From our Sunday service on October 18, 2026, Luke 9:51-10:24. This is part 20 of our Gospel of Luke series. Watch the full message: Sending the Seventy – The Gospel of Luke #20 on YouTube.
As Jesus prepares to go to Jerusalem and die on the cross, He still has work to do in the cities along the way. People need to hear the good news of the kingdom, and He sends His followers ahead so that when He arrives, they will be ready to listen. I want you to see that preparing others to receive Christ is not work reserved for a few especially important people. The seventy who go out are ordinary people willing to answer His call. Their opportunity is also ours: God wants you to prepare others to meet Him.
Prepare People, Not Punishment
The journey begins with rejection. Jesus sends messengers into a Samaritan village to make ready for Him, but the people will not receive Him because He is going to Jerusalem. Religious and cultural differences have become more important to them than welcoming Jesus. James and John see the rejection and ask whether they should call down fire from heaven, as Elijah did. They think the situation calls for punishment, but they have misunderstood the very mission they are supposed to be serving. Jesus turns to them with a rebuke:
But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. And they went to another village.
Luke 9:55–56
Jesus had not come to destroy humanity but to save it. The disciples were treating His journey as taking a side in a religious dispute, when He was going to the cross for the sins of humanity. They needed to understand His purpose before they could represent Him properly. Our responsibility is not to condemn those who reject Him, but to prepare the willing to receive Him. That means we cannot let rejection turn us away from the work He has given us, or turn our concern for people’s salvation into a desire to punish them.
What Keeps Us from Following?
As they travel, three men have the opportunity to follow Jesus, and each shows us something that can hold us back. The first eagerly promises to go wherever Jesus goes. Matthew tells us he is a scribe, someone well acquainted with the Scriptures and qualified to teach them. But Jesus warns him that even foxes and birds have somewhere to rest, while the Son of man has nowhere to lay His head. Excitement is not the same as having counted the cost. Following Christ will take this man away from comfort, and when he discovers that, the cost is too much.
The next man is invited by Jesus, but asks to go and bury his father first. He wants to wait until his family responsibilities have been taken care of, until following will be more convenient. Jesus tells him to go and preach the kingdom of God. We can recognize ourselves in that hesitation. We know Christ’s love, understand the gospel, and know how to tell someone about Him, but there are things we want to put in order first. We say we want to serve, yet our answer to the opportunity in front of us is still, ‘Maybe later.’
The third man volunteers but wants to go home and bid his family farewell. Jesus sees that he wants to pursue the kingdom while preserving the comfort of home, and he cannot have both. His answer gets to the heart of divided devotion:
And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.
Luke 9:62
Think of the difference between this man and Elisha. When called to follow Elijah, Elisha killed the cattle he used to plow and used the tools of his trade to prepare a meal for the people. He was not keeping everything ready for the day he changed his mind and went home. He was fully committed. These three would-be disciples held on to comfort, convenience, or a way back, while Jesus called them to look forward to the work He had for them. God rarely waits on you to change your mind if He asks you to do something. When we refuse, someone else may go, and we miss the blessing.
Ordinary People, Sent in His Authority
The work does not stop because those men are unwilling. Other people are ready, and Jesus appoints seventy, sending them two by two into the places He intends to visit. They are preparing the way for one of the most important parts of His ministry, yet even seventy willing men are not enough for all the people who need to hear. Jesus tells them to pray for more workers:
Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.
Luke 10:2
The need is great, but those who go must learn to depend on God rather than their own wisdom and ability. Jesus sends them as lambs among wolves, without a money bag or a bag of food, trusting Him to provide. They are to stay with those who receive them and eat what is set before them, rather than going from house to house looking for something better. Their conduct matters because they are going ahead of Jesus. If they are greedy, the people will expect Him to be greedy too. They must not let their own appetites spoil the testimony they are meant to give.
Their task is to heal the sick and announce that the kingdom of God has come near. Where people refuse them, they are to wipe the city’s dust from their feet and make clear what has been rejected. This is not merely a disagreement with a traveler. Jesus has sent them in His authority, and He says:
He that heareth you heareth me; and he that despiseth you despiseth me; and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me.
Luke 10:16
When we share the gospel in Christ’s authority, the Holy Spirit is involved; we are not merely speaking on our own. You might think that such responsibility must belong to someone unlike you, but these seventy were regular people who were ready to sacrifice, ready to leave, and ready to be devoted to Christ. He supplied what they needed. Guess what? If you can do those same things today, then God can use you in miraculous ways. All you have to do is be ready and willing to do what He calls you to do. The alternative is to keep making excuses until an opportunity to share the good news passes us by.
Rejoice in Grace, and Get to Work
When the seventy return, they are full of joy because even the demons have submitted to them through Jesus’ name. That last part matters. The power was not in their reputation or importance, but in the one who sent them. Jesus tells them He saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I understand Him to be describing what happened while they were preaching and teaching: Satan panicked over the ministry they were doing. These ordinary followers, working in Jesus’ name, were disrupting the enemy’s work. When the Christian does what God calls him to do, Satan panics.
Jesus assures them of power over the enemy, but He also tells them where their deepest joy must rest. The Christian is untouchable from the attacks of the enemy, and the demons must obey when they act with Christ’s authority. Yet victory over those forces is not the greatest gift they have received:
Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.
Luke 10:20
Their names are written in heaven. They are saved by faith and will spend eternity with Christ, and that grace matters more than what they have accomplished. Jesus rejoices that these followers have received what the wise and prudent missed. They have learned the childlike humility, dependence, teachability, and trust that make them willing to be used by Him. Their ministry did not begin with making themselves important; it began with trusting the one who had called them.
We have received that wonderful gift of salvation too, yet we often act as though we are powerless. We let entertainment, work, and the effort to make ourselves comfortable keep us from the lost person beside us. The answer is not simply to tell other people what the Bible says. We need to step up and do what it says ourselves. We can pray for people who do not know Christ, show kindness and compassion, invite someone to church, answer questions, or explain the gospel to a friend or neighbor. When someone rejects the message, we can respond with patience rather than condemnation, leaving room for another believer to reach them later.
None of this requires us to be pastors, missionaries, or Bible scholars. It requires us to be willing to do the work God has offered us. The seventy were willing, and they returned rejoicing over what He had done through them. We have the same opportunity to share the salvation we have received and prepare someone else to receive Christ. So are we willing, or will comfort and busyness keep us saying, ‘Not right now’? God wants you to prepare others to meet Him. What are you doing to help others know Christ?
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