Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Prayer Meeting Lesson Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/pm/pm19980520.htm

LUKE: GOSPEL OF CERTIFYING THE CHRISTIAN FAITH
Part XXXVII: The Credibility Of Christianity Seen Via The Amazing Success Of Its Frail Human Messengers
(Luke 10:17-24)
  1. Introduction
    1. If we do a study of God's great movements in Church History, one is always driven back to the unique fact that God selects to use human vessels to do enormous works when human weakness is present.
    2. There is a reason for this, and it should cause us to respond with great thanksgiving if we are ever successful in our efforts of Christian service as follows:
  2. The Credibility Of Christianity Seen Via The Amazing Success Of Its Frail Human Messengers.
    1. Luke's Gospel was written to show the Gentile, Theophilus the credibility of the Christian faith, Lk. 1:3-4.
    2. One way this credibility is shown is the amazing success that conversely humanly frail messengers enjoyed:
      1. When the seventy-two messengers of Christ returned from their mission, they reported that even the demons were subject to them, Luke 10:17.
      2. Noteworthy is the fact that Jesus never mentioned they would have such dominance over demons when He commissioned the seventy-two, Luke 10:9:
        1. Jesus had commanded the disciples to preach the gospel of the Messianic Kingdom, Luke 10:9b.
        2. He had announced they were authorized power to heal the sick, Luke 10:9a.
        3. However, in this commission there was no announcement of victory or power over demons!
      3. This report of amazing success over demonic powers was used by Jesus to reveal God's grace:
        1. Jesus responded to the disciples' report that He witnessed Satan's power being strongly countered by the ministry of the 72 He had sent out because they went in Christ's power, Luke 10:18-19.
        2. However, He noted that these disciples were to be grateful not so much for their astounding success, but for the grace of God that had saved them from Satan's fallen power and put them back into heaven from whence the wicked Satan had fallen, Luke 10:20 versus Luke 10:18.
        3. Then, in a prayer of thanksgiving, Jesus thanked the Father for hiding these priceless experiences of spiritual service success from the world's wise and prudent and in grace revealing them unto the weakest and least spiritually educated of men, the disciples, Luke 10:21.
        4. Jesus then declared that the disciples would not have even known such experiences if it had not been for God's grace in revealing it to them, Luke 10:22.
        5. Finally, Jesus told His disciples that they ought to be grateful to have witnessed what they did in their mission as many renowned Old Testament prophets and kings had desired but been unable to witness these same things. In other words, they needed to realize the grace of God toward them, Lk. 10:23f.
Lesson: The amazing success of the seventy-two disciples was designed by God to reveal the greatness of God's unmerited favor to men: in using the weakest and least intrinsically righteous of human vessels to have total forgiveness and equipping by God to have complete dominion over beings greater than the greatest human, the credibility of Christianity as being a super-human faith is thus made clearly evident.

Application: (1) If God gives a believer spiritual success in leading others to Christ or in discipling other believers in their faith, God expects that servant of His to recall how deserving he himself is of Hell, and deeply express appreciation t hat he is even SAVED, let alone used in a powerful way as a tool of Almighty God to make a dent in Satan's dominion. (2) If God gives a believer spiritual success in ministry, he should recognize that it came not from his personal human wisdom, educatio n or might, but from God's unmerited favor and power. (3) If God supplies great spiritual victories in a believer's life and ministry, he must recall that he is graced to see what great men and women of God in past ages were unable to witness. That should lead to his thanksgiving. (4) In this way, one's genuine humility gives God the glory, and Christianity becomes BELIEVABLE to onlookers as a faith led by GOD and not human CHARLATANS!