Journey to Jerusalem - Luke 9:51-62

Well, this is the day that the Lord hath made, right? Amen. So we're going to 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. 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 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 into that ministry. She's a very godly lady and ministers constantly in that area. Let's go to the 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'd give them safety as they come back. And we would thank you, Lord, and pray in Jesus' name. Amen. With that said, why don't you stand with me as we 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, Ye 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 add his blessing to the reading and hearing of his holy word.

Amen. Stand again with me as we sing. Thank you. And you may be seated as pastor switches from musician to pastor. Right? And also the children are dismissed to 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 had 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 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 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 deserve, so that we may be forgiven and be made righteous in him.

And help us to remember that we are following the servant Messiah, the Messiah who came to die to redeem. In Jesus' name. Amen. Alright. 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 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.

Oh, it's just the 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 aspect of his life. Now, his journey toward crucifixion starts in 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.

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 1 Timothy show that Jesus' ascension is also in mind.

Acts 1, 2, and 11 show that Jesus is taken up to heaven. 1 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 set 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 21 .10 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'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 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, 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 is 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 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.

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 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 suggest a 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 2 Kings 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 consumes them whole.

Fifty soldiers and their captain dead. It doesn't happen just once. It happens twice. Now, in John and James' mind, 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 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, omnipotent. It means 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's 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 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 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. A student would follow his rabbi, a Jewish teacher, and sit at his feet to learn, travel with him. Now, although more intimate than our current academic setting, where how many of us really follow our professors after the lecture, or even go to the office hours, this was not enough.

So Jesus responds, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, 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 going to 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.

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 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 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, the disciple's 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 and priority of following Christ.

Following Jesus surpasses in significance 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, 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 gotta do something else first.

The potential disciple has something to do first. The request, however, we have to remember, this is not outlandish. 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. Or, Jesus, I'm going on a family vacation and it does come on Sunday, but I might not be able to go find a church because we have other plans. That's not that at all either. Rather, it's to say goodbye.

It's to say goodbye to one's family. And why this is important here is that the prophet Elisha, S-H-A, actually requests this to the prophet Elijah, J-A-H, before following him. Elijah, God tells Elijah, you need to get your successor in line.

I'm gonna take you up. 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, 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're 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 an 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. When you're plowing, you're actually making furrows. You're making, I guess, a small ditch in your farmland. 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 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 rearview mirror.

That's dangerous. You look forward. Now, however, in this case, looking back, right, is 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 their journey out of Egypt, they're 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, or 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 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 face 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 or 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 whatsoever.

That's the warning here that Christ gives us. Following the crucified 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. May that be our heart as we leave and as we think this week to make me a servant. And with that, you're dismissed.