Summary
Shawn explores the distinct accounts in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke regarding Jesus sending out His followers, emphasizing the differences that reflect a broader representation of Christ's body, comprising both masculine and feminine elements. He highlights how Matthew, aimed at Jews, presents a more feminine perspective, whereas Luke, written for Gentiles, takes on a masculine tone, suggesting that the New Testament illustrates the unity of diverse believers under a singular faith.
The Gospel of Luke uniquely documents Jesus sending out seventy disciples, who were distinct from the apostles, highlighted by the Greek term "heteros" meaning "other of a different kind," suggesting they were separate from the apostles and foreshadowed that they might include gentiles among their mission. Notably, while the twelve apostles were "called" only to the "lost sheep of Israel" with instructions likening them to sheep, the seventy were "appointed" as mature lambs, reflecting the unique nature and purpose of their mission extending beyond traditional boundaries to all places Jesus intended to visit.
In Shawn's teaching, Jesus' instructions to the twelve apostles involve warnings about whom to fear and endure hardships, emphasizing their role in proclaiming the Kingdom of Heaven and enduring until the end for salvation. Conversely, the seventy appointed followers are reassured of their protection and instructed to rejoice in their heavenly status, representing a broader foreshadowing of the unified masculine and feminine essence in Christ's collective body as a foreshadowing of the church's future expansion beyond Israel.
Shawn's teaching emphasizes living with faith and courage, conducting good deeds such as healing and exorcising, and sharing knowledge without material concerns. It underlines the importance of enduring persecution for one's beliefs, acknowledging the challenges in personal relationships, and prioritizing allegiance to one's spiritual path over familial ties, as well as the necessity of speaking truths boldly and trusting in spiritual guidance.
The teaching emphasizes the importance of receiving and providing for those who come in the name of Christ, highlighting that acts of kindness, such as giving even a cup of cold water, will be rewarded, illustrating the message with the sending of seventy disciples to spread the message of the kingdom of God. It underscores the idea that true joy comes not from power over external adversities, but from knowing one's place in the heavenly realm, encouraging the faithful to focus on spiritual fulfillment and divine revelation.
Exploring Gender in the Biblical Accounts
Luke 10:4
November 10th, 2019
Meat
We left off with Jesus instructing seventy men to go out to the cities, two by two, to share and prepare for His arrival. Last week, we ended at verse 4 where Jesus said to them:
Luke 10:4 Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes: and salute no man by the way.
Before we continue, I need to address a mistake I made last week. I compiled Matthew's account of the Apostles' calling with Luke's account of the Seventy. I assumed, due to the similarity in language, that they were the same. However, I realized there are significant differences that need to be addressed.
Analysis of Two Accounts
Scripture shows two different times Jesus sent out His followers to announce His presence as Messiah: once with His apostles in Matthew 10 and another time with 70 men. I mistakenly combined the two accounts, assuming the instructions were similar to both sets. I was wrong.
When we consider the body of Christ, we sometimes think it is entirely masculine, as Jesus Christ is male. However, a closer inspection of these accounts can provide insights into the Body of Christ.
We have heard that “In Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female.” This led many to believe the Body of Christ is neuter. Yet, when considering God created us male and female in His image, and the Gospel accounts use gender-specific Greek terms, there seems to be a reason for this.
Gender Distinctiveness in the Gospels
Matthew's account, often seen as a gospel to the Jews, has a feminine presence. In contrast, Luke, not a Jew and a traveler with Paul to the Gentiles, represents some things in the masculine. This raises the question: In the Body of Christ, are there feminine (Jews) and masculine (Gentiles) believers?
The New Testament may present us with masculine and feminine believers. Examining the accounts of Jesus setting forth the Apostles first and the Seventy second supports this idea.
The Perspective in Luke's Gospel
The Gospels of Matthew and Mark were written before Luke and John. Luke and John, well-informed on Paul's mission to the Gentiles, wrote with this in mind. John focuses on the "faithful feminine followers of Christ" (the Jews) reaching maturity through the Holy Spirit. Luke, a Gentile and associate of Paul, addresses his gospel with a more deliberate masculine approach.
