Where are the Nine? sermon teaches us that as believers we must take the time to be thankful to God for all His blessings and praise Him for all the good things. We need to live a life of gratitude and tell others of God’s great blessings.

Key verses:
Luke 17:11-19

Turn with me in your Bibles to Luke chapter 17 and we will begin at verse 11. In Luke 17 verse 11 it says:

Luke 17:11: “And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.”

Luke 17:12: “And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off:”

Luke 17:13: “And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”

Luke 17:14: “And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed.”

Luke 17:15: “And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God,”

Luke 17:16: “And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan.”

Luke 17:17: “And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?”

I want to focus on that last phrase in verse 17, “Where are the nine?”

We come to November, and it is a time of Thanksgiving. Hopefully, before the month is out, we will say more about the American Thanksgiving story. I think it is one that we need to go back and revisit and Proclamations of Thanksgiving. Abraham Lincoln gave the first proclamation of Thanksgiving. As you probably know it did not become a national holiday until sometime later.

Whether it is November or not we ought to give thanks. Paul writes, he says, “In everything, give thanks.” If you think that through, it sounds so simple, “In everything give thanks.” But if you think it through, it is a little bit hard sometimes in everything to give thanks. But the fact of the matter is, that is what we are told to do.

We sang a while ago “Oh, how I love Jesus because He first loved me.” The truth of the matter is we need to realize that the Lord loves us. We need to be thankful for that love and we need to respond in it.

So, the story we are looking at this evening, most of you know this story. You have heard it before; you have read it before. What may surprise you is that it is only found in the Gospel of Luke, we do not find this in the other Gospels. That is not something strange. The reason we have four Gospels is we get the story of Jesus from four different points of view. There will be something in one Gospel that is not mentioned in the others. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are called the Synoptic Gospels, which means they have a lot of stories in common. John gives us a lot of stories that are not in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And then there are some, of course, that are in all four.

The People of Samaria

But in verse 11, it says:

Luke 17:11: “And it came to pass, as he [Jesus] went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.”

That is one of those verses that is easy to read over and think, well, He was going over that way and not thinking much about it. But there is much to think about. We see Samaria, the area that used to be the territory of the northern 10 tribes after the nation split in the reign of Rehoboam, Solomon’s son. The 12 tribes of Israel under Rehoboam’s reign split and the 10 northern tribes which came to be called Israel and the 2 southern tribes, Judah and Benjamin, came to be called Judah.

Over time, the northern tribes were conquered by the Assyrians. Later, Judah, the southern kingdom, would be conquered by the Babylonians. King Nebuchadnezzar, of Babylon, carried most of the population of Judah back to Babylon with him and kept them there. Personally, he did not live that long but kept them there for 70 years.

But the Assyrians did not take the northern kingdom back to their country. They left them there and assimilated with them, they intermarried with them, and they made them part of their kingdom. In a sense, like a colony. And so, the capital of the northern kingdom was Samaria. So then that whole region from just north of Jerusalem up until you get into Galilee, which remained primarily Jewish, was called Samaria. And the people who lived there were called Samaritans. Now, you know the story of the good Samaritan.

The problem that the Jewish people saw with that was that these people of the northern kingdom not only had separated from them, but they had intermarried with these Assyrians. So, they were no longer purely Israeli and so they looked down on them. In addition to that, you get this from the story in John chapter four, the woman at the well, the Samaritans said they needed to worship in the mountains there, whereas the Jewish people said they had to worship in Jerusalem.

So, they had their differences. Because of that, most of the people in Judah, needed to go up to Galilee, they would go along the east side of the Jordan River. They crossed the Jordan River, worked their way up the east side which took them through the Syrian mountains which is a difficult journey until they got far enough north, they could cut west again and be in Galilee and bypass Samaria altogether. Why? Because they did not want to have any contact with the Samaritans.

Again, in John chapter four you find that Jesus is having a conversation with the woman of Samaria at the well and she says to Him that the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. And that was exactly right. But Jesus was different. I think that was probably one of the world’s biggest understatements that Jesus was different. He, several times, had traveled through Galilee where He grew up. He was born in Judah, but He grew up in Galilee. Many times, He traveled down to Galilee and into Jerusalem, back to Galilee from Jerusalem, and He always went through Samaria.

