Joey Sampaga Sermon: Responding to the Kingdom of God, Luke 10:1-16

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Wow. Thank you, Brother John. I appreciate that. And thank you for your story. It was very moving. Oh, before we get started… I don’t want to forget this. First of all, welcome, Leah, Leslie, and I, to you again. And Brother John, he lost his grandfather about a week ago. Monday. Monday, a week ago Monday, or last Monday. So please keep him in prayer and his family in prayer. Also pray for Akilani. She’s at home not feeling well. She’s been bed bound for a little while, so pray for her. And then just a reminder, the leadership meeting is on the 18th, and we’re gonna be, I’ll be sharing the mission, or at least the vision that I see the church that God has given to us as a church for 2026.

And then we do have our new membership class on February 28th. So if you’re going to take that new membership class, Be prepared for February 8th. And then one last thing is, I know we’re doing a Bible study on the 16th at the Christine’s house. Is that right? Are we doing it there? Brother David? That’s more centrally located. Okay. And the reason why, do you want to share that with me? So, you all know Allison. You met her last, I don’t know, February or March, whenever we brought her, there’s another missionary couple that is actually going to be doing the work that we used to do in the Philippines. And they are on their home assignment, and they are going to visit a church in Queen Creek. They’re supporting the church in Queen Creek.

We wanted them to come here and meet you, but we’re not going to be able to do that because their schedule Sunday, the 18th, is very busy. As an alternate to that, we want to meet them this Friday night. We were going to schedule it to do at our house, but we’re going to do it at Christine’s house because it’s a little bit more centrally located. I think, what, 6 o’clock, 7 o’clock, something like that? So, and they’re gonna share, James and Brittany will share what they are doing in the Philippines and give us an opportunity to pray with them and pray for them as they go back in March and continue to work there in Cebu City, okay? Okay, and that’s gonna be a potluck style, so if you’re going to go, maybe we can do something in the chat saying what we’ll bring, if that’s okay? Perfect. All right.

Okay, so we are going to be in the book of Luke, chapter 10. If you have your Bibles, which I hope you do, go ahead and get to Luke, chapter 10, verses 1 to 16. We’ve been in Luke for several months now, and guess what? We’re almost halfway there. Almost halfway there. So as you’re turning your books to chapter 10, I’m going to recap last week. So last week we looked at Jesus’ hard but loving words about the cost of following him. As Jesus set his face toward Jerusalem, he was intentionally headed over there, and there were three individuals who expressed a desire to follow him, yet each would build a barrier to true discipleship. So if we saw enthusiasm without understanding, it can be shallow. There are people who want to follow Jesus and are excited about it, but they don’t know what it really takes to follow Jesus. And these were what these three individuals were going through.

That delayed obedience is still disobedience because they were delaying themselves, right? They said, oh, Jesus, I’ll follow you after my dad dies. Oh, I’ll follow you after I plow the field. Whatever it was, they wanted to delay it. And that divided heart, it cannot move forward with Christ. Christ wants your full attention, okay? He wants you to be fully committed to him. So Jesus, he made it clear that following him, it requires surrender, priority, and forward-looking commitment. The call was simple but searching. Discipleship is not partial, it’s not conditional, nor is it convenient at times. It’s a response to grace that says there’s no turning back. Once you become a Christian, or you say you become a Christian, you are now committed to the Lord. And that theme of commitment and response, it carries directly into our passage today. But now the focus shifts from following Christ personally to being sent by Christ purposefully.

All right, so let’s open in prayer. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for bringing us together today. Lord, please give your peace to this congregation. Quiet our hearts, calm our minds, and help us focus on your word without distractions. And Lord, Holy Spirit, we ask that you would open our eyes and reveal the truth of Scripture to us as we listen. And Lord, I ask that you would fill me with your Spirit as I preach so that it’s not my words, not my own words or opinions, but your truth being spoken clearly to everyone here, your people. Father, I be behind your cross. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. All right, so Luke, I’m going to give you a context before we actually start reading this. But in Luke chapter 10, it opens with this movement. Jesus is still on the road to Jerusalem. The cross is drawing closer. And instead of slowing down, Jesus, he expands the mission.

