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Steadfast For Calvary
Presenter: Larry Kirkpatrick
Location: Mentone Seventh-day Adventist Church, CA, USA
Delivery: 2008-12-27 20:16Z
Publication: GreatControversy.org 2008-12-27 05:16Z
Type: Sermon
URL: http://greatcontroversy.org/gco/ser/kirl-steadfast.php
And it came to pass, when the time was come that He should be received up, He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem (Luke 9:51).
Jesus is our pattern. We are gathered here today to remember His death. Our meeting is also our last Sabbath worship service for 2008; just five days from now a new year begins. Some of us, doubtless, will, in about four days, begin to think of possible new year’s resolutions. We will also remember how poorly we fared with previous resolutions. Today we want to consider Jesus’ journey, and also how to succeed in being steadfast for Calvary.
Jesus was sent by God. He took our kind of humanity. He lived in it without sinning. He gathered disciples, readied them for the crisis of their lives, healed and taught and preached. None of this was random. He travelled steadfastly knowing that what loomed ahead was a painful, humiliating death.
There did come a time when Jesus knew He must take at last His journey to Calvary. When He knew that time had come, He set Himself and went that very way, and did so with determination. But we are not so used to such undertakings. Very little that we do today seems to be life or death to us. Yes, we are busy, harried, worn out by the continuous pace of life in the shade of the freeway. Time speeds on.
Our New Year’s resolutions fail for several reasons. Our desire to change is incidental; we do not feel the necessity of change very deeply. If we really viewed the matter as crucial, we would make the change the moment we learned it was needful. But we wait. If it can wait until January 1, then we are not serious about it. If there is a point where there needs to be change, the day to begin is today. Our resolve for change is lacking. We have little “investment” in the change.
Jesus had an investment. He knew that all humanity would live or die, and that He would bring salvation to others or not. Although we are not Christ, we should see ourselves as having a similar investment. And if it is hard to see ourselves in relation to all of humanity, we can at least see up close: ourselves in relation to our children, parents, relatives, friends, co-workers, neighbors. Your personal example should inspire; it should not provide a pattern of hypocracy to emulate. Like Adam, like Eve, we are quick to “justify” ourselves on the basis of the poor example of others.
Do you have an investment in others? When the time came that Jesus should be received up, He did not tremble nor begin navigating round in nervous circles. He set His GPS for Jerusalem and proceeded. The Scripture tells us that He set His face steadfastly. What does this mean?
To set your face steadfastly does not mean to decide that you are determined to do something. Being determined in one moment is not enough to matter. In that moment you are determined. So what? What about the moment after and the moment after that? What about when you do not feel as inclined as you do just now? If this is only about feeling, then no matter how sincere, we cannot do it.
To set oneself steadfastly to do a given thing, what is needed is a stacking of the deck in favor of the deed. We need to arrange our life so that we are intentionally fulfilling the larger deed using a series of smaller pieces. For example, a journey from here to Phoenix (312 miles) could be subdivided Mentone to Banning, Banning to Palm Springs, Palm Springs to Blythe, Bythe to Phoenix. What do we need to make such a trip? A dependable automobile, fuel, water, personal necessities. Another thing that would help is a definite purpose to be accomplished when one has arrived in Phoenix.
Jesus had a definite purpose for Jerusalem at last: to accomplish His decease. We are on a spiritual journey of our own. The ultimate end of our journey is similar: our own decease is to be accomplished. Jesus died on the cross and we are to be crucified with Him there (Romans 6:6). We are to deny self, that is, put to death the deeds of the body (Galatians 5:24). But this is not accomplished in one all encompassing event. Conquests of self are made on specific fronts, in the addressing of specific practices.
Jesus taught against some comprehensive headings: hypocracy, pride, selective obedience, but He offered story after story and parable after parable giving quite particular illustrations, often of what not to do, but as often, what to do.
If we would follow the path of Jesus we have to place ourselves where specific changes can be introduced into our lives. We have all been under so many influences. So was Moses. But there was a path forward. Listen:
Moses had been learning much that he must unlearn. The influences that had surrounded him in Egypt—the love of his foster mother, his own high position as the king’s grandson, the dissipation on every hand, the refinement, the subtlety, and the mysticism of a false religion, the splendor of idolatrous worship, the solemn grandeur of architecture and sculpture—all had left deep impressions upon his developing mind and had molded, to some extent, his habits and character. Time, change of surroundings, and communion with God could remove these impressions. It would require on the part of Moses himself a struggle as for life to renounce error and accept truth, but God would be his helper when the conflict should be too severe for human strength.
In all who have been chosen to accomplish a work for God the human element is seen. Yet they have not been men of stereotyped habits and character, who were satisfied to remain in that condition. They earnestly desired to obtain wisdom from God and to learn to work for Him. Says the apostle, ‘If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.’ James 1:5. But God will not impart to men divine light while they are content to remain in darkness. In order to receive God’s help, man must realize his weakness and deficiency; he must apply his own mind to the great change to be wrought in himself; he must be aroused to earnest and persevering prayer and effort. Wrong habits and customs must be shaken off; and it is only by determined endeavor to correct these errors and to conform to right principles that the victory can be gained. Many never attain to the position that they might occupy, because they wait for God to do for them that which He has given them power to do for themselves. All who are fitted for usefulness must be trained by the severest mental and moral discipline, and God will assist them by uniting divine power with human effort (Patriarchs and Prophets, pp. 247, 248).
We can become like Jesus. But like Him and like Moses, we will have to be aroused to earnest, persevering effort. It is when effort is combined with prayer, when we set ourselves steadfastly to journey to Jerusalem, that we will be changed. Then we will begin to see developed in ourselves the character of fathers and mothers and friends in Israel that we have wanted to see. Our families, in the faith or out of it, will benefit. What did Jesus do?
As a man He supplicated the throne of God till His humanity was charged with a heavenly current that should connect humanity with divinity. Through continual communion He received life from God, that He might impart life to the world. His experience is to be ours (The Desire of Ages, p. 363).
Jesus set Himself steadfastly to go to Jerusalem. He never had to shed the habits we have developed, but He did have to remain separated from the structural evils of His day. He avoided it’s schooling and was wary of the accepted traditions. He was able to be our Savior because He paid a price, invested His time and energy in God’s two books: nature and Scripture. Consequently, He was a different kind of person. So was Moses. So can we be.
We can be thankful today that Jesus set His face steadfastly to journey to Jerusalem. Step by step He walked, invested His energies in many discreet acts of righteousness, and thus exemplified how we are to live. Jesus’ goodness did not save Him, for He did not sin and did not need salvation from sin. But Jesus saved us by being steadfast in His purpose. The long journey was punctuated with many interviews, healings, teachings, and discussions. He never wavered. He spent time in prayer so that He was charged with a heavenly current that connected His humanity with divinity. Although He owned by right the life that was in Himself as God, that was set aside, and it was through continual communion with His Father that He received life from Him. His experience, His experience exactly in this regard, is to be ours. GCO
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