The Report of the 72
Well, turn in your Bibles with me this morning to Luke chapter 10. In this chapter, we're back where Jesus has equipped 72 disciples to go out and to minister on his behalf. I want to read to you this morning, beginning in verse number 17, about the report that the 72 bring back after they went out as Jesus' representatives.
So, beginning in Luke 10, verse 17, I'll read through verse 24. The 72 returned with joy and said, "Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name." He replied, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I've given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions to overcome all the power of the enemy."
Nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.
At that time, Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to the little children."
"Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do. All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him."
Then he turned to his disciples and said privately, "Blessed are the eyes that see what you see."
The Disciples' Unique Perspective
"For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it. Amen."
In this passage, we have the disciples returning to Jesus, overjoyed at what has happened after they went out. When they went out, there was certainly a bit of anxiety. They were probably nervous, and they wondered how it might go. But as they went, God blessed them as they proclaimed the kingdom of God, and they came back overjoyed at the results.
But they had missed the focus, and Jesus is going to correct them in this passage. As I was thinking about this and thinking of how I could illustrate it for my introduction, I was reminded of a story or an account from one of Ronald Reagan's biographies that I read several years ago.
It was in the late 1960s when Reagan was the governor of the state of California. And in the 1960s, there was a lot of upheaval on American university campuses, including California. Reagan had worked like other governors had to try to quell the protests and the uprisings, and he had faced many opponents for doing that.
Reagan took it to another level. He went campus to campus to meet with students himself and not just sending in others to do the difficult work of answering the protesters. And there was one student in particular that Dinesh D'Souza records in his biography of Reagan, and this student opposed Reagan's response to the college protests.
This young man set Governor Reagan up for a "gotcha" question. He had his moment where he had the governor and all of his friends and everyone that was present listening. And the student said this: "Today we have television, jet planes, space travel, nuclear energy, and computers." And as the student smirked with his accusatory question, he said this: "So how can you possibly understand the younger generation?"
Obviously, the student expected Reagan to admit defeat and say there was no way he could understand the younger generation. But Reagan, being Reagan, wryly replied, "It's true. We didn't have those things when we were young. We invented them."
Reagan made an observation that this young man had completely failed to realize. Younger generations like his were learning the technology that older generations like Reagan's had created. The student enjoyed those modern technologies that were available to him, but he didn't consider their source. Men and women from older generations had created television, jet planes, space travel, nuclear energy, and computers.
When Jesus sent the 72 disciples to the east side of the Jordan River, they went with his power and authority.
The Danger of Misplaced Joy
They preached the kingdom of God and they performed miracles in Jesus' name. And people in Judea were responding positively to their preaching. But the disciples had already forgotten the source of their authority and success. They were basking in the results, but they were not honoring the source the way Jesus wanted them to.
The 72 had returned from their travels and they shared with Jesus what had happened. It says in verse number 17, they returned with joy. But unlike a few of the disciples who had come back defeated because they could not cast out demons, which we saw in chapter 9, these 72 were filled with joy because they had cast out demons.
And Jesus reminded them that their success was possible because of what he had given them. The disciples were not the source of their own strength or success. Their ability to cast out demons depended more on Jesus than merely saying his name. The disciples were like the young college student in California who watched television and worked on computers, but they were created by older generations. The disciples were casting out demons with Jesus' authority because of their salvation, not simply because they waved Jesus' name like a magic wand.
Jesus wants the disciples to understand that he is overjoyed by the harvest, but he wants to point them back to their salvation. So in the first several verses of this passage, we see Jesus highlighting our salvation. After Jesus had prepared the 72 for their mission, they went out two by two and from town to town just as he had instructed them. Luke does not record for us where they went, how long they traveled, or when exactly they returned. But he does say they returned with joy in verse number 17. Whatever anxieties they may have experienced went away as they proclaimed Christ and performed miracles in his name.