The reason He always went through Samaria is while Samaria was not generally friendly to Jewish people nor the route that the Jewish people normally took, Jesus takes that way because He needed to go through Samaria. It says in one passage that He “must needs go through Samaria.” Why? Because there were lost people there. There were people, descendants of the house of Israel there who needed a Savior and needed to know that He had come. So, Jesus always travels through Samaria. He always went where He was needed.

The 10 Lepers

So, Jesus loves you and me even though we are sinners and there is a great picture of that here. That is what is being said here in verse 11:

Luke 17:11: “And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.”

He went down right through the middle of it so that He would get in contact with Samaritan people. There is another class of people in this story that are even more outcast as far as the Jewish mind went than the Samaritans. We are about to read about them in verse 12:

Luke 17:12: “And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off:”

Now, there is more there than what you pick up at the surface. Let’s talk about it a little bit. Leprosy was a disease; there is still a disease called leprosy. You do not hear about it a lot today because it is not the threat it was nearly 2,000 years ago. But leprosy is a flesh-eating virus, and it really consumes the body. It generally starts as a small sore or boil, perhaps on the arm or somewhere else but then it spreads, and as it spreads it consumes the flesh so that, and not to be grotesque, but in time, different body parts begin to die, rot, and literally fall off. The skin would rot and fall off. The bones would deteriorate and rot and fall off because the tissue died. It is a horrible disease, and it was extremely contagious.

So, there are strict laws in the laws that God gave to Moses about having leprosy. If a person was found to have leprosy, all of their clothes, all of their bedding, everything had to be burned. Their house had to be cleansed entirely and they were cut off from society. They became literally homeless, so they formed what was called leper colonies where they would live together and support each other. But they could not come into town, they could not come around people.

And if they were traveling on the road and a leper saw you coming the other way, they would hold out their hand just like this [near mouth] and yell out “unclean, unclean,” so you would know not to go near them. It was that contagious and there was no known cure.

Even though there was no known cure the Lord gave extensive law in Leviticus about the treatment of leprosy and what to do about it. The Lord told the people that if you have leprosy and you thought you had been healed, you had recovered from it, you will go through this procedure. You were to go to the tabernacle, or later, the temple, and show yourself to the priest. The priest would examine and if it looked like you were clean, you were healed, he would not tell you to go home, he would shut you up in a room for a long period of time. And then, after many days, he would bring you out again and reexamine. And if you still looked good, then you could go home; then you could go back to your family and then you could resume a normal life. Now, that is very important in what we are reading in this story. Do not forget that part.

So, Jesus is coming through this village. There are 10 men who have leprosy, they are together because that is what lepers did. They congregated together because what are they going to do, give it to each other? They already have it. But they did not come near anyone else. So, it says there were 10 men that met him, and they were lepers and they stood afar off which is what they would have done.

No doubt as Jesus came into their vicinity, they shouted, “Unclean, unclean.” Jesus knew that they had leprosy, He would have known that anyway, but they were doing what was right. They probably heard that Jesus was a healer and they had hoped that He, being the Messiah, could heal them, so they sought Him out.

Luke 17:13: “And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”

The word “Master” there; they are calling Him a master teacher.

Luke 17:14: “And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed.”

“Go shew yourselves unto the priests.” Why did Jesus tell them that? That was the law. Understand at this point He had not touched them; He had not come near them. He was still at quite a distance. And He did not say, “You are healed.” He did not wave His hand or anything like that, He just said, “Go shew yourselves unto the priests.” Why? Because that is what the law said to do, the law of God, “Go shew yourselves unto the priests.”

The end of verse 14 says, “And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed.” That is another very important statement. Again, Jesus did not pronounce them healed. He did not say, “I will heal you.” He did not say, “I will; be thou clean.” – as He did to another leper. He just said, “Go shew yourselves unto the priests.”

They were going to the priests and as they were on their way, they looked, and the leprosy was gone. It would not take much of a look to know that it was gone. A horrific rotting disease, if it was gone, you would know it instantly. This is where the miracle is. But notice something very important here. They did what they needed to do, they obeyed God. Now, let’s stop here in the story for a minute and think about some of what we already read and then we will move on.

