Responding to the Mercies of God - Luke 17:11-19

0:52It's a proclamation. It says, the year that is drawing towards its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart, which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God. He goes on to say, no human counsel hath devised Nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, has nevertheless remembered mercy. And it has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficient Father who dwelleth in the heavens. Of course, it was written by Abraham Lincoln October 3rd, 1863.

2:29Like I said, over 150 years ago, and he, in that one phrase, to the bounties which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come. Our nation has experienced some of the greatest blessings from God. He has allowed this nation, America, to enjoy beautiful lands, incredible resources, enormous liberties, wealth. Really, untold beyond most others. And yet, I'm afraid that we have not been careful to remember the Lord. We have not been diligent to remember the mercy and the grace which He has shown our nation. And quite honestly, we failed to offer sincere thanks to Him. Rather, we have indulged ourselves with the abundant resources of this land, and we have built our large homes, we have increased our wealth, and our hearts have become proud, and we have indeed forgotten the Lord. And we have forgotten how to properly give thanks to the One who has given us everything that we have to enjoy. In today's culture, I think the attitude of thankfulness has been replaced with the attitude of selfish entitlement. And many today are more lovers of pleasure and lovers of the things that we have rather than lovers of God.

4:13And we have allowed the blessings to become our primary pursuit rather than pursuing the one who gives them to us. And I think this really has become evident in our country just through the lack of intentional. Giving of thanks. I think year over year, certainly over the last 150 years since Abraham Lincoln wrote that, I think we have been becoming unthankful in our country. And unfortunately, in the church as well, I think it's leaked into the church, and it should not be this way among the church.

5:00I'm reminded of 1 Thessalonians 5:18, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you to give thanks. And Christians, of course, I think of all people should be the leaders in expressing thankfulness to God. I mean, of all people, we have, I think, been given the most blessing, been shown the most mercy in terms of Him saving us. And yet, when I evaluate my own personal level of thanksgiving, I'm often appalled at its infrequency and in its shallowness compared to what we find in this passage tonight. Oftentimes, my thanksgiving is so very casual, unintentional. Sometimes trivial and even non-existent from time to time. And I don't know if that's the same for you, but this message, this passage struck me a number of years ago when I studied it, and I was asked to preach this evening in light of Thanksgiving that is coming up this week. And so this evening, my message is entitled Responding to the Mercies of God. And we're going to be looking at this passage in Luke 17, which is commonly known as the healing of the ten lepers. And it's a wonderful story of a miracle, right? A miraculous hearing, of healing of 10 men who were inflicted with leprosy. But it's also a wonderful lesson in gratitude. And I think all of us would be wise to learn from it.

6:57As I've said, God has been so merciful to all of us here tonight, and we've all experienced God's blessings to some degree or another. And so I want us to study this passage tonight so that we might get a glimpse and understand how to properly thank the Lord for the mercies and the blessings that He has given us. And so that's my hope tonight. I hope that we'd be convicted of any ingratitude that may exist among us. And that we would also be encouraged to turn our hearts again and again and again to the Lord with thanksgiving in our hearts, especially as we gather this coming week, many gathering with families and friends, hopefully to remember and to thank the Lord for his mercy upon us and upon our nation. And so as we come to our passage tonight, we join the Lord in his final walk to Jerusalem. The Gospel of Luke tells us that for the past several months in Jesus' ministry, he has been spending his time traveling throughout the region of Galilee, ministering to the outcasts of Israel, to the Gentiles and the Samaritans, the tax collectors and the sinners. And we read of him performing all kinds of miracles. He heals the sick. He raises the dead. He's casting out demons, preaching the gospel pretty much to anyone who will listen. And then in chapter 9, verse 51 of the Gospel of Luke, he tells us that when the days were approaching his ascension, he was determined to go to Jerusalem. And it's at that point in Luke's Gospel that Jesus really sets his face to the cross. And he begins making his way to Calvary, to Jerusalem. And this is exactly. Where this passage this evening in chapter 17 picks up. Let me read it for us. Chapter 17, verses 11 through 19. It says, While he was on the way to Jerusalem, he was passing between Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a village, ten leprous men who stood at a distance met him. And they raised their voices, saying, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And when he saw them, he said to them, Go and show yourselves to the priests. And as they were going, they were cleansed. Now, one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice. And he fell on his face at his feet, giving thanks to him. And he was a Samaritan. And then Jesus answered and said, Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine, where are they? Was no one found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner? And he said to him, Stand up and go, for your faith has made you well.

