Set Face

Transcript

Stand for the Gospel reading.

When the days drew near for Jesus to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him on their way. They entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him. But they did not receive him because his face was set toward Jerusalem. When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?

But he turned and rebuked them. Then they went on to another village. As they were going along the road, someone said to him, 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 to another he said, follow me. But he said, lord, first let me go and bury my father.

But Jesus said to him, let the dead bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God. Another said, I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home. Jesus said to him, no one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.

Lord, we ask that you would open up our hearts and ears to be receiving of your word and to not just hear your word, but to understand it and desire it and follow it. Give us eyes to see and ears to hear what you want us to today. In Jesus name, amen. You may be seated.

Jesus days on earth were coming to an end, and he knew it. Now, these aren't literal days, obviously, because this is only halfway through Luke, but maybe a little before halfway even, there's still a lot of the story left to tell. In fact, it's estimated that it was about six to nine months before Jesus was crucified that this story takes place. Jesus knew that his days were coming to a close. We don't know when that will happen to us.

We just really don't. And we try to prevent it in all these different ways with medicine and life support. But Jesus trusted that God's will was the best plan, and he went out and he did it. Now, I'm certainly not saying that modern medicine or technology is bad. It is great that we're able to live longer and healthier lives.

And many people who would be dead before thanks to modern medicine, are now able to make full recoveries. Jesus allows us to use medicine and technology to keep our loved ones around for longer. And I've met people who have had machines on their hearts, pacemakers that help their hearts beat. At the right rhythm. It truly is amazing what modern medicine and technology is able to do.

I'm not saying that's bad at all. What I am saying is that we should not be in constant worry about death because our God experienced one of the worst deaths. He experienced crucifixion and beatings and shame. And he could have stopped it at any moment, but instead he chose to die, rise again, and defeat death and the grave. Hebrews chapter 2, verse 14:15 says, since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver all those who, through fear of death, were subject to lifelong slavery.

We have been freed from our slavery to death through the power of Jesus giving himself up for us. And I'm sure you're familiar with First Corinthians, chapter 15, verse 55. O death, where is your sting or victory? O death, where is your sting? And then verse 56 and 57.

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ, we have been freed from the power of death, but we will still die physically during our mortal lives on earth, our bodies will still pass away. But because Jesus defeated the grave and rose again, we have the hope that we will be resurrected and live in glorified bodies with God forever. But that day cannot come until we first die, because there is no resurrection without death. I don't really know how you could resurrect somebody that has not yet died.

So we will all one day experience death so that we can be resurrected. So it's important what we do with the time that we have left on earth. In the rest of Luke, we can see what Jesus did with the time that he had left. He went around and he did great miracles and healed many people. Luke 9:19 is filled with miracles and parables and teachings from Jesus in Luke 9.

Our passage today is really the turning point of the whole book. Before this, Jesus was teaching, healing and performing in Galilee. But now he was on the road to Jerusalem. This section of the book is usually called the travel narrative because Jesus was traveling, believe it or not. Now, this turning point of Luke in setting his face to Jerusalem is not necessarily literal.

Yes, Jesus likely turned to face Jerusalem to walk that way. But it's not like he never turned away from Jerusalem for nine months. He wasn't sleeping, like standing and watching Jerusalem. Imagine it more like whenever you can tell that somebody's dedicated to something like a runner running a race. It's not a straight path to the finish line.

There will be uphill battles and obstacles and many turns along the way. But through it all, the finish line is the goal. The runner has his mind set to complete that goal instead of a physical turn. This verse marks whenever Jesus deliberately and decisively chose to fulfill God's plan. This was the moment whenever he knew what he had to do and he did it.

He set his goal, knowing what was to come, and still went out and did it. How many times have we set a goal with God and then we didn't do it? We say to God, I'm going to share about the great things that you did for us this week to somebody. And then we just get too busy. We forget.

Jesus did not forget. Jesus declared his mission and he followed through with it. This is a good learning moment for us. Whenever we set our face to do something for the kingdom of God, whenever we dedicate ourselves to doing something for the kingdom of God, we must deliberately and decisively fulfill that dedication. We so often get scared of the consequences, myself included.