Up to this point, he sent the 12. Now he appoints 72 others and sends them ahead of him. He says, I want you 72 disciples of mine to go ahead of me. And this shows us that the mission of God is not limited to a small group of leaders. It should not just be the leaders that should be moving forward. It should be every single one of us. If you call yourself a disciple of Christ, then Christ’s followers, we all should be moving the mission forward. Don’t depend on the leaders, because eventually they’ll get burnt out, and it’s just them. Now this shows us that the mission of God is not limited to just the leaders, but it’s for all of us. And the work of the kingdom involves ordinary followers who are willing to go, to speak, and to trust God. In our passage today, it’s going to teach us three major truths. Number one, the mission is urgent. Secondly, the message demands a response. And then thirdly, indifference to Jesus can be dangerous.

All right, let’s read verses 1 to 16. It says, after this, the Lord appointed 72 others and sent them on ahead of him two by two. into every town and 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 of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go your way. Behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. Carry 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 if a son 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 and they receive you, eat what is set before you. Heal the sick in it, and say to them, the kingdom of God has 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 your feet will wipe off against you. Nevertheless, know this, that the kingdom of God has come near. I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town. Woe to you. Gerizim. Woe to you, Bethsaida. For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, then they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more bearable in the judgment of Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You shall be brought down to Hades. The one who hears you, hears me. And the one who rejects you, rejects me. And the one who rejects me, rejects him who sent me. This is the word of the Lord.

Alright, so this passage, it shows us that following Jesus, it doesn’t end with just a commitment. It leads to commission. Those who follow Christ, they’re sent by Christ. Those who follow Christ will be sent by, let’s say, their church, if they’re from here. We send people out for the mission. And when they’re sent, the response to their message reveals a condition of the heart. So in verses 1 and 2, it says, After this, the Lord appointed 72 others and sent them on ahead of us. Two by two. So Luke, he tells us that Jesus appointed 72 others. And that means that this mission, it wasn’t random. It wasn’t optional. Jesus intentionally, he selected and he commissioned these followers. And the fact that it’s 72, it shows the mission is expanding. Remember, it started off with the 12. He sent them out. Now it’s going to be the 72. And the fact that it’s Expanding, it’s showing that the kingdom is growing.

So the work is growing and the need is great. Then notice how he sends them. He sends them two by two. Now Jesus didn’t design this mission to be done alone. He says, I want you to go two by two. Ministry requires encouragement, accountability, support, and shared faith. Because if one is feeling down, then the other can help pick them up and encourage them, right? If for some reason they get sick, and for some reason I’ve noticed that whenever people go out on missions, the first couple days they’re feeling sick. Of course, it’s the enemy attacking, but then you have the others who join that mission. We’re praying for that person, and in a few days, they’re doing better. And Luke, he adds this important detail here. He says, “…into every town and place where he himself was about to go.” So they were sent to prepare the way of Jesus for Jesus their job was not to draw attention to themselves but to help hearts become ready to receive Christ when we’re sent out or when we send out missionaries they don’t go out and say yes I’m going to go save everybody no it’s not you who does the saving it’s not the missionaries who does the saving missionaries they go out they plant the seed they water the seed and then it’s up to God to save.

And so that makes it less stressful for the missionaries, right? Because all they need to do is share the gospel. He makes it a little simpler for us. Now, in many ways, sharing the gospel and going out on mission, that’s our calling too. Whether it’s outside of the country, whether it’s inside the United States, whether it’s in our community, whether it’s within our household or our friends and family, we’re sent. to share the gospel with them. And what we’re doing is we’re preparing the way for people to know who Jesus Christ is, our Lord and Savior. Then Jesus says this in verse two, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. That’s urgency right there. Jesus doesn’t say the harvest might be plentiful someday. He says it’s plentiful right now. Meaning that the field is ready now. And the problem is an opportunity. The problem is availability, isn’t it? There are people ready to hear, ready to respond, ready to go gather, to be gathered, but there are too few laborers willing to go.

