Luke 10:1 tells us that Jesus, after a period of his ministry, personally chose seventy additional people and sent them out in pairs to travel ahead of him. The verse shows Jesus deliberately widening the circle of those who carry his message, so that the work does not depend on him alone. It is written by Luke, the author of the third Gospel, and it describes Jesus himself as the one doing the sending.
Now after these things, the Lord also appointed seventy others, and sent them two by two ahead of him into every city and place, where he was about to come.
Luke 10:1 (WEB)
What Luke 10:1 Means
The phrase “after these things” links this moment to what Luke has just recorded, the earlier mission of the twelve apostles and the events surrounding it. Luke is showing the reader that the story is still moving forward, and that Jesus has not finished gathering workers. The word “appointed” points to a deliberate choice. These seventy were not volunteers who happened to show up; Jesus named them for this task.
The sending is described as “two by two,” which in the ancient world gave a traveling message both a witness and a measure of mutual support. The phrase “ahead of him into every city and place, where he was about to come” tells you their role: they were forerunners, preparing hearts and towns for Jesus’ own arrival. The verse promises a purpose and a direction, not an easy road. It does not guarantee how each town will respond, and the verses that follow make clear that some will welcome them and some will not.
The Context of Luke 10:1
Luke wrote his Gospel to a readership he addresses directly as Theophilus, probably a Gentile believer, and he writes with careful attention to the travels of Jesus toward Jerusalem. Chapter 9 ends with Jesus setting his face toward that city, and chapter 10 opens with this new commissioning. The verse therefore sits at a turning point, where the mission is expanding even as the journey toward the cross intensifies.
The verses immediately after describe the harvest as plentiful but the workers as few, and they instruct the disciples to pray for more laborers. Read this way, the sending of the seventy is itself an answer to a prayer that is being asked. It reminds the reader that the work of God is both something people are called to do and something that depends on God supplying the people for it.
Key Phrases in Luke 10:1
Matthew 28:19
Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…
(WEB)
This verse records Jesus commissioning his followers to make disciples of all nations, showing that the sending begun in Luke 10 continues into the wider mission of the church after his resurrection.
John 20:21
Jesus therefore said to them again, “Peace be to you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.”
(WEB)
Here the risen Jesus tells his disciples that he sends them just as the Father sent him, linking every later act of Christian witness back to the same pattern of sending that Luke describes.
A Short Prayer From Luke 10:1
Lord Jesus, you chose ordinary people to go ahead of you and prepare the way, and I thank you that you still call people to this work today. Give me the courage to step out where you send me, even when I feel unprepared or unsure of my words. Send others alongside me, so that I am not carrying the calling alone. Go before me into the places I am about to enter, and let your presence be known there. Amen.
