Thanksgiving by Faith

Luke 17:11–19 ESV

On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”

(pause)

A mother took her two small children Christmas shopping and as a special treat took them to a restaurant for lunch. They clambered up on two stools at the crowded lunch counter and ordered French fries and strawberry sodas.

As soon as they were served, they each grabbed a French fry, popped them into their mouths, then reached out for the sodas.

Suddenly her son Chris called out, "Tammy, we forgot the blessing," and immediately, the two heads bowed and their small voices rang out clearly,

"Thank you for the world so sweet. Thank you for the food we eat. Thank you for the birds that sing. Thank you, Lord, for everything. Amen."

As the little prayer progressed, the hubbub around the counter ceased. The lady sitting next to them about to light a cigarette, snapped the lighter shut; forks and spoons were poised, and even the girl frying the hamburgers stood still--

all of this observed from the half-bowed head and partially closed eyes of the somewhat ill-at-ease mother. (Linton)

Does that story sound familiar to you? Have you ever been almost embarrassed to pray over your food? To our rational, sophisticated minds praying over our food doesn't seem that important, does it?

Why pray? Why should we make a spectacle of ourselves? God knows that we are thankful. We can thank Him in our hearts. Our scripture that we are studying today speaks to us about being thankful.

But this scripture does not teach us merely to politely express thankfulness or to pray before our meal. Rather, we see a much deeper level of thanksgiving noted by our scripture.

Our scripture opens by telling us that Jesus was traveling on his way to Jerusalem. At this point, he was between Samaria and Galilee. Samaria, of course, was despised by the Jews. Samaria was the home of half-breeds, who practiced a fake religion.

Galilee was an interesting part of Israel. It was part of this land that King Solomon had given to King Hiram of Tyre as repayment for cypress wood. King Hiram called it land of Cabul - good for nothing.

After the Assyrians conquered the northern kingdom of Israel, Jews basically abandoned this area for hundreds of years as they focused on rebuilding Jerusalem and Judea. And so various peoples of other ethnicities settled in the land.

About a hundred years before Christ was born, there was a concerted effort by Jews to inhabit the land. But truly, in Jesus' time Galilee was considered suspect by strict Jews because of the influence of other nations on this area.

Maybe this influence of other ethnicities explains to a degree why the Samaritan leper was allowed to live with the nine Jewish lepers. Of course, when one is desperately sick, things like race and ethnicity typically lose their importance.

Regardless, one day Jesus came walking through this region on his way to Jerusalem. Somehow these lepers heard about his coming and his healing of many other people. They wanted to be healed, as well.

As proper, these lepers stood at a distance and yelled at Jesus, asking for healing. Look at how they addressed Jesus. They called him, "Jesus, Master."

This might suggest to us today that they believed Jesus was God, but was probably more a title of respect than any great indicator of spiritual understanding.

Jesus was willing to heal the lepers. But instead of demonstrating their healing right there, Jesus told the lepers to show themselves to the priests as confirmation that they had been healed.

This was the proper way according to Jewish law and custom for a person who had leprosy and had been healed - or thought he had been healed - to be recognized by the community as healed.

It is interesting. Even though at that point the lepers had not yet been healed (at least visibly), Jesus told them to go to the priest as if they had been healed! Do you see what Jesus was doing? He was asking the lepers to demonstrate their faith in God!

You know the story. Along the way, the lepers realized that they had been healed. Nine of them kept on going - somewhere. We must assume they went to the priest. But one returned.

There has been much said about the thinking and motivations of those who did not return. Were they doing their best to follow Jesus' command to the letter? Were they only trying to follow Jewish law?

Or, did they assume that their healing was deserved because they were Jews? What excuses did they think of as to why they could not or should not return to give a simple thank-you to Jesus?

Yet our scripture suggests the reason why the nine did not return, but the one did, had do to with more than simply being courteous and giving thanks to Jesus.

Yes, our scripture indicates the reason the Samaritan returned to give thanks to Jesus was because his thanksgiving was inspired by faith. What do I mean by this? What is faith-inspired thanksgiving?

We recognize that this one man's thanksgiving was inspired by faith, firstly because …

1. We accept the blessings of our lives as God’s blessings to us, v. 15.

Luke 17:15 ESV

Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice;

Why didn't the other lepers, the nine Jews, also return and give thanks to Jesus?

(pause)

It is hard to tell. Obviously, the fact that they did not return suggests a lack of gratitude.

