The Sending of the Seventy-Two

A while ago a book on evangelism came out How to share your faith without losing your friends. What’s good about that book is that it takes seriously our biggest fear about evangelism – which is that people will react negatively. What’s bad is the implication that there is a way of sharing our faith which runs no risk of negative reactions – which simply isn’t true. So I much prefer a more recent book entitled Evangelism made slightly less difficult. Because that’s far more realistic, because making Jesus known to others isn’t easy, and we need all the realistic encouragement we can get.

And that’s what we do get in this morning’s passage in our series in Luke’s Gospel. So, would you turn in the Bible to Luke chapter 10. And Luke 10.1 onwards is about an evangelistic mission that Jesus sent his disciples out on. Only Luke doesn’t actually describe the mission at all. He gives us Jesus’ pre-mission pep talk and post-mission de-brief, because those are full of wisdom and encouragement for evangelism straight from the Lord himself. So, if you are a Christian, there’s bound to be something here that you need to hear, or hear again, to encourage you in your evangelism. And if you wouldn’t yet call yourself a Christian, this part of the Bible will show you more of what you’d be letting yourself in for by becoming one – because being a Christian involves making Jesus known to others. So…

Firstly, THE WAY TO THINK ABOUT EVANGELISM (vv1-2)

After this the Lord [that is, Jesus] 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...” (10.1-2)

How do you think about evangelism? Most of us are tempted to think pessimistically – eg, to think, ‘People aren’t interested.’ Or, ‘People won’t want to come if I invite them to something.’ Or, ‘People will resent me raising my faith in conversation.’ And sometimes we think like that because the media is constantly telling us we’re now a secular nation. Sometimes we think like that because our last personal experience of evangelism was discouraging. And sometimes we think like that because we just feel such a weak minority. But how does Jesus tell us to think? Verse 2 again:

he said to them [and he says to us], “The harvest is plentiful.” (10.2)

And ‘the harvest’ is the number of people out there who are not Christians right now, but whom God intends to bring to faith in Jesus through us. And Jesus says, ‘That number is plentiful.’ So the first question this morning is: will we believe that? Will we live by sight and be pessimists and defeatists because of what we presently see around us (apathy, disinterest, media hostility, etc)? Or will we live by faith in this promise that the number of people God intends to bring to faith in Jesus through us is plentiful?

Now, in reply, I think we naturally want to say to the Lord, ‘Please could you reveal to us who these people are – so that we just talk to those who’ll be open and don’t run the risk of negative reactions? Please could you put a little arrow over their heads, or something to mark them out?’ But it doesn’t work like that. We’ll find out who those people are as we share the gospel with everyone we can – and some will reject (which is hard), but the ones God intends to bring to faith through us will accept.

So that’s the way to think about evangelism.

Second, OUR WORK IN EVANGELISM (vv2-9)

Look at v2 again:

And [Jesus] said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest.” (10.2)

Now who are the ‘labourers’? People like me in ordained ministry? People like the mission partners we support around the world? No. The labourers are simply all Christians. Because back in chapter 9, Jesus has already said that to follow him involves standing for him publically, making him known (see 9.23-27, 60). So to be a Christian is to be a labourer in evangelism (and if you’re thinking of becoming a Christian, you need to realise that).

So Jesus says, ‘If you’re looking at Tyneside and thinking, ‘How can so few of us reach so many of them?’, the answer is to pray regularly and seriously, that more of them would become Christians and therefore labourers in evangelism. So can I remind us that at the start of this year, David asked us to pray at least once a week that God would grow us to a church of 2,000 in the next 5 years.

So our first work in evangelism is to pray. And that’s because if someone is to become a Christian, their natural resistance to having Jesus as Lord has to be overcome – and only God by his Spirit can do that. We’ve got to realise that no-one out there is neutral towards God or naturally open towards him. By nature, every human being is saying to God, ‘I don’t want you to be God over me. I want to live my life my own way.’ That’s what I was saying before God overcame my resistance to him. And only God by his Spirit can overcome that resistance. So Carols by Candlelight, really good preaching, really well-packaged stuff like Christianity Explored, really good Christian books, really good arguments – none of those on their own can change people’s hearts. Only God can. He uses all those things I’ve just mentioned. But only he can make them fruitful.

So let’s learn the lesson – or re-learn the lesson – that our first work in evangelism is to pray. Before, during and after anything where you’re involved in sharing the gospel with others, pray for God to work by his Spirit – to make people willing to hear it and able to respond to it. And I for one am always rebuked by v2 because I don’t pray regularly and seriously enough about my evangelism. And yet I’m always struck that when I do try to, I get more opportunities and see more happening. Surprise, surprise.

