Journey to the Cross: Pray-“Lord, I am a worker” – Luke 10:1-24

[0:00] Amen. Welcome to be seated. If you're a guest with us today, we're in a sermon series where we are walking with Jesus on his last journey to Jerusalem.

[0:14] That begins in Luke chapter nine, verse 51. And then at the conclusion of that last journey to Jerusalem, Jesus will then, we will look at his last week, often called the Passion Week of Christ.

[0:29] And so we will look at the last week. And then as we approach Easter, we will look at his last hour on Good Friday, and then we will celebrate his resurrection on Easter Sunday.

[0:41] And so we are walking through the some chapters in the gospel of Luke, looking at his last journey. So if you have your Bible in turn to Luke chapter 10, we will be looking at verses one through 24.

[0:55] But before we get there, I just want to share with you the title of the message today is that the responsibility and joy of being sent.

[1:07] That there is both a responsibility and there is a joy about being one who is sent by the Lord, being a disciple who is sent out into this world to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ.

[1:19] And we're going to look at that and that responsibility and joy comes, you face it in a lot of different relationships. There's a responsibility of a child in a family and a joy of being a child placed in a family.

[1:34] There's a responsibility and joy of being a spouse in a marriage. There's a responsibility to being a husband, to being a wife, but there's also a joy of being a husband and being a wife.

[1:45] There's a responsibility being an employee to your employer, being a worker. There's a responsibility and there's a joy that comes along with that.

[1:56] And but here today we're going to talk about the responsibility and the joy of being one of Jesus sent ones. And so if you have your Bible, we will read our text for today.

[2:11] And I'm going to only read verse through verse 16 right now and we'll conclude the rest later. But one through 16 Luke chapter 10 reads this.

[2:22] And after the Lord had appointed seventy two others and sent them ahead of him two by two into every town in place where he himself was about to go.

[2:33] And he said to them, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.

[2:44] Go your way. Behold, I am sending you out as lambs into the midst of wolves. Carry no money bag, no knapsack, no sandals and greet no one on the road.

[2:56] Whatever house you enter first say peace be to this house. And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him, but if not, it will return to you and remain in the same house eating and drinking whatever they provide for a laborer deserves his wages.

[3:16] Do not go from house to house. Whatever town you enter and they receive you eat whatever is set before you. Heal the sick in it and say to them, the kingdom of God has come near to you.

[3:30] But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you go into its streets and say even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off against you.

[3:43] Nevertheless, know this that the kingdom of God has come near. I tell you, it is more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town. And woe to you, Corzin, and woe to you, but Seda, for if the mighty works in the midst of the harvest, the mighty works done in you had been done in tire and siden, they would have repented long ago sitting in sackcloth and ashes.

[4:08] But it will be more bearable in the judgment for tire and siden than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted in heaven?

[4:19] You shall be brought down to Hades. The one who hears you hears me and the one who rejects you rejects me and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me.

[4:33] We concluded last week with Jesus being asked by three different followers, I want to follow you. I want to follow you. And Jesus then told each of those three individuals something very hard.

[4:48] He knew their idol of their heart. One wanted to go bury his father, one of them wanted to bid farewell to his family. And each time Jesus said something very hard, but also very good to each one of those disciples that caused them to evaluate their life, whether they really wanted to follow Christ.

[5:12] So the cost of discipleship was high and immediately on those heels, and we're not told explicitly what those three individuals did. Did they end up following Jesus or did they not? Did they rise to the occasion or did they not?

[5:23] We don't really know, but the tone of the whole setting indicates that they probably turned away and didn't follow Christ. So on the heels of that passage, we say in verse one, the Luke records in verse one, that after the Lord had, after this, meaning perhaps after those who had turned away, the Lord had appointed 72 others and sent them ahead of him, two by two, in every town and place.

[5:53] So what is Jesus doing? He is saying, okay, I've appointed you, you 72. And some of your translations may say 70, and there's a manuscript difference between two different manuscripts.

[6:09] And so some translations prefer to use the word number 70, some say 72. But so if I say 72, that's just, just know that there's no real difference between the two.

