Nothing very smart this morning. Let’s start with the commission for us as believers, as a church. This is how Christ commissioned the 70 — not merely the apostles — to go and practice what he did.
1After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. 2He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. 3Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. 4Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. 5Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house!’ 6And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. 7Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. 8Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; 9cure the sick who are there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ 10But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, 11‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.’ 12I tell you, on that day it will be more tolerable for Sodom than for that town.
We are not to Lord. We are to have minimal provisions. We are to preach the Gospel. God is responsible for the outcomes. We are to accept hospitality. Conversely,we are to support those sent out to do these things, in our community, in our nation, and in other nations.
We are to cure the sick and preach the kingdom of God.
Now our reward is to stand in front of the throne and praise him. To be comforted in him. Standing for the kingdom in a time of evil has its own reward.
9After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. 10They cried out in a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!” 11And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12singing, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”
13Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?” 14I said to him, “Sir, you are the one that knows.” Then he said to me, “These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15For this reason they are before the throne of God, and worship him day and night within his temple, and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them. 16They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat; 17for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
We will be sheltered and comforted by Christ alone. Now, for many years I ignored prophecy and revelation, as a reaction to the dispensationalist interpretations (pre trib, post millennial etc) that people used to teach this with certainty. I now think this is an error. We need, in times of trouble, to know what our end is. What we are looking for. And as a quick aside, we will be with Jesus, but we will not be identical, We will be from many tribes and nations. As Lewis once said, we will become more like ourselves, the better version of ourselves, For God will sanctify us.
And we need it. Particularly in these times of enforced tolerance.