Where are the Nine?

Let's have a prayer, Father as we bow our heads. We're living before

the coming of Christ, and it is real. Help us to realize that

Jesus loves people, and it starts here. That service is not about us,

It's about the Master in Jesus name. Amen. All right, let's

focus the title the sermon is where the nine you got that on the internet

you're going to need to be in primarily in Luke seventeen. I have been

focused on the miracles of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. As you can

probably perceive, this is one that's most significant. The number ten represents obedience

in the Bible because of the importance of the ten commandments. Do you hear

me? So let's say at fourth riley, God is a ten. He's

not an He's not an eight. God is a ten. Can you say

him into that? Let's affirm that the number ten also represents God's character.

Since God's law and God's name are the same thing in the Bible. Some

people don't realize that God's law in God's name same thing, and the Bible

declares that God's name is the eternal covenant. Look at Psalms one hundred nineteen

fifty five, will put on the screen. David says, I remember your

name in the night, Oh Lord, and that name Lord is capitalized.

It's Jehovah Yahweh Lord. And I keep your law. So when you remember

God's sacred name, I am who I am, Jehovah Yahweh God, you

keep the ten commandmus If you want to forget God's name, just pick and

choose which ones of those are important. So when we revere God's name,

we are honoring his law. Because why is his name his law? God

is his law? I am who I am? Is his name Yahweh?

And who is he? The law of God? That law is justice and

mercy and love. In Christ lived it and revealed it. So the number

ten is used ten times plus one in the Gospel of Luke because the one

matters to God in relationship to the ten one village and one person matters to

God. The miracle of the ten lepers is sandwiched between the parable the lost

coin and the parable of the ten pounds In Luke fifteen eight to ten and

the parable the lost coin. The householder rejoices in the one coin that was

lost of the ten, but is found by careful search in the house.

God cares about the one in relationship to the ten. In Luke nineteen twelve

and thirteen, in the Parables of the ten Pounds, God shows the importance

of the one pound that must be invested faithfully in the cause of God as

heavenly currency. One in ten matters to God. What do we call that

we return one tenth of what God gives us? What do you call it?

Called the tithe? Because one in ten matters, God cares about the

one. This is an echo of the tithing principle of the Bible, where

every faithful Christians called to return to God a faithful one in ten, one

tenth a tithe of their increase and earnings to the work of God. And

to be faithful means to do that. It's a measure of obedience. Our

duty is measured by the one of ten. So God allows us to participate

in His character when we return the tithe. You know what we're really doing.

We're saying, as I buy in to the selfless character of God,

who is a ten God. For God so loved the world that he did

what that he gave, But he didn't give one in tenth. What did

he do. He emptied Heaven's treasury. He gave all ten when he gave

us Jesus Christ. God was in Christ in that gift huge. We should

never forget that one talent rightly, for God has always multiplied for the good

of others and oneself. Sometimes it's easy to get discouraged. We think,

well, my service in the church, is it really working? Is it

valuable? You know, I don't have the results that I had expected,

And we keep thinking about what I should do better and how I need to

feel. And notice that what dominates the discussion in your mind when you say

that I I friends, God has called us to serve for Jesus' sake,

and I'm telling you I'm in a frame of mind at this time in my

life. Whether there be ten or ten thousand, it doesn't matter. It

matters what the Master wants. We live for Christ to the glory of God,

not for what we can get from service. In this parable, the

unfaithful servant says he was afraid to invest his talent because he had to.

He held to a pessimistic view of his master's character and trust in him as

a servant. So what do you do? He went out and he just

didn't use it, and we didn't use it, you lose it. So

if you want to grow in God, you take the little opportunities you have.

You use them for God. You don't look back, and God grows

you and your talents. So the unfaithful servant was condemned by his Master for

his attitude of fear, pessimism, disobedience. You can't invest in life and

others in God if you're governed by fear, pessimism and disobedience. So God

calls us to do things that challenge us for his glory. So, just

before the Miracle of the ten Lepers, Jesus affirms the importance of having the

right frame of mind where the good attitude in assessing ourselves as servants in the

cause of God. Paul says, we should test ourselves to see if we're

in the faith. Now here's a test with Jesus. The King of God

is not determined by how good you are looking like you're obedient. The King

of God is determined by the attitudes that exist within your life in relationship to

Him. As the Master. Look seventeen seven to nine, just before the

ten here's what he says and which of you having a servant plowing or tending

sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field,

excuse me, come at once and sit down to eat. But will he

not rather say to him, prepare something for my supper, gird yourself,

serve me till I've eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink.

