The Cost of Resurrection Power

Setting Your Face Toward Jerusalem

Luke 9:51

In the Gospel of Luke 9:51, we read a turning point sentence in the life and ministry of Jesus: “When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.” It is a quiet verse, but it thunders with resolve. From this moment forward, everything moves toward Jerusalem. Everything moves toward the cross.

Luke does not describe hesitation. He does not portray indecision. He tells us that Jesus “set his face.” The phrase suggests determination, fixed intention, and settled will. Jesus planned to go to Jerusalem and die. The cross was not an accident. It was not a tragic miscalculation. It was the Father’s will embraced by the Son.

Jerusalem was not merely a city on a map. It was the place where prophets were rejected. It was the center of religious power and political tension. It was the city where, as Jesus knew, suffering awaited Him. Yet He did not drift toward it; He deliberately moved toward it.

There is no Resurrection Sunday apart from Crucifixion Friday.

The Christian faith does not leapfrog over suffering to arrive at glory. The empty tomb only makes sense because of the blood-stained cross. In the Gospel of Luke 9:22, Jesus had already told His disciples that the Son of Man “must suffer many things… and be killed, and on the third day be raised.” The resurrection was certain—but so was the suffering. The glory would come—but only through the cross.

Our culture craves victory without sacrifice, triumph without surrender, and resurrection without death. Yet the pattern of Christ’s life teaches us something profoundly different. The hope of Easter morning is inseparably tied to the obedience of Good Friday.

Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem was not simply geographical; it was theological. It was about obedience. In Matthew 26:39, in Gethsemane, Jesus prayed, “Not my will, but yours, be done.” That prayer did not begin in the garden. It had been shaping His steps long before. Luke 9:51 shows us that obedience was not reactive—it was proactive. Jesus had already resolved to follow the Father’s will, even when it led to death.

This verse confronts us with a challenging truth: resurrection life requires death.

Jesus made that clear just a few verses earlier in the Gospel of Luke 9:23: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” We often read those words devotionally, but they are deadly serious. To follow Christ is to walk the same pattern—self-denial before self-fulfillment, surrender before exaltation.

We want transformation without crucifixion. We want new life without dying to the old. But the gospel offers no such shortcut.

The apostle Paul captured this dynamic in the Epistle to the Romans 6:4: “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead… we too might walk in newness of life.” Burial precedes newness. Death precedes resurrection power. There is no Easter without Good Friday.

Luke’s language also says that Jesus’ days “drew near for him to be taken up.” Even in a verse focused on Jerusalem and the cross, Luke hints at ascension and glory. The crucifixion was not the end of the story. Jesus could set His face toward suffering because He knew suffering was not ultimate. The cross would lead to resurrection, and resurrection would lead to exaltation.

That hope matters for us.

When we face into dying to ourselves—dying to pride, control, ambition, comfort—we often experience it as loss. It feels like diminishment. It feels like surrendering something precious. Yet in God’s economy, death to self is the doorway to life in Christ.

In Philippians 2:8–9, Paul writes that Jesus “humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him.” Notice the order: obedience unto death, therefore exaltation. Humility, therefore glory. Cross, therefore crown.

The Christian life follows the same arc. When we cling to our own will, we shrink. When we surrender to the Father’s will, we expand into resurrection life. The paradox of the gospel is that losing our life for Christ’s sake is the only way to truly find it.

Luke 9:51 invites us to examine our own resolve. What does it mean for us to “set our face” toward obedience? It means we stop negotiating with God’s will. It means we stop asking whether faithfulness will cost too much. It means we trust that whatever Jerusalem awaits us—whatever difficulty, sacrifice, or loss—God’s purposes are redemptive.

Jesus did not set His face toward Jerusalem because He loved suffering. He set His face toward Jerusalem because He loved the Father and He loved us. Love propelled Him. Joy awaited Him beyond the cross. As Hebrews reminds us, He endured the cross “for the joy set before him.”

So for us, facing into self-denial is not morbid spirituality. It is hopeful obedience. We die to selfish ambition so that Christ’s character might live in us. We die to bitterness so that resurrection forgiveness can rise. We die to control so that trust in the Father can flourish.

There is no resurrection Sunday apart from Crucifixion Friday. But neither is there a Crucifixion Friday that does not lead, in God’s timing, to resurrection hope.

Luke 9:51 stands as a quiet but powerful call. Jesus set His face. He chose obedience. He embraced the cross. And because He did, resurrection life is not just His story—it can become ours.

FIVE CHALLENGES FOR PREACHING PASTORS THIS EASTER

1. Preach the Cross as the Plan — Not an Interruption

Luke 9:51 makes it clear: Jesus set His face toward Jerusalem. The cross was not Plan B. It was not a tragic derailment. It was divine design.

Challenge: Resist the temptation to treat the crucifixion merely as the prelude to Easter celebration. Preach it as the center of God’s redemptive purpose. Help your congregation see that the cross was intentional, foretold, and embraced by Christ.

2. Preach Self-Denial as the Path to Life

Just after predicting His death, Jesus says in the Gospel of Luke 9:23, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily.”

Challenge: Don’t soften that language. Teach your church that discipleship includes daily death. In a culture addicted to self-expression and self-protection, boldly preach self-denial as the doorway to joy.

3. Preach Obedience Over Outcome

Jesus set His face toward Jerusalem, knowing what awaited Him. He did not obey because the outcome looked easy. He obeyed because the Father willed it.

In the Gospel of Matthew 26:39, He prays, “Not my will, but yours, be done.”

Challenge: Call your people to obedience even when clarity is partial and outcomes are uncertain. Preach faithfulness over visible success.

4. Preach Hope That Comes Through Suffering, Not Around It

Luke tells us that the days were drawing near for Jesus to be “taken up.” Even in the march toward the cross, resurrection and ascension are in view.

The pattern is clear in Epistle to the Philippians 2:8–9—humility and death, therefore exaltation.

Challenge: Help your congregation interpret their suffering through the lens of resurrection hope. Don’t preach a gospel that avoids hardship. Preach one that redeems it.

5. Preach With Personal Resolve — Set Your Own Face

Luke 9:51 is not only about Jesus’ resolve; it confronts ours. Before calling your church to die to self, you must examine your own heart.

Challenge: Ask yourself:

• Have I set my face toward obedience this season?

• Am I preaching resurrection power without personally embracing crucifixion surrender?

• Where is God asking me to die to self before Easter arrives?

A Final Encouragement

Between now and Easter, do not rush to the empty tomb. Walk your people slowly toward Jerusalem.

Let them feel the weight of the journey.
Let them wrestle with self-denial.
Let them see the cost of obedience.

Then, when Easter morning arrives, resurrection will not feel like a religious holiday—it will feel like deliverance.

There is no Resurrection Sunday apart from Crucifixion Friday. But when pastors faithfully preach both, churches are strengthened, disciples are formed, and Christ is exalted.

Set your face. Lead your people to do the same.