For example, Luke's version of “the parable of the sower” was told to a different group and location, using a differing Greek term for seed (spora vs. sperma in Matthew). Luke mentions the conception of Jesus by the Holy Spirit and the Highest's power, while Matthew attributes it to the Holy Spirit alone.
Luke is the only gospel to record Jesus' bar mitzvah, representing masculine maturity and dedication to His Father’s business, whereas Matthew does not mention this rite of passage.
Luke's gospel is the… (incomplete text)
Luke's Unique Account of the Seventy
The only Gospel account of Jesus sending out the Seventy appears in Luke, while he also mentions the Apostles being sent, albeit briefly in six verses. In contrast, Matthew and Mark dedicate much more space to the Apostles' sending. Why would Luke include the account of Jesus sending out the Seventy but Matthew devote significant space to the Apostles?
Understanding the Greek Terms
The answer might surprise you. In introducing the calling and sending of the Seventy, Luke writes: "After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come."
Two Greek terms are often translated as "other" in English in the New Testament: allos and heteros. "Allos" means "other of the same kind," while "heteros" means "other of a different kind." In the verse from Luke, the term used is "heteros," indicating an "other of a different kind." Most scholars believe this refers to men who were not apostles but other men.
The Calling Versus the Appointing
When we consider Jesus sending out these Seventy uniquely in Luke, the timing following the Mount of Transfiguration, and the contrasting instructions given to the Twelve and the Seventy, it seems these "heteros" others were more than just non-apostles.
It was shortly after Jesus' conversation with Elijah and Moses on the Mount of Transfiguration, witnessed by Peter, John, and James, that the Seventy were sent out. In comparison, the twelve apostles were sent out much earlier. Notably, God had instructed Moses to select seventy elders of Israel to assist him, paralleling Jesus appointing the "other seventy" as forerunners as He journeyed to Jerusalem.
In Matthew's account of the Twelve's calling and Luke's account of the Seventy's calling, two different terms are used again. The Twelve were "called" (Greek: proskaleo), meaning "to call someone towards oneself," used over 150 times in scripture. However, the Seventy were "appointed" (Greek: anadeiknumi), used only twice in scripture. It means "to select or choose," unlike "call," which implies a direct summoning.
Instructions to the Seventy
Additionally, Jesus instructed the Twelve only to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, avoiding Gentiles or Samaritans, while He did not restrict the Seventy with the same instructions. This is noteworthy because Jesus and His disciples were traveling through Samaria when He called them, suggesting the Seventy were not prohibited from going to the Samaritans. They were sent to every place Jesus would come, even up to His crucifixion in Jerusalem.
Similarly, the Twelve were described as "sheep in the midst of wolves," whereas the Seventy were seen as "lambs in the midst of wolves." The Greek word for sheep given to the Twelve is probaton, a general term for herding animals. However, the term "lambs" used for the Seventy in Luke 10:3, aner, uniquely appears only once in the New Testament. According to Strong's Analytical Concordance, it describes "mature male lambs" or "rams," a very masculine title for the Seventy men, compared to the general animal term assigned to the Apostles.
Comparing the Twelve Apostles and the Seventy Appointed Ones
Wise as serpents and harmless as doves. The seventy were not given this instruction. Also, in Matthew 10:17-39, Jesus describes a number of things that the twelve apostles were to fear. “Kings, governors, family members and he that can go beyond the killing of the body unto the destroying the soul are all listed as things to fear.” The twelve are also told that they must “endure unto the end to be saved.” Nothing like this to the Seventy.
But one of the great differences is that Jesus says the following to the Seventy in Luke 10:19, that "nothing shall by any means hurt you," in addition that He also tells them “not to rejoice in that the spirits are subject to them but to rejoice that their names are written in heaven.”
Jesus' Words to the Seventy
Then after Jesus declared that the names of the seventy are written in heaven, he says: “In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight.
So still speaking of the seventy, he terms them as babes. The Greek word here used for babes is nepios. It is masculine and means a male child up to the time of maturity. These seventy were the "appointed" ones, from the myriad of followers, not the called, and again they were, in addition to other things, show to Israel, in what could have been a foreshadowing, of the things that were to come – that there was an age approaching where the Body would not always assume the feminine stance as a bride, but would boldly go forward without reservation and make their claim on the souls of Man.
