Isn't that just like the Lord, so very much like Jesus? This is Larry Jones. You are listening to the Grace and Glory Hour of the Dyer Baptist Church with our co-pastors David M. Atkinson and Dr. Lee Atkinson. We are coming to you from Dyer, Indiana. Our prayer is that you will be strengthened by the Word today. Now, here is our pastor. The poem is called Myopia. myopia, which of course means short-sightedness. Short-sightedness. I said, oh Lord, no irritant. He said, no precious pearl. I said, no pressure heavy. He said, no diamond swirl. I said, no heat, no fainting. He said, no sunset glow. I said, no trouble problems. He said, no power, no. I said, no storms or billows. He said, no, it is well. I said, no weakness, failure. He said, no grace to tell. He whispered then the secret in my slow, despising ear. I'm always sending rainbows, though often through a tear. I want to present a caveat at this point, so that you'll understand where I'm coming from. I am decidedly pro-Israel. I am pro-Israel and I am pro-Hebrew. I am so pro-Jew that a liberal Reform Jewess, also a newspaper reporter who came to have somewhat of a regard for my life. I don't know why, but somehow, after the first newspaper article, she would make up excuses about every six months to come back and interview me on a different aspect of ministry. But this liberal reform Jewess, Adele Kirzner, was so liberal that she believed in reincarnation. They're very broad in their doctrine. It's all mixed up because they do not want to bow before Messiah, and a blindness in part has come, and they're all mixed up. So, Adele Kirzner believes in reincarnation, and she said to me when she was interviewing me one day, you were a Jewish rabbi in your previous life. And she said, and I would attend your church if you'd cut out this Jesus stuff. So I'm very pro-Jew, and I want you to keep that in mind as we get into the sermon. Turn, please, to Luke 17. Luke 17. Luke 17, 11. Could we stand for the reading of Scripture, if you're physically able? Luke 17, 11. And it came to pass as Jesus went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off. And they lifted up their voices and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go, show yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass that as they went, they were cleansed. Please note that they were healed on the path of obedience. They were healed after they started down the path of obedience. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at his feet, giving him Jesus' thanks. And he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? There are not found that return to give glory to God, save this stranger. And he said unto him, arise, go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. This dear man received both physical healing and spiritual healing this day. Would you please be seated? My text is verse 16b, 16b, giving him, or Jesus, thanks. And with your prayerful attention, I will preach on the subject, the 10th leper, the 10th leper. Our English word thanksgiving is our translation of the noun, Eucharistia. which refers to a good and praiseful response to undeserved grace. Thanksgiving is a good and praiseful response to undeserved grace. As far back in Luke, as Luke 9, 51. The Lord Jesus has begun his last journey to Jerusalem, the journey that will take him to an ugly and splintered cross outside the wall of the Old City. There Jesus will shed his blood, to purchase forgiveness of sin for everyone who will turn from sin as an habitual lifestyle and trust or depend only on the merit of his shed blood. Jesus is in the borderland. He's in the borderland area between Galilee in the north and Samaria which thoughtlessly and rudely inserted itself between Jewish Galilee in the north and Jewish Judea to the south. Samaria sat between the two pure-blooded Jewish provinces like a wedge of deliberate antagonism and inconvenience. Samaria was the inconvenient wedge between Galilee in the north and Judea in the south. It is Dr. Luke, very probably the only Gentile human author of the entire New Testament, whom the Holy Spirit uses to record the account of this fifth last miracle. It's miracle number 31 out of the 35 miracles Jesus performed in the three and a half years of his public ministry. It's the Gentile Dr. Luke who records miracle number 31. Now, this is not the only time God uses this minority writer to register our Lord's attitude toward the most obvious minority group in the Jewish frame of reference. In Luke 9, 54, James and John, the Jewish sons of thunder had suggested that the best thing to do with unreceptive Samaritans was to just burn them up on the spot. That'll take care of the whole problem. Jesus rebuked the two militants, saying, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of Man has not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them." Luke 9, 55 and 56. The Holy Spirit directs Dr. Luke to record verbatim one of our Lord's ruling life principles. The life principle is this, Evangelistic compassion trumps an insult every time. And Jesus lived by that life principle. Evangelistic compassion trumps an insult every time. If you're insulted, you just go ahead and try to evangelize anyhow. Evangelism is the priority. However, in order to keep our