10:17Well, there are three things this evening that I want to point out to you as we walk through this passage. First, we're going to look at the example of divine mercy. There's an example of divine mercy. That we cannot miss as we go through this in verses 11 through 14. Secondly, there is an expression of sincere gratitude in verses 15 and 16. And then, lastly, there is an expectation of genuine faith in verses 17 and 19. So, those are the three things that we're going to look at this evening. The first is the example of divine mercy. Let's look at verse 11 and 12. It says, While he was on the way to Jerusalem, he was passing between Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a village, ten men with leprosy who stood at a distance met him. Well, the first thing in this act of this example of mercy that I want you to notice is the need for mercy. There was an incredible need for mercy for these men. It says they were lepros men, lepros men. Now, the Greek word lepros, it literally means scaly or rough.

11:37Think of like a tree, right? The bark of a tree that's real rough and scaly. And this, of course, is speaking of the disease in which they had of leprosy, which causes their skin to be very rough and scaly. And it's actually a very horrific disease in modern times, or at least here in America, I don't think we... We see this very much. Thankfully, it's very rare. But in biblical times, this was very common, right? And we read about this in the Gospels often and also in the Old Testament. There's entire chapters given to how to deal with people with leprosy. But this evening, I just want to share with you a couple of the common symptoms, and my intention is not to gross you out, but rather, I want you to grasp the severity of their condition. These men were in a very pitiful state.

12:39Leprosy, of course, was a skin disease. It was caused by a bacteria that usually started with kind of a whiter pink patch on someone's skin, usually in their face, and then it began to spread across their entire body, really affecting their skin. And then from there, it would attack the nervous system where it would numb the extremities, and the person with leprosy would begin to lose feeling, and they could not detect pain. So it wasn't a particularly painful disease because it disabled their nervous system. But in doing so, it meant that they couldn't feel pain. They couldn't feel when they cut themselves. They couldn't feel when they touched something hot.

13:31And so essentially, it enabled them to destroy their body without knowing it. It infected the internal organs as well. It invaded their bone marrow. It caused their bones to shrivel. It attacked their eyes, caused blindness. It penetrated their teeth, so their teeth would fall out. Their larynx would end up being very weak and raspy with their voice. And the list goes on. A very horrible disease, right? Physically speaking, these men were in terrible condition. And they were in need of great mercy and compassion. Essentially, you could consider them walking dead men, right? No hope, no hope of change. There was no cure. And they would have welcomed any offer to help in their condition. But if the physical condition wasn't bad enough, the social implications of this disease were perhaps even worse. Someone with leprosy was considered by the Levitical law unclean, unclean. And we see this in Leviticus 13. I won't have you turn there, but let me read a portion to you. It says, as for the person who has leprosy, his clothes shall be torn, and the hair of his head. Shall be uncovered, and he shall cover his mustache and call out, unclean, unclean. And he shall remain unclean all the days during which he has the infection, for he is unclean. And he shall live alone. He shall be set outside the camp.

15:20Interesting that talking through this passage, you know, in the times that we live, I mean, this takes social distancing and wearing a mask to a whole nother level, right? These men were considered social outcasts. They were the untouchables, right? Separated from their families, separated from their friends, essentially had to leave their life behind as they were removed outside the camp. They would have lost their jobs. And oftentimes, during these times, they would have been seen as someone inflicted with the judgment of God, right? Someone who was under God's divine judgment for maybe for their sin. And they were unfit to enter into the temple for worship. Don't even think about it. You're not allowed in here. So separated from temple worship, from worshiping the Lord. And so such were the men that met Jesus from a distance as he entered the village. And they were miserable men, alienated. As I said, in need of God's mercy, in need of God's mercy, in need of a miracle. And they recognized this. And we see this next in the text, their plea for mercy. It says they raise their voices saying, Jesus, master, have mercy on us. Have mercy. And so they request mercy. Now, notice a couple of things. First, they obviously recognized who Jesus was.

