The Gospel of Luke 17:11-21 - Lepers healed: 10; Thankful lepers: 1

Luke 17 11 through 21 So we'll start off here by reading Luke 17 11 while he was on the way to Jerusalem He was passing between Samaria and Galilee One of the points that we made, this is not the final trip to Jerusalem, but we're getting close, close to the time where we'll have Christ coming actually down the Jordan River Valley and up through Jericho, that's where he encounters Zacchaeus, and then actually waiting until Lazarus has died, and then heads toward Jerusalem.

So this is the time right before that. And just to kind of give us some perspective, he had been taking the information out of the book of Matthew. He had been in Capernaum. He was going probably through Nazareth and then the road that goes down there into Jerusalem. To get some perspective on this, this would be a map of Denver to Fort Collins. So Nazareth to Jerusalem is about the same as the trip from Fort Collins to Denver, to give you some kind of scale. A lot of times when we think of Israel, we think, well, that's a country. Well, yeah, it is a country. It's about like a few counties is the actual territory.

And so if you were to drive it, it would be a lot more rapid. Anybody ever walk from Fort Collins to Denver? Anybody ever done that? It would take a few days. And in fact, that's what it would take when they made a trip like this. It would take three, four, or five days, depending on what route you picked and how efficient your time was. But I think it's helpful to get some perspective.

We're not talking about a big country. So Samaria is a small area about what we would say is the size of a county. And that's the area they would often avoid. The Jews would typically avoid it. This gives you some perspective here, just pulling the maps out of the way, from Nazareth to Jerusalem to Fort Collins to Denver, about 65 miles direct distance as the crow flies. I'm not sure why people are flying like crows, but anyway. And so Sychar, just to give you some perspective, was a major city in Samaria.

That's where Jesus talked to the woman at the well, the Samaritan woman at the well, John chapter 4. And so that gives us some, you know, distance idea. So now, we look at this passage we pointed out last Sunday. Jesus had been in or near Capernaum as he had spoken to the disciples about mustard seed faith, faith the size of a mustard seed. They were asking, increase my faith, and he's saying, wait a minute, first of all, that's not the issue. It's where you put it, right? And if you have just tiny faith, and you put that faith in the Lord, that can accomplish great things.

So now he's headed towards Jerusalem as he went through the area of Samaria. And as a matter of fact, what he says right here is just kind of on the border. And he's probably still in Galilee, but about to enter Samaria. To give you some perspective on where that is, That area that he's going through is probably right on the edge of the Armageddon, the Valley of Megiddo.

Samaria had its issues, but there had also been great response in Samaria. When Jesus went in there, as recorded in John chapter 4, there was much better response in Samaria, spiritually speaking, than Jesus had seen in a lot of areas among the Jews. So what's the deal about Samaria? Why were the Jews all uptight about the Samaritans? Were they just prejudiced? There was some background behind it.

This area of Samaria, as I'll call it, was part of the northern kingdom of Israel, after the kingdom divided north and south, following the time of Solomon. So Israel had the north and then they had the south, just following the time of Solomon. And in the northern kingdom, there were the 10 tribes, and the southern kingdom, Benjamin and Judah. Now, over time, a lot of those in the northern kingdom went south, right? And so eventually, the southern kingdom had people from all the tribes. But initially, it was the tribe of Benjamin and Judah that established the southern kingdom.

When the Northern Kingdom fell to Assyria, to the Assyrian Empire, the Assyrians scrambled the people. That was their philosophy of empire, mix them up. Take these Jews over here in this area of Samaria and move them over here and here and here. And then they'd take somebody from somewhere else and put them in there. And the idea was by scrambling the people that you'd keep from getting any kind of rebellion started because everybody was so confused and getting reoriented to their new place. So what they did specifically is to take people from other areas, Gentiles, and mix them in with the Jews that were left in Samaria.

And so you had this mixed group of people. And when they finally blended, you end up with the Samaritans. So they had mixed ethnicity. They had mixed practices and mixed locations. So the Jews of the Northern Kingdom were already compromised. There were 20 kings in the Northern Kingdom. And how many of them were good? Goose egg. All of them bad. But they had mixed up genealogies as well. You go through the genealogy, and this one married into that one, and so the genealogies were mixed up. They mixed up their practices.

