The Unity of Ten Lepers...
I. Birds of a Feather Flock Together...
a) Read:
Luk 17:11 And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.
Luk 17:12 And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off:
Luk 17:13 And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.
Luk 17:14 And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go show yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed.
Luk 17:15 And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God,
Luk 17:16 And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan.
Luk 17:17 And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?
Luk 17:18 There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger.
Luk 17:19 And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.
b) Sinners And Lepers Alike...
How many in here tonight know that leprosy symbolizes sin?
And how many know that sinners like to hang out with sinners?
There’s an old saying that says...
"Birds of a feather flock together." Amen?
My dad was in here Sunday night
and he was talking about how everyone’s a
Christian when they find out you’re a preacher.
And how many knows he was right?
As soon as they find out you’re a preacher or
when they find out that you’re a Christian,
All of a sudden they don’t smoke no more,
they don’t drink,
they don’t do this, and they don’t do that! Amen?
How many in here tonight know what I’m talking about?
But in all actuality they aren’t Christians.
They can’t wait to get back to their side of the fence.
They don’t want to be around you!
They want to be around others like them!
But as long as they’ve got to be around you
they don’t want you to know that they need Jesus.
They don’t want you to know that their living in sin,
Because if you knew that then you’d probably
preach to them.
And how many knows that when you were out
there living in the world,
The last thing that you wanted to do was listen
to somebody preach to you. Amen?
You wanted to be around people who lived like you,
And partied like you,
And drank like you,
You wanted to hang with your crowd because
they couldn’t preach to you even if they wanted to!
They couldn’t preach to you because they were
guilty of the same sins that you were guilty of
and they didn’t have any room to talk.
So you felt comfortable with them. Amen?
Well in the same way these ten lepers kept
company together.
Their common misery drove them to each other. Amen?
There was not a one of them healthy.
They all had leprosy!
And there leprosy kept them together.
It was illegal for them to go out in public and
fellowship with other people.
They couldn’t worship in the temple, but they
had to stay out side the city gates.
And if someone were to approach them they had
to yell out unclean, unclean!
They were to be seperated from the clean,
And they were drawn together by their ailment. Amen?
And their leprosy not only kept them together,
But it kept them at a distance from Jesus!
The Bible says that they stood afar off!
How many knows that Sin does the same exact thing!
It keeps you at a distance from Jesus.
It keeps you away from the things of God,
The things that God wants you to have,
And instead you group together with a group of
people just like you.
People who need Jesus just like you,
And together you listen to the devil tell you that
you don’t need Jesus.
But how many how many know that you do?
See, without Jesus your going the wrong way. Amen?
II. Different Directions...
See, when you’re not walking with the Lord,
You’re going in the wrong direction!
Luk 17:12 And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off:
The Greek word translated in that verse to the
phrase "there met" is Apantao.
Apantao comes from the primary particle Apo
which refers to:
any kind of separation of one thing from another
by which the union or fellowship of the two is destroyed,
How many knows that that sounds like the
seperation from God that sin causes. Amen?
Apo also refers to a physical seperation by
distance and time.
Both of these meanings are relevant in this
scripture because the lepers were seperated by
distance and time from Jesus,
and they were also unable to fellowship with
Jesus or any one else for that matter because of
there leprosy. Amen?
Our word Apantao is also a derivative of a
Greek word that you and I already know.
And that word is Anti.
In the Greek that word means to be opposite to.
So even though most Greek dictionaries might
simply define Apantao as "met" or "to meet"
A more accurate rendering would be to
"encounter coming from different directions."
So as we read...
Luk 17:12 And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off:
We could really read it...
Luk 17:12 And as he entered into a certain village, ten men that were lepers met him coming from the opposite direction, and stood afar off:
As far as these lepers were concerned they were
on their normal path of life.
They were doing what they always did.
They were probably hanging right outside the city gates.
They were thinking they were seperated from
everyone including God.
Oh but then Jesus came to town...
