The Mission and the Message pt. 2 - Luke 10:9-16

On June 19, 1865, Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, with an announcement.

More than two years earlier, Abraham Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared enslaved people free.

The victory had already been won, but the decree had not yet gone out to these people.

The decree had already been signed, but many people had not received the news yet.

General Granger's mission was not to create freedom, it was simply to announce freedom.

His mission was simple and his message was simple.

You are no longer slaves, freedom has come.

The people there, their greatest need was not another battle fought or another battle to be won.

It was for someone to bring them the announcement of freedom.

In a similar way, Jesus is sending out these 72 disciples in our passage.

Their mission was not to establish the kingdom of God, their mission was to announce the kingdom of God.

They were sent ahead of the king with a message.

As we continue to look at this passage that we began looking at last week, we remind ourselves that Jesus is heading to Jerusalem.

This will be his final destination.

This will be the place of his death and his resurrection.

And along the way, his intention is to share the gospel with the surrounding towns and villages along the way.

Last week we took a little deeper look at what the mission was, and today we're going to look a little closer at what the message is.

What was the message that Jesus was sending out these 72 disciples to share?

What was it that he wanted the people in the surrounding villages to know?

Well, I believe the answer comes to us in verse 9 of our passage, where Jesus says, say to them, the kingdom of God has come near to you.

Now that's pretty much all Luke gives us.

It's quite possibly that Jesus told them more, but all we are given is, the kingdom of God has come near to you.

That is the message.

Well, that leads to another question.

What does that mean?

What does it mean to say the kingdom of God has come near to you?

Well, I'll unpack that a little more in a bit, but needless to say, this is an invitation into the kingdom of God.

It means to go and invite people into the kingdom.

In John 3 3, Jesus says, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

In other words, if one wants to see or enter the kingdom of God, he or she must be born again.

No doubt if you've been in and around church sometime, you have heard those words before.

You've heard born again.

Born again is synonymous for receiving Christ.

It's synonymous for coming to faith or getting saved or becoming a Christian.

So it seems that the 72 disciples were sent out to invite people into the kingdom of God by calling them to be born again, by calling them to place their faith in Jesus Christ.

That is to say, the disciples were sent out to spread the gospel.

The gospel is the good news of salvation.

It is an announcement that Jesus Christ can save you from your sins if you would believe and trust in his name.

It is an invitation to trust in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins.

Colossians 1 13 says that God has transferred us from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of his beloved Son.

This is what happens when someone gets saved.

They are taken from Satan's kingdom and then they are placed into God's kingdom.

And the disciples were sent out to tell the people about this good news that the kingdom of God has come near to them.

It has come, and they were sent out to proclaim this good news.

They were sent out to proclaim this gospel.

I titled the sermon The Mission and the Message Part 2.

We've looked at the mission part last week.

Now we're going to take a little closer look at the message part.

From our passage this morning, I want to point out three things that we see about the message.

Number one, we see the benefits of receiving the message.

Number two, we see the consequences of rejecting the message.

And number three, we see that the message is Christ and Christ is the message.

The benefits of receiving the message, the consequences of rejecting the message, and the message is Christ, and Christ is the message.

So what does our passage show us about the message that these 72 disciples were sent out to give to the people?

Let's look at that first one the benefits of receiving the message.

Verse 9 of our passage says, Heal the sick in it, in what?

In the home, and say to them, The kingdom of God has come near to you.

As we saw last week, the seventy-two disciples went out, and they would either be welcomed by the people or in the homes, or they would be rejected.

Those who welcomed them would have the peace of God rest upon them.

Not just because they opened up their home, but because they opened up their hearts to the message that the disciples were bringing bringing.

They believed and they received the good news.

And here we start to see a little more clearly what that good news is and what that good news brings.

As Jesus says to them, Heal the sick and say, the kingdom of God has come near to you.

Now the kingdom of God is God's reign and rule.

Not that he hasn't already been reigning and ruling, but this was an inbreaking of you, if you will, of God's kingdom into our world.

In 2 Corinthians 4, 4, Satan is called the God of this world or the God of this age.

And ever since the garden, Satan has enjoyed the fruits of his work.

You may remember, in the garden is where he tempted Adam and Eve to fall.

And the consequences of that fall have been catastrophic.

Before the fall, mankind enjoyed peace with God.

They enjoyed perfect health, and they were given all good things to enjoy.

They had no taste of death.

But after the fall, sin entered our world, and mankind lost this wonderful fellowship with God.

And with sin came strife, and with sin came hardships and sickness and death.

And Satan has been pleased with all of that because all of that is and are the results of his work in getting mankind to disobey God.

