The Gospel of Luke (#73) August 11, 2024

Paul’s Arrest and Escape in Acts 23

And it should be part of our trinity hymnal, I believe. Thank you, please be seated.

Well, today's New Testament reading is Acts 23. Last week we considered how the apostle Paul was in Jerusalem. He was arrested, threatened of course, and we read of the turmoil that was taking place because of Paul's arrest there in Jerusalem.

And Paul, of course, very cleverly when standing before the Sanhedrin pitted the Sadducees against the Pharisees, we read of that here. And then also in this chapter we see how the Romans moved Paul to the coastal city of Caesarea in order to protect him from being murdered actually.

And Paul will spend two years in jail in Caesarea as he anticipates his journey to Rome that we'll read about later in the book of Acts. And so Acts 23.

Acts 23. And looking intently at the council, Paul said, brothers, I have lived my life before God in all good conscience up till this day. And the high priest Ananias commanded those who stood by him to strike him on the mouth.

Then Paul said to him, God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall. Are you sitting to judge me according to the law, yet contrary to the law, you order me to be struck? Those who stood by said, would you revile God's high priest?

And Paul said, I did not know, brothers, that he was the high priest, for it is written, you shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people. Now when Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees.

It is with respect to the hope and resurrection of the dead that I am on trial. And when he had said this, a dissension arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. For the Sadducees say there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all.

Then a great clamor arose, and some of the scribes of the Pharisees' party stood up and contended sharply, we find nothing wrong with this man. What if a spirit or an angel spoke to him? And when the dissension became violent, the tribune, afraid that Paul would be torn to pieces by them, commanded the soldiers to go down and take him away from among them by force, and bring them into the barracks.

The following night the Lord stood by him and said, take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, you must also testify in Rome. When it was day, the Jews made a plot and bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till they had killed Paul.

There were more than 40 who made this conspiracy. They went to the chief priests and elders and said, we have strictly bound ourselves by an oath to taste no food till we have killed Paul. Now therefore you, along with the council, give notice to the tribune to bring him down to you, as though you were going to determine his case more exactly, and we are ready to kill him before he comes near.

Now the son of Paul's sister heard of their ambush, so he went and entered the barracks and told Paul. Paul called one of the centurions and said, take this young man to the tribune, for he has something to tell him.

So he took him and brought him to the tribune and said, Paul, the prisoner, called me and asked me to bring you this young man, as he has something to say to you. The tribune took him by the hand and going aside asked him privately, what is it that you have to tell me?

And he said, the Jews have agreed to ask you to bring Paul down to the council tomorrow, as though they were going to inquire somewhat more closely about him, but do not be persuaded by them, for more than 40 of their men are lying in ambush for him, who have bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till they have killed him.

And now they are ready, waiting for your consent. So the tribune dismissed the young man, charging him, tell no one what you have informed me of these things. Then he called two of the centurions and said, get ready 200 soldiers with 70 horsemen and 200 spearmen to go as far as Caesarea at the third hour of the night.

Also provide mounts for Paul to ride and bring him safely to Felix the governor. And he wrote a letter to this effect. Claudius Lysias, his excellency, the governor Felix, greetings. This man was seized by the Jews and was about to be killed by them, when I came upon them with the soldiers and rescued him, having learned that he was a Roman citizen.

And desiring to know the charge for which they were accusing him, I brought him down to the council. I found that he was being accused about questions of their law, but charged with nothing deserving death or imprisonment.

And when it was disclosed to me that there would be a plot against the man, I sent him to you at once, ordering his accusers also to state before you what they have against him. So the soldiers, according to their instructions, took Paul and brought him by night to Antipatrus.

And on the next day, they returned to the barracks, letting the horsemen go on with him. When they had come to Caesarea and delivered the letter to the governor, they presented Paul before him. On reading the letter, he asked what province he was from.

And when he learned that he was from Cilicia, he said, I will give you a hearing when your accusers arrive. And he commanded him to be guarded by Herod's Praetorium. Let's pray. Our father, it's so encouraging to know that your children are always in your hand.

