The Grateful Samaritan Luke 17:11-19

Thanks for being here today on this wonderful day. I'm gonna go through the announcements. First start with what happened last week actually. We had just actually just yesterday we had women's Bible study.

Was that led by Barbara? Yeah I'm sure that went well. We also had pastors praying with Paul book series which will kick up in two weeks from now. So and they're kind of going to announcements for this week.

And then we have missionary of the month with Darcy Gerlung. She's a part of a church ministry that focuses on mobilizing equipping and coordinating believers so they can go out and evangelize in areas that the gospel isn't preached.

And Darcy is a part of that ministry and she's actually a Bible translator who works for Ethnos 360. So if you can kind of keep the ministry and her in your prayers so that it's fruitful and then it brings forth the work of God and others can be saved by it as well.

Then we have praying with Paul which I previously mentioned. So that's two weeks from now. May 1st and that's online. I think we're on chapter 5. Chapter 5 you want to pick it up through the YouTube link that we have on the church website or you can come here at 530 on Wednesdays and sit in with the rest of the congregation as well.

And then we have the biblical counseling course which will pick up next week as well on Saturday April 27th at 930 here in the church. We have about three sessions left so we're coming down to the wire here.

But everyone's feel free to join in at any time. It's the good thing about the book is that you can go back to any previous lessons and we can kind of all help each other out in that sense and reread different lessons to help us further understand the character of God and how that applies to our lives as well.

So and that'll do it. So if you'll join me in a word of prayer before we head into worship. Dear Lord thank you for this day you've given us today. Thank you for allowing us to meet and fellowship with one another here.

Prepare our hearts Lord for the worship and the sermon we're going to have here today Lord so that we can better understand and give ourselves to you Lord during this time and fully understand your character as it's displayed in the sermon here today.

In your name we pray Jesus name Amen. And I.

Thought it was apropos to repeat something that we had in Sunday school this morning. A verse when we're thinking about glorifying the Lord and we this morning in Sunday school we went through Psalms 92 and the first two verses say it is good to give thanks to the Lord and to sing praises to your name O Most High.

To declare your loving-kindness in the morning and your faithfulness every night. Do you think it's good to sing? It's good to declare the loving-kindness of the Lord and let's do that together this morning.

So stand together with me.

Today's scripture reading is taken from the book of Romans chapter 1 verses from 13 to 17. Romans chapter 1 verses from 13 to 17. I do not want you to be unaware brothers that I have often intended to come to you but thus far have been prevented.

In order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians both to the wise and to the foolish. So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes to the Jews first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith as it is written the righteous shall live by faith.

May God.

Add blessing to this reading. Let's all turn to Luke chapter 17 verses 11 through.

19. Luke chapter 17 verses 11 through 19. Now it happened as he went to Jerusalem that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. Then as he entered a certain village there met him ten men who were lepers who stood far far off and 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 ten 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.

This is the word of the Lord. Let us pray. Father we're grateful that we are cleansed by the mercy of Jesus Christ. That he would die for our sin on the cross. He would bear all of it not just some of it.

And he would suffer the wrath that we deserved so that we may be pure in your sight. And father we come before you to give praise to you and reflect and attribute your glory and the works that you have done in our lives.

We pray that you would help us to focus on Jesus and that our heart posture would be even more grateful today than ever before knowing that we didn't deserve to be healed but that you healed us by your mercy and grace alone.

Help us to focus on Christ this morning and throughout the week and help us to trust him no matter what's happening in our lives and in the world. In Jesus name. Amen. Now this healing miracle follows Jesus teaching on his discipleship.

He went over the very characteristics of his followers. How they're supposed to be apart from the world. This healing miracle is not unique because of what these lepers were healed from. After all we have seen a healing miracle involving a leper.

What makes this unique is the teaching lesson that follows the healing. It is important to remember that we actually have not seen a healing miracle since chapter 14. And this is not because Jesus stopped healing but rather Luke is structuring this section the journey to Jerusalem to show Jesus teaching about following Christ.

It's the structure of the passage. The structure of the whole book that shapes what kind of miracles and teaching that we hear about. Hence the focus of this healing passage is not actually the healing in itself but the teaching that follows the healing.

The healing actually is just one verse. They are cleansed after they've went. The focus is the response to the healing. The lesson today is on properly responding to God's mercy. God's mercy we do need to remember is offered to more than just the believers.

Remember what mercy is. Mercy is God's compassion towards those who do not deserve it. God's compassion towards those who cannot help themselves. That's what mercy is. Mercy comes from this deep pity that the superior feels towards those who cannot help themselves.

