his word.

Sometimes we forget that the moment we stand up the moment we leave. Because because we have other stuff that's going on. We're not part of the the will of God. Now when I say that this was part of their nature, of course, remember this is John and and James and They were brothers and they had a nickname and I'm sure you can remember there.

I hope you remember their nickname. They were called the sons of thunder the sons of thunder. Why are they called the sons of thunder? Well, the scripture doesn't tell us but you don't have to be very clever to figure out Why they were because of exactly this kind of thing.

They were they were fiery fire breathing Zealots for the truth and they were quite happy to bring fire down from it from heaven that that was their nature. But Jesus was trying to change them. He was trying to teach them a different message and Remember that the penny eventually job drops because when you read The gospel of John the same John and the epistles of John.

He is known as the apostle of love. Brethren love one another. You see the change that happened because of the gospel because the the penny eventually dropped and he changes from from a from a fire-breathing zealot to a Apostle who preaches brethren just love one another and so that is the power of the gospel.

But at this point the the gospel had not yet penetrated into Into his hard heart. So so they said Lord, we will bring down fire now. Obviously, they couldn't bring down fire because they could only do what the Lord would permit them to do.

He had given them great authority to cast out demons and to heal the sick and all of those kinds of things and they thought well We have unlimited power. We'll just call down fire and Jesus, of course is not happy and he rebukes them.

He turned and rebuked them and said you do not know what manner of spirit you are of. I Think this is important for us to understand the change in the message. Unfortunately, there are many not many but there are New Testament Christians who want to live by Old Testament Rules an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth who want to exact vengeance and judgment.

When in fact there has been a clear change from the Old Testament to the New Testament Doesn't mean that there will not be vengeance that there will not be judgment that they will not be held fire. Of course that's going to happen, but that's not where we're at right now.

Right now we're at the point where we're preaching the gospel of grace and of mercy. Obviously warning that there is judgment to come but it is not it's not up to us to bring judgment upon people. Unfortunately, some Christians feel that that's their job.

There are some preachers who we call them hellfire and brimstone preachers. Because they they want to bring down the hellfire and brimstone on people. That is not where we're at. And while we preach a clear and a straight message at the same time.

It is the time of grace and God is calling men to repentance. And he says you you don't even know what your spirits like. And he says the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives. But to save them to save them remember again the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament.

The Old Testament could not give eternal life. It could only prescribe a penalty for sin and the penalty the soul that sins it must die. So the Old Testament could only minister death. It could not minister life.

The New Testament Jesus comes and he ministers life. And he comes to seek and to save that which is lost and then it says they went to another village now. Is that is that familiar? Yeah at the beginning of the chapter remember Jesus sent them out and he says if you don't if they don't receive you in a village then shake the dust off your feet and Go to another village.

Now that had happened a few days a few weeks before and they'd forgotten what Jesus had taught them and so Jesus Does what he was what he taught he? puts into practice what he had taught and he simply moves to a To another village and of course that village lost that town lost the blessing of God.

What a what a sad situation now we need to move on. Otherwise, we're gonna run out of time. In verse 57 it happened as they journeyed on the road. So they're working their way south that someone said to him Lord.

Counting the Cost of Following Jesus

I will follow you wherever you go now remember different people following him for different reasons and we've spoken about the inner circle the 12 and then there's a 70 and then there's sort of increasing circles.

With less and less commitment to the Lord Jesus. Matthew says that in fact this man was a was a teacher himself and He wants to follow Jesus. He is a scribe. And so he wants to follow Jesus as one of Jesus's disciples.

Remember rabbis those days. Just like Jesus had the twelve most rabbis would have a group of disciples. That was their form of University. And so the same way as today. Where did you get your degree from.

Oh from Harvard or from Yale or wherever. That that determines the quality if you will of the degree in Human thinking and those days it was the same the rabbi that you that you studied with that determined the quality of your education and Remember that Paul says I I was taught by Gamaliel.

Gamaliel was the top rabbi at that time. So so he had he had studied in the top university. So this man recognized that Jesus had Something that other rabbis didn't have and he wants to follow Jesus. He wants to learn from Jesus.

But he also wants to get a little bit of the shine that comes from being one of Jesus's disciples. So he says Lord, I will follow you wherever you go notice. He's not just saying Lord. Can I follow you?

He says I will follow you wherever you go now. Where is Jesus going? He's going to the cross. He he's making a commitment. He doesn't even understand what the commitment is. Remember that the other disciples didn't even keep that commitment.

That all of them except John failed when it came to the cross. They all ran away. Um, and so he says Lord, I'm I'll follow you wherever. Fuck it's so easy to make these promises to God without any Substance without any ability to to do what we say we're going to do and without an understanding of what we're actually saying and Of course, he didn't have a clue what he was saying.

He thought that Jesus was going to go to Jerusalem and he's going to become the king or he's going to become a great rabbi or Whatever it is. So Jesus said to him Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.

Now, what does that got to do with what the man said? He said I'll follow you wherever you go. Jesus says I Don't have anywhere to sleep and. And of course that that is that is true. Jesus Received hospitality from different people at different times.

It seems that he lived in Peter's house for a period of time. He stayed in other people's homes at other times. But he did not have a permanent place to live and as he is on his journey We can see he was rejected by the Samaritans.

