Christ’s Forgiveness

Luke 17:1-10 Then said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe [unto him], through whom they come! It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones. Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him. And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him. And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith. And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you. But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat? And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink? Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not. So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.

Jesus is speaking about forgiveness

• If there is one thing that will show how much like Jesus we are or not, is how we deal with people.
• First of all he said that offences will come.
• People will hurt us.
• It is impossible to live a Christian life and not be hurt by someone.
• “It is impossible but that offences will come.”
• How you react to it will determine if you are a real Christian or not.
• Christian is CHRISTLIKE.
• Then Jesus spoke about a person trespassing against you and offending you seven times and for each time that one comes and seeks forgiveness.
• You must forgive that person every single time they ask for it.
• And this stopped the disciples up and made them respond, “INCREASE OUR FAITH.”

INCREASE FAITH

They knew they could not do that, so they requested Jesus to speak a word to help them.

• Jesus compared it to a servant who in his daily routine comes into the master’s house.
• He is not asked to sit down and eat by the master, as though he were somehow no longer a servant, but rather serves the master and only eats after the master is fed. And then he serves himself… nobody serves him.
• When in our daily lives as Christians serving God, we are confronted with a different aspect, as meeting one seeking forgiveness, our servant duty is not over. We are still servants. We are not masters suddenly. Our needs are not met first.
• The stress is that our needs are not met first, and the fact that Jesus commands us to forgive.
• It is not up to us whether we will forgive or not.
• Jesus decided that already. He commanded us to forgive.

The reason he says this is because when someone comes to us and begs forgiveness, we may feel like we have a place of power.

• It might be easy to use a little bit of control over the person, and determine when that one will be forgiven, if at all we will forgive.
• We can no more expect to refuse to forgive than we can expect to come into the master’s house and be served a meal before the master is fed.
• We are still servants.
• It is our DUTIES to forgive as much as it is to serve Christ in all other aspects of our lives.

He said that serving the Master His dinner is like forgiving our brother.

• We serve Christ by coming into the house, (the house represents the Church, or the people of God), and forgiving others.
• Doing these things feeds the Lord.
• Serves Him.
• Forgiving others is supplying Jesus’ needs.
• Coming in the HOUSE and sitting down to eat before the Master eats, is like facing a brother whom we have rebuked and then facing his request to forgive him and refusing to forgive.
• We do not see our personal needs accomplished first.
• Is He in debt to us and therefore must thank us for our graciousness, when it is our DUTY to do these things we are commanded to in the first place?

TEN LEPERS

Then Jesus speaks about ten lepers.

Luke 17:11-19 And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off: And they lifted up [their] voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. 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. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, And fell down on [his] face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where [are] the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger. And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.

We discover upon careful examination, that this account immediately following the explanation of forgiving people as our duty is put here for no coincidence.

• It has to do with what He initially said.
• Ten lepers are together and in a little quarantine, for they cry from a far, due to the fact that leprosy was a highly contagious “uncleanness”, and not a disease.
• Jesus CLEANSED lepers, not healed them.
• God often immediately plagued them with it.
• There is no account of this before they dwelt in Egypt.
• Sin is the LEPROSY of the soul.
• LEPROSY IS A SYMBOL OF SIN AND SINCE ONLY GOD COULD REMOVE LEPROSY, WE SEE A PICTURE OF HOW ONLY GOD CAN CLEANSE ONE FROM SIN.
• It defiles the conscience and only Jesus can CLEANSE it.
• There were spots and marks that showed leprosy.
• There are marks of bitterness and sin.

They cry to Jesus, “Have mercy on me.”

• Jesus told them to follow the Law of Moses and present themselves to the priests.
• They were to go to the LAW OF MOSES.
• The reason He did this was because when a leper was cleansed, and the disease uncleanness gone, the leper had to go to the priests for a certificate saying the leprosy is gone.
• The priests could not cleanse lepers. Only God could do that.
• But there were rules involved in admitting them back into the public again and into society.

In Matthew 8, Jesus healed a leper and this is what we read:

Matt 8:3-4 And Jesus put forth [his] hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man; but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.