So we can easily see this contrast between two kingdoms, one before the fall and one after the fall.

The kingdom before the fall was one where mankind enjoyed this wonderful, beautiful fellowship with God.

But after the fall, we see another kingdom, one where Satan rules and reigns by way of oppression, one where strife and sickness and pain and death abound.

So what is it that mankind desires?

It desires to get back to that first kingdom, the kingdom where God's reign was fully realized.

And ever since the fall in the garden, there were hints of this kingdom.

There were hints that this kingdom would return.

As soon as Adam fell, God promised that one day the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent.

And through various covenants in the Old Testament, there were hopes of this promise being fulfilled.

God's people have always believed and hoped for a day, one day, when a Messiah would come who would destroy the works of the devil.

Of course, many of them believed that this would come through an earthly kingdom.

They believed that they would be set free of their earthly oppressors, Rome and before that, Assyria, Babylon, the Persians, they believed that one day they would be given back their land.

They were looking for one where man ruled as king.

God's plan was to return them back to one where God ruled as king.

So when Jesus says the kingdom of God has come near to you, what he is saying is that the hope of the promise, the hope of restoration, the hope of Satan and his kingdom being overthrown has come.

What you've been waiting for has come.

Notice how he says, Heal the sick and say to them, the kingdom of God is coming near to you.

All in one breath.

Heal the sick and say the kingdom of God is coming into you.

What he's doing here, he's connecting the kingdom of God with the healing of the sick.

Now you may note as you read the gospels that there seems to be a lot more miracles going on and healings and rising of the dead and the demons being casted out.

We see a lot more of those in the Gospels as we read the Bible than we do in our day.

And I know some denominations will say that's because we don't have enough faith or because we don't exercise the gift of healing and things like that.

But there was a reason for the uptick of healings and miracles in the days of Jesus.

Jesus was not only showing his heart of compassion in the healings, which he was, but he was also demonstrating what it looks like in the kingdom of God.

In Satan's kingdom, there's sickness.

In God's kingdom, there's perfect health.

In God's kingdom, there's life.

In Satan's kingdom, there's oppression.

In God's kingdom, there's freedom.

In Satan's kingdom, he has the power to harm.

In God's kingdom, his power is destroyed.

This is what Jesus is demonstrating through his healings.

Acts chapter 10, verse 36 says, As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ, he is Lord of all, you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee, after the baptism that John proclaimed, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.

Acts 10:36

So you see, even the apostles who witnessed their own share of miracles, who healed their own share of people, pointed out to how much Jesus was doing.

Like Jesus was doing more than the apostles.

The apostles were doing some miracles, but Jesus was doing a lot more.

And they were pointing out how he was healing and casting out these demons.

Again, because with the coming of Christ came the inbreaking of the kingdom.

Listen to what the theologian Herman Ritterboss says about the connection between the coming of the kingdom and the miracles of Christ.

He says, Jesus' miracles make visible the restoration of creation and the redemptive significance of the kingdom.

The clearest connection between the coming of the kingdom and Jesus' miraculous power is most visible in the rising of the dead.

In light of the entire preaching of the kingdom, it is clear that in the delivery from death, salvation of the kingdom reaches its climax.

Dead people are raised because in Jesus that kingdom in which there is no death is beginning to be realized.

The kingdom of God revealed in miracles signifies the redemption from all evil and restoration of the whole life.

So you see, as the disciples go out and heal the sick, they are demonstrating the gospel, not only in word, but also in deed.

The gospel, which is the good news of Jesus Christ over sin, was being demonstrated with the power in the healing of the sick which was brought upon through sin.

You see, the healings weren't just an end to themselves.

They weren't simply to make someone better for the sake of getting better.

Remember, everyone who was healed by Jesus eventually died.

Lazarus, even who was raised from the dead, would eventually die again.

Now, I'm not saying that there wasn't an element of compassion in Jesus' miracles.

He did heal partly to reveal his love and his compassion for those who were hurting.

But the major significance of his healings and the major significance of his miracles were to point to something greater.

They were pointing to an inbreaking of the kingdom of God.

They were an announcement that the kingdom of God has come, and it has come through the person and work of Jesus Christ.

The arrival of the king is here, and he has come to destroy the works of the devil.

So if I can simplify and summarize what's going on in verse 9, I would do it this way: Jesus is telling his disciples to go and share the message of the kingdom and show the people what it looks like when they receive it.

There are benefits in receiving the message.

Those who receive and believe in the kingdom of God, which again is the reversal of the fall and of its effects, receive the benefits and the privileges of the kingdom of God.

