Luke 17:1-19

Amen. It's a good prayer as we come to God's Word that the Holy Spirit would speak through it and speak to our hearts and minds.

Turn with me in your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 17. We are looking at chapter 17, verses 1 to 19 tonight.

Luke 17 · chapter mention

So, I'm going to read those for us, and then we're going to sort of walk through this section together.

Luke 17, if you're looking at the Bible, it's page 876, so let me read this.

And Jesus said to his disciples,

Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come.

It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea,

than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin.

Pay attention to yourselves.

If your brother sins, rebuke him.

And if he repents, forgive him.

And if he sins against you seven times in the day,

and turns to you seven times, saying,

I repent, you must forgive him.

The apostle said to the Lord,

Increase our faith.

And the Lord said,

If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed,

you could say to this mulberry tree,

Be uprooted and planted in the sea,

and it would obey you.

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,

Were 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.

So this summer,

we've been doing a series

in the Gospel of Luke,

the middle section,

and we're coming toward the end.

We have about a month to go.

We'll go to the end of August,

to chapter 19,

but we're most of the way through.

And so as I was preparing

for tonight's sermon,

I looked over the last six or seven chapters

that we've been reading

just to sort of see,

you know,

are there some themes,

major themes that stick out

and, you know,

might they happen to appear

in our passage tonight?

Now, if you were here

for the first sermon in this series,

Pastor Nick mentioned two themes,

that Jesus is trying to teach his disciples

as they're going along the road

up to Jerusalem.

And the first theme is priority.

That Jesus must be number one priority

for his disciples and for us.

That's the first thing Jesus taught them.

When he called them,

follow me,

he says,

nothing else can come ahead of

your loyalty to me.

He has to be number one priority.

The second theme

that Pastor Nick mentioned

was mercy.

That Jesus is rich in mercy

and he's teaching his disciples

to also be merciful

as God has shown mercy to them.

And lo and behold,

I think these are the two major themes

of tonight's passage as well.

If you look at verse one to 10,

as we go through those,

we'll see the theme of priority.

Jesus is saying to his disciples,

if you're following me,

I have to be number one.

You belong to me.

I don't owe you.

You owe me everything.

But then what we see in the second half

is that Jesus is a merciful Savior

who gives us all that we need

and even more.

So that's what we're going to see tonight.

These two themes,

once again,

and we've seen these themes

in several,

if you look,

if you think of some of the stories

we've looked at,

right,

when Jesus is talking to Mary and Martha,

sort of emphasizes the priority theme,

you need to listen to me.

When he talks about money,

he says you either love money

or you love God.

You can't love both.

One has to be the priority.

In chapter 13,

he says repent.

Now is the time to repent

and turn to God.

Don't delay.

Today.

Don't wait.

But we've also seen Jesus

is rich in mercy, right?

The story of the Good Samaritan.

Jesus calling his disciples

to go and do likewise,

to show that kind of mercy

to people in need.

We've seen chapter 15,

right,

the story of the lost sheep

and the lost coin

and the lost son

about God seeking out the lost

and bringing them home.

And that's what Jesus came to do,

to seek us out when we were lost

and bring us home

by his mercy and grace.

And back in chapter 12,

he said to us,

don't be anxious

because you have a heavenly father.

Who loves you

and knows you

and will provide for you.

So again,

these themes have come up a lot.

So I think it's one of the major things

Jesus wants us to go away with

and that Jesus wanted to teach his disciples

during this long journey

they were taking to Jerusalem.

So let's look at these themes in turn.

First,

the theme of priority.

Verses 1 to 10.

Now if you read verses 1 to 4,

so you got verses 1 to 2

talk about temptations to sin

or he's causing others to sin.

Verses 3 and 4 talk about

what if someone sins against you?

So sort of sin going both ways, right?

Don't,

if there's a warning,

don't cause others to stumble.

Don't lead other people astray.

And Jesus gives a very strong warning.

