Luke 17:7

In Luke 17:7-10 Jesus said, “But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat? And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink? Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not. So likewise you, when you shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.” Jesus spoke to us here about a master and a servant. Of course, God is our Master, and we are His servants. One of the things that is the downfall of some believers who accomplish something is that they become proud, vain, or high-minded because of what they have accomplished. If we remember this teaching of Jesus, we will not fall into pride over anything He helps us to do for him.

If you do accomplish something for Jesus in your life, you will simply have done what you ought to have done. Probably you will actually have done less than you ought to have done. We have been given a very high standard to live up to. Jesus said that the greatest commandment is to love God with all the heart and all the mind and all the soul and all the strength. Who has even come close to doing this? Does any of us have anything to be overly proud about in our service to God compared to this great commandment? It is not likely.

Another way of looking at it is to remember that we are all sinners. If it were not for the mercy and grace of God through Christ, we would all be separated from God forever. We owe Him everything. In fact we belong to Him. We are His. We are not our own. Anything that we do for Him, we must truthfully say that we have only done what we ought to have done. We deserve no praise. He alone deserves all the praise, because we could do nothing without Him anyway. Anyone who praises man has forgotten that God alone deserves all the praise. Anyone who is proud of his own accomplishments may have forgotten this important principle taught by Jesus in Luke 17:10 where Jesus said, “When you shall have done all these things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.”

In Luke 17:11-19 a very revealing incident took place in the life of Jesus. The Bible says, “And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off; And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go show yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to God except this stranger. And he said unto him, Arise, go your way: your faith hath made you whole.”

In this incident concerning the ten lepers there are a couple of very important things to learn. First we see a picture of salvation. The lepers are like you and me. Leprosy was an incurable disease in the first century. It was a horrible disease. Those who were afflicted by it had no choice but to live isolated in terrible conditions in leper colonies. That’s why the lepers “stood afar off.” They were alienated and separated from everyone else because of their disease. We are like the lepers. We have the disease of sin. Without a cure for the disease of sin, we would be forever alienated and separated from the kingdom of God.

Luke 17:13 tells us how the lepers found a solution to their problem and to their disease. They called out to Jesus and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” Anyone who does this very same thing will find the solution to their problem and their disease of sin. You will not find the answer in your church organization or in your religion, but you will find the answer in Jesus. If you call out to Him and ask Him for mercy, He will do the same thing for your soul that He did for the bodies of these ten lepers. “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” The reason that the ten lepers called out to Jesus from afar was because they knew how desperate was their own condition and they knew that Jesus was their only hope. Those who are aware of the greatness of their own sins will call out to Jesus in the same way.

How does a human being come into contact with the power of God? What is it that a man or a woman must do to become connected with God, and to see results that can only be explained by saying that God did something for them? Is there a religious ceremony that must be performed, or is there a set of good deeds that must be done? No, the answer is found in what Jesus said in Luke 17:19. He said, “Thy faith hath made thee whole.” Faith is what saves a person without the deeds of the law. Romans 3:28 says, “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.” If you have the faith that is spoken of by Jesus and other parts of the Bible, then you are saved.

What do we see in these lepers that was an evidence of their faith, or was a display of the fact that they had faith? The answer is obvious. They called out to Jesus for help. Faith means to put one’s confidence in or to commit oneself to. By calling out to Jesus for help, the lepers put their confidence in Him. They relied upon Him and depended upon Him to meet their needs. If you want to be saved, then put your faith in Jesus. Call out to Him expressing the fact that you are relying upon Him to have mercy upon you. God rejects no one. As many as come to Him will be received and welcomed.

When one of the lepers came back to Jesus, Jesus said, “Your faith has made you whole.” We know that the leper was made whole in the sense that he was cleansed from his leprosy. There is no doubt a spiritual symbolism expressed in the idea of being made ”whole.” Human beings were designed by God to have both a physical and a spiritual nature. Human beings were designed to live in fellowship with God on this earth: trusting in Him, knowing Him, and walking with Him. No one on this earth will ever be a complete person and will never be the person they were designed to be until they have a personal relationship with God that can only come through faith in Jesus Christ.