Does he think that servant because he did the things that were commanded him?

And here's Jesus' answer, I think not. That's an amazing passage.

In this parable before the Miracle of the ten Lepers, Jesus teaches us that

obedience is a duty to be performed and not an opportunity to gain a reward.

Did you hear me. It's a duty to be performed, but we

should not do it so we can get a reward. No, the different

ways to get rewards. When get rewards. If someone said, oh,

I like that so much, I appreciate it, Jesus said, doesn't matter.

We can get a reward because maybe we get an elevated position, we

move on to something better. Jesus as doesn't matter. What matters is faithfulness

in the duty that we have been called to perform. That's what matters to

the Master. We are to serve God without complaints or any bad attitude that

would suggest that we deserve something for being obedient as a servant. Friends,

faithful servants of God obey their Master from a sense of duty because he is

the master. Have you ever tried to be the master in your own life?

I have it. Don't go good long, It all comes down when

you try to do that. This focus on a good attitude in service to

God is also reaffirmed at the end of the miracle of the healing of the

ten Leopards. So it samwidges the miracle. Look at Luke seventeen, verse

twenty. Now when he asked the Pharisees when the King of God would come?

Now, no excuse me. Now. When he was asked by the

Pharisees when the King of God would come, they wanted no prophecy. He

answered them and said, the Kingdom of God does not come with observation,

nor will they say see here or see there. For indeed, the kingom

of God is within you. Now, Jesus is saying, it is God

like attitudes inside you. Now, God is what what's the number? God

is a ten? If you remember nothing else. Say with me together.

God is a ten because he is his law. If God's attitudes are in

you, then where is the kingdom. It's here. Thy will be done

on earth, as it is in heaven, as it is in the heart

of God. It is to be in our hearts and lives. The New

Covenant brings a new attitude into the life. And Hebrews eight eleven, the

heart of the Book of Hebrews, it says they shall all know Me,

from the greatest to the least. How because he says, all right,

my law in their hearts, who I am will be in them the Holy

Spirit. So the New Covenant brings a new attitude into the life that is

not full of anger, that's not driven by resentment or fear of self interest,

virtue signaling, or envy or gain. It takes us to the cross

where Christ died for us, and we take up our cross without complaint,

because Jesus is worth it. Jesus is. The Kingdom of God is within

you Matthew thirteen forty four. Again, the King of God is like treasure

hidden in a field when a man which a man found and hid for joy.

Now the key phrase is for joy over it. He goes and says

all that he has and buys that field. The King of God is worth

everything possible in our lives Romans fourteen seventeen. For the King of God is

not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

That's what a Christian life should be, transformed by grace. The narrative

for the healing of the ten Leopards, in fact, is this is a

good evidence of measuring your own conversion. Some people said, well, how

do I know I'm a Christian? Well? Is your walk all about you?

Are you complaining about how it's been bad for you? Or is it

about being at peace with God's calling your life, joy, holy spirit presence,

not focusing on what's wrong and right all the time, but focusing on

others in the Holy Spirit. The narrative for the healing of the ten Lepers

begins in Luke seventeen eleven twelve. With this context, let's look at verse

eleven. Now, it happens as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed

through the midst of Samerian Galilee. Then as he entered a certain village there

met him ten men who were lepers and here's the key phrase, who stood

afar off the men in need of God? Here they stood afar off ten

of them, ten on the way to Jerusalem. And luke seventeen eleven.

Jesus leaving the most northern region of Galilee to go to Jerusalem or he will

eventually die for our sins. He's in the outback of Judea, on the

outskirts of a foreign land. And look, seventeen Jesus is here as far

away as he can be from the place where he will be, where he'll

become famous for dying for our sins. So what's he doing out there?

