Ten Were Cleansed, One Received Jesus
First B Jackson
2023-07-09

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Well, good morning, everybody. Good to see you this morning. How are we doing? What do you say we open with a, with a song together? Would you stand with me, and and and we'll join in in in worship together?

So here's a good word from, Lamentations to lead us in worship. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, and his mercies never come to an end. Great is his faithfulness. Let's start by singing morning by morning. Daily day, I surrender.

Daily, daily, I morning by morning.

Amen. Y'all can have a seat. I've got a few announcements and we've got a kind of special guest this morning too. The announcements, we'll see what comes up. There's a lot going on.

Actually, one thing to announce is there was a church bee camp out this weekend. So some of the holes in the place here are because they are gathered around a campfire down there, having a little church service down there this morning. But welcome for those of you who are here. Monday night's the first b.

Yep. We are on tomorrow with a mule music and message. Barb is cooking, and we're in Mark chapter 14 where Jesus has the last supper with his disciples. And there's such a good such great takeaways from that, especially the new covenant. So know that it's a worship service down the hall on Mondays at 06:00, and we'd love for you to jump in and join.

Meal, music, and a message, Mark fourteen, and it's a conversation afterwards. It's always a good time. The first BBQ, the first BBQ, last one we had was last of June. We're having another one July 23. So July 23 is coming up.

It'll be out here, not the last, but the fourth. Not the last, but the fourth Sunday of the month. We're going to have barbecue out here between services, games, food, fun, fellowship, and lingering around afterwards. It's fun. So that will happen July 23.

Compass Women's Care. This was formerly Turning Point. Compass Women's Care is having their annual gala July 11. That is Tuesday, 05:30 to 07:30 in the evening. It will be at the end of High School Road where it meets South Park Loop.

You all know where that is, CBC's grassy area out there. That's where it's gonna be. 07/11/2023. I if you wanna know more information, you can ask Carolyn Marzyniak or you can talk to any of us and we'll get you a little more info. If you'd like more information in general about what's going on at church, you can sign up for weekly church announcement, Emails at first b jackson dot org.

Hey, this is a new one. Kitchen committee is forming. Minimal commitment required. Hey, we're not asking you to be in charge, but we are asking you to help. So kitchen committee is forming.

Contact Nancy Traziano at that number, 699-9789, and she'll get you set up. Now it says stay tuned, be right back. This is so that Preston and the booth can have a chance to cut out sound and whatnot for the people listening online. We've got

comfort and counselor, prince of peace, author and maker of everything, defender, deliverer, king of kings, heals, helper and healer for I thank you for the very, very real invitation to come to you, all who are weary and carry heavy heavy burdens, and you will give us rest. Thank you, Lord, for rest. Thank you for a peace that passes understanding. Lord, would you calm any troubled heart in this room and give us peace. In Jesus' name, amen.

To the Lord. And Amen. I could just keep singing. This is so good but we're going to take just a moment to to have a time worship through giving. If you would have a seat just for a moment, I'm going to sing, for your glory from Matthew five sixteen, Jesus says, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father in heaven.

Before we sing, Ray, would you pray?

God almighty, we thank you for the place to gather this morning. I thank you, Lord, that we're not under a threat here. We're not under a threat, but our brothers and sisters in Christ are, Lord, all over the world. Under threat of their assembly being raided, under threat of being thrown into prison, just like Paul. Lord God Almighty, I I pray that you would do what only you can do in their midst, in our midst, through them, through us to reach a lost and dying world.

God, we ask for your supply, and we know that your will done in your way, Lord, won't lack that supply. I pray that we would be doing your will, Lord. Give us the direction and the strength to go forward to advance the gospel right here in this neighborhood, right here, right here, this block, here, Lord, and extend into the very uttermost parts. When we think of earthquakes and wars and rumors of wars and everything else, Lord. I pray that you would touch our hearts with whatever it is that you want for us to do about that.

It may be comforting It may be reaching out. We don't know, Lord, but we trust that you will show us. You are completely faithful and able. And Lord, that's what we wanna be, more like you. Faithful and able to help, to comfort with the same comfort we've been comforted, to forgive, to be merciful, to be gracious.