He says it would be better

to be drowned in the sea

than to lead somebody else into sin.

Because sin is that dangerous.

It's that spiritually perilous.

It will lead to death.

And Jesus is saying,

be careful.

No.

God's called you together

to follow him together.

So be careful

that you don't lead others astray

but instead

lead others closer to Jesus.

And we see, for example,

the Apostle Paul

applying this principle.

If you read in Romans 14,

we're not going to go there,

but that's one place

where the Apostle Paul

applies this principle

in reminding

the Christians in Rome

and he says,

let's do everything

that makes for peace

and for building up the church.

Right?

Be careful to build one another up

and not tear each other down.

And he uses the same thing.

Don't cause your brother to stumble

because Christ died for your brother.

But in verse 3 to 4,

we see how Jesus tells us to respond

if somebody sins against us.

Right?

Now, again,

Jesus is realistic here.

He doesn't say,

well, if you're going to be my followers,

you've got to be perfect.

He acknowledges,

you know what?

Somebody's going to sin against you

and temptations to sin

are sure to come.

He's like,

he's being very realistic.

If you're looking for the perfect church,

you'll never find it.

And if you ever found it,

you'd spoil it.

So, right?

So, Jesus is very realistic.

He says, you know,

we're going to have to deal with things.

Right?

You might have a brother

or sister in Christ

who sins against you,

who wrongs you.

Right?

Maybe they lie to you.

Maybe they gossip behind your back.

Maybe they just are mean to you.

Right?

There's maybe,

whatever,

they get angry and blow up at you.

There's going to be issues.

Right?

And Jesus tells us

how to deal with them.

And he says two things.

He says,

first,

if your brother or sister sins,

rebuke them.

Now, that means

don't just

sweep it under the rug.

Right?

And don't

be angry on the inside

and say nothing to the person.

Jesus says,

no,

there's a way to deal with things.

Actually,

he's following

what God had already said

to the Israelites

in the Old Testament

in Leviticus 19.17

where it says,

don't hate your brother

in your heart,

but frankly,

rebuke him

or her.

Okay?

So,

don't sort of

nurse a grudge

against somebody

who's done you wrong.

Go to them.

And Jesus says

the same thing

in Matthew 18.

He says,

go to them

and rebuke them.

And do that in love.

Right?

Because,

of course,

you can go and rebuke somebody

in a very angry

and hateful spirit.

And Jesus is

not encouraging that.

So,

he says,

we should,

we should

go to,

you know,

if somebody has offended you

or wronged you,

go to that person

and say,

you know,

this is,

this really hurt me

when you did this

or when you said this.

And,

and,

and then

they have an opportunity.

It gives them an opportunity

to say,

I'm sorry.

I really didn't mean that.

I was,

I was wrong.

And Jesus says,

if they do that,

forgive them.

Now,

sometimes we get confused

about what forgiveness is.

The word forgiveness

is a word that means

to release.

It means to

set someone free.

It's the same word

for untying a knot

or

taking a chain

off of someone,

letting them,

setting them,

releasing them.

right?

So forgiveness

means releasing

someone

into God's hands

and not trying

to punish them

or hurt them

or pay them back

yourself.

That's what forgiveness

means.

Forgiveness doesn't

necessarily mean

that you completely

forget what happened.

Although sometimes,

in God's mercy,

sometimes that can be

a good thing,

eventually.

Although sometimes,

it's,

sometimes we need to

remember what happened.

forgiveness isn't denying

that something wrong

happened.

It's not making excuses.

Right?

Again,

Jesus says,

go and

if someone,

if someone really

wrongs you,

go and rebuke them.

Right?

Now,

of course,

there,

there is a time

to overlook.

Right?

Sometimes people

say something minor

and you know

they weren't thinking

and sometimes,

sometimes it's best

you just overlook it

and you forgive

and you go on

and it's not a big deal.

It's a little thing.

