Luke 17:15–16

0:00 Good evening church. We'll be in Luke 17 verses 15 and 16. You'll find that on the front of your bulletin. You know there are many things in life that you can't do without having done other things prior to that, right? I mean it's just, you could, the list could go on and on about things that are logically necessary to do prior to doing something else. For instance, you can't speak a language if you don't know some of the vocabulary of that language, right? You've got to have the words of the language to be able to communicate. You can't play at a higher level of sports if you don't know the fundamentals. That's why coaches start out at the fundamentals of sports. Well, I was made aware of this and reminded of this recently in kind of a silly way when Corbin was asking me something about some math homework, I think, pre-calc. He used a bunch of language I didn't understand, and I don't even remember most of what I studied in Algebra 2, let alone pre-calc stuff. And, you know, it's already making me feel silly, the things that my kids are learning. Well, that's in many ways true for what we'll see in our passage tonight.

1:01 There's something that our passage is telling us to do, but we can only do it if we've done something else first. You'll know this story. This is a story of lepers who were cleansed and the response of one of them. It's the passage that we read this morning in the middle of our service. There were 10 lepers calling out from a distance as Jesus comes by, and they're pleading for mercy from him, and he speaks to them. He heals them, sends them on their way, but one of them comes back to him. And that's where our passage begins tonight. Luke chapter 17, verses 15 and 16.

1:35 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. And he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. It's a simple story, really. It's profound because of what it's revealing, but it's really pretty simple. This man has been healed. You can imagine him waking up that day of his healing just like he had for days and days, if not years prior to that, without hope because of his situation, and yet being keenly aware that he needed someone to help him.

2:14 And then Jesus comes by and miraculously heals him, and his heart spills over in praise for what Jesus has done. And in all of that, we're to see who we are before the Lord and then how we're to respond to him. It's teaching us. This story is teaching us a critical lesson. And I want us to focus on this the rest of our time together this evening. The main point from this that I think we're to take away is this. That you'll only give thanks if you realize you've been shown mercy first. You'll only give thanks if you understand that you've been shown mercy first.

2:53 And I think that the story presents those two things for us. Our need for mercy and our response of gratitude once we've been shown mercy. And we'll look at it in those ways. So number one, your need for mercy. Well, Luke obviously is giving us this story to teach us something. He intends for us to understand something for it by this. And to do so, we have to see a few things from this text first. This man that was healed was a leper. He's impure. He's probably in pain, and he's in a situation that would have been obvious to all.

3:26 His skin disease would have been something that not only made him ritually unclean and impure, but it probably would have caused him a great deal of pain and would have been something that was clear and obvious to anyone who saw him. He didn't have to wonder if he needed healing. He knew what kind of horrible situation he was in. He could see it. He could literally feel it in his body. And so is a desperate, perhaps maybe even last chance plea in his mind. He cries out from a distance as Jesus walks by and he begs for mercy and for healing.

4:02 And then miraculously, he's cleansed. He's healed. It's an incredible story of the Lord's mercy and power. But then Luke gives us this sort of aha moment. It turns out this man was a Samaritan. the ones despised by the Jews and outside the covenant. This was a man who knew all too well his need for mercy. He wouldn't have had any reason to think he could conceal his physical condition or even who he was as a person.

4:38 He knew he needed healing, and he knew he needed mercy from someone. Well, that's the same for us, isn't it? It's hard for us to see and remember. We often don't like to think of that. But to be healed means you've needed healing from something. It means that you weren't well. It means that you were sick, maybe even desperate, that you couldn't fix your own situation. And you know, this reality is actually closer to the beginning of the gospel.

5:11 Oh sure, we love to speak of the Lord's kindness and his goodness and his love for us. And that's all true and right and even necessary. But those things are made even sweeter when they're contrasted against our need for mercy. You and I are not simply struggling along and sort of needed someone to kind of help us out along the way. You were not even just physically ill with sort of outward manifestations like leprosy, like this leper. You know, it was something far worse than that.

5:43 It was a sickness that was far more insidious. It was a reality that was more condemning, infinitely so. Your sin had put you under a curse that no medicine, that no doctor could touch. Under the weight of your sin prior to Christ, time was not going to make it better. It would not just go away. Every step you took, every day that passed by actually put you closer to the day of your judgment. And even pretending like you didn't care or just trying to go about your life as usual, pretending like it wasn't a thing that bothered you, just didn't help.

