Pray.
This morning I want us to look at one of Jesus’ many miracles recorded in the Bible.
The last verse in the book of John says this, And there are also many things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written, Amen. John speaking about all of the miracles performed by Jesus, during His three year ministry here on earth.
Remember John made that statement and remember John walked with Jesus daily for three years and was an eyewitness to those miracles. Understand, what we have recorded in the Bible, is just a scratch on the surface of Jesus’ accomplishments for God.
This morning I want us to look in the book of Luke at chapter 17 , starting in verse 12. Out of all of the miracles recorded in the Bible, this is perhaps one of the least acknowledged, probably one of the least preached on and honestly, as I flipped my Bible from cover to cover asking God to stop me where He wanted, He stopped me here in this text, so here we go.
Let’s read vs. 12-19 and then discuss
Quickly, in this true account, Jesus heals ten men that were stricken with leprosy. Look at vs. 12. 10 men had leprosy, they stood afar off, meaning they were banned from the city. Banned from society because of their disease, thus they stood afar off.
So notice vs. 13 They cry out to Jesus , they’re a far off, outcasts, misfits , not allowed around other people, So they have to cry out, they have to yell out to Jesus and they said, Master have mercy on us.
So far, isn’t this a picture of salvation. No, We may not of had leprosy, currently if you’re not saved, you may not have leprosy, but before salvation, we were all in an unclean state, spiritually speaking, we all had spiritual leprosy, born with our backs towards God and stood afar off from Him. But notice their faith in vs. 13, They cried out Master have Mercy on us.
They were smart enough, they had faith enough to cry out to Jesus to save them from their current condition. They were wise enough to cry out to the only One who was able to cure them.
If you are saved here this morning, You too cried out to Jesus to Save you from the sinful state you were in. If you are not saved here this morning, You are still lost in that sinful state and on your way to hell, because faith in Jesus is the only way to heaven. If you’ve never cried out to Jesus do so this morning, Cry out for His Mercy, Believe in Him and what He did for you on the cross and call upon Him to be the Lord of your life and take you to heaven when you die. Do it at the close of the service.
Faith in Jesus is the only way to be made whole again, as seen here in this story. It was their faith that healed them and their faith alone in Jesus Christ.
Jesus rewards their faith vs. 14 . They were cleansed and made whole again and able to enter back in to society.
Isn’t that what Jesus did for you, the moment He saved you, through your faith, He cleansed you from all unrighteousness, and restored your relationship with God through Him, making you a part of God’s society, part of God’s family.
I said all of that , comparing our text to salvation to get to the real meat of the sermon.
Look at vs. 15
And ONE of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back and with a loud voice glorified God.
Vs. 16 And he fell down on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving Him thanks and he was a Samaritan.
Now, our key verse , vs. 17 look at the response of Jesus Christ
Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine?
There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger.
Jesus said, I healed 10 men. I cleansed 10 men from their leprosy, But only 1 out of ten came back to thank God and give Him the glory and honor He deserves.
Now the actions of the other nine men are not malicious or overly rude towards Jesus. Jesus told them to go and show themselves to the priests, who had to make an official ruling on their healing. And that’s what they did, but that’s all they did. And It quickly became about them and not God.
Where are the other 9? In your life, who is it about? God, church, your worship, your service; Is it about you or is it about God? In our text Jesus healed 10 men, but only one returned to thank Him, the other nine were busy getting on with their lives. They can now return home to see and be with their families, they can go shopping at Wal mart now, They can go into McDonald’s and eat with everyone else, They can live normal lives again.
See, our lives can quickly change from God to Us if we are not careful.
I can only imagine Jesus right now, as He sits at the right hand of the Father, and He is still asking the question, Where are the Other People? Where are the people skipping church today?
Where are the people that I’ve done so much for in the past?
Where are all of the people that I have forgiven and cleansed of their past sins?
Where are all of my children at this morning?
And the answer is found right here in our text, 9 out of 10 quickly forgot what Jesus had done for them and their lives, their tasks became more important than God.
Well, right now, you’re sitting there thinking, Well I’m in pretty good shape for this sermon, because I’m sitting in church, so I’m ok.
