The Lord of the Harvest—Rejoice!

Luke 10:20-24

^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 was your good pleasure.

^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.”

I often try to convince my kids that I am brilliant, but it seems the harder I try, the less they believe me! I may not be brilliant, but I can predict the future with 100% accuracy? I know where each and every one of you will be in the future. Do you believe me? I can do this by merely reading a section of Revelation 20.

^11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. ^12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. ^13 The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. ^14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. ^15 If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

Everyone will appear before the great white throne of God. You will be there. There are no exceptions. You cannot refuse the invitation. The first thing I need to ask is, do you have full confidence that your name will appear in this great book? If not, then we need to talk as soon as possible, because you will be there at the final judgment. Assuming your name does appear in the Lamb’s book of life, of course you will be full of joy and excitement, but why? Why will you be joyful—because you are not going to hell? Surely that will be part of it, but is that all? Will you be joyful because you will live forever in a wonderful place called heaven? That is also a reason for joy, but is there any other reason for joy?

When the 72 returned from their mission work, they were full of joy. Their time of ministry was exciting and fruitful. They healed people, cast out demons, demonstrated love, preached the gospel and saw people become followers of Christ. This was great stuff! None of them had ever had such successful or exciting ministry. If you and I were to combine a lifetime of ministry, I am still not certain it would equal what these 72 men experienced. They were on top of the world and they were full of joy.

But right at the peak of their joy, Jesus said something quite amazing. He said, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” Despite their tremendous joy, there was an even greater reason for joy—their names were written in heaven. Do you see, Jesus is referring to the book of life—the same book that I just read about in Revelation 20. Their names were written there and that alone was the reason for the greatest possible joy. But again I ask, why should they have been so joyful? Did they jump and down and say, “Yea—I’m not going to hell!” Why did Jesus say they should rejoice—the avoidance of hell—eternity in heaven—or something else?

Do you want to know what that something else is—the reason for unending joy, even greater than heaven itself? The answer is Christ. Jesus Christ is the greatest gift anyone could ever have. Do you believe that? There is nothing greater than Christ and without Christ you have nothing. Understanding this truth is so essential, not only for the next life, but for this present life as well. Not believing this truth is the number one reason people lose their faith or have a weak faith. Understanding Christ as the greatest gift guards us from the two chief faith-killers: prosperity and pain.

Let’s go back to the 72 disciples. In terms of ministry success, they were massively prosperous: conversions, healings, exorcisms, relationships and joy.  They experienced a pinnacle of ministry prosperity. The harvest is plentiful and the workers are few. We must get out into the harvest field. We must tell others about Christ. There will be pain and problems and some conversions, but we have to get out there. But even genuine ministry success is not as joyful as Christ himself. Christ is greater than the sum of all ministry. Christ is greater than the sum of all healings and victories over Satan. Christ is greater than the sum off all relationships. Yes, Christ is even greater than the sum of all conversions.

Here is the bottom line: you cannot love ministry about Christ more than you love Christ. Our chief joy is Christ because our chief gift is Christ. It is not possible for God to give you a greater gift than Christ. And there is nothing more tragic than not to have Christ. Can you see how this changes the typical motivations for spreading the gospel? If we share our faith at all, we usually do it because it is the right thing to do. But what I am telling you is, don’t share Christ with your neighbor just so that they won’t go to hell, though that is the very real consequence. Don’t share Christ with your neighbor just so that they can go to heaven, though that is a great reward. But rather share Christ with your neighbor first and foremost because you are so enamored with Christ and because you are convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that Christ is the greatest gift you or anyone could ever have. Our chief joy is Christ because our chief gift is Christ.

I said that there are two main faith-killers—prosperity and pain. If Christ is the greatest possible gift, then he is greater than all levels of blessing and prosperity. But he is also greater than the opposite of blessing and prosperity, which is pain and loss. All suffering involves some kind of loss. If we lose our good health, we suffer physically. If we lose our mental health, we suffer emotionally. If we lose our job, we suffer financially. And if we lose a loved one through death, we suffer in multiple ways.

Loss is painful and always involves the removal of a blessing and gifts. But if Christ is the greatest possible gift, why should we fear loss of these other gifts? John Swanson is the pastor of the Free Church in Janesville and about four years ago his soon to be married son was in a tragic skiing accident. He survived this near death experience and is now severely disabled. He is blind and can do little more than respond to the presence of someone in the room. The Swansons had to build an addition onto their house for their son because he will be like this for the rest of his life. Circumstances like this can be worse than death. But I will never forget when John stood before 100 fellow pastors and shared his experience about his son. The whole time he kept saying, “it’s all about Christ.” He had worked for 20 years in Campus Crusade for Christ, but he said it’s not about evangelism, it’s about Christ. He had planted the church in Janesville, but he said it’s not about church work, it’s about Christ. It’s not discipleship, it’s Christ. It’s not missions, it’s Christ. It’s not worship, it’s Christ. Down the list he went, knocking down everything we thought was valuable, because none of them are as valuable as Christ. Even the sum of all these things is not as valuable as Christ. He could say all of this even though the dream for his son’s life was destroyed. Life is all about Christ.