It changed their location of worship to Samaria. So that's why the woman at the well would say, we worship on this mountain, and point off from Sychar at Jacob's well, and point up on the mountain, Gerizim. So they changed their location of worship. By the time of Christ, the Jews were already very alienated, centuries of alienation from the Samaritans. And the Jews would quite often choose a route around Samaria. So here's Jesus' plan going through it. Many of the Jews would go down the Jordan River Valley in order to go around, even though it meant you went down the valley and then had a very steep climb up to Jerusalem. It was longer and it was steeper getting out. than going directly as Jesus was at this point in time.

So here's Luke 17, 12 and 13. As he entered a village, ten leprous men who stood at a distance met him, and they raised their voices, saying, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. So ten men with leprosy here. Dr. Luke records that Jesus came to a village, but not out in the countryside.

So ten lepers may have been from a leper colony nearby. So what they would typically do is they'd have them isolated from people, and they'd have all the lepers kind of congregate in a regional area. So we find at least one of them is a Samaritan. Others may have been, but at least one is certainly a Samaritan.

Leprosy is a horrible disease. Fortunately today, a combination of antibiotics will take care of it. And it can cause some horrible disfiguring and is really sad. Dr. Luke knew well that the technology of his day could do nothing. As a matter of fact, it's only really been in fairly recent times that there was anything that could really be done.

Now, Leviticus 13 and 14, those two chapters, and they're fairly lengthy, prescribe what must be done under the law of Moses to deal with someone who is a leper. Someone who has leprosy. As for the leper who has the infection, his clothes shall be torn. So you can't go around with nice clothes if you're a leper.

The clothes must be torn. Can you imagine that? They must be torn, the hair of his head shall be covered, and he shall cover his mustache, and cover the lower part of the face, and cry out, Unclean! Unclean! Like I was when I was a kid. Okay. And he shall remain unclean all the days during which he has the infection. He is unclean. He shall live alone. His dwelling shall be outside the camp. When I was a kid, I had lots of fun, but I never did call that out. Anyway.

So here's Luke 1711, probably in the southern part of Galilee, right before going into some areas where this location is here. So leprosy, because of the inability to distinguish one disease from another, likely also included things that were not contagious. particularly including psoriasis, some expressions of lupus and eczema, and a few other diseases, ringworm would be an example, which, you know, different characteristic, different sources, but in those days, they really didn't have the ability to distinguish which one is it. And so anybody with any of those diseases might be said to have had, you know, leprosy and put into this colony, when in fact, many of these things are not contagious. But that's the way it was, they couldn't determine the difference. So Leviticus chapters 13 and 14 told all the conditions of how to deal with it, even building codes. And if you're suspected of having leprosy and it's connected to a building, that would tear the whole building down.

So even impacting that. So the priests were the ones to observe and judge these things. So the priests didn't just work around the temple. Their duties and responsibilities here might include, hey, I'm going to go up to, you know, Galilee, up to Capernaum and look at a house that they suspect of having leprosy. And so it might involve that. So it's very interesting. We usually don't think of that.

It was one of the jobs of the priests that took them sometimes way far away from their duties at the temple. In addition to the law of Moses, which we saw is lengthy in chapters 13 and 14, there were also the traditions, OK? Because Jews have their traditions. You know that, don't you? Right? OK.

Now, they were not only socially cut off, but they were also cut off from the religious life of Israel. They couldn't relate to other Jews. They couldn't be around them. They couldn't go into the temple. They couldn't be around other people or participate with the rest of the Jews in anything. The sacrificial system, they're cut off from it. Now, so that's bad because there's no dealing with sin, not even in a temporary or symbolic basis.

Passages like Exodus 15, 26 and Deuteronomy 28, 60, it was assumed that a person who had leprosy sinned to get it, right? So that's the other thing that's bad. You sinned, and sometimes they would even conclude, oh, if you have leprosy, it must be this sin, and if you have this other disease, it must be this other sin. And so they would assume that someone had sinned in order to get it.

