“One out of Ten”
“One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” The he said to him, “Rise and go: your faith has made you well.” Luke 17:15-19
Intro: Sara is a person who worked downtown.
She parked her car and walked about a block to work every morning.
Near an abandoned brick building there was always a heavyset, middle-aged woman in a tattered clothes holding a sign asking for spare change for food.
She had a pleasant smile and always said "Good morning."
Sara most often gave her something.
After several months, the woman in the tattered clothes disappeared.
Sara wondered what had happened to her.
Then, one beautiful day,
once again she was in standing on the street in front of the abandoned brick building.
Sara walked by and reached into her purse to give the usual donation,
but this time the woman stopped her.
She said, "Thank you for helping me all those days."
"You won't see me again because I have a new job."
With that, she reached into a bag and handed Sara a wrapped package.
She had been standing at her old spot waiting, not for a handout,
but waiting for people she recognized so that she could give them a doughnut. She was thankful.
A group of lepers were walking together just outside a village along the road to Samaria.
Leprosy in the bible days was the most dreaded disease.
It produces large disfiguring lumps on the face and body, with sores on the skin,
It damages the nerves in the arms and legs,
It is so severe that it eventually will cause numbness and total loss of the use their hands and feet.
It was progressively worse…, until it becomes totally debilitating.
These were marked men and women for their inflamed, scaly skin,
These were people condemned as outcasts to be avoided.
Their common suffering and loss forced them together.
Into this hopeless and depressed scene walks Jesus.
But when Jesus walks into the middle our suffering
When Jesus walks into the middle of our broken lives we are given the opportunity to change.
Think about this question.
Have you said “thank you” for the people in your life who have rescued you?
Have you said, “thank you” to those who have reached out to you with love and help.
Have you said “thank you” for being delivered from sickness, danger, and sin?
Being thankful is a matter of the heart.
Being thankful all depends on what you choose to focus on.
You can either focus on your problems, or you can choose to focus on your blessings.
The question is: Do you want more problems, or do you want more blessings?
When we worry about the things we cannot change the bigger our problems become.
The more we focus on good in our life
The more we give thanks for what we have.
The more positive and hopeful our attitudes
The more we realize how great God is and how blessed we truly are.
When Jesus was heading toward the cross and His crucifixion He passed through the town of Samaria.
Jews had no dealings with Samaritans.
There was a fierce, long-standing shared and common bitterness between Jews and Samaritans.
It dated all the way back many generation to the early days of the Jacob and his twelve sons,
whose descendants became the twelve tribes of Israel.
Later Israel divided into the Northern kingdom and the Southern Kingdom.
As the southern tribes of Judea were captured by the Babylonians
The Northern and Southern kingdoms became more and more divided.
The Jews had a very narrow view of where and how to worship God.
They considered the Samaritans spiritually impure and ceremonially unclean.
But it seems that the disease of leprosy afflicted people of both churches.
Sickness and disease, trials and disasters, affect people of all races, both religious backgrounds.
Car wrecks, house fires, strokes, don’t stop to ask are you Baptist, Methodist, or Catholic.
Regardless of their status or social rank.
From peasant to king, leprosy and suffering had no boundaries.
Learn this lesson: Jesus has no walls. Jesus has no barriers, no restrictions or limitations.
He heals, he saves. His red blood on the cross was shed for all for the forgiveness of the world.
All you have to do is say, “Lord I want to change.”
Luke 17 tell us. Jesus was “on his way to Jerusalem,
Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee.
12 As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy[a] met him.
They stood at a distance 13 and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”
The Old Testament law required that lepers keep a distance far way from non-infected people.
(See Leviticus 13:38-46; Numbers 5:2-4)
So in order to be heard they had to cry out.
This took a lot of effort for a leper to cry out.
One of the side effects of leprosy is a soar throat.
Their voice would be a hoarse raspy whisper.
Their cry for mercy shows that they were desperate.
At lease “One out the Ten” recognized Jesus.
They had heard the news that Jesus was coming.
They had heard the message about this compassionate healer.