Lord, would you take these offerings and do with them whatever it is you wanna do? Amen. Amen. Alright. It's time for children's church downstairs.

Yeehaw. There they go. Alright. Well, we're up to Luke 17. A word on this.

I mentioned this a couple weeks ago, a few weeks ago. Went to the dermatologist and they said, you need to pay attention to what it is that you're touching with this, this, and this digit. This one, this one, and this one. Good news is it's not fungal because it would have affected both of those two. But this, this, and this, you're doing something that's agitating and aggravating this.

It's been happening for like eighteen months. Honestly, if you look at Leviticus 13, it might be leprosy. I don't know. As I was going into the doctor, she said, you're doing something. And then that was on a Monday morning.

On a Monday night, I came in here and played the bass, and those are the three fingers with which I play the bass. And so she said, just put this cream on, wear a glove. So that's what I've been doing. I can take it off now, but I don't think anybody wants to shake my left hand. Right?

That's, this is 10 lepers receiving healing. And just seeing somebody with a glove on or a mask on these days, we kinda give them a wide berth, don't we? We back away, and we kinda act like, I'm not sure what's going on there, but I know I don't want any part of it. So 10 lepers receive their healing. I think one returns and receives Jesus.

Right? So that's what we're gonna look at today. This is all that we're gonna cover today. This is the nine verses that we're gonna go over. I'll break it down, put the words bigger.

But it's about leprosy. And if you don't know what leprosy is, most times when preachers mention it, we go with what is modernly called leprosy today. What is called leprosy is Hansen's disease, but that's probably that leprosy in the Bible according to Leviticus thirteen and fourteen is a wide range of skin conditions. It's not just Hansen's. Hansen's disease is really helpful in the way we think about it, and I use that in Luke five when Jesus came upon the untouchable leper.

Right? Hansen's disease causes, deadening of the feeling in the tips of your fingers and grows from there, ears, everything else. Sensitivity dies, and so you can't tell whether you're burning or freezing. You're completely numb to it and it ends up causing people to hurt themselves because they're insensitive to stimulus, pain. And so that's what a lot of times people go with.

But it can be a wide range of things. What you were supposed to do if you had any kind of a blemish instead of going to a dermatologist and sitting there in your underwear. You would go to the priest. You went to the priest, and the priest was supposed to determine. He's supposed to be the expert.

The Bible has some different descriptions like a journal of medicine. Right? It has different descriptions for what would constitute leprosy. This is. This isn't.

This, let them stay away for a week from everybody else, and that's just temporary. Let them stay away for another week. If it responds to treatment, give it a while, and then they can come back in. But if somebody was declared leprous, they were completely apart from the community, and it was a living death. It was not a good situation to be in.

You had all kinds of rules that you had to go by. The way that people wore their clothes is customary dress. But if you were leprous, it was to be as if you had torn your own clothes. So you had to wear torn clothes all the time. That was a warning to people that you had leprosy.

And when they were coming up upon you on their journeys, you were supposed to let them know, hey. I'm unclean. Unclean over here. That's on you to let them know. You can't you know?

So avoiding people, it would be easier to stay a good distance from them and not have to let them know that you're unclean. Just avoiding people unless they were lepers. And so leper colonies, you should hear about every once in a while. But lepers can be around other lepers. Now that's not good if it's biblically a wide range of diseases.

Now these people who have all been outcasts are together sharing different diseases. That's tough. But it is a community. And so they typically travel in a community. And sometimes that community they traveled in would break down other cultural and social barriers.

So this is where we are in scripture. Luke 17. Last week, we went over four things I think that are related. Some people think they're just disjointed proverbs, but I think they're related about oh my goodness. You can go back listening to last week.

I I don't even remember what it was about. It's in there somewhere. False teaching, forgiveness. There it is. False teaching, forgiveness, faith, and then doing your reasonable service, whatever that is.

Not all of us are called to go into the extended international mission field. Not all of us are called to be teachers. Not all of us are called to be pastors. Not all of us are called to do that, but we are all if we're Christians, we're all called for something, and God's empowered us to do something. So doing that is the last thing that was mentioned is just be doing whatever is your reasonable service before God.