So it was very bad to get the leprosy. Then you were also cut off from your family, and you were also cut off from friends, and you were cut off from the religious life of Israel. So you were really cut off by this. It was really a very bad thing to come down with leprosy. Since the leper was cut off from Israel's sacrificial system, there was no way to cover sins, even symbolically. You were just figuring, if you're a leper, you got there because you sinned, and there's no way you're not getting out of it, right? So here's Luke 17, 14. When He, Jesus, saw them, He said to them, Go and show yourselves to the priest. And as they were going, they were cleansed. So here's Jesus, and earlier in Luke, he actually reached out and touched them.

We don't know that that's the case here, especially since they called it hymn from a distance. But he did tell them, you know, go and show yourselves to the priest, right? So that would only happen, you'd only show yourself to the priest if you were cleansed or healed. from what appeared to be leprosy. And then you could then you could go into the temple with no marks of, you know, evidence of leprosy as an ongoing infection. You go in there and the priest could pronounce you clean.

And then there was a whole series of sacrificial acts that had to be done. Sacrifices the priest had to carry out. So the priests were the ones that were given to diagnose. You've got the problem. Get out of here. Get away from me. and then the ones to declare someone cleansed and then follow through with sacrifices to deal with their presumed sin that caused this in the first place. So that's why, go show yourselves to the priests. So they're taking off towards there to show themselves to the priest.

According to the book of Leviticus, the leper who had been cleansed of leprosy was to go to the priest, get it confirmed that he'd been cleaned completely. You may be even in a situation where you can't really go into the temple because you haven't been cleansed, and so you have to send somebody in to come out and look at you and say, hey, this guy's OK. You can't just walk in. Upon confirmation of the leprosy had been cleansed, the priests also performed sacrifices as prescribed exactly in Leviticus chapters 13 and 14. And there were different sacrifices depending on what you could afford.

So now, as they were going, so they responded immediately. Now, how many of them? There were ten of these guys, right? How many of them responded? All ten of them started taking off here to show themselves to the priests. As they were going, it shows that these had faith, at least to the point of saying, okay, we'll go.

Now, at the moment that Jesus spoke to them, Had they been healed? No. So cleanse was used in this term of the Law of Moses for those who had been healed of leprosy. In other words, the idea is instead of saying you're healed, which is true, cleanse is because you were ritually unclean. That's why that term was used. It was the proper term.

So here's Luke 17, 15, and 16. Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice. When I was going through the book of Revelation, I used to say loud voice with a loud voice. And they complained back in the nursery, they said it woke up all the kids that were sleeping. So, I learned not to do that. So, glorifying God with a loud voice.

And he fell on his face, at his feet, giving thanks to Him, and he was a Samaritan. So, you've got this guy who's a Samaritan, and he's the one out of this group. Now, there may have been others, but this one guy, came back and actually thanked Jesus and glorified God. He recognized that this is an act of God to have done this, right?

But all 10 were healed. So all 10 were healed. From the details were given in the account, it would appear that all 10 of these lepers have been healed as they went on. And in fact, we're going to see shortly that Jesus actually says that all 10 were healed.

So they went on the way to show the priests that they had been cleansed. So they actually did the right thing. They did what Jesus told them, right? And they did what was prescribed by the law. This was a demonstration of mustard seed faith. Did they have lots of faith? Just enough, right? Just enough. And so they had demonstrated this mustard seed faith, if you will, a small amount of faith on the part of these ten men.

And it's interesting to notice the reaction. They didn't go, hey, let's vote on it. Do you really think we ought to go? They didn't seem to do any of that. They actually did exercise faith in going there. It was not required that they be thankful in order to be healed. Isn't that interesting? a small amount of faith, and they didn't need gratitude in order to be healed.

Have you ever heard someone who talks about healing, and they'll say something like, you know, you don't have enough faith, otherwise you'd be healed, or you've got something else wrong, otherwise you'd be healed. You may have come across folks who say that sort of thing. And one question is, can God heal now in these modern times? And yes, He can.

