Luke's Gospel

Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Semaria and Galile. As he was going into a village, 10 men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice. Jesus Master, have pity on us. When he saw them, he said, go.

Show yourselves to the priests. And as they went, they were cleansed. 1 of them when he saw he was healed came back praising God in a loud voice He threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him, and he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, were not all 10 cleansed? Where are the other 9?

Has no 1 returned to give praise to God except this foreigner, then he said to him, rise and go, your faith has made you well. Well, good evening from me. I'm I'm Rory for those who who don't know me and Let's pray for God's help because obviously we need it. Let me pray. Father, we thank you for tonight.

We thank you that you have given us your words. And we thank you for the amazing person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we pray father that you will show us anew how glorious he is, and so he prayed out in his name, amen. Now, I guess there's a a lot of things that wind you up that you end up grumbling about that infuriates you. It might be people with a a sort of a need to always talk about politics.

It might be people with extremely poor hygiene. It it could be a number of things. But I think 1 of the thing that that probably unites us in things that are infuriating is in gratitude. I think that's something that winds the majority of people up. For those who who love Shakespeare and and if you don't, well, just listen anyway.

I know students here, especially school kids have to learn. I hated it because I did Romeo and Juliet, and it was the worst play ever. But twelfth night sounds better. Because 1 of the characters viola says, I hate in gratitude more in a man than lying vainness, babbling, drunkenness, or any taint of life whose strong corruption, inhabits, or frail. Blood.

And then another character King Leah, he funders in gratitude. Thou Marvel hearted fiend. More hideous when I showed thee in a child than the sea monster. So Shakespeare not a big fan of ingratitudes. But it's not the only 1.

If you like your American president, here's Benjamin Franklin. Most people return small favors acknowledge medium ones and repay greater ones within gratitude. And then another president, Abraham Lincoln. We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation ever has grown but we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand, which preserved us in peace, and multiplied, and enriched, and strengthened us and we have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our hearts that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.

Now, obviously, Abraham Lincoln in that quote there realized that in gratitude was growing and growing in a society. Now, I would argue that in the 20 first century, in the UK, in gratitude is growing even more so, as we see seemingly increase in narcissism. Where people are self centered and they think about themselves and only themselves, where we have a a seeming sense of entitlement where everyone owes me something. The universe owes me something. I deserve things that are good.

I deserve you treat me well and not really care about you. I deserve to have a good job, a good wage. I deserve to have all the things that I want. But I won't say thank you for it. It's infuriating.

In gratitude is an infuriating just think about when you're in the car. And like a good model citizen that you are, you let someone through. You've stopped. In fact, you've stopped all the other traffic there annoyed at you. And you've let someone in, and they don't say thanks.

You know, just even a hazard, you know, hazards, little flash. That's all I want. Just oh, that's all I asked for. Or when you hold the door open for someone and they walked through and totally ignore you and you nearly punch you nearly punch them. And in your heart you do, and then you have to repent of the anger.

I usually make passive aggressive comments. No problem. It's my pleasure. It's infuriating. We've you've helped someone in some way and there has been no gratitude.

But I'd actually wanna say that we're actually all guilty of ingratitude at times. See, gratitude isn't just saying thank you when someone's been kind to us or shown us favor, although it is to say thank you. But actually, there's more to it than that. I mean, if a parent has so lovingly raised a child, And they then act in a way that brings dishonor upon the parent. That's not a grateful child, is it?

If you act and you always get that, you know, this is the thanks I get. In other words, this isn't thanks. There is ingratitude that we're all guilty of it. And actually, more so with God than in any other realm. We are so ungrateful to God.

Just think about how you how you live your life. Have you talked to God when you should have talked to God? Have you read his word? Have you lived for him totally? Have you said thank you for the blessings that he's poured upon your life.

So often, we fail. In this area. But I think in this passage, we see how we should respond to grace and how we should be grateful and how we shouldn't respond to grace in ingratitude. So look with me firstly, at the desperate plea, of 10 lepers, the desperate plea of 10 lepers in verse 11 to 13. Now, on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galile.

