Thank you very much to those who help each week with our music, but especially today. If I could ask you to please to open your Bibles to Luke chapter 17. Luke chapter 17, it's nice to be back. It's good to be able to worship God together.
I want to say a thank you to Austin and to Michael and to Lewis, who served us so well over the last three weeks. It's a good thing. I think it's a really healthy thing as a church that we do not isolate ourselves away, but that we get to rub shoulders and to be interacting with other men who are gifted by God and good at dividing correctly the Word of God and have a heart to come and to serve us so well. So, we have a lot of just deep thankfulness, especially for those three and how they served us so well over the last three weeks.
I had a good Christmas and got to go and to be with our family there in Ireland. There was a lot of nephews and nieces and running and late nights and all the rest. But it was so good, and I think it was so healthy for our family to be able to feel that we're simply one plane flight away. So, thank you for just allowing us that opportunity to go and spend time with family.
And then afterwards, I went last week for nearly the last nine days, and I got to spend time there in California at The Master's Seminary working with the D-Min students, the Doctor of Ministry students that are there studying preaching. It is a special program. I have had the opportunity to be involved with it for the last decade. And we had over 40 men from all around the world. We had guys obviously from the States, but also from Canada, from Romania, from Ireland, Thailand, Malawi, Canada, Jersey, Mauritius, Germany, Indonesia, Australia, and I have probably forgotten some as well.
And there is just something so special when you get men who care about loving their people well and try to do their best to be faithful servants in handling God's Word each week. When you get them all in a room together, the instruction was wonderful. We had Dr. Tom Schreiner with us, Michael Rees, Dr. Michael Rees with us, and others from the seminary whom you know well, such as Paul Twiss and Abner Chou, and we interacted with all those men. But there is something special that they themselves bring to the classroom. And again, for me, I am coming back excited. God, our God, is at work all around the world, and again, thank you so much as a congregation for affording me the time to go and be with those men and to have a small part in trying to encourage and shape what they do.
So just be encouraged. God is at work around this world, and it is so exciting to have, as a church, little glimpses into that.
Now, could I ask you to stand, please, while we read God's Word? Luke chapter 17, and I want to begin reading at verse 7. Luke chapter 17 and reading from verse 7.
(Scripture reading) “Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, "Come at once and recline at table?” Will he not rather say to him, "Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink?” And afterward you will eat and drink. Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? So you also. When you have done all that you were commanded, say, "We are unworthy servants. We have only done what was our duty."
On the way to Jerusalem, he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us." When he saw them, he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were cleansed.
Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice, and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving Him thanks. Now, he was a Samaritan.
Then Jesus answered, "We're not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" And He said to him, "Rise and go your way. Your faith has made you well." (End)
Let's pray.
(Prayer) Heavenly Father, You know the tendency of our hearts. You know how quickly we love to make this all about ourselves and what we do and what we contribute. And You know, Lord, the lack of thankfulness that exists in our hearts so often. But Lord, we are a people, a people who have been saved only by Your action. A people who owe it all to Jesus Christ. And we just pray and ask that our time in the Word this morning would humble us. It would cause us to see ourselves, as Scripture calls us, as a people who fall short. And yet, Lord, to see the glorious mercy that is to be found in Jesus Christ, and once more to marvel at the goodness of His person. So, Lord, we pray and ask that You would work amongst us for the glory of Jesus Christ. We're so thankful that we get to, at the close of our service, eat and drink in remembrance of Him. We're so thankful that later on we can come back together to sing praise to the Lamb who is worthy. And Lord, we pray that this time would prepare us for those acts of worship. We pray even as we listen, we would listen as an act of worship, knowing that in these moments, the very God speaks. For it's in Jesus' name we ask it. Amen. (End)
Have a seat.
So often what you find in the miracles, and indeed the parables of Jesus, are reminders of the natural state of every person before God and the dramatic change that Christ is able to bring. And I think that's seen in both of the stories that we read together from Luke's gospel this morning. We have a clear reminder of who we are before Christ, and yet the glorious work He is able to bring in the life of the individual.
