THE JOY LIST
Luke 10:17-24 NET.
17 The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” 18 And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. 20 Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” 21 In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. 22 All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” 23 Then turning to the disciples he said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! 24 For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”
Last Sunday we learned that Jesus was planning a campaign in which he was going to go to all the towns and villages of Judea on his way to Jerusalem. He was also recruiting a large group of his disciples to go ahead of him to those towns and villages preaching the gospel of the kingdom and winning people to Christ. In the beginning verse of today’s text, we find that …
The Seventy-two took joy from their victory in spiritual warfare (17-19).
They said “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” When they obeyed Jesus call to go on a mission to preach the gospel where it was not known, God’s Spirit went with them and removed the obstacles in their path. It did not matter whether those obstacles were cultural, political, social – even if they were supernatural. When God calls us on a mission, he equips us for that mission. He also goes with us because even though we are on a mission from God, we will encounter opposition. We will be involved in warfare. God does not promise to eliminate the opposition so that we do not have to do warfare. Instead, he promises to empower us to overcome amid the warfare.
The Old Testament shows us several examples of this. God sent Moses to Egypt to rescue the Israelites. He was at first opposed by the Israelites themselves. God empowered Moses to demonstrate his authenticity. Then Moses was opposed by the Egyptian magicians. God gave Moses power to overshadow the tricks of the Egyptian magicians. Pharoah was stubborn and he would not let the Israelites Go. God intervened a third time to show his power over all the gods of Egypt.
God sent David to do battle with the Philistine champion, Goliath. God did not strike down Goliath. He empowered David to do that. David had to obey the mission before he would see the deliverance. God was faithful to enable his missionary to overcome.
God sent Daniel to spend some time with the lions. Daniel was faithful to keep praying, which was all he could do. God was faithful to shut the mouths of the lions.
God sent Daniel’s three Hebrew friends (Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah AKA Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego) on a mission to defy the order to worship the golden statue. They obeyed that mission, and it got them thrown into a very hot place. The furnace even destroyed the soldiers who threw them in there. But God was faithful to keep the fire from harming the missionaries.
So, the seventy-two should not have been surprised that they would overcome in spiritual warfare. God’s people following God’s call to do God’s mission will overcome any opposition – even the opposition of the devil.
But Jesus tells these victorious missionaries that if they wanted to rejoice, there are some other things that they should take more joy from. Today I want to talk about that list.
Jesus said they should take joy in being known by God (20).
He said they should rejoice that their names are written in heaven. Most of the time when I thought about that statement, I thought Jesus was talking about the certainty of their eternal destiny. Since their names are written in heaven, the God was going to remember them and give them eternal life when Jesus comes again. But as I meditated on that statement this week, I realized that Jesus did not say that their names are going to be found someday when the role is called up yonder. No, his statement was “rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
Monday, Penny and I drove to Ridgecrest so that I could attend the ACGC Triennial Convention. It was a long 4 ½ hour trip. When I drove into the conference center, I stopped at the first building of several, and I wondered how long it would take for me to register. When I got to the counter, I told them my name. They immediately presented me with a key to my room, a meal ticket for the week, and a map to the building where I would be staying. I was in and out of that registration in less than three minutes. What made the process of registering so easy was that I had already preregistered a month ago. So, they already knew I was coming. They already knew my name.
What Jesus is saying is not just the fact that we have an eternal destiny waiting for us when Jesus comes back. No, it’s more important than that. Our names are already written in heaven now. We have a Father, and He knows our name. When Jesus returns, he’s not going to have to look your name up in the logbook to see if you will qualify for eternal life. Your name’s already there. You are important not because you will inherit the kingdom of God but because you presently have a relationship with the God of the kingdom. Your future is certain because it is already written down in heaven. You’ve got a key waiting for you with your name on it. You’ve got a meal ticket waiting for you with your name on it.
The hymn asked, “Is my name written there?” Jesus told these missionaries “Your name’s written there.” If you want something to rejoice about –- something to put on your joy list – put this: my name is written in heaven.
Now, the Bible doesn’t say that we are going to go to heaven. But it does say that when Jesus comes back, even if we have been asleep in our graves for a thousand years, we are going to hear his voice and come out of those graves alive and intact. It doesn’t tell us what he’s going to be saying. Maybe he will do for us what he did for his friend Lazarus. He said “Lazarus, come out” and Lazarus came out. I’d like to think that someday I’m going to hear “Jeff, come out.” Oh, what joy to be woke up by the Master’s voice!
Another thing we should put on our joy list is knowing what God teaches us (21-22).
Jesus rejoiced in that. He said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children.” You and I are the little children. God has taught us some things in his word that the greatest philosophers and thinkers the world had ever known missed. Hammurabi didn’t put it in his code. Plato and Socrates didn’t teach it to their students. Confucius didn’t know it. The Buddha couldn’t fathom it. But it’s common knowledge among us kids who read God’s word and believe what we read.
The popular and highly credentialed scholars of today look at God’s words and poke fun of them. But we know them as the words of eternal life. They think of them as myths and fairy tales. We think of them as the Lord’s instruction that makes us like a tree planted by the water: firmly planted and fruitfully living. We see the same words on the page as those worldly scholars do. The difference between us and them is that we know the author of those words. Other people stumble over those words, but to us, they are a lamp unto our feet and a light for our path.
Another thing we should put on our joy list is experiencing what God shows us (23-24).
Jesus told his disciples “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.” They were living in amazing times. The kingdom of God was being built – one believer at a time. One village at a time. One town at a time.
The same is true today. God is still in the business of turning the world upside down and using ordinary believers to do it. Yes, ordinary believers. At least we know the names of the twelve original apostles. We don’t know the names of these faithful seventy-two. But they were successful and victorious because they were empowered by the Holy Spirit – the same Holy Spirit Jesus poured out on us.
Have you ever met someone whose life was dramatically transformed by the gospel? I have. I have seen it happen time and time again. I’ve seen whole families converted through simple acts of faithfulness by ordinary Christians. It can happen in your family. It can happen in our town. God wants us to see these things – to experience them. The prophets and kings could only imagine these things, but you and I can live them out. We are living in the gospel age, and the gospel is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes.
Michael Card writes of this passage “The world is being turned upside down because the Father wants it that way, and Jesus could not be more joyful at the prospect. It is a rare moment of light on an otherwise dark journey to Jerusalem.”[1]
When we say “Yes. Lord” when Jesus calls us to a mission that proclaims the gospel, we experience mutual joy with our Lord himself. He is committed to bringing the lost into his fold. He loves it when you and I cooperate with his plan. There is no happiness like the happiness of making the Lord Jesus happy.
[1] Card, Michael. Luke: The Gospel of Amazement. Downers Grove, Ill: IVP Books, 2011. p. 137.
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