MISPLACED ENTHUSIASM

Posted by Angella Diehl, Webmaster on September 16, 2020 under AM Bible Study |

AM Bible Study Group: September 16, 2020 from Luke 10:17-20

Theme: We must be careful not to rejoice more over temporal victories than over eternal grace.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

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As followers of Jesus, we have been given great spiritual authority.

Our Lord has told us, in His ‘Great Commission’, that all authority had been given to Him in heaven and earth, and in that authority, He commanded us to go out into the world to preach the gospel about Him and to make disciples in His name. He assured us of the victory of that great enterprise; telling us, in Matthew 16, that “the gates of Hades shall not prevail” against His church as it goes forth to profess Him. Truly—as we go out into the world in the name of Jesus—we are under great authority.

But therein lies a danger. The great authority we have in proclaiming the gospel is not the greatest thing about us. It’s a means to an end. And if we aren’t careful, we can end up rejoicing over the means so much that we lose sight of what is truly the greatest thing of all.

That’s a lesson that we learn from this morning’s passage in Luke 10.

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As you’ll recall from our study of Luke 10, the Lord Jesus had sent out seventy of His followers (or “seventy-two” as it is in some translations) to go out before Him as He made His way to Jerusalem. He was going to present Himself as the long-awaited King of the Jews; and He sent them ahead to all the cities of Judea that He would visit on the way. They were to go ahead of Him and declare that “the kingdom of heaven is at hand”. And in going, we’re told that they would be empowered by Him to perform miracles of healing—thus authenticating the kingdom offer that they were making.

We’re not told to which cities it was that they went; and we’re not told how long they were on their mission. But we’re told in Luke 10:17-20 of what happened when they came back to Him:

Then the seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.” And He said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and overall the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:17-20).

As we had said before in our last time together, there is much in the story of the Seventy that does not apply to us today. They were sent by the Lord on a mission that was of a different era in God’s plan for the ages than ours. They went to declare to the Jewish people (who were living in that specific time) that their King was coming to them. As the Lord had made clear, the Jewish people would reject Him as their King and crucify Him. But because of that rejection and crucifixion, Jesus would then be offered to the rest of the Gentile world as the crucified Savior of sinners—with the plan that, one day, the Jewish people will also be saved. So, our message today is different from that of the Seventy. We don’t announce the arrival of the coming of the Jewish King to His people. Instead, in this dispensation, we offer Him as the crucified and risen Savior to the whole world. We don’t declare, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Instead, we declare, “Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.”

But there is much in this story that does apply to us. The Lord went on to tell His seventy disciples—as a representation of all of us who are living in the ‘Great Commission’ era—that nothing of the powers of the enemy can stop the spread of Jesus’ gospel and the expansion of His church. We go forth trampling over the powers of the enemy. We see this in one temporal victory after another in our faithful declaration of the gospel. But it is not in these temporal victories that we are to ultimately rejoice. They are but means to an end. Instead, we’re to rejoice that—by God’s grace—we heard this gospel and believed; and now our names are among those that are written in heaven. We are destined for eternal life in our Father’s house through faith in Jesus. And that is to be our greatest cause of joy.

So; this passage teaches us a very important principle regarding spiritual priorities. We should certainly rejoice in those temporal victories and miracles and displays of power. Praise God for them! But we must be careful not to have a misplaced enthusiasm over them—seeking them as an end in and of themselves. Because when that happens, it can lead to spiritual pride—and perhaps even spiritual blindness.

In other words, we must be careful—as Jesus’ redeemed people—not to rejoice more over temporal victories than we do over eternal grace.

Look at how this passage teaches this to us. First, we see that …

1. WE SHOULD ACKNOWLEDGE TEMPORAL VICTORIES.

In verse 17, we’re told, “Then the seventy returned with joy, saying, ‘Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.’”

When the Lord had sent them out, He had told them—in verse 9—to “heal the sick, and say to them, ‘the kingdom of God has come near to you’”. Apparently, as they went out in obedience, they discovered just what that healing would involve. There must have been times when, in encountering and ministering to the sick, they found that the demonic forces of the devil were present. That, of course, is not to say that all sickness is a product of demonic activity. But it may have been so in some of the cases that the Seventy encountered. After all, they were going out into the devil’s territory and delivering some of his victims, and declaring to them the good news of the coming of the kingdom. Whenever we go out into the world and declare the message of Jesus, we should always expect that the enemy of our souls will try to fight against it.

Now; it was not that the demons were subject to the Seventy. Rather, it was that they were subject to the seventy ‘in Jesus’ name’. It was in the authority of Jesus that they went forth to invade the territory of the devil and release his victims. In regard to His own authority over the devil, Jesus once said:

When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace. But when a stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes him, he takes from him all his armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoils (Luke 11:21-22).

