The Man of Peace: How Jesus Actually Built the Church

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Five Things We Will Learn

1. Why Jesus told His workers to begin with prayer and then go into the harvest.
2. How a person of peace can open a home and create opportunities to reach a community.
3. Why shared life matters in making disciples.
4. How Jesus instructed His workers to respond when their message was rejected.
5. What believers today can learn from the seventy-two about dependence, obedience, and joy.

The Harvest Begins with Prayer and Going

Jesus sent seventy-two others ahead of Him, two by two, to the towns and places He was about to visit. Before telling them what to carry or where to stay, He directed their attention to the harvest:

“The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field.”

Luke 10:2, NIV 1984

Then came the command: “Go!”

The workers were to ask God to send laborers while being willing to become the answer to that prayer themselves.

We can read this passage as an account of a mission that happened long ago and miss its challenge to us today. Jesus sent ordinary followers into real communities. They would enter homes, receive hospitality, heal the sick, and announce God’s kingdom.

Their assignment required dependence on God and a willingness to engage with people.

The harvest was plentiful. The shortage was workers.

The House of Peace

Jesus instructed His followers to speak peace when they entered a house. He described the receptive person with these words:

“If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him”

Luke 10:6, NIV 1984

They were to remain in that house, receive the food and drink provided, and avoid moving from house to house in search of different accommodations.

Notice where Jesus directed their attention: a person, a home, a welcome.

The man or woman of peace receives the workers and their message. An open door provides a place to stay and an opportunity for relationship. The workers accept hospitality, sit at the table, and share life with the people receiving them.

They enter as guests. They must be willing to receive as well as give.

That challenges an approach to ministry in which we control every setting and expect everyone else to come to us. Jesus sent His followers into other people’s communities, where they would depend on the welcome they received.

From an Open Home to Shared Life

Luke 10 does not explicitly say that every welcoming household became a church. It describes homes receiving the workers Jesus sent ahead of Him. But it gives us a significant pattern to consider: the message enters a community through people willing to receive it.

Later, Acts describes believers devoted to the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, breaking bread, and prayer. They gathered in the temple courts and shared meals in their homes. Their life together included public gathering and personal fellowship around the table (Acts 2:42-46).

A home can become a place where believers worship, pray, learn, eat together, and care for one another. People can be known there. Needs can be noticed. Obedience can become visible in everyday life.

This is the pastoral application of the house of peace: an open home can make room for spiritual family and become a place from which others are reached.

The aim reaches beyond inviting someone to attend something. We invite people into lives surrendered to Jesus.

The Welcome Reaches Beyond the Door

Jesus’ instructions extended beyond lodging. The workers were to receive the food set before them, heal the sick, and announce the nearness of God’s kingdom.

The welcome in a home served the wider assignment.

That matters for us today. Fellowship must remain connected to the harvest. We can love the people gathered around our table while remaining attentive to the neighbors, relatives, and others who have yet to hear.

An open home can provide a place to pray for the surrounding community, care for those who are suffering, and prepare believers to go.

Gather. Share life. Serve. Go again.

The home becomes a place of welcome with an outward purpose.

Dependence We Must Learn

For this mission, Jesus instructed the seventy-two to travel without a purse, bag, or sandals. They would depend on the provision they received along the way.

We should handle those instructions carefully. Later, Jesus told His disciples to take a purse and bag, showing that these particular travel requirements were not an unchanging rule for every future mission (Luke 22:35-36).

Yet the challenge to dependence remains.

How often do we postpone obedience until we have every resource we think we need? How often do we assume that meaningful ministry must begin with a facility, a budget, or a formal position?

Jesus sent His workers with an assignment that required them to trust Him.

We can pray. We can go with another believer. We can receive hospitality, build relationships, care for people, and speak about Jesus. We can begin obeying with what He has already placed before us.

The Warning in the Dust

Jesus also prepared His workers for rejection.

When a town refused to welcome them, they were to leave a public warning, wiping its dust from their feet while affirming that God’s kingdom had come near. Jesus spoke soberly about the judgment facing those who rejected that announcement.

Rejection did not make their obedience meaningless.

They were responsible to deliver the message faithfully. They could not force anyone to receive it.

But neither were they to treat rejection casually. Jesus connected the reception of His messengers with the reception of Himself and the Father who sent Him (Luke 10:16).

The workers had to hold faithfulness and seriousness together. They were to go, serve, proclaim, and entrust the response to God.

Remember Where Your Joy Belongs

When the seventy-two returned, they rejoiced that even demons submitted to them in Jesus’ name.

Jesus redirected their deepest joy toward something greater: their names were written in heaven. He then rejoiced in the Father’s revelation to the humble and spoke of the privilege His disciples had in seeing and hearing what earlier generations had longed to experience (Luke 10:17-24).

This protects the worker’s heart.

We must not build our identity around visible results. A welcoming household, a healing, or a powerful ministry experience must never become the foundation of our worth.

Our joy belongs first in our relationship with God.

We go as people who belong to Him.

What This Means for Us Today

Luke 10 calls us to examine how we approach the harvest.

Are we praying for workers? Are we willing to go? Will we enter someone else’s world, receive their hospitality, and invest in the people God places before us?

Look for the person willing to receive you and hear the message. Accept the invitation to the table. Pray for the sick. Speak about Jesus. Help those who respond learn to obey Him. Let shared life reach outward into the surrounding community.

A house of peace should never become merely a comfortable gathering that forgets the harvest.

One open door can become an opportunity for many people to hear.

One table can make room for people to be known and loved.

One willing believer can begin by obeying the next thing Jesus has placed before them.

To continue learning how to follow Jesus and teach others to obey Him, explore The Commands of Jesus.

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