“Give Thanks with a Grateful Heart”
(Luke 17:11-19)
Series: Certainty in Uncertain Times
Rev. Todd A. Linn, PhD
Henderson’s First Baptist Church, Henderson
- Take your Bibles and join me in Luke’s Gospel, chapter 17 (page 705; YouVersion).
While you’re finding that, let me encourage you to register today for our 2nd Annual Parent Summit. Our mission here at Henderson’s First Baptist includes strengthening the family. To that end we are hosting this parent summit for parents, parents to be, and grandparents and children and teens of every age. Dr. Tommy Sanders will be with us January 28th. He’s going to help us be the persons of family God has called us to be. Marty and Ellie Coursey will also be providing breakout sessions and this is all Saturday January 28th, cost is just $5 per person. It’s going to be great. I’m going to be here and I encourage you to join me. More information in the F&F and in Sunday school. Register today.
If you’re visiting with us we preach through books of the Bible, verse-by-verse, believing this is the best way to grow and get to know God and His will. When we were last together in Luke, we left off at verse 10 so we pick up today at verse 11 and will go through the next passage of Scripture, verses 11-19.
- Please stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word.
11 Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.
12 Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off.
13 And they lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”
14 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.
15 And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God,
16 and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan.
17 So Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine?
18 Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?”
19 And He said to him, “Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.”
- Pray.
Introduction:
The title of the message this morning is, “Give Thanks with a Grateful Heart.” I thought of that title as I read about this leper who had been healed and returns to Jesus in gratitude.
How many of you know that hymn, “Give Thanks?”
GIVE THANKS WITH A GRATEFUL HEART (I’m NOT going to sing the whole thing!)
GIVE THANKS TO THE HOLY ONE
GIVE THANKS BECAUSE HE’S GIVEN–what?–
JESUS CHRIST, HIS SON
AND NOW LET THE WEAK SAY, “I AM STRONG”
LET THE POOR SAY–what, “I AM RICH”–why?–
BECAUSE OF WHAT THE LORD HAS DONE FOR US
GIVE THANKS
Well if we were going to make a video of this passage, that hymn could be the theme song and musical score playing in the background of verses 11-19. You’ve got ten lepers here who are all healed by Jesus Christ and only one of the ten returns to “Give thanks with a grateful heart.” What does God want to show us from this passage?
Let’s take a walk back through this passage of Scripture and we’re going to walk together and we’re going to walk slowly and we’er going to walk with our Bibles open and let’s together see what God wants to show us in this passage. Ready? Let’s go.
The greater context of these nine verses reaches back eight chapters ago to Luke, chapter 9 where Luke writes in Luke 9:51, “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.” Jesus sets out–resolutely–for Jerusalem. Why? Someone tell me why Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem? Right, to die, and He says so again in Luke 13. He says, “Go tell that fox, Herod, I am on my way to Jerusalem, “for it cannot be that a prophet should perish outside of Jerusalem (Luke 13:33).”
That’s why we read in the first part of verse 11, “Now it happened as He went to (where?) Jerusalem.” Jesus is on a mission. He is on a mission to go to Jerusalem to die for our sins. He is on a mission to save us from the penalty we deserve. The Bible condemns every man guilty of sin and deserving of punishment for our sin. Jesus takes the punishment we deserved upon Himself. He dies in our place. God charges Jesus with our sin and God credits us with Christ’s righteousness.
So this phrase at the beginning of verse 11, “Now it happened as went to Jerusalem,” is not just a nice little way Luke thought he would begin a story about gratitude; it is a reminder that God has visited us in the person of Christ for the purpose of dying and taking care of our sin problem. This is the greater context of our passage and extremely important to us if we’re going to see that this passage is more than a short story about being thankful. Verse 11 again:
11 Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.
12 Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off.
And most of you know why they “stood afar off.” In fact verse 12 says this all happened, “AS He entered a certain village.” Jesus is not IN the village, it is AS He entered a certain village or AS HE WAS ENTERING a certain village. These lepers were not allowed IN the village. Lepers were expelled from the community.
If you’ve never heard that term “leper” before, just know that this was someone who had a terrible skin disease of some kind or another–leprosy. Lepers were expelled from the community and from local worship because they were considered “unclean” according to Jewish Law and custom. Write down these two passages in your notes and read them later if you like, Leviticus 13:38-46 and Numbers 5:2-4. I’ll just read from part of Leviticus 13 which tells how Old Testament priests could determine whether someone had leprosy by looking at his skin and then pronounce the guy leprous if he was found to have leprosy. Leviticus 13 and beginning in verse 44:
“He is a leprous man. He is unclean. The priest shall surely pronounce him unclean…Now the leper(‘s)…clothes shall be torn and his head bare; and he shall cover his mustache, and cry, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’…He is unclean, and he shall dwell alone; his dwelling shall be outside the camp.”
