Sermon Tone Analysis
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Opening Prayer
Intro
I want us to think for a moment this morning as we begin our time in God’s word together, what brings you joy in life?
Happiness is a fleeting feeling, but joy is something that lasts.
Joy grows within us.
Joy comes out of a sense of purpose.
We often believe that joy comes out of accomplishments.
Every year, Gallup asks a sample of American adults what might seem to be a rather loaded question: How much do you like your job?
The results may surprise you.
The portion who say they are “completely satisfied” at work has risen dramatically over the past two decades, from 41 percent in 2001 to 55 percent in 2019.
In 2020, despite the fact that millions of Americans had shifted to remote work, 89 percent said they were either “completely” or “somewhat” satisfied.
In our passage here in chapter 10 that we have been looking at we have seen these 70/72 disciples sent out by Jesus with a job to do.
Jesus has put them to work.
They are praying for the harvest and going out telling others about the kingdom of God.
And now we see them returning to Jesus.
Joyfully.
Satisfied in the job they have done.
Through our time together I hope to help us see the joy that we can have as we work as ambassadors for Christ.
The Christian life can be depressing at times.
The more truth you have, the more you realize how bad things are, and that can be depressing.
We can get depressed because of the internal love that we still have for sin and the way we continue to sin.
Have you ever asked, why do I keep doing this thing that I hate?
Even Paul asks that question in Romans 7 as he speaks of the work of the law and wrestling with the flesh.
We get depressed because we see so much suffering so much of it self inflicted as people live without God.
We are sad because the God we love is not worshipped and honored.
We get down when we experience the pains of a fallen creation, broken and failing bodies, broken relationships, immoral societies, and a fallen government.
But the Christian life is also a life of irresistible joy.
It is to some of these joys that we turn to as we watch the disciples return from their mission as ambassadors for Christ in Luke 10:17-24.
Here we see not only the joy of the disciples but the joy of Jesus as well.
Ministry has its own set of sorrows.
All Christians minister to others in some capacity and inevitably shoulders the various burdens of others.
Joy becomes something that we need to sustain us, to keep our hopes up,
to act as fuel for further service, for the joy of the Lord is our strength.
‘Studies show that joyful people have less chance of having a heart attack, maintain a healthier blood pressure, and tend to have lower cholesterol levels.
There's research to prove that joy boosts our immune systems,
fights stress and pain, and improves our chance of living a longer life.’
Joyful people are nicer people, easier to live with and easier to work with.
Joy puts on display the satisfaction we have in and from God and is a witness to God and His gospel.
This section will teach us what to rejoice in when we are ministering.
Jesus we know is the man of sorrows.
Jesus wept at Lazarus’s graveside, and over a hard Jerusalem.
Jesus agonized in Gethsemane and on the cross.
Luke 10:17-24 is the only recorded time in the gospels where Jesus is said to rejoice, v21.
I’m sure Jesus was a joyful individual, pleasant to be around but this is the only recorded time that Jesus rejoiced.
Looking back to Luke 7 we saw
One of the fruits of the spirit.
Having joy is part of the experience of being a Christian.
It is something that also grows in us.
As we see the disciples returning from their mission they had been sent on, I want us to see joy in 3 ways.
joy in victory,
joy in salvation,
and joy in sovereignty.
Joy in victory.
This passage begins with the triumphant return of the 70/72 disciples.
Gladness is in their hearts.
We might picture these disciples running up to Jesus, overflowing with enthusiasm, their faces glowing with excitement.
They had the kind of spontaneous joy that comes with unexpected success.
Like tossing a basketball from the opposite side of the court and having it go in.
“Joy” is just the word for it, because these disciples were celebrating what God had done, and not simply what they had done.
This is one of the differences between happiness and joy:
we can be happy with ourselves, but true joy comes only when we get outside of ourselves to glorify God.
Happiness may be self-centered, but joy is always God-centered.
Their specific mention of demons here points to one of the most difficult things they experienced on their journey.
They were astounded and rejoicing in the fact that demons were subject to them.
Demons we know are the fallen angels who joined satan in his original rebellion and who were cast out of heaven never to be saved, Rev. 12:4.
When we read the gospel accounts, it seems like there is an awful lot of demonic activity occuring.
That is for good reason.
Satan and the demons, his followers, knew who Jesus was and what he was coming to do.
So their goal was to stop him.
The intense amount of demonic activity in Israel and around this time of Christ was most likely due to Satan's intense efforts to wipe Jesus out, an attempt that had been going on since His birth.
The thing that we must keep in mind with their joy is that they recognize that this authority is not their own,
It is Jesus’s authority that is emphasized when they say ‘Lord,’ and ‘in your name.’
The name of Jesus is not a magic incantation though.
A reminder of this comes in Acts 19 with the sons of Sceva.
The demon responded
These disciples had been authorized personally by Christ for this role.
Jumping down to verse 19 we see the authority he had given them.
They went with His authority under His protection.
The verse in between these two is the cause of a bit of confusion.
We must ask of verse 18 and 19
When did Jesus see Satan fall from heaven, and how can we apply what Jesus said about having authority over the enemy?
Some have thought that Jesus is referring to the fall of satan in Isaiah.
This begins as a taunt against the King of Babylon but then goes beyond the earthly king to address the spiritual power pulling his strings as a puppetmaster.
Some think that Jesus is referring to the defeat of satan during the temptation in the wilderness.
Some have said that the fall of satan is metaphorical for the ongoing triumph of Christ’s earthly ministry
which is destroying the works of the devil as He reverses effects of the curse, cures sickness, calms nature, casts out demons, forgives sin and raises the dead.
There is a fourth option.
The words ‘I saw’ are in the imperfect tense and could be translated ‘I was seeing.’
An action that occurs with ongoing results.
In other words, Jesus speaking in the original language of satan’s being cast out of heaven
speaks about how the ministry of the disciples was another blow of victory against the devil.
The devil who is called the god of this age, the prince of the power of the air has had a certain freedom and jurisdiction to do his will.
With the coming of Christ there is a power reversal and marks the beginning of the end of the devil’s reign of terror,
and Christ’s power is active not only in His own ministry but through His disciples as well.
The biggest way in which they would have overcome satan would have been by rescuing souls from his clutches through the preaching of the word.
Take all of this together and you can see why the disciples have reason for joy.
The devil who has ruled is being overthrown, powers which had overcome us have met their match in Christ’s power.
He is defeated, he is unable to harm those in Jesus’s care, the new age has come, and they have the privilege of being instruments in bringing it to pass.
We have similar grounds for joy today.
Jesus tells us in the Great Commission that all authority is His, and in light of that tells us to go into the world and make disciples.
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