Message Information
- Key Scriptures: Luke 10:1-16, NASB
- Series: Luke (2025-2027), no. 33
- Date: Sunday, September 28, 2025 (Morning)
- Venue: Central Baptist Church — Lawton, Oklahoma
- Speaker: Jared Byrns
- Audio File: Open/Download
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Preparing for the Mission
We took the students on a field trip to the wildlife refuge, and I wanted them to tell you about some of the things we had to do to prepare. We had to pack water, of course. You don’t go hiking without water. We had to pack a lunch and come prepared so that we could go out and see everything we planned to see.
The younger students went on a nature hike called the Animal Olympics. They jumped, did push-ups, and performed other activities modeled after different animals. They saw lizards and bison. We also saw a lot of ragweed, which is why I feel like I’m dying today. There was ragweed everywhere.
But we had to prepare. Before we went out, the rangers prepared the students for how the hike was supposed to go: “Don’t stick your hands anywhere you can’t see. Stay on the trail. Don’t touch anything you can’t identify.” They gave us instructions in preparation for this mission—the Animal Olympics hike.
Any time we go out on an important mission, we have to be prepared. We spent all of Luke chapter 9 listening to Jesus talk about the mission the disciples were about to undertake. The Twelve had already embarked on it for a short time. Now we come to chapter 10, and it is time for Jesus to send them out again—better prepared and in greater numbers.
We are going to look at the preparation Jesus gave them for going on mission and what it teaches us about being on mission for Him every day. His instructions were a little different from the instructions we received at the refuge. As a matter of fact, He told them not to pack a lunch. But we can still learn from the instructions He gave them.
Luke writes:
“Now after this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them in pairs ahead of Him to every city and place where He Himself was going to come. And He was saying to them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. Go; behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. Carry no money belt, no bag, no shoes; and greet no one on the way. Whatever house you enter, first say, “Peace be to this house.” If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you. Stay in that house, eating and drinking what they give you; for the laborer is worthy of his wages. Do not keep moving from house to house. Whatever city you enter and they receive you, eat what is set before you; and heal those in it who are sick, and say to them, “The kingdom of God has come near to you.”’”
Jesus continued:
“But whatever city you enter and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your city which clings to our feet we wipe off in protest against you; yet be sure of this, that the kingdom of God has come near.’ I say to you, it will be more tolerable in that day for Sodom than for that city. Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles had been performed in Tyre and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will be brought down to Hades! The one who listens to you listens to Me, and the one who rejects you rejects Me; and he who rejects Me rejects the One who sent Me.”
Jesus was preparing them for the mission He was sending them to fulfill. Chapter 9 is all about preparation for the mission; it simply does not let up. The mission they were given is the same mission we have today: to tell other people about our King and prepare them for His Kingdom. That was their mission. That is the mission given to the church, and it remains our responsibility.
When Jesus sent out the Twelve, they did not yet understand as much of the message about the King as we do. They went out telling people that the King was coming. We go out telling people that the King has come and is coming again.
We understand that He died on the cross as the perfect sacrifice for our sins. We understand that He rose again three days later. We also have the promise that He is returning. We therefore have a fuller understanding of the message we are supposed to share with the world. But the mission is ultimately the same: we tell people about our King and prepare them for His Kingdom.
Jesus gave them this mission, and He has given it to us. We can learn several things from the way He prepared them.
There is a gap between verses 16 and 17. Verse 16 closes His instructions, and verse 17 says they returned. Between those verses, they went out and did what He sent them to do. But before He sent them, He prepared them for a difficult and challenging task.
The Mission Is Challenging
We see immediately in verse 2 that the mission is challenging, so we need help. We have to understand that the mission will be challenging. If we think it will always be easy and everything will go according to plan, we will be disappointed very quickly.
Does life ever go according to plan? No. That is even more true in ministry. You can make all kinds of plans and be fortunate if one percent of them work out exactly as intended.
Jesus says in verse 2 that there is a plentiful harvest. When He talks about the harvest, He is talking about the souls of those who will hear the message about the King and respond by receiving Jesus as their King. Those people are the harvest. Elsewhere, Jesus talks about looking out and seeing fields white for harvest.
When crops are ready, they cannot sit in the field for weeks. Usually, farmers bring in extra help. It is all hands on deck to gather the harvest because it is ready now.
