SCRIPTURE: Luke 17:11-19

A story in Luke’s Gospel an incident that happened 2,000 years ago may seem pretty disconnected to life as we live it here in this century.

But there are windows in this particular story that let light shine on the pathways we all must walk.

The story of the healing of ten lepers is not as remote as you might think.

I. WHEN THEY CALLED OUT, JESUS RESPONDED

A. First: Hopeless, Isolated.

Hopeless, isolated by law, absorbed by their own troubles a small band of lepers skulked around the borders of Galilee and Samaria in the northern regions of the Holy Land.

They were not only sick with an incurable disease, they were marked as untouchables, kicked out of fellowship with anyone except other lepers.

They foraged for food.

They begged at a distance for anything and everything they needed.

But the one thing they really needed, the one thing that makes life worth living---HOPE----was already lost.

B. Second: until Jesus came along.

Until Jesus came along, that is.

A tiny spark of hope prompted the ten lepers to approach as near as they could and make a long distance shout for help.

"JESUS, MASTER, HAVE MERCY ON US!"

It may have been just a tiny spark of hope.

It may have been just a long distance prayer.

But that cry was heard.

C. Third: The response from Jesus was not as spectacular as they might have hoped.

But it was a response.

Jesus heard.

And Jesus told them what to do.

It was a "next step."

It had to do with getting legal permission to re-enter society.

"GO SHOW YOURSELVES TO THE PRIESTS!"

This window in the story lets the light in that reveals this truth: Wherever you are God’s Word can reach you. You don’t need to be lost one more day.

II. AS THEY WENT THEY WERE MADE CLEAN

A. First Obedience to Jesus command.

"As they went, they were cleansed."

They had called.

Jesus had responded with a brief command.

After he spoke they may have looked at their leper sores.

Just after Jesus spoke they were exactly the same as they were before he spoke.

They were still unclean lepers.

But Jesus had told them what to do.

They decided they nothing to lose.

They started out to find a priest.

AND AS THEY WENT... AS THEY WALKED ALONG... THEY SENSED SOMETHING WONDERFUL WAS TAKING PLACE.

"THEY WERE CHANGING."

The shaft of sunlight through this window shows us that: Obedience is faith in action; we cannot obey God and stay in bondage.

B. Second The healing of the lepers is remarkably like one of the Old Testament favorites

You know, the story of Naaman and Elijah.

Naaman was not poor and socially outcast like these ten lepers.

He was a wealthy Syrian warrior.

But the fact remains he was a leper and knew he was going to die.

You remember the story: when Naaman finally found the prophet of God, or rather, found where he lived, the prophet, Elijah, sent his servant out to tell this wealthy leper to go and dip himself even times in the Jordan in the Jordan River.

NO DRAMATIC.

NO INCANTATIONS.

JUST A WORD TO OBEY.

It seemed too easy: SIMPLY WASH AND BE CLEAN.

Naaman struggled with the simplicity of it.

But it was God’s Word.

And as he obeyed, Naaman was made clean of his leprosy.

C. Third It seems so simple to call out to God an be saved.

It seems too easy just to confess our sins and trust that God is as good as his word and will forgive and cleanse us from all sin.

Do you remember the lines from that old gospel song?

Once in sin’s darkest night,
I was wandering along,
A stranger to mercy I stood;
But the Saviour came nigh,
When He heard my faint cry,
And He put my sins under the blood.

The are covered by the blood,
They are covered by the blood
My sins are all covered by the blood.
Mine iniquities so vast,
Have been blotted out at last,
My sins are all covered by the blood.

III. ONE CLEANSED LEPER RETURNED TO GIVE PRAISE TO GOD.

There is one more window open in this narrative: the importance of worship.

A. First: Sickness has a way of turning us in on ourselves.

We become absorbed with our symptoms.

We tell about our hospital procedures.

Sickness is often very self-centered. ( I plead guilty from time to time) Wellness is more than an absence of illness. It is the quality of being vibrantly alive. God’s goal for you and me is more than being free from sin.

It is our WHOLENESS.

The goal of God’s grace is not simply to save us from our sins, but to set us free from our carnal nature which is true Holiness. Christ Likeness.

B. Second God does not save us just to make us clean or good.

He want to share His life with us so that we can come into his home and be a part of his family.

That Holiness.

He forgives us of our sins, and cleanses us from sin. To make us Holy.

This is the fellowship with God and the whole family of God.

How can two walk together unless they agreed with each other?

The whole purpose of salvation is so that God can have fellowship with us, and we with Him.

C. Third: This Samaritan outcast leper closed the circle of grace that day of his cleansing.

He actually got out of his own way!

The center of his existence was changed.

Instead of orbiting around his illness, and his very considerable pain, now he worshiped the God who had set him free.

And that gratitude completed his healing for the moment.

As he worshiped he was "MADE WHOLE."

Only God can do that.

God is the only one that can heal our bodies of sins.

He is the only one that can CLEANSE US FROM SIN.

He is the only one that "MAKE US WHOLE AGAIN."

CONCLUSION:

A. First If this seems too very simple, well maybe it is. If I confess my sins, He saves me from my sins.

And He cleanses me from my sin by His blood.

B. Second: When I call, Jesus hears me!

C. Third: As I do what He shows me to do, I will be set free!