We Give Thanks

And Paul, speaking to the Ephesian elders, said, "I have shown you in every way, by laboring like this, that you must support the weak. And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'" (Acts 20:35)

Now it happened, as He went to Jerusalem, that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off. And they lifted up their voices and said, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" So when He saw them, He said to them, "Go, show yourselves to the priests." And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan. So Jesus answered and said, "Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?" And He said to him, "Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well." (Luke 17:11–19)

Ten were healed, but only one came back to give thanks—and to that one Jesus gave something more than healing.

A Season of Gratitude

We're starting a new series this week called "We Give." As we ramp up to Christmas, we know this is a time of giving and receiving, so I want to look at what the Scriptures say about what we are to give to the world.

It's good to be back with you. A group of us just got back this last week from an unbelievable trip. My wife and I celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary, and then we took a group of about twenty-eight people to the Holy Land—starting in Rome, cruising to Crete, then to Israel, Turkey, and ending in Athens. It was wonderful to come home, and I'm grateful to our staff and lead team here, who make it possible for me to go without worrying about anything at the church.

This week we come to one of my favorite holidays of the year—Thanksgiving—so there's a lot to think about regarding gratitude and being thankful to the Lord for all we have. I'm even grateful the 2016 political campaign season is done. We heard our new president-elect's acceptance speech in a taxicab in Tel Aviv, and everywhere we walked in the old city of Jerusalem, shop owners wanted to ask what we thought of Donald Trump. It's amazing how interested the rest of the world is in our nation and how what happens here has huge ramifications elsewhere.

A Verse from Ephesus

On this trip we walked the ancient ruins of Ephesus in southwestern Turkey—a city significant to so much of the New Testament. The books of Ephesians and Acts, 1 and 2 Corinthians, the seven churches of Revelation, the ministry of Timothy, the writings and death of John, even the death of Mary the mother of Jesus—all connect to that city. I was able to teach a Bible study in the very theater where, in Acts 19, there was a riot against Paul's ministry.

The passage I shared there, and the theme verse for this series, is found in Acts 20:35, Paul's last words to the elders of the Ephesian church: "And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'"

Giving Is a Blessing

These words of Jesus aren't found in any of the four Gospel accounts, yet they were words He spoke. As Paul reminds these leaders an hour outside Ephesus, his closing charge is essentially, "I want to remind you of this important truth."

That brings us to our first point: giving is a blessing. It's certainly a blessing to receive a gift—an unexpected paycheck, a bonus, something you weren't waiting for. But Jesus says it is more blessed to give than to receive. Not only is giving a blessing for the one receiving; it is an even greater blessing for the giver.

When I think of giving and receiving, my mind goes to Christmas—which, by the way, is thirty-five days away. As a child, I remember the JCPenney wish book showing up, circling toys in ballpoint pen, numbering them, leaving little hints. I loved receiving gifts. But as you mature, especially when you have kids, you start to experience the joy of giving—thinking about what each child would love, getting ready, and watching the joy on their faces as they open it. Our Lord knows this, and He wants us to experience that blessedness.

Now It Happened

Since this week is Thanksgiving, I want to think in the context of "we give thanks," and the passage that came to mind is the story of the ten lepers in Luke 17. It begins with three simple words: "Now it happened." That's a reminder that this is not just a story—this is history.

One of the awesome things about a trip like ours is standing in the places spoken of in the Bible. We walked the 2,000-year-old Roman road along the Western Wall, where massive stones lie piled beside the road with craters where they were pushed off the Temple Mount—in fulfillment of Jesus' words in Matthew 24 that not one stone would be left upon another. When you touch those stones, you realize this actually happened. These accounts are actual lives impacted by the life and ministry of Jesus, and it reminds us that even today our lives can be and are impacted by Him.

Jesus on a Mission—Yet Never Too Busy

As you read the Gospels, it becomes clear that Jesus was on a mission. In Matthew 16:21, "from that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day." His face was set, as Luke says, like flint toward Jerusalem. When a Samaritan village invited Him to stay, He would not be deterred.

Yet though Jesus was on a clear mission, He never overlooked the needs of those who sought His help. This is both instructive and encouraging. Instructive, because it challenges me—even as a pastor with a plan and a to-do list every week—never to think I'm too busy for the needs right around me. Encouraging, because there is never a time when you or I go to Jesus in prayer and are turned away because He has bigger things to deal with. He ever lives to make intercession for us; He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Ten Lepers, Standing Afar Off

So He entered a certain unnamed village—one of hundreds of small villages between Galilee and Jerusalem—and there met ten men who were lepers. They stood afar off because they knew their place; they were outcasts.

Leprosy today is Hansen's disease, treatable with about a year of antibiotics. But 2,000 years ago, if you were diagnosed with leprosy, you were a dead man. There was no cure. According to Leviticus 13 and 14, the priests were the ones who diagnosed and declared a person "unclean." That diagnosis removed you from your family, the village, and the temple. You could never worship again. The disease attacks the nervous system, so sufferers lost feeling in their extremities; wounds went unnoticed, became infected, and the infection itself often killed them. They lived by the refuse heap outside the city, scavenging among the wild dogs and rats.

We're told at least one of these men was a Samaritan—an ethnic minority despised by the Jewish majority, so much so that "Samaritan" was used as a slur. He was doubly an outcast. Yet their common misery broke down the wall between them; leprosy was the only community he had.

The Prayer of Faith

As Jesus passed, "they lifted up their voices and said, 'Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!'" This is the prayer of faith—the same prayer James speaks of, the prayer that saves the sick. Somehow these men knew who this was in the crowd. Earlier in His ministry Jesus had cleansed a leper (Mark 1, Matthew 8), and that news no doubt spread, because no one was ever cured of leprosy.