Jesus healed ten lepers, but only one came back to thank Him for what He did. Luke 17:16 points out that the one who returned was a Samaritan. For Jesus to have pointed out such a good thing about a Samaritan would have been noticed by the Jews who looked down on the Samaritans. Nine out of ten did not return to thank Jesus for what He did for them. Human beings tend to take for granted the good things that happen to them and to always wish for more, instead of recognizing and being thankful for the good things that have happened to them. For the Christian every day should be Thanksgiving Day. “In all things give thanks.” Psalms 100:4 says, “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.”

The Bible says in Luke 17:20-21, “And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God comes not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” The Pharisees were confused about some of the things that Jesus taught concerning the Kingdom of God, and so were the disciples. They expected the Messiah to immediately set up the Kingdom of God on earth. They expected an earthly kingdom that would overthrow the Roman Empire and that would defeat any country that was an enemy of the land of Palestine.

Of course, we know from this passage and others like it that the Kingdom about which Jesus taught would not be set up immediately on the earth. This does not mean that it will not be set up on the earth some day in the future, but only that in the present age it will not be set up. There are some things about the Kingdom of God that are different than other kingdoms. One difference is the fact that other kingdoms are temporary. Every kingdom of man eventually passes away, but the Kingdom of God will abide forever. Hopefully you will value citizenship in the Kingdom of God more highly than citizenship in any earthly kingdom.

Another difference is the fact that the kingdom of God is not made up of any territorial boundaries. That is, it’s not physical or material in nature. It is a spiritual kingdom. That’s why Jesus said that “the kingdom of God comes not with observation.” There are no geographical boundaries to the Kingdom of God. Anyone at any place on the earth can be a part of the kingdom of God. No one should ever think that they must go to this place or go to that place in order to be in God’s kingdom. God is everywhere. If you believe that, then you naturally believe that you can worship God anywhere.

The woman at the well made the mistake of thinking that one must be in a certain place in order to properly worship God. She said to Jesus in John 4:20, “Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and you say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” This woman understood very clearly that the Jews taught that one could only worship God properly by going to Jerusalem, and the Samaritans taught that one could only worship God properly by going to Samaria. The answer that Jesus gave cleared the matter up. He said in John 4:21, “Woman, believe me, the hour comes, when you shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.” Then Jesus said in John 4:23-24, “But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeks such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”

Many people today make a similar mistake to that which was made by the Pharisees and by the disciples and by the Samaritan woman. In spite of the clear teachings of Jesus, too many people think that there is a special place on the earth or a building on the earth where one must go in order to worship God or to be closer to God. According to Jesus, you can worship God right where you are. In the age in which we live the Kingdom of God cannot be seen. In order to be a part of the Kingdom, you must have the kingdom within you. You must experience the kingdom based upon what goes on inside you: that is, within your heart, mind, and soul. In a future age the kingdom of God will be set up on the earth, but in order to become a part of that Kingdom you must become a member of the spiritual kingdom now through faith in Christ.

The Bible says in Luke 17:22-24, “And he said unto the disciples, The days will come, when you shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and you shall not see it. And they shall say to you, See here; or, see there: go not after them, nor follow them. For as the lightning, that lightens out of the one part under heaven, shines unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day.” Jesus went from talking about seeing the Kingdom to talking about seeing Himself. That’s because He is the King of the Kingdom. He is the King of kings and He is also the King of the last great kingdom that will be established on earth, the kingdom of God. He rules that Kingdom, and He gives permission to enter the kingdom. That’s why you must go to Jesus to seek entrance to His kingdom. The disciples could not see the kingdom, but they could see Jesus. As Jesus often did, He was letting them know that He would not be with them for long. They would not see Him much longer. He was on His way to Jerusalem, and He would be killed in Jerusalem.

One of the characteristics of the age in which we live is the fact that there are so many false prophets and false teachers and false christs. The teaching that Jesus is giving here in Luke chapter 17 is making it clear that if anyone ever comes to you and says that you need to go somewhere or anywhere to see the Messiah, then you will know that they are wrong. No human being will need to announce the presence of the Christ. His return will be so dramatic that everyone will see Him. When there is a bolt of lightening, no one needs others to say that there is a bolt of lightening. It’s obvious because the lightening shines for all to see. We do not see Jesus Christ now, but one day we will all see Him. The voice of man will not be involved. He will announce His own return with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God. We live in the age of faith. Do not think that you must go somewhere or see something in order to have increased faith. Make sure that you have the right basis of faith: the promises of the Word of God. In this passage Jesus is reminding us one more time to live by faith and not by sight.

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