Jesus says something similar elsewhere in John chapter 4, verse 35. He says, lift up your eyes and see that the fields are white for harvest. So we need to lift our eyes. It’s easy to get busy and distracted and comfortable and forget the souls are at stake here. I know we do get busy. I know that, especially here in the United States, it’s always go, go, go, go, go, go. When we’ve been out on mission in third world countries, they don’t go, go, go, go, go. I mean, when they go, it’s to feed themselves. Over here, it’s go, go, go, to earn as much money as we can, to buy the jewelry or the cars or the house that we want, instead of there feeding ourselves. And when we’re at these third world countries doing mission work, you can just see the joy in their face when they hear the gospel. Or you can see the Christians there. They love Jesus. And with the little things that they have, living in shacks, something that we would, I mean, even our poor people here are super rich in third world countries.

They live in shacks where there’s no bathroom in the place that they live in. They have to go outside and dig a hole and do their business there and then cover it up. So that’s Jesus’ first instruction to It’s not strategy. It’s not technique. It’s not planning. He says, therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest. We talked about prayer during our Bible study. And it’s powerful. Because evangelism, it begins with prayer because salvation, it requires God’s power. When you don’t pray to the Lord to go out and give you the words and to fill you with the Spirit, and you go out and try and share the gospel on your own, with your own words and your own might, there’s no power there. Salvation is a power of God to save. And it’s only from God. Prayer reminds us that the harvest belongs to the Lord. The people belong to the Lord. The results belong to the Lord.

You know, I shared this before when I was being interviewed by NAM, or IMD, I can’t remember. They asked me, so how many people have you led to the Lord? I couldn’t answer that because I wasn’t keeping track. So I don’t want us to sit there and mark our journals and say, yes, I’ve got 155 people that I’ve led to the Lord since I’ve been saved. No, that glory belongs to God, not us. We’re just to go out and do what he’s asking us to do. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 3, he says, I planted Apollo’s water, but God gave the growth. It was God who grew it. Only God who gives the growth. So our role is obedience and faithfulness. Pray, go speak, love, and trust God to do what only He can do. And when we pray for laborers, those who do go out, we’re also praying, Lord, use me too. Like Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 6.8, he says, here I am, send me.

Right now, I know some of us aren’t able to go. Maybe it’s because you’re not able to walk too far or whatever the case may be. However, there are still ways that you can serve in missions. First thing, of course, is you pray. You pray for the laborers. If you can’t pray and if you can’t go, maybe you can help support the missionaries. So we can all take part in this. Now, what I just mentioned there, don’t use that as an excuse to not go. I would encourage you, if you have not gone on a mission, go on at least one. Go on at least one. It will change you. It’ll change you. And let us know. Let me know. Let the leaders know. And we’ll get you ready to go. Because we want to be a sending church. And it doesn’t have to be in the Middle East or anything like that. We can send you to the Indian tribes or tribal places. Because we’re starting to build that mission up.

So Jesus says a harvest is plentiful, but the time is short because Christ is coming, right? Once Jesus comes, those who have not put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ, they’re damned to hell. They’re damned to hell. So we need to ask God, we need to pray to the Lord and say, Lord, give us that desire, that burning desire to want to share the gospel with other people. No matter which, how you do it. So we pray earnestly and we go faithful. But urgency alone is not enough. Jesus now prepares them for what obedience will feel like. In verse 3 it says, Go your way, behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. That’s not the language of comfort, is it? Oh, you’re going on a mission? Okay, just be careful. There are gonna be people out there that are gonna probably wanna kill you, but God bless you, go ahead. All right, that’s not the language of comfort at all.

