Luke 10:1-24

Hey, thanks for tuning in to the Haven City Church Podcast.

My name is Josh Travansky.

I'm the pastor of Haven City Church.

The following sermon was recorded on June 3rd, and the text that we're looking at is Luke 10, 1 through 24.

There's a lot of information about the church if you go to our website, www.baltimorechurch.com.

You can also find out information about us on social media by searching for Haven City Church.

We meet in Fells Point at 710 South Ann Street at 10 a.m.

every Sunday morning.

We'd love to have you join us in the future.

God bless.

This whole section is this section about discipleship.

So if you missed last week, go on the website and look at what you missed.

Really important things, talking about commitment and priorities.

This week, the whole emphasis is on this idea of mission.

Right?

You see the story here.

Jesus is sending his 72 out.

We already saw that Jesus back in chapter 9, he sent out the 12 to these different towns with very similar instructions.

That was Luke 9, 1 through 6.

And the same material is found in Mark 6.

Well, actually, before we get into the same material, the 10 chapters that we're in is going to cover this stuff.

And I want to keep going over this with you guys for the next couple weeks so that there's a sense of anticipation, right?

That just stick through this stuff.

Because we're going to talk about the kingdom of God, the reign of God, nature, cost, mission, and rewards of discipleship.

So what does it mean to be a disciple?

The necessity of prayer, the need for repentance, the nature of faith, the proper use of material possessions.

All these great lessons are contained in the next 10 chapters.

So I'm excited to go through this section with you guys.

And I hope that you'll stick it out.

We'll be covering these things up through October.

Now, let's talk about the mission of God.

The material here is similar to Mark 6 through 7, which is one of the other gospel stories.

There it says calling the twelve to him, he began to send them out two by two.

And then also over in Matthew verses 9, 37 through 8.

Then he said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.

Same material, right?

We already saw this kind of language in the text that we're looking at in Luke chapter 10.

Luke 10 · chapter mention

So here's what's going on.

Jesus is now taking and moving from the 12 to the 72.

So who are the 72?

Well, I don't know.

There's 60 others than the ones that Jesus has already sent out.

He Jesus had many followers that were tagging along.

I mean, he had 5,000 men that he had just fed, men, women, and children, in a chapter earlier.

So Jesus has a lot of followers.

On the day of Pentecost, after Jesus is raised from the dead, he has 120 that are praying together in an upper room.

So who these 72 are, I don't know.

But they are ready, evidently, for Jesus to send them out into these other towns and to begin to do two things.

What are they doing?

They're healing people, they're doing these miraculous works, right?

And they are also saying this the kingdom of heaven is come near.

Now, I'm sure their sermon, their message may have been more lengthy and extensive than that.

But the idea is that there's this kingdom that exists, God's kingdom, the reign of God, that it has come into close proximity to your life.

When we give our life, when we believe in Jesus, one of the metaphors that's used is that we go from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light.

We step into a new kingdom.

So you and I, those of us that have believed in Jesus and we've given him our life, we live as members of the kingdom of God.

And these disciples were coming into new towns along this path, and they were saying, The kingdom of heaven is drawing near.

The kingdom of heaven is at hand, it's close by.

All of this was preparing the way for Jesus to come in and to be really the representative of that kingdom.

There's a couple of things that I just want to bring to the surface here as observations.

You know that when we're studying the Bible, we're always looking for the gold nuggets that are on the surface, right?

What are the obvious things?

So as we're going through here, there's actually notes you can fill in the blank, and I'm going to give you the answers to some of these questions.

But this first one is that God uses human instruments to accomplish his work.

Just because Jesus was about to go to these cities does not mean that there wasn't a place for the mission of these 70.

The mission wasn't just about the 12, it was also for these other 72.

So this first idea is that God, in accomplishing his work, he uses human instruments.

Imagine when God created the world.

God could have just automated everything.

He could have created the world with robots, right?

Or he could have made the angels just show up all the time and feed us and do the work.

