The Heart of Jesus
We've turned our attention Toward the Cross this last Sunday, launching a potent Easter series that will track Jesus' passionate focus on the cross from the middle of His earthly ministry until His resurrection.
Watch Last Sunday's sermon "Resolute - He Chose Us" from our new Easter series, Toward the Cross.
Amid mounting popularity and pressures, Jesus chose to turn from all those demands to keep His mind (literally His face) fixed on Jerusalem where He would suffer and be crucified.
This is a humbling and baffling reality, a reality we ponder during this Easter season…that Jesus, the God man, who had all understanding, wisdom, love and power, would turn His massive heart toward suffering on our behalf.
Nothing is more sobering than Him choosing the Cross.
Nothing is more softening than Him choosing us.
You know, Jesus didn't need us.
God the Father and Him had all the glory and love and power they needed (Theologians call this God's self-sufficiency--He's totally and completely satisfied in His triune love).
What this clarifies is that God, in Jesus, turned His attention toward the Cross...
Not because of some weird need to prove Himself.
Not because of some vindictive streak in His God-makeup.
Not because of any humanized need we could imagine.
But because He wanted us to be His (Heb 12:2 -literally the "Joy set before Him")
And in Luke 9:51-53 Jesus embodies this immense, tandem focus of God the Father, Jesus and Holy Spirit:
"When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him...But the people did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem."
Jesus suddenly swings His growing ministry, His budding popularity, His increasing reputation--and wraps it all around this one thing.
Jerusalem. The Cross. Laying down His life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45).
And everything for the next 1.5 years of His ministry will be framed by the Cross.
If He disciples, He is adamant about His Cross.
If He heals, His signs unveil the suffering ahead.
If He teaches, it's in defiance of the religious authorities that will soon betray Him.
In Jesus' ministry, there is nothing untouched by the Cross.
And this will be the theme of our sermons ahead, we'll be studying:
So, "Let us press on to know the Lord" and see what fresh revelations from the heart of Jesus we'll experience on the path to His Cross (Hosea 6:3).
See you Sunday!
Pastor Dave