The gospel is the greatest news that has ever been announced because the news is that in Jesus you will be delivered from sin and the effects of sin.

Do you hate sickness?

Do you hate death?

Do you hate suffering?

Those are the effects of sin.

Do you hate loneliness and depression?

Well, those who believe and trust in the name of Jesus Christ will have those things reversed because that is the promise for those who are his.

That is what comes with those who reside in the kingdom of God.

Revelation 21 says, 21 3, and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man, he will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall be there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away.

And he who was seated on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new.

Also he said, Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.

Notice what grounds these wonderful promises of there being no death, no pain, no sorrow.

That's what we look at.

We're like, wow, no death, no pain, no sour sorrow.

But it is grounded in verse 3 where it says, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.

In other words, the reason there is no death or pain or sorrow anymore is because God is there.

It's because man is now with God.

This is why in our passage, Jesus commands to heal the sick while also proclaiming that the kingdom of God has come near to them.

He's giving the people a taste of what it looks like for man to be near to God.

Those who dwell with God, those who live in his kingdom, those who have this restored fellowship will no longer deal with the effects and the consequences of sin.

The kingdom that was lost in the garden, the kingdom that was lost through the disobedience of one man will be regained through the obedience of another man, the man Jesus Christ.

The ultimate benefit of those who receive the message is this they get to be with God and they enjoy all of the benefits that come with being with God.

That is what salvation brings.

It brings restored fellowship with our Maker.

This, my friends, is mankind's greatest need.

Mankind thinks that his or her greatest need is to be happy or to have purpose in life or to find meaning in life.

But the reason mankind isn't happy in the first place, and the reason that mankind is unsettled and cannot find purpose or meaning is because they have lost fellowship with their maker.

Everything that we hate in this life, pain and sickness and loneliness and depression and sorrow and death stem from that one moment when man has lost fellowship with his maker.

And once that is regained and once that is restored, then those things start diminishing until one day they are forever gone in eternity.

Those who receive the message of the gospel immediately become a pilgrim.

As soon as one believes and trusts in the name of Jesus for salvation, they begin a lifelong journey into heaven.

In other words, they are marching toward their eternal dwelling place, which we just read is with God.

And yes, until then we're gonna experience the consequences of sin.

We're still gonna experience sickness and pain and sorrow, but the believer knows that once we get to God, those things will be no more.

But here's the thing God hasn't reserved all of his benefits for that day only.

Just like the people who received the message in Jesus' day, we can have a glimpse of heaven today.

And you want to know where that's found most clearly?

It's found in the church.

What is the church if not the people of God who dwell together in the name of Jesus?

What is heaven?

It's where the people of God dwell together in the name of Jesus.

The church is where we enjoy the benefits of the kingdom.

The church is where we taste the goodness of heaven.

The church is where we experience the presence of God in Jesus Christ.

The peace and the joy and the unity and the fellowship of God that which we will enjoy forever are to be found in the church.

We can't find them anywhere in this land, in this earth.

We can look and we can try, but those things that we look forward to in heaven, we get a taste when we come together.

We get a taste of when we come together every Lord today to sum this all up.

The benefits of receiving this gospel message are already not yet.

Those who receive the message will today be given fullness and joy and peace and the love of God, but we still experience those things in our fallenness.

Like we as Christians, we have joy and we have peace, but we only know what that feels like on this side of eternity with the remnants of sin.

But one day, we're gonna know what it's like to experience those things in glory without the remnants of sin.

We're gonna know what it truly is to have joy without sin and peace without sin.

And love and experience the love of God without sin.

Today we can already experience and enjoy those benefits, but one day we will know it truly when we're with God.

What a glorious day.

Next, let's look at the consequences of rejecting this message.

Verse 10 But whatever whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into the streets and say, even the dust of your town that clings to our feet wiped 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, Charaz, and woe to you, Beth Seda, for if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyree and Sedan, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.

But it is more bearable in the day of judgment for Tyree and Saddam than for you.

And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven?

You shall be brought down to Hades.

Jesus gives the same instructions to the seventy-two that he gave to the twelve back in chapter nine.

When they don't receive you in a town, go into the streets and shake the dust off your feet.

This was to show that your town is defiled, and I don't want to take not even the dust of your town with me.

So I'm going to shake the dust off my feet.

This was a sign of judgment against those who rejected them.

Jesus then starts to reveal just how terrible it is for those who reject his message.

He says, It will be more bearable than Sodom than for them.

The destruction of Sodom was well known to every nation.

If you're familiar with the Bible, no doubt you know this infamous story in the Old Testament where God destroys Sodom and Gomorrah for their wickedness.

