WEBVTT 00:00:00.400 --> 00:00:01.760 Please be seated. 00:00:05.839 --> 00:00:16.719 I want to encourage you to turn with me to the passage that was read earlier in the service, Luke chapter 17, verses 11 through 19. 00:00:17.039 --> 00:00:23.760 If you don't have a Bible with you, there should be a Bible located there in front of you in that little shelf pocket. 00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:27.839 And you can find the scripture on page 876. 00:00:29.039 --> 00:00:44.799 And I do want to mention, if you're here and you don't own a copy of the Bible, or maybe you don't have a copy here with you in Grand Forks, I want to encourage you to take that Bible that you're using right now and take it home with us. 00:00:45.039 --> 00:00:48.240 Take it back to the dorm with you as our gift to you. 00:00:48.479 --> 00:00:58.079 We want you to have the Bible for yourself to read and to study, and then I encourage you to come back each week and we'll study it together. 00:00:58.640 --> 00:01:03.359 Luke chapter 17, we're looking at verses 11 through 19. 00:01:04.799 --> 00:01:07.519 What is it like to be an outcast? 00:01:08.719 --> 00:01:18.879 What is it like to feel unwanted, unclean, rejected, isolated? 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:24.480 Leprosy was a horrible disfiguring disease. 00:01:24.640 --> 00:01:32.719 The word was used for a number of skin diseases, including Hansen's disease, what we most often think of when we hear that term. 00:01:33.519 --> 00:01:47.920 One online dictionary described it this way: that it's primarily a disease of the peripheral nerves of the upper respiratory tract, but skin lesions are the primary external sign, it says. 00:01:48.159 --> 00:01:54.799 Left untreated, it can be progressive, causing permanent damage to skin, nerves, limbs, and eyes. 00:01:55.200 --> 00:01:59.840 Contrary to popular belief, leprosy doesn't cause body parts to fall off. 00:01:59.920 --> 00:02:17.680 However, because of secondary infections that occur because the body's defenses are compromised by the primary disease, because of the lack of sensation, oftentimes infection and injury cause disfiguring difficulties. 00:02:17.919 --> 00:02:23.039 Fingers, toes become shortened, deformed, cartilage is absorbed into the body. 00:02:23.199 --> 00:02:35.919 And as I was looking and seeing images of this disfiguring disease, wondering what it's like to be an outcast. 00:02:36.800 --> 00:02:56.240 In the Old Testament, in Leviticus chapter 13, verses 45 and 46, of the leprous person, this is what it says, the less leprous person who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, unclean, unclean. 00:02:56.560 --> 00:03:00.159 He would have been an outcast from his society. 00:03:01.280 --> 00:03:05.039 It says he shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease. 00:03:05.120 --> 00:03:05.840 He is unclean. 00:03:05.919 --> 00:03:06.800 He shall live alone. 00:03:06.960 --> 00:03:09.280 His dwelling shall be outside the camp. 00:03:09.520 --> 00:03:11.599 He would live outside of the village. 00:03:11.840 --> 00:03:25.280 And whenever anybody would come close, whenever he would see somebody, he would have to begin to shout out before they were within distance of him unclean! Unclean! How would you feel? 00:03:26.240 --> 00:03:27.439 Inferior? 00:03:28.240 --> 00:03:29.439 Alienated? 00:03:30.159 --> 00:03:31.120 Embarrassed? 00:03:31.360 --> 00:03:32.159 Ridiculed? 00:03:32.319 --> 00:03:44.719 Weak, powerless, a failure, different, insulted, rejected, inadequate, humiliated, ignored, a loser? 00:03:46.639 --> 00:03:52.639 Really, those words aren't even strong enough to express what would go on in your heart. 00:03:53.199 --> 00:04:22.800 How about unclean, dishonored, filthy, shunned, disgusting, defiled, outcast, unlovable, discarded, repulsive, disgraced, worthless, loathed, scorned, vile? 00:04:24.480 --> 00:04:37.439 You would feel both helpless because you know there's nothing that you can do to change your situation, and hopeless because you know the fate of people who have this disease. 00:04:39.600 --> 00:04:43.120 If that were you, what is it that you would want most? 00:04:45.279 --> 00:04:48.480 Really, that's a question that all of us ought to think about. 00:04:48.639 --> 00:04:50.319 What is it that we want most? 00:04:50.480 --> 00:05:07.759 I would think that these men, these ten men who were living outside of the camp and finding perhaps their own community among the lepers, they thought their greatest need was to be healed of their leprosy. 00:05:08.879 --> 00:05:12.160 And if they had that, that would be enough. 