JESUS SENDS OUT HIS WORKERS
July 23, 2006 - PENTECOST 7 - Luke 10:1-12; 16-20
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Dear Fellow-Redeemed and Saints in the Lord:
The Lord has called us, and that is why this morning and every Sunday we hear the address: Fellow-Redeemed and Saints in the Lord we rejoice. Today, we look at what that calling in our life means. There is quite a change, from darkness into light, from enemies of God to the children of God. Because we are called, we have a great and blessed opportunity to serve. Jesus talks not just about calling but sending out those who are called, those who know the difference between darkness and light, those who have been given eternal salvation--you, me and every believer--the responsibility that the Lord sends us out. Paul expresses this calling and service of believers in Romans when he asks the questions: "How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ’How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’" (Romans 10:2,3). Paul says that no one is going to believe unless they hear. No one will hear unless someone is sent to him or her. Faith comes by hearing. As believers we are sent unto the ends of the earth. Paul quotes Isaiah in saying even our feet are beautiful that bring the good news.
Today we look at these words in the gospel of Luke, chapter 10, which reminds us:
THE LORD SENDS OUT HIS WORKERS
I. Into his harvest fields.
II. With his powerful word.
I. THE LORD SENDS OUT WORKERS INTO HIS HARVEST FIELDS
Chapter nine ends up by saying that believers who follow the Lord are going to have to count the cost of following Jesus. There were many who came to him and said they would follow him but did not. Then Jesus says in chapter 10, verse 1: "After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go." Chapter nine ends up by saying there were many who came, but their heart was not in it. Chapter 10 begins by saying that it is the Lord who calls, and then the Lord appoints these men. The Lord is going to send them out two by two so they can have the encouragement of one another. Even though they are sent out in the name of the Lord, even though they are sent into a great harvest field, that doesn’t mean everyone is happy to see them.
The Lord says: "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few." They were going to be in the minority. Those believed in Christ at this time were in the minority. Those who recognized Jesus as the Son of God were in the minority. In our Gospel Lesson we heard how even in his own hometown, Jesus couldn’t do miracles there; because the unbelief was so great. In his hometown belief in Christ was in the minority. So what were they to do? The harvest field is great. Jesus wants them to realize that they aren’t on their own and says to them: "Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." The original has "beseech him" or pray. Jesus tells these men that amidst difficulties they can pray. When they don’t know who is going out into the harvest field, to pray for the workers. Jesus says, "Pray to the Lord of the harvest."
I am guessing they probably prayed right away. They prayed to the Lord, "Send out workers."
We hear in the next verse: "Go! I am sending you." They prayed for workers; and Jesus said to them, "You are my workers." Next Jesus describes the difficulties they are going to face. He says, "I am sending you out like lambs among wolves." This is a very fitting description of believers who go out in meekness and humility as lambs. Our world is filled with wolves waiting to devour and destroy those who are weak and humble. Yet, the task is great. He says the harvest field is large and is ready to be harvested. There is urgency. In verse 4: "Do not take a purse or bag of sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road." He says, "Go, I am sending you right now." They were not to go back and get all the things they would like to take along on the trip. They are not to waste time greeting people on the way. Jesus at once sent them to the towns and places where he would go. They were to prepare the way for him. We may recall John the Baptist who did the same thing. He didn’t preach himself, but preached the coming of Christ. These seventy-two were not to preach themselves, but preach that the kingdom of God is near.
We are going to look at that. He reminded them the harvest field was great, in the cities and towns that were all around. They were to prepare them for the coming of Jesus, the very Son of God.
Today, we would say the harvest is even greater, isn’t it? The Lord reminds us the harvest field is the world. In our modern times we have access to the ends of the earth, don’t we? Mass communication and satellites make it possible to see pictures of wars and bombings and people as they are killed on the other side of the world. So that harvest field is great. We might be tempted to throw up our hands in despair and say, "How can we, a small group, or I, just one person, expect to do this great harvest? What is the problem at harvest time even as we harvest? It is having enough workers, isn’t it? We have to have people help gather in the harvest. This is the same with God’s kingdom to have enough workers.