But Jesus is saying

if it's a bigger thing,

you know,

if there's a real sin,

a real wrong,

then deal with it

but be willing to forgive.

And Jesus even says

if they sin against you

seven times in a day,

I mean,

have you ever had somebody

sin against you

seven times in the same day?

If you have kids,

maybe,

right?

Like,

I mean,

kids can do that.

Right?

But the other thing

about kids is

they can,

they can,

they can say they're sorry

and actually mean it.

Even if they,

you know,

kids go back and forth

real quick.

Anyway,

but Jesus says

you must forgive.

Jesus is saying

as my followers,

you don't have

an option

to decide,

well,

maybe I'll forgive them

or maybe I won't.

Jesus says

you must forgive.

Forgiveness is hard,

right?

It's not easy

but Jesus is saying

you must forgive.

And then verse 5,

the apostles respond.

You see what the apostles say

when they hear this?

They say,

increase our faith.

Help us.

Boy,

that takes a lot of faith

to,

a lot of trust in God

to be able to do that.

And Jesus says,

even if you have

just a little bit

of faith,

just a little bit

of trust in God,

God can make

powerful things happen.

You don't have to have

a whole

big handful of faith.

You can even have

a tiny mustard seed.

And if you have

just a little faith

in Jesus

and if you act

on that faith,

God says,

Jesus says,

amazing things can happen.

We'll actually see

later in our passage

some amazing things

happening

through when someone

has faith.

but we'll get there

later.

So,

so then,

so 7 through 10,

right,

so Jesus has

these high standards,

right?

Don't cause someone

else to sin.

Rebuke,

forgive,

whenever someone

repents,

even if it's

seven times

on the same day.

And the apostles

say,

please help us

increase our faith.

And Jesus says,

even if you've got

a little faith,

you can do it.

Or God can do

great things through you.

7 through 10,

Jesus sort of

gives a parable

or a little image,

a story that would

have made a lot of

sense to people

back then

because Jesus was

talking about

a master

and a servant.

And

let me just explain

a little bit of

what that might

have looked like.

So,

in Jesus' time,

there were a lot

of different kinds

of servants

who did a lot

of different kinds

of jobs.

Cooking,

gardening,

cleaning,

teaching,

working in the field,

managing finances,

all kinds of things.

But the word

that's translated

servant in this passage

isn't just any

kind of hired worker.

It's a word

that means

a bond servant.

That means

someone who belonged

to someone else.

And

someone who

is completely

dependent on

their master

to provide

for all

of their needs.

And so,

for a bond

servant,

it wasn't like

they just were

sort of hired

to do a couple

jobs here and there.

But they were

at the service

of their boss

24-7.

Right?

And so,

Jesus says,

if you have

a bond servant,

you know,

working in the field,

plowing,

keeping sheep,

and he comes in

after a hard day's work,

his first priority

is

get the dinner

for the master

on the table.

Right?

not feed

himself.

And

so,

the bond servant's

priority was to

please the master

and not himself.

And

the servant's own

needs came

afterwards.

So,

and the point

that Jesus is making

in verse 10

is he says,

the master

is never in debt

to the bond servant

because the master,

because the servant

belongs to the master.

All right.

Now,

let me just stop

for a minute

and address a question

that might have come up

when we're talking

about masters

and bond servants.

Right?

Because

we all know

that slavery

caused a whole lot

of trouble

in the ancient world

and in the modern world

and it still does today.

There's,

there's still slavery

in many parts of the world

and,

and there's,

there's trafficking

in,

in all kinds of,

all kinds of slaves today.

That is very oppressive

and damaging.

And so,

let me just say

the Bible,

Jesus is,

Jesus is using an image

that would have made sense

to people in that culture.

He's not saying

that's how things should be

because it's,

it's,

it's interesting

if you look at the Bible,

Jesus says to his disciples,

you're all bond servants

of God.

And he also says

you're all sons and daughters

of God

through,

through Christ.

