Seventh Sunday after Pentecost
Jesus is The Great Sender. He certainly is not a great pretender about this, either. He sends people out to do the work of ministry. His sending isn’t just limited to the professional clergy. His sending includes everyone who professes faith in Him. Luke 10:1-11 provides such an example. I have a sermon based on this text entitled “Sending Seventy-two Sensational Saints.” And sensational they are!
What these saints do, as they go out in pairs, is only a beginning. Jesus tells them that they are to pray that there will be more workers for the harvest because it is bigger than they can possibly imagine. Once a conversion takes place in someone’s life, he or she is assigned the task of declaring good news to anybody and everybody. An early 20th century missiologist in the Baptist tradition, William Owen Carver, observed that “missions is a proclamation of the Good News of the Kingdom in places where it is news.” There are places all over this world where it is news. In many respects, it may be news across the street from where you live.
Whether it is in an international setting or in one’s own neighborhood, proclaiming the Good News is never easy. Jesus understood this and reminds those He sends that they are “as lambs among wolves” (v. 3). Wolves frequently symbolized those who devour their enemy in Judaism. It is a dangerous business in which to participate; but despite whatever dangers, followers of The Great Sender are to heed His word and go courageously to perform their calling to share grace, peace, and mercy.
Whenever and wherever believers go, we are to go with a sense of urgency. We are to go with the knowledge that God will provide for us. We are to go realizing that all will not respond to the message of redemption. Of course there will be times of acceptance; but there will also be times of rejection. Regardless, those who are sent – believers in Jesus Christ – have experienced and are experiencing God’s rule and reign in their lives. “…God’s kingdom has come to you” (v. 11b).
So the seventy-two sensational saints return after being sent by Jesus. Luke 10:17-20 speaks to this. No timetable is given. Maybe they are gone for a few hours. Maybe for a week. Whether a few hours or a week they return with great joy because, as they say to Jesus, “even the demons submit themselves to us in your name” (v. 17) – the name of Jesus, that is.
Any time the name of Jesus is used in the face of demonic powers those powers submit. It may not be immediately evident, but they do submit. And we are permitted to see, with Jesus, “Satan fall…” (v. 18).
Allow The Great Sender to send you. Go in faith. Go obediently. Use the name of Jesus humbly, yet boldly. The demons will submit. And you’ll see Satan fall.
Matt Redman sings “Fill Us Up and Send Us Out.” It is three minutes twenty-five seconds.
My sermon that I will preach this morning at Garden Lakes Baptist Church in Rome, GA, is the third in a series on The Beatitudes. Under the theme, Let It Beatitudes, my word this morning focuses on the meek and is titled “Mild-mannered Christians.” The texts are Psalm 37:8-11 and Matthew 5:1-2, 5. Read The Beatitudes. Holy Communion will also be observed with Emma Mooney and Sarahlyn Woodall receiving their First Communion. Bible Study for all ages is at 9:45 a.m. and the Worship Gathering is at 11:00 a.m. There is no 8:45 a.m. worship this morning.