By those whom Jesus sent out in His name, He was showing that He was stronger than ‘the strong man’. It was by these seventy ambassadors, going forth in the authority of His name, that the devil’s ‘goods’ were being taken away. And the Lord Jesus affirmed this to the Seventy when He went on to say in verse 18, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.”

There have been some who have misunderstood those words. Some have suggested that Jesus was rebuking their enthusiasm by saying that He was present to see Satan fall before the world was created. Some others have thought that He was speaking of His own defeat of Satan when He suffered temptation in the wilderness and resisted. But the context of this passage demands that we understand the Lord to be speaking of the way that the Seventy—going forth to declare the drawing-near of the kingdom—was defeating the devil. The word itself, in the original language, suggests that our Lord had been seeing the devil fall repeatedly—as if every time that the Seventy cast out one of his demons, Satan was cast down even more. Satan was ongoingly being cast down from heaven forcefully—as if like lightening.

This, by the way, is what happens when Jesus is declared in this world. After the Seventy had preached, and after Jesus entered into the city of Jerusalem to be crucified for us, He said;

“Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself” (John 12:31-32).

The preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ—crucified for our sins, and raised again for our justification—is what casts the devil down in defeat! Let’s proclaim that message in this world as often as we can—and see the devil cast down in defeat more and more!

Now; that was what was causing the temporal victories that they were experiencing. And, as we read on in the words of our Lord, we see that …

2. WE SHOULD LET THOSE VICTORIES ENCOURAGE US IN THE LORD’S WORK.

Jesus went on to tell them in verse 19, “Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and overall the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.”

These are words that—given their context—speak of something that goes on beyond the ministry of the Seventy. These are words that are applicable to all of our Lord’s followers who minister on in this ‘Great Commission’ age. Jesus gives us the ongoing authority of His name to march further into the enemy’s territory and proclaim liberty to his captives.

Now; did the Lord mean that we are to literally go forth trampling snakes and scorpions? Some have thought so. After all, in Acts 28, the apostle Paul—in one of his missionary adventures—was bitten by a deadly snake and was expected to immediately fall over dead. But he didn’t. He lived to preach on. Some, however, have taken our Lord’s words to mean that the closing words of Mark’s Gospel should be literally applied—where it says that those who believe on Jesus’ name “will take up serpents”. Some have done so deliberately and daringly—and also sometimes have immediately gone home to be with Jesus! This should not be taken as an ‘invitation’ to walk on literal snakes and scorpions in such a way as to test the Lord.

It seems best, in this context, to see this as a figure of speech for all the attacks of the devil. When we march into his territory to proclaim the gospel, nothing that he throws at us along the way will ultimately hurt us in the carrying out of the Lord’s commission. Not even “all the power of the enemy” can harm us when we are in His will. I believe it would be best to see these words in the light of what our Lord said in Luke 21. While speaking of the times just before His coming, Jesus told His disciples that

… they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons. You will be brought before kings and rulers for My name’s sake. But it will turn out for you as an occasion for testimony. Therefore settle it in your hearts not to meditate beforehand on what you will answer; for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist. You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But not a hair of your head shall be lost (Luke 21:12-18).

Going forth in Jesus’ name, we—figuratively speaking; and sometimes literally—tread over serpents and scorpions unharmed. None of the powers of the enemy can ultimately harm us. And each of those temporal victories should encourage us to march on—further and further—in the Lord’s work.

But then comes a warning. Jesus went on to say in verse 20, “Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.” And this teaches us that we should rejoice in those temporal victories …

3. BUT WE SHOULD REJOICE MORE IN ETERNAL GRACE.

You see; those temporal victories may not be a sign that eternal grace is there at all. Jesus said something truly startling in the Sermon on The Mount. He said in Matthew 7;

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’” (Matthew 7:21-23).

Just performing great spiritual works of defeat over the kingdom of the devil—even the casting out of demons—is not itself a proof that someone has eternal life. And there is a very great danger that we can end up boasting in such temporal victories and works of miracles in an attitude of spiritual pride. Sometimes, an over-emphasis on the value of those ‘temporal’ miracles can lead someone to try to produce them artificially for pride’s sake. Fake miracles do not affirm true spirituality. And worse—they can lead to spiritual blindness, and to the harm of others. As Jesus’ words at the day of judgment suggest to us, they could even end up deceiving someone into the loss of their own soul.

So what is the cure? It is to make sure that we rejoice more in the eternal grace of God toward us than we do in the temporal spiritual victories. Our greatest joy should not be that we see miracles happen, or that we exercise great spiritual authority over demons. Rather, it should be that—by God’s grace—our names are written in the book of life.

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Not every one of us will see great miracles in our lives. Some of us will hardly see any at all. And yet, if our faith is in Jesus Christ—if we have believed on His sacrifice for us on the cross; and we have trusted Him for full cleansing of all sin; and if we seek to live for Him every day—our names are written down in heaven.

And that’s the greatest cause of rejoicing.

EA