THE MISSION OF THE SEVENTY.
Luke 10:1-24.
LUKE 10:1. The first thing we might notice about the appointment of the seventy in this passage is that they were appointed by Jesus. It is hazardous for anybody to enter into ministry without the commissioning of Jesus. ‘How shall they preach unless they are sent?’ (cf. Romans 10:15). However, those who place themselves between a man and his calling should be careful that they do not find themselves fighting against the Lord.
Seventy is a number of completion, and thus anticipates the universality of the mission of Jesus. The seventy were sent forth two by two, “to the places where Jesus Himself would come.” There are times and opportunities for all nations to receive the gospel before Jesus comes back (cf. Matthew 24:14).
LUKE 10:2. They were sent forth with prayer. Jesus instructs us to pray that the Lord would raise up workers to assist in the ripe harvest field of the gospel. We should thus pray with an attitude of willingness to participate. ‘Here am I: send me’ (cf. Isaiah 6:8).
LUKE 10:3. They were sent forth with an awareness of the difficulty of the task. Nevertheless, when we go forth on Jesus’ instructions, He equips us for the task. ‘I will make you fishers of men’ (cf. Matthew 4:19). When we go to the places where Jesus Himself would come (cf. Luke 10:1), He comes with us (cf. Matthew 28:19-20).
LUKE 10:4. They were to go with urgency and singleness of purpose. They were to unburden themselves of worldly worries, for ‘the life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment’ (cf. Luke 12:23), and to trust God ‘and all these things’ would be added unto them (cf. Luke 12:31).
LUKE 10:5. They were to go with a message of peace. This message is universal (cf. Ephesians 2:17).
LUKE 10:6. However, there would be those who refuse it.
LUKE 10:7. They were to politely accept whatever hospitality they are given. “The labourer is worthy of his hire” is the only verse from the four Gospels which is quoted in the letters of the New Testament (cf. 1 Timothy 5:18).
LUKE 10:8. They were not to be fastidious about food laws and dietary requirements.
LUKE 10:9. The seventy were commissioned to heal the sick. The word which Luke uses on this occasion suggests therapeutic healing. Elders still have a part to play in praying for the sick, and this does include ‘salvation,’ the word for holistic healing more usually favoured by Luke (cf. James 5:14-15).
LUKE 10:10. If a whole city refused to receive Jesus’ messengers, as had just happened to Jesus in Samaria (cf. Luke 9:53), then they were to move on.
LUKE 10:11. They were to leave with a stern warning.
Saying, “Know this: the kingdom of God has come nigh to you,” may yet shame some into repentance.
LUKE 10:12. It is well that it is God who is the judge in such matters! But what a terrible thing it is to refuse the light of the gospel. Jesus’ solemn word is, “I say unto you:, that it shall be more tolerable in that day for the land of Sodom than for that city.”
LUKE 10:13-15. Jesus pronounced terrible ‘Woes’ against those cities which had witnessed His mighty deeds and yet remained unrepentant. It would be worse for them in the day of judgment than for Tyre and Sidon, and even than Sodom: because if those cities had witnessed what these cities witnessed, “they would have repented long ago,” said Jesus. What a terrible thing it is for us to sit under the ministry of the gospel and yet to remain untouched by it!
LUKE 10:16. Jesus concluded His instructions to the seventy with a Personal identification with their message, and with their persons. To hear the message of His faithful ministers is to hear Him. To refuse His servants is to refuse Jesus: and to refuse Jesus is to refuse God!
LUKE 10:17. The seventy returned with great joy and excitement. Even the devils were subject to them in Jesus’ name!
LUKE 10:18. Jesus recognises the danger that we might be in when we are thrilled with the first flush of success – I watch rugby football, and a team can be quite vulnerable immediately after they have scored. Jesus sees the bigger picture (cf. Isaiah 14:12-15; Ezekiel 28:14-18).
LUKE 10:19. Yet He does give His people power over the enemy (cf. Mark 16:17-18).
LUKE 10:20. We are warned, meantime, not to delight so much in our gifts and victories as to rejoice in the fact that our names are written in heaven!
LUKE 10:21. Jesus gave thanks to the Father. Jesus rejoices that God reveals Himself to “babes” - “for so it seemed good in Thy sight.” All the wisdom of the wise could not find God, but He reveals Himself to humble folks ‘in the face of Jesus Christ’ (cf. 2 Corinthians 4:6).
LUKE 10:22. What is exceptional is Jesus’ claim to a close and unique personal relationship with the Father. As we know from our other scriptures, ‘no-one comes to the Father but by Him’ (cf. John 14:6), and ‘there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved’ (cf. Acts 4:12).
LUKE 10:23-24. Jesus told His disciples, “Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see.” We cannot imagine what the Old Testament saints might have given to share in the privileges of those disciples, and what they saw and heard.
We too live in an age of great privilege, since the death and resurrection of Jesus has opened up hitherto hidden truths which are now accessible even to the merest ‘babe’ in Christ. ‘Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed’ (cf. John 20:29).
