Forgiven Much — Luke 17

0:00 For those of you that were disappointed that I wasn't up here with them, I'll be doing a little solo later on. I would like to mention too, Kim made requests that I do this, and it... From us both. We are... We're so sorry we missed the fiftieth anniversary celebration time in October.

0:27 We would have loved to have been here for that. And... But we're we're saying... Thanking the Lord right right along with with all of you and and really appreciated that what was done in preparation and celebration for that. So we'll try to make it to the next one.

0:45 How about that? Well, let's see. Show me your Bibles if you got your Bibles with you this morning. Everybody's got a Bible out there? Good?

0:58 Alright. I'd like for you just to imagine that Bible. Between Well, meetings, I checked with our resident person I thought would be most knowledgeable about how much pressure there would be in a fire hydrant. So I asked George between between meetings, and you you can just imagine, you know, if we went out to our closest fire hydrant, which is probably not that far away, and it would... If you went to crank it on that thing to open it up, there's gonna be pressure built up there and and it'll start spewing.

1:37 Or as we say in the South, skeetin'. You know, it starts skeetin' out everywhere. Right? But think of think of it for a minute, if you will, your bible like a fire hydrant. That that thing...

1:51 There is so much in here and so much pressure built up that's ready to come out. And this morning, we have opportunity to look at it. Turn with me, if you will, to Luke chapter 17. Luke chapter 17. I wanna read a passage and then we'll pray together as we get started.

2:15 Reading this with expectancy to see what the Lord has for us this morning. We're gonna look at a couple of different passages, but, we'll begin here with Luke 17 and in verse 11. Luke seventeen eleven, and it came to pass as he, and the he here is referring to the Lord Jesus, so I'll read it that way. And it came to pass that the Lord Jesus went into Jerusalem that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered into a certain village, there met him 10 men that were lepers, which stood afar off.

3:37 There are not found there are not found that return to give glory unto God save this stranger. And he said unto him, arise, go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. Let's pray. Our heavenly father, we do give thanks for this opportunity to be here. We're thankful that each of us can have a copy of the scripture.

4:02 Father, we are thankful for the the... For your word, and we know your word is power. We're thankful for the power that is in the scripture. We're thankful for the Holy Spirit that has been promised and given to each believer. We're thankful for the the activity the Holy Spirit would bring in giving us understanding.

4:23 And so, as we read your word, as we examine the principles that are there, we ask for your Holy Spirit to give us good understanding, and we are asking for a way to understand and comprehend and apply scripture and scriptural principles to our own lives. We pray that our hearts would be turned toward our God, that we we pray that we would lose sight of all else and pursue Christ. We would pursue the heavenly father. We would yield and give way to the holy spirit. We pray for these things now and ask this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

5:25 He and his wife are grandparents, I should say. And so, in fact, they remind me a little bit about the Garrett clan, you know. Mrs. Garrett, how many grandchildren do you have? 17 grandchildren.

5:38 That's similar to what this set of grandparents has. And we were visiting that day. We... And all the grandchildren were were out about around around the house and we we were there too. The granddad and I were out doing...

5:54 Running a few errands. And as we were running errands, his wife called and said, hey, can you pick up something? It was some kind of spice or something at the grocery store. I need this for for this evening's meal. And so being the the great husband that he is, he stopped at at Walmart.

6:14 And he... But as we're walking in there, he says, hey, I want to get the kids some ice cream and ice cream cones. So he's good. Help me help me find ice cream and ice cream cones. So we go to the ice cream aisle and he's looking for this ice cream and we noticed...

6:31 You know how the grocery stores nowadays have these these... I think they're called end caps. Is there anybody professional retail in here? This... I think that's the technical term.

6:41 These end caps, well, there was a freezer end cap and it had clearance ice cream. Of course, you know, you you first of all think, okay, why is this going to be on clearance? Right? But but it it looked good. It tasted good.

6:56 I mean, well, you know, it looked like it was all fine and good and it was... Do you all have Blue Bell up here? That's some good ice cream. Right? I mean, so Blue Bell is on clearance at Walmart.