And we never have any reason to doubt or to fear because you are with us. Even in the valley of the shadow of death, Lord, it is your presence that gives us comfort. And we rejoice, Lord, that we are comforted by your presence.

We rejoice in the Holy Spirit, who is our helper, who not only convicts us of our sin, but also assures us that we belong to you. And, Lord, we ask that now as we open up your word and continue our worship service, as the word of God is preached and proclaimed, we pray, Lord, that we would understand it.

We pray that we would understand how to apply it to our lives. So, Lord, help us to be faithful in all these things. Be with Pastor Lars, give him clarity of mind, clarity of voice. We just pray, Lord, that you would be pleased by our preaching of your word today.

Thank you. In Jesus' name, amen.

The Healing of the Ten Lepers in Luke 17

Well, if you open your Bibles to Luke 17, today we'll give attention to verses 11 through 19. You need not roll your eyes because you see 11 pages. You know, I'm thinking about, you know, people that were sending these notes out.

Now we send them out to 664 addresses every Sunday morning. I know that probably just a few people read them, but many pastors do. I think about 125 now. No, more than that. Maybe 175 pastors now receive these notes, and so I feel like I need to kind of fill it out for them, and we're obviously going to have to trim it a little bit because of the time.

So, be patient with us. You know, Pastor Jason is so diligent. He'll go word for word through the notes, and I tend to, if I didn't have these before me, I'd go all over the place, and so they keep us pretty directed, thankfully, but they are embellished somewhat for readers, and so here we are in Luke chapter 17.

We're making progress, and here we read that Jesus healed 10 men of leprosy, but only one of the 10 returned to give him praise, to give the Lord praise for his work of grace in his life, and this one man out of 10 happened to be a Samaritan, and so this is a miracle story of Jesus, interestingly, that is unique to Luke's gospel.

It's not in the other synoptics of Matthew and Mark, and there are themes in these few verses that are common to Luke's gospel that are reflected here. As one noted, not only is this narrative peculiar to Luke, but it also stresses several characteristically Lucan themes.

What are these? Well, Jerusalem is the goal for Jesus's journey. Secondly, Jesus has mercy on social outcasts. Third, he conforms to Jewish norms by requiring that the lepers go for the required priestly declaration of health.

Faith in healing should bring praise to God, and the grace of God extends beyond Judaism, with Samaritans receiving special attention, and so these are Lucan themes that are all found in here in Luke 11, or 17, 11 through 19.

Let's read the passage. Now, it happened as he, Jesus, went to Jerusalem that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. Then as he entered a certain village, there met him 10 men who were lepers, who stood afar off.

They lifted up their voices and said, Jesus master, have mercy on us. So when he saw them, he said to them, go show yourselves to the priests. And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned and with a loud voice glorified God and fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks.

And he was a Samaritan. So Jesus answered and said, were there not 10 cleansed, but where are the nine? Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner? And he said to him, arise, go your way.

Your faith has made you well, which is a promise of salvation, by the way. Well, as we work through this passage, we'll first attempt to understand the details of the account that we just read. And then secondly, we'll address how the physical disease of leprosy portrays the spiritual malady for sin.

It's a metaphor, a living metaphor, leprosy for certain aspects or nature of sin. And then thirdly, we'll consider somewhat briefly what this passage reveals to us regarding the nature of saving faith.

For although all 10 men had faith, only the Samaritan had saving faith, interestingly, as we'll see. And so let's attempt to understand the details of Luke's account. The episode opens with another reference of our Lord's journey to Jerusalem.

This is the third, actually, in this travel narrative. We read, now it happened as he went to Jerusalem that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. The journey began back in Luke 9 .51, which reads, now it came to pass when the time had come for him to be received up, that he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem.

Notice that they are now on the border between Galilee and Samaria. Galilee was in the north and Samaria in the Judea south of Samaria. Jesus, at this point, was probably traveling eastward along the border, southern border of Galilee, which would have been on his left, and Samaria on his right, that would be south of them, probably heading eastward toward the Jordan River Valley.

