The 72 Return and Rejoice

Luke 17:1 And he said to his disciples: “Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to one through whom they come, it would be better for him if a millstone hung around his neck and cast into the sea that he should cause one of these little ones to sin, pay attention to yourselves, if your brother sins rebuke him, and if he repents forgive him, if he turns to you seven times in a day, saying ‘I repent’ seven times you must forgive him.” 5 The apostles said to the Lord ‘increase our faith’ And the Lord said, “if you had faith like a grain of the mustard seed you could say to this mulberry tree ‘be uprooted and planted in the sea’, and it would obey you”. Will any of you who have a servant plowing or keeping sheep, say to him, when he has come in from the field, come and once and recline at table, will he not rather say to him, ‘prepare supper for me and dress properly and serve me while I eat and drink and afterward you will eat and drink’, does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? 10 So you also when you have done all that you were commanded, say ‘we are unworthy servants, we have only done what was our duty.’”

This passage of scripture between Jesus and his disciples is fascinating me.

They said ‘increase our faith’ this request, is a loaded request in at least two ways.

A Loaded Question

“I saw Satan fall like lighting from heaven…, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice that your name is written in heaven.”

Jesus Christ in Luke 10

1. It supposes in error, that the largeness of Jesus’ faith was the key to his ministry and his power.
2. It showed that they wanted to be great like him and believed it was something great about him that accomplished it.

But Jesus’ response completely destroyed and undercut the assumptions of this loaded question. He seemed to say it’s not about the amount of faith that we have, its about attitude in obedience. Instead of rejoicing over our power and our faith we should say ‘we are unworthy servants just doing our duty.’ Miracle working, teaching the kingdom, healing the sick, driving out demons was viewed by him as only his duty as he served his heavenly father and was led by the Holy Spirit. The biggest demonstration of power and life and authority of God on earth, the duty of the follower of Christ.

Jesus implied that the key to his ministry was him doing his duty as an unworthy servant/ slave of the father. Not in being a ‘powerful man of the faith and power.’ Be certain that Jesus is a wonderful man of faith without sin and with great power, however that is not what he relied on as the source of his ministry. And he wanted his disciples to do the same as they entered ministry.

In my younger years, over the course of several years, I bounced around to a few churches in our area. Experiencing many different types of protestant pastors. Pentecostal, charismatic, Baptist, Christian missionary alliance, Word of Faith, and some flavors in between. Among some of these circles there was a strong teaching about being a ‘man of faith and power’ or talk like ‘he is a really powerful man of God’. Pew sitting groupies and pastors exchanging flattery along these lines. There is not necessarily always wrong in talking like this, but often there is. Talk like this, appeals to the pride of life. It assumes that the power displayed, which is usually just in fervent preaching, is a result of the great faith of the man himself. Ministry prowess then becomes a display of the pride of their life. A church ministry-obsessed version of the pride of life.

And I think that Jesus heard this assumption about him in his disciples request and the pride of life that was undergirding the request. So, he shut it down with teaching ‘if you only have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can uproot trees and throw them into the sea’. Faith then becomes simply a positive reponse to the will of God. Faith is not a license to do anything one wishes for or hopes for.

Being spiritually powerful is not about the amount of our faith, its about our responsiveness and obedience to the Father. Which assumes firstly that we are able to hear him and respond to him. For us it is a hearing of the Holy Spirit and a cooperative response to it. Whether that is a command to go teach, to heal the blind, to raise the dead, to drive out demons. To talk to a new friend about a topic you’d prefer to not talk about. Or even to sit and do nothing, not pursuing some twisted idea of ministry, without sensing the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Ministry Is Not

Ministry is not something we manage like a portfolio of good works for God. Impressing ourselves, others, and finally imagining and hoping that God is sitting back with his feet up and feeling impressed with us.

Similarly, ministry is not primarily an effort in persuasion, using logic and argument to get people to think like we do. It is not some form of eloquence and strong peer pressure. Getting people to behave a certain way or to think like the great man with the mic thinks. That is not ministry and neither is that discipleship.