Yet Luke is recording that the disciples' reason for joy was a little bit misplaced. They were rejoicing over the results of their ministry rather than the source of their power. They told Jesus in verse 17, "Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name." Apparently, the disciples found great delight in casting out demons and watching the evil spirits submit to their orders.
But Jesus does not respond to them with affirmation or ad-lib. He doesn't congratulate the disciples and pat them on the back for their accomplishments. He doesn't ask them for a report of exactly how many demons did they cast out, and please share more details about this incredible work. No, Jesus wanted his disciples to focus on the results of his power at work through them. He turned their attention back to his deity, the reason for their success. The reason wasn't simply because they mentioned his name, but it was because they were his children. They had been converted by his power and by the full expression of God at work through him.
So Jesus reminded the disciples with something that seems like a strange turn in verse number 18. He replied to their joy with mention of Satan. He says to them, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven." Jesus had been present when Satan rebelled against God the Father. He had witnessed the Father cast Satan out of his presence, and Satan fell from his former place in heaven like a sudden flash of lightning, and he struck the inhabitants of earth with terror and torment, such as demon possession.
But with his enemy's defeat already made certain, Jesus now sent the 72 disciples to drive out Satan's demonic allies. Jesus was giving his disciples power over his enemies, and this power included their ability to trample on snakes and scorpions, which I take to be symbols of demonic activity. And they did so without being harmed. Jesus gave the disciples divine power over Satan and his demons.
The disciples were not casting out demons on their own, even though people may have started gathering and crowds would have increased at watching the results of this kind of work. But the disciples were not sent to make a public spectacle or to show human might. In fact, they were powerless without faith in Jesus. They would have been powerless just like the few disciples who had come back unable to cast out demons in chapter 9. But these particular disciples were trampling on demons, which was a display of God's authority and power in them.
I don't take it by trampling on snakes and scorpions that these disciples were being sent out to literally look for vermin and for deadly animals that they could somehow attack or show God's power of. Instead, I think Jesus is referring to Satan's menacing demonic activity that is equivalent to the menace of vermin that are dangerous. As Jesus is commending the work that has been done, he's saying that all of this is possible because he authorized it. It's possible because they went out in his name. And granted, it says that they were rejoicing because of the demons submitting in his name, but they had shifted the focus onto the work rather than the worker, rather than Christ and what he had accomplished for them.
The Authority of the Church
What's interesting is that these disciples were fulfilling the promise that God had made to crush the head of Satan through Eve's descendants all the way back in Genesis chapter 3. Similarly, the Apostle Paul in the book of Romans said that the God of peace will crush Satan under the feet of the church. So whenever Jesus' disciples proclaimed the gospel and kingdom, they always overcame satanic opposition.
This is why Jesus said, "nothing will harm you" in verse 19. He didn't mean that the disciples would have superhuman power or that they were invincible. He simply meant that their success, or the reason that the demons did not overtake them, had to do with his power and protection in their salvation. Jesus kept the disciples from harm while they ministered as a demonstration of his power. The demons obeyed Jesus. They were submitting not because the disciples summoned him, but they submitted because the disciples represented him.
So the disciples were expressing joy, but Jesus wanted the joy to be redirected toward him. We even see Jesus himself, it says in verse number 21, that he was full of joy through the Holy Spirit because of the work of salvation that had been rendered in the disciples and those who responded to them. The disciples' joy had been shifted to their success rather than the true source of their strength. This is why Jesus says, "Rejoice that your names are written in heaven."
This is why I'm making the distinction that their joy was in casting out demons. But Jesus says in verse number 20, "find your joy in the fact that you're saved." What the disciples did on earth certainly made a difference, but what God has already settled in heaven lasts for eternity. The disciples, Jesus says, should never stop rejoicing over their salvation. After all, their names are written in heaven. So no matter what success they might experience, their salvation had been settled for eternity.
Paul says something similar in Ephesians chapter 1, beginning in verse number 4. He says, "For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love, he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will, to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given in the one he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us."
