Journey to Jerusalem - Luke 9:51-62

Well, this is the day that the Lord hath made right So gonna rejoice and we're going to sing to the

Lord. We look forward to a blessing from the Lord let's look at our announcements if you have a bulletin in front of you if You note for you that attend the

Bible study on Friday night this coming Friday There will be no Bible study and make note of that so you don't show up and there's nobody here and you think the

Lord's come Just take note of that, but there will be Bible study the other three weeks in this month for Friday, so keep that in mind also and It mentions a leadership board meeting the 13th.

That's not this coming Wednesday, but it's the following Wednesday so keep that in mind also our missionary of the month is

Penny Hardin as you see there She is a missionary to the deaf and She works in They have a deaf church that meets in Vallejo Bible Church, so it's

Vallejo Bible Church is one of our sister churches and so an hour before The Vallejo has their service the deaf church meets

Penny Many of you don't know but there used to be Sacramento Bible Institute and a lot of pastors and missionaries went out from there and I believe if I remember correctly that Penny went through the

Sacramento Bible Institute before she went in that ministry. She's a very godly lady and ministers constantly in that area

Let's go to a Lord in prayer Heavenly Father we come before your throne today

We come to you as your people desiring to have a relationship with you

To sing as we sing we pray Heavenly Father that we sing to you We pray

Heavenly Father as we hear your word from pastor that you would help to apply that to each one of our hearts guide and direct us in each thing that was said and done even as we visit and we thank you

Heavenly Father for the Time of fellowship that we can have together today And we would pray that you would just be with each one of us.

We think of those who are on Vacation or away that desire to be here

We pray that you give them safety as they come back and we would thank you Lord and pray in Jesus name

Amen Why don't you stand with me as? We sing to our

Lord Sing to our

Lord Scripture reading this morning is from the book of Mark Mark chapter 10 verses 41 through 45

Mark 10 41 through 45 And when the ten heard it they began to be much displeased with James and John But Jesus called them to him and saith unto them

You know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles Exercise lordship over them and their great ones exercise authority upon them

But so shall it not be among you But whosoever will be great among you shall be your minister

And whosoever of you will be the chiefest shall be servant of all For even the

Son of Man Came not to be ministered unto But to minister and to give his life a ransom for many

And the Lord had his blessing to read and hearing of his Holy Word Stand again with me as we sing

Sing to our Lord Thank you and you may be seated as pastor

Switches from musician to pastor, right and also the children are dismissed at Children's Church at this time

Please turn with me to Luke chapter 9 verses 51 through 62 Luke chapter 9 verses 51 through 62

Now it came to pass when the time hath come for him to be received up that he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem and Sent his 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 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 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 them 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 also said

Lord, I will follow you, but let me first go and bid them 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 This is the word of the

Lord Let us pray Father we're thankful that we get to worship

Jesus who is a Servant the servant Messiah who has come to Redeem the world

Not through violence But through his own death on the cross to take on our sin and bear the punishment that we deserved so that we may be forgiven and be made righteous in him and Help us to remember that that we are following the servant

Messiah the Messiah who came to die To redeem in Jesus name

Amen All right. So after revealing his true humble character of his messianic ministry his identity

Jesus starts his journey to fulfill that mission right and this is important because in chapter 9 of Luke we have seen a

A couple of times at least that Jesus Messiah identity is

Not about conquering and overthrowing Rome but to be put to death to be rejected and betrayed and He has actually corrected his disciples a couple of times already for not

Seeing it that way in which he has revealed that he has come to rescue not with the sword but to Die on their behalf

Now as Jesus sets his face toward Jerusalem This begins the longest section of the gospel according to Luke Jerusalem here means rejection

The king the Davidic King finally arrives in the capital city and he will Ultimately be rejected by his own people

Jerusalem means public humiliation This King will not be enthroned publicly exalted

But he will be hanging from the cross reigning from there Jerusalem means betrayal and Jerusalem means crucifixion and from verse 951 through 1944

Jesus will always keep the destination in mind He is headed toward Jerusalem The city that has rejected so many of God's prophets in the

Old Testament will ultimately reject the very sender himself he will be crucified to save his people from sin and unlike the previous section

