The Mission of the Seventy Disciples (!) 10/1/2023

The First Mission of the Twelve Apostles

That Luke recorded for us. The first was when Jesus sent forth his 12 apostles into the region of Galilee, and they were principally to go to the Jews only. We can read of this first mission once again, it was just in the last chapter, beginning of Luke chapter nine, and then he, Jesus, called his 12 disciples together and gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases, he sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.

And he said to them, take nothing for the journey, neither staffs, nor bag, nor bread, nor money, and do not have two tunics apiece. Whatever house you enter, stay there, and from there depart, and whoever will not receive you when you go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet as a testimony against them.

And so they departed and went through the towns preaching the gospel and healing everywhere. All three of the synoptic gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, record this mission of the 12. But the mission of the 70 disciples recorded in Luke chapter 10 is only found in Luke's gospel.

Reading Luke 10:1-20 and the Unique Features of the Seventy

It's not mentioned in the other gospels. However, there are some similarities in the statements here in Luke 10 on this mission of the 70, which are very similar, even identical to some of the words describing the short-term mission of the 12 apostles.

There's differences, but there are similarities as well. Now, this account of Luke is a rather long passage. We will not be able to address it entirely or thoroughly today, and so we'll complete our study of it next Lord's Day, Lord willing, and maybe the Sunday after that.

I don't know.

20 verses is quite a few to get through, but we want to begin by reading this passage in its entirety to get its context. After these things, the Lord appointed 70 others also and sent them two by two before his face into every city and place where he himself was about to go.

Then he said to them, the harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go your way. Behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves.

Carry neither money bag, knapsack, or sandals. Greet no one along the road, but whatever house you enter, first say, peace to this house. And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest on it. If not, it will return to you and remain in the same house, eating and drinking such things as they give, for the laborer is worthy of his wages.

Do not go from house to house. Whatever city you enter and they receive you, eat such things are set before you, and heal the sick there, and say to them, the kingdom of God has come near to you. But whatever city you enter and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say, the very dust of your city which clings to us, we wipe off against you.

Nevertheless, know this, the kingdom of God has come near you. But I say to you that it will be more tolerable than the day of Sodom than for that city. Woe to you, Chorazin. Woe to you, Bethsaida. For if the mighty works which were 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 tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, who were exalted to heaven will be brought down to Hades. He who hears you hears me. He who rejects you rejects me.

He who rejects me rejects him who sent me. And then the 70 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 gave you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy. And nothing shall by any means hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.

Boy, there's much in this passage. There's no way we could address it all today. Now, it should be remembered that the mission of these 70 disciples was quite unique. It was within the setting of our Lord's earthly ministry before anybody had come to understand clearly and fully the nature of his kingdom and the manner that it would be inaugurated through his crucifixion, resurrection from the dead, and his ascension to the father's throne.

Nobody understood this. Even though the Lord had informed his 12 apostles of what would occur to him at Jerusalem, they had not fully understood the nature or implications of what he had told them. Luke already informed us, but they did not understand this saying, and it was hidden from them.

So they did not perceive it, and they were afraid to ask him about this saying. He was speaking about his betrayal and his suffering at Jerusalem. And so we must consider the unusual, limited, and special features of this mission recorded for us in Luke 10, one through 20.

Why Context Matters in Interpreting Luke 10

It's always important to look and discover the context in which we read a story in our Bibles. If we fail to do this, we may make wrong assumptions about its teaching for us today. Many open their Bibles and read them as though this book dropped out of heaven this morning, and then take each verse as having been written directly to them today.

And in doing so, they're setting themselves up for error. Bruce was telling me this morning that he was in a church when he was first converted that took these passages, like this one, and substantiated their claim they are to be out casting out demons and healing the sick everywhere they went.

That is an example of what we should not do. That's what we're addressing here. We must consider how a verse or passage fits into the historical context in which the event occurred, but also into the literary context in which it was written.

And only after doing so, then draw its implications, its instruction and its application for today. The setting of this episode is that the Lord was on his way to Jerusalem where he would suffer rejection and death, but then be raised the third day.

Most of his disciples had no clue about his fate. They were quite limited in their understanding. But we may assume that they did not know that Jesus was traveling to, or we should assume, however, that they did know that Jesus traveling to Jerusalem, when he arrived there, the kingdom of God, the promised kingdom to David would be inaugurated.

They all anticipated this, expected this. The welcoming of the crowds in Jerusalem when Jesus arrived, and we'll get to that in Luke chapter 19, reveals that this was the common understanding of the people and the 70 disciples.

This was their understanding. And this was the message they were proclaiming. The kingdom of God was about to be inaugurated. Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. It's gonna take place when he arrives there.

We read of the people in Jerusalem. Then as he was now drawing near the descent to the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen, saying, blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord.

Peace in heaven and glory in the highest. Palm Sunday, they were expecting, anticipating the promised king to inaugurate the kingdom of God. Now we read in Mark's account of the crowd's jubilation, and it seems to connect our Lord's arrival more clearly to the crowd's understanding that this kingdom that they were expecting to be inaugurated was the promised kingdom to the son of David.

It was about to commence. And so here is Palm Sunday recorded in Mark 10. Then they brought the colt to Jesus, threw clothes on it, he sat on it. Many spread their clothes on the road. Others cut down leafy branches from the trees, spread them on the road.

Then those who went before and those who followed them cried out, saying, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes.

In the name of the Lord.

Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. And so what was the message that these 70 disciples declared in advance of Jesus' journey to Jerusalem?

It would have been the same message that John the Baptist and Jesus himself had proclaimed. The kingdom of God was at hand. It was about to be inaugurated. And the people were to prepare themselves for the arrival of the Messiah and his kingdom by cleansing themselves of sin through repentance and faith in the coming king, the promised Messiah.

But among these 70 disciples, there would have been a great sense of urgency and immediacy because they were on the way to Jerusalem and it was gonna take place in just a matter of days. And so the Lord entrusted these 70 disciples with the glorious task of making this known.

In their proclamation, they were to declare to the people their responsibility to respond in repentance from sin and to receive Jesus and his teachings so as to gain entrance and to participate in this kingdom that was about to be inaugurated.

And so the message of the 70 disciples was similar to ours today, but it had some distinctive details. There were differences as well. Their mission reflects some similarities to our mission today, but it had some distinctive features.

There was a sense of urgency about them. This should be the pattern for us today. There ought to be an urgency about us in proclaiming the coming of the Lord. But the cause of their sense of urgency was conditioned by their circumstances.

And so with that in mind, we'll consider this mission and see how it compares with ours, the similarities and the differences. And we'll also see how their activity can encourage us in our own efforts to further the kingdom of God.

But before we do that, before we make some application, we want to consider some of the details that are recorded for us in our passage. And so let's look at verses one through 20. And we're only gonna get through a few verses this week and then have to wait till next week to address the rest of them.

Here were 70 disciples that Jesus sent forth where he himself was about to go. Not long before, Jesus had sent forth his 12 apostles ahead of him to prepare the people for his ministry among them. And here Jesus sends an additional 70 disciples.

Our Lord's disciples were increasing in number and those qualified to bear his message were also increasing in number. And so as Jesus was on his journey to Jerusalem, he sent these men before him to prepare the people in advance of him coming among them.

The emphasis of this episode is on the words and instructions of Jesus to his disciples. Not so much of what they accomplished, but the instruction that Jesus gave his disciples. And this emphasis of our Lord's words by Luke is understandable as one wrote, this is not surprising because their tradition was much more interested in what Jesus said than what the disciples did when they were not in his company.

The sayings of Jesus in this episode may be distinguished regarding their emphases. First, Jesus addresses the need for more workers because of the greatness of the harvest, verse two. But then Jesus told them that this work would pose some risk to them for there were dangers of wolves who would oppose them, verse three.

Nevertheless, Jesus told them to go forth without provision really as a sign of faith in God to supply their needs. The Lord then gave three words of instruction of the manner they were to conduct their mission.

First, Jesus spoke of the way they were to enter a house where they were ministering. They might be greeted with hospitality, receive an encouragement and provision by their hosts. That was common in the day for traveling preachers.

For this, they should be grateful and content. Second, when they entered a town, they were to preach the message, the kingdom of God has come near to you. And then third, if they entered a town that did not receive them or their message, they were to pronounce God's judgment upon that town for having failed to respond to the privilege and opportunity afforded it.

Jesus told them if they were not received by a town, they were to warn the people by an acted parable, shaking the dust off their sandals, that the kingdom of God is near and that they have excluded themselves from it and would come under judgment.

And then in verses 13 through 16, Jesus comments on those cities that rejected him and them and their message, that the judgment and punishment of God would be more severe for them. For in rejecting these disciples and their message, they had rejected him and in rejecting him, they rejected his father.

And let's work through, consider some of the details of the first verses in this passage. Again, verse one reads, after these things, the Lord appointed 70 others also and sent them two by two before his face into every city and place where he himself was about to go.

Again, an allusion to the journey to Jerusalem and Luke continually reminds his readers of this journey. Now, if you're reading the English Standard Version, the ESV, rather than the New King James Version, which we have before us, you probably noticed the difference in the number of disciples that Jesus sent forth.

The New King James Version reads that there were 70. The ESV records that Jesus sent forth 72 disciples. And interestingly, both these readings, the Greek readings of these texts are attested in ancient Greek manuscripts that are highly regarded, both readings.

Perhaps 72 was originally what Luke had written. Maybe not, but perhaps. Now, there's probably significance mentioned of this number. Why 70? Why 72? Oftentimes in scripture, numbers have symbolic significance.

And sadly, it happens rather frequently that unskilled interpreters of the Bible find meanings in many, too many numbers found in the Bible. Every number sometimes, they have some kind of spin. They read too much from which there is little or nothing.

Nothing to find, but they'll find it. But there may be significance here in this number 70, number 72. There were historically 70 elders leading Israel. And there were also 70 members of the Jewish Sanhedrin, plus the high priest.

It may be the Holy Spirit setting forth the 70 disciples of Jesus, the New Testament church, is being set forth by Luke, by the Holy Spirit, as the true Israel, the new leaders of Israel. Luke certainly does set forth this truth that the disciples of Jesus are the true Israel of God elsewhere in his gospel, and also in the book of Acts.

However, there's another possible meaning or explanation for the 70 disciples. In Genesis 10, we have what's called the table of the nations. And it was commonly known and asserted and affirmed that there were 70 nations of the world listed in Genesis chapter 10.

Interestingly, in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, the Septuagint, the number is listed as 72 nations in Genesis chapter 10. And so the meaning of the number 70 was intended or recorded by Luke to foreshadow perhaps the future mission of the church to the Gentile nations, the Gentile world.

I .H. Marshall, a noted commentator of the Greek text of the Gospel of Luke, wrote, "'Most commentators, however, see a reference "'to the nations of the world, and a foreshadowing "'of the later evangelism by the church in the world.'".

This isn't a stretch. Let's recall that when Luke wrote this gospel, he probably wrote it about the same time as Acts. And he wrote Acts after Paul was in prison in Rome, decades after the events. It would have been very easy for Luke to present, the Holy Spirit moving Luke, to present this mission of the 70 as going out into the Gentile world, which the book of Acts records.

Luke wrote, "'After these things, "'the Lord appointed 70 others.'". These others probably refer to men other than the 12, whom Jesus had already sent out ahead of him. Again, we read in Luke 9 .51, "'Now it came to pass, when the time had come "'for him to be received up, he steadfastly set his face "'to go to Jerusalem, and sent messengers before his face.