Jesus says of this harvest of souls, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.” So many people need to hear about Jesus. So many would respond if only they had the opportunity to hear. But there are not enough workers to gather all that is ready to be harvested.
As Jesus sends them out, He prepares them to understand that the mission is bigger than what they can accomplish on their own. We need to understand some nuance here. Each believer who hears this is absolutely vital to the work of the Kingdom. You are absolutely needed, and you are equipped for whatever task God has put before you. If He has called you to it, He has qualified and equipped you to do it.
At the same time, you will never be able to do it all on your own. That is why God puts us together. It is why Jesus sent these men out two by two, why Paul took companions on his missionary journeys, and why God left us together as the church. We do these things together.
Jesus says, “Beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” Even seventy workers were not enough. As they went throughout the villages of Samaria, the need and opportunity were so great that thirty-five missionary teams would not be sufficient. So they were to pray and beg the Lord of the harvest to send more people.
We cannot finish the job on our own. We need others. How God has called you to accomplish the mission may look different from how He has called me. I heard a story about somebody leading another person to faith in Christ on a golf course. I don’t think I could lead somebody to Christ on a golf course because everybody would be laughing too hard at my golf game. Golf simply does not appeal to me.
God has called and equipped each of us to go into different places and reach different people. By working together, we accomplish the task He has given us in its fullness. You and I will never reach everybody. But as more believers get off the sidelines and do what God has called them to do, and as we reach people for Christ and disciple them to join the harvest, the work gets done.
The work is challenging, but that does not mean we cannot do it. It means we need help. Additional workers are not the only help we need. Jesus says to beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out the laborers. Ultimately, we need His help. He will supply everything we need for the mission He has given us.
As we think about being on mission for the Lord, He prepares us to know it will be challenging and hard work. We will need help, and there is no shame in asking for it. He encourages us to cry out to Him for His help and for Him to send others.
The Mission Is Perilous
In verse 3, Jesus tells them, “Go; behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves.” Doesn’t that make you want to go?
Are lambs threatening? I’m careful when I ask that. I asked it once in a middle-school Bible class, and one boy said, “I was attacked by a lamb when I was little.” All right, they don’t normally do that. Other than that one case, are lambs threatening? No. That is the point. They are not threatening animals.
Are wolves threatening? If you bring a lamb to a wolf fight, who wins? The wolf. It is not a trick question. The wolf wins.
Jesus tells His followers, “Go, and by the way, I am sending you out as lambs among wolves.” That does not sound reassuring, but it should be.
He compares us to helpless animals—and, from what I am told, not particularly intelligent animals. His audience would have immediately understood that comparison to mean they were at risk. There is always a risk, cost, or danger involved in following Him.
But when we consider how nonthreatening and vulnerable lambs are, we realize there is one reason they survive. There is one thing that provides for and protects them: a shepherd. The only reason the lambs survive is because of the shepherd.
Jesus could have chosen any number of helpless animals. On the nature hike, I think they talked about frogs. Everything likes to eat frogs because they are nonthreatening and cannot fight back. Jesus could have said, “I send you out as frogs among wolves,” but He did not, because frogs do not have a shepherd.
He is not only telling us that we are vulnerable on our own. He is pointing to the fact that we need Him. We need Him for provision and protection. A lamb survives because it is faithfully shepherded. That reminds us that we are faithfully shepherded.
The only reason you and I will survive the mission He sends us on, and the only reason we will succeed in it, is because of Him.
This image also reminds us that we represent Him. Scripture also identifies Jesus as a lamb—not because He was helpless, but because He did not fight back when they came for Him and because He was offered as a sacrifice.
Think about the men who were about to go on His behalf. Think about those we discussed last week who said, “I will follow You.” Jesus was going to Jerusalem, and they thought He was going there to establish the Kingdom. They were ready to take swords, spears, slingshots, or whatever else they needed. They were ready to go to Jerusalem, start an uprising, and defeat some Romans. They were ready to fight and conquer like an army.
If His followers thought of Him as a conquering king, they thought of themselves as an advancing army. But He compares them to lambs. “I am not sending you out like soldiers. I am sending you out like lambs.” Lambs do not conquer anything, at least not by force.
If they were being sent to advance the Kingdom through the villages of Samaria, it would not be through conventional weapons or human warfare. They represented a different kind of King. The image showed them again that Jesus was not the kind of king they expected. His Kingdom was not of this world.