Where we saw over 13 miracles We will not see as many

Instead He will be teaching he will be teaching the disciples on what it means to be following Jesus and You will notice from this passage they have a lot to learn so the main

Point of this passage is that although the suffering Messiah's journey is paved with rejections

His disciples must completely commit to him following the same path Although the suffering

Messiah's journey is paved with rejections. His disciples must completely commit to him following the same path first Verses 51 through 56 the suffering

Messiah's divinely designed death is paved with divinely designated Rejection the suffering

Messiah's divinely designated death is paved with divinely designated rejection verse 51 is a

Giant turning point in the gospel according to Luke we might go over this we might just skip through this

It's just oh, it's just a background information. He's just turned his face toward Jerusalem Actually, it's a pivot point in chapter 9

Jesus has revealed to his disciples of his suffering rejection and even his death and That was supposed to be the major aspect of his ministry major is the aspect of his life now

His journey toward crucifixion starts in verse 20 of 51 rather 51 Now it came to pass when the time hath come for him to be received up That he said fastly set his face to go to Jerusalem The time for Jesus to be received up or Taken up here means for the time for the crucifixion resurrection and ascension

Some say it is only the crucifixion But the uses of the words in Acts 1 and also 1st

Timothy Show that Jesus ascension is also in mind Acts 1 2 and 11 show that Jesus is taking taken up to heaven first Timothy 3 16 tells us that God was taken up in glory and What Luke makes clear here?

Is that the path to Jesus glory? Goes straight through the cross

The path to Jesus glory only comes through the cross Hence he steadfastly said his face to go to Jerusalem Setting his face

Setting one's face is a Hebrew idiom that shows deep determination to accomplish a mission for example

Jeremiah 2110 shows us that God is determined to judge Judah for I have set my face against the city for adversity and not for good

Just as God was determined to see Jerusalem punished for its sins

Jesus was determined to journey to Jerusalem to die for his people's sins

Now as Jesus left the Galilean region, which is north of Jerusalem He's about to pass through Samaria Hoping to proclaim the good news to them

Jesus sent messengers before his face and as they went they entered a village of the

Samaritans to prepare for him Now I will I'll have to set a little background for Samaria and This is because in the ancient

Jewish mindset There was a huge negative connotation for Samaria and the

Samaritans in the Old Testament after King Solomon's reign Started out promising but rather ended up in a disastrous manner

The kingdom of Israel split into two pieces the northern kingdom called Israel and the southern kingdom called

Judah now fast forward a little bit after a couple of wicked kings later in the northern kingdom

Omri the wicked king of the north buys Samaria for 150 pounds of silver and establishes as the capital and ever since then it's it's been known for idolatry and debauchery as in worshiping of false gods and partaking in perverse wicked acts and Moreover after the

Assyrians destroyed Samaria, right? The northern kingdom gets completely destroyed by the

Assyrian Empire in 722 BC these Israelites intermarried

So ever since then they were viewed as mixed bloods And of course in the Old Covenant where the ethnic background is pretty important This did not bode well for the

Samaritans now lastly The Jews and Samaritans actually differed on the place of worship

After all the Samaritans weren't going to Jerusalem to worship at the temple.

It belonged to the southern kingdom So they started worshiping on Mount Gerizim and While the

Jews they worshiped on Zion, which it's the temple mount in Jerusalem Now the final straw that broke the camel's back between these two people groups

Is that the temple of Mount Gerizim was destroyed on in 129 BC?

You can see the tension just bursting there there was a huge animosity between the two groups the

Jews and the Samaritans and In fact often

Jews traveled around the region Taking longer time to avoid

Going through Samaria Now the fact that Jesus did not go around this region shows that he did not have any animosity towards Samaritans Right.

