Luke 10:1-16 Notes

NOTES

OUTLINE

The ESV Study Bible Chapter 10

10:1–24 The Mission of the Seventy-two. Having sent out the Twelve (9:1–6), Jesus now sends 72 of his disciples on a mission of healing and gospel proclamation.

10:1 seventy-two. Many very old and reliable Greek manuscripts have “seventy-two” here and in v. 17, while many other old and reliable manuscripts have “seventy,” and all interpreters agree that it is difficult to decide about which number was in the original of Luke’s Gospel. Most modern translations have decided in favor of “seventy-two,” based on basic principles for determining manuscript readings. In any case, no doctrinal issue is at stake, and the number probably has symbolic significance representing the number of nations in the world (cf. Genesis 10). Sending them out two-by-two fulfills the OT requirement for two witnesses (Deut. 17:6; 19:15).

MacArthur Study Bible NASB Commentary

Moses also appointed 70 elders as his representatives (Nu 11:16, 24–26).

Although there were two who remained in the camp.

Luke: An Introduction and Commentary 1. The Mission and the Message (10:1–12)

(Num. 11:16f., 24f.; seventy-two with the two who remained in the camp).

Luke: An Introduction and Commentary 1. The Mission and the Message (10:1–12)

Others think of the seventy members of the Sanhedrin, the religious leaders who should have been preparing for the coming of the Messiah.

MAJOR IDEAS

Instructions When Sent - 70 others are appointed to go as the Apostles previously had - They are appointed, sent in pairs as as witnesses to every place He would go on His way to the cross - They are told that many are ready to hear and believe, so even as they are sent, they must pray for more to be sent - They are told to go as lambs fed to wolves; there’s is the way of sacrifice; people will be cruel and murderous, but they are to lay down their lives if necessary - They are told to carry no money, bag, or shoes; they must trust in God to provide through those who receive them - They are to greet no one on the way; they are not to be uncharitable, but are to remain focused -

1 Now after this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them in pairs ahead of Him to every city and place where He Himself was going to come.

1 Now after this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them in pairs ahead of Him to every city and place where He Himself was going to come.

2 And He was saying to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.

3 “Go; behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves.

3 “Go; behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves.

4 “Carry no money belt, no bag, no shoes; and greet no one on the way.

MacArthur Study Bible NASB Commentary

greet no one. A greeting in that culture was an elaborate ceremony, involving many formalities, perhaps even a meal, and long delays (see note on 11:43). A person on an extremely urgent mission could be excused from such formalities without being thought rude.

[Illus] Instructions can be easy to follow or hard. Some ignore instructions. Others obsess over them. Some instructions are important. Others are silly.

I purchased a Slinky once and was surprised to find instructions on the side of the box. There were instructions for walking the Slinky down the stairs, rolling it from hand to the other, and bouncing it up and down in your hand.

I remember reading those instructions and thinking, “Who needs these?” Then I thought about the first person to ever call the Slinky company and say, “Um, yes. I recently purchased a Slinky and I was wondering if you could give some instruction on using it.” I imagine when the person at the Slinky company hung up, they thought to themselves, “We’ll, that was weird.” But then people kept calling and calling, until someone says, “Maybe we should just put instructions on the box.”

Jesus knows that we can’t live sent out unless we depend on His instructions. No one had to call and ask for them; He has readily provided them for us here in this passage. Let’s apply a few of the instructions that Jesus gave her to our own lives as we live sent out.

[App] Possible points of application:

Possible points of application:

As Christians, wherever we go, He goes. And we go there to make Him known. Whether we go for vacation, for family, or for work, we go to make Him known.

We never know when the harvest might be plentiful, so we must always be sowing seed. Wherever we go there might be many who are ready to hear and believe, but how will they believe if they don’t hear? And how will they hear if we don’t tell them?

We need to pray that more of us would find the bravery to speak about Jesus without neighbors, friends, family members, and coworkers. If Christianity dies in America, let it not be because we chose not to speak of the new life found in Jesus Christ.

Instructions general -

4 “Carry no money belt, no bag, no shoes; and greet no one on the way.

5 “Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house.’

6 “If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you.

Possible points of application:

Our way is the way of sacrifice. Like Paul said, for his sake, we are sent out as sheep to be slaughtered. This we should delight in so long as He is glorified in the hearts of those yet to know Him.