My grandmother, as I've said, was a missionary to the cannibals in Fiji. This is World War I era. And then on her way back, she stopped in Hawaii and was a missionary in Hawaii as well. And there in Hawaii, there was a lady who was a mother of two daughters. Her name was Hattie. Hattie Macaucau, right? And Hattie Macaucau had and her fingers were down like this. So anyway, my grandmother was among the people there that prayed for Hattie. She had become a believer that day and she said, can God heal my fingers?

Her husband had already been sent out to the leper island and nobody comes back from there. She said, if they find out that I've got leprosy, They'll send me to Leper Island, and what will happen to my daughters? They'll be orphans because of leprosy. And so my grandmother was among those who prayed for Hattie Macaucau, and her leprosy was not only healed, but they grew back. Really amazing. So yes, the Lord can heal, but the Lord is not obligated to do so, right? When people look at the promises of healing, For those who are obedient, they're looking at the Old Testament law. We're not given or guaranteed such promises.

Okay, so here's Luke 17, 17. Then Jesus answered and said, were there not ten cleansed? But the nine, where are they? So Jesus asked here two questions. He's actually going to ask a third one. And we have the point to ask here, did Jesus actually know the answers to these questions? Yes, why did he ask the questions? It's not because he didn't know the answers, it's because he wanted his disciples to observe here and to figure this thing out. He wanted his disciples to see, if you will, spiritually.

So Jesus himself said here that all ten were cleansed of the leprosy. All ten were in fact cleansed. They went off and acted in faith, just as much faith as was necessary to go start walking towards the temple where they could present themselves to the priest. The other nine appeared to be on their way to the priest doing the right thing by the law and in fact doing exactly what Jesus said. So just one, this one came back, this Samaritan, Came back to glorify God and to thank Jesus for the phenomenal thing that had been done for him. He recognized God did this.

This doesn't happen otherwise. God did this. He had his life back. All the things that we talked about where the leper was separated from their family, they were separated from their friends, they were separated from the religious life of Israel, and they had no way to deal with their sins. This man had his life back again and he recognized this is the hand of God that did this. This is the hand of God that accomplished this. Likely all ten of the former lepers were thankful for the healing that they had received.

They just didn't express it except for the one. Only one turned back around in order to openly glorify God and to thank Jesus personally. Just the one. Now, the Jews, as we mentioned, were in general greatly alienated from the Samaritans, and they despised them. The Pharisees did not regard any Samaritan worthy of their time or attention. You just don't even bother with them. You don't talk to them. You don't have any relations with them. You don't respond to anything. You just don't spend any time on them.

It is evident from what Jesus did and said all the way through the Gospels He did consider the Samaritans worthy of spending time in healing. As we saw earlier in the Gospel of Luke, he even told a parable of the good Samaritans, which, of course, the Pharisee just couldn't possibly conceive of that. A good Samaritan? Which one showed love, right? And the Pharisee couldn't respond and say the Samaritan. He said, well, I suppose the one that paid attention to the one on the roadside there. He couldn't even say the Samaritan.

Jesus not only would talk to Samaritans and consider them worthy of talking to and healing, but he would talk to a woman who was a Samaritan who was of low regard, so low a regard that she would come out to fill her water jug at noontime instead of early in the morning.

And Jesus deliberately went out there at that time. Isn't that amazing? The Lord expressed love to this lady, even though from the Jewish and earthly standpoint, there would be no way that any Jewish male would go out and talk to someone like that. Here's Luke 17, 18, and 19.

Was no one found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner? And he said to him, stand up and go, your fate has made you well. So Jesus referred to this man as a foreigner. He called this thankful Samaritan a foreigner. That would imply that Jesus and his disciples were still in Jewish lands, as we mentioned probably in the southern part of Galilee there, still in Jewish lands, but close to the border. Because this foreigner, this thankful Samaritan, He's the only one who came back to thank him.

It implies that Jews feel entitled, which they often did. The Jews felt entitled because they were descended from Abraham. The Jews believed they were entitled to entry into the kingdom because they were sons of Abraham and exemption from hell because they were sons of Abraham. Right? You got exempt from hell because I've got that gene that says I'm descended from Abraham. Right?