Why is this important? He's in the outback for a very good reason,

it looks seventeen eleven. Jesus is in the outback of Judea at the border

of Samaria. Because here's why. Because God cares about people that the many

and the most would reject and condemn outright. God cares about the person who

no one would notice, the person who not can be considered important, the

person that people would naturally ignore. That's where Jesus goes. So what is

the church? The church is an extension of the character of God to reach

people in the outbacks of the world. You can also do assessment of your

own personal life if you're not in your experience with others. Reaching out to

people who never come to church, your friends, your associates, your neighbors,

to pray for them to meet their needs to be the church they will

never have unless you go to them. Then you failed the test of what

it means to be disciple. Jesus does this. He's on his way there

to Jerusalem. He's on his way intentionally out of the way. When he

enters a little village to show ten needy lepers the way out of the woods

that is the nightmare of their life, illness that has decimated their lives.

He's there for them. In the narrative, Jesus is between Galilee and Samaria,

or in Samaria itself. The text might even suggest in the Greek language

he's in a foreign land. The Greek reads literally that Jesus was passing through

Sameria and Galilee Chris, crossing each country for good reasons. No doubt here

is defined by the ten lepers need. The text also reads literally that he

entered one certain village. The Greek is much more focused than our English translation.

One certain village, not a big town, not a huge city,

not a famous city, but in the mind of God, in the intent

of Christ, a one certain village. It was a speck on planet Earth

that mattered to Jesus, but not to the many and the most, who

could care less about the one. In Satan's plan, his kingdom is a

collective like modern communism, where the many matter and the one doesn't. But

in God's calling, every single person matters. And John three point sixteen for

God to love the Son, that for God to love the world, that

he gave his only begotten son, that the many or the whosoever, whosoever

He sent Jesus to save the one. And by saving the one, he

saves the many. And thus he redeems. And the King of God will

we made up of individuals, single stones, Peter says, who become part

of the temple of God. It was a speck on planet Earth that mattered

to Jesus, and he was there. Why did Jesus care? Because every

little place in this world matters to God, Every single person matters to God.

One certain village of violent importance to Jesus, Christ matters to God.

Laurel Maryland matters to God, your home, your house, your neighborhood,

it matters to God. Christ did not ignore this one certain village on his

way to the big city of Jerusalem. Excuse me. Verse twelve says that

there were ten lepers there in that one certain place, and they all stood

afar off. As the text records now, take notice that their little village

was afar off the beaten trail to the big city of Jerusalem. And they

were even more so a far off as people who were lepers by definition and

isolation, unable to connect to others by the law of Moses. The Greek

word for a far off used here is only used here and one more time

in Hebrews eleven thirteen in the Greek New Testament. Just these two times.

It's very focused. In Hebrews eleven thirteen, the Greek word describes a great

cloud of persecuted believers in the Old Testament who accepted the truth while they stood

a far off from its fulfillment in the future. Turned to Hebrews eleven thirteen.

Notice this word this passage. It says, these all died in faith,

not having received the promises, but having seen them. And here's the

word from afar off, were assured of them, embraced them, and confessed

that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. You can't find a better

description of Lepers than this verse in Hebrews eleven thirteen. Because of their disease,

Lepers were condemned to a mere existence of isolation and loneliness, as strangers

and pilgrims in the earth who lived far from others, a far off like

Cain. Lepers were to be one and sojourners in the earth. Unlike Cain.

They never killed anybody to be treated this way. They just got sick

and got banished because of it. The Yahweh, God of the Bible Friend,

is not an aloof God or a far from people kind of God.

He's not that way at all. Jesus was declared in scripture to be God

with us Emmanuel. Remember that some people said, well, who's Jesus.

Well, in the Old Testament, his name is Michael, Michael. He's

not a created being, like the Jehovah's witnesses teach. He is God and

the Me there is the interrogative particle me who. But it can also be

translated just as validly as who is a relative pronoun who is just like or

equal to God. That's his name. So what is Christ? He has

to be a Manuel God with us in the New Testament. So Christ is

identified in the Book of Daniel as God, as the chief Prince of Heaven,

who's God. And of course he comes to earth as the human baby

that becomes the Prince of Peace Emanuel God with us. So people have a

hard time accepting the clearest statements of the scriptures, but they're not hard to

understand if humbly submitted to Christ is God with God. In John one one,

in the beginning of the word, the word was with God. The

word was God. No mystery to that. In John ten thirty, he

is one with God, the Father. I am my Father a one.

