2319. The Lord’s Chosen Ministers

No. 2319-39:361. A Sermon Delivered On Lord’s Day Evening, June 23, 1889, By C. H. Spurgeon, At The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.

A Sermon Intended For Reading On Lord’s Day, July 30, 1893.

In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, “I thank you, oh Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed them to babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in your sight.” {Lu 10:21}

 For other sermons on this text:
   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 1571, “Joy of Jesus, The” 1571}
   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2319, “Lord’s Chosen Ministers, The” 2320}
   Exposition on Lu 10:1-22 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2319, “Lord’s Chosen Ministers, The” 2320 @@ "Exposition"}

1. The habitual state of mind of Jesus was, I think, a deep calm. Beyond all ordinary men, he possessed his soul in peace. We find him sleeping in the midst of a storm, the very best thing that he could do; he knew that, rocked in the cradle of the deep by his great Father, he was supremely safe; so, finding a pillow, and going near the stern of the ship, he fell asleep.

2. But there were times when his spirit ebbed out. He was always a Man of sorrows; the surface of his soul was often disturbed with storms of grief, and then we read that “Jesus wept.” Sometimes, however, the tide was at the flood; and so we here read, “In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit.” It is very seldom that we read this; so seldom did he show his joy that it was recorded at once by the Evangelist. Luke took care to note that, even as others had mentioned his tears. Jesus was a man of constant grief, a mourner all his days; and yet at times the deep calm of his spirit was stirred by something other than the north wind; the south wind blew, and all was joyful and bright with him: “In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit.” I thought that this would be a profitable theme for meditation for a short time tonight, in contrast to that of this morning. {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2091 “Jesus Wept” 2092} I do not intend to go so deeply into this subject as I did into that one; but I think that there are some matters here which may be instructive for us.

3. I. First, let us ask, WHAT WAS THE OCCASION OF OUR MASTER’S JOY? “In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit.” You may judge a man by his joy; as a man rejoices, so he is. What made Christ rejoice? If I were to ask the question of all of you who are happy tonight, “What makes you rejoice?” some might, perhaps, be ashamed to answer my enquiry; but there was no reason why Jesus should blush at what made him glad.

4. First, I notice that he rejoiced in stirring times. He had sent out the seventy disciples; they had gone, in thirty-five pairs, all over the country, telling that he was coming, and he was planning on going to every city and place to which he had sent his heralds. Seeing what was done, and what was going to be done, the Saviour’s heart rejoiced. Some people like laziness; Christ loved activity. This morning I showed you that there was no indolence in him, for he wept; and that old word “in-dolence” does not mean grieving, does it not? But he did grieve, so there was no indolence in him in the old and literal classic sense, and certainly no indolence in him in the sense in which we now use the word. He could weep, and therefore he could work. He could feel, and therefore he could bestir himself; and in stirring times he felt himself glad. How some of us long to see the Church of God fully astir! We seem to have a dreadful calm nowadays, like that of the “Ancient Mariner” {a} when —

          The very deep did rot.
    Alas, that ever this should be!

We need the wind from heaven to stir our sails, and set the ship in motion; we need the breath of the Holy Spirit to speed us to our desired haven. It was not so with Christ, for he rejoiced in times of activity.

5. He rejoiced, next, when he was surrounded by faithful preachers. There were seventy of his disciples; quite a little Conference! He felt himself in good company with the seventy, all faithful preachers of the Word, gathered around him. You say that it was not many. No, but it was a good beginning; it was a noble beginning that, out of a few disciples (and he had not many at most), he should be able to pick out seventy who were fit to be sent out to preach. They must have been a fine class of men, though they were simple-minded fishermen and peasants; and to find seventy of them who could be sent to preach, and declare that the kingdom of heaven was at hand, who were fit to be trusted with miraculous power, might well make him glad. Brethren, when we see plenty of preachers of the gospel, when we see the Lord calling one and another to go out and proclaim his Word of grace, then we also rejoice in spirit.

