The Ungrateful Nine

Rev. Andrew Hunt, III

Sermon • Submitted 5 years ago

Luke 17:11–21

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The Ungrateful Nine

The Ungrateful nine

On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices, saying, “ Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” When he saw them he said to them, “Go and “show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. 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. Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?”And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”

Where are the nine?

Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?”

And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”

Question: "What is divine healing?" Answer: Divine healing involves a supernatural act, which resolves a physical, emotional or spiritual problem. In a Christian context, the supernatural element is God, many times through the agency of the Holy Spirit. Non-Christian Views on Divine Healing Most of the major world religions believe in some sort of supernatural healing. Islam uses Ruqya(incantations) to cure disease by countering black magic and casting out Jinn Jinn are any class of spirits, lower than the angels, capable to appearing in human and animal forms and influencing humankind for either good or evil. Tibetan Buddhists employ Rig-pa, which includes elements of medicine, mantra and meditation. Those who hold to modern pantheism, such as New Age philosophy or cosmic humanism, use a wide variety of techniques from ancient religions and the occult. The constant among all of these views of divine healing is the necessity of ritual. Healing, in the non-Christian religion’s view, requires a physical ritual to coerce a deity into action or to manipulate an impersonal healing force. New Testament Divine Healing Approximately one fifth of the Gospel narrative is devoted to Jesus’ healing ministry. At the start of His ministry, Jesus “went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people” (). Later, when Jesus sent His twelve disciples out to preach the gospel, He gave them authority to heal the sick (). After Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, the apostles continued healing many (). Acts records a number of healings by Peter, John, and Paul (19:12; 28:8-9). Christian Divine Healing Today Concerning divine healing today, there are a couple different schools of thought. Some Christians believe the gift of healing () ceased along with the sign gift of tongues. This position is called cessationism. Other Christians believe all of the sign gifts are still in use today. While we take the cessationist view, we do believe that God is still “the LORD who heals” (). He has not lost His ability to heal, and His love for His people has not diminished. Divine healing may come through traditional medicine or through direct intervention by God in response to prayer. Or, if God wills, wholeness may not come until the ultimate healing in heaven. God is the Great Physician, and all healing, physical, emotional, and spiritual, belongs to Him.

Christ Jesus being committed to our salvation and obedient to all that His Father had sent Him to do sets his face to go to Jerusalem; for in Jerusalem He will find pain, suffering, and also death, but we will receive healing, redemption, forgiveness, and saving faith.

But these lepers to whom He ministered to there do not receive him, they reject Him and showed no regard for Him. The lepers accepted the gift of healing by faith but rejected the message of the cross, the gospel, and the messenger. They were ungrateful and did not honor God as someone to be worshiped.

(1) How many of us in this sanctuary did not receive the message of the cross when it was first offered to us?

(2) How many of us rejected Christ Jesus because the cost to follow Him is too high?

(3) How many of us still do not regard Him as the Savior of the World and the only remedy that can grant us complete healing physically.

(4) How many of us have yet to accepted Jesus for our most important healing, which is spiritual?

(5) How many of us could be counted among the ungrateful nine?

"What does the Bible say about ingratitude/unthankfulness?" Answer: The Bible says much about gratitude as well as the lack of it. God knows how we are made, and He designed us to thrive when we are humble, moral, and thankful.

When we are arrogant, immoral, and ungrateful, we cannot have fellowship with Him, nor can we experience all it means to be created in the image of God. So God included repeated commands in His Word about being thankful, reminding us that a grateful heart is a happy heart (; ; ). Ingratitude, which is ungratfulness, is a sin with severe repercussions. gives a detailed description of the downfall of a person or a society. Listed alongside idolatry, homosexuality, and every kind of rebellion is ingratitude.

Verse 21 says, “Although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him.” This tells us that God takes gratefulness—and ungratefulness—seriously. As long as a person or a culture remains thankful to God, they retain sensitivity to His presence. Thankfulness toward God requires a belief in God at the very least, and ingratitude fails to fulfill our responsibility to acknowledge. When we refuse to be thankful or to express gratitude, we grow hard-hearted and proud. We take for granted all God has given us and become our own gods. Jesus’ healing of the ten lepers gives an example of how highly God values thankfulness. Jesus healed all ten men, but only one returned to thank Him (verse 15). The Bible specifically records that the thankful leper was not even a Jew. He was a Samaritan, a fact that drove home the idea that Jews were not the only people who could reach the heart of God. The Lord notices those who thank Him, regardless of socio-political status or level of spirituality. His questions “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?” (verse 17) show His disappointment at the ingratitude of the majority. describes what people will be like in the last days, and one characteristic is ingratitude.

, [2] For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, [3] heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, [4] treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, [5] having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. [6] For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, [7] always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.”