God's mercy is the fact that non-christians are not suffering right now. The fact that we're not struck dead the moment we sin is God's merciful patience. For non-believers to hear the gospel is God's mercy.

For non-believers to hear the gospel and still reject it and live is God's mercy. God's mercy is offered to more than just believers even on a daily basis. And this passage shows us what it means to respond to God's mercy.

And this is crucial because how we respond to God's mercy determines our salvation. Oftentimes people ask what kind of people are the hardest to share the gospel with. And for a long time I thought the Catholics.

And you might know that too from your experience with having Catholic friends or family. It's hard because they use the same language, same vocabulary. They will say they believe in God's grace but they'll you know attach works.

And I thought so too. And then I realized there's some of us here who have been Catholics and gladly, gladly heard the mercy of God. That it's not up to our good deeds. In fact it's not up to even an ounce of our good deeds that we're saved.

And what I realized was it might be even harder to preach the gospel to Protestant Christians who think they're saved. Who know all the correct doctrines but deep inside don't respond in faith to the mercy.

Who have heard the gospel over and over again since they were little but then don't see God's mercy and grace anything special. Oftentimes we might wonder it might be better to go move to the one of the Bible belts.

But if you consider the culture of the Bible belt how often would we be frustrated to run across people who claim to be Christians but are only culturally so. At least in Sacramento there's a cost being cost of being identified as Christian.

So that only really serious people who want to commit to Christ will identify as Christians. There are pros and cons to both sides. All that is to say is it's crucial that people do respond to God's mercy.

It's not something we just put off until later. The main point of this passage is although Jesus lavishes God's mercy only those who respond in faith are ultimately saved. Although Jesus lavishes God's mercy only those who respond in faith are ultimately saved.

First Jesus lavishes God's mercy abundantly to anyone who asks him. Jesus lavishes God's mercy abundantly to anyone who asks him. Starts with verse 11. Now it happened as he went to Jerusalem that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.

The context of this journey is again set by the destination Jerusalem. Luke makes it clear that Jesus ministry ever since chapter 951 his start of the journey is overshadowed by Jesus upcoming death and resurrection that will take place in Jerusalem.

Jesus healing and teaching before he reaches Jerusalem all point to the substitutionary death on the cross for the sin of his people. And this is not the only place in which Luke reminds us where Jesus is going.

The cross is the ultimate destination. This is the journey to prepare his disciples before that. Now Samaria was the capital of the northern kingdom in Israel. If you know the Old Testament history after Solomon because of his son Rehoboam's foolishness the kingdom of David Israel split into two kingdoms.

The northern kingdom and the southern kingdom. And if you've been going to the women's Bible study for all the women out there all you know that the northern kingdom kings are always outdoing the southern kingdoms kings in wickedness.

Right? You know that the northern kingdom always outpaced Judah in idolatry and oppression. This is not to say Judah was squeaky clean but the northern kingdom raced toward the bottom first. Their kings are far worse and their idolatry is more immense.

The fact that Jesus is passing through this region sets the context for whom he will heal in the later verses. Now as Jesus entered an unnamed town ten lepers come out to meet him. Then as he entered a certain village there met him ten men who were lepers who stood afar off.

The village's name is not important here hence Luke does not give us the specifics. While the camera is blurry around what village this is the focus is on the ten lepers. The ten lepers however do not approach Jesus but rather stand afar off.

And the reason for this is because in ancient Israel leprosy and other skin diseases were socially isolating. This is because the law prohibited the lepers from approaching those who are clean. Lest the uncleanness spread to the clean.

Whenever someone clean touch something unclean the clean would become unclean not vice versa. The law carefully listed out physical purity and impurity because the law taught Israel how to properly worship the Lord.

After all the Lord is the creator, the Lord is their Savior, and the Lord is the God of life. Ever since Genesis 1 he speaks life into existence. And all throughout the Old Testament we'll see that he has full control over who gets to live and who gets to die.

And in certain instances in the Old Testament it is the Lord who gives life to the dead. Now ritualistically it was important for God's people to worship the God of life and stay away from anything that resembled death.

That's really what the ritual purity is all about. In order to worship the God of life, the very people who worship the God of life must keep themselves spaced out from death. Hence it was crucial that God's people would remain ritualistically clean and pure to stay away from the unclean lest they also become unclean and they do not experience the Lord's presence.

And it is also important to note that just because someone was unclean it did not mean it was moral sin. For example when you bury your dead parents, which was an important way of honoring your parents according to the Ten Commandments, you had to be unclean.

In fact if you did not bury your parents properly because you were scared of becoming unclean you would have sinned against God. So uncleanness did not mean you've sinned. Uncleanness made you ritualistically unclean so that you had to go through various rituals to make yourself pure again.