Oh, what if they think I'm some kind of Jesus freak? Well, there's a song about that, and it makes it sound pretty cool to be a Jesus freak if you ever heard it. We here in America as well, we don't really even have much to worry about whenever we talk about Jesus. We can't get killed legally, we can't get fired legally. We are protected by the law to share our faith, and yet we still get scared to do it.

We are afraid of what people will think. Will they think that I'm weird for sharing my beliefs? When there are Christians around the world today who are being persecuted and murdered and thrown in jail for what they believe, they do lose everything. They give up everything to share the good news. In this chapter, Jesus deals with people who seemingly don't want to give up everything.

They want to hold on to their possessions or their family. Even Jesus had a lot of followers in Galilee. A lot of people liked to hear what he had to say and see the miracles that he was performing. But whenever he started going to Jerusalem, it became a lot harder for people to follow him. People wanted to keep following Jesus, but they were not willing to leave behind their lives.

They weren't willing to leave their home. They weren't willing to leave their family. They were not willing to follow him to the cross. We have to truly ask ourselves, are we willing to answer that question we have to really look at, at what Jesus is asking us to give up. In our passage today, a man comes to Jesus and says that he will follow him anywhere.

Wherever he goes, this man will follow. Then Jesus responds kind of interestingly like you would think. He said something along the lines of, oh, great. Yep, come on, get in. Right, right there behind Thomas and we're going to be on our way.

But no, that's not what he says. Instead he says, foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head. It's like, man, Jesus, did you even want this guy to follow you? It doesn't really seem that way, does it? Like, if somebody wanted to come stay at my home and I was like, oh, by the way, you're not going to have anywhere to sleep, would they really come to my house?

I mean, they wouldn't want to stay there, certainly. If you can't even guarantee somebody a basic need like sleep, then how do you expect somebody to join you? So what was the point in Jesus saying this? Well, it was to show that following him is not easy. There aren't any added benefits.

This isn't a hotel. Jesus makes it very clear that the world will hate you if you follow him. In Matthew, chapter 10, verse 22, Jesus clearly says that you will be hated for his name's sake. Followers of Jesus do not get five star amenities. Some people in America have forgotten the idea that if you follow Jesus, then all of a sudden your life will turn around and everything will be good.

Or sorry. Have gotten the idea of that. That's just not how it works, right? Sure, that can happen. But for the majority of people around the world, their life gets even harder whenever they follow Jesus.

Just look at how the disciples died. Most of them died brutal deaths and they lived hard and rejected lives. But somehow we have the wrong notion that everything will just be fine and dandy. There's even the prosperity gospel that teaches that your life will be exponentially better and you'll be able to get Lamborghinis and the biggest house and a private jet and all these different things, whatever your heart desires if you just trust and have enough faith in God. However, I must tell you that you will not receive those things.

You could. God could bless you with a billion dollars. But I mean, there's a cost to discipleship. It's not about the money. Now maybe your cost is money.

You have to give up a good paying job to go somewhere that God is calling you to be. But the cost of discipleship is real in America. We don't feel it as much as because of all the nice things we have and all the nice laws that we have. But we still will lose friends. If you really dedicate your life to Christ and truly live for him, then you're probably going to lose friends.

Some people don't want to talk about God. Some people don't want to be talked to about God. But there is good that comes from it. Jesus says in Luke chapter 6, verse 22, that Blessed are you if you were hated on account of the Son of man. If people hate you for following Jesus, then you will be blessed.

Not necessarily with money, not necessarily with the newest house or the newest iPhone or the best car in the world, and not even necessarily in this life. It could be in the next life. But it is a promise from God that you will be blessed. So it will happen. And even though being blessed doesn't lead to having all that we want in life, it does lead to joy.

Having joy because we are favored by God, not because of worldly possessions. Those lead to a fake joy that does not last. The next person we see in our reading is somebody who Jesus says to follow him. And his response is, lord, first let me go and bury my father. Jesus response to this can seem kind of surprising.

Again, it seems almost harsh what he says to this man. Jesus says, let the dead bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God. At first it seems like this guy's dad just died. And now Jesus is telling him to let dead people bury his dad.

Like, what is going on here? Why can't this guy go bury his dad before he follows Jesus? To us reading today, this seems harsh, but in Jewish culture, they would have understood what Jesus really meant. See, this guy's dad had not just died, okay? If he had, then he would be home mourning him.

He wouldn't just be walking around the street and be like, oh, there's Jesus. I'm gonna go follow this guy. No, see, his dad had not immediately died. They didn't wait like we do today. Nowadays, whenever somebody dies, they go to the morgue.

And then there are a few days between that and then the visitation, and then sometimes another day after that, and then they finally get put in the ground. But in Jewish culture, when somebody died, you would just mourn for a few hours and then you would bury them. Otherwise, the body would probably start decomposing. And you don't want that just immediately. Within 24 hours, they would have buried somebody so.

So this guy's dad had not just died. So that leaves us with two other possibilities. And these can be debated, and they have been, but we really don't know because the Bible does not tell us. Either this man's dad was still alive and he was waiting for him to die, or he was going to perform the second burial.

So let me explain. If his dad were still alive, then he would go home and he would wait for him to die and then bury him. It was a Jewish custom that a son should bury his father. And that's just how they did it, right? So he wanted to fulfill his custom and tradition and wait for his father to die before going off and doing something else.

He didn't want to abandon the customs and traditions that they had. The other possibility is that he was waiting to bury his father a second time. So in Jewish tradition, whenever somebody died and they were buried, he would wait a year, and then you would go back into the tomb and collect their bones and put them into an ossuary, which was a box for bones, and then put that back into the tomb. That was the second burial. If it were that situation, then it would make a lot of sense for Jesus to say, let the dead bury their own dead because his dad was already dead in the tomb.

Either of those possibilities seem a lot better than what people think Jesus was telling this guy. So with the knowledge that he wasn't telling him he couldn't bury his father, just that he had to abandon the traditions and customs of Jewish life, we can understand how this applies to us as well. We also must give up our traditions and our customs to follow Jesus. Jesus calling is higher and greater than any human tradition that we could take part in. We are called out of our past of doing things our own way and into a future of walking with Jesus by proxy, of telling this guy to let the dead bury their dead, Jesus is telling us that the cost of discipleship is great.

And when we set our face to follow Jesus, we are turning away from, from the things of old. We are turning from our past lives, our past customs and our traditions.

Then there's a third person who says, I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say farewell to those at my home. And Jesus response is again seemingly harsh. He says, no one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God. Now this seems like Jesus is telling this guy that he can't go and say bye to his family. And yes, Jesus is saying that, but there's a context to why Jesus was saying that.

For starters, we just read that Jesus days were coming to an end and that he had set his face to go to Jerusalem. So there was only so much time left before Jesus time on earth would come to an end. This was not the time for hesitation. Jesus didn't have time to wait around for somebody to run home and tell everybody bye and then follow Jesus. But that's not the full reason that Jesus says this.

Jesus was also testing his commitment. Just like any good teacher would, he gave him a test. And Jesus was not doing this test to see where this guy was at. Jesus knew where this guy was at in his heart, but he was doing this test to see if this guy knew where he was at in his heart.

Jesus was using a farming metaphor here to say that if you're going to put your hands to the plow to work on the kingdom of God, if you were going to do it, then you must do it correctly. You cannot look back, because if you're plowing and you start to look over your shoulder, then you're going to get out of line and then you're not going to have a straight line. And some farmers, they're super obsessed with having straight lines on their farm. They want you to be able to look through the farm, through the soybeans, and see perfectly straight lines all the way down through. And if you ever cut grass, then you know you have to focus completely on the lines if you want them to be straight.

And you can't just focus on what's in front of you. You have to look off to the distance and see a point and focus on that point to make your straight line. My dad is very obsessed with cutting grass. I'm just going to be honest. He wants his yard to look perfect and pristine.

So because of that, he knew that I wouldn't be able to focus properly and I would make wavy lines. And he wants him to be straight. He's obsessed with having straight lines in his yard. Likewise, Jesus is obsessed with having straight lines in the kingdom of God because having wavy lines shows a lack of focus and commitment. Jesus is calling us to be completely focused on the kingdom's work.

We can't be constantly glancing behind us. We have to keep our heads straight and continue pushing the plow, remaining completely focused on being his disciple. Because God demands your whole heart, not just a portion of your heart. Because if your heart is not fully in it, then whenever the trials and temptations come, you'll be the first one out. Jesus experienced a lot of rejection during his life.

And we will too. And if we're not fully set on following God, then we will not be able to overcome it. Our reading today helps us to understand this. Right after Jesus sets his face to go to Jerusalem, they go through a village that had Samaritans. But the Samaritans did not receive Jesus because his face was set on Jerusalem.

The disciples responded to this by saying, lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them? We're reading this story like, whoa, whoa, whoa. This just took a big turn. I think we're coming off a little too hot, pun intended. But then Jesus turns and he rebukes them.

He doesn't get mad and start bringing fire down and consuming all the Samaritans in the village. Instead, he rebukes the people that were on his side. His own disciples are the ones who end up getting rebuked. I think sometimes in our lives we're like this too. Whenever we're rejected, we want to, as the kids say, crash out.

We want to get all up in arms and fight back against the resistance and rejection. But Jesus comes and he says, no, if you're going to be set on doing my will, you will be rejected and you will just have to move on. You cannot get distracted from God's work when you are rejected as Christians. We just have to move on and accept it. We have to move on to the next thing God wants us to do.

Now, God could be calling you to share with people who will reject you over and over and over again. Jeremiah, for instance, great example. He preached for 40 years to the same people, and they never accepted what he had to say. So long as it is in God's will, then it's okay if you are preaching to people who are rejecting you. But if you are like Jesus and you have your faith set on doing something else for God, then you cannot stop on your way to fight against people who reject you.

Jesus set a great example for us by not letting things get in the way of what he had set his face to do. He showed us that when we set ourselves to do something for God, we cannot let distractions get in our way. We have to be continually moving to do God's will. Jesus didn't even let his own will get in the way. Think about in the garden.

Whenever Jesus is praying so hard that. That he starts to sweat blood, he is praying to God that he doesn't want to die on the cross. It is not what his human nature wanted to do, but he prays not my will, but thine. Not what I want to do, but what you want me to do. This should be a prayer.

In our own lives. Sometimes we get the wrong notion that people are only called to ministry as a career path. However, we all are called to ministry, whether that be ministering to people at work or ministering to people at home, ministering to friends. We all have people, or at least one person we know that does not live in the will of God. And those are the people that we minister to.

And sometimes God calls people to certain areas to minister there. It doesn't even have to be another country. It could be another state or even another city or even your own city. When my dad was planning this church, he was called to plant it here in Madison, not where his parents lived in Decatur, not where he went to seminary here in Madison. And because of that, you are here today.

So don't get the wrong notion that God only calls people to be pastors or missionaries or that he calls people out of the country only because we need a lot of people here in America. America, Christianity is going down and people are not really truly trusting and believing in God anymore. We need more missionaries in America.

And if you were to truly live in God's will and set your face towards him, it'll be difficult even if you're in your own city, even if you go to another country. You have to leave a lot of things behind. First and foremost. Obviously, you have to leave your sin. You cannot live in the will of God and in sin at the same time.

Jesus tells us that you cannot serve two masters at once, or else you will hate one and you will love the other. And you have to leave behind luxuries. Oftentimes we have to leave the comfortable and quiet lifestyles that we had before. This is what the first person who came up to Jesus in our passage today was worried about. Jesus told him that he wouldn't have anywhere to lay his head.

Now, Jesus really didn't have a specific home that he was staying in, so it's true that he wouldn't have anywhere to put his head. But Jesus really meant it more in the sense that you will have to leave behind the luxuries of your current lifestyle. You have to leave behind your customs and traditions as well your old habits of living. This is what Jesus told the man who asked to go bury his father. When we are born again and become Christians, we are fully born again.

Meaning that our old life has passed and our new life has come. We have new life In Christ, we do not follow our old ways because they were sinful. Now we follow God's way. You will also have to leave behind people, friends or even family members who may despise you for following Jesus. They will beg you not to follow Jesus.

Imagine if the man who wanted to go back and say goodbye to everybody in his home, he'd gone back and the people there, they said, oh no, just stay with us, don't go with that man. You don't even know that man. That is what we are in danger of whenever we allow loved ones to negatively impact our views because they believe differently. These three people were second guessing following Jesus. Whenever they found out about the trials and difficulties that would come, they began to question it.

