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Thankful to Draw Near (Luke 17:11-19) The holiday season is beginning this week with Thanksgiving. It is the time of the year when we especially take time to consider those things and people for which we are most thankful. I am thankful for... Dave Huebner. For his perspective on life that is radically Christ-centered, that has been developed from years of seeking to know & obey the God of the Bible with joy. His love for his wife and family is refreshing and his care and concern for all who attend Grace is a great example for me as a young pastor. April Bockus – joyfully works behind the scenes to make sure countless little details are in order, from finances to rooms being properly arranged and clean My wife, Jenny. She is a great source of encouragement to me daily. Her godliness is evident. I am so blessed by her gracious spirit and wisdom. Young families attending Bible hour classes and small groups hungry for God’s Word, eager to really know God and obey him with their finances, parenting, and conversations. Striving to learn what it means to center their lives on the gospel and develop to be future leaders in the church. Those saints in the church who have sacrificed, served, prayed, and faithfully attended for longer than I or even my parents have been alive. Those of you who weekly ask for prayer for specific friends, family, co-workers and classmates to repent and believe in Jesus. The nursery workers and children workers who assist the parents by enabling them to be fed and encouraged by attending worship services and Bible studies and who help parents by supplementing and reinforcing the teaching that parents are doing at home. I pray you are already considering those things and people for which you are thankful. I pray our time together in God’s Word and sharing in the Lord’s Supper will further stir up your thoughts of gratitude toward God. Let’s read from Luke 17:11-19: On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. 12 And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance 13 and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” 14 When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. 15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; 16 and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. 17 Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? 18 Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.” 11 Let’s begin examining the text today by briefly considering the life of a leper in the time of Jesus. Listen to what the Law required 1 Leviticus 13:45-46 - “The 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.’ He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease. He is unclean. He shall live alone. His dwelling shall be outside the camp." First, the Law required lepers to live as outcasts, forced away from society, from family & friends. We can see from verse 12 that these lepers complied with the Law as they "stood at a distance". Second, it would seem leprosy is a prime example of the axiom “misery loves company.” This group was a mixed bag, consisting of at least one Samaritan and probably many Jews. In verse 16, which is talking about the healed leper who fell on his face and thanked Jesus, it says, “Now he was a Samaritan”. In the Greek the order of the words in this sentence place a great emphasis on the word ‘he’. This emphasis was added to contrast this man’s ethnic identity to the other nine. All this to say, the loneliness of leprosy, at least in this story, united even Jews and Samaritans. Third, lepers were reminded constantly of their disease, loneliness, rejected status, and distance from society. Alfred Edersheim described leprosy as a state of living death. With a few of these realities in mind, imagine with me what it would be like to place yourself in the skin, rags, and place in life of a leper. Think about being forced to dress like a reject, not being able to even cover up your condition. Even more think that every time someone came near enough to hear your voice, you were forced to remind that person that you were unclean. Would we grow to despise the sound of our own voice? Would I grow bitter as I saw a man walking by with his family, remembering my wife and children who struggled through life without me to provide for their needs and protect them? Surely the lepers had heard of the great man named Jesus. Surely they heard how he caused the blind to see, made the lame to walk, raised the dead to life, cast out tormenting demons, and even healed other lepers. You can sense the anticipation as these men waited to see if they would receive an audience with this great man named Jesus. The ten lepers cried out, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” They believed Jesus possessed the compassion and power to heal them and restore their lives. Their faith is evident as we see the lepers respond to Jesus’ command in verse 14 to "go and show yourselves to the priests." According to the Law, a leper was to show himself to the priest only after he was healed. Although these lepers were not yet healed they believed Jesus, wanting desperately to be healed, and they went to present themselves to the priest as men who were cleansed and healed. We read a the end of verse 14 that, “As they went they were cleansed.” We could stop here today. We could take the Lord's Supper. We could thankfully acknowledge our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who compassionately cares for physical and spiritual outcasts, those who are untouchable because of sin. We could praise him for his power to