Behold, we go up to Jerusalem

Service Notes

Quick overview of Christmas services

Bible Reading

Thanksgiving season determined much of the theme of last week; Family Sunday, Thanking God for His Attributes, and time of testimonies on Tuesday night

My prayer this week has been that this passage will help determine this coming season for us.

Between Thanksgiving and New Years we often think about what we want for the New Year

We make it a time of “now is not the right time to start anything new”

I am praying God gives birth to some dreams and desires in your hearts

Yes, I should pray and ask God for direction for the ministries of our church, but I should not be alone. You should speak with Him as well.

Praying we will dream, discover and determine together

Luke 18:31–34 (KJV 1900)

31 Then he took unto him the twelve, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished.

32 For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on:

33 And they shall scourge him, and put him to death: and the third day he shall rise again.

34 And they understood none of these things: and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken.

Sermon Introduction

Eric Elrod and I have this joke that after one of us explain to the other what we need done the other ends the call with “well just let me know.” There are many ways to not understand what someone is saying besides not hearing them explain it.

No Category for Suffering

Luke 18:34 “34 And they understood none of these things: and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken.”

Disciples missed understanding the plan looking for something else

Why?  They were looking for a messianic King and kingdom. 

They expected a coronation, not a crucifixion.

They expected a Messiah who killed His enemies, not a Messiah killed by His own people. 

They expected a Messiah who triumphed, not a Messiah who was tortured. 

They expected a Messiah who brought life, not a Messiah who was dead. 

The idea of a crucified Messiah was an absurd to them. It was ridiculous to the point where they couldn't even comprehend it.

He never offered a kingdom without a cross. 

Luke 18:31 “31 Then he took unto him the twelve, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished.”

Psalm 22, Isaiah 53, Zechariah 12 provides detail. 

All the pictures of the Old Testament sacrifices provide a very clear path directly to a final, complete, suffering Lamb who once and for all would satisfy God with a sacrifice for sin.

He was the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world.  He came to offer a kingdom through the cross.

Jesus as been teaching them of the necessity of suffering

Luke 9:44 “44 Let these sayings sink down into your ears: for the Son of man shall be delivered into the hands of men.”

Luke 12:50 “50 But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!”

Luke 13:32 “32 And he said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.”

Luke 17:25 “25 But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation.”

Everyone wants to follow triumphant King but what about a man of sorrows?

Isaiah 53:3 “3 He is despised and rejected of men; A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: And we hid as it were our faces from him; He was despised, and we esteemed him not.”

Phil 3:10 “10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;”

Suffered in every way imaginable

Betrayed by Judas with a kiss Psalm 41:9 “9 Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, Which did eat of my bread, Hath lifted up his heel against me.”

Rejected by those He came to bring peace Luke 19:41-42 “41 And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, 42 Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.”

Followers will scatter at His death. Zech 13:7 “7 Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, Saith the Lord of hosts: Smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: And I will turn mine hand upon the little ones.”

But there was even a more profound rejection than that of His nation and that of His disciples; that is the rejection of His own Father.  Matthew 27:46 “46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

The cross was created to prolong suffering

Luke 18:32-33 “32 For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on: 33 And they shall scourge him, and put him to death: and the third day he shall rise again.”

Do you have a category for suffering?

Do you have a category for suffering the Son of God coming into the world to die on a cross to bear your sins, to take your punishment, to die in your place, to receive the wrath of God instead of you receiving it? 

Do you believe that Jesus Christ as God came into this world, died as a substitute for sin who was the sinless one, rose again the third day as God affirmed the satisfaction of His own sacrifice by His Son? 

Transitional Statement: Believer, do you believe that God would invite you to join Him in His suffering. Does any request from Him that leads to discomfort cause you to question His love for you?

The will of God through the hands of men

Luke 18:32 “32 For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on:”

Men as secondary causes

Acts 2:23 “23 Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:”

The Jews were involved. Mark 10:33 “33 Saying, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be delivered unto the chief priests, and unto the scribes; and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles:”

Gentiles were involved. Matthew 20:19 “19 And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him: and the third day he shall rise again.”

You and I were involved. Col 1:22 “22 In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:”

Secondary causes are human, primary cause is divine. 

It is by the predetermined plan of God.

When Jesus calls us to Himself, He calls us to suffer.

Luke 18:31 “31 Then he took unto him the twelve, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished.”

Could they have decided to sit this one out? Sure, many did.

More people are walking away from Jesus than following Him.

If anyone asks me how many are we running as a church. I say I assume thousands, but only a fraction of that are following. People are always walking away from Jesus “hard sayings”

Suffering is central to our story not just a consequence.

If we are going to show Christ to the world, then we have got to show the true Christ.

Not the imaginary Jesus, the true Christ of Scripture, and He is outside the camp. That is where He is, and that is where He calls us to go.

2 Cor 1:8-9 “8 For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life: 9 But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead:”

Seems like foolishness to this world

1 Corinthians 1:18 “18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.”

How do you view the suffering of Christ?

How about the suffering He invites you to?

You may not call it foolishness but do you see it as the power of God? Do you see it as necessary?

You may not scoff at the suffering that Jesus went through, but are you like the disciples when Jesus calls on you to join Him in the fellowship of His suffering.

Jesus says to you “Behold, we go up to Jerusalem” and the narrator says “And they understood none of these things” because it does not fit into the story that we have for our lives.

We like to think of our lives as a fairy tale. Engagement to Stephanie.