This means just because you had leprosy it did not mean you you sinned against God. However it made you ritualistically unclean which meant you could not approach God nor God's people. Although leprosy was not a moral sin, lepers were socially isolated from the rest of the community lest the whole community becomes unclean.

They were commanded to cover their upper lip and proclaim unclean unclean wherever they go lest someone accidentally become unclean. It was an insufferable condition both physically and socially. You had to live outside the camp.

Hence it makes sense why the ten lepers stood afar off. They did not dare to approach Jesus because they were so socially used to not approaching anyone who's clean. Verse 13 tells us and they lifted up their voices and said Jesus master have mercy on us.

Because they're standing far off they have to proclaim loudly so that hopefully Jesus would hear and have mercy on them. Mercy is a major characteristic of God. Mercy is more than what God does it's who he is.

Now what is mercy? Mercy is an action that flows from deep inside when God sees the helpless. When God sees those who cannot help themselves he is filled with compassion. And his action that results mercifully restores whomever needs to be restored be made whole again.

And this is important because that's who he is. Oftentimes we think of someone helping someone who needs help as almost of a condescending gesture. Oh I guess I will help. But that's not what God's mercy is at all.

He's moved from the inside to restore not out of this arrogance because only he can do it but because he desires to see the other person whole. And one thing about mercy is that it's given to those who cannot pay him back.

Mercy cannot be earned but graciously given. Mercy is not a loan it's a gift. Now how does Jesus respond? Verse 14 said when he saw them he said to them go show yourselves to the priests. And so it was as they went they were cleansed.

You can see that Jesus did not deliver it at all. Jesus did not ask for their resumes. Jesus did not sift through each individual. Oh yeah you're worthy. You're not. Jesus did not give them tests to see if they would pass.

A doctrinal test. Right? I need to only help those who are true believers. Right? That's not his view at all. He only took a look at them. He did not have to look at how they will respond in the future.

All he had to do was just look at them. They got his attention because they were screaming and he just looked at them. And that's all it took because when Jesus saw their sorry state he desired to restore them.

He simply cleansed them just as they requested. They didn't have to persuade him. They didn't have to coax him. They didn't have to write an essay to move his heart. All Jesus had to do was look and he was filled with compassion.

No quid pro quo. No strings attached. Jesus lavished his mercy on those who were utterly helpless only because they came and asked. That's all it took. That's mercy. Therefore Jesus commands them to go and show themselves to the priests.

And this is actually following the law. Leviticus 13 19 and 14 1 through 11 show what needs to occur in order for the pre the the leper to be approved and to be cleansed. According to the law of Moses a leper who has been cleansed must be checked by the priest before rejoining the community.

And Jesus telling them to show themselves to the priest was a guarantee of their restoration. It wasn't a cruel joke as they were walking and they're still lepers and the priests tell them to get out.

Jesus healed them not because they earned it but because he had mercy on them. And oftentimes we have difficulty experiencing Jesus's mercy. And this is not because his mercy is so rare in the Bible. Rather it's the opposite.

Jesus's compassion is narrated all throughout. It is because we have a tendency to paint Jesus in our image. We're so prone to confusing Jesus's heart with our own hardened hearts. And unfortunately this holds us back from approaching the our compassionate Savior to ask for mercy.

Here are some common lies. Lies that we believe. I'm not good enough to be forgiven. I have not been pursuing Jesus. Jesus can't possibly forgive me for this. I have sinned against him too many times.

I'm a backsliding sinner. Now what do all these have in common? We greatly minimize Jesus's overflowing mercy yet greatly maximize our own sin. We elevate our sinfulness higher than our compassionate Savior.

We put the spotlight on our sinfulness on ourselves and our helplessness while cover and darken the face of our Savior. My sin is too wicked for my Savior's mercy. It's what we call sin sovereignty. How do we counter this lie?

Just like how any lie is countered we must go to God's Word. We must see Jesus's mercy clearly. We must actually actively tell our souls of Jesus's great mercy for us more than the times that we have told the lies to ourselves over the years.

I think this is important. Sometimes we just are satisfied with yes, yes, Jesus's mercy. It's free. It's great. Hallelujah. But I actually recommend that we open the Bible and read the very words out loud.

And some might say, you're overdoing this pastor. But how many times have we actually told ourselves how bad we are out loud even if we're not talking to another person? How much we screwed up? How many times have we said it out loud even if no one's around?

Well, if we're saturating on those lies, what makes you think it's just sufficient to just nod your head and say, yeah, Jesus is merciful. We got to actually counter those lies with God's Word. Among many verses regarding Christ's mercy in the Bible, I think Ephesians 2 verses 4 through 5 is a great one.