That's an amazing statement. By his own confession, he is God, and

that's why they crucified him. They couldn't stand to hear that. People shut

their ears to the Holy Spirit when the Holy Spirit points to Jesus as God

with us, he Manuel. That's why Jesus tells Philip and John fourteen nine,

if you have seen me, you have seen the Father. That's amazing

language. That means he's God with God. Do we understand it. We

don't have to, but we need to accept what God says of himself.

We know that God, God, the Father, who loves us, loves

us because Jesus, God, the Son, he gave from his bosom to

save us. He left the bosom of the Father in his incarnation, we

are told in the Spirit of Prophecy, in the Association of Holy Angels,

he left the bosom as Father to come to earth and die for us.

He's back in the bosom today John three point sixteen. For God, let's

say it with me, stick it on the screen. For God so love

the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him

should not perish, but have everlasting life. Now begotten Here does not erase

everything he said in John one one all the way down to verse fifteen three

sixteen. He defines the only begotten Son is God with God, the light

of the world, the one who's in the bosom of the Father, and

then later in the book as the one who is equal to God, who

if you've seen him, you've seen the Father. In the Bible. The

everlasting life that has offered is quality living. John says in First John that

life is in the son. If you have the son, you have life.

You don't have the son, you don't have life. Christ could lay

down his life as a sacrifice because it was not eternal life that he had

been given to him by another member of the Godhead. If Christ's life was

derived anyway, his atonement on the cross is impossible because he must give his

life that was his by right, and that he did in Calbary's cross.

But God gave the son. He lost his son in the gift of Christ.

In the Bible, the everlasting life that we receive is not just existence.

It's quality living. It's the abundant life because God is in your life,

because Jesus is the good shepherd who leads the life and protects it from

the big bad wolf. You know, Little Red Riding Hood and the Big

Bad Wolf. They had like that when I was a kid. I can't

even remember the song, like Who's afraid of the Big Bad Wolf or something.

I can't remember it altogether. All I can remember is big bad wolf.

Now I've seen wolves, and they can be big and bad. I

had a dog named Avalanche years ago that he was We got him from one

of these pet stores and he had a little wolf fitting keep bit me right

here on my face accidentally, and his fin went all the way through my

lip to that the side and touched my tooth. Pretty. You know,

don't mess with anything with wolf in it. Okay, now, look,

because there are big bad wolves out there. I love mine. He's gone

now. In the resurrection, Avalanche will have a new nature. He will

not be tempted by big bad wolf things. You said, well, pastor

Mike, how do you know that? Well, I'm gonna tell you how

I know it. So I'm thirty six six. As God saves man and

beast, write it down, says the creation self waits with either heart heart

pack, panting in the Greek for the revelation of the sons of God.

The universe wants to be transformed. I'm getting my dog Avalanche back, and

he's not gonna be biting me anymore. That'd be great now, and Psalms,

we have to put him down for that, it was, Rey said

Psalm's twenty three one. David says, the Lord is my shepherd. I

shall not want now. When you look up that verse in the Bible,

the word lord is yahweh, And so you don't have to guess who's your

good shepherd and Psalm's twenty three one and says, Jehovah Yahweh is my shepherd.

The I am who I am God. But then you come to John

ten fourteen, Jesus says, I am the good Shepherd and uses the word

I am, which is the language of the burning bush. I am who

I am. So what is Jesus? You can't miss it? In John

I am the light of the world. I am the good Shepherd. I

am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. I am the resurrection

of the life. I am I Am, I Am, I am Yahweh.

God is Jesus. God sent Jesus to save people. Dear Heart,

because Jesus is yah Wait God, who came from God? God with God?

In John one, because God loves people. God didn't send some ambassador

who doesn't have the credentials God was in Christ in the journey to save us.

And of that fact, Jesus is proof that God loves people. If

Christ is any less than what John declares him to be in John one,

the cross is robbed of its power and glory to save us. John ten

ten here's the heart of the Book of the Gospel John, the thief does

not come except to steal and to kill and destroy Christ. As I have

come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

Christ came because he loves people. God loves people to give us life.

