Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Prayer Meeting Lesson Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/pm/pm19980517.htm

LUKE: GOSPEL OF CERTIFYING THE CHRISTIAN FAITH
Part XXXVI: The Credibility Of Christianity As Shown By God's Grace-Based Directives To His Messengers
(Luke 10:1-16)
  1. Introduction
    1. When we Christians contemplate the overwhelming spiritual darkness in the world and the extreme responses and pressures God's messengers face in the task of bringing light to that darkness, we might wonder how we can ever be ex pected to succeed in the task.
    2. In writing about the credibility of the Christian faith to Theophilus, Luke recorded Jesus' insightful directives to the 72 messengers He sent forth into the thick, overwhelming darkness around them.
    3. These directives reveal to us the credibility of the Christian faith amidst such great darkness as follows:
  2. The Credibility Of Christianity As Shown By God's Grace-Based Directives To His Messengers.
    1. Luke's Gospel was written to show a Hellenistic Theophilus the credibility of the Christian faith, Lk. 1:3-4.
    2. In doing so, he recorded how Christ's relatively impotent human messengers would be expected to succeed amidst the overwhelming and difficult spiritual darkness they faced as follows (Lk. 10:1-16):
      1. Factor One - The need to evangelize the lost is so overwhelming that Christ's human messengers can only pray that God sends forth laborers into His harvest field, Luke 10:1-2.
      2. Factor Two - The opposition to the truth from the world of darkness is so overwhelming that Christ's messengers must go low on human resources and high on God's provisions to succeed, Lk. 10:3-16:
        1. Jesus told His messengers that they could observe that He was sending them out as sheep among wolves that ravage vulnerable sheep, Lk. 10:3.
        2. Accordingly, He expected His vulnerable messengers to respond wisely to this threat as follows: (a) Christ's messengers were to go low on human prowess to be a small human target for wolves: (1) they were to minimize having worldly possessions to become non-issues by way of such valuables as the world saw them, Lk. 10:3- 4; (2) They were to view both positive and negative responses to their ministries as inevitable responses rising from the hearer's heart conditions rather than their prowess or fault, Lk. 10:5-6. That would keep them from personal pride or false guilt and its depression either way as the human capacities involved were to be minimized in importance; (3) They were to avoid freeloading, but accept just compensations for their labors, Lk. 10:7-8; (4) They were to do their job of speaking God's message and using their spiritual gifts, Lk. 10:9. (b) On the other hand, Christ's messengers were to go high on divine enabling to be effective: (1) If rejected by their hearers, God's messengers were to avoid getting bogged down with guilt, but see this problem as a problem the hearers had with God who had sent the messengers, Lk. 10:10-15. (2) This conclusion was due to the fact that the messengers were not the focal point of this ministry, but the relationship between the hearers and the Lord who had sent the messengers would create eit her the acceptance or rejection of the messengers and their messages, Luke 10:16.
Lesson: (1) The NEED is so great, and the DARKNESS is so deep and the OPPOSITION so RAVENOUS to Christ's messengers to the world that we messengers of His must go SMALL on leaning on our human resources and BIG on looking to GOD'S resources and inv olvement if we will survive and succeed psychologically, spiritually and physically in ministry. (2) Doing as much gives great credence to the supernatural quality of the Christian faith as succeeding as a messenger of God's will OBVIOUSLY come by way of D IVINE MIRACLE, not by way of HUMAN prowess.

Application: (1) If we feel OVERWHELMED with our personal lack of resources to address the needs, opposition and darkness around us in our efforts to witness or minister, we are too dependent on human resources and not enough dependent on G od. (2) Success is by way of viewing the harvest field as a DIVINE undertaking so that we lose ourselves in the work of GOD in and through us for His own glory!