Luke 17-18: After Your Prayer is Answered

We read Luke 17 and 18 and let Jesus challenge our instincts about forgiveness, prayer, humility, money, and what real faith looks like. We end by sitting with the one healed leper who returns to thank Jesus and asking what it looks like for us to do the same in our own stories. 
• praying before reading Scripture and asking God for understanding and alignment 
• warnings about stumbling blocks and the command to forgive repeated repentance 
• mustard seed faith and the call to humble service without needing praise 
• the healing of ten lepers and the one Samaritan who returns to give thanks 
• the kingdom of God in your midst and staying alert for the Son of Man 
• the persistent widow as a picture of prayer that does not lose heart 
• the Pharisee and tax collector showing pride versus honest repentance 
• welcoming children and receiving the kingdom with childlike trust 
• the rich ruler, the cost of following Jesus, and God doing the impossible 
• Jesus predicting his suffering and healing a blind man who cries for mercy 

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Transcript

Welcome And A Simple Prayer

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Hey, this is Mike, and this is the Out Loud Bible Podcast. We're reading through the book of Luke. And you know what? Before we get into it today, let's just pray. That's not something we do very often here on the podcast, although I think it's important to do, and we can certainly model it and practice it today. I think it's always good to pray before we read the Bible. Just something like this. Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you that you allow us to get to know you through it. Would you please help us to understand what you want us to know today so that we can know what to do, so we can align our hearts with yours and do what pleases you today. And we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, let's check it out. Luke 17 and 18 in the New English Translation. Jesus said to his disciples, Stumbling blocks are sure to come, but woe to the

Forgiveness Faith And Humble Duty

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one through whom they come. It would be better for him to have a millstone tied around his neck and be thrown into the sea than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. Watch yourselves. If your brother sins, rebuke him. If he repents, forgive him. Even if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times returns to you saying, I repent, you must forgive him. The apostle said to the Lord, increase our faith. So the Lord replied, If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this black mulberry tree, Be pulled out by the roots and planted in the sea, and it would obey you. Would any one of you say to your slave who comes in from the field after ploughing or shepherding sheep, Oh, come at once and sit down for a meal? Won't the master instead say to him, Well, get my dinner ready, make yourself ready to serve me while I eat and drink, and then you may eat and drink. He won't thank the slave because he did what he was told, will he? So you too, when you have done everything you were commanded to do, should say we are slaves, undeserving of special praise, we've only done what was our duty. Not a very popular teaching of Jesus, is it? Not one of our favorites. Now on the way to Jerusalem, Jesus was passing along between Samaria and Galilee, and as

Ten Lepers And One Thankful Return

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he was entering a village, ten men with leprosy met him. They stood at a distance, raised their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. When he saw them, he said, Go, show yourselves to the priests. And as they went along they were cleansed. And then one of them, when he saw he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice, and he fell with his face to the ground at Jesus' feet and thanked him. Now he was a Samaritan. And then Jesus said, We're not ten cleansed. Where are the other nine? Was no one found to turn back and give praise to God except this foreigner? And then he said to the man, Get up, go on your way. Your faith has made you well. Now at one point the Pharisees asked Jesus when the kingdom of God was coming. So he answered, The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed, nor will they say, Oh,

The Kingdom Is In Your Midst

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look, here it is, or there, for indeed the kingdom of God is in your midst. And then he said to his disciples, The days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. And then people will say to you, Well, look, here he is, or look there he is, don't go out or chase after them. For just like the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day. But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. Just as it was in the days of Noah, so too it will be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage, right up to the day Noah entered the ark, and then the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot, people were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building, but on the day Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. It will be the same on the day the Son of Man is revealed. On that day anyone who's on the roof with his goods in the house must not come down to take them away, and likewise the person in the field must not turn back. Remember Lot's wife, Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it. I tell you, in that night there will be two people in one bed, one will be taken and the other left. There will be two women grinding grain together, one will be taken and the other left. Then the disciples said to him, Where, Lord? He replied to them, Where the dead body is, there the vultures will gather. And then Jesus told them a parable to show them that they should always pray and not lose heart. He said, In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God

Persistent Prayer That Does Not Quit

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nor respected people, and there was also a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, Give me justice against my adversary. And for a while he refused. But later on he said to himself, though I neither fear God nor have regard for people, yet because this widow keeps on bothering me, I will give her justice, or in the end she'll wear me out by her unending pleas. Then the Lord said, Listen to what the unrighteous judge says, and won't God give justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long to help them? I tell you, he will give them justice speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth? Jesus also told this parable to some who were confident that they were righteous and looked down on everyone else. Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee,

