The Context
Luke 10:18-20 has become my favorite passage in the Bible.
Chapter 10 starts with Jesus commissioning 72 of his followers to go into his harvest field, connect with people, preach the kingdom of God, and heal the sick. How exciting it must have been for these 72 to be directly commissioned by Jesus! These people were not from Christ’s closest inner circle of the 12 disciples. They may have never assisted Christ in his work before, and this calling to immediate kingdom ministry must have come as a surprise to them. They were probably even nervous and scared.
But God worked through them with awe-inspiring power. Verse 17 says that they returned to Jesus full of joy to report that they even had power over demons. But surprisingly, Jesus did not rejoice with them in their victory over the armies of darkness. In their moment of rejoicing, he gave them a warning that is critically important for all believers to take to heart.
What Not To Rejoice Over
Jesus was unimpressed with their power over demons, and for good reason. Jesus witnessed the ultimate spiritual battle in heaven when Satan and his evil army of demons tried to usurp God’s throne. Satan was resoundingly defeated and cast out of heaven. Jesus knew that God had absolute power over Satan and demons and that God gave this power to his followers as well. But he also knew that the followers of God should not find their joy in their power over Satan or in any ministry success. In verse 19, Jesus said, “Do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you.”
For all followers of Christ, the message is the same. Do not rejoice that demons listen to you. Do not rejoice that your preaching is powerful. Do not rejoice in your children’s ministry, your youth ministry, your men’s or women’s ministry, your outreach to the poor, or your church growth. But as servants of Christ, it is so easy to rejoice most deeply in our ministry successes. Think back to any type of ministry success that you have had, whether big or small, and it was probably an exciting time of joy.
2 Grave Dangers of Rejoicing in Ministry Success
But ministry success must never bring us our deepest joy because our deepest joy and greatest excitement must always come from our relationship with God and status as forgiven sons and daughters of him. There are two grave dangers when we place our joy in ministry success (or in anything besides our relationship with God). The first danger is that we would be successful and in our success forget what is most important, namely our communion with God. There have been many extremely successful preachers and church leaders who have had weak or nonexistent relationships with God. Sadly, their lives end up being tragic examples of how not to live. (Ravi Zacharias is the most recent example that comes to mind.)
The second danger is that we would put all our hope in ministry success (or anything besides Christ), and we would fail to attain it. When this happens, it is earth-shattering and has caused many to sink into seasons of deep brokenness, depression, and hopelessness. Often it is not God’s will to give us the ministry success we wanted because he wants to use challenges to grow us, he wants to keep us from pride, or there could be a million other reasons why what we hope for does not become reality. I have experienced this sense of ministry failure and fallen into subsequent depressions more than once. But learning to protect me from this has changed my life, and that is why this passage is currently my favorite in the entire Bible. Because at the end of verse 19, Jesus tells his followers to rejoice that their names are written in heaven. There is so much packed into that statement, but the point is that our deepest joy should be found in our position before God.
What to Rejoice Over
So rejoice that your name is written in heaven. Rejoice that you are God’s precious son or daughter. Rejoice that your sins will never be counted against you. Rejoice that you have eternal life in Christ. And rejoice always, even in the midst of your greatest failures and hardships, because no failure or hardship will ever be able to separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:35-39), and these things to rejoice over will always be infinitely greater than the things to despair over.
Luke 10:18-20
He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
RH