1. Please pray with me. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock, and our Redeemer. Amen. The message from God’s Word for this 4th Sunday after Pentecost is taken from Luke 10:1-20. It’s entitled, “Mission and Ministry, Then & Now.” Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. “Multiply your ministry.” Pastors are often told to do that, and it makes sense. A pastor has the most joyous calling any man can ever have—to share Christ Jesus and his saving death and resurrection with people . . . and get paid for it! He gets to speak that message every day to people—you dear people, as well as to people he might meet for the very first time. Over thirty, forty, or fifty years of ministry, he gets to touch hundreds, maybe thousands of lives with the name of Jesus. But if there’s one thing that might just bring a pastor even greater joy, it could be to raise up another young man for the ministry, multiply his ministry. Now it may be more hundreds or thousands of precious souls he’s able to touch with the Gospel, even if indirectly. And if a pastor should ever be called to teach at one of our church’s seminaries, he takes a step back from the week-to-week, day-to-day pastoral joys, but only in the hope that his ministry will be multiplied hundreds of times through students who will go out and tell people about Jesus.
3. Jesus multiplied his ministry. He chose twelve men to be disciples and sent them out as apostles—multiplied his ministry by twelve. And in our text today, he multiplies his ministry six times more—or nearly that, depending on your reading—when he sends out the Seventy (or maybe the Seventy-Two). Some Greek manuscripts mention that Jesus sends out the 70 and others mention that he sends out 72. The interesting thing is that Jesus is the one person who didn’t need to multiply his ministry. He could have done everything he wanted to do all by himself. We even have the feeling it would have been better that way. But instead, he did choose to use others—sinful men—like the Twelve . . . and the Seventy . . . and your pastor. And as imperfectly as we all do it, our joyous job is the same: the mission and ministry of the seventy prefigures pastors today, who represent Jesus.
4. The seventy disciples are sent out as lambs in the midst of wolves . . . as are pastors today. To say peace to each house and town they visit. This was the new greeting of the Seventy for the new content of their message. Pastors today bring the word of peace—that we are reconciled to God by the cross of Jesus. To eat and drink what is provided by that house. The Seventy took no money bag, no knapsack, no sandals, but established table fellowship in a house church wherever they were welcomed.
5. Pastors today are also sacrificial lambs—sacrificing money, comfort, popularity, and maybe even their safety—in order to establish intimate fellowship with Christ’s people in that place. To heal the sick. The Seventy were sent where Christ himself was coming to restore what was broken in creation. Pastors today not only pray for the sick but also come with the medicine of immortality, Christ’s body and blood in the Lord’s Supper given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins. To proclaim that the kingdom of God has come near. As Christ was present in healings by the Seventy, so Christ was present in their proclaiming the kingdom.
6. Pastors today proclaim that Christ is here in his Sacraments (healing) and Word (preaching). The seventy disciples speak for Jesus . . . as do pastors today. Jesus says in Luke 10:16, “The one who hears you hears me” (v 16a). Jesus multiplied his ministry so that more people could “see” him speaking “in the flesh.” The Seventy carry in their own bodies Jesus’ redemption and peace.
7. When pastors today speak, “in the stead and by the command of [our] Lord Jesus Christ”—to preach, to announce forgiveness, to retain sins—it is the same as hearing the Word from Jesus himself. Such a comfort! Such an assurance for our faith!
8. Jesus says in Luke 10:16, “The one who rejects you rejects me” (v 16b). The Seventy would follow the pattern of sacrifice exhibited in the prophets, prefiguring Jesus’ own rejection. Pastors today must expect to be rejected. May it never be by their own dear people! Jesus says in Luke 10:16, “The one who rejects me rejects him who sent me” (v 16c). Rejecting the Seventy meant rejecting God’s only Savior, his only way of salvation. To reject the pastor’s proclamation of Christ is to condemn oneself to God’s eternal wrath.
9. In our American society, we struggle with authority. We have difficulty submitting in obedience even to our government. How true this was during the pandemic, as many struggled with lockdowns and vaccinations. Sometimes we can resist without penalty. But when we come before a judge and he pronounces a sentence of guilt or innocence, we have no choice but to obey. He represents something beyond himself—the authority of our government for law and order.
10. Do we see that our pastors represent the authority of Christ when they pronounce absolution, preach the Gospel, and administer the sacraments? Pastors represent Christ and his authority, and they speak his Word to us. This is why in our Divine Service pastors say after the Confession of Sins: “As a called and ordained servant of Christ, and by His authority, I therefore forgive you all your sins.” Pastors are simply fulfilling the words of Jesus to the Seventy: “The one who hears you hears me” (Lk 10:16). The Absolution of pastors is the Absolution of Christ. As the Small Catechism says: “This is just as valid and certain, even in heaven, as if Christ our dear Lord dealt with us himself.” The authority of our pastors is no unwelcome burden. It is Christ’s own way of giving us that magnificent assurance!
11. The seventy disciples return with great joy . . . as, by God’s grace, may pastors today. In their healing and preaching, Satan is defeated. In Luke 10:18 Jesus saw Satan, “fall like lightning from heaven” by the mission and ministry of the Seventy (v 18). Pastors today aren’t likely to see such spectacular success, but invisibly, it’s happening!
12. The Seventy—and pastors today—are to rejoice that their names are written in heaven. For whatever Peter, James, John, and the rest accomplished, as famous as they may be 2,000 years later, this is their real claim to fame. Lose the pride, pastors today! Forget big numbers and a big name! Rejoice that your name is written in heaven!
11. That’s joy enough for any pastor. But you know what? There’s very real joy, too, in knowing that Christ has multiplied his ministry through guys like me. Not that that’s a feather in my cap. But because I get the joy of knowing that when I announce to you that Jesus’ death on the cross has given you eternal life, your names, too, are written in heaven. I pray that brings you joy! Amen! The peace of God that passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus until life everlasting. Amen.
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