WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.560 Okay, we're going to turn to the passage that we read together in Luke's Gospel, chapter 00:00:07.560 --> 00:00:13.120 16, particularly the section about the Ten Leppers. 00:00:13.120 --> 00:00:18.019 Now I realize that for the kids the worksheet might be a bit simplistic for some of the 00:00:18.019 --> 00:00:19.519 older kids, okay? 00:00:19.519 --> 00:00:23.199 So if you want to write an essay, that's fine. 00:00:23.199 --> 00:00:25.760 Just write over the coloured bit, okay? 00:00:25.760 --> 00:00:28.400 But for some of the kids it might be okay today. 00:00:28.399 --> 00:00:32.399 It's just some questions and some things to colour in. 00:00:32.399 --> 00:00:38.719 But I want particularly to think about the event that happened when Jesus was going towards 00:00:38.719 --> 00:00:46.119 Jerusalem with the cleansing of the lepers, ten lepers, were cleansed by Jesus and one 00:00:46.119 --> 00:00:48.239 comes back, okay? 00:00:48.239 --> 00:00:52.799 Now we live in a land of plenty, don't we? 00:00:52.799 --> 00:00:55.000 We have really everything that we need. 00:00:55.000 --> 00:00:58.159 We have cold, fresh water. 00:00:58.159 --> 00:00:59.839 We have warm homes. 00:00:59.839 --> 00:01:05.479 You've all come from homes where you've got food in the cupboards, clothes are plenty, 00:01:05.479 --> 00:01:11.319 and maybe even more so now following Christmas and the presents that you got at Christmas 00:01:11.319 --> 00:01:12.819 time. 00:01:12.819 --> 00:01:17.039 And there is a danger for us when we have, because you know, it's all relative in some 00:01:17.039 --> 00:01:22.199 ways, maybe sometimes we don't think that's the case, but we're in whatever is the top 00:01:22.200 --> 00:01:29.240 point, something percent of rich people in the world here in Scotland, in the UK. 00:01:29.240 --> 00:01:33.640 And the danger is maybe that we take our wealth and our provisions and the things that we've 00:01:33.640 --> 00:01:38.960 got for granted and that we're ungrateful for them. 00:01:38.960 --> 00:01:45.320 I always kind of laugh, sometimes laugh and it's a kind of, it's a laugh and it's a bit 00:01:45.320 --> 00:01:47.040 of a cry. 00:01:47.040 --> 00:01:52.640 Because when you've been framed as on this time of year, as you know, guys my age like 00:01:52.640 --> 00:01:57.800 you've been framed, it's kind of nice and harmless and there's lots of funny videos 00:01:57.800 --> 00:02:00.960 from people that have sent them in. 00:02:00.960 --> 00:02:04.320 And that Christmas one's always a bit boring because it's always about Christmas trees falling 00:02:04.320 --> 00:02:07.080 over with cats jumping on them and things like that. 00:02:07.080 --> 00:02:13.400 But there's always a kind of funny but sad one when a little child gets this big present 00:02:13.400 --> 00:02:17.640 and he's excited and he's really looking forward to it when he rips it open and it's a wooly 00:02:17.640 --> 00:02:23.520 jumper and he kind of just throws it on the ground and stomps off in a rage, you know, 00:02:23.520 --> 00:02:26.960 and really angry that that's not what they were wanting, a toy, something or other and 00:02:26.960 --> 00:02:30.480 they weren't wanting a wooly jumper and they just stamp their feet and they walk out of 00:02:30.480 --> 00:02:31.480 the room. 00:02:31.480 --> 00:02:34.879 It's quite funny but it's also quite sad, isn't it? 00:02:34.879 --> 00:02:38.040 Tell you, it wouldn't have happened in our house. 00:02:38.040 --> 00:02:42.200 Even if they thought it, it wouldn't have happened because we should be grateful for 00:02:42.199 --> 00:02:47.519 what we receive and it's a mark of ingratitude, isn't it, in our children when they grow up 00:02:47.519 --> 00:02:52.679 to, or when they're children and they receive something like that and they're ungrateful 00:02:52.679 --> 00:02:57.079 and they throw it aside as absolutely what they not wanted. 00:02:57.079 --> 00:02:58.079 G.K. 00:02:58.079 --> 00:03:03.319 Chesterton, a great philosopher and theologian or at least Christian, said, I would maintain 00:03:03.319 --> 00:03:09.839 that thanks is one of the highest forms of thought and that gratitude is happiness doubled 00:03:09.839 --> 00:03:10.839 by wonder. 00:03:10.840 --> 00:03:12.800 It's a great phrase, isn't it? 00:03:12.800 --> 00:03:16.680 That gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder. 00:03:16.680 --> 00:03:23.800 And I think at the end of the year it's good for us as believers, as Christians, to remember 00:03:23.800 --> 00:03:30.879 with great gratitude all that we've been given spiritually, what we receive from the Lord 00:03:30.879 --> 00:03:35.719 Jesus Christ, what we have by faith, both the temporal, the ordinary things that we 00:03:35.719 --> 00:03:40.159 have and also the spiritual gifts that we have received. 