The Lord of the Harvest—Do not fear!

Luke 10:8-19

^8 “When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set before you. ^9 Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God is near 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 that sticks to our feet we wipe off against you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God is near.’ ^12 I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town. ^13 “Woe to you, Korazin! 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 up to the skies? No, you will go down to the depths.^b

^16 “He who listens to you listens to me; he who rejects you rejects me; but he who 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. ^

Being that it is Halloween, you may very well have some masked children appear at your door begging for candy. You may even encounter some scary masks at your door, like this one. If that doesn’t scare you, what if this guy knocked on your door? This one is worn by football fans when the Packers are 1-5! Halloween masks may not scare you too much, but I can almost guarantee that this next scene will send chills down your spine. Nothing scares Christians like sharing their faith. We fear being rejected by others so we don’t risk telling them about Christ. The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are…what? Few—and one of the reasons we have so few workers is not just because we have so few Christians, but because only a very small portion of Christians will ever share their faith.

When Jesus sent out the 72, he prepared them for the difficult task. He did not make any promises that it would be easy, but as we will see, it was certainly worth the risk.

Jesus sent them out as “lambs among the wolves”. Two weeks ago we said that Jesus sees all people as vast harvest of helpless souls, but many of those helpless souls have sharp teeth! Jesus did not give these men a quick lesson called, “Three Easy Steps to Sharing Your Faith.” Evangelism is not like picking wildflowers. We should not pretend that rejection won’t happen. Rather we should accept that rejection will happen and do it anyway.

Christians could learn a few things from the U.S. Coast Guard. Their official motto is: "Semper Paratus", which is Latin for "Always Ready". Isn’t that exactly what the apostle Peter wrote? “Always be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” (1 Peter 3.15) Christian—Semper Paratus! Always be ready.

That is their official motto, but the Coast Guard took its unofficial motto, "You have to go out, but you don't have to come back," from the 1899 regulations of the United States Life Saving Service, which stated: "In attempting a rescue the keeper will select either the boat, breeches buoy, or life car, as in his judgement is best suited to effectively cope with the existing conditions. If the device first selected fails after such trial as satisfies him that no further attempt with it is feasible, he will resort to one of the others, and if that fails, then to the remaining one, and he will not desist from his efforts until by actual trial the impossibility of effecting a rescue is demonstrated. The statement of the keeper that he did not try to use the boat because the sea or surf was too heavy will not be accepted unless attempts to launch it were actually made and failed.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Coast_Guard

You have to go out, but you don't have to come back. You and I don’t have to worry about being martyred in Viroqua like Christians throughout history. If we go out we will come back. Jesus knew that these 72 men would come back, but that wasn’t always the case. John the baptist did not come back. James did not come back. Stephen did not come back, but they all knew they had to go out.

If we are to go out as lambs among wolves, then we should expect rejection. Jesus warned the 72 that many homes would not accept them and their message. Do you remember the Greek word for home from last week? Oikos. Many in your personal oikis, your personal harvest field will not respond favorably. Expect rejection. Don’t be surprised by it.

Two weeks ago I was talking with someone who objected to the notion that Christ is the only way to heaven. This person proceeded to give me a lecture about all of her comparative religion studies and insight into spiritual things. After at least 20 minutes of lecture, she came to her conclusion: all religions lead to God. I was not even concerned that she rejected my message. I knew that 20 minutes prior. What I was thinking was, why did you take 20 minutes to say that all religions lead to God? It could have been said it about 30 seconds! Don’t be surprised when you face rejection.

The other thing we need to remind ourselves about is that people are ultimately not rejecting us, but they are rejecting Christ. In v. 16 Jesus said, “He who listens to you listens to me; he who rejects you rejects me; but he who rejects me rejects him who sent me.” As Paul says in 1 Corinthians, we are ambassadors for Christ. As ambassadors, we represent Christ so clearly that when people reject us, they are actually rejecting Christ himself. And any rejection of Christ is also a rejection of God the Father.

The prophet Samuel struggled mightily with this same kind of rejection when the people of Isarel demanded a king to lead them instead of a prophet. So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. They said to him, “You are old and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.” Imagine how difficult this must have been for Samuel. He had been anointed as a prophet as a little boy. He had led the nation of Israel with justice and righteousness all of his life. After a lifetime of sacrifice the entire nation rejected his leadership. The following verse says, But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord. Imagine how he must have poured out his heart to the Lord. Imagine the depth of emotion and betrayal that he would have expressed in that prayer. And the Lord told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king.” 

Those who reject your message are rejecting God as their King. Jesus wants us to expect rejection and not be surprised by it, but he does not want us to take it personally. Even though it may feel like it, they are not rejecting us, they are rejecting Christ.

If Jesus sends us out as lambs among wolves, what does that make us? That means we are the lambs—we are Christ’s sheep! If we are sheep then Christ is our shepherd. A shepherd leads the sheep, right? So as our good shepherd, Jesus doesn’t just feed us to the wolves, he actually leads us to the wolves. Imagine that—if we are willing, Jesus will actually lead us right to the wolves. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the den of wolves. This past summer a guy yelled at me and called my beliefs foolishness. Would I call him a wolf? Not exactly, he didn’t really bite me, he just growled a lot. I can face those wolves if Christ is my shepherd, but I will not—I cannot do it alone.

