Jesus doesn't negotiate. GOSPEL IS TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT!

Today on the podcast we continue our journey through Luke and see how Christ intended us to give the Gospel but not negotiate for it. Let the Word speak and those who have ears to hear listen.

10 After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go. 2 And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. 3 Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. 4 Carry no moneybag, no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road. 5 Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house!’ 6 And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him. But if not, it will return to you. 7 And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house. 8 Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you. 9 Heal the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ 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.’ 12 I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Lk 10:1–12.

Transcript

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 As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. Welcome back to the Iron Saints podcast with your host, Dan Willis. 2s Good morning Saints. It is a new week and we are right back at it. I hope you guys had a fantastic Lord's Day. I hope the weekend was great for you and your family. Um, or just you. Uh, 1s the amazing thing on this podcast is there's so many different guys from so many different walks. And I'm, I'm constantly reminded of that. I was just looking over, you know, the demographics of of who's been listening. And the range is so far from 13 to 18 all the way up to the 60s. So it's really, really interesting to see how men from all ages are just kind of being pulled back to the word. And that's such a blessing. So thank you to all of you that are listening. Thank you to all of you who've taken the time to leave reviews wherever you are listening. A head's definitely growing. Uh, and it's pretty amazing to see. So thank you for that. But that's that. Let's get down to it. We're going to continue through Luke today. Uh, Luke has been what we are walking through. We've kind of done the first part of Christ's journey where he does miracles. He he's walking with his apostles. There's lots of lessons to teachings, but we are getting closer and closer to the crucifixion, uh, alongside the actual calendar. So, uh, it's kind of nice that we are heading into this, uh, not so much for Jesus, but, uh, for us that we are heading into this around the same time as Easter in the real world. Uh, so we get to tackle this and wrestle through it. Um, we're going to see the Christ face. Quite a bit of suffering in the upcoming, uh, passages, but it's for God's glory and our good. So here we go. Uh, let's get down to it. 2s So I always love to have my Bible open when I'm reading the scripture. For some folks that are able to just listen. That's great. Well, if you're on a commute or in the workplace that your hands are full, you're not able to hold the Bible completely understandable. Uh, know that I am always going to read the passage for you guys, but at the same time, I do encourage you to have a Bible in hand if you can, and follow along. Now I'm always reading from the ESV. Feel free to follow along in whatever translation or paraphrasing for. But today, Luke chapter ten. That's right. We've made it to ten. Jesus sent out the 72. After this the Lord appointed 72 others and sent them on ahead of him two by two. And to every town place where he himself was about to go. And he said to them, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord, to to the Lord of the harvest, to send out laborers into his harvest. Go, go your way. Behold, I'm sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves carrying no money bag, no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say peace be to this house and of a sign of peace is there. Your peace will rest upon him, but if not, it will return to you and remain in the same house eating and drinking what they provide for the laborer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house. Whenever you enter a town they receive you eat what is set before you. Heal the sick and say to them, The kingdom of God has come to come near to you. But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say, even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this the kingdom of God has come here. I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town. Okay, so we've got Jesus here today and he is not pulling punches. Let's say he decides after a time, okay, there's a lot of work left to do. I've got this this death and resurrection thing coming up. I've gotta get ready to go, but I gotta start getting people moving here. And the apostles aren't enough. 12 isn't enough. I need more. So he points 72 others. Now, these are not apostles. These are just disciples of Christ that had been with him. And then he's confident and capable of doing the task that he's about to set them out for. I recognize guys from those of you that had listened to the episodes from Luke eight that we did, this is a little bit different. He's not sending them out in the same way. The apostles, he sent them out to heal and cast out demons. Right? And this one is just sending them out to heal. There's no mention of demons anywhere here. Also, the process here seems a little bit different than when he sent the apostles out here. He's telling them to go out with nothing. And again, we see that he constantly is trying to build faith in his believers. Right? Go out with nothing, Goblin chop sock and no sandals, no muddy bag. Just go out. Hit the road. Go as you are or you're gonna look impoverished. Go where you are with the gospel. That's enough. That's sufficient. You can do that. That's enough. Um. And then he goes on to elaborate. Uh, when you get to where you're going, just bring me. Don't negotiate, don't haggle. The gospel doesn't need defense. The gospel doesn't need to be glammed up. Christ has come. That's enough. And he gives them this caution of if that's enough and a home welcomes you in, it's important that you remember your character. Okay? Remember that you represent Christ in where you were going, what you were doing. And that's true. And somebody does welcome you to their home. Eat with they offer to you. Don't go house to house to house. The house. Right. So you're not looking to to buffet the city? Oh, this is a city that welcomes Christ. Great. I'm gonna hop to this house, not us. And, oh, what are they cooking for dinner over there? No, the house that welcomes you and stay there. Okay, this isn't about where you're gonna stay. You're not looking for the classiest establishment. You're. You're going with purpose. Spread the gospel. This isn't a cruise. It's not a vacation. There's work to be done here. So stay humble in whatever house has you. And then he gets the last part of this. That is hard, but it is just. And that is, if you come to a town and they will not receive you, you offer the gospel and they want none of it. Dust from the feet should be wiped off, and for them it will be worse than Sodom. Now, I'm sure most of you remember Sodom and Gomorrah, but for those of you who may be unaware of Sodom and Gomorrah, the two cities that God raised from the earth in Genesis, uh, for their debauchery and sin. Um, now, there was all kinds of sin in that city. It was terrible. Uh, Abraham pleads for the city to save even just one. If there was one who is who is worthy of being saved, will he saved just one? Lord says, if there's one, I will save the whole city. But there was none. And so