00:05:16.959 --> 00:05:23.360 We think sometimes of heaven and we think of all of that that we would have there that we would be delivered from. 00:05:23.519 --> 00:05:28.319 And uh, Pastor John Piper writes this: Would you be satisfied to go to heaven? 00:05:28.560 --> 00:05:40.480 Have everybody there in your family that you want there, have all your health restored, uh, restoration of your prime, and everything you disliked about yourself fixed. 00:05:40.800 --> 00:05:41.680 Think about that. 00:05:41.839 --> 00:05:45.279 Everything you dislike about yourself fixed. 00:05:45.600 --> 00:05:55.120 Have every recreation you've ever dreamed of available to you, have infinite resources of money to spend. 00:05:55.439 --> 00:06:01.600 No more temptation of that thing that you struggle with, that area of your life. 00:06:02.079 --> 00:06:06.399 Would you be satisfied if God wasn't there? 00:06:10.319 --> 00:06:12.399 This is the difficulty that we have. 00:06:13.040 --> 00:06:18.000 They thought their greatest need was healing. 00:06:18.560 --> 00:06:20.879 But they had a greater need still. 00:06:22.720 --> 00:06:25.279 So this is an important question for us to consider. 00:06:25.439 --> 00:06:27.279 Is Jesus our goal? 00:06:28.720 --> 00:06:30.959 Or is deliverance our goal? 00:06:31.279 --> 00:06:34.639 Is Jesus our goal or is healing our goal? 00:06:35.120 --> 00:06:40.160 Is Jesus our goal or is peace our goal? 00:06:40.480 --> 00:06:50.079 And this morning I want us to examine this unusual miracle, and it's unusual for the very fact that the miracle isn't what is central to the message. 00:06:50.720 --> 00:06:53.439 That isn't the main focus that we find here. 00:06:54.639 --> 00:06:57.759 The healing isn't the main focus, the heart is. 00:06:59.199 --> 00:07:02.399 And so we're gonna walk through this passage together again. 00:07:02.560 --> 00:07:06.160 We're gonna see the great need that these men had. 00:07:06.639 --> 00:07:14.879 We're gonna see the step of faith that they took, and then we're going to see the shocking return of one of them. 00:07:15.120 --> 00:07:17.839 And so let's look first of all at the great need. 00:07:18.240 --> 00:07:22.079 Look with me, Luke chapter 17, beginning in verse 11. 00:07:23.680 --> 00:07:24.639 The great need. 00:07:24.800 --> 00:07:26.720 Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. 00:07:26.879 --> 00:07:32.560 In fact, this isn't uh the first time that we find this in the Gospel of Luke in chapter 9, verse 51. 00:07:32.639 --> 00:07:38.000 It says, When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. 00:07:38.160 --> 00:07:44.079 He was resolute in the fact that he was on a mission and he set his face towards Jerusalem. 00:07:44.240 --> 00:07:52.240 He was moving towards the cross, moving towards the sacrifice that he was going to make on your behalf and mine. 00:07:52.720 --> 00:08:01.439 In Luke chapter 13, verse 22, again it says, He went on his way through the towns and villages, teaching and journeying towards Jerusalem. 00:08:02.000 --> 00:08:10.800 And now, here in verse 11 of chapter 17, on the way to Jerusalem, he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. 00:08:10.959 --> 00:08:21.199 He was taking this circuitous route, this roundabout way, but he was on his way to Jerusalem to fulfill the purpose for which he had come. 00:08:22.560 --> 00:08:28.000 And it says here that while he was on his way, in verse 12, and he entered a village. 00:08:28.240 --> 00:08:41.120 Luke doesn't give us a lot of details about this village, that it's along this border, Samaria and Galilee, and he enters this village, and as he enters this village, he's met by ten lepers. 00:08:42.720 --> 00:08:48.320 And apparently, at least in large degree, they were following the Levitical law. 00:08:48.480 --> 00:08:50.639 They were following what they should have been. 00:08:50.720 --> 00:09:00.720 They were outside of the village, they weren't mingling among the people, they were outside, and they they see Jesus, and when they see him, they begin to cry out. 00:09:02.159 --> 00:09:06.399 It says they stood at a distance and they lifted up their voices. 00:09:08.480 --> 00:09:12.960 And at first, maybe they only said unclean. 00:09:13.200 --> 00:09:18.720 We don't know, but but that would have been what they would have been crying out to those who had passed by. 00:09:18.799 --> 00:09:33.039 But but there was something, maybe something they knew about Jesus, because when they saw Jesus, they knew enough to say, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. 00:09:35.120 --> 00:09:37.440 And so they began to cry this out. 00:09:37.759 --> 00:09:42.159 Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. 