Reasons to Rejoice

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After any kind of big event, it’s not unusual for those who participate in it to have some kind of a debrief, or sometimes I’ve heard it referred to as a post-mortem, where they’ll go over what just happened and how did it work, why did it work, why didn’t it work, kind of dig into some of those details. Some of the most famous examples I can think of come from NASA when the Challenger disaster happened, when that space shuttle exploded. They went back and did a thorough investigation of what happened, step by step, what happened through that process that caused this to happen. And they did this so they could try to figure out how never for it to happen again. And through that investigation, they discovered that it was one small rubber O-ring that had failed on the shuttle, causing that explosion and causing that loss of life. Military strategists will do this after a battle.

They’ll get together and figure out what worked, why it worked, why it didn’t work, what could we have done better. On a smaller scale, we do this with the academic team here at the school after we’ve had a match.

okay what what went really well and why did we win or why did we get slaughtered yeah what should we have done differently my wife and i do it we’ll we’ll take the kids out to a restaurant and afterwards we’ll sit down and say what what was different this time that made us think that it wasn’t going to be chaos like every other time you know we sit down and have that that debrief and go over what just happened it’s a normal thing that we do sometimes we even just do it ourselves as we go as we think back over our day as we get into our text today in Luke chapter 10 that’s what Jesus is doing with his disciples with these 70 or 72 depending on the the translation that he sent out that we studied about last week he they’re they’re coming back together there’s sort of a break between verse 16 and verse 17 verse 16 ends with Jesus sending these disciples out to represent Him, to share the good news about His coming kingdom throughout Samaria, in particular some of the Gentile areas as He’s preparing to go through those areas.

And in verse 17, they come back to Him, and they are eager to talk about what has just happened, in particular the things that worked. And they were very excited about these things. And in this passage, Jesus gives them some instructions that we’re going to look at today.

but I think the takeaway we are supposed to have from this passage is just the way or is especially the way Jesus responded as we read this passage as you’ll see in just a moment there’s a word that’s used a couple of times here and it’s rejoice there’s a theme throughout this this section of the text that we haven’t necessarily come across a great deal up to now in in as we’ve studied through Luke chapters 9 and 10 the focus of it has been on the mission and preparation for the mission the hard work that’s going to come the sacrifice that is going to be involved and when we talk about things like that when we focus on the mission and that’s not a bad thing to do that’s why Jesus put their focus on the mission to go and prepare people for the kingdom to prepare people for the king that’s not a bad thing but all the talk about the mission and the duty and the preparation and the sacrifice all the things that we’ve studied up till now if we’re not careful we can take that and we can misinterpret all of that as though serving the Lord is a drudgery it’s an obligation that it’s supposed to be hard all the time don’t get me wrong serving the Lord is challenging to us.

Serving the Lord is challenging at times. He never promised us that it was going to always be easy. At the same time though, it should not be a joyless experience. Have you ever known somebody who was serving the Lord but they were not happy about it? Ever met that person? I’ve known some people throughout my ministry, there’s some faces that pop up especially early on that they were serving the Lord, they were faithful in church, they were sharing the gospel, they were serving, they were doing what they were supposed to do, but just sour and negative. I’m not saying that means you’re not saved, I’m just saying that means you’re not doing it right. Because serving the Lord should be a joyous experience. That’s why when they come back and they’re all excited, He is talking about the things that they should be rejoicing in.

And so I want us to take this time as we go into chapters 9 and 10, I’m sorry, into this culmination of the work that he’s prepared them for in chapters 9 and 10, and we come to this time of this debrief, I want us to understand from Jesus’ response that while the mission is important and we have a duty to fulfill the mission and it’s going to involve sacrifice, it should not be a joyless experience. We should be, if we’re doing it correctly, if we’re doing it in the right frame of mind, we should be able to serve the Lord gladly, even in the midst of the sacrifices. So turn with me, if you haven’t already, to Luke chapter 10. Luke chapter 10, we’re going to start in verse 17 and take a look at this debrief that goes through verse 24. And once you find it, if you’d stand with me, as we read together from God’s Word.

If you don’t have your Bibles or can’t find Luke chapter 10, it’ll be on the screen for you where you can follow along. But here’s what he says starting in verse 17. The 70 returned with joy saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name. I feel like there should be an exclamation point there. That’s not just something you walk at, Lord, the demons were a little bit subject to us. No, Lord, the demons, even the demons are subject to us in your name. And he said to them, I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing will injure you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven.

At that very time, he rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit and said, I praise you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in your sight. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. Turning to the disciples, he said privately, Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see. For I say to you that many prophets and kings wish to see the things which you see and did not see them, and to hear the things which you hear and did not hear them. And you may be seated. There are at least four things in this passage, four things that I see that Jesus points out that we ought to rejoice over.

