Study 24. Luke 10:1-24

1. What mission did Jesus give the seventy-two? (10:1-2, 9)

To herald his ministry (v.1)

To gather in the harvest (v.2)

To bless people with peace(v.5)

To heal the sick (v.9)

To proclaim the coming kingdom (v.11)

 The number appears to be symbolic of the nations of the world, a view the Jews based on Genesis 10, where there are seventy names in the Hebrew text and seventy-two in lxx The gospel is for the whole world. Some, however, associate the number with that of the elders appointed by Moses (Num. 11:16f., 24f.; seventy-two with the two who remained in the camp). They see Jesus as the second Moses. Others think of the seventy members of the Sanhedrin (Morris)

70 may also refer to the household of Jacob (Gen 46:27). i.e. the 12 in Chapter 9 refer to the patriarchs of Israel = the apostles, and the 70, to the whole household of Israel =  the whole church of God. (Wilcox)

 

2. What might the disciples have leared about the priorities in their mission from the following instructions?
a) Do not take provisions (10:4) cf. 9:3. Rely on those you meet, because your ministry if of value.

Do not greet anyone or move around (10:4-7) cf. 9:4. There is urgency in the message and limited time. Don't get distracted by social interactions or desires for comfort.

v.10-12 recall 9:5.

Missions is urgent, valuable, critical

MIssions is dangerous (v.3)

Missions tests the people to whom Jesus' followers go (v.6) and brings judgment.

Why do you think the command "Ask the Lord" precedes the command "Go!" (10:3)

Jesus' statement about a plentiful harvest and few labourers (cf. Jn 4:35-36, Mt 9:37-38) as well as His command to pray implies that more labourers is God's strategy to reach the world, not more harvest.

Perhaps we are to 'go' with the understanding that we go as part of a corporate and not an individual effort.  God initiates the going..

3. Jesus reiterated that His disciples had His authority (10,16, 19, cf. 9:1). Why was it important to stress this?

 The world would not see them as Jesus saw them, yet they had divine authority. They appeared poor and deranged, but they represented the Christ. (I see in this another example of the theology of the cross.)

 

4. The disciples were joyful when Jesus' authority made them successful (10:17). But what should give a disciple even more joy, and why(10:20)?

The 70 may have been joyful because the authority given them enabled miraculous works (not mentioned in their commission)

Eternal security. Written names are never blotted out.(Rev 3:5, 13:8).

 

5. What 'things' has the Father revealed to the dsciples that sets them apart from 'the wise and learned' (10:21) and from 'prophets and kings' (10:24)

Caird speaks of this as ‘an inspired and exultant utterance by Jesus, which contains a succinct summary of most of his teaching’. The section so closely resembles much in John that it has been called ‘a Johannine bolt from the Synoptic blue’. 

 

 'Prophets and kings' in the OT are those anointed by God to rule His people and to reveal His will. They glimpsed and did not see the revelation of the Son (v.22-23). This recalls Jesus' statement that there was none greater than John the Baptist (7:18). Jesus's identity and glory is the hope and longing of all of the world.

 

"I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven' probably means that in the ministry of the seventy Jesus saw the defeat of Satan (his verb means ‘I was watching’, imperfect tense), a defeat as sudden and unexpected (to the forces of evil) as a flash of lightning. To the casual observer all that had happened was that a few mendicant preachers had spoken in a few small towns and healed a few sick folk. But in that gospel triumph Satan had suffered a notable defeat. Another view takes the words to refer to Satan’s fall which Jesus saw in pre-incarnation times. On this view the disciples are being warned not be proud as a result of their successful mission: they should remember that even Satan fell. But the former view is to be preferred.(Morris)

 

Perhaps Jesus' joy was great (there is a Trinitarian reference in v.21) because He foresaw the beginnings of His Bride -  those who would know the Father through the Son.

 

6. According to 10:22, how is it possible to know God?

Only through Jesus (cf. Jn 17:3 "And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent)

 

 

Why were Korazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum worthy of condemnation? (10:13-15). Luke 4:31-44, 5:17-26 andd 7:1-10 describe Jesus' ministry in Capernaum.

 

The mention of the towns Chorazin (in the New Testament only here and in the Matthean parallel) and Bethsaida brings home the fact that we know little of Jesus’ life. Nothing at all is known of his ministry in the former town and very little of that in the latter. But these words show that he had worked extensively in both places and done miracles there. Indeed the mighty works he did had been of such a character that they would have produced repentance in Tyre and Sidon (Morris)

Greater revelation leads to greater condemnation (2 Cor 2:15, Jn 9:41)

There are degrees of punishment in hell.