Luke 17:1-19: “Jesus Gives Four Instructions To Disciples
To Help In Their Growth And Faith / Heals Ten Lepers But Only One Thanks Him”
By
1.
INTRO:
1.1.
In our last study, we looked
at verses 16 – 31 of chapter 16.
1.1.1. Here we saw first of all that Jesus challenged the Pharisees present on
this day concerning the demands of the Law on their life.
1.1.2. We saw next that Jesus taught the Parable Of The Rich Man And Lazarus,
two men who lived opposite lifestyles and who finally died and left this earth
however how they lived their life in this world determined their fortunes in
the next life: The poor man ended up in
Abraham’s Bosom and was at peace and in comfort. The rich man ended up in Hades and torments.
1.2.
In our study today, we are
going to look at the first 19 verses of chapter 17. In this section of scriptures we will see:
1.2.1. Jesus teaches His disciples four different lessons:
1.2.1.1. A warning about causing anyone to stumble in their faith.
1.2.1.2. A teaching that we are to rebuke those whom we discover to be in sin,
yet forgive them if they come to repentance.
1.2.1.3. A lesson on the effectiveness of the smallest amount of faith, the
faith of a mustard seed.
1.2.1.4. A teaching that God’s people are always to consider themselves as God’s
slaves and unworthy of any of His blessings or goodness.
1.2.2. Jesus heals ten lepers however only one turns back to thank Him.
2. VS 17:1-2 - “1 He
said to His disciples, “It is inevitable that stumbling blocks come, but woe to
him through whom they come! 2 “It would be better for him if a
millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea, than that
he would cause one of these little ones to stumble.” - Jesus sternly warns His
disciples about causing others to stumble
2.1.
In these verses, we see that
Jesus is again preparing His disciples for that period of time after His
resurrection from the dead when the church shall be undertaking their Great
Commission to take the gospel to the whole world and win disciples of all of
the nations. Here though, Jesus is
sternly warning His disciples in a way that each of them can only take
personally.
2.2.
First of all, Jesus tells
His disciples that in this fallen world filled with people who are indwelt by a sinful nature that it is
inevitable that ‘stumbling blocks come’ (though we Christians are
regenerated we still have a sinful nature resident within us). This fact should be received as an admonition
to all to beware since there is a great tendency for ‘stumbling blocks’
to occur in this world.
2.2.1. I have often used the illustration that our fleshly sinful nature which
still indwells us as Christians has every bit of the tendency to pop up as a
beach ball in a pool that we might try to keep under the water. It takes continual effort and thought to be
sure to keep a beach ball under water in a pool and so it takes continual
effort to make our old nature remain crucified and dead to sin ( We are
supposed to reckon ourselves to now be dead to sin but alive to God in Christ
Jesus, Rom. 6:11).
2.3.
Even though it is inevitable
in our world that stumbling blocks may occur, Jesus sternly warns each of His
disciples ( and all of us as well ) that there is a very grave ‘woe’
pronounced over each person’s life through whom a ‘stumbling block’
comes about.
2.4.
Jesus says that it would be
better for a person ‘if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were
thrown into the sea’ than that he would be the
one through whom a ‘stumbling block’ should occur.
2.5.
A ‘millstone’ was a
huge and very heavy round stone that was used for the milling of wheat in
Jesus’ day. For anyone to have one of
these stones tied around his neck and then to be thrown into the sea would
result in a horrible and gruesome death.
Such describes the seriousness of being one through whom another
stumbles in his/her faith.
2.6.
Jesus specifically speaks of
calling the ones who would stumble ‘little ones’ and some have speculated
that this term could refer to several different types of people: children, new believers, all
believers viewed from God’s perspective.
Surely, it is a horrible tragedy when anyone stumbles in their faith.
2.7.
This saying by Jesus also
implies the stumbling of others that can occur as a result of false teachers
who deceive and lead others into heretical beliefs.
2.7.1. This past week I have been reading two different books that deal with
how New Age teaching and beliefs have been leaking into the church through the
“Seeker Friendly” churches: “Deceived
On Purpose” by Warren Smith and “A Time Of Departing” by Ray Yungen. The church growth movement is now
incorporating these practices and thus the mainstream church is been heading
down the path of apostasy. One of the
big players in the “Seeker Friendly” movement has recently allowed a New
Ager to speak in the church a few times.