Lambs don’t know their power rules. Lambs don’t intimidate. Lambs don’t dominate. They’re weak on their own, which means Jesus is teaching his disciples from the start. He says, you will not succeed through power, personality, or force, is what he’s implying here, right? So this mission will require gentleness, humility, and a total dependence on God. Lord, give me what to say. Give me direction on where I need to go. Give me a person to speak with, a family to speak with, because I don’t know what I’m doing. And that’s what God wants, because when you’re weak, guess what? You’re strong. That’s why the next instruction sounds so strange in verse 4. It says, carry no money bag, no knapsack, no sandals. Jesus isn’t condemning preparation. It’s simple. He’s training them to trust. He’s stripping away the things that make them feel self-sufficient so that they learn the heartbeat of evangelism, which is God provides what God commands.

If God is commanding you to do something, he’s going to provide. If he sends them, he will sustain them. I’m learning that myself, not just with mission work, but just with ministry in general. Because this line of work, at least true Bible teaching churches, this line of work as a pastor, we don’t get rich. We don’t get paid a lot. Jesus, although what he does do… And then Jesus, he tells them to greet no one on the road. Not because kindness is wrong, but because the mission is urgent. You know when you’re in a hurry to go to a meeting and you’re running late? You just focus on getting to the meeting? That’s what he’s telling them. It’s urgent. I want you to go where I’m telling you to go. Don’t stop. Just go. They’re not to be delayed or distracted. The kingdom message is too important to treat casually.

And when they enter a house, Jesus gives them this greeting. He says, peace be to this house, in verse 5. So that peace is more than politeness here. It’s theological. It’s the announcement that God is offering reconciliation. That through Christ, peace with God is available. It’s only through Christ. We can’t do enough work, we can’t earn enough merits to reconcile with God. Only God can reconcile us with himself. And that was through his son. That is through his son. So some, they will receive it, and Jesus calls them sons of peace. Others will reject it. You’re always going to get two responses to the gospel. One is they’re going to reject it. Secondly, or they’re going to receive it. But here’s the key. Rejection doesn’t cancel the mission. If peace is rejected, it returns to the messenger. In other words, the disciple doesn’t lose anything by obedience. Faithfulness is the goal, not the acceptance.

So finally, Jesus tells them to stay in one house, receiving hospitality, verse 7. For the laborer deserves his wages. So God will provide to his people. The messenger doesn’t need to manipulate or chase comforts. They simply serve faithfully, live contentedly, and keep the focus on the mission. They need to focus on the mission. So the posture Jesus calls for is clear. He says, I want you to go in humble, urgent, with urgency, with dependency on only God. Be peace-bearing messengers who remain faithful even when some reject the message. Right? Don’t allow that to discourage you. Remember, you don’t do the saving. Your mission is to go out and speak God’s word. To speak the gospel. God is the one to say it. So what happens when people respond or refuse to respond to the message? What happens? Verse 8 says, whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you.

Verse 9, say to them, the kingdom of God has come near to you. This is the heart of Jesus’ instruction. It’s the central message of our passage. That’s the heartbeat of the mission. Not political reform, not social activism, not moral improvement, not simply be a better person. The message is that God’s reign is breaking into the world through the person and work of Jesus Christ. That is the message, and that is the mission. To say the kingdom of God has come near means that God is not distant. He’s not silent. He’s not uninvolved. The king has stepped into or onto a scene. Christ is near. Salvation is being offered. And the time for decision has arrived. And what’s powerful here is that Jesus tells them to speak this message in two situations. He says, when people receive you and when people reject you, what must you do? What should you do? In towns that welcome them, they’re to eat what is set before them. They’re to allow the hospitality.

