Pastor Scott Andrews | May 25, 2025
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Luke 10:1-16
Some meandering thoughts by way of introduction. The longer I read and study the Scriptures, the more confronted I am by the depth of its truth and the breadth of its commands. The all-encompassing nature of its expectations placed on followers of Christ. The comprehensiveness of its demanded surrender to the Lordship of Jesus. This hit quite home with me as I reflected on the text last week and studied the text for this week. You understand, the Scripture is the very word of God. To spend time in it is either to be confronted and changed or hardened. To hear it and not be changed is to be hardened – there is no neutrality. You can’t hear it and do nothing.
You see, if we take our sovereign God at His word, there is to be no bargaining, no dismissal, no reinterpretation, no lessening of meaning and no reimagining of its demands on Christ followers; last week, and this. Oh, but we love, even cling to the fact that we live in a different world today. Certainly. in a different country which prizes religious freedom, we don’t face the same challenges as the early disciples and the early church. True, but does any of that dismiss or diminish Christ’s exhaustive commands on His followers?
Further, when we say we believe in the sovereignty of God – that is, His absolute and unquestioned control over creation – there is no place for arrogance or argument. If we hear God’s word and allow it to speak without preconceived notions or self-aggrandized vision or self-serving meaning, we are simply overwhelmed and ultimately humbled. As we should be. He is God, and we are not. And so, the challenge is not with God, but with me and that stubborn, ever-present streak of rebellious pride. Which, in our lofty self-assessment can lead to a dismissal or diminishing of the text last week and this.
We caught a clear glimpse of all that last week when three would-be disciples came to Jesus with the apparent attitude, I’ll follow You wherever you go. Of course, those were just mere words without corresponding self-surrender and self-mortification. So, Jesus went right to the heart of the matter with each one: you’ll follow Me if I give you comfort? Is that what you want? The foxes have holes, the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.
You’ll follow me with your future secure? You want financial security in order to follow? Let the dead bury their own dead with all their empty promises of safety and security – they still die. Let them die – you, proclaim the kingdom of God wherever you go. You’ll follow me if others approve? You want acceptance? You want to hold onto both worlds? No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. All hard words. But do they produce change?
In all those, these would-be disciples had audacious pre-conditions they placed on Jesus – I will follow you, if. And He, in effect, turned them down. Turned them away. You see, you cannot keep a foot in both worlds. You cannot love God and love this world with its empty promises at the same time. Oh, but the call of the culture and the animosity of the world are so strong. So true. And so, have we created a religion, a facsimile of Christianity, that tips its hat at God and continues to pursue the world? Is our problem that we plow with and for the world, and occasionally glance back at Christ? I’m quite reflective this morning – these are questions I asked myself this week. And I’m not entirely confident in my answers. Dare I say, I have been reproved, crushed by God’s word and its demands.
You see, these three were not willing to give it all up to follow Jesus. If we decide to follow Jesus, there can be no turning back. He will be everything, or He will be nothing. Jesus exposed them, and perhaps in the process, exposes us. Unless, of course, we ignore this passage – dismiss it, reinterpret it, lessen it, reimagine it. But then we find, it’s all over the Bible.
To be clear, salvation is free – Jesus has done it all – but He also places extraordinary demands on the citizens of His kingdom. Which presents significant challenge to us western Christians who like to celebrate our freedom in Christ and forget that freedom is from slavery to sin and its dreadful consequences, and now slavery to righteousness with its expectations and joy-filled promise.
I told you I was meandering. Here’s my point. The texts last week and this contain hard truths. And we can read it, study it, and if we’re not careful, dismiss it. Go on with our happy lives. I was personally confronted – and I trust as people who trust in a sovereign, commanding God that you will be as well. Not just confronted but changed.
You see, there were some truly committed followers without precondition. Luke, chapter 10. It’s a passage unique to Luke, where Jesus sends true followers out to proclaim the kingdom. To prepare people for the coming of the Messiah. Oh, but the instructions He gave them, after confronting those last week, these were demanding. Let’s read the text – Luke 10:1-16.
There is not much wiggle room here to lessen the weight of these words. In sending out these 70 following upon the three spurious would-be disciples, Jesus laid out some expectations and challenges for these true disciples. Here’s a question, do they have any bearing on true disciples today? Are there principles here that apply to those who have put their hand to the plow? Hear the words of Jesus, and allow the word to confront you, today.
As I noted a moment ago, this sending of the seventy or seventy-two depending on your translation, is unique to Luke – because Luke had a passion to see the gospel spread throughout the world. Remember, the gospel of Luke is volume one of his two-volume work, the book of Acts is volume 2. And Acts is clearly concerned with showing how the gospel spread beyond the Jewish world to include, remarkably, Gentiles, of which Dr. Luke was one. The outline of the book of Acts is found right at its beginning, 1:8, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” So, the book of Acts traces that remarkable spread of the gospel throughout the then known world – through God’s choice, obedient servants. Who took His word seriously.
