Christ is Life Podcast

If you have your Bibles or device with the Bible app, we are going to be in Luke chapter 10, starting in verse one. And it says, starting in verse one. After this, the Lord appointed 72 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, his harvest field. Go. I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. And do not take a purse or a bag or sandals and do not greet anyone on the road. We're gonna stop there for just a sec. See during Jesus's earthly ministry. The 12 Disciples were not Jesus's only followers. They were his inner circle. But by this text, we know that there were at least 72 other people who followed Jesus, and all of them were called by Jesus to prepare the way for his ministry. So I want you to notice it says 72 others. This implies that the 12 were called to pair up and be sent but so were the other 72 so the 12 plus 72 I'm not good at math, but you guys can put your calculators out and figure that out. Jesus sends out the 72 in pairs. See, this would have been a very common practice at the time, which offers all of the followers of Jesus who are being sent out mutual support for each other. It offered them community and safety while traveling. But there's also a deeper theological reason that we'll get to later on. But what does this mean for us? What is the significance of the 72 Well, today, we can look at the life of what the 72 did in this passage, and we can look at what believers are called to today, and we can recognize that the 72 is us today. We are called, just like the 72 are called to prepare the way for the good news of Jesus. If you follow Jesus, you are called to ministry Jesus was teaching these people to evangelize. Before his death and resurrection, they were to prepare the way for his entrance into this town so people would be willing to listen to his teaching and to witness his healings see before I entered ministry, I had this misconception about how the church functioned, I kind of split the church into two groups. There were the pastors and then there was the congregation. So those who were called to ministry and those who aren't. I made that distinction between pastors and congregation, because in my mind, the pastors were the ones who were equipped and called to share the gospel, and I was called to maybe invite people to church to hear the person share the Gospel. I'm not saying that's an ineffective way of evangelizing evangelizing, but what I am saying is that's only a small part of what we are called to do. As followers of Jesus. We are called to listen where we are being led and to share the gospel. It doesn't matter if you're part of the 12 or the 72 it doesn't matter if you're a pastor, if you're a missionary, or if you're just someone who sits in the pews on Sunday morning. If you are a follower of Jesus, you have been given a mission, which is to share the gospel that God
has called you to.
So Jesus calls the 72 to go to every city that he plans on visiting so that they can prepare a way for Jesus to visit. And this was extremely daunting. Jesus doesn't give them the exact words to say. Jesus literally pairs them up and sends them into the towns he's about to go to. Jesus even warns them that it might be dangerous. He sends them like lambs among wolves. Like this is not going to be easy for them, but he doesn't just send them out with nothing. Because what does it say? Well, it says in verse two, it says he told them the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. So ask the Lord of the harvest therefore to send out workers into his harvest field. The world around us is lost, and God sees it as a harvesting field. There are people ready to harvest and bring into God's fold, and we are called to be the ones who harvest to go out and labor so that their lives can be redeemed. There are multitudes of people around us that need to hear the good news of Jesus, but the emphasis is not on our work. See this verse highlights the fact that the harvest is not ours, it is God's. God is the Lord of the harvest. He provides our needs, which also means that he provides the workers. He calls the 72 to step out into faith and rely on God to provide for their needs. He tells them, do not bring. A purse, so don't bring money. Do not bring a bag. So no food or rations, not even an extra pair of sandals, just what you have with you. He calls them to not greet anyone, not to be rude, but because what God has called us to is so important that we don't have time to make small talk. This is an urgent work that we're called to when we step out into faith and we trust God to provide us what we need. He is faithful to provide it. So he calls the 72 to pray for more workers, and God provides, and we'll see that later. And this is how we see God provide for our needs. It says in verses five through seven, 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 guys. God chooses to use community to provide for the needs of his laborers. God meets the needs through other people who follow Jesus. Verse six refers to someone who promotes peace. This would have been referencing another follower of Jesus during this time, someone who promotes the peace of Jesus, someone who believes in what Jesus stood for and wanted to support his ministry. Now remember, this is pre death and resurrection. So this is just a small taste of the community that we have as believers and followers of Christ in the church today, but now, because of Jesus, through His cleansing of sin, and because of his death and resurrection and the indwelling Holy Spirit, we as the body of Christ can properly promote peace in a much more meaningful way, because the eternal peace that Jesus offers us lives in us and flows through us. And so in the same way that Jesus called the 72 to go and prepare the way for him, the same