perspective in balance, We must also remember that Dr. Luke was no partisan Gentile either. He was a close companion and helper to the Jewish Apostle Paul. And he was with Paul at the time of his martyrdom. And so Luke was no partisan Gentile either. He worked so closely with the Jewish Paul. The fact that Luke, as a Gentile, helped the Jewish Paul to take the gospel to the Gentiles must have brought a great joy and sense of purpose or mission to the Gentile Dr. Luke. I get to go to my own people and I get to be partner with a Jew. so we can more fully appreciate the chemistry that is the backstory of both this miracle and its accompanying lessons for our life today. We must look briefly at the history of Samaria and her dealings, or rather lack of dealings, with the Jews of Galilee to the north and Judea to the south. In 721 BC, King Sargon of Assyria destroyed Samaria, the capital of Israel's northern kingdom. Sargon took the people away to Assyria and imported foreigners into that same parcel of land to live. Over the course of time, these foreigners that were imported intermarried with the few Jewish people who were left, producing what would be called a mixed race. These people became known as Samaritans or Kuthim. The region in which they lived was called Samaria. The Jewish people hated these mixed people. and usually tried to avoid traveling through their territory. Now, a traveler had two options if he needed to go from Galilee in the north to Judea and Jerusalem in the south. A traveler could take the essentially straight line, direct route along the high ridge, and the trip would take three days. Or, if the adrenaline of sectarianism was running high when he made his choice, he'd get off to take the indirect route that led first east across the northern section of the Jordan River, then south through Perea, and then back southwest across the Jordan River again near Jericho, and finally on down to Jerusalem. this version of the old cross-the-street-so-you-don't-have-to-make-your-enemy game was 35 miles longer and took two days more. So that was your choice, the three-day option or the sectarian five-day option. But at least if you took the five-day option, you got to make your point. With this bit of history and social commentary in mind, we return to the narrative in Luke 17. The time was approaching when Jesus would enter Jerusalem for his last week before the crucifixion. Jesus and the pilgrims that traveled with him took the direct High Ridge Road. It says he went through the midst. He took the middle, the direct. High Ridge Road. He took the high road in more ways than one. Am I a high road person? When it comes to interacting with persons that are not exactly as I am. Am I a high road person? It's impossible to determine exactly which village is intended here in verse 12a. Possible villages include the Capricotnai, Agrippina, and the Sithopolis. As Jesus enters the village here in verse 12, he's met by ten lepers, nine of them, as the account will reveal are Jews. One is a Samaritan. Now you may say, but I thought the Jews had no dealings or contact with the Samaritans. And that is exactly what I would think, too. But a Puritan once said, sorrow shall make us kin. Sorrow drops barriers about as quick as anything that I know. Sorrow can take the hoity-toity and the starch out of our britches as soon as anything else I know. Charles Spurgeon adds, misery has strange bedfellows. And so the nine lepers of the seed of Israel consorted with an outcast Samaritan. People who have been alienated will come together to weep and to miserate. A common sorrow, the leprosy, made these disparate men kin. Leprosy was one of the most feared diseases of the ancient world. The disease itself was frightening, but the Israelites added an even more terrifying note, the note of absolute isolation, absolute quarantine. A leper among the Jews could not live among family and friends, but had to go away to live by himself. or live in the leper colony. Leprosy came in two types. The tuberculoid type sometimes, sometimes went away by itself. But the lepromatous leprosy spread rapidly, with swellings appearing. And in time, The hands and feet became deformed. Digits would fall off. The ends of the fingers would fall off, and the ends of the toes could fall off. The bones deteriorated. The nerves were destroyed. The leper in Bible times faced a tragic future, for there was no known cure. He was condemned to be an outcast. and suffer alone. The Old Testament gives detailed regulations for the ceremonial cleansing of diseases such as leprosy. Leviticus 14. The offerings that had to be brought included live, clean birds, one to be killed over fresh water in a clay pot, the other dipped in its blood. On the eighth day, two male lambs and a yoke, flour and oil, were taken to the temple to the priest. The ceremonies for the diagnosis of a clean bill of health could be performed by any local priest, not just the priest in Jerusalem. Now, with this background, let's move to some of the practical applications of this account. Look at verse 11b. He, Jesus, passed through the midst. Not around, he passed through the midst of Samaria. He went directly through. We're not even allowed to get past the 18th word in the passage. until we're brought