7:10 But there was a little problem. Let me just... Gotta interject this. There was a little problem. There was no price on it.

7:18 And so he takes it up to the counter and and they swipe it and it rings up 20¢. And the little pint containers of Blue Bell were like a dollar or something like that, you know, which is a third of the price that they normally are. And then... But it rang up 20¢ and he said, well, the the cashier is like, that can't be right. And...

7:41 But I'll... I mean, I'll give it to you. So you know what he did? He went back and got all they had, right, of the 20¢ Blue Bell gallon ice cream. Now, back to my story.

7:52 We're riding we're riding into his driveway and his grandkids are are are playing around and they... Immediately, as soon as they see his vehicle, they're excited that he is here. And they're running and saying... And I think it's... All all of his grandchildren are from 14...

8:12 Or no, 16. Right? Sixteen sixteen down to newborn as of last Friday. Okay? Or last...

8:19 In the last couple of days. So all these kids were, hey, papa. Hey, papa. And he rolled down the window and if if... As if there wasn't enough excitement, he says, does anybody want ice cream?

8:37 And so you can imagine just the excitement and the hype and all of what's going on. We we park and he's like, come on inside. Mister Andy and I are gonna scoop you all up some ice cream. So here are all these grandkids, you know, of all all shapes and sizes and ages and and we're just going to town, scooping up the ice cream. And everybody's got to decide what flavor they want, and then one grandkid has this bright idea, I want this and this mixed.

9:05 You know, and it goes... It gets all crazy with that. But most of the kids, as they as they got their ice cream... Because they were in... I think they were playing hide and seek, if I'm right, you know, in what they were doing that day.

9:18 But most of the kids, they got their ice cream cone, they ran right back outside to keep playing hide and seek. Right? But there was one one of the of the granddaughters who was set up there at the kitchen counter and as the hubbub had started to settle down a little bit, she goes, thank you, papa. Her name is Phoebe. And I need to interject just a little something here.

9:47 Well, let me this part. Is that she goes, thank you, papa. And he looked at her and he said, Phoebe, I love you. And he goes, you're welcome. Phoebe, every time I look at Phoebe, I have this overwhelming feeling because she was born with a condition they couldn't diagnose right away, but they put a label on it, failure to thrive.

10:23 She's nine years old. In fact, her and Worth's birthdays are really close. She spent the first part of her life in the hospital in intense critical care, in a critical condition. In fact, Kim linked her up with Jennifer, and Jennifer was able to offer some help in this. And Phoebe...

10:43 When I look at Phoebe, I see a miracle baby. I see a miracle child. And I see this... I mean, she had one of those feeding tubes. She was rejecting food.

10:53 It took her a long time to get back up to her birth weight. Failure to thrive was evident, you know. We prayed so much for Phoebe, for baby Phoebe. And so when that... Yeah, it caught my attention that here she is, this baby that was failure to thrive, this child that that was expected to potentially die if if some remedy wasn't found, and here she's the one that says, thank you, papa.

11:32 None of the other grandchildren said thank you. Now, in just the short time that we've been here together this morning, I have assessed that you all are an above average group. And for that reason for that reason, I'm gonna share with you a third story or situation, a real life event. I've already... We've already talked about one and that was 10 lepers that were called out to the Lord Jesus and said, hey, will you heal us?

12:38 Now, what I'm asking you, because of your above average crowd, I'm asking you to keep all of these things in your mind because then we're gonna kind of string them together. But I wanna lay out these three experiences. The third real life experience is one day when Jesus was invited to a Pharisee's house. This is found in Luke chapter seven. We'll look there in a minute.

13:01 If you wanna turn there while I'm paraphrasing the first part of this, you can. Luke chapter seven. Yeah. Jesus is invited to the Pharisees' house, Simon, and there's some type of an event going on there. He's having a meal and and the people are all gathered.