way the Holy Spirit will lead us to minister to a world that is dying around us. He will lead us to provide for the ministry in the areas that he called us to, and that starts with the local church. It calls for those who promote peace to provide for the laborers. But I want you to notice that the provision for the laborers is not a life of luxury. God's not calling the missionaries and the pastors to own private jets or mega mansions. But what is being said is that those who labor for the Kingdom have done their work, and they've earned their wages. They have earned through their work, sustenance. God has chosen to use community to provide for the needs of those called to his ministry, and this is what our students got to experience firsthand this week, we stayed at a church in Arlington called Parkview Baptist Church. Students. Was it a luxurious church? No, I heard a yes, you were a liar. No, it was not, but it met all of our needs. We had a full size kitchen. We were able to have meals prepared by a church member. There was enough space for everyone to sleep, there were bathrooms, and there it was only a very short commute away from places where we could shower and through the church, our meals were provided by a member of our own church who gave up their own a week of their own life so that our students could be fed while they're doing the good work of meeting needs and sharing the gospel to families who need it. But food's not free. Guys, as much as I wish I could walk into Walmart and take everything out with me, it's not free. So part of the food budget covered by the cost of the trip, but the other part was covered by the student ministry budget, which was only possible because our church has been faithful to give to the ministry that we participate in here at Colonial hills. So I want you guys to picture that beautiful image of the global church. This is a church that we have never met before. We have never and we probably never will meet that is allowing us to stay at their their place and how God has provided them, allowing us to live there for a week. A member of our church is giving up their time so that we can have food to sustain us through the week, and we're able to get there and pay for that food, because the church here used what God has blessed them with in order to send us so that people can. Be reached with the gospel. What an amazing picture of the church just in one week. Luke goes on in verse eight says, 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 wiped from our feet as a warning to you. Yet be sure of this, the kingdom of God has come near. I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town. So we'll walk through that. I want you to notice in verse nine, the main goal of Jesus' followers was to heal the sick, first, share the Gospel, second, to provide for the needs of the lost, first, and then tell them by whom their needs have been met. You. It so the people at Mission Arlington always say people aren't going to listen to you if they're hungry. Their whole mission model is to provide out of the abundance that they have over a long period of time, so that the loss will be receptive to the words that they have to say. I want you to put yourself in the shoes of the people that we'll reach for a moment. These are people living in low income apartment complexes. They are living in barely furnished apartments, three to four kids. They don't make enough money to make ends meet, and so they are doing whatever they can to get by. They struggle to make ends meet. They have children to feed. Why would they consider the existential importance of the gospel when they have real, physical needs right now that are distracting them from everything else? So this is exactly what our students did this week every morning for service projects, our students went door to door at these apartment complexes. They served, offered free food, offered free water, offered free clothing to people in need, so that when the afternoon came and they shared the gospel with these children and their teenage brothers and sisters and their parents,
they would be receptive
to what we had to say.
Okay, back to the passage. Jesus offers the 72 an alternative. Okay, so they step into these towns. They can either accept them, or they can reject them. And this is exactly how Jesus tells them to react to the towns that reject them. They would enter the town streets and proclaim to them the coming judgment they would face. See, this is the important of why the people were traveling in pairs. It was important to remember that Jesus was teaching under the Old Covenant. So there were laws that Israel had to to follow. And so during this time, the law required two witnesses in order to bring condemnation to a city. You can find that in Deuteronomy, chapter 19 and Numbers, chapter 35 so Jesus was sending these people out to proclaim the coming of the Kingdom of God. See, this is important for us to know as followers of Jesus because of the working of the Holy Spirit. Believers today are living in the kingdom of God. We have God Himself through the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. However, we are still called to proclaim the coming of the Kingdom of God, because it is not fully realized, because we know that Jesus will come back,
and he will have final judgment over sin.
And so what do we do in the meantime? Well, we do exactly what the 72 is doing. We step into this broken world, and we prepare the way for people to know
the gospel of Jesus.
And according to Jesus, the judgment that's going to come is going to be greater than the judgment that happened to Sodom,
because that is the weight of our sin. And
it Our God is perfectly just praise God. He is. He has all right to see sin and judge it for exactly what he says is worth judging.