17:02Perhaps they, you know, I mean, Jesus' reputation had gone out. Maybe they'd seen him before. We don't really know. But they call him by name. So obviously they recognized who he was as he was coming to their village. And so they went out to him and they called him by name. And then they addressed him as what? They addressed him as master, as master. And now that's, I found that interesting. It's kind of a general term for a commander or an overseer.

17:37But when you look at the Gospel of Luke, this term, it's only used, except for here, it's only used by the disciples to refer to the Lord. And it's only when, each one of the times it's used, it's used when the disciples are appealing to Jesus' authority, Jesus' power to. To help them, whether it's to calm the waves in the storm or to cast out a demon or to do some sort of healing. They appeal to Jesus's authority and his power. And so here you have these ten leprous men. They obviously recognized Jesus and they recognized his power. They recognized, maybe they've heard of the other leper in Luke 5, right, that Jesus healed. And so they knew that he was a man of power. He had a reputation of power. And so they called out to him. They called out to him.

18:42And they just have a simple plea. It's nothing fancy. It's not elaborate. It's Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. Jesus, you have the power to heal us. You have the authority to help our situation. Jesus, please have compassion. Look upon our pitiful, helpless condition, and help us. And so that was their plea, just a simple plea for mercy that they cried out to the Lord for. And in the next verse, in verse 14, we see the act, the actual act of mercy that Jesus gives. It says in verse 14, when he saw them, I want you to stop there. I think we begin to see the act of mercy just in these words.

19:36Jesus's mercy can be seen in the fact that he just merely took notice of them. It says, when he saw them, Jesus could have kept walking. You think about that? He could have kept walking. He could have gone the other way. Right? I mean, think about this for a moment. Jesus's ministry. I mean, people, there were crowds typically that were coming after Jesus. He couldn't walk through a town without people crowding him, asking him, making a request of him to heal them or heal some family member or help them in some way.

20:18And they were just striving to be near him. And we know that Jesus didn't answer every single request, right? He didn't heal everyone in his path. But here it says he saw them. He saw them. And I'm reminded of when I was growing up, I grew up in Houston, and my dad worked downtown. And he would ride the bus. We lived kind of outside of Houston. He would ride the bus downtown to go to work. And he would have to walk several blocks to his building. And I remember him telling me often that as he would walk to his office, the streets were lined with. With homeless folks, they're needy people that would constantly stop him and ask him for help, right? They would ask him for money or food or things like that. And it's always kind of stuck with me, but I remember him telling me one time, you know, if I my heart goes out to all of them, but if I stop and help every single one of them, I'll never get to work.

21:27But there were some that he would tell me about that just as he walked by, he noticed them, something about them or something about their situation. He would notice, and he would have compassion on them and stop and meet their need, whatever it may have been. And this passage here with Jesus, it kind of reminds me of that, that he something in something in their condition, he took notice of them, and it stirred up compassion in his heart. And he engaged them in conversation.

22:01And so this is exactly, I think, what's happening here. He saw them, and then he said to them, some very, kind of some strange words, go and show yourself to the priests. Here are these men in leprosy, needing help, needing to be cleansed, and they cry out for mercy. And Jesus says, go see the priest. And I'm not exactly sure that's what they were thinking they were going to hear from Jesus, but that's what he said. And what was Jesus referring to? Well, essentially, he was telling them to go fulfill the requirements of the law. Go fulfill the requirements found in Leviticus 14:2, which reads, This is the law of the person with leprosy. On the day of his cleansing, he should be brought to the priest, and the priest should go out outside the camp and look and inspect if the leprous infection has been healed in the person of leprosy. And if it was, then they had like a whole chapter, the whole rest of the chapter talks about all these things they had to do, all these sacrifices and rituals in order for the leprous person to come back into the camp. And so Jesus tells them to go do this. Go to the priest, right? Go show yourself to the priest according to this law in Leviticus 14. There's one small problem, right? It says, on the day of his cleansing, they were supposed to do this, right? Now, we don't know what these men were thinking, right? We don't hear what's going through their minds, but if I think if it were me, I'd be like, Jesus, you kind of missed a step there, right? I mean, we still have leprosy. I can't exactly go to the priest and show myself clean if I'm still like, you're supposed to, this is when you touch us and you heal us, right?