And so, what I want to do is to give just very simple points, very simple personal points to allow us to see the presentation Scripture makes about our condition. And here is the first. You have no personal merit before Christ. You have no personal merit before Christ. In other words, you bring nothing to the table. You don't earn any favor. You don't work your way into His good books.
Now, there are a couple of foundational notes that we are going to need to recognize if we are going to understand verses 7 to 10. And the first thing is this: that word "servant" that you find coming up in verses 7 to 10 should be translated as "slave." We are talking about one who belongs to, in a season anyway, belongs to another. Now the problem is that when we hear that word "slave," we rightly associate it with the injustices that we have seen over the last four or five centuries. We understand that term in a very negative light, and rightly so, because of the way it has manifested itself and the way that term has been used to label a particularly barbaric, cruel practice. That even in this country has marked its history, that system is wicked, and that system rightly should be condemned. And yet, sometimes because of that more immediate history, it causes us to come to Scripture with a lot of baggage that stops us from understanding how a term is used in that context. In Jewish society, slavery was really the welfare system of the day. In the Old Testament, slavery, or a form of slavery, again, bear this out. I want you to see that it is a different term. It is not the way we think of it.
Slavery was a system that was put in place so that if you found yourself destitute, if you found yourself in a place where you could no longer feed your family or yourself, you could for a season, for seven years, sell yourself into the slavery of another Jewish person. Now, they would clear your debts. They would give you some money to be able to restart in time, and they would not separate you from your family. Indeed, you were brought into their home. You were housed. You were fed. Your family was fed. Provision was made. It was a welfare system, so to speak, of Jewish society. It was a way to make sure that people did not have to sleep rough. It was a way to make sure that people could, if they were in the worst of circumstances, still have food for them and for their family, and still, as a family, be together.
Now, that's not to say that there were no abuses that took place, because we're dealing with sinful people. I'm sure there were. But in the law of God, it was provided as a way to care for and to look after those who came upon significantly dangerous and impoverished circumstances. And again, it was a term. There was always release. There had to be release. And there was provision made for that individual, upon release, being able to be set up and able to once again re-engage fully in society.
So, when we come to the text and you read about a master being likened to God, and you read about a slave being likened to us, the right response is not, oh, deep insult. We're to understand in that context; this was a way to sustain life. And not only was it a way to sustain life, it was a way to enable somebody to re-launch. So, it was a good provision. Now, again, it's hard to talk about slavery, given our historical baggage, and to say that it was a good provision, but it was. It was a good thing. And yet within it, there very much was a hierarchy. There was a master, and there was a servant or a slave. It was the way you would think about a job today, that there is the boss, and there's you. And you know your role in that circumstance. Now, you get set free at the end of the day, unless you do the night shift. But during that time, you work for them. Your time is not your time. It is their time. It has been purchased. And so that's the context that we come to.
Now also as we want to understand the story, we need to recognize who Jesus is talking to. In verse one, we're told that He is speaking to His disciples. And in verse five we have that additional note He's talking to the apostles. So, again, this is not just a general thing. This is not a principle for the whole world. This is a principle that we're going to see that is for the followers of Jesus, for those who have exercised trust in Him, who are seeking to walk in His ways. Those who have been freed from their captivity, their slavery to sin, and have become, through faith in Jesus Christ, a slave instead to God. They belong to God. Christ is their King. They are one of His subjects. So that's our audience. Jesus is going to tell us what we'll see in a moment. It's a humorous story, to a particular group that are followers of Him. So, if we're going to understand it, we need to understand it in that context. And so, to those who follow him, Jesus shares this humorous story in verses 7 to 10. Look at it, bearing in mind those kind of caveats.
Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him, when he has come in from the field, “come at once and recline at the table?” Imagine your boss at work, you know, you've kind of done your nine to 11 and it's, you know, coffee break time. Imagine at that point you go in to get your coffee and the boss says, no, I want you to take my seat. And he strokes your hair and tells you what a great job you've done today. That's not normal. I don't know what happens in your workplace, but you need to know that's not normal. That's not what happens, and that's the idea here. You can imagine the disciples giggling as Jesus tells the story.
“Come at once and recline at the table for a seat. Will he not rather say to him, do the rest of your job. Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink." There was a system. The slave had a two-part job. He would go, and he would work during the day, and then he would come in, and he would first of all serve the master. That's what you would expect. His job was to look after all the household affairs. So maybe he's out plowing a field, maybe he's out looking after the sheep. He comes in, now his first job is to wash his hands. That's, again, what Jesus is saying. Get dressed properly. Get off that mucky clothing from the labor outside and dress appropriately so that you smell right and look right, so you don't put the master off his food. And you serve him. And then after you've done that, then you go, and you get your own dinner. That's the system that was normal. That's the way it worked. That was this guy's job. That very simply is normative.
Look at verse 9. “Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded?” Well, the response that all the disciples have in their mind, and they couldn't say it loud because they were laughing too hard, is no. Why would he say thank you for what was the basic? What was the fundamental duty of the servant? This is what he was meant to do. The servant does his job, and afterwards, the master doesn't bring him in and switch roles, I'll take care of you. Rather, the servant does the next part of his job because, well, very simply, that was his role. He's not being mistreated here. Verse 8, he is going to get his food. He's going to be treated very well, actually. He doesn't need to be thanked, verse 9. Why? Well, again, it's his job. That's his role. This is his duty. This isn't a commentary on how hard has he worked or not. It's simply to say that his basic job was to do all these things. This is what was expected of him.
Imagine a worker today in a fast-food restaurant getting a pay rise because they put salt on the french fries. That's just part of the job. Imagine the car mechanic getting a bonus because he tightened the wheel nuts when he changed the tire on the car. Like, that's what he has to do. That literally is his job. Or imagine an army soldier getting a medal because he put his uniform on well. It's fundamental to the role that he has to play. That's just the way it goes. The whole story's meant to sound ridiculous because we're talking about basic parts of a job. Cooks, cook. Mechanics fix cars; seal reps should fix seals and servants; they serve the master. That's just what they do. That's not a commentary on, did they do it well? It's just that's what they do. That's basic. And so, Jesus is communicating something to the disciples. Look at verse 10 to see what He's saying.
"'So, you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, 'We are unworthy servants. We have only done what is our duty.'” In other words, that's the starting point. We are meant to serve our King. That is not a place of boast. That is not a place of pride. The king should be able to assume that you do what he asks, because he is the king and you are the servant.
But so often we slip into believing that lie that we have earned something, that there's been merit in our actions, that we deserve a good hand back from God. Now, the remarkable thing about the rest of Scripture's testimony is that the Lord does command the good and faithful servant. There are rewards that will be mediated in the heavenly kingdom, absolutely. But that's because we have a generous God. The principle here that we need to keep in mind is that God doesn't owe you anything. He's the King, and you're the servant. That lie that God owes you something because of your performance has poisoned the thinking of many and caused so much hurt. It's really the seed of the prosperity gospel. But you don't have to go to the extremes of the prosperity gospel to find it. I think if we were honest and talked to one another in this room, we would find many in this room who often slip into the thinking that because I did the right things this week, God should be good to me. God owes me. God owes me because, and you can insert whatever task or whatever behavior you want to insert there.
But the principle that we see in verse 10 is very simple. Christ is our King, and we are His slaves. Christ is our King, and we are His slaves. Obeying Him is first and foremost the most basic duty that we have. You're not entitled to anything. This is baseline Christianity. If you are a servant of Christ, you serve. That's all there is to this.