And we’re going to look at each of those this morning. But because he sort of starts out with the biggest, or probably the one that makes the most eternal impact on us, I’m going to start from the end and work our way backwards, work smallest to biggest. So I want you to focus with me on verses 23 and 24, at what he says that we can rejoice for. He doesn’t specifically use the word rejoice, but this is in a prayer of thanksgiving, or it’s after a prayer of thanksgiving. He tells them, blessed are you. Sometimes that word is translated happy because we don’t always use the word blessed in a way that the world understands what we mean by that. Have you ever had a cashier tell you, have a blessed day? I think that’s great. I’m not against that. I’m not telling you it’s wrong. But if we were to ask that cashier, what do you mean by that?

If I told somebody, have a blessed day, and they said, what do you mean by that? I would probably struggle for a definition. It’s not a word we use outside of church context very often. And so sometimes people will translate that word as happy. But it doesn’t mean happy in the sense of, oh, everything is wonderful and everything is going my way. It’s a deeper contentment. It’s a fulfillment that comes from our walk with the Lord. It’s more akin to joy than happiness. Blessed is a perfectly fine word. I’m not against it. I just want you to understand the connection he’s making here. When he says, blessed are you, this is something that they have caused to be joyful about. What he tells them in verses 23 and 24. Turning to the disciples, he said privately, blessed are the eyes which see the things you see. Take joy in what God has given you the privilege of seeing.

He’s talking to these 70 who not only saw the things that they had just witnessed, they had obviously seen some miracles. If they’re coming back saying, even the demons are subject to us in your name. There had been some spiritual warfare going on. There had been some things that took place that were surprising to them. They were getting to see these miracles take place in their own lives. But more importantly than that, they were seeing the greater work that Jesus was doing that was the reason for it. These are people who, even though their names are lost to us as far as the Bible, these 70 had walked with Jesus. Maybe not as closely as the 12, but they’d walked with Jesus, they’d seen what He got to do. And so Jesus says, blessed are your eyes, the eyes that see the things you see. What was it that their eyes saw? It was the work of Jesus.

So things that He was doing right in front of them. And he makes the point, this was not something that everybody got to see. When I read about people in the Old Testament, I feel a little sorry for them. Moses and Abraham and Elijah, they got to see incredible things that God did. But they longed, and they and others like them longed to see the Messiah. and while they know who He is now, they died before they got to see Him. These people got to see the Messiah. They got to see the fulfillment of the promises of God. You and I get to look back on the Messiah and see how it all worked out, see who He was. He’s not here in front of our eyes in the same way that He was in front of them, but through the pages of this book, through what His apostles recorded for us, we have an understanding of the Messiah that a lot of people throughout history have not been privileged to have.

Not only that, but you and I get to have a relationship with this Messiah. Generations of Israelites went to the grave longing, wanting nothing more than to see this Messiah come. And you and I get to have a relationship with Him. That is incredible that God has allowed us to see the work of Jesus. Every day we get to see Him at work in us, and we get to see him at work through us. It’s an incredible thing. How could we go through a life of serving God and working for him and be miserable about it if we’re mindful of that privilege that we have that so many would have died for? To know the Messiah, to know who he is, to know what he’s come to do, to know him experientially and relationally. and to see the work that He does. Every time we see somebody come to faith in Jesus and we see them transformed, we’re seeing the work that He’s doing.

Every time as we walk with Him and He sands those rough edges off of us, we’re seeing Him at work through His Holy Spirit. If you’re serving the Lord and it’s become a drudgery, stop thinking about just the tasks that you’ve been given and pause for a moment to think about the privilege you have been given that you get to see the Messiah at work. That’s cause number one for rejoicing. Second of all, God allows us to come to Him through Jesus. Verse 22, He says, things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. So when He says at the beginning of that verse that all things have been handed over to me by my Father, Jesus is pointing out, as He did several times throughout the Gospels, that He was sent here with full authority from the Father.