This is the importance of
our calling as followers of Jesus, because God is perfectly just. He is completely within his right to judge sin, but he is also perfectly merciful, and has offered us a way out, one that completely satisfies his need for justice, while also. Giving us the
freedom from sin,
God has given us a way to escape this judgment, because he took on the weight of our sin and took it to the cross. The whole purpose of Jesus's ministry was to die for the punishment of our sins so that we could experience eternal life, and he offers that to all freely. Even more so than the 72 we have God dwelling in us, leading us to love people in this way. So just like the 72 was being led to prepare the way for Jesus, we have GOD HIMSELF DWELLING IN US, leading us to prepare the way for Jesus, and we saw that in the lives of our students this week.
But what happens if
they don't respond? Well, Jesus continues in verses 13 through 16. It says, Woe to you horizon, Woe to you. Bethsaida, for miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre or in Sidon. They would have been they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloths and ashes. But it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon than the judgment, than for you and you. Capernaum, will you be lifted to the heavens? No, you will go down to Hades. Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me, but whoever rejects me rejects him who sent me. So Jesus is saying, Woe to all these cities that he has already visited who rejected Him, wo meaning a deep compassionate sorrow. Jesus feels deeply sorrowful for the people who reject Him, but He recognizes that they made their choice, and these were the last words that Jesus told the 70 two before he sent them out, and his last words were an encouragement to them. Whoever listens to you listens to me, but whoever rejects you rejects him who sent me.
What a weight off of our chests.
When we share our faith with others, there are going to be people who reject you.
There are going to be people who belittle you,
people who mock you, who write you off as some kind of lunatic for believing in Jesus. But Jesus tells us that when those people reject us, they're not rejecting us, they're rejecting Him who lives in us. See, sin affects everything in this world. It affects everyone. Sin is the complete and total rejection of God. So when we share the gospel with people who are still dead in their sin, their sin might lead them to reject God, because that is all that sin knows how to do.
But often we take it personally.
We think that people are going to judge us and and look at us differently. So we we shy away from sharing the gospel or being open about our faith in our workplaces or at school or wherever God has us right now, but the truth of the matter is that if people reject us for believing in Jesus, they're not rejecting us, they're rejecting the God who lives in us.
Often, we worry that our lives will be more difficult. We worry that people are going to see us in a different light, but there is an unbreakable link between us and Jesus
when we fully live, trusting in the Holy Spirit,
what people see when they see us is the life of Jesus.
When they hear us, they hear Jesus.
Our lives are so intertwined with the God of creation that when we are rejected for sharing the gospel, they aren't rejecting us, they're rejecting the goodness of God. And what a weight that is off of our shoulders, that if we just live trusting that the Holy Spirit is leading us to share the gospel, all of the weight of the other people's decision is not on us, how good we can share the Gospel, how good we can communicate, how much needs we can meet.
It is all between them and God.
All we are called to do is to be faithful.
So Jesus sends them out, and there's a bit of a time skip between verses 16 and verse 17. And so verse 17 they return. Says the 72 returned with joy and said, Lord, even the demons submit to us in Your name, hallelujah. This mission that Jesus called them to was a success. And. It shows that the power of Jesus is greater than any demonic forces at work in the world. And the 72 were excited about that demonstration of power. See, we don't see exactly what the 72 saw, but we know that there were the casting out of demons. We know that people's needs were met. There was healing to be had, and so this was an exciting working of the power of the Spirit
in the name of Jesus.
And so what did Jesus respond to this excitement with? Well, he says, in Verse 18, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions, to overcome all of the power of the enemy Nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirit submit to you, but rejoice that your names are
written in heaven.
Jesus reminds the 72 exactly where the power they had came from. Jesus starts off saying he saw Satan fall like lightning. Jesus saw Satan fall. Jesus is the eternal God. He was there in the fall. He was there before it all. He was there always he is. He always has been and always will be. Jesus is the second person of the eternal, Triune God. He holds all power for all time, so the power and authority that he gave the 72 will overcome all enemies. Does this mean that the life of followers of Jesus is going to get easier? No sin is still a powerful, powerful force in our lives that we have to face for the rest of time on this side of eternity, but we know and can have full assurance that our victory over sin has been assured because Jesus is all powerful. But Jesus also makes an important distinction for the followers. He tells you, don't rejoice that evil submits to you. Rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven. In other words, the power that was given to these followers was not theirs, in the same way, the power that we have through the Holy Spirit is not ours. It comes from Jesus. So Jesus is telling them, don't get a big head over God using you rather. Rejoice because your name is written in heaven. Rejoice because God is using you to do his kingdom work.