A Picture of Sin

In the Bible, leprosy is a type in the Old Testament carried over into the New Testament, a type or picture of sin. Leprosy was a real disease and there is no question about that. Stories about lepers are all true but it was a picture or a type of sin.

One of the great stories of that is the story of Naaman. You find it in 2 Kings. Naaman was the captain of the host of Syria. In other words, he was the commander of the army of Syria. He was the highest military officer in his land. He comes into the northern kingdom and there he is a leper. He kept it a secret for a long time and did not tell anybody. I imagine leprosy started on a part of his body that was hidden by his clothing. Just like people when they get into sin, they keep it a secret for a long time. They think they can conceal it; nobody can know about it.

But in time as it always happens Naaman’s leprosy grew worse just as sin in a person’s life grows worse. And he wanted to be healed. He wanted to go home. He wanted to carry on. He had not yet abandoned his duties as a commander, we know that from the story. But he was going to have to and by the way, a detail I left out earlier, leprosy was always fatal. So Naaman knew he was going to die.

He had a little slave girl that was taken from Israel. She told him about the man of God in Israel who could heal him. So, he goes to see Elijah. You know the story. Elijah does not even come to see him personally; he just tells him what to do. He tells him to go and dip himself seven times in the Jordan River. Naaman said, “I sure appreciate that, Elijah. I will do exactly what you say.”

No, he did not, he did not do that at all. That is not all he did, he got angry. He got angry because he said [paraphrasing], “I came to see the man of God. I thought he would come out and strike his hand over me and pronounce me healed. He tells me to go dunk seven times in the river. I have better rivers back home. They are not as dirty; they are cleaner than the Jordan.” That was probably true. He said he would not do it.

I think Naaman might have thought that what he was being told was this: Naaman, you are the enemy, you are the captain of the enemy army why don’t you just go jump in the river. But that was not what was being said but it is probably how he took it. So, one of his soldiers says to him [paraphrasing], “Hold on here, do not be so angry. What have you got to lose? The man tells you to go dip seven times in the river, why don’t you just go do it?” So, he did.

You know, the way we understand the story, he goes to the Jordan River and did not want to go but he does it. He gets in and dips himself once, nothing, twice, three times, four, five, six, and nothing. It was not until the seventh time that he had obeyed exactly what the man of God told him that he was healed.

Then he goes back praising God, and he so much has changed that he says to the prophet [paraphrasing], “Look, I have got to go home and serve the king. He is going to go into the heathen temple and worship his idols. I do not want to do that anymore.” You see, he had a changed life. “I do not want to go to the heathen temple. But he is going to want me to go into the heathen temple and worship his idols. What am I going to do?” He was told to go with him that it was his duty. His heart would not be there, his heart would be with the Lord.

There is so much more in that story. But it is such a beautiful story of the cleansing of sin. We find sin, we try to hide it, but it gets exposed, and we cannot hide it anymore and there is only one cure, and that is to come to the Lord and do what the Lord tells us to do.

A Step In Faith

So that is what these men did. Jesus does not say to them, again, “I will; be thou clean.” He does not say that to them at all. What he says to them is to “Go shew yourselves unto the priests.” They went and as they were going, just as Naaman dipped himself in the water and was cleansed, as they were going, they were cleansed. Now, this time in verse 15:

Luke 17:15: “And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God,”

I do not know what he said, it does not tell us. I suppose maybe he said, “Hallelujah. Praise be to Jehovah.” I am not sure what he said. But with a loud voice, he glorified God. He was so thankful to be healed.

Now do not miss this. Nowhere in the story does it say that the rest of those fellows said, “Hmm, guess it did not work for us.” It does not say that. If you look back at the end of verse 14, it says, “And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed.” All of them were healed but only one turns around and praises God. And it does not say as we might think, “The rest of them, boy, they got their leprosy back right away.” It does not say that at all. They were all 10 healed. In verse 16 it says:

Luke 17:16: “And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan.”