While he was on the way to Jerusalem, Luke turns in nine fifty one. Everything from that point forward is Jesus has set his face on Jerusalem and he is going towards the cross And he does so. He set his face like flint. Right? He's certain of that.

Now, it's unusual that we would see this right here because last time we saw Jesus, he's in this green area here, which is Perea, Transjordan across the Jordan where John was first ministering, John the Baptist. So we see him in Perea over here. And this says that he was traveling somewhere in between Galilee and Samaria. So Galilee and Samaria is the blue area and the yellow area, but he's on his way to Jerusalem, which is in the red area. So he's apparently coming back up through the green area and catching something, maybe forgot something at home, I don't know, and going down from there to Jerusalem.

And it says, as he entered a village, not specific about which village. It's somewhere, Galilee, Samaria. We don't know. As he entered a village, 10 men with leprosy were outside of the village, and they stood at a distance, and they met him. But their meeting is like for me to Diane over there.

It's a ways over there. They see him apparently first from the text. It looks like they see him first. And as he entered the village, 10 men with leprosy who stood at a distance met him, and they raised their voices in unison. Oh, boy.

They all had the same condition. They all felt solidarity. And they all cried out in their voices and said, Jesus, master, have mercy on us. That's that's an acknowledgment right there. Master is only used in Luke.

It's epistata. Since Andrew is here, I'm going to use Greek, why intensifies standing. It's someone properly that has the legal standing of ownership, referring to the one who is the master in charge, the one who has been fully authorized there, aptly acknowledged as the leader. Supremely, we get from John one:three that he made it all, and it's his. And Colossians one fifteen, he upholds all things by the word of his power.

Supremely, this epistata refers to Jesus. He's the head. He's the owner of all things. He's the inheritor of all things. So epistata is what they call him.

And when he saw them, so they call out and he turns to see them. But where were they? They were still standing at a distance because they were supposed to. They were going by the rules. And he saw them and he said to them, apparently still from a distance.

Now the last time the the reason this is significant is the last time there was a guy that said, I have leprosy. He knows he's untouchable. And he says, if you will just say the word, I'll be healed. All you gotta do is say the word. I trust you.

I believe you. Just say the word, and I'll be healed. And he reached out, and he touched it. He didn't have to. Jesus does things different.

Right? He does things differently all over the place. I'm sure we would institutionalize it if he did it the same way. He touched the untouchable. And in this case, these 10 guys are standing afar off, and he says to them, y'all go and show yourselves to the priest.

Second person plural, y'all go. Show yourselves to the priests. And it's and it's outside of a village. You think, well, surely there's only one priest. But it's in between Galilee and Samaria.

There are 10 of them. They've been outcast. They found each other. Y'all go show yourselves to the priests, presumably to the priest who declared them leprous. Okay?

That would be the typical thing. The last doctor that saw you is the one you go back to say, Am I healed from this yet? And that's by Leviticus 13. This is what they should have done. To well, actually, Leviticus 14 is about the cleansing of a leper, which doesn't happen.

You know, it's not it is a sign that Messiah is here. And John even said it's a sign that Messiah is here. But Leviticus 14 was about how to declare someone clean, not leprous. Go and show yourselves to the priest. There were 10 of them.

Priests, if they're between Galilee and Samaria, they could be Galilean, Galilee of the Gentiles, but there were Jewish priests there. Samaria was a land that the Jews, especially Judeans, sought to be half breeds, ne'er dwells. They only had the first five books of the Bible. They didn't believe the prophets. They had a an off theology.

It wasn't it wasn't a pure theology like they practiced. You know? So go show yourselves to the priests. Could have been in any of these regions. And the next thing in the text says, and as they were going, they were cleansed.

Amen. What did they cry out for? Let's back up. What did they cry out for? Did they cry out for healing?

Where were they? Jesus, master, have mercy on us. Have mercy on us. So that backs me up for a second. If your theology, and I know y'all wouldn't think of this theology, it's a primitive theology, is that bad things happen to bad people, good things happen to good people.

If you mention a run of bad goings on in your life down south, people say, whoo, you must not be living right. Right? Well, was Paul living right? He had a long list. Master, owner and lord of all, Jesus, master, have mercy on us.