In the New Age infiltration into the church there is the belief that God
is in us and thus that we can get in touch with God from an internal path
through “Contemplative Prayer,” which is a prayer where rather than
meditate upon scripture that a person instead tries to blank out all of their
thoughts, or some mantra that a person chants over and over. Some of these churches are practicing this
today. This path to God through emptying
your mind or changing may seem innocent to you, however if there is another
path to God but through Jesus Christ and His completed work upon the cross of
Calvary, then Jesus death was needless and a horrible injustice. The Pantheistic View of God that He is in all
things then leads to the view that each of us are God and the belief in a new
Jesus, one who is merely a shaman or spirit guide, or one who shows us the way
to becoming God. Pursuing another path
to God besides Jesus is an occult experience with demonic involvement.
2.7.2. After reading these books this week I now believe that the end times
delusion referred to in 2 Thess. 2:1-10 that is going to come over all of the
earth and cause the “apostasy” is this New Age belief that “God is in
you” , “1 Now we request you, brethren, with
regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to
Him, 2 that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be
disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the
effect that the day of the Lord has come. 3 Let no one in any way
deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and
the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, 4 who
opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so
that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God. 5
Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you
these things? 6 And you know what restrains him now, so that in his
time he will be revealed. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is
already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken
out of the way. 8 Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the
Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the
appearance of His coming; 9 that is, the one whose coming is
in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false
wonders, 10 and with all the deception of wickedness for those who
perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. 11
For this reason God will send upon them a
deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, 12
in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but
took pleasure in wickedness.”
2.7.3. We who call ourselves God’s people in these last days need to realize
that God has called us to be “contenders for the faith” as Jude wrote to
the church in Jude 3, “3 Beloved, while I was making every
effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write
to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for
all handed down to the saints.”
2.7.4. The apostle John wrote that whenever we encounter unusual doctrines or
practices that all of us as Christians are to “test the spirits” to see
if they are from God (1 John 4:1), plus we are to realize that “a little
leaven leavens the whole lump,” (Gal. 5:9; 1 Cor. 5:6).
2.7.5. John MacArthur has written the following in one of his commentaries on
1 Timothy, “Being nourished in the Word, by preserving it purely,
the man of God is first and foremost a guardian of the treasure of the truth he
is to proclaim. He must preserve it from any error or misrepresentation. Paul
warned Timothy to guard it and handle it accurately (1 Tim. 4:6–7; 6:2–4; 6:20;
2 Tim. 1:13; 2:15) as well as to work hard at preaching and teaching it (1 Tim.
5:17 and 2 Tim. 4:2). Paul commands Timothy to keep or guard the Word. How is
this done? It is done not only by preaching the Word, but by living it.”
3.
VS 17:3-5 - “3 “Be on your guard!
If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. 4 “And
if he sins against you seven times a day, and returns to you seven times,
saying, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.” 5 The apostles said to the Lord,
“Increase our faith!”” - Jesus teaches His disciples that they are to
rebuke those who sin and forgive those who repent of their sins
3.1.
Another important teaching
of Jesus for the training of His disciples is found here regarding how to deal
with a supposed brother or sister who is found to have sin in his/her life.
3.2.
These verses are very
similar to Matt. 18:15-17 except that in the Matthew passage the emphasis is
that the person who is to be rebuked is one who has sinned “against you” :“15 “Moreover
if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him
alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he
will not hear, take with you one or two more, that ‘by the mouth of two or
three witnesses every word may be established.’ 17 And if he
refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to
hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector.”
3.3.
These verses make us realize
that the Christian life and growing in spiritual maturity is supposed to be “a
community process.” All of us as
Christians are responsible to help each other along in our spiritual walk. The way outlined by Jesus here is that if we
know a brother or a sister who has unconfessed (and not repented of) sin that
it is our responsibility to go them in private (as Matt. 18:15-17 specifies)
and rebuke him/her. This then allows the
person the opportunity to both “save face” publicly as well as perhaps
explain how that we might have misunderstood an action to be sinful when in
fact it was not. We will grow up in
Christ if as a community or family in Christ if we love each other enough to
help out in each other’s growth by rebuking unconfessed sin when we encounter
it in the peoples’ lives in the church.
3.4.
It is not Jesus’ point here
that each of us as Christians are to be always inspecting and looking for sin
in another’s life. Rather, when it has
come to our attention that someone is in sin, then we have a responsibility to go
to that person in private and rebuke him/her.
We also must remember that in Paul’s definition of God’s “agape love”
that love believes all things about people and hopes all things about them,
rather than expect the worst from them. So, we must not be expecting sin in a
person’s life but rather just react to it in a loving way if it should occur.
3.5.
Jesus also makes the
important point here that when a brother or a sister in Christ has repented of
their sin that it is also our responsibility to ‘forgive him.’ The point here is clear that the community of
fellowship of believers is based upon love and relationship and that the desire
should always be that when anyone has sinned that “restoration” should
occur, if possible. The apostle Paul
gave the exhortation in Gal. 6:1-2 about how that we believers are to employ
gentleness with those in error and work not towards exclusion of people who
have sinned, but rather restoration of them, “1 Brethren,
if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore
such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be
tempted. 2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of
Christ.”