Tewo Corinthians five nineteen. That is that God was in Christ? Where

was the accorded that verse? Was it? Say? God was in Christ

reconciling the world to himself, not imputing the trespassages to them, and has

committed to us the word of reconciliation. God forgives God's heals. God bridges

the gap in Jesus. But if Jesus is in God, he can't bridge

any gap. God has come to us in Jesus Emmanuel, who is just

like God Jesus because he is friend. God loves people. That's what this

means. John three point sixteen can never lose its force. Based on John

one, they are together friend, God loves people, and Jesus proof of

it. If we love God, guess what we will do? I asked

the question, what will we do? We'll love people too, right like

Jesus loves people. We won't be looking for ways to keep people out of

the church. We'll be looking for ways to bring them in. Look,

I think people need to sign up to God's church any way they can,

even if they don't have it all figured out, because they'll get it right

by being in the church. You hear me. Christ loves people enough to

reach out them, to meet them where they're at, in some outback nowhere

place, because He died for them. Jesus loved them, He healed them,

He forgave them as only God has a right to do, because Jesus

has the credentials. Thank you. Jesus meets these dear ten lepers in John

seventeen twelve as they stood a far elf, a far off from Emmanuel,

who's God with us. That's what's happening here. They're afar off, but

He goes to get them. That's why we have to go where people are

to see them healed. Because we are ambassadors for Jesus in the lives of

others. We bring Jesus and God to others because we have a relationship with

God and Jesus Luke seventeen thirteen. They lifted up their voices and said,

Jesus Master. Notice the combination of words Jesus Master, have mercy on us.

You know. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus disciples are the only

ones who call him Master. Except here it's always Jesus disciples Peter John the

Disciples, But here it's ten lepers in Jesus Parable and Luke, Jesus taught

that he is the heavenly Master who has servants, and his servants are duty

bound to obey him and act like they are servants of the Master. So

no whining, no complaining, their servants, use your talents well, and

if they do, then he will, as the Master, bless them for

being good servants of the Master. He taught that again and again the Gospel

of Luke. Look at Luke twelve forty three. Blessed is that servant whom

his Master will find so doing when he comes. But if we are bad

servants, then there is no blessing when Jesus returns as the Master. All

right, I mean, if you're a bad servant, you can forget a

reward. How many who want to be in the good servant kind of crowd?

I want to be in the good servant crowd Luke twelve forty five.

But if that servant says in his heart, my master's delay and is coming.

In other words, he doesn't pay attention to prophecy, doesn't care about

the Bible, develops a lax attitude because he doesn't know the signs of the

times, and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat

and drink and be drunk. In other words, begins to go after other

servants who are trying to do their best. The master of that servant will

come on a day when he is not looking for him, an hour in

which he is not aware. See, that's the danger of having the attitude

the prophecy doesn't matter. We need to be aware and will cut him into

and appoint him as portion with the unbelievers. That's an amazing way to say

it. Jesus said that I didn't The ten lepers called Jesus Master because they

were confessing right there on the spot that they were disciples of Jesus. That's

huge. Even though they had no to stand afar off because they were lepers.

They're saying, we've signed up for the Jesus club. These ten leopard

disciples wanted to follow Jesus, but because they were lepers, they couldn't follow

anybody, And yet in faith they all together said, Jesus Master, that's

a good thing. That's all it takes for someone to be saved. If

I already ask you next week, what does it take for someone to be

saved? What did I just say? Based on the scripture? What are

the two words Jesus Master? Now, don't come to Jesus and say,

Jesus, I want you to do what I'm asking you to do and then

I'll follow you. Is that Jesus Master. Don't come to Christ and say,

well, you know I need my needs. Man, every time I

come to church, I want to sit there and financially do better. And

is that calling Jesus master. When Jesus is master, you're saved. It's

that simple. It's all it takes. When Jesus appeared to Paul on the

Damascus road, Paul was knocked off his horse by the light of his glory,

and Paul said, this, Lord, who are you? Then't just

say who are you? He started in the right place. The Bible says

whoever calls in the name of the Lord to be saved, and Paul remembered

that from scripture. Jold too. So it's a good thing. To call

on Jesus as your master and lord if your life is out of control.

