The Power of the 72

Ordinary Disciples in Extraordinary Evangelism

John Teter

• Publisher: IVP
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9780830888993
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

They were not professionals. They were not celebrities. We don't even know their names.We know very little about them, except that they were everyday people who were drawn to Jesus. When Jesus asked them to join him in his mission, they stepped up, answered the call, and went out in his name. And amazing things happened as a result.They were the 72.Pastor and evangelist John Teter explains how Jesus trains ordinary people to accomplish an extraordinary mission. He unpacks the story of the sending of the 72 to reveal how they were equipped in evangelism and discovered opportunities to herald God's kingdom in concrete and tangible ways. Filled with vivid stories of Teter's remarkable experiences in ministry and church planting, this book shows how we can live out God's call and witness the transformation of those around us.You too have been called by Jesus. Discover how God empowers you to play your part. Welcome to the 72.

FAITH COMES FIRST

The first great and primary business

to which I ought to attend every day is to

have my soul happy in the Lord.

GEORGE MUELLER

IF I HAD A TATTOO

I do not have a tattoo. I have always been afraid of needles, and I hear that tattoos are addictive. Yet there are many interesting tattoos in our church, especially among the younger people. I was particularly moved when Tamika had the number 72 tattooed on the inside of her right wrist after we preached through Luke 10. I joked with her that she would never forget that sermon series.

I’ve often wondered what verse of Scripture I would get tattooed on my body, if I ever found enough courage to venture down that road. The answer is easy: Ezekiel 16:6-8.

During my first year as a disciple of Jesus, I committed to pray one hour a day. I wanted to give God my best. I found a place to pray, made it my own, and went there every single day to pray for one hour. My daily prayer time became a very life-giving habit, and it rewards me to this day.

Part of my prayer time includes listening. In a healthy and vibrant relationship, both people talk to one another. I didn’t want to be the child who only talks and asks but never listens to my Father. I had been following Jesus hard for nine months, and I had met God in my personal devotions. The Spirit convicted me as I read the Word and listened to sermons. I was clearly growing, but I had never heard “the still small voice” of God, like Elijah in 1 Kings 19:12.

I had a few friends who were more mature in the faith, and they told me stories about “what God told me” or “what God said to me.” It blew my mind that they had heard the good Shepherd’s voice. I desperately wanted to hear his voice, so I gave him an entire year of faithful devotion.

On May 16, 1993, I finally heard God speak to me. That morning, I asked him a question, and then I listened. I was like Jacob, ready to wrestle with God so I would be blessed with his voice. My question was “God, how much do you love me?” Immediately, I heard in my soul the beautiful voice of the Shepherd say, “John, read Ezekiel 16:6-8.”

At that point in my discipleship, I was unaware of the Old Testament prophets. If you had asked me who Ezekiel was, I might have said the running back for the Dallas Cowboys. I thumbed through the Bible, hoping that the book existed. I was encouraged when I found that Ezekiel was, in fact, a book in the Bible. Did it have sixteen chapters? Yes. It actually had forty-eight.

I read Ezekiel 16:6-8 with tears forming in my eyes. My heart skipped a beat, and I wanted to take off my shoes, because I knew I was on holy ground. For the first time, I was having an adult conversation with the Father.

When I was a boy, I lost my father to a glider plane accident. The trauma and pain of that loss launched me into a dangerous pattern of isolation, self-medication, and reckless living. Rich and meaningful long-term relationships were rare for me. As a boy, I probably would have been diagnosed with abandonment disorder, but counseling was rare, and even if we wanted it, we didn’t have money to invest in something like that. Because of my loss, I kept most of my friends and family at a distance. I protected myself from loving too deeply, because people in this world could go up in the air to fly and never come back down. I remember hating the fact that this life is temporary. I had next to no control over anything, and I was aware that the greatest people in life could be taken away without notice.

As a new baby in the faith, I never considered how the accident and loss of my dad affected my relationship with God. I’m sure I projected much of my pain onto God, and at some level I blamed him. Still, I wanted the stability, the longevity, and the unchanging love that I thought he offered. If Jesus really was offering me a way to get off this miserable planet rotating in space and to land in a place that was secure, safe, and eternal, I wanted that with all my heart.

This was good news, but it seemed too good to be true. I had always imagined God to be a cold-hearted judge waiting to sentence me in his courtroom. Deep down, I hoped God would be the Father I always needed.

A parable about God’s relationship with Israel, Ezekiel 16:6-8 describes how circumstances led Israel to suffer the terrifying shame of being a baby abandoned and left to die in a field. In the parable, the baby squirms in its own blood, writhing and struggling for life. I quickly identified with that image, because even as I tried to keep everything under control, my internal pain increased with each passing year.

God passes by the field and says to the baby, “Live!” He takes the baby home, cares for it, and gives it the very best things in life. He watches the baby grow up and become a beautiful adult. When the baby is old enough, God enters into an everlasting covenant and marries the baby who was once left to die in the field. The passage ends with a declaration: “I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you . . . and you became mine” (v. 8). As someone who worried that those closest to me would be taken away, this was the best news I had ever heard. Tears began to fall on my Bible.

As I read God’s words to me, my soul caught fire. The image of the baby in the field captured my loneliness, my insecurity, my fear, and my anger about how life had done me wrong. It put to words the overwhelming feelings of vulnerability. From that moment, I knew I wanted God; I wanted to live with him and experience all he had for me. I wanted him to give me a new life.

