Out into the word - Luke 10:1-16

Featuring: Matthew Sleeman

Date: Sunday, 23 June, 2013

Overall, this passage is a great spur and encouragement to us to see the world as Jesus sees it.

This will make us mission-minded and hearted. A mind broadened properly in this way will travel - whether next-door to a neighbour, into a work place, or into a network of friends and contacts - and it will travel with the small but mighty seeds of God's kingdom (Luke 13:18-19), in conversation, in a question, in a comment....

In Luke 10:1-16, Jesus sends out 72 others (having already sent out his twelve disciples in Luke 9). They are sent out to go ahead of Jesus, who is on his way to Jerusalem and to heaven (Luke 9:51).

For us, Jesus is no longer on the way there, he has reached heaven, but he still sends his followers out, ahead of him. We are sent ahead of his return to earth as judge of all.

This awareness of being sent ahead of Jesus helps us see mission and evangelism as something we are all involved in, even when our society would tell us it's just our private opinion.

Also, comparing vv.8-9 with vv.10-11, we can see that the kingdom of God draws near, even when people reject the message.

This awareness helps us see that mission (and the kingdom of God) never actually fails - it produces different results. And those results are in real places (examples in vv.13, 15), and will be in our real places too. Our mission is still Jesus' mission, which is the mission of God the father (v.16). 

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