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1... 12... 70... and
many more
Yeshua
is the long awaited Messiah! He is the ultimate
prophet, priest and king! He was the first prophet
who was among the Chosen Nation in 400 years.
He was the first miracle-working prophet in maybe
800 years! He is our greatest teacher who has
given us the clearest and most profound teachings!
He is
the Savior of Israel and the nations. First He
came to provide salvation for our greatest needs
- overcoming Satan, sin and death. He will come
again to provide the other aspects of salvation
- economic and political victory over poverty,
hunger, injustice and war.
Yeshua
was very popular among many of the common Israelis
of His day. Many were attracted to Him, and His
great messages and His miracles. Many started
following Him in a serious way, and became His
disciples.
Messiah
Himself first went through Israel, preaching and
teaching and healing. Then, when His first 12
foundational disciples were trained, He then sent
them out to do miracles, and tell people about
their need to be transferred from the kingdom
of the adversary to the kingdom of God. Now He
expanded that group of 12, and sent 70 on a similar
mission - to do miracles and tell a needy Israel
about the King.
Now
after this the Lord appointed seventy others (Moses
appointed 70 elders to assist him; Israel’s ruling
body, the Sanhedrin, had 70 leaders. These 70
formed the new and legitimate leadership of the
faithful remnant of Israel. Don’t look to the
confused “rabbinic leaders” for solid teaching
that will save. Don’t give spiritual authority
to those whose teachings are a mixture of truth
and very deadly error! Look to the leadership
of the faithful remnant!), and sent them in
pairs ahead of Him to every city and place where
He Himself was going to come.
God is
a God of order. Regarding the evangelism of Israel,
Yeshua was not haphazard. He was organized. He
had a plan. He knew what cities He wanted to go
to. These 70 were His forerunners who He sent
ahead of Him to get the people of the cities ready
for the coming of Rabbi Yeshua. The 70 went out
in groups of two, so that one could encourage
and support the other.
First
there was One. Then there were twelve. Then there
were 70. That’s good, but even 70 was not enough!
The task is far too great for 70. And He was
saying to them, "The harvest is plentiful
(Israel is big. The world is even bigger! There
are a lot of Jews and Gentiles who need to be
reached and gathered in, and become the glorious
and eternal and precious sons and daughters of
God!), but the laborers are few (there
are not enough men and women who are qualified,
trained, ready and willing to go and reach this
big world.
What are
we to do? We do what we can to go and reach them
ourselves, and support those who are reaching
out to the lost, and nurturing them when they
come to know the Lord. And, we also pray!).
Therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send
out laborers into His harvest. The eternal
God is very much concerned about and involved
with the harvest of humanity. The Lord of the
harvest is in control of the harvest of humanity.
The Lord of the harvest is able to raise up human
beings who are able and willing to assist Him
with the harvest of humanity.
The Lord
of the harvest knows which humans need to be reached
and gathered in. There are many human beings whom
He has foreknown, who are chosen, who belong to
Him, who are part of His eternal plan of salvation.
He has His great and eternal plan for the salvation
of certain human beings, but He has also chosen
to use some of us who know Him to be part of the
instrumentation of His plan of human salvation.
What an honor! What a high privilege! We should
want to be part of that, and work together with
the Lord in this greatest and more honorable of
tasks! We should want to work and give and support
and pray for this great endeavor!
Messiah
wants us to know that harvesting will not be easy.
In a fallen, demonically-controlled world, going
and proclaiming the truth and calling people to
repentance and gathering people into the kingdom
of God is a difficult, dangerous task! It is not
for the faint of heart!
Go;
behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of
wolves. So many of the people in this fallen,
anti-God, anti-Messiah, anti-followers of Messiah
world are like vicious wolves. But we are not
to be like wolves - using threats and violence.
We are to be like lambs - not using physical coercion,
but the gracious weapons of truth and love and
humility and endurance.
When I
read this, this is what I think: Lord, we are
like lambs, and You are sending us into the middle
of the wolves? Lord, we trust You that this must
be important. This must be necessary. Lord, we
trust You to protect us. Lord, we trust You to
help us endure the pain the wolves may inflict.
We know that Your grace will be sufficient for
us. Help us to be faithful to You and the mission,
in spite of the worst the wolves can do!
