The Lesson of the Lepers

It's so good to have you with us today. You're in for a special treat as we look at a very familiar text that gives us a fabulous truth about Jesus Christ our Lord.

So if you have your Bible turn with me to Luke chapter 17. Luke chapter 17, and we'll look at what the Bible says concerning the lessons from the lepers.

This is not the first time Jesus heals someone with leprosy. In Luke chapter 5, if you were with us many, many months ago, years ago really, Jesus healed a man with leprosy. Well, here he heals 10 men with leprosy. And Jesus, who was on his way to Jerusalem, still is performing miracles. Luke records five of those miracles that Jesus performs on his way to Jerusalem. This is one that's absolutely phenomenal. I guess all miracles are phenomenal, but this one, because of how it happens, is rather unique.

Luke 17, verse number 11, reads as follows. And it came about while he was on the way to Jerusalem that he was passing between Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a certain village, 10 leprous men stood at a distance, met him. And they raised their voices, saying, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And when he saw them, he said to them, Go and show yourselves to the priests. And it came about that as they were going, they were cleansed. Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice.

And he fell on his face at his feet, giving thanks to him. And he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answered and said, Were there not 10 cleansed? But the nine, where are they? Was no one found who turned back to give glory to God except this foreigner? And he said to him, Rise and go your way. Your faith has made you well. Jesus, throughout his ministry, demonstrated power unlike anyone had ever seen, because he is God in the flesh. The things that Jesus did proved that he truly was from God. And never did the religious leaders deny the fact that Jesus performed miracles.

The blind did see, the lame did walk, those with leprosy were healed. And we have said to you many times over throughout our study of this gospel that when Jesus finally dies in the end of this gospel, right before he is raised from the dead, he pretty much banished all disease from the land of Israel.

Because he was portraying to the people of Israel what the land would be like when the king rules on his throne. And so throughout his ministry, he healed person after person after person. Some of them had faith. Some of them had no faith. In fact, dead people can't believe anything. But he raised them from the dead. Faith was never a prerequisite for people to be healed. Jesus healed people because he was compassionate, he was kind, and he was merciful. Outside of that, he truly was God in the flesh.

And he proved to everyone around him that that's exactly who he was. And what he does in this story is not just heal one person with leprosy, but 10 individuals with leprosy. Which was quite phenomenal because they looked at leprosy as a divine judgment of God upon man. If you were leprous, it's because God had judged you severely. In fact, they had examples of that in the Old Testament. Remember when Miriam rebelled against the leadership of Moses, God struck her with leprosy. It was part of God's divine judgment upon Moses' sister.

You can go back and look at Naaman, Uzziah. And part of that was God's judgment upon man. And so they assumed that if you had leprosy, it was because God some way was judging you. So if Jesus comes and he heals you from leprosy, he must be God. Because God can only reverse his judgment. No one else can reverse the judgment of God. So in healing leprous people, Jesus demonstrated that he was reversing a curse. It really wasn't that way, but that's how they saw it. And only God could do that. If God pronounced it, only God can change it.

So in healing those people who were leprous, he proved himself once again to be God. Leprosy was a very communicable disease. In fact, the Old Testament goes to great length to prescribe for us what takes place if someone has leprosy. Leviticus 13, Leviticus 14 go into great detail concerning people with leprosy. It was the priests who would decide whether or not you had leprosy because they were the keepers of the law. And they would be the ones who decided whether or not you were healed from leprosy.

You got to present yourself to the priest. That's why Jesus says to the man in Luke 5 and to the 10 in Luke 17, go show yourself to the priests.

Which had to be rather embarrassing for the priests. Think about it. Because the process would take eight days according to what the Old Testament prescribed. These men were healed. These priests would be witnesses to the divine act of God upon 10 different people. For if they were truly healed of leprosy, they would bear witness to the testimony of 10 men who had been totally cleansed, who in their mind had been divinely chastised by God. But now that reverse had been turned or that curse had been turned, had been reversed.

And so all of a sudden they would have to come to realize that what was before them was God. Now we know they never denied the miracles of God. So what they did was attribute the miracles of God to Satan. They've already done that. And that's what wrote their ticket when it came to their God abandoning them as a nation. He would say, listen, if you can't believe what is obvious before you, then it's over. And truly it was over for Israel before Christ ever was crucified on the cross. That was the culmination of their rejection.

But this disease, leprosy, known as Hansen's disease, is a disease that is a bacterial infection that affected the outer extremities of one's body. It would affect the nose, the toes, the hands, the fingers, the top of the head. And what it did was it caused a numbing effect to those outer extremities. So it wasn't necessarily a disease that ate away at the body as much as it was a disease that numbed the body, making your life very dangerous. For instance, you could go through life, stub your toe, never know it, but it would continue to bleed or be broken.