00:03:40.159 --> 00:03:47.759 It's very easy for us to regard our faith and our commitment to Christ and to church 00:03:47.759 --> 00:03:54.599 and to the knowledge of the gospel as very ordinary and plain, a bit dull. 00:03:54.599 --> 00:03:56.759 This is an exciting time of year. 00:03:56.759 --> 00:04:03.280 There's lots happening and, well, the Christian side of it's all a bit dull for us and we 00:04:03.280 --> 00:04:09.359 cast aside prayer for the routine of prayer and Bible reading and even church because 00:04:09.360 --> 00:04:12.680 it's all a bit ordinary and we want to do something different. 00:04:12.680 --> 00:04:19.319 And there can be, in us, a lack of gratitude because we've stopped being thankful and having 00:04:19.319 --> 00:04:22.199 gratitude which is doubled by wonder. 00:04:22.199 --> 00:04:29.759 I often feel that certainly in my Christianity the wonder has gone from my relationship with 00:04:29.759 --> 00:04:31.600 the living God. 00:04:31.600 --> 00:04:37.759 Stop looking for the wonder and the amazement and the majesty and the beauty of belonging 00:04:37.759 --> 00:04:42.319 to Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. 00:04:42.319 --> 00:04:49.039 So we have this story of the ten lepers as a great indication of what God is wanting us 00:04:49.039 --> 00:04:56.360 to think about and how God thinks and how Jesus responds to a lack of thanksgiving. 00:04:56.360 --> 00:05:00.839 So there was these ten guys, this is not a parable, and that's important to remember, 00:05:00.839 --> 00:05:07.599 it's not a parable, it's a real event that Jesus is involved in healing these guys. 00:05:07.600 --> 00:05:12.920 We know that there was other parables that told stories, but this is a real story that 00:05:12.920 --> 00:05:18.600 Jesus was involved in as he was moving toward Jerusalem. 00:05:18.600 --> 00:05:21.240 Leprosy was a desperate disease. 00:05:21.240 --> 00:05:27.080 We may have lost sight of that today because it's almost been eradicated, although I do 00:05:27.080 --> 00:05:33.760 believe it's coming back into the world in different places. 00:05:33.759 --> 00:05:39.319 It's a desperate disease that just eats away your body in many ways. 00:05:39.319 --> 00:05:45.120 And in the ancient Near East it was a disease that led to great isolation, there was no 00:05:45.120 --> 00:05:47.159 cure for it. 00:05:47.159 --> 00:05:50.879 They were regarded as, anyone who was a leper was regarded as unclean. 00:05:50.879 --> 00:05:54.079 You know, we've taken that into our vocabulary. 00:05:54.079 --> 00:06:01.000 So you know, if you're a leper, someone who is ostracized, who's outside who is unclean, 00:06:01.000 --> 00:06:06.759 and they had no hope really, and there was no, there was nothing to support them, they 00:06:06.759 --> 00:06:10.800 just had to beg for their lives. 00:06:10.800 --> 00:06:17.319 And in this story, Jesus on his way to Jerusalem was going through Samaria and Galilee, and 00:06:17.319 --> 00:06:21.839 he stood, there was ten lepers, and they stood at a distance and lifted their voice, and 00:06:21.839 --> 00:06:24.360 Jesus have mercy on us. 00:06:24.360 --> 00:06:28.759 We don't know anything about their background, we don't know how they knew about Jesus, but 00:06:28.759 --> 00:06:32.599 they did know about Jesus, they had maybe heard of other lepers who had been healed, 00:06:32.599 --> 00:06:39.399 or other people who had been cured, or people who had met or heard His teaching. 00:06:39.399 --> 00:06:46.079 And it's interesting, isn't it, that all they do is they cry for mercy? 00:06:46.079 --> 00:06:50.879 At this point they don't even ask for healing. 00:06:50.879 --> 00:06:55.199 It's not like the blind sometimes who ask, please, I want to be healed, I want to be 00:06:55.199 --> 00:06:56.439 able to see. 00:06:56.439 --> 00:07:01.279 I'm sure that was in their thinking, I'm sure that was what was in their minds and their 00:07:01.279 --> 00:07:08.680 hearts, but they simply cry out for mercy, have mercy on us Jesus, have mercy, because 00:07:08.680 --> 00:07:16.680 their position was pitiable, and they longed for somebody, somebody like Jesus who they'd 00:07:16.680 --> 00:07:22.079 heard about, to have mercy, to have pity on them. 00:07:22.079 --> 00:07:32.240 And so we find that Jesus simply gives them a command, go and show yourselves to the priests. 00:07:32.240 --> 00:07:37.399 Now they would have known what that meant, we sometimes wonder, why did they say that? 00:07:37.399 --> 00:07:48.039 Because when a leper did receive healing miraculously, and I guess in some instances presumably they 00:07:48.040 --> 00:07:57.000 were healed in other ways, but when they were healed they had to go to the priest to be declared 00:07:57.000 --> 00:08:03.520 clean, because they were unclean, and the priest was able to tell whether the leprosy 00:08:03.520 --> 00:08:10.920 had been cured and was able to grant them a bill of health from the priest. 00:08:10.920 --> 00:08:15.200 And the great, it's a really interesting story, because we're told that that's what 00:08:15.199 --> 00:08:24.839 Jesus says, and it just then says, as they went, they were cleansed, just as they were 00:08:24.839 --> 00:08:25.839 going. 