Public Reading: Luke 10:1-24
Audio Sermon can be downloaded from the PRV website.
The Story
• 70/72 => does not really matter
o Loosely refers to the number of gentile nations in world as seen by the Jewish people at the time
• Passage only found in Luke
o Why is that?
o What is Luke trying to tell us?
• A deliberate progression throughout Luke and Acts (which is just ‘Luke’ part two)
o Jesus comes announcing and demonstrating the Kingdom
o The 12 are commissioned and do the same things
o The 70/72 are commissioned and do the same things
o Peter does it after the death and resurrection of Jesus
o Paul does it
o The concept is that we are next!!
• Parallels between Peter and Paul (taken from Derek Morphew’s “The Mission of the Kingdom: The Theology of Luke-Acts”)
• As we read this passage, we need to keep in mind that we have the same mission as the 72.
o We have been commissioned by Jesus to:
* Love God
* Love others
* Heal the sick
* Raise the dead
* Cleanse leapers
* Cast out demons
* Proclaim the Kingdom of God
• We have seen this here in Sweet!
o Sickness has been healed
o Pain that was there was removed
o Lives have been changed
• We see this world wide
• The return of the 70
o Luke 10:17-24
o They come back excited and thrilled!
* They saw stuff they never thought possible!!
* Even the demons obeyed!
o Jesus was filled with joy and praised God!
* He said that the saw the devil fall like lighting
* This is not talking about the time before the garden of Eden
• He is talking about right then!
• Those who were in chains were set free!
• Those who were sick, were healed
• Etc
o Jesus also had a warning for us (Luke 10:20)
* “However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
o We get sidetracked sometimes…either too focused on signs and wonders, or not enough
o We need to watch for the dancing hand of the Father
good – liked the parallel between Peter and Paul – liked the last few points, especially the sentence: We need to watch for the dancing hand of the Father! (Amen!)
Thanks. =)
The parallel gets even better when you add Jesus’ ministry to the list: Jesus heals a lame man; His cloak heals a women; He conducts exorcisms’ I don’t think He confronts a sorcerer per say..but He does confront a lot of other religious type; Jesus raises the dead; and He reaches both the Jews and the Gentiles.