Give me liberty or give me death! Who would you say said that? Go and show yourselves to the priests. 1

Transcription

1 thanksgiving Where True thanksgiving Leads Luke 17:11 19 Description: How true thanksgiving leads us to Jesus. BEGIN: Let s start by playing a little game of Who Said That? Anyone ever played this game? Where players try to guess who said some famous, or less than famous phrases or quotes. For instance, if I said Give me liberty or give me death! Who would you say said that? I have not yet begun to fight! Who said that? I cannot tell a lie. I chopped down the cherry tree! Four score and seven years ago Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country! Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never! A Date Which Will Live in Infamy! I have a dream! Make America great again! Hop on the bus gus, no need to discuss much! -- Patrick Henry --John Paul Jones --George Washington --Abraham Lincoln --John F. Kennedy --Winston Churchill --FDR --MLK --President Trump --Paul Simon How about this one Go and show yourselves to the priests. 1 Who said that? Those of you who listened to this morning s Scripture reading know that Jesus said that. And He said that to ten lepers he met as he entered a certain village 1 Luke 17:14 AM

2 Luke 17:12 And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance Luke 17:13 and lifted up their voices, saying, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And the Greek word translated Master there is a Greek word that only Luke uses.no other writer in all the Bible uses it. And it s the Greek word epistate s ; epi meaning on or over or above or upon and histe mi which means to stand ; put those two together and you have epistate s... THE ONE WHO STANDS OVER AND ABOVE! That s what these ten men in their miserable, incurable condition called Jesus. The One Who Stands Over and Above It All! Even over and above this leprous condition they had been forced to endure. Kind of like my youngest grandson in this picture... To the left stands Odessa, my grandaughter, SuperGirl, with fist clenched, raised high into the air! To the right crouches Omri, ready to pounce, dressed as the Stan Lee s veritable webslinger himself! But there in the middle stands Olan, with fists on hips, STANDING OVER AND ABOVE everything happening below, as Batman! I texted that picture to my son, along with the caption: TRIPLE THREAT! And JW texted back: The criminals don t stand a chance tonight! And neither did the leprosy of these ten men! NOT WITH JESUS STANDING OVER AND ABOVE them! All Jesus had to do was say the word, and those ten lepers would be cured! That s why those ten lepers lifted up their voices saying, Jesus, Master, epistate s (The One Who Stands Over and Above It All!), have mercy on us down below! It s as if those ten men were sending up the bat signal crying out for the caped crusader s help. And Jesus didn t disappoint, did He! The Bible says... Luke 17:14 When (Jesus) he saw them he said to them (Who said to them? JESUS SAID TO THEM In our text this morning Jesus SEES and Jesus SAYS! Or, as the title of one of Francis Schaeffer s books says, He Is There and He Is Not Silent! And Jesus says...), Go and show yourselves to the priests. And at least nine of those men, if not all ten, knew exactly what that meant! Jewish law was clear. Leviticus 14:2 This shall be the law of the leprous person for the day of his cleansing. He shall be brought to the priest, And I know that s probably not your favorite verse in the Bible. But for a leprous person it is! Because that verse says THERE IS HOPE, for your hopeless condition. There is a law for the AM

3 leprous person for the day of his WHAT? His cleansing! And on that day he shall be brought to the priest... Leviticus 14:3 and the priest shall go out of the camp, and the priest shall look. Then, if the case of leprous disease is healed in the leprous person, Leviticus 14:7 Then he shall pronounce him clean... AND THANKSGIVING OFFERINGS WOULD BEGIN! Because those who were, for all intents and purposes, dead to society, and dead to their families, WERE ALIVE AGAIN, and could return to their lives again, and to their families again! And these ten men knew that if Jesus, The One STANDING OVER AND ABOVE that whole process, said, Go show yourselves to the priests then their cleansing was just about to begin! AND OFF THEY RACED TO THE PRIESTS! Luke 17:14...And as they went they were cleansed. Ten men, with faith, obeyed! And ten men, as they went, were cleansed! BUT ONLY ONE TURNED BACK TO SAY THANKS. Verse 15 says... Luke 17:15 Then (How many of them?) one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; Why God? Because that s where this man believed his healing had come from! From God! So to God he goes! Praise God, from whom all blessings flow; Praise him, all creatures here below; Praise him above, ye heav'nly host; Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost! Luke 17:16 and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks. Giving HIM thanks! Not just being thankful. But giving Him thanks. Because There s a big difference between being thankful AND ACTUALLY GIVING THANKS! There s a big difference between being a thankful person AND ACTUALLY THANKING A PERSON! AM