00:08:25.839 --> 00:08:33.279 So they went to the priest in obedience to Jesus' command, and as they were going, they 00:08:33.279 --> 00:08:34.279 were cleansed. 00:08:34.279 --> 00:08:39.720 So as they were walking towards the priest to get the, what they presumed would have 00:08:39.720 --> 00:08:45.920 been a bill of health, presumably they went in faith obeying Jesus' command, but they 00:08:45.920 --> 00:08:49.040 were healed as they went out in obedience. 00:08:49.040 --> 00:08:58.040 Now that's a great mark of the power and of the miraculous healing that Jesus was able 00:08:58.040 --> 00:09:00.399 to do. 00:09:00.399 --> 00:09:07.560 And we're told that one of them, immediately, one of them, when he saw he was healed, turned 00:09:07.559 --> 00:09:13.239 back, praising God with a loud voice, and he fell in his face at Jesus' feet and gave 00:09:13.239 --> 00:09:16.799 thanks, and he was a Samaritan. 00:09:16.799 --> 00:09:17.799 One returned immediately. 00:09:17.799 --> 00:09:24.199 I'll say a little bit more about that in a minute. 00:09:24.199 --> 00:09:27.919 But take note also that it was a Samaritan that returned. 00:09:27.919 --> 00:09:31.679 We're not sure of the ethnic background of all the others. 00:09:31.679 --> 00:09:34.559 The presumption is that they were Jews. 00:09:34.559 --> 00:09:39.039 This guy was a Samaritan who was doubly ostracized. 00:09:39.039 --> 00:09:43.439 He was doubly on the outside in that society. 00:09:43.439 --> 00:09:52.679 He was the most rejected, but he was the most thankful, and he immediately returns back 00:09:52.679 --> 00:09:53.679 to Jesus. 00:09:53.679 --> 00:10:04.519 Now I believe that the major teaching of this passage here is the importance of thanksgiving. 00:10:04.519 --> 00:10:10.079 The, where it's placed in the chapter, and we'll look at that in a moment, it's in the 00:10:10.079 --> 00:10:15.759 context of the need for healing in our lives and the need for God's mercy and the reality 00:10:15.759 --> 00:10:24.039 of being made well by God spiritually as believers, the importance of expressed, committed 00:10:24.039 --> 00:10:26.519 gratitude. 00:10:26.519 --> 00:10:28.559 Jesus speaks into this situation. 00:10:28.559 --> 00:10:37.000 He heals and one returns with thankfulness, and Jesus speaks into that, because I think 00:10:37.000 --> 00:10:42.399 what we have here is a little unpacking of Jesus' mind when he is involved in this. 00:10:42.399 --> 00:10:47.239 There's physical, mental and spiritual energy has been given out by Jesus Christ in this 00:10:47.239 --> 00:10:55.639 healing, and he sees the guys going off, and they're healed by Him, and one of them returns. 00:10:55.639 --> 00:11:01.679 And then Jesus says, we're not ten cleansed? 00:11:01.679 --> 00:11:06.840 Well, where are the nine? 00:11:06.840 --> 00:11:09.559 Where's everyone else? 00:11:09.559 --> 00:11:16.639 What was no one found to return and praise God, except this foreigner? 00:11:16.639 --> 00:11:21.000 Or to give God the glory, could be translated. 00:11:21.000 --> 00:11:24.600 And he says, and rise up, go your way, your faith has made you well. 00:11:24.600 --> 00:11:28.080 It's really interesting words. 00:11:28.080 --> 00:11:33.680 But the interesting theme here is that Christ can't hide His disappointment. 00:11:33.680 --> 00:11:36.840 Christ can't hide His disappointment, the only one came back. 00:11:36.840 --> 00:11:39.600 He knew they were going to be healed. 00:11:39.600 --> 00:11:44.480 And it wasn't a kind of selfish peak, oh, I've done this great miracle, and I've come 00:11:44.480 --> 00:11:45.480 back. 00:11:45.480 --> 00:11:51.560 It's not that He's kind of hurt in the way that we sometimes are hurt when people don't 00:11:51.560 --> 00:11:53.279 return thanks to us. 00:11:53.279 --> 00:11:59.839 But He's disappointed because what He has done has been for God and for the glory of 00:11:59.839 --> 00:12:07.399 God, and no one found a return here to praise God, to give glory to God as a matter of urgency. 00:12:07.399 --> 00:12:11.839 You see, it's very interesting because the context of this passage and of the passages 00:12:11.839 --> 00:12:18.079 around about it is Jesus speaking into the lives of the Jewish leaders of the day and 00:12:18.079 --> 00:12:21.559 the Jewish people, and their response to Christ. 00:12:21.559 --> 00:12:25.439 They had all the privileges, they had all the blessings, they had all the background 00:12:25.439 --> 00:12:30.359 covenant of the Old Testament, and yet they didn't love Christ and serve Christ and thank 00:12:30.359 --> 00:12:31.359 Him. 00:12:31.359 --> 00:12:34.959 They rejected Him, and that's very much the background, but He's walking up to Jerusalem, 00:12:34.959 --> 00:12:39.359 He's going to go there to be crucified. 00:12:39.359 --> 00:12:45.719 The other nine, who the presumption is that they were Jewish, rather than the Samaritan, 00:12:45.720 --> 00:12:52.200 the other nine were more concerned about going forward to the priest, and all that that represented 00:12:52.200 --> 00:12:59.600 for them as a culture, as a religious people, than coming back immediately to thank Christ. 