He destroyed the city by bringing down fire and brimstone from heaven.

Again, a well-known event.

Even the Gentiles knew this.

Sodom was synonymous for a city so wicked that God had to destroy it.

And here Jesus is saying, Sodom will have it better than those who reject his message.

Then he starts pronouncing woes on those who have rejected him.

A woe is not a pronouncement of judgment as much as it is an expression of heartbreak and misery.

It's the equivalent of us seeing a wreck and saying, Lord, have mercy.

It's saying, Wow, that's pretty bad.

It's as if Jesus is looking into the future and seeing the final.

State of those who would reject him and saying, Whoa, whoa, what a terrible thing to face.

Woe to Cherazid and Bethsaeda.

These are two places we're not told much about in scripture, but apparently Jesus did many miracles in.

Tyree and Sedan are two cities mentioned in Isaiah chapter 23.

Isaiah 23 · chapter mention

They're cities that represent the stubbornness and refusal to repent.

Jesus is saying that if those cities had seen these mighty works that he was doing, they would have repented in sackcloth and ashes.

This was a demonstration of repentance.

And since Cherazin and Beth Seda refused to accept Jesus and his work, their judgment would be worse than Tyree and Sedan.

He then mentions Capernaum, a place where we read about in Scripture and we see Jesus doing much of his work in.

But since they rejected him as well, he says they will be brought down to Hades.

This was the lowest parts of the earth.

Capernaum was a city who thought highly of themselves.

They boasted in many things.

They thought well of themselves, but Jesus says they're going to be brought down low for the rejection of him.

Here we get a glimpse of the terrible state of those who reject the message of Christ.

Verse 12, he says, it will be more bearable on that day.

What day is he talking about?

He's talking about the day of judgment.

Jesus is pointing to a day when he will judge the world according to his gospel.

2 Corinthians 5.10 tells us, for we must all, don't skip over that all, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

Again, all.

Sometimes it's called hell, other times it's called final judgment, eternal punishment, outer darkness, weeping and gnashing of teeth, or the fire that never quenches.

Elsewhere in the Bible it's called the lake of fire or the second death.

It is the final destination of those who reject the gospel of Jesus Christ.

It is a place that is reserved for the devil and his angels.

In other words, it's a place that was specifically created for the enemies of God.

And sin makes everyone an enemy of God.

This is why we need reconciliation.

This is why we talk about being saved as being reconciled back to God.

Jude chapter 5 says, Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.

And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the day of judgment on the great day.

Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulge in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desires, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

Judah's reminding us about God's character.

That God is merciful, but he's also just.

They saw firsthand.

This is Jesus' love and his compassion.

They saw his arms open to them, but they still rejected him.

They tasted his fountain of life, but they preferred to drink from the streams of death.

Church, it is a dangerous thing to hear the gospel and reject it.

People who hear the gospel and harden their hearts and who shut their eyes and who shut their ears will have it worse than those who have never heard it.

I think this is an often mispoint of this passage here.

It's not pointing out enough, pointed out enough in church.

Notice how Jesus says the cities, some cities will have it better than others on the day of judgment.

Not that both won't face judgment, they both will.

But there are going to be some who face a harsher judgment than others.

2 Peter 2.20 says, For if after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse than the first.

For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of the righteous than after knowing it turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.

We need to be reminded of the realities of hell often because sinners are headed there every single day.

We have friends and loved ones who are destined to hell if they reject the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And this should spur us on to evangelism, and it should stir our hearts to tell somebody about Jesus.

Jesus made clear what the consequences would be for those who reject Him and His message.

It will be harsh judgment, it will be eternal damnation, and it will be separation from the love and the mercies of God forever.

So that raises an important question.

What exactly are people rejecting when they reject this message?

That leads to the last and final part.

The message is Christ, and Christ is the message.

Verse 16.

Jesus wants the disciples to know what the people are truly rejecting.

Look, they aren't rejecting you, they aren't rejecting the word.

They're rejecting me.

They're rejecting me and they're rejecting the God who sent me.

This is what Jesus is saying.

This is what the people are rejecting when they reject him.

And this is the same today.

This is what people are rejecting when they reject the gospel today.

You know, we we tend to think that people just don't want to go to church, or, you know, they don't want to give up the world or they don't want to change their old ways.

Now, all of that might be true.

People don't want to go to church, people don't want to give up their old ways, but those are merely the symptom of the true problem.

The true problem is not with you or or your message.

You know, you tell your loved ones that, you know, they need to go to church, you tell your loved ones to believe, and you think their problem is with you and they don't like you, but the problem is it's not even with you or your message.