And so,

what he says

to basically all of us

is that

in one sense,

we're all slaves

who belong to God

and don't have,

and,

and,

and nothing belongs to us.

And in another sense,

he says,

we're completely free.

We're completely free

through Jesus.

And so,

what did I,

if,

if you understand

those two things,

it actually levels out

the playing field

because you realize

when you look at somebody else,

I'm called

to serve you.

Even more,

just like a bond servant

would,

we're supposed to serve

their master,

I'm supposed to serve you

as my brother

or sister in Christ.

And,

if you look at somebody else,

even the lowest person

on the totem pole

in society,

you think,

they are,

this person is,

a son or daughter

of God

who is free

and who is

loved by God.

And if,

and so,

it actually,

in the long term,

it sort of levels things out,

right?

And it makes us realize,

well,

there actually maybe

shouldn't be this sort of

master bond servant thing

because,

Jesus is saying,

it's actually more,

more about our relationship

with God.

So,

let me just say that

because that's a,

that's a,

that's a question,

a concern that comes up

when we,

when we hear about

servants and masters

and,

and what Jesus is saying there.

But what,

the point that Jesus is making

is that we belong

to Jesus

if we're his disciples.

And that,

that,

what he's saying is

God doesn't owe you

something.

And I think a lot of us

sometimes think

that God owes us

something.

And Jesus says,

no,

I mean,

God created you

out of nothing.

He doesn't owe you.

You owe him

everything you have.

And Jesus says,

don't think

that you can

sort of

do some,

do some good things

and get extra credit

with God

that sort of balances out

some of the bad things

you've done.

Jesus says,

no, no, no,

you belong to God

24-7.

You owe everything to God.

God doesn't owe

anything to you.

And if you're

one of Jesus' disciples,

you have to know that.

That God must be

number one priority

above everything else.

That God doesn't,

God is not in your debt.

Right?

Sometimes,

sometimes we,

sometimes we can fall

into these traps.

We can think that,

well,

if I obey God,

then God's going to

give me what I want.

And Jesus says,

maybe,

and maybe not.

And either way,

you belong to God.

And you're in his hands.

And he made you.

And you're his.

And that means

he doesn't owe you.

Right?

But we can't make God

owe us anything.

So that's the,

that's the first half

of the passage

what Jesus is emphasizing.

And if you think about it,

it's a pretty hard teaching,

all these things.

Right?

About don't cause others

to sin

and forgiveness

and God doesn't

owe you anything.

And you might think,

whoa,

that's,

that's hard.

That's a hard teaching.

But in the second half

of this passage,

what we see

is that Jesus

is merciful.

He's a merciful Lord.

He's a merciful King.

And he

comes to help us

not because we deserve it,

not because he owes us,

but simply because he loves us

and because we need him.

So if you look at the second

half of this passage,

verse 11 to 19,

Jesus is walking along the road

and ten lepers call out to him

from a distance.

Now back then,

if you had leprosy

or some other type

of skin disease,

you had to stay separate

from the rest of the society.

Partly for fear

that you,

you might be contagious.

Some of these skin diseases

were contagious

and so they didn't want them

to spread.

And so you had to go around

crying unclean,

unclean.

You had to stay,

keep your distance.

Don't touch anyone,

anyone else.

Live by yourself

with other lepers.

And so,

it was a very isolating

experience.

You know,

think about,

think about it

if you've,

if you've ever had

that kind of experience

where you've been isolated

from everyone else

and you feel like

nobody wants to touch you,

to hug you,

or shake your hand,

or deal with you

and in a loving way.

So that's what these lepers,

that's what their life experience was,

but they approached Jesus

with humility and dependence.

They approached Jesus

not trying to say,

Jesus,

you owe me something,

or Jesus,

I did this for you,

I want you to do this for me.

They just,

how do they say it?

They say,

Jesus,

Master,

have mercy on us.

have mercy.

Help me.

I need help.

And I think you can help me.

Please,

help me.