Again, keep in mind that a lot of the people who were watching thought that he was merely a prophet. If he was merely a prophet like Elijah or Moses or Isaiah, Jeremiah, any of these guys that they thought might come back, he would have been able to do some mighty works, but he wouldn’t have the authority of God. And Jesus made the claim that he was God in human flesh, who came with full authority from his Father. And he says, no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son. Now that can be confusing to us until we think about what people knew before Jesus came. As we look back on it now, we can see in hindsight that in the Old Testament, there are clues there of the Trinity. There are clues there of the inner working of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

But for them, until Jesus came, it was not abundantly clear to them that there was a son, let alone for them to know him. And when he showed up, they did not understand who he was until he had to reveal it, and he had to make it clear. And still, no one knows the Father the way the Son does. we can know a lot about God because he’s chosen to reveal it in his word and in the person of Jesus Christ the father has shown us who he is and what he’s like we can know a lot about God but we don’t know the father the same way the son does nobody in here would claim to understand God as well as Jesus no one in here would claim to understand the Father as well as Jesus. And so no one knows Him, no one knows the Son except the Father. It’s not saying we don’t know them at all, but we don’t know them the way they know each other. But here’s the thing, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.

With us being sinners, God would have been completely justified to leave us in the darkness and leave us groping around not knowing Him, having some idea through creation and through conscience that there’s a God out there, but not really knowing Him or knowing His will for us. But God chose instead to speak to us through His Word. And the introduction to the book of Hebrews talks about how God spoke through the prophets throughout history, but now at the last time, He came and gave us the ultimate view of Himself through His Son. That is a very loose paraphrase. I encourage you to go back and look at the first three verses of Hebrews, but it’s right there. He’s saying, God has chosen to tell us some things about Himself through His Word that He did not owe us that information. And then He chose to send the spitting image of Himself to us in Jesus Christ so that we could know Him fully.

And even at that, there was still confusion until Jesus began to open their eyes. The only way we can know the Father experientially is through Jesus. The only way we can know Jesus is because Jesus chose to make it so. In our sin, He didn’t owe us that. In our sin, He did not owe us the light. He did not owe us a relationship with Him. But He chose to do it anyway. God allows us to come to Him through Jesus Christ. And the only way that we can know him is through Jesus Christ. That’s why Jesus said in John chapter 14, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father but through me.

If we get bogged down in the day-to-day of the mission and just doing our duty and going through our obligations and we find it to be a joyless experience, We need to stop and we need to pause for a moment and think about the very fact that God has allowed us to come to Him through Jesus Christ at all. We can get so focused on the mission and the work that we forget about that very simple fact that God did not owe us a relationship with Him. God did not owe us to know Him. Everything that we know and understand about God, everything that we know intellectually, everything that we know experientially, everything that we know relationally of God, is a testament to His grace. And so we should pause and find joy in the fact that we can know Him and come to Him. And look with me at verse 21.

I love this it’s at once it’s at once very reassuring and affirming but it’s also a little insulting Jesus looks at these who have just been sent out and he gave thanks to the Father for the way that he had worked through these disciples but he says I praise you O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent. How would you like to be the audience to that prayer? Father, I thank you for the things that they’ve seen and experienced. I thank you that you hid them from wise and intelligent people. I think I would have some questions. But the reality is, there were people in that society who held themselves out to be the wise and intelligent when it came to the things of God. There was a whole class of priests and scribes and royal court officials who thought that they had a monopoly on what it meant to know God and to serve God.

But in reality, these people, when Jesus showed up, they were blinded. Some of them honestly deceived, and some of them just intentionally blinded. They knew who Jesus was, but they didn’t want it to be true, so they put the blinders on. These things were hidden from them. As far as Jesus’ identity, as far as what He was doing, it was like it wasn’t even going on in front of them. So when Jesus says, thank you for sharing these things, not with the wise and intelligent, he’s not really insulting his followers. This is just a little bit sarcastic toward those who would consider themselves to be the wise and the intelligent, but they were completely ignorant of the things that God was doing. Because they were too impressed with themselves. They were too impressed with how they were serving, how they were working. They were too impressed with what they knew.

They were too impressed with their lineage. They were too impressed by themselves to focus on what Jesus was doing. And so God, there were these priests and religious leaders, and they, on paper, they should have been the people that God worked through, but God went around them, went around the wise and the intelligent, as He does so often, and it says, and you’ve revealed them to infants. Now, these were not literal infants. But these ordinary people, that’s how they would have been looked at by these religious leaders. You don’t know God the way I know God. You don’t have the right lineage. You don’t have the right upbringing. You didn’t go to the right schools. Just a little common peasant. You can’t know what I know. exactly why God went around them to go to the ordinary people. You’ve revealed them to infants. It was the uneducated and unsophisticated in the ways of the world.