But God being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us. Even though we were dead in offenses, trespasses, sins, he made us alive together with Christ. By grace you're saved. You can't miss God's mercy here.

Paul makes it clear how abundant his mercy is. Rich in mercy. Not poor in mercy. Not moderate in mercy. He's rich in mercy. That's what's overflowing. And with any love? No. Great love. And what's the object of his love?

Us. It's not just some emotionally feel-good sense of love. Yeah, you just got to love everyone. Love is the answer. No, no, no, no. It's great love. Huge amount of love. Heapings of love. Toward just anything?

Just, no, us. And what did he do? He made us alive again. Your salvation does not depend on you. It depends on his grace. It depends on who God is. The forgiveness of all of your sins only depends on Christ who suffered God's wrath on your behalf on the cross.

The next time you reflect on the lie that you're not good enough to be forgiven, or how many times you've just messed up. How it's all your fault. You must redirect your minds to God's truth. But God being rich in mercy because of his great love which he has loved us, even though we were dead in offenses, made us alive together with Christ.

By grace you are saved. Read it out loud again and again and again until you don't believe in that lie anymore. Read it out loud in the morning if you're prone to focusing on your sin in the morning. Read it out loud before going to bed if if that lie keeps you awake at night.

Read it out loud until it's out of your head. Read it out loud more times than you saturate on those lies. Read it out loud until those lies do not have the bites. After all, God's forgiveness has nothing to do with your record, but in Christ's perfect record alone.

Now, what is the fitting response to experiencing God's mercy? Only those who faithfully respond to God's mercy are ultimately saved. Only those who faithfully respond to God's mercy are ultimately saved.

The next two verses show the response of those who are 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. You may be asking how do these two verses show the responses of those who are cleansed when there's only one person who came back with one response. This is because the other nine, by not coming back, responded.

They responded by not coming back and not thanking Jesus and not glorifying God after experiencing God's mercy. No response is a response to God's mercy. Now, the one who came back returns and glorifies God with a loud voice.

Returning is an important verb in the Bible. In the right context, it's more than just the physical action of coming back, but also can paint the spiritual reality of repentance. When you read the Old Testament, the prophet's command, the main command really, is repent.

Or some of the more literal translations would have return. Return, O Israel. Turn away. Turning is the physical expression of repentance because you do have to turn away from your sin and turn toward God.

And there are a few remarkable points in these verses that emphasize the reality of the leper's restoration. First, just a couple of verses back, he was crying out with a loud voice in desperation before the healing.

And now that he is healed, he cries out with a loud voice in gratitude. That's the effect of God's mercy. The former leper could see that Jesus healing him is the result of a divine intervention. Jesus healing is, in fact, God's work.

Jesus does not operate apart from God's will. Jesus' work is God's work. Jesus' mercy is God's mercy. Hence, he praises God loudly. And this is because praise is the fitting response to God's mercy. Praise is the celebration of what God has done.

It's a joyful celebration of God's redemptive act. Second, while the leper stood afar off when he was a leper, now that he is restored, he humbly falls down at Jesus' feet and thanks him. Faithfully responding to God's mercy eliminates our alienation from God.

When a person trusts in Jesus Christ, his relationship with God is fully restored. There is no more enmity nor hostility between the sinner and God when a person trusts in Jesus Christ. And Luke's narration of this spatial movement from afar off to his feet shows the spiritual reality of the closed gap between God and the repentant sinner.

This former leper is no longer far away from God but intimately close. Third, he was a Samaritan. This adds to the shock that we already see. Not only did the nine just didn't come back, but the one who did is a Samaritan.

And we need a brief history lesson regarding the Samaritans. After Assyria, that's the northern empire in Mesopotamia, they got really powerful and cruel and they decided to destroy the northern kingdom of Israel.

So after they did that, they actually took the Israelites captive and they just placed them in their empire all throughout. And these Israelites, they don't really have a faithful record in their homeland anyway.

They started marrying off. They started marrying foreigners. Now, not that the Bible is against interracial marriages, it's just that the Bible is against marrying those who worship a different God. Because in one generation, that just changes.

So they started mixing the foreign gods to their religion. So these Samaritans, their faith syncretized, became a blended smoothie. Right? Yeah, the Lord, but you know, Baal too, Moloch, why not? And the Greeks come with their multiple gods.

Oh, we'll add that too. Right? They just blended it all together. And the result of that is they stopped worshiping in Jerusalem. Instead, they chose another mountain, Mount Gerizim. Now you reject the city of God, and you got to reject the priests of God, because the priests of God are serving in Jerusalem.