Jesus had traveled about 30 miles in eight chapters of Luke's gospel. The travel narrative has a substantial portion of Luke's gospel dedicated to its exposition. And so about two-thirds of their journey still lie ahead of them.

They could complete their journey to Jerusalem in only a few days if they had a mind to do so, but it would seem that our Lord is going back and forth and and visiting a number of villages on his way.

Now, actually, the journey, or Luke's travel narrative, as it's commonly called, is as much theological as it is geographical or biographical. And so each reference to the journey is to bring the reader of the gospel back to the fact that Jesus, the Lord Jesus, his primary mission was to suffer, die, and be raised the third day, and that this must be accomplished in Jerusalem.

And every time you read a reference to this journey to Jerusalem, that's what's being emphasized by the Holy Spirit through the pen of Luke. And so here we're reminded again of Christ's impending death, stressing the urgency to respond to him while there was still time.

The time was short, and that gives an impetus and a power in Jesus's words, pressing on people to, you need to make the decision now because the time is short. Well, we read in verse 12, and as he entered a certain village, there met him ten men who were lepers who stood afar off.

Luke does not identify the village by name or reveal whether the village was in Galilee or Samaria. It must have bordered the two regions. And it was while he was entering the village that the ten lepers had called out to him.

They did not wait until the Lord had settled and rested from his journey, his travel, to recover from the weariness of his journey, but they met him as he entered the village. We see our Lord did not disappoint or forestall them.

He directed his attention to these men who were calling on him from a distance. And we can probably assume that there were numbers of people around Jesus as he was entering this village. These ten men were ones who stood afar off, for that was the law and the custom of the day for lepers.

The law of God has stipulated their separation from the community in which they had lived. Leviticus makes it clear. Now the leper on whom the sore is, this is after he's inspected and identified by the priest as having leprosy, his clothes shall be torn, his head bare, he shall cover his mustache and cry, unclean, unclean.

He shall be unclean. All the days he has the sore, he shall be unclean. He is unclean and shall dwell alone. His dwelling shall be outside the camp, outside the community of the Jewish people. And so these men stood afar off and I understood, I read that the leper was to remain at least a hundred paces from those without leprosy.

So they were some distance away. Now we considered leprosy in some detail when we examined the story of Jesus healing a man full of leprosy back in Luke chapter five. The word leprosy is used in the bible to describe several conditions of illnesses ranging from skin disorders caused by microorganisms to rashes caused by nerve disorders.

And so leprosy, biblically speaking, could be classified into one or two categories. Either nerve disorder, when the nerves cease to function, the body becomes desensitized to pain and as a result burns, injuries, infections go undetected leading to maiming and deformity.

Last week I sent out the email from Pastor Prem in India, a number of photographs, and one of them showed some hands of some lepers that had come for free food distribution. And the one man's hands, they were just nubs, no fingers, no thumbs, and was receiving food.

Leprosy is still a problem in many parts of the third world. Leprosy was a disease that rendered one permanently unclean in the eyes of the covenant community of ancient Israel. And again this disease continues to be prevalent today.

To be ceremonially unclean in ancient Israel was to be cut off, barred from gathering with the people of God or participating in the public worship with the people of God. The leper regarded himself really as died spiritually and the community treated him as though he died.

The leper was alienated from the community and his family. He was without hope. He was physically set apart from the people of God, having to live in a place where other lepers live, leper colonies. At the first sign of a skin rash, a person knew precisely the steps to be taken.

It's spelled out clearly in the Old Testament law in Luke 13 and 14. The individual who suspected he might have the disease would go to a priest for inspection. And it wasn't necessarily at the temple in Jerusalem.

Priests lived throughout the land so they would find a priest in any community who had the authority to do the inspection, physical inspection. And the priest would diagnose the condition. If the man's condition was not fully discernible then the priest would prescribe a temporary quarantine for seven days and then he would inspect him again.

And even then after the seven days, if uncertain, a second seven-day quarantine was imposed. But once there was no longer any doubt, the priests would pronounce judgment. Steps were taken at once for the permanent separation of the leprous person from his family and community.