[6:20] It's just a manuscript for the translators of why there's a difference there. But they went two by two into every town and place where Jesus was about to go visit, where he was about to go.

[6:34] And he said, and they appointed them. The only other time that this word, appoint, is used is when Matthias is chose as the 12th apostle after Judas had gone and hung himself.

[6:49] And so Jesus then uses this word to appoint. And so he had chosen these 72 individuals. He had appointed them and said, now I'm sending you to go ahead.

[7:03] And you say, why two by two? Well, if you think in the Old Testament in Deuteronomy 19 verse 15, it says, on the evidence of two or three witnesses, a matter is confirmed.

[7:14] Can you imagine going into a village and saying, we have met the Messiah, we are followers of the Messiah, and the Messiah has sent us to proclaim the good news to you. He has healed the blind, he has raised people from the dead, he has walked on water.

[7:28] These miracles are confirming the message and the messenger himself. We know the Messiah, his name is Jesus, he's coming to your town. If you were alone and you were a Jew, you would say, who else can testify to this?

[7:45] This is crazy. What you're talking about is miraculous. And so to have two by two, the other can confirm, oh, we have seen.

[7:58] I can testify to what this man is saying, it is true, for I have seen it as well. So he sends them out two by two. And so what is the responsibility that is included in communicating the gospel?

[8:16] What does this responsibility look like? It's required of the content, no, I'm sorry, it is required of a messenger that one be content in the Lord's provision.

[8:30] Look with me in verses one through four. There are several things that they are to do. And we're going to look at the first one. The first attitude element is they should share in his compassion.

[8:42] In verse two, when it reads, the harvest is plentiful and the laborers are few. When Matthew records this, of when Jesus sent out the twelve disciples, when he records this event, when he says the same thing to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.

[9:00] I want to read Jesus' remarks just before that from the Gospel of Matthew. We read this. Jesus was going through all the cities and the villages teaching in every synagogue and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom.

[9:15] In healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness, seeing the people, he felt compassion for them because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.

[9:28] What was it? And then he says to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. But he preceding that, he is moved by the compassion of the condition of the people that moves him to say, I'm sending now you out just like I'm sending the twelve disciples.

[9:49] I'm now sending you the seventy-two disciples. I'm sending you out because I have compassion for people.

[10:00] So I think one of the heart attitudes to be content with the Lord's provision, one of the things the Lord's provision is for us to have compassion for his people. And it's interesting all the times that's mentioned when Jesus was moved with compassion.

[10:14] Jesus was moved with compassion, as I said, when he healed the sick, when he fed the four thousand, when he fed the five thousand, when he healed the two blind men, when he healed the leper, when he was outside the town of Nain, he interrupted a whole funeral processional to raise a young boy from the dead and give him back to his mom.

[10:38] This word compassion comes from the word intestines. It's as if to feel it in the pit of your stomach is like an English way of saying the same kind of thing when Jesus was moved with compassion.

[10:52] He was moved in his guts, if you will. So I want us to be moved with compassion as we are sent out as disciples to proclaim the gospel.

[11:10] May it be a motivation of compassion that someone does not know the Lord. We know their eternal destiny and our compassion leads us to move us to share.

[11:25] The second element that I want to talk about is we need to seek his resources. In the condition is there's a labor shortage, right?

[11:38] The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. There's help wanted signs everywhere throughout town today. There's a labor shortage in Spokane and around the world, our nation actually.

[11:50] This is not a labor shortage of labor of workers, but the workers in the harvest, the harvest of souls. Because of that worker shortage, we need to be content with the Lord's provision because then he says, I'll tell you what you ought to do, we need to seek his resources, so it says, therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.

[12:21] Not only do we as members and believers of Jesus Christ need to be the sent ones who go, but we also need to pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into, notice it says, into his harvest.

[12:39] It's his world, it's his harvest, it's his people. I'm not his people, but it's his harvest that we are being sent out into.

[12:51] And we need to pray earnestly. I pray last night we had a prayer, online prayer meeting and we're facilitating that and we prayed that, Lord would you raise up more individuals to go into the most unreached, the great commission of, go therefore and make disciples of all nations, who among us could be raised up to go to all those nations, to among those nations to reach them for the gospel of Christ.