The Apostle Paul is making exactly the same point that the joy of our salvation comes in knowing the source of our salvation. That it is Christ who has chosen us. It is Christ who has predestined us. And it is Christ who is glorified through the ones that he loves. All of this is incredible. The disciples were declaring that message, and Jesus was certainly affirmative of their work. But he wanted them to remember the motivation for their work was that they had already been saved. They were not earning their salvation in any way.
Throughout the Bible, God describes a book where the name of everyone whose sins have been forgiven is recorded prior to their salvation. That blows our minds because we say, "Wait a second, our name is already written in the book?" But that is what the scriptures say. And this book is commonly called the book of life and revelation or the Lamb's book of life. And the eternal joy of being listed in the book of life surpasses any temporary joy that comes from declaring Christ.
The disciples had inadvertently misplaced their joy. While they delighted in casting out demons in Jesus' name, Jesus was challenging them to take greater delight in him. The forgiveness of sin provides the greatest reason for rejoicing. That's more important than simply casting out a demon. And God has written our names in the book of life for eternity, no matter what observable results of ministry we may measure and no matter what demonic activity may resist God and his work.
In fact, a few chapters later in chapter 15, Luke reports that when one sinner repents of his or her sins, all of heaven rejoices over their salvation. Even the angels, it says, delight in our salvation. That's Luke 15:7. Miracles such as healings and exorcisms, they may capture our attention and even fuel our imaginations, but they must not surpass our joy in salvation that comes through Christ alone.
The reason this is important is because it's so easy to focus on the work and to miss the Savior. We get busy in the tasks and busy doing the things, but we miss the reason why we're doing it. Elsewhere, Jesus warned his disciples that there would be many people who would do good works in his name, but they would not believe in him for their salvation. Ultimately, they would rely on their good works, such as speaking in Jesus' name, driving out demons, even performing miracles. Yet these works, apart from the Father's saving grace, lead to the torments of hell.
In Matthew 7, verse 21, Jesus said this: "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers.'"
This is a sobering passage where Jesus is warning his disciples that it's possible for people to do works in his name but not know him at all. Jesus teaches us not to put our hope in good works. We do not hope in simply offering Christian service, and we certainly can't base our salvation on the results of our ministry. God may give us different seasons of fruitfulness as well as seasons of fruitlessness, but our faith must depend on Jesus. If our happiness comes from our service or how others respond to us, then we will falter. But if our joy comes from Jesus, then we will remain faithful to the end.
Several years ago, when I was pastoring in Lawrenceville on the church staff there, one of our deacons made a profession of faith. It was an incredible testimony that he told us. He said, "I've been in the church my whole life. I've heard gospel sermons my whole life. I have served this church for decades, and I have been a regular fixture in this place." And yet he had come to the conclusion through the conviction of the Spirit that all of it had been works, that he was trying to keep God happy, trying to keep God off of his back, trying to assuage his guilt. But he had not yet trusted Jesus for the forgiveness of his sins.
So imagine that. A deacon is one of the officers of the church, someone who the church has recognized for their service and even for their leadership. And this brother had the humility to come forward and tell the whole church that it wasn't until that time that he believed Jesus to be his savior. He had all of the information, but he had not been transformed.
And when transformation suddenly came, he humbled himself. He didn't say, "Well, it would be embarrassing to admit this to the church. It would be embarrassing, especially since I'm a deacon in the middle of a term of office, to have to say this." But our brother was so overjoyed with salvation that he couldn't hold it in. He was willing to face whatever embarrassment.
But you know what? As awkward as that story sounds, it wasn't all that embarrassing. It was actually a cause for celebration in our church. And it led to other people examining their own hearts and lives and saying, "Am I finding my joy in my salvation or am I finding joy in my service?" And other people made similar professions.
It's possible to live a long life and to be actively involved in the church and to be around the preaching of the gospel and yet not receive it for ourselves. Jesus is reminding the disciples here that he wants them to focus on salvation because salvation—the fact that their names are written in the book of life—is far more important than any works they might do. And yes, he sent them to do works, to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom and to perform miracles. But he didn't want them to draw their identity from the work he assigned them to do. Their identity came from their position in him.
