Master Over Hopelessness Luke 17: 11-19
We have been looking at Jesus’ teaching in Luke 17 and we’ll take a few minutes to review the Lessons of this chapter which lead into the healing of the ten lepers:
a. Luke 17:1-2: Don’t become ensnared (that’s what a stumbling block is, a snare.) What caught the Pharisees in a trap? Do-Good Religiosity. Pride in their works. This blinded them to the SAVING purpose of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is salvation in no other name, even though He was rejected by the Jews. 1 Peter 2: 7: “But to those who do not believe, "The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone, " 8 and, "A stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall." They stumble because they disobey the message--which is also what they were destined for.”
b. verses 3-5 concerning forgiving others 7 times a day for the same offense. How can a person do that? Faith enables forgiveness: Pride is the enemy of forgiving others and BEING forgiven. The number “7” implies that we live with a continual attitude of forgiveness and THAT takes DIVINE GODLY faith. "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." (1 Peter 5:5)
c. The disciples said: “Increase our faith! We can’t possibly forgive like this!” In Verse 6, “The Lord responds, "If you had faith like a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and be planted in the sea '; and it would obey you.” Only supernatural faith forgives!
d. Last week we looked at The Parable of the Master and the Servant in verses 7-10: Faith serves our Master in humility for the Privilege NOT the Prestige. We have been forgiven all of our debt and sin and He alone is worthy of the Honor because He first wasTHE humble servant who SERVED US FIRST with His death on the Cross and so it is a privilege for the DOULOS (slave) to serve his KURIOS (for the servant to serve the Master.) 2 Timothy 2:21 teaches us to “be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.” The Privilege of serving the Master.
The STORY and SIMPLE STATISTICS
Today we look at verses 11-19 ESV: 11 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."
The math is simple enough in this real life account given by Luke: ten lepers call out to Jesus while He is travelling through an area between Jerusalem and Samaria. All the lepers are healed on their way to show themselves to the priests; Nine continue on their way to the Priest so that they can get on with their lives, but only one returns, and he was a Samaritan. The Simple math or simple statistics are this: 10 were healed, 9 (probably Jews) and they went on with their lives but one who was a Samaritan returned to give thanks to Jesus.
Leprosy is a disease that lasts between 10 and 30 years and was terminal until 1982. It is so contagious, that it was able to almost exterminate an entire nation. The disease takes away all skin sensitivity to pain and injury, so that, injuries become far worse than they originally are because the person doesn’t detect any problem at first: the results are loss of skin, limbs, teeth, eyesight, and the disease penetrates tissue, muscle, bones and organs. The bacteria invades every part of the body. Leprosy was Debilitating and DEADLY, and contracting it was a sure long and painful death sentence.
Lepers were considered the lowest of the low: their disease was considered in many cultures to be a direct curse from God, and since it was a communicable disease, they were ostracized and lived only with those who were also accursed. They were believed to be cursed by God and rejected by society, being removed from their families when they needed them most, and excluded from their religious practices as well, and so lepers lived in misery and HOPELESSNESS. Leprosy Ravaged Relationships. The lepers were taking the precautions imposed by law to keep their distance from Jesus and others not infected!
Without friends and family, knowing that death was imminent, the pain, the suffering, the degradation, they were forced to live outside of community, except their own, and without any hope whatsoever for medical help, and so the plight of Lepers was Desolate and Desperate.
The Lepers give us a picture of the sinner who is without any hope whatsoever of an escape from the effects of sin: we cannot save ourselves from sin, there is no cure, our works will not heal us. We have no one and nowhere to go and unable to DO ANYTHING on our own to pull us from the inevitable death trap of sin: Without God’s help and healing we are hopelessly and helplessly dead in sin. Sin Cripples and Kills!
THE SIMPLE but CRITICAL CRY FOR HELP
Look at THE SIMPLE but CRITICAL CRY FOR HELP: "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us." All of the lepers called Jesus, Master, which is “Epistates” in the Greek; Luke uses this word to designate “rabbi”, however, it was normally the title used by the disciples to address Jesus in Luke, not by those who were sick. The fact that the lepers use the word MASTER to describe Jesus tells us that they no doubt knew His miraculous abilities and reputation and also viewed Him as one who had authority. At the least, they had FAITH (a little faith) in the authority and ability of Jesus to heal. Jesus had held the authority over deadly disease and during His ministry, Jesus’ power to heal was never denied because it was clearly demonstrated: but Jesus could do FAR MORE than heal the body…or 10 bodies at a time.
Incidentally, in Luke 5, Jesus healed one leper and that man was told not to tell anyone because Jesus’ time to be crucified had not yet come: In today’s miracle, Jesus simultaneously heals 10 times that number, and since Jesus’ time to be crucified was approaching quickly, Jesus actually tells them to go and show themselves to the priest. That would certainly spread the Word of Jesus’ Divine Authority and Nature, and do so powerfully to the priests and leaders because the priest would be forced to confirm the supernatural power of Jesus.
“Jesus, Master, Have Mercy on us!” Their faith may have been small but they KNEW that they had no other options. THEY recognized that they were in a pitiful condition; Their only option was to depend on a superior DIVINE power and so they call upon Jesus’ authority to heal and they ask for mercy. In Matthew, Mark and Luke this is a common expression used by people who are asking Jesus to heal them.; Please show me PITY and POWER because You are one greater than I am. Would you go and ask for MERCY from someone if you thought there was not a chance that they had the ability or the authority to do anything FOR YOU? No. They recognized that in their pitiful situation, Godly “MERCY” could be exhibited in and through Christ alone. There was no other answer!