You know, this is no time to be, oh, no, no, no, that’s okay. No, no, no, you don’t need to cook the food for us. No, that’s the time you receive it because that’s the Lord feeding you. That’s the Lord providing for you as you’re out on mission. They’re to eat what is said before them, minister to the needs, heal, pray for the sick, and proclaim the kingdom of God. And that reminds us that the gospel ministry is never only words. It involves compassion, presence, and love. But then Jesus says something surprising. He says if the town rejects them, they still share the gospel. They still speak. Look at verse 11. Nevertheless, know this, that the kingdom of God has come near. He says share that. Nevertheless, even if they reject him, tell them that the kingdom of God has come near. Even rejection doesn’t change the message. Whether people respond in repentance or respond with resistance, the truth remains. God has drawn near in Jesus. And the announcement stands.

And this is where the passage becomes sobering for us. In the presence of the kingdom, there is no neutral response. You can’t be neutral. When you are neutral to the message, you are basically rejecting the message. To ignore the message is to reject the king. Indifference is not neutrality. It’s unbelief. So Jesus is teaching his disciples that their job is not to control the response. Their job is to faithfully proclaim the message. The kingdom has come near. Christ is coming. Christ is near. The time to repent and believe is now. It sounds pretty familiar, doesn’t it? John the Baptist, when he was preaching the gospel of repentance. Now that leads to one of the most sobering sections in this passage. Jesus shifts in tone, and it becomes one of the most sobering parts of the entire passage. It says, up to this point, Jesus has been preparing his messengers to go with peace, humility, and urgency, but… Now he makes something unmistakably clear. The kingdom message is not only an invitation, it’s also a warning.

Look at verse 12. It says, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town. Now that’s pretty shocking. Everyone knows, everyone knew what happened in Sodom. Does anyone here not know what happened in Sodom? Sodom is remembered throughout scripture as a symbol of extreme wickedness and judgment. Yet Jesus says a town that rejects the kingdom message will face something even more severe. Why is that? Because the issue is not how simple they are. The issue is how much light they rejected. How much they rejected Jesus. Now Jesus then pronounces woe upon Chorazin. Bethsaida, and then later Capernaum. And these were Jewish towns, places where Jesus’ ministry was known. Where his miracles were seen, where truth was heard regularly. They saw Jesus do all the miracles. They heard Jesus preach. But they still, it didn’t turn them. I mean, they were excited for that time when he fed the 5,000. They were excited. They were excited. To see Jesus feed them. They were excited about having that amazing fish and loaves of bread.

But then when Jesus continued on and he didn’t feed them, guess what? They all started to leave. Because Jesus stopped feeding them, at least physically. He was feeding them spiritually, but he didn’t want anything to do with it. He says something revealing in verse 13. He says, for if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago. So Tyre and Sidon were Gentile cities known for their paganism. Yet Jesus says if they had seen what these Jewish towns saw, they would have repented. Now here’s a warning. Religious exposure can harden the heart instead of soften it. Religious exposure can harden the heart instead of soften it. Whenever we pray for an unbeliever and God answers that question or the prayer and then they get healed or whatever it was we’re praying and they see it, they’re like, oh! Well, that was a coincidence. You prayed and we got you. And so they find in their ways and their minds on how to explain what only God could do. And what it’s doing is it’s hardening their hearts even more.

A person can hear sermons week after week, see answered prayers, witness God’s work, know scripture, grow up around Christianity, and still remain indifferent, unchanged, and unrepentant. And so Jesus says that that kind of indifference is dangerous. Because when people repeatedly refuse Christ… They aren’t simply undecided. They are accountable for their works, their evil deeds. Verse 14 says, and this is what he repeats. Jesus repeats it. It will be more bearable in the judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you. Then he addresses Capernaum in verse 15. He says, and you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You shall be brought down to Hades. So Capernaum was privileged. It had more access to Jesus than most places. The more the gospel is shared or the more that God’s word is shared in a location or to you, a person, The more you’re held accountable for that when you don’t put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Yet the privilege without repentance, it leads to greater judgment.