Those are the ones who were given the insight. Those are the ones who had the eyes to see and the ears to hear what God was doing and the ability to understand. And those are the ones that God was able to use in his work.

who is God going to choose to use those who are so impressed with themselves that they’re not going to listen to what he says or those who come to him and say I can’t do this I’m not worthy of this I’m not skilled enough I’m not smart enough I’m not educated enough but I’ll do what you tell me to do God is going to use that second group of people every time and he says in verse 21 yes father for this way was well pleasing in your sight God is pleased to use ordinary people and hopefully this is not insulting to anybody in here but I think we would fall under the category of ordinary people none of us are billionaires that i know of if you are come talk to me afterwards none of us are billionaires none of us are major celebrities major tv personalities none of us are the are the the preacher that has the thousands of people following them and watching them on tv we’re we’re ordinary people but God works through ordinary people and sometimes again we get so bogged down in the day-to-day of the ministry that God’s given us of the mission that we’re fulfilling that it becomes a burden in our minds we need to remember that it’s a privilege that God chooses to work through us even though we’re ordinary.

He doesn’t have to do that. There are lots of people who on paper would be so much better at the things He’s called us to do than we are. There are people who on paper would be so much better at this than what I’m doing right here. But God calls us and He equips us and He puts us in place and He chooses to use ordinary people. And maybe if we are burdened down by the mission, it’s because we’re trying to do it on our own terms, by our own efforts. Or maybe we’re just, we’ve gotten to a place where we’re so impressed with ourselves that we cease to realize that this is just God working through us. I’m ordinary.

this is all God so maybe we need to come to that place and pause and get our perspective right and then verse 20 verse 20 where he starts out the whole conversation starts out they’ve come in and they’ve said even the demons are subject to us by the way these 70 they had to have been super excited about this because not too long ago we studied a story in Luke chapter 9 where even after Jesus told the twelve that they had authority over demons they had not been able to cast out a demon. And the guy had to bring his son to Jesus. And so these seventy are out and they’re able to do something now that even the twelve weren’t able to do just a short time ago.

and Jesus says to them nevertheless yes that’s all good I’ve given you that authority I’ve worked through you this is not surprising he’s talking about how he saw Satan fall from heaven this is not surprising to him this is exactly what I told you was going to happen and yes it’s amazing yes it’s wonderful nevertheless do not rejoice in this that the spirits are subject to you and I don’t think he’s saying here that it’s wrong to celebrate that. I think he’s talking about it in terms of priorities. Don’t rejoice in the fact that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven. If you want something to celebrate, celebrate the fact that God has written your name down in heaven. If you’re a believer, if you’ve trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, that’s what you ought to celebrate. And you know what the good news about that is?

It’s going to be true, not only today, but tomorrow and the next day. When you’re having a great day, when you’re having the worst day ever, it’s still going to be true. When amazing things are happening in your service for the Lord, when you’re seeing the miraculous or the near miraculous, that’s still going to be true. When things feel dry and barren, that’s still going to be true. That is a cause for rejoicing that never goes away. This word recorded, that verb is given to us in the Greek in the present, I’m sorry, in the perfect tense, meaning it’s something that’s ongoing. The names are not just recorded in heaven now, they are recorded now and for all time. And it refers to a kind of a written record that a lot of commentators connect with the idea of being a list of citizens with full rights and privileges in a kingdom.

and so for Jesus to point this out in verse 20 tells us that our greatest source of joy is not what happened today it’s not what’s going to happen tomorrow it’s not how well we do it’s not the successes we have our greatest source of joy should be our guaranteed place in the kingdom and the full privileges we have as children of God, which we have because of Christ alone. If serving the Lord ever becomes a burden, and you need a way to recover that joy, pause and go back to that spot right there. But it doesn’t matter, ultimately, any of these other things, any of our performance, how our circumstances are, It goes back to the fact that our greatest cause of rejoicing is that if we come to Him through Jesus Christ, God has written our names in heaven, not just now, but for forever.

I think this is what David talked about when he said, Restore unto me the joy of my salvation, and renew a right spirit within me. David was one of those who died without seeing the Messiah. Although he knew from the Father some things about the Messiah. and gave some prophecies about the Messiah. I think David still understood what it meant for that relationship to feel like it’s not what it ought to be. And I’ve let it become dry and ordinary. I’ve let it become a burden, and I need the joy of that salvation restored. There may be times in our lives when serving God feels like a drudgery.

if it does go back to the very fact of where it started the very fact that your name is written down in heaven because jesus christ suffered blood and died to pay for your sins in full that none of this is based on your performance none of this is based on your circumstances it’s based on that moment in time where jesus took responsibility for your sins and for my sins and he was nailed to the cross and he shed his blood and he died so that you and i could be forgiven and then there was that moment in our lifetimes there was that moment in your lifetime where you trusted him as your one and only savior where you accepted that payment that was made on your behalf and you put your faith entirely in him and your name at that moment was written down in heaven for all eternity and if you have nothing else to rejoice over that happens today you have that and that’s reason enough to wake up every day rejoicing in the Lord

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