But instead, the way that God created the world to work is humans are engaged actively.

And so here, when it comes to this whole grand work of salvation, of proclaiming the kingdom of God, he uses 72 others to proclaim the message.

So he's using human instruments.

That's really important because it's easy to just kind of detach ourselves from the work of God.

It's easy to kind of just do our life and wonder, like, what does God want?

How does he want to use me?

But the message of the Bible is no, God has a plan and a purpose for your life that you fit intentionally within his plan.

He wants to use you.

Right?

The only thing that gets in the way of that plan is us and our stubbornness and our sin and our rebellion.

But God wants to use you.

He wants you to be involved in what's going on.

The second thing here is this idea of the abundant.

The harvest is abundant.

Right?

He says to these apostles, he says that the harvest is great, but the workers, the laborers are few.

Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest that he will send forth, literally, throw out, throw into the harvest these workers, is the language there.

The mission of God is carried out, or this is the second the third thing.

So the harvest is abundant.

What does this mean?

I don't know.

I don't know what this necessarily looks like as we go, because like here we are, here we are in a city, and actually in a part, we're actually in a part of Baltimore whose desire for God is like epically low.

Right?

The the overall hunger for God, the like you guys, the fact that you would even come into a church building, no matter where your relationship is with God, um religion in Baltimore and in this southeast Baltimore region is epically just very low.

It's like the tide has gone out.

And so when Jesus comments and says, no, the harvest is plentiful, I was sitting there literally this week going, okay, I believe it, but what does this mean?

You know, what does this mean in our neighborhood?

You know?

What does this look like?

Because I believe that somebody prayed to the Lord of the harvest for workers to be sent into the harvest.

And in Southern California, as I'm doing my job at a church of 9,000 people, God is like touching my heart, provoking my heart for a couple of years to want to go and be a laborer in the harvest in Baltimore City.

And here we are.

So it's like, Lord, bring in a harvest, right?

Do your work.

I think that this is the thing in James chapter 5.

James 5 · chapter mention

He tells us that we have to be patient.

We have to be farmers that are patient for the harvest.

There's an agriculture, like the the farmer doesn't just show up and go, okay, I'm here.

Where's the fruit?

No, the the farmer has to be patient for the machinations of agricultural seasons to take place.

And I think that that's where we're at.

I think we're waiting for the harvest that God wants to do here in this area.

The third thing here is this idea of the mission of God is carried out in natural and supernatural ways.

Do you see this story?

As Jesus is sending out these disciples, we have the natural and the supernatural.

The apostles, as well as other 60 others, are sent out.

That's very natural.

God's using humans.

They go out in simplicity.

Remember, he's telling them, don't worry about taking a money bag or an extra, you know, weekender or whatever, you know, don't take an extra coat or a staff.

Just go, right?

It's very natural, the the instructions that are given.

Then we find them that there's going to a house of peace, right?

It's just the idea of hey, go to a place where somebody is at peace with you.

Yeah, you can go.

Go to a place where somebody is at peace with you, right?

That's very natural.

Then he says, eat the food that served you.

That's natural.

But then he says, heal the sick and cast out demons.

Is that natural or supernatural?

That's supernatural, right?

You're not healing the sick and casting out demons.

You're not doing this work unless God is touching your life in a remarkable way and working through you.

And then he says, communicate the message of the kingdom of God.

That's both supernatural and natural.

The natural part is just the language, the communication.

But the fact that people would listen and receive this message, that is supernatural.

So the way that the mission of God is being accomplished is both natural and supernatural.

This is important for you and I as we do life, right?

Oftentimes we're like, where's God?

Like, what's going on?

What's going on in my world, right?

And God can work in very subtle, natural ways, right?

There may be thought processes that you're having, and you think, man, my brain is just weird.

It just comes up with the weirdest things.

And then the next thing you know, it's like, no, that's God working very naturally, almost in a very normal way through your human capacity to lead your thinking.

Can I tell one real quick story about that?

One time I was sitting in this really boring Bible college class about the book of Revelation.