On to v3:

Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. (10.3)

So Jesus says: there’s a harvest out there of people God intends to bring to faith in Jesus through us, but also a bunch of wolves – ie, plenty of people who don’t want to know about Jesus and who’ll give our evangelism the kind of reception a lamb can expect from a wolf. Ie, we are unavoidably going to get negative reactions. When Christians get on with evangelism, Christians get hurt. And the only way to avoid that is to pack in evangelism, which isn’t an option. So Jesus is being brutally realistic. But remember: he’s on his final journey to the cross here, so he can sympathise with fear of getting hurt.

On to v4:

Carry no money bag, no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road. (10.4)

Now that reminds us that this is a pep-talk for a very specific mission – namely pioneer, house-to-house evangelism in villages and towns where Jesus has never been heard of before. So we need to get underneath the specifics to general principles that apply to us. And one principle is: look for receptive people. Verse 5:

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 labourer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house. (10.5-7)

Now, ‘Peace be to this house’ was a mixture of greeting and prayer. It was really saying, ‘May God’s peace be known in this house.’ And it was a way of them being upfront about God and fishing for any openness that God might be creating. And it invited either an initial, ‘Come in – I’m curious, I’m open to what you stand for’ – or a, ‘No thanks.’

So Jesus is saying, ‘Look for the receptive people and feed their interest.’ So, eg, when I helped out in the very first days of our Globe cafe, I found that internationals would often ask, ‘Why do you run this?’ And I would say, ‘Well, partly because Jesus tells us to be hospitable, and partly because we hope to share with people what we believe about Jesus.’ So that’s being upfront and fishing for any openness God might be creating. And sometimes the international I was talking to would change the subject and we’d spend the rest of the evening talking about their home country or something. And that’s ‘No thanks – not tonight, anyway.’ But sometimes they’d say, ‘So what do you believe about Jesus?’ And we’d have a good conversation. And that’s the person I’d especially look out for to talk to the next week – because Jesus says: look for the receptive people and feed their interest.

On to v8:

Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you [which has the sense ‘eat whatever is set before you.’] (10.8)

Now that’s making a new point. Vv5-7 are saying look for receptive people. Verse 8 is saying: be flexible about everything where you can be flexible. Remember: Jesus’ first disciples were all Jews. And this mission was in an area of Israel which, in our terms, was quite secularised – quite conformed to the Greek/Roman world around. So to the disciples, many of these towns would have had quite an unJewish feel to them and they might well get non-kosher food served up to them. And Jesus says: eat whatever is set before you – because kosher food wasn’t a moral issue or an issue of the truth of the gospel; it was a temporary Old Testament (OT) badge of identity for Jews.

So the general principle is: to reach and relate to people as they are, where they are, be flexible about everything where you can be flexible ie, on everything that’s not a moral issue or an issue of the truth of the gospel. So, eg, plenty of people are into pub quizzes and having a drink who are not remotely into coming to church. So we flex in their direction and do our Sports Quizzes at St James’ Park. And to make real progress in our evangelism, we’ll need to come up with many more non-church-service ways forward than that. I think we have to admit that, at the moment, we’re not that flexible – although we’re making progress.

On to v9:

Heal the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ (10.9)

So the next general principle: tell people that Jesus is King and Saviour. Where do I get that from? Well, ‘the kingdom of God’ is basically how the Bible describes life beyond this life: it’s the perfect place where everyone recognises God as king – so there’s no sin and none of the consequences of sin. And Jesus says to these first disciples, ‘Tell people that the opportunity to be part of that kingdom has come near to them, because I, the king of that kingdom, have come near.’ And what he’d come near to do was to die for us on the cross and rise again, so that we could be forgiven for rejecting him as king, come back into relationship with him as king, and start learning to live for him as king in preparation for being with him finally in his heavenly kingdom.

And that’s the timeless, unchanging message we have to pass on – that Jesus is King and Saviour. Now the non-Christian media is using the homosexuality issue to say that the church must change its message to be relevant. But that’s just what you’d expect non-Christians to say. After all, by nature they don’t want God to be king over them and therefore don’t want to be told that Jesus came to reclaim their lives as their rightful king. So of course they’re going to encourage us to change the message in order to be relevant. It’s a clever tactic, but we mustn’t fall for it as a good number of our denominational leaders have done. Eg, the Bishop of Newcastle (so called) supports the homosexual gospel – ie, he is being flexible on the one thing you shouldn’t be flexible on – namely, the timeless,, unchanging gospel that Jesus is king and that as king he has the right to tell us how to live our lives, including our sex lives.

Now in v9, Jesus told them, ‘Heal the sick... and tell people I’m King and Saviour.’ Some people argue that healings like the ones we read about in the four Gospels should accompany our evangelism today. I haven’t got time to unpack why, but I’m convinced the rest of the New Testament (NT) doesn’t lead to that conclusion. But that’s a story for another time.