overcome disease and death. While acknowledging the power and compassion of 2 our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ glorifies him as we worship, I believe the Holy Spirit would have more for us to consider this morning. You see verses 11-14 are not the main point of the story, these first four verses merely set the context, they set the stage, for the main point of this story. The next five verses contain the main points for us to consider. Draw Near to God through a Faith in Jesus that Worships First, we see the Samaritan drew near to God through a faith in Jesus that worshipped. In verse 15 we see a critical word, the word ‘then’, pointing out that there is more to the story. We can see from the text that all of the lepers were healed. We see that all ten went to perform their religious obligation, to worship. Sadly, although all were healed and all went to worship, only one man truly worshipped God. Luke 17:15-16 - Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; 16 and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. There are two important truths for us to heed this morning. First, This is the only place in the New Testament where thanksgiving is not given to God the Father, instead thanks here is directed toward God the Son, Jesus. This is a good reminder to us that when Scripture commands the disciple of Jesus Christ to be thankful it is not merely an emotion or a state of being. Thanksgiving is only really thanksgiving when it is offered to God. The triune God is the object of all thanksgiving. Second, the man praised God by falling on his face at the feet of Jesus and thanking him. So, this morning as you consider this story, I hope you will not miss that acceptable and authentic worship before God is always in a posture of humility and thanksgiving. Look with me now at verses 17 and 18. Luke 17:17-18 - Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? 18 Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Where were the other nine? Why did the Samaritan bow alone? The other nine, presumably Jews, who had the Law and grew up being a part of the people of God did not really understand true worship, or true faith, or even God. The other nine lepers missed the greatness and compassion of the Giver, because it would seem they were really only interested in what the power and compassion of Jesus could do for them. As we mentioned earlier in verse 16 Jesus draws attention to the fact that man thanking him and bowing at his feet was a Samaritan. How many of us here this morning have also grown up hearing of Jesus, doing churchy things, and attending weekly worship? But like the nine do we really get it? How many of us are offering ritualistic worship to God that he does not recognize as worship? 3 The faith of the foreigner was accompanied by worship - humble worship and thankful worship. Jesus recognized worship of the Samaritan as genuine. Thankfulness is one of the most fundamental and basic expressions of worship to God. It has been said that, “Thanksgiving is the essential and favorite means of Christian expression.” So, are you known as a thankful person? Are your thoughts and words characterized by gratitude or grumbling? Throughout the day do your words give life to others as gracious words of thanksgiving are mingled in your conversations or does the general tenor of your communication, devoid of thankfulness, drain life from others? At our last home we made some minor improvements to the curb appeal of our home by adding two raised flowerbeds. In order to prevent the weeds from overtaking the beds and to promote the growth of our flowers and scrubs we used a weed barrier. Thanksgiving is the barrier that promotes fruit-bearing lives and prevents the weeds of bitterness, slander, gossip, anger, and negativity from growing. It is no surprise the Apostle Paul repeatedly commands the saints to be thankful. So, this morning if you are a child of God, with a faith in Jesus that is accompanied by true worship, you life will exhibit one or more of these three realities: you will be thankful, or you will desire to be ever more thankful, or you will be grieved because you are not as thankful as your Lord Jesus commands. Maybe you are here this morning and you are not a thankful person. Or you might say, "being thankful is just not my personality." Or maybe you think you really are a grateful person, but others would not see you in that way. If we are not consistently growing in a posture of thanksgiving or if we are not broken that thanksgiving is absent from our life before God and men, then we should not see ourselves at the feet of Jesus with the Samaritan. Rather, we are likely with the nine who walked away from Jesus, thankful for the gift, but not thrilled with Jesus himself. Here is one more thing to consider: We might be tempted to think we can be thankful for the big things, like Jesus dying for sinners and salvation, but that we don't have time be thankful for all of the little things, things like God granting another day of life as we wake each morning, like food to eat three times each day, like a hot cup of coffee, or breath every time we breathe, or the strength and health we need each day to go to work, or the blessing of singing with your roommate or together here on Sunday morning. If we cannot be faithful and obedient to thank God for these little things, we cannot think we will really delight to thank and worship God for something big, like the sacrificial death of his perfect Son Jesus in our place. We cannot think we will delight to thank God and worship God when we are faced with difficulties