The greatest story that will ever be told is one of suffering and obedience to the Father’s Will. This is the story we will rejoice in for all of eternity.

Transitional Statement: Jesus has invited us to follow Him. The path is not the one that we have been taught to seek. It will come with suffering. However, it allows us to walk with Him. He will accomplish much along the way and he will allow us to be involved.

Let us follow Jesus with resolve and valor

Luke 18:31 “31 Then he took unto him the twelve, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished.”

Jesus invited them to join Him

Jesus chose not to go alone, these men would be the first preachers of the good news

Disciples follow Jesus in obedience

Two aspects of the disciples not understanding; they didn’t but they followed anyways

“Wherever He leads I’ll go” wasn’t just a song to them

Jesus set his face to go toward the cross

Luke 9:51 “51 And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem,”

Face like a flint

Isaiah 50:7 “7 For the Lord God will help me; Therefore shall I not be confounded: Therefore have I set my face like a flint, And I know that I shall not be ashamed.”

Flint, a very hard, dark rock, is used figuratively in the Bible to express hardness

The firmness of horses’ hoofs Isaiah 5:28

The toughness of an impossible task Deuteronomy 8:15

The inflexibility of unwavering determination Ezekiel 3:8–9

Set His face knowing what was before Him

Hebrews 12:2 “2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Jesus overcame every obstacle that we face in following Him

At the temptation He overcame; Satan suggested shortcuts to His goals

Though His friends misunderstood; Peter said He should not go to Jerusalem

When those He came to serve did not accept Him; rejected by His own people

We should follow with valor; courage on behalf of others

Spurgeon’s prayer for his congregation seems fitting to this day “My great object is to lead you to love Jesus who so loved you that he set his face like a flint in His determination to save you.

O ye redeemed ones, on whose behalf this strong resolve was made,—ye who have been bought by the precious blood of this steadfast, resolute Redeemer, come and think awhile of Him, that your hearts may burn within you, and that your faces may be set like flints to live and die for Him who lived and died for you!”

I am borrowing this, as I have borrowed much from Spurgeon, and praying this for us.

By the power of God we will fulfill the God given desires He has placed in our hearts

2 Thess 1:11 “11 Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power:”

If you have a right purpose that glorifies God, resolve to carry them out.

fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness = resolve

Leisa, I pray that God allows you to see the desires of your heart for a ministry to the deaf become a reality.

Praying for all of you who desire to see people come to Christ. May that be the prayer of every believer to not enter Heaven alone

Praying for those who have opened their homes to foster care this last year. May your home be the Gospel-centered environment that shows many kids Jesus.

I could go on and on but I do not want to limit the things that God may place on your heart that you need to resolve to do to my list. I am not the List Maker. That is the role of the Holy Spirit in your life.

God places in us the desire to things that honor Him Phil 2:13 “13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”

It is difficult to do that, you say; well, then, you must be all the more determined in your resolve to do it.

There is nothing in the world so hard but something harder will cut it; so, if your own resolve becomes harder than the difficulty you have to face, the thing goes to be done.

Where will you look for this power?

Luke 18:33 “33 And they shall scourge him, and put him to death: and the third day he shall rise again.”

What does the resurrection have to do with my resolutions to spiritual things?

Story of a man who climbed Mt Everest challenge office workers.

You may say “sure Ill be glad to sign up for some new years resolutions. But I know they will not continue in my life. I am powerless. I am hopeless to pursue any of these God given desires in my life.

The evidence of God’s power in our lives is not the absence of our resolve, but the strength of our resolve.

2 Thess 1:11 “11 Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power:”

Phil 2:13 “13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”

Hope Resurrected

Paul puts in one sentence why he endures persecution again and again in his ministry.

Before King Agrippa: Acts 24:21 “21 Except it be for this one voice, that I cried standing among them, Touching the resurrection of the dead I am called in question by you this day.”

Paul calls into account the resurrection on four occasions during persecution.

It should be the greatest of influence on our lives. We serve a resurrected King.

Here is how he described the power of resurrection hope:

It was written of Jesus it was the joy set before Him.

We can say Romans 8:18 “18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”

Here’s the link between hope and loving: Luke 14:13-14 “13 But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind: 14 And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.”

Your resolve to live out the calling that God has placed in your life does not come from your grit, it doesn’t come from your strong, work ethic, it comes from the hope that is found when we look at the resurrection of Christ.

Conclusion

As Believers we believe all that He says

As follows we go wherever He leads

We often do not fully understand but we trust He has a plan. Regardless of the outcome, we know following Him is the right path for our lives.

They are amazed and afraid because the timing seems so wrong because all they can see everywhere is hostility.

Disciples knowing this followed Jesus with fear but they followed none-the-less

Invitation

We have sung about His death and His taking our sin upon Himself, and we have rejoiced, and we have lifted our hands, and we’ve smiled, and we’ve sung about how great that is, but that is not where it stops. It stops when you walk out of here imitating Him

Hebrews 13:13 “13 Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.”

If we truly follow such a Lord as Christ is, our face should be set like a flint for all holy purposes, let us pray to God the Holy Spirit to make us so.

We often sing this song with heavy hearts. Let us come to God with full disclosure.

Admitting that without His power in our lives nothing He gives us to do will ever be done

Asking Him to lead us where ever He desires

Resolving that wherever He leads we will go

Take up thy cross and follow me I heard my Master say "I gave my life to ransom thee Surrender your all today"

Wherever He leads, I'll go Wherever He leads, I'll go I'll follow my Christ who loves me so Wherever He leads, I'll go