Selected and Sent

Luke 10:1–24 ESV

After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go. And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. Carry no moneybag, no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house!’ And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him. But if not, it will return to you. And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you. Heal the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near.’ I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town. “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more bearable in the judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You shall be brought down to Hades. “The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me.” The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” Then turning to the disciples he said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”

Luke 10:1-24

Introduction:

One of my favorite bands for the over the last quarter of a century has been Starflyer 59. I’m quite sure almost none of you have every heard of them. My favorite record of theirs has as song called “We’re the Ordinary.” Over the last few years I have been more and more moved by the way the Bible describes the ordinary, everyday life of a Christ follower. In the book of Luke we see a lot of Jesus’ interactions with ordinary people. We also see Him interact with the 12 disciples. We know they mostly end up being apostles and so that makes us think of them as extraordinary. However, they were ordinary people. But today, the passage is about Jesus sending seventy two other ordinary people out with the message of the kingdom. This passage is lengthy but I want us to see the sending and the returning along with the reaction to the trip.

There is a lot to cover here. The bigness of God is all over this thing. His mercy and grace are all over it. But, a warning for those who reject His messengers is here as well. There are direct applications in Jesus’ life and ministry here. There are some obvious applications to pastors and missionaries today as well. However, there are also points in this passage for the ordinary disciple making disciple sitting in this room right now.

MI: Prepare people for the kingdom and rejoice that you get to be part of it yourself.

I. Jesus selects and sends seventy two missionaries. (v.1-9)

Ordinary people called to an extraordinary mission. Up to this point there were only 12 who had been tasked and sent out. But now, there were 6 times that number. Jesus isn’t adding here, He’s multiplying.

A. He sends them in partner pairs.

He sends them out two by two. Why? Well, sending them in pairs gave them each other for accountability and encouragement. But it also may be that it fulfilled the Old Testament requirement for two witnesses in certain situations. The people would hear testimony about the kingdom of God confirmed by two witnesses.

B. He sends them to prepare the towns for His ministry. Look at verse 1. He sent them where He was about to go.

And in verse two we get His instructions to them. He starts out by telling them that the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few so they are to pray that God would send out laborers into his harvest.

So pray for laborers for the harvest.

Know that the harvest is God’s. He is responsible for the outcome. We are responsible for working towards it and trusting Him for it. Notice He doesn’t say to work on their marketing program so more people will go out and minister. He says pray. When was the last time you prayed for God to raise up and send more workers to HIS harvest? Is that prayer part of your regular prayers? I believe it should be. I fall short on that too. We should pray for one another as we are out on our own mission centered lives in public.

C. They had a message to tell.

In verse 9 it says,

Luke 10:9 ESV

Heal the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’

Their message was of the kingdom of God coming near to the people. (to you) The kingdom of God in the present age isn’t an earthly kingdom like they might have been expecting. There was not a military or political component to it but rather it is the rule and reign of God in the hearts and lives of people. It was manifested before them in people following Jesus and obeying His teaching and in the miracles that God did through these disciples. It gave the people a preview of the resurrected life in the age yet to come.

They had a message to tell. So do you, Christ follower. So do I. They had a message. How well do you know your message? How well do you know the gospel of the kingdom of God? Are you able to articulate the good news of the gospel? Are you able to share it? And if you are able to share it, are you doing it? Are you actively looking for opportunities to tell others of the kingdom and the good news of the gospel? If not, why not? I don’t mean this as a guilt trip sort of deal but you might want to come up with an answer to that incase someday God asks you why you kept the good news to yourself.

D. We learn that their mission is both urgent and dangerous.

In verse three Jesus tells them he’s sending them out as lambs among wolves. This sounds dangerous. It reminded me of previous passages in chapter nine about the cost of following Jesus and that following Christ means taking up your cross.

So it was a dangerous mission. Being sent out as lambs implies something of their conduct. They weren’t supposed to try coercive tactics to make converts. The spread of the gospel invites people to come not forcing them into some kind of false confession. Genuine surrender to the Lord can’t be compelled by force. This differentiates Christianity from other of the world’s religions.

In addition they may find themselves unwelcome in some places. If a son of peace was there, that is to say someone who knows the peace that comes with salvation, then stay there. God would use those people to provide all that the sent ones needed. Their mission had an urgency to it. Jesus said not to take a moneybag, knapsack, extra sandals, or to (and this is the strange one) greet no one on the road. The rest of it sounds a lot like when He had sent out the 12 earlier in Luke. But why no greeting? Well, at the time the customary greeting would have involved a longer conversation would have taken more time and they had a mission to get to. This actually does remind us of the urgency that Jesus had for the 12 when He sent them out. It wasn’t about being rude, it was about letting nothing hold them up on their way to their mission.

So when they arrive at a welcoming place they should stay there and eat what is provided. Jesus makes this statement that the laborer deserves his wages. Paul actually quotes this as scripture in I Timothy 5:18

1 Timothy 5:18 ESV

For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,” and, “The laborer deserves his wages.”

They were to accept hospitality and not feel bad about it.

We also notice that they won’t always be welcome everywhere. An unhappy reality is that not everyone will receive with gladness the message of God. And there are severe, real, and eternal consequences to rejecting the good news of the kingdom.

II. Woe to the unrepentant hearts. (v. 10-16)

Jesus gave them some instructions for what to do in this situation.

Luke 10:10–12 ESV

But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near.’ I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.