And one can well imagine the anxiety of say a husband and father waiting, watching, and the anxiety of his wife and children as to the fate of the father, hoping and praying for again this disease had far-reaching consequences.

Upon the declaration of leprosy, the man would be removed from his family and he was sent to dwell among other leopards. But again the most severe and feared consequence was to be cut off from the people of God.

He was refused entrance into the temple and in his mind cut off from the covenant and the hope of salvation. He would have seen himself as estranged from God. Being estranged from God's people. And so he experienced alienation, shame, isolation, hopelessness.

And he was to tear his clothing, cover his face, declare himself loudly whenever he came around anybody as unclean. And in this way he acknowledged and signified that he was as a dead man, one who would defile all others with whom he came in contact.

H. Marshall, a commentator on the Greek text of Luke's gospel, wrote concerning this disease. Again these were his words in the context of the Luke 5 episode, The Man Full of Leprosy. The term leprosy in the Bible does not mean the disease commonly so called today Hansen's bacillus, but covered a wide variety of skin diseases including some which were obviously regarded as highly contagious and incurable while others were capable of cure.

It is therefore impossible to say precisely what diseases meant in the present passage and some scholars think that a disease of nervous origin may be meant, that's the man in Luke 5, full of leprosy.

In any case the plight of a person suspected of a leprosy was grave. He was sequestered from normal society and if cured could be restored to it only after examination by the priest and the offering of sacrifice.

To the rabbis the cure of a leper was as difficult as raising a person from the dead. I'm going to mention a name in the Syrian a little bit later and he was off there toward Damascus and a slave, Israeli slave girl, oh only if my master were in Israel.

There's a prophet there who cleansed him of his leprosy and so the king who really liked Naaman, his officer, you know sent a note to the king of Israel. I'm sending my man to get healed of leprosy here and and of course the king of Israel thought that the king of Syria was picking a fight with him, a war.

Who am I? Am I God that I can cleanse a leper? It was it was understood that only God could truly bring about the healing of a leper and so these 10 men were lepers. Now these 10 men therefore were alienated from normal healthy society but they had been together.

We read that 10 men who were lepers there was a camaraderie between these men. They had the same affliction. There was a brotherhood there. No doubt they had varied degrees of the disease among them but they ran with one another and they seemed to have agreed together to come to Jesus.

No doubt they had learned of the healing power that Jesus brought to bear upon all who came to him in their need and perhaps they had heard of other lepers who had been cleansed by Jesus and so they had agreed together to come as close as they dared to appeal to Jesus to heal them but they stood afar off and called out to him.

So we read in verse 13 they lifted up their voices and said Jesus master have mercy on us. Suffering causes people to seek out the Lord or it should. It's a great motivating factor. Suffering and the Lord will often in his love and providence bring great hardship or suffering that will result in the soul seeking the Lord because we're so sinful we wouldn't do so otherwise.

The psalmist confessed this. This is what brought him to faith. Before I was afflicted I went astray but now I keep your word. Affliction brought him to his senses. It's good for me that I've been afflicted that I may learn your statutes.

The word of God is open and understandable more to the person who's suffering and looks to God for help and guidance. I know oh Lord that your judgments are right that in faithfulness you have afflicted me and as Christians when we're afflicted it's because of God's faithfulness to us in Christ that he's doing this.

These 10 men were alienated from family. They were outcasts of society. They had separated they were separated from all that had been dear to them. Their disease had isolated them. They were not allowed close proximity to anyone except for others with the same condition and here we see them standing at a distance calling to our Lord.

Why is it that people do not come to Jesus for help until the point of desperation reveals how far they are from God? It's because we're sinners right? Bible says we're God haters apart from the grace of God.

That's what sin does. Sometimes people fail to come to church to hear the word of God because they feel themselves distanced from both God and God's people but desperation may move them to come even if they seem to remain at a distance from others.

They call out to Jesus. Jesus master have mercy on us. Interestingly the Greek word for master epistata is the Greek word translated master here is only recorded in Luke's gospel on the lips of disciples and here you have these 10 lepers referring to Jesus as master.