face to face with the elephant in the room. The elephant in the room is the subject that no one wants to talk about. We prefer to pretend that it's not there. The elephant in this case is the spirit of sectarianism. The elephant in this room is the spirit of sectarianism. Our first practical application is this. The tenth leper had the opportunity to thank Jesus, because Jesus is a John 3 16 Jesus. I regret that my points are so long, they're hard to record. I regret that I've not yet mastered this four alliterated words thing. You pray for me. You pray for me that I will mature and master these four alliterated words thing. The 10th leper had the opportunity to thank Jesus because Jesus is a John 3, 16 Jesus. Jesus was not sectarian. John 3, 16 reads, for God so loved the world, including Samaritans, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Whosoever in the Greek means whosoever. Jews, Samaritans, Creoles, mulattoes, gypsies, whosoever. What is sectarianism? Sectarianism is a spirit of disaffection, animosity, and superiority. Jesus did not participate in the sin of sinners, but he was not slavish or sectarian. I was reared in Canada. Canada was very good to me. My brother and nephew still live there. I love Canada. I owe a lot to Canada. However, The spirit of rivalry, alienation, and disaffection between English-speaking Canada and French-speaking Canada grieves me. And when the St. Clairs go to Montreal to study French, they're going to experience firsthand the animosity between English-speaking Canada and French-speaking Canada. It's all over the place up home. Now there are, of course, as in all cases of sectarianism, historical roots to the breach. But historical roots notwithstanding, these sectarian breaches always make me sad. As for me personally, you know, I'm maturing so much as a Christian, And I'm so close to being always on the victory side that I'm sure I'm well on my way to total victory over the spirit of sectarianism. I'm just as close. And I'm so close to being free from the spirit of sectarianism that that's why I view Chicago very much like Jonah viewed Nineveh. I need to work. on my tendencies toward sectarianism. The spirit of superiority and partisanship comes with the turf of human depravity. And just about the time we think we've conquered all forms of sectarianism, it rears its ugly head in a slightly different mode. The tenth had an opportunity to give thanks because Jesus was not sectarian. He loved Samaritans. He made a Samaritan the hero of his good Samaritan illustration of neighborliness. And he made a Jewish priest and a Jewish Levite the villains. while the Samaritan interrupts his schedule to love the wounded Jew and pick up the tab. And yes, the illustration of the good Samaritan is recorded only by the Gentile, Dr. Luke. Edwin Markham wrote, he drew a circle that shut me out. ugly rebel, a thing to flout. But love and I had the wit to win. We drew a circle that took him in. Will people have an opportunity to thank me because I've become more like Jesus, less sectarian? Or will I forfeit some expressions of thanks I could have received because I have a standoffish, better-than-them spirit. We must move on to the second practical application of the passage, verse 12. There met Jesus ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off. The ten did not stand far off aloof because they wanted to. Ostracization and separation were demanded by the law. They had no choice. They called from a distance. They had to. Charles Ryrie writes, the plight of the leper was pitiable. He exhibited signs of mourning by the tearing of his clothes. He had to do this by law. He further exhibited signs of mourning by having his hair disheveled and covering the lower part of his face by throwing part of his garment over it. Furthermore, by law, he was required to warn people of his approach by crying, Unclean! Unclean! Don't let me get near you! Leviticus 13.45 The leper, the leper himself, was held responsible for keeping himself isolated from others. You talk about adding insult to injury. Keep away from me! I am sick! Try to imagine the loneliness, the hopelessness, and the bitterness of eating out a living death in this self-perpetuated no-man's land where you don't belong anywhere except with other dying ones. Consider the devastation and heartbrokenness that would have gradually fallen like the darkest midnight upon the leper's soul when he finally faced the fact that his children would not be coming to the perimeter of the leper colony to wail at him anymore because they just could not stand the sight any longer. There came that first day when they didn't come. the way that Papa anymore. This makes the second practical application for us. The tenth leper thanked Jesus because Jesus closed the gap and removed the separation between the formerly unclean and the now clean. Leprosy with its decay and rot and alienation is a picture of sin. Every believer ought to thank Jesus because he shed blood, blood that can purchase forgiveness of sin and make the foulness clean. His blood speaks better things than the blood of Abel, so that the cry is no longer, unclean, unclean, stay away! But rather the cry is now, let us draw near, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Hebrews 