Foreshadowing and Mystery
In the meanwhile, however, the Bride as feminine – consisting of sheep like lambs to the slaughter. It was not happenstance that God asked Moses to choose seventy elders to assist him as they sojourned toward the promised land, nor is it happenstance that Jesus had seventy appointed ones to send out before him as he traveled to Jerusalem to give up his life on the cross for all mankind's salvation which very well could have been a foreshadowing of the Body to come.
It seems that during his earthly ministry Jesus could not fully reveal much of the mystery of the Kingdom to those He called. It appears that there were times He established things as a means to open the way to their understanding – and ours. Later, from his completed position ascended at the right hand of the Father, Jesus Christ sent the apostle Paul to declare the fullness of the great mystery first to the Jews then to the Gentiles.
Then, with their perspective of the revealed great mystery, both John and Luke, in retrospect, for posterity's sake, highlighted elements of Jesus' earthly ministry that were directed unto the eventual revelation given to the apostle Paul. Jesus Christ was and is the great mystery incarnate. He became and is now the only summary perfection of soul and spirit, the essence of the collective union of figuratively functional masculine and feminine. This is his one body of which all who believe, male and female, flow.
So let’s work through the two accounts together as I try and highlight commonalities and differences between the two sets of men – the twelve and the seventy:
The Figurative Feminine and Masculine
Matthew 10
1: And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, (Luke 17) and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease. (Luke 9)
2: Now the names of the twelve apostles are these; The first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother;
3: Philip, and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the publican; James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus;
4: Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him.
5: These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not:
6: But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
7: And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. (Matthew vs 9)
8: Heal
Instructions for Ministry
the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.
9: Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses,
10: Nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves: (Luke vs. 4) for the workman is worthy of his meat. (Luke vs. 7)
11: And into whatsoever city or town ye shall enter, enquire who in it is worthy; and there abide till ye go thence.
12: And when ye come into an house, salute it.
13: And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it: but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you. (see vs 5-7 similar)
14: And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet.
15: Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city. (Luke vs 10-12)
Facing Opposition
16: Behold, I send you forth as “sheep” in the midst of wolves: (verse 3 similar) “be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.”
17: But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues;
18: And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles.
19: But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak.
20: For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.
21: And the brother shall deliver up the brother to deathSeparation from God—now overcome. Physical death remains, but it no longer separates us from life with God., and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death.
22: And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.
23: But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come.
24: The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord.
25: It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?
Being Prepared
26: Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known.
27: What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops.
28: And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
29: Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.
30: But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
31: Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.
32: Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.
33: But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.
34: Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.
35: For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
36: And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.
37: He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
38: And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.
39: He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.
40: He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. (reverse in vs.
41: He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous
The Reward of Righteousness
Man shall receive a righteous man's reward.
42: And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.
The Appointed Seventy
Luke 10:1-24
1: After these things the Lord appointed “other” seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come. 2: Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth laborers into his harvest. 3: Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves. (vs. 16 similar) 4: Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes: (Matthew v. 10) and salute no man by the way. 5: And into whatsoever house ye enter, first say, Peace be to this house. 6: And if the son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon it: if not, it shall turn to you again.
The Mission and Its Reception
7: And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give: (see verses 11-14 similar) for the labourer is worthy of his hire.(Matthew vs. 10) Go not from house to house. 8: And into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you: 9: And heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, The kingdom of GodGod’s spiritual reign—fulfilled and present, not political or future. is come nigh unto you. (Luke vs 7) 10: But into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you not, go your ways out into the streets of the same, and say, 11: Even the very dust of your city, which cleaveth on us, we do wipe off against you: notwithstanding be ye sure of this, that the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you. 12: But I say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable in that day for Sodom, than for that city.(verses 10-14) 13: Woe unto thee, Chorazin! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon, which have been done in you, they had a great while ago repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. 14: But it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment, than for you. 15: And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, shalt be thrust down to hell. 16: He that heareth you heareth me; and he that despiseth you despiseth me; and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me. (reverse in 40)
The Return and Rejoicing
17: And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name. 18: And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. 19: Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you. 20: Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven. 21: In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight. 22: All things are delivered to me of my Father: and no man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him. 23: And he turned him unto his disciples, and said privately, Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see: 24: For I tell you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.