When pride and self-rule become fashionable, the human heart has no one to thank. We become convinced of our own supremacy and consider all we have as a just reward for our efforts.

We are wise to heed Paul’s rhetorical questions “What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?” (). Ingratitude toward God is not so much a cause of evil but the result of it. Once we have hardened our hearts to the point that we no longer see God as the source of our gifts, nothing is off-limits. We become a law unto ourselves. One reason the Bible takes such a strong stance against ungratefulness may be that God knows that the end result of such arrogance is a reprobate mind (). When we remind ourselves often that all we are and all we have is a gift from God (), we are guarding ourselves against idolatry and pride.

Let us pray…

Our text this morning teaches us that Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem, he was passing along between the boarders of Samaria and Galilee. Jesus entered a village, on the outskirts of town; there ten lepers, who stood at a distance, and met him.

Leprosy was a term for a severe skin disease, which was highly contagious. Leprosy would manifests itself not only in humans but also in their clothes, other personal articles, and even in the walls of houses.

Basic symptoms of a leprous disease are given in (the hair in the diseased area would turned white and the disease would appear to be deeper than the skin of their bodies). People who had such an ailment would have to present themselves to the priest and he would pronounce if ailment were leprosy or another skin ailment. By this means, the priest makes the status of uncleanness official. If the person was found to be unclean then they must dwell outside the camp.

This pronouncement required such persons to live outside the camp until they are free of their disease (), and to present a sacrifice as part of a cleansing ceremony (14:1–32).

We should not confuse this kind of “uncleanness” with being “under God’s condemnation,” nor even with “excluded these people from the love of the community.”

The purpose of this law is to prevent what is unclean from coming into contact with what is holy (a contact that would be dangerous for the unclean person and for the whole community).

These persons had a severe, chronic skin condition; their raw flesh was oozing, red, and contagious. Their condition was easily recognizable, and therefore quarantine was mandated.

Look at , “The leprous person who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean.’ He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease. He is unclean. He shall live alone. His dwelling shall be outside the camp.”

But take notice of our text here, instead of crying out, unclean, unclean, Luke tells us that they lifted up their voices, saying Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” For me this begs the question, why the change in protocol? (1) Why do they now say, “have mercy on us” versus saying unclean, unclean?

(2) And why do they address Jesus as Master? It is evident to me that all of them possessed some measure of faith, maybe an infantile faith but a faith, not only because they implore Christ for His immediate assistance, but also most importantly because they called Him Master.

We know from the Scriptures that only the followers of Jesus ever called Him, Master, all strangers and inquires called Him teacher. Look at the reaction of Jesus towards these men; Jesus does not deny their follow ship of Him nor challenge their degree of faith. Because earlier in this same passage Jesus taught us that if you only have faith the size of a mustard size you could move a mulberry tree. Jesus says to them, Go and “show yourselves to the priests.” Does this not show that Jesus honored their measure of faith as well, that although they understood that their filthy scabs still remained in their flesh, they reacted immediate to the word of God and went in faith to show their selves to the priests for the purpose of attesting to the miracle healing Jesus had performed.

Faith is a grace, which allows for a measure of degrees.

Faith does not come to full strength and perfection as soon as the Holy Ghost plants it in the heart. There are those with little faith and great faith. There are those whose have a weak faith and strong faith, there are those whose posses an “if” faith and a “though” faith. The more faith a Christian has, the more happy, holy, and helpful they we be. To promote the growth and progress of faith should be the daily prayer and endeavor of all who live this Christian life. Because of they faith look what happens here in 17:14b.

All received mercy and were healed!

, “… And as they went they were cleansed.”

All nine were cleansed, but only one was saved! But pastor, you just told us that all them had faith, yes I did, but I did not tell you it was a saving faith. Christ displayed His divine healing though the sheer power of His word, He did not touch them, He just spoke His word of healing upon them and in their self-centerness and obedience to His word of healing was preformed. But they only had a transitory faith, which was like a living root and produced nothing more that, it produced the blade not the full ear of corn. I told you earlier that faith comes in measures.

, “And he said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear: with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you. For to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

In verse 24 the word measure refers to the attitude with which the word of Jesus is being received in your heart.

Faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God. If the hearer embraces Jesus’ message of the kingdom in a rich and profound way, then still more understanding will be added to them—“Pay attention to what you hear: with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you” This means, God will take up residence in your hearts and give increased understanding and blessing, both in this age and in the age to come. The paradox is seen in verse 25 in this verse Mark reinforces the point in the previous one: the person who welcomes God’s rule and presence will be given more of God’s intended fruit; but the one who depends on his own resources without receiving the word (the one who has not) will lose even that which they have (what he has will be taken away). Verses 4:26–29 As the farmer sleeps and rises, the fruit grows by itself, Faith grows “automatically,” “by itself”; without human effort).