You could break a foot, never know it. Because you had no feeling in the foot, no feeling in the hand. You could put your hand in the fire, not feel the burning effect of the fire. And thus it would cause there to be great decay because you didn't know that you were even injured. There is proof in third world countries where people with leprosy would have rats come and chew off one of their fingers at night and they not even know it because of the numbness effect.

It's also called lion's disease because it affected the face in such a way that it caused the face to look like a lion. And because of the effect of the disease upon one person's life because of the numbness of its effect, then what would take place would there would be a distinct odor that would exude from these people with leprosy. And they were outside the camp. It affected them socially. It affected their families. It affected everything. These people could not associate with anybody who did not have leprosy.

Their only friends were people with with leprosy. That's it. And they hung out together. And these were 10 men who were at a distance. They cried out because they could not come within contact of somebody else because leprosy was was given either through breathing or through touching. And so God prescribed severe restrictions for those with leprosy simply because it has the potential to destroy an entire nation. And God knows that. And so they were outside the camp, outside of the social arena of villages and cities.

And these men saw Jesus coming. And they cry out to him, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. Now, one effect of of leprosy is it affects the larynx so that or larynx, whatever that's called in your throat so that you can't speak very well. So it caused you to have a very raspy voice. So for them to cry out to to Jesus would would be very hard for them. But they all did it in unison. Maybe he would hear them. And they cried out for Jesus because they recognized him as a as a master. They didn't recognize him as their master.

They recognized him as a master. You see, it was it was nothing new to them to realize that Jesus could perform incredible miracles. By this time in the life of our Lord, he's on his way to Jerusalem. It's in the last several months of his ministry. Lazarus has already been raised from the dead. By this time, he comes to a certain village or a certain city, the text says. Oh, by the way, in Luke five, it says the exact same thing. It never tells us what village these leprous people are in. It just tells us there's a certain village.

And why Luke does it that way, I don't know. But just to emphasize the fact that what Jesus did, he did, excuse me, in every single village in Israel. He healed everybody. And so he comes to this certain village on his journey to Jerusalem. And there there are 10 men with leprosy. And they cry out this one that they know has healing power. They've seen it. They've heard about it. And they have seen maybe the guy from Luke five came to tell them about the healing power of Jesus. I don't know. But they knew about the power of Jesus.

And somehow they wanted to experience the power of this master. So they cried out, have mercy on us, have mercy on us. And Jesus responds this way, go and show yourselves to the priest. Now what he doesn't say is amazing. First of all, he doesn't say, be healed.

He just says, go and show yourself to the priests. He also doesn't touch them. In Luke five, he touches the guy with leprosy. Here, he doesn't touch them. Here, he doesn't say be healed. He says, just go and show yourselves to the priest. That's all he says. Because he wants them to demonstrate some kind of action, some kind of faith. Because he's going to heal them. Not because they had faith. He wanted to heal them because as the divine, he would prescribe the events of the day. And he was in charge.

He wanted to heal them. He wanted to demonstrate his compassion, his love, and his mercy. So he tells them to go and show themselves to the priest. Because he was going to fulfill Levitical law. You see, he came to fulfill the law. And telling them to go and show themselves to the priest, he would be affirming the Levitical law of Leviticus 13 and 14. And so what do they do? They go. They go. And on their way, they're all cleansed. I mean, this is amazing. Now, they would notice it upon another individual more so than they noticed it upon themselves.

They would all be walking together. And they would look at one another and say, look, you're healed. And they would begin to look at themselves.

I am healed. It would be an amazing thing. They would fulfill the command of God to go and show themselves to the priest. And on their way, they were cleansed. Completely. Instantaneously. Totally. Because it was a divine act of God. Those fingers that were gone were new. The toes, the feet that were gone were new. The face was cleansed. The eyes could see. Everything was changed in a moment. And then one of them, one of them recognizes and realizes who Jesus is. Because you see, he was going to go beyond a superficial fix to a supernatural transformation.

He recognized that what had taken place could only have happened if Jesus was God. This is an incredible story. Because the implications for you and me are absolutely astonishing. This man, recognizing what Jesus did, he wanted more than just a physical healing. He needed a spiritual healing. He comes back. He glorifies God. He falls on his face before him and worships him. Because he recognizes who Jesus is. The other nine, they don't do that. The other nine continue on their journey to the priests.