They had heard stories of this merciful minister.
They called out his name, “Jesus, Master have mercy on us.”
The word Master used here in Greek means “commander” ?p?st?ta -epistáta.
Jesus is the head of all things.
Jesus is the person of authority.
Jesus is the commander over sickness and disease.
He is the chief physician and master healer.
Jesus is the perfect place to turn when you are going through rough times.
Psalm 55:22 “Cast your cares on the LORD and He will sustain you;”
This doesn’t mean that God is a magic genie in a bottle whose job is to make us happy every day.
Sometimes even when we cast our troubles on God it doesn’t means He always take them all our troubles away.
Sometimes, He doesn’t.
I love the phrase: “We need to do what we can and let God do what we can’t.
There is a difference in what we can do and what we need to let God do.
If your house is on fire or there is an intruder in the house.
Call 911.
You can be praying while your fingers are dialing.
We might be waiting for God to do something
when we should be the one who gets up and does something.
You will never go wrong when you step up in faith and say I am going to be the hands and feet of God.
It all comes down to this: We need to do what we can.
And then we must claim…, as our own…, the incredibly hard prayer that Jesus prayed:
“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but Yours be done” (Luke 22:42).
We need to do what we can and let God do what we can’t
We need to trust God and let God do what God wills.
Learning this type of submission leads discovering true peace, joy and salvation
even when the we are going through the most difficult things in life.
“Father, I place my life in Your hands!” (Luke 23:46).
Jesus the Son of God helped those ten people with leprosy
who have been abandoned by the community.
Those who had been neglected by the people.
Have you ever felt deserted…, forsaken…, discarded…, isolated…, unloved…, uncared for?
You can be in a crowded room and feel like people are treating you like someone with leprosy.
But not at this church. Hello.
This is First church.
If you have not been welcomed…, greeted…, hand-shaked…, hugged…, invited…, loved on…, included,
And put on a committee before you leave just see me after church.
IN FACT JUST TURN TO THE PERSON SITTING NEXT TO YOU RIGHT NOW AND SAY.
“Jesus loves you and Jesus want leave you alone.”
So those with leprosy cried out for mercy.
And they feel a glimmer of hope…, as they called out to Jesus to meet their physical need.
They wanted Jesus to be the fixer of their problem.
They wanted Jesus to be the rescuer of their physical body.
They wanted Jesus to be the first responder of their leprosy.
But their dire emergency is for their bodies condition
They had yet cry out to Jesus for the most important need they had.
This is just like people are today.
I am not asking for a show of hands but how many of you here today are on a prescription medication?
You take at least one vitamin or one pill every day?
I meet people who are on 10-20 pills a day.
They little boxes to break pills, lunch pills, dinner pills…, three times a day.
[The need for Jesus to touch your soul is the greatest need you will ever have.]
Jesus is the physical life healer
But even more important Jesus is the eternal life healer of your soul.
The answer to the ten lepers comes quickly from verse 14.
“And when He saw them, He said to them, Go and show yourselves to the priests.
And as they went
Their leprosy disappeared.”
He command to show themselves to the priests as recognized and to honored the law (Lev. 14:1-32),
as the unclean had to be declared clean to reenter society.
But they had not yet been healed.
They still had leprosy.
At first this does not make sense.
Why would Jesus tell them to go show themselves to the priest….,
When they had not yet been healed from the leprosy?
It says Jesus told them to go show themselves to the priest
And as they went their leprosy disappeared.
Jesus gave them no promise.
Jesus did not say I have healed you.
Do you know any magic words?
Abracadabra
shazam
open sesame
hocus pocus
presto
Jesus does not utters any magic words or even words of compassion or words of sympathy.
His words are not the treatment.
His words are not the cure.
He does is command them to act by faith.
The bible teaches over and over again that Jesus will test our faith.
Believing in Jesus is one part.
Acting in faith is another part.
“What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but takes no actions?
Can such faith save them?
17 faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. James 2:14-19
You are expected to live and act in faith.
Even before we can see any evidence that anything is changing.