Ah, so the Samaritan was right to come back and glorify God and to thank Jesus. Jesus hadn't ordered that or asked it or made it a requirement for the healing, did he? Jesus told the former leper that his faith had made him well as the other nine, because the other nine were healed as well, even though they didn't come back and thank the Lord or give glory to God. So the 10 lepers, all of them, responded in faith to Christ, telling them to go show themselves to the priest. Now, I have a question. I'm not sure I have an answer for it. So was the Samaritan going to show himself to a Jewish priest? Hmm. I'd be very curious. I'm not sure a Jewish priest would go along with that. So there's something else to look at here.

Christ told these 10 lepers to go show themselves. to the priest. To do that, as they did that, was in fact an act of faith on their part as they began traveling to where they would show themselves to the priest. So even beginning to act so as to go show themselves to the priest was an act of faith.

Now, some Christians can be mistaken in the exercise of faith by believing that God is going to do something that God has not said that He would do. So that's an important characteristic of faith. Faith is doing something in which God has told us to do it, or it is an assumption that God will be true to His promises, right? If God has told us that He will do this and that, or told us to do this and that, then that's acting in faith. What sometimes some Christians can fall into, and the term is called word of faith, and there are word of faith churches in this area, is they presume something and then believe God is going to follow through on it.

I had to deal with it one time in Uganda where there was one of the pastors who was assuming that God would provide the funds for a year-end party for everybody, Christian party. and it was going to get amplifiers and stages and all that kind of thing. I said, did God promise you that He was going to provide and supply all those things?

Well, no. I said, then that's presumption, not faith. That's presumption, not faith. And part of the problem with this is that it creates disappointment, and people then, oh, God didn't follow through. No, God never promised it. So we believe what God has revealed, We believe what God has revealed, but we don't presume what He has not revealed.

Important distinction. So here's Luke 17, 20 and 21. Now, having been questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God was coming, He answered them and said, The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed. Nor will they say, Look, here it is! Or, There it is! For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst. The King James here has the kingdom of God is within you, and there's an important distinction here. We'll see it here shortly.

This is the time outline of Christ's first coming when he was crucified, buried, and raised, and ascended. And then starting in Acts chapter 2 is the Church Age. And then follow with that at the end of that is the Rapture. before the Tribulation. By the way, the Rapture does not start the Tribulation. So the Tribulation gets started when the Antichrist makes a treaty on earth and in heaven when Christ opens the seal. But the Rapture is simply before the start of the Tribulation period. So there's an unknown possibility, an unknown time, there's a possibility between the Rapture and the start of the Tribulation period.

Okay, seven-year tribulation period, the second coming when Christ will come with us and with his angels and will resurrect the saints of prior times, aside from those in the church. There is then the Millennial Kingdom, also called the Kingdom of God, Kingdom of Heaven, or sometimes just the Kingdom. following which is eternity future. So this is the kingdom, and this is the kingdom that they're asking about. In fact, the Jews have an understanding, or they have had an understanding back in those days, Orthodox Jews still even now, look towards a seven-year period of time that will be a horrible time on the earth, and their name for the Antichrist is Armilus, right? at the end of which Messiah will come they think it's the first time they look on the Messiah not as deity but it's only a descendant of David it's one of the reasons why Jesus didn't qualify in their thoughts and that is they only see Messiah as a descendant of David and not deity so Jesus claims to deity disqualified him in the Jews minds right because of their misconception Then the Millennial Kingdom begins when Messiah comes.

So you might be saying, wait, wait, wait, Vern, wait a minute. Aren't there going to be lots of signs of the coming kingdom? What's Jesus saying here? Right? Like rapture first, you know, you know, that. And then the Antichrist makes a treaty. I mean, stuff like that. Those are signs, aren't they? And why is Jesus saying it comes without any observable signs, right? What's that all about?

And seven seals and trumpets and bowls and two witnesses. Remember that? Two witnesses, right? Two witnesses and Antichrist kills them and they resurrect and that's supposed to happen. That's certainly a sign. And the rise of the Antichrist and the false prophet and their doom and Christ returning, all those are signs, aren't they?