00:12:59.600 --> 00:13:09.480 You see, going to the priest was for them, it was the golden nugget, it was the benanzas, 00:13:09.480 --> 00:13:12.960 it was the bingo for them to go to the priest, because if they went to the priest and were 00:13:12.960 --> 00:13:19.040 declared clean, they were no longer ostracized, they were accepted within their religion, 00:13:19.040 --> 00:13:23.600 they were accepted within their community, and therefore what we see is they were more 00:13:23.600 --> 00:13:29.800 concerned with the horizontal benefits that the healing brought than the vertical thanks 00:13:29.800 --> 00:13:31.320 to God. 00:13:31.320 --> 00:13:37.200 They were more concerned that all of the benefits of being healed would bring to them in their 00:13:37.200 --> 00:13:43.879 community, in their culture, in their family, and that's not a bad thing, but it is if it 00:13:43.879 --> 00:13:51.960 trumps Christ, if it trumps God, if God is relegated and ignored as a result. 00:13:51.960 --> 00:13:58.280 There was so much reason for them, not just to give thanks, or not just to go to the priest 00:13:58.280 --> 00:14:04.320 to be made clean, or to be declared clean, but to give thanks to God. 00:14:04.320 --> 00:14:13.280 They were cleansed from their leprosy, they'd been shown amazing mercy by Jesus Christ. 00:14:13.280 --> 00:14:18.800 The interesting question is which I can't answer, but which you may have asked, or you 00:14:18.800 --> 00:14:27.720 may not have, depending on the way your mind works, were they healed spiritually, or was 00:14:27.720 --> 00:14:32.960 only the one who came back, brought into relationship with Christ? 00:14:32.960 --> 00:14:38.639 They were all healed physically, they all did do what they were asked at one level, 00:14:38.639 --> 00:14:39.639 but none of them returned back. 00:14:39.639 --> 00:14:46.800 And it's interesting that Jesus says, rise and go your way, your faith has made you well. 00:14:46.800 --> 00:14:56.720 And that's a different word from being made clean. 00:14:56.720 --> 00:15:02.240 The root of that word for being made well is you've been saved. 00:15:02.240 --> 00:15:03.240 You've been delivered. 00:15:03.240 --> 00:15:08.399 It's ordinarily used of God at rescuing people from their sin. 00:15:08.399 --> 00:15:13.560 So it does seem that there is a little evidence in the text that potentially this guy was 00:15:13.560 --> 00:15:16.600 the only one who really understood things. 00:15:16.600 --> 00:15:22.000 And while the others received a physical healing, that he received both a physical and that 00:15:22.000 --> 00:15:26.000 shalom, that wellness that Jesus alone can bring. 00:15:26.000 --> 00:15:30.840 Christ can't hide His disappointment. 00:15:30.840 --> 00:15:37.600 And the question is for us, you know, for ourselves, this morning, do we give glory 00:15:37.600 --> 00:15:43.560 to God for our health, for our family, for our community? 00:15:43.560 --> 00:15:45.879 Who gets the glory in our lives? 00:15:45.879 --> 00:15:51.080 Who's the one we look to and give thanks for our breath this morning? 00:15:51.080 --> 00:15:56.560 For the ability to put on our clothes, to come here, to go from here, to do whatever 00:15:56.560 --> 00:15:57.560 we will do. 00:15:57.560 --> 00:15:58.759 Does God give the glory? 00:15:58.759 --> 00:16:04.679 Do we praise and thank Him for every iota of life that we receive? 00:16:04.679 --> 00:16:12.240 Or is it so often for us when our prayers are answered that we forget to come back to 00:16:12.240 --> 00:16:16.919 God and give thanks to Him for the answers He's given us? 00:16:16.919 --> 00:16:19.720 We only need Him, in other words, when we need Him. 00:16:19.720 --> 00:16:22.200 He's the fourth emergency service. 00:16:22.200 --> 00:16:24.319 He's the one we go to when we're in desperate need. 00:16:24.320 --> 00:16:31.160 But the rest of the time, we just walk away healed, thankless, silent before Him. 00:16:31.160 --> 00:16:37.080 That is the great challenge, isn't it, and the great temptation for us, for each of us. 00:16:37.080 --> 00:16:45.320 And in terms of our priority in lives, it's easy for our priority to be the vertical relationships 00:16:45.320 --> 00:16:50.360 we have, the acceptance in our culture and our community, even in our church. 00:16:50.360 --> 00:16:55.080 You know, God forbid it can be the case that we can matter more about the congregation than 00:16:55.080 --> 00:17:02.399 about Jesus being accepted in church, being part of the church, being declared a member, 00:17:02.399 --> 00:17:08.599 whatever it might be, is our standing, our horizontal standing with others, more significant 00:17:08.599 --> 00:17:15.680 than our vertical relationship of giving glory and praise to God. 00:17:15.680 --> 00:17:23.840 Is there disappointment in the voice of Jesus when He says, well, where are you? 00:17:23.840 --> 00:17:28.440 When did you last come back in prayer and thanksgiving? 