Lambs Among Wolves

In one paragraph

This week Pastor Ray returned from a funeral in Georgia and brought a message from Luke 10, walking through Jesus sending out the 72 and what that commissioning means for the church today. The core of the sermon was about urgency, dependence on God, and the joy that comes when people receive the gospel. He closed with a personal story about his uncle Kenneth, whose life was dramatically changed...

Read together

1. Luke 10:1-24 primary passage for the sermon, Jesus sending out the 72
2. Ephesians 2:8-9 cited repeatedly to distinguish salvation by grace from works, then connected to poiema and being created for good works
3. Psalm 91 read in full as background to Jesus granting authority over snakes and scorpions, and noted as the psalm the devil used to tempt Christ in the wilderness
4. Romans 15:13 spoken as the benediction about God filling believers with joy and peace through the Holy Spirit

Talk about it

1. Pastor Ray described the 72 being sent out as lambs among wolves, with Leon Morris saying that points to both danger and helplessness. Where in your own life have you felt that kind of helplessness, and what did depending on the Great Shepherd look like in practice?
2. Jesus told the 72 to greet no one along the way, which Pastor Ray interpreted as urgency about the task rather than rudeness. Are there things in your own life that feel like legitimate relationship but are really just dilly-dallying away from what God has called you to do?
3. The disciples came back excited that even demons were subject to them in Jesus' name, and Jesus redirected them: rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven. Why do you think it is so easy to get more excited about visible results than about the foundation those results rest on?
4. Pastor Ray said we tend to put missionaries on a pedestal and treat mission as something specialists do, but he argued we should all be living on mission in whatever we do. What would it look like, concretely, for your everyday work or home life to be lived on mission?
5. The story of Uncle Kenneth included two ditches: a licentious life before Christ and a legalistic one after, before he eventually found what Pastor Ray called the good old gospel way. Have you seen either of those ditches in your own journey, and what helped you recognize you were in one?