This is all important to understand Luke’s flow of argument. The Messiah Jesus came and accomplished His work of bringing the kingdom of God near through the gospel. He came to make the gospel available to all who would believe – Jews and Gentiles alike. Jesus started by demonstrating the authority of the kingdom through His teaching and miracles. He then called Twelve from among His disciples whom He sent out – who would eventually be tasked with leadership of this new movement called the Way – new in time but planned from before the foundation of the world.
And so, in the beginning process of this worldwide spread, the next sent out with the message of the kingdom were the seventy. Simply followers, disciples – no names, no special office like the Twelve. You see, every cross-bearing disciple is also a cross-proclaiming witness for Christ. Jesus commissions them; He sends them out with demanding expectations. Both in what they could expect to receive and in what He expected them to give. Then, in the book of Acts, others also go out with demanding expectations and experiences. So again, the question for us this morning is this: do these demanding expectations have any bearing for disciples of Jesus today? Or was it only for the Twelve, or the seventy, or the book of Acts, or for the first three hundred years of church history when followers paid for belief with their blood. Oh, but we live in a different world. Yeah, we do, but does that diminish the call, the commission to proclaim the kingdom? Well, let me outline the text for you as follows:
I. The Mission of the Seventy (1-12) – (And clearly I’m going to suggest it demands somewhat transfer to us today)
a. The Setting (1)
b. The Need of Prayer (2) (because of the enormity of the task)
c. The Expectation of Opposition (3) (another reason to pray)
d. The Preparation for the Mission (4)
e. The Instructions when Received (5-9)
f. The Instructions when Rejected (10-12)
II. The Woes on Those who Reject (13-16)
By the way, one of my favorite commentators had it, the priority of prayer, the presence of danger, the promise of provision, the peace of the kingdom welcomed, and the peril of the kingdom rejected.
It’s a lot to cover, so let’s start with the setting in verse 1. Now after this refers to the events of verses 51 and following. Knowing that the ascension was approaching, Jesus was determined to go to Jerusalem, knowing that would take Him through the cross. And He calls His disciples to similar sacrifice and suffering – not redemptively so, but because Jesus completed the work. After sending three would-be disciples away, Jesus appointed seventy others, sent them in pairs, two by two ahead of Him to every city and place He was going to come. Of course, He’s in heaven now after the ascension. But…is He still going to come? Does He still expect His followers to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom in preparation for His coming?
Again, your translation may have seventy-two. The manuscript evidence for each – 70 and 72 – is evenly divided. Some suggest it is seventy, since there were seventy nations listed in Genesis 10 – demonstrating again that Jesus was sent to the world. Some suggest since He was a new Moses creating a new Israel, these 70 represented the 70 who were appointed as elders to assist the first Moses. Some suggest these seventy represented the replacement of the ungodly Sanhedrin composed of seventy. In the end, Luke doesn’t tell us.
But he does tell us they were sent out two by two. A couple of likely reasons for that – two are better than one for mutual companionship and accountability. But also, OT law required the testimony of two witnesses to establish a fact. It’s interesting to note that two were required in the case of capital offenses requiring death. One suggested that since the message of the kingdom was the King had come to die – the gospel – it would take two witnesses to establish the fact. While the Twelve and the seventy didn’t understand that at this point – the fact remains that to establish His kingdom would require His death – and two witnesses – even through the book of Acts, were sent to declare the gospel – the fact of His death and resurrection.
As Jesus sent them, He told them, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore, beseech or pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers – the implication is, more laborers are needed for this harvest. This almost exactly the wording from Matthew 9, right before He sent out the Twelve. The harvest speaks of the eschatological judgment to come, when the sheep and the goats will be separated, when the wheat will be gathered into the barn, and the tares and the chaff will be burned up. Meaning, the harvest includes salvation for the saved, and judgment for the lost. It provides a sense of urgency, don’t you think?
Jesus will go on in a moment to elaborate on the results of the harvest – those who receive the message of the kingdom found in the gospel will receive the peace of God in everlasting life, and those who reject will receive the wrath of God in everlasting judgment. So, since the task is great, pray the Lord of the harvest will send out more laborers into His harvest. The message seems to be that God has many He will call to Himself, and the message of the gospel must be proclaimed. Because no one is saved apart from the gospel.
Now, I do believe in the sovereignty of God, and that all those predestined to be saved will be saved. That the Son will lose none of those given to Him by the Father. Absolutely. But God has also ordained the means to the end of salvation – that the gospel must be proclaimed and believed for people to be saved. How shall they believe in Him of whom they had not heard? And so, here Jesus sends out laborers – seventy of them – and tells them to pray that the Lord of the harvest will send out more laborers.