And yet, actually, if we slow down in verse 10 and read it a little bit more carefully, not only do we see that major point, but I think actually it's even more humbling than that. Look at verse 10 again. “So, you also, when you have done all that you were commanded," now pause. Here's my point. When have you done all that God has commanded? When have you always said the right thing? When have you always done the right thing to your neighbor to love them as yourself? When have you genuinely had 100% pure motives driving the action that flows from the heart?
Even the baseline is an impossible baseline for us to reach in our own strength. Even if we got there, and there was some idea of if you get to ground zero, you can get a pat on the back, even if that was the case; none of us get there. Scripture says, “all fall short of the glory of God,” and indeed we could add, if we needed to add, all fall short of the glory of God continually. None of us were born perfect; we were born in sin. And the reality is all of us continue to battle sin and continue in our own strength to fall short of the glory of God.
It's a Psalm 15 moment. Do you remember Austin earlier in the term shared with us, Psalm 15? What would make one worthy to enter into the presence of God? And it's a list of behaviors. And the great takeaway from that psalm is none of us are fit in our own strength to enter into the presence of God. You don't even meet the basic standard. So how much more crazy is it that we then take that principle and turn it round and say, “I'm doing all right. And God owes me one.” Do you see how arrogant that is and indeed how foolish it is? Because it flows out of a misunderstanding of your performance. Not only does your performance not get you anything because you're a servant, and you're meant to serve anyway, but also your service is really bad.
Now, that is humbling. But that is where we need to start. If we are ever going to truly appreciate and treasure the gospel, we always need to come back to this point. You have no personal merit before Christ. Christian, those of you who have been in this walk a long time, there is a trap that so many fall into, and it is this: that over time they start to think they are something. You are not. Our boast, Paul will say, is only in Christ. And as soon as we lose sight of that, we slip, we mess up; we get ensnared in this poisonous trap of pride and arrogance. And it will poison our ability to worship God, to worship Christ, the Lamb who is worthy. He is our only boast.
So, the first thing this morning is this: you have no personal merit before Christ. And here is the second thing, a reality check: you are needy beforehand. Not only do you bring nothing to the table, but actually, you are in incredible need. And you see that in the story that flows next. You see it in verse 12. The text quickly moves to another scene, but the thought is connected here. We are now outside a village on the border of Samaria and Galilee, so Jewish territory and the cult of the Samaritans. And here we have, in contrast to that entitled spirit we just saw in verse 10, here we have a warning given, a reality check, and it is to be seen in the ten men who knew they were needy, who knew they were broken, who very much were on the fringe of society because of the condition that they faced.
Look at verse 12. “And as he entered a village, he was met by 10 lepers who stood at a distance.” These men were physically diseased. All of us are spiritually diseased, but these men had a physical disease, the disease of leprosy. And it was a cruel disease in that time because it cut them off. It required them to observe a 50-pace buffer zone so that they would not contaminate anybody else. And so, what tended to happen is the lepers gathered together for some sort of community. But they were not allowed to mix with anybody else. They had to stay away. In fact, they had to call. They would have bells. They would have means to make sure that people knew, do not come close. If you're not sure where you are, we're not the people to ask directions from. You are to stay away. You are to be nowhere near us. And that was the law. That was how they had to behave. That's why in verse 12 you see that phrase, that they stood at a distance because that's what the law required of them.
And so here is a group of men who, because of their physical disease, are very literally cut off from their fellow man. And even more seriously in this picture, cut off from Jesus. And so, they are helpless. The Greek word order, I think here is helpful. In the Greek, it literally says, "There were ten men who had leprosy." I think that is helpful because it stresses first that they were humans. Ten men who had leprosy. They weren't leprous men. Their humanity defined them first. These were first and foremost men, image bearers of God, but image bearers of God who find themselves in a place of great need. And while their need may have expressed itself outwardly in this physical ailment, it reminds all of us how far we fall short of the glory of God, as we have just seen, how we are cut off from Him. It reminds us of a greater disease that exists in all of us, that disease of sin that cuts us off from Christ. You may not have leprosy, but you certainly have the separation that the great disease of sin brings. Each of us is needy before Christ.