10, 22. The 10th leper thanked Jesus because Jesus said, you don't have to stand far off anymore, draw near, draw near. Let's come now to the 13th verse, 13a. And the 10 lepers lifted up their voices. In the Greek, the phrase lifted up their voices is erophone, The tenth leper and the other nine literally raised or exalted, that's the other verb, they raised or exalted the volume of their voices to get the attention of our Lord. I know some of you are thinking, well, it's plain to see that that preacher up there this morning learned from these lepers. He knows how to lift up his voice. The same phrase, lifted up, the same phrase in Revelation 6-1 is translated, noise. They were desperate enough to get noisy. Now don't get nervous, I didn't become charismatic overnight. The third practical application is this. The tenth leper had the joy of thanking Jesus because he was humble enough to let everybody hear that he had a need. He did not care who heard. He lifted up his voice. He got noisy about it. My father used to say, man's extremity is God's opportunity. I will express it another way. Man's desperation is God's anticipation. The self-humiliation came before the thanksgiving. If you're unthankful, it's because you're proud and you haven't humbled yourself. You still think you're pretty hot stuff. The self-humiliation, making a noise, came before the Thanksgiving. Jesus is always listening for the bleating of the lost sheep. He always smiles upon sincere demonstrations of desperation. His ears tune out, self-confident bravado, but his ears tune in the self-emptied plea of the inadequate man. These men knew that they were inadequate, and they raised their voices in expressing their acknowledgment of inadequacy. Our decadent culture approves of our becoming intense about everything and everyone except God. And, you know, I have the thing about this. It's a burr under my saddle that North American culture can get loud about anything or anyone but God. Western society, generally speaking, likes loud sports. And, oh my soul, loud politics. loud movies, loud music, and loud video games. But the sane Western society very quickly gets nervous and uncomfortable if a man raises his voice and says, Jesus, Master, have mercy on me. There's room for all the other loudness, but not for the intense noise. about the human need. The tenth leper had the joy of thanking Jesus because he was humble enough to let everybody know he had an aid. Let us come to the fourth practical application, verse 13b. They lifted up their voices and said, Jesus, Master, the tenth leper experienced the joy of thanksgiving because he called on the right person. He experienced the joy of thanksgiving because he called on the right person. Now, I have sincerely tried to read this verse another way, but plain English refuses to let me read this verse any other way. This is the fact! Though we may never know how it came about, the tenth and the other nine called Jesus by name. On the spot! There's no indication that there was an introduction. They said, Jesus Master! They recognized Him. They knew who He was. and they more specifically identified or designated him as Jesus Master or Jesus Rabbi, Jesus Teacher. It's a good exercise for both our brain and our spirit if we invest at least a few minutes in considering the how question. How did the 10 lepers know it was Jesus? How did they recognize him? Had the lepers heard a description of Jesus from others? Had they seen him before? Had they seen him, perhaps, before they got diseased? The New Testament record does not claim to be an exhaustive account of every time Jesus went somewhere. And I know that the record does not claim to be an account of every time Jesus went somewhere. Having said that, if I am understanding the Bible correctly, and I spent a lot of time in the Concordance looking up Samaria, Samaritan, Samaritans, As near as I can discern, the chronology of our Lord's recorded life yields only two occasions other than this one in Luke 17, when our Lord actually interacted with Samaritans. I'm not including the times when he made kind references to Samaritans in his illustration. I'm only referencing the times when Jesus had personal, in the flesh, contact with the Samaritans. The first occasion, as I'm sure many of you remember, is recorded in John 4. Very early in his public ministry, Perhaps as early as sometime in the first six months of his public ministry, Jesus graciously confronted the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well in Sychar, after deliberately choosing to take the less respectable and the direct route, because he must needs go through Samaria. He must needs go through Samaria so he can witness to a Samaritan woman and the man. Now, because the Samaritan woman incident happened very early in our Lord's ministry, by this point, when he's on his way, his last trip to Jerusalem before he dies, because of that chronology, some two and a half to three years have elapsed. since that evangelistic harvest at Sychar. And then the second occasion when Jesus had had personal contact with Samaritans was at the very beginning of this, his last journey to Jerusalem. I made slight reference to it earlier. Luke 9, 52 and 53 record the other side of this sad sectarian