Good Shepherd Lutheran

Find Your Victory – Luke 10:1-19
Today is a great time to be alive if you’re bad with direction because we have these little devices in our pockets – smart phones! – that communicate with computers floating around in outer space to give us pinpoint instructions on how to get from point A to B. That is, until they don’t.
Have you ever gotten to where could literally see your destination in front of you, but the little voice from the phone kept telling you to go the opposite direction? I think we all have.
The moral here is that there’s only one sure-fire way to get where we need to go in life: follow Jesus. He’ll never lead you astray. He’ll show you the way to go and he’ll lead you to victory.
That’s what this Gospel reading is about. The disciples weren’t just victorious in the mission Jesus sent them on, they were victorious over the enemy!
And why were they victorious? Because victory comes from obeying Jesus even when that little voice in the phone or the little voice in our head that tempts us to do otherwise.
In Luke 10:1-11 Jesus sent out seventy of His followers to preach the gospel and he gave them really specific instructions. He told them what to bring with them and what to leave behind. He told them where to stay in the towns, how long to stay, and what to say. He sent them out specifically to preach that the Kingdom of God is near, and they did.
Now in Luke 10:17-19 we see them returning and look at what happens! They’re surprised at how victorious they were! Verse 17 says: “The seventy returned with joy, saying, ‘Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!’”
Do you hear the surprise in their voice? “Like wow! We did what you said and even the demons listened! Not only did we have victory in what you asked us to do, but we even had victory over the demons!”
Jesus sent out the seventy with the warning that they were going out like lambs among wolves. I don’t know what they were expecting after hearing that warning from Jesus, but they certainly weren’t expecting this kind of victory.
So why did Jesus give that warning? He’s saying, “Listen to my instructions and follow them to the letter, because if you mess this up, they’re going to eat you alive!”
And the seventy did listen to his instructions, and they found unbelievable, unforeseeable levels of victory!
So how can we live a victorious Christian life today? All we have to do is follow the same formula as the seventy. Listen to and obey Jesus! That’s how we find our victory.