[13:19] And so we're to pray earnestly and I am humbled by this because it was good for me to be reminded. And this is pray earnestly, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest.

[13:33] This next Wednesday we'll have a prayer and praise service and we'll have opportunity to pray earnestly. Lord would you who among us could go help us to raise up boys and girls, youth, college students, young adults, retirees to go into your harvest.

[13:52] Our responsibility is to be content with his provision and his provision is to send out laborers. It is why we are going to, we're looking many of you know in a year and a half to plant a church on the South Hill.

[14:09] I'm grateful for Pastor Eric and for those who will be sent with him to reach those on the South Hill. And the implication is when someone comes to know Christ in his harvest that they become now part of the sent ones who will reach others for the gospel of Christ.

[14:26] So why do we go to the South Hill? Because those who we hope to pray to reach on the South Hill will then become part of the labor force that is sent into the harvest and reach more on the South Hill. Same with here in Spokane.

[14:39] Same with here at 4th. It is why Danny, Danny are you here and could you stand please? We texted this morning, I know you're here, there she is.

[14:50] Could you please remain standing for a minute? It's why Danny shortly at the end of this month will be going to, for security purposes I want to just say to the country she's looking at being sent to, to take a vision trip, to meet some potential teammates, to lay eyes and to hear about the unreached peoples that are in the nation that she wants to go.

[15:18] It feels like the Lord is leading her to, she's gone and got training. So we look forward to saying, Lord, we send Danny as one of your laborers into your harvest.

[15:30] And so it's why we send Danny. Thank you Danny. It's why we send Charis and Tyler who are at a ministry preparing to reach the most unreached.

[15:43] And for both Danny and Charis and Tyler, what they're going to be doing is spending the next 20, Lord, willing 30 years of their life reaching one unreached people group, having to learn two languages, one of the country to be able to do business in the country and then one of the native language of their people that they're going to go to.

[16:04] The cost of what they're going to be doing in the timeframe is long for the sake of the gospel. I'm grateful. And Lord, could we pray as a church?

[16:17] Lord, would you send more? Would you raise up more? We pray earnestly to you. Would you raise up laborers to send into your harvest?

[16:28] And that includes all of us though, not just Danny, not just Charis and Tyler. Next, we have, I'm sorry, there's an attitude element of to obey his commands.

[16:46] Look with me in verse three. We need to be content with the Lord's provision, but in that contentment of the Lord's provision, we need to be obedient to his commands. Verse three, go your way.

[16:58] This is a present imperative verb that means go and keep going. Go and keep going. So he sends to 72 and he says, go your way. Go and keep going. And behold, I am sending you out as lambs unto the wolves.

[17:11] Now, I don't know about you, but I don't like that prospect. Lambs are defenseless animals into the midst of wolves.

[17:23] And they are to go and keep going even in the most adverse circumstances. And you think, what did these 72 people know?

[17:36] It's not like they're the one of the 12 disciples that had been with Jesus for three and a half years. We don't know how long these followers were with him. But listen to a person who just met Jesus for the first time.

[17:48] After he just met Jesus for the first time, the scales of his eyes had fallen off. He understood who Jesus was and he wanted to follow Jesus.

[17:59] And this is what he was. And this is the garrison demoniac who was liberated from so many demons out of him. And he wanted to follow Jesus and he says to Jesus, I want to follow you.

[18:13] And Jesus turns to him and says, return to your household and describe what great things God has done for you. Go. He just understood who Jesus was and he was sent out to be a messenger, a laborer in the harvest.

[18:32] And all he knows is, and Jesus just tells him, just tell people, just tell him. Describe the great things God has done for you. That's all.

[18:43] Just do that. And his response was, and he went up way. And it records proclaiming throughout the whole city the great things that God had done for him.

[19:00] He comes to faith in Christ. He wants to follow Jesus. Jesus says, no, what I want is for you to just go tell people the great things that I've done for you.

[19:13] And he does it. So one of the things to be content with the Lord's provision is to obey his commands. One of the ways we obey his commands is just to do and to be sent out.