So, what are we to do? You have no personal merit before Christ. There is nothing you can do. You are needy before Him. So, look at these men as a great example of what we can do.
The third thing I want you to see is that you need to appeal for mercy from Christ. You need to appeal for mercy. Look at verse 13. These disease-ridden men, who understand that they are separated from Christ in verse 12, what is it that they call out? Look at verse 13. “They lifted up their voices, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us."”
Who's their appeal to? Jesus, absolutely. But Jesus, the master. Do you remember our story just before the parable? Jesus told his disciples, you've got to understand, we are servants, he is the master. He's the one we owe all to. He's the one that we must obey. Part of why I wanted us to join these stories up, I really wrestled, do we separate them out, do we join them up? I wasn't really sure, but part of the reason I wanted to join it up is because of this. In these men, we're seeing the right response. Jesus is telling the disciples, you gotta see yourselves as the master servants. If you begin to think that you deserve, something's gone awry. And here are men who know they deserve nothing, who know they are cut off, and they first and foremost acknowledge that He is the Master. He's the one with all authority. He's the one in charge. He's the one to whom they owe all obedience. It's a testimony to the recognition of His authority.
And so, these men appeal to the authority of Christ. And what is their appeal? Not, we deserve better. Not, you need to do something for us. It's a humble appeal. Very simply, for mercy. Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. In other words, it's not a demand for healing; it's a request for pity. Lord, pity us. Show mercy to us. It's an acknowledgment that they don't deserve...none of us deserves; we have sinned. We're helpless to save ourselves. But these men understood something that Scripture declares clearly about the person of God, that that one with all authority is one who is slow to anger and rich in mercy. And so, they appeal to that glorious nature of His character.
The Oxford Dictionary defines mercy as compassion or forgiveness shown towards someone whom it is within one's power to punish or to harm. Friends, these men knew they deserved punishment. They didn't deserve anything. In fact, the one with all authority stood before them. He had all authority to condemn them to hell, and yet they cried out to His very nature, "Master, show mercy." That's how the gospel works. You bring nothing to the table. You are in incredible need that you cannot fix yourself, and you simply ask the Master for mercy. And your hope that He will show it is not in your charm, not in what you could be in the future, not in any of those things. It's simply in His character, because He is a merciful Savior. That's our hope. These diseased men realized their only hope was to call out to the one with all authority for mercy. Have you called out to Him for mercy? There is no true Christianity apart from that place. Talk about the starting point. That's the starting point. Lord, show this undeserving sinner mercy. And there's where we hope. You have no personal merit before Christ, you're needy before Christ, you need to appeal for mercy from Christ, and then you need the transformation brought by Christ.
The wonderful thing is, when He does show mercy, He brings transformation. And in these men, there's an action that immediately takes place. Look at verse 14. When He saw them, He said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were cleansed. Jesus doesn't touch them. He doesn't say anything specific to heal them. Rather, He tells them to go and present themselves to the priest. That was a custom laid out in the Old Testament law. That's what He calls them to do. And if they were healed, the next step for them, according to the Bible, was to go to the priest and to have that publicly recognized. And Jesus calls them to go along that journey.
But before their fingers and toes begin to look whole once more, but before they begin to look healthy, before they have that healthy glow, he tells them, go in faith to where the well, go, go to the priest. And as they acted in trust and in obedience, Verse 14 says that's when the healing took place. In other words, they trusted the master and that trust was marked by their obedience. Now they weren't healed because they obeyed. Christ healed them because he was merciful. He healed them because they appealed to him for mercy. But the physical healing followed the fact that these men, they had first been healed spiritually.