But one could suppose that the other nine were merely intent on following Jesus' instructions. Maybe they thought they should obey His orders and then return to give thanks.

(pause)

That is a possible explanation. However, one would think scripture would record that they did eventually return.

The fact is, according to scripture, these men basically disappeared. You never hear of them again.

(pause)

Well, okay then, they were ungrateful wretches.

(pause)

But surely, don't you think they did recognize that these blessings were from God?

(pause)

It makes you wonder. The Samaritan returned, praising God. The implication from that scripture is that the other nine were not praising God. Maybe they just thought Jesus had some special powers.

Maybe they thought that a freak of nature had occurred and now they were healed. Maybe they thought that they deserved to be healed.

Who knows?

(pause)

Simply, the point here is that the Samaritan recognized his healing came from God, not from himself, not merely from Jesus (as a fellow human), not because of luck, nor because of something he had done to deserve it.

God had healed him!

Yes, this point may seem obvious. But the truth is that we often begin to think, when everything in life is going well, that we are the reason for our blessings.

We pride ourselves in our work ethic. We pride ourselves in education. We pride ourselves in our luck. We pride ourselves in knowing who to talk to, who to be friends of, etc. In other words, we pride ourselves in our political skills.

We forget the blessings of God. We overlook the fact that without God we would be nothing. Faith-inspired thanksgiving accepts the blessings of our lives as having come from God.

There is a book; I think it is one of the classics, that is about the start of the Revolutionary War. This book lets you see into the life of one of the patriot families. The father had this unique prayer.

Every time before eating, he would pray something like this: "Lord, I don't thank you for this food because this food was planted by me, cultivated by me, and harvested by me." His prayer was a boast to God of all that he had done.

May God help us never to become so prideful and presumptuous of the blessings God has bestowed upon us. Instead, let us be careful to give him thanks.

We recognize that the one leper - the Samaritan’s - thanksgiving was inspired by faith, secondly, because he…

2. We acknowledge the claim Christ puts on our lives, v. 16a.

Luke 17:16 ESV

and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet…

Why do we bow before others… if we do?

(pause)

We bow to indicate our submission. We bow before kings. At least, we bow before the King of kings.

Can you imagine greeting the president of the United States or some other world leader? Can you imagine talking to some high-powered athlete or politician or business leader?

When we are in the presence of such a person, we tend to show some deference to them.

(pause)

But when we come before the King of kings, I think our response will be automatic! Falling to the ground, we will prostrate ourselves before His majesty and glory!

When Jesus came to earth and became human flesh, he left the glories of Heaven behind. But those who recognized him for who He was and is - the King of kings - fell to the ground to worship Him!

Faith-inspired thanksgiving acknowledges the claim Christ puts on our lives.

Dr. James Kennedy developed a witnessing method called Evangelism Explosion. In his book about this method, Kennedy makes a careful distinction between saving faith and false faith.

He said that some people trust God for their temporal needs but do not trust in Christ as their Lord and Saviour. Dr. Kennedy's description of false faith perfectly fits the nine ungrateful lepers.

They trusted Christ to heal them of their leprosy, but they were unwilling to trust Him with their lives. Like the soldier on the battlefield who is pinned down by enemy gunfire, they asked God to get them out of their fix, but they never started living for God.

When life is falling apart, they start praying. Otherwise, they rely on their own brains and brawn. While this is primarily a description of the presumptuous sinner, we should realize that the devil also tempts Christians to begin relying upon themselves.

Satan would have us also become proud of our achievements and spirituality. He would like to get us to the place that the only time we really pray and trust God is in dire emergencies. He would like for us to delude ourselves thinking that we are trusting God while in reality we are relying upon ourselves.

In his book, On This Rock I Stand, Vance Havner wrote: "Of all the illusions and fantasies and farces of human history, the biggest mirage of all is what we call progress.

“Just because we split the atom and are back from the moon, we've given God His walking papers. We have decided we can work out our own salvation, and that science has the answer to sin."

Faith-inspired thanksgiving acknowledges the claim Christ puts on our lives.

We recognize that the one leper - the Samaritan’s - thanksgiving was inspired by faith, thirdly, because he…

3. We open our hearts to Christ from whom we receive complete wholeness, v. 19.

When the Samaritan returned, giving thanks to God, Jesus asked the man where the other nine were. Jesus then made the point that only this stranger, this foreigner, had returned to give glory to God.