Jesus doesn’t let you off that easy. I don’t think God would ever lead me to prepare a sermon for all of the people that decided not to show up this morning.
This sermon, is for you sitting here this morning. This sermon is for me, standing here this morning.
How about You? How often do you give God the credit for all of the good things in your life? Do you thank Him for your Trials?
How often do you Praise God and thank God for His mercy in your life?
How often do you thank God for sending Jesus to die for your sins, so that you can go to heaven when you die?
Are you one of the 9? Or are you the one that returned back to praise Jesus and glorify God?
Again, as I always say, don’t lie to yourself, it does you no good and God knows your heart. If you are one of the nine, that is why this story is in the Bible. We study it, learn from it and then apply what we have learned.
So, What we can learn from this account , is very simple,
It’s We as God’s Children Must make time to express gratitude towards God and understand it is always Appropriate. There is NEVER a bad time to Praise God. You Cannot Praise Him enough. The angels in heaven praise Him 24 hours a day, don’t ever think you can praise Him enough. Who here can say, I’ve already praised Him enough for dying on the cross for me, so that I don’t have to go to hell forever.
Yes, you’re sitting in church this morning But are you Praising God in your heart, Meaning, why are you really here this morning? Are you here to Praise God, to worship God in Spirit and in Truth, or are you sitting there wondering when will he ever be finished, And where you’ll be going for lunch. Or possibly, Are you here hoping you will get recognized for something you’ve done in the church or for the Lord, WHY ARE YOU HERE THIS MORNING? 1 out of 10 men returned to Jesus. You’ve returned to church this morning, WHY? The answer is found with the one man that returned.
When is the last time, you did like the cleansed leper in vs.15 and glorified God with a LOUD VOICE. We sing sometimes, like we’re afraid to exceed a certain decibel level, like the local police are going to fine us if we sing to loud. Folks, this is a church, not a library. We are to be loud, we are to Be Glorifying our God with a loud voice. It’s in the Bible. Notice Jesus didn’t tell him to quiet down, He did not admonish him for being too loud. God will never punish us for praising Him with a loud voice. It’s time for some of us to wake up and Glorify our God. Raise our voices to heaven. It’s far from here to heaven, let’s make sure God doesn’t have to strain his ears to hear us.
Or how about vs. 16, And fell upon your face at the feet of Jesus, thanking Him and praising Him and glorifying God?
When is the last time you fell on your face at the feet of Jesus? When is the last time you humbled yourself and fell on your knees in prayer and praise to Your Savior, the One who saved your soul. If you cannot physically Jesus certainly understands, but if you cannot for any other reason, it’s your pride. Only the humble bowel. Humble yourself before Jesus. Pride stops the knees from bowing. Oh I could never go up front at the close of a service and pray on my knees, Why Not? When this leper returned, it meant something to Jesus. When you fall to your knees in prayer today , understand, He’s the same Jesus and it still means something to Him.
See, I told you sitting in church is not good enough? It’s a start in the right direction, but it’s not enough.
Christian, you wake up every day, knowing heaven is your home. You wake up every day knowing that Jesus conquered death and hell for you so you don’t have to go there and pay for your sins yourself.
When is the last time you got on your knees and humbled your face to the ground and thanked Him for doing so? Crying out with a loud voice, “ Thank you, Jesus” It doesn’t seem right a King dying for His servant. Thank you Lord Jesus.
Some of you may be sitting there thinking, You don’t know my situation, I don’t have reason to praise Him. I’m going through some very difficult times.
Let me tell you something, that is when you need to be praising God the more. These men had leprosy, a disease that was eating away their flesh, fingers and toes falling off, a disease slowly killing them. Yet they cried out to the only One that could heal them, You need to do the same. Jesus said, in the gospels, the sick need a doctor, meaning, when we are sick and broke down, tired and weary, beaten and bruised, that is when we need our Savior the most. Cry out to Jesus in a loud voice and praise God. Get out of your pity party, and call out to the Great Physician and let Him heal you.
Quit crying and complaining and start counting Your Blessings
It was their faith that healed them, How bout you?
Your faith will heal you as well. Your faith in Jesus will bring cleansing and peace back in your life, Your faith in Jesus will calm the roaring waves, Your faith in Jesus will restore Joy back into your life. Your Faith in Jesus will turn darkness into Light, that’s a biblical promise of God.