So they reject the Levitical priests. And you can see how the Jews would see them now. They're apostates. They're unbelievers. In fact, they've completely corrupted themselves. In fact, some traditions considered eating with a Samaritan as defiling as eating pork.

And if you know Jewish history and tradition, even now, eating pork is a big prohibition. So imagine that. To a Jewish mind, this Samaritan, even after he is healed of leprosy, they would consider him unclean still.

Yet, it is only this Samaritan who had the genuine faith to humbly respond to God's mercy. And that stings a bit. Undoubtedly, Jesus noticed too. Were there not ten cleansed? But were there nine? Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?

The series of these rhetorical questions highlights this shocking reality of the Samaritan's faithful response. The rhetorical questions are questions asked for the emphasis rather than in order to search for answers.

First, it starts out broadly. Were there not ten cleansed? The expected answer is, yes, there were ten cleansed. We just heard that from the narrative. It's not that the nine did not get healed, so only one came back, as if Jesus has a 10 success rate of miracles.

All ten of them were cleansed. All ten of them experienced God's mercy. Sadly, the reality was that there's only one at Jesus' feet praising him and glorifying God. Yikes. The second question emphasizes the missing nine.

Where are the nine? Well, where are the rest? Obviously, this is a rhetorical question. Jesus has no plan of searching for the other nine who did not come back in his journey. He's not looking to be praised by them, as if he's a praise hog.

I deserve that. But rather, the rhetorical question further portrays the shocking result of only one responding in faith. And the third question gets to the heart of the matter. Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?

The word foreigner here means pagan or heathen. Under the Old Covenant, foreigners were prevented from approaching God in the temple. Yet, ironically, it is precisely this grateful foreigner who approaches the God incarnate to give him glory at his feet.

The once-prohibited foreigner will have the closest access to God than the rest of the nine, rest of the bunch, because of his faithful response to God's mercy. And this is confirmed in Jesus's subsequent commands.

Arise, go your way, your faith has made you well. Now, many translations have the phrase, your faith has made you well. KJV has, your faith has made thee whole. ESV has made you well. And a footnote that says, has saved you.

I didn't get to check NASB, but I'm sure they have a footnote as well with the faith that has saved you. I think the footnote is more correct here, because the Greek word here means to be saved, not to be just made well.

Consider this. All ten of them were made well. It would not make sense to tell this man that his healing was by his faith. No, I think this is a salvific pronouncement. It's a declaration of his salvation.

There is something more that this Samaritan received that the other nine former lepers did not. When this Samaritan faithfully responded to Jesus's mercy. After all, if they all received healing, this pronouncement makes no difference.

Rather, this foreigner, even this pagan, is saved because he trusted in Jesus. That's what makes it shocking. What a normal Jew would not consider has occurred. A pagan is the only faithful one out of the bunch.

Not only that, a pagan is saved by his faith in Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, the Jewish God. And this is an important lesson for us all. We're saved by our faith in Christ alone. For those who like Latin, the Reformers called it sola fide, only faith.

The only way to receive God's salvation is by trusting in Jesus alone. Nothing else and no one else. It is not trusting in Jesus and doing good works. It's purely simply only trusting in Jesus alone. And we may have various scenarios in our minds.

Well, what if you murder someone? If you truly trust that Jesus bore your sin, including that murder, on the cross and faced God's judgment on his behalf, then he is saved. And there is no wrath of God left over for this murderer, former murderer.

Well, what if she is a Satanist? If she turns away from Satan and believes in Jesus saving work on the cross, she is saved. What about all the years of wickedness that they have lived? The moment a sinner genuinely believes in Jesus is the moment all of his wickedness is washed away.

Even if the sinner dies just a couple minutes after that moment, he is saved. He needs not to make up and to cover all the wickedness that he's committed, because it's been covered by Christ's mercy alone.

And one may say that's unfair. A sinner who lives her whole life in sin can be forgiven at the very moment she believes? She doesn't deserve that. And you'd be right. She doesn't deserve that, because it's not about deservedness.

It's purely based on God's mercy through Jesus Christ. Let us pray. Father, we are grateful that Jesus' mercy does not depend on our good works. We're grateful that the only way to receive Jesus' mercy is not through our goodness, but just to believe what Jesus had done on the cross to die for our sin and rise from the dead.

Help us to flee the temptation to bring something else to the table as if we can contribute to our own salvation. Help us to leave all those thoughts behind and just fall at Jesus' feet, helpless, knowing that we can't do anything but to just receive.

Help us to remember his great mercy, his rich mercy, and may we seek it daily. In Jesus' name, amen.