It's not even about your perceived rules and regulations.

The true problem is that people just don't want Jesus.

Because they know what that means.

It means that they would have to die to themselves and live for someone else.

They would have to live for Jesus, and they're not ready to do that.

They might like the idea of Jesus, but they don't love him more than they love their own life.

First Corinthians 2, verse 1 says, And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.

1 Corinthians 2:1

For I decided to know nothing among you except Christ and Him crucified.

And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

Paul knew what the message was.

The message was Christ, and Christ was the message.

It wasn't seven ways to find fulfillment in life.

It wasn't three ways to walk in your purpose, it wasn't a list of do's and don'ts, which is what most people think the gospel is.

People view the gospel and Christianity as some call to a stricter lifestyle.

When some people hear, come to Jesus, this is what they're hearing.

Come and be a better person.

Come and clean up your life.

Become a Christian so you can stop doing things that you shouldn't be doing, so you can stop drinking and so you can stop doing drugs, so you can stop cheating on your spouse, so you can stop being such an angry person, or so you can start doing good things like loving people and giving your time of your time and volunteering, or so you can become a model citizen and become a better employee.

People think that that's what Christianity is.

That's what you're calling me to.

And if that's what you're calling me to, I think that's good, and I think I should be that, but I'm not ready for that.

But here's the thing: you don't really need Jesus for any of that.

That's not the gospel.

The gospel is not a manual for how to be a better person.

The gospel is about the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and what it means for a sinner like you.

This is why Paul says he knew nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified.

Because that is the only message that mattered.

Not be kind to one another.

Not we need to learn how to get along with one another, but that you, a sinner, have no hope in life and death unless you believe and trust in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Because you can be a model citizen and you can be a faithful spouse and you can tone down your anger, but without Jesus, you will still fall short of the glory of God.

You might be the kindest person in the world, but without Jesus, you are nothing but the kindest person in the world who's on their way to hell.

This is why Jesus is the message.

He's not asking if you're good enough.

He's not asking about the words that came out of your mouth yesterday or the things that you set your eyes upon.

He's not asking if you're good enough to come to him.

He already knows that you're not.

You don't have to tell him you're not ready.

He knows you're not ready.

And he knows that you're never going to be ready.

He's not asking you to save yourself.

If you could save yourself, he would have never had to go to the cross.

That's the beauty of the gospel.

Jesus paid it all.

Jesus has done the hard part.

He became sin who knew no sin, so that we may become the righteousness of God.

He is God's word to the world.

He is God's message to the world.

Where do we find the love of God?

We find it in Jesus.

Where do we find the mercies of God?

We find them in Jesus.

Where do we find the forgiveness and redemption that we need?

We find them in the name of Jesus.

How can your fellowship be restored?

How can your fellowship with God be regained?

How can you enjoy the benefits of dwelling with God once again by being united to his Son, Jesus Christ?

No one comes to the Father except through him.

All of your attempts to get to God will fail you.

You will never be good enough.

You can never give enough.

You can never do enough deeds.

Jesus has given you everything you need, and he is being offered to you today.

For God so loved the world that he has given his only begotten Son, and whoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life.

As we close, we know what the message is.

The message is Jesus.

So there's two questions for us this morning.

Number one is have you received this message?

Not do you understand the message, not even do you agree with the message, but have you believed and have you trusted on the name of Jesus Christ to save you from your sins?

Or have you rejected it?

Have you shut your heart to it?

Have you closed your ears to it?

Have you, like those people who closed and rejected his disciples, rejected him?

If so, though that is bad news, but there's good news.

There's still time.

There's still time for you to open up your heart to him.

And number two, if we have opened up our hearts to him, if we have let him in, what are we doing with him?

Are we living for him?

Are we sharing him?

Are we spreading him to the nations?

Are we treating him for what he truly is?

The hope of the world?

Last week we saw what the mission is, and today we see what the message is.

The mission is to go to the nations.

The mission is to go to all people and to take with them the message, which is Jesus Christ.

Because without it, the world is lost.

Without it, there is no hope.

Charles Spurgeon once said, if sinners be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our dead bodies.

And if they will perish, let them perish with our arms around their knees, imploring them to stay.

If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let no one go there unwarned or unprayed for.

The kingdom has not come yet in its fullness, but it's already come in the person and work of Christ.

And it continues to advance through the proclamation of the gospel.

Who will be the heralders of this good news?

Who will go to the highways and the byways and compel them to come in?

May we, church, how small in number, may we be counted among these 72 as those who have received the love of Christ and as those who spread the love of Christ through his glorious gospel.

Man, let us pray.