As he was going into a village, 10 men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance, and called out in a loud voice, Jesus, master, have pity on us. So here we are, Jesus, On his way to Jerusalem is in between Samaria and Galile. He's not he's not in 1 of the other, and that's probably why if you'll read on that he encounters a samaritan as well as probably Jews. So he's not in in either Smari or Galilely, and he's on his way to Jerusalem, and he comes in verse 12 to this village.

Now, this village is most probably in a in a remote secluded place, no one's there. It's 1 of those ghost towns. You know, when you're sort of going from 1 place to another and you're sort of driving through and there's just some random houses and you're thinking, what? Who lives here? No 1 It's really odd when you see just like a secluded house, You're thinking, does anyone even live here?

Well, I imagine that's sort of where Jesus is. He's walked through, he's in the middle of nowhere, and then there are 10 lepers come and meet him in verse 12. And I think that's why there's leopards here. This is a place where no 1 lives apart from those who are cast out of society. You have 10 lepers.

Now, this isn't the first time that Jesus has encountered a leper in chapter 5. We saw Jesus helping a leopard there. Now, when Pete preached that, he painted a a a a really good picture of what leprosy was like, and I'm gonna just basically rub what he said. But leprosy is an incredibly infectious disease, which begins with a spot. That then develop into a thickening of skin and nodules, which then ulcerates, and they puss on their saw.

It's not a pleasant experience. And the result usually is you have kind of hair loss You can have these incredible sores on you. You have body parts full enough. People I mean, if you look I mean, if you wanna sort of be grossed out, look pictures of letters on Google images. It's not the most exped but you see what it is.

Noses fall off, Buddy parts of stump fingers fall off, toes fall off. There's just little bleeding stumps that were once limbs. And not only that, but you have this kind of numbing effect where it attacks the the nerve system in which you can't feel pain, which is a disaster there. Because the it's good to feel pain because it tells you to stop doing what you're doing. So it's a horrendous, horrendous situation.

You have a a hoarse voice. It's it's wheezing voice, a dried out throat. So physically, this is horrendous. But not only that, in the sort of social terms, this is horrendous. Because these people would have been cast out from society if you read the law in the old testament in leviticus.

These people are told they can't be in society anymore. They have to leave. Not only do they have to leave, but they have to use that that horse, wheezy voice to shout. Unclean. Unclean.

Stay away. Don't come near. Or you'll be infected. So so horrible is this disease that actually people would have funerals for these people because it's basically the end. So this, I I think you would agree is a desperate, desperate situation.

But in their desperation, When they see Jesus, they they use that hoarse, wheezing voice. And and and the actual word, it says there in verse 13. You see says a loud voice, well, that that word's basically a megaphone. They muster up. All the strength they have left in that that dry throat and they shout Jesus, master, have pity on us.

See, that's what desperation drives people to do. They have to scream out for help Jesus have compassion. Jesus have mercy. Jesus have pity. See, when you realize you can't do something, you've got to shout out for help, don't you?

When you can't do the work that you wanna do, you have to shout out can you help me out with this? When you're in an emergency, medically, you need to shout out and ask someone to help you. Well, it's the same for these lepers. They're in a desperate situation. They have no chance of of being helped.

They've no chance of being clean. They have no chance of getting back into society on their own efforts. So they shout out Jesus. Have miss. Have pity.

And I wanna say that this here, this picture is really a reflection of what's going on spiritually within us. See, the Bible says that because of our sin, because of all all the the ways that we rebelled against God, we are unclean in front of him. It's interesting. If you if you ever read Isaiah in chapter 6, And in verse 5, Isaiah says, woe to me. I am ruined for I am a man of unclean lips.

And I live among the people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the king, the Lord almighty. He's unclean. He's dirty, he's filthy. When he stands before God, who's so perfect and right, and lovely. His filth is exposed.

The Bible says, that's what we're like in front of God. And as a result of our sin, we are cast out. Genesis 3, when Adam and Eve 4, They're removed from God's presence, and death is the wages of sin. And so people are away from gods. They're away from the joys that he has to offer.

They're away from his community. There is no access to gods. They are unclean. They are exiled. They are warped.

They are unhappy people. You just need to look at people to see the unhappiness. They're distorted. They're twisted. It's a desperate situation.

But once you realize the desperate situation you're in, once you realize that I'm I'm not in a good good situation here. That's when you can cry out to God for mercy. That's all you can do, but cast yourself upon the mercy of God. All you can do is come to Jesus and say, have mercy on me Jesus. I've got nothing I can bring There's nothing in my hands that I can bring to you.

