Faith is not passive belief but obedience that moves in trust before the answer appears. In the healing of the ten lepers, blessing came as they went, yet only one turned back to give thanks. Gratitude sprang from the recognition that God’s mercy reaches beyond those who deserve it. The call to “go and do likewise” challenges believers to carry that same grace outward, seeking the lost rather than remaining comfortable among the found, for the heart of Christ always moves towards those furthest away.

Automatically Generated Transcript

[00:00:00] So it’s a very old passage for me, among which I thought I knew all about it. Until coming to look at it for tonight, something burst out of this passage that enhanced the whole meaning of the lot, and I’ll show you that tonight. It was good to hear the singing and being led. At first I looked up with rather one eye and I saw Brindley there and thought, gee, she’s singing well. In fact, it sounded like she was getting two parts out at once. And then I looked across and saw what was happening. It’s always good when there’s all the extra contributions to the music. And thank you to those people who come along and enjoy delivering, as well as us who enjoy receiving. In the passage that we do have up on the screen from Luke,

[00:01:00] it’s right at the start that something I saw as an extra thing from what I’d already known. But it says, He, that’s Jesus, desiring to justify himself. No, no, it’s not Jesus. Okay, can you go to the other passage first? I misled you when I said to start with this. I am going to get to it in a minute. Yeah, here’s the passage. On the way to Jerusalem, he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. And that’s a very significant little geographical detail. You know how Jesus himself had every now and then spent time in Samaria, and we have the story of the Samaritan woman who was sitting at the well when Jesus came along. And he said to her, give me a drink. And so the whole narrative followed around how the Samaritans were called by Jesus, some of them to come to Christ on that occasion.

[00:02:02] And here we have a point in the Bible where it gives details. Often it doesn’t give the lot. But the ones it does give is for a purpose. And so in our minds, let’s look in that there’s some thing of relevance of the fact that this thing that’s going to be unveiled to us as having happened, happened when he was in the land where it’s just in between Samaria and Galilee. In case you hadn’t realised, Samaria is where the Samaritans lived. And Galilee was where the disciples were from and where more true Jewish blood was to be found. And as he entered the village, he was met by ten leopards who stood at a distance. Now the standing at a distance is straightforward because they had a disease that was extremely catchable and they didn’t know how to get rid of it.

[00:02:56] And people who got that disease, it was just a time that they would die from it. And it’s really rather interesting about it that it says here, there’s ten leopards and they stood at a distance. They lifted up their voices together, had a common chorus as it were. The thing that strikes me in their request is their recognition. His reputation must have been delivered pretty well. For them to recognise an opportunity. And they cried out to him. They’re not going to let pass this opportunity of coming across Jesus. Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And when he saw them, he said to them, Go show yourselves to the priests. And as they went, they were cleansed. Now, there’s a spiritual principle that’s on display here about the miracles that Jesus gives. It’s about the salvation that Jesus works.

[00:04:01] It’s about the way that he steps into our lives and that it’s contingent. Not just in coming out of the blue, not necessarily always the same to the same effects, but it’s contingent as in this description very visibly, that the miracle that they prayed for came when they obeyed him. Now, I’m not giving a speech tonight on the fact that obedience is important. Obedience is important to obey God. But what lay behind these obedience is what I want you to have your attention tuned to spot. Now, if you didn’t know the details of the Jewish law, you’d not be aware of the fact that there was provision for people who gained such diseases as leprosy represented one of. And because there would naturally be an interest in seeking God for healing from such.

[00:05:10] And part of what was required of people who had such a disease was that they should leave the contagion that they could give to the rest of the population and be on their own. But they could go and show themselves to the priests and be recognised as having that disease. They’d get inspected. And if God did a miracle and healed them, it was on the priests saying that it was so. And then they’d be able to go back to their friends and family. And the scripture says, as they went, they were cleansed. And the nature of God stepping in and doing his miracles in us is one where he doesn’t necessarily, he doesn’t have any rules for himself, I might say, but he doesn’t necessarily step in and just do it, whether you like it or not. He can do that if he so chooses. But he does like to stretch our faith.

