11-12-2023 – “Seventy Sent Out: Part Two”
Bible Text: Luke 10:1-16 | Speaker: Pastor Mike Hale |
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November 12th, 2023
“Seventy Sent Out: Part Two”
Luke 10:1-16
Last week we began a study in Luke 10:1-2, where we find Jesus sending out 70 true believers and followers ahead of Him, that they might go into the villages and towns where Jesus will visit, in order to prepare the way for Him, to proclaim the message of salvation through Jesus Christ the Lord.
We saw this before, when Jesus sent out the Twelve. Luke 9:1-2, “and gave them power and authority over all the demons and to heal diseases. And He sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to perform healing.”
Their God-given authority to heal diseases and cast out demons marked them as having come from God with God’s authority, to proclaim the message of the gospel, first given by Jesus at the beginning of His ministry.
Mark 1:15, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” Then He said to Simon and Andrew (17-20).”’Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.’ Immediately they left their nets and followed Him. Going on a little farther, He saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who were also in the boat mending the nets. Immediately He called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, and [followed] Him.”
What a drastic difference in response we see in those first four believers and followers of Christ (Simon, Andrew James, and John), in comparison to the three “tentative” disciples we studied about last week in Luke 9:57-61, where one declared, “I will follow yYou wherever You go,” another said, “Lord let me first go and bury my father,” (in reality this man’s father was most likely still alive and well), and still another said, “I will follow You Lord; but first permit me” to go say good bye [to my friends and family]”.
There is no confirmation that any of these three ever returned to follow Jesus.
In Luke 10:1 Jesus sends out the 70 in pairs, saying to them (verses 3-11), “Go; behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. Carry no money belt, no bag, no shoes; and greet no one on the way. Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house.’ If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you. 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. Whatever city you enter and they receive you, eat what is set before you; and heal those in it who are sick, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But whatever city you enter and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say, ‘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.’”
Jesus, just months away from the cross in Jerusalem; has compassion for the lost, the unbelieving, and so He sends the 70 ahead of Him to the villages and towns that He will come to, in order to prepare the people so they might believe and receive Him as Savior when He comes.
The 70 sent out are true believers, they belong to the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God, along with all those who come to believe in Christ for the forgiveness of sin and eternal life. All those born of God, are equipped to proclaim the truth of God to those who have yet to believe.
Do you remember when we studied the story of the demoniac in the region of the Gerasenes (cf. Mark 5:1-7; Luke 8:26-39) who was indwelled by an unclean spirit that caused the man to live out among the tombs, naked and cutting himself with rocks, screaming uncontrollably? Jesus freed him from his bondage, and the man was then sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind.
When Jesus was getting ready to depart from that region, the man He had healed was begging Jesus to let him come also; but Jesus sent him away, saying, “‘Return to your house and describe what great things God has done for you.’ So he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him.” This healed demoniac had no knowledge of who Jesus was, but Jesus had healed Him; Jesus now sends the man home to tell his household and those in the city where he lived, what great things God had done for him though Christ.
Back to Luke 10:3…. These disciples are to “Go!” They aren’t to wait for unbelievers to come to them, but are to take the message of Christ to the world, “like lambs among wolves.” The world hates Christ, it also hates those who bring the message of salvation through Christ alone. Like lambs in a world of wolves, believers must trust in the Shepherd-Savior to protect and provide for them.
The 70 would face persecution, just as the Apostles, as far as we know, were martyred for the sake of Christ, all except John who was thought to have died on the island of Patmos, after receiving the Revelation of Jesus Christ.
See Luke 10:4…. The Lord did not want the 70 to take extra provisions, but instead to trust Him for supplying what they might need; just like Jesus had commanded the Twelve (Luke 9:3), “Take nothing for your journey, neither a staff, nor a bag, nor bread, nor money; and do not even have two tunics apiece,” (Mark 6:8-9), “He instructed them that they should take nothing for their journey, except a mere staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belt— but to wear sandals; and He added, ‘Do not put on two tunics.’”
Clearly the Twelve, when they were sent out, as are the Seventy who are now being sent out, to trust the Lord completely for all of their provisions and protection and even lodging, as they go out to proclaim salvation through Jesus, while also healing all those with illnesses or unclean spirits.