24:00Just like you did in Luke 5, by the way, he reached out and he touched the leper in Luke 5 and he healed him. And so, again, I don't know what they were thinking, but it was probably somewhat puzzling response to them. Not what they were expecting. But I think, again, they knew Jesus was a man of authority. They were desperate. I mean, they had nothing else, they really had nothing else to lose. And so I think out of desperation and hopelessness, they went, right? It says they went and they obeyed Jesus' simple command to go to the priest. And then notice what happens next. It says, as they were going, as they were being obedient to this simple command, they were cleansed. They were cleansed. As they were going to the priest, they were catharizo, literally purged, purified of their affliction, completely and wonderfully cured.

25:09No sign of leprosy left. So they went from all the physical conditions that we just went through to none of them as they were going, right, in an instant. They were absolutely 100% cured by a miracle of God. And again, this was an amazing act of. Mercy by Jesus here. He certainly did not have to. There was nothing that these men had done that deserved any kind of response from Christ. They just simply made an appeal for mercy, and Jesus responds like he does by nature with an incredible act of mercy. And so here you have these ten men, right? And they were on the way to the priest. They're probably standing in the middle of the road. Now they've received the mercy of God, completely cleansed, and they're on their way to get their lives back, right?

26:12Go to the priest and go through all the things, and they would get back to their lives. But as they're standing on the road, they had a decision to make. Now that we have received this mercy from God, how are we to respond? How are we to respond? And that's what I want us to look at next. In the next part of this passage, we see an expression of sincere gratitude in verse 15. It says, Now one of them, one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back. Turned back. Now, again, this is quite astonishing, right? Again, the lepers were on their way to. Declared clean by the priest. And as I've already mentioned, after they go through the rituals, they get to go home.

27:10And so, as they're standing there, you can imagine what this would have been like. As they began to notice, they look at each other, they look at themselves, they see their body being healed, maybe their eyesight is coming back and their voice is getting stronger, and they're realizing that the leprosy has left them. It would be natural for them to get all the more excited to hurry up to the priest, right? I mean, because that's just the next step to get back to my normal life. And the quicker I can get there, the quicker I can get back to my friends and my family. But there was one, there was one who turned back, and as excited as he must have been to go see the priest, there was something that compelled him to stop right there in his tracks and place all of that, right? All of that on hold. And there was a sense of urgency within him that said, Before I go to the priest, there's something that I must do. There's something I must do. What was it? Well, there are three things that we see in the text here. Look at what it says in verse 6. 16 at these three things. The text says that now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice. With a loud voice. He had received the blessing and he turned back to glorify God for it. That was something that was worth waiting to go to the priest for.

28:54And you can probably, again, picture that moment where, again, the sores are disappearing. He's starting to, he gets the feeling back in his fingers and his legs, his eyesight's being restored, and all the emotions that come with that. But then he begins to realize that this is the power of God. Like only God could have done this. No one else, no doctor or priest could have healed me like this. No, this was the power of God. This was a miracle, something that only God could have done. And it says that he was glorifying God with a loud voice, literally with phone megas, same word we get megaphone from, right? It's a big voice, a loud voice, and he's shouting. You can imagine as he's running back, he's shouting, glorifying God at the top of his lungs, which are now fully restored.