00:09:43.279 --> 00:09:44.240 This was good. 00:09:45.519 --> 00:09:48.480 They realized they had no claim upon Jesus. 00:09:49.440 --> 00:09:57.840 They had no way to demand anything from Jesus, but they cried out for compassion and mercy and help. 00:09:58.080 --> 00:10:00.000 This was their great need. 00:10:03.200 --> 00:10:05.039 Have mercy on us. 00:10:06.000 --> 00:10:09.759 They didn't ask for healing, but surely that was what was in their mind. 00:10:10.000 --> 00:10:12.559 Have mercy on us, heal us. 00:10:13.919 --> 00:10:17.679 They couldn't heal themselves, they couldn't change their situation. 00:10:18.559 --> 00:10:21.600 There was no practical hope of deliverance. 00:10:22.480 --> 00:10:26.159 And in their eyes, it was a hopeless situation. 00:10:26.799 --> 00:10:32.960 At the moment, they couldn't, they couldn't consider any need more pressing than this one need. 00:10:33.600 --> 00:10:41.600 If only this situation in my life would change, I would be content. 00:10:42.159 --> 00:10:43.519 I would be satisfied. 00:10:43.679 --> 00:10:45.039 I would be complete. 00:10:47.039 --> 00:10:51.200 They did the one thing that they could do, they cried out to Jesus. 00:10:52.879 --> 00:10:55.039 Well, what is your great need? 00:10:56.879 --> 00:10:58.879 Deliverance from temptation? 00:11:02.240 --> 00:11:18.320 Perhaps not knowing, with a lack of wisdom and foresight, one night you clicked on an image on the internet, not knowing that that would start a pattern and a habit that would enslave you. 00:11:20.559 --> 00:11:32.240 Perhaps you grew up in the church, and as you grew into a young man, you found yourself attracted to people of the same sex, and you think, if only I could be delivered from this. 00:11:33.360 --> 00:11:41.840 Maybe it's anger and rage that you can't control that you put your fist through the wall at the slightest provocation. 00:11:43.440 --> 00:11:54.480 I saw a video just last night about a man giving a testimony of God's transforming grace, and he said, His two-year-old spilled his milk, he picked up a chair and he threw it against the wall. 00:11:56.080 --> 00:11:57.600 What is your great need? 00:11:57.759 --> 00:12:00.000 Maybe it's financial freedom. 00:12:00.399 --> 00:12:11.919 Maybe you didn't think about the consequences of using the credit card over and over again and not keeping account, and now you find yourself just drowning in debt. 00:12:12.159 --> 00:12:17.600 And you think, if only I was free from this bondage to this debt. 00:12:18.480 --> 00:12:31.759 Or maybe it's finding a life mate, you're single, and you feel like life has passed you by, and you have these feelings of being alone, and that everyone else has something that you don't have. 00:12:32.639 --> 00:12:50.000 Or maybe it's a functioning family, that your family is so dysfunctional that every time you get together, all you do is fight, and you're at each other's throat, and you think, if only I had a family like other families, I wouldn't have the stress and the problems and the factions and the fights. 00:12:50.159 --> 00:12:51.759 What is your great need? 00:12:52.960 --> 00:12:59.360 These men thought that their need was to be cleansed from leprosy. 00:13:00.080 --> 00:13:03.919 But they didn't realize that they had a greater need. 00:13:04.639 --> 00:13:14.159 These were, these were, this was a good need to be delivered from, but there was something deeper still that most of them had no recognition of. 00:13:14.320 --> 00:13:17.519 Their greatest need was not to be healed from leprosy. 00:13:18.320 --> 00:13:20.000 That was huge, don't get me wrong. 00:13:20.159 --> 00:13:24.240 That was significant, but that was not their deepest need. 00:13:25.360 --> 00:13:30.639 They could be healed from leprosy, but eventually they were going to get some other disease. 00:13:30.799 --> 00:13:33.759 Eventually, they were gonna get an injury or accident. 00:13:34.000 --> 00:13:38.320 Eventually, if they lived long enough, they were going to get old and they were going to die. 00:13:38.480 --> 00:13:42.720 Even if they were healed from leprosy, leprosy wasn't their greatest need. 00:13:44.879 --> 00:13:56.960 It wasn't their deepest need, and it's not our deepest need either to be delivered from our problems, from healing and wholeness, physical deliverance, deliverance from temptation. 00:13:57.200 --> 00:14:00.480 All of those are good things, but they're not our deepest need. 00:14:01.039 --> 00:14:14.399 The greatest need that we have is the greatest need that every human being who has ever existed has, and that is to be forgiven of our sins and to come into a relationship with God through the person of Jesus Christ. 