Fruit for God’s kingdom grows from soil that is hospitable to his Word. First the blade, then the ear grows, goes against the popular expectation at the time of Jesus that God’s kingdom would come suddenly and all at once. Jesus teaches that the messianic rule of God commences inconspicuously, grows slowly but steadily in the midst of much adversity, and reaches its glorious culmination point at the second coming of Jesus.

You see nine of these lepers had a transitory faith. A transitory faith is a faith that is not lasting, not enduring, not permanent, and is not eternal. It lasts only a short period of time, it is temporary and relies on circumstances.

But the one who returned to give Jesus thanks had a transformative faith, he had been healed physical and spiritually.

How much more valuable is a transformative faith that is sincerely and permanently fixed on God? Do you possess such a faith?

Though the nine lepers derived no advantage of salvation from their healing only the cure for their flesh, God still bless them because God is good! But how does something like this happen? Well let’s turn to the Scriptures for the answer.

, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

God hates evil, but he still brings many blessings in this life even to his enemies (v. 45) by means of “common grace” (the favor that he gives to all people and not just to believers).

These blessings are intended to lead unbelievers to repentance. The repentant return to give God glory and thanks. Jesus blessed the nine lepers to lead them to repentance but they did not return. Of course there is a sense in which God hates those who are resolutely and impenitently wicked (cf. ; ; ), but God’s blessings of common grace constitute his primary providential action toward mankind here and now.

As the children of the heavenly Father we are those who respond to his will as expressed in the ministry of Jesus and we show loving kindness even to our enemies.

God shows grace and care for all of his creatures; therefore Jesus’ disciples are to imitate God and love both neighbor and enemy.

In Palestine, tax collectors were representatives of the Roman governing authorities. Their tendency to resort to extortion made them despised and hated by their own people (cf. ). Christians should not merely do the same as unbelievers; their transformed lives should result in behavior that shows significantly greater love.

We are to be perfect, as our heavenly Father is perfect. Scripture is a reflection of God himself as he has made his will and character known to his people. As Christians seek to live in conformity to Scripture, we are in fact pursuing the very perfection of God.

Are you one of the ungrateful nine?

Because the nine lepers possess a faith that is transitory, not lasting, enduring, permanent, or eternal and did they not return because they are ungrateful servants?

Remember they were placed outside of the camp not because they are not servants of the one true God in Israel but only because they had leprosy and placed others in danger. But now through their ungratefulness that surely show that they are not believers.

Now that they have been healed they do not see it as a blessing but they see it as some they deserve. They never asked to become lepers; this was something that just happens to them. It was not their fault, they might even feel God as been unfair to them and it is about time that He go it right and healed them.

An attitude like this would give them a sense of entitlement and ingratitude. Are you the one of the ungrateful nine!

Do you have a sense of entitlement? Do you feel you deserve more from God that you have been receiving? Was 2018 as tough year and you feel that 2019 must be your season?

Are you an unworthy servant?

, “ Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table’? Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink? Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants, we have only done what was our duty.”

We are all naturally proud and self-righteous. We all think far more highly of our character, and ourselves than we have any right to do. We all are really lepers, we do not have a severe skin disease, but we do all have s severe sin disease. It is a subtle disease, which manifests itself in a hundred different ways. Most people can see it in other people but no in themselves.

Are you one of the ungrateful nine? We must give up our self-righteousness; this is absolutely needful for us to gain salvation. If we desire to be saved we must confess that there is no good thing in us and that we have no merit, no goodness, and no worthiness of our own. And we must be willing to renounce our righteousness and trust the true righteousness of Christ Jesus our Lord. Once we are pardoned and forgiven, we must travel the daily journey of life under the deep conviction that we are unworthy servants and even when we do our best we have only done our duty. We have no claim against God, God owes us nothing, we have no right to expect anything from God, knowing that all we have received, all we have been given, and all that we are we owe to God’s sovereign and distinguishing grace and mercy. We should all be crying out, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us! But the question still remains, are you one of the ungrateful nine?

Or are you the one, who returned to give thanks to Jesus?

, “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. Then Jesus answered, “ Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine?”

There was one, just one who could not contain himself, there was just one, just one who could not wait until he showed himself to the priest to be confirmed as healed. There was one, just one who when he saw that he was healed, turned back, in fact he ran back, praising God with a loud voice! Thank you Jesus!

, “Then he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and he came and stood before him. And he said, “Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel; so accept now a present from your servant.”

This one, this one man recognizes the power of the one true and living God of Israel and comes back to give thanks and to offers gifts.

The cleansed and spiritual healed leper was the one out of the ten that returned fell at the feet of Jesus and gave Him thanks. This leper was one of ten, he is the ten-percent of all those who were healed. He represents what is known in the Bible as the remnant.