If you’ve been with us for a few weeks, this should remind you of verse 5 of chapter 9 in Luke where Jesus gives similar instructions to the 12 on their mission. Going out into the streets makes this symbolic act of judgment against the town visible to the public. It’s a sign that judgement is to come. And yet, You see that the nearness of the kingdom is reiterated. Jesus repeats this to emphasize the message they were to take with them. I love that even when they’re publically showing this sign of judgment they still give the message. So much mercy! They deserve the judgement and yet they get to hear again that the kingdom has come near to them! Our God is a God of mercy and grace. He is a holy judge. And in His love and justice He has provided a way to avoid His wrath. He sent Jesus who on the cross absorbed the wrath of God due to us for our sin. He took my punishment even though I deserve it. His greatness, mercy, and grace displayed. Don’t be like those who hear the message and turn away the messengers!

Verse thirteen reveals that the issue with these cities that Jesus had ministered to and now pronounces woes upon was that they were unrepentant. If those works that the people had witnessed Him do had been done in Tyre and Sidon, those people would have repented and shown actions of repentance. Capernaum had seen so much of Jesus’ work and those who still are unrepentant would not escape the severest judgment.

They had the teaching of Christ and rejected it.

Luke 10:16 ESV

“The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me.”

A key point to know is that rejecting the messenger from a king is a rejection of the King Himself. So when people have rejected the messengers of God, they have rejected God.

Jesus has been speaking this whole time as He is sending them off on this mission. They needed to know that the one who rejects them is rejecting Him and the one who rejects Jesus, the Son, is also rejecting the Father God. There is solidarity in the ministry of Jesus and His followers. There is solidarity in the ministry of Jesus and the Father.

And now we fast forward to when the seventy two come back and we see a rejoicing at what God has done.

III. Rejoice in God’s sovereignty over salvation. (v.17-24)

The seventy-two return to Jesus and they are pumped. They come back with joy. They’re telling Jesus all about it. They’re particularly excited because they said the demons were subject to them in Jesus’ name. Jesus’ response might strike you as a little odd.

Luke 10:18–20 ESV

And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

Jesus does something here: He is letting them know that Satan’s authority and power over people has been broken. It’s been decided.

But Jesus in verse 20 warns them about rejoicing too much in what God has done through them. They had something even greater to rejoice in: that their names were written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

Revelation 3:5 ESV

The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.

It’s really easy when you see God doing amazing things through you to get so caught up in that that you lose sight of the fact that you were once just as lost as those folks and without God reaching into your heart and revealing the truth about Jesus to you, you would be in line of judgement and wrath, rightfully. I see so many in churches around the world getting so caught up in what they see God doing among them that they make what God did the point and they fail to remember that God Himself is the point.

After they come back with joy, we have this little section in verses 21 through 22 where we see Jesus rejoicing. He says a little prayer of thanksgiving to God the Father.

Luke 10:21–22 ESV

In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

In this short prayer we learn some really cool things. First, it is God’s will that the wise and understanding of the world were not the ones to whom the truth of the kingdom being near and Satan being defeated was revealed to. It wasn’t through the high brow of the world but to those who believed with a child like faith. God chose this.

This is a truth we find throughout scripture. Even Mary, the mother of Jesus when she praises God in the verses we call the Magnificant during her visit to her cousin Elizabeth when she was pregnant.

Luke 1:51–52 ESV

He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate;

We see that it was God’s will to do this in this way. We also see, secondly, that no one gets to know God unless Jesus reveals God to them. Jesus is the final revelation of God to people and salvation is found only in and through Him. Salvation is in the hand of God. You only know God if God wants you to know Him. Connect that with the fact that Jesus told them to rejoice that their names were written in heaven. We should rejoice because Jesus has been revealed to us and we get to know God in relationship and enjoy Him now and for eternity. This should make us want to jump out of our chairs with joy.

Then Jesus turns to the disciples privately and says they are blessed to see what they see.

Those who witnessed these things were in a privileged position. The privilege included not just seeing Christ following and serving Him. We are privileged because through these accounts we can look back and see Jesus for who He is. God has revealed Jesus to us in scripture and we are blessed.

Conclusion:

Earlier I said there was application for the people then, pastors and missionaries, and also for everyday Christians. (which is most of Christians)

Pray for disciples who will make disciples.

2. Go and make disciples - not just for pastors… we, pastors and elders are to equip the saints for ministry. I’m the shepherd of the flock… I’m not supposed to be the only one gathering a flock together…

I think about things like this: We run about 50 people give or take on a Sunday. What if everyone here invited someone else to church? Now if they all show up it gets more crowded in here. That’s a great problem. But what if the 80 percent statistic is correct? That’s 30 people who would be here that might not be in attendance at a church right now, hearing the gospel. That’s great. We would need more coffee. We would all love that. But what if they came because instead of inviting them only, you also were talking about the gospel with them? Telling them the kingdom of God is at hand. This isn’t about growing this church body. It’s about seeing people know Jesus because this body of believers takes their calling to make disciples seriously.

3. If you know Jesus personally… if you have believed the Gospel that you’re a sinner and deserve God’s wrath but Jesus, God in the flesh, willingly died in your place on a cross and rose to life again three days later… then rejoice. No matter what happens when you’re out there ministering to others, whether they believe or whether they reject you, rejoice that your name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life! Nothing else really matters. So rejoice in Christ and tell people how they too can find this joy we have only in Jesus.