In some way, they felt like they deserved what they had. The theology that's so sticky, primitive religion that, oh, keep yourself away from them. They've done something to deserve this paralyzation, or they've done something to deserve this leprosy. And they even believed it. But what they're crying out for is mercy.

Jesus, master, have mercy on us. Where were we? Right here. And as they were going. I like that.

In the Great Commission, it's a participle, it's the same participle. Instead of go ye therefore imperative, it is as you are going, be baptized and teaching them to obey all that I've commanded. I just like that. That's a sideline. As they were going, they were cleansed.

They were cleansed, so they were healed of their leprosy, and they are walking towards the priests that should be able to declare that they are. But you know what happened the last time they were with those priests? Oh, boy. The last time that they were with those priests, they were separated from their families. They were separated from their jobs.

They were separated from their community. And they only found community with other people that had been separated and were alone. Woah. As they were going, they were cleansed. Now one of them one of them out of ten, one of them, when he saw that he had been healed can you imagine walking back like I'm headed to the priest?

I'm headed to the priest. He said, go see the priest. And you're going, and through your ragged torn clothes, you start to see that those lesions are going away. When he saw that he had been healed, he turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice. Look at this.

Yeah. It's one of those kind of glorifying God. He cries out, glorifying God. I knew you could do it. I knew you could do it.

Have mercy on me. He does. God, thank you so much. And he fell on his feet. Fell on his face at his feet.

He fell on his face at his feet. That's a posture of worship. He falls on his face, prostrate before Jesus, at his feet. Now all those other guys got healed from afar off, but when he came back, he didn't stop afar off. He was clean, and he knew it.

He had been transformed, and he ran back, I'm sure, glorifying God the whole way, skipping, and he falls on his face at Jesus' feet, and he gives thanks to him. Now giving thanks to Jesus is glorifying God. Jesus is the way, the truth, the life. He is the established means of forgiveness, of mercy, of grace. So he's given thanks to him, and Luke adds, and he was a Samaritan.

Oh, thank you, Luke. It's not just for insiders that know all of their Bible verses. He cried out for mercy, and Jesus gave him mercy. You know what? In the book of Luke, no one ever cries out for mercy that doesn't get it.

They always get it. If you look at the book of Luke, just back away from it for a second. Go back and read it. When the angel comes to Mary and says, you're gonna bear the savior, basically. She says, oh, what mercy?

It's about mercy. When Zechariah finally gets to talk again, it's about the mercy of God. When he touches the untouchable, it's an act of mercy, but he doesn't mention the word. When we get to the story of the Good Samaritan, there's somebody that said he's seeking to justify himself. And he asked, Who's my neighbor?

And he says, Well, let me tell you a story. He tells him the story of the Good Samaritan, and we get to then he says, Now you tell me which one acted neighborly and which one was the neighbor. What do you get from this story? And the guy says, I suppose the one who showed mercy. Amen.

That's what it's about. We all all are outcast. But calling out to Jesus for mercy, he responds with mercy. This guy was a Samaritan. It's not limited to just us.

It is a bigger group than just us. He was a Samaritan. So in Luke's gospel, there's that. Actually, if you go forward from here, you'll see a little short man climbing a tree to get to see Jesus, and he gets mercy. And you'll see a guy hanging on a tree next to Jesus, and he gets mercy.

It's good. Jesus responded said, well, weren't there 10 of y'all? Were there not 10 that were cleansed? But the other nine, where are they? Well, like I said before, it said, go show your priests.

Presumably, they were scattered all over the place. It might have gone nine different directions. But I think Jesus' point I see this with a smile on my face. I might be reading that in, but I I see Jesus saying, where are they? What's going on?

I don't think he was sad, upset. I think he just was recognizing that guy recognized what happened. Were there not 10 cleansed but the nine? Where are they? Was no one found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?

Now, except this foreigner, you can read that and go, foreigner. Or you can see that his disciples are around him, and they still need this lesson. They keep on needing this lesson. They still need this lesson in Acts. Right?

They clump up in Jerusalem even though he said, you're gonna be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts. He says that, and they still are fighting that until Stephen's stoning them. Maybe it's a good idea we get out of here. So there was no one found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner. And he said to him, the one who turned back and came back, glorifying God in a loud voice, falling at his feet, giving thanks to him, he said to that guy, Stand up and go.

Stand up and go. Your faith has made you well. Now, I mentioned last week, I mentioned at a funeral recently, I mentioned the concept of faith and faithfulness go hand in hand. There's an argument among theologians whether pistis means subjective faithfulness that you can have or the objective faithfulness of God. And a lot of times, when you look at something, you go, I wish I had faith like that.

I wish I had faith. I wish I had more faith. Like last week, the disciple said, increase our faith because we can't forgive as easily as you can. Increase our faith. And he says, not that you need more faith.

You just need to have faith in a greater God, right? You need to know that God is able and he is faithful and he's already leaning towards you with grace and when you place your trust in his objective faithfulness, he is able. He is mighty to save. That's what he does. When you accept that, you have placed your faith.

In his faithfulness, he makes you well. And this, you might read it and say, well, I wonder if those others, if their leprosy came back. No. No. No.

It says they were cleansed. They were cleansed. But this, when it says your faith has made you well, that last portion right there, your faith has made you well. The faith is your faith and God's faithfulness has so so. This is the present, active, indicative, third person singular, Andrew, of so so.

And so so is That's a good word. That is where we get the word soter. Soteriology is the study of salvation. Soter is savior. If you have the little icthus on your car somewhere, first of all, drive like it, but anyway.

The little ichthus, that is ichthus, it's a mnemonic device for the first century. It's a fish. Ichthus means fish. Ichthiologist is a fish. Scientist.

Sorry. Not a fish. Ichthus is fish. That Jesus Christ, son of God and savior. It's not just, oh, yeah.

That guy who does all these healings. No. He is the savior. He is the way, the truth, the life. It's the root.

So so is where we get savior, salvation, soterion, whatever has been saved, rescued from destruction, brought into divine safety. So if it's the present active indicative third person singer a perfect active, sorry, perfect active indicative. That means that something happened at one point that would have ramifications into eternity future. That's good. This is good for grammar nerds as they're all nodding their heads right now.

This is really good. Perfect. Has happened and it will matter forever. So I'm going to this is kind of a paraphrase of the verse. This last verse is the last thing I'm going plan on saying.

And he said to the grateful one, having risen, another participle, having risen, you be going. You be on your way. It was plural that they were all healed, but this is singular for that guy who recognized the power of God and came back. He received not just his healing, but he received Jesus. Now all those other nine were witnesses because when they went to their priests, their priests should have gone, well, I'll be.

You're healed. You're clean. Take those rags off. Go see your family. You're healed.

Who did this to you? Where did you get this? They should have been pursuing Jesus. That's that's on them. But this guy, having risen, you be going.

Your trust in God's faithfulness has saved you. It'll never be taken away. Nothing plucks you out of his hand. Amen. That's it.

I want to know you. Would you stand up? Last song we're going to sing is I want to know you lord. I want to know you And Lord, may I add to that that we want to make you known? Would you show us, Lord, how best we can accomplish the goal of the gospel reaching the ends of the earth?

Amen. I've got one more thing. Would you all sit down for just a second? I'll invite the Botkins up. The Botkins' little baby Adelaide, we we would like to dedicate this morning.

So I said last week, we did a dedication last week, and I said, it's sort of for you Presbyterians, it's sort of like a dry baptism. What we're asking for is for this covenant fellowship, this church body, as representative of the capital c Church of Christ, triumphant and global. We're asking that y'all, the ones here, would commit to this family, if you would, to help and raise Adelaide, help and take care of her, raising her up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Is there anything y'all want to say? Amen?

No. No. Okay. Lord God almighty, would you help us to do just that? In Jesus' name, amen.

If you would be willing to help out in collectively raising this little one, would you just say amen, stand to your feet, and give job God a shout. Hey, why not? Amen. Amen. I'm thankful for y'all.

I'm a love it. Through the Lord's mercies, we're not consumed because his compassions fail not. They're new every morning. God, great is your faithfulness. Allow us to carry that forward in Jesus name throughout the life of this little one and the life of this church.

Amen. Amen.