A remnant is a left-over amount from a larger portion or piece, whether it is food, material from which a garment is fashioned, or even a group of people. Although remnants could be looked upon as worthless scraps, and many times are, God has assigned high value to those of His people whom He had set aside for holy purposes, those He labels as “remnants” in several places in the Bible. To begin, in the story is told of the Lord’s judgment upon the Assyrians. In verse 12 God says, “I will punish the king of Assyria for the willful pride of his heart and the haughty look in his eyes.” God continues in verses 17-18:

“The Light of Israel will become a fire, their Holy One a flame; in a single day it will burn and consume his thorns and his briars. The splendor of his forests and fertile fields I will completely destroy, as when a sick man wastes away.”

God then relates how His people will turn back to Him as a result of this tremendous display of His strength—His utter destruction of most of Assyria: “In that day the remnant of Israel, the survivors of the house of Jacob, will no longer rely on him who struck them down but will truly rely on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel. A remnant will return, a remnant of Jacob will return to the Mighty God” (, ). He goes on to assure the remaining Israelites that they need not fear the Assyrians, for soon He will destroy them.

There are other remnants—those left over from a larger group—in the Bible, even though the word remnant isn’t used to describe them. Noah and his family were the remnant saved out of the millions on the earth before the flood (). Only Lot and his two daughters survived the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, a very small remnant, indeed (). When Elijah despaired that he was the only one left in Israel who had not bowed down to idols, God assured him that He had reserved a remnant of 7,000 “whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and all whose mouths have not kissed him" ().

God’s sovereign choice as to whom He will save and whom He will not can also be seen in the New Testament, as carried through from the Old Testament: “Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: ‘Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea, only the remnant will be saved. For the Lord will carry out His sentence on earth with speed and finality’” (). This implies that great multitudes of the Israelites would be cast off. If only a remnant was to be saved, many must be lost, and this was just the point, which Paul was endeavoring to establish. While the word remnant means, “What is left,” particularly what may remain after a battle or a great calamity, in this verse, it means “a small part or portion.” Out of the great multitude of the Israelites, there will be so few left as to make it proper to say that it was a mere remnant.

Of course, the most blessed remnant is that of the true Church, the body of Christ, chosen out of the millions who have lived and died over the centuries. Jesus made it clear that this remnant would be small when compared to the number of people on the earth throughout history. “Many” will find the way to eternal destruction, but “few” will find the way to eternal life (). We who believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior can, with great peace, rest in the fact that we belong to the “remnant.” Are you the one of the ungrateful nine or are you one of the remnant?

The text also tells us that this man was a Samaritan; this is interesting because Jews and Samaritans never dwelled together. But this Samaritan was allowed to associate with all the Jewish lepers, you see affliction, misfortune, and persecution had driven these men together, suffering made them forget all the prejudice that enjoyed in their prosperity.

It will not be long my friends when affliction, misfortune, persecution, and suffering will bring together the remnant of those in the Church of Jesus Christ who are true worshippers, true followers! Are you one of the ungrateful nine or are you one of the remnant?

Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? The nine others when back to the show themselves to the priests and have they healing confirmed. They knew that the priests would restore them now to the larger community and to society as well. They would be able to enter back into the world and be embraced by society once again. But the only embrace that the one Samaritan sought was the embrace of his Savior Jesus not the embrace of society. You see if you are really saved, you recognize who has saved you and whom you owe all your allegiance and thanksgiving.

, “Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner? And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”

, “Hear the word of the LORD, you who tremble at his word: “Your brothers who hate you and cast you out for my name's sake have said, ‘Let the LORD be glorified, that we may see your joy’; but it is they who shall be put to shame. “The sound of an uproar from the city! A sound from the temple!

The sound of the LORD, rendering recompense to his enemies!”

Your brothers who hate you: These are people who profess biblical faith but lack a trembling heart will also lacks a transformative faith, which scorn the humble and contrite. Let the Lord be glorified, that we may see your joy. This is the cynical contempt of the self-righteous, excluding the humble.

The Lord’s answer to such people is recompense, because he counts them his enemies.

Jesus says “was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner? And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”

(1) Can you be trusted to be faithful it God heals you physically and spiritually? (2) Can you be trusted to be grateful if God delivers you from what is holding you back? (3) Can God trust you to remain His and only His if he releases you addiction? (4) Can you be trusted to live a God fearing live if God would open the doors of the prison cell you reside in? (5) Can God trust you with His blessing? Are you the one with the saving faith, which endures eternally?

You see, the nine were the Jewish lepers who were healed, in contrast to the “foreigner” who was saved to eternal life. Luke’s Jewish readers who have immediately understood the great contrast and understood the greater consequence. Once again the last had become first and the first last.

, “He went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. And someone said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’ In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out. And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God. And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”