The next thing Jesus says is, ‘I’ve set my face like a flint and I know that I will not be ashamed.‘
So, what’s the flint? The flint is a very hard stone which is, in this case, directing in one way. This means that, at this point, Jesus has committed Himself to go to the cross. Nothing is going to divert Him from that purpose.
Jesus said He set His face like a flint to go to Jerusalem, to be there at the Passover time, to be arrested and put to death by crucifixion.
All those things are necessary for our salvation. It has to be in Jerusalem; it could not happen anywhere else. Jerusalem is the place where God has chosen to put His name. A place for the sacrifice to be the scene of the events concerning the First Coming of the Messiah, and also the Second Coming of the Messiah.
When He stands on the Mount of Olives and comes into Jerusalem to take up his rule at the Second Coming, it has to be in Jerusalem.
30 So David went up by the Ascent of the Mount of Olives, and wept as he went up; and he had his head covered and went barefoot. And all the people who were with him covered their heads and went up, weeping as they went up.
2 Samuel 15.30
4 And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives,
Zechariah 14.4
Which faces Jerusalem on the east.
And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two,
From east to west,
Making a very large valley;
Half of the mountain shall move toward the north
And half of it toward the south.
It also has to be at the special time at, the time of the Passover a time when the Jewish people are remembering the Exodus from Egypt and the event which happened after the last of the plagues took place, when the death of the firstborn came upon the Egyptians and God told Moses to tell the Israelites to put the blood of the Lamb upon the doorposts of their houses and so that the angel of death would pass over them and they were passed from death to life at the time we call the Passover.
Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, 2 “This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you. 3 Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: ‘On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household. 4 And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbour next to his house take it according to the number of the persons; according to each man’s need you shall make your count for the lamb. 5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. 6 Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. 7 And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it. 8 Then they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted in fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. 9 Do not eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted in fire—its head with its legs and its entrails. 10 You shall let none of it remain until morning, and what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire. 11 And thus you shall eat it: with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover.
12 ‘For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord. 13 Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.
14 ‘So this day shall be to you a memorial; and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance.
Exodus 12.1-14
All of this speaks about Yeshua the Messiah. It tells us that, if we put the Blood of the Lamb upon on the doorposts of our lives, then, the Angel of Death is going to pass over us, and we’re going to pass from Death oo Life.
Jesus had to be crucified in Jerusalem at the time of the Passover, and He had to die by crucifixion as well.
Psalm 22 it says,
15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd,
And My tongue clings to My jaws;
You have brought Me to the dust of death.16 For dogs have surrounded Me;
Psalm 22.15-17
The congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me.
They pierced My hands and My feet;
17 I can count all My bones.
They look and stare at Me.
Zechariah Chapter 12 it says,
10 “And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. …
Zechariah 12.10
Isaiah says,
5 But He was wounded for our transgressions,
Isaiah 53.5
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
Zechariah 12 also says,
10 … Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.
Zechariah 12.10
There had to be a means of execution which may not have been known to the prophets at the time they prophesied but was well known by the time we get to Jesus. That method was crucifixion. And so Jesus set His face like a flint to go to Jerusalem in order for that to take place.
It means that He would not be put off, nothing would turn Him away, nothing would make Him change His mind. Once he set on that Journey, nothing was going to divert Him from it. It was the purpose for which He came to earth.
Luke chapter 9 verse 51 says,
51 Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem, 52 and sent messengers before His face. And as they went, they entered a village of the Samaritans, to prepare for Him. 53 But they did not receive Him, because His face was set for the journey to Jerusalem.
Luke 9.51-53
He was not going to be put off; He would not even be put off by his friends.
Matthew chapter 16 verse 21 says,
21 From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.
22 Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!”
23 But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”
Matthew 16.21-23
It’s a strange saying. Why did Jesus say to Peter, His leading apostle, ‘Get behind me Satan!‘
Peter was telling Him: ‘No, don’t go to Jerusalem, don’t suffer. That shouldn’t happen to you!‘ And Jesus said, ‘No, it must happen to me.‘
Nothing would divert Him from it, not his friends, nor his enemies.
We see a number of times in the gospels where His enemies tried to put Him to death. For example, at Nazareth, when He preached in the synagogue as accounted in Luke chapter 4 where it says,
28 So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, 29 and rose up and thrust Him out of the city; and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw Him down over the cliff. 30 Then passing through the midst of them, He went His way.
Luke 4.28-30
He wasn’t going to be killed in Nazareth but in Jerusalem.
Then, in Jerusalem, when He was disputing with the Jewish religious leaders, he said to them
58 Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.”
John 8.58
which was taking upon Himself the name of God, and then it says,
59 Then they took up stones to throw at Him; but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.
John 8.59
Any attempt to kill Jesus before Passover, before that time, outside of Jerusalem or by any other method than crucifixion was going to fail. But once it was the right time, in Jerusalem, at the time of Passover, everything fell into place, and Jesus went to the cross willingly to bear the sins of the world.
He said His face was set like a flint. He didn’t allowed even his own feelings to stop Him from going to Jerusalem.
Matthew this chapter 22 then Jesus I think chapter 6
36 Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, “Sit here while I go and pray over there.” 37 And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. 38 Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.”
39 He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”
40 Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “What! Could you not watch with Me one hour? 41 Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
42 Again, a second time, He went away and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done.”
Matthew 26.36-42
Jesus didn’t feel like going to the cross. Not only did He not relish the physical pain but He didn’t relish the separation which was going to come between Him and the Father. He said, ‘if it’s possible, if there is any other way I can do this … let it be’. But he knew that there was no other way and so He committed Himself, He submitted to the will of the Father.
if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.
And that is the commitment of Jesus. Nothing could separate Him, nothing could stop Him from doing what He’d come to do. He set His face like a flint to go to Jerusalem. Nothing would divert Him from this purpose.