00:14:14.960 --> 00:14:20.559 I think leprosy is a fitting illustration for the deeper reality of our sin. 00:14:22.720 --> 00:14:26.639 Sin has infected and affected every area of who we are. 00:14:26.879 --> 00:14:30.720 It's touched every part of us and tainted every relationship that we have. 00:14:30.960 --> 00:14:33.679 Most of all, sin has cut us off from God. 00:14:34.000 --> 00:14:37.600 We feel defiled and unclean and separate. 00:14:37.679 --> 00:14:42.399 And we are in a condition that there is nothing that we can do to change it. 00:14:43.519 --> 00:14:46.559 These lepers couldn't scrub themselves clean. 00:14:46.799 --> 00:14:49.679 It didn't matter what they did to change their lives. 00:14:49.759 --> 00:14:51.679 They couldn't change the situation. 00:14:51.919 --> 00:14:56.720 No matter what they did or where they went, this condition followed them. 00:14:56.879 --> 00:15:01.039 Nothing they did in the future could change the reality of who they were. 00:15:01.919 --> 00:15:07.120 And left to ourselves, that's the problem that each one of us has with sin. 00:15:08.320 --> 00:15:17.200 There is nothing that we can do in and of ourselves to change the reality of who we are, of our nature, of our disposition, of our condition. 00:15:19.600 --> 00:15:30.080 It's interesting here, unlike the other encounters that Jesus has with lepers, uh, most of those, if you read them, Jesus touches them and he heals them instantly. 00:15:30.240 --> 00:15:33.840 But here, uh, it's unlike those other times. 00:15:34.000 --> 00:15:36.240 Look at what happens here in the text. 00:15:37.039 --> 00:15:39.759 They cry out, Master, have mercy on us. 00:15:39.919 --> 00:15:45.279 It says, when he saw them, he said to them, Go and show yourselves to the priest. 00:15:47.519 --> 00:15:50.639 They had to respond with a step of faith. 00:15:51.919 --> 00:15:54.320 So we see here this step of faith. 00:15:54.559 --> 00:15:56.320 Jesus gives them a command. 00:15:56.639 --> 00:16:00.480 He says, Go, show yourself to the priest. 00:16:01.679 --> 00:16:03.440 Did they debate among themselves? 00:16:03.600 --> 00:16:05.279 We don't know their reaction. 00:16:05.440 --> 00:16:09.840 I wonder what was going on when they heard Jesus say this. 00:16:10.080 --> 00:16:13.759 They were still in their leprosy when they heard these words. 00:16:14.399 --> 00:16:16.080 Did they debate among themselves? 00:16:16.240 --> 00:16:16.799 Should we go? 00:16:16.960 --> 00:16:17.519 Should we not? 00:16:17.919 --> 00:16:18.639 What do you think? 00:16:18.960 --> 00:16:20.159 Are we going to look foolish? 00:16:20.240 --> 00:16:22.080 Are we going to get in trouble? 00:16:23.039 --> 00:16:24.320 Did they doubt? 00:16:24.559 --> 00:16:25.759 We don't know. 00:16:26.320 --> 00:16:30.559 Did they immediately rush off or did they take a vote and the majority decided to go? 00:16:30.639 --> 00:16:31.919 And so they went as a group. 00:16:32.159 --> 00:16:34.720 We aren't sure of the circumstances. 00:16:35.200 --> 00:16:37.919 But the text tells us that they went. 00:16:39.200 --> 00:16:40.720 They stepped out in faith. 00:16:40.799 --> 00:16:43.279 He says, Show yourselves to the priest. 00:16:44.080 --> 00:16:48.320 The priest acted as a health inspector in situations like this. 00:16:48.480 --> 00:17:18.319 If somebody, typically, if somebody had a skin disease, leprosy, uh, if they were healed, uh, if the if uh they had met the certain prescribed uh requirements in the Old Testament, then they would go to the priest, and the priest would examine them and then set them in quarantine, and they would come back a little over a week later and they would examine them again to make sure that uh they were no longer defiled, and then they would be declared clean and they could enter back into the community. 00:17:21.440 --> 00:17:27.440 But a person usually didn't go to the priest until his skin had already cleared up. 00:17:29.279 --> 00:17:35.599 Perhaps they had hope and they took a step of faith. 00:17:35.920 --> 00:17:37.839 Now, was this genuine faith? 00:17:38.000 --> 00:17:39.119 Was this genuine? 00:17:39.279 --> 00:17:41.440 I think at some level it was sincere. 00:17:41.599 --> 00:17:47.039 I think at the moment they were sincere in hearing Jesus and believing him. 00:17:47.200 --> 00:17:55.279 But I would say for most of them, and this is what we will see, for most of them, they had genuine faith, but it was only a temporary faith. 00:17:55.519 --> 00:17:57.119 It was only a momentary faith. 00:17:57.680 --> 00:18:01.680 It was a faith that said, God, we're in a desperate situation. 00:18:01.759 --> 00:18:03.279 We cry out to you. 00:18:04.319 --> 00:18:06.079 And we do the same thing. 