[00:06:15] He does like for us to come in our request to him to move to a basis of trust in him and belief in him. And so Jesus’ Master, have mercy on us, is acting similarly and he’s giving them a way to demonstrate by faith they’re trusting him for the result. They’d be pretty useless being a leper, especially in a big bunch of ten of you, and to trip on down to where Jerusalem is and where the priests are found and when you’re not meant to go amongst the public when you’ve got leprosy, but to go down there and to storm into where the priests are if you’ve still got the disease. And a part of them being obedient is because they’ve got faith that Jesus’ healing will happen. and this is an enormous principle in getting into your life the promises of God that because of his appreciation of us walking with him by faith

[00:07:24] because faith is the way that he wants there to be a link between him and us not other ways people have links is because you do it out of fear the Bible does talk about the value of having the fear of the Lord but it doesn’t actually mean you being so terrified that you couldn’t dare not do what’s right but the fear of the Lord is the regard for the Lord that you recognise him for who he is and God wants miracles to happen occasionally he doesn’t always but sometimes he does and he is a God that responds to trust and faith. And what’s actually happening here is Jesus is giving to these ten men a way to believe. And as they went, they were cleansed. Now it didn’t happen that he tells them and then they looked at themselves and looked at each other and they’re still lepers

[00:08:28] and they look at Jesus and he’s standing there and they have to make a move of faith. And when they went, it happened. Can you imagine that scene? That you go, okay, I’m going to give this a go and they’re heading down towards Jerusalem and they’re thinking, goodness, how are we going to get around in the population down there? And goodness, what if it doesn’t happen? And suddenly someone notices an arm that was filled with a person problem and it’s lost it. Can you imagine the joy of discovering that because you move by faith, you put it before the Lord and you took a step trusting him and suddenly you realise it’s actually happened? That’s the actual, I’m describing how the Christian life can be. And the degree to which you move from one where you’ve got lots of doubts

[00:09:33] and you don’t know whether God answers prayer to one which takes your matters to him, leaves them at his feet and takes a step believing him. And then when that miracle, the answer to whatever be the prayer happens, what a joy you have. And that’s what happened to these ten. Go show yourselves to the priests. And as they went, they were healed. And then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, he turned back, praising God with a loud voice, came back to Jesus and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. What I learned from this is that something that Jesus wants for us not only is our blessing so that we get to be made more whole, but he also wants there to be healed in us that attitude to him whereby we recognise his hand in all that happens. To move from being a person who experiences things

[00:10:48] and you’ve got your story to tell to one who not only experiences things but has recognised the hand of God in everything that happens to you. Even in the bad things, when you go and pray and say, Lord, thank you for doing that to me. It might sound silly to thank him for the bad things, but there’s something in faith that knows that if you’re getting even a bad thing from God, he’s going to look after it. And faith is that which God so much wants us to have. And thankfulness is a part of faith. And Jesus responds and says, as they went to the hill and had the loud voice, and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now this one was a Samaritan. And this is a thing I hadn’t really noticed enough previously. He was a Samaritan. And no wonder he’s the one that turned back

[00:11:59] because going down to the priest wouldn’t do him any good anyway because he was unaccepted within the Jewish system and he wouldn’t be very welcome actually as a Samaritan because the Jews and the Samaritans had this running argument as to where they should worship God. And as you know from the story of Jesus and the woman at the well, she said, we worship in our mountain and you go down to the temple, but we go down to our mountain. And so if he would have turned up down there, it wasn’t what his religion wanted him to. But he was healed anyway. And I think I know what went on in him when he saw the nine others also healed. And he said, that’s okay, they’re Jews. And we’re heading down to the Jewish priests. That’s where they should go. Their law requires it. But I’m not even a Jew. But I got healed anyway.

[00:13:07] Can you get a taste of how he felt when the miracle of God, which he could have in the back of his mind, had a concept that really it belongs to the Jews. What a thing it is when someone who doesn’t think they deserve to have Jesus working for them discovers that he does. Discovers that he does. And the consequence of that discovery is that he’s the one that goes back and gives Jesus thanks. Because he’s saying, thank you, I didn’t deserve it in the first place. We’re like that with Christ. Because the whole gospel is about the fact that we had no hope of ever living lives that we get his acceptance and get his help to get his salvation. to get us into glory eventually. But Jesus came and we were totally undeserving. We were out of it. We were worse than Samaritans. They were close to being Jews.

[00:14:26] And yet, if you put your trust in Jesus, you’re totally forgiven and healed of being up of God’s grace and accepted and taken on board. to be one of his. And one of the things that makes a person really turn into a disciple who’s committed to go on with Christ is when the realisation comes to you it’s totally been a gift from God. You didn’t deserve it in the first place. No way. That’s the motive that drives being a Christian is when you realise the depth of grace that Jesus gave you when he healed you if your healing is getting converted or your healing is being set in your life in the right direction. When you recognise just how big is the gift of grace you become the one that wants to come and thank him. Right at the heart of being a Christian of praying every day it’s hard to always remember to pray.

