Beginning with Luke 9:51, we see that Jesus has “resolutely set His face to go to Jerusalem.”  From Luke 9-19, the crucifixion and His soon departure were the underlying thoughts of our Savior.  This appointment with Calvary weighed heavily on His heart the whole time that He was on the earth.  That thought, according to Dr. Luke’s diligent writing research, was primary. 

All along the way up that mountain, Jesus was doing everything He knew to do to prepare His followers (especially the 12 disciples) for the days ahead.  They would need to be ready to trust Him, to remember His teachings and to “faith” Him.  He would send the Holy Spirit to help them. 

Our Christian life can be divided into three distinctive sections: 
Salvation
Sanctification
Glorification. 

Salvation is a one-time completed event in our lives.  We realize and acknowledge (under the conviction of the Holy Spirit) that we have sinned against God.  We confess (say the same thing God says about) our sins.  We repent of (turn away from) those sins.  We believe in Jesus and accept what He did on the cross for our sins as forgiveness.  Jesus shed His perfect, sinless blood to cleanse us from our sins.  Our eternal relationship with God is established by the conviction of our sins by the Holy Spirit and the shed blood of Jesus.

Glorification is when we finally live with God in a place called Heaven.  All of the glory belongs to GOD!  At that time, we are there to simply give Him glory for Who He is and for all that He has done to make our salvation relationship possible.  An old hymn says it very plainly: “When by His grace I shall look on His face, that will be glory, be glory for me!” I would have said, “GLORIOUS!” 

But, meanwhile, in the “nasty now and now,” we dwell in a “state” we call sanctification.  This is the place where the 12 disciples found themselves on the journey with Jesus to Jerusalem.  We are growing.  We are winning.  We are losing.  We are interacting with others.  We are spending time with the written Word of God.  The disciples got to be with the Word of God Himself.  We are learning to pray.  We are exercising trust and developing faith in God each day as we face life and ponder eternity.  This is our growth period.  

Salvation and Glorification are points in the journey.  Sanctification is called a process.  That means it is on-going.  We grow a little more each day as we go.  We are either green and luscious with our growth or we are pale green in need of watering and fertilizer.  I want to be an “evergreen” that brings a smile to the face of my Lord.  Faith is a huge part of the sanctification process. 

This is where we work out what has been worked into us through salvation “with fear and trembling” (see Philippians 2:12-13).  We learn trust.  Obedience.  Use of spiritual gifts.  Yielding to God.  Prayer. Bible study.  Sharing our faith with others.  Walking. Working.  Watching.  Waiting. Witnessing.  Worship. 

In Luke 17, Jesus was preparing His disciples to do those exact things but with a major focus on faith and forgiveness.  They would be tempted to sin. They needed to expect those moments.  However, they were never to be the reason someone else would be tempted to sin.  Causing others to stumble was serious business. 

Jesus knew that they would be wronged by others and that they would wrong each other.  Forgiveness should be our default response.  You know, it’s those “big little” words in scripture that get us every time.  We are to forgive AS we have been forgiven.  That “as” squashes us like a steam roller.  To this, the disciples asked Jesus to “increase” their faith. 

Jesus knew that faith is both a verb AND a noun.  Faith is not something we earn as a reward.  Faith is developed as we walk with Jesus moment by moment, breath by breath.  We grow in faith as we trust God day by day.  We see how He works in our lives, and we know that He does not change.  Even though the result might not be how we prayed it would be, we know that God knows best, and we rest in that knowledge.  Our faith (noun) increases as we faith (verb) God.  As we exercise faith, we grow in strength as well as in dependance on God.  As our “self” decreases, our faith increases.  Ask John the Baptizer (see John 3:30) who said, “He must increase but I must decrease!”

No matter how old I get, I always want to be a child of God.  I want to hold His hand.  I want to follow His lead.  I want to be like His Son, Jesus.  This is faith.  But faith is so much more than that.  Faith is waiting in the blank, dark spaces with hope.  Faith is leaning back on Jesus, relaxing into His plan for our lives, so closely that we can hear and feel His heartbeat. Faith is knowing that one day we will be with other “faith-ers” in Heaven, worshipping God forever.