6. Jesus rejoiced also because all these seventy had found a welcome. It seemed rather an experiment to send out seventy unlettered men to proclaim the kingdom of God. It was like sending lambs into the midst of wolves. Would not some of them be stoned to death? When the muster-roll was read, would not one or two at least be missing? But no, “the seventy returned again with joy.” They had all been welcomed. Everyone seems to have received them, and entertained them; and they came back in high spirits, and the Saviour, seeing them return like this, not as preachers without congregations, but itinerant ministers, who had been listened to everywhere with respectful attention, felt that he must also rejoice, so “Jesus rejoiced in spirit.” It is of no use having ministers if they have no one to preach to; and it is very likely that, before long, we shall have more ministers than hearers, if things go on as they now go. We have so many of our brethren with marvellous gifts of dispersion, that we have seen magnificent congregations, that used to gather around earnest Evangelical preachers, scattered to the winds. There is nothing in that to rejoice over, except for Satan to rejoice; but when you see a people made willing, in the day of God’s power, to listen to the heralds of the cross, then you may indeed rejoice.

7. Jesus rejoiced, further, because he heard that the power of God had rested on them all. The seventy had healed the sick, and to their own astonishment they had cast out demons, and they mentioned it with great exaltation. “And he said to them, ‘I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.’ ” Oh, brethren, we need not rejoice because there are many professed preachers; and it might not be firm ground for rejoicing if they all had congregations; but it is a safe reason for joy when the power of God rests on them! Only give a man that old power of God with him, and I am sure that he will have a congregation, and I am certain that grand results will come of his work. If God is with us, his Word which we preach cannot fail; it will not reach the ear only, but it will pierce the heart; it will awaken the spiritually dead; it will turn hearts of stone to flesh. There is still a divine power going with the preaching of the Word of God. The gospel is still the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes; and when we see that that is the case, and that men and women are being converted, then I am sure that, like our Master, we shall do well to rejoice in spirit.

8. Further than this, our Saviour rejoiced in spirit because he saw that Satan’s kingdom was being shaken. To fetch him down from his throne, is no small thing; how is it to be done? Well, the philosophers may try their magnetism, but the devil is proof against them; the orators and rhetoricians may try their rounded periods, and decorate their orations with quotations from the poets, but the devil never stirs for them; but preach Jesus Christ, say that his kingdom is at hand, proclaim that he is come to save the lost, and that whoever believes in him shall live eternally, in a word, preach up Christ, and you soon preach down the devil. He does not come down by slow degrees; he falls, like lightning, from heaven. You have seen lightning; you may have seen it in that great storm a fortnight ago; it took no time at all to come down from heaven. Just a flash, and it was here. So, where the gospel is preached with divine power, Satan comes down from his throne, in human hearts and human minds, as rapidly as the lightning flash falls from heaven; and when we see his kingdom shaken, then, like Jesus, we rejoice in spirit.

9. Still, I do not think that I have hit the centre of the target yet. The Lord Jesus deeply rejoiced in spirit because of the men by whom this work had been done. What kind of men were they? On this I shall have to dwell a little further on. But there was this about them, they were glad to have been put into the King’s commission. “The seventy returned again with joy.” They had never been so happy before; this doing of the Lord’s will had been a great delight to them. You could see it by the very spring of their feet, and the flash of their eyes. They came back to their Master delighted; and Jesus caught the contagion of their joy, and he rejoiced in spirit. People who serve Christ willingly, who feel a delight in doing his will, are sure to bring delight to Christ’s heart. Are you, dear friends, in your holy work, doing it with joy, or do you serve the Lord because you cannot help it, like slaves driven to their toil by the overseer’s lash? Jesus cannot rejoice over you if that is the case; but if you can say, “I delight to do your will,” then you will make his heart rejoice.

10. He rejoiced in these men because, when they came back, having done wonders, they ascribed it all to him. They said, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us through your name.” They did not begin to pilfer the glory and take the honour for themselves; Christ is glad to have a people who lay all the honour where it ought to be laid, and put the crown on the right head. I do believe that there is nothing that angers Christ more, in his ministers, than to hear them talk about what they have done, without duly ascribing all the glory to himself. When they do ascribe it to him, then Jesus rejoices in spirit.

11. But he rejoiced most of all that, of all these seventy, he could say that their names were written in heaven. It is an easy thing to become a preacher, or a teacher, an evangelist, or what not; but are our names written in heaven? As Christ would have us rejoice most over that, no doubt he rejoices most over it, when he sees that we not only have our names written down in the Clergy List, or our denominational Handbook, but that our names are really written among the living in Zion, those who are quickened by his grace, washed in his blood, and truly made to live by his Spirit. “In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit.” I have shown you the reasons for his joy. When you have similar times, dear brothers, dear sisters, watch that you rejoice in spirit, too.

12. II. But now, secondly, WHAT WAS THE NATURE OF CHRIST’S JOY? “Jesus rejoiced in spirit.”

13. The answer to this question is, first, that it was spiritual joy. There is a good deal of joy in the world, even among religious people, that could not be called spiritual. I am not certain whether all the expressions of joy one hears at some excited meetings are worthy to be put on the same heap with this joy of Christ. There is mental joy. There is a kind of physical joy, when one gets excited and stirred up; this is only bronze or silver; but spiritual joy is the gold of joy, and the gold of that land is good. If, deep down in his inner life, one’s spirit can rejoice in God, he is the man who is like his Master when he rejoiced in spirit.

14. You who have the 1881 English Revised Version, which often teaches us much, will, I dare say, be surprised to read in the margin the following rendering, “In that same hour he rejoiced by the Holy Spirit.” That is a very remarkable rendering, and I think a correct one. That is the kind of joy that Jesus had, joy created in him by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was poured on him without measure; and, since part of the fruit of the Spirit is joy, the Spirit gave him much joy, as well as much love. Beloved, pray God to give you joy by the Holy Spirit. All the other joy in the world, if heaped up together, would be only so much smoke and vapour; but joy in the Holy Spirit is solid bliss, and lasting pleasure. Here you have the great ingots of joy. How ponderous they are, how precious they are, how immeasurably valuable, how infinitely beneficial! Joy by the Holy Spirit — often very calm and quiet, for “He leads me beside the still waters”; but a very wonderful joy, the joy of God, like the peace of God, which surpasses understanding, this is a joy which surpasses all measure or bound. That was the joy of Christ, spiritual joy, and joy by the Holy Spirit.

15. Notice, also, that it was joy about others, a perfectly unselfish joy. Jesus had seen others blessed, healed, prepared, instructed, made ready to hear more of the gospel; and he rejoiced in that. And he had seen others made useful. Oh, what a mercy it is when you can rejoice in other people’s usefulness! Did God ever bless you very greatly, and did there come along someone whom he blessed more than you? Now, I am sure that you rejoiced in that other man’s success if he was a hundred miles off; but I am not quite so certain that you rejoiced in it if he came into your Sunday School, and had a class that took some of the scholars away from you. I am not quite certain that every minister in the world would leap for joy if a brother settled close beside him, and had a congregation twice as large as he had, and did ten times as much good. Hearts need a little schooling at such a time as that; for, as the stars love to shine, they sometimes like not only to shine out but to outshine. Now shine out as much as you like; but never mind about outshining, for that is rivalry of a kind of which Christ will never approve. He rejoiced to see the seventy shining, he delighted to see them all useful. Pray for your brothers and sisters, so that God may make them more useful than they are, and more useful than you are. Did not your Lord say, “He who believes in me, the works that I do he shall also do; and he shall do greater works than these; because I go to my Father,” as if it was a delight to the Master that his pupils should in some respects excel himself? Remember Moses, when they came to him, and said that Eldad and Medad were prophesying in the camp; those two fellows had not been properly ordained, yet they were prophesying in the camp! What did Moses say? “Stop them immediately. They do not have ‘Rev.’ before either of their names, and certainly they do not have M. A., or any of the other letters of the alphabet, after their names; shut those fellows up?” No, no! Moses said, “Oh that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his Spirit in them!” And is that not what Christ would say, and have you say? Oh, let us have joy in our hearts when souls are saved, even though we may not be the instruments of their salvation, or any of our denomination, but someone quite apart from us! God has blessed him; and God be blessed for blessing him!

16. Our Saviour’s joy, again, was quiet and devout joy. “Jesus rejoiced in spirit.” I do not find that he sang a Psalm, or even a hymn from Moody and Sankey, or that he took a tambourine and danced. I think it would have been very much out of place for him to have done that; for him it would have looked very eccentric. But our Saviour, when he rejoiced in spirit, prayed and thanked God. The same calm, which had sustained him in his seasons of sorrow, supported him in his hour of joy, and kept him sober, still, quiet. May the Lord give us much of this joy! Still waters, you know, run deep. Let me also say that deep waters run quietly. When the river is very deep, there will not be half as much noise as when it is only shallow, and therefore rattles and raves over the stones which it scarcely covers.

17. Christ’s was quiet and devout joy; and it was also meek and lowly joy. Though he rejoiced in spirit, what he said was, “I thank you, oh Father.” There was no assumption, no taking of anything to himself. Did he not send out the seventy? Were they not called by him? Yes, but he said, “I thank you, oh Father, Lord of heaven and earth.” Perhaps God would give us more joy if we were more meek when we had it; but sometimes, when our heavenly Father trusts us with a few jewels, we hang them on our ears, and are as pleased with them as children with new toys, and we forget our Father, and only remember how pretty we look, as we think. Then the Lord takes them away again. Many a child would have more sweets to eat if they did not make him sick; many a preacher of the gospel would have more success if it did not make him proud; and many a labourer for the Lord would bring more souls to Christ if there were not the danger of his losing his own soul if he were much honoured in that way. Our Master, when he rejoiced in spirit, was as meek and as lowly as when he stood before his adversaries, and was led as a sheep to the slaughter.

18. III. But I must not detain you much longer; and therefore I come to the last point, which is the special one on which I want to dwell at this time. WHAT WAS THE EXPRESSION OF OUR SAVIOUR’S JOY? When Jesus rejoiced in spirit, how did he show his joy?

19. Well, he showed it, first, by thanks to his Father. He said, “I thank you, oh Father, Lord of heaven and earth.” Oh, that our joy might never take the form of a foolish song, but might always be in the form of thanksgiving or thanks-living, or both of them together, — a happy combination, — thanksgiving with the mouth, and thanks-living with the life! Our Saviour, I say, praised God when he felt joyful. Do you not think that that should be a lesson to us to try to be joyful before we praise God? Do you feel very dull and heavy? Well, sing; remember that the apostle James said, “Is anyone merry? Let him sing psalms.” Psalms are best sung when the heart is glad; therefore seek to shake off your sadness when you come into the house of God; and before you begin to praise the Lord, endeavour to be joyful, cheerful, and happy. Did I not say, the other day, — Do not leave your bedroom until you feel that everything is right between you and God? I would also add to that, — Do not begin to sing until your heart sings. Try as much as possible to be glad. Does God want slaves to grace his throne? It is the heathen who cut themselves with knives, and think that their god is pleased with their misery; but our God delights in the joy of his people. Be glad before him. “Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise to him with psalms.” Sing to the Lord all you people, and rejoice before him. The singing of God’s praises should be accompanied with joy; and when there is joy, it should be attended with the singing of his praises.

20. But why does Jesus Christ thank God? What is his special object in thanking him? Well, he thanks him for a great truth that some of you do not like. I cannot hide it, whether you like it or not. Jesus thanks his Father for the doctrine of election:“ I thank you, oh Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed them to babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in your sight.” With whom does the choice of men lie? With God; and in his choice his Son greatly rejoices. So let it be with us; let him do what he wills, and let us rejoice in him. “Though he kills me, yet I will trust in him.” Let him do whatever he wills, I know that it is right. It is not for us to judge God’s conduct, but to let God’s conduct be to us the rule of our life, the rule of right.

    He sits on no precarious throne,
       Nor borrows leave to be;

nor does he stand at your judgment bar, or mine, to ask us what he shall do; or what he shall not do. “He does not give account of any of his matters”; and over the head of us all there rolls the thunder of this word, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” No claim can be set up by the creature; no one has any merit whatever before him; and, therefore, with that absolute sovereignty which he claims as God, he distributes his favours according to this rule, “Shall I not do as I wish with my own?” But many hearts cannot bow to that law; the iron sinew of their neck will not bend to a God who is God. A nominal god is all very well; but a real God of infinite power and divine sovereignty is rejected by many, but not by his dear Son. He says, “I thank you, oh Father, Lord of heaven and earth.” We who truly know the Lord, adore the God of electing love. He cannot do wrong; he must be right; and if he chooses to let the wise and prudent be blinded, while he opens the eyes of babes, we thank him. What we do not understand, we accept with reverent adoration.