In fact, his desire was to minister to them to preach the gospel to them to announce the coming of the

Messiah to them He didn't even want these mixed bloods to miss out on the coming of the

Messiah However, unfortunately verse 53 shows the

Samaritans response But they did not receive him because his face was set for the journey to Jerusalem The Samaritan village does not receive

Jesus. However, Luke tells us this is because Jesus mission prioritizes his journey to Jerusalem Even Jesus Rejection is ordained to clear his way to his redemptive death

This is important because at no point in Jesus life in earthly ministry

Was the redemption of the whole world at? stake He never played

He never jeopardized he never played with the chance of The fact that he may never die on the cross that was never up in the air

Every part of his earthly ministry Pointed toward the cross and there was no other way

God did not play chess with your souls here Second it was not just the

Jewish leaders who rejected Jesus during his earthly ministry Jesus suffered rejection from all sorts of people

The gospel is Offensive to those who are perishing

The gospel is not the news that normal people just welcomely receive at first It takes up it takes a lot of humility to know that nothing but God incarnate

And His death could save you from the filth and wickedness of sin

Now in response to his rejection James and John Zealously suggests the solution

Lord. Do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them? Here the fire from heaven is a destructive judgment against those who reject

Jesus John and James are passionately zealous for Jesus honor and reputation and This is an

Old Testament reference that comes from 2nd Kings chapter 1 verses 10 12 and 14

When the wicked king of Israel sends his army to capture the prophet Elijah fire comes raining down from heaven and Consume them whole 50 soldiers and their captain dead doesn't happen just once It happens twice now

In John and James is mine The village that rejected Jesus deserved to be judged for rejecting not just the prophet like Elijah, but the

Messiah himself How dare they? Do they not know who this is

Jesus however turns around and rebukes them This sudden action shows that Jesus was walking in front of the group and Instantly turned around to correct them even after all the revelations of the suffering nature of Jesus ministry

John and James still did not understand the humble characterization of Jesus identity

John and James still did not understand That this was not the plan for his first coming

He wasn't here to be he wasn't here to kill During his first coming

He was here to be killed He did not come to judge in his first coming but to be judged by the hands of sinful man, and this is important because this

Characterizes What kind of Messiah we worship? We do worship an almighty right omnipotent it means there's

He's not lacking in strength or power He has full authority to judge.

We do worship Jesus. Who is that? But we have to remember his humble

Character his humble nature the lowly and gentle nature When he came to save he came to save at the cost of his life

That's what he came for That's why James and John solution was highly inappropriate

They're not wrong That the Samaritan village deserved to be judged for rejecting the

Messiah Anyone who rejects the Messiah deserves to be judged for rejecting Jesus But they're wrong

About what Jesus has come to do and Jesus has come to save As he is humiliated on the cross betrayed and mocked falsely accused

Abandoned Hanging from the cross Bleeding has become a spectacle of Public humiliation this

Messiah didn't first come to judge, but he first came to save and that's because he's merciful

Even to the Samaritan village that rejected him Jesus gives them a second chance.

In fact when we could get to the book of Acts, we will see Samaritans Believe we will see them be saved.

We will see them receive the gospel Imagine if John and James solution was taken

There was there would have been no village to save now.

What is our response to this Messiah? Following the crucified

Messiah urgently requires us to completely commit to him following the

Crucified Messiah urgently requires us to completely commit to him fittingly

After showing the rejection of the Messiah himself Luke shows us what it means for his disciples what it means for his followers

Luke gives us three different potential disciples The first and third disciples they initiate themselves to follow

Jesus while the second disciple is invited by Jesus himself What Luke is showing is no matter how you come to Christ the requirement remains the same a complete commitment to Christ despite the rejection and hardship that will follow a complete commitment a complete loyalty the utmost allegiance

Now as they're journeying to Jerusalem some unnamed fellow approaches Jesus Lord, I will follow you wherever you go

Again we have no idea How he's heard about Jesus we don't even know who he is

And that's because the focus is not on him. But on Jesus instruction on what discipleship looks like This man wants to be a student of Jesus, right?

A student would follow his rabbi write a Jewish teacher and sit at his feet to learn travel with him now all the more intimate than our current academic setting where I Mean how many of us really follow our professors after the lecture, right?

Or even go to the office hours This was not enough so Jesus responds

Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nest but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head Translation I can see you want to follow me

But do you fully understand the implication of this? You will be a wanderer as I am

You will be rejected as I am You will give up all the earthly securities and rely only on the

Heavenly Father for provision modern -day

Clear instruction would be you may not have a 401k You may be rejected by the closest friends and family

You may even lose your current job You may not know where your next meal is gonna come from Because you will have to depend on the

Heavenly Father only. Are you willing to follow me after that?

Are you willing to forego all the earthly securities that you've built up or have expected?