And they would be there for that eight-day ceremonial ritual, cleansing. Which would then allow them to one day go to the temple and to worship God and to thank him. But I got news for you. God doesn't dwell in that temple anymore. Ichabod had been written across that temple. God dwelt in Jesus. The one knew that. He went into the presence of God. He came and bowed before God in the flesh. You see, he knew where God was. The other nine did not. That's what caused him to turn around and come back and glorify God with now a loud voice.

For now, he was able to scream and everybody could hear him. He would be very clear in what he said. He wanted to magnify the person and the power of Almighty God. And that's exactly what he did. He came back. He bowed before him. And Jesus responds. And this is so rich. Because Jesus says this.

Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine, where are they? What happened to them? Was no one found who turned back to give glory to God except this foreigner? You see, he was a Samaritan. He was a foreigner. He was a half-breed. He was outside of Jewish belief. And yet he was a foreigner who recognized who Jesus was. You see, the other nine, they become very symbolic of Israel. They are the ones who wanted to receive from Jesus. They wanted the food that Jesus gave. They wanted the healings that Jesus gave.

They wanted the miracles. They just didn't want to believe the master behind the miracles and the message that he taught. And so while they would want to receive the externals, there was no change on the inside. Well, this one leprous individual, he wanted the inside change. He wanted the eternal change. He wanted God to touch him spiritually, not just physically. He went beyond the superficial to the real, to the intimate. See, the other nine, they were symbolic of Israel. The one was symbolic of the remnant that truly believed in Jesus as God, Jesus as Messiah, Jesus as their master and their Lord.

You see, they would take the food. They would take the miracles, but they would not bow in submission to Jesus. They would not come and bow down before him. They would not come and prostrate themselves before him and say, you are my king. You are my master. You are my Lord. What you say goes. They wouldn't do that, but they would take from him all that he would give to them in all of his generosity and all of his kindness. But they would not submit themselves to Jesus as Lord and master of their lives.

The Bible says this in verse number 19. And he said to him, rise and go your way to the one. Your faith has made you well. In other words, your faith has saved you. The word there is sozo, used often in the Gospels to tell you that this person received salvation. He truly was saved. He came glorifying God. He came honoring God. He came worshiping God. He came to bow down before God. And he says, your faith has truly saved you. You truly are a new creation. More than just on the outside, but you are changed from the inside out.

I read the story and I am absolutely astonished as to the implications for your life and mine. Because the lesson of the lepers goes deep into the church. It goes deep to the people who attend church. Why? Because most people who attend church are just into the superficial. What can Jesus do for me? Because if he can do something for me, I'll stay. But if he doesn't do anything for me, then I won't. Because you see, Jesus is into salvation. He's into eternal things, not just temporal things. And so I begin to realize that there was one who was truly saved.

Nine were not. All ten were healed physically. Only one was healed physically and spiritually. And that's the one who came glorifying God and giving thanks to him. Because the characteristic indicative of the believer is praise. The one characteristic that sets us apart from the world is a grateful heart, is a thankful heart. That's why it says in Romans chapter one, these words. For even though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to God. Did not give thanks. And then over in second Timothy chapter three.

But realize this in the last days difficult times will come. For men shall be lovers of self and lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, and ungrateful. You see, the characteristic of an unbelieving life is that they are ungrateful, they are unthankful, and they will not praise God. But the characteristic of the believer is that he is so enamored with Christ, he has to praise Christ. He has to thank Christ. Thanks be unto God for his indescribable gift. Second Corinthians 9 15.

First Corinthians 15 57. We give thanks to God for his victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. This is the will of God concerning you, that you give thanks in everything. First Thessalonians 5 18.

And Ephesians 4 says, or Ephesians 5 says, you are to give thanks for everything. You see, the characteristic of the believer is that he lives a life of gratitude. He lives a life of thankfulness. He lives a life of praise to his God. And you look at the ten, and you'll have to admit that a lot more people pray than praise.

Is that not true? A lot more people pray than praise. They all cried out to Jesus. But only one truly praised Jesus. I love what Charles Spurgeon says about this. He says, if you are God's people, most of us pray more than we praise. You pray little enough, I fear, but praise, where is that? At our family altars, we always pray, but seldom praise. In our closets, we constantly pray, but do we frequently praise? Prayer is not so heavily an exercise as praise. Prayer is for a time, but praise is for eternity.

Praise therefore deserves the first and the highest place, does it not? Let us commence the employment which occupies the celestials. Prayer is for a beggar, but I think he is a poor beggar who does not also give praise when he receives his alms. Praise ought to follow naturally upon the heels of prayer, even when it does not, by divine grace, go before it. If you are afflicted, if you lose money, if you fall into poverty, if your child is ill, if chastisement visits you in any form, you begin to pray.