6:20 You only found ways to cope for a while. You'd try something to numb it, to help you forget about it, but you knew something was off, something was missing, something was wrong. And those pleasures, after all, were only fleeting. our world our lives our hearts do not simply teach us to reflect on our need for mercy if anything it's the opposite case for all of us we're taught to work hard and that's when you'll get rewarded or if you get knocked down you just get back up again if you're behind in some way well then you try harder you negotiate more wisely you compromise if there's something you need you do everything you can to get it. You put in the time. You scratch the right back. You meet the right person. You go make it happen. There's always a way in our minds to get ourselves closer to what we think we need. Now, friends, this is not how it works with the Lord. All of that

7:21 thinking, all of that thinking that we're taught and that this world sort of catechizes us in only seems to place God in a situation where he's one of our peers. Or if not one of our peers, then maybe he's just a little further down the road and he's sort of the one who can help us out a little bit. He's maybe got a better negotiating position, but not by far. Brothers and sisters, this is not what your sin has done to you. You were not just in a tough spot where it was going to take some time for you to see your way out of it.

7:52 No, your sin had left you with no room to bargain before the Lord because of what you had done to him. Our hearts want us to believe that maybe we have a fighting chance. Maybe we can find a way out of this mess, but we can't. The disgust of the leper's physical situation, the sheer disgust of seeing what was happening to his body He was meant to remind us of an even more putrid and vile disgust of our hearts because of our sin.

8:28 But that's what makes this story so beautiful. It's in that moment when we recognize the disgusting, vile nature of our hearts because of our sin that the Lord shows mercy. That the Lord shows mercy to us. Look, your situation was not like the lepers. It just was not like the lepers. It was actually far worse. You and I were staring down an eternity of God's righteous judgment when he's staring down some temporal ostracizing from the community.

9:06 And yet we've been shown mercy. In Christ, God has loved us and offered us forgiveness of sins. We no longer have to face the torment and the shame and the condemnation that was due to us because Christ has taken that for us. Look, because he conquered death and he rules over it, he now has all authority to grant mercy to sinners like you and me. Look, maybe you're not a Christian and you've come in here with a friend or maybe you've come in here to visit a church.

9:36 That's great. I know people come in off the streets often, come in off the neighborhood often to visit our services. If that's you, I'm so glad that you're here this evening. This, in short, is the gospel message that Christians believe and that this church believes that the Bible teaches clearly that we are in need of mercy because of our sin and that God shows us mercy because of what Christ has done on our behalf. And you, you, friend, by faith, can receive that mercy. We'd encourage you. I'd encourage you.

10:07 Everyone in here who's a Christian would encourage you to believe then in Jesus and to turn to him. then you too would be shown mercy. But this passage isn't just about showing mercy or being shown mercy. Rather, it's about how do we respond to it? What do we do when we're shown mercy? So number two are then our response of gratitude. So what do we do? What do you do when you've been shown mercy? Well, what does the leper do? He's on the way to the priest. As the law commanded him, and as Jesus told him, you guys need to go to the priest.

10:41 But when he realizes he's been healed, what does the text say that he does? He turns back around. Jesus told him to go, but he turns back around. And when he sees that things aren't just, you know, kind of getting better, that maybe his life is looking a little better. No, when he realizes he's been dramatically, miraculously healed, he turns back around and gives thanks to the Lord for his mercy. Look, this is important to note. In the law, the priests were the ones who had a charge given to them to determine, to pronounce, is this person unclean?

11:16 Now, after a certain set of circumstances, how will they become clean? By the priest pronouncing them clean. This is what was understood, that the priest is doing this. But this leper understands, no, no, no, it's not the priest's proclamation. It's not even the law itself that would declare me clean. the source of it, the source of this new cleanness about me is him. It's Jesus. And so he gives thanks to Jesus. Look, friends, recognizing that you need mercy and then recognizing that you've been shown mercy will always lead to you giving thanks.