And the professor, you know, he kind of had my attention sometimes, but I was just like totally daydreaming, right?

I tuned out, and all of a sudden I'm daydreaming about this book I had seen down in the bookstore.

And the cover art on the book was this blade of grass with a dewdrop hanging off of it.

And I was thinking about that dewdrop, and you guys are gonna think I'm nuts, right?

So I'm thinking about this dewdrop, and then the next thing that I thought about was like, oh, I remember when I was at this camp when I was in high school, and I got up early and I was reading my Bible at this camp, and the whole field was this grass with these dewdrops over it, right?

And then the next thing that I thought was, oh yeah, I remember at that camp, they had this sign on their sports field, and the sports field was dedicated to this guy named Chet Bitterman.

And I was like, I wonder who Chet Bitterman was.

Literally, that moment, the professor says this.

He says, When I was in college, I had this roommate named Chet Bitterman.

He went on the mission field down to South America and he died as a missionary down there.

I was I was sitting that that was that's probably one of the most supernatural, natural things that has ever happened to me, right?

And here's the thing, right?

God can work in our lives, our daydreams, our dreams, our just our normal human interaction.

Um have you ever decided, like, okay, I want to buy a new car or I want this new product?

And as soon as you start, like you're in the um, you're in the market for that product, you just start seeing them everywhere, right?

Like, so so the next car I want to buy someday is hopefully a Subaru, right?

And ever since I've been thinking about that for the last year, I all I see is Subarus everywhere I go.

They're like, oh, they're everywhere, you know?

And that's just kind of how our brain works.

And what we need, what we need as a people, is not for God to work more in our midst, but we literally need God to open up our eyes about how He is working in our midst.

What seems right now as very natural is oftentimes actually God just breaking through in our midst.

All right.

And the last one here is God doesn't just send the disciples into safe environments.

He doesn't just send the disciples into safe environments.

Um here's the idea behind that, right?

Because last week we said that it's safe to follow Jesus.

It is.

But he doesn't always send us into safe environments.

And here's where we get this from.

Do you see in the text, this is just one of those weird things that Jesus says, right?

He says, I'm sending you out as sheep amongst wolves.

At that point, if I was one of the 72, I'd be like, oh, gee, thanks.

Thanks for the warning.

Like, what's up with that?

If you go and you read this text over in Matthew, Jesus says, I'm sending you out as sheep amongst wolves.

You need to be as, therefore, you need to be as wise as serpents, um, and as cunning or as gentle as doves.

Uh, and then he goes on and he uses another metaphor, which is we've got sheep, we've got wolves, we've got doves, we've got snakes.

I can't remember.

You'll have to go on your own and look it up in in Matthew.

But the whole idea is that Jesus, just because it is safe to follow Jesus, doesn't necessarily mean that the path God leads you on is safe.

He will lead you into things where it's just like there is risk involved.

Well, why does he do that?

Because he can give us victory in those things.

He loves to demonstrate his power.

If God just, if our life was just like cotton candy and flowers and rainbows, his power would not be on display through us.

And yet he wants to, he in in 2 Corinthians, like Paul makes it stark.

He says, I am led into these this death, like I'm led into these positions of dying, so the life of Jesus might be seen in me.

Um let's let's move on.

Let's go to this idea, the mission of the church, because uh what we see here with these 17 verses or these 16 verses that starts off chapter 10 is this mission, right?

It's this it's these 72 guys, these 72 guys go out, we get the report back, even demons are they're like shocked, they're like, this is awesome, man.

It's like, you know, watching teenage mutant ninja turtles, the demons are subject to us.

This is crazy, right?

And Jesus tells them, no, no, no, that's great, that's great.

I'm I I've seen the destruction of the enemy, I've seen Satan fall like lightning, but rejoice that your names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.

It goes well.

But I want to just say this our mission continues.

This mission that that started here with these guys, or that kind of continued with these guys, the mission of Jesus continues today.