And I do not blame you for that, but should it be all praying and no praising? Should our life have so much salt and so little sweet in it? Should we get for ourselves so often a drought from the rock of blessing and so seldom pour out a drink offering unto the Lord Most High? Come, let us chide ourselves as we acknowledge that we offer so much more prayer than praise. And he's right. He's right. When we pray, we have to always pray, with thanksgiving, with praise, with adoration. And the reason we pray more than we praise is because we're a lot like the nine.

We want Jesus to give us a superficial fix. We want Jesus to do for us. We want him to heal our marriage. We want him to heal our financial problem. We want him to heal our relationships. We want him to step in and do those things. And rightly so should we pray for those things. But we can ask to consume it upon our own lusts, as James says. And we do it without ever praising God for the situation or the circumstances. We can be just like the nine and just want God to do for us, instead of like the one who comes back and says, Oh God, you did.

I want to praise you and thank you for all that you did for me. And bow before him. This is a powerful, a powerful message. Listen to this. Notice that this man's praise was personal praise.

It was personal. He left the other nine. He didn't even say, Come on guys, let's go back and praise Jesus. He left the nine. You see, because there was a realization of his iniquity, there was a recognition of deity. There would be a reception of mercy, which would allow him to come and praise his God. And he did it in a personal way. It didn't make any difference. Listen, who came with him? It didn't make a difference. Who was there? Because he was going to give praise and honor and glory to the one to whom it was due, Jesus.

You think about that. In our praise, very few times is it truly personal. We'll go to church and we'll praise God if our friends are there, or if they'll go with us, but we won't go alone. This man went alone, all by himself. He was enamored with the Christ. We'll go to church and we'll say, Well, you know, we can only praise God if we like the music. If we don't like the music, we can't praise God. Are you that superficial to even make that statement? Think about it. Praise is personal. It comes from the inside out.

It makes no difference about the worldliness of your companions. It makes no difference about the dryness of the congregation. It makes no difference about the coldness of the church. It makes no difference about anything around you because it has everything to do with your heart. Everything. If you come to church, you don't praise God, that's your fault. It's not the environment's fault. It's not the music. Are you kidding me? It's personal. It's about my commitment to Christ that no matter what anybody else does or what anybody else says, I'm going to praise Christ.

It's all about the Christ. Praise is always a heart condition. Has nothing to do with what goes on around you, which tells this. Not only was his praise personal, his praise was completely preoccupied with the Christ. This is so good because you see, Jesus asks, Were there not nine? No answer. Where are the other ones? No answer. He doesn't say anything. He doesn't say, Well, they just must not be as committed as I am, Jesus. They must not love you very much. I love you. That's why I'm here. He doesn't say anything because he is so preoccupied with Jesus.

Listen carefully. It doesn't make any difference about what's happening around him. He could care less. He is totally preoccupied with the Christ. So much so that when Jesus asks a question, he doesn't even respond. Where are the other nine? Where's everybody else at? Weren't they healed too? But he is so preoccupied with the Christ. We come to church and we say, Well, I don't know, man. I got this person over here raising their hands, and I don't like that. And this person over here, they're closing their eyes, and I don't like that either.

And this person over here, they're jumping up and down, and I don't like that either. It's hindering my praise, really. That's not true praise then because true praise is your heart's condition. If that's your attitude, you are not preoccupied with Christ. You're preoccupied with the person on your left or the person on your right. You're not preoccupied with the Christ. Because when you're preoccupied with Christ, it makes no difference what happens around you. It's all about Jesus. Very few people in church really understand praise.

They really do. They think that if they sing a song and they like it, that's praise. No, it's not. Praise stems from a heart that is so personally in love with Christ, so preoccupied with Christ, it makes no difference what else is happening around him or her because they are all about the Christ. And this man was that way. But not only is praise personal, and not only is praise preoccupied solely with the Christ, but praise is always prompt, immediate, has to be. Jesus wasn't going to linger around in the city.

He was on a journey. He was on a mission. He was going to Jerusalem to die for the sins of the world. He was fulfilling the timetable of Almighty God. He might have been able to say, well, you know what, let me go show myself to the priest, then come back and see Jesus.

It's too late. He's gone. You might not ever see him again. His praise was prompt. It was immediate. It had to be because it was uppermost in this man's thinking. He quickly went to Jesus. Why? Because not only is praise personal, not only is praise preoccupied solely with the Christ, and not only is praise that which is prompt, immediate, it's prompt because it is predominant in one's life. And it was absolutely predominant, so preeminent that it would supersede everything else in his life. Wait a minute.

