Luke 17:11-19

Luke chapter 17, beginning with verse 11. And it came to pass as he went to Jerusalem. He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off. And they lifted up their voices, and said Jesus, master, have mercy on us. And when he saw them, he said unto them, go show thyself, yourselves, unto the priest. And it came to pass that as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God. fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks. And he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten clansed? Where are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to God save this stranger. and he said, and he said, him arise. Go thy way, thy faith that may behold. God bless to us is sacred and holy word this morning. In some places, it is actually illegal to beg for money on the streets. So the man sits down and has the signs, says, I need food, places a hat or a cup beside him, he’s going to get money donated to him. He begs just by presenting his knee and looking miserable. Prayer is like begging, for you are utterly dependent on God pitying your condition and helping you. You do not have to say, much. Just present your case in a simple manner. You have here an account of the cure of the 10 lepers, which is only recorded for us in Luke’s Gospel. You won’t find this in any of the other gospels. And so it is one of those isolated incidents that we find sometimes where one of those isolated provides us information and the other gospels did not. One of those situations where John said if everything was recorded that Jesus did, it would fill the whole earth with books because there’s a lot of things he did that we just don’t have the information for. But here we have a count force of the cow force of the healing of the ten leopards. Now, leprosy was a dreaded disease, which, you know, commonly last a lifetime. It leaves you in an isolated state because you had to get away from everyone else and live outside the city or village, as the case may be. Naman the Syrian Army command, you remember, was cured by Jehovah alone. No physician could help. and Elish’s servant Gauzi was stricken with leprosy. And he died of leper. King Uzziah was struck with leprosy for intruding into the priest’s office, you recall. And he had to live in a separate house for years, decades, the rest of his days. Leprosy constantly eats away your flesh. And eventually, it affects. You have your vital organs causing you to die. The Jews commonly thought of leprosy as being inflicted by God as some sort of punishment for sin. Therefore, Christ, who came to take away sin and turn away divine wrath, constantly cured all lepers who came to him. And we see this happening in our text. Now Jesus is presently winding up his earthly ministry here. He’s passing through Galilee and Samaria on his way to Jerusalem. As he enters a certain village, which is unnamed for us, he is met by these ten lepers who resided outside the village, and they beg him to cure them. I want to speak this morning on the topic of prayer and Thanksgiving. from this text. Now I’ll begin by saying this. You see how eagerly people cry out for help when they were in need in verses 12 and 13 here of our text. We read here, and as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off. They lifted up their voices and said, Jesus, master, have mercy on us. The plea of the lepers here we see for Christ’s help. Now, although they were banished from society, the lepers were permitted to associate with each other and being sensible of their condition, they had to stay away from people, they stood afar off and cried out to Christ. They had heard of them. of Jesus, they knew that he had cured leprosy. Think about it, he’s the only one who did. And so they were interested in Jesus interceding for them. Unless they cry out, Jesus is a master have mercy upon us. Those who expect help from Christ must take Him for their master, and be at his command. And we see that here. Notice that they are depending upon the compassion of Christ, that they fail not. Is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed. Because his compassion’s fail not, they are new every morning according to lamentations. Chapter 3. None can demand a healing, but you’re obligated to rely on the Lord’s mercies. They come as beggars. They look expectantly upon Christ to have compassion on their sad condition as lepruders. Now, let me say this. You should be eager to pray to the Lord, just as they cried out to the Lord for help. We too should be eager to pray to Christ. The conduct of these lepers is very instructive, I think. This passage throws important light on the subject of prayer. There are many who do not practice prayer. They only pray when they get into trouble or into some dire straight. But once you understand your soul’s condition that you were lost. and guilty and bound for hell, you soon learned to pray to the Savior. As a believer, you should be eager to come to the throne of grace, find help in the time of need. Hear the words of the Lord, call upon me in the day of trouble. I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. Psalm 