00:18:06.319 --> 00:18:13.759 We find ourselves in a fix, we find ourselves in a difficulty, we find ourselves in danger or with disease, and we cry out to God. 00:18:13.920 --> 00:18:20.480 But once the situation passes, it's back to business as usual, and we forget all about God. 00:18:22.720 --> 00:18:32.480 So I think that they had a level of faith, a temporary faith, and they and they left in earnest. 00:18:34.480 --> 00:18:46.000 Jesus talks about this, and we we saw this earlier when we examined the parable of the sower and the seed and the and the four soils in Luke chapter 8, verses 4 through 15. 00:18:46.079 --> 00:18:50.559 Let me read a few of those verses, verses 11 through 15 of Luke chapter 8. 00:18:50.799 --> 00:18:51.680 Jesus said this. 00:18:52.480 --> 00:18:55.519 Now the parable is this: the seed is the word of God. 00:18:55.920 --> 00:19:04.240 The one along the path are those who have heard, then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. 00:19:05.119 --> 00:19:15.119 But then he says this about the second soil, and the one on the rock are those who, when they heard the word, received it with joy, but these have no root. 00:19:15.359 --> 00:19:19.680 They believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away. 00:19:20.880 --> 00:19:31.039 And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way, they're choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. 00:19:32.960 --> 00:19:41.680 And so Jesus says here that there are some that express an initial response, and yet it is only temporary. 00:19:43.519 --> 00:19:53.359 He says, lastly, and for those in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold fast in an honest and good heart and bear fruit with patience. 00:19:55.519 --> 00:20:03.279 Quite literally, with most of these ten, their faith was only skin deep. 00:20:06.720 --> 00:20:07.599 Look at what it says. 00:20:07.759 --> 00:20:17.440 As they went on their way, verse 14, as they went on their way, they were cleansed. 00:20:17.759 --> 00:20:20.640 As they went, they were cleansed. 00:20:22.799 --> 00:20:25.039 Can you imagine that reaction? 00:20:25.839 --> 00:20:26.640 Think about it. 00:20:26.720 --> 00:20:37.759 If you were one of those ten lepers, you had lived in that situation in isolation, uh, abandonment from your family for years, perhaps decades. 00:20:38.319 --> 00:20:52.000 You might not even remember what it was like to feel the embrace of another human being because nobody had touched you in years, because of your defilement and your uncleanness, and you're you're separate from society. 00:20:52.319 --> 00:21:08.079 And as you're walking, as you're walking among this group, maybe you begin to feel tingling in your hands, like when you're when you fall asleep on your arm and you wake up and and the blood starts to circulate again, and and you feel those pins and needles. 00:21:08.319 --> 00:21:16.480 Maybe, maybe they didn't even realize they were healed until they turned and they looked at one of their friends and they saw him and they thought, is that me too? 00:21:16.640 --> 00:21:18.000 Was I healed as well? 00:21:18.240 --> 00:21:25.599 And they begin to look at their hands, they begin to look at their body, and they see that they have been delivered from their great need. 00:21:30.720 --> 00:21:33.119 Can you imagine what it was like? 00:21:38.079 --> 00:21:40.799 But wouldn't you wonder if that was you? 00:21:42.640 --> 00:21:46.400 Who was that man who changed my life? 00:21:48.960 --> 00:21:51.599 Doesn't this even enter your mind? 00:21:55.279 --> 00:22:05.440 I can't imagine the shock and joy and the and and just the Explosion of various emotions that they must have had at the moment that they realized that they were healed. 00:22:07.519 --> 00:22:13.599 We want to explain away the fact that nine out of ten didn't return but continued on their way. 00:22:13.680 --> 00:22:15.519 But Jesus addresses this. 00:22:16.880 --> 00:22:18.640 The shocking return. 00:22:19.359 --> 00:22:20.319 Lastly. 00:22:20.720 --> 00:22:22.720 Why is it so shocking? 00:22:23.519 --> 00:22:24.880 Look at what happens here. 00:22:24.960 --> 00:22:43.440 It says, one of them, when he saw that he was healed, when he looked at his body and he saw the reality of what had happened, he turned back, praising God with a loud voice, and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks. 00:22:45.440 --> 00:22:47.599 Why was it so shocking? 00:22:48.160 --> 00:22:50.720 It wasn't shocking that one returned. 00:22:50.960 --> 00:22:53.759 What's shocking is that nine did not. 00:22:57.279 --> 00:23:00.640 That's what's shocking in this passage. 