3.6.
In this setting, Jesus
taught His disciples that a person is to forgive his brother or sister ‘seven
times a day’ if he/she comes to you in repentance. This statement by Jesus brings to mind that
day recorded in Matt. 18:21-22 when Peter asked Jesus if when a brother sins
against him if he should forgive him up to seven times, but Jesus replied that it
was not seven times but seventy times seven, “21 Then
Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me,
and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” 22 Jesus said to him, “I do
not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.” Peter thought that he was
really being generous in his question to Jesus, however he didn’t even come
close to God’s standard of 70 x 7, or 490, a number which really symbolizes an
infinite amount.
3.7.
It is difficult sometimes to
forgive someone, especially someone who has done something that has hurt you
badly, or someone who has time after time done something to hurt you. Therefore, it is not difficult to understand
how that in response to Jesus’ teaching about forgiving someone seven times a
day that Jesus’ disciples emphatically respond, “Increase
our faith!”
3.8.
In the community of faith we
are all family, and when it comes to family we as people have to be willing to
forgive each other time and time again when there has been a transgression against
us. Sadly, our tendency as people when
we have been hurt is to write people off, leave the church and start attending
another one, etc. However, doing this we
miss out because there is such a blessedness received whenever we are willing
to forgive others who have done us wrong.
The act of forgiving others from the heart brings us as close to
godliness as we shall ever come upon this earth.
3.9.
It is important for us as
Christians to realize that the Lord never asks us to do anything that He has
not done Himself. It is the Lord who is
willing to forgive each of us seventy times seven times a day if we are willing
to repent. It is a good thing God
forgives us in this way because we need His forgiveness so often, especially
when we have caused others to stumble.
4.
VS 17:6 - “6 And the Lord said,
“If you had faith like a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be
uprooted and be planted in the sea’; and it would obey you.” - Jesus tells His disciples
that faith as small as a mustard seed shall enable a person to uproot a
mulberry tree and plant it in the sea
4.1.
We have alluded before in
our study of Luke that the ‘mustard seed’ is one of the smallest of
seeds that there is, and that for this reason in regard to the faith a person
should have Jesus used a ‘mustard seed’ as a metaphor for something that
is very small.
4.2.
The idea Jesus is trying to
convey here is the fact that it is not the ‘quantity’ of faith that a
person has that is important. Rather, it
is the very existence of faith that is important. Faith is simply trusting God with our life
and that His promises in His word are true.
We either trust God in this way or we do not, and the simple act of
trusting Him and His word is what is important in our lives.
4.3.
The ‘mulberry tree’
is similar to an oak tree in some ways.
It is very sturdy and enduring as a tree. Jesus states here that if you have genuine
faith in Him that could say to a ‘mulberry tree’ to ‘be uprooted and
planted in the sea’ and it would obey you.
Either of the two tasks, to uproot a ‘mulberry tree’ or to plant
one in the sea, are quite remarkable feats for a person to accomplish.
4.4.
At another time, Jesus
stated that if a person had genuine faith that he could speak to a mountain and
cause it to be cast into the sea.
5.
VS 17:7-10 - “7 “Which of you,
having a slave plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in
from the field, ‘Come immediately and sit down to eat’? 8 “But will
he not say to him, ‘Prepare something for me to eat, and properly clothe
yourself and serve me while I eat and drink; and afterward you may eat and
drink’? 9 “He does not thank the slave because he did the things
which were commanded, does he? 10 “So you too, when you do all the things
which are commanded you, say, ‘We are unworthy slaves; we have done only that
which we ought to have done.’ ”” - Jesus tells His disciples that they need to
consider themselves as being God’s slaves and that when they serve the Lord
that they still should never feel as if they are worthy of any of His blessings
5.1.
These verses are interesting
because they reveal the proper attitude that we as God’s people ought to have
towards our relationship with the Lord.
Jesus tells us that we ought to consider ourselves as being merely God’s
slaves.
5.2.
Jesus tells us in these
verses that each of us are God’s ‘slaves,’ or “bond-slaves,” and
in saying this He uses the Greek word “doulos” for slave, which is a word
that refers to one who willfully makes himself a slave of his master for
life. In the Hebrew culture at this
time, if a man were to be unable to pay some debt and as a result sell himself
into slavery, he was to be released when the year of Jubilee occurred, and thus
no slave would never have be a slave longer than seven years (Jubilee occurred
every seven years). However, if a man
appreciated his master he could willfully make himself a slave (“doulos”)
at this time by having his ear pierced with an awl, and thus he would willfully
make himself a slave for life. Each of
us as Christians when we come to salvation are also coming to submit ourselves
to be God’s slaves for life, and notice the many New Testament references
concerning us being God’s ‘slaves’ (“doulos”):
5.2.1.