[19:26] We come to faith in Christ and we're sent out as laborers into his harvest. And what we do is we proclaim the things that God has done for us.

[19:39] And he sends us out as lambs in the midst of wolves. It is important for us to be innocent and vigilant while lambs and believers are, if you will, defenseless.

[19:56] Our strength is in our shepherd. I love at the conclusion of the Great Commission, go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all of them, commanded you.

[20:14] And then probably my favorite line of that whole thing is this, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. So yes, I'm sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves, but I am your shepherd and I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

[20:35] You may be defenseless, but I am your defender. The attitude element that we're also to have here that we read is there's this acceptance of God's provision.

[20:48] In verse 4, carry no money bag, no knapsack, no sandals, greet no one on the road, and whatever house you enter first, and you say peace to be this house, and if the Son of Peace greets you and rests upon him, stay there.

[21:08] And in verse 7, remain in that house, eating and drinking whatever they provide. And then that is emphasized in verse 8, and whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat whatever is set before you.

[21:30] I have taken many on mission trips, and I can attest that I have gone with more resources than they were permitted.

[21:41] But I love that he is saying, you'll have to depend upon me for everything, sandals, your food, where you will lay your head, everything.

[21:58] And the whole thing of don't greet anyone on the road, he's communicating, not be cold and heartless about not greeting anyone, that's not what he's communicating, but he wants it to be clear that salvation will come based on who Christ is, not necessarily your friendship.

[22:18] And so we want to reach these villages and these towns. We need to be content with the Lord's provision. I also appreciate why is he saying, placing so much emphasis, eat whatever is set before you and stay at that same house.

[22:39] The false prophets would have been a people that would have thought, if I stay at this other person's house, they have A, a bigger house, they have more pillows on their bed, and I would be better accommodated over there.

[22:54] And so their character would have weakened the gospel that they would have preached. And so Jesus wants to be very clear, make sure your character matches the gospel that you proclaim and don't let your actions undermine the very message of salvation.

[23:13] Stay there, eat whatever they have. One of the best testimonies, Elijah, just to let a little window into Scott's mind, Elijah is probably one of my favorite Old Testament prophets.

[23:25] He's a unique character, but one of the stories that I appreciate about Elijah is that he basically tells Ahab, it's not going to rain until the Lord leads me to pray and then it will rain, but I'm pronouncing if you will, a famine in the land, it's not going to rain.

[23:40] And it doesn't rain for about three and a half years. For the first year, the Lord provides for him by a brook, by the brook called Carroth on the east side of the Jordan River.

[23:51] And there the Lord provides for him. And then the brook dries up. There's no rain, the brook dries up, he's got to get moving. And so the Lord then prepares a place for him and he says, go find the woman at Zarephath, a widow, and she will care for you there.

[24:09] I will care for you there. Now, he gets to the village, Zarephath, he meets this widow and she is ready to cook her last meal for she and her son and die.

[24:25] That's how destitute she is. That's her heart attitude. That's the time and place. And if I'm a prophet of God being sent to a widow in the midst to a pagan widow who isn't even Jewish, she's a foreigner from Israel.

[24:47] She's in the midst of a people who worship bail to go to a foreign land to be cared for a foreign woman who happens to have lost her husband. She is destitute.

[24:59] She has only one son and they're about ready to have their last meal and then just die. That is not who I want to be sent to to be cared for.

[25:12] But Elijah stays there and the Lord miraculously provides for him for two another two years. And here's the point of this section and what I'm saying is let us not allow our character to undermine the message.

[25:31] And if the Lord chooses for you to be provided for there in that house with that food you stay there with joy. And you communicate because they have received you and I've appointed them for you to stay there.

[25:47] Character will communicate the authenticity of your message. Next, we come to a section where there to be faithful with the message.

[26:12] There to be faithful with the message and last I want to read and I'm sorry I missed that point earlier in mentioning it as far as a bullet point but there to be faithful with the message verses five through nine and then we get to verses 10.

[26:28] They need to be diligent to declare God's judgment. What happens so far in this section the attitude of the village is that they would have welcomed this message.