He moves to the next town. Who knows where he slept maybe in a house maybe in the town square maybe out in the field. So what does this got to do with this man following Jesus? Well, what Jesus is saying is There is inconvenience Connected with following me.

There is inconvenience connected with following me now. There are these three there are three incidents that are that Luke groups together. They don't necessarily happen at the same time and With each of the three it doesn't all of three.

Sorry. It doesn't tell us What the conclusion was but an issue based on the rich young ruler who made the same? Desire expressed the same desire when Jesus told him the cost he left and he was very very sorrowful.

And so Jesus is saying do you understand? That it is not convenient to follow me. It is hard. It is hard. Now he's not even revealing the cross. He's simply revealing the temporary Inconveniences of Not having a fixed place of abode a fixed place where you can where you can call home.

Literally, he's moving from one place to the other. He has his clothes on his back and that that's it. He has nothing more than that. And so Jesus is telling this man You better count the cost. You better count the cost.

Remember Jesus teaches this in another place. He says no man starts to build a house without calculating how much it's going to cost. Lest he start and he can't finish. No general goes to war. He says without counting the cost.

Do I have enough man to? Embark on this war and to win this battle. Then the next one then he said to another Follow me so you see the difference between the first one and the second one. The first one says Lord I'll follow you.

Jesus reaches out to this one and he initiates the conversation and he says to him follow me. But he said Lord, let me first go and bury my father now. We are we understand that this didn't mean that his father was dead and that he needed to bury his father.

The reason for is very simple because the Jews would bury on the same day that the person died and if you were Touched a dead body you would be unclean for seven days. So if this man's father had died while he was there It's likely that he would be out there following Jesus and certainly he would not be out to be able to be out in With other people so what we assume he is saying is well, you know, I have a responsibility to my father and of course, that's right the fifth command requires that your father and mother must be honored and part of that honoring father and mother was the Responsibility to take care of them in their old age.

That was that was not just a custom. But that was part of the law. And so he's saying I have Responsibilities and his responsibilities are legitimate. So Jesus is well, you know, you better go and fulfill your obligations.

No, Jesus said to him let the dead bury their own dead. But you go and preach the kingdom of God. Now Jesus is not encouraging the breaking of the law. He is simply testing the man's resolve. The man's decision to follow him.

Are you really willing to follow me? Are you willing to? Forsake your earthly Responsibilities in order to follow me. So he says let the dead bury their own dead and obviously he's not meaning this literally.

He's meaning spiritually let the spiritual dead bury the spiritual dead. He is involved in life. He is preaching eternal life. And so he says well, you know, that's that's dealing with the dead. I'm in dealing with a lot with with life go and preach the kingdom.

What's the message of the kingdom eternal life and so you can see the the contrast again and Then he comes to the third guy. Or another one also said so this one initiates it. He says Lord. I will follow you.

But let me first go and bid them farewell. Who are at my house? This seems to be a reasonable request. Lord I'm good. I'm all in. I'm going to be with you. I'm going to follow you but you know, I just need to go and say goodbye to my family and Jesus doesn't permit him to do so in fact.

If you look at verse 62 Jesus said to him no one having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. I'm not sure if this young man understood or I'm assuming it's a young man, but this man understood what Jesus was speaking about.

Elisha’s Call and the Danger of Looking Back

But remember that we spoke about Elijah now when Elijah came to the end of his ministry he is moving through an area and he finds Elisha and Elisha is plowing the scriptures very specific. He's plowing and He's plowing with twelve yoke of oxen.

So it seems that there are that there are six or twelve yoke. Different plows going at the same time and he is in the back plow and Elisha. Elijah throws his mantle over over Elisha and that's a sign to Elisha that he needs to follow Elijah and Elisha says well, you know, I'll follow you, but let me go and say goodbye to my parents to my family and.

And he is permitted to do that and he comes back and he kills the two oxen and he Sacrifices that to the Lord and feeds the the men and he then follows Elijah and he never looks back again. So so the fact that Elisha was plowing at the time.

This is the connection. This is what Jesus has in mind when he says to him No one having put his hand to the plow now. Why again did Elijah? Permit Elisha to say goodbye and Jesus will not permit this man.

Well again because he's testing you see. It's it's it's not a it's not a matter of of him saying. Well, you've got to give up your family In order to follow me. He may ask that that is a possibility. But that is not a condition.

But there needs to be a willingness To count everything loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord as Paul said and so again, it's the it's this test that comes and you'll see that the test is on relatively minor things in The grand scheme of things it's about sleeping somewhere.

It's about saying goodbye to your parents. It's about burying your father or waiting for him to die so that you can maybe get the inheritance whatever was involved in that. But it's on these small things that they stumble and it's on the small things that the Lord asks of us.

That we stumble Lord, I'll follow you all the way Lord, I'll die for you. Well, I want you to go to the meeting tonight. No. Oh lord. It's a little cold and I've got a I'm not feeling too good. No, I know there are folk who are genuinely sick tonight and I my sympathy sympathies are with him but how easily maybe I.

How easily do we skip the meeting for the Dodger game? The reason I didn't want to go there is not because I'm afraid to say that but I don't want you to start thinking about About the game, but fuck this is serious.