So at the top of our bulletin, every week we have this written out to be a church in Baltimore City that loves Jesus, preaches the gospel, and lives like missionaries in our everyday lives, the mission continues.

We feel like we are a people called on mission by God.

First of all, believers are sent out by Jesus.

So I'm going to show you two verses.

So if you're filling in the notes here, the word is sent out.

Believers are sent out by Jesus.

And two verses.

John 15, 16 says, You did not choose me, I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit and fruit that will last.

Right?

Jesus appointed his disciples and those that would follow him to go and be fruitful.

The second verse is here in John 4.

I should have added verse 35, because Jesus is teaching his disciples about the harvest, and he says, Even now, the one who reaps draws a wage, and the harvest is a crop for eternal life.

Do you see the crop?

The crop is eternal life.

So that the sower and the reaper may be glad together.

Thus the saying, one sows, another reaps, is true.

What does it say in verse 38?

I sent you to reap what you have not worked for.

So the training of Jesus, the words of Jesus, he sets the stage, but it continues for the next 2,000 years.

Believers are given authority by Jesus Christ.

So it's one thing to be sent on mission, right?

It'd be one thing for Tom Cruise to be like, get the, you know, the secret message.

You need to go and do this.

This is your mission impossible, but he's paralyzed from the neck down, right?

That would be a very boring mission impossible movie.

He wouldn't have the ability, right?

Here's the thing: Jesus not only commissioned and gave a mission to his followers, but he gave authority.

Here's a couple of verses on that.

First of all, Mark 16, 17 through 18, and these signs will accompany those who believe.

Now, where is this in the Bible?

These are the last verses of the book of Mark.

So we get all the way done with Jesus' life.

The whole account of Jesus' life is over, and this is the very end of the book.

And these signs will accompany those who believe.

Who believes?

We do, right?

We believe.

In my name they will drive out demons, they will speak new tongues, they will pick up snakes with their hands, and when they drink deadly poisons, it will not hurt them at all.

They will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.

This is the commissioning of Jesus.

This is the authority that Jesus gave to his disciples at the end.

He's going up to heaven, he leaves his disciples on earth with this commission.

Next we see that the believers continue Jesus Christ's mission.

So we go into the book of John, or we and we and we see this idea.

We so we go into John, then we'll go into Acts.

Again, Jesus said, Peace be with you, as the Father has sent me, I am sending you.

John 17, he says, As you sent me into the world, so this is Jesus' prayer to the Father.

Father, as you sent me into the world, I have sent you into the world.

So Jesus, or I've sent them into the world, right?

Jesus is praying for his disciples, knowing that in the same way he was on mission, the disciples would also be on mission.

Next, filling in here.

Let me just give you two for the sake of time.

Acts 1.8.

Acts 1.8 says this.

Acts 1.8.

Jesus tells his disciples before he goes up to heaven, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

Right?

There's that verse, Don, that we were talking about, right?

This is the pattern, right?

You are going to receive the power of the Holy Spirit.

Luke 24, 29, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you, but tarry in the city of Jerusalem till you are endued with power from on high.

Again, this is the whole idea of the Holy Spirit coming upon the believers.

So Jesus empowers his believers to do the mission.

Next, we see that the mission is undertaken by church officials.

Let's look quickly at Barnabas.

Someday when we study Acts, we'll see the story of Barnabas.

But here's one of these guys who's continuing the mission.

It says, News of this reached the church in Jerusalem.

They sent Barnabas to Antioch.

When he arrived, he saw what the grace of God had done.

He was glad and he encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts.

Basically, you go to this chapter, you look up verse 22 and read about Barnabas.

Barnabas is continuing the mission of God.

In Acts 11, 30, it says, This they did, sending their gifts and elders by Barnabas and Saul.

So they take after after the church in Antioch receives Barnabas, then they take Barnabas and Saul and they send them on the mission.

It just keeps going.

Acts 12, 25, when Barnabas and Saul had finished their mission, they return from Jerusalem, taking with them John and also Mark.