"'That these messengers were his 12 apostles "'is suggested by verse 54, "'when there's mention of James and John, "'they were among these 12. "'These 70, however, were in addition to those 12 apostles, "'they were already going forth in advance of his visitation "'to the towns on their way to Jerusalem.'".

The 12 would be the Jewish men, the 70 perhaps representing, you know, going to the Gentile world. And again, historically, that's what you have recorded in the book of Acts. We read that Jesus sent them two by two before his face.

Not only would it be safer for them to go out two by two, but also, of course, it was commonly understood that by the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word would be established, and so he sent them out two by two.

The Harvest Is Great and the Lord Must Send Laborers

Now let's look at the wording of verse two. "'Then he said to them, the harvest truly is great, "'but the labors are few, therefore pray, "'the Lord of the harvest to send out labors "'into his harvest.'".

And we might look at the metaphor of the harvest referring only to the immediate response that these 70 disciples might encounter, you know, in the towns as they were journeying to Jerusalem. But the metaphor of the harvest commonly in scripture carries an eschatological meaning.

In other words, it points more to the end of the world, the end of the age, the final gathering of the people, particularly redeemed people at the end of the age. I included a few passages that speak about the harvest at the end of the age.

Back in the Old Testament, Isaiah 27, "'It will come to pass in that day "'that the Lord will thresh,' reference to judgment, "'from the channel of the river to the brook of Egypt, "'and you will be gathered one by one.'".

That's a harvest kind of expression. Oh, you children of Israel. Now that's a gathering of the people of God. Joel 3, 11 through 14, "'Assemble and come, all you nations. "'Gather together all around.

"'Cause your mighty ones to go down there, O Lord. "'Let the nations be awakened "'and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat. "'For there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations. "'Put in the sickle, for the harvest is right.'".

So here would be judgment upon the Gentile nations in rebellion to God. "'Come down, for the winepress is full, "'the vats overflow, for their wickedness is great. "'Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision.

"'For the day of the Lord "'is near in the valley of decision.'". When we come into the New Testament, we read of the harvest, again, pointing toward the end of the age. The Lord Jesus himself, in Matthew 13, where we have all the parables of the mystery of the kingdom set forth.

Jesus answered, said to them, "'He who sows the good seed is the son of man.'". He's explaining a parable. "'The field is the world. "'The good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, "'scattered throughout the fallen world.

"'But the tares are the sons of the wicked one.'". These are the unconverted people. The devil owns them. "'The enemy who sowed them is the devil.'". The devil's got his people in the world. The Lord's got his people in the world.

And notice, Jesus said specifically, "'The harvest is at the end of the age.'". Reference to a second coming. "'And the reapers are the angels. "'The Lord will send out his angels to gather his elect.

"'And therefore, as the tares are gathered "'and burned in the fire, "'so it will be at the end of this age. "'The son of man will send out his angels, "'and they will gather out of his kingdom "'all things that offend, "'and those who practice lawlessness.'".

Here, we would argue that the kingdom is this entire world. Jesus Christ is Lord. This entire world is his kingdom right now, and all the leaders of the nations are under his authority. But when he comes back again, he's gonna send his angels, and he's gonna take out of his kingdom, out of the world, all of the unregenerate, all of the lost, and he'll cast them into a furnace of fire.

And there will be wailing, gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their father, who has ears to ear, let him hear. Then, of course, Revelation 14 speaks about a harvest.

John wrote,.

"'I looked, and behold, a white cloud, "'and on the cloud sat one like the son of man, "'having on his head a golden crown, "'in his hand a sharp sickle. "'Another angel came out of the temple, "'crying with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud, "'Thrust in your sickle and reap, "'for the time has come for you to reap, "'for the harvest of the earth is ripe.'.

So he who has sat on the cloud, thrust in his sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped. And actually, in the verses following, it speaks about a second kind of harvest, the harvest of grapes. This is probably a harvest of wheat.