Their faith recognized three things: the person of Jesus, calling Him by name; the position of Jesus, calling Him Master; and the power of Jesus, crying, "Have mercy on us." They were not ashamed to cry out. The prayer of faith is not the least bit ashamed to cry out after Jesus for help—and no one truly cries after Jesus in faith until they realize they have no other hope. These men knew He was their only hope.

Jesus Sees and Answers

Notice: "when He saw them." These were the men nobody ever saw—the people deliberately overlooked, the ones we don't want to make eye contact with on the corner because we know what they'll ask. But Jesus saw them, acknowledged them, and engaged with them.

That is our second point: Jesus sees and answers those who call to Him in faith—even the dirty ones, the unclean ones, the ones whose lives are stinky and rotten. He does not first require that they clean themselves up, because He knows we are completely impotent to fix our own lives. He is the One with the power to fix them.

He said, "Go, show yourselves to the priests." Why? Because the priest who declared a leper unclean was also the one commanded in Leviticus 14 to examine a healed leper, declare him clean, and reintroduce him to the temple with a sacrifice. As in Matthew 8, the cleansed leper would be a living testimony to the priests of what God had done.

Faith That Obeys

"And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed." The ten lepers had faith enough to call upon Jesus, but they also had faith enough to follow His command. Many people call out to Jesus in prayer who will never follow Him by faith—the friend, neighbor, or coworker who won't come to church but, when a crisis comes, asks, "Hey, could you pray for me? You do that Jesus thing, right?"

That brings us to our third point: faith in Jesus must produce obedience to Jesus. Obedience is a declaration that you actually believe and trust Him. These ten men followed His command, and as they went, they were healed.

One Returned

"And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan."

I wonder how he realized he was healed. Perhaps it was like waking with a numb, dead arm, then feeling the tingling pins and needles as life returns. After years of numbness, maybe a sensation returned to his hands; maybe he looked down and saw new skin where the sores had been. At some point all ten knew they were well.

All ten obeyed the command to go, but only one returned to give thanks. Charles Spurgeon said, "The number of those who pray is greater than the number of those who praise." Isn't that true? Many who would never enter a church will still offer some prayer. Far more are the petitions for blessing than the praises for blessing. Spurgeon also said, "Let us chide ourselves as we acknowledge that we offer much more prayer than praise." I confess I offer up those "In-N-Out burger" prayers—I'll have this and this, and a little more of that, fix this and fix that—without the same compulsion to offer thanksgiving.

Every one of the seven-plus billion people on this planet inherits the blessings of God simply in taking a breath—the common grace of God. Yet far fewer praise Him for it. Ten were healed; one returned. And the one who returned humbly bowed at Jesus' feet and worshiped Him—and he was a Samaritan. The religious ones who should have recognized the glory of God in Christ failed to see it; the one the religious called "sinner" because of his ethnicity was the one who was truly pious toward God.

God Acknowledges Gratitude—and Ingratitude

"So Jesus answered and said, 'Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?'"

Our fourth point, and the frightening part: God acknowledges gratitude—and He notices ingratitude. In Romans 1:18–21, Paul writes that the wrath of God is revealed against those who suppress the truth, for God has shown Himself to them through creation, "so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were they thankful." They are without excuse because they behold the glory of God's grace continually and refuse to give Him glory and thanksgiving. There is implied in this passage a coming justice for our ingratitude.

Wholeness for Those Who Praise

"And He said to him, 'Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.'" The King James says, "made you whole." All ten were healed of leprosy, but only the one who came praising was made whole. All ten were saved temporally from a disease; one was saved eternally from the greater disease that leprosy pictures—sin. That wholeness was given to the one who praised the Lord.

That is our fifth point: Jesus brings wholeness to those who praise the glory of His grace. Why do we gather on Sunday mornings and sing these songs? It's not a twenty-five-minute gap before the message, like the trailers at the movie theater. We sing because Jesus brings wholeness to those who praise the glory of His grace.

Six Reasons We Give Thanks

Why do we give thanks? I could come up with fifty reasons, but here are six.

First, because it acknowledges God's greatness. Second, because it testifies of God's goodness—it tells others that God is good. Third, because it glorifies God's grace; the things we receive are unmerited. Fourth, because it amplifies God's glory, declaring to people that He is awesome. Fifth, because it exalts God's throne; just as this man humbled himself at Jesus' feet, our praise lifts Him up. Sixth, because it invites His blessing. Those who show us gratitude stir us to want to give more; ingratitude makes us want to give nothing. Our thanksgiving to God stirs His heart to give more.

In just a few days we have a holiday dedicated to giving thanks. Unfortunately, in our nation Thanksgiving has become the start of the shopping season, a day to gorge on turkey or watch football. Let us remind ourselves that first and foremost it is an opportunity to give thanks. That might require taking ten minutes this week to sit down and ask, "What am I thankful for?" I think you'd be surprised at how much there is. Every time I step off the plane back in the United States, I'm instantly reminded I have a great deal to be thankful for.

Closing Prayer

Father God, thank You for Your grace toward us. We can't even fully comprehend the goodness of Your grace; Ephesians 2:7 says that in the ages to come You will reveal to us the exceeding riches of Your grace. We can't grasp it here in this temporal world—it will take eternity for us to see it. But God, right now, this week, as we prepare for Thanksgiving, would You remind us of just some of the things we should honor You with gratitude for. And Lord, I pray we would do that publicly, among people who maybe don't yet know You, that You would be honored, lifted up, glorified, and exalted before them—because every good and perfect gift comes from You. We thank You for Your good and perfect gifts, and for the greatness of Your grace. Lord, teach us to be those who give thanks. In Jesus' name, amen.