Then Jesus said…

Luke 17:19 ESV

And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”

The Greek word is translated as "well" carries the meaning of “wholeness.” The ESV has a margin note that says this phrase could be translated that “your faith has saved you.”

In other words, while all ten lepers were healed, only this man was made whole. He was not merely healed of his physical malady, but he was also made spiritually whole. He was saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ!

I once heard of a man who went to the doctor with a limp in his leg. The doctor looked him over and said, "The problem is with your back."

This man began to argue with the doctor, saying that the problem was not his back, it was his leg. But finally the doctor took a needle and gave him an injection in his back.

The guy walked out of the doctor's office thinking that that doctor had it all wrong. Then he suddenly noticed that he was walking better! The pain was in his leg, but the problem was with his back!

It is interesting how more than once, Jesus did not immediately heal people of their physical illness, but rather offered forgiveness of sin.

One example of this is in the story of the paralyzed man who was let down through the ceiling of a house by his four friends. Jesus did not immediately heal that man, but instead first forgave him of his sins.

The man's real problem was his sin, not his paralyzed condition! Then Jesus told the man to get up and walk.

Similarly, in our story from Luke 17 we see that the man's deeper need was spiritual. And, because his thanksgiving was inspired by faith, this one man out of ten received wellness. He was saved!

When we are made well, then we can truly be thankful. But you notice that the Samaritan's thanksgiving began before he was made well. His thanksgiving was because of his faith in God. His faith in God resulted in complete wholeness.

It seems that everyone would wish to be completely whole today. If they heard it was possible, surely they would come and receive, right? Sadly, wrong.

Some are not willing to put their faith in God. They are not willing to surrender their lives to Christ. They stubbornly consider themselves capable of handling all their needs. They figure they can fill that aching need. If they can't, they try to ignore it.

Complete wellness or wholeness only comes as you put your trust in Christ. Millions have testified down the ages, "I would rather have Jesus, than anything this world affords." It is worth it all.

The Christian life seems to be quite a contradiction. For Jesus said, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me."

How can we find satisfaction by giving up everything we have accumulated in our search for satisfaction? Jesus said, “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

(pause)

Big Idea: Thanksgiving thrives when we fully trust God.

It is good to be thankful. It is good to express gratitude. It is the proper thing to do. Being thankful encourages others and it even lifts our own spirit.

But faith-inspired thanksgiving is on a different level entirely. Faith-inspired thanksgiving is the result of a deep trust in God, regardless of what God does or does not do.

Faith-inspired thanksgiving leads us to accept the blessings of our lives as God’s blessings to us. Faith-inspired thanksgiving leads us to acknowledge the claim Christ puts on our lives. Faith-inspired thanksgiving leads us to open our hearts to Christ from whom we receive complete wholeness.

“I do not have to thank anyone for anything I have,” an old miser grumbled. “Everything I have I got the hard way—by the sweat of my own brow.”

“But who gave you the sweat?” asked his neighbor. The old miser hung his head in guilty silence. He could not ignore the fact that God had given the “sweat,” the strength to work hard and gain material wealth.

Yes, everything that we are or that we possess is because of God’s lovingkindness. Therefore, it is good for us all to pause at least once a year and say, “Thank You, God.”

Actually, everyday should be one of thanksgiving. Why? Because of spiritual and material blessings.

Mrs. Green thanked Tom, the grocery boy, for delivering a loaf of bread.

“Do not thank me. Thank Grocer Jones,” Tom smiled. “He gave me the loaf to deliver.”

But when she thanked the grocer, he said, “I get the bread from Baker Brown. He makes it, so he deserves the thanks.”

So Mrs. Green thanked the baker. But he told her that Miller Milligan should be given the gratitude. “Without Miller Milligan’s flour, I could not make bread,” Brown replied.

The miller told her to thank Farmer Foster because he made the flour from Foster’s wheat.

But the farmer also protested, “Don’t thank me; thank God,” Foster said. “If He did not give my farm sunshine and rain, I could not grow wheat.”

Yes, even a common loaf of bread can be traced back to God, the Giver of “every good and perfect gift” (Josh. 1:17).

AMG Bible Illustrations. (2000). AMG Publishers.

As we celebrate Thanksgiving this week, let us recognize that the blessings of our lives are truly due to God. Let us acknowledge HIm as Creator, Lord, and God and open our hearts to Him to receive the wholeness that only comes by faith in Christ!