But both speak about the judgment of God with the second coming of Christ. And so what may be suggested by our Lord's wording of the greatness of the mission and the great harvest that was before them in Luke 10, verses one and following, verse two, is that he may be speaking not just of a short-term mission in the towns in which they would visit on the way to Jerusalem, but he was hinting at the entire course of this age, as his disciples declared the good news of his kingdom of salvation to the world.

When we read of our Lord's instructions for these disciples to pray that God would call and send out more harvesters, it also suggests the greatness and extent of this mission. Seems to be greater than just the towns that he was going to visit on his way to Jerusalem.

The harvest was great in reaching souls on their journey to Jerusalem, but the world that lie before them was vastly greater, and many more would need to become heralders of the kingdom of God. Take note of the importance given to God to send forth laborers.

God has to do it. Pray to God that he would send forth laborers into his harvest. God empowers whom he calls to send forth to speak on his behalf. This sending of God may be understood as a subjective burden, perhaps, to speak to a particular person or group of persons on a single occasion, or it may be the calling of God upon a man to enter full-time public proclamation of the word of God.

There has been, in the last generation, a downplaying of the call of a man to preach. It's downplayed, even among Reformed Baptists. But I can testify, I can tell you, it was right at the end of May, 1974, I was in a shirt service in Sacramento, California, and the call of God came upon me to enter in his ministry that was as clear and even clearer than my call to salvation.

There's no doubt about it.

And I knew it.

And that's an important matter that I think is missing often. The call of God can be very personal, very subjective, very compelling. A calling and sending that cannot be resisted. Sometimes his call and sending is sensed because a great need or burden is felt, and no one else seems to be concerned or willing to take up the cause.

Somebody's gotta do it. I'll do it if nobody else steps forward. That almost seems to be the mindset of young David, you know, when the armies of Israel were cowering before Goliath when he came out every morning.

If nobody else is gonna do it, I'm gonna do it. But the Lord assures his servants that he will enable and empower them whom he calls and sends. Here are the words of Alexander Maclaren. He was a preacher in London in the 19th century when there were good preachers in London, like Charles Spurgeon.

I have his complete set of sermons. We note first that all personal service should be preceded by intense realization of the immense field and the inadequacy of Christian effort, which vision will culminate in prayer for more toilers to be sent forth.

I wish this was right at the top of our prayer list continuously as a church. The word implies a certain measure of compulsion. For an overmastering impulse is always needed to overcome human reluctance and laziness.

No man has ever done large service for God who has not felt that, like the prophet he was laid hold of by the spirit born away, whether he would or not or no. I must speak is felt by every true messenger of God.

The prayer was answered by sending the prayers. Often is, in other words, the one praying, Lord, send somebody. Nobody sends, well, I'll go. I thought of William Carey. You know, he spent years there in London urging his fellow hyper-Calvinist Baptists to start a mission to the heathen, and they resisted and they hesitated.

Well, I'll go, and, you know, he went to India, translated the Bible, I think, into 39 dialects through the rest of his life, became recognized by everybody, all Protestantism, as the father of modern-day missions.

But further, take note of the importance the Lord gives to pray that God would send forth laborers, and no doubt for his blessing upon their labor and for his provision and protection of his servants.

It's spiritual work. It's a spiritual work that any of us can perform in the master's service, but it takes the blessing of God, doesn't it? J .C. O 'Reil wrote about this. Now, he was Church of England fellow.

He was a good one back in the 19th century, and a solid evangelical, a Reformed guy, but he speaks about the Anglicanism. Prayer is one of the best and most powerful means of helping forward the cause of Christ in the world.

It is a means within the reach of all who have the spirit of adoption. In other words, every Christian, this is something that you can do. Not all believers have money to give to missions. Very few have great intellectual gifts or extensive influence among men, but all believers can pray for it daily.

Many and marvelous are the answers to prayer which are recorded for our learning in the Bible. The effectual fervent prayer of the righteous man avails much. And then Reil gave this exhortation more narrowly to preachers.

Prayer is one of the principal weapons which the minister of the gospel ought to use. To be true successor of the apostles, he must give himself to prayer as well as to the ministry of the word. He must not only use the sword of the spirit, but pray always with all prayer and supplication.

