Sermon Tone Analysis

The Ungrateful Nine

The Ungrateful nine

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.”

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.”

Question: "What is divine healing?"

Answer: Divine healing involves a supernatural act, which resolves a physical, emotional or spiritual problem.

In a Christian context, the supernatural element is God, many times through the agency of the Holy Spirit.

Non-Christian Views on Divine Healing

Most of the major world religions believe in some sort of supernatural healing.

Islam uses Ruqya(incantations) to cure disease by countering black magic and casting out Jinn Jinn are any class of spirits, lower than the angels, capable to appearing in human and animal forms and influencing humankind for either good or evil.

Tibetan Buddhists employ Rig-pa, which includes elements of medicine, mantra and meditation.

Those who hold to modern pantheism, such as New Age philosophy or cosmic humanism, use a wide variety of techniques from ancient religions and the occult.

The constant among all of these views of divine healing is the necessity of ritual.

Healing, in the non-Christian religion’s view, requires a physical ritual to coerce a deity into action or to manipulate an impersonal healing force.

New Testament Divine Healing

Approximately one fifth of the Gospel narrative is devoted to Jesus’ healing ministry.

At the start of His ministry, Jesus “went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people” ().

Later, when Jesus sent His twelve disciples out to preach the gospel, He gave them authority to heal the sick ().

After Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, the apostles continued healing many ().

Acts records a number of healings by Peter, John, and Paul (19:12; 28:8-9).

Christian Divine Healing Today

Concerning divine healing today, there are a couple different schools of thought.

Some Christians believe the gift of healing () ceased along with the sign gift of tongues.

This position is called cessationism.

Other Christians believe all of the sign gifts are still in use today.

While we take the cessationist view, we do believe that God is still “the LORD who heals” ().

He has not lost His ability to heal, and His love for His people has not diminished.

Divine healing may come through traditional medicine or through direct intervention by God in response to prayer.

Or, if God wills, wholeness may not come until the ultimate healing in heaven.

God is the Great Physician, and all healing, physical, emotional, and spiritual, belongs to Him.

Christ Jesus being committed to our salvation and obedient to all that His Father had sent Him to do sets his face to go to Jerusalem; for in Jerusalem He will find pain, suffering, and also death, but we will receive healing, redemption, forgiveness, and saving faith.

But these lepers to whom He ministered to there do not receive him, they reject Him and showed no regard for Him.

The lepers accepted the gift of healing by faith but rejected the message of the cross, the gospel, and the messenger.

They were ungrateful and did not honor God as someone to be worshiped.

(1) How many of us in this sanctuary did not receive the message of the cross when it was first offered to us?

(2) How many of us rejected Christ Jesus because the cost to follow Him is too high?

(3) How many of us still do not regard Him as the Savior of the World and the only remedy that can grant us complete healing physically.

(4) How many of us have yet to accepted Jesus for our most important healing, which is spiritual?

(5) How many of us could be counted among the ungrateful nine?

"What does the Bible say about ingratitude/unthankfulness?"

Answer: The Bible says much about gratitude as well as the lack of it.

God knows how we are made, and He designed us to thrive when we are humble, moral, and thankful.

When we are arrogant, immoral, and ungrateful, we cannot have fellowship with Him, nor can we experience all it means to be created in the image of God.

So God included repeated commands in His Word about being thankful, reminding us that a grateful heart is a happy heart (; ; ).

Ingratitude, which is ungratfulness, is a sin with severe repercussions.

gives a detailed description of the downfall of a person or a society.

Listed alongside idolatry, homosexuality, and every kind of rebellion is ingratitude.

Verse 21 says, “Although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him.”

This tells us that God takes gratefulness—and ungratefulness—seriously.

As long as a person or a culture remains thankful to God, they retain sensitivity to His presence.

Thankfulness toward God requires a belief in God at the very least, and ingratitude fails to fulfill our responsibility to acknowledge.

When we refuse to be thankful or to express gratitude, we grow hard-hearted and proud.

We take for granted all God has given us and become our own gods.

Jesus’ healing of the ten lepers gives an example of how highly God values thankfulness.

Jesus healed all ten men, but only one returned to thank Him (verse 15).

The Bible specifically records that the thankful leper was not even a Jew.

He was a Samaritan, a fact that drove home the idea that Jews were not the only people who could reach the heart of God.

The Lord notices those who thank Him, regardless of socio-political status or level of spirituality.

His questions “Were not all ten cleansed?

Where are the other nine?” (verse 17) show His disappointment at the ingratitude of the majority.

describes what people will be like in the last days, and one characteristic is ingratitude.

, [2] For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, [3] heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, [4] treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, [5] having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power.

Avoid such people.

[6] For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, [7] always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.”

When pride and self-rule become fashionable, the human heart has no one to thank.

We become convinced of our own supremacy and consider all we have as a just reward for our efforts.

We are wise to heed Paul’s rhetorical questions “What do you have that you did not receive?

And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?” ().

Ingratitude toward God is not so much a cause of evil but the result of it.

Once we have hardened our hearts to the point that we no longer see God as the source of our gifts, nothing is off-limits.

We become a law unto ourselves.

One reason the Bible takes such a strong stance against ungratefulness may be that God knows that the end result of such arrogance is a reprobate mind ().

When we remind ourselves often that all we are and all we have is a gift from God (), we are guarding ourselves against idolatry and pride.

Let us pray…

Our text this morning teaches us that Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem, he was passing along between the boarders of Samaria and Galilee.

Jesus entered a village, on the outskirts of town; there ten lepers, who stood at a distance, and met him.

Leprosy was a term for a severe skin disease, which was highly contagious.

Leprosy would manifests itself not only in humans but also in their clothes, other personal articles, and even in the walls of houses.

Basic symptoms of a leprous disease are given in (the hair in the diseased area would turned white and the disease would appear to be deeper than the skin of their bodies).

People who had such an ailment would have to present themselves to the priest and he would pronounce if ailment were leprosy or another skin ailment.

By this means, the priest makes the status of uncleanness official.

If the person was found to be unclean then they must dwell outside the camp.

This pronouncement required such persons to live outside the camp until they are free of their disease (), and to present a sacrifice as part of a cleansing ceremony (14:1–32).

We should not confuse this kind of “uncleanness” with being “under God’s condemnation,” nor even with “excluded these people from the love of the community.”

The purpose of this law is to prevent what is unclean from coming into contact with what is holy (a contact that would be dangerous for the unclean person and for the whole community).

These persons had a severe, chronic skin condition; their raw flesh was oozing, red, and contagious.

Their condition was easily recognizable, and therefore quarantine was mandated.

Look at , “The leprous person who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean.’

He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease.