Luke 10:1-7

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The verses before us relate a circumstance which is not recorded by any Gospel writer except Luke. That circumstance is our Lord’s appointment of seventy disciples to go before Him, in addition to the twelve apostles. We do not know the names of any of these disciples. Their subsequent history has not been revealed to us. But the instructions with which they are sent forth are deeply interesting, and deserve the close attention of all ministers and teachers of the Gospel.

The first point in our Lord’s charge to the seventy disciples is the importance of prayer and intercession. This is the leading thought with which our Lord opens His address. Before He tells His ambassadors what to do, He first bids them to pray. “Pray ye the Lord of the harvest that He would send forth labourers into His harvest.”

Prayer is one of the best and most powerful means of helping forward the cause of Christ in the world. It is a means within the reach of all who have the Spirit of adoption. Not all believers have money to give to missions. Very few have great intellectual gifts, or extensive influence among men. But all believers can pray for the success of the Gospel,–and they ought to pray for it daily. Many and marvellous are the answers to prayer which are recorded for our learning in the Bible. “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” (James 5:16)

Prayer is one of the principal weapons which the minister of the Gospel ought to use. To be a true successor of the apostles, he must give himself to prayer as well as to the ministry of the word. (Acts 6:4) He must not only use the sword of the Spirit, but pray always, with all prayer and supplication. (Eph. 6:17,18) This is the way to win a blessing on his own ministry. This, above all, is the way to procure helpers to carry on Christ’s work. Colleges may educate men. Bishops may ordain them. Patrons may give them livings. But God alone can raise up and send forth “labourers” who will do work among souls. For a constant supply of such labourers let us daily pray.

The second point in our Lord’s charge to the seventy disciples, is the perilous nature of the work in which they were about to be engaged. He does not keep back from them the dangers and trials which are before them. He does not enlist them under false pretences, or prophecy smooth things, or promise them unvarying success. He tells them plainly what they must expect. “Behold,” He says, “I send you forth as lambs amongst wolves.”

These words, no doubt, had a special reference to the life-time of those to whom they were spoken. We see their fulfilment in the many persecutions described in the Acts of the Apostles. But we must not conceal from ourselves that the words describe a state of things which may be seen at this very day. So long as the Church stands believers must expect to be like “lambs among wolves.” They must make up their minds to be hated, and persecuted, and ill treated, by those who have no real religion. They must look for no favour from unconverted people, for they will find none. It was a strong but a true saying of Martin Luther, that “Cain will murder Abel, if he can, to the very end of the world.” “Marvel not,” says John, “if the world hate you.” “All that will live godly in Jesus Christ,” says Paul, “shall suffer persecution.” (1 John 3:13; 2 Tim. 3:12)

The third point in our Lord’s charge to the seventy disciples is, the thorough devotion to their work which He enjoins upon them. They were to abstain even from the appearance of covetousness, or love of money, or luxury: “Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes.”–They were to behave like men who had no time to waste on the empty compliments and conventional courtesies of the world: “Salute no man by the way.”

These remarkable words must, doubtless be interpreted with some qualification. The time came when our Lord Himself, at the end of His ministry, said to the disciples, “He that hath a purse let him take it, and likewise his scrip.” (Luke 22:36) The apostle Paul was not ashamed to use salutations. The apostle Peter expressly commands us to “be courteous.” (1 Pet. 3:8) But still, after every deduction and qualification, there remains a deep lesson beneath these words of our Lord, which ought not to be overlooked. They teach us that ministers and teachers of the Gospel should beware of allowing the world to eat up their time and thoughts, and to hinder them in their spiritual work. They teach us that care about money, and excessive attention to what are called “the courtesies of life,” are mighty snares in the way of Christ’s labourers, and snares into which they must take heed lest they fall.

Let us consider these things. They concern ministers especially, but they concern all Christians more or less. Let us strive to show the men of the world that we have no time for their mode of living. Let us show them that we find life too precious to be spent in perpetual feasting, and visiting, and calling, and the like, as if there were no death, or judgment, or life to come.–By all means let us be courteous. But let us not make the courtesies of life an idol, before which everything else must bow down. Let us declare plainly that we seek a country beyond the grave, and that we have no time for that incessant round of eating, and drinking, and dressing, and civility, and exchange of compliments, in which so many try to find their happiness, but evidently try in vain. Let our principle be that of Nehemiah, “I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down.” (Neh. 6:3)

The fourth point in our Lord’s charge to the seventy disciples is the simple-minded and contented spirit which He bade them to exhibit. Wherever they tarried, in traveling about upon their Master’s business, they were to avoid the appearance of being fickle, changeable, delicate livers, or hard to please about food and lodging. They were to “eat and drink such things” as were given them. They were not to “go from house to house.”

Instructions like these no doubt have a primary and special reference to the ministers of the Gospel. They are the men above all who, in their style of living, ought to be careful to avoid the spirit of the world. Simplicity in food and household arrangements, and readiness to put up with any accommodation, so long as health can be preserved uninjured, should always be the mark of the “man of God.” Once let a preacher get the reputation of being fond of eating and drinking and worldly comforts, and his ministerial usefulness is at an end. The sermon about “things unseen” will produce little effect when the life preaches the importance of the “things that are seen.”

But we ought not to confine our Lord’s instructions to ministers alone. They ought to speak loudly to the consciences of all believers, of all who are called by the Holy Ghost and made priests to God. They ought to remind us of the necessity of simplicity and unworldliness in our daily life. We must beware of thinking too much about our meals, and our furniture, and our houses, and all those many things which concern the life of the body. We must strive to live like men whose first thoughts are about the immortal soul. We must endeavour to pass through the world like men who are not yet at home, and are not overmuch troubled about the fare they meet with on the road and at the inn. Blessed are they who feel like pilgrims and strangers in this life, and whose best things are all to come!