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Luke 17:11
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.”
Sermon (What happen to the other Nine ?)
This morning I Want to talk to you on the thought
What happen to the other nine ?
There are a few questions in the scripture that stand out to me
Some questions that seem to echo through time
One was in the garden in Genesis 3:9
When God came waking in the and had to ask the question
Adam where art thou?
Another is found in Genesis 4:9
When the Lord asked Cane where is your brother
And He answered,” Am I my Brothers keeper?
Another time is in psalms 8:4
Where David asked the question
What is a man, That thou art mindful of him?
But the one that stands out the most to me in the whole Bible is the one we find in our text in verse 17
Where there are not ten cleansed?
But where are the nine ?
Where there not ten men with the curse of leprosy
Crying out to Me to heal them
Why was there not ten voices giving thanks to Him
Where ten voices should have been lifted high
There was only one
Where was the 20 hands that should have been lifted up….Praising His Holy Name
Where 20 hands should've been left it up in surrender
There was two…
Where was the 20 knees that should have been barred in the sand giving Him glory
Where 20 knees should have been
There was only two!
Where are the other nine ?
What kind of people… who where cursed for death
Who where outcasts
People no one wanted to be around Including their own family
People who were so unclean
Who was hungry for His attention
How could they be so ungrateful ?
What kind of people would cry out…. for the Lord to help them…
Would cry out to be made whole
A people that would expect such a radical change
And don’t even praise Him after He answers them?
They didn’t even care enough to come back and say thank you !
Where was the Nine ?
In John 6
Jesus feeds 5,000 People …..With five loaves and two fish
One of the greatest miracles He did ..
Now I don't know about you ….
But if a brother came in here and had In this room alone
With five loaves and two fish and feed all of us
He would have my attention
He would have a little credit with me !!!
Now In John 6…
He feeds all those people … They have been following Him
They have seen the miracles
Heck’… He even just walked on the water
But later on down in the verse you can read it for yourself
Jesus starts telling them how He is the bread of life
How He is the eternal life
How if you eat of His flesh, and drink of His blood you will thirst no more
And the Bible says In John 6:66
66 From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.
The praise stoped when He wanted something form them
The Praise stoped when the food stoped
Its no different today
Go to any worship service At any Church
And likely there will be not even haft of them praising God
Less of haft of them are truly thankful for there blessing
Most of them give more respect to their boss…… then they do to the one who got them the job …
You see they dare not show up late to work …
But for God, who has blessed them and their family, they can’t even show up on time to worship Him…
They show more respect to Netflix and Comcast where they are never late on that bill
But when it comes time to give back to the one who gave it all ….?
Here God … here is the dollar you deserve !!
I have seen so many times in this Church
People who openly ask for us to pray with them about finding a job
And then God open the door and give them a Job
And never Pay one cent of tithe back to Him..
Never stand up and give praise to Him
Never testify to what He has done
You are part of the nine…..
You wanted the miracle, but you have no praise
Let me tell you something this morning
If the Church runs 100 people ..
Then 200 hands should be up praising the Lord !
200 voices should be praising His Name !!
It breaks my heart to read those words for my savior
Where are the other Nine?
I wonder this morning why Jesus was watching our worship
If He asked the question,
What about the other haft of you?
Didn’t I love you
Didn’t I take you in when no one else wanted you
Didn’t I feed you when you had no money
Didn’t I walk with you through the hardest time of your life ?
Didn’t keep you from losing it
Was I not there when everyone walked out
I gave my life for you !
Why want you praise me ?
Why want you worship me ?
What happen to the other Nine ?
In this story we should give attention to three things
1.The plight of the leper
2.The plea of the leper
3.The praise of the leper
1 The leper’s plight
I want us to look at these ten leper’s
This is one word that says enough about those mens troubles
Because those who had leprosy….. their funeral was already planned
Their obituary had already been written
They were walking dead man
Because the effects of leprosy were horrendous…
It's like having the worst infection you've ever had
It starts out with small sores,
Then spreads all over the body like gangrene..
Your speech becomes reduced to gargle,
Due to the effects of the vocal cords being swollen
Their lips were deformed from the sores
Can you imagine trying to talk with swollen vocal cords, and lips with sores on them
So you can imagine these ten men in this condition approaching Jesus for help
It had to look rough
Now notice
They we're not approaching Jesus for political gain
They sure wasn't approaching Him to be seen..