[26:40] If they receive you, you stay there, you eat, you lodge there, you proclaim the kingdom of God has come. But what if they don't hear you? Verses 10.

[26:51] But whatever you enter a town and they do not receive you, going to the streets and say, even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we will wipe off against you.

[27:04] Nevertheless, know this that the kingdom of God has come near. And I tell you it is more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.

[27:20] This is, this would have been shocking to the original hearers because what they were to do, this village does not accept the message that I'm proclaiming about Jesus who's coming to this town, they're not going to receive it.

[27:38] And so I'm to wipe even the dust of the village off from that town which is a sign of disdain. And then I'm supposed to do something, wipe the dust off, I'm supposed to say something, the thing that they were to say is that the kingdom of God has come near.

[27:54] And then Jesus tells them why. And then he says in verse 12, I tell you that it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.

[28:09] That would have been hard to understand. Likely this is a Jewish town that they're in and so why is it that this little Jewish town that just didn't simply receive Jesus and the message of the gospel, why is it going to be more bearable for Sodom than for that town?

[28:28] And then to make the point further, Jesus communicates and he says, I know this is shocking so let me further illustrate. Well to you Corzine, well to you Bethsaida, for if the mighty works done in you had been done and tire and siden, they would have repented long ago sitting in sackcloth and ashes, but it was more bearable in the judgment for tire and siden than for you and for you Capernaum.

[28:52] And then he continues, so let me try to illustrate this. Why would this have been shocking? And I think it's helpful to look at a map.

[29:04] So here's the Sea of Galilee and here we find Bethsaida on the north and Corzine just around the Sea of Galilee and there's Capernaum.

[29:16] And to help us understand or appreciate what is being communicated is these were Jewish towns that would have been very familiar with Jesus.

[29:29] Jesus did a lot of his ministry up around the Sea of Galilee. They would have heard the stories, Jesus walked on water, that's the body of water he walked on. Jesus, they would have been very familiar with healings.

[29:41] We know that in Bethsaida, that Peter and Andrew were from Bethsaida, James and John had their fishing business in Capernaum.

[29:53] This is where Jesus taught at Capernaum synagogue. This would have been Jesus and his healings and his ministry would have been done in those towns and they would have definitely heard about it in the surrounding areas.

[30:07] So he says, woe to you, Corzine, woe to you, Bethsaida, for if the mighty works, the miracles that had been done in you that would have been done entire inside and they would have repented long ago sitting in sackcloth and ashes.

[30:26] So now we go to the broader. So here is Corzine and Bethsaida up here on the Sea of Galilee, rather here. And then you have Tyre and Sidon over here on the coastal cities that were Phoenician-Pagan cities.

[30:39] These were cities, Corzine, I'm sorry, Tyre and Sidon that both Elijah and Ezekiel prophesied against because of their wickedness.

[30:50] And so Jesus is saying, woe to you, Bethsaida, woe to you, Corzine, for if my mighty works had been done entire inside and they would have repented.

[31:04] If they had seen the miracles, if I had done what I had done in your villages, they would have repented, but you did not. And then in verse 15, and you, Capernaum, will you be exalted in heaven?

[31:22] Because that's what they think. This is like the hometown of Jesus. This is base town for Jesus' ministry. Capernaum on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee.

[31:34] You think you'll be exalted in heaven? Will you be exalted? The question? And he says, surely you shall be brought down to Hades. And so that's why it would have been shocking.

[31:48] Now read with me in verse 12. I tell you, it would be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town. Now think of it. We all know what happened to Sodom.

[32:00] God rained down judgment in a severe way. Fire and brimstone in a severe way. God judged that town. And he says, that town that you just left, that village that you just left, that didn't hear your message about me, it will be more bearable for Sodom than for that town that just rejected me.

[32:25] That's hard to imagine, because here's what we do. We like to, like many others, put sin on a scale, and so let me be real clear.

[32:36] All sin condemns a person to eternity separated from God. All sin does that. But not all sins are equal in consequence.

[32:48] And so what we do sometimes is we'll say things like, you know, lying is not a good sin, but that's there. And then there's stealing. And then there's immorality, adultery, homosexuality, there's murder.