So these lepers were expelled from the community because they were labeled “unclean” and they were outside of the camp or outside of the village because if anyone should accidentally come into contact with one of these lepers then they too would be considered unclean. And the only way a leper could gain re-entry to the village was to be pronounced “clean” by a Jewish priest. The priest would examine him and make sure the leprosy or skin disease was in fact gone and if so, the priest would declare the guy clean and he was able to go back to his family, go back to work, go back to worship and so forth. So that’s the background of why these 10 lepers are standing off to the side just outside the entry point of the village Jesus was entering. And from a distance they cry out to Jesus, verse 13:
13 And they lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”
In other words, “Heal us!” It’s interesting that apparently word had gotten out about Jesus. These 10 lepers had heard about Jesus’ healing folks who were sick. Maybe they had heard about the guy back in Luke 5 when Jesus had entered a certain city and this guy “full of leprosy” saw Jesus and fell before Him and said, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” And Jesus put out HIs hand and touched him and said, “I am willing; be cleansed.” And they had heard how “immediately the leprosy left him (Luke 5:12-14).” In fact, the Bible says that right after that happened, “the report went around concerning Him all the more (Luke 5:15).”
So these 10 lepers likely had heard a great deal about Jesus’ ability to heal and they are crying out for help, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” What’s Jesus going to do? Verse 14:
14 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.
Now this is awesome. When Jesus saw them, He doesn’t do like he had done back in chapter 5. He doesn’t reach out and touch the lepers here; Here He heals from a distance! He simply calls out to them in verse 14, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” In other words, “You guys go and see the priest who will determine whether you are fit to re-enter society. Just go ahead and go,” and it’s AS THEY WENT, that they were–what?–last part of verse 14: “they were cleansed.” The healing came as they went, as they obeyed, the Lord Jesus. It’s reminiscent of 2 Kings 5:10-14 where Elisha sent a messenger to Naaman of Syria to go wash in the Jordan River seven times and he would be cleansed of his leprosy. “Just go, go show yourselves to the priests. Obey Me; trust Me.”
So these guys are on their way to see the priest and AS they’re on the way, they’re like, “Hey, check me out! My fingers aren’t falling off, my skin is normal!” Like Elisha’s God in 2 Kings, Jesus heals at a distance. Or Luke may put it this way, “The God of 2 Kings is the God of Luke 17.” Don’t miss the weighty Christological emphasis here. Never forget Luke set out to write his Gospel as he tells Theophilus in his introduction, in the prologue, Luke 1:1-5, “that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed,” those things concerning Jesus Christ. “This is not wishful thinking, Theophilus. Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. He does what no earthly priest can do. He heals from a distance.”
Okay, so how many lepers are there? 10 How many are healed? 10. How many return to thank God? Verse 15:
15 And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God,
I love this! Jesus told them to go show themselves to the priest, the one who was thought of as the “go-between” for men and God. So they’re to go to the priest and this one guy when he sees that he is healed it seems he recognizes WHO the True Priest really is! And so this one leper returns to the Lord Jesus Christ and the Bible says, “with a loud voice glorified God.”
The Greek for “loud voice” is, “fwnhvß mega¿lhß” from which we get “phone” and “mega.” The words are inverted here, “fwnhvß mega¿lhß,” from these words we get the word, “megaphone.” Luke wants us to know that this leper wasn’t quiet about giving thanks! He shouted out his gratitude the way we would amplify it with a megaphone today!
As the leper glorified God, verse 16 says he fell down before Jesus Christ:
16 and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And (incidentally) he was a Samaritan (we’ll come back to that).
Right now, note that this leper–when he saw he was healed–verses 15 and 16 say he did four things, note the verbs: he returned, he glorified, he fell down, he gave thanks.
The Samaritan fell on his face at the feet of Jesus. This is gratitude, praise, and worship directed at Jesus. How would you feel if someone bowed down to you and worshiped you? You’d feel funny. Why? Because you’re not God. Why does the leper throw himself down at Jesus’ feet and worship Him? Because He believes Jesus is worthy of worship. Why does Jesus NOT rebuke the leper for worshiping a man? Because Jesus is more than a man. He is God. Verses 17-18:
17 So Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine?
18 Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?”
Three questions Jesus asks here in verses 17 and 18: “Were not 10 cleansed? Where are the others; the other nine? Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner–this Samaritan?” So we come back to this leper’s being a Samaritan. Apparently the other nine lepers were Jews and here is a leper who is a Samaritan.