29:54And he is glorifying God for the work that he did. Had done for the mercy that he had received. It was the one thing that was more important to him than anything else, more important than all of the benefits of receiving God's mercy. He was compelled to turn back and glorify God as he recognized what was happening to him, and he wanted to give God all the credit. So, again, it's the first of his threefold expression of gratitude is that he glorified God, and he acknowledged that what had happened was indeed something that God had been merciful to him. Secondly, he acknowledges that he was in the very presence of God, that he had been in the very presence of God. Look at what it says next: it says that he had been glorifying God with a loud voice, and then he fell on his face at his feet. Whose feet? Jesus' feet. So he makes his way. We don't really know how far down the road he got, but he has made his way back to Jesus, and it says he fell on his face at his feet. Now, this is, as Scripture testifies, this is a posture of worship. This is an act of worship. It's an act of humble submission and reverence for God. And now, if he had done, This is to anybody else, right? Even I mean, to anybody else, right? This would have been complete blasphemy, right? Because God alone, even as a Samaritan, which it tells us in this same verse that he was a Samaritan man, even a Samaritan would have known that to worship anyone but God was blasphemy. And yet, we see him in a posture of worship, flat on his face at the feet of Jesus. And he worships him because he realizes that when he was with Jesus outside that village, he was standing in the very presence of God, God in the flesh. And I think he made that connection. Maybe his theology wasn't perfectly developed, but he knew that the power of God had been at work in him, and it was Jesus who initiated that work, right? And he connected the dots. And for him, for this man, it was compelling enough to go and say, you are worthy of my worship, right? You are worthy of my worship. And so he acknowledges the mercy that he had received, and he worships Jesus for it. He worships him. And then, thirdly, it says that he gives thanks. As he fell on his face before Christ, he Is giving thanks. So he acknowledged the gift of mercy by giving thanks. And, you know, again, this is just an incredible display of deep gratitude, right? Thankfulness from the core. Have you ever been thankful like that? Something so profound, it's been so profound to you that it compels you to get on your face before the Lord and just express true, genuine thanks.

33:34True, genuine thanks. And this is an example for all of us, right? This response of the one leper when he turned back to give glory and worship and thanks. And quite honestly, it's an exhortation to us here this evening to do the same. It's held out as an example for us. No matter how big or how small the blessing, he is worthy of us to glorify and worship him and give him thanks for it. So we saw an example of divine mercy, right? And then we saw an expression of sincere gratitude. One of the best examples, maybe, that we have in Scripture. And lastly, I want us to look at Jesus' expectation of genuine. Faith. Look back at verse 17.

34:34Jesus asked three rhetorical questions here, and they're regarding the nine who didn't return. One return, not much is said about the nine, but it's certainly implied. And they say this: it says, Then Jesus answered and said, Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine, where are they? Do you hear the expectant tone in Jesus' voice and his questions? It's almost as if he's looking off into the distance, right, from where they had gone off to go see the priest, and the one turned back. And it's as if he's looking off into the distance for the other nine. Perhaps maybe they were lagging behind, right? He expected them to be there. I'm pretty sure, right? There were ten. I know there were ten. I healed all ten, but where are the nine? Where are they? And then he asks this third rhetorical question, and you can really start to get a sense of and hear the expectation in his voice. Was no one found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner? This foreigner? Literally, this man from another race, this Samaritan man, he's not even of the people of God. He's not even of Israel. But he wasn't even looking for me, yet he found me. Right?

36:09He wasn't looking for me, but he found me. But the nine, the Jews, and I assume they were all Jews, they're not here. Of all people, of God's covenant people, the ones who have inherited the promises of God, the ones who were looking for the Messiah, they walked right past me. They were in my presence and they walked right past me. And it's in these three rhetorical questions where I think we really see the expectation of Jesus. He expected his act of mercy towards them to result in genuine faith in him. And they missed it.

36:57Nine out of ten missed it. And it's actually quite shocking. Again, the text doesn't really say where the nine were or what happened to them or where they went. We can only assume that they continued on to go see the priest. Like the one Samaritan who turned back, they also were healed. They began to see the sores disappear. Their bodies were being healed, and they were excited to get. Back and be declared clean. And so, again, we assume that they just continued on to the priest. That was the next step, right? Go to the priest, perform the rituals, make the sacrifices, and then get back to your life.

