After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go. 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. Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. Carry no moneybag, no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road. 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 what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you. Heal the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ 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. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near.’ I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town. (Luke 10:1-12)
This section may seem a little like DeJa’Vu but in reality it was a separate event than we read before. Last time, Jesus had sent out His twelve disciples to proclaim the kingdom of God and heal. In this instance, it’s not just His twelve, but He appoints seventy-two others and sent them on head of Him in groups of two to go ahead of where He would be going. They in essence had a similar mission as John the Baptist, except short-term. They were to go ahead of Jesus and prepare the people for Jesus arrival there, proclaiming that the kingdom of God had come near to them.
Jesus says a lot of things in preparing them for this mission, and we’ll be digging into some aspects even deeper in the next several weeks, but ultimately, He gave a lot of the same type of instructions that He gave His twelve disciples when He sent them out. In a nutshell, the instructions included these aspects:
- Don’t take provisions
- Stay wherever provision was offered them
- Heal the sick
- Proclaim the kingdom of God has come
- Shake the dust off if you’re not accepted
Still Applicable
Jesus sent out His twelve disciples this way. Jesus sent out these seventy-two others this way. And Jesus, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever specifically prayed this in His high priestly prayer, “As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.” (John 17:18-19). Then we, as disciples of Jesus in 2023, should be paying attention when He sends us out because these instructions are still applicable to us.
It might seem crazy to not take provisions when He sends you out somewhere, but it still happens today. I’ve shared in the past when our homeless ministry team had gone out street witnessing and God provided a walking stick that was given to us from one homeless man we met and later that day it was used to provide for another homeless veteran we met. There’s one example. Even when God had called us to move from Southern California to Northern California but we didn’t know how God was going to work out all those details yet, He had told us very specifically to not take provisions to just put our belongings in storage and go. So, we began putting our things into storage in Southern California and listed our house for sale, and our house sale was already in escrow before God opened the opportunity for us to rent a fully furnished house in Northern California while we looked to buy. The crazy part was, we didn’t go looking for a furnished house to rent, it was offered to us when people learned we were moving for a church plant. God can provide, literally from nothing, so it becomes a matter of trusting that He will when He sends you on mission.
Proclaiming the Kingdom
We know that we know that Jesus has sent us to be ambassadors for Him, we have so many verses throughout the New Testament that support His commission and desire for us to be His hands and feet, but are we walking in that?
In most places in America, we assume everyone has heard of Jesus and how to have salvation in Him, but that’s not true. I have talked to people in the Bay Area who had never heard of Jesus or the gospel, which to be honest shocked me when it first happened. But regardless of whether they’ve heard yet or not, the commission and calling isn’t only planting first time seeds – it can be watering them. We are called to make disciples, which takes time and relationship as we walk alongside others and spend meaningful, quality time truly showing care for their souls as we share the truth of God’s word, one opportunity at a time.
Most people would be glad to evangelize, witness a conversion, and go on their way, but discipleship is more than a single moment in time. Just as nourishing a child from infancy takes time, one little drinkable meal of milk at a time, and eventually soft solids, to meat – it’s a process. If we only fed an infant a bottle of milk once, that’s certainly a recipe for death because they need a steady diet of milk, taking time to digest it before getting more and moving onto solid food. In the same way, this takes us back to the soil of hearts. Planted seeds need steady watering to grow. Are you willing to be a planter and a waterer, taking time and care to disciple others?
Keep Going
And in those instances in which your message is just not accepted and received, shake the dust off your feet and continue on in your mission. The life of a person on mission for Christ is not easy, especially if you’re committed to going from town to town, so to speak, in your mission field, continuing on through the hard times of rejection and pushing forward through the challenging times of discipleship. To be honest, ministry and relationships are messy, but they’re well worth it, to love and serve both God and your neighbors. Do you hear God appointing you to go on mission? Maybe you’ve been hearing Him but not taking the steps to walk forward yet. Today, if you hear the Spirit’s voice, don’t harden your heart. Heed the instructions and go!