11:54 Always. It's not a matter of if it should. If you actually know yourself to be a sinner who's been shown great mercy, you will give thanks, just like this leper did. But if we're honest, that's a struggle. That's not what characterizes us at any given moment or at every given moment. And so two things maybe in light of that, two things in light of our struggle to give thanks consistently. Number one, this, look at why you're struggling. Look at why you're struggling with it.

12:29 When you struggle to give thanks or when you see a pattern of ingratitude in your lives, friends, don't just try to overcompensate. I'm not sure that the best answer in those times is, well, just give thanks. You're just kind of telling your heart to give thanks. I think it's maybe actually more fruitful to take a step back and see, why is this the case in my heart? Why is this my heart's response? When you really boil it down to its core, to not thank God for his mercy is actually just another way of saying that God owes you what he gave you by his mercy. Look, it's a reversal of reality.

13:08 You deserve judgment and death, but you've been given pardon and life. And the way that this kind of heart's response works its way out into our lives is probably different for every single one of us. There's a million different ways this can happen, right? You'd be grumbling over your circumstances. Maybe it's jealousy over others' successes and happinesses and joys that you don't have. Maybe it's apathy in your own pursuit of holiness. Maybe it's a refusal to see the blessings that the Lord has so clearly given you of health and of friendships and of other relationships or a family or a church that cares for you by teaching you God's word week in and week out.

13:52 Is it possible, friend, that you aren't filled with gratitude and instead you're marked by these types of things because you've slowly started to believe that God owes you his mercy? No, friends, be careful that that doesn't describe you. When you see those types of things pop up into your heart. Don't simply just try to bat them away. The answer for that is to stare at the mercy of the Lord. Remember that you were a sinner in need of mercy, just like this leper. And the Lord Jesus has shown you infinite mercy and infinite love. Remember, the leper doesn't come back to Jesus after being healed from leprosy and sort of in the middle of bowing down before the Lord, say, oh, and by the way, can you make my social standing better as well? Can you give me other blessings as well. And when he recognizes that the Lord has shown him mercy, any mercy at all, but this kind of miraculous mercy, of course, his heart gives thanks. Friends, don't be ungrateful.

14:56 Remember the mercy the Lord has shown you. But number two, another thing to help us with this is if maybe this isn't your struggle right now, or maybe you remember the Lord's mercy and you're keenly aware of that, but maybe instead you don't thank the Lord often or you don't thank the Lord openly, then the second thing you need to be reminded of is to do that very thing, to give thanks often, to give thanks openly. Calvin says this, that we have short memories in magnifying God's grace. And by that, he simply means that if you don't do it now, you are not going to do it later. You're not going to remember it later tonight and certainly tomorrow. Friends, it's a humbling thing to admit that you're someone in need of mercy. But it's a very humbling thing to call out those instances when the Lord's shown you mercy if it's going to point everyone around you back to the very fact that you were one in need of mercy in the first place. But do it. Give thanks in that moment. Give thanks when you see the Lord's mercy. This could be done in a thousand

16:01 different ways in your life, right? But I can imagine for those of you who live with others, whether it's roommates or those of you who are parents and you have children in the house, the most obvious way to do that is going to be with those with whom you live. When you see a way that the Lord has shown you mercy, call it out then. Maybe that looks like a simple, quick prayer. Maybe that looks like calling and recalling those mercies of the Lord around family dinner together. Maybe it's during family worship. Maybe it's simply as you meet a friend the next day, whatever.

16:32 Be people who are quick to thank the Lord and to do so openly. Friends, when you see the Lord's mercy in your life, don't forget it. Don't simply kind of chalk it up as, of course he did this for me. No, give thanks for it. That's what this is teaching us. But we can only give thanks when we first understand that we are people who have been shown mercy. Friends, remember the mercy that the Lord has shown you and give thanks for it tonight.

17:04 Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you that in the gospel, you've given us the most incredible display of your mercy and your love for us. We are a people who are far worse off than the leper in this story, and yet you have loved us and you've healed us spiritually. Oh God, we pray that you would make us thankful people. We pray that you would make our hearts quick and ready to give you praise. We pray that you would give us opportunities to then even speak of your goodness and your mercy to us, to those around us who don't yet know that mercy, and that you would save them through that.

17:40 God, thank you for your word tonight. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.