Set Your Face to the Cause

Last night I started a series of discussion/studies on the Travel Narratives of Luke chapter 9 through 18.  Luke 9:51 says,

"As the time approached for [Jesus] to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem."

At this point Jesus changed his focus of ministry.  He had been traveling around from town to town establishing his ministry of healing and casting out demons, and preaching the coming kingdom.  But now, things became more urgent.  His time was fast approaching.  Soon he would give the ultimate sacrifice - his Life on the cross.

The urgency in His mission was to get as much teaching into His disciples as possible; so as the traveled through Samaria toward Jerusalem, Jesus took every opportunity to teach them.  This is why there are so many parables in the central section of Luke.  Parables became important life lessons to help the disciples understand what it meant to live spiritual lives to the glory of God.  These lessons would soon resonate in their minds as they encountered various circumstances along the journey of life.

Last night's lesson mostly focused on the lesson of urgency.  Just as Jesus was urgent about discipleship, so should we be filled with that same sense of urgency for the ministry of the gospel today.  Jesus will one day return again.  However, God is delaying that return for the special reason that "He is not willing that any should perish, but all will come to repentance."  My question is: How urgent are we about the lost?  Do we think in terms of the limited amount of time until Christ return?  Does it make us anxious for the lost in any way?

I have often heard the expression: "The church does not exist for itself."  If that's not the case, then there is no need for the Great Commission "to go and make disciples."  The church exists for those outside of its walls; the lost.

So let's set our face to the cause of being the agents of God's mission to seek and save the lost.  Let's be resolved that nothing will turn us away from completing the Great Commission into all of the world.

Blessings,

-Leo