00:23:03.200 --> 00:23:10.880 As soon as this man realized that he began to praise God, it says with a loud voice, he couldn't be contained. 00:23:12.240 --> 00:23:21.359 Spurgeon tells a story about a woman that came up to him and he was talking to her and he was sharing the gospel with her. 00:23:21.440 --> 00:23:30.960 And this woman, and Spurgeon was the prince of preachers, and rarely was he at a loss for words, but this woman talked so much he could barely get a word in edgewise. 00:23:31.440 --> 00:23:48.880 And so the woman kept talking and talking, and Spurgeon kept trying to share the gospel here and there, and there became a growing awareness of what Spurgeon was telling her about forgiveness in Christ and new life and a relationship that begins now and goes on forever. 00:23:49.200 --> 00:23:54.960 And she says, if this is true, God's never gonna hear the end of it. 00:23:56.880 --> 00:23:58.480 And that was this man. 00:23:59.599 --> 00:24:03.839 He was healed, and God was never gonna hear the end of it. 00:24:03.920 --> 00:24:05.279 But there was more than that. 00:24:05.519 --> 00:24:12.319 This revealed something deeper that had gone on in his life that didn't happen in the other nine. 00:24:14.079 --> 00:24:16.000 Because he was praising God. 00:24:16.240 --> 00:24:19.599 God had turned his heart towards him, he's praising God. 00:24:19.839 --> 00:24:23.279 He falls at the feet of Jesus and giving him thanks. 00:24:23.359 --> 00:24:30.400 And what's interesting here, this in the Gospels, the only time it says giving Jesus thanks is this passage. 00:24:30.559 --> 00:24:33.039 Every other time it's used in reference to God the Father. 00:24:33.200 --> 00:24:36.240 And most of the times it's Jesus giving thanks to God the Father. 00:24:36.319 --> 00:24:43.839 And I think Luke, in a very subtle way, is pointing to the reality of who Jesus is, that he is God Himself. 00:24:44.000 --> 00:24:50.640 But this man recognizes his heart is turned to Christ more than just physical healing. 00:24:50.799 --> 00:24:53.920 Something had happened at the core of who he was. 00:24:54.160 --> 00:25:00.160 He had been converted, he had placed his faith in Christ, and he comes back praising God. 00:25:01.039 --> 00:25:04.160 Notice what Luke adds here at the end of verse 16. 00:25:05.200 --> 00:25:07.039 Now he was a Samaritan. 00:25:09.039 --> 00:25:12.400 Luke hasn't mentioned that up until this point. 00:25:13.519 --> 00:25:21.119 We would assume by reading this that they were all Jewish, but here now Luke points out that there was one that wasn't Jewish. 00:25:21.200 --> 00:25:25.599 He says, now he was a Samaritan, the one who came back. 00:25:26.640 --> 00:25:27.759 This is significant. 00:25:28.000 --> 00:25:32.240 Jews did not get along with Samaritans. 00:25:33.599 --> 00:25:41.359 In 722, when the Assyrians came and overran the northern kingdom, and most of them were, most of the ten tribes were displaced. 00:25:41.599 --> 00:25:47.759 Some, particularly the poor, were left, and the Assyrians came in and they began to mingle together. 00:25:47.839 --> 00:25:49.440 And so they were half-breeds. 00:25:49.680 --> 00:25:52.640 And in addition to that, their worship was corrupted. 00:25:52.720 --> 00:25:58.400 They didn't understand the true reality of God in the Old Testament. 00:25:58.559 --> 00:26:01.839 And they were outcasts because they were Samaritans. 00:26:02.079 --> 00:26:04.559 This man was doubly an outcast. 00:26:04.720 --> 00:26:09.279 Not only was he unclean because he was a leper, he was also a Samaritan. 00:26:09.519 --> 00:26:13.599 So even in his best days, he would have still been rejected. 00:26:16.160 --> 00:26:19.759 And so Luke notes this man, he was a Samaritan. 00:26:22.960 --> 00:26:27.599 Rather than commending this man, Jesus expresses shock that the other nine didn't return. 00:26:27.680 --> 00:26:28.559 Look at what Jesus says. 00:26:28.720 --> 00:26:33.759 He says, verse 17, were not ten cleansed? 00:26:34.559 --> 00:26:36.240 Where are the nine? 00:26:38.880 --> 00:26:43.759 Thanksgiving would have been the natural response to being healed. 00:26:44.319 --> 00:26:47.680 That should have been the natural overflow of a heart. 00:26:47.839 --> 00:26:54.559 And the lack of thanksgiving reveals the reality of their hearts that they were hardened and unbelieving. 00:26:54.880 --> 00:26:58.400 Ungratefulness is often a mark of unbelief. 00:26:59.599 --> 00:27:03.599 And unbelief is characterized by ungratefulness. 00:27:03.920 --> 00:27:08.000 And these nine, and by Jesus pointing out, notice what Jesus says. 00:27:08.079 --> 00:27:13.599 He says, Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner? 00:27:15.839 --> 00:27:18.559 The other nine, presumably, were Jewish. 