Queen's Road Cell

 We celebrated Qin’s birthday! 

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 follo...

Luke now brings together four short incidents which show the disciples’ lack of faith, their slowness to learn, their pride and their intolerance.(Morris) Why were Jesus' disciples unable to cast out the evil spirit (9:41, cf. Mark 9:28-29)? What do you make of that? Does it have any relevance to us today?   The private enquiry of the disciples tells us that they were surprised that they could not cast out the demon. Jesus identified the reason:'except by prayer (and fasting)', and implied that there are different types of demonisation. ("this kind"). There is no harsh condemnation of the disciples, so "faithless and perverse generation" (cf. Dt 32:5) probably does not refer only to the disciples, or the boy's father, who had imperfect but existent faith. We should take the address then as ‘to all people who are present and had failed to show faith enough for the healing of the boy’ (Morris). This passage reminds us that extraordinary works requi...