[33:04] And notice what Jesus is doing. He is elevating a rejection of Christ as the worst of sins that were committed in Sodom.

[33:16] You think the sins of Sodom were bad and receive a heated judgment. But I will tell you what is worse. And notice the comparable language, comparable language in verse 12.

[33:28] It will be more bearable on that day, speaking of the day of judgment. And then look with me in verse 14. It will be more bearable on that day for Tyre and Sidon than for you.

[33:39] If you will, however you want to rank sins, the worst of all sins is to reject Jesus as Messiah, is to reject. That is the worst of all sin.

[33:55] That will receive the heat of God's judgment. Some may say, and let me share with you when this may take place.

[34:13] There's three judgments in Scripture. There's the sheep goat judgment. There's the judgment seat of Christ for believers. And then there's a great white throne judgment for unbelievers alone. In this unbeliever alone judgment, they are all there because their names are not written in the Lamb's book of life.

[34:31] In that judgment, this is what we read in Revelation 20. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing there, and the books were open.

[34:44] Another book was open, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead, and the death and Hades gave up the dead, who were in them, and they were judged each one of them according to what they had done.

[35:03] The death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire, which is the second death, and anyone not found in the book of life is thrown into the lake of fire. So at this judgment, all at the great white throne judgment, all names are not found in the book of life.

[35:19] They all will be thrown in the lake of fire. But in addition to them spinning eternity separated from God in torment, they are judged, it says, based on what they had done.

[35:30] Here's my point. The worst offense someone could do based upon what they had done is a rejection of the good news of Jesus Christ.

[35:48] If the good works had been done that were done in Corzen and Bethsaida, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented. But it would be more bearable for them in the day of judgment than for you, Corzen and Bethsaida, because you heard the news.

[36:06] You heard testimony of me. You had the abundance of evidence of who I am. And you rejected. So then he communicates to the 72 who just went out.

[36:20] Verse 16, the one who hears you hears me. And the one who rejects you rejects me. And the one who rejects him who sent me.

[36:34] So he says, listen, if those villages that receive you, they receive me. But those who reject your message, they're actually rejecting me. And they're rejecting the one who sent me as the Father.

[36:46] And that's the highest worst offense. That brings me to say this. Sometimes we get upset with all kinds of heinous sins in our culture today.

[36:59] And we say, oh, that is like the bottom of the barrel of sin. But I don't think we often put at the top of the bottom of the barrel, the worst of sin is the rejection of the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

[37:13] Any light that is given to someone about the knowledge of truth that is rejected, that's the worst. That's the worst. And the more light that is rejected, the harsher the judgment for those who don't know the Lord.

[37:28] And I pray none of us should be pleased about this. And I pray that compassion should well up with us to say, I have a responsibility as a sent one to communicate the gospel so that no one has to face that judgment.

[37:47] I pray that we are moved with compassion about the reality of this. I'm concerned more for the person who attends church each week, who does not respond to the gospel of Jesus Christ, who reads words on screens of words we declare in worship, who witness the testimony of the life, death and resurrection of Christ in the communion that we take with his body that was broken and his blood that was shed for us, who reject the pictorial illustration of the life and death and resurrection of Christ.

[38:29] And baptism, what is baptism? A picture of the gospel. We have come to believe in the life, death and resurrection of Christ for the forgiveness of sin. Someone who sees and hears and hears the word proclaimed every week and rejects that.

[38:51] That's a lot of light rejected. And for children who grow up in homes, who turn their back against all that they've heard over the years, my heart is heavy.

[39:08] I pray that we would be moved with compassion. Okay. That is the responsibility of being one who is sent. But there's a joy of being a sent one.

[39:19] Notice, we don't know how much time went by, but Jesus just would have sent out his disciples at this point, and now they have returned already in verse 17. And the 72 returned, listen to their joy.

[39:31] And the 72 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.

[39:42] And behold, I have given you the authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.

[39:58] The 70 returned. And notice what they celebrate over, that we have divine power over Satan. Verses 17 and 18, with joy, the thing they rejoice, even the demons are subject to us.