They treated these 10 men regarded and treated Jesus with regard and with dignity. No doubt there's a matter of motivation they wanted to be healed by him but no doubt they knew that if God were to intervene and cleanse them of their leprosy it would only take place if this master showed them mercy.

They knew that he was in charge in control. That itself reveals a measure of faith on their part doesn't it? And then we read in verse 14 that Jesus responded to their request so when he saw them he said to them go show yourselves to the priests.

In other words be inspected and so our Lord is moved by the request of suffering people. He's a compassionate savior and as the heavenly father is merciful and compassionate and moved by the suffering of people so our Lord Jesus was.

But our Lord's instruction to these men must have been initially puzzling. Jesus said go show yourself to the priests even while they were still leopards. When people are hurting enough they may then seek and respond to biblical instruction.

After all what other choice they have perhaps they had exhausted all other options. The Lord and his providence brings them to the place that they recognize their condition is so bad so hopeless that only God can remedy them and so they respond to him and they do his bidding as we all should do with no questions asked.

But sometimes the Lord's instruction doesn't make sense to us. There are those who seek counsel from God's people as to what God's words say but when they hear it when they hear God's word hear God's counsel because it doesn't make sense to them they fail to follow through.

But this was not the case with these men for they followed the Lord's instruction even though it may have seemed to be illogical perhaps even nonsensical to them. Were lepers and were to go be inspected by the priests?

What good is that going to do? So they were to go to the priest to get checked out as to whether they had leprosy and here they were unclean due to their disease and yet they were to go to the priest out of obedience.

So at the bidding of the Lord these men acted and all 10 of them did so and so the Lord was really requiring an act of faith by them. They were to obey him because he indeed was their master. They would do what he had directed them to do.

Matthew Henry commented on this he surmised regarding these men and the lesson for us for you and me. Note those that expect Christ's favors must take them in his way and method. Some of these lepers perhaps would be ready to quarrel with the prescription let him either cure or say that he will not and not send us to the priest on a fool's errand but overruled by the rest they all went to the priest.

As the ceremonial law was yet in force Christ took care that it should be observed and the reputation of it kept up and due honor paid to the priest and things pertaining to their function but probably Jesus had here a further design which was to have the priest judgment of and testimony to the perfect perfectness of the cure so that the priest might be awakened and others by him to inquire after one that had such a commanding power over bodily diseases.

It would have been a good witness to the Jewish priests. Faith is often to be exercised by the Lord's people in the face of what may seem to be unreasonable and even nonsensical instruction and guidance from the Lord.

When we hesitate or refuse to continue in humble submission and obedience because we cannot see or conceive that taking such a course of action will work or turn out for the better we really show forth our absence of faith and the presence of unbelief.

The scriptures tell us for we walk by faith not by sight but often we choose to walk by sight and not by faith and yet the scriptures are clear but without faith it's impossible to please God for he who comes to God must believe that he is that God is God and that God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him and so this word of Jesus to these men although it must have been puzzling maybe even unsettling must have kindled within them a measure of hope and so they acted.

Perhaps they thought what was there to lose. Consider what we might gain. And here we mention Naaman the Syrian remember him he was a gentile and he too had leprosy. He lived and served his king in Syria.

A young Jewish slave girl in his household named his wife of a prophet in Israel who could cure leprosy. And so Naaman went to Israel and sought out Elisha and Elisha would not so much as come out of his house to meet this man.

That's not how you you treat a you know a commanding officer of an army that can wipe out your nation. But he did. Elisha did send his servant out Gehazi with instructions for Naaman to go wash in the Jordan River seven times.

And Naaman of course was indignant. Initially I could have washed in the Amman or the far far rivers of Damascus they're far greater than the Jordan. But a servant convinced him would you not have been willing to do some great feat had he asked you why don't you go down to the Jordan.

Do what he told you. What do you have to lose. And he did so and was remarkably healed. And so he a Syrian okay Naaman was thankful as was the Samaritan in the account before us. And Naaman returned to Elisha and expressed his gratefulness and commitment to serve the God of Israel.

