THE UNIQUENESS OF JESUS
Opening Prayer
Lord, enable me to minister like the disciples of old.
Read LUKE 10:1–24
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.”
17 The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”
18 He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. 20 However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
21 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 little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.
22 “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.”
23 Then he turned to his disciples and said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. 24 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.”
Footnotes:
a Luke 10:1 Some manuscripts seventy; also in verse 17
b 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.
Meditate
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28).
Think Further
The return of the seventy-two with their triumphant reports of power over demons (17) provides the occasion for Jesus, in a moment of ecstatic joy in the Spirit, to utter some of his most significant words. We have here a profound glimpse into the inner life of Jesus, a life of intimate prayer in which there is joy, deep reverence and a sense that his mission was coming to fulfillment in the community that he had gathered. If the Christian claim about the relationship of Jesus to the Father is true (and it is!), what we see here is not only a glimpse into time but into eternity: “the glory I had with you before the world began” (John 17:5).
The doctrine of the Trinity expresses and safeguards the unique relationship of the Son to the Father. This does not mean that Jesus goes around talking of himself as “the second person of the Trinity” (such language came later). It does, however, reflect the fact that Jesus is conscious of a unique relationship of communion with the Father, known to none other (22). These are astonishing words, words that sound more like something we would find in John’s Gospel (e.g., John 6:44–46; 10:30). The forthcoming doctrine of the eternality of Jesus, hammered out at the Council of Nicea, A.D. 325, purported to capture the eternal reality of the relationship between Father and Son, which is of supreme importance for Christians. Jesus is the mediator between God and humanity, the one through whom we may know the Father as he did himself. Astonishing—and crucial.
The disciples around Jesus are those to whom Christ is gradually revealing the Father (22,23). He goes on choosing people, such as ourselves, to be numbered among his disciples.
Apply
Charles Spurgeon used to pray, “Lord, save thine elect, and then elect some more!” What did he mean?
Closing prayer
Lord, Your people are desirous of participating in the same priceless relationship that You enjoy with the Father.
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