Now one of the evidences we know Jesus is Jehovah, and Joel too is

as whoever calls the name of Jehovah will be saved. You go to Romans

nine. Whoever calls on the Lord Jesus will be saved. Jesus is Jehovah.

So don't anyone play with your mind. Christ is Jehovah. He's Yahweh.

No one ever gets healed in life from sin and its power without calling

on Jesus as their lord and master. Look seventeen thirteen, and they lifted

up their voices and said, Jesus Master, have mercy on us. You

know, go home today and do the same and watch it work in your

life. That's how you get saved. Right here. You get saved by

doing two things. Number One, you call on Jesus's Master and Lord.

Number two, you cry out, have mercy on me because I'm a sinner.

You get in the kingdom that way. Proud people don't want mercy and

they don't ask for it because they're God's gift of the world. That's not

the kind of person gets saved. It's in brokenness and spiritual poverty when we

realize truly that we are lepers, that Jesus heals us from that which keeps

us afar from God and the Church and others who love him. It's in

that brokenness we come to Jesus. But these lepers who call Jesus Master were

claiming the right to receive all the benefits of being disciples of Jesus as lepers

and Lough twelve thirty two. Jesus told his disciples, this, do not

fear, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you

the kingdom. God is not in the keeping out business, He's in the

bringing in business. Jesus proved God's good intention to the lepers by healing them,

so they would no longer have to stay far away from God and family

and clan anymore. When someone is baptizing to Jesus and I can speak from

experience here and the church, and they're brought near to the heart and family

of God because we're all lepers in a way that need to be cleansed.

When that happens, something needs to happen. Akin to the leoperds and the

miracle, Jesus proves his word true to us, who are also in need

of God's mercy. And so in that broken state we come to God from

mercy, or we don't come at all. Jesus heals us from our sins.

We do that. He puts us in a right place with God.

He justifies us legally for the judgment day with a right now righteousness that will

pass the scrutiny of the judgment because of that brokenness. In the appeal of

faith to know Jesus as the master, jesus instructions for the ten lepers are

clearly stated in Luke seventeen fourteen. So when he saw them, it says

he said to them, go show yourself to the priests. And so it

was that as they went. Now notice the text. As they went,

what does the text say they were cleansed. They obeyed the word as soon

as they started doing it, they were cleansed. Now this is the law

of the leopard. Jesus is obeying the tar of the Old Testament. Turned

with me Luke fourteen one to seven. I'm going to quickly read it because

I want you to see the context of this miracle. Then Lord spoke to

Moses, saying, this shall be the law of the leopard. For the

day of his cleansing, he shall be brought to the priest. The priest

shall go out of the camp. The priest shall examine him. And indeed,

if the leprosy is healed in the leper, then the priest shall command

to take for him who is to be cleansed, to living and clean birds,

cedarwood, scarlet, and hissip. And the priest shall command that one

of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel over running water. As for

the living bird, he shall take it the cedar wood, and the scarlet,

and the hissip, and dip them and the living bird and the blood

of the bird that was killed over the running water, and he shall sprinkle

it seven times on him who is to be cleansed from the leprosy. Living

water represents the Holy Spirit, the blood represents the death of the cross Christ

was offered up, according Book of the Hebrews, in the eternal spirit.

The Holy Spirit was the fire of Calvary that instituted the atonement for our sins.

And so one of these birds would be killed, and both of them

experienced living water in a real say. They represent the death and resurrection of

Jesus, death and life, the hope for the leper. God sends people

to ministers. I'm a minister not to heal people. I can't heal anybody.

I've seen the church pray for a person who died, and I saw

that person resurrected in our church in Michigan one time in my life. And

the proof for me was the world class surgeon who was standing there trying to

save her when she died and she was gone too long to come back.

God's not in the business of listening to experts. He'll do what he wants

to do when he needs to do it. God sends people to ministers not

to heal the people, but to recognize and to confirm the work of the

Holy Spirit in people's lives whom Jesus has already healed through the Holy Spirit.

Christ's word, in Christ's command is where the healing comes from. In the

miracle of the ten lepers, And before they even get to the preacher of

the priest, they were healed on the way because they obeyed the word of

God. You say, well, Pastor, how can I get healed in

my life by obeying the word of God. By letting God's work in your

life act on it, you get healed. People aren't suddenly saved at their

baptism. They are saved on the way to their baptism, like the leper

who was cleansed before the priest sprinkled him with blood from the bird killed in

an earthen vessel over a living water. It's an important fact that Jesus must

have known at least one of these men was a Samaritan. When you read

the context, it's apparent one of these was a Samaritan. Jesus must have

known that. Why did he tell him go to the priest? Have you

ever asked yourself that question? Story you're looking at me now? I believe

in asking good questions, contextual questions. Now, perhaps they were all Samaritans.

We don't know. We don't know from the Gospel of Luke. That

is, the Samaritans had their own temple that was destroyed at Mount Garrison.

We still have their copy of the Torah, the Five Books of Moses,

and the Samaritan Penitu, and I can read that. I've read it.

It reads the same for the most part, with a few exceptions, as

the law of the Leper Leviticus fourteen. So it's the same commandment in each

copy. So if you were a Samaritan, where would you have gone?

If you needed a priest inspect you and then performed the ceremony here commanded by

God through Moses. The Samaritan leper could never have gone to the Temple in

Jerusalem to the priest to pronounce himself clean. Why not because he was a

leper, but more so because he was a Samaritan. They hated these half

breed, messed up race that had Jewish blood in him, that was a

thorn in their flesh. To the north of Judea. If you had stepped

beyond a certain border of the temple, we know this from archaeological description,

you have been executed for coming to the temple if you were a Samaritan.

The Jews despised lepers, but they hated Samaritans. If the nine lepers were

Jews and the tenth leper was the only Samaritan, then they would have gone

south they head of Jesus, to Jerusalem, or at least to a synagogue

somewhere where a priest could be found. But that Samaritan leper could not go

with them. Forget a priest looking on him. He wouldn't even bother.

Jesus knew that if more than one of them or all of them were Samaritans,

then they would have naturally stayed together if going to the priest was their

first priority. So where would the leper go if he was a Samaritan?

He was the only one. They're all commended because they all had faith.

They called Jesus Master, and they meant it. Luke doesn't tell us if

any of the rest were Samaritans. He only points out that the one who

came back to Jesus was a Samaritan, the Samaritan leper. In the story

of the Tenth Leper, he chose a different priest, a different priest before

he went to anyone to look at him. He turned around, He turned

around, He came to Jesus to thank him at his feet. He didn't

battle with an unbelieving priest. To be declared clean. He went back to

Jesus. He needed to go to Jesus because no one would receive him.

When he first met Jesus, Jesus stood afar off, and Jesus sent him

away to be healed. After he was healed. The tenth leopard chose to

come back to Jesus and fall at Jesus' feet. You know, how do

we get saved? How do we stay saved after we've been baptized, after

we've been cleansed? How do we stay saved? Friends, If you're not

in the business of coming back to Jesus and fall on his feet, you're

not going to stay saved. You're not saved. You don't stay saved because

there's some slogan and says you're once saved, always saved. You stay saved

because you fall at Jesus' feet for the rest of your life. I have

found that when people who are baptized shortly after their baptism, something happens,

the devil goes after them tries to discourage them. Very often a church member

will say something that will discourage them because unconverted church members are in the church

too, and they need encouragement. Friends, they need to come right back

to Jesus to affirm the miracle of their healing by falling at his feet.

And if we help them that way, we do godly service in someone's life.

The other nine who don't know what happened, we don't know what happened

to any of them other than the fact that they were healed. But we

do know what happened to the one of the ten who returned to fall at

Jesus' feet. Look at Luke seventeen fifteen. And one of them, when

he saw that he was healed, returned and with a what kind of voice

are you're looking at the text with me? With a loud voice to glorified

car? Is that a grateful leper? So when we responded, she said

amen, And we said, amen, what would work there? What'd work

there? Coming? Can you help me with that? What would be a

loud voice to say we're thankful God? In church? How do we say

that? Amen, that's a good thing to say, because we were lepers

and we've come back to Jesus' feet, right, They fell down in his

face, at his feet, giving him thanks. And then he says,

and he was a Samaritan. Jesus came to one certain village in Luke seventeen

eleven, somewhere on the border of Samaria, this outskirt Catered region beyond Judea.