Even when sir he be he was no longer a pagan. He was no longer a worshiper of other gods but of the true God of Israel. And so God would have us act in faith. We're to exercise obedience to his word even if it does not seem to make sense to us or when we do not see how the action will result in any good change or benefit received by us.

You do it because this is what the word of God instructs you to do. And when we act in direct obedience to God's word then we will see God work in our lives and our relationships in ways we could not have imagined.

We read that these men were healed of their leprosy as they were going to the priest to be inspected by them verse 14b. And so it was as they went they were cleansed. Take note that it was in their way of obedience born of faith that the Lord brought his healing power to bear upon them.

It was a it was obedience in faith. One of the reasons Paul wrote to the church at Rome is to produce an obedience of faith in them. He mentioned in Romans one he also mentioned at the end of his letter I wrote this.

For in order to lead you to obedience to in faith Matthew Henry wrote. Observe. Then we may expect God to meet us with mercy when we're found in the way of duty. If we do what we can God will not be wanting to do that for us which we cannot.

We're to act in obedience to his word. And that's an act of faith. There's no merit in obeying. It's a demonstration that we truly believe his word. And we've seen people get their problems straightened out because they obeyed the Lord in some way they had faith enough to see what God was telling them was right and they followed his word and experienced blessing or relief from their difficulty.

This is the way the Lord works in our lives. But sadly and quite amazingly only one of these men returned to Jesus to thank him for his mercy and grace bestowed upon him verses 15 and 16. And one of them when he saw that he was healed returned with a loud voice glorified God and fell down on his face at his feet giving him thanks.

Well not long before this man would not dare approach anyone yet alone Jesus. They stood afar off but not now. Now he bursts in upon Jesus close enough to fall at his feet to give him glory no longer estranged.

This man's first intrusion among non-leprous people was one of coming directly to Jesus to express his thanksgiving his gratefulness for what the Lord had done for him. And this man's actions are a good lesson for us.

How we ought to be very grateful and express our praise and thanksgiving to God when he recovers us from an illness that we may have endured. It was an act of God's mercy that brought us recovery from any and every illness.

Mercy by definition is God giving people freely what they don't deserve. Mercy is not earned not warranted not deserved not obtained. It can be forfeited. But there's nothing you can do to obtain mercy except come to Jesus.

And God has promised mercy in him and so God does. So he extends mercy although we are unworthy and undeserving to the you know of the least of his favors we must not ever think therefore that there's something about us that move God to have and show mercy to us.

It originated in the good pleasure and will of God. Here you see the goodness of God. And again it's not a payment that he enabled you to recover from whatever it is that you were enduring. It was his mercy extended to you because he's a good and gracious God.

He did not need to bestow mercy upon you but he purposed that he would do so. And again not only are we not more deserving than others and therefore do not deserve his mercy. No one does. But we were perhaps even less deserving than others to whom God chose to show mercy he could have rightly and left you in your sin to your just eternal condemnation and been just in doing so.

And so mercy is a sovereign act of God toward those on whom he has said his love whom he chose to show mercy and save them from their sin. As John Gill once wrote the mercy of God arises from the goodness of his nature from his special love to his people and from his sovereign will and pleasure.

Who as he loves whom he pleases and is gracious to whom he will be gracious. So he has mercy on whom he will have mercy if God's extended mercy to you or whenever he's extended mercy to you it was a manifestation of his goodness that he purposed to show you.

And then in verses 17 and 18 we read of our Lord's reaction to this man returning to him to give him thanks. So Jesus answered and said were there not 10 cleansed. But where are the nine. Were there not any found or returned to give glory to God except this foreigner.

So Jesus gave forth a question respecting the other nine who had been healed of leprosy. And we might ask where are all those whom the Lord has blessed with his mercy in this life. There's not one person living who's not benefited from a multitude of God's mercies toward him.

But where is the thanksgiving which is only a right and proper response for God's favor that he showed and bestowed. Perhaps the Lord has graciously answered their prayers. He's brought healing and recovery from serious sickness.