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

For I tell you, what is written must be fulfilled in Me; And He was counted among the outlaws. Yes, what is written about Me is coming to its fulfillment.” (Luke 22:37)

The Lord was referring to Isiah 53:12, “because He submitted Himself to death, and was counted among the rebels; yet He bore the sin of many and interceded for the rebels.”

Jesus prophetically saw His death. Another place Jesus spoke of His death is in Luke 13:31-35,

At that time some Pharisees came and told Him, 'Go, get out of here! Herod wants to kill You!'

He said to them, 'God tell that fox, 'Look! I'm driving out demons and performing healings today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will complete My work. Yet I must travel today, tomorrow, and the next day, because it is not possible for a prophet to perish outside of Jerusalem!

Jerusalem, Jerusalem! She who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her. How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!”

Other places Jesus spoke of His death were in Luke 9:21-22; 9:44-45; and again in Luke 9:31-33. In Luke 9:31-33 Jesus took His disciples aside and said, “Listen! We are going up to Jerusalem. Everything that is written through the prophets about he Son of Man will be accomplished. For He will be handed over to the Gentiles, and He will be mocked, insulted, spit on; and after they flog Him, they will kill Him, and He will rise on the third day.”

Jesus saw His death and moved towards it with determination as a form of intercession for us, gladly saying yes to the will of the Father even though the pain of it would be incredibly hard. Luke 9:51 says, “As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.”

He followed the steps towards His death according to what He knew the will of His Father was for Him through the words of the prophets who went before him, scriptures such as Isaiah 52-53.

We all know the words of Is 53:7, “He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth. Like a lamb led to the slaughter and like a sheep silent before her shearers, He did not open His mouth.”

And in Luke 23 it says that as Jesus was questioned by Herod, He did not answer him. He stood silent as the chief priests and the scribes vehemently accused Him (Luke 23:10). Luke 23:11 goes on to say, Herod and his soldiers “treated Him with contempt, mocked Him, dressed Him in a brilliant robe, and sent Him back to Pilate.”

Ultimately, on the cross He experienced even separation from His Father and the Holy Spirit as He bore our transgressions. Jesus’ cried, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34)

As Is. 53:12 says, all of this was done as intercession for us who were the 'rebels' that deserved the punishment He received. He gladly went through all of this out of obedience to the Father for the joy set before Him (our salvation).

He gladly said yes in His heart to God as He read these words out of Isaiah 53:4-6 (and knew they were a word for Him):

“Yet He Himself bore our sicknesses, and He carried our pains;

but we in turn regarded Him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted.

But He was pierced because of our transgressions,

crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on Him,

and we were healed by His wounds.

We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way;

and the Lord has punished Him for the iniquity of us all.”

Could you imagine reading these words out of Isaiah 52:13-14 knowing it was a word specifically for you from God? 

"See, My Servant will act wisely; He will be raised and lifted up and greatly exalted.  Just as many were appalled at You - His  appearance was so disfigured that He did not look like a man, and His form did not resemble a human being - So he will sprinkle [like a sacrifice on the altar] many nations."

John 13:1 says, “It was before the festival of the Passover, and Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to pass from this world to the Father. He had always loved those who were his in the world, but now he showed how perfect His love was.”

Octavious Winslow writes, “Christ took your cup of grief, your cup of the curse, pressed it to his lips, drank in its dregs, then filled it with his sweet, pardoning, sympathizing love, and gave it back for you to drink, and to drink for ever!” [1]

When we (speaking of myself here) think we are doing something for God, we miss the point of the gospel... He did all for us. Out of His deep love He went to the cross and endured suffering so that we may have life.

It was not only a work of love that He did for each one of us. But we put Him there. Neil Wilson writes, “The Roman soldiers weren't working alone. You helped them hold the hammer and strike the nails, because it was your sin, too, that Jesus died to pay for.” [2]

Do we really see and receive His love for us in going to a cross in our place?

It was a gift that cost Him immensely as He cried tears of blood in the garden before stepping into His final hours.

A little ironic- I had wanted to write this week on expressions of people who try to love God with all their hearts. This is because I want to grow in my expressions of loving and worshiping God. I thought that looking at others who expressed their love would help me. There are so many beautiful examples... Mary breaking an expensive perfume on His feet, Zacchaeus giving half his goods and promising to pay anyone he wronged four times as much, the woman with the two mites...

But what I realize is that they were all reactions of joy to the immense gift that was given to them – their forgiveness and salvation. It was in receiving God's generous gift that their hearts swelled to overflowing with joy and they couldn't help but find a way to express themselves.

I often try to do little things for God and pray He notices and sees my love for Him in it. He is so gracious as to receive my little gifts of love and let me know that He notices them. But what He desires more is not our gifts but that we would fully receive His immense gift to us. If we fully receive it and embrace it, we cannot help but overflow with expressions of worship to such a generous God.

Neil Wilson writes, “Jesus' identity remains on trail today. He asks of every person, 'Who do you say that I am?' We must each submit our judgment and what we decide will ultimately shape our lives and determine our destinies. So what is your ruling? Who do you say that Jesus is?” [3]

How we see Him and what we believe not only about Him but believe about His love for us, shapes our daily decisions, how we live our lives and even our eternal destinies. What we are focused on and see determine the direction we will go.

In Luke 12:33-34 Jesus says, “Sell your possessions and give to charity; make yourselves money belts which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near nor moth destroys. "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

If we see Jesus as 'keeping score' on how we are doing or how much we give to Him we may compare ourselves to this scripture and others. We will measure how close we come to living it out... like we (speaking of me here) will hopefully get some brownie approval points for giving more.

However, this is not a command that He would have us rotely follow in trying to please Him, obey His commands, or be spiritual, but rather He would have it be an expression from our hearts to who He is.

Over and over in the Bible, He confronted people who had dead hearts and were rotely and religiously following the Word. They thought all their following the rules made them more spiritual and became puffed up in self-righteousness.

When He walked the earth, it was like He purposely went out of His way at times to break the commands as rule followers saw them.... not ceremonially washing, healing on the Sabbath, bringing his disciples through a grain field on the Sabbath and letting them eat from it. Then as they would become offended, He would confront them for it. [a]

Our focus needs to be not on what we can do for Him or give to Him but on who He is. When we really see who He is we can't help but express our awe in overflowing ways based upon how we are wired.

Lord, forgive me where I move into religious actions of trying to serve you or give to you out of my own strength. Help us to see You and really believe just how good You are to us. Fill our hearts to overflowing with genuine worship and expressions of this love that it is so immense.

a. We can learn from the Pharisees that any time we are offended we probably are religiously following rules and our own expectations rather than seeing and following God.

Jesus says in Matthew 11:6, “And blessed is he who does not take offense at Me.”

Sometimes for myself, I am not offended with God directly, but what happens is that I become offended with others or by a situation. But if I truly believed that He was caring for every aspect of my life, I would see that no situation gives me a justifiable reason for offense.... they all come from His hand. He desires that we embrace our difficult situations like my mother - with childlike trust in His goodness caring for us in midst of our difficulties. Where I am offended, it is a cue that I have an expectation or feel entitled in some way to something I need to let go of and die to.

1-3.  Wilson, Neil with DiCianni, Ron.  Were You There? Find Yourself with Jesus.  Integrity Publishers, Brentwood, TN.   2004.