In Jesus’ day, did Jews and Samaritans get along? How many of you think they did NOT get along–how many of you think “Jews had no dealings with Samaritans (John 4:9)?” Interpretation by vote! They did NOT get along. Jews and Samaritans hated one another. They avoided one another. But here you have these Jews and a Samaritan hanging out with one another. Why? Because when you have a shared hardship and a shared suffering, the things that once seemed so important are no longer important. Class distinction doesn’t seem to matter anymore. Tradition doesn’t matter; race doesn’t matter; wealth doesn’t matter; popularity doesn’t matter. Everyone is in the same boat now. By the way, this is a beautiful picture of the church! Through Christ Jesus there is no longer a distinction between Jew and non-Jew, rich and poor, educated and uneducated, American and non-American. All are one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:28).
Jesus EXPECTED all ten to return. He had told all ten to show themselves to the priest, but the text makes clear here that Jesus expected every single one of them to come back. All people are to be grateful for what God has done.
Too many people are like the nine. The nine were healed and rushed to the priest to get reinstated to society, to go back to hanging out with their friends, getting back to their old way of life. Too many today are like the nine, “God, get me out of this fix so I can get back to my life.” Too many are like the nine; like the rich man in the previous chapter, living for this world only. To the Samaritan, there’s something much more important than time, toys, and treasures. There’s something bigger going on here. There’s something bigger going on here and His name is Jesus! Nothing is more important than worshiping Jesus Christ. So the leper returns to give glory to God at the feet of Jesus. He sees something the other lepers do not see. So verse 19:
19 And He said to him, “Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.”
Literally, the Greek has, “Your faith has SAVED you.” Your faith has saved you. In other words, “I healed you of your leprosy,” but it’s because you see something the others do not see, because you see Me as someone ‘worthy of worship, worthy of praise, worthy of honor and glory,’ because you see something bigger going on here, it’s clear you are a believer. Your faith has saved you.” You have experienced not only a healing of the BODY; you have experienced a healing of the SOUL.”
Some people get close to Jesus, but don’t experience ultimate salvation. The nine lepers got close to Jesus, they even experienced spiritual blessings that come as a result of God’s common grace–they were healed! But you can be healed of leprosy and still go to hell. The nine did not experience ultimate healing-spiritual healing, the healing of the soul. This leper experienced both physical and spiritual healing.
Before we go I want to give you two main principles and two main questions. First principle:
I. True Faith Leads to Gratitude
One cannot be truly grateful to God apart from saving faith. This leper had a faith in the One True God and he came and fell down at the feet of Jesus. He was grateful because he possessed true faith.
The reason some people go throughout life ungrateful to God is because they have no faith. They do not believe. Paul writes of this in Romans 1. This is our default position in life. We are born sinners, sinners by nature and sinners by choice. Writing of those who have not yet experienced saving faith in Christ, Paul writes in Romans 1:21, “Although they knew God (they knew “about” Him) they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful.” Gratitude to God does not come apart from saving faith in Christ.
The reason some people go through life neither glorifying God nor thanking God, the reason some people go throughout their lives ungrateful to God is because they have no faith. They are not true believers. True faith leads to gratitude. Number two:
II. Gratitude Leads to Glorifying God
This leper knew God. So this leper knew that nothing was more important than glorifying God, thanking God, and spending time at the feet of Jesus Christ.
So here are two questions to leave you with. Number one, ask yourself:
1) Am I Truly Grateful for what God has Done?
Do you thank God for your physical well-being? Do you thank Him every day for your spiritual well-being? Do you realize how much God has done for you?
Did the sun come up this morning?
Were you able to get out of bed?
Are you breathing on your own?
Does your heart beat work?
Are you able to hear, see, touch, smell?
Do you know the beauty of color and the brilliance of light?
Can you feel the warmth of another human being you are able to embrace?
Can you feel inside yourself love, joy, happiness, and peace?
Then thank God for what the Lord has done!
Second question:
2) How Do I Regularly Show my Gratitude?
In other words, “Is it really clear and plain to everyone that I am a grateful person?” What is my conversation like? When people ask me how I’m doing or how it’s going, how do I respond? “It’s going!” “I’m doing!” Really?!
How do I regularly show my gratitude through my conversation and through my worship?
Am I truly grateful for what God has done and how do I show it?
Gratitude cannot come apart from faith. Gratitude springs from faith. Let me share this with you and we’ll close in prayer.
Many of you are familiar with Matthew Henry, the great puritan of an earlier generation. Many of you have the Matthew Henry commentary set. Matthew Henry was once robbed by a couple men while walking down the street. Here is his grateful response to God following his robbery. Here is what he prayed:
“I thank Thee first because I was never robbed before; second, because although they took my (wallet) they did not take my life; third, although they took my all, it was not much; and fourth, because it was I who was robbed and not I who robbed.”
- Stand for prayer.
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