I m sure they never wanted to be seen by anyone
You see leprosy broke down all kinds of barriers
It didn't matter who you were
Jews ,
Samaritans,
Romans,
Greeks
Rich
Poor
King
or Servent
This wasn't just a poor man's disease
In fact in the old testament king Namaan was touched with leprosy..
Leprosy is a biblical type of sin..
And let me tell you something
Sin places everyone…… on common Ground..
Sin like leprosy begins destroying you
No matter who you are
There are no high class in sin
There are no low class in sin
If you are a sinner not under the grace of God
You are a walking dead man, just like these leopards
You see back then there was no cure for leprosy……..Without a miracle for God
Just like today there is no cure for sin outside of a relationship with Jesus Christ…
If you do not know Him as Savior
If you do not know Him as counselor
If you don't know him all Mighty God
Then you my friend are…… as dead as these leopards were
You might be walking around
You might be talking
But your time is Limited..
Like them your sin will kill you….
James 1:5 says
Then when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full- grown, brings forth death
Ezekiel 18:4 says
The soul who sins shall die
Church there was no cure for leprosy outside of a touch of God
These men were destined for death…
2 the lepers plea
Back then ever leopard was required to cry aloud the words unclean unclean
Everywhere they went
It was a warning for everyone to keep their distance
The sound of these words were as the ringing of a loud and relentless bell
Sounding a death warning..
Stay back I am Unclean
Stay back Don’t look at me
Forever one voice crying unclean unclean
There was a 1000 shouted back stay away.. stay away
Nobody wanted anything to do with these men
Nobody wanted them close to them
Nobody wanted them touching anything they were going to touch
This was the worst life you could live
No one wanted you around
No one wanted to see you
And everyone was afraid of you
Oh But there was One,
That passed through Samaria that day… that was not afraid of their cry
There was One,
who did not turn and walk the other way
There was One,
who was ready to meet them right there..
He didn’t care what others was saying
He didn’t care about the shouts of ” stay away stay away”
He did not care to touch the untouchable
When others walked away ……He went to them !!
Can I tell you this morning
He doesn’t care how dirty you think you are
He doesn't care about what others are saying about you !!
You might have walked through those doors this morning broken ?
You might have walked through those doors ready to quit
Ready to throw in the towel …
You might be thinking to yourself
There is no way Jesus can Love me
There is no way He could take me in
I am to dirty
I have done to much
My life is to messed up…
He would never come to me !!
Let me tell you something
Your Bible says in Matthew 18:12
That He left the 99 sheep and came looking for one that was lost
Others may not want nothing to do with you
Others may turn and walk away
Others my look at your sin, and want nothing to do with it
But there's One
Hallelujah
There is One who will come right where you are
Others may think you're an outcast
Others may not want you around
But if you'll let Him touch you this morning!
You will become a joint heir to the kingdom of God….
Listen to your pastor this morning
Jesus never goes anywhere accidentally
No one is out of reach to Him
In fact if you know Jewish history you would know that the jew’s have no dealings with the Samaritans
But the Bible tells us that Jesus must go through Samaria…
It was no accident He was there …
He was there because 10 men needed Him to be there
For years their cry had been Unclean…Unclean
But at the appearance of Jesus it become Have mercy on us..
Why had they never said this before ?
Somehow they knew that Jesus was their only answer ..
You see they couldn't ask for help form anyone else
They couldn’t get anywhere near them
The religious people didn’t want anything to do with them
In fact they throw stones at them
The Government put them out of the city
Families were forced to for sake them
But at the sight of Jesus they cried have mercy on us
Have mercy on us !!
They knew who He was
They heard all the rumors
In fact all they do is hear others talk
They heard about the water He turned into wine
They heard about the feeding of five thousand
They heard how He brought the dead back to life
And when they saw Him coming….
They stopped talking about how unclean they where
And started crying Have mercy on us !
They knew others didn’t want anything to do with them
But this Man they are calling the Son of God
Was coming right at them !!!
In closing
notice
3. The lepers praise !
The words Jesus used in verse 17
Hurt me to the core
They make me take evaluation of myself
They make me think
What have I not been thankful for?
Is my praise worthy of what all He has done for me?
Is the reflection of my praise enough to show others what all He has done for me !!!!
The Bible makes it clear that He is watching , or why else would He ask …
Where are the other nine ?
He was watching this morning
He was watching you during worship
He was watching you do an offering
And His question is not: where are the other nine
His question is where are you?
