Luke 10:17-24

CHAPTER 6.

REPORT OF THE SEVENTY EVANGELISTS

Luke 10:17-24. When our Savior was at Capernaum, in Galilee, about September first, He called these Seventy, and sent them out two by two, thus constituting thirty-five evangelistic bands, to peregrinate all Israel, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, healing the sick, and casting out demons. It is now about December first, giving them three months, in which these thirty-five evangelistic forces could actually scour the whole country. This commission of the Seventy was really a magnitudinous affair. They were not like seventy preachers sent out by a Conference into a country, to wait all the week for Sunday to come round, that they may preach to the people; but they are flaming evangelists, going in lightning- winged duets throughout the whole country, preaching incessantly and indiscriminately to all the people as they go. As the Savior's ministry was fast winding to a close, it became pre-eminently important to expedite the work, cut it short in righteousness, as a transcendent responsibility now devolves on the Jewish people, destined to seal their doom for time and eternity. Having been sent out from Capernaum, Galilee, they return to Him at Jerusalem; as, soon after they received their commission, He, winding up His ministry in Galilee, took His final departure, traveling through Samaria, and preaching on His way, arriving at Jerusalem midway of the Tabernacle Festival, and devoting the remaining six months of His ministry, to Southern Palestine. “ And the Seventy returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us through Thy name.” It is really indispensable that we do all of our work pray, preach, exhort, appeal, and sing in the name of Jesus. “ And He said to them, I saw Satan, having fallen like lightning from heaven.” This is corroborated by Isaiah, “How thou art fallen, O Lucifer, the morning star!” Lucifer means light-bearer, the archangelic name which honored Satan in the celestial worlds before he fell; when, judging from his name, we conclude he was one of the brightest and most glorious of all the heavenly host. We have here the imperfect tense, etheoroun, “ I was seeing [i. e., was accustomed to see] Satan, having fallen like lightning from heaven.” His cognomen, “light-bearer,” indicates extraordinary brilliancy. The fact of his falling like lightning from heaven would involve the conclusion of his brightness at the time of the fall, and the suddenness of his ejectment out of heaven. Everything in heaven is holy, bright, and glorious. When the Infallible Eye saw his deflection from the Divine administration, quickly as the lightning he was precipitated away, his glory fading in his flight, his brilliancy evanescing, a horrific transformation supervening, as down he goes, plunging with electrical velocity into the bottomless abyss, God's penitentiary for the incarceration of the incorrigible subjects of his universal empire. You must not forget that there never was a devil in heaven. Satan, which means “adversary,” was never applied to him till after his fall; Lucifer, his heavenly name, “light- bearer,” having a very sweet and beautiful signification. Here we also see that Satan moves with the velocity of lightning i. e., twenty thousand miles per second competent to go round the world fifty times in a minute, thus explaining his apparent omnipresence which is not true in case of him nor any order finite being, angelic, diabolical, or human by his exceedingly rapid locomotion from place to place; the universal prevalence of demons being also misapprehended for the omnipresence of Satan. Now, as here we see Satan moving with the velocity of lightning, does it not follow as a logical sequence that all finite spiritual beings have the locomotive capacity of electrical velocity?

“ Behold, I give unto you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and all the dynamite of the enemy; and nothing shall hurt you. Moreover, rejoice not in this because the spirits are subject unto you, but rejoice rather that your names are written in the heavens.” This is certainly an ineffable consolation, infinitely eclipsing all the power and availability we can possibly possess. O how wonderful to think that our names are written in heaven! Well can we afford to go through floods and flames, as here we have the blessed assurance that He will enable us to tread under foot all the dynamite of Satan, the very artillery of hell only serving to make music for us, inspiring valor on the battle-field and quickening our march to glory.