Third, THE BURDEN AND JOY OF EVANGELISM (vv10-20)

In my experience, there’s nothing better than the joy of having been involved, in some way, in a person being saved. But equally, there’s nothing harder than the burden of knowing that people around us – including people we love – are, unless their attitude to Jesus changes, heading for hell. And Jesus talks about that burden next. Look on to v10:

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.’ [Ie, even if you don’t believe the gospel, it’s still objectively true.] I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day [ie, the day of judgement] for Sodom [the notoriously godless city of Genesis 19] than for that town. “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! [Chorazin and Bethsaida were towns where Jesus had ministered. And in the Bible, ‘Woe to you’ is a cry of sorrow for others and real feeling for their plight.] For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon [other notoriously godless cities], they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more bearable in the judgement for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum [another town where Jesus stayed and ministered], 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.” (10.10-16)

And v16 sums up the burden of evangelism. The burden is that we know that if someone rejects our efforts to share the gospel with them, they’re actually rejecting Jesus and his Father, and that the stakes are their eternal destiny. I think that’s the hardest thing about being a Christian. And I think it’s the thing that most tempts us to wish Christianity wasn’t true.

But Jesus talks about the joy as well. Look on to v17. This is now after the mission, the post-mission debrief:

The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” [So Jesus had temporarily delegated his power to them and they’d seen people saved from the grip of demonic evil through their ministry.] And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. [Ie, ‘That’s what I’ve been seeing in the mission you’ve just been on: what’s just been happening through your ministry is that Satan has been being defeated and people have been being saved from his grip]. (10.10-18)

And whenever someone accepts Jesus as King and Saviour, fundamentally the same thing is happening. They have been saved from being on the side of Satan and part of the rebellion against God into which he’s plunged the human race, with all its present consequences of the power of evil over us and all its eternal consequences of the judgement of God against us. All that is what a person is saved from when they turn to Jesus – which is why the great preacher and evangelist Charles Spurgeon once said, ‘Lead a man to Christ and it will spoil for you all the other joys this world has to offer.’

And we must rejoice over each one who does accept Jesus as King and Saviour – because absolutely nothing greater could possibly happen to them. And we mustn’t be individualistic about this. You may not have seen someone you’re involved come to faith over the past year or years. Well, rejoice over those who have come to faith through others. Don’t ask the individualist’s question, ‘What fruit have I seen?’ Ask the corporate question, ‘What fruit have we seen?’

But look at v20:Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” (10.20)

Ie, don’t rejoice first and foremost in the ministry I’ve given you – but in the relationship I’ve given you with me, and the fact that you’ll one day be with me in heaven.’ Now over the years, I’ve often needed to tell myself to rejoice in my own salvation despite non-Christian family or friends seeming completely uninterested – ie, when evangelism seems to be going badly. But what’s striking here is that Jesus says you also need to do that when evangelism or other ministry is going really well. Because that’s when it’s easy for ministry to become more important to us than our relationship with Jesus – even to take on so much ministry that it damages our relationship with Jesus. But if we do that, and lose our personal joy in what Jesus has done for us, we’ll have nothing to pass on in ministry – and the first thing to suffer will be our evangelism.

Fourth, GOD’S WORK IN EVANGELISM (vv21-24)

Look on to v21:

In that same hour [Jesus] rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” (10.21-22)

So the Lord Jesus has already said that, in response to our evangelism, some will accept him and others reject him. And here he explains what lies behind those responses – and it’s the sovereignty of God, the truth that he chooses whom he’s going to bring into relationship with him, and when.

We have to remember, as I said earlier, that people are not neutral towards God. By nature, every human being is saying to God, ‘I don’t want you to be God over me.’ So when we tell people that Jesus is their rightful King and has come to reclaim their lives, they don’t want to hear that message – and in fact they’ll meet it with wilful deafness unless, as Jesus puts it, God chooses to ‘reveal’ himself to them. And he does that by working in our hearts by his Spirit to overcome our resistance to him.

And that brings us back full circle to where we began – namely, that our first work in evangelism is to pray – to ask God to do what only God can do. Because we can get the gospel as far as someone’s eardrums. But only God can take it into someone’s heart and help them realise who Jesus really is and move them to accept him.

So when we do see people accept him, we should praise God (as Jesus praises his Father here), because vv21 and 22 are saying that it’s his work that’s ultimately behind that. So if your friend, rather than someone else’s, comes to faith in the coming months, don’t pat yourself on the back for what was ultimately not your doing. And if your friend hasn’t yet come to faith in the coming months, accept that God works in the people he chooses, at the time he chooses. And remember: don’t ask the individualist’s question, ‘What fruit have I seen?’ Evangelism is a corporate business as we all work together, each playing the different part we can. And the question to ask is not, ‘What fruit have I seen?’, but, ‘What fruit have we seen?’