Download Thankful to Draw Near (Luke 17:11-19)

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.”
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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
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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
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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?
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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,
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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
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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.
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