13:17 And as they're gathered at the Pharisee's house, this woman comes in with an alabaster box of ointment, and she goes right to the feet of the Lord Jesus. And she falls down at his feet, and she starts to weep at his feet, and as as her tears are dripping and dripping over his feet, she takes the hair of her head and starts to wipe and wash his feet, and then he anoints her feet with oil or this this ointment. Simon, the the host of the party, the host of the event is watching all this, observing all this, and scripture tells us that he thought within himself. He said within himself, if this man were a prophet, he would know what kind of sinner this woman was. In fact, in Luke chapter seven, we don't get her name, but in...

14:11 Right... When she's introduced, we get that her description is that she was a sinner. But here's here's Simon. I can't believe that he's letting her do that. He's he's got this this big attitude going on and there's all these thoughts that are running through his head.

14:32 And this is one of those another miracle that Christ does. He reads the thoughts of the man and and and he kind of interrupts Simon's thoughts and he says, hey, can I ask you a question? Simon says, sure. Yeah. Yeah.

14:49 Ask ask me your question. And he says, hey, there was there's two... There was there was a a lender. A lender loaned out 500p to an individual, then he loaned 50p to another fella, noting the contrast of 500 being a big number and 50 being a smaller number. Right?

15:13 So he loaned out 500 to one and 50 to another. And as time went on, well, the the people, the debtors, the people that had received the funds, they couldn't pay it back. And this creditor, this lender decided to forgive the debt. So Simon, here's my question. Which one will love more?

15:39 Which one will love him more? Simon, reluctantly, it seems like he... You know, he says... It's almost you get this impression as you read it. It's like, well, you know, I suppose.

15:52 I mean, just by chance, I mean, perhaps the one that was forgiven the larger amount will love more. Jesus says, yes, you're you're right. You're right. Look at look at verse... What is that?

16:06 Verse 44, I think in Luke seven. Yeah. Verse 44. Look what Jesus says next. He says this to Simon.

16:19 Simon, see this woman, since I entered into your house, thou gavest me no water for my feet, but she has washed my feet with her tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest me no kiss that I... But this woman since the time I came in has not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint, but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore I say unto thee, her sins, which are many, are forgiven for she loved much.

16:58 But to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. Thursday, on Thanksgiving Day, we were here, those of us that were able to be be here and and mister Markovich started off the brunch program time and he he made this statement, something to the effect, it's easy to be thankful at Thanksgiving. And we would agree with that statement. I mean, if we... If we...

17:34 Anytime we push the pause button or anytime we we intentionally sit and think, what do I have to be thankful for? And once we dwell on that for a little while, yeah, it's it's easy to think, I'm thankful for fill in the blank. Just last Saturday, I was at a funeral for a 46 year old mother, died with cancer, diagnosed diagnosed in April, died in November, leaves three teen children, 16, 15, and 11, and her husband, who's an airline pilot who has to be gone seven days off, seven days on. I mean, if I think about that situation, I'm like, I'm thankful for my wife. I'm thankful my children have a mother.

18:31 And there's... In some circumstances, it's easy to... It's easier to be thankful. And when we think about what we do have and the things that we we we have in in our society, in our in our culture, in our homes, in... I mean, we have a lot to be thankful for.

19:21 Sin. That's right. Yeah. So the the disease of leprosy is common throughout scripture would represent sin. It's not...

19:34 Does anybody know anybody that has leprosy? You've seen that in in India? Okay. Yeah. Is that where they were, Abe, in India?

19:42 Yeah. Right. So we we take this we take this object lesson, if you will. Okay? Object lesson of leprosy.

19:55 And we know even from this little... These few verses that we've read here is that as we know that these people would have been separated. Right? They were they were called out from among society because it's highly contagious. And so not only do you have this disease that is life threatening, if not dealt with, it's going to kill you, you know, it's going to affect all of your appendages and vital organs, you're going to die with leprosy if not treated, if not turned around.

20:26 I think the treatment, if I remember right, was in around the nineteen forties or nineteen fifties where they really got a handle on this disease, leprosy. Thankfully, it's not as common today. But they were ostracized from society, set apart. And it even says in the verses that we read that these 10 lepers who stood afar off. Right?

20:47 They couldn't they couldn't cling up to the crowd around Jesus. They had to stand afar off. And they're crying out, you know, Jesus have mercy on us. And so we have this situation where these people were were in a terrible, terrible state. If not...