Which means at least three things: first, that the gospel must be proclaimed for people to believe – how will they hear without a preacher; and second, evangelism begins with prayer – asking that God will both send out laborers and that He will open the hearts of people to believe; and third, that since these are the means ordained by God, we have the responsibility not only to pray for effective workers in the harvest, but we have the responsibility to be those workers. If we are indeed followers, we proclaim the good news. Wherever we go, as Jesus said to one of the would-be disciples – go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God through the gospel.
But know this – behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. Not even sheep – but young sheep, little lambs, in the midst of a pack of angry, hungry wolves. The analogy is used throughout Scripture and is clear enough. You will proclaim the gospel to people who don’t want to hear it. Who will oppose you, persecute you, and in some cases, kill you. Understand the task I am calling you to requires self-surrender – denying yourself, taking up your cross, and following Me. Understand, the gospel you go to proclaim cost Me My life – and may cost yours. Not redemptively – that was My job. Now, yours is to proclaim it. You are sent. But remember this, as you go into a hostile world: sheep have a shepherd – in our case, the Good Shepherd, and nothing happens to His sheep without His sovereign and good control. It won’t be easy, but it will be good. Our Shepherd will lead us.
And so, as you go out into this hostile world, carry no money belt, which implies no money, no bag for carrying possessions since you won’t have any, no shoes or sandals – most agree, that means extra sandals, meaning, ministry in Jesus’ name should have not hint of ostentation. And interestingly, greet no one on the way. Don’t miss this – as you go from place to place – don’t be distracted. Don’t even stop to go through the then extensive formal greeting process in the Middle East. Jesus is not suggesting they be rude, but to not be sidetracked. In other words, there is an urgency to the mission. The harvest is plentiful, there is work to be done. You must have your priorities in order.
Can I tell you, this verse was one of the most convicting of the text to me. How often I, we, can be concerned about money and possessions – of having enough. How often can we be distracted by things in and of themselves not sinful – and yet they can be things which keep us from the eternal significance of the mission. Let me ask it this way – in the course of a week, how much of what we do is concerning our comfort, our security, other people important to us? You know, those things the three would-be disciples were concerned about. Compared to the message and mission of the kingdom.
You say, come on Scott, He’s clearly talking about missionaries giving up their lives for the sake of the gospel. Certainly He expects us to live our lives, right? (commend or condemn) Here’s a thought for you to ponder – how much time in the week is spent on living your life as compared to living His?
Which brings us to the instructions on how to respond when the message of the kingdom of peace through the gospel is received in verses 5-9. As you go from place to place, wherever you go proclaiming the kingdom of God, if you enter a house in Middle Eastern hospitality, first give an offer of peace to the house – it was a colloquial saying offering the peace of God upon the residents of the house. These were no mere magical words – there were words of real peace offered upon those who welcomed the Lord’s messengers and the message. We know, clearly, that the peace of God is received through faith in the gospel. This is simply shorthand. If there is a man of peace, more literally a son of peace there – meaning one who accepts you and your message, your offer of peace will rest on him – if not, it will return to you. He’ll expound that in a moment.
More instructions for the disciples – stay in that house – don’t keep moving from house to house looking for better accommodations – that’s what traveling philosophers and charlatans do. Stay there, eating and drinking what is provided. Whatever is set before you. Note, they have shelter and food – all that is needed. It’s really all we need. Why are we so worried about keeping up with the Joneses, which is defined as buying things we don’t really need with money we don’t really have to impress people we don’t even like.
For the laborer is worthy of his wages. Jesus said the same thing to the Twelve when He sent them out in Matthew 10. It’s a principle Jesus laid down that Paul picked up later – in fact, one of the few times Paul actually quotes Jesus. I Corinthians 9:14 says, “So also the Lord directed those who proclaim the gospel to get their living from the gospel.” In I Timothy 5, writing to Timothy a pastor in Ephesus, Paul says, “For the Scripture says, ‘You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing,’ and ‘The laborer is worthy of his wages.’” Surely there, and here, Paul and Jesus were talking about those in some form of vocational gospel ministry. That’s true.
But this does not absolve fully devoted followers from proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom wherever they go. Go, into your families, into the classroom, into workplace, into the neighborhood, into the ball fields. If you call yourself a disciple, a follower of Jesus, there is nothing more important than proclaiming His truth. When you sit down with a neighbor at the dinner table, you eat what is provided or what you provide, and look for opportunities to share gospel truth. If you simply and only talk about the weather or the kids or work or sports or politics or the other neighbors, are you not in fact simply greeting one on the way. Don’t mishear me – I’m not suggesting we don’t have those kinds of conversations – but if we never get to the gospel, we have diminished or dismissed this text.
