Countdown to Ressurection Day #18

"When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem."

The answer of the whole New Testament is this: the surprise about Jesus the Messiah is that he came to live a life of sacrificial, dying service before he comes a second time to reign in glory. And the surprise about discipleship is that it demands a life of sacrificial, dying service before we can reign with Christ in glory.

Jesus' journey to Jerusalem is our journey, and if he set his face to go there and die, we must set our face to die with him.

One might be tempted to reason in just the opposite way: that since Jesus suffered so much and died in our place, therefore, we are free to go straight to the head of the class, as it were, and skip all the exams. He suffered so we could have could have comfort...He bore abuse so we could be esteemed. He gave up the treasures of heaven so we could lay up treasures on earth...But this is NOT Biblical reasoning. It goes against the plain teaching in this very context.

Luke 9:23-24 reads: "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it."

When Jesus set his face to walk the Calvary road, he was not merely taking our place; he was setting our pattern. If we seek to secure our life through returning evil for evil or surrounding ourselves with luxury in the face of human need, we will lose our life. We can save our life only if we follow Christ on the Calvary road.

Adapted from "He Set His Face to Go to Jerusalem," sermon by John Piper, Bethlehem Baptist Church.