[00:15:38] It’s easy to get busy and run out the door to do what you know you’ve got to do. But there’s a place to recognise to the Lord every day that this disciple’s business you’re on has been entirely one of grace. Undeserved. and thank him and it flavours the rest of your life. And Jesus recognises this in verse 19 and he says rise and go your way your faith has made you well. Now can you do you want to test this is me when I’m reading this passage thinking I’d use it again because it’s one of my most favourite passages if you’ve got to know and wondering about it and then I spot this verse about he was a Samaritan. And I decide to go back and dig a bit further is it a big deal for Jesus to help Samaritans or did he do this one and it slipped through about him realise he didn’t keep all his best goods for the Jews. Well go back

[00:16:45] to a previous passage my other one that I have which is in Luke and this one in chapter 10. Now this is in this storyline there’s people who are testing Jesus and and he’s been giving some good advice about loving your neighbour and someone wants to justify himself. Now whenever the Bible says something and you find yourself wanting to justify yourself you can be pretty assured that you’re not really getting the point and the fact that you want to justify yourself is a bit of the proof that you’re dodging the very message of it. But this is that rich young man, I think, in desiring to justify himself. He said to Jesus, And who is my neighbour? It’s a bit hard to look after the others when they’re all there. How do you know how far to take that? Well, Jesus replied, and he gives the story of the Good Samaritan.

[00:17:44] You’ve heard of the story of the Good Samaritan. Well, the silly thing for me is that suddenly now, at my stage, you recognise about that story. It’s a Good Samaritan. Well, it’s not the Samaritan who gets into problems. It’s a man going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, which are two Jewish places. So he’s a regular Jew. A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell amongst robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now, by chance, a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Now, the man’s a Jew who’s hurt. The priest wasn’t doing that because he was a Samaritan. I don’t think I’ve… I think I’ve got that right. He’s just a normal person, Jewish person. But he’s going past on the other side

[00:18:43] because he has a number of things to do in his being a priest, and it doesn’t include having to help everybody. He could leave it to someone else’s job. It’s very possible in church life, and I can say this from myself, having discovered it, that I can make an excuse. I have enough to do coming to weddings like we had when yesterday. I found myself today absolutely dead beat from all the things I’ve been running to, and it’s very easy for me to make an excuse. If I’m travelling along and I just see someone who’s got nothing to do with the church, and no one will turn me off if I don’t bother with them, I won’t have Cameron telling me that I should have done more. It’s like when I run into people who are totally outside of my responsibilities, like walking through Mount Omni there, and I get reached out to

[00:19:46] by one of the sales, persons there wanting to sell me, of all the funny things, wanting to sell me make-up. I did buy some, and I gave it in the long run to family members. But I took that as something I don’t have to get involved with. But I did. And I had an hour and a bit telling that girl the gospel. And she eventually said, oh, I’ll give you extra, a special help because our business has a place in town where they give you a special treatment for your face and all. She figured I needed some. And it’ll be on the Saturday, you just go in there and they’ll look after you and I’ll send them. I’ve given you a, I don’t know whether she calls it a scholarship, but to go and get the treatment for nothing. And I went in there and there is one of the leaders of the group who are selling things in Mount Omni. and it’s a woman

[00:20:59] whose husband is a Christian. And while she’s treating me for a whole hour, wanting to sell me some stuff which I didn’t buy, special treatments, but telling me of a husband who takes her to church and she’s a Jew and he takes her to church but she hasn’t got converted but I have a really lovely time telling her the gospel. Now, other people I know went down the same Mount Omni and Omni aisle and had the same people reach out and try and sell them stuff and they got annoyed and told off, got in touch with the authorities to not let those people annoy us customers sort of thing. I could be like that too. But Samaritans, Jesus had least need to talk to them but he chose to want to. And I reckon this man when he realised he was healed amongst a bunch of Jews you say, well how come he was with them in the first place? Well,

[00:22:20] that’s easy to answer. Misery loves company. Did you know that misery loves company when you’re a leper and everything’s coming apart for you literally? You find a group of other people who are like that, well, they’ll overlook that you’re a Samaritan. They’re not going to worry about that because they’re all going to die of the same disease. You know, if you think about where some of the folk in the world find their fellowship, a lot of it is to do with misery loves company. When life is not going well and they find other people who have their own sad stories to tell. But we who have something better can also join in helping them like Jesus does and let them receive from us when we have no business to have to tell them. If you think about the people that you spend your time with, do you have folk that you don’t have to bother with them

[00:23:32] because you can make your life work out with enough connections you’ve already got. And the more you come to church, by the way, coming to church is something that gives you contacts with people and there’s great joys to be had in being in the fellowship and there’s also great gain. You get contacts. But we need to let the motivation as Jesus had it, that the further out they were, the more willing he was to take the time. And this man came back because I reckon he worked it out, that even though he was a Samaritan, Jesus has allowed the miracle to happen to him too. I’ve discovered that some of the people who were of a great influence to me and helped steer me to be interested in talking to people about Christ in my earliest years as a teenager. There were two particular people who came to my father’s college in Adelaide and represent this burden to tell the