That day I felt God make a massive deposit to fill the cavernous hole in my soul. Even now, the boyhoodpain, fear, and anger still exist, but God has brought peace to the raging waves of my soul. He has given me a wonderful family that loves me and walks with me through my struggles, and he has given me hope about that day when I will begin to experience the everlasting covenant from the other side of eternity. The God who speaks Ezekiel 16:6-8 is my only hope and my portion forever. My faith is anchored in the living God being a father to the fatherless.

CHAPTER THEME: Evangelism flows from our relationship with God.

CORE TEXT: Overview of Luke 10:17-22

The seventy-two 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 have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

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. 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.”

DO NOT REJOICE IN CIRCUMSTANCES

Luke 10:17-19 describes an amazing moment, the triumphant return of thirty-six ministry teams. Like a sports team that has just won a championship, their locker room, covered in tarps to keep valuables dry, is filled with reporters and news cameras prepared for jubilant interviews. Players run in, grab their championship gear, goggles, and bottles of champagne, and prepare to celebrate.

The 72 completed their task, and it was time for the party to begin. They not only rejoiced in what they’d accomplished, but they likely breathed a collective sigh of relief after finishing such a hard ministry task.

Jesus trained the 72 for personal evangelism. He introduced the concept of opposition and persecution, and he taught them how to respond to unbelieving and potentially hostile people. At the evangelism training day, however, the name Satan didn’t appear in the training manual. Nonetheless, in some mysterious way, the efforts of seventy-two faithful evangelists put a dent in the strategic plans of the one who deceived Adam and Eve in the garden.

Imagine their joy as they shared about their power—and authority—over the devil. These mere human beings had received Jesus’ kratos (authoritative power) over the devil and his demonic host. In the name of Jesus, they were able to cast demons out of men, women, and children. When the 72 spoke, the dark spirits that Paul called the principalities and authorities were expelled from their demonic posts (see Ephesians 6:12). How could our friends not be full of joy? How could they not jump up and down? And yet Jesus corrected them at that amazing moment.

It wasn’t wrong for them to rejoice. The Lord didn’t rebuke them or command them to stop celebrating. He offered pastoral admonishment because they were rejoicing in the wrong thing. Ministry results can be very fickle, and Jesus doesn’t want us to base our joy on things that can be taken away. He encouraged the 72 to find joy in something far more permanent. Would they always have authority over the demons? Would every evangelistic mission trip result in Satan falling like lightning from heaven? Jesus directed them to a much better celebration with even greater returns of joy.

Today’s disciple must understand that evangelism doesn’t secure favor with God. We don’t earn God’s love; we share God’s love. At the very moment when the 72 wanted to high-five one another for all they’d done for God, Jesus stopped them to remind them that they had already won the spiritual lottery. True evangelism always moves from the victory, never toward the victory.

REJOICE IN RELATIONSHIP

Luke 10:20-22 is one of three times in the book when the author identifies the entire Trinity by name. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit have significant roles in the plan for Mary to birth Jesus (Luke 1:35-37). God the Father sends God the Son and anoints him with God the Holy Spirit in his first sermon (Luke 4:16-21). The presence of the Trinity in these three sections displays Luke’s emphasis on the subject of each passage. Father, Son, and Spirit each play a role in the incarnation, the mission to the margins, and the salvation of sinners.

Jesus loves his witnesses and wants us to understand that our joy should be rooted in who we are, not what we do. The fact that we engage in incredibly successful mission is far less important than being born of God in Jesus’ celebration rankings. Jesus commanded the 72 to rejoice that God had written their names in heaven. This supreme blessing of assurance surpasses the fluctuating results of ministry, especially when we stop to consider that without God’s prompting, pursuit, and unending patience, we wouldn’t have faith or relationship with him.

One of the great American missionaries, David Brainerd, wrote in his journal what it means that Jesus has written his name in heaven: “Oh, if I ever get to heaven it will be because God wills, and nothing else; for I never did anything of myself but get away from God! My soul will be astonished at the unsearchable riches of divine grace when I arrive at the mansions.”1

The prayer recorded in Luke 10:20-21 is of supreme theological importance because it captures the Son of God’s understanding of Christian conversion. This is Luke’s condensed version of Jesus’ high-priestly prayer in John 17. The reader understands that God is absolutely sovereign and chooses to whom he will reveal the kingdom of God. The divine mysteries stay hidden from the wise as God graciously chooses to reveal them to the babes.

Jesus’ prayer closely parallels Mary’s Spirit-filled song (Luke 1:46-55). Both she and her Son are full of joy (v. 47). Both Mary and her Son speak of God’s mercy and his might (v. 52). Both Mary and her Son reveal God’s purposes to lift the low and the babes, while bringing down the proud and wise of the world (vv. 51-53). Both prayers reinforce the social upheaval that Jesus’ kingdom causes in the world. Mary and Jesus of Nazareth rejoice in the wisdom of God to bring into his family those that are low, vulnerable, and needy, while sovereignly choosing to hide it from those who enjoy privilege and status in the world.

Because Jesus turns the world upside down, the true way up is actually down.

FAITH IN LUKE’S GOSPEL

The 72 were ordinary men and women—and maybe even children—who followed Jesus. These normal people heard Jesu...