Luke 10:12-20
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Last week we talked about Jesus sending out 70 or 72 missionaries.
These were true believers.
They had heard and understood the cost of discipleship that Jesus had been teaching.
They knew that to follow Jesus they had to deny themselves, take up their crosses daily, and follow Him.
They were willing to prioritize the kingdom of God over their own comfort, riches, and relationships.
These were not the 12 apostles, they were regular folks like us who had been reconciled to God and given the ministry of reconciliation.
Last week we saw Jesus tell them to go minister to people and preach the coming of the kingdom of God.
They were preaching that the king of the kingdom was about to come to their towns.
We preach that the king already came, and we get to tell them the whole story of why He came.
Jesus instructed them to do the following when they went into a town where they were not received.
10 But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say,
11 ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near.’
The Gospel is good news - it’s actually the best possible news - God has made a way for you to be reconciled to Him
but...
there is bad news too
and
the bad news is what happens if you are not reconciled to God.
Hell has become rather taboo in much of modern Christianity.
We just don’t want to talk about it...
I think maybe some preachers are sort of embarrassed by it.
I mean the doctrine of hell doesn’t really look so good for God, so maybe we should downplay it.
We want God to be liked, so let’s not dwell on this eternal damnation thing.
It would not poll very well.
==
I understand the impulse.
I don’t like talking about or thinking about hell either.
BUT...
Jesus made it part of the message of the kingdom that these guys were supposed to tell.
If they were rejected, they were to depart with a warning.
Today we will pick up with what Jesus told these 72 about what awaited those who reject his messengers.
It is sobering.
It is scary.
I’d rather talk about something happy...
but...
God put this in here because He thought we should know it.
Let’s look at Luke 10: 12-16
Remember, Jesus is talking to the 72 evangelists about the towns that reject them.
12 I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.
13 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.
14 But it will be more bearable in the judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you.
15 And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You shall be brought down to Hades.
16 “The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me.”
God holds people accountable for the amount of revelation they receive.
God holds people accountable for the amount of revelation they receive.
((so we should cease all missions activities, right?)) - take time and explain
So, if you go to hell from here where the gospel is clearly taught with several copies of the Bible lying around your house, you will certainly face harsher punishment than someone who never heard the gospel.
Let’s take a moment to remember what sort of place Sodom was.
Sodom was inhospitable to God’s messengers - that is putting it very mildly, but it shows the connection.
((tell the story of the angels visit to Sodom))
This was the richly deserved judgment of Sodom.
24 Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven.
25 And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.
After the destruction here is what Abraham saw.
28 And he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the valley, and he looked and, behold, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace.
That was the punishment in this life.
So much more awaits the inhabitants of those cities in the judgment.
Let’s think together for a moment.
Were the 72 put through what these angels experienced?
Certainly not!
Then why would the condemnation of the cities that rejected them be worse than that of Sodom?
because of the greater revelation they rejected.
The angels sent to Sodom did not go preaching repentance and salvation...
they were just there to tell Lot and his family to get out of town before God nuked them...
((they did have the witness of Lot and his family))
but...
these 72 evangelists were preparing the way for Jesus who did preach repentance and salvation.
==
((Listen up - really important stuff here…))
This should cause us to re-evaluate our understanding of sin.
The sins of the Sodomites were grave and deserving of the punishment they received...
but...
I don’t think any of us realizes how sinful it is to reject or ignore truth.
If we did, I think we would prioritize attending church and reading our bibles a whole lot more.
Instead of rejecting or ignoring truth, we would be seeking out more truth and obeying it when we’ve found it.
((Reiterate))
Let’s look at v. 13-14
13 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.
14 But it will be more bearable in the judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you.
Chorazin was a little village a couple of miles from Capernaum...
and...
Capernaum was Jesus’ headquarters during his Galilean ministry.
Chorazin was exposed to Jesus teaching and his miracles.
So was Bethsaida...
It was the home of Andrew, Philip, and Peter.
Both of these towns had seen things that would have caused Tyre and Sidon to repent in sackcloth and ashes...
and...
let me tell you, Tyre and Sidon were not nice places full of people seeking God.
Isaiah, Ezekiel, Joel, and Amos all prophesy against these pagan cities and their idolatry.
One example is...
4 “What are you to me, O Tyre and Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Are you paying me back for something? If you are paying me back, I will return your payment on your own head swiftly and speedily.
5 For you have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried my rich treasures into your temples.
6 You have sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks in order to remove them far from their own border.
7 Behold, I will stir them up from the place to which you have sold them, and I will return your payment on your own head.
8 I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a nation far away, for the Lord has spoken.”
God was not a fan of Tyre and Sidon, yet Jesus, knowing all things, said the inhabitants of those cities would have repented if they had seen what Chorazin and Bethsaida saw.
((not hearsay or and exaggeration on Jesus’ part - He is the judge - telling you what He will do))
That is a pretty amazing indictment.
==
What about the last city mentioned here.
Remember we said that Capernaum was the home base for Jesus’ Galilean ministry.
In v. 15, we read...
15 And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You shall be brought down to Hades.
The residents of Capernaum weren’t hostile to Jesus.
They hadn’t tried to throw him off a cliff like the people of Nazareth.
The residents of Capernaum apparently suffered from something more addictive and debilitating than the residents of Sodom, Tyre, and Sidon - self-righteousness.
((Lady in lesbian relationship down the street vs. proper, well-dressed, republican, self-righteous church lady.))
If there are lost people here today, they are probably the Capernaum type rather than the Sodom type.
In other words, if you have a sin that you prefer over Jesus, it is probably self-righteousness rather than sexual perversion or primitive idolatry.
I would argue that self-righteousness is a more sophisticated form of idolatry, but that is likely to be the problem for someone in here today.
It is also more likely to be your nice neighbor’s problem.
I would rather have a self-righteous neighbor than an openly wicked neighbor, but that is just for my convenience and the peacefulness of the neighborhood...
but...
how is that neighbor going to fare in the judgment?
If you’ve been paying attention to what Jesus said here - you see he or she won’t fare well at all.
So we are to do what we talked about last week and go and tell them how to be reconciled to God.
Some folks that you pray for, invest your time in, and witness to will reject the message.
Here is what Jesus says about that.
16 “The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me.”
If they reject you, they are rejecting Jesus.
If they reject Jesus, they reject God the Father.
but what else does this verse say?
If they hear you, they hear Jesus and they can be reconciled to God.
==
Talking about hell is scary and depressing, isn’t it?
Let’s talk now about the ones who do hear and accept the message.
Let’s take a look at what happens when the 72 return from their short-term mission trip.
17 The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!”
18 And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.
19 Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you.
20 Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
((weird and disjointed or staying on topic?))
Are you one that has accepted the true gospel?
Gospel