For the 70, they like the Twelve were given the power to provide healing in a welcoming city. And it may very well be as disciples go out today, particularly in unreached places, where there is fresh inbreaking of the gospel, God may very well provide opportunity to do the miraculous – like healing – as an entrée, to authenticate the message of the messenger.
But for us, where the church is established, He may expect us to perform acts of mercy and kindness – all for the same purpose of demonstrating we are children of God who love their neighbors as themselves, building bridges of love and kindness that support the weight of truth – truth of the gospel. We are earning the right to be heard. Now, you’ve heard me say this before, no one will ever come to faith in Jesus because you’re nice. You must eventually proclaim the gospel of the kingdom. The truth is propositional – found in the proclamation of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Son of God for sinners. And by simple repentance and faith in His finished work, He becomes the Lamb of God who takes away their sin. In our going, don’t forget the gospel.
Which brings us to some troubling verses. First, instructions to the disciples when their message is rejected, verses 10-11. Very simply, when you go to a place, share the hope of the gospel, and if they do not receive you, go out into the street – the word seems to imply a main thoroughfare so all can see, and say, “Even the dust of your city which clings to our feet we wipe off in protest against you.” When Jews would return from neighboring Gentile territory, they would shake the dust off their feet lest they bring pollution among the people of God. You are separated from us – you don’t know God.
So here, Jesus says, as a public testimony against them, shake the dust off your feet in their presence as a protest against their rejection – their unbelief. This is another way I was confronted with this text this week. I’m not suggesting we literally shake the dust off our shoes upon departing an unbelieving neighbor’s house. But, is there ever a place for warning? Is there ever a place to say, you have rejected Christ, and so He will reject and judge you, severely.
Notice, Jesus said, say to them, “be sure of this, that the kingdom of God has come near.” Remember, the harvest includes a gathering of righteous souls, and a judgment of the unrighteous – of those who reject. Is it ever appropriate, as family, loved ones, neighbors, reject Jesus that we warn them of impending doom. Well, we wouldn’t want to be offensive. We wouldn’t want to preach hellfire and damnation. Jesus said to.
Look at our last point – what Jesus went on to say. He told these seventy, having heard the good news, if they reject, it will be more tolerable in that day – the day of judgment – for Sodom than for that city. Shocking. Sodom was the epitome of gross immorality and sinfulness – as well as the epitome of the corresponding judgment when God rained down fire and brimstone upon them. Understand what Jesus is saying – to hear the gospel and reject it is worse than being an inhabitant of Sodom. It would have been better to never hear the good news, than to hear it and turn from it. Peter said it this way in II Peter 2:20-21, “For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment handed on to them.” Hebrews 10:26-27, “For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries.” Adversarial response to the gospel of Jesus in His sacrifice for sins brings fearful judgment.
Do you see that? Jesus says, it will be better in the judgment for the people of Sodom than for people who hear and reject the gospel. There are levels of hellish punishment, and the worst seems to be reserved for those who hear and reject Christ. He goes on to give a couple examples – three cities in Galilee which had heard Jesus and had seen His miracles – Chorazin, north of Capernaum, Bethsaida, east of Capernaum, and Capernaum itself – the base of Jesus’ Galilean ministry.
If the miracles done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, two immoral cities north of Galilee condemned throughout the OT prophets, if the miracles done in you had been done in them, they would have repented. They weren’t done there – that’s not the point. But if they had been done, they would have repented if they had seen what you saw and heard what you hear. So again, the judgment of these rebellious, immoral cities will be more tolerable than these esteemed Jewish villages.
Capernaum, you won’t be exalted to heaven, will you? No, you will be brought down to Hades. Hades is a place of the dead, but when used in contrast to heaven, it refers to hell. Capernaum, you think you’re on the way up, you’re not. You’re on the way to hell, because you have rejected the truth. Last verse – the one who listens to you listens to Me, disciples. You are My ambassadors, speaking on My behalf as if I am speaking to them. If they listen you, they listen to Me. If they reject you and your message, they reject Me, and My Father, the One who sent Me.
Is there ever a place to communicate that truth to those who reject the gospel? Perhaps we do, , by implication. If you don’t receive Jesus, there is no other way to heaven. But, do we spell it out as our Lord did – if you reject Jesus, having heard the good news, it will be more tolerable for the worst of sinners, than for you.
Maybe some of you have heard this so much that you just sit there bored. You want to sow your wild oats – you love your sin. You’ve never given your life to Jesus. Let this be a warning to you. And for the rest, may we, as fully devoted followers, not dismiss or diminish the text, but embrace the sacrifice and suffering necessary to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom.