We Are Part of the Seventy

Mini-sermon delivered at Lindley Assisted Living Center - Athens, OH on 8 July 2007

Based on Luke 10:1-12, 16-20.

Our Gospel today can be considered part of the ‘Great Commission'.

Now we all know about the twelve disciples and Jesus’ instructions for them to go out and preach the gospel. But those twelve men were not going to be able to do it all. So Jesus appointed seventy other men to go out and preach the good news of Jesus’ resurrection and our salvation.

He told those seventy to leave their homes with nothing. . . no purse, no bags and no shoes. Can you imagine walking all over Israel and Judea and the Middle East with no shoes on??

Jesus instructed them to enter a village and greet whomever they met, giving them the peace. If the people responded back, they were to stay there and preach the Gospel. If the village was not friendly, shake the dirt off their feet, leave the village with a curse warning them they would suffer more than Sodom and Gomorrah.

And we all know what happened to Sodom.

So this group of seventy men went forth and preached the good news. When they returned to Jesus, they were so proud of the things that they had accomplished. But Jesus admonished them not to take personal glory in their work, but to remember that they did it for Jesus and for God.

Just as Jesus sent out the seventy, so we are part of those seventy --- it is our job to preach the Gospel and teach the good news. To those we love, and those we know, and those we will meet in the future.

We are a part of those seventy.

Amen.