Will You Follow Jesus? (Luke 9:51–62) from South Woods Baptist Church on Vimeo.

What do the Jotoni in Mali, the Temne-Bunta in Sierra Leone, the Mahratta in India, and the Sogwo Arig in China have in common? They’re all unreached people groups with no known followers of Jesus Christ. The animistic Jotoni live on $1200 per year in a barren, desert wasteland with no gospel witness among them. The Islamic Temne-Banta live under the rule of tribal chieftains under conditions hostile to the gospel. There’s no witness this this group of 68,000 people. The Hindu Mahratta number 30 million, yet no followers of Christ and probably little gospel work among them. The Buddhist Sogwo Arig made up of 49,000 people live in the mountainous regions of China sacrificing animals to gods and demons.

No followers of Christ and no gospel witness connect these unreached people living under the wrath of God. They see the invisible attributes of God in creation. The Creator makes Himself known through the conscience, so that this dimmed light of witness within and all around them is enough to hold them accountable for their sin against Him (Romans 1:18–23). But they still have no knowledge of Christ, and so continue living in rebellion against Him. Yet they’ve not heard of the Lord Jesus, God’s Son, dying on their behalf and being raised from the dead to give them life forever.

But how about you and me?

If the Jotonis and Mahrattas are held accountable before a holy God by the testimony of creation and conscience, what of us, who have not only the light of the light of creation and conscience, but who have heard the good news of Jesus Christ over and over? If God justly condemns them in their paganism, does He not more justly condemn any among us that would hear the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection, and His gracious call to repent, believe, and follow Him, and yet not?

Here’s the reality. God made us for Himself. Augustine famously wrote in his Confessions, “Thou has made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.” We fool ourselves into false wisdom and flawed pursuits when we hear the good news and either coldly turn away or attach caveats to the call of Christ. Jesus fulfilled His saving mission, so He calls us to faithfully follow Him. Are you following Christ? Let’s think about the call of Jesus in the gospel.

1. Jesus’ consciousness of His mission

We’ve been noticing in this section of Luke’s Gospel a movement in Jesus’ mission. Jesus begins His aim toward Jerusalem and the cross. He told the disciples about it but “they did not understand” His statements (9:22; 44–45). Now, starting in verse 51, we find Him setting His face toward His rendezvous with the weight of our sins at the cross. Notice how Luke sets that forth.

Days of Fulfillment

The language used is unique to this verse. “When the days were approaching for His ascension, He was determined to go to Jerusalem.” The idea of “approaching” is better translated as “fulfilled” or “filled together.” It refers to the divine mission given to the Son by the Father coming together for the redemption of those God elected before the creation [Darrell Bock, Luke, 2:968]. Some of the translations use “lifting up” rather than “ascension.” That’s a permissible translation but its unique use at this point implies a lifting up at the cross, followed by the resurrection, culminating in the ascension of Jesus to the right hand of the Father. In other words, Jesus fully understood the mission the Father had given Him. He knew the price that He’d pay by laying down His life in suffering at the hands of godless men, but more, suffering the full measure of wrath in our place at the Father’s hands. But Jesus knew that He would not stay in the grave. Resurrection Day would come, and soon afterward, the triumph of His saving work would culminate in His ascending back to the eternal glory with the Father that He had always known.

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