Except... In Christ's first coming, those events and signs are not the issue, right? In Christ's first coming, there's another issue that takes top priority. Christ the Messiah is in their midst, and that's the issue. So they're looking for, what are the signs of the Kingdoms going to start?

And He's saying, guys, I'm right here. I'm standing right here. You guys have missed the most important. I'm here, guys. Hey, I'm here." They're not getting it. They're asking the Messiah who is going to come again with all those accompanying signs, and they're standing there and asking Him the question, when's this whole thing going to start? But they're not getting it. He's the Messiah. He's the One who's going to come.

The Jews must first embrace Christ their Messiah now, at least at that time, in Christ's first coming or they have not a chance of ever seeing the kingdom or anything that might be assigned before it. They first must see Christ for who He is right then and right there. then all those other signs will mean something. But rejecting Christ right then and right there, none of these kingdom questions or kingdom issues or kingdom events is going to mean a thing. Because they're going to end up in a place that they hadn't planned on being.

Remember back in Luke 13, 24, Jesus said to the Pharisees, your house is left to you desolate. At that point in time, He had already made it clear, you guys have blown your chance. This is a locked-in outcome here. Your house is left to you desolate. And there's no way to fix it now. You guys did not recognize Me as the Messiah then. So it's not happening. They would see no signs of the kingdom because they don't recognize the Messiah who is right there in their midst. They don't see it.

It would only be, as we pointed out last week, just a few Pharisees who would come to believe. And by name, we know them as Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea, and the Apostle Paul. Those are the only ones by name that we know became believers. Earlier in the book of Acts, It says a great many of the priests became believers, and I think at the Good Friday service we talked about why, because that veil was torn in two from top to bottom.

That doesn't happen naturally. All right, so next Sunday is the second coming. Now, don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying the second coming is next Sunday. So next Sunday we'll be looking at what Jesus says about the tribulation period and the second coming. Get the difference? So Jesus' second coming is not next Sunday. If that were the case, then we blew it about the pre-trib rapture. So we'll look at it next Sunday. What we always have to keep in mind is that what we're to look forward to is not the second coming or the Antichrist.

There have been people who have been trying to pick the timing of the rapture, the timing of the second coming, for centuries. And do you know what the Jews used to do? They'd try to pick the timing of the second coming, only it wasn't the second coming, they thought it was the first. And they would set a timing, the Messiah is going to come now, now, now. And they'd do the same thing.

And who knows when those dates will be? The Father. This is the answer in Acts chapter 1. The Father is the one who knows the timing. As to the rapture, the Jewish wedding tradition was that the Father would tell the Son, go get your bride. And so following that tradition, the father, capital F, will tell the son, capital S, go get your bride. And that will be the timing. Here's Titus 2, 11 through 14.

For the grace of God has appeared in Christ's first coming, bringing salvation to all men in Christ's first coming. By the way, does that mean all men are saved? No. But because Christ died, all men are savable. You see the difference? Because Christ died, all people of all time are savable. Bring salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age.

The New Testament, and this was typical of the Jews, saw the present age, and Paul even calls it the present evil age, from the time of Adam's fall, there in the garden until right before the Messiah comes is the present evil age, or the present age. The next age is the Messiah's age. So there's the present evil age and the age to come, which is also a term that Paul uses, the age to come. That's the Messiah's age. Looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus. Does that mean that our great God and our Savior is Christ Jesus?

Yes, it does. Yes, it does. Who gave himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed and to purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good deeds. That's our blessed hope. Looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. And there's a crown for that. So if you are looking for that instant when Christ comes for us, it's just a twinkling of an eye. If you're looking for that instant, God says, that's so great, I'm going to reward you for eternity for looking for that instant. Isn't that a neat perspective? Our blessed hope that he'll come for us. I hope it's today.

I hope I don't get to say amen when I pray. Lord, we do thank you for this blessed hope that we do have. We thank you that you have revealed what you want us to understand. And we thank you for the certainty that we have. It's not a blessed I hope so. But it's a certainty. And we thank you for that. We thank you for making that hope possible because of everything you've done. And all we can do is believe it. And we just pray in Jesus' name. Amen.