00:17:28.440 --> 00:17:36.720 But for all I've given you today, for all you received, did you thank me? 00:17:36.720 --> 00:17:44.400 I realized that in a very sobering way this week when I got a text. 00:17:44.400 --> 00:17:50.440 I was up north and I got a text, or not a text, an email checking my emails, bad, and 00:17:50.440 --> 00:17:53.320 I'm on holiday, shouldn't do it. 00:17:53.320 --> 00:17:57.640 But anyway, it was an email from a contact we have in one of the churches, one of the 00:17:57.640 --> 00:18:05.440 churches that supports Esk Valley, particularly Orlando Church in Florida, and it was an email 00:18:05.440 --> 00:18:15.320 from their missions director saying they were giving us another 110,000 dollars for church 00:18:15.320 --> 00:18:21.799 planting in Esk Valley, in Harrington, and for a mission to support a missions director 00:18:21.799 --> 00:18:25.360 in some kind of way. 00:18:25.360 --> 00:18:30.759 And I was gobbled smacked and thrilled and excited and I texted people and I passed 00:18:30.759 --> 00:18:37.920 it on and it wasn't until this morning I thought I didn't even pray and give thanks 00:18:37.920 --> 00:18:38.920 to God. 00:18:38.920 --> 00:18:44.480 And I've prayed all year that God would show that He wants us to move forward, He wants 00:18:44.480 --> 00:18:50.960 us to carry on this work that we're doing as well, and we receive more than the gratitude 00:18:50.960 --> 00:18:57.240 and grace that we ever deserve, forget to give thanks. 00:18:57.240 --> 00:19:06.200 Descending reality and a recognition of the selfishness that lies very much in my heart. 00:19:06.200 --> 00:19:13.440 But we see also in this passage just briefly that gratitude always reflects a true understanding 00:19:13.440 --> 00:19:16.019 of grace. 00:19:16.019 --> 00:19:17.519 Because the context always matters. 00:19:17.519 --> 00:19:26.279 Did you notice the reflection from this morning, from Tim Keller on your bulletin sheet was 00:19:26.279 --> 00:19:30.639 it is one thing to be grateful, it's another to give thanks. 00:19:30.639 --> 00:19:35.720 A gratitude is what you feel, thanksgiving is what you do. 00:19:35.720 --> 00:19:37.200 And the two are linked together. 00:19:37.200 --> 00:19:46.799 So the thankfulness of our heart is reflective of our understanding of grace and also of 00:19:46.799 --> 00:19:48.960 our life of obedience to Christ. 00:19:48.960 --> 00:19:55.720 Because our life of obedience reflects a thankful heart, you know? 00:19:55.720 --> 00:19:59.480 That's the formula, if we can speak about it. 00:19:59.480 --> 00:20:03.799 If we are thankful, that's reflected in the way that we live our lives. 00:20:03.799 --> 00:20:07.559 We see that in the context of the chapter. 00:20:07.559 --> 00:20:12.759 You know, Luke puts this, pack this story of thanksgiving in the context of how we live 00:20:12.759 --> 00:20:13.759 our lives. 00:20:13.759 --> 00:20:15.519 And there's different ways. 00:20:15.519 --> 00:20:20.880 The beginning, verses 1 to 3, is by watching how we live. 00:20:20.880 --> 00:20:26.080 If we are thankful to Jesus for what He has done for us, then He says, be careful how you 00:20:26.080 --> 00:20:27.480 live among other people. 00:20:27.480 --> 00:20:31.640 He says, temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one who is coming. 00:20:31.640 --> 00:20:34.920 It would be better from a millstone we're hung around His neck than cast His heat, than 00:20:34.920 --> 00:20:37.800 He should cause one of these little ones to sin. 00:20:37.800 --> 00:20:43.560 So in the context of the gospel community and our lives as Christians, if we are causing 00:20:43.560 --> 00:20:46.280 other people, it's a very unfashionable thought today. 00:20:46.280 --> 00:20:49.560 We're all very cool and individualistic in many ways. 00:20:49.559 --> 00:20:55.799 But it's very unfashionable to speak about living our lives in such a way that is controlled 00:20:55.799 --> 00:20:57.559 so that we don't cause other people to sin. 00:20:57.559 --> 00:21:02.039 But we say, hey, I've got freedom, I can do whatever I like. 00:21:02.039 --> 00:21:04.319 I can do this and that and the next thing. 00:21:04.319 --> 00:21:07.440 And if they take offense then that's just because they're just jerks. 00:21:07.440 --> 00:21:10.839 Well, then that's not what we're to think in Christ. 00:21:10.839 --> 00:21:17.559 In Christ we're to recognize, and with thankfulness recognize, how He has changed us therefore 00:21:17.559 --> 00:21:23.039 and His patience with us, therefore our patience with living with others and our carefulness 00:21:23.039 --> 00:21:31.399 about how we interact, especially, as can I say, especially as grown-ups with children 00:21:31.399 --> 00:21:36.000 among the young who causes one of these little ones to sin or as mature Christians with 00:21:36.000 --> 00:21:42.359 Christians who have just come to faith, that we have to lead them in a godly place, in 00:21:42.359 --> 00:21:44.440 a godly way. 00:21:44.440 --> 00:21:50.320 And if we don't, we seek forgiveness for that and we look to change our own lives. 00:21:50.320 --> 00:21:57.759 And within that, if we are thankful what grace has done for us, we forgive beyond reason. 00:21:57.759 --> 00:22:01.680 If your brother sins rebuking him, if he repents, forgive him, sin seven times. 00:22:01.680 --> 00:22:04.360 Forgive him seven times. 00:22:04.360 --> 00:22:09.720 This speaks about an openness within the community, doesn't it, that we're willing to speak to 00:22:09.720 --> 00:22:13.840 one another about sins and be forgiven and forgive. 00:22:13.839 --> 00:22:19.319 If we are thankful and recognize how much we have been forgiven, the immeasurable patience 00:22:19.319 --> 00:22:24.679 of the living God towards us daily, then we take that forgiving spirit into the church. 00:22:24.679 --> 00:22:29.759 Isn't it sad that sometimes the church is the most unforgiving place in the community? 00:22:29.759 --> 00:22:32.199 It's the harshest place. 00:22:32.199 --> 00:22:38.159 It's a place where people sit and think they're God and want to judge other people. 00:22:38.159 --> 00:22:41.279 God's on my side, I know what's right. 00:22:41.279 --> 00:22:42.480 So I judge you. 00:22:42.480 --> 00:22:50.240 But shouldn't it be the most forgiving and gracious and kind place in the universe? 00:22:50.240 --> 00:22:53.920 We forgive beyond reason when we are thankful in our hearts. 00:22:53.920 --> 00:22:59.839 But also that thankfulness recognizes the impossibility of faith. 00:22:59.839 --> 00:23:04.160 He speaks there about the disciples saying, well, increase our faith. 00:23:04.160 --> 00:23:07.920 And the Lord said, if you had faith the size of a grain of mustard seed, you would say, 00:23:07.920 --> 00:23:08.920 be up reeded and planted. 00:23:08.920 --> 00:23:11.200 And then the saying, it would obey you. 00:23:11.200 --> 00:23:19.279 It's a recognition that not only is the life of faith impossible, but that He provides 00:23:19.279 --> 00:23:22.039 us with the ability to live that life of faith. 00:23:22.039 --> 00:23:25.240 And that's a great reason for thanksgiving. 00:23:25.240 --> 00:23:29.600 What He's asking us, He's asking you to do, asking me to do, to be a forgiving and gracious 00:23:29.600 --> 00:23:35.080 and kind person, it's impossible to our natural minds sometimes, because sometimes we love 00:23:35.079 --> 00:23:42.559 to harbor a sense of injustice and unfairness in our hearts. 00:23:42.559 --> 00:23:45.759 And we think, I can't possibly forgive that person. 00:23:45.759 --> 00:23:49.039 And He says, well, actually you can. 00:23:49.039 --> 00:23:54.839 Because I command you to do the impossible, but I provide you with the ability, the indwelling 00:23:54.839 --> 00:23:57.119 spirit to do that. 00:23:57.119 --> 00:23:59.319 We're not alone. 00:23:59.319 --> 00:24:03.480 You know what it's like when you're asked to do something impossible for you and you 00:24:03.480 --> 00:24:10.440 can't do it, maybe it's woodturning or maybe it's working a computer or that's me working 00:24:10.440 --> 00:24:11.440 a computer. 00:24:11.440 --> 00:24:16.240 So I do, I ask Ali to come in, you know, and He helps me, I ask a woodturner to come. 00:24:16.240 --> 00:24:20.480 And they show me what to do. 00:24:20.480 --> 00:24:23.880 They come alongside and they help. 00:24:23.880 --> 00:24:28.839 And it's greater than that for the Christian, the Holy Spirit actually empowers us. 00:24:28.839 --> 00:24:34.720 He's the counselor who comes alongside, but He actually empowers us to do the impossible, 00:24:34.720 --> 00:24:37.079 to be like Jesus. 00:24:37.079 --> 00:24:40.639 We're asked to be like Jesus. 00:24:40.639 --> 00:24:48.079 And that thankfulness is also what gives us a servant spirit in chapters, verses 7, it 00:24:48.079 --> 00:24:51.679 speaks about the servant and having a servant spirit. 00:24:51.679 --> 00:24:57.639 It's kind of alien to our understanding and our culture to talk about a servant and a 00:24:57.640 --> 00:25:00.720 servant spirit because we don't have servants. 00:25:00.720 --> 00:25:03.280 I'm going to say nothing. 00:25:03.280 --> 00:25:07.000 Well, we were to have a servant spirit, you know. 00:25:07.000 --> 00:25:12.480 I think it's what Jesus tried to get across here is that if we have a lack of thankfulness, 00:25:12.480 --> 00:25:16.160 it's because we have a different expectation of God. 00:25:16.160 --> 00:25:23.280 We really expect God to be thanking us that He's indebted to us. 00:25:23.279 --> 00:25:29.319 Well, God, it's the 30th of December and I got up for church for 11. 00:25:29.319 --> 00:25:35.759 You should be really grateful, God, and thankful that I'm so committed and I've done that. 00:25:35.759 --> 00:25:36.759 Thank you. 00:25:36.759 --> 00:25:41.119 Please say thank you, God, to me because of what I've done. 00:25:41.119 --> 00:25:46.759 And you should be grateful for all I do for you, how much I give and how much I read and 00:25:46.759 --> 00:25:48.799 how much knowledge I've got. 00:25:48.799 --> 00:25:52.799 Are you thankful to me, God, for all of these things? 