The Joy of the Harvest
So Jesus underscores or highlights our salvation. We should never lose the joy of our salvation because it came at the cost of Jesus' life. But Jesus also—the second thing I see in this passage—is that he rejoices over the harvest. So he highlights salvation, but then he does show where the joy belongs, and the joy is over the harvest.
It says in verse number 21, at that time, Jesus, full of joy and through the Holy Spirit, said... Jesus is going to help the disciples see the real source of joy. And what's significant is that Luke records that the man of sorrows, the suffering servant, the Lamb of God who would give his life as a sacrifice for sin was overflowed with glorious joy. Jesus delighted in the Holy Spirit over the salvation of sinners. The Son of God was rejoicing with the Spirit of God over what God the Father was pleased to do.
It says verse 21, through his disciples' ministry. When the disciples were out preaching and performing miracles and casting out demons, ordinary people were hearing the good news. And the Lord of heaven and earth was revealing hidden things to little children, verse 21 says. God the Father was making himself known through his Son. In ages past, this truth had been hidden. But now it was being revealed through the disciples' preaching and miracles. People were believing in Jesus with childlike faith. This is why Jesus was full of joy over these little children.
It's not to say that it was a children's ministry. He was saying that these believers were like children because they had childlike faith. Sinners and demoniacs were receiving Jesus. But the wise and the learned rabbis and teachers of the day were not repenting. They were not believing in Jesus. Instead, they were rejecting and even resisting Jesus and his offer of salvation.
But Jesus here spills over with joy through the Holy Spirit over the salvation of repentant sinners. Their names had already been written in the book of life, and now he was revealing himself to them through the disciples' ministry. All of this redemptive joy fulfilled the Father's sovereign will for the Son of God to whom all things have been committed. Verse 22, and he says, no one knows who the Son is except the Father. And no one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal to him.
This explains why the rabbis and the teachers were rejecting Jesus. They considered Jesus a blasphemer. They recognized that his claims were claims of deity and they opposed them. But that's because the Son had not revealed himself to them so that they could truly see God the Father. God the Father makes all things known to his Son Jesus, and only God the Father fully knows Jesus. The Son of God also knows God the Father, and Jesus reveals his Father to sinners according to his sovereign electing grace.
Darrell Bach summarizes it this way. He says, the authority of the Father is placed in his Son, and in turn it is the Son who reveals the Father to others. Those who come to God have the Son as the source of this revelation. There is a chain of revelation that extends from God through the Son to those who respond and bear the Son's message. That is why knowing Jesus is crucial to the mission.
Did you catch the chain that Bach is talking about there? That the Father reveals the Son, the Son reveals the Father, and it is us, the messengers of God, who reveal Jesus and his Father to other sinners. The disciples, the 72, had been sent out as a part of this chain in order to share the good news of Jesus Christ. They went ahead of Jesus before he made his way to Jerusalem so that people around Judea would hear of him and would come to believe him and trust him as their savior.
In the same way, Paul told the Romans that they must send preachers to make Christ known to other sinners. He wrote in chapter 10, verse 14 of Romans, how then can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? God makes himself known through Jesus when we declare the gospel. Our responsibility is simply to share the good news. The results are up to God.
And our joy should be in our salvation, not the results of our ministry. It's not to say we should be joyless and that we are simply robots that God has programmed to go share the gospel like monotone machines. But it's to say that our joy is not simply in how people respond. Because the fact is, not everyone will believe in Jesus. And if our joy is predicated on their response, there will be many times that we may be joyless. After all, you may remember back in verses 13 and 14, Jesus had warned Chorazan and Bethsa because of their unbelief and the pending judgment that would come against them.