00:27:18.799 --> 00:27:22.000 The other nine had the scriptures. 00:27:22.160 --> 00:27:26.400 The other nine at some point were trained in the things of God. 00:27:26.799 --> 00:27:34.559 And they were representative, I believe, of many of the Jews, most of the Jews of Jesus' day. 00:27:34.720 --> 00:27:36.960 And so Jesus is shocked here. 00:27:38.720 --> 00:27:49.599 Oftentimes in the gospel, it was the Gentiles that turned to Jesus and showed genuine faith in contrast to the Jews who ought to have. 00:27:49.920 --> 00:27:53.359 I think of Matthew chapter 15, verses 21 through 28. 00:27:53.519 --> 00:28:06.000 There was a Canaanite woman that's crying out for healing for her daughter who is demon-possessed, and Jesus commends her for her faith, even though she was a Canaanite. 00:28:06.079 --> 00:28:07.920 She was not Jewish. 00:28:08.160 --> 00:28:12.079 Or the Roman centurion, we saw in Luke chapter 7, verses 1 through 10. 00:28:12.160 --> 00:28:20.079 He comes to Jesus for the healing of his sick servant, and he understands the authority that Jesus has and he demonstrates great faith. 00:28:21.039 --> 00:28:28.000 We saw in Luke 13 that Jesus said that many of the Jews would find themselves outside of the kingdom. 00:28:28.720 --> 00:28:33.119 Jesus said this, in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 00:28:33.359 --> 00:28:45.200 When you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, all of the patriarchs of the Old Testament, he says, and you yourselves cast out. 00:28:46.720 --> 00:28:55.519 And then he said, And people will come from east and west and north and south and recline at table in the kingdom of God. 00:28:55.680 --> 00:28:58.400 And this was already beginning to happen. 00:28:59.519 --> 00:29:04.880 Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner? 00:29:05.039 --> 00:29:10.319 What Jesus was asking at this point were, where are God's chosen people? 00:29:13.759 --> 00:29:18.079 And here's the heart of the problem that Jesus is addressing here. 00:29:19.359 --> 00:29:26.480 All ten wanted healing, but only one wanted the healer. 00:29:27.440 --> 00:29:33.359 All ten wanted healing, but only one wanted the healer. 00:29:34.559 --> 00:29:36.960 They got temporary deliverance. 00:29:38.319 --> 00:29:42.079 The other nine, they got, they received temporary deliverance. 00:29:42.400 --> 00:29:45.599 This man received eternal life. 00:29:45.839 --> 00:29:48.480 Notice what Jesus says here at the end of this. 00:29:48.640 --> 00:29:54.640 Verse 19, and he says to him, Rise and go your way, your faith has made you well. 00:29:54.799 --> 00:30:00.880 Literally, what it says there is, Rise, go your way, your faith has saved you. 00:30:02.880 --> 00:30:08.559 This man had received salvation. 00:30:12.400 --> 00:30:14.880 What lessons can we learn from this? 00:30:15.359 --> 00:30:24.079 Even if we're believers, I presume that most of us here have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. 00:30:24.319 --> 00:30:27.759 We can still miss the mark. 00:30:29.359 --> 00:30:30.559 One author writes this. 00:30:30.720 --> 00:30:37.519 He says, if you're a Christian mainly because you want to be changed, that's a problem. 00:30:37.920 --> 00:30:47.839 If you're giving your life to God mostly because you're tired of yourself and want to be a different person, well, that may suggest you're merely using God to fix you. 00:30:48.559 --> 00:30:53.759 That's not faith, that's not love of God, that's love of self. 00:30:55.599 --> 00:30:57.599 All of them were desperate. 00:30:58.559 --> 00:31:00.799 All of them wanted healing. 00:31:01.440 --> 00:31:03.920 All of them pled for mercy. 00:31:04.720 --> 00:31:07.279 But only one wanted a savior. 00:31:09.839 --> 00:31:11.920 Our goal isn't healing. 00:31:12.400 --> 00:31:15.759 Our goal isn't deliverance from our problems and our struggles. 00:31:15.920 --> 00:31:18.799 Our goal isn't even victory over temptation. 00:31:18.960 --> 00:31:20.000 Those are all good things. 00:31:20.079 --> 00:31:21.200 Don't misunderstand me. 00:31:21.279 --> 00:31:22.799 Don't mishear what I'm saying. 00:31:23.039 --> 00:31:27.039 Those are all good things, but that is not our goal. 00:31:28.559 --> 00:31:30.880 They're really good things, but they're not our goal. 00:31:31.119 --> 00:31:32.480 Our goal is God. 00:31:32.799 --> 00:31:35.440 Our goal is Jesus Christ. 00:31:39.680 --> 00:31:48.799 You know, it's so easy for us to look at our lives and look at our problems and look at our struggles and look at our temptations and think, if only I was delivered from this. 00:31:50.640 --> 00:31:53.759 And we make that the goal of our lives. 