Introduction
Are you willing to follow Jesus when His call stops being comfortable and starts costing you something? Jesus is not building a crowd of admirers, He appoints disciples who listen to His voice, trust His leadership, and represent His kingdom message as He leads us on the road to the cross. Luke 10 lands right in the middle of Jesus’ “Journey to the Cross” (Luke 9 onward), where He is moving toward Jerusalem to give His life as a ransom. Along the way, He keeps clarifying what it really means to follow Him. This isn’t a highlight reel of favorite stories; it’s a discipleship pathway that exposes our low commitment and calls us into a deeper allegiance.
Main Points
Are you willing to follow Jesus when His call stops being comfortable and starts costing you something? Jesus is not building a crowd of admirers, He appoints disciples who listen to His voice, trust His leadership, and represent His kingdom message as He leads us on the road to the cross.
Luke 10 lands right in the middle of Jesus’ “Journey to the Cross” (Luke 9 onward), where He is moving toward Jerusalem to give His life as a ransom. Along the way, He keeps clarifying what it really means to follow Him. This isn’t a highlight reel of favorite stories; it’s a discipleship pathway that exposes our low commitment and calls us into a deeper allegiance.
Seeing The World As Harvest
Jesus begins by giving His disciples a vision:
“The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” (Luke 10:2)
Before you and I can live like disciples, we have to learn to see like Jesus sees. When Jesus looks at the crowds, He doesn’t only see chaos, He sees opportunity for redemption. Matthew adds the emotional and spiritual texture:
“He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd.” (Matthew 9:36)
Where we often see a culture unraveling, exhausted people, fractured families, loneliness, confusion, and a thousand competing voices, Jesus sees a harvest: weary people who are ready for rest, addicted people who can be freed, broken families that can be restored, sinners who can become saints, scattered sheep who can come under the care of the Shepherd.
So I want to disciple you in a simple question: Do you accept Jesus’ interpretation of reality? Disciples are marked by this, we listen to Jesus and believe Him. Like Mary at His feet, we choose “the better part” by hearing Him (Luke 10:39–42). The first turning point in discipleship is not activity; it’s surrendered listening.
Appointed And Sent By The King
Luke tells us Jesus “appointed” them and “sent them two by two…into every city and place where He Himself was about to go” (Luke 10:1). That language matters. This is what a king does: he sends messengers ahead to prepare people for his arrival.
Disciple, you are not merely volunteering for a cause. You are being sent as a representative of the King. Jesus doesn’t only save you from sin; He also assigns you a role in His mission. He goes to the cross, and He brings His people into that journey, so others can be prepared to meet Him.
This reshapes how you view your neighborhood, workplace, and relationships: these are places where Jesus intends to go, and He often sends His people ahead with His presence and His words.
Radical Trust In A Risky Mission
Then Jesus gives the mission details:
- “Go your way; behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves.” (Luke 10:3)
- Carry no moneybag, knapsack, sandals (Luke 10:4)
- Enter a home, speak peace, stay if received, don’t bounce house-to-house (Luke 10:5–7)
- Receive what’s provided, heal the sick, announce the kingdom (Luke 10:8–9)
Now, I need to shepherd you carefully here: this is not a rigid travel playbook for every believer in every era. Jesus gives different instructions at different times, and Acts doesn’t replicate this exact pattern. But the principle is timeless: Jesus sends disciples on a mission that requires radical trust.
He puts them in vulnerability, “lambs among wolves”, and removes their usual safety nets so they must depend on God’s provision. That dependence is not a side lesson; it’s the heart of their formation.
Let me press this into your life: following Jesus will always involve moments where you must lay down your strategies and pick up His. If you want a practical trust-test, measure your life against Jesus’ “constitution of the kingdom” in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5–7): turning the other cheek, going the extra mile, generosity that seems unreasonable, love for enemies. That’s lamb-like living in a wolf-like world.
And here’s the discipleship insight I want you to keep: love is commanded toward everyone, but trust is sacred. The most profound offering you can give is to place your life in someone’s hands. Jesus is worthy of that trust, no one who truly entrusts themselves to Him is ultimately disappointed.