In fact, that word cleansed there in verse 14, as they went, they were cleansed; it makes clear that the goal wasn't simply to make them healthy once more. It was to make them fit for worship. There were many people who were sick in Israel, and they were made well. But here are men who are cleansed. The word cleansed has all of the connotations of the Old Testament religious laws. You could only go to the temple to worship if you were clean. And whenever you were unfit to go to the temple because you were unclean, you needed to go through a process to be cleansed, in order that you could enter into the joy of corporate public worship.
Well, these men had been separated, we don't know for how long, months, years, decades. And the great emphasis in verse 14 is not just that they are now better; it's they're now made fit, cleansed, ready. to engage in the worship of God. When Christ changes you, it's one of the glorious realities. Our works bring nothing to the table, no merit, no favor. But the wonderful thing is when He changes us, He changes our heart so that we are a new creation eager to do good works that He has prepared beforehand for us to do.
The part of the sign that our hearts have truly called out to Christ for mercy and been affected by Him is the transformation that that brings, the embracement of His lordship, of His mastery over us. Changed hearts reveal themselves in our actions, in our words, in new affections. It's not to say that we're perfect. We've already said none of us are perfect. We continue to fall short, but there is transformation that is brought. When Christ cleanses us, He makes us able to serve. So, you have no personal merit before Christ. You're needy before Christ. You need to appeal for mercy from Christ. You need the transformation brought by Christ. And lastly, and very simply, you should be thankful for Christ.
Some of the obvious implication of this story, you should be thankful for Christ. You see all of these men, 10 of them were healed. In fact, not just healed, cleansed, and able to worship. But one of them responded better than the rest. It's a revealing question, isn't it? When God answers prayer, where do you go? I'm sure lots of us pray about things. We have a lot of things that worry us, a lot of things that drive us to our knees. But when God answers those prayers, when He is kind, when He does provide, when he does get us through the circumstance, how do you respond afterwards?
Well, I think the nine men probably reflect most of us. And we have something to learn from this one. Look at verse 15. “Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. And he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks.” He recognized that he was healed. I think in the story we can kind of assume the others did too. Leprosy was such a physical thing. I'm sure the others, as they were heading to Jerusalem, noticed that there was differences to be seen in their hands and their skin. As they looked at each other, they noticed the change that was being wrought physically in each of them. Given the circumstances given the disease, that was very hard to imagine.
Have you ever noticed how the people who seem to be best at spotting the disease are the ones who've had it themselves? You know, somebody who has experienced cancer, when they hear somebody else talk about fatigue and soreness. But when they see certain, you know, spots on the skin and they've experienced skin cancer, they quietly say to their friend, I really think you need to go talk to the doctor about that. Why? They went through it themselves. They remember all of those things. They're more sensitive to observing it. There's no way the other than 9 didn't observe the transformation. It wasn't just this one. But what is true about the one is he turned back to praise God. It says in the text, with a loud voice, 15. It's public. It's loud. He's so thankful for what God has done to him. And then verse 16, he directs out worship towards Christ himself. “He fell on his face at Jesus' feet.” He wants to give thanks.
Again, remember the context of that last parable shared with the disciples. The disciples are now standing there still trying to work out what Jesus meant about, you know, a servant serving the master. And here's a guy, and you want to know what a servant looks like? They fall on their face before their master. Couldn't get any more lowly than this. more humble than this, a more clear posture that this man understood the authority of the One he lay his face before. This type of behavior wasn't common. So sometimes I think we imagine in ancient Israel, they're always bowing. They don't. In other cultures, you find that. The Babylonian Empire, Nebuchadnezzar, there's a lot of bowing. But in Israel, they don't tend to bow to men, because they have this sense of a God who is over and above. So, they would defer that behavior. That would be a very unusual, a very rare behavior. So, when you see it, don't think it as something normative. See it as something exceptional. Here is one who adopts a humble, the most humble of postures before the king. And here's the shocking bit, verse 16, the end of verse 16. No, he was a Samaritan. He's the most unlikely candidate. He's not the one you would expect. Here's a man who wasn't taught the Old Testament, wasn't taught about the Messiah the proper way. Here's a man who really grew up in a form of cult. who was cut off from temple worship. And yet he's the one who responds rightly with thankfulness to Jesus. And Jesus underlines that fact.