There are wolves. We lambs must be discerning, but we will not avoid them. They must be exposed, confronted, corrected, and prayed for. They will prey on us. We must pray for them.

As we go, we must trust God to provide. If we need material things, we must trust Him. If we need spiritual things (e.g., compassion, wisdom), we must trust Him. When it comes to telling others about Christ, we are most often in need of verbal things, and for that too we must trust Him. We are not to worry about what we will say. The Spirit will give us the words.

We are to remain focused on living as one sent out. There are many distractions in this world, not all of them necessarily sinful. However, anything that distracts us from making Him known is just that, a distraction. Not always, but sometimes that distraction is named fellowship. Other times it is named me-time. Sometimes it’s called family-time. Let us examine our lives and weed out those distractions that keep us from being focused on the mission we’ve been given.

Instructions When Received - Those sent come in peace - If they are received peacefully, they are to stay - They to eat and drink whatever is provided because they need sustenance and deserve it for their work just as anyone does - In the command to eat and drink “what they give you” there is also a warning against greed and instruction in gratefulness; They are not to move from house to house looking for better food, better drink, or more money; if they are received, they are to receive what is offered to them - in those places that receive them, they are to heal the sick and proclaim nearness of the Kingdom in person of Jesus Christ; their healing of the sick would demonstrate the power and validity of the One they proclaimed

5 “Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house.’

6 “If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you.

7 “Stay in that house, eating and drinking what they give you; for the laborer is worthy of his wages. Do not keep moving from house to house.

8 “Whatever city you enter and they receive you, eat what is set before you;

9 and heal those in it who are sick, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’

[Illus] It’s a great feeling when you feel welcomed. It’s an especially great feeling when as you are telling others about Jesus you feel welcomed. To tell someone about Jesus already makes you kind of nervous, so when that person you’re sharing with makes you welcome, it helps to ease your nerves, but more importantly it helps to open their ears.

One time many years ago Neil Burtt and I were going around knocking on doors, asking people how we might pray for them, and trying to share Christ with them. That can be a bit of an experience because you never know what’s on the other side of the door.

I remember one house in particular. Neil and I stood there having knocked on the door. The door swung open, the TV was blaring, a kid or two buzzing around, a man on the couch not even turning to see who might be knocking unannounced in the middle of the day. The woman who opened the door said, “Can I help you?” We said that we were from Emmanuel Baptist Church that we were praying for her street and wanted to know if there were any specific prayer requests they might have.

Immediately she said, “Oh. Come on in. Honey, turn the TV off. These people are here to pray for us.” She mentioned some things that we might pray for, so we did. We shared the Gospel and were on our way.

But we were no longer nervous once she welcomed us. (At least I wasn’t. Neil’s always kind of skittish.)

[App] Think about how Jesus’ instructions when received might apply to us.

Possible points of application:

We are sent in peace as peacemakers. Jesus has made peace between us and God by means of His cross. New life in Christ reconciles all people to one another. Our Lord is known as the Prince of Peace. We are sent in peace to be peacemakers, to be reconcilers between God and man as we spread the Gospel.

We should pray that we and the Savior we proclaim would be received with peace.

As we spread the Gospel, let us look for those willing to receive us, those willing to peacefully talk with us about Jesus. Let us keep talking to them so long as they are willing to talk.

Let us receive whatever hospitality they offer to us. If food, food. If drink, drink. Beware of denying someone the blessing of giving to you when God is using you to offer new life to them.

Beware of greed. Don’t aim to give the Gospel to only those who can give you material gain.

Beware of insulting your host by denying their hospitality.

Beware of

Be grateful for what you are offered to sustain you as you are sent out. It is from God.

We should do physical good when it is good to do so. It’s good to do so when it truly helps (rather than enables) an individual and when it brings glory to Jesus. We must be intentional about doing good in Jesus Name, because of what Jesus has done for us.

We must remember that the good we do, though genuinely a blessing in itself, is secondary to the primary blessing of telling seeing someone come to faith in Jesus.

