Book of Luke - Ch. 17, Vs. 11-19 (04/11/2004)

All right, let's pray and then we'll begin with Luke 17 11 father, we thank you for the scriptures that you had for us this morning and the glory of your plan of salvation and Father we don't know how much of the mysteries of what our

Lord went through you will reveal to us when we're with you someday but But we know that it's it's probably more than we could handle anyway

But we thank you that you chose to Allow Jesus to be the perfect lamb the

Lamb of God And we thank you that the resurrection is what?

proved That your justice had been Satisfied and so Lord as we study this passage this afternoon that we come to would you bless?

By teaching us and being with us in Jesus name. Amen Mm -hmm.

So we start with verse 11 in chapter 17 Mm -hmm

We have some front -row people. That's good. They don't think so. Okay If I keep these off, it won't matter what they do.

I can't see him anyway, so All right It came to pass as he went to Jerusalem that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee What what is the significance of Samaria in that day and time with respect from the point of view of the

Jew Yes, they may have hated that even worse than a straight -out

Gentile, I don't know but It shows that Jesus was different I don't know that too many

Pharisees would travel through Samaria trying to seek and save that which is lost would they

Charlotte and I were talking about that on the way to church this morning about just thinking of Jesus Just as an evangelist from that viewpoint of how different what he did was than what the established religious people of his day were like eating with sinners, you know and and witnessing to Gentiles and And Even commending certain

Gentiles for their faith and saying that their faith he had not seen anything like in all of Israel things like that Totally different than the

Pharisees and the religious leaders of his day would have been and here's another case. He passes through Samaria and Galilee We're gonna find out that in this story

One of the key players is going to be a Samaritan the best I can tell from reading this. I believe he was and The Pharisees wouldn't have anything to do with these people but It says and as he entered into a certain village

There met him ten men that were lepers Which stood afar off? Why did they stand afar off?

The law said they had to Yes, it is

Yeah, and the laws of Moses required that they do this also so they had to and So it says that these ten men were lepers and they stood afar off that reminded me of Ephesians chapter 2 verse 13

It says but now in Christ Jesus you who were sometimes far off Are made nigh by the blood of Christ these lepers picture sin leprosy pictures sin in the

Bible and It the fact that they were standing afar off is a picture of the way we were before our salvation and We've been made nigh by the blood and that same thing is about to happen to these and So it says they lifted up their voices and said

Jesus master have mercy on us Why do you think they would even call out to Jesus?

You think they had heard stories about him? They had heard that he could heal so were they exhibiting a measure of faith just by asking him to Have mercy on them

Yes, they they were all together and They would not have called out his name if they didn't have some measure of hope that he could in fact do something for them and When he saw them he said unto them go show yourselves to the priests had they been healed yet No, now this is unusual because in a lot of the different situations in the

New Testament when Jesus would heal people he would Sometimes touch them. Sometimes he would spit on some mud and rub it in their eyes and then they could see and so forth and then there were even times when he would he would just Not even go to the to the house where the person was and yet they would go back and find that that person had been healed from the moment when

Jesus had been asked to do something, but in this case he hadn't healed them yet and He says you go and show yourself to the priest and at the moment he said that they were still lepers

So now what if you understand the Jewish law that those lepers knew what

Jesus was telling them because in their law They had to go before the priest and there were certain specific

Detailed things that the priest would do in cases of the leper So they knew that Jesus was saying to them go show yourself the priest because you're gonna be healed

But they looked at themselves and they weren't healed yet But they headed towards the priest. Anyway, did that exhibit faith?

I Believe I believe that it did Go show yourselves unto the priest and it came to pass that as they went they were cleansed and I think that is a beautiful picture of faith in the application of faith

My one of my favorite pictures of faith in the Bible is is when the

Egyptians, I'm having the Israelites had to take the hyssop weeds and dip it in the blood and apply it to the doorposts

For the Passover and that hyssop weed is a picture of faith

And what we do is is we apply the blood of Jesus to our lives

Through the hyssop weed of faith from the human viewpoint From the divine viewpoint who applies it

Obviously God does but from the human side we Find ourselves believing now.

I'd have to ask you this at the first moment of your faith Did you understand that God had given you that as a gift or did you just view it as if all of a sudden you had believed

You felt that you had believed didn't you because that's what you had done and so these people

It says as they went they were cleansed and the truth is there is no salvation on this planet

Other than a salvation that's in the midst of true faith It can't happen without the faith

It happens in the midst of the faith. It doesn't happen one second before it

It doesn't happen after it it happens at the same time or in the midst of it So there's a nice picture of this as they went they were cleansed.