21. The Saviour especially thanks his Father for the chosen ministers all around him. Someone might have said, “Why, these seventy, you are their Leader; but they are a precious poor lot! Look at them; put the whole seventy together, and they would not make one man of the size of a Pharisee, either in property, or in propriety, or in power to boast, and say that they have kept the commandments from their youth up. Why, they are a parcel of sinners, the whole seventy of them! And besides that, look at their coats, nothing but working-men’s jackets. There is one of them, Peter, who has an extra coat; but he is only a fisherman. What a lot they are! And these are the men who are to proclaim the religion that is to conquer the world! It is certainly not abreast of the times; it is not up to the modern thought of this period; very far from it. All that it has gathered is a parcel of poor, illiterate people.”

22. Well, the Saviour thanks God that he has not given him any wise men. He thanks God that he has not saved any of the people who think that they have great understanding. He congratulates himself that, on the whole, he has the people he likes best: “I thank you, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed them to” — what? Well, he says “babes.” They cannot say anything worse than that of the Lord’s chosen ministers, just a lot of babies. Jesus thanks God that he has revealed the truth to these babes; and so do I. Oh, beloved, what a mercy it is that the Lord does, by his grace, call these babes, while the wise men, and the understanding men, are not called!

23. Suppose the very wise and prudent had been called to go and preach, what would they have done? Why, in the first place, they would not have gone at all, because any prudent man would have said, “He sends us out as lambs in the midst of wolves. That is not prudent, so I shall not go.” Certainly no wise men would have gone on such an errand; they would have said, “No, thank you.” And so you find the wise and prudent staying put. They will not go on Christ’s errands; they have errands of their own, they have plenty of their own work to do, they are going to reform the world by their own inventions. But to go on Christ’s errands, and simply to say what Christ tells them, oh, no, not they! They have such a lot to say of what they have made out of their own heads that they cannot go out to repeat simply what Christ has said to them.

24. Suppose, again, that the seventy had been wise and prudent men, what next would they have done? Why, they would have tinkered with the message, for certain. There is one of them who would have said, “Well, now, I am going, you see, to a town of very respectable people, I must tone my message down for them.” Another would have said, “I am going where they are rather a democratic set; I must introduce a little bit of politics of a popular kind to suit them.” Another would have said, “Well, now, these people will not come and hear me preach the gospel, so I shall have entertainment, a penny reading, or something of that kind.” All the wise and prudent would have thought that they could do better than Christ told them to do; therefore he was very glad that he did not have any of them to pester him. He only had these who would do just what he told them, and say just what he told them; and that was exactly the kind of people whom he needed, men who would do his bidding without a question.

25. Then, besides that, if they had been very wise and prudent, they would have inevitably clouded the message, for they would have delivered it in their own grand style; and you know how wise men talk, do you not? Unless you are a very wise man, you cannot understand them. But these poor babes, when they went into a town, talked as the people talked, and everyone could understand them. Nowadays, it is thought to be an evidence of lack of education if you talk so that everyone can understand you; but, dear friends, we are not afraid of what anyone says on that point. Depend on it, the best education in the world is what enables you to convey your thoughts to other people’s minds in a way in which you really get them into their brains. These babes went and preached what Christ told them, because they did not know anything else. They were men of plain speech; they were Galileans; they had never learned the scholastic style of speech — Galilee was a notable place for spoiling the language. These were rough-hewn men; and they spoke out their message with all their might, and Christ was very thankful that they were not other than they were, for they did his work very grandly.

26. Besides, I think that, if they had been wise and prudent, they would not have come back rejoicing; they would have come back with that cold propriety which is most consistent with the dignity of cultured intelligence! Are you not all aware that it is vulgar to be happy, that it betrays the feebleness of your minds if you enjoy anything? The proper thing is to pick the truth to pieces, and find all the fault that you can with it. When the bread of heaven is set before you, if you are a cultured person, you should not eat it, but try to find out who baked it, and whether they put as much yeast in it as usual. Such people always quarrel with the truth if they can. Sometimes I take up a commentary on some part of the Bible, and think that I am going to learn something; and so I do, and when I have learned it, I wish that I had never seen it. A vain attempt is made to take the juice out of God’s wheat, and to reduce it to dry, useless husks, which cannot cheer the heart, or comfort the spirit. I thank you, Lord, when I get away from these gentlemen, even as you thanked your Father that there were none of them around you, for they would have been almost enough to chill the very life of Christ himself.

27. Once more, if they had all been wise and prudent, they would have come back, every one of them taking a little of the praise. One wise man would have said, “I put that point beautifully down at Chorazin.” Another would have said, “I drew a wonderful distinction down at Bethsaida.” “If any good comes of this,” another would say, “it was that wonderful conclusion of my discourse that did it. I must have the credit for it.” These poor babes could not think or talk like this; for, if God did anything by them, they were such nobodies, that he must have all the glory.

28. Now I am finished when I just say to you that I wonder whether this brings comfort to you. One poor soul says, “I am not clever; I cannot be saved.” Why not? Why not, when God has chosen the foolish things of this world? I often hear a person say, “But I do not have head enough for these things.” You do not need a head so much as you need a heart, for the grace of God works on the heart first, and on the head afterwards. When the head drags the heart, it is often slow work; but when the heart goes first, and the head follows, then it is a blessing indeed. If you love Christ, and trust in him, you have all the head that you need for eternal life. “Oh!” one says, “but I am a person of such small capacity.” Never mind, “Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners,” whether they are of large capacity or small capacity. Do you have a teachable spirit? Are you willing to believe what the Holy Spirit reveals? Are you willing to sit at Jesus’ feet, and learn from him? Are you like the babe that does not doubt his mother, but takes unquestioningly the nourishment she gives? If that is so, you are of the kind whom God has chosen. Come at once to him. You cannot understand all mysteries even if you wanted to do so. Give up all your vain attempts to sweep the cobwebs from the sky, or to climb up among the stars. Oh, the questions that people can ask you when they really do not want answers, and if they did, would never receive them! I know some who are lost in their thoughts —

    Of providence, foreknowledge, will, and fate,
    Fixed fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute;

or some other tremendously knotty question. Why do you get out of your depths? Be a babe, and come, and simply believe yourself to be a sinner, and trust Christ as your Saviour, and you will know more than all the philosophers can ever teach you. Come and trust the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will find how true it is that he has revealed these things to babes. Are you willing to be what Christ was? He was the childlike man. He is called, “The holy child Jesus.” Will you be a child to him, and let him be a Man for you? Will you take his book, and believe it as you read it? Will you take himself, and trust him as you find him? Will you take his cross, and rest on it as your only hope? Then, blessed are you, for you are in the election of grace; you are one of those whom God has chosen, and for whom Christ thanks him that he chose people of that quality; and while Christ thanks God, you may thank him, too, and go home tonight rejoicing. If you are too wise, too clever, too critical, to trust Christ, there is no other way to heaven; so you see where you must go. May the Lord change your foolish opinion, and teach your reason, reason, and your sense a little common sense, and save you, for his mercy’s sake! Amen.

{a} The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is the longest major poem by the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge written in 1797-1798. See Explorer "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rime_of_the_Ancient_Mariner"

Exposition By C. H. Spurgeon {Lu 10:1-22}

Our Lord was about to send out seventy disciples to preach the gospel. He had already chosen his twelve apostles; now there must be seventy disciples, something like Moses had seventy elders to serve under him. Some have fancifully compared these two sets of men to the twelve wells of water and seventy palm trees at Elim; and certainly they were for the refreshment of the people.

1. After these things the Lord appointed seventy others also, and sent them two by two before his face into every city and place, where he himself would come.

They were to go before Christ, and be his heralds. What a mercy it is when the preacher knows that his Master is coming after him, when he can hear the sound of his Master’s feet behind him! What courage it gives him! He knows that, though it is very little that he can do, he is the thin end of the wedge preparing the way for One who can do everything.