But we don't actually get what their response was if they chose to follow Jesus or not. Because the question being asked is not really did they follow and believe Jesus and leave everything behind? The question is, will we? Will you leave behind your life, your old ways and traditions, and follow Jesus? Are you worried about the luxuries that you may have to give up if you follow Jesus?

Well, maybe even your needs. Sleeping is a need, right? We have to sleep or else we'll die. But Paul tells us in Philippians 4:19 that God will provide for all of our needs. When we are following Jesus, we do not have to worry about what we will eat or what we will drink or what we will wear.

Because when we make God first in our lives, when we take our faces off of our wants and needs and place our face on God, then He will provide for our needs.

Maybe you're focusing on old connections or obligations you had before Christ. Maybe you feel bound to stay in what you were living in before Christ. Maybe you haven't fully given up all your old traditions and customs like the man who wanted to bury his Father. But God wants us to give up our old ways of life. Ephesians chapter 4, verse 22:24 says, Throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception.

Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes, put on your new nature, created to be like God, truly righteous and holy.

This is not to say that every tradition you have is filled with lust and deceit. But old habits of living can stir up sinful desires and give the devil an opportunity to tempt you. You have to go all in for God and allow him to turn you into a complete and full new creation. And if you really want to go all in for God, you have to be Willing to make the sacrifice, never turning back. You will lose comfort in past traditions when you follow Christ.

In today's passage, we saw the man ask Jesus if he could go say goodbye to his family before following Jesus. But Jesus responds by saying that the man is looking back from the kingdom of God. And this interestingly correlates to the Old Testament reading from first Kings. Elijah basically asked Elisha to follow him. And Elisha asks if he can go back and kiss his mother and father goodbye.

And he goes home and he burns his ox, which was how he did all of his farm work. That's how he made a living. He raised his crops with ox and plowed the fields and everything, but he burned it all and the equipment that went along with it. He essentially got rid of of his old way of life and moved into a new way of life. But do you see the difference in the stories?

The difference is in the heart of the people wanting to go home and say goodbye. One of them was looking back, while the other went home and burned down his old way of living. So there was nothing to even look back to. Elisha went all in for God as a prophet. And the question being asked by today's passage is, will you.

Will you burn down your old way of living and go all in and live as a new life with Christ?

As I was going down the road the other night with my brother Baylor, he pointed out these bugs on a light. It was really dark outside, and there was only just one light at a firework. There were no lights around. And I looked over there and there were hundreds, if not thousands of bugs all circling this light. And then the next night we passed it again and he pointed it out again.

And at this point I just had to look it up. We have the Internet now, so may as well. And then we got home and I looked at the windows and they were all covered with bugs that were trying to get in to the light. So I looked it up and it's really interesting. During the day, you know, they don't just go to the sun, right?

They don't go to the light during the day, or else they would be out of the atmosphere and all, you know, gone, all dead. So why during the night, do they all of a sudden have this tendency to go towards the lights? Well, the answer is interesting and it applies to what we have talked about today. Bugs use the moon and the stars to navigate at night. But whenever they see artificial light, they get confused and it leads them to follow the artificial light and get stuck circling a false light.

I wonder how many of us have our faces set on the artificial light of the world. We have our faces set to the things of the world, good things even, like friendships, traditions and luxuries. I know we've spent a lot of time talking about how we must give these things up, but they are still good things. It's good to have luxuries and to be able to live a comfortable life. It's good to have traditions.

The church has traditions even, and it's certainly good to have relationships. But whenever we have our faith set on those things, whenever they take priority over the One who created them, we are focusing on the artificial light of the world. So follow the real, true light of Christ today. Set your face to do his will today, not tomorrow. For the days are drawing near.

Time is running low. Today is the day of salvation. Set your face to do God's will today.

Lord, you, know our days and our hearts. Help us to come to youo with a willingness to give up ourselves, to deny ourselves, pick up our cross and follow youw. Help us not to hold on to the things of our past lives, but to live into what yout have planned for our lives. In Jesus name, amen.

Total Duration 00:31:34