“ In that hour, Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I praise Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them unto babes.” Even our Savior's apostles and evangelists remained in the primary department of spiritual babyhood till the fires of Pentecost consumed all hereditary depravity, and led them out in the full-fledged experience of spiritual manhood. We do not wonder that the sweet, sinless spirit of Jesus leaped for joy on the reception of this glorious report from His seventy evangelists. We still see the partial blindness, here mentioned by our Lord, adhering to the “wise and prudent.” How blessed to be an innocent babe in Christ, taught by the Holy Ghost the deep things of God, rather than enjoy all the wisdom of collegiate culture and the highest prudence of social refinement, in the absence of the in- dwelling and sanctifying Comforter!

“ And turning to His disciples, He said, All things have been delivered unto Me by My Father; and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and he to whom the Son may wish to reveal Him.” So you see we must be right with the Father, reverencing and obeying His law in every ramification, scrupulously recoiling from everything out of harmony with His sweet heavenly will, and in loving homogeneity with the angels and redeemed spirits, doing His will on earth as they do it in heaven, simultaneously with our eye on Jesus, our Blessed Mediator, with, out whom we would drop instantly into hell. Hence you see the Father alone can reveal the Son, by His blessed Holy Spirit, and the Son alone reveal the Father. Hence the reciprocal indwelling of the Father and Son in every saved soul. Millions of people in the world claim to worship the Father while they reject the Son. All such are deluded by Satan, who is so fond of dressing up like an angel of light, passing himself off for God, and thus deceiving the multiplied millions of devil-worshipers in the world this day. While Christ is the only way to God, it is equally true, as we here see, that God is the only way to Christ; the Holy Ghost being the Spirit of the Father and the Son, the latter giving Him to reveal the former, and the Father giving Him to reveal the Son. How fearful to contemplate the fact, “God, out of Christ, is a consuming fire!” (Hebrews 12:29.) One hundred and seventy-five millions of Mohammedans claim to worship the Father with great enthusiasm while they contemptuously reject the Son, scouting the very idea of the Divine Sonship. Hence they are without hope, save through the uncovenanted mercies of God; the Unitarians in Christian lands being in the same awful dilemma.

“ And turning to His disciples privately, He said, Blessed are your eyes, which see those things which you do see. For I say unto you, Many prophets and kings wished to see those things which you see, and saw them not; and to hear those things which you hear, and heard them not.” Jehovah preached the first gospel sermon to Adam and Eve in the garden, before their expulsion out of paradise, whose salient truth, “The Seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head,” assured them that a Deliverer should be born in their family, whose mighty arm would defeat Satan and regain paradise for them, which they should enjoy forever. Consequently they retreated out of Eden, their broken hearts cheered with the joyous anticipation of the coming deliverance and restoration. Such was their glowing enthusiasm that Mother Eve actually hailed her own first-born Son as the promised Messiah, exclaiming “I have brought forth the man- Jehovah.” Now, when we remember that Jehovah is the Old Testament name of Christ, we see how they actually hailed Cain as the Redeemer promised in Eden. How crushing the disappointment when he turned out to be a murderer! Thus the Old Testament saints lived in constant anticipation of the Messianic advent. The trend of things growing worse instead of better, evil predominating and constraining the Divine mercy to bring on the flood, in order to give grace a great victory over sin and perpetuate the hope of the world, then the post-diluvians continued to look for the promised Deliverer down through the patriarchal age. Through all the centuries of Judaism, the Scriptures, both the law and the prophets, unanimously holding up the Incarnate God, in type, symbol, and prophecy, the saints through the intervening centuries, from Moses down to John the Baptist, and especially the prophets, lived in longing anticipation to feast their eyes on the Shiloh of prophecy, and be permitted to behold with mortal vision the Redeemer of Israel, the Christ of God, and the Savior of the world. All these had lived and died in loving and longing anticipation to behold the Lord's Christ, and ready, like old Simeon, to take the infant Redeemer in their arms and die of joy. How beautifully here Jesus adverts to those thrilling facts characteristic of the saints of the last four thousand years! The same has been true ever since He ascended into glory, having filled and thrilled the hearts of His disciples with the positive assurance of His return. One of the most cheering omens in all the world today, is the wonderfully rapid development of this universal expectancy of our coming King, illustrating the consolatory assurance that He is even now bending from the skies, and whispering to His saints, “Wash and dress My beloved, for I am coming.”