That's what they're saying to Jesus.

And Jesus says,

go show yourselves to the priests.

Now back then,

the priests were not,

the priests

were not the hospital.

Okay,

the priests did not administer

medical treatments,

but they were

sort of like the doctors

in that they would

examine you.

And they would either say,

you've got leprosy

and you're unclean,

or they'd say,

your disease has been cured

and you're clean.

And they were the ones

who had the right to say

one way or the other,

and what they said

went.

So Jesus says,

go show yourselves

to the priests.

Which is interesting,

that's sort of a hopeful word.

It's sort of like saying,

go to the doctor,

and it's sort of like

the doctor has said,

you have this disease.

And Jesus says,

no,

go back to the doctor

and have him check you out again.

I mean,

the only reason you go back

is if

you might actually be better.

So it's a hopeful word

Jesus gives them.

And so they leave

and it says,

as they went,

they were cleansed.

And nine of them,

seems like,

just go on their way.

But one leper

turns around

and he doesn't go

to the priest

in the temple,

but he comes back

to Jesus

and he makes a big scene.

Now,

why does he come back

to Jesus?

Now,

when I was a kid,

my parents read me

this story

and they basically

used it as a way

to say,

here's why you always

need to say thank you

to somebody

who does something

nice for you.

Right?

Nine of them

got something good

and they went on their way

and they were ungrateful

and one of them

was grateful.

And you need

to be grateful.

Now,

that's true,

but that's actually

not most of,

that's missing

a big part

of what's going on here.

Because back then

the rule was

you have to go

to the priest

and the priest

is the one

who says you're clean

and the priest

lives in the temple

and the temple

is where God's presence is.

And so you couldn't

just decide

not to do that.

So why does the guy

come back to Jesus?

He comes back to Jesus

because he sees

that Jesus

isn't just another man.

He isn't just

another person

who did something

nice for them.

They come back,

this man comes back

to Jesus

and he falls

at his feet.

He worships Jesus.

It says he gives

praise to God

and he kneels

at the feet of Jesus.

It's almost like

he's saying,

he's worshiping

God

as Jesus.

It's pretty surprising.

You see,

what he realized

is that Jesus

is

the one

who can make us

clean

and declare

us clean.

The priest.

And Jesus is

the temple

of God.

The place

where you can come

and worship God.

And he realizes

the priest

in the temple

in Jerusalem,

I found a better

priest

and a better temple.

And it's all

right here

in Jesus.

And so he comes

and he worships

Jesus and he

bows down before him

and he thanks

him.

He says,

thank you

so much.

You're the one

who made me

clean.

And you can make me

clean before God

and before men

forever.

One person wrote,

he wasn't just

thankful for the

gift of being

healed.

He recognized

the giver

in the gift.

he recognized

that Jesus

was the healer

and Jesus

was the priest

and Jesus

was the temple.

You see,

the first half

of this passage

is about how

Jesus is our

Lord and our

master and we

belong to him.

And he doesn't

owe us anything,

but the second half

of this passage

is about how

Jesus did what

he didn't have

to do

to heal us,

to cleanse us,

to forgive us.

You see,

at the end,

what Jesus says

to this man,

he says,

rise and go

your way.

Your faith

has made you

well.

And that word

can also be

translated,

your faith

has saved

you.

This man

doesn't just

get healed,

he gets saved.

That means

he gets

forgiven of

his sins

and put right

with God

through Jesus.

You see,

Jesus

showed mercy

mercy to

the nine

lepers

who got

healed

and didn't

even come

back to

say thank

you.

Jesus

shows mercy

even to

the ungrateful

and wicked.

But Jesus

showed an

even greater

mercy to

this leper

who came

and found

not just

healing for

his leprosy,

but found

him and

found salvation

and found

cleansing.

And Jesus

points out

this man to

his disciples

and he says,

do you see

this man?

And he

points out

he was a

leper,

right?