All I can do is throw myself upon your mercy Jesus. Jesus can you do anything about this? Will you have mercy Jesus? That's what our situation should drive us to do. So that's the first thing, the desperate plea of the 10 lepers.

Look secondly with me at the miraculous mercy of the master in verse 14. When he saw them, he said, go, show yourselves to the priests, and as they went, they were cleansed. So just look at his mercy, like, when these 10 lepers come to him, he he could have done what I guess most people do, in that society, and that's to say, to be honest, I don't want anything to do with you or just totally blank them, totally ignore them. They're totally unsightly these people, so I don't want anything to do with them. In fact, I was reading spurgeon on on this topic and he said that I don't know which king did it, but there was a king who when he saw lepis in this country made a law that says they're not allowed to be near the road because it actually makes me sad.

Do away with them. Talk them away. But Jesus doesn't do that. He looks at them and he has pity. And he says to them, go, show yourselves to the priests.

Now when he says that, you might be thinking, what? Why is he saying that? Usually when Jesus has has people come up to me, he says, be clean, and they're clean, and we're all happy. Why is he saying this now? Well, when you When people leopards had to go and see the priests, it's because they were already clean.

And so when they were already clean, they would say, look look look priests, Hans look, I'm I'm I'm clean. And the priests will say, yep, you're clean. And they would be an 8 day wait and then they will be allowed back in society. So Jesus is saying, go and show yourselves to the priest. It's saying, listen, trust me, trust my mercy, trust my pity, and you will be cleansed, and they do trust.

So they go. They trust Jesus' word and they go. And so as they do, as they go in verse 13, verse 14, sorry. As they went, they were cleansed. It's amazing.

Can you these 10 leopards as they sort of stumble off, and they limp away. And they limp away suddenly As they're walking, I've got a toe. I've got a big toe. Yes. A big toe.

And then I've got a a little toe as well. That's a weird sight. And then, you've got all the time, and I've got my fingers. And not only am I not limping, and I'm walking, I'm no longer walking. I'm sort of springing, and I'm on my way.

All 10 are cleansed by Jesus. It's not just 1, he cleanses all 10. Now, if you have leprosy today, it takes 6 to 12 months on antibiotics to be to be healed. Just a little journey for 10 people, and Jesus can cleanse 10 people. But this is what Jesus offers.

Just as he cleanses the leper, He can cleanse us from our desperate situation. He says I will take your uncleanness, and I will make you clean That's what he's gonna do for us spiritually. You notice in verse 11, how it starts, Vers 11, he says now on his way to Jerusalem. This is how he's gonna make this possible. On his way to Jerusalem, what is he going to do on his way to Jerusalem, when he's gonna go to a cross?

And on that cross, He will take our filth, our uncleanness, our sin. So that we can be made clean. 1 Peter chapter 2 24 says this. He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness, and then by his wounds, you have been healed. But desperate situation that filth that sin, Christ takes it so that by the scars by the blood that he pours out, you can be cleansed.

1 John. We've been studying that, but in chapter 1 verse 7. Again, if we walk in the light, as hears in the light, we have fellowship with 1 another, And the blood of Jesus, his son purifies us from all sin. This morning, when Tom was talking, he He said, he talked about how Jesus has died for our sin. It's not just the sin that I've done right now.

It's not just the sin I did sometimes, in fact, it's all sin. It's all sins that I've committed in the past. It's all sins that I've done presently, and it's all the sins that I will do in the future. And Jesus says, I'm gonna take that sin so you can be clean. So you can be washed so that you can be in community, in relationship with God.

So there is the miraculous mercy of the master. Thirdly, the right response of the 1 or the wrong response of the 9. You can write down whichever 1 you want if you're writing notes. The right response of the 1, the wrong response of the 9. So we've got 2 responses from these leopards.

The first we have is from the 1, the samaritan. Look down with me at verse 15 to 16. 1 of them, when he saw he was healed, came back praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him and he was a Samaritan. See, this man, as he's walked, as he's gone from limping to walking to skipping, He's realized that he's cleansed.