or stresses or trials. We cannot think we will be among the multitude of those from every nation, and tribe and people and language with robes washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb, who will worship God saying, 4 Revelation 7:12 “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.” The Samaritan drew near to Jesus with thanksgiving. He was filled with gratitude for the healing power and compassion of Jesus, thus proving the reality of his heart and genuineness of his faith to receive an even greater cleansing, for an even greater salvation. So, do you share a thankful heart like the Samaritan? Do you delight in Jesus? Do you find great joy in kneeling as his feet, to hear his voice as one of his sheep? Do you delight to see his great love for sinners like you and me through his perfect obedience and sacrificial death in the place of all who believe in him? Are you thankful to be near to Jesus to hear his voice so that you can obey his commands? Draw Near to God through a Faith in Jesus that Saves Finally, we see the Samaritan drew near to God through a faith in Jesus that saves. In verse 19 we read - And [Jesus] said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.” I want to direct our attention to three points from this verse. First, Jesus commended the foreigner for his faith; however, we should not see the Samaritan as super-spiritual for his response. The Samaritan only rightly responded to Jesus. He did not do anything beyond that which is expected of one who encounters the power and grace of God in Jesus Christ. This point especially rings true in light of the previous parable. Look with me at the words of Jesus from Luke 17:7-10 Luke 17:7-10 7 “Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table’? 8 Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink’? 9 Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? 10 So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’ ” So, Jesus expects and requires those who encounter his power and grace to respond to him with a faith that delights in drawing near to him. We are indeed unworthy servants who have only done what was our duty. Responding with a faith that delights in being near to Jesus himself does not make someone a super-Christian, it is the only response God recognizes as true faith. Second, notice who Jesus addressed in this verse, only the Samaritan. While all ten lepers possessed some element of we might call belief as they responded to the command of Jesus to go to the priest and they were healed as they went as we saw in verse 14, Jesus only recognized one as possessing faith. The person with faith was a Samaritan, not the one you would expect to have faith. In light of this sobering observation, I believe we will do well to 5 examine the reality of our own lives this morning. Jesus did not recognize the faith of the nine lepers who did not return. The faith that Jesus recognized was witnessed in the humble posture of a man who keenly felt his previous distance from God, both because he was from outside the people of God and because of his disease. He knew he was unclean. This man longed to be cleansed, to be healed, to be an acceptable part of society, to return to his family again. However, when he encountered the mercy and power of God as Jesus healed him, the foreigner sought true worship of God in Jesus. His faith was not merely an opportunity to manipulate God to grant his request, but his faith brought him to the feet of the Master. Third, the faith of the Samaritan was recognized by Jesus not only to be a healing faith, but also a saving faith. The interaction between Jesus and the Samaritan ended as Jesus told the man "your faith has made you well." This phrase can also be understood as "your faith has saved you." These same words are used by Luke in 7:50, the story of the sinful women who washed Jesus feet with her tears, kisses, and hair in the home of Simon the Pharisee. Jesus used the exact same words to tell the sinful woman, who loved much because she had been forgiven much, that her sins were forgiven and her faith had saved her. Luke used a phrase with a double meaning to communicate a powerful message. So, as we are about to celebrate the Lord's Supper, the great celebration and reminder of the death of Jesus in our place, consider one more question. Does your faith reflect the Samaritan outcast, who saw that his greatest duty and greatest delight was to be near Jesus in humble adoration and thanks or does your faith more closely resemble the pseudo-faith of the nine whose belief was merely to manipulate Jesus to get what they thought they needed? We gather this morning to worship our great God and Father, to draw near to his throne of grace together with each other through hearing his word, singing his praises, and celebrating the death of Jesus by taking the Lord’s Supper or Communion. Many traditions call this act of worship taking the Eucharist. The word Eucharist is taken from the Greek word eucharisteo, which means thanksgiving. The Lord’s Supper, the Eucharist, is indeed a celebration of thanksgiving. We are thankful that our great, holy God sent his perfect Son Jesus Christ to die in our place so that we might draw near to God himself through faith. I believe we honor our Heavenly Father and Jesus, the Lamb of God, most when we take the cup and the body in communion with a sobering realization of the infinite penalty of our sin which he took on the cross in our place but also when we celebrate with thanksgiving and humility that through the perfect sacrifice of Jesus we have been brought near to the Holy One. 6