Goes on to say in verse 21 at that time, Jesus, full of the joy through the Holy Spirit, said, I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise, and learn the wise and learned and reveal to them, to the little children, yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do. Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, praised his father for his good plans for the work that he did through the 72 now, when I was prepping for this lesson, this raised some questions for me, how could Jesus, who is God, be full of the Holy Spirit? Who also is God? Well, Jesus was 100% God. That is an undeniable fact. Jesus is God, but he is also 100% man. So when Jesus took on flesh, he did so to be the substitution for our sins, and in order for that to take place, Christ's obedience had to be real human obedience. Philippians, two tells us that Jesus set his divinity aside as if it were nothing in order for this to take place. And so all of the acts of God's power through Jesus were not immediately from Jesus's divine nature. Jesus was fully divine, but he was living fully in his human nature. And so the acts of power that we saw in the life and ministry of Jesus were there because the Holy Spirit was dwelling in Jesus. So this tells us two things. Tells us number one, that the Holy Spirit provides those whom He dwells in with the power to do ministry. And it tells us, number two, the Holy Spirit will lead those whom He dwells in to rejoice in the work that he's done. So what is Jesus rejoicing over that God has revealed Himself, not to the religious elite elites, what he calls the wise and learned and.
But to the lowly,
to those who need to hear it, he calls them little children. But in the context, Jesus isn't talking about actual children. They might be there, but that's not who he's referring to. Jesus is calling the lost little children. He Amen. When we think of little children, we think of small, precious, innocent things, people to protect, to rescue. And this is what Jesus sees the lost as is people to be protected, to be saved. How often do we see people who don't know Jesus as little children,
because Jesus sees them that way.
When we were lost
before we came to know Jesus to be saved from our sins. God saw us as precious and valuable and worthy to protect.
How do we see the lost
in our church, in our communities, in our cities? Jesus then goes on in verse 22 all things have been committed to me by my father. No one knows who the Son is, except for the Father, and no one knows who the father is except the Son, and to those whom the Son chooses to reveal him. And then he turned to his disciples and said, privately, Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see, but did not see it. And hear what you hear, but did not hear it. See Jesus tells us the only way to know the Father is through the Son. The disciples saw this. They were his inner circle. They saw His teachings. They heard his teachings. They understood this to a degree, maybe not to its fullest extent, but they saw Jesus, and they saw his heart for the lost. But how often do we consider ourselves more blessed than the 12 Disciples, because we like to look at the 12 disciples who walked alongside Jesus like man. I wish I could walk next to Jesus.
Guys. We can,
because of Jesus' death and resurrection, we are able to participate in his kingdom work alongside him. Jesus came, lived, died, and rose again, so that we could be indwelt by the Holy Spirit. We could have a complete and total union with God, more so than the disciples did, because the disciples were living in a time before Jesus' death and resurrection, their sins had not been paid for, yet they didn't have the Holy Spirit when they stepped away from Jesus, God was not with them. They were dead in their sin. How much more Blessed are we having the death and resurrection of Jesus wash us of our sins so that God Himself can dwell in us and guide us through his kingdom work.
How much more Blessed are we than the 12?
How but all of this would not be possible without the shedding of blood. Sin must be paid for, and Romans tells us that sin earns death. There's a reason that Jesus says, Woe to all these cities that reject Him, because sin leads to death.
God is just. He
will defeat Sin once and for all. Praise God. But if we are not covered in the blood of Jesus, and that includes us, but if you are a follower of Jesus in here today, we can praise Jesus all day long, because we know that our sin has been paid for at the cross. Jesus knew that sin leads to death, yet he went to the cross for the unworthy. He went to the cross because he loved them. He valued them, he cherished them, he saw them as little children. So instead of a traditional response, I want to call the deacons forward. We're going to enter into a time of the Lord's Supper.