They had to set out in obedience and faith even as they still felt the affliction of the leprosy.
Even before we see changes taking place around us.
We move, we step out, we push forward, we give thanks,
we claim the favor, we celebrate the blessings, we shout the joys even before we start feeling it.
The healing “came about that as they began to walk toward Jerusalem.
It was in their going, they were cleansed.”
Ten of them set out at the same time toward Jerusalem.
They were doing what Jesus told them to do.
How strange the experience of acting in faith is.
You don’t see any results yet.
You don’t have the answer yet.
You don’t know when
You don’t know how.
You just know that you are going to do what God has told you to do.
Imagine as they begin to feel the sense of strength return to their bodies.
Their scaly skin begins to tighten.
The sores on their body dry up.
The pain in their muscles and bones goes away.
Their back straightens up.
The hair grows back on their heads.
With ever step they make they had more joy.
With ever move they made they had more confidence.
The cure is sent forth in silence from Christ.
His very thought has created the cure
and their obedience has resulted in receiving it.
Jesus willed it,
The lepers, the people walked it.
Many times in our spiritual journey we have to take that first step forward.
Whether it is that first step out of the pew and down the aisle to the altar.
Or that first move to make peace with someone whose relationship has become strained.
It can be a bad habit that you need to break
or a good habit that you need to start.
You see it is not enough to just not break the ten commandments.
That is what got the Jews in trouble.
They kept the ten commandments but they wouldn’t help a Samaritan.
It is not just what we don’t do.
But it is also how we serve others.
Verse 15 tell us that “One out of Ten” responded with a grateful attitude.
“One of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice.”
One out of Ten returned to Jesus and said thank you.
When he realized that he was healed.
When he realized he was rescued.
He returned with thanksgiving and praise.
How like us all this scene is.
God does something marvelous
and we hurry away clutching our blessings and never cast a thought back to the Giver!
What a miracle had occurred.
The awful incurable disease that had rob them of life
This condition that had isolated them from life
was taken away in a simple act of faith and obedience.
I would have expected all ten to return rejoicing and praising Jesus
and thanking Him for a new start in life, but only one does.
This lepers hoarse sore throat was gone his voice had returned to Him
and NOW His loud public praises were very different
Not only longer would he strain and choke out his begging plea for healing.
There were three to thank, God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.
He did not yet realize that these three were one and the same
But today we do.
We know together the trinity of God works to heal, forgive, save, and bless.
Verse 16 continues to tell of the thankfulness of the responsive soul.
“And he fell on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him. And he was a Samaritan.”
Because of His healing he can come much closer to Jesus now.
So he runs to Jesus and falls at Jesus feet.
At the feet of Jesus.
Kneeling in worship he pours out the love in his heart with thanksgiving.
Thankfulness brings us close to Jesus and knits our hearts together in unity as a church also.
Jesus healed all ten lepers,
but only one returned to thank Him.
Is it possible to receive God's great gifts with an ungrateful spirit--nine of the ten men did so?
Only one out of ten was really grateful for what Jesus had done.
Thank you to the men and women who put their lives on the line to respond to a house fire, car wreck,
Heart attack, stroke.
Thankful to Jesus who protects the police men and women as they respond to a call.
Thankful to a church where there are people of God who pray for both city and county workers.
Just say "Thank you."
We are too often like the nine lepers never turned to give thanks.
To this One out of Ten who does
Jesus declares in verse 19 his salvation.
“And He said to him, "Rise, and go your way; your faith has made you well.”
The Samaritan had built his altar at the feet of Jesus
Now he finds an even greater gift than he had received when the leprosy was cleared from his rotting flesh.
Christ raised him up to send him again on his journey,
but this time with a changed soul.
He now walks with eternity in his heart.
Jesus says the faith has made you well, or literally as you read the original Greek transliteration “saved you.”
My hope is you here today will take these words with you.
Closing: While it is wonderful to experience the miracle of physical healing,
it is even more wonderful to experience the miracle of eternal salvation.
May the Giver of every good and perfect gift be praised forever and ever!