But now Jesus, in verse number 23, turns to his disciples privately, it says, and rejoiced over the harvest of new believers. The disciples and their hearers believed the gospel because Jesus directed them to the Father who revealed his deity to them. Belief in Jesus does not come through human achievement. It's not a matter of human intellect or discovery. No, Jesus says, "Blessed are the eyes of those who see what you see."
The disciples had been eyewitnesses of Jesus' life and ministry. God had opened their eyes to recognize him as their Lord and Savior, and they got to witness what he says many prophets and kings longed to see. But they didn't. Imagine the Old Testament believers. Abraham would have delighted to hear the Sermon on the Mount out of Jesus' own mouth. Moses would have rejoiced over the feeding of the 5,000. Elijah would have marveled to see Jesus raise the dead to life. King David would have given any of his riches in his kingdom to observe Jesus' miracles. Isaiah would have praised the Lord with his unclean lips, hearing the teachings of Jesus.
Even though God appeared to Abraham, Moses, Elijah, David, Isaiah, and many others in the Old Testament, Jesus is saying we have an even greater joy because we can know him. These godly men of ancient Israel foretold the coming of Jesus and they predicted his suffering, but they did not witness the advent of Christ. They served future generations of believers by pointing to Christ.
Peter tells us Jesus in this passage is highlighting the source of our salvation so that we never lose the joy of the gospel. Too many times we're tempted to find our joy in something else. Perhaps if it's not working for God to try to earn our salvation, we try to find joy in our careers. We look for joy in how much money we can accumulate. We look for joy in the pleasures of entertainment or possessions. We look for joy in relationships, and we move from one relationship to the next, to the next, to the next, all in a vain pursuit of elusive joy.
But when we do this, we miss Christ. Christ is the ultimate source of joy. Christ takes joy himself through the Spirit in accomplishing the Father's will. And we can have true and lasting joy, the joy of our salvation in Jesus. And when we experience this joy, it overwhelms us. It becomes something that we cannot stop sharing.
Do you remember when you became a new Christian? Most people, when they become a believer in Jesus Christ, cannot stop talking about Jesus. They want to tell everyone of their conversion. They're excited. If it's a child, you want to tell your brothers and your sisters. You go to your mom and dad. You cannot believe it. If you're a teenager, the same, and you want to tell others. You may not know how to tell them, but you want to explain that something has changed in you. And for adults, their conversion stories are incredible. That God gives a joy that is overwhelming, that surpasses all other joys, and they cannot help but talk about it.
Yet, sadly, over time, we lose that joy and that enthusiasm, and we stop talking about it. We begin to think that perhaps we're weird. Perhaps we've missed something. Perhaps this is something that we should not have made such a big deal out of. Perhaps we should just be quiet and mind the peace. Yet Jesus is reminding the disciples to have joy in their salvation and to express that with others. Then Jesus rejoices over the harvest that came through their ministry. Imagine that. Jesus is here correcting the disciples for getting out of focus, but then he still celebrated what he revealed to them. All of it points back to him.
As I think about this in our American context, I think about how much Americans pursue business. I saw a chart years ago sort of evaluating cultures over the centuries. And when it got to America, which is a more modern culture, it just simply said America can be summarized as business and commerce. And in our business context, we love dashboards and metrics to track our success in real time. Companies proudly display statistics related to their performance on screens around their offices. When you go to their headquarters, you're often greeted by a panel of screens that show their footprint, where they have locations, and the impressions that they're making. Publicly traded companies even include their share price and you can watch it rise and fall on the stock exchange hour by hour throughout the day. Executives are hired and fired depending on a series of quarterly results and whether they make those results or miss them.
Yet for all the measurable ways that we track business, the gospel and the church work differently. We must share the gospel and share it knowing that God is the one who empowers the gospel. He gives the results. While some believers count interactions with the lost and they want to number how many times they share the gospel, that is not what we celebrate. We celebrate that the gospel is shared.
Whether it is one-on-one by an individual or whether it's by our church in an event, we must share the gospel. We must also make disciples.