And as he's on his way to the priest, he's gone, I'm cleansed. And so, he makes about turn and he goes right back in the direction he's come from to find Jesus. He marches back to him and with a loud voice, that he'd he'd cried and pleaded for pity, he now uses to praise God. Thank you, God, your incredible mercy, throws himself at Jesus' feet. See, he By throwing himself at Jesus' feet, he's he's kind of recognizing who Jesus is.

Who do you throw you don't just throw yourself down at anyone's feet. Is it a king's or a a person of importance? He realizes that this man is so special. And so we see the outpouring of a grateful heart. He's thanking.

He's praising. In other words, he's worshiping God through the Lord Jesus. You compare that with the other response though. And we have the thing that infuriates all of us, but the thing that we're all guilty of. Look at the 9.

Now, the 9, it would from what we can read, it implies that these men are Jews. But look at them. They don't return They show no thankfulness, and they don't come to Jesus in gratitude. I said, look how he responds, look down with me at verse 17 to 18. Jesus asked, we're not all 10 cleansed.

Where are the other 9? Has no 1 returned to give praise to God except this foreigner? We're not all 10 cleansed? He knows they were all cleansed. He cleansed them.

It hurts him. There's this disappointment that After outpouring his grace and his mercy, that there is no gratitude. It's a sense of disappointment there. Where are they? They should be here.

They should be thanking. They should be praising God. Only this foreigner of all the people the Jews should have understood. They they've experienced the miraculous power that has meant, that they're no longer unclean, that means that they're no longer exiled and out of of God's community. They're able to return to society to the temple where they're able to meet God.

They can have access to God, All of that should put a light on in their head and said, wow, this man is greater. This man is greater than all of that. This man is the 1 we should be thanking and praising. And so they should have responded, as a Samaritan did. But it seems like this is what superficial faith does.

Or no faith at all. People that seem to have faith aren't grateful. People that have skin leveled faith will not show gratitude. So why is all of this going on? Well, I think with the 9, it feels like Jesus is just a means to an end.

We can now get on with our lives. We can now enter back into society. We we've or or we've we're so taken up with our healing that we're actually forgetting who was responsible for the for our cleansing. See, Jesus has served his purpose. I can now get back on with my living Listen, I haven't seen my family in weeks.

I can go and see my wife and my kids. But forget about Jesus. I can now get on with with my job or going to temple every Sabbath, but I'll forget about Jesus. But the samaritan gets it. SMaritan understands.

It's so I don't know if you've noticed that when we've gone through Luke, but it's all it's often the people that aren't in the Jewish society, there aren't Jews that seem to get it, it clicks. See? And I I I think and this might be bit of a guesswork. But the word there that Jesus uses in verse 18, he uses the word foreigner. You see that in verse 18, foreigner?

That word is only used once in the bible, in the new testament, and that's here. The only other time that we see that word foreigner is when you go into temple. And in the temple, you have an outer court where gentiles are allowed in, and there's an inner court where they're not allowed in. And there is a sign up there that says, no foreigners allowed. Same words.

And so he's still an outsider. Even though he's been healed, he's still an outsider. He's still not allowed in Jewish society into the inner courts. And so he's still further away from God it would seem than the Jews. So it needs something greater to get him into the temple.

And to get him into access to God. And I think that in being cleansed, in in being cleansed, and and being able to return, and being sort of in society again. He's realized that Jesus is just so much greater. See, here, we don't I don't need that temple in Jerusalem, and I don't need anything in Samaria either, because here, I can meet with God through this person here. I don't need to go to a priest who can just check if I've got a spot or not.

I actually can go to the high priest. The 1 who will make the ultimate sacrifice of dying on a cross so that I can be an insider. So he falls at the feet of Jesus in thanksgiving and praise. He's no longer a foreigner, He's no longer an outsider, but he's now an insider. He's now a a saved person, a clean person, an accepted person.

And that's why in verse 19, Jesus says, then he said to him, rise and go. Your faith has made you well. In other words, that that has made you well, it means saved you. Your faith has saved you. Your faith in me, says Jesus, has saved you has meant that you're forgiven, has meant that you're cleaned, has meant that you have a relationship with God, the Father.

And that faith plays itself out in gratitude. And so Jesus doesn't just leave it there. He says, rise and go. Go now and live a life of faith. Go now and live a life of praise and thanksgiving.