What does God say to us just as Jesus says to the seventy-two? Jesus says, "Ask the Lord of the harvest." The blessing that we ask and seek and knock is our Lord encourages us to ask, seek and knock; because he wants to hear our prayers. He encourages us because he is anxious to hear our prayers as we ask, seek and knock; and then our Lord is a loving God answers those prayers. In Jeremiah: "This is what the LORD says, he who made the earth, the LORD who formed it and established it--the LORD is his name. ’Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know’" (Jeremiah 33:2,3). He says to ask the Lord of the harvest, and we do, to send out workers and send others or ourselves out in our place to those different countries where we might not be so anxious to go ourselves. There is our calling, a call to serve in the fields white unto harvest.
People sitting in darkness, they are going to stay in the darkness and drag other people into the darkness. But you and I, as we hear time and again, sit in the light of the knowledge of the salvation of God. So the responsibility is ours. The harvest is out there. The world grows increasingly dark as we approach the last days and the end of time, but the light is not going to be extinguished. The church is not going to be erased and will stand even to the end of time. The gates of hell shall not prevail against God’s church. The joy that is ours is that the Lord sends us out. In Acts we read: "For this is what the Lord has commanded us: ’I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth’" (Acts 13:47). The end of the harvest is to the ends of the earth. The disciples, after Jesus’ ascension, started in Jerusalem, Galilee, and from there to the ends of the earth. Then he says the end will come. Today, we sometimes give up in despair as we are tempted.
What does the Lord say? The Christian is sent out as a lamb among wolves. Our world is probably much worse than during the time of Jesus. The world doesn’t look at you and I, as believers, as someone who is strong. They look at us just like he says--a lamb. We live lives in meekness and humility with loving service to God, a God the world does not always recognize, a God that the world does not always see. We know Christ because he is in our heart by grace, by God’s love. The world doesn’t care. The world probably would like a vengeful god, a mighty fighting god, a god who was going to bless them with everything on earth and not concerned about you and I. So the wolves are there. The world would just as soon consume and destroy anything that would threaten its darkness. We are reminded, today, that the Lord has called us, that the Lord sends us out, the Lord Almighty who created the heavens and the earth. No matter how the world might look at Christianity, no matter how the world might feel the Bible is old and outdated, it still is our source of eternal life. Paul says: "Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain" (1 Corinthians 15:58). Stand firm in your faith. That is the blessing that we have as we go into this world of wolves as a lamb. Those of us as believers who are meek and humble and gentle still can proclaim with boldness God’s message, because Christ is our Lamb of God.
Jesus sends out his workers, sends these workers and sends out workers today. He sends us out as workers into his harvest field. The blessing, the promise, the encouragement, the strengthening is the fact is that we go out with the powerful Word of God.
II. THE LORD SENDS OUT WORKERS WITH HIS POWERFUL WORD
It almost sounded like these men were going unprepared telling them: "Do not take your purse or bag or sandals; and don’t greet anyone on the way." Jesus wanted them to realize they had to go quickly. If you look at the end of chapter 9, those people found all kinds of excuses not to follow Jesus. Jesus gives them his powerful word: "When you enter a house, first say, ’Peace to this house.’ If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; if not, it will return to you." Remember Jesus after his resurrection and how the disciples were locked away in the upper room? What does Jesus do? He says: "My peace I give to you. I give to you as the world does not give." The disciples were comforted. Jesus says to use that same word, peace. If there is a man of peace in that house, he will welcome you. If not, the worst is if you say peace is unto this house and if they don’t want to hear it, that peace will come back and rest on you. Jesus says if you find a man of peace and he welcomes you, you can stay there and eat with them. "The worker deserves his wages."
There is more: "When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set before you." Remember, they would start by going into a house but also to prepare the town for Jesus’ coming. So they would stay; and he says, "Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ’The kingdom of God is near you.’" We can think of the physically sick but more importantly are the spiritually sick. They could proclaim to them, "Your sins are forgiven." Or in other words, "The kingdom of God is near you." How much better and far more important for people when their souls get healed. That was the power they had, the power as they came into a house and then into a city and they welcomed the people, and the people welcomed them when they said, "Your sins are forgiven. The kingdom of God is near you. You are healed."
What if they don’t welcome them? They go out and scrape the dust off. They say just about the same thing, don’t they? After they reject it, he says, "But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into the streets and say, ’Even the dust of your town that sticks to our feet we wipe off against you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God is near you.’" It is a little bit different. For those who are welcoming and blessed, called by grace to see God’s forgiveness, the apostles say to them, "The kingdom of God is near you." But those who reject them, they say, "The kingdom of God is near." These words left scoffers shaking in their boots and frightened that the kingdom of God is near. They are going to have to face judgment. He says, "I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town." There is a difference for those who receive them and those who reject.