So the mission team grows.

And then it continues on into chapter 15.

The whole book of Acts, I'm going through it right now in my quiet time.

The whole book of Acts is about this mission.

It didn't stop with Jesus, it keeps going.

So we are a church, we are a church that is committed.

That third piece of our of our mission statement is that we want to live as missionaries in our everyday lives.

Jesus has given you and I, his Holy Spirit, to do that.

He has directed us to do it.

It's the pattern that's been laid out for us.

We have all the instructions that we need.

So let me encourage you be thinking in your own life how is God, how is God directing you in your mission field?

Okay, the spiritual battlefield is this section.

The 72 returned with joy, and they said, Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.

And he replied, and we go into this whole section about the demons.

Now, four weeks ago, I gave you an extensive study on Satan and demons.

So I'm not going to rehash that.

We're actually going to move on, but I just want to give you this summary really quick.

Jesus gives the saints authorities over Satan and demons.

It is very factual in this passage.

These are all the things that are said.

The demons are subject.

Satan fell like a lightning from heaven.

Authority to the temple to trample on serpents and scorpions.

That's an analogy to the devil.

Nothing shall hurt you.

The spirits are subject to you.

All of these things.

The picture is a picture of victory.

Jesus gives us victory over the devil, right?

Let Jesus beat the devil in your life.

Satan wants to rip you off, right?

He wants to get you off course.

He wants to be mean to you.

He wants to distract you.

He wants to tempt you.

He wants to do anything he can do to get you off mission.

And here is what Jesus says, right?

Here's what the record says.

The demons are subject.

They fell.

They're trampled.

They're beat up.

There's nothing will hurt you.

The spirits are subject to you.

You've got the victory.

You've got the victory.

You need to walk in it.

This is what we're going to close with is the father and son relationship.

Father and son.

It's huge.

This is such an important relationship for us to understand.

You see, because we see Jesus' relationship with the Father.

We see Jesus submitted to the Father, and we're like, wait, Jesus is God?

Why does he have to submit to the Father?

It's an important relationship.

And one of the reasons it's so important to us is because it is a model for how we are to relate to God.

So Jesus lives it, and then he says, Now you are sent, just as the Father sent me.

You are speaking on God's behalf just like I speak on God's behalf.

So what Jesus does is passed on to us.

Anyone like math in here?

I know Jeff does.

Anyone other than Jeff?

Oh, good, done.

I hate math.

But math is very logical, right?

Two can't be three, three can't be two.

There's an absolute nature about math, right?

The way that these that that this is written here is very much like a uh a logical sequence or a math equation.

Um let's look at the verse.

Chapter 10, verse 21.

At that time, Jesus, full of joy, through the Holy Spirit, said, I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, but you have revealed them to little children.

Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.

All things have been committed to me by my Father.

No one knows who the Son is except the Father.

No one knows who the Father is except the Son, and those to whom the Son chose to reveal him.

Then he turned to his disciples and he said privately, Blessed are the eyes that see what you see.

For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see, but do not see it, and to hear what you hear, but they did not hear it.

So they go out on this mission, the seventy-two come back, they're all stoked, they're excited, this is awesome, the demons are subject to us.

Jesus says, Rejoice that your names are written in heaven.

And then Jesus, it's his time to be full of joy through the Holy Spirit, and he's excited because of what the Father is doing.

Do you see that?

He's excited because of what the Father is doing.

Here's some of these equations, right?

Earlier on, in an earlier verse, we saw this.

Jesus said, listening to the disciples is equal to listening to Jesus.

Rejecting the disciples is equal to rejecting Jesus, which is equal to rejecting the Father.

Do you see that?

That's the math equation.

Jesus says, look, if people reject you, they're rejecting me.

Now, that's a lot of authority that he gives.

That's a ton of authority.

The next equation is this Jesus plus the Father hiding from the Son, hiding the Son from the wise and the learned, and then revealing these things to little children, this is makes the Son full of joy, and the Father is pleased to do it.