It was the village of the hated race that had some Jewish blood and

other races also, but it was the one speck that God was really focusing

on before Jesus would go to Jerusalem. And Verse fifteen says one of them

responded to what Jesus did. It says, when he saw that he was

healed, he returned, so you can walk away from Christ after you're healed,

or you can return to Christ every day for the rest of your life.

He came back to Jesus. He let the others go on their way,

but he number ten came back to Jesus like a tithe is return to

God, a tithe of thanksgiving, unafraid of any distance between him and Christ.

He fell at Jesus' feet, and he wasn't silent. He was happy,

joyful, animated by the miracle of Jesus in his life. The leper,

no longer a leper, came back with a loud voice, giving glory

to God. He worshiped God on the way back to Jesus. He was

happy. On the way back to Jesus. He was grateful. On the

way back to Jesus. Jesus healed him, but he gave glory to God

because he knew Jesus was God. On the way back to Jesus. In

verse sixteen, the former leoperd fell down at Jesus' feet and thanked him.

He gave glory to God and he thanked Jesus holding his feet. I want

to tell you what's wrong with the latestea in condition latesty in church that could

care less about recognizing Jesus as the savior of our sins. We must come

to Jesus and be broken to be saved. He gave glory to God,

but he thanked Jesus. So how do you thank God by thanking Jesus when

God works a wonderful miracle of healing your life. Dear heart, you need

to turn around and go right back to Jesus and thank Jesus for God has

done for you in Jesus look records in verse sixteen, so no one will

miss the point. And he was a Samaritan who cares if God cares.

You're not judged by the color of your skin or even the content of your

character here, because we're all sinners and lepers in the eyes of our merciful

God. You're judged by your faith. What you will do with the one

who can pronounce mercy on you. You're judged by God and your great need

for mercy, in your need for grace, it's Christ to heals, not

you, and by your faith in the one who heals, you are justified.

Nothing more than this gets it done. There'd be plenty of bad people

who make it to the King of God because they were justified by faith in

Jesus, and they're healed. When Peter left his nets in luke Fib to

follow Jesus, Peter fell at jesus knees and bled the words out the part

from me for I'm a sinful man. But he wouldn't let go of jesus'needes.

But this Samaritan, no longer a leper, fell at Jesus' feet.

He thanked Jesus for healing him. And then Jesus spoke to him in verse

nineteen, as he does to us, and he said to him, arise,

go your way. Your faith has made you well. Friend. You

don't get better, and you don't get healed, and you don't get blessed

unless you believe Jesus' word. So why is important that we have a Bible

in our hands? Why is important we share it with others and live it

and grow and let it speak to us, because that's Jesus in our lives

right here. But you are more gratefully blessed and healed when you return to

Jesus every day your life after he heals you with his word, and you

thank Jesus every day of your life for what God has already done for you

and healing you. You should remember your baptism, remember that you were saved

by grace, and never forget it. And as God has forgiven you,

you need to be forgiving others. It sets you free. You can't raise

a rise and get off the ground to a new life unless you have been

on your knees at the feet of the one who healed you with his word.

And when you get up at his command, it is faith that lifts

you up and makes you rise to new life. The good and abundant life

of walking with God in Jesus' name is the joyful life. And Jesus said

to him, arise, go your way. What does it say Your faith

has made you well? Friend, and dear heart, let it be the

same in your life every day of your life in Him until Jesus returns.

Where are the nine? They're everywhere? Where are the nine they're everywhere,

and each one of them matters to Jesus, each and every one of them.

Father, it could be very well that someone here, like me,

has been or is a leper. If you're in that camp, just raise

your hand to God and Father, maybe someone knows that they're far off from

you. They're lost, they're not healed. Father, in Jesus' name,

thank you for Jesus' words. Go off and show you to the priests.

Lord, may that person come to me, Mervin or one of the elders

of the church, seek us out to show that Jesus has healed them.

Because right now, if you confess with your heart and you believe that God

raised Jesus from the dead, you'll be saved. The Bible says, and

Lord, I reconfess that before you, I fall at Jesus feet anew right

now in my mind and heart. And Lord take every mind and heart here

who would do the same, and save them now for all time in Jesus

name. Amen.