The kind of

person nobody

else wanted

to deal

with and

he was a

Samaritan.

And the

Samaritans

were foreigners

who followed

some different

religious traditions

and the

people of

Israel didn't

really like

the Samaritans

and there was

all kinds of

enmity between

them.

And Jesus

says, look

at this man

who most

of you would

just avoid

or despise

or want to

run away

from.

And Jesus

says, he

had faith.

You just

asked me

increase our

faith.

You just

said, give

us more

faith and

I'm showing

you what

faith looks

like.

Faith looks

like coming

to Jesus

and saying,

Jesus,

master, have

mercy.

I need you.

Help me.

You can.

And faith

looks like

not just

getting healed.

Right?

You know,

all kinds of

people can

get healed

who don't

actually come

back and

thank Jesus.

People can

get healed

by Jesus

and not

be in a

right relationship

with God.

So it's not

all about

getting physically

healed, even

though Jesus

can do that.

It's about

recognizing Jesus

for who he

is and

saying, Jesus,

you're the

one who

can make

me clean.

You're the

one who

has the

presence of

God dwelling

in you and

I can worship

God at your

feet.

That's why we

can come

before him

tonight.

You know,

maybe you're

like the

Samaritan

leper, right?

He was an

outcast.

He was

rejected by

other people.

Maybe he

had failed

in his

life.

And Jesus

comes to

him and

Jesus heals

him.

When he

calls out for

mercy, he

listens and

Jesus answers.

And so if

you can

identify with

the Samaritan,

the leper

man, Jesus

says, come

to me.

If you

call to me,

I'll answer.

Cry out for

mercy and

I'll draw

near to you.

That's what it

means to have

faith.

It's to

know that

Jesus can

make us

clean by

his blood

that he

shed on

the cross.

So cry

out to

Jesus for

mercy.

Trust and

obey what

he says.

And God

can even

use you as

an example

to others.

Right?

That's also

what Jesus

wants to

teach his

disciples,

is don't

ignore people

like the

Samaritan

leper.

don't

ignore people

who you

might avoid

or fear

or despise,

people who

have ugly

kinds of

illnesses.

Leprosy was

an ugly

illness.

People who

are foreigners,

right, from

all kinds of

different walks

of life.

Jesus says,

don't ignore

those people.

If you

follow me,

I love

all kinds

of people.

And I want

you to

learn to

show mercy

and learn

to see

and learn

to have

faith

from

people like

this Samaritan

leper.

So Jesus

says,

don't ignore

them.

So that's

what we see

tonight,

right?

Priority

and mercy,

right?

Jesus must

be our

number one

priority.

He's our

Lord.

And we

owe him

everything.

And Jesus

is our

merciful

Savior.

And we

can count

on him

and we

can call

out to

him for

mercy

and he'll

hear us.

So let's

pray that

those truths

would come

home to

our hearts

tonight.

Lord Jesus,

we thank

you for

who you

are.

Lord,

tonight we

just want

to acknowledge

you as

the Lord

over

everything,

as the

holy God,

as our

rightful

master.

Lord,

you created

us,

you made

us.

We wouldn't

exist without

you.

You sustain

us every

day.

You give

us

everything

we have.

Lord,

we owe

everything

to you.

You don't

owe anything

to us,

but we

thank you

that you

are a

merciful

Savior.

And Lord,

we pray

that we

would draw

near to

you because

you are

a merciful

Savior.

Lord,

you are

not just

someone who

demands our

everything,

but you

are someone

who has

given

everything

for us.

So Lord,

give us

boldness and

confidence to

come before

your throne

because you

are our

great high

priest.

God,

we

come to

you.

We

worship at

your feet

and give

praise to

God Almighty.

Lord,

we pray that

you would

teach us

these things

so that we

can be your

disciples,

so that we

can live

with you as

our number

one priority

and so that

we can

rest

confidently

in your

mercy

and extend

that mercy

to others.

In your name

we pray.

Amen.