4 There s a big difference between counting your lucky stars AND LOOKING UP AND THANKING ONE STAR IN PARTICULAR, the Bright and Morning star, the Star of David! And even if you are not a Christian, we all have someone in our life to which we need to express our thanks. Don t just be someone who is thankful. Be someone who actually thanks a person! That s what ThanksGIVING is all about. Not just being thankful, BUT ACTUALLY EXPRESSING OUR THANKS. That s why many of us went to Port Columbus last Sunday night. To express our thanks to the many veterans who had been willing to put themselves in harm s way back in the day. And to express our thanks to one man in particular who served that way! It s why I needed to express my thanks to Brenda Garee for getting Bob on that Honor Flight. And for arranging the Welcome Back that Bob got! It s why I needed to thank all those who came, and stayed and waited to be part of that Honor Parade, even after it was announced that Bob s plane would be delayed. I needed to be more than thankful person, I needed to thank some people who were responsible for pulling that off! It s why I needed to thank Sondra Hoffman for baking all those celebration cakes she baked for all our new members two ago! Especially that lemon cake! Did anyone else get a taste of that lemon cake! Ho-ho-ho-ho! That cake was to die for! And Sondra made that cake, and all those other cakes, AND SONDRA WAS ONE OF THOSE 39 NEW MEMBERS HERSELF! And she baked the cake for all our new members! I need to be thankful for people like her that the Lord added to our congregation this year. Can we thank the Lord for all the new members the Lord added to His Church this year? I need to thank the Lord for Drew and Michael, and thank the Lord for their sermons. And Randy for his SS lessons. And Seth and Tom and Mark. I need to thank the staff and all the others who filled in during my absence! I need to thank my heart surgeons. And Licking Memorial and Riverside Hospitals. We need to keep short accounts when it comes to being thankful. And we need to keep the shortest account of all when it comes to God! Because it s not enough just to be thankful. For all we know all ten lepers Jesus cleansed were thankful. But only one stopped, and turned back, praising God with a loud voice, and falling on his face GAVE THANKS TO THE LORD! AM

5 Who do you need to be thankful for? Who do you need to give thanks to this Thanksgiving? Don t settle for being a thankful person when you can actually give thanks to a truly deserving person. That s what the tenth leper did, AND HE WAS A SAMARITAN! He was an outsider to the faith of Israel. But that didn t stop him from being thankful. That didn t stop him from turning, AND RETURNING, and falling on his face and thanking Jesus for the miracle! And it didn t stop Jesus from pronouncing him, THE SAMARITAN, the most commendable! In fact, what Jesus would have sounded quite convicting to religious insiders who should have known better. Had they only been there to hear it! Jesus said Luke 17:17... Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Luke 17:18 Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner? I picture Jesus saying that as He scanned the horizon looking for at least one grateful Israelite returning to give thanks. John 1:11 He came unto his own (another Gospel says), and his own (What?) received him not. If you are here this morning uncertain about Jesus, uncommitted toward His Church, not sure what you think about religion, feeling a little outside the Christian faith in particular, maybe you gave it a shot in your youth and you ve walked away from it as an adult;...you can still say thanks to God. AND GOD MAY FIND YOUR THANKS THE MOST COMMENDABLE THANKSGIVING OF ALL! He did the Samaritan. Who wasn t just thankful. But who actually stopped, and turned, AND RETURNED to say, Thank you Jesus. END: We meet to do that each Sunday. And you are welcome to BEGIN meeting with us too. And meeting with us around the Lord s table where together we remember that for which we are most thankful. Not how Jesus cleansed us from an incurable disease. BUT HOW JESUS CLEANSED US FROM OUR SIN! And how much it cost Him. We eat a piece of bread and drink a cup of juice to remind us how Jesus sacrificed His own body and His own blood on the cross for us. Taking upon Himself our sin and taking upon Himself the punishment our sin deserves SO THAT WE CAN LIVE FORGIVEN! AM

6 And I kid you not, it was at this very point as I was writing this sermon at the kitchen table that the kitchen phone rang. And Lynn asked if I could get it. And it was a recorded message from Vanessa saying: Hi. This is Vanessa. And our records show that you, or one of your loved ones, may be suffering from an incurable disease I couldn t believe what I was hearing. And I hung up the phone and I thanked the Lord for Vanessa s reminder. Because we are all suffering from an incurable disease. Sin. And that s why Jesus took upon Himself our sin. Because He knew we couldn t bear it. And if that s something you would like to know more about, you can meet with Jeff or one of our elders back at the BEGINNING POINT table in the back of the room when this service is over. But if you have already come to BELIEVE in the Lord s death on the cross for your sin then you are welcome to join us in thanking the Lord together. Let us pray... AM