[40:14] And Jesus responds to them, yes, not only should you take joy in that, but you have protection from Satan's demons, the kingdom, because the word serpents and scorpions is a metaphor for demonic hosts, if you will.

[40:31] For I have given you authority to tread on demonic hosts, if you will, and over the powers of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. So you have divine protection. And then lastly, but I love verse 20, but of all the things that you should take joy in, of all the things you should, do not rejoice in this, though, that the spirits are subject to you.

[40:53] Notice, but if you're going to rejoice, rejoice in this, that your names are written in heaven. And they would have clearly understood the implication of that, just based on what he just said about the woes to Corzan and Bethsaida.

[41:11] It would have been crystal clear, oh, thank you, Lord, that I responded to the truth that was revealed to you, and you chose me by your sovereign grace, and I responded to you.

[41:25] Thank you that my name is written in heaven. Let that be where your joy is. But what's so unique is the joy doesn't stop with us.

[41:39] Jesus himself rejoices. He said, this is what you should respond, this is what you should be joyful in, but let me share with you how I take joy.

[41:50] In verse 21 through the end, verse 24, and then we'll finish. In the same hour, he was rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and the understanding and revealed them to little children.

[42:09] Yes, Father, such was your grace as well. All things have been handed over to me by the Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, or who the Father is except for the Son, anyone whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

[42:27] Then turning to his disciples, he said privately, blessed are the eyes that see what you see, and I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see the things that you see and did not see it, and hear what you hear and do not hear it.

[42:46] Jesus takes incredible joy, and it is rooted in the Father's ultimate pleasure in his Son. I thank you, Father.

[42:57] Jesus, my ultimate pleasure is in you. Thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for you have hidden these things. Jesus' ultimate pleasure and joy is in the Father.

[43:12] And it's also rooted in his joy, the Savior's joy. Jesus' joy is rooted in the supremacy that God the Father has given him, and then he concludes with the Savior's joy on your behalf.

[43:31] Turning to the disciples, he said privately, blessed are the eyes who see. Blessed are the eyes who see. The things that were concealed in history past, blessed are the eyes that see.

[43:47] And I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see these things and did not see, and hear what you hear but did not hear it.

[43:58] What is it that these 72, and those who responded to the 72, heard? What is it that we know about Jesus that we are blessed by? What is it that we have seen and heard?

[44:11] Let me just mention a few. We understood the great truths that the Messiah has come, that salvation of God had been revealed, that the work of redemption has been accomplished, the promised kingdom has been offered, the Old Testament prophecies, promises and covenants are fulfilled in Christ.

[44:32] Who would make the final offer for sin? Satan had met his conqueror. Demons are completely dominated. Diseases have been vanquished. Nature has had to be submitted.

[44:43] Death defeated has been defeated through Christ. And on and on and on we could go, but let me just mention one thing, that forgiveness offered and eternal life has been granted to all who believe.

[44:59] And Jesus has joy for that reality on everyone's behalf who believes. There is a responsibility and there is a joy for being sent.

[45:18] And I pray that we would be among the sent ones who take this responsibility, who have a burden rooted in the compassion for those who don't know Him to communicate the gospel.

[45:33] I am grateful for you who share with your neighbor. Who is it that the Lord has burdened you in your heart to share Christ for? Who is it who has had an abundant amount of light of truth revealed to them that has rejected?

[45:49] And you know they're headed toward a heated time of judgment unless they repent. Who is that that you could go to and appeal one more time and say please repent?

[46:04] And then let us have delight ourselves that our names are written in heaven. And let us take joy in that. And let us take joy having seen and heard things that had been concealed from long ago.

[46:20] What a privilege of being sent. Let's pray. Father, thank you so much for this day, for the privilege of being a sent one.

[46:31] I pray that we would be a people who would honor you with our lives. Lord, thank you for those who have repented and believed in you, that our names are written in the book of life and are written in heaven.

[46:48] Thank you Lord. You're kind. I pray that you would receive worship now as we sing to you and express our immense gratitude to you.

[47:03] We love you and it's in your name we pray.