Get In Their Homes Series

Series: Aggressive Evangelism

Get In Their Home

Luke 10:5-7

Terisa Acevedo initially thought her year old dachshund had escaped the burning house and she spent the next week putting up signs around the neighborhood hoping someone had seen her. After a few weeks she as sadness settled in as she realized not only had the fire taken her home but also took her beloved 4 footed Lola. After almost a month she returned to the burnt house when she heard scratching behind the boarded up front door. Some friends helped her pull the boards off and through the opening jumped Lola into the arms of Terisa. It had been 27 days and the Lola was quite a bit skinner but alive and over the next week came back to full health. The vet who treated her said it was amazing that the dog survived that long, she had never seen anything like it. If Terisa had not returned to that home when she did the dog wouldn’t have been found.

Now I know you pet people like that story – the animal saved and survived, yeah okay so I guess it is a pretty good story. I think it probably is a great illustration of our modern world, people whose dreams have burned up and feel trapped and starved for life in the empty shell just waiting for some reason to go on and some hope that a door will be opened. At its core the message of Jesus Christ is this – one coming to save a world destined to be burned up. He claims that whoever gives their life to him will have streams of living water flowing in their soul, the kind of replenishing that keeps a person going when their body wants them to quit. That message is the one he came to preach and one we are told to aggressively pursue and proclaim.

We continue our study of the mission Jesus gave in Luke 10 – that mission to lay the ground work for him to appear and preach to the towns.

I. The Plan for the 72

What we choose to put in our homes says something about what we value, for the most vul

5 “When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ 6 If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; if not, it will return to you. 7 Stay in that house, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house.

A. Jesus took advantage of the culture to have his followers introduce him.

1. Common practice of the time this was written - strangers stay in the houses of people in the towns they visited. Now in the modern day this is almost unheard of – welcoming strangers into your home who have just gotten into town is not done and considered extremely foolish.

2. Part of this instruction seems completely foreign to us because the culture is that far removed. This form of hospitality seems strange to us but was perfectly normal for that day.

*There are some things we do as Americans which would be considered extremely dangerous and foreign to a lot of people around the world. No bars on our windows would appear very foolish to many cultures because it would be an open invitation for people to rob. I will occasionally see a store that places discounted items outside the doors of their establishment with the understanding that if you want to purchase them you pick them up and carry them inside to buy them. Now many of these places do not have video cameras or someone watching the products – it seems like those things would be simple to steal, but it is understood by the majority of people that the right thing to do is to pay for them. Things that seem strange to our way of thinking can be understood as important to the function of society.

3. Because of this general functionality of the Biblical culture, this allowed a different interaction than public discussion – a longer and more private opportunity was presented because of that culture.

B. Consider the obstacles which they had to overcome in their day.

1. Lack of the freedom of public speech – During Biblical times there wasn’t this concept of free speech as we know it; dire consequences followed those who said something controversy. Speaking out against you leaders was a death sentence. Even hints of something that might be seen as anti government or anti-establishment would have been frowned upon.

*Going out into the public square to teach could be dangerous, at one point in the book of Acts a man named Stephen is called before the leaders to speak about how they didn’t listen to Jesus when he said, Acts 7:52-53 Was there ever a prophet your fathers did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him— 53 you who have received the law that was put into effect through angels but have not obeyed it.” These pairs of men were not going to be welcome to speak in the normal gathering places – the synagogues so they had to go places where the give and take could be freely done. In the homes was a perfect place.