Throughout the mission, we must rely on Him. If we try to reach people for Christ without His leading, we will frustrate ourselves. We will talk to people who are not listening and stumble over our words. It is much better to be led by Him.
I was much older than I want to admit before I realized the Holy Spirit has a role in evangelism. The Holy Spirit convicts, and the Holy Spirit draws. I do not understand exactly how all of that works, but the Bible teaches it, so I know it is true.
We do not go out as a conquering army. We go out as lambs and let Him lead us. We let the Shepherd guide us.
The Mission Is Urgent
In verse 4, Jesus tells them about all the things they do not need to worry about. On paper, there are things we would normally prepare for. When we prepared for a hiking trip, we made certain provisions so that no one would become dehydrated. If you are taking a transcontinental flight, you prepare in certain ways.
There are wise preparations for any trip, mission, or journey. Yet Jesus tells these disciples not to worry about those things because the mission is urgent. He wants them to keep their priorities straight.
He says, “Carry no money belt.” In other words, do not worry about how much money to take. “Carry no bag.” Do not carry a large amount of equipment or supplies. “Carry no shoes.” He was not telling them to go barefoot. He told them not to carry extra shoes. Don’t take fifty-seven pairs of shoes for the trip. Take what you have on and go.
Then He says, “Greet no one on the way.” That sounds hateful, but we need to understand what it means.
He gives them instructions about what to do when they enter a house. They are not to worry about where they stay or what they eat. He is teaching them to keep their priorities in the proper order.
Do not burden yourself with a lot of provisions. Do not carry a lot of things you have to worry about and transport. Travel light so that when the Lord leads, you can respond quickly and go where He sends you.
Do not waste time on things that do not advance the mission. That is what He means when He says not to greet anyone along the way. He is not telling us to ignore somebody who says hello.
In the ancient world, greetings could become elaborate. People meeting along the road might ask, “Who are you? Who are your people? Who leads your people? Tell me the history of your people. Who are your enemies? What news do you bring from where you came?” They might also begin negotiating business deals. Meeting someone along the road could turn into a lengthy event.
Jesus says, in effect, “Do not get drawn into that. You have somewhere to be.” Obviously, if the Holy Spirit led one of these men to stop and share the gospel with somebody along the road, the command did not mean he should ignore that person. Jesus is warning them not to become focused on things that may not be bad but do not contribute to the mission.
That is a convicting point. I have to ask myself about it all the time. There are good things we can focus on that do not contribute to the mission. If they do not contribute to the mission, they are not things on which we ought to spend much time or energy.
Jesus also tells them not to get caught up in earthly pursuits and comforts. He says:
“Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house.’ If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you. Stay in that house, eating and drinking what they give you; for the laborer is worthy of his wages.”
He then says:
“Whatever city you enter and they receive you, eat what is set before you.”
He tells them not to move from house to house within the same town. Moving could offend the first host, but it could also reveal a preoccupation with comfort: “These people have a nicer house. Maybe I should stay there instead.”
I began in ministry doing pulpit supply. Sometimes I would end up in a random little town—and I use the word town generously—somewhere in Oklahoma that nobody had ever heard of. Rodney knows what I mean. Sometimes people invited you to stay overnight. Some had very nice houses. Others did not.
If you accepted an invitation to stay in someone’s home and later learned that Brother So-and-so had a much nicer house, then moved there instead, you would offend the people you had come to serve.
The same principle applied to food. I tell this story to my children all the time. There was a place in eastern Oklahoma—not even a town, really, just three houses and a church on a hilltop—where I once preached. It was probably thirty or forty minutes from the nearest town with a restaurant.
After church that Sunday, a couple insisted, “We are going to take you home and feed you.” I was used to feeding myself, but the way they said it made clear that this was what was going to happen.
You may recall from previous messages that there are two things I will not eat: raw onion and American cheese. I sat down at this lovely farmhouse table, and the lady had obviously gone to a lot of trouble. She made a casserole with a thick layer of American cheese baked over the top. When it came out of the oven, she sprinkled raw white onion all over it.
I use this story with my children because some of them are picky. They say, “I can’t eat that. I’ll die.” But they ate it yesterday. They’re simply not in the mood for it today. They will not die.