[00:24:41] most needy people. How did I recognise that? Well one was an African guy who came from another country and he told everybody he ran into about Christ. But he seemed to pick on people that I never would have. And we lived in a college, it had a big front section come in off the major street, Northgate Street down there in Adelaide is a famous street with many big houses and big enormous cars standing out at the front. But it had a whole lot of back fences and those back fences had families the other side and there were people in there. There was a young man my age that I’d never talked to though I saw him across the back fence. Never bothered with him. But this African guy came and was having a room in our college where he could go to university. But he’d tell everybody and without him even being there very long he’d struck up a conversation with the guy across

[00:25:47] the back fence who was my age with whom I had never ever once bothered to talk. But he told that lad about Christ. It’s like Jesus caring about the Samaritans or the woman at the well or in this story. And when you let Jesus’ attitude which is one of the further out they are the more he likes to help them you’ll be staggered how much he responds to help you in that. That’s our call. and that’s something that’s written into the storylines of this and in this particular storyline of the good Samaritan that I’m looking at now on the screen that the man that fell amongst the thieves was a Jewish person but the person who eventually didn’t walk on the other side of the road didn’t leave him and not bother was a Samaritan. Why does the scripture include this story? why has Jesus included the telling of it in the first place? Verse 32, so likewise, a Levite who’d come,

[00:27:04] he’s a bloke who also walked on the other side of the road. But the Samaritan, verse 33, as he journeyed, this is a man who is journeying with a further destination to go to, but he’s the one that stopped. And he binds him up, takes him to an inn, gives money to the man to look after him and says, when I come back, I’ll fix you up on what you might also have spent, basically is what he said. And Jesus asks, the one who showed him mercy. Jesus asks, who’s the one that had mercy on him? And who’s the one that was the neighbour? The man had asked, who is my neighbour? And Jesus is basically saying, everybody, anybody who needs mercy is your neighbour. And then Jesus finishes, you go and do likewise. You go and do likewise. Do you feel the impact of that? I found this passage again as a big hit to me.

[00:28:11] I could, in my stage of life, relax and say, I’ve done a lot of evangelism. I can rest and, you know, things I have done. But Jesus says, you go and do likewise. Make it a priority that the people that you seek to reach, the ones that you really have no obligation, they’re not close to you or they’re something else. But be like Jesus asks of the rich man. You go and do likewise. So I found a great blessing in putting together these two passages in Luke and seeing how it illustrates the grace of Christ and how the further out they are, the more Jesus is wanting to go and find them. Do you know, even, it’s funny how, when God shows you something in the Word, you know, the Bible, it says of itself, it’s a living Word. When God shows you something, like I’m saying now, which just recently I’ve seen,

[00:29:23] suddenly other passages keep waving flags at me. There’s something, even in a storyline like the parable Jesus gave about the lost sheep in, I think it’s chapter 15 of Luke, where there’s a lost coin, there’s a lost sheep and a lost son. That chapter is fantastic. But when the person has the lost coin, they go and look for it. When the person has a lost sheep, the shepherd goes and looks for it. But there’s a little detail in that story. See if you can find it when you get home. But in that story, where does the pastor, where does the shepherd leave the present sheep he has? he actually leaves them not in the fold now you’ve got to do a bit of careful reading to work out whether it actually says that but he goes and leaves the sheep they’re probably out on the mountain because they’ve been saved

[00:30:30] and when the time comes they’ll come down and get in the fold but he makes the priority and goes and searches for that lost little lamb until he finds it. So it’s about priorities. And in church life here, what’s the priority that we have? Is it to look after us to see that we are really comfy in our fold? Or should we like Jesus? Yeah, you found it. Are we like Jesus when he’s lost? He doesn’t leave the 99. He does not leave the 99 in the open country. That’s the way that wording it is. Does he not leave? Yes, he does. He leaves the 99 in the open country. He’s not bothering to round them up. He’s out after the one that’s lost. How long? Until he has found it. And he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbours, saying to them, Rejoice with me,

[00:31:46] for I have found my sheep that was lost. To know that Jesus has that emotion, has that sense of understanding and rejoicing when he finds the lost one. And I think there’s something that gets in the heart of a Christian who listens to Jesus and then emulates how it is with him. And it changes your priorities. The priority is not for us to be cosy in our fold. It’s for us to go and to chase the one that is lost. Anyway, I think the Lord laid that again on my heart. It’s an old theme, but it’s from these stories that you find in the Gospel of Luke. Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you for, Lord, the example of Jesus. I thank you for that African guy who came and had a room in our college in Adelaide some years back now. He’d gone back to Tanzania, where he’s from.

[00:32:55] Lord, I praise you for the example of the Scriptures that Jesus had that priority to find the one that was lost. And Lord, would you let that get into us? Instead of us being able to find who are the ones we’ve got responsibility for and stick to them, but Lord, to be open for you to lead us to find those ones that are lost. We ask that in Jesus’ name. Amen.