This is the way to win a blessing on his own ministry. This above all is the way to procure helpers to carry on Christ's work. Colleges may educate men, bishops may ordain men. There's his church of England coming through.

Patrons may give them livings, but God alone can raise up and send forth laborers who will do work among souls. For a constant supply of such labors, let us pray, let us daily pray, amen. And so may we be praying much so that we may see the works of God greatly blessed through us.

And may we pray frequently and fervently that God would call and send many laborers to harvest the many needy souls, bringing them into the kingdom of God. In my opinion, one of the great problems in evangelicalism is there are a lot of uncalled men in the pulpit.

And that, to me, is an indication of God's judgment, a famine of the word of God. Yeah, I talk to a lot of people. I get calls from New Hampshire and Maine, you know, our radio listeners and whatnot in this area too.

They look long and hard, and they're not looking for much. They're just looking for a church with a faithful man who's going to declare the Bible. Had a lady call me Friday, was here in the church. I happened to be here in the kitchen.

And she expressed this, this desire. She heard our program on Romans. And so I didn't realize that. I told her I'd send her a flash drive. She wanted CDs. It would have taken me 50 CDs. But I put it all on a flash drive.

I think there was like 175 radio programs on Romans that she wanted. So it's all posted and ready to go. But there is a hunger and a desire, and people know when they're not hearing it. And they long for it.

That is the people of God. Well, we next read in verse three, go your way, behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves. And so the work that they will perform will be perilous. The Lord warns them clearly, directly of the danger of serving him.

Jesus warns them of the intense hatred and vicious opposition that they would encounter as they represented him where he was sending them. I think of Pastor Prem in India and all those church planters.

They're persecuted with that Hindu culture and the Hindu government. They're being imprisoned. Now here in Luke 10, the opposition, of course, would be from the Jewish leaders who had opposed Jesus from the beginning.

As the Lord would say at another place, a disciple is not above his master, nor a servant, or above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It's enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher and a servant like his master.

If they call the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they call those of his household?

Much more.

And so this warning was to these 70 disciples with view to their short-term mission, but it has remained true of the Lord's people throughout this kingdom age. Martin Luther once said, Cain will murder Abel, and if he can, to the very end of the world.

Now the Lord will protect his laborers, but they're to be always alert to the danger that is before them. The Lord Jesus did not entrust himself to everyone because he knew what was in man. And so those who work in God's kingdom are gonna have opposition.

Those who are active in the work of the kingdom will be misunderstood and misrepresented because, you know, the word of the kingdom, you're confronting people with things they're doing wrong, things they're thinking wrong, telling that they're wrong and they need to change and believe certain things they don't wanna believe.

There's a heart contrary to it. And so the best way they can justify themselves is to discredit the one who's telling them these things. It comes with the work. But note the Lord regards his workers as his lambs.

Well, this suggests several matters. First, servants of the Lord are lambs and that he has tender concern for them, those who seek to further his kingdom. He regards them as his friends, his brethren, his lambs over which he has peculiar interest and concern.

I think that the idea of metaphor of lamb speaks of their vulnerability and their weakness. They're helpless and also to the degree they're ignorant of the danger that they would encounter. The Lord felt need to warn them.

And there are continual warnings in scripture given to God's people to beware. And there's generally two reasons for this need to be alert. The opposition's extreme malice is often coupled with incredible subtlety.

And then again, there's this crass ignorance of the Lord's people that makes them vulnerable to dangerous men in their teaching. They're lambs. The people of God are quite naive, all too trusting of others and this leads us to the third matter.

The Lord's servants, his lambs, because they're ignorant in general. I don't know about you, but I feel my ignorance so often. It's commonly said that sheep are stupid beasts. Surely lambs must be quite dull.

These disciples, as we've already pointed out, are quite limited in their knowledge as well as limited in their experience. The Lord's lambs are ignorant creatures generally. We don't know what's coming.