To follow this one man. Are you truly willing to follow

Jesus? the second interaction

Intensifies the demand even more then he said to another follow me

But he said Lord, let me first go and bury my father This man will follow

Jesus, but there is One thing he must do before that One thing he must accomplish first there is something that must come before following Jesus in Judaism Burying one's parents

Was an important duty for any children In fact, it was more important to honorably bury your parent than to keep the ritual purity laws the ceremonial cleansing

Right. It was actually expected they were expected to become impure unclean by burying their dead parents

That took priority imagine that Get clean later bury your parents the request by this potential disciple to go bury his father was actually very reasonable perhaps culturally this

Possibly was the best reason to postpone following Jesus. However, Jesus response is shocking

Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God First here the dead burying their own dead must not be taken literally because dead people do not even bury themselves

What Jesus is speaking about the dead burying the dead their own dead is

Those who are spiritually dead those who are not following Christ those who are not set out for the kingdom of God Let them bury the dead

They're not tasked With a life -changing The most important mission given to mankind

Let them do that Instead what the disciple of Jesus must do he is given a higher calling.

He is to preach the kingdom of God to preach the kingdom of God is

The good news of Jesus Christ it's the news that this kingdom the kingdom of God has been opened to you because the

Messiah has come and With what we know so far this Messiah has come

To get you in the kingdom transfer you from the kingdom of darkness, but to the kingdom of God and This Messiah the

King himself will die so that you could get in That's the message of the kingdom the

King will lay down his own life so that the subjects may be rescued out of the other kingdom and join the kingdom of life

What this means is Jesus called to takes priority over any other duties

Not only that Jesus has the authority to rearrange what is truly important Cultures or traditions do not stand a chance against the very

Word of Christ Culture or your family background what you've been told what you tell yourself what tradition you have are at best secondary far below The call that Jesus has for you in proclaiming the gospel

Now some theologians unfortunately try to smooth this interaction out by arguing that you know

Disciples father is actually not dead, but he's waiting for his father to die Before following Christ, which would have been a long time.

So Jesus says hmm. Yeah, I can't wait for you more than you know a week so Goodbye, right?

I think such an explanation Is not contextually derived you can't get that from the context

Not only that it actually removes the urgency in priority of following Christ Following Jesus surpasses insignificance of even familial duties duties

That have been practiced for millennia Your relationship to Jesus trumps even the closest relationships you already have

That's why elsewhere in the Gospels of Jesus uses hyperbole if you don't hate your family more than me, right?

If you don't hate your family You don't truly love me in comparison to how much you love

Jesus Your love for your family, although great and genuine and deep would look like hatred.

That's the hyperbole here where is your priority and Following Jesus cannot wait right

Jesus cannot be second in your life. And this is important for us because there are some of you who are

Rejected by your family or friends co -workers

Precisely because you're following Jesus Christ and that's because the gospel is offensive

Unless you make that your priority It's questionable Whether you're truly following Jesus Christ following Jesus Christ takes the first and foremost

Priority it's the most important thing in your life After all

Jesus did not swerve from his journey to Jerusalem as he was about to die for your sin

He didn't decide to go to east or the west His journey He set his face toward Jerusalem and as his disciples we are to be committed to him

To set our faces toward him The third encounter switches back to the potential disciple asking

Jesus to follow him Lord, I will follow you but Let me first go and bid them.

Farewell who are at my house Notice the word first That shows up again first.

I must do this First this comes before this is not only chronological but logical priority

Well, I'll follow you but I got to do something else first The potential disciple has something to do first the request.

However, we have to remember this is not outlandish right, this is not Jesus I'm gonna go off to college and then for the next four years.

I might not see you but I'll follow you after I get a good job. That's not it at all right, or Jesus I'm going to going on a family vacation and it does come on Sunday but you know,

I I might not be able to go find a church because We have other plans

That's that's not that at all either Rather it's to say goodbye It's good.

Say goodbye to one's family and why this is important here is that The Prophet Elisha SHA Actually requests this to the

Prophet Elijah jah before following him

Right Elijah God tells Elijah you need to get your successor in line.

I'm gonna take you up So get it the talk to Elisha and you'll be okay, so Elijah goes finds

Elisha and says follow me and Elisha says, please. Let me kiss my father and my mother and then

I will follow you to which Elijah says yeah, okay, go ahead and After the farewell party, right?