Go now and live a life of worship. See, worship's not just singing. Worship is a life thing. It's a life that says, thank you, and praises God. Through the Lord Jesus Christ just as this leopard does here.

You see, praises God by thanking Jesus. That's what we're meant to do. That's how we're meant to respond to the Lord Jesus. That's how we're meant to respond. We praise God through Christ.

Ephesians 1 verse 3 says, praise be to the God and father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, who has blessed us. In the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. He's given you all He's given you everything. He's given you the Lord Jesus. He's died for you.

He's given you a church. He's giving you every spiritual blessing. Is that not enough to make us thank and praise him? So how about you? How are you responding to Jesus?

With gratitude or within gratitude. See, I think we can so often find ourselves ungrateful. And as I say, it plays itself out in a number of ways. Sometimes I completely forget or notice God. Sometimes I forget how much he's blessed me.

Sometimes I get up in the morning and not even have a second thought about God? That's not very grateful. Sometimes I could be grumpy. Just ask my wife or my family, very grumpy man, especially as Brits, very grumpy people. Or resentful as we serve Jesus, oh, I've gotta do this now.

I've gotta do youth again. Oh, gosh. I've gotta set up. Oh, no. Come on.

As if we're doing some some favor for Jesus? Sometimes we're just prayers. These these men here prayers, but how many of them were praises? If that's a word, it's not, I know. Oh, Lord, that this is a really difficult time.

Will you help me with this? He helps you? And I forget about him. Where's the praise? What's the praise?

Sometimes I'm cold, and I'm uncaring to my fellow brothers and sisters. Sometimes I don't care about them. Sometimes I think I don't need you. The the people that God has bought us to be a to be together, and I show my gratefulness to him by not caring for you. Sometimes I habitually sin in the light of the fact that Jesus has taken all of that sin on himself to cleanse me, and I sin.

And I lose sight of what Christ has done for me, and I sin. And I sin and I sin again. That's not very grateful as far as I can see. See, we must guard ourselves against a heart of ingratitude because a heart of ingratitude betrays a lack of faith. And I'm time and time again, script.

I think this is why scripture does this. It commands us to be thankful. It commands us to praise. In Psalms, you'll hear the refrain over and over again. Give thanks to the lord for he is good, His love and yours forever.

In 1 Corinthians 15 57, he says, but thanks be to God, he gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. In colossians, it says, joyfully give thanks to the father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness, and brought us into the kingdom of the sun, he loves in whom we have redemption. The forgiveness of sins. It carries colossians, I didn't realize it's got so much thankful in this sin.

He goes on again. So then, just as you receive Christ Jesus has Lord, continue to live your lives in him rooted. That's why we're called rooted, guys. Ruted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. See, It's not just a 1 off thankfulness.

It's not just thank you Jesus for saving me. Now, I'm going to live my life. No. It's thank you Jesus. Thank you, Jesus.

Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. In colossians three:seventeen, whatever you do, whether in word of deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God the Father through Him. Every area of life, Everything that you do, seek to do it for the Lord Jesus Christ, whether it's your work, whether it's your school, whether it's the way that you relate to your friends and your family, do it to praise and glorify Christ. See, believing hearts of Rob this, believing hearts are hearts that praise and glorify God through the Lord Jesus.

It's not just a 1 off. It's a life of thanksgiving and praise, and so Jesus commands us rise and go. Your faith has made you well. You've been saved. Look how look how amazing the Lord Jesus is.

Look at what he's done for you. He's died for you. He's given you every spiritual blessing. Now live. Live for him a life of praise and thanksgiving.

Let me pray. Father, we must confess that so often, We find ourselves ungrateful for what you have done for us in the lord Jesus Christ. And so we pray that tonight through your word that you will show us just how glorious the Lord Jesus Christ is. How was to see our sin? How was to see how offensive it is to you?

Helps to see that it is abhorrent and it makes us filthy and We pray father that. In the light of that, we will then see just how amazing Christ is that he would die for us in. He would die, he would take our uncleaners, take our filth so that we could be cleansed. So that we can have access to you. And so father, we pray.

Help has not grown numb to these truths. Help us not to live lives that show in gratitude, but help us in the light of Christ and him crucified. To live lives of praise and thankfulness for you. So we pray this in Jesus' name, amen.