Peace Offered, Judgment Announced
Jesus then clarifies what to say when they’re rejected:
“Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near you.” (Luke 10:11)
And He speaks sobering warnings, greater accountability for cities that saw His mighty works and still refused to repent (Luke 10:12–15). This confronts a popular cultural version of Jesus: “He only teaches love and acceptance.” He does teach love, radical love. But His love is truthful, and truth includes judgment.
Notice the shape of the message:
- Peace is genuinely offered (Luke 10:5–6).
- The kingdom is near, God is acting, the King is arriving (Luke 10:9, 11).
- A real rejection has real consequences, because God will set the world right.
Deep down, we actually long for judgment in the sense of justice: that evil won’t reign forever, that corruption and oppression will end, that wrongs will be answered. The question is: How can any of us stand when God judges evil, since sin touches every one of us? The only hope is the gospel, entering the kingdom not by our goodness, but by receiving God’s grace.
So don’t soften the message Jesus gives. The invitation is wide (“peace to this house”), but it is not vague. There is one King and one kingdom that will finally remain.
Representing Jesus Without Shrinking Back
Jesus seals the weight of discipleship with this statement:
“He who hears you hears Me, he who rejects you rejects Me…” (Luke 10:16)
This is a defining mark of a disciple: we represent Jesus and His message. We are not free to edit the King’s announcement. When we speak in faithful alignment with Christ, people are not merely responding to our personality, they are responding to Him.
That should produce two things in you:
- Humility , because we’re messengers, not the point.
- Courage , because rejection is not ultimately personal; it is spiritual.
So I want to ask you plainly: are you willing to be identified with Jesus so clearly that His words are heard in yours? Disciples don’t only admire Jesus privately; they bear witness publicly.
Conclusion
On the journey to the cross, Jesus appoints and sends disciples, not cultural Christians looking for comfort, but servants shaped by His voice and aligned with His mission. Luke 10 teaches me (and I’m urging you to embrace it with me) that disciples are marked by three core commitments:
- Listen to Jesus until we see the world as He sees it, a harvest, not merely a disaster.
- Trust Jesus radically when He sends us out as lambs among wolves without our usual controls.
- Represent Jesus faithfully by offering peace, proclaiming the nearness of the kingdom, and refusing to shrink back from the reality of judgment and grace.
Jesus is going to Jerusalem. He is moving toward the cross. And He calls you to follow Him, not as an observer, but as an appointed messenger of the King.
Lord Jesus, train my heart to listen to You. Give me ears to hear and a willing spirit to obey. When I look at the brokenness around me, teach me to see what You see, a harvest of people weary and scattered who need the Shepherd.
Father, I confess my desire for comfort and control. Help me trust You radically when You send me out, even when it feels like being a lamb among wolves. Provide what I need, shape my character, and make me content and faithful wherever You place me.
Holy Spirit, give me courage to represent Jesus clearly and lovingly. Let me offer Your peace without compromise, proclaim Your kingdom without fear, and speak truth with compassion. Draw many to repentance and faith through the gospel, and keep me steady as I follow Jesus on the journey to the cross. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Conclusion
On the journey to the cross, Jesus appoints and sends disciples, not cultural Christians looking for comfort, but servants shaped by His voice and aligned with His mission. Luke 10 teaches me (and I’m urging you to embrace it with me) that disciples are marked by three core commitments:
- Listen to Jesus until we see the world as He sees it, a harvest, not merely a disaster.
- Trust Jesus radically when He sends us out as lambs among wolves without our usual controls.
- Represent Jesus faithfully by offering peace, proclaiming the nearness of the kingdom, and refusing to shrink back from the reality of judgment and grace.
Jesus is going to Jerusalem. He is moving toward the cross. And He calls you to follow Him, not as an observer, but as an appointed messenger of the King.
Closing Prayer
Lord Jesus, train my heart to listen to You. Give me ears to hear and a willing spirit to obey. When I look at the brokenness around me, teach me to see what You see, a harvest of people weary and scattered who need the Shepherd.
Father, I confess my desire for comfort and control. Help me trust You radically when You send me out, even when it feels like being a lamb among wolves. Provide what I need, shape my character, and make me content and faithful wherever You place me.
Holy Spirit, give me courage to represent Jesus clearly and lovingly. Let me offer Your peace without compromise, proclaim Your kingdom without fear, and speak truth with compassion. Draw many to repentance and faith through the gospel, and keep me steady as I follow Jesus on the journey to the cross. In Jesus’ name, amen.