21:10 If Jesus would not have mercy on them, if Jesus would not reach out and heal them, they were facing death. Now, we use that as an object lesson for understanding the gravity of their situation. Now, let's connect that with you and I as a... As one who is a sinner. We don't have leprosy.

21:31 You know, nobody's having... You know, Mason's not covering up his arm over here with with leprosy. But we've got sin. Right? Every one of us has got sin.

21:43 Every one of us is, because of our sin, is separated. Every one of us in our sin stands afar off. Every one of us in our sin, if not dealt with, will face everlasting death. And so do we have a desperate situation in our sin without Christ? Yes.

22:16 For some reason, we forget what we've been saved from. We forget. We lose this. We we lose how much we have been forgiven of. We lose that.

22:31 The lepers, well, they know they're cleansed. Great. You know? I was I was ostracized before. Now I can go I can go to the priest.

22:46 The priest can declare me cleansed. I can reenter society. I can live life again. I've got a new lease on life. I can go be be reunited with my family.

22:57 He is thankful. Right? He's appreciative of that. And we see that played through in this situation where the leper, given a new lease lease on life, is thankful. He was forgiven much, so to speak.

23:12 This little girl Phoebe that I was telling you about, she was facing death because of her illness, but now she's she's been... She lives at least a normal lifestyle now. But she's a thankful person. And this woman that was a sinner that breaks the alabaster box of ointment on Jesus' feet, well, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven. And she loves much.

23:47 You and I you and I fit right into that category, our sins, which were many. When we ask for forgiveness, when we receive Christ as our savior, we have been forgiven much. We have been forgiven much. Can we all say that together on the count of three? Oh, but I'm gonna change it.

24:13 I'm gonna change it from we to I. I have been forgiven much on the count of three. One, two, three. I have been forgiven much. Yeah.

24:29 I've been forgiven. There's another thing that we want to notice here in this, and we're we're still in Luke 17 and scroll down to verse 17. Luke seventeen seventeen. This is the... Or this this Samaritan.

24:59 We won't take time to make the Samaritan link, but you recall other Samaritans in scripture. You remember that they would would have been a... One that would have been a half breed Jew, so to speak. There was a barrier. There was even another social barrier there.

25:15 But this this Samaritan this this Samaritan who was a leper, he falls on his feet in 16 and giving thanks to Jesus. And then Jesus says these words to him. And when we read this, I would like us to to observe how Jesus reveals his heart to this man. Were there not 10 cleansed, but where are the nine? Jesus expected there to be 10.

25:44 Jesus desired there to be 10. Where are the others? His heart is that he wants to have this interaction with us. He wants to... Well, he's already loved us.

25:59 He's already demonstrated his love to us. He's loved. He's given. He wants the interaction. He wants the relationship.

26:07 And we find that true in other places of scripture as well. Where are the nine? And it's not said in any kind of reprimanding way or it's not said like you should have been here. It's just saying, man, I would have liked to have seen the others too. Where are the nine?

26:29 So we have been forgiven much. Jesus' heart is that we would come to him, that we would engage with him, that we would have interaction with him. I don't know if you caught this or not, but when I told the story about the grandpa feeding the ice cream cone, when Phoebe said thank you, the grandfather's response... Did you catch his response? He said, I love you.

27:02 Right. He first said, Phoebe, I love you. You're welcome. So I recognize another principle in thanksgiving. When we come to give thanksgiving, it it allows God to communicate his love toward us.

27:25 So when we come to his feet, it allows him to reciprocate. We're loving him. We are... But he... It allows that to be...

27:34 That conduit to be open to where that love can be freely given. Now listen, he loved all of his grandchildren, but Phoebe got to hear it that day. And we might say, using the Garrett comparison, where are the other 16? You know? Where are the other 16?

28:02 So, okay, we're building on these. These these are observations. We have been forgiven much. Jesus desires you and I to come to him. Where are the nine?

28:19 When we come, there's an opportunity for the one we're coming to to communicate the love to us. Now go over to Luke 17 again. Let's pick up another observation. Luke 17. Alright.