Luke is quick to tell us that he was a Samaritan. Now, he was a Samaritan. In typography, he is a sinner. He had this leprosy which corresponds typically to sin, and he has been cleansed. He is a sinner saved and he is a sinner saved by grace. He is a sinner saved by grace because he put his faith in the Lord Jesus. But this is physical healing. It is physical healing, but it becomes the salvation of his soul. Do not miss the fact that all 10 of these men were healed. The rest of them did not have faith as he did, well apparently, they did. They did what the Lord told them, and they were healed. So, I am guessing they had faith. So, what happened here? Look again at verse 15:

Luke 17:15: “And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God,”

Luke 17:16: “And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan.”

Luke 17:17: “And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?”

Again, we said this morning and we have said many times, the Lord does not ask questions in order to find out the answers. He does not worry about “I am concerned about those other nine men. Did they get lost on the way? I am not sure where they are.” That is not what he is thinking at all. What he is saying that for is for the people around, the disciples, and others around there, for them to think about that question. Ten men were healed, one came back to praise God and give thanks. Ten men, I think, were saved but one came back to praise God and give thanks. Jesus said [paraphrasing], “What about those other nine? Where are they?” And then He goes on, verse 18:

Luke 17:18: “There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger.”

Why does He call him a stranger? Because he is a Samaritan. But do you know what he is now? He is part of God’s family. You know, one day in eternity you may be walking in Heaven, on Heaven’s shore, in Heaven’s kingdom, you may run into a fellow you do not know that you do not recognize. And you do not know his name if he told you his name, you would not recognize that. You might find out he is this leper that we just read about. Don’t know who he is. All we know is he is a leper that came to the Lord and was healed and put his faith in the Lord.

Luke 17:19: “And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.”

Those other nine fellows went to the priests. I am sure they did. But Jesus tells this man to go his way. Now, did he go to the priest? He may have or he may just have gone home because Jesus said, “thy faith hath made thee whole.” In every way he was restored physically, he is restored spiritually, he is now part of the family of God, and what made the difference is faith. Now, the Lord wants faith from us. We are saved by faith, we must live by faith, we must live our lives in grateful service by faith.

I would imagine, the story does not tell us this, this is where this narrative ends, by the way, why is this story in Luke and not in the other Gospels? You know, Luke was a doctor, a physician and he tells us of more healings than any of the other writers do. They all tell stories of it, but he tells more. Why? Because that is what he was interested in.

But the fact of the matter is that the majority of people who receive blessing from the Lord, the majority of the people who get saved, do not take time to give Him thanks. We are busy, we are going on about in life. Why didn’t those other men come back? We do not know; it does not give us their motive but I can guess. They are so excited about being healed that they cannot wait to get home to see their family. They know they have got to go see the priest first and get OKed, they will be shut up for days, they are in a hurry to get it all taken care of. They are busy wanting to get on with their life just like most people. But one man stopped, and he turned back to give the Lord thanks.

Take Time to Give Thanks

I want to share this with you, and we will close tonight. It is easy to get caught up in the cares of life. It is easy to get caught up with things that are so busy, so demanding of our time. We need to pause and give the Lord thanks. I do not know about you, what your habits are as far as prayer. I am sure you pray. I have my way to pray and times of praying. I try to pray throughout the day, but I set aside time first thing in the morning to pray. But the fact of the matter is, that in that time, I may forget to tell the Lord some things that need telling. I am very busy to start asking Him things, sometimes I forget to start thanking Him for things. So, we need to come back and give thanks.

This man’s body had been cleansed from that awful, deadly sin of leprosy. Just like sin, leprosy brought death. Just like sin, leprosy ruined a person’s life. That man’s heart had also been cleansed. His soul had been saved. And for those of us whose hearts have been cleansed and souls have been saved we need to give thanks; we must give thanks.

To tell you the truth, I am thankful. I told the story of the evening when I got saved many times, so many times here, you probably got tired of hearing about it. But you know what? I have been telling that story for over half a century now and I plan to keep telling it because it has never gotten old to me.