When God was talking to the Jews, when he was telling the Jews, you’re my people. I chose you, not because you’re better than anyone, but because I decided I wanted to choose you as my people. And I’m sharing my word to you so that you would be responsible then to share it outside of others. Did they take that responsibility serious? Not a lot of them. The prophets did. But the ones who hear, especially the Jews who know God’s word but still have not put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ, they are going to face a greater judgment. And if you’ve heard the gospel multiple times and have not put your faith and trust in Jesus, guess what? You are also going to face that greater judgment. So he’s warning that the difference to Christ is not small, but it’s serious. So to ignore Jesus, it’s not harmless. To delay a response, it’s not neutral. To hear his word and remain unchanged is spiritually dangerous.

This is where the passage presses on our hearts today. It’s possible to be close to Christian things and far from Christ. A good example of that is Judas. He saw everything Jesus did, but still did not put his faith and trust in him. It’s possible to sit under truth. the gospel, but never truly respond to it. Because remember, the demons and Satan, they know the gospel really well. Yet, they still have not put their faith and trust in Jesus. And Jesus’ warning, his warning is don’t treat the kingdom as background noise. Don’t let familiarity make you numb. Don’t assume that hearing truth reveals believing truth. Just because you hear it doesn’t mean that a person is going to believe it. I mean, yeah, if they hear it, they need to actually put action to that. They hear it, they put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ, they repent on a daily basis, and then the Holy Spirit starts to transform them from the inside out, then you start to see good works from that person. If you don’t see good fruits coming out of that person, then most likely their reception of the gospel was false.

Because when the kingdom of God comes near, there are only two outcomes here, either peace or judgment. And I’m hoping that each and every one here is going to have peace, not judgment. Verse 16. The one who hears you hears me. The one who rejects you rejects me. And the one who So Jesus, he closes the section with a statement that should make every believer pause and feel the weight of what it means to be sent. Because here Jesus teaches something profound. The authority of the message does not rest in the messenger, it rests in Christ himself. So he tells the 72, the one who hears you, hears me. That means when they faithfully proclaim Christ’s message, people are not merely responding to the messenger, they’re responding to Jesus, the one that is being spoken of. So this should both humble us and strengthen us and encourage us, right? This humbles us because it reminds us that we’re not special I mean, we are in God’s eyes, but we’re not as special as we think we are.

We’re not the Savior. We’re not the power. We’re not the message. Jesus is the message. We’re only speaking it. We’re simply messengers. Paul says, he says it in this way, 2 Corinthians 4 and 5, he says, For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ is Lord with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. So evangelism is not about winning people over to our personality or our style or our arguments. It’s about pointing people to Christ and speaking his truth plainly and lovingly. You know, sometimes people go out to evangelize when they’re trying to prove how much they know. Right? Oh, I’m going to convert this guy because I’ve been studying. There’s nothing wrong with studying, by the way. But I’m going to counter everything that they say. And again, there’s nothing wrong with that. But if you’re going there hoping that you do it on your own intellect and not rely on God, it’s not going to mean anything. There’s no power there.

This also strengthens us, because if the mission depended on our skill, confidence, or charisma, we would all fail. But Jesus is saying, when you speak faithfully, I stand behind what you say. He says the gospel is powerful, not because we’re strong, but because Christ is strong. Paul says in Romans 1.16, For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. So the gospel itself carries divine power. Then Jesus gives the other side and says, the one who rejects you, it rejects me. Or they reject me. And this is important because it protects the disciples from discouragement. Jesus is teaching them not to take rejection personally in the wrong way. Just because someone rejects you out there when you’re sharing the gospel, don’t be discouraged. Just pray for them and then move on. When someone rejects it, just move on. Now that doesn’t mean we become cold or harsh. It means we remember what’s really happening spiritually.

And then Jesus gives the most sobering line. He says, the one who rejects me rejects him who sent him. And this is the clearest reminder that to reject Jesus is basically to reject God. Reject God himself. So you can’t claim to love God while rejecting Christ. You can’t have the Father while denying the Son. Because there are other false religions that are out there and they say, oh yeah, I believe in God, but I don’t believe Jesus is God. Yeah, he’s the Son of God, but he’s not God. When you reject Jesus as God, guess what? You are rejecting God himself. Because Jesus is God. 1 John 2, 23 says, no one who denies a son has a father. Whoever confesses a son has a father also. So Luke chapter 10, verse 16, it confronts every hearer with reality. First, to hear the gospel is to be confronted with Christ. Second, to respond to Christ is to respond to God. And then thirdly, to reject Christ is to reject God.