28:38 Everybody staying with me? Everybody staying fresh? You know? Everybody staying good? Okay.

28:56 And you know what? It's pretty shortsighted to think he was only reading the thoughts of Simon. Right? He knew the thoughts of everybody in that room. That's just another amazing thing about God, that he would know all of our thoughts.

29:11 He knows our hearts. And so here, let me ask you this. Volunteer to answer a question. You can raise your hand. Dave?

29:23 Oh, no. You might throw me a curveball. Scott. Scott, what was Simon thinking about when... And when we read through that Luke 17...

29:34 What was Simon the Pharisee? What were his thoughts when he's observing the woman there? Could could have been that. Yeah. Could have...

29:46 No. No. No. It could have... You're...

29:51 No. Being the bible scholar that you are, you're confusing that with Simon the leper. When that was given, the alabaster box was given there, the disciples were concerned about the money. That's what you're... But Simon the Pharisee, remember when he's looking at he's looking at it and he's saying, if this if this man only knew who this this woman was, if he was only a prophet, if if if if if...

30:18 And he's thinking about these things. Let me ask you, Donald, what was this man thinking about? Okay. Could have been. Let's get a few other thoughts on this.

30:31 Scott, what do you think? The law. The law? Could have been thinking about the law. Andy, what do you think?

30:43 It's it's it's a fair... Hey. That's fair. That's fair. He might have been wondering like, I hope he doesn't know what...

30:53 How I know her. You know, like, who knows. But okay, so here here we don't know exactly other than what scripture tells us, but listen to this. Let me let me ask you this. Was his mind on Christ, Worshiping Christ was his mind on thanksgiving, being forgiven of what he had been forgiven for, being thankful for what he had been forgiven for.

31:18 Right? That's what I want us to catch. His mind was not on Christ. What was the lady's mind on? Christ.

31:32 Yeah. Now look at this. Yeah. Jim, we were at a critical point. Yep.

31:52 Okay. Right. Yeah. Right. Right.

32:05 So Christ gives him he gives him a question that helps to redirect his thoughts. Right? He gives that question to redirect his thoughts. But we would say that his mind was distracted. Right?

32:21 His mind was distracted. He was anxious. He was like he had a greater than I attitude or holier art thou attitude. Right? Because he's like saying, if he knew who this woman was, I wouldn't let her touch my feet or whatever it is.

32:39 He was like thinking, I am worthy. She is not. He's distracted. The woman is focused. Obvious, we know what what her mind is on.

32:55 So here's something I want us to recognize is that when you are distracted, because I can relate to this, I can sit in a breaking of bread and think about everything but the cup and the bread and everything but the crawl. I mean, like, we know that. Right? But when I'm distracted, nobody knows. Nobody else knew except Christ.

33:20 But when you're focused on Christ, everybody else knows. Right? You didn't have to wonder what that lady was thinking at the feet of Jesus. She had a heart of thanksgiving. She had a heart of repentance.

33:38 She had a heart of tears, heart of sincerity, heart of focus, heart of devotion. There she is. Nobody has to wonder. And how about for we to live so that everybody knows what's on my mind? Right?

33:52 My mind's on Christ. So the the observation is the observation is when, well, Christ knows what's in our heart. He knows when it's not on him. He knows when it's on him. Right?

34:12 So that's the observation we want to take away from that particular portion that we read. Now, here we go. We've got these three stories, and we've got these three or we've got four observations that given out. And perhaps you're recognizing others. But let's just...

34:49 These are real life things that happen. And so when I when I look at the the story there or the account in in Luke 17 and I read about these 10 these 10 lepers that are healed, you know what? I'm one of the nine. I'm I'm one of the nine. Yes.

35:11 I wanted to come to Jesus. I was willing to cry out for mercy, but what I wanted was to be cleansed so I could go to the priest and and be accepted back in society, but live my own way. That's who I better relate to. I had I have... Look, I got I got the I got the church's approval, so to speak.

35:35 I'm I'm out of here. I'm going. I'm doing my own thing. That's who I relate to. And if I if I think about the whole ice cream example, I I relate to the other grandkids.

35:51 I want what the grandfather or the father... I want the goodness of what is there. I want the goodness that's available to me, but I don't want to miss what else is going on around me. So I want the ice cream cone and I want to get back in the game. I don't want to miss.

36:10 I'm afraid I'm going to miss I'm afraid I'm going to miss some fun so I don't stay and visit more of my grandfather or even say thank you. Simon I guess in this Simon and alabaster box lady, I better relate to Simon. I can think about a whole lot of other things that other people shouldn't be doing. I mean, I can think about a lot of stuff that you could improve on, you know? And I can think about, and so I relate to Simon.

36:51 And you know what? Simon was distracted when Jesus was right there in the room. Yeah. I kind of relate to that. So I didn't tell you these three...

37:05 Relay these three accounts to us all, and then when I got to the self evaluation point, I'm not saying like, okay, let's take the negative of all three of these things and let's stop there. Okay? Not going to leave you there. But we do need to self evaluate that. Is that where I am?

37:27 Is that the track I'm on? Is that where I kind of fall? If you recognize that, you can... Let's let's examine the other track. Okay?

37:42 Let's examine the other track. This fellow who's a Samaritan leper, he comes back and he says, he falls at the feet glorifying God and says, thank you. He did it when his other comrades, his nine other friends went a different way. He turned, turned from his... Turned from the crowd, turned from going to the priest, turned from the way that he was going and came back to Christ to sit at his feet to receive, to to give him glory.

38:30 And and isn't it wonderful how how Christ says these words? You'll notice as you examine that, there's he cleansed them, he healed them, and then at this leper, it says that he was made whole. He was made whole. Your faith has made you whole. You got the Phoebe example.

38:55 Right? Little Phoebe that says, thank you, papa. And she gives us a great example and receives love from her grandfather. By the way, I told you that she's the same age as Worth. I'm kind of holding out that maybe they might get together someday.

39:11 But then we have this other situation, this lady this lady with the alabaster box. And and boy, she gives us a a wonderful example, doesn't she, Of one that comes and falls at the feet of Jesus and and would would be lavishing out on him. Her tears, her possessions, her gratitude. And so we see this, the comparison of the two different tracks in these stories that we've examined. And really, you've got this we could say that there was as we think about these things, I want to be on the track of the thankful leper, right, the one that came back to give I want to be on that track that...

40:10 Of the thankful grandchild, Phoebe, that comes back to say... Or stays to say a thank you. I want to be on that track of of the the thankful lady, the thankful sinner because all these ones, I believe the connection is they recognize that they had been forgiven much. They had been forgiven much, and in the correlation that they recognized what they had been forgiven, they loved much. The leper demonstrated an action to come back to to love, a response of love.

40:57 Phoebe, a response of love, and she receives love. And then this lady, a response of love, she loved much. And so in our self evaluation, we might say, do I love much? And maybe it's because we've forgotten or it got fuzzy on us or it slipped away from us of how much we have been forgiven. I have been forgiven much.

42:03 We we sometimes have a period like this or an opportunity like this to evaluate what kind of track am I on. And so we we want to evaluate that this morning. We want to understand that, yes, it's easy to be thankful during Thanksgiving, but we're... We want to... We think if we can put these building blocks in the right order in our in our in our perspective, that if we can realize that we've been forgiven much, that we will be...

42:33 A natural result of that is thanksgiving. A natural result of that is a cultivated love relationship, is an intimacy sitting at the feet of the Lord Jesus. This man, this leper came back and fell at the feet. This woman, she came and fell at his feet. And how how how powerful of an illustration it is that we can fall at his feet.

43:01 Father, give us a renewed sense of how much we have been forgiven as our sins were nailed upon your cross, as we confessed our sins and you were faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Father, give us a fresh understanding of what it is and allow us to experience the love relationship that you had intended. Father, may it not be said of us, where was Andy? Where was fill in your name? May it be said of us that we are there to receive the love back from you.

43:43 And may it be said of us that we are followers who understand and love much. We pray this in Jesus Christ's name. Amen.