God's Blessings Are Your Success • Luke 10:17-24
1:00:54 Teaching begins
Notes
The Christian life is a battle like no other. We don’t fight for success, we fight from success. Jesus conquered sin and rose from the dead. Success is a given.
So how could you lose? If you forget what’s been given and you depend on yourself.
You’ve been given success already. Your battle is to hold fast to God. His blessings are your success.
I’m reading in Luke 10 from verse 17.
1. Jesus sent out 70 disciples on a mission, and they come back with joy.
A. It went great.
1. They talk about the greatest extent of their success: that even the demons were subject to them in Jesus’ name. These are powerful beings against whom ordinary humans are powerless. They didn’t have any advanced techniques, they just said, “In the name of Jesus Christ, come out of him!” And the demons would leave.
2. All the other success is included under this high point. The disciples got the support they needed. They would meet men and women of peace that helped them along. They had courage to say, “The kingdom of God has come near to you.” Rejection didn’t upset them. They could wipe off the dust from their feet in confidence. They didn’t worry about if they did anything wrong. They knew they did their job no matter what.
B. They had peace, confidence, and success. They are rejoicing and happy and fulfilled. Who knows what they thought it would go? But it went better than they dreamed.
2. Jesus confirms their success and their security.
A. It seems they were more successful than they knew. Jesus says, “I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning.”
1. “Watching” is in the imperfect tense, meaning an action that continues without an end in sight. It’s an ongoing action. I kept watching Satan fall from heaven.
2. It’s hard to know what Jesus means here. Lightning takes milliseconds to hit the earth. It’s not a fall dependent on gravity. And then it’s over. So did this mean that Jesus watched Satan fall multiple times as the disciples healed and preached? Maybe so.
3. Some people think Jesus mentions Satan falling in order to warn the disciples about becoming proud. Satan fell from his position before God because of pride, thinking he’s better than he really is, wanting to make himself more than what God made him to be.
B. Jesus is warning against concentrating on successes in the rest of this section, and pride kills ministry, no doubt.
C. But Jesus goes on to confirm the authority He gave them, their safety from all the attacks of the enemy. Nothing shall by any means hurt them.
1. Usually you don’t stomp on scorpions or snakes. You stay away from them because they can really hurt you and kill you.
2. Jesus says, “I give you authority to step on them and wipe them out.”
3. Balance this with Jesus’ word that believers will suffer persecution. That the one who kills you will think that he is doing service to God. Remember that Paul was in danger constantly from all kinds of things, including four shipwrecks, prison sentences, beatings, stonings.
4. Nothing by any means will hurt you. None of this is temporary. Ultimately you will rise from the dead. Nothing will last, God Himself will clothe you will immortality that will never fade. There will be no lasting scars except Jesus’ scars, showing His own love towards us.
D. These are great promises. It seems to indicate that we are more successful against the devil than we know.
3. But then Jesus steers the disciples away from what they’ve done to what God has done.
A. Jesus says, your names are written in heaven.
B. Their names are written in heaven because Jesus willed to reveal the Father to them.
C. It’s given to them to see and hear things that the best men in history didn’t get to see or hear.
D. You need to remember that you did not achieve any of it. God did it all, and He gives it to you for free.
4. More important than victory over demons, is that God knows you and you are written in His Book of life.
A. At the last judgment books are opened, everything you have done is written there, good and bad.
B. But then the book of Life is opened. If your name is not found there, then you are thrown into the lake of fire that burns forever.
C. Whatever good or impressive things you did can’t outweigh your sins against God. If you never trusted Jesus, that He died to redeem you from your sins, you are lost forever. The only thing that matters is that you receive Jesus to save you right now.
D. I could begin to think I’m hot stuff, that demons have to obey me, in Jesus’ name, of course, but He is working through me.
E. But my personal success is a slippery slope.
1. Serving Jesus is the only job where the efforts you put into it have nothing to do with the results. You work as hard as you can, and nothing happens. You barely show up, fish jump into your boat. You still have to work hard, but realise the results are up to God, not your hard work. You have up days and down days.
2. If you think you are only going to have up days you will be asking God, “What in the world do You think You’re doing? Why don’t You want complete and total victory? Through me?!”
3. God doesn’t call you to become successful. He calls you to be faithful.
F. He’s telling them to make a conscious choice. Ignore your success, focus on God.
5. Their names are written in heaven because Jesus willed to reveal the Father to them.
A. Jesus rejoices that the Father doesn’t reveal Himself to everybody, but only to those He wills.
1. You hid these things from the wise and intelligent. That is, from those who are wise and intelligent in their own eyes. They are the ones who are too wise and intelligent to submit to God to make them happy and satisfied. They are going to determine what makes them happy and satisfied just like Satan did as he rebelled against God. He said I’m not going to be content with what You made me to be. I’m going to make myself more. I’m going to make myself God. Those so-called wise and intelligent think just the same. What does God know about happiness and satisfaction? I’m going to decide for myself.
2. God revealed Himself to infants. Immature, small, weak, need help. They are the ones who depend on their Father who is in heaven to satisfy them and make them happy.
B. The reason behind this decision is in 1 Peter 5:5 You younger men, likewise, be subject to your elders; and all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.
C. Salvation is more than your decision to follow Jesus. It’s really His decision to save you.
1. In Romans 9:16 Paul says that salvation doesn’t depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. Before you make a move towards God, realize that God made a move towards you.
2. The wonderful thing about that is, what God starts He will finish. He redeemed you for His own possession. Therefore your life is no longer your business, but His business. He will accomplish all things that concern you because you are His work, for His glory.
6. It’s given to babes and infants to see and hear things that the best men in history didn’t get to see or hear.
A. Kings and prophets are the great people in history. They spoke for God, they were God’s servants. We look back on them and are amazed what men and women of God they were.
B. But God didn’t tell them everything. 1 Peter 1:10-12 As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things into which angels long to look.
C. He has blessed you more than prophets and kings and angels. Do you realise that?
1. You weren’t asking God to show you, to teach you. You were going along not even thinking about God or getting saved. He called you. He came into your life and said, “Follow Me.”
2. The Messiah has come in your lifetime and you get to work with Him and know Him. Are you a king or a prophet? Were you looking for Him? Is this an answer to your prayers?
D. There’s nothing in you to provoke God to bless. He blesses you because you are low and He is gracious.
7. So what?
A. God wants you to focus on what He does for you because through that you know God.
1. Do you ever thank God that your name is written in His book of life? When you thank God you remember how you got there, because He started His work in you. What He starts He finishes. He will complete all things that concern you.
2. Has Jesus ever revealed the Father to you? Knowing the Father is going to satisfy you and make you happy. He gives peace, He gives hope, and He gives love. These things are imperishable, they are incorruptible. They don’t get old, they are refreshed and increased in your life, by your knowing Him.
3. Just think this morning you are more blessed than you know. You get to know and experience what kings and prophets longed to know and didn’t. There’s nothing amazing about you, but still you are blessed.
C. If you think on these things you won’t be puffed up with your own importance, “Hey, look at me! Look what I can do!” The other side of that is, why isn’t God working? Why isn’t He using me like He does others? What’s the matter with me?”
D. Knowing God is meant to humble you with a growing awareness that God is in your life.
E. Jeremiah 9:23-24 Thus says the LORD, “Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the LORD.
F. God’s blessings are your success.
Let’s pray.