Thankfulness Leads To God's Presence

Introduction

Sermon Title: Thankfulness Leads to God’s Presence

Sermon Text:

Introduction

Thanksgiving is just around the corner. The weather has turned chilly and soon people will be gathering together to spend time with one another and give thanks. Sadly, some have to be reminded to give thanks for the blessings in their lives by a holiday on a calendar.

Our thanks should be much more than words. It is easy to move your vocal chords and make the sounds of “thank you” to another person, but it is still something that can easily slip our minds at times. The truth is that our thankfulness should always lead to something and not just be a gesture that is given because “that’s what we do.”

This morning, I would like to share with you a sermon that looks at the point that our thankfulness leads us to the presence of God. If we truly understood this truth, then we might be a little more thankful in our lives.

Luke 17:11–19 CSB

11 While traveling to Jerusalem, he passed between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he entered a village, ten men with leprosy met him. They stood at a distance 13 and raised their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” 14 When he saw them, he told them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And while they were going, they were cleansed. 15 But one of them, seeing that he was healed, returned and, with a loud voice, gave glory to God. 16 He fell facedown at his feet, thanking him. And he was a Samaritan. 17 Then Jesus said, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? 18 Didn’t any return to give glory to God except this foreigner?” 19 And he told him, “Get up and go on your way. Your faith has saved you.”

Jesus encounters the outcasts.

In this passage, we see that Jesus encounters some people that have a dire need. Jesus was on a mission and heading to Jerusalem to deal with the sins of all time on the cross. Jesus could have easily kept going, but He decided to stop and make an impact through this situation.

These ten men were living outside the village because they were suffering from what the Bible calls leprosy. When we see this term, it can refer to various kinds of skin diseases and not just the disease that we know of by that name. These men were required by the Law of Moses to live in isolation away from others who were not affected.

We see that these men cried out to Jesus from a distance (v 12-13). These men recognized Jesus but stayed away from Him because that was what was expected. They had a respect for Jesus. They had heard about what Jesus could do and would like to see it done in their own lives, so they cried out for mercy from Jesus.

We can read this account and think, “Those poor guys.” The truth is that there are people like these men all around us today. They may not have skin diseases, but there are other things that have worked to move them away from the community that God created them to live in. There are people who are hurting… alone… wondering if anyone notices or even cares.

It is interesting to me that though these men lived in isolation from society, when Jesus showed up in their area, they knew who He was. They had apparently heard the stories of what He was able to do. There was something about Jesus that when these men saw Him caused them to shout out in hope that maybe just maybe He would be able and willing to do something for them.

Jesus commands the outcasts.

We see that Jesus hears and responds to these men who were calling out to Him for mercy. Jesus does something interesting… something He hasn’t done before. Instead of going over to these men, Jesus tells them — from afar — to go and show themselves to the priest.

This would be the first thing that the men were to have done if they had experienced a healing. They would have to show themselves to the priest and get an “all clear” from him to return to society according to the laws set up Leviticus and Numbers.

This command seems simple enough… except that as the men looked down at their skin, they still had the disease that had put them in isolation. This was a problem because if they returned to society without being healed, they could face severe punishment (even death) for this act. So why would Jesus do this to these men?

Jesus was calling out the faith of these men. reminds us that “without faith it is impossible to please God.” We can say that we have faith in someone all we want, but it is proven by what we do. Faith in Jesus Christ will cause us to obey before we see the full evidence of God’s work within us. We may not see how it is going to work out, but that does not keep us from walking in the trust of the One who has told us to go.

Hebrews 11:6 CSB

6 Now without faith it is impossible to please God, since the one who draws near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

What does it take for us to follow Christ’s commands? Do they have to line up with what we want to do? Do we follow them simply because they are the words of the living God?

These men simply obeyed the words of Christ. Sure, they had nothing left to lose… they were at “rock bottom.” Sometimes, we may have to get at rock bottom ourselves before we can see that Jesus’ words are indeed the words of life that we need to listen to and obey. In the gospel of John chapter 10, Jesus reminds us that His sheep know His voice and listen to Him.

The commands of Jesus can seem strange in our culture today. To follow Him with all that we are will cause us to go against the grain in many “norms” of our day today. If we truly trust Him, then we will obey them.

Jesus commends the outcast.

We see that the men obeyed Jesus’ command and began their journey to the priest. There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that they thought they would be healed. It is this hope that sent them to walking.

The Bible shares that one of the men decided to stop and return to Jesus as he noticed that he had been healed (v 15). One out of ten stopped and returned to Jesus to simply say “thank you” for what He had done for them.

It is interesting that both Jesus and Luke point out that the one that came back and thanked Jesus for the healing was a “foreigner.” They shared that this lone thankful one was not a man of Jewish descent, but rather he was a Samaritan. This man did not necessarily know “the rules” fully, but he knew that had to come back to Jesus and give thanks.

Why did only one come back and thank Jesus for what He had done? It may have been that the others were excited and wanted to get back to their normal life. It may be that they wanted to see their families again. We are not told why they didn’t return, but we are told why this Samaritan did: he wanted to give thanks to Jesus.

In verse 18, Jesus says that this man’s act is actually him giving glory to God. The Law of Moses shared that after a person would be declared “clean” by the priest, that person was supposed to offer a sacrifice to God for his/her healing. This is exactly what this man had done without knowing it. Following Jesus is not about keeping a bunch of rules perfectly. It is about living in a right relationship with your Creator and Savior.

This man just knew that he had to return and tell Jesus, “thank you.” While he may not have realized it in the moment, this man’s thankfulness had drawn him closer to God’s presence. The same thing will happen in our lives as well. When we allow our thankfulness to move us to action, it will inevitably lead us to God’s presence. He is the giver of all perfect gifts.

CONCLUSION

When was the last time that you took the time to stop and really thank God for the blessings that He has given to you? The busyness of our lives can work to rob us of those opportunities if we are not careful.

What if tomorrow God removed everything that you did not thank Him for today? What would our lives look like?

God has loved us with an everlasting love. He saw us when we were separated from Him by our sin. He sent His only Son, Jesus, to be the sacrifice that forgave our sin. God brought Jesus back from the grave to give us a new life in Him.

God has given us every good and perfect gift. Have we given Him thanks? Has our thanks drawn us closer to Jesus as we realize that it is all from Him? Why don’t we let it happen today?