2. Therefore he said to them, “The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send out labourers into his harvest.

The seventy were very few compared with the many who were needed. There were many loiterers around then as there are now; but the labourers were few. There were preachers of the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and they were not worth a penny a hundred; but the true labourers, who watched for souls, and preached Christ with all their hearts, were very few. It is the same today; and therefore we are to pray for more labourers. A good minister always desires to see more good ministers. In a trade, every tradesman would be glad if those of the same trade as himself would move to another parish; but in the profession of a Christian minister, the more the merrier. “Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send out labourers into his harvest.”

3. Go your ways: behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves.

“Defenceless, harmless, into the midst of those who would devour you if I did not send you. It would be foolhardiness to go on your own account; but I send you; and he who sends his lambs among wolves will take care of them.” As I have often reminded you, the lambs and the sheep are very defenceless; and yet, after all, there are more sheep in the world than there are wolves; and although it looked as if the wolves would soon devour the sheep, the wolves are exterminated in many a country, and the sheep are still prized; and it will be so until the end.

4. Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes:

This time, when Christ sent out the seventy, he told them to take no provision, for they might depend on the kindness of the people. Afterwards, when he was about to leave his disciples, he told them to take both purse and scrip, for they were going among an unfriendly people; but on this first mission he knew that there was a kindly feeling towards them, so he said, “Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes.”

4. And greet no man by the way.

Eastern greetings by the way took up a very long time, the people saying a lot of fine nothings to each other. Christian ministers ought to be excused from many of the lengthy courtesies of life; and if they are not excused, if they are faithful, they will take French leave {b} to be excused. We have no time for all those pretty things that some people attend to. If we are to win souls, we must go to work like the king’s couriers, who do not turn aside to attend to anything else, but devote all their energies to the mission on which they are sent.

5, 6. And into whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house.’ And if the son of peace is there, your peace shall rest on it: if not, it shall return to you again.

So that it will not be wasted. Wish well, and your well-wishing will do you good, even if it does no one else good. Our chickens come home to roost. If they are curses, they will come on us; if they are blessings, they will bless us as well as others.

7, 8. And remain in the same house eating and drinking such things as they give: for the labourer is worthy of his hire. Do not go from house to house. And into whatever city you enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you:

The Jewish Rabbis, in their travels, were very particular about food; it is said to have been very difficult to find a dish to their taste. This might be unclean in one way, and that not up to the mark in another; but here the Master exempts his ambassadors from attention to these minor matters. They had something better to do than to be always careful about what they should eat or what they should drink, so he said to them, “Eat such things as are set before you.”

9-11. And heal the sick who are in it, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God is come near to you.’ But into whatever city you enter, and they do not receive you, go your ways out into the streets of the same, and say, ‘Even the very dust of your city, which cleaves on us, we wipe off against you: notwithstanding, be sure of this, that the kingdom of God is come near to you.’

We are not to stop and argue; that is no business of ours. We have to tell our message. If men will receive it, we are glad; if they will not hear it, with a heavy heart we turn aside, and go elsewhere. Our work is to proclaim the glorious message of mercy through a dying Saviour, salvation through the great atonement; it is our business to proclaim it and leave it, the responsibility of receiving or rejecting it rests with our hearers.

12-14. But I say to you, that it shall be more tolerable in that day for Sodom, than for that city. Woe to you, Chorazin! woe to you, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon, which have been done in you, they would have repented a great while ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment, than for you.

Hearing and rejecting the gospel is the crowning sin of all. Whatever else men are guilty of, if they have not rejected Christ, they have not yet reached the summit of iniquity.

15, 16. And you, Capernaum, which is exalted to heaven, shall be thrust down to hell. He who hears you hears me; and he who despises you despises me; and he who despises me despises him who sent me.”

If the messenger delivers his message correctly, and as his Master would have him deliver it, the rejection of it, when brought by him, has the same guilt in it as the rejection of Christ himself, and the rejection of Christ is the rejection of God; so Jesus tells us here.

17. And the seventy returned again with joy,

Not one of the lambs had been eaten by the wolves.

17. Saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us through your name.”

Christ had not mentioned that in the commission. He sent them to heal the sick. The casting out of demons was included, no doubt, but it was not specifically mentioned; and this being an extra beyond the words of their commission, they were especially delighted with it: “Lord, even the demons are subject to us through your name.”

18-20. And he said to them, “I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I give to you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means harm you. Notwithstanding do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.”

That is a higher privilege than to be master over demons, or to be able to tread on serpents. That day of miracles is past; but the power of the gospel is a spiritual power the same as before. We still cast out demons; men are still delivered from the dominion of Satan.

21, 22. In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, “I thank you, oh Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed them to babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in your sight. All things are delivered to me by my Father: and no man knows who the Son is, but the Father;

You know that he is the Son of God; you know that he is Jesus of Nazareth; but you do not know him, you cannot know him, as his Father knows him. He is known in his fulness only to the Father.

22. And who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him.”

“Can you by searching find God? Can you find the Almighty to perfection?” No, you cannot. The Son of God must reveal his Father to you, or you will never know him.

 {See Spurgeon_Hymnal “The Work of Grace as a Whole — Eternal Love Exalted” 231}
 {See Spurgeon_Hymnal “The Work of Grace as a Whole — Grace Acknowledged” 247}
 {See Spurgeon_Hymnal “The Work of Grace as a Whole — ‘Grace Reigns’ ” 233}

{b} French Leave: This is to go away, or do anything, without permission or notice. OED.

The Work of Grace as a Whole
231 — Eternal Love Exalted
1 Saved from the damning power of sin,
   The law’s tremendous curse,
   We’ll now the sacred song begin
   Where God began with us.
2 We’ll sing the vast unmeasured grace
   Which, from the days of old,
   Did all the chosen sons embrace,
   As sheep within the fold.
3 The basis of eternal love
   Shall mercy’s frame sustain;
   Earth, hell, or sin, the same to move,
   Shall all conspire in vain.
4 Sing, oh ye sinners bought with blood,
   Hail the Great three in One;
   Tell how secure the covenant stood
   Ere time its race begun.
5 Ne’er had ye felt the guilt of sin,
   Nor sweets if pardoning love,
   Unless your worthless names had been
   Enroll’d to life above.
6 Oh what a sweet exulting song
   Shall rend the vaulted skies,
   When, shouting grace, the blood-wash’d throng
   Shall see the top stone rise.
                           John Kent, 1803.

The Work of Grace as a Whole
247 — Grace Acknowledged <7s., 6 lines.>
1 When I stand before the throne
   Dress’d in beauty not my own,
   When I see thee as thou art,
   Love thee with unsinning heart,
   Then, Lord, shall I fully know —
   Not till then — how much I owe.
2 Chosen not for good in me,
   Waken’d up from wrath to flee,
   Hidden in the Saviour’s side,
   By the Spirit sanctified,
   Teach me, Lord, on earth so show,
   By my love, how much I owe.
3 Oft I walk beneath the cloud,
   Dark as midnight’s gloomy shroud;
   But, when fear is at the height,
   Jesus comes, and all is light;
   Blessed Jesus! bid me show
   Doubting saints how much I owe.
         Robert Murray M’Cheyne, 1837.

The Work of Grace as a Whole
233 — “Grace Reigns”
1 Grace! ‘tis a charming sound!
      Harmonious to the ear!
   Heaven with the echo shall resound,
      And all the earth shall hear.
2 Grace first contrived the way
      To save rebellious man;
   And all the steps that grace display
      Which drew the wondrous plan.
3 Grace first inscribed my name
      In God’s eternal book:
   ‘Twas grace that gave me to the Lamb,
      Who all my sorrows took.
4 Grace led my roving feet
      To tread the heavenly road;
   And new supplies each hour I meet
      While pressing on to God.
5 Grace taught my soul to pray,
      And made my eyes o’erflow;
   ‘Twas grace that kept me to this day,
      And will not let me go.
6 Grace all the work shall crown,
      Through everlasting days;
   It lays in heaven the topmost stone,
      And well deserves the praise.
                  Philip Doddridge, 1755;
                  Augustus M. Toplady, 1776.