What kind of loss have you experienced lately? Or let me expand the question even further—what is the most significant loss you have ever experienced? I know many in our church are in pain and have suffered loss. Pain and loss are faith-killers. Whatever your loss, what you had was a gift and a blessing, but now it is gone or it is slipping away. How does the loss of that gift compare to the gift of Jesus Christ? The loss is painful, but the gift you have is still superior. You see, loss and pain are faith-killers only when they stand apart from Christ. Without Christ, all loss is horrible. If you are clinging to something in this life and it is taken from you, you are going to be devastated, but if you are clinging to Christ and you experience the same loss, your grief will be greatly lessened. This is not to say that your grief will magically go away. It does not mean that we must become a stoic, super-Christian who never feels pain. Loss is supposed to sting, but it will sting less when holding onto Christ.

The other reason loss is so difficult is because we think we deserve that which we lost. Tell me, do you deserve a healthy marriage? Do you deserve good health? Do you deserve a high-paying job? Do you deserve a job at all? Do you deserve obedient children? Do you deserve your own life? The answer to each question is a resounding—NO! Everything is a gift, therefore, what right do we have to demand these things? If they are taken away from us, we do not have a right to demand them. Amazingly, the gift we deserve the least is itself the greatest gift—Christ. And how did we come to receive this undeserved gift? We received it through Christ’s own suffering. The one who never deserved suffering did not demand his right to avoid it, but you and I don’t have any right to avoid suffering, yet we demand that it be removed. His undeserved suffering became our undeserved gift.

Finish this sentence. “The most important thing to me is…” Many of you are tempted to say your family is the most important thing. I know, because I lean in this direction. As we cultivate a growing love for our family, it is the most natural thing in the world to have our hearts increasingly entwined with theirs’. Losing a family member is like losing a piece of our soul. It’s probably the greatest loss a person can experience, but that gift is still less than the gift of Christ. Are you enamored with Christ? Is he your chief gift? Are all of your blessings nothing compared to Christ? Are all of your losses nothing compared to Christ? Paul said, “For me, to live is Christ, but to die is gain.” Now if living means Christ, how can death be gain? In other words, if Christ is the highest gift and Paul has this in living, how can death be superior to living for Christ? Because at death Paul gets the full measure of Christ. Death is not gain because my suffering is gone. Death is not gain because I get to live in Heaven, but death is gain because we get more of Christ.

What we are talking about is what some call a theology of suffering. You must have categories in your mind and heart for suffering, otherwise it will kill or weaken your faith. If you have a distorted view of God then suffering will kill your faith. If you think you deserve the gifts and blessings you have, then their loss with mean a loss of faith. We are asking God to bring significant healing to at least ten church families. This is not going to happen all by itself and it most certainly will not happen unless we understand Christ as our highest and greatest gift.

When the 72 returned they were full of joy, but who else was full of joy? Jesus was full of joy through the Holy Spirit. Was he joyful because the ministry venture of the 72 was a great success? No, he was joyful because the Father was revealing something to ‘children’—referring to the 72—but hiding this same thing from the ‘wise and learned’. What was being revealed? The Father’s master plan of salvation was being revealed through his son. The revelation of Jesus Christ was coming to pass and this brought joy to the Son and was pleasing to the Father. The world was seeing Christ revealed in a new and powerful way.

Christ was coming in to focus in a way that previous generations could not see. Jesus said to his disciples, “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.” Who were those who were longing to see Jesus revealed? If you just take Hebrews 11 you get an impressive list of people. Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, all the prophets. Essentially, all of the Godly men and women in the O.T. longed to see what the disciples saw. They longed to see the full revelation of God through the coming Messiah. Hebrews 11:13 says, “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance.” “Don’t you get it”, Jesus said to his disciples, “all of these people longed to see me. All of these people acted in faith on anticipation of my coming. I am the full revelation of God and you are highly blessed to see all of this.”

In this age of the church, we are blessed even more than the disciples because we have a more complete revelation of God in the Bible and in Christ. But in the same way, we long to see the full revelation of Christ in the last days. Not just to avoid hell and not just to enjoy heaven, but because Christ is our greatest gift and our greatest joy. All loss is nothing compared to him and all blessing is noting compared to him. Christ is the Lord of the harvest, therefore, rejoice!

Rich Maurer

November 6, 2005