Sermon Snippet – Where Are We Going?
INTRODUCTION – I have preached a number of times from Luke 9:51: “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.” This verse does not mean that Jesus, God the Son, immediately went to Jerusalem to die on the Cross; His sacrificial atonement there occurred some months later. Rather, this verse indicates that Jesus’ ministry moved from its primary focus in Galilee to other parts of Israel, culminating in His final visit to Jerusalem (His final visit before His death, that is – He was there after His Resurrection, and He will return there one day – Zechariah 14:1-9). Jesus knew where He was going, and He knew what He was doing. Let us learn from Him.
1. GOD IS SOVEREIGN
Jesus is fully God, and He is in control of the details, including “the time.” The plan of eternal salvation necessitated the death of the Savior, “for the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23a) – our “sin” caused Jesus’ “death.” God has a plan to save us. Jeremiah 29:10-14 is a well-known passage that reveals God’s promise of “peace” for the people of Israel. A similar New Testament covenant is found in Philippians 1:6: ‘Being confident of this very thing, that He [Who] hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” Both Ephesians 1:11 and 3:11 speak of God’s “purpose” for us; Romans 8:28 places His “purpose” in all areas of our lives. We have every assurance that God is sovereignly at work in our lives.
2. STEADFASTNESS IS UNDERRATED BY OUR CULTURE
The blitz and glitz that drive social media are insubstantial, a “vanity of vanities” (Ecclesiastes 1:2). Yet, that mindless mindset has infiltrated the Church, creating an entertainment culture. I am old enough to have seen major ministries collapse because of such a misguided emphasis, and I have seen large local churches close for the same reason, replaced by other churches that provide even more entertainment. Jesus disdained this modern approach. He refused the way of Satan (Matthew 4:5-7) – even though the popular expectation was that the Messiah would descend from the heights of the Temple. Steady, sturdy, staunch steadfastness – that is the way of Jesus. We are not called to be flashy; we are called to be faithful: “Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful” (I Corinthians 4:2). May we value reliability and dependability.
3. THE GRAVE IS NOT THE GOAL
Jesus’ death on the Cross was real, of course, and He was buried in a stone-sealed sepulchre. However, He rose the third day, as He had specifically predicted. He was then “received up” into heaven in His Ascension. Because the tomb of Jesus is empty, the grave is not the end for us.
CONCLUSION – Each of us has a choice to make. We need to trust in Jesus as Savior, and we need to rest in His purposeful plan for us. The way may be challenging – it was for our Lord, beyond our words to express – but, like Him, we know where we are going. We know that we will also be “received up.”