5015. We were invited. to approach the Lord in our day of trouble. You remember in Pilgrim’s Progress, Bunyan describes Christian as a prisoner of the giant of despair in one point and being confined to doubting castle. And that’s a gloomy place where they were beaten and had a lot of hardships. And all seemed helpless. Until we remember. he had the key of promise on his person. Christian prayed for deliverance as soon escaped, Doubting Castle. Remember God’s promise in Psalm 50, which I read a few minutes ago. When you are in a day of trouble, eagerly pray for deliverance. For God promises, if we cry out to him, he will hear us and help us. Now, you should be here. realize there is nothing too hard for the Lord. We have mentioned leprosy was a dreaded disease that lasted your whole lifetime. It was unlikely that you were going to recover from it. It kills you. The body does not overcome it. You progressively become worse and worse until you die. And you see how Israel’s king responded when the king of king of sin. Syria sent him a request to cure his army commander, Naman. And the king ran his clothes and said, am I God to kill him to make a life? But this man does send unto me to recover a man leprosite. He’s acknowledging and only God can do this. He can’t do it. Now, these ten lepers appeal to Christ to heal them, believing evidently that he’s able to do so. It is this kind of confidence you need to have when you pray to Christ. We have to believe that he hears us and that he will answer our prayer. It is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. For nothing is too hard for the Lord. If you need to act in faith, when you place your request before the Lord, banish all doubts, Trust that God is able to answer your prayers. It was a famous Scotch minister who prayed in the morning service for rain during a long dry spell. As he went to church in the afternoon, his daughter said to him, Here’s the umbrella, Papa, which her father said, well, what do we need it for? His daughter said, well, you pray for rain this morning. Don’t you expect God to answer? answer your prayers. So they carry the umbrella. And sure enough, on the way home that evening, they had to take shelter under it from a drenching rain. So have faith when you pray. Don’t waver that the Lord will hear and answer your prayers. So you see how eagerly people cry out for help when they’re in need. and that’s a common thing. The second thing we see here this morning is this. You are required to act in faith when you seek the Lord’s help. Notice verse 14 with me. And when he saw them, he said under them, go show yourselves under the priest. And he came to pass that as they went, they were cleansed. Now this is interesting. Christ sent them to the priest to be examined because according to the law, they had to be examined to see if leprosy had disappeared. And then they’d be pronounced clean. Now, he didn’t tell them positively that they would be healed here. He didn’t touch them. He didn’t prescribe any action like, you know, washing this pool or something of this nature. He didn’t use any outward means. He simply said, go show yourselves under the priest. And it came to pass as they went, they were cleansed. Now think about this a minute. He tested their faith in him. They had leprosy. They weren’t cured yet, and yet they’re told to go to the priest, so they had off to the priest. Now, you might consider such an action foolish when they did not have healing at this point. but you find that they did what God commanded them to do. They acted in faith upon it. You’re required to act in faith if you apply for Christ’s help. Now, these lepers did not have the slightest evidence of a healing when they set out to see the priest. Once you make your plea to Christ to Christ, you must believe that he is. is going to answer you and so act as one who expects his answer. Now, how can you expect anything from Christ if you pray in doubt? You have to ask in faith. Remember Elijah when he was on Mount Carmel when he went up and prayed for rain to end the long drought. And he fervently prayed. He kept sending his servant Gauzi out toward the Mediterranean. look it over and see if there was any cloud coming. You know, and eventually one appeared, and he knew his prayer was going to be answered. Faith requires you to expect Christ answer, to look expectantly for it. Psalm 5.3 says, Oh, Lord, in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee and will look up? Literally, I’ll put my prayer on my bow and shoot it toward heaven. And then, David says, when I have shot my arrow, I will look up to see where it is gone. Follow it along. Faith has a supporting role after prayer. It encourages your soul to expect a gracious answer. Faith fills your soul with expectation. Give it a man. Imagine these lepers as they’re going, they’re checking their body. They’re seeing if they’re getting cured or not on the way to the priest. As they’re going along and checking their skin, all of a sudden, the leprosies gone. It disappeared completely. It’s required to act in faith when you seek Christ help. Thirdly, you should be thankful when Christ, answers your prayers. We see that in verses 15. 17. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back with a loud voice glorify God, fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks, and he was a Samaritan. Jesus answered and said, where were there, were not, they’re not ten cleansed, But where are the nine? So you see the rareness of Thanksgiving here. Only one of the ten leopards returned to give thanks to the Lord. When he saw that he was cleansed, instead of continuing on his way to the priest, he immediately turned back. The priest, pronouncing him clean, could wait. He wanted to thank Christ. For this great blessing of being cured of leprosy, he felt compelled to go back and thank Christ. Friends, there are many who received Christ help. They cry out to him for help, but how few there are, but when they receive the help, give him thanks for it. The lesson before you is a convicting and humbling. How often are we like the nine, rather than like the Samaritan who gave thanks? You will find you are more ready to ask the Lord for help than you are to praise him for his cure when he provides it. Unthankfulness is disgraceful, really, but it’s quite common. Let us pray, with Thanksgiving, as the book of Philippians tells us, chapter four and not neglect this duty. David and Paul were eminently thankful men, and they set the example for all believers in this regard. So let us not forget all the benefits Christ grants us. Be careful for nothing, but at everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God Philippians 4-6. Now, do you have the characteristics of true thankfulness? Notice it was prompt thankfulness. The cured leper returned to Christ immediately. He did not wait until a later time. You know, the Lord was busy. He didn’t always linger very long where he was. And so if he was going to catch Christ, he had to return immediately. So he rushed back to where Christ was. hoping we’re still there. When your heart is aflame with heavenly devotion, that’s the time to thank the Lord and not neglected. Go at once to Christ and express your thankfulness. Not let Christ’s praise be kept waiting, otherwise it may be neglected in the end. Prompt Thanksgiving. Intense thankfulness we see. You can perceive his intense thankfulness. in the loud voice he used to glorify the Lord. He could have praised, I guess, the Lord in a much quieter manner, but he wanted everybody to know. And when you receive such a rich blessing, you cannot whisper out your praise. Let your passion be shown in your thankfulness. Why restrain it? It’s intense thankfulness. It’s humble thankfulness. This man fell down at Jesus’ feet. He saw that it was his place. He implies by this, I am nobody. I am not worthy of the least mercy from you. I’m just a poor beggar. Answered prayer should not puff up your heart with pride. But instead, it should cause you to fall down at Jesus’ feet. Jesus took notice. notice of you. He reached out. He helped you. Despite your unworthiness to receive his help. So let us be humbly giving thanks to the Lord. Notice it was worshipful thanks. The prostrating of yourself before the Lord implies worship as well as humility. You ought to worship your saved. in the giving of your thanks. Let others think what they will about Christ, but you will put your finger into the nail prints and say, he’s my Lord and he’s my God. He should never cease to adorium, who proved his deity by delivering you from the leprosy of sin. And so you have these characteristics of Thanksgiving. Finally, Christ takes special notice of your thankfulness. Verse 17. Jesus points out the failure of the other nine to render thanks to him. But he gives special notice of this Samarit, a foreigner. He was not of the Jewish nation. When you take it that the other leper’s work. Now, I’m taking notice of this cured Samaritan leper. Jesus. pronounced a blessing upon him. This making hold was in a higher sense in the mere cleansing of the lepros. We’ve talked about this previously. The phrase here, making whole, literally means saved thee. This faith in the Savior saved him. It was not only a cure for his body, it was also a cure for his soul. So he should say, be thankful when Christ answers your prayers. No matter how difficult, the bodily ailment, notice that Jesus Christ can heal you. Christ can cure the leprosy of sin by saving your soul by means of faith alone. Well, let us learn. Not only to go to the Lord in time of need and appeal to him, but to be thankful. When our prayers are answered, let’s close with the word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are God who hears and answers to prayer. May we not be stingy in our thankfulness and praise of you when you hear us and answer us. May we give you the praise and honor due to your name. We thank you for Christ and is healing us of the leprosy. A sin. As in His name we pray this morning with Thanksgiving. Amen. Let’s stand for the benediction. Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing that he may abound in hope in hope with the power of the Holy Ghost. Amen.