Right?

You put those things together, you put those things together, and that's kind of the outcome.

The father is pleased, and the son is full of joy.

Fourth, the father commits all things to the son.

Interesting dynamic.

And then the son is known by the father, and the father is known by the son, and to those whom the son chooses to reveal him.

Here's one of the important things that's that's going on in this passage.

When you have the cult, so like the JWs, they knocked on my door this last week, or and you look at cults, or you look at um just bad teaching that creeps in the church, it's often an attack against who Jesus is.

Because Jesus is fundamental to our relationship with God.

And so our relationship with God is truly, we know how to do it because we can look to Jesus.

We can look at the example that he laid down.

Let me finish with this.

And this is this is first of all that idea, that first idea.

When we become followers of Jesus, we become followers of God.

So just know, Satan is going to attack your understanding of who Jesus is.

This is why cults are so dangerous, is because they will not hold Jesus up in his rightful position.

The life of God calls us to one of mission, right?

The life God calls us to is one of mission.

So God orchestrates and leads us into circumstances that relate to mission, but we forget the mission and misinterpret our circumstances as strange and alien to a cultural template of success.

Okay, here's how this works.

You're doing life.

And life smacks you up again on the side of the head.

Something comes out of the blue, some difficult thing.

And you're like, this isn't fair, this isn't like the world says success should be.

And we forget that we are a people.

If we're a follower of Jesus, we are a people that are on mission.

If we're on God's mission, then He orchestrates our life according to that mission.

So God, He's leading us into circumstances that relate to the mission.

This is so important.

Life can be so confusing.

Our money, our relationships, every these things can really throw us for a trip.

It's just like, what's going on with my work?

What's going on with my housing?

What's going on with these things?

This is fundamental.

Understand that you are a person that is on mission.

If you understand that, that's like a key to unlocking an understanding.

Now, it's not healthy to ask why questions of God too often.

God isn't in the business of answering those why questions very well.

But I will say this: if you remember that you are a person on mission and you interpret your circumstances through that lens, it will help you have a great deal of peace and understand better what's going on.

Last point here, wrapping it up, landing the plane.

We should be students of Jesus' relationship with the Father, because on the night before the crucifixion, Jesus says that our relationship is similar.

Watch how Jesus relates to the Father.

Watch how Jesus relates to the Father because authority is given to us.

We speak on God's behalf.

We can do nothing about him.

Just go and read John 10, John 11, 12, all the way through 17.

You will see that this on one hand you have like, I wish I had a whiteboard, get in teacher mode here, but you'd have like the Jesus in the father in son relationship is equal to the son in um saint relationship, right?

The son in saint relationship, all of John 15, abide in me as I abide in the vine, right?

That whole thing comes after Jesus is shown how he abides in the Father.

Right?

He doesn't tell his disciples to go and do something that he has not already been modeling.

So we are um we are well off to look at Jesus as Jesus in a very simple logical term says, I and the Father are one, I'm submitted to him, I'm saying what he wants me to say, I'm doing what he wants me to do.

All right.

So with that, let's pray.

Let's ask God to just work in our lives.

Lord, we just um we look at this, this um this work, this this picture of Jesus sending out these 72 as sheep amongst wolves.

And God, you are uh victorious, you're um leading them in in victory.

And God, I pray for each person that's here that as they go with you on the mission this week, that they would come back reporting that even the demons are subject to you.

Um and that's an exciting thing, Lord.

We do we want to rejoice that you've saved us, that you've rescued us from hell.

But I pray that we would be a people that witness the authority and the power of God in the midst of going on mission.

Lord, there's different needs that are represented here.

There's health needs, um, there are uh just family, broken families, there's um financial lack.

Um Lord, there's this thing with Don's housing and this guy that's um this landlord that's abusive.

Lord, we we just pray that just in each one of these settings that you would reveal yourself and that you would make yourself known through us.

Lord, as we're those sheep amongst wolves, make your name great through your protection over our lives.

And we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen.