Ministry – Luke 10:1-20

There are those who say that evangelistic outreach in unevangelized areas requires finding the “person of peace” or the person of influence, and that it is critical to successfully evangelizing the community.  This person becomes the entrance into the hearts and minds of his or her community.  There are others who don’t believe this is a requirement at all, and certainly not in every situation.  I would say that I would have to agree with the latter.  I mean, if we are taking Jesus’ instructions to his disciples as requirements for our evangelism, shouldn’t we also keep the principles of carrying no money, changes of clothes, and social distancing?

After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go. And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. Carry no moneybag, no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house!’ And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him. But if not, it will return to you. And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you. Heal the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near.’ I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.

   “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more bearable in the judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You shall be brought down to Hades.

   “The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me.”

   The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”  (Luke 10:1-20 ESV)

As he sent the 12 before, now Jesus sends 72 of his disciples to prepare the way for his coming to each town.  Again they are to take no extra provisions or stop along the way to greet people but are to be fixed on their mission and dependent on the gifts of those they minister to.  They are to look for someone who is receptive to them and stay with that family, two of them together, so that they meet the biblical requirement for 2or 3 witnesses to the truth and for support of each other and accountability.

If a town receives them the peace they proclaim about the nearness of the kingdom will abide on that place.  But if the village does not receive them they must publicly pronounce God’s judgment on it.  Jesus explains that such a great witness and the nearness of the kingdom makes their judgment more severe than towns like Sodom and Gomorrah, which had a lesser witness and would have repented at this witness.  To receive the disciples is to receive Jesus and to reject them is to reject him.

The disciples return with great joy at the power of the kingdom’s deliverance.  Jesus acknowledges that he saw Satan’s defeat as they ministered, but warns them not to take their greatest joy from experiencing the power of the kingdom but from their place in the kingdom as saved ones.

We too have Jesus’ authority to proclaim the kingdom and its King, the same need for a strategy and accountability, and the same temptation to care more about the results of our ministry than about our relationship to God.