Messiah
has some specific instructions for these 70 traveling
evangelists. While these were specific instructions
for these people at this time in this place on
a short-term missions trip, there are principles
that we can apply to us.
They were
to depend on God, who would work through good
human beings among the chosen people, to supply
their needs for this short term mission. Those
whom the Lord calls, He supplies. If God asks
you to do something, He will supply the resources
to accomplish that task. Carry no money belt,
no bag, no shoes. They were not to be living
large, but living as small as possible, keeping
their needs to an absolute minimum. They were
to be focused on their mission, not material things.
They were
to stay focused on the mission and not be distracted
by the wrong people who were not part of their
target area. There was very important work to
be done, and time was limited and precious. And
greet no one on the way. They were not to
dawdle along the way, stopping to chat with people.
They had a specific city and goal to accomplish.
It’s not
that they weren’t to be friendly with others.
When they got to their target area, they were
to locate the home of a good man who might give
them hospitality, and allow his home to be used
as the base of operations in that city, and warmly
greet him. Whatever house you enter, first
say, 'Peace be to this house.' If a man of peace
is there, your peace will rest on him; but if
not, it will return to you.
Even though
they were unsure of the response they would receive
from the family of the home they were entering,
they were to take the initiative to be friendly,
and show graciousness, and pray for their peace.
Isn’t that what God, who is love, is like, and
how He relates to us? He takes the initiative
to go to us, and show Himself friendly to us,
and wants to extend peace to us. Their warm greeting
and prayer for peace would not be in vain. It
would not be wasted no matter what the response.
One they
were accepted into a home, they were not to look
for better accommodations - better housing and
better food. They were on a purpose driven mission.
The goal was not their personal comfort. That
was not what was important. Stay in that house,
eating and drinking what they give you; for the
laborer is worthy of his wages. Do not keep moving
from house to house. Whatever city you enter and
they receive you, eat what is set before you;
and heal those in it who are sick, and say to
them, 'The kingdom of God has come near to you.'
What is
important is bringing healing to sick and dying
humanity. What is important is telling people
about the High King, God the Father, and His Son,
King Yeshua; telling them that when we are born
into this world, we do not start in the kingdom
of God, but because of the Fall, and the sin and
the rebellion that each one of us have become
part of, we are part of the kingdom of the devil
and his fallen angels. But, if we turn to the
King, and renounce the dominion of darkness and
its evil and rebellious ways, we will become part
of God’s eternal kingdom, and live forever with
Him!
Amazingly
good and eternal blessings will come to those
who listen to the 70, and to us, and terrible
woes and troubles and pains and sufferings and
judgments and punishments will come to those who
ignore Messiah’s representatives! But whatever
city you enter and they do not receive you, go
out into its streets and say, 'Even the dust of
your city which clings to our feet we wipe off
in protest against you; yet be sure of this, that
the kingdom of God has come near.'
We must
take the initiative and go into the world and
tell people the Good News about the kingdom of
God, and the complete forgiveness of all of their
sins, and the Messiah, and salvation, and eternal
life, and the New Jerusalem, and a great and lasting
and wonderful and eternal inheritance! We must
tell them the Good News! And, we must fulfill
our full duty and warn them that if they reject
the Good News, and if they reject us, and if they
reject the One we represent, a very sure and severe
judgment is coming to them!
If they
were rejected by the city which the Son of God
sent them to, the 70 were to go out - not privately
and quietly, but publicly and loudly into the
streets of the city, and tell the people of that
wicked place they had the opportunity to enter
God’s kingdom, but they refused to become part
of it, and they were not part of the blessed kingdom
of God. They were part of the kingdom of the Adversary.
They were still active participants in the ancient
rebellion against God involving fallen angels
and wicked men. Then the 70 were to wipe off the
little pieces of dust that were clinging to their
feet. That was a pronouncement to the city that
the judgment of that city was sure, and terrible,
and the 70 didn’t want to experience the least
little dust-like amount of their coming judgment.
To whom
much is given, much is required; and the more
you know, and the more truth you are exposed to,
the greater the punishment for rejection. These
Jewish cities had been given the greatest amount
of truth! Immanuel and His representatives had
been with us, teaching us and doing miracles!
Messiah declared that the rejection and subsequent
judgment and punishment of the cities of the Chosen
People will be worse than on some of the worst
Gentile cities! I say to you, it will be more
tolerable in that day for Sodom than for that
city. Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!