37:46And they had gotten what they wanted from Jesus. They had received mercy, which is what they asked for. But it doesn't seem like they really wanted any more than that. They got what they wanted, and now it was time to get back. It was time to get back to their families, to their friends, to their jobs, to their dead, faithless religion. And for them, Jesus was just a stepping stone in their relentless pursuit of self-righteousness. And now they were healed. They didn't need Jesus anymore.

38:27They saw no need to turn back, no need to turn back and worship the Lord and give thanks. And how grieved Jesus must have been, how frustrated that they did not come back. Jesus longed for his people to come to him, right? He longed for Israel to come to him as this Samaritan had done just a few chapters earlier in Luke 13, 34. How often have I longed? To gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you are not willing, speaking of Israel.

39:10And oh, how God is grieved when we are not willing to come to him, right? When all we see and all we care about is the benefits of the blessings, right? And we rather than the author of the blessings. And I am ashamed of how many times that speaks of me, where I just casually give thanks, or I don't give thanks at all, and I take for granted the great amount of mercy that God has bestowed upon me. And friends, he longs for you and for me to come and glorify him and to worship him and to offer thanks to him like this, like this one Samaritan did.

40:01So he expects that. He expects that from us. And the nine may have disappointed him, but the one that returned certainly did not. And this is one of those moments that if you've been around for a while, you hear Pastor Tom talk about where these moments in Scripture where you can maybe catch a glimpse of Jesus smiling. I think this is one of them. I think. This is one of those times. Look back at what it says. It says, And he said to him, referring to the one that returned, stand up and go. Your faith has made you well. Stand up and go, get up, get up from off the ground. Stand up and go. Your faith has made you well. Now, many of the translations, this phrase reads, your faith has made you well. And that's fine to translate it that way, but I think it misses the impact of what actually took place here. The Greek word is sozo, which is commonly translated as saved. It's often used in reference to salvation, one being saved. And so I think a better rendering is, stand up and go. Your faith has saved you. It has saved you. Not only was this one Samaritan saved from this horrific disease of leprosy, but I think this day he returned and he was saved eternally. He received eternal salvation, salvation of his soul.

41:41In humility, this foreigner cried out for mercy and he received it in full, right, as he cast his feet, cast himself before Jesus at his feet. And friends, this is a picture of a sinner getting saved. And I don't know if this was your experience. This certainly was mine when I came to know the Lord. And I remember being in my dorm room at Texas A ⁇ M and just on my face before the Lord, casting myself before him, realizing that I needed his mercy. And then when he saved me, it was all I could do but worship the Lord. And I think this is exactly what took place here. This Samaritan man found Jesus. He found salvation of his soul. And Jesus was no doubt smiling from ear to ear as he told him to stand up. Go, now go, go to the priest, go be declared clean, go back, see your family, and go live your life in worship of the one true God, in spirit, worshiping in spirit and truth, as it says in John chapter 4. Friends, our Lord delights in this, and he delights when our temporary blessings, when he shows us mercy, when those things draw us to God and draw us near to him for offering thanksgiving. And I hope as we leave here today and as we go out, many of you are traveling, you're going to see your families. Friends, I hope that you will take some time to personally thank the Lord, right? To even get alone, get on your face before God and thank Him.

43:44For you truly have been blessed beyond what we can even count and recount. But it doesn't mean we shouldn't try. So I exhort you to do that as we leave here. Let me close in prayer and then we can be dismissed. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this wonderful example that you've left for us. We thank you for your incredible mercy, that you are a God whose mercy is everlasting. Your compassion is from generation to generation. It never ends.

44:27And Father, we thank you for the gift of salvation, God, that you would take people such as us completely undeserving of you to even notice us, and yet that you have. And you've extended your armor of salvation, and you've redeemed us, and you've given us so much more than that. And so, Father, I pray that as we go out this week, Lord, remind us of all these things, call them to our minds, and cause us to turn our Hearts to you in Thanksgiving this week. In Jesus' name, amen.