They had been going in the wrong direction
trying to put a gap between themselves and
everyone else,
But Jesus met them on their journey. Amen?
They weren’t looking for Jesus, but I believe He
was looking for them. Amen?
In the same way many of you, myself included,
were heading the wrong way.
At some point or another we were bound by sin
heading in the wrong direction
But Jesus met us on that path. Amen?
And He turned us around.
He set our feet up on solid ground. Amen?
And not because we were looking for Him, but
because He was looking for us.
III. Leprosy And Sin Need To Be Cleansed...
He wanted to cleanse us just like He wanted to
cleanse these ten lepers.
Notice I said cleanse.
Leprosy was a disease and a disease needs to be
healed or cured. Amen?
And you say well why do you keep saying
cleansed, Pastor?
Because that’s what the Bible says.
See the words used for healing diseases in
scripture are:
Therapeuo (ther-ap-yoo’-o)
Iaomai (ee-ah’-om-ahee)
Sozo (sode’-zo)
and these all mean to heal or cure.
But the verb used for healing leprosy is always
Katharizo (kath-ar-id’-zo),
Which means to cleanse, purify, or to pronounce
clean in a levitical sense.
See, when Jesus commissioned the twelve in Matt.10:8,
He said...
Mat 10:8 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils:
And when Jesus sent John the Baptist’s disciples
to him in prison He commanded them saying...
Mat 11:4 ...Go and show John again those things which ye do hear and see:
Mat 11:5 The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.
See, Jesus always emphasized the fact that lepers
should be cleansed,
Because it wasn’t enough for a leper to be healed.
They also needed to be pronounced ceromonially
clean by the priest so that they would be able to
enter in and worship God in the presence of
others.
See, even if they were healed they were still
considered unclean until the priest declared
otherwise.
That’s why Jesus sent the ten lepers to the
priest.
He wanted them to be declared ceremonially
clean so that they would be able to come into
fellowship with others and God.
Jesus knew that the cleansing of their leprosy
would reunite them to the to other believers,
Just like the cleansing of our sins should unite
us together in the body of Christ.
III. The Church Should Be United...
1Jn 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
See, the church should be a united church.
The cleansing of our sins should bring us into a
stronger bond with other believers than we
formerly had with other sinners.
See, when we were sinners we hung out with sinners,
We weren’t saved we partied with unsaved people,
And dodged the preacher. Amen?
But there’s alot of Christians today dodging the preacher.
We aren’t united.
We don’t hang out with other Christians.
This church doesn’t want to fellowship with that
church and vice versa.
How many knows thats not right?
That’s not God’s plan!
He said we should have fellowship one with
another.
The church today is acting like the ten lepers.
When they were lepers they were thick as thieves,
But once they were cleansed they became two
different groups.
They split up!
Nine went this way and the one went back to Jesus.
How many know why?
It’s because the nine were Jews and the one was
a Samaritan.
See, Jesus sending the lepers to show them
selves to the priest suggests that they were
jewish.
But the Bible says the one that came back was a
Samaritan.
He was good enough for the Jews to hang
around with while they were ceremonially
unclean but what would their friends think
If they brought a Samaritan into the temple to worship.
The Jews in those days believed that Samaritans
did not properly no how to worship God.
But how many know that that Samaritan not
only knew how to worship God,
He did it that day at the feet of Jesus.
We all need to follow that Samaritans lead tonight.
And we need to come into unity at the feet of Jesus.
The body can’t properly function if all of it’s
members aren’t united.
We can’t cut off the legs and expect to walk. Amen?
When we were in the world we could associate
with people from all kinds of different
backgrounds.
Different colors, different creeds.
But today we can’t even conquer denominational
barriers in the Church,
let alone racial barriers,
And whatever other kind of wall that men put
up. Amen?
Let’s be obedient to Jesus tonight.
Let’s come into the unity of the faith. Amen?
And let’s join together to further the Kingdom of God.
