Luke 10:1–4:
“After this the Lord appointed seventy‑two others and sent them on ahead of Him, two by two, into every town and place where He Himself was about to go. He said to them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest. Go! I am sending you out like lambs surrounded by wolves. Do not carry a money bag, a traveler’s bag, or sandals, and greet no one on the road.’”
I want to start with verse 1: “After this, the Lord appointed seventy‑two others and sent them on ahead of Him, two by two, into every town and place where He Himself was about to go.”
We see here the divine sending. God has an agenda, and we become His means for fulfilling that agenda. We become His tools. Someone can say, “Jesus can just do it on His own.” Yes, but there is delight in us mirroring Him, representing Him in those places. There is joy; there is delight. That is the way it is supposed to be.
When God made man, He did not make man to sit down and just be looking. Even though God made all creation, He said, “Whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name” (Genesis 2:19). So here we see the same thing playing out: Christ has done certain things, but now He is saying, “You need to do some things. Take this responsibility. Make this move. Do this assignment for Me.”
Jesus Christ, in the last chapter of Matthew, said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:18–19). That is a prototype of the divine call, the divine direction—to move us from just following to being those who are also leading; to move us from just listening to Him so that others will now listen to us.
He is giving this instruction. He is appointing. He is saying, “You—do this role; that person—do that role.”
According to Ephesians 4, Christ has given some as apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers “to equip the saints for the work of ministry” (Ephesians 4:11–12). We have people who are appointed, specially designated to fulfill specific roles for the kingdom of God.
We see it clearly here. I do not know what these seventy‑two were doing with their time before. I do not know what they were engaged in. But now, everything else they were engaged with had to be paused. They had to take on the assignment. They had to take on the work that Christ had for them. It was not something they came up with. It was Jesus saying, “This is My agenda. This is what I am doing—but I want to do it in partnership with you. I want you involved in what I am doing, and I want to be involved in what you are doing.” It is union.
The Bible says we are “created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so we may do them” (Ephesians 2:10). That is what we are talking about now: the divine work we have been called to. Paul talked about it as “hard work.” He said he did not want to “build on another man’s foundation” (Romans 15:20). He also said, “Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!” (1 Corinthians 9:16). He is not saying, “Woe to everybody”; he is saying, “Woe to me”—because of his own appointment and calling.
Another person said to Jesus, “I will follow You, Lord, but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.” Jesus said, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:61–62). So we are talking about a very serious thing here. This appointment is serious. That is what I am trying to communicate. “The Lord appointed seventy‑two…”—that marks you out from the crowd. It marks you out from everyone else, and says, “This is what I want you to do for Me. Go into every town…”
So you do not just have the appointment; you also have the direction. You have what to do.
In Acts 13, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them” (Acts 13:2). There is a separation, and there is the work. Paul later said that God had “set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by His grace” (Galatians 1:15). We see the same language in Jeremiah: “Before I formed you in your mother’s womb I chose you; before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as a prophet to the nations” (Jeremiah 1:5).
I am saying there is the appointment, and then there is the work that needs to be done. Paul and Barnabas were separated, appointed—and they had to go and do the work. And after some time, they reported back what God had done through them (Acts 14:26–27).
The Bible also says “it is required of stewards that they be found faithful” (1 Corinthians 4:2). I am trying to communicate the seriousness of what is happening here. Jesus Christ is not dealing with us in a casual, “paddy‑paddy” way. It is a commander–soldier thing.
Paul told Timothy to “share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus,” and that a soldier does not get entangled in civilian affairs, but seeks to please the one who enlisted him (2 Timothy 2:3–4). That means there is a mission at hand to fulfill.
That is what these seventy‑two were stepping into. And that is what we are called into as well.
God bless you.