Grace Christian Fellowship: Christian Teachings from Luke

Luke 10 "Lamb's Strategy"

After these things the Lord appointed seventy others also and sent them two by two before His face into every city and place where He Himself was about to go. Then He said to them, "The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. Go your way; behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves. Carry neither money bag, knapsack, nor sandals; and greet no one along the road. But whatever house you enter, first say, 'Peace to this house.' And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest on it: if not, it will return to you. And remain in the same house, eating and drinking such things as they give, for the laborer is worthy of his wages. Do not go from house to house. Whatever city you enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you. And heal the sick there, and say to them, 'The kingdom of God has come near you.' But whatever city you enter, and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say, 'The very dust of your city which clings to us we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near you.' But I say to you that it will be more tolerable in that Day for Sodom than for that city. "Woe to you Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades. He who hears you hears Me, he who rejects you rejects Me, and he who rejects Me rejects Him who sent Me." Then the seventy 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. Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven. (Luke 10:1-20)

We are very familiar with the Lord's Prayer, the prayer that Jesus taught the disciples to pray. Next week we will look into this prayer in detail, but Jesus also asked His disciples to pray for three other things in the gospel of Luke. One of those is in verse 2 of this chapter. "the harvest is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. This was my constant prayer my first year of pastoring this church. I am thankful to God for answering my prayer and also for reminding me once again that I must continue to pray for those who will join me in the work. Think about how many people there are in Tokyo. I do not know the exact number, but it is over 20 million. How many of these would like to know more about Jesus? How many of these need help? How many of these are ready to hear the gospel? I know that if just these people who are "ripe" all came to our church on Sunday morning there would be a line stretching all the way to Yokohama. Jesus did not ask us to pray that the harvest would be great. It is! Jesus did not ask us to pray for the salvation of these millions. Instead He asked us to pray for those laborers who will get out and reap the harvest. I am not worried about attracting people into our church, I am trusting that if we have workers to love as Jesus loves, to praise the name of Jesus in our worship, to preach the gospel to the lost, to teach the Word of God to those who want to hear, then God is going to fill this church up to overflowing. The harvest will not come in unless there are laborers, so pray for the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.
Jesus also commands us to pray for those who spitefully use us, blessing those who curse us. We learned about this in Luke chapter 6. I have found that enemies are actually much easier to pray for than friends. Usually when a friend has been cruel to me, or sinned against me in some way, I want to go to that friend and argue, I expected better of them, I think that somehow I can set them straight. But with an enemy, I know that even if I say something to them, they won't really listen to me. Many enemies are simply to big or powerful for us to deal with on our own and so there is nothing left to do but pray. Pray for both enemies and friends when they spitefully use you. You will find that it is much easier to forgive someone once you start praying for them.
When Jesus was in the garden of Gethsemane, He commanded Peter and James and John to "pray that you may not enter into temptation." (Luke 22:40) Jesus went off by Himself to pray and left the disciples to pray on their own. But when He came back He found that they were sleeping. Jesus was praying to prepare Himself for the cross that He would have to face the next day. But the disciples also needed to prepare themselves. That next day as Jesus was taken away by the Roman soldiers, as Jesus was tried before the Sanhedrin, led before Pontius Pilate, as Jesus carried His cross up the Via De la Rosa, they all would be tempted to run away, to cowardice, to deny their relationship to Christ. These men needed to pray, to prepare themselves for the temptations to come but did not, and they succumbed because they were not ready. We also need to prepare ourselves beforehand for the temptations of the day. How do we do this? We do not simply pray for no temptations to come our way. Rather we talk about our weaknesses with God, confess where we have failed before, hold fast to His strength and trust that He will keep us from falling.