That’s why this mission is urgent. This isn’t one religious option among many. This isn’t spiritual self-help. Not their own authority, but his. So the king, he stands behind his word. Now, beloved, I know we’re going to, it sounds like, it probably feels like I’m going along, but it really is. When you’re hearing God’s word, you want to soak up every bit of it. Soak it up. Because you don’t hear God’s word out there in the world. You need to soak it up. This passage teaches us that the kingdom of God has come near. That’s grace. That’s mercy. That’s invitation. But it’s also urgency. Not for just the 72 that God sent, but for us as well. Because we will either receive Christ or reject him. Those you share the gospel with will either receive or reject. So the application is clear. First, what do we have to do before going out and evangelizing? Pray. We can’t talk about the harvest if we don’t pray to the Lord of the harvest.

Some of us need to repent of prayerlessness. If you don’t pray on a regular basis, you need to repent from that and start praying more often. Second, we must go. Jesus sent the 72. He still sends his church. There are people in our neighborhoods, our workplaces, and our families who need the gospel. Third, we have to speak. Not everyone is called a priest from the pulpits. I understand that. Or teach. The Bible will study. But every believer is called to witness. You’re a witness. If you’ve been saved by the Lord, you’re a witness of your own salvation. And only you can be the true witness. And you ought to share that. You need to tell people about how Jesus saved you. And then you need to tell them how Jesus will save them. So many times people are so stuck on their own testimonies that they forget to share the gospel. What is that doing? You’re bringing glory to your own self rather than glory to God.

You need to invite them. You need to share scripture. You need to speak the gospel. If you don’t know the gospel, let me know and I will teach you how to say the gospel. It’s very simple. Christ died for our sins. He was buried. or he died on the cross for our sins, and he took his body off the cross, buried him, and then three days later, what happened? Raised him from the dead. He’s now seated at the right hand of the Father, and will come again to judge the living and the dead. Simple. That’s the gospel. Now, of course, as you start to grow in your Christian faith, you can expand on that depending on your conversation with the person. Now, fourthly, we have to respond. If you’re hearing this today and you haven’t been indifferent or delayed or unmoved, hear the warning of Jesus. The kingdom has come near. You are accountable for what you do with Christ.

Now, here’s the good news. The king who sends messengers with peace is the same king who went to the cross to secure peace. I’ve said this many times. Christ, Jesus, did not come to die for himself. He’s God. He’s sinless. We are the sinners, so he came to die for us, not himself. So Jesus didn’t merely announce the kingdom. He purchased entrance into the kingdom by his blood. He died for sinners. He rose in victory. He offers forgiveness and peace to with God to all who repent and believe. So today, the message still stands. The kingdom of God has come near. If you have not received Christ, put your faith and trust in him, do that today. I know you here, but I don’t know you here. That’s between you and God. All I can do is deliver the message. All I can do is deliver the gospel. So when it’s delivered to you, I pray that you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

If you haven’t done so, let me know or pray to God and ask him to save you. And if you’re sincere about it, he will save you. He’s faithful and just. So turn from your sin, believe the gospel, and go with urgency to tell others. Amen? Amen. Lord God, Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus, thank you for your word and for your call to go proclaim the kingdom of God. Forgive us for fear and indifference, and fill us with boldness, love, and compassion. And Lord, make us faithful laborers in your harvest. And for anyone here who has been delaying repentance or remaining indifferent, Lord God, I pray and I beg you, draw them to yourself today. Even if it means breaking them down to their lowest point in their life. Send us out this week. Father, we thank you for your word. I thank you for everyone here. I ask that you bless them and that you give them the opportunities. Give us the opportunities.