Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Prayer Meeting Lesson Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/pm/pm20100106.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Luke: Jesus, The Son Of Man For All Mankind
Part LIX: Christ's Identity As God's Savior Seen In His Teaching On Gratitude
(Luke 17:11-19)
  1. Introduction
    1. A perfectly righteous God Who is holy, or, totally separate from sin, must minister to sinful man's spiritual and other human needs based entirely on His unmerited favor , on His grace.
    2. That being so, we should expect God's Son and Savior sent into the world to express the need for man to thank God for His bountifully gracious goodness unto him.
    3. Jesus indeed expressed this need on sinful man's part in Luke 17:11-19, and we view it for our edification:
  2. Christ's Identity As God's Savior Seen In His Teaching On Gratitude, Luke 17:11-19.
    1. Luke 17:11 NIV reveals the event that occurred in Luke 17:12-19 occurred as Jesus made a trek to Jerusalem by going along the border of Galilee and Samaria. He evidently planned on interacting with the men in Luke 17:12-19, one of whom was a Samaritan, in an intentional rendezvous to make a point!
    2. As He entered a certain village, ten lepers encountered him, keeping their distance as ceremonially unclean men, and they cried out, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us," Luke 17:12-13.
    3. Since these men had called out to Jesus from a distance, He answered them from a distance, telling them to go and show themselves unto the priests, Luke 17:14a. This command fit the requirements of the Mosaic Law for lepers who were cleansed from their disease, for they had to see the priests to be examined and proclaimed free of their disease before being reintroduced to society, cf. Leviticus 14:1-57.
    4. Essentially, Jesus was implying that if they wished to be healed by Him, they had to trust that such a healing would occur in their going to the priest, that they would literally step out in faith in starting to walk to the priest so that they would be healed by the time they arrived there!
    5. These ten lepers started to obey the Lord, and, sure enough, as they did, they were cleansed, Luke 17:14b!
    6. One of the men turned back, and with a loud voice, glorified the Lord Jesus, and came and fell down at His feet with his face to the ground to give Him thanksgiving, Luke 17:15-16a.
    7. Remarkably, this man was a despised Samaritan who APPRECIATED Christ's unmerited favor, Luke 17:16b. In view of the history of the Samaritans, Christ's grace would be seen here as huge (as follows):
      1. The Samaritans were part Jewish and part Gentile, the product of unbiblical intermarriage in violation of Deuteronomy 7:1-4 when the Assyrians brought in people to intermarry with Jews who were left in the land after the fall of the Northern Kingdom, Ryrie St. Bible, KJV, 1978 ed., ftn. to 2 Kings 17:24.
      2. Since this mixed multitude did not revere the Lord, God brought lions into their land to afflict them, so the Assyrian king sent back to them a Jewish priest in Assyrian captivity to teach them the way of Israel's God so that He would cease punishing them with lions, 2 Kings 17:25-28.
      3. However, these people mixed pagan idolatry with belief in Israel's God (2 Kings 17:29, 41), becoming syncretistic apostates, and Jews returning to Israel after the captivity separated from them, John 4:9b.
      4. Thus, for Jesus to heal a Samaritan leper who, even cleansed from his disease, would have been despised as an apostate by the Jewish priest to whom he was to show himself, would have been seen as a work of enormous divine GRACE!
    8. Jesus accepted this cleansed Samaritan's gratitude, but He also asked where the other nine Jewish healed lepers were who should equally have thanked Him for their healing, Luke 17:17-18! This statement shows that all men, not only the Samaritans Jesus helped and whom everyone would have felt were recipients of God's unmerited favor, but even Jewish saved sinners, owe God thanks for His grace!
    9. Regardless of the lack of gratitude in the Jewish cleansed lepers, Jesus told this Samaritan that his faith had made him whole, showing God's grace worked through faith even in despised Samaritans, Lk. 17:19!
Lesson: Jesus revealed He was a perfectly righteous, holy God's Son and Savior for the world by his statement that ALL saved men OWE God THANKSGIVING for His UNMERITED FAVOR!

Application: (1) May we believe Jesus is a perfectly righteous, holy God's Son and Savior. (2) May we thank the Lord for His grace unto us in so many ways, for that is our duty as the people He has saved!