I tell them about going to that couple’s house after preaching at their church and being served that casserole. Do you know what I did? I learned how to swallow without chewing. I ate the casserole and asked for seconds because that is what you do.
Now some of you are going to bring me American cheese and onions at the next potluck. If you do it merely out of spite, I may not eat the casserole.
But this is the kind of thing Jesus is talking about. You put yourself and your comfort aside. Have I always done that perfectly? No. But you put your comfort and preferences aside for the good of the people you minister to.
Do not get caught up in earthly pursuits and comforts. Do not say, “I will stay here because it is nicer,” or, “They have better food over there.” Pick a place, stay there, and minister to the people in the village.
For most of you, this will not involve staying in people’s homes as you travel from town to town in ministry. But the lesson remains: we do not focus on our earthly pursuits and comforts.
In verse 9, Jesus tells them to do things the world may think are strange because the mission comes first. You may have an opportunity to go to a nicer house or minister somewhere with better fringe benefits, but you do not choose based on those things. You stay focused on the Kingdom.
He tells them:
“Heal those in it who are sick, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’”
Keeping our priorities straight means placing ourselves lower on the list than we usually think we ought to be.
The Mission Is Necessary
Then we come to verses 10–16, where Jesus talks about what happens if people do not receive the message. Most of you will not go from village to village and town to town. So how does this apply to you?
Every day in our ordinary lives, we have opportunities to share Christ with people. Some will receive Him, and some will reject Him. When you become excited about evangelism and share Christ, you may think everybody will respond to the gospel. The first time somebody rejects it, you can become discouraged. You think, “Everybody should want what I have found.”
Jesus prepared them for reality so that they would not become discouraged or give up. He spent a relatively long time preparing them for opposition and rejection because they were going to experience both.
If nobody has ever rejected the gospel when you shared it, it may be because you have not shared the gospel, or at least have not shared it very many times.
Jesus tells them in verses 10 and 11 that some people and villages will reject their message outright. They will not want to hear it. What are the chances that you will meet somebody today who does not want to hear the gospel? There are certainly people who do not want to hear it.
They may not want to hear it today, but perhaps the next time the Holy Spirit will be working on them. We do not simply write them off. But the disciples were reminded that God would deal with rejection.
When somebody rejects the message, we immediately wonder, “What did I do wrong? Maybe if I had said it this way or approached it that way.” The reality is that you may not have done anything wrong. If you presented a false gospel or were deliberately offensive, that is different. But you can present the gospel faithfully, persuasively, and lovingly, and people may still reject it.
Even if you did nothing wrong in the presentation, do not take responsibility for what belongs to God. He will deal with it. That is what wiping the dust from their feet signified.
When Jews traveled through a pagan area and then crossed back into Israel, they would wipe the dust from their feet as a sign that they were not carrying pagan dirt into Israel. It symbolized God’s judgment against the pagan nation.
When the disciples wiped the dust from their feet as they left a village, it declared, “God’s judgment remains here. You did not want His mercy. You remain under judgment.” God would deal with that rejection.
Jesus also speaks in verses 12–15 about cities that had heard the message and seen what He had done but wanted nothing to do with Him. Some cities had seen so many miracles that even wicked places like Tyre, Sidon, and Sodom would have repented if they had seen the same things.
Yet even seeing Jesus Himself and witnessing His miracles was not enough to convince some people. If Jesus appearing personally and doing miracles among them did not convince everyone, you and I need to understand that rejection is not necessarily about us. People rejected Him.
But the mission is necessary, so we persevere. People still need to hear. Some may respond if they hear the gospel one more time. We keep sharing despite closed doors, rejection, opposition, and hostility. We continue the mission.
Why did the disciples continue? Why should we?
Because it is not about us. It is about Jesus. It is about finding someone in the crowd who listens to our message but hears His voice. It is about finding someone who comes to the Father through Him.
That is what verse 16 says. The one who listens to you is listening to Him. If people receive you and your message, they receive Him. If they receive Him, they receive the One who sent Him. If they reject you, they are not ultimately rejecting you; they are rejecting Him and the One who sent Him.
It is all about glory to the Father and glory to the Son. So we press on with the message of our King, who came and took the penalty for our sins. He paid it in full on the cross, where He shed His blood and died.
We continue carrying the message that this Savior rose again three days later and promises to return, and that we will be with Him forever. We persevere in the mission because it is about Jesus.