For many I do realize ministry is exactly as I just described and has been perhaps for an entire lifetime. However, that is not from the Lord, the Lord is not asking them of that. They are just doing it for whatever reasons they have. And the Lord will be the final judge of those ministries and whether their works burn and are overturned.

I confess I have gotten bored with what I know the Lord has asked of me, as if it should be more impressive.

“Whoever is least among you is the greatest.”

Jesus Christ in Luke 9

We ought not trust in ourselves as mighty ministers of God. In our great faith and great works, we ought to pattern ourselves as yielded, obedient, children-slaves. Slaves who are simply blessed to have names that are written in heaven. To the only one who is good, the Father.

I think …‘that’s it?’, just a conversation or two sharing the kingdom of God with a friend? Just a thousand or so blog posts with mediocre stats? Just a couple books that I don’t really know how to distribute? No conversions? No miracles? no invitations to preach? No groups of Christians wanting my help to gather like they did in the New Testament? As if the conversations, friendships, the blog, and the books are not impressive enough. As if that which he has asked of me is little and meaningless. However, nothing that Jesus asks of us is little or meaningless. Over time to think like this is to begin to overlook what I know he has asked from me and to fail to even respond to the little. Unimpressive, as if it is nothing. That is a major mistake that I believe the Lord is showing me even now as I write this. But particularly thanks to the Luke 17 passage above.

Ministry Is

Ministry is a sharing in the eternal life of God himself, the authority over all the power of the enemy, the eternal joy of God, the extreme power of God to work miracles. But to keep the attitude of a slave doing only what we are required to do. Not doing any of those things with the attitude of a privileged first born child. Because when we take that attitude we embrace pride, and we exclude Jesus Christ from our lives, then the entire plan of God for us begins to break down..

Ministry is listening to the Spirit of Christ and responding. Then even more important, it is cooperation with Him. Diligently cooperating with thorough, pedantic, fervent meticulousness attending to even the littlest of commands. Discipleship is teaching others to hear the Spirit of Christ and responding to only that. Ministry is a slave-master relationship, a doing of one’s duty as we stay close to the Lord. It is a one-way loyalty (as far as we are concerned), expecting no special treatment, no special assignments. No grand glorious accolades, no expectations of commanding respect from Gods people. There is no unionized contract work attitude allowed. No glory or fame to be expected, not demanding our rights to have leisure or ease.

Ministry is slavery to Jesus Christ, and it involves faith in the life of Jesus Christ within. Realizing it is a very big deal whatever we hear from him and is top priority for us to respond and cooperate with. If Jesus tells us to get a glass of water for a unknown child, or to preach a challenging rebuke to the leaders of the UN countries.

Both are very big deals; both are worthy of our prompt reply and diligent response. Both are to happen but only happen in response to the Spirit of Christ. Its just as wrong to ignore the leading of the spirit as it is to pretend and proclaim your works are in response to the Holy Spirit when they are not. There is no autopilot ministry, doing what we think is probably good, while ignoring the Holy Spirit. Not even attempting to seek him because our ministries are so popular and established. People like that are in grave danger of hearing from our Lord, ‘get away from me I never knew you’. ()

Real Spirit-led ministry is such an utter work of God that Jesus promises we don’t even need to worry about what to say when taken before courts of law to stand before rulers. Even that, is on him, we are not his representatives primarily we are his living channels and our fates are in his hands. Jesus said in Luke 12:11- “when they bring you before the rulers and authorities, do not be anxious about how to defend yourselves, or what you should say for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”

So dear Christian let us not take pride in our ministry, our miracle working, or our demon casting. Those things, whether we do them or someone else does them reflect God not us. So dont feel like you are something if you do them and don’t look at those who do them as something special. Look at God who uses people. Because whenever we do those things we are only just expressing a tiny bit of faith.