Page 77 - A Dissertation for Doctor of Philosophy

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Luke also gives an account of Jesus’ selecting his twelve disciples. The Gospel writer also
alludes that Jesus trained his disciples peripatetically, by letting them participate in his ministry.

For instance, when Luke reports the Galilean ministry of Jesus, he deliberately notes that the

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disciples were with Jesus. Luke, however, makes it specifically the appointing of the Twelve

and the subsequent sending them out to preach the Kingdom of God. Luke says, “Then Jesus

called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure

diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal…. They departed and

went through the villages, bringing the good news and curing diseases everywhere.” (Luke 9:1-

2,6)

In the story of the mission of the Seventy, Luke reveals an important aspect of the preaching of

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Jesus’ disciples. Jesus entrusted to them not only his Gospel of the Kingdom but also his

authority, which they would need for the ministry of the Word. Jesus said, “Whoever listens to

you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one

who sent me” (Lk. 10:16). The point of this announcement is that “Christ is present in the

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preaching of his Word.”

synagogue of Nazareth as “the biblical starting point for any study of Christian preaching and
teaching.” He also points out four characteristics of Jesus’ preaching: “homiletic, exegetical,
liturgical, and prophetic.”

24 Lk. 6:12-19.

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Lk. 8:1 says “Soon afterwards he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and
bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. The twelve were with him.”

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Lk. 10:1-16.
27 Old, Reading and Preaching, 135. In this regard of the presence of Christ in preaching,
see J. Mark Beach, “The Real Presence of Christ in the Preaching of the Gospel: Luther and
Calvin on the Nature of Preaching,” Mid-America Journal of Theology 10 (1999): 77-134.