In Titus 3:4-7, in speaking about God’s mercy through Christ, it says: “4 But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, 5 He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” OUTSTANDING MERCY through Christ alone!!!!!!!! What GLORIOUS GOOD NEWS!
The UTTER OUTCAST Demonstrated Ingredients of Humility
The one who turned back to give praise to God was the Samaritan, the “foreigner”, not one of the House of Israel, but a stranger. John 1:11 had said: "He came unto His own, His own received Him not." The Samaritan is outside the people of God, outside the promises of God, outside of the temple, so instead of trying to see the priest, The Samaritan Turned Back, walks right back face-to-face with God in the flesh and goes into His own Holy of Holies. The meaning of the word in verse 15 (hypostrepho) is “to turn around” or “to turn back” or to return, however, the root word means to “Convert”, and in the Old Testament, an equivalent word meant TO REPENT, to change ones mind, to be converted. The Samaritan did not follow the other NINE: He turned back to Jesus and demonstrated true humility in the following ways.
The Samaritan Glorified God: He returned to Jesus and praised God with the same loud voice in which he had cried for MERCY. I pictured him singing that song “At the top of my lungs I will sing Hallelujah.” Praise be to the Lord.
Then we read that The Samaritan Worshiped Jesus: He fell on his face. His posture is saying, "I worship you. I want a relationship with You, I want everything You have to give." He knew he was in the presence of God. The general attitude of people today concerning Jesus is this: I WANT the BENEFITS from Jesus but without the BOWING. I want the HEALING without the HUMILITY. But not the Samaritan; he realized that he deserved nothing from Jesus but received EVERYTHING from Him.
The Samaritans were shunned by the Jews since the time of the divided Kingdom after Solomon. They were considered to be apostate by the Jews’ they were “pagan half-Jews. The Samaritans worshiped on Mount Gerizim while devout Jews only worshiped on the temple mount in Jerusalem. Not this foreigner: He worshiped at Jesus’ feet.
The Samaritan Praised or THANKED Him (Jesus). Guess what word is used? EUCHARISTEO- gave thanks, ;from eucharistos- grateful, thankful; from charizomai-to be gracious or to grant forgiveness; from Charis which is GRACE. He was given a little bit of faith and he responded to the faith given to him, but then HE RETURNED in order to thank the GIVER of Faith and healing, the Lord Jesus. He turned to PRAISE THE OBJECT OF HIS FAITH: He turned in order to give credit (GLORY, PRAISE, WORSHIP) to the ONE to whom it was DUE!
The climax to this is found in verse 19: And he said to him, "Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well." The Word for “made you well” is translated “save” (93x), “make whole” (9x), “heal” (3x), “be whole” (2x). Luke uses other words to describe “cleansing” or “healing”. The word here in this context means that The Samaritan was Saved!
All ten of the lepers were “Cleansed” or but this Half-pagan foreigner was SAVED! TEN were all given faith that provided healing from LEPROS but this UTTER OUTCAST demonstrated Ingredients of TRUE Humility and saving FAITH. The Other Nine went to the temple to show themselves to the priest, to worship in the temple made with human hands and get on with their lives and their families, with no further interest in Jesus. ONE CAME BACK and embraced Jesus as God, as Savior and LORD.
If all you receive from God are the daily blessings that everyone is receiving, you are missing the greatest of His gifts. The gift of forgiveness and eternal life are the offerings from God which are permanent. Unfortunately, most people are only interested in the temporal things, the things that will pass away. They don’t desire a RELATIONSHIP with Jesus as Lord, but only the riches that will soon pass away along with their souls. Do you want Jesus to just “fix up your life” a little bit, or do you want to trust Him to SAVE you? ONE, the Samaritan received faith to heal but also SAVING FAITH that led to repentance, praise, worship, thankfulness, AND SALVATION. The actions of the Samaritan revealed that not only was he healed, but his sins were FORGIVEN.
The story begs us to answer the question, “Which one am I?” Am I part of the NINE or am I one of those who, like the Samaritan, bow to Jesus as Lord and Savior? Do I know Jesus as the Savior from my sin?
OUTLINE The Lessons of Luke 17:
a. Luke 17:1-2: Don’t become ensnared in Do-Good Religiosity. There is salvation in no other name but JESUS. (1 Peter 2: 7-8)
b. Verses 3-5: Faith enables forgiveness: Pride is the enemy of forgiving others and BEING forgiven. (1 Peter 5:5)
c. Verse 6: Only supernatural faith forgives!
d. Verses 7-10: Faith serves our Master in humility for the Privilege NOT the Prestige. (2 Timothy 2:21)
SIMPLE STATISTICS: 10 were healed, 1 Samaritan returned to give thanks to Jesus.
1. Leprosy was Debilitating and Deadly.
2. Leprosy ravaged Relationships.
3. Lepers were Desolate and Desperate.
THE SIMPLE but CRITICAL CRY FOR HELP: “Jesus, Master, Have Mercy on us!”
1. Master exhibits faith in the authority of Jesus.
2. Mercy (in the NT) is only exhibited in and through Christ. (Titus 3:4-7)
The UTTER OUTCAST Demonstrated Ingredients of TRUE Humility
1. The Samaritan Turned Back: to change ones mind, to turn around. TO REPENT.
2. The Samaritan Glorified God
3. The Samaritan Worshiped Jesus:
4. The Samaritan Thanked Jesus:
5. The Samaritan was Saved by Jesus.
TEN received faith that healed leprosy.
ONE received faith that healed and faith that saved from sin.