For if the miracles had been performed in Tyre
and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have
repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.
But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon
in the judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum,
will not be exalted to Heaven, will you? You will
be brought down to Sheol!
There
are degrees of reward for faithful service, and
there are degrees of punishment for various sins.
One of the very worst sins is rejection of the
wonderful and precious Messiah, God’s beloved
Son, mankind’s only Savior and Redeemer, and rejection
of His representatives. That crime of rejection
and unbelief is worse than the paganism of ancient
Tyre and Sidon and the greed and homosexuality
of wicked Sodom and Gomorrah. That sin of rejection
and unbelief is an attack on the very person of
God Himself! That rejection and unbelief is a
continuation of the ancient rebellion against
God.
While
is grieves me to say it, Metro Detroit, and the
state of Michigan, and the rest of the United
States of America are very close to being one
of those Messiah-rejecting cities! Up until 1960
or so, for the most part we welcomed the preaching
of the Good News. Our laws, our media, many of
our institutions reflected Christians values.
But for the past 50 years we have been rejecting
God and biblical truth. The majority of society
is post-Christian, turning more and more against
God, Messiah, true Christians and Messianic Jews
and the Good News we bring. Therefore, don’t be
surprised if more and more judgment falls.
There
are some in the Messianic Movement who are wickedly
and perversely and heretically teaching that the
Jewish rejection of Jesus is really a yes to God!
Compare that to what the Son of God declares here.
The one who listens to you listens to Me, and
the one who rejects you rejects Me; and he who
rejects Me rejects the One who sent Me."
There
is a divine chain of command. There is a divine
order of representation. God the Father sends
the Son, who represents the Father. The Son of
God sends the disciples, who represent the Son.
We are the Creator’s representatives to this world.
We are the ambassadors of the Most High King,
emissaries of the kingdom of the Most High God!
To reject us is to reject Messiah which is to
reject God the Father! Don’t tell me that the
Jewish no to Yeshua is really a yes to God!
Those
whom God sends, He provides for. He provides all
of the resources necessary to accomplish the task
He is asking them to do - the material resources
and the spiritual resources. The seventy returned
with joy, saying, "Lord, even the demons
are subject to us in Your name." They
had all the spiritual power they needed, and the
spiritual resources they required to get the task
accomplished because they went in the Lord’s name
- because they were sent by Messiah; because they
represent the Son of God; because they were obedient
to the King; therefore they were empowered by
the All-Powerful!
Why were
the 70 able to cast out demons? Why are the evil
spirits still subject to the control of Yeshua’s
disciples? Because, with the coming of the Messiah,
a greater power is here! The Son of God, by means
of His coming into this world, and His Incarnation,
and His identification with humanity, and His
perfectly lived life, and His voluntary sufferings
and death; and His burial and resurrection, is
in the process of crushing the head of the ancient
serpent! The Seed of the Woman is destroying the
devil and his evil works! The Lord of Heaven and
Earth is undoing the dominion of darkness. A uniquely
victorious man, the God-Man, has come. He is greater
than the chief Adversary and all of his demons!
And He gives the authority and the power to His
representatives to overcome the powers of darkness!
And
He said to them, "I was watching Satan fall
from Heaven like lightning. Behold, I have
given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions,
and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing
will injure you. We can’t be truly harmed
by rebellious angels or wicked, wolf-like men.
Physical pain, even death, can be inflicted, but
something that can genuinely harm us? No! Way!
Impossible!
The powers
of darkness can’t re-control us, re-acquire us
and re-enslave us in the satanic slave-market
of sin and death! They may cause us trouble. They
may have us made fun of, mocked, persecuted, insulted,
arrested, impoverished; they may end our earthly
lives, like they did to Yeshua Himself, but truly
harm us, and cause us to miss out on salvation
and being reconciled to God, and the happiness
that comes from knowing Him, and eternal life?
No way! Impossible!
Nevertheless
do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject
to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded
in Heaven." Don’t follow the Lord because
of the allure of spiritual power. The pursuit
of power, even spiritual power, is seductive.
Let the source of your happiness not be present
power over evil spirits, but the knowledge that
you are reconciled to God and will enjoy eternal
life!
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