LUKE 10:1 – 24: THOSE WHO HEAR THE MESSAGE

© Rosemary Bardsley 2025

A. THE CRITICAL NATURE OF THE MESSAGE – 10:1 – 16

On one occasion Jesus sent out seventy-two of his followers as advance messengers into the towns and villages which he himself would soon be visiting (verse 1). They went in his name, with his message; this message had two simple points: ‘Peace’ and ‘the kingdom of God is near you’.

Read 10:2 – 16. Answer these questions:
Verses 1 – 4:
What does Jesus mean by ‘harvest field’?

What hinders the ‘harvest’?

What does Jesus mean by verse 3?

Verses 5 – 7:
Suggest what Jesus was talking about in his references to ‘peace’.

Verses 8 – 11:
What were the disciples to do in every town?

What were they to do if they were not welcomed in a town?

What does ‘the kingdom of God is near’ mean?

Verses 12 – 16:
Read Genesis 19:24, 25. What happened to Sodom?

Read Isaiah 23 and Joel 3 for God’s judgements against Tyre and Sidon.

Why did Jesus say the judgement day would be terrible for Korazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum?

In rejecting the message of the disciples, whom were these towns rejecting?

The coming of Jesus Christ is the coming of peace, the coming of the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6), through whom the gift of reconciliation with God and peace with God (Romans 5:1, 9,10; Colossians 1:19 – 22; Ephesians 2:14) is available to all who believe in him. The coming of Jesus Christ is the coming of God’s kingdom: he, the divine King, stands before us claiming our trust, our allegiance, and our submission to his authority.

To reject his messengers is to reject him.
To reject him is to reject God (verse 16).

There are only two options: to acknowledge and receive him as our King, our God, and at the same time receive from him the gift of peace with God. Or, to reject him, to refuse to own him as our King, our God, and, at the same time, to leave ourselves open and exposed to inescapable, inevitable and intolerable judgement.

The choice, a choice which affects our eternal destiny, is ours.

B. THE IMPORTANCE OF A RIGHT RESPONSE – 10:17 – 24

Jesus’ instructions to the seventy-two disciples focused on the kind of response the people in the towns and villages made to the messengers and the message of his kingdom. The human response was, for him, the most important thing: more important than the healings (verse 9), more important than the submission of demons (verse 17).

But it seems that these disciples also, like the twelve, were seeking and impressed by power. Jesus acknowledged that ‘Satan’ had indeed been disempowered as they engaged in mission (verse 18), and that these disciples did indeed have authority to do miracles and to survive miraculously (verse19). But that was not the main thing. There was something far more significant. Jesus said to them: ‘do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.’ In other words, Jesus told them that their secure salvation should be a cause of greater joy than anything miraculous that they had been able to do.

More important than defeating Satan.
More important than any power/authority Jesus had given them.
More important than any miraculous physical protection they experienced.

Because the gift of guaranteed salvation is the result of the work and the choice and the pleasure of God.

What do these verses teach about God’s role in our salvation?
Verse 21:

Verse 22:

How did Jesus describe the blessedness of his disciples?

Verse23:

Verse 24:

While they were elated because of the observable success of a mission undertaken in his name, Jesus pointed out that that success should not be the focus and source of their joy.

As we read this section of Luke’s Gospel we understand that those whose names are written in heaven are those to whom Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has made God known (verse22). His followers, at this point, did not fully realise who they were seeing when they looked at Jesus; they did not fully understand what they were hearing when they heard Jesus.

Jesus told them how blessed they were – that many prophets and kings had longed to catch just a glimpse of the things they were constantly seeing, and to hear just a sound of what they were constantly hearing (verse 23). They did not understand the utter blessedness that was theirs simply by being in his presence and learning from him.

In the coming of Jesus all that the prophets wrote of has come to pass; in the presence of Jesus Christ these followers are in the presence of the One whom all of the Old Testament had anticipated.

This is the focus of joy. This is the ‘good news of great joy’ of which the angel told the shepherds (Luke 2:10). This is the mystery of God (1Timothy 3:16), his plan and purpose from before the creation of the world: that he would come to us, that he would reveal himself to us. Living our life so that he could die our death.

Do not rejoice, he said, in what you have been able to do in my name. Rejoice, rather, that your names are written in heaven … written in the Lamb’s book of life (Revelation 13:8; 20:12; 21:27) … endorsed forever for life because you know me, whom to know is life eternal (John 17:3; 1John 5:20).

These words of Jesus call us away from all earth-bound sources of joy, whether secular or religious. Many of these earth-bound, earth-sourced joys are valid in themselves; but they have no permanence, they have no stability. They all pass … they all have the potential to fail. But this other joy … this joy that has its source and its focus in Jesus Christ … is joy that rides above the storms of life, and survives beyond the pains of death.

As Peter wrote: ‘Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls’ (1Peter 1:8,9).

Reflection on joy: what do these verses say about the source and focus of joy?
Nehemiah 8:10b

Psalm 4:6 – 8

Psalm 5:11

Isaiah 12:2, 3

Habakkuk 3:17, 18

Philippians 3:1; 4:4