UNSURPRISING SETBACKS
Opening Prayer
Father, plant your words of truth deep within me, always ready to encourage me, and always ready for me to share with others who need to hear them.
Read LUKE 10:1-16
Jesus Sends Out the Seventy-Two
10 After this the Lord appointed seventy-two[a] others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. 2 He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. 3 Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. 4 Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road.
5 “When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ 6 If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them; if not, it will return to you. 7 Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house.
8 “When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is offered to you. 9 Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ 10 But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, 11 ‘Even the dust of your town we wipe from our feet as a warning to you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God has come near.’ 12 I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.
13 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. 14 But it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you. 15 And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted to the heavens? No, you will go down to Hades.[b]
16 “Whoever listens to you listens to me; whoever rejects you rejects me; but whoever rejects me rejects him who sent me.”
Footnotes
- Luke 10:1 Some manuscripts seventy; also in verse 17
- Luke 10:15 That is, the realm of the dead
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
What truths about Jesus are most important to you and ones that you would most likely share with others?Following Jesus means having the same priorities he has and living the life he lives. It’s inseparable togetherness forever (John 14:20). Just as he’s constantly on a mission to bring people to God, so are we. That’s exactly what he asks his followers to pray for (v 2)—we are some of those much-needed ‘workers.’
And on this tough, urgent mission, following a savior who goes to a horrid death before rising to life again means that we, too, can anticipate hardship, pain, opposition, and a feeling of helplessness, while we also look forward to fruitfulness and victory. That’s all part of ‘dying to self,’ and it’s normal—lambs can’t expect to be safe in the middle of a pack of wolves (v 3).
People have always rejected God and his ways, and they always will. Remember Sodom—the problem (Genesis 18:20,21) and the outcome (Genesis 19:24)? The towns of Chorazin and Bethsaida (v 13) had Jesus himself bless them with miracles, but in the end, they were too wrapped up in themselves. Even Capernaum—where Jesus lived for a while, taught, and healed people—couldn’t care less about him (v 15).
Apply
Sometimes, as we follow Jesus, our hearts will be broken when we bring good news to those closest to us and they reject it—and sometimes reject us too. Pour out to Jesus any heartbreak like this that you have experienced.
Closing prayer
Dear Jesus, I look to you to help me be and do all that you call me to—with confidence, with courage, with persistence. Help me be a faithful witness for you, trusting you to work, not just in me, but through me.
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