Instructions When Rejected - Those sent won’t always be received; Some will be rejected - If rejected, they are to openly proclaim judgment against them; In the proclamation and person of Jesus, the Kingdom of God came near, and those who rejected it (Him!) would be judged - The judgment would be worse than could be fathomed, worse than that which fell on Sodom, which was consumed by God’s burning anger - Some places had already rejected Jesus; places like Chorazin, Bethsaida, Capernaum; Those places had seen miracles that would’ve made Gentile cities like Tyre and Sidon repent and believe; Instead it would be better at judgment for the inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon than for these inhabitants of cities that received so much attention from Jesus - To their shock, cities like Capernaum, which perhaps thought itself favored as the base of Jesus’ ministry, will find themselves cast down to Hades (i.e., Hell)

10 “But whatever city you enter and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say,

11 ‘Even the dust of your city which clings to our feet we wipe off in protest against you; yet be sure of this, that the kingdom of God has come near.’

12 “I say to you, it will be more tolerable in that day for Sodom than for that city.

13 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles had been performed in Tyre and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago, sitting in csackcloth and ashes.

14 “But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the judgment than for you.

15 “And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will be brought down to Hades!

[Illus] Being rejected is awful. As Christians sent out to name the Name of Christ, we must never be rejected because of combative demeanor or antagonistic tone. If we are to be rejected, let us be rejected for the Gospel we preach, the Jesus we declare.

Think of Stephen in the book of Acts. He was serving widows when the opportunity to preach the Gospel came. He pulled no punches but it wasn’t Stephen that offended. It was the truth that offended. They were sinners that had rejected the Savior by crucifying Jesus and denying the resurrected Jesus.

They stoned Stephen, sending him on to Heaven. They rejected Stephen but not because of Stephen. They rejected Stephen because of the Jesus he preached.

[App] Let’s see how we might apply what Jesus says in this section to ourselves.

Possible points of application:

If people will not receive the peace Jesus offers, they must be warned of the judgment He promises. This warning is a further, firm, and possibly final call to repentance. We should not be afraid to warn them.

We should remember that there is judgment for rejecting Jesus; a price to pay for rejecting Him; a price to pay that reaches beyond this life; a price that will drag us down to Hades.

We cannot imagine how sever judgement will be for those who reject Jesus. If the biblical descriptions of Heaven, struggle to capture its magnificence, then the biblical descriptions of Hell struggle to capture its horror.

Some will be shocked to find themselves brought down to Hades because they consider themselves more highly than they ought. This includes all those who think there is some other way to God other than Jesus. It includes those who think they can have Jesus without actually following Jesus. Many will say to Him on that day, “Lord, Lord,” but He will say to them, “Away from Me; I never knew you.” What will He say to us? Do we know Him? Or do we merely claim to know Him? Do we follow Him? Or do we merely claim to follow Him?

The end of the matter; conclusion - Those who receive the sent, receive Jesus; Those who reject the sent, reject Jesus - Those who reject Jesus, reject God the Father who sent Jesus as our Savior

16 “The one who listens to you listens to Me, and the one who rejects you rejects Me; and he who rejects Me rejects the One who sent Me.”

[Illus] Jesus is so intimately connected to His people that to receive them to receive Him and to rejected them is to reject Him.

In the NT Jesus is bridegroom and the Church is the Bride of Christ. Every loving husband would consider the rejection of his wife as a rejection of him. That’s how Jesus feels about the church.

Think of Paul on the road to Damascus. At that time Paul was a persecutor of Christians still breathing out murderous threats against God’s people. His name, however, was written down in the Lamb’s book of life, and Jesus would have Paul for His glory. It blinding light Jesus appeared and said to Paul, “…why are you persecuting me?” Paul didn’t nail Jesus to the cross; didn’t spit at or mock Him as hung there for our sins, but Paul did stand by and watch as Stephen was murdered.

What was done to Stephen, was done to Jesus.

To persecute the Christian is tantamount to persecuting Jesus.

To reject the Christian message of salvation in the Name of Jesus alone is to reject Jesus.

And to reject Jesus is to reject God, which is to reject any hope of salvation.

[App] See how this applies to us.

Possible points of application:

Let us listen to ones that proclaim Jesus according to His Word.

Let us not reject those who tell us the truth about Jesus. If we reject their message, we reject Jesus. If we reject Jesus, we reject the Father. In other words, if we reject the truth about Jesus, we have no salvation.

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), .