The King Comes
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The Book of Concord Article XII: Repentance
[39] The power of the keys administers and offers the gospel through absolution, which is the true voice of the gospel. Thus, we also include absolution when we talk about faith, because “faith comes from what is heard,” as Paul says [Rom. 10:17*]. For when the gospel is heard, when absolution is heard, the conscience is uplifted and receives consolation. [40] Because God truly makes alive through the Word, the keys truly forgive sins before God according to [Luke 10:16*], “Whoever listens to you listens to me.” Therefore we must believe the voice of the one absolving no less than we would believe a voice from heaven.
Blessed Lord, You have caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning. Grant that we may so hear them, read, mark, learn, and take them to heart that, by the patience and comfort of Your holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life. … through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.
Surrounded by the failures of politics, education, and economics to bring us to a utopian state of mind and community, our neighbors look at the Church as the only entity within our community that claims that God still cares and acts on behalf of humanity, especially when people pray and seek His face.
Therefore, rather than castigating each other for what we don’t have or haven’t accomplished, we should ask Him to supply us with more workers to help, as our Lord directed in this text.
To do that, of course, you have to believe what God’s Word says about prayer:
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.
It’s easy to talk about what’s wrong; so much harder to do what’s right. It’s the sin within that makes it that way. If you are a descendant of Adam, you carry within you the effects of the Fall. Adam sinned, by not believing God’s Word in the face of temptation, and His children have done no better, “for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23).
In our Gospel text, Jesus is a man on a mission. According to our reading from last Sunday, He is setting His face to go to Jerusalem, “the city of the Great King” (Matt 5:35). He is going to accomplish His “exodus.” He is going to fulfill the prophetic Word spoken in the Garden, and born witness to by the generations of those who presented the blood of bulls and goats, sheep and pigeons, that were offered under the Law. He is going to fulfill what John the Baptist declared concerning Him: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (Jn 1:29).
As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” He said to another man, “Follow me.” But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.” Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”
Now is not the time for people who only “talk about it.” He doesn’t need people who will theorize and philosophize about the Kingdom of God. He isn’t looking for “volunteers,” but for messengers - messengers who will represent Him without doubt, without question. So He turns away those who offer themselves, why say that they “will follow,” regardless of their profession of loyalty, and sends those who hear His Word and do follow.
Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road.
The important thing for these 72 messengers is the message. They are not to be concerned with longevity - as the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said in a famous sermon, “longevity has its place,” - but this is neither the time nor the place to be worried about longevity. They won’t need travel gear or a big sack of money or spare sandals because they are there for representation, not recreation.
To the people to whom Jesus is sending these messengers, they are the advance elements of the King. They come to prepare the people for His presence. They confirm it with tokens of His authority:
“When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them; if not, it will return to you. Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house. “When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is offered to you. Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town we wipe from our feet as a warning to you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God has come near.’
They are there to show that the Kingdom of God has come near - not “shall,” but “has.” They come in peace, not to profit. They come to serve, not to plunder. They come in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
“Whoever listens to you listens to me; whoever rejects you rejects me; but whoever rejects me rejects him who sent me.”
They do not come in their own authority, or by their own power. Their reputations are not on the line. They bear the marks of the Lord Jesus.
So what happens to these messengers?
The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”
Joy is a fruit of the Spirit, along with love, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal 5:22-23). Joy is also a feeling, an affection, a motivation that, like the others, is the evidence that God is working in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. The fruit of the Spirit is the outworking of His presence in your life. It exists in contrast to the works of the flesh, because unlike them, it cannot be produced by you in your own strength. It can only come to you as a gift from God.
They came with joy because they recognized that what happened with them was not due to them, but to Jesus. “In Your name,” they confessed, not in their wisdom or skill, but “in Your name” they saw spiritual gifts displayed, they saw the authority of Hell broken, they saw the presence of the Kingdom.
He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
For Jesus, their experience was good, but even more important for them was their knowing of their relationship with Him. They would not always cast out demons, they would not always heal the sick, but they would always be His. Whether the ministry is pulsing with activity, or seemingly passive, waiting for the Spirit to lead into the next ministry opportunity, they are His people.
Today, people think that they can organize, publicize, and politicize the coming of the Kingdom, just like those who were not Jesus’ disciples thought then. Just as the works of the flesh will not produce the fruit of the Spirit, so the ways of the world will not bring about the Kingdom of God. God’s Kingdom comes God’s way, announced with God’s Word, and confirmed by God’s presence, whether in the person of His Dear Son, or in the Body of Christ, the Bride that says, with the Spirit, “Come.”
The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.
Christ came to us, so that we could have fellowship with Him. He died for us, and rose again, so that we could live in Him, die to sin, and walk in newness of life through the Holy Spirit. Now, through the Holy Spirit, He pours out His power and promise through His Church, to a world that needs it more than they can ever know. There is no alternative to God’s plan. Jesus did not stutter:
“Whoever listens to you listens to me; whoever rejects you rejects me; but whoever rejects me rejects him who sent me.”
As the Mission of God continues, until He returns, the Confessional Evangelical Church of Jesus Christ will be here, in the power of the Holy Spirit, to bear witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to the praise of His glorious grace.
So let the peace of God, that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.