feud when it tells us that the Samaritans in the village did not receive Jesus. That's the other side of the coin. They, as he started his last journey, did not receive Jesus. Why? Because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. I'm not saying that it was because he looked like a Hebrew, that may be part of it, but there was something about his countenance, his persona, and his declared travel plan that had destination Jerusalem written on it, and therefore he was not welcome in that equally proud and equally sectarian Samaritan village. Now, as most of Luke chapters 9 to 17, and you check it out if you have a red letter edition when you get home, most of the time in Luke chapters 9 to 17, he's taken up with the contents of our Lord's various teachings and messages along the route to Jerusalem. We can determine that only a few days, perhaps a couple of weeks, elapsed between the hour when he was rejected by some Samaritans in Luke 9 and the hour when he healed another Samaritan, the tenth leper, here in Luke 17. I know it looks like a long time, but just look at all the space taken up in his teachings and his preachings and his lessons along the way. only a few days, perhaps a couple of weeks at the most, had elapsed between the time when a certain Samaritan village rejected him and when he turned around and healed another Samaritan. What's my point? My point is that it is unlikely I say unlikely. I cannot prove it, but I say it's unlikely that the tenth leper was from the Samaritan village that had just rejected Jesus a few days before. If that were the case, that leper could have cried for Jesus to heal him back then, just a few days before, because he would already have had the leprosy. This leaves us with only one other known place where the tenth leper could have met Jesus or heard enough about him, by word of mouth perhaps, to recognize him and call him by name. I've had certain instances where I have heard enough about a person that when I walk into a room or auditorium, I look and I know who that person is, even though I've never met him personally before. Yes, this only remaining option would be Sycar. the Sychar evangelistic meeting of approximately two and a half to three years before. Can't prove it, but it's interesting to think about it. As the whole of Samaria is only 40 miles north to south by 35 miles east to west, it's quite possible that this tenth leper the Samaritan one, instantly recognized Jesus Master, Jesus Rabbi, as either a direct or indirect result of the Sychar awakening. He knew who he was. He could call him by name with no recorded introduction. And so, our fifth practical application telescopes out of the fourth, as I move toward the conclusion. Here's the fifth practical application. The tenth leper got to thank Jesus because somebody, somewhere, sometime, told him enough about Jesus so that he could instantly recognize Him. Will anyone ever thank Jesus because I tell him or her enough about Jesus that he or she can instantly recognize Jesus? And how about you? Will anyone ever get to thank Jesus because you tell him enough about Jesus that he can quickly recognize Jesus when he realizes that he has a need? I want to mention one last application. This tenth leper got to thank Jesus because he put the spirit of the law ahead of the letter of the law. Time does not permit me to go into Corinthians where Paul said that the letter of the law killeth but the spirit of the law gives life. The other nine ran off to bow before the letter of the law. The tenth instantly fulfilled the spirit of the law and turned back to thank his healer. The law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. Sometimes, sometimes if we're not careful, we Baptists are great experts on the letter of the law. We have our Baptist orders of service and our Baptist way of doing things. And I don't have to remind you that I was not raised Baptist. I'm a Baptist by conviction, but we have our Baptist rituals. And we'd rather run off! and get the lambs ready, and get the flour and the oil ready, then we would first bow the knee and praise God. In many cases, our churches get stiff and starchy, and the spirit of thanksgiving leaves our fellowships. All the while, we're quite convinced that we're kosher with respect to the letter of the law. Now, I am convinced that the tenth leper did go to the priest after perhaps about a half hour thanking Jesus. And much of the time in the posture of thanksgiving, it says on his face. I'm convinced he did go to the priest. But it may be that when he got there to the priest, one of the other insensitive lepers said, where you been? What took you so long? Where you been? And I think that just perhaps that tenth leper might have said quietly, I think the better question is, where have you been? I heard about the Sychar meeting. And back there, he said, I have meat to eat that you know not of. And I've just been eating a little food of thanksgiving at the feet of Jesus. Thank you for joining us today. We'd love to hear from you. Our email address is GraceGlory7 at Juno.com. GraceGlory7 at Juno.com. Pastor David M. Atkinson also has a ministry on Facebook and invites you to connect with him there. Now, until the next time, remember to walk softly with the Lord.