Tag: Jesus’ ascension

He Set His Face

Luke 9

I enjoy video games. I could bore you with my digital adventures during quarantine, but I’d like to focus on a much more recent experience. I was playing a game that came out recently, and loving it. At one point a warning came up : “This is your last chance to purchase any gadget or suit upgrades. Do you wish to proceed?” I had an experience in the past when the game didn’t warn me we were in the final stages. So I backed up, upgraded, and went into the end game in full force. 

Most people don’t have a moment like that. Very few have been able to determine when the “end” of their life was going to begin. 

Jesus isn’t most people. 

In Luke 9:51, we read a powerful phrase. “When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.” The phrase “set his face” is sometimes rendered as “He was determined” or “he set out for”. While both of these translations have merit, I like the “wooden” translation of “set his face.” 

“He was determined” feels a little passive. He made a decision to take steps to go to Jerusalem. 

“He set out for” however, makes it feel as if he started to power-walk all the way to Judea. 

Instead, he set his face. We aren’t even halfway through Luke telling of Jesus’ life, but we begin to see that everything that happens from here on, Jesus is doing with his endgame in mind. Every healing he performs is done with his face looking at Jerusalem. Every teaching he gives ends with him setting his face back to Jerusalem. Every step he takes, north, south, east or west, takes him one step closer to the Place of the Skull. Every healing he performs puts him one step closer to the scars across his back. Every breath of teaching he pours out gets him closer to the last breath of this life. 

And it gets him closer to the ascension. To the life beyond death. To the glory after humilation. Every breath he breathes gets him closer to new breath, new Spirit filling his body. Every healing he performs puts him one step closer to a body, unbroken and healed. Every step he takes takes him one step closer to the Mount of Olives, and the ascension to the Throne of God. 

That’s a good end game.

So when Jesus teaches anything in the rest of Luke, consider that he thought it was important enough to say as he walked his final days on Earth. Whether he was teaching and loving Mary and Martha in their own home, correcting the Pharisees about their view of sinners and tax collectors and the God who loves them in Luke 15, or teaching about the End Times in Luke 17, every event and teaching of Jesus are the ones that gained his attention after he “set his face” to go to Jerusalem.

Let this devotion urge you to reconsider how we read these words today. Don’t read Luke as another item on your busy checklist. But hear them as the words of Jesus that they are, pouring over you, through you and into you, and let them change you today. As we move ever closer to Easter, may we read Luke and set our own faces toward Jerusalem.

-Jake Ballard

You can read or listen to today’s Bible passages at BibleGateway – Deuteronomy 1-2 and Luke 9

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Be A Witness

Acts 1-3

If you have been following along with the SeekGrowLove devotions for the past 1.5 months, we have been able to take a look at the life and ministry of Jesus through the four gospels.  What a crazy, action-packed time during Jesus’ ministry on earth.  Today, we transition into the book of Acts, and we get to see how Jesus’ disciples will respond to these couple crazy years with Jesus.  As we near the end of 2020, we are all too familiar of what it looks like to live through some crazy events.  As we read through the book of Acts, we can take some notes of how Peter, Paul, and others responded to the crazy events revolving around Jesus.

Before Jesus ever ascended to heaven (yep, not even Jesus went to heaven right after his death), he spent 40 days preaching about the Kingdom of God.  Right before Jesus’ ascension, he told his disciples to, “Witness in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth,” (Acts 1:8). 

The order of locations that Jesus provides is important.  He starts off with Jerusalem; Jerusalem was basically the home base for the Jews and early Christians.  They first needed to witness to their home base of Jerusalem.  Then, they needed to witness in Judea and Samaria; that consists of the land surrounding the city of Jerusalem.  After they have witnessed to the surrounding area, then they had a calling to witness to the ends of the earth.  The book of Acts follows this exact blueprint, which I find to be so fascinating.  Chapters 1-7 are all witnessing in Jerusalem.  Chapters 8-9 consists of them witnessing in Judea and Samaria.  Then, chapters 10-28 cover the disciples, Paul, and others witnessing to the ends of the earth: Caesarea, Antioch, Asia Minor, Greece, and Rome.

We can learn a lot from this blueprint that Jesus provided for his disciples.  We have a calling to witness to those right around us, whether that be your family, friends, coworkers, etc.  Studies show that the most effective mode of evangelism is relational evangelism.  We are best able to spread the news to people we have a relationship with.  Are you using your relationships with nonbelievers, as an instrument to spread the gospel message of the Kingdom?  When you have spread the gospel message to those around you, are you helping that message be spread throughout the ends of the earth?  We have better capabilities now than ever to spread the gospel message to the ends of the earth.  Let’s take advantage of those capabilities.

We can’t go through Acts 1-3 and not mention Peter’s killer sermon in chapter 2.  It is truly one of my favorite sermons ever recorded.  Peter absolutely brings it to the Jews.  You can feel his passion for his Lord and Savior in this message, and he shares this passion with the Jews, the same people who had him crucified (as Peter so gracefully informs them)!  If you want to see someone who is on fire for God and his son, Jesus, then look no further than Peter’s message here in Acts chapter 2.  I hope and pray that we can reflect this passion in our lives today.

I look forward to covering the first half of Acts with you all.  It’s my prayer that we can all learn from the wonderful examples of Peter, Paul, and others throughout this wonderful book.  Witness to those around you, and then help spread that message to the ends of the earth!

-Kyle McClain

Today’s Bible reading passage can be read or listened to at BibleGateway here – Acts 1-3.

Tomorrow we continue this exciting book, with Acts 4-6. Now’s a great time to jump on board and finish 2020 strong with a daily reading of God’s Word as we watch to see how the world responds to the life, teaching, death and resurrection of God’s Son, Jesus. Let’s get ready for his return!

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