Verse 17, Jesus said, “were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner? He was a foreigner, he was a Samaritan, but he was a true worshiper, and he returned with thanks. And look at what he receives for that thankful posture. He's given assurance in verse 19, Christ said to him, rise and go your way. Your faith has made you well. He's granted his freedom, go your way. His faith is commanded, and salvation is confirmed. That word well, it means more than just well; it means to be saved, to be whole. Your faith has made you whole. It's a stronger word than the word cleanse that was used earlier. It's a greater assurance that this man was right.
The others were wanting to go and worship, but here's a man who, because of his Samaritan background, was still possibly wondering, was he fit enough? Given the circumstances he came from, was he fit enough to get to worship the king? To go to the temple?
In fact, that word foreigner that's used there, that Jesus uses, that wasn't a word that was common in ancient Greek. You don't find it in any other sources except for Jewish and Christian sources. It was a word that the Jews used to create a boundary. The way they would talk about the Sabbath, or they would talk about circumcision. They wouldn't eat pork. There was a dividing line between the Jew and the foreigner. The Jew and the Gentile, the clean and the unclean, the pure and the defiled.
In fact, in the temple. In the temple that Herod the Great refurbished there in Jerusalem, the temple that these men are currently meant to be walking towards, there was a sign that whenever you went into what was called the Court of the Gentiles, the first area within the temple precinct, the area where the tables for the money changers and everything else had been set up, in that particular area, anybody could go, but immediately there was a space that only the Jews could go behind. Only Jewish men and Jewish women could enter.
Above that door, that entrance point, that wall, there was a sign that read, "No foreigner is permitted inside the partition and wall around the temple. Whoever is caught will have himself to blame for his ensuing death." It's not a very welcoming sign, is it?
But now Jesus has the foreigner, and he tells him that he is saved, that his faith has made him whole. That's Christ. Nothing to bring, no merit, no background, and yet wonderful salvation, wonderful acceptance to be known at the feet of Christ, because Christ is rich in mercy, and Christ makes the individual whole.
Now, I do think that while there's such a clear gospel picture here, there's a little cautionary tale for the believers in this room. I think all of these men at one level had faith, all ten. They all cried for mercy. They were all cleansed and made fit for worship. Now, all of that's a wonderful testimony to the fact that our God is rich in mercy, quick to give out forgiveness, eager to see those who would reach out to Him.
But isn't it interesting that despite the fact that all ten experienced that transforming work, only one responded with appropriate thanks? I think it is possible to be a faith-filled Christian, cleansed, striving for some level of obedience, and yet thankless. That's the nine. They were exercising faith; they were moving to Jerusalem as He asked; they experienced the cleansing, and yet they did not say thank you. And too often Christians fall into that trap. God has been so good to you, and yet you are so miserly with your thankfulness. It is not that you have denied the gospel; it is just that you frown too much.
Why are you so grumpy? Why are you so miserly when it comes to worship? Why do you hold back? Friends, if we truly understood what we had received, there would be a sense in which we would find it so hard to leave this place. We would want to sing more. We should want to pray more, because if we understood the work He had wrought within us properly, how could we not express our thanks? How could we not seize those moments to fall before His feet?
Express our thanks. As a church, we have so much to thank Him for. Let me pray.
(Prayer) Heavenly Father, we are so thankful for Jesus. Lord, we are not what we ought to be, and even as we express that sentiment in our prayer, Lord, increase our understanding of our indebtedness to Him. We thank You that He is so merciful. Even when we have so much growing to do, Lord, we have glimpsed His kindness, and we are thankful for that, but give us a clear vision that Jesus paid it all, all to Him we owe, and may we grasp the providential opportunities that You give to us to recognize every good and perfect gift, and especially the provision of the Son is something that we ought to be thankful for. For it is in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. (End)