00:25:52.799 --> 00:25:55.519 Are you going to jump to my tune? 00:25:55.519 --> 00:25:59.359 No, I know that's, I'm exaggerating. 00:25:59.359 --> 00:26:07.159 But sometimes that's how we see God in that place. 00:26:07.159 --> 00:26:15.839 We don't see Him as God and the one to whom ultimately when we've done our very best in 00:26:15.839 --> 00:26:22.279 Christ at the end of our lives, we can only say, well, we're only unworthy servants. 00:26:22.279 --> 00:26:29.480 You've given us everything and you're God. 00:26:29.480 --> 00:26:37.240 And the amazing thing is when we see God as God of the New Testament, of the Bible, paradoxically, 00:26:37.240 --> 00:26:46.440 we recognize Him as the great God who actually came to serve, who Himself became a servant, 00:26:46.440 --> 00:26:53.039 who washed the disciples' feet, who died in the cross, and that is what enables us to 00:26:53.039 --> 00:27:02.960 have a servant spirit because He's not this kind of distant, iconic figure that we fear 00:27:02.960 --> 00:27:11.240 with fear rather than with awe, who is unattainable and far from us demanding. 00:27:11.240 --> 00:27:18.240 He's rather this God who came and emptied Himself and became a servant and that when 00:27:18.240 --> 00:27:24.720 we have the gratitude to recognize that, then it helps us to have a servant spirit ourselves 00:27:24.720 --> 00:27:30.720 with others, seeing the beauty of grace and God. 00:27:30.720 --> 00:27:34.720 And it also, lastly, challenges our small mindedness. 00:27:34.720 --> 00:27:40.440 Jesus interestingly points to this fact that at the end of the story, or the end of the 00:27:40.440 --> 00:27:48.440 account of the 10 lepers, He said that 10 clans, only one found this Samaritan. 00:27:48.440 --> 00:27:54.880 And that's very interesting because Christ was living and preaching in the context of 00:27:54.880 --> 00:28:04.720 religious pride and a perceived theological superiority and a cultural insularity against 00:28:04.720 --> 00:28:08.840 Samaritans and against other Gentiles in general. 00:28:08.839 --> 00:28:10.799 And that's what Samaritans in particular. 00:28:10.799 --> 00:28:19.159 In the next chapter, chapter 18 and verse 11, He highlights that again, good teacher, 00:28:19.159 --> 00:28:23.240 the Pharisee in verse 9, the Pharisee and the tax collector, and the Pharisee standing 00:28:23.240 --> 00:28:29.079 beside the tax collector and saying, God, I thank You that I am not like other men, I'm 00:28:29.079 --> 00:28:33.759 not extortioners, unjust adults, or even like this tax collector I fast twice a week. 00:28:33.759 --> 00:28:41.599 There's a bit of humor in that, that God is giving us this amazing contrast between the 00:28:41.599 --> 00:28:45.000 Pharisee and the tax collector here. 00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:50.759 And He's highlighting this continual pride and thanklessness. 00:28:50.759 --> 00:28:53.960 They were thankful, but for the wrong reasons. 00:28:53.960 --> 00:28:57.400 They were saying, I thank You, Lord, that I'm not like other people. 00:28:57.400 --> 00:29:05.120 That's not the kind of thankfulness He's looking for us, looking for from us. 00:29:05.120 --> 00:29:09.840 Thankful for all the wrong reasons, a complete misunderstanding of grace and of our own hearts 00:29:09.840 --> 00:29:13.920 and of the amazing gentleness and grace of God. 00:29:13.920 --> 00:29:20.120 So the miracle here was very much a sign that the gospel and grace was to the Gentiles 00:29:20.120 --> 00:29:22.360 and not just to the Jews. 00:29:22.360 --> 00:29:25.040 The grace of God was for the outsider. 00:29:25.039 --> 00:29:29.240 The Samaritan leper, there was no one who was more on the, he was the very worst outsider 00:29:29.240 --> 00:29:34.480 religiously and culturally and socially and medically in every other way. 00:29:34.480 --> 00:29:40.759 And we praise God that this is a picture of what Jesus does by His grace for the outsider. 00:29:40.759 --> 00:29:47.480 And you and I, when we understand grace, understand that we were outsiders. 00:29:47.480 --> 00:29:55.120 We were outsiders from God and His grace and were in darkness and in separation from Him. 00:29:55.120 --> 00:29:59.720 And again, go back to Job just briefly, what I was reading in Job. 00:29:59.720 --> 00:30:02.720 Job understood that when he felt separated from God. 00:30:02.720 --> 00:30:04.680 He explained it in these terms. 00:30:04.680 --> 00:30:12.319 Darkness, despair, separation, darkness, darkness, darkness, night. 00:30:12.319 --> 00:30:14.200 Outside, you know, on the outside. 00:30:14.200 --> 00:30:18.759 You know, this time of year, the lovely picture of being inside the Christmas party, the New 00:30:18.759 --> 00:30:23.440 Year's party, the lights, the warmth, the fire, being there, being part of it. 00:30:23.440 --> 00:30:26.880 Being outside is in the darkness. 