After Jesus sent out the Twelve and then the Seventy, the first time, He later reminded them of the protection and provision He had provided (Luke 22:35), “When I sent you out without money belt and bag and [extra] sandals, you did not lack anything, did you?” They said, “No, nothing.” But then Jesus added (verse 36), “But now, whoever has a money belt is to take it along, likewise also a bag, and whoever has no sword is to sell his coat and buy one.”
Notice again in Luke 10:4, “and greet no one on the way.” What is that about? There is no explanation given in the text, but we recall that in Luke 10:2, Jesus said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.”
I don’t believe Jesus is telling them not to give a greeting to anyone, but that they are to get to the villages quickly and must not to be deterred.
Back in Luke 10:3, Jesus had told them they were like lambs among wolves, i.e., prey among predators. The majority of people then, as the majority of people now, are not neutral, let alone friendly, toward Christ’s message that they need to repent and believe in Him. No doubt, some of those along the way may very well be adversaries of the Lord and of those who proclaim His message, so, Jesus is probably saying, get to where you will stay, and proclaim the message from there. There was no need to create opportunities for a confrontation leading to hostility or persecution from unbelievers because of unnecessary interactions with them.
See Luke 10:5-9… Jesus tells them to seek out a house where they will be accepted and to stay there until they are ready to leave that town or village. In other words, a house that accepts the message of Christ is where they are to camp out for a time; and while there they are to accept the provisions of that house and they are not to keep moving from house to house for a better situation or finer provisions. But there is more to it then that, Jesus is freeing the Seventy from the jewish dietary laws and customs, so that if they are staying in a Gentile’s home, they should eat and drink what is provided for them; for Jesus had already declared all foods to be clean and acceptable before God.
Mark 7:14-25, “He began saying to them, ‘Listen to Me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside the man which can defile him if it goes into him; but the things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man. [If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.’] When he had left the crowd and entered the house, His disciples questioned Him about the parable. And He said to them, ‘Are you so lacking in understanding also? Do you not understand that whatever goes into the man from outside cannot defile him, because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and is eliminated?” (Thus He declared all foods clean.). And He was saying, ‘That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.’”
Back to Luke 10:5-9…. Again in verse 6 we read, “If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you.” Simply put, the disciples would know whether or not their message was genuinely accepted, if it was rejected, they should move on.
But in the village where their message is accepted, they should heal those who are sick, and say to them the kingdom of God has come near in Jesus the Messiah-Savior-King, who has come into the world to save sinners.
See Luke 10:10-11…. Clearly the seventy would not be accepted in every village and town, even Jesus was previously rejected by a whole Samaritan village (Luke 9:52-53), “[Jesus] sent messengers on ahead of Him, and they went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make arrangements for Him. But [that village] did not receive Him,” [they rejected Him].
Jesus then tells the Seventy that if any house or town will not receive them, they are to shake the dust off their feet as a “testimony against” those who rejected them and their message.
The disciples were sent out to bring God’s message of reconciliation and healing to the lost unbelieving of society. For someone to reject them or their message, was the same as rejecting God.
The Jews had a practice, when returning to Israel from a Gentile country: they would shake the dust from their feet and sandals, so as not to bring pagan soil into Israel. By this same gesture, the followers of Christ were saying that any house or village that rejected them also rejected God’s salvation and remained condemned.
Turn to 1Peter 2:11-12; 3:14-16; 2Peter 3:3-7, 10-13… Until the Lord returns, we must urgently and compassionately share the Good News of salvation through Jesus Christ; for all who reject Him are condemned to an eternal hell. 2Corinthians 5:17-21, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
Like the Twelve and the Seventy, we too are to be going, telling unbelievers about God’s Son, so that they might believe in Him and be saved (Matthew 28:19-20), “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe [obey] all that I commanded you,” (John 3:36), “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, [for] the wrath of God [remains] on him,” (1John 5:11-13), “And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life,” (Matthew 11:28), “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest,” (Romans 10:13-15), “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord [for the forgiveness of sin] will be saved. How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a [someone telling them]? How will they [tell them] unless they are sent? Just as it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things!’” 17, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.”
Pastor Mike Hale
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