So right in the middle of their experiencing faith They were cleansed

Philippians 3 12 says not as though I had already attained Either were already perfect But I follow after if that I may apprehend that for which also

I am apprehended of Jesus Christ Their faith wasn't perfect yet in the sense that we might consider as it will be someday

But it was saving faith And the Apostle Paul said he himself had not even attained yet, but he said

I'll tell you this. I Don't look behind. I look forward And I've pressed towards the mark towards the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus So that is a living ongoing traveling faith and That's kind of what this pictures verse 15 and one of them when he saw that he was healed so you see they did not recognize that until they were already on the way to the priests and he looked down and just noticed that his body was healed and He turned back and with a loud voice glorified

God and Fell down on his face at his feet giving him.

Thanks, and he was a Samaritan Now the Jews it implies it doesn't say so.

I don't think it, you know, I don't Recognize that it just out now says it but it strongly implies that the other nine were

Jews and They didn't come back. I Don't think you can prove that that means they that it didn't picture that they that there many times these healings pictured

Spiritual salvation as well. I don't think you can prove they weren't saved but they certainly weren't as thankful as this particular man was and this exhibits

The way it is if we look around us in churches all over the place There are always those who are more thankful than others and Doesn't mean the others are not saved necessarily we can't judge that anyway but we do know that this that there were ten of them who were healed and Because of faith they were healed and there was one that came back and gave thanks this word for thanks literally

Means to be grateful and Then to express that gratitude all that's carried in the meaning of the word so he not only felt it in his heart, but he expressed it outwardly and Jesus answering said were there not ten cleansed

Detect a little sarcasm there, but where are the nine? Therefore are not found that They there are not found that return to give glory to God Except for this stranger the word stranger means he's a

Gentile Stranger meaning not a Jew so that to me implies the other nine were were

Jewish people who were saved and healed Stranger literally in the

Greek there means different Different, but it means that he's different because he is a

Gentile And he said unto him arise go that way that faith hath made thee whole

Faith here is the familiar word peace tease which comes from peace to oh, which means to stick to like glue

It means to be persuaded of it means to have confidence in and so this man had that kind of faith

That's the God -given faith That truly is a gift from heaven. It's Jesus's faith actually

And it said he made him whole this word is the word so -so which is sometimes interpreted saved

But it always means delivered So when you see this man healed from his leprosy, it is a picture of the deliverance that comes with salvation deliverance from sin and It just shows that this brand of modern

Christianity where People say strange things like well, I got saved years ago and but today

I'm gonna make Jesus my Lord and things like that And or they'll say I got saved but they have absolutely no power

Over sin whatsoever in their personal life That's not true biblical salvation because biblical salvation is a synonym with the word deliver

So it's an ongoing deliverance from The sin habits that we had before salvation

And if that deliverance is not taking place one ought to question his own salvation because that's not

Bible Salvation the word itself carries the meaning to deliver so In this passage,

I think we see a beautiful physical picture of spiritual salvation The fact that before it we were far off we weren't you can't say well this person is closer to God So he'll probably get saved this one over here so far.

He won't it doesn't work that way everyone is either far off or they're not and we were all far off just like these lepers stood far off from Jesus and Yet they cried out to him

That he would have mercy upon them. I Verses in the

Bible that teach salvation what the person that got saved really asked was Lord have mercy on me They didn't say

Lord Jesus come the heart and save me and all this Formulas, you know the prayer formulas that we have and all they just said had mercy on me a sinner so that is a simple from the heart

Desire that these men had and so because of that faith

They turned and went toward the priest and were healed as they went in that amazing beautiful picture of true faith

You see real faith like James taught is accompanied by works now the lost world can't figure that out

They want to teach you their salvation by works or easy believism, you know, but the truth is they're tied together

And so their faith showed because they started walking towards that priest and they were saved as they went and They recognized that they were healed.

That's something that a brand -new Christian begins to recognize. He begins to realize he's been saved and So they become thankful.

However, not all of them do some more than others some some seem to see what they really were and what

God saved him from more than others and Those are the ones that seem to love him more because it's as if they've been forgiven more and they see that and that's pictured by this

Samaritan and so He says arise and go thy way that faith

Hath made thee whole your faith has delivered you So let's stop there for the day.

My dad's about to stand up. So it's time to stop Mm -hmm Lord thank you for this passage of Scripture.

Thank you for this This dear Samaritan man who came back and fell at your feet feet and gave you proper