Faith without religion.
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Okay so let’s read our text for today:
Luke 10.4-
November 10th 2019
Meat
Okay we left off with Jesus instructing seventy men to go out to the cities, two by two, and to share and prepare for His arrival to them.
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.
And before we can continue forward, I made a mistake last week – sort of an egregious mistake in my book – and so I apologize and I have to fix it today.
What I did was I compiled Matthews account of the calling of the Apostles with Luke’s account of the calling of the Seventy.
I did this because I assumed, due to the similarity in language in some parts, that they were one and the same.
It was only this week that I caught the error, and realized that there are some significant things about both accounts that need to be addressed, and even untaught from what I said last week.
So, let me sort of work through some of the things that I discovered between the two accounts.
In scripture there appears to be two different times Jesus sent out followers to heal and announce His presence to Judea as Messiah.
Once with His apostles (recorded in Matthew 10 and another time with 70 men.
As I mentioned I combined those two accounts and thought briefly, that the instructions were similar to both sets.
Wrong.
In fact, when we think of the body of Christ, we sometimes allow ourselves to think that it is entirely masculine – after all, the Body is Jesus Christ who we see as male.
But I think a closer inspection of these two accounts, which I mistakenly took as one initially, have the ability to give us some meaty insights to the Body of Christ.
Let me see if I can explain.
We have long heard that, “In Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female, right?”
This has caused many to believe that the Body of Christ is neuter. I wonder about that when we consider that God created us male and female in His image.
The Gospel accounts themselves are also slanted heavily toward Gender specific Greek terms and I think that there is a reason for this.
For example, Matthews account, which is generally considered to be a gospel to the Jews, has a greater feminine presence than Luke, who himself was not a Jew, and who traveled with Paul the Apostle to the Gentiles. Interestingly, some things in Luke’s account are represented in the masculine.
Is it safe to say that in the Body of Christ there is female (Jews) and males (Gentiles) and that the two were to become one?
Does the New Testament present us with (figuratively speaking) masculine believers and feminine?
It seems that in the examination of these two accounts of Jesus setting forth the Apostles first and the Seventy second, we have an example of just this.
The Gospels of Matthew and Mark are believed to have been written well before Luke and John.
This suggests that both Luke and John were well informed on the mysterious mission of Paul to the Gentiles and wrote accordingly with John, after reciting the first miracle at Cana focusing his attention on bringing, calling, gathering all of the “faithful feminine followers of Christ” the Jews) to maturity through the influence of the Holy Spirit and its sealing of them as Jesus bride (obviously feminine).
Luke however, and again, a Gentile and one who traveled with Paul, seems to have addressed his gospel to Gentiles as the great mystery was fully present before him as an associate of Paul.
As a result there are a number of terms and stories even that Luke approaches in a much more deliberate masculine way.
For example, Luke records a different rendition of “the parable of the sower” which was spoken to a differing group in a different location but also, using a differing Greek term for seed as Luke used spora for seed and Matthew used, sperma.
Luke says that the conception of Jesus was by both the Holy Spirit and the power of the Highest while Matthew attributes the conception just to the Holy Spirit (which is feminine).
Luke is the only gospel that records Jesus’ bar mitzvaha which represents the time of masculine maturity where Jesus both is able to ask questions in the temple and says that he was now dedicated to His Father’s business.
Matthew says nothing about this masculine rite of passage.
Luke’s gospel is the only Gospel account of Jesus sending out the Seventy and though Luke does write of the Apostles being sent, it is covered in six verses where Matthew and Mark spend a lot of time reporting it.
Why? Why would Luke include the only account of Jesus sending out the seventy but Matthew would spend a large amount of space covering the sending of the Apostles?
The answer to this might surprise you.
We recall what Luke says to introduce the calling and sending of the seventy out:
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.
There are generally two terms most often translated to other in English in the NT.
One is allos and the other is heteros.
Essentially, “allos” means “other of the same kind” while “heteros” means “other of a different kind.”
In the verse I just read from Luke the Greek term is not allos but heteros, meaning an “other of a different kind.”
Most believe that what this other term refers to is a group of men who were NOT apostles, but other men.
But when we consider the unique appearance of Jesus sending them out in Luke, the timing of the event (right after the Mount of Transfiguration), the contrasts between instructions given the twelve and the seventy (which we will get to in a minute) the “differences” of these heteros others seems to be more than they were just not apostles.
As I mentioned, we know that the sending out of these seventy occurred shortly after Jesus had a conversation with Elijah and Moses (in the presence of Peter, John and James) on the Mount of Transfiguration but that the sending out of the twelve apostles occurred well before this.
And we remember that it was God who told Moses (again, who appeared with Jesus on the mount), to select seventy elders of Israel (upon whom he could transfer the spirit that was upon Moses in order to assist Moses in administering the children of Israel on their way to the promised land through the wilderness of Sinai).
Likewise, Jesus appointed these “other seventy” as similar forerunners for Him as He made his way to each city between he and Jerusalem.
We should also note that in Matthews account of the calling of the twelve and in Luke’s account of the calling of the Seventy, we have two different terms used once again.
The twelve were “called” while the seventy were “appointed.” The Greek word for called is proskaleo and means to “literally to call someone towards oneself.” This word is used over one hundred and fifty times in scripture.
But the Greek word for appointed is anadeiknumi and it is only used twice in scripture – here and in Acts when the Apostles sought to have God appoint an apostle to replace Judas among them.
It means to select or choose where again call best means to actually call someone toward oneself.
Additionally, Jesus instructed the twelve only to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and not unto the Gentiles or Samaritans where (and this is interesting) he did not give the seventy the same directions.
Remember from last week that Jesus and his entourage of disciples were traveling through Samaria at the time of His calling them. The Samaritans were not considered of the house of Israel but is it reasonable to suggest that these seventy were not prohibited from going to them at that time?
Remember, these seventy were sent to every place where Jesus would be coming on his way, even unto his ultimate place suffering on the cross in Jerusalem.
Similarly the twelve were told that they would be “as sheep in the midst of wolves” but the seventy were told that they would be “lambs in the midst of wolves.”
The Geek word for sheep used in the instructions to the twelve is probaton. It is a general word that can be used of herds or flocks of animal that travel on four feet.
The Greek word for lambs used of the seventy here in Luke 10:3 is uniquely used only this one time in all New Testament.
It is the word aner and, according to Strong’s Analytical Concordance, describes “mature male lambs” or, in other words, “rams.”
VERY masculine title assigned to these seventy men whereas the title assigned to the Apostles was a four-footed beast.
The twelve were told to be 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.”
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.
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 soujorned 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.
I 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 THE FIGURATIVE 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 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)
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 death, 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?
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 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.
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.
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 God 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)
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.