And when He does, don’t be one of the 9? Nine out of ten , said thanks Jesus, but I’m gonna go my own way now.
Thanks for healing me, thanks for restoring my life, thanks for restoring my Joy, thanks for restoring my reason to live, But I think I’ll go my own way now.
Lord, thanks for blessing me with a wonderful family, I think I’ll skip church and go to the beach with them.
Lord, thank you for making me so busy at work, so I think I’ll skip church to keep working.
Your Praise is backed up with your actions. God’s not looking for simple lip service, He’s looking for actual service.
Church, isn’t about you and your recognition, It’s all about God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
And , Only they are worthy of your praise. Jesus deserves Your Praise
Psalms 34:1 says I will bless the Lord at all times, his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
Can you say Psalms 51:15 O Lord, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. What is coming out of your mouth?
Psalm 52:9 says, I will praise thee for ever, BECAUSE thou has done it.
Psalm 63:5 says my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips
Psalm 66:2 says Sing forth the honour of his Name, make His Praise Glorious.
Psalm 69:34 says Let the heaven and earth praise him, the seas, and everything that moveth therein.
Folks that’s you and that’s me.
To me, this story of the cleansing of the lepers is all about praising God.
As I was typing the word Praise, I noticed it is simply the word Raise with a P in front of it.
When we Praise, we are to Raise. Raise up your hands to God. Raise up your voice in song to God. Raise up His name amongst people at work, or at home. Where ever you are, Praising is all about Raising.
It’s all about Raising up what we have and saying, it’s all because of you God. It’s all about raising up and exalting His name. Not Yours. So many of us struggle being nobody in the church. You were important out in the world, You may be influential out in the world, You may be or have been a boss out in the world, But Not In Here. It’s not about you, It’s not about what you accomplished in the world, it’s not about how big your house is, it’s not about how much money you have, The church is not about you, It’s all about YOU Worshiping and glorifying God.
In a day and time when we are being told, Allah is god, in a day and time when we are being told there are many different gods and there are many different ways to get to heaven. In a day and time when we are being told to accept the sins of the world. In a day and time when we are being threatened if we mention the name of God. In a day and time when we are being told that all of this world we live in is here because of a great explosion and that there is no God, there is no creator of the universe,
I say lift up His name even the more. Lift up your hands even the more. Lift up your voice even the more. Church where is your voice?
It is the world telling you to keep your mouth shut about Jesus, not God.
It is the world telling you to sit on your hands, not God.
It is the world telling you not to publically mention the name of Jesus, NOT GOD.
Hebrews 13:15 instructs us in this manner
By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God, continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. Did you catch that, continually giving thanks to the name of Jesus. Jesus thank you for my health, thank you for my spouse, thank you for my children, thank you for my job, thank you for my trials, thank you for the air that I breathe, thank you Jesus for my Salvation, thank you Jesus for loving me, when I didn’t deserve to be loved. Thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus
Who is all this about? Going to church, reading and studying your Bible, doing things within the church, Our service to Christ, Who is it all for, What is it all about?
You’re right, it’s all about God, it’s all about Jesus. So why are so many people looking for attention within the church. Why are so many people wanting for their name to be shouted out in church from the pulpit. Why are so many people only willing to work for the Lord, if they get noticed by the pastor or other people in the church.
Folks, Church is not about you. It’s all for God’s Glory.
Don’t be in the 90 percentile that do not acknowledge God and all that He has done for you and all that He is currently doing.
Vs. 16 of our text in Luke 17 says, And the ONE returned and fell down on his face at the feet of Jesus, Giving Him thanks
And Jesus responded by saying , Didn’t I just heal 10, Where are the other 9?
Where are you today? Oh yes, you’re here in church, But where are you with your praise and worship of Jesus Christ? Are you in love with your Savior? Or has your love grown cold. As we close , come up and humble yourself, kneel in prayer before your Savior, and fall back in love, acknowledge Him for all that He’s done for you, Praise the name of Jesus. And remember
Church, your service, YOUR LIFE, it’s not for your glory, It’s all for the Glory of God. Let’s Pray