The next reason we should not fear is because work in the harvest field of souls defeats Satan. After the 72 returned, Jesus said, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven”. Jesus also said that they had been given authority to trample on snakes and scorpions. There are still a few churches today who believe this verse commands them to handle snakes as part of their worship service. Can you see the 3 large Bible on the table? These men are handling poisonous snakes and they believe they are believing scripture and honoring God. This is most certainly not what Jesus meant.

No doubt these 72 disciples were sometime engaged in the casting out of demons. Jesus had authority to do so and he gave this authority to his followers, but I don’t think Jesus is mainly referring to exorcisms. What is the greatest weapon against Satan? It is the cross, isn’t it? Now in Luke 10 the cross was still a future event, but the effect of the cross was still going forth through the preaching of the 72. Remember their strategy? These men went from house to house with the message of the kingdom of God. When they were finally welcomed into a home, they stayed for a while. They shared meals with these families. They slept in their homes and for a while, shared their lives together. But the most powerful thing these men did in the homes was to share the message of the kingdom. As a result, many hundreds of people decided to follow Christ.

So which event has more power—when a demon is cast out of a person or when the Holy Spirit enters them at conversion? Exorcisms get all of the attention, don’t they? The power encounter between the exorcist and the struggling demons make good movies and even better gospel stories. But the most powerful encounters are when people choose to accept Christ as king over their lives. At the moment of conversion the Holy Spirit indwells believers and this is far more powerful than the mere casting out of a demon. When people repent of their sin and follow Christ, more of Satan’s power is defeated. That is why Jesus said he saw Satan fall from heaven like lightening.

We must never lose sight of this invisible, cosmic battle that rages all around us. Paul said that  “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” The cosmic battle in the spiritual world makes the war in Iraq look like child’s play with toy guns. The politics and power struggles in our nation pale in comparison to the “powers of this dark world and the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms”. The war in the unseen world for the eternal souls of men and women is longest, bloodiest and most glorious battle in the universe. When a person is converted, the kingdom of God advances against the kingdom of this dark world. When a person is converted, Satan falls from heaven like lightening. When a person is converted, a spiritual battle is waged and won. Why do you think all of heaven erupts in joy and celebration when even one soul is converted? You and I are the warriors in this divine battlefield. When we are converted, we are in are drafted into the army of God.

But here is the difference between man’s army and God’s army. Even though we are drafted in God’s army, God does not insist that we fight. God allows us to sit on the sidelines and watch our fellow brothers and sisters engage in battle. God allows us to go AWOL from the battle. He does not force us to fight. But you know what? If we refuse to enter the battlefield, the battlefield comes to our doorstep anyway. We cannot run from the battle against this dark world. Every trial and suffering we are experiencing at this very moment is a result of this spiritual battle. We may have brought the harm upon ourselves or it may have been forced upon us by someone else, but make no mistake—it is a spiritual battle you are in. The spiritual battle will come to you no matter what, but it is far better to face the enemy head on rather than to have him ambush us from the sidelines.

Do you believe that every trial is a spiritual battle? When children disobey this is a spiritual battle. I need reminding of this as much or more than you do. If my children disobey, I think they are fighting against me. Nothing could be further from the truth. They are not rejecting my authority, but they are rejecting God’s authority. It is a spiritual battle. Conflict in the home is a spiritual battle. Trouble with a difficult co-worker is a spiritual battle. Even problems with our health are spiritual battles because we are being tested to see if it will strengthen our faith or weaken it.

Should we be afraid of these unseen warriors which fight against us? That depends. The apostle John said that the one who is in us is greater than the one in the world. That means if the Holy Spirit fights against the enemy, he will always win, but if we choose to fight the powers of this dark world in our own strength, we will be crushed every time. If you fight in the flesh—be afraid. If you let the Spirit fight for you then you need not be afraid. Are you willing to fight for the lost souls of those in your personal oikos? God has placed you in your own harvest field—which is also a battlefield. Are you willing to stand up for Christ by sharing Christ with others?

The last reason we should not fear is because joy casts out fear. What happened when the 72 came back? They returned to Jesus full of joy. Great things were happening to these men. They established many relationships; demons were running scared; many were following Christ, and the result of this exciting ministry was great joy. But certainly not everything that happened was positive, after all, they were led right to the wolves. Surely some of those wolves bit them. No doubt they faced tremendous opposition and rejection. How could they be joyful? Many of you shared a small piece of your testimony this morning. Is there any joy in your conversion story? How about for the person who led you to the Lord—have they ever felt any joy over it?

Ministry is a joy. It is a joy to see lives being transformed by the gospel. If you don’t receive joy from that then there is something horribly broken in your spiritual life. I worked as a medical technologist for eight years. I could do that again. I could get a different job, but I don’t want to do anything else. Call me selfish, but I get lots of joy from my job and I assume you get the same result when you are engaged in ministry. But as exciting as it is to see a person miraculously converted, as cool as it is to see fellow believers forsake their sin and walk in obedience to the Lord, as good as all of that is, there is something that is even far superior to all of this. Would you like to know what that something is? Please come back next Sunday and I will tell you.

Rich Maurer

October 30, 2005