Pride Versus Mercy In Prayer

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and the other a tax collector. Pharisee stood and prayed about himself like this. God, I thank you that I'm not like other people, uh extortionists, unrighteous people, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give a tenth of everything I get. Well the tax collector, however, stood far off and would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, God, be merciful to me, sinner that I am. I tell you that this man went down to his home justified, rather than the Pharisee. For every one who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted. Now people were even bringing their babies to him for him to touch, but when the disciples saw it, they began to scold those who brought them. But Jesus called for the children, saying, Let the little children

Receiving God Like A Child

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come to me. Don't try to stop them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will never enter it. Now a certain leader asked him, The Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus said to him, Why do you call me good? No one's good except

The Rich Ruler And The Cost

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God alone, hmm? But you know the commandments do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother. The man replied, I've wholeheartedly obeyed all these laws since my youth. When Jesus heard this, he said to him, Well one thing you still lack Sell all that you have, and give the money to the poor, and you'll have treasure in heaven, and then come and follow me. When the man heard this, he became very sad, for he was extremely wealthy. When Jesus noticed this, he said how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God. In fact, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. And those who heard this said, What then who could be saved? He replied, Well, what's impossible for mere humans is possible for God. And Peter said, Look, we've left everything we own to follow you. And then Jesus said to them, I tell you the truth, there is no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of God's kingdom, who will not receive many times more in this age, and in the age to come, eternal life. Then Jesus took the twelve aside and said to them, Look, we're going up to Jerusalem, and everything that's written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished.

Jesus Predicts His Suffering Ahead

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For he'll be handed over to the Gentiles, he'll be mocked, mistreated, spat on. They'll flog him severely and kill him, and yet on the third day he will rise again. But the twelfth didn't understand these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they didn't grasp what Jesus meant. As Jesus approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the road begging. When he heard a crowd going by, he asked what was going on, and they told him Jesus, the Nazarene is passing by. So he

A Blind Beggar Healed By Faith

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called out Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. And those who were in front scolded him to get him to be quiet, but he shouted even more, Son of David, have mercy on me. So Jesus stopped and ordered the beggar to be brought to him. When the man came near, Jesus asked him, What do you want me to do for you? He replied Lord, let me see again. And Jesus said to him, Receive your sight, your faith has healed you. And immediately he regained his sight and followed Jesus, praising God. And when all the people saw it too, they too gave praise to God. Well, before we wrap up today, let's go back to chapter seventeen, verses eleven through nineteen, the story about the leper. Ten men had leprosy, which is a agonizing,

Do Not Forget To Thank Jesus

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slow, painful death ultimately, where parts of your body get infected and cut and damaged, but you can't feel it because the nerves are dead, and so then those parts just decay and literally fall off your body, and it is it's gruesome. And of course, not only was it a medical thing and a physical thing, it was also a social thing. They were outcast from society. Society didn't want them around with that infectious disease going on, and a leper also couldn't keep a job or take a job and earn money as well, so this had its financial consequences, and of course, through it all that has the mental consequences when you're dealing with this. Now, fortunately for these ten lepers who had this condition, Jesus healed them as they were on their way. They obeyed, they went and did what he told them to do, and on the way they received their healing, but only one stopped to recognize that Jesus did this and went back to give him the praise. What is the thing that maybe God has healed you from? And I'm not necessarily talking something physical or medical, although that may be the case. What about social? What about relationships that have been healed, that you've been praying for for a long time? What about a financial situation that you're like, God please help me out of this? I don't know how I'm going to get out of this situation. And he comes in and he provides and he helps you through? What about a mental or emotional issue that has just been plaguing you and you can't seem to get out of and nothing seems to help? Has he helped you in any of these areas? And then have you actually gone back to thank him and give him glory for it? Not only just thanking him personally, but have you told other people the testimony of what he's done to increase his glory and reputation among the people around you? It's really easy to receive our healing or the improvement or the prayer request has been answered and say, Whew, oh man, I'm glad that's over with. Good. And then realize I never actually thanked Jesus for that. I'd been praying for it for a while, I'd been wanting this for a long time. And I just kind of started walking in the newness of life without actually thanking the one who provided it. Do you owe Jesus some thanks, some praise, some glory that maybe you just kind of got too busy to remember to do earlier? It's not too late. Go thank him for what he's done, and go tell some others what he's done so that they can glorify him too. That's the Thinking Out Loud thought for the day. We'll see you next time.