It is not the messengers’ fault, is it? Verse 16 says, "He who listens to you listens to me; he who rejects you rejects me; but he who rejects me rejects him who sent me." So those who reject the message reject what Jesus has said. Those who reject Jesus, reject his Father in heaven. The end result: "The seventy-two returned with joy and said, ’Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.’" God’s Word was able to put the spirits in their place.
Jesus says, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you." We know there are those who take this so literally that they let snakes and scorpions bite them and expect God to take care of them. We are reminded that we are not to put our Lord God to the test. What do you think when you hear: "I have given you power over snakes and scorpions?" I think of that first serpent that is mentioned in Genesis--a snake, Satan himself, who tempted Adam and Eve. They had power and authority over the demons he says, over those who are angels or workers of Satan. One little but strong word can stop them – it is God’s powerful word of truth.
In the end what is the most important thing? Verse 20 is the key to understanding this for these believers and for us. He says, "Do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven." Jesus says: "Rejoice that you are called out of darkness into the light." That is the greatest rejoicing for them. The second reason to rejoice is that they are sent out to preach the word.
The word of God has great effect. Maybe we forget that rejoicing in our day-to-day living. That is a great blessing for us to not sit in darkness, to not give in to our desires and think the world revolves around us. "If I don’t get my way, I am going to sulk and be upset and angry with the world. Maybe I would even be angry with God." As believers, we wake up realizing today is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. As believers, we face each day realizing: "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast" (Ephesians 2:8,9). Faith is God’s gift free and eternal. It is God’s gift to us and to the world.
The Lord gives us the equipment to go into the harvest field--his powerful word. We remember from Ephesians 6 where it says, "The sword of the spirit, the Word of God, the breastplate of righteousness," the whole armor of God that is found here. Jesus gives all the answers for those who object to God’s grace and gives all the answers for those that reject God’s grace. The most powerful thing that we want to remember is that Jesus is with us and is in us. John 1:1,2 says: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning" (John 1:1,2). This is talking about Christ, the very word of God who came to life and now lives in us by faith. That is the power we have. Sure, we are like lambs among wolves; but we also have the power of Jesus, the Lamb of God, among wolves. Jesus sends out his workers. He sends out each one of us as his workers in our calling, in our life for those who sit in darkness that they might see eternal life. We have the best equipment that we have--God’s word, nothing more, nothing less. We have God’s promise if some reject God’s word, it is not a rejection of us, but of God’s word.
Jesus reminds us; too, that as that harvest is great, so is our responsibility. It reminds us that each day this world gets closer to the end of time. Each day we see the fulfillment of God’s promises. Each day we are reminded that as we take the word of God to the ends of the earth, he is going to come quickly. We pray that in the Lord’s Prayer, "Thy kingdom come." Jesus says in Matthew: "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come" (Matthew 24:14). We are getting closer. The word of God is almost to the ends of the earth. When it gets there, the Lord says he will return. Until that time, he sends us as his joyful workers, God’s people who know what is right and wrong, people who have once been in the darkness but are now in the light of the Lord, people who have been forgiven, people who have peace as Jesus says.
We don’t have to look very far around us today to see who people who don’t have peace, and don’t have joy. They have lost their reason for living. We don’t have to look very far to find the sadness and despair in this world. So it is all the more important for us, as believers, to be sent out as joyful workers. The fields are white unto harvest. That probably is the easiest thing and the most important thing we can do is to let our joy, our Christian faith is a shining light. The world is filled with darkness and heartache and sorrow, wars and terror, death and sadness. But there is great joy in being a Christian. Paul said it is in our weakness and difficulty that we are strong. We realize the Lord is our strength. Jesus sends us out as his workers with joy. Philippians says: "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near" (Philippians 4:4,5). We have to remind ourselves day after day because the Lord is near; the kingdom of God is near us. The unbelievers can be frightened that the Lord is near. What a blessing and a joy that the Lord sends us out as workers into his harvest field. What a joy and a privilege to know that we have been sent there with God’s powerful word. Amen. Pastor Timm O. Meyer
Sunday radio broadcast @ 9:05am on KQNK 106.7FM or 1530AM + www.kqnk.com
Pentecost 7 readings: EZEKIEL 1:1-5; 2 CORINTHIANS 12:7-10; MARK 6:1-6