00:31:55.680 --> 00:32:00.160 But the goal of our lives isn't us, it's Him. 00:32:00.319 --> 00:32:03.599 The goal of our lives isn't what God can do for us. 00:32:03.759 --> 00:32:05.599 The goal of our lives is God. 00:32:08.319 --> 00:32:15.519 In his book Redemption, Mike Wilkerson says this you see, we don't just get peace from God. 00:32:16.000 --> 00:32:17.920 God is our peace. 00:32:18.160 --> 00:32:19.599 He gives us himself. 00:32:20.319 --> 00:32:24.079 We don't just get joy from God, he is our joy. 00:32:24.400 --> 00:32:25.920 He gives us himself. 00:32:26.720 --> 00:32:28.000 He is our hope. 00:32:30.000 --> 00:32:32.720 He is our love and he gives us himself. 00:32:32.880 --> 00:32:34.559 Where do we find our freedom? 00:32:34.799 --> 00:32:38.000 Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 00:32:38.240 --> 00:32:45.680 It is in the presence of God, beholding his glory in the face of Jesus Christ, that is where we are changed. 00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:55.920 When we recognize our goal is not us and our goal is not our transformation, our goal is a relationship with Him. 00:32:56.079 --> 00:33:00.400 But when we pursue Him, He begins to change and transform us. 00:33:05.440 --> 00:33:07.039 What is our greatest need? 00:33:07.200 --> 00:33:10.079 Our greatest need is not deliverance from our problems. 00:33:10.160 --> 00:33:18.079 Our greatest need is Jesus, and that is who God gives to us and calls us to pursue Him. 00:33:20.640 --> 00:33:26.240 Let me close with words of an old hymn written in the late 1800s. 00:33:26.960 --> 00:33:29.200 I'll just read a couple of the stanzas. 00:33:29.279 --> 00:33:32.480 It's by a man, a missionary statesman A. 00:33:32.640 --> 00:33:32.720 B. 00:33:32.880 --> 00:33:35.599 Simpson, and the the title of it is Himself. 00:33:35.680 --> 00:33:40.000 Maybe you've heard this before, but he writes this in poetic lyric. 00:33:40.480 --> 00:33:44.400 Once it was the blessing, now it is the Lord. 00:33:44.720 --> 00:33:48.640 Once it was the feeling, now it is his word. 00:33:49.119 --> 00:33:53.759 Once his gifts I wanted, now the giver own. 00:33:54.160 --> 00:33:59.279 Once I sought for healing, now himself alone. 00:34:00.079 --> 00:34:03.680 Once was painful trying, now 'tis perfect trust. 00:34:03.920 --> 00:34:07.519 Once a half salvation, now the uttermost. 00:34:07.759 --> 00:34:11.760 Once was ceaseless holding, now he holds me fast. 00:34:12.159 --> 00:34:17.360 Once was constant drifting, now my anchor cast. 00:34:19.360 --> 00:34:25.920 Once I sought for healing, now himself alone. 00:34:27.280 --> 00:34:29.840 Our greatest need is not deliverance. 00:34:30.639 --> 00:34:32.800 Our greatest need is Jesus. 00:34:33.440 --> 00:34:36.880 And that is who God gave to us. 00:34:38.960 --> 00:34:44.079 I want you to join me as I lead us in prayer and we sing our final song. 00:34:44.320 --> 00:34:48.639 Maybe you're here this morning and you have never placed your faith in Christ. 00:34:48.719 --> 00:35:06.079 You've never asked Christ to forgive you, to come into your life, to live with you, to understand that Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay the penalty for sin and that all who cry out to him, he gives forgiveness and new life and a relationship with him. 00:35:06.239 --> 00:35:14.480 And so this morning, if you have never done that, I encourage you as we close in prayer to say, Jesus, have mercy on me. 00:35:15.039 --> 00:35:18.079 I want to know you and have a relationship with you. 00:35:18.159 --> 00:35:22.239 And I believe that you died on the cross to pay the penalty for my sins. 00:35:22.400 --> 00:35:23.840 Join me as I lead us in prayer. 00:35:24.000 --> 00:35:28.559 Father God, each one of us needs Jesus. 00:35:30.480 --> 00:35:36.239 More than deliverance from our problems and our struggles, our trials and our temptations. 00:35:36.800 --> 00:35:38.239 We need Jesus. 00:35:38.880 --> 00:35:40.320 He is our peace. 00:35:40.559 --> 00:35:42.079 He is our hope. 00:35:42.400 --> 00:35:44.239 He is our joy. 00:35:44.559 --> 00:35:47.679 He is our satisfaction. 00:35:50.079 --> 00:36:03.360 And so, Father, I pray for each one of us that we will recognize that it is not the gift that we ought to desire, but the giver. 00:36:05.440 --> 00:36:07.119 And may we seek Jesus. 00:36:07.280 --> 00:36:13.519 I pray for each one and for those who this morning are placing their faith and trust in Christ. 00:36:14.880 --> 00:36:17.280 Holy Spirit, do your work that only you can do. 00:36:17.440 --> 00:36:18.639 We pray in Christ's name. 00:36:19.039 --> 00:36:19.599 Amen.