Jesus sent the seventy out as laborers into the harvest field. How did He send them? First, Jesus sent them out two by two. In Christian work, as Christian life, one is a very weak number. When you work by yourself it is easy to become discouraged and give up. But two can encourage each other, each bearing the others burden, praying for each other, loving one another. Jesus did not work alone. Paul did not work alone, Peter did not work alone, so who am I to think that I can?
Next, Jesus sent them to go before Him into each of the places where He was about to go. This really is our role as well. We need to go before Jesus and prepare the way for Him in people's hearts. We are not preaching ourselves. We don't say to people, "look at me, I am such a wonderful person." Instead we are always saying, "look to Jesus, He is the one you need."
Jesus told them that He was sending them out as lambs among wolves. He did not send them out as victorious conquorers. He did not send them out to chase the wolves away. They were sent as lambs. Lambs have no teeth to bite back with, no claws to defend themselves. Lambs are not fast enough to run away. The only thing that a lamb has on its side is the shepherd. Jesus wanted these seventy men to trust not in themselves but in Him. So He told them, don't take along a money bag, extra clothes or shoes. Don't go house to house because you are not satisfied with what one place provides. Don't make reservations along the way so that you are assured a place to sleep. If you try to run with the wolves, you don't stand a chance. Trust in your Shepherd. And the seventy returned with joy, saying, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name." Wow, when we act like lambs the wolves don't stand a chance. This is the way of the Lord, carrying forth His attack on the enemy with lambs. He gave them the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy. He promised that nothing shall by any means hurt them. But He also warned, "Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven." It would be hard to imagine a lamb strutting around, proud of itself because the wolves had ran away. Lambs don't plan the strategy for their next attack. Lambs don't prepare for the next battle. No, when the danger is past, lambs rush straight for the Shepherd. They are overjoyed to be with Him. They have peace because they are safe within His protection.
The direction we need to head in is Christ's direction. It can be very subtle but sometimes ministry can lead us exactly in the opposite direction. As we are trying to love as Jesus loves, preach the good news, our attention easily shifts from the source of love, the author of good news, to the object of that love. We spend more and more time and energy on the people who we are trying to reach with the gospel. When there are successes we are overjoyed and when there are failures we feel defeated. Even as we share the love of Christ with others our focus must still be on Jesus. When the seventy visited a city, whether they were received or not, "the kingdom of God had come near" to that city. When the seventy had been a success, the trip had been perfect, the food had been good, the hospitality warm, the response to the message wholehearted, the kingdom of God had come near. But when everything had gone wrong, the food lousy, the reception cold and the response to the message only hostility, even then the kingdom of God had come near. You see the true success of the seventy did not depend on how well they preached or how ready the people were to hear the gospel. The true success of the seventy was that they were part of the kingdom of God, doing the will of the Lord Jesus Christ, trusting in Jesus their shepherd to protect them. Whatever happened, wherever they went the kingdom of God had come near. That is what I want people to say about us as well.

I have learned in ministry that I am not responsible for the reactions that people have to the truth that I teach them, to the love that I show them, to the gospel that I preach. I am responsible to obey my Lord, preaching and teaching and loving. I am responsible to be a lamb of God, sticking close to my Great Shepherd. Different people will have different reactions to my ministry. Some will receive it with joy, but others will reject it. Some will listen to the truth of the Bible, become convicted and choose to walk away from sin. Others will hear that truth and choose not to hear it. Some will respond to the love of Christ that I show with love of their own, but others will be offended by it. I cannot control these people's reactions. God knows that I cannot control them, and so He does not require me to do so. What I am required to do is obey my Lord Jesus and He has commanded me to love as He loves and teach His word.

Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus feet and heard His word. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, "Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me." And Jesus answered and said to her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her." (Luke 10:38-42)

I need to be careful to make a balance in my spiritual life. Like Martha, there are many things that I want to do for God. Like Mary I also want to sit at Jesus' feet and enjoy my relationship with Him. I don't want to be so heavenly minded that I am no earthly good, but I also want to choose "that good part, which will not be taken away." I think it is very much like the balance that I need to keep in my family. Part of the way I show my love for Rie and Keita is by going off to work to bring back money to buy them clothes and food and pay the rent. If I did not do this I would not really be loving them, would I? But if this is the only way that I show them my love, it is not enough. I must spend time with them, play with Keita, listen to Rie, take them out. If I only work for them, pretty soon I start to feel like I am their slave. I resent having to get up early and ride the train and come back late. They also start to resent my not being there, never having time or energy to play or talk or do things around the home. If there is no balance, soon the work that I am doing to show my love for them turns into a distraction. Worries and troubles start to multiply, accusations begin, like Martha, we both start to think, "Don't you care?"
Jesus wisely said, "one thing is needed." Focus in on the relationship side of love. Give your heart first and then your hands. Our tendency is to love with our bodies before we love with our hearts. This is not just a problem of adolescence. Just as the teenagers learn to kiss long before they learn to talk and share, adults learn to work and do, and often forget all about giving from their hearts. We do the same thing with God. But the one thing that is needed is the heart. If you give your heart, then all of the other things will fall into place. If you take the time to kneel at Jesus' feet, you will also know when to work. We know that God has prepared beforehand good works for us to walk in. There is work to do, a harvest to get in, hurting people who need the love of Christ that we have to share, but we must first know God or we will miss those specific good works that He has prepared for us. If you take the opposite tack, jumping right into the work, sacrificing time with God, because there is "just so much to do". If you allow yourself to become "distracted with much serving" then you will find that your relationship with Christ will suffer. And then the serving will lose its meaning. The work will become a burden, a worry, a trouble instead of a joy.
Jesus has given us a choice here. We can choose to be a Martha, or a Mary. If you choose Martha's way, soon the joy of serving will also be taken away from you. You will burn out. If you choose Mary's way, not only will you have the blessing of being with Christ, but you will find joy in serving as well. To those who have, more will be given. Choose that good part!

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