00:30:26.880 --> 00:30:33.920 And that's the picture that of our condition until we come to Jesus Christ and the Samaritan 00:30:33.920 --> 00:30:35.960 is a picture of that. 00:30:35.960 --> 00:30:42.680 We come to recognize that we've been brought inside, into the family of God and belong to 00:30:42.680 --> 00:30:43.680 Him. 00:30:43.680 --> 00:30:49.039 But we're reminded today in this last section when He speaks about the Samaritan that we 00:30:49.039 --> 00:30:54.759 have no, in our thankful hearts, we can have no place for religious pride and snobbery. 00:30:54.759 --> 00:30:57.400 That we are any better than anybody else. 00:30:57.400 --> 00:31:04.519 That we in the church, or we in our denomination, or we in our nation are better than others. 00:31:04.519 --> 00:31:06.799 Grace simply doesn't allow that. 00:31:06.799 --> 00:31:10.960 Theological superiority, denominational pride. 00:31:10.960 --> 00:31:14.160 There's so much to learn from other people. 00:31:14.160 --> 00:31:19.360 We are not as a denomination or as a congregation of God's chosen people. 00:31:19.360 --> 00:31:24.000 We belong to a chosen people that are from every nation and tongue and tribe and every 00:31:24.000 --> 00:31:27.440 part of the world and globe. 00:31:27.440 --> 00:31:34.759 And we need to be aware, as Christ was speaking about, of a faracic cultural insularity inside 00:31:34.759 --> 00:31:41.839 our talk as Christians, us deciding who we think should accept Christ, we're not judging 00:31:41.839 --> 00:31:47.400 those who we are to love and those who we choose to hate, who we will embrace and those 00:31:47.400 --> 00:31:49.920 that we will ostracize. 00:31:49.920 --> 00:31:54.599 It's such a radical message, the gospel. 00:31:54.599 --> 00:31:58.200 Let's not tame it as we move into 2019. 00:31:58.200 --> 00:31:59.200 Such a great challenge. 00:31:59.200 --> 00:32:03.559 You've got so many privileges and blessings and each of us. 00:32:03.559 --> 00:32:09.519 God has been so generous and so kind to us, even in our darkest moments. 00:32:09.519 --> 00:32:15.919 He says, I will not leave you and I will not abandon you. 00:32:15.919 --> 00:32:22.960 And let us be that gospel community, that people who have reflect as we do and as we 00:32:22.960 --> 00:32:30.079 strive to do and even when we fail to do, reflect a genuine understanding of grace through 00:32:30.079 --> 00:32:33.440 that spirit of thankful dependence. 00:32:33.440 --> 00:32:37.799 Going back daily to Jesus and saying, thank you, Jesus. 00:32:37.799 --> 00:32:39.440 Thank you for who you are. 00:32:39.440 --> 00:32:41.360 Thank you for what you've given me. 00:32:41.360 --> 00:32:43.880 Thank you that I am saved by your grace. 00:32:43.880 --> 00:32:45.559 Thank you for all the people around me. 00:32:45.559 --> 00:32:46.840 Thank you for all who serve. 00:32:46.840 --> 00:32:54.480 Thank you for all the different gifts and thank you for being made well, for being rescued 00:32:54.480 --> 00:33:00.640 and for a future, an unparalleled future that I can't even begin to imagine. 00:33:00.640 --> 00:33:01.640 Amen. 00:33:01.640 --> 00:33:03.759 Let's pray. 00:33:03.759 --> 00:33:08.000 Father God, help us to live for you and serve you and love you. 00:33:08.000 --> 00:33:13.200 Help us to see the amazing clarity of the message that Jesus brought. 00:33:13.200 --> 00:33:15.680 May we not be guilty. 00:33:15.680 --> 00:33:22.960 I know I am anyway of often being thankless. 00:33:22.960 --> 00:33:27.880 Help us to come to you and ask for forgiveness for that. 00:33:27.880 --> 00:33:35.480 And to be people who go to you first with thankful hearts before thinking of our relationships 00:33:35.480 --> 00:33:40.440 with others and their acceptance and belonging and identity in any other community or any 00:33:40.440 --> 00:33:48.960 other family context or even marriage that we would see and understand that you alone 00:33:48.960 --> 00:33:50.480 make us well. 00:33:50.480 --> 00:33:57.760 And to know that shalom of God in our hearts and that peace of Christ that passes all understanding. 00:33:57.759 --> 00:34:02.440 Help us to know that at the end of this year and may we vow to go into a new year with 00:34:02.440 --> 00:34:08.559 a passion and a desire for you and a thankfulness that is reflective of an understanding of 00:34:08.559 --> 00:34:13.480 grace that may be new and exciting and radical for us today. 00:34:13.480 --> 00:34:15.119 May that be the case. 00:34:15.119 --> 00:34:21.480 We know we have accepted as we come that Jesus Christ has paid the price that He has taken 00:34:21.480 --> 00:34:28.800 the cost and borne the wrath of sin and darkness and separation. 00:34:28.800 --> 00:34:34.719 So much so that the symbol of that is given in the darkness of the cross at noon for three 00:34:34.719 --> 00:34:35.719 hours. 00:34:35.719 --> 00:34:41.199 The world is plunged into darkness as He takes on the sin that sets us free. 00:34:41.199 --> 00:34:43.159 Lord, we thank You for that today. 00:34:43.159 --> 00:34:49.880 Bless us, we pray, as we sing our parting song of thanks to God for Jesus' sake. 00:34:49.880 --> 00:34:50.880 Amen. 00:34:50.880 --> 00:34:51.880 Amen.