Didn't Jesus say, go show yourself to the priest? Is he living in disobedience if he doesn't go show himself to the priest? Oh, no. Oh, no. He was going to prove himself to the ultimate high priest, the Lord God himself. He was going to bow in subjection to the master of the universe. This man understood the importance of praise. He realized that it was his priority to give praise and honor to the Lord God of Israel. And that's exactly what he did. Wow. Didn't wait. Couldn't wait. Had to praise God.

Had to be there to praise his name. Had to be there to fall down before him to worship him and to honor him. Praise. His praise was also pronounced because he glorified God with a loud voice. A loud voice. Before his voice was unable to protrude with a loud noise. But now that he was healed, his praise was pronounced. It was so loud because he wanted all to know of who Jesus was and what Jesus did. He couldn't contain the excitement. He couldn't contain his praise. He had to let it all out. He was loud.

Do you think that upsets some people? Probably. Probably. But he didn't care. Because he wanted to give glory and honor to his true Savior, Jesus Christ our Lord. That's exactly what he did. His praise was personal. From the inside out, it was his heart's desire. It was so preoccupied with Christ, it made no difference what the other nine did, where the other nine went, or even the condition of their hearts. He was so preoccupied with Christ, all he wanted to do was be with Christ in his presence.

It affected everything in his life. His praise was pronounced. It was loud. It was prompt. It was immediate. He didn't wait because he couldn't wait. His praise was pious, worshipful, affectionate, because he would come and prostrate himself before the Lord God of Israel. He would bow before him in humble submission to his lordship. I want you to think about your praise to the Christ. And ask yourself, does it make a difference to you what others are doing? More so than what you are doing? Does it make a difference to you where others are going?

Or where you are going? Does it make a difference to you? That others might not care what you are doing, but you are solely committed to your God, to praise him from the inside out. You see, praise to God changes everything about us. That's our practice. That's what we are to do. That one marks us different than the world. The world is ungrateful and unthankful. We are grateful, gracious, and thankful. So much so that we lift our hearts in praise to God, thanking him for all that he's done, praising him for everything, everything he has.

This man was so prompt in his praising, he would lay aside all the rituals of going to the priests to go and bow before his maker and to worship and honor his name. This becomes a powerful passage for all of us here today. To ask ourselves, why are we here? Are you here to praise and honor Christ? Or are you here for some other reason? Are you here to put him on display to glorify his name? Whoso offereth praise, Psalm 50, verse number 23 says, glorifies me. Whoso offereth praise glorifies me, the Lord God says.

Are you about the glory of God, the honor of God, the praise of God? Is your life centered on God or is it centered on you? You see, this becomes a passage for self-examination. To ask ourselves, what hinders my praise? Is it someone around me? Is the music that's sung or how it's sung? What hinders our praise? Or are we so preoccupied with the Christ that nothing can hinder my praise? There are times I'm on vacation and I come to church here at Christ Community Church. I sit in the back and very few people sing praise to God.

And I ask myself, why would they not want to lift their voices loudly in honor of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords? Some might say, well, it's a style in which the song is sung. Oh, no, it's not. No, it's not. It's your heart. Has nothing to do with the style or the song that's sung. It's your heart. It's not right before the Lord. You came to church for another reason. You didn't come to church to praise God, to lift his name on high. It's all about the heart. Well, I don't like the person who leads the music.

Really? That's a you problem. That's a you problem. That's a carnal heart, not a submissive, humble heart that bows before God. That's a heart that's preoccupied with the externals, not preoccupied with Christ, his presence. You see, this one man is a great lesson for all of us, to come into his presence with thanksgiving, to come into his gates with praise, to honor and glorify the name of Christ. Folks, that's our practice. That's who we are. That's what we do. That's what separates us from the world.

It's our praise and honor and glory of Christ, the King. That's what we do. And may the lesson of the lepers teach us much about our condition, that we might know how to better praise and honor our King and our Lord and our Master. Let me pray with you.

Father, we thank you, Lord, for today and all that you do. And we're grateful, Lord, for how it is you work in the lives and hearts of people. Truly, Lord, your word is strong and powerful. There's so much than just a miracle in the story. There's a message behind the miracle that hits to the heart of every one of us, Lord, to help us reevaluate where we are in our relationship with you. Help us reevaluate why we're really here and why we have come. May it be that, Lord, we have come truly to praise and to glorify you because you have given us an incredible cleansing from all of our sin.

I pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, our soon-coming King. Amen.