he raised the whole city to the ground. Um. How can you be worse than that? What's worse than death? Because he like fire from on high. Fire from the heavens obliterates all of Sodom before they're gone. Poof! In ash, ash and smoke. All that's left really would be something worse than death. Which would be your soul. This is a huge caution that those who are out there that will reject the kingdom are rejecting their salvation. They're facing something that is an absolute travesty. Now, again, what's interesting here and is very, very different from what we've seen a lot of evangelism that is practiced today. And this is kind of the point that I want us to consider today when these apostles go. They're not given more than this is who Jesus is. This is what Jesus does. This is what we know. Um, that's what they're given. That's what they go with. Uh, none of these men are given any indication that they have any seminary level training, that these men have been given tracts or pamphlets. None of these men have been given a process, even there's no breakdown of. Well, at first you say this, and then you do that and then you do it. There is none of that. They're called to go into places and have genuine, real conversations with people, share Christ openly and honestly, and those who would receive it, great. Enjoy it. Rejoice in that and those who won't walk so dumb. That's a huge shift from a lot of evangelism out there today where, well, you should take the time and and you should really know, negotiate and and convince and have proofs and they're gonna come at you with science and worldly concepts, and you need to have the apologetics ready for that. None of that is here. None of that model is here. This is complete trust and faith that the Holy Spirit has prepared a harvest, and we are just to go and work in. And that's a real challenge. But at the same time, it's a real blessing, and it's a real acknowledgement to the glory of God that he has prepared all things. Yes, he has prepared all things. 1s He's ready. The harvest is ready. That means somebody had to plant it. Somebody had to care for it. Somebody had to turn it. And here it is. Now that person is only God. God has prepared this. He is prepared the way. And all he needs are the workers to go out and collect. That's it. It's that simple. So today's challenge to get your week started is just that when you're out in the world today, out and about, people are asking how your weekend was. Maybe. Maybe we don't share. But the, you know, the the sports game that we watch, maybe we don't share about the movie we have to see at the theater, maybe we share about the sermon on Sunday. We just show the sermon. I'm not saying you're going to share the sermon with the hope of, well, if they don't get it, Sodom is going to rain down. That's not the hope. The hope is that they do get it. The hope is that you keep it simple. You share testimony, you share Christ and the work that he's doing in your life, what you saw on Sunday morning. And then with that, you continue to move forward. Don't get caught up on the people that aren't interested. The harvest is plentiful. The workers are few. Okay? If you happen to trip across somebody who is not interested, oh well, not interested. I know it's hard. It's going to be hard, but there's so many that will say yes, that we have to have to have to remain committed and focused. Absolutely have to. There is no question it must happen. And Jesus is saying it needs to happen in a big way. Because for him, whether there's this deadline for us, there's always a deadline. We only have as much time as we have. And with that, we want to be as much as possible, bringing as many to Christ as we can. Sharing the gospel in faith, trusting the Lord is prepare to harvest. So this week, as you head out, wherever that may be on your your walk, your your work, your your relationships, make a point to just speak it openly and honestly about Christ, who he is, what he's doing in you, and what he's done for you. Just let people know. See what happens. 1s All right, guys, I always want to close in prayer again. You shout out to all of you guys that are dropping prayer requests. Please continue to do so. The social media channels are down below. Feel free to post there as well. Um, I am working on something with a large Christian group online. Uh, for men specifically. I may start to include that Facebook link down below in the description of the podcast, and you guys will be able to add the prayer wall that's there as well. I will be lifting up those prayers as well. So, uh, without further ado, Lord, I bless these men. Um, all who are listening. But the saints, especially who, um, our brothers in the faith. This podcast was intentionally built for them, so they would take the time to dwell on your word each day. They would take the time to wrestle. They would take the time to sharpen themselves and sharpen one another. Pray for the men that are struggling, Lord, that are feeling distant from you and far from you. And they want to return. They want to grow. They want to strengthen. I pray that they would in many ways, like the disciples we read about today, go out and on charity and find that faith. Realize the harvest is real, the gospel is real, and there's a power and authority to it. Lord, I pray for those whose families are facing separation. 1s Either already divorced or facing divorce or, um, there's trouble within the marriage. I pray that you're there, Lord, your your hand is in that. That is a real difficult struggle to go through. And I know the Lord. You are used to a dysfunctional marriage with us. But, Lord, we always have you, and you never turn from us, and you never stray from us, and you love us immensely. I pray that the men who are struggling through Lord, that they would struggle in the same way that you struggled for your bride, that they would fight the marriage is worth it. Their bride is worth it. Their children are worth it. Pray that you would put it in their heart. Rekindle that fire. Save those marriages. Build those families. Lord, I pray for those facing illness for themselves and their loved ones. The homeless takes its toll in a big way. It may just be the flesh, but the flesh has its toll. I pray that you would place your hand for healing on those people. You bless them. Beyond that may all be with them. You may not always remove the thorn from their flesh. Lord, but you can always be a healer to their soul. So be with those families. Help them to be a rest and be at ease in those situations where it seems like there is no hope. Pray for those where there is endless and abounding hope that they would continue to hold that hope, Lord, that they would not become discouraged. I pray for those that are ill, Lord, that they would see your healing hand. In your name we pray. Amen. That's it guys! I hope you have an amazing week this week. We're going to keep going through Luke ten this week. Uh, and we're going to keep moving towards the crucifixion of Christ over the next couple of weeks. Just a reminder, guys. I'm going to leave all the episodes up. Uh, but when we move into acts after the book of Luke, it will be the start of the second season. So 1s for those of you that follow along episode by episode, don't be surprised if you see it. Go back to episode one because that will be season two, episode one and will be in the book of acts. That's it for today. Thanks again guys and have a good one. Thank you for listening to the Iron Saints podcast. If you are looking to share your prayer requests, check the description for social media or email to contact the show. Blessings on you all. Until next time.