And I will share with you what was shared with me by another preacher decades ago. A fellow named Danny Harvey. Last I heard just a few months ago, he is still preaching up in Alabama I believe. Danny Harvey told me this, “Give your salvation testimony often.” He said by doing that, two things will happen, “Number one, it will keep the experience fresh in your own heart and mind.” He said, “Number two, it is the best way to witness you could possibly have.”

I could come to a person who is not a believer with arguments, and I could argue science and history and things, not as well as some people can of course. But I can do that to a certain degree, and they could argue back. But when you give your testimony and you tell them how the Lord saved you, they cannot say to you, “No, that did not happen.” There you are, living proof that it did happen. It is a wonderful way to witness.

So, I will echo Danny Harvey and say to give your salvation testimony often. Give thanks to the Lord. I am thankful for being saved. We all shared things for which we were thankful this evening. And I am thankful for being saved. I am thankful for the many blessings that God has given me throughout these years, and I have to say, God has been good and still is, far more than I ever deserve.

So, for those listening this evening whether in person or electronically or listening later, three quick questions. Number one, have you been cleansed? You can be. Let’s say the same thing another way. Have you been saved? You can be.

You can look this story up. It is not a big secret nobody knows. But years ago, my wife and I were up in the Orlando area, and I think we were celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary. I believe that is right, one of our wedding anniversaries, I am pretty sure it was our 25th. We were looking for some things to do up there and I had seen advertised somewhere a thing called the Titanic Experience. I do not know if it is still there, it was then. It was a good number of years ago.

But we went to this, and it was a display that was all set up all about the ship Titanic and the sinking of the Titanic. They had among other things, they did not have any of the ship there but a few small artifacts, but they had built a replica of a portion of the deck, they built a replica of one of the cabins so you could see what it was like. Then you see several photographs that tell you stories. It was not a large place, I would imagine about the size of our two buildings together, it would not have been any bigger than that. But as we got to the final room and there were artifacts in there just before you would exit out, I am sure they had some sort of shop where you could purchase things, someone told us this story.

I will be honest with you, I do not remember the names they gave us, the names of the two men. But one of the people who had been on board the ship when it sank was a preacher and he had somehow survived, he was out there in the water clinging to some wreckage.

And as he was floating around out there in the freezing cold water, he would come across other people, other survivors and they would be in a raft or maybe again, clinging to wreckage. He would yell out to them, “Are you saved yet?” And one man yelled back who like him, was clinging to the wreckage, and said, “No, I am not saved. Can’t you see I am in the same situation you are?” And the preacher said, “Are you saved yet?” And they drifted apart.

And the man got thinking about that, “Why did he ask me that? He knows where he is. He knows where I am. Why did he ask me that? We are not saved.” One more time they drifted close together and the preacher called out, “Are you saved yet?” And the man said, “Yes, yes, I have asked Jesus to save me.”

As we were told the story, the preacher did not make it. He was lost out at sea that night, but that man survived and got back to the United States and told the story. Now, you can look that story up and get the names of the men and it is all there, very clear.

But that is the question, isn’t it? Are you saved yet? If you are, be thankful. Tell somebody else, maybe somebody else who is drifting out in the dark sea who needs to be saved. So, the Lord teaches us in this story to come back to praise Him for the good things. Let’s close with thankful hearts.

Father, thank you so much for loving us. Thank you for Jesus who loved us and gave himself for us. Thank you, Lord, that by faith we can trust you. We can be forgiven. We can be cleansed. We can be born again. Thank you, Lord, that you allow us to live a new life of service to you, looking forward to that day when we go home. Our heads are bowed, our eyes are closed. As is our custom on Sunday evening, we are going to close with an invitation. The Lord has spoken to your heart. There is a need in your spiritual life. This is the time to do business with God. Certainly, if you are not saved yet, would you come to the Lord and trust Him as Savior. Would you give Him your heart? If you are saved, would you give Him your thanks, and would you live that life of gratitude in telling others. Perhaps as we say often here, there is something else on your heart and mind, something the Lord has been speaking to you about, dealing with you about, but nothing that we have said tonight had anything to do with it. But you know God’s been speaking to you. There’s that decision you need to make. There’s business you need to do with the Lord, this is the time to do it. Father, bless and move in this time. Work in our hearts. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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