Peter: 1 Peter
2:16, “16 as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but
as bondservants of God.”
5.2.2.
Paul: Romans
1:1, “1 Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be
an apostle, separated to the gospel of God.” Galatians 1:10, “10 For do I
now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased
men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.”
5.2.3.
Epaphras:
Colossians 4:12, “12 Epaphras, who is one of you, a
bondservant of Christ, greets you, always laboring fervently for you in
prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.”
5.2.4.
Mary: Luke
1:38, “38 Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord!
Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.”
5.3.
Vines Expository Dictionary
has the following entry for this Green word “doulos” which is translated
here as ‘slave’ :
DOULOS (δου̂λος , (1401)),
from deō, to bind, a
slave, originally the lowest term in the scale of servitude, came also to mean one
who gives himself up to the will of another, e.g., 1 Cor. 7:23; Rom. 6:17, 20,
and became the most common and general word for “servant,” as in Matt. 8:9,
without any idea of bondage. In calling himself, however, a ‘bondslave of Jesus
Christ,’ e.g., Rom. 1:1, the Apostle Paul intimates (1) that he had been
formerly a bondslave of Satan, and (2) that, having been bought by Christ, he
was now a willing slave, bound to his new Master.
5.4.
There are many implications of being Christ’s
bondslave:
5.4.1.
A bondslave does not have rights.
5.4.2.
A bondslave is under obligation to do the will of his
master whatever it might be.
5.4.3.
A bondslave does not act independently of his master.
5.5.
In aligning our lives with that of a typical bondslave’s
life, Jesus first states that when a bondslave has finished his daily chores
out in the field, he does not come home now and immediately sit down to
eat. Rather it is the case that after a
long day out in the field that a bondslave comes home and first has to cook a
meal for the household before he can relax and enjoy eating a meal
himself. This saying must therefore
indicate some things, I would think:
5.5.1.
Our life as Christ’s bondslave was not meant to be an
easy life.
5.5.1.1.
God didn’t call us as Christians to now be sanctified
couch potatoes for Jesus. He wants us to
be busy actively serving Him even while having to work and support a family as
well.
5.5.2.
Our lives as Christ’s bondslave is by nature a life of
sacrifice.
5.5.2.1.
In our lives in
5.5.3.
We Christians should never complain about our lot in
life, after all when we committed our lives to Christ we willingly signed up to
be Christ’s bondslave, no one held a gun to our head and make us yield our life
forever entirely to God.
5.6.
Jesus tells His disciples that just as when a slave
has finished cooking a meal for his master after working all day in the fields
for him that the master does not thank the slave for his work, for he has
simply done what was expected of him, that in the same way that when they have
done God’s will that they shouldn’t think that they are somehow worthy of His
praise or blessings. Rather, we
Christians are always to have the mindset that we are completely unworthy of
any of the blessings that the Lord has given to us.
5.7.
God’s grace is beyond our ability to understand. The amazing thing about serving the Lord is
the fact that even though we are unworthy of any of the Lord’s blessings, that
it is none-the-less the case that He loves to bless us and that He even
promises to give us rewards for the things that we do for Him in obedience.
6.
VS 17:11-19 - “11 While He was on
the way to
6.1.
Here we see that on another
occasion that Jesus healed ten lepers as He ‘was passing between
6.2.
We are not amazed that Jesus
has performed this complete healing of ten lepers, for we have seen Jesus heal
and perform miracles, doing the things that no other ever has or will do. What we are amazed about is the lack of
appreciation of people for the things that God does in their lives. People take the Lord for granted so often in
life. For some reason, they often have
the notion that God owes them something or that somehow they deserve the good
things that the Lord does in their life.
However, nothing could be further from the truth.
6.3.
Pastor Chic of
7. CONCLUSIONS:
7.1.
As we consider this study
and how it needs to apply to our lives, lets first of all make a commitment to
never do anything that will cause another person to stumble in their faith, for
this brings a horrible result.
7.2.
When you see someone who is
in sin, go to them in private and rebuke them.
7.3.
Whenever someone repents of
their sin, lets be committed to forgiving them.
7.4.
Remember that just the
smallest amount of faith is always enough to do great things for God.
7.5.
Always remember that you are
just God’s slave and not worthy to receive any of the good things that He does
in your life.
7.6.
Remember to always thank the
Lord for His blessings and goodness in your life.