He kills the cattle and they have a feast Elisha Faithfully follows

Elijah Until he was taken up Even the other prophets were telling him.

I don't think you were gonna see him depart But Elisha says no, I will I will see him depart and he does

Talk about faithfulness That's a faithful follower in the Old Testament. And that's the same request that Elisha made to Elijah So you would think

Jesus would say yes, there is a Old Testament precedent for that Go ahead Right, we will leave tomorrow morning instead go have your farewell party

However, that is not the case He says no one having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God Putting his hand to the plow is an agricultural figure of speech

Right when you're plowing right you're actually making furrows, right? You're making a

I guess a small ditch in your farmland, right and it has to be straight

So you would actually look straight forward as the cattle is with the yoke and driving and then creating the furrow

It's going straight. It's a straight line Hence you you only look forward.

However, if you look back then it would swerve Right, it would actually ruin the plowing experience

You don't look back you look forward For those of you who are not farmers a modern -day

Illustration would be don't drive while only staring at the real rearview mirror That's dangerous

You look forward now, however in this case

Looking back, right? It's to go back once more

To where you came from? Although it may have been okay with the

Prophet Elijah for Elisha to go back just once more What Jesus teaches us is that following Jesus is more significant than following any of the

Old Testament prophets Jesus is emphasizing the importance of the full dedication to discipleship

This warning is against Looking back to the old way of life

Reminiscing of the old things you've enjoyed Longing for the old values of life.

That's not full dedication. Is it one illustration comes from Exodus?

remember in In in their journey out of Egypt are stuck in the wilderness.

They're traveling. They're following God's path and Whenever they lacked something they would look fondly back at how they lived in Egypt.

Oh We had cucumbers and meat all these vegetables But what do we have here just dry bread manna, oh

Let's go back Let's go back to that. Let's kill Moses and Aaron. Let's go back

That's what Jesus is warning against Forgetting the fact that they were once slaves

They long for the old life and when following Christ.

It's tempting to look back at The entertainment you enjoyed

It's tempting to look back at the old values you shared with your non -christian friends

It's tempting to go back To what you were comfortable with After all following Christ may be new

Following Christ is different Following Christ can come with mockery discomfort abandonment rejection betrayal persecution

Christ however tells us Don't look back. Look to me look straight ahead

Look ahead Look to Christ Look to Christ as Christ looked to the cross in the end

Christ in your life now and forever Is far greater in value than any temporary comfort this world has to offer

One of the biggest lies that you might hear from yourself your flesh. So Satan would be or the world

You're missing out You're missing out if you do as God said

If you obey just as God said Think about all the things you're missing out on you don't get to you live the irony of that lie is that You will die

When you listen to that lie and turn away from Christ You'll be rejecting one true eternal life for a moment a glimpse of temporary

Satisfaction Pleasure true disciples of Christ Don't look back and they also don't go back to the old ways

They must faced forward fully dedicated to Christ That's how you know, there's a true disciple or not

Not someone who has gone through the Sunday school curriculum Can give you all the theological truths

That whatever church they hold on to but it's how their lives are oriented

Are they looking to Christ? Where are they looking back? Because the moment you start to look back

You'll begin to take steps back and one day you might find yourself not following Christ at whatsoever

That's the warning here that Christ gives us Following the crucified rest

Messiah is hard After all your King has been crucified He will not get the exaltation from the world that he deserves

So what makes you think you'll be any better off?

But what's promised is that he will get the exaltation that he deserves Whether these people want to exalt him or not

Their knees will bow and their tongues will confess when Jesus comes back in his second coming

To judge the world and on that day

It would be best and wisest To have never even looked back to what you've left behind You will even regret a second of looking back

Because Christ is so much better. Let us pray

Thank you God that We do worship the king who loves us so much that he died to have us and His gaze toward Jerusalem did not

Swerve his gaze did not turn away Because he was set out to complete the mission which has been established long ago

We pray that we too would be completely committed to Christ as he was committed to us

Committed to God the Father in fulfilling his mission of dying on the cross and rising from the dead

Help us to find Our ultimate satisfaction only in him

May we truly see the truth behind the temptations that we experience daily in Jesus name

Amen Stand together with me as we close and make me a servant