And there are people who find their satisfaction in counting baptisms and the number of participants in church. And while it may be useful to establish some sort of metrics and track our progress, we can easily make tracking more important than transformation. We can suddenly devolve to, "How are we going to hit the numbers? How many people are we going to share the gospel with? How many baptisms did we have this quarter? How many people joined one of our small groups this period of time?"
And in all of that, we can be well-intentioned, but we can shift our focus from joy in our salvation to finding joy in the results of our ministry. The 72 disciples came back rejoicing over the wrong thing. They celebrated the demons that they cast out in Jesus' name. Perhaps they knew the number of exorcisms. Maybe they compared results from one disciple's ministry to another's. Maybe they said, "How many demons did you cast out? How many opportunities did you have to cast out demons?"
But in all of this, they had shifted their focus to the results rather than the source. Paul says that our success in ministry really comes down to the wisdom and power of God. In 1 Corinthians 1, verse 28, he said, "God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things, the things that are not, to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before God. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God, that is, our righteousness, holiness, and redemption."
Jesus rejoices over the harvest of every individual sinner. He's not impressed with the size of any church or the scale of any ministry. He doesn't say the church with the biggest crowd is the better church. He also doesn't say the church with the smallest crowd is somehow superior to a large church. No, it says he uses the lowly things of this world, the despised things, so that no one may boast before him. Our salvation comes from Jesus, not our work for Jesus.
Sharing the Gospel Boldly
So we must remain focused on Christ and declare his glory. We must remember the joy of our salvation and share that joy with whomever will listen. When the gospel is preached and people respond to the gospel, there is a joy that overtakes a church. I've been incredibly encouraged to see joy in our church as people delight in Jesus.
And I want to see even more of that joy, but we cannot manufacture it. We can't conjure it up simply because we decide to have joy. That joy comes because we're walking with Jesus and we're sharing Jesus. Some of you are perhaps scared to share Jesus. You remember previous times you shared and you were rejected, or perhaps you were ridiculed. Perhaps you were even silenced because of what you said.
And yet I would encourage you to keep sharing. Satan hates it when we talk about Jesus. Satan despises any effort that we make to push forward the gospel. I was telling one of our elders this morning that every time there's a passage where Satan is exposed for his opposition to Christ, it always feels like I have a strange week. I'm not mystical. I don't think that there's anything magical, but the point of it is that when we get serious about declaring Christ, when we make plans to move the gospel forward, to reach children and teenagers and their parents, Satan hates it. He'll do anything that he can to rob the church of joy and to silence us so that we don't share.
Yet this passage reminds us that we must share because we have the power of God. We've been delivered. We have been shown the glory of Jesus and the power of his Father so that we can declare Jesus to all who will listen. So will you be among those who express this inexpressible joy? Will you be among those who declare the name of Jesus? And would God bless our efforts to share Christ? And would he add to his kingdom new little children, new believers that are eager to follow God?
The best thing for any church is new believers who are so excited about their salvation that it reminds those of us who've been saved longer about the joy that we have forgotten. And in doing that, let's have the humility to honor Christ above all. Let's not talk about what we've done or what service we might do, but let's talk about what Christ accomplished for us and the joy of our salvation.
Let's pray. Heavenly Father, as we commit this to you this morning, we ask that you would help us to have the right focus. Help us not to find satisfaction or joy in our works. Help us not to talk about what we have done in Jesus' name, but to talk about what Jesus has done for us. God, help us to never lose the joy of our salvation, and help us to delight in the forgiveness of sins we have through Christ alone.
Then guide us to joyfully and boldly share this good news with others, not worrying about the results. Help us not to be focused on an imaginary scorecard where we're keeping track of how many times and who's responded and how they've responded. Instead, help us to simply be faithful. Help us to go forth with the good news of the gospel, driving out the forces of Satan, not because we have the power in ourselves to do it, but because you have done it. You've overcome your enemy. You've defeated him. And God, help us to declare the glory of Jesus so that others might see the good news of Christ. And we pray this in his name. Amen.