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Book: Luke
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Luke 17:11-19 Where Are The Nine?
I. The setting.
A. As Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem, He was passing on the
borders of Galilee and Samaria.
1. As He was entering a certain village He was met by ten
men who were lepers, who stood a distance from Him.
a. Recognizing Jesus they called unto Him saying,
"Jesus, Master, have mercy on us."
b. Jesus called back to them to go show
themselves to the priest.
2. This is the first requirement of the leper in order
that he might return to the community.
a. The priest had to inspect the skin to
determine if the leprosy was truly gone.
b. There were then certain prescribed sacrifices
that had to be made.
c. They had to perform certain rituals such as
shaving off all their hair, and ceremonial
bathings.
d. After this, they could then return to their
tent within the camp.
3. In Levicitus 13, and 14 we have the laws that dealt
with the plague of leprosy.
a. In 14:2 we have these strange words, "This is
the law of the leper in the day of his
cleansing."
b. I say strange words because leprosy is
incurrable outside of divine intervention.
c. Because God is gracious and merciful He left
the door open for Himself to work and do that
which was impossible by human standards.
d. I love that, it may be that God wants to do
something that is impossible so He left the
door open to do so.
e. Some of you may be facing situations that
seem to you to be impossible.
a. Isn't it interesting how that we
carry our human limitations over to
God, and because it is difficult
for us we somehow think that it is
difficult for God, or if it impossible
for us, then we are certain that it is
impossible for God.
b. To Jeremiah God said, "I am God, is
anything too hard for Me?"
c. Jesus said, "With man it is
impossible, but with God all things
are possible."
4. These 10 men were calling to Jesus for mercy.
a. Matthew tells us in chapter 8 that as Jesus
was coming down from the mountain where He had
just delivered what is known as the sermon on
the mount, there was a man with leprosy who
came to Him and said, "Master, if you will you
can make me clean." Jesus reached His out His
hand and touched him and said, "I will be
clean." Matthew tells us that immediately
his leprosy was cleansed, and Jesus told the
man to go show himself to the priest.
b. Note the differences, in Matthew's gospel
Jesus touched man and he was cleansed and
Jesus told him to show himself to the priest.
c. Here Jesus did not touch the men but called
to them to go show themselves to the priest,
and as they went they were healed.
d. One of the great dangers that we have is that
of trying to put God in a box, often the boxes
that we have made ourselves.
e. We try to reduce the workings of God to a
formula.
f. This is the way that God moved in the fifty's
and we get locked into a ritual.
g. Times change, and so often the church fails
to change with the times and we find ourselves
locked into methods that were successful 50
years ago but are totally irrelevant today.
h. This is one of the reasons that new
denominations are continually being born as
the old ones slowly die away.
II. The return of the one.
A. One of the ten who were on the way to the priest, when he saw
that he was cleansed came back to Jesus and with a loud voice
he began to glorify God and fell on his face at the feet of
Jesus giving thanks to Jesus for what He had done in
cleansing him.
1. There should be nothing unusual about this, for this
is the the proper thing to do.
2. After all, if you are slowly dying of this lothesome
disease and you call on someone to help you knowing
how desperate your condition is, you would think that
when you saw that you were healed, you would want to
express your gratitude to that person.
3. It is amazing how many people receive so much from
God with never a thought of thanking Him, or
acknowledging Him.
a. I think of Belshazzer who was given the
throne of his grandfather Nebuchadnezzer, he
knew what God had done to and for his
grandfather, yet he deliberately showed his
disdain for God by drinking wine out of the
holy vessels taken from the temple by his
grandfather, while he praised the gods of
gold and silver.
b. Daniel rebuked him saying that he praised the
gods made of gold and silver, yet the God in
whose hand his very breath was, he had not
glorified.
c. People are willing to thank their lucky stars,
but would be put upon if they were asked to
give thanks to God.
B. Jesus then asked, "Were there not ten cleansed? but where are
the nine?"
1. I wonder how many times we might be among the nine.
a. How many times we take the blessings of God,
or the work of God in our lives for granted.
b. How many times we have had close calls while
driving, so close that we wonder ourselves
how we missed being another freeway casualty.
We then complimented our driving skills and
give no thought to the protective hand of God.
c. We are sure enough ready to blame Him if we do
crash. We ask, "Why did God allow me to get in
this crash?"
d. Beautiful days like this are not considered as
acts of God, but let an earthquake strike
destroying buildings and freeways, or let a
tornado touch down and destroy everything in
its fierce swath, and it is termed and act of
God.
2. Paul wrote the Thessalonians, "In every thing give
thanks for this is the will of God concerning you."
3. In the Psalm we read this morning the reoccurring
theme was "O that men would praise the Lord for His
wonderful goodness."
4. In Romans chapter one Paul tells us that the wrath of
God is going to be revealed from heaven against the
unrighteousness of man, for when they knew God they
glorified Him not as God neither were they thankful.
C. Jesus said to the man that returned to give thanks, "Arise, go
your way, your faith has made you whole."
1. We are told concerning the other nine, that they were
healed, this man who worshipped Jesus and gave thanks
was made whole.
2. What did Jesus mean, he was made whole?
3. The others were touched by Jesus only in a physical
way, they were healed of their leprosy.
4. This man was touched by Jesus not only physically, but
spiritually.
a. Being made whole was a spiritual issue. His
was not only an outward cleansing of the skin
blotches that were rotting away his flesh, but
and inward cleansing from the blotch of sin
that had rotted away his spirit, and had
alienated him from God.
b. The others cleansed from their leprosy should
they have died in their sin, though their
short lives on this earth may have been made
more pleasant, that does not mean much to them
now.
c. Jesus asked, "What should it profit a man if he
gain the whole world and lose his own soul?"
D. The main issue today is, are you a whole person? We have all
experienced the blessings of God on the physical plane. Have
you worshipped Jesus and given thanks to Him and been thus
cleansed spiritually?
E. Are you like the one, or like the nine?
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