• “Tell no man,” because they had to be pronounced clean first and prove there was no danger in being around them due to the contagion having been removed, and get a TESTIMONY.
• The priests checked for certain signs, whether the flesh was raw or not, and whether hair in the flesh contaminated was white or not. And upon inspection he would know if the disease was gone, and pronounce him clean so he can enter society.

The uncleanness of leprosy damages the body physically.

• SIN damages a person.
• One may no longer have the uncleanness, but the visible damages would remain.
• Fingers were lost and their faces were twisted.
• SIN MAY BE FORGIVEN, but the damages are still upon people.
• That is why the people had to go to the priest for proof to others, that though they LOOK diseased, they are not.
• PEOPLE can still see that one has been damaged by sin.
• The damages are left after the sin is forgiven.

So this is very similar to the command given at first concerning FORGIVENESS.

• So while the lepers go, they are healed.
• Only after we obey Jesus will we be healed.
• And one of them notices this and in faith, knowing it worked, ran to Jesus and fell to Jesus’ feet and worshipped Him.
• This one humbled himself by falling to Jesus feet, and glorifying God.
• And this one was a SAMARITAN.
• Jesus asks where are the other nine.
• Only this one returned and glorified God. (the fact that he glorified God is mentioned twice).
• Jesus said this one received a GREATER blessing, because not only was the disease gone, but Jesus said, “Luke 17:19 And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.”
• He was made whole.
• The damages that were visible were gone!

Before I go any further, let me point out to you that this one out of ten was a SAMARITAN.

• The Jews hated the Samaritans.
• The Jews were God’s people, then the Gentiles were below them and the Samaritans were half breeds of gentiles and Jews, so were hated and despised.
• THIS SAMARITAN WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN CLEANSED BY THE PRIESTS BECAUSE ONLY JEWS WERE INVOLVED IN THE LAW.
• When he came to Jesus in thanks, glorifying God, he not only came to the One who cleansed Him, but to the One who would accept him as he was instead of being like the Jews of Moses’ Law and not accepting him.
• To pronounce someone clean after they come, being cleansed, is to forgive someone who comes after they repent.
• JESUS SAID I AM GOING TO PRACTICE WHAT I PREACH, AND FORGIVE ANYBODY WHO COMES TO ME.
• EVEN A HATED SAMARITAN WHO MOST PEOPLE WOULD NEVER FORGIVE.

Jesus was a Jew.

• He was a Jew like the priests were.
• But this Samaritan knew that only God could cleanse his leprosy, but men had to accept him into society.
• And though God cleansed him, he knew the people would not accept him.
• He was a Samaritan.
• The world might laugh and shun those different, from different backgrounds, with things like foreign background or even mental illness.
• But the people of God need to accept anybody, and overlook anything the world might consider as faults and that the world might mock and shun.
• The world ignores such people.
• The Church needs to accept all.

Jesus knew that the Law could not accept the Samaritan.

• He just finished talking about those who refuse to forgive and how we must forgive.
• What about someone who was a thief and is forgiven of God?
• You can often trust them more than anyone else!

FORGIVENESS

• The man was not only cleansed of the leprosy, but also healed as to the visible damages done to the body.
• He was not told to go to the priest after this, but to “Go thy way.”
• The reason they needed certificates was due to outward damage that made it look like they were sinners.
• But the one is forgiven, and desires to sit at Jesus feet (representing learning from His word), and glorifies God, goes beyond what most people come to.
• Most only want sins forgiven, and never glorify God and never come to Jesus’ feet to know the WORD.

At Jesus’ Feet

Luke 10:39-42 And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word. But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.

• Sitting at Jesus’ feet represents hearing His word.
• The leper fell at Jesus’ feet.
• Our backgrounds have left damage upon us that people can see.
• The WORD will take all the damages that are visible that people can see….. the short temper, and the lack of patience and quick anger…. and remove them and make us whole.

The CLEANSED LEPER “TURNED”

• He was going to the priests, in futility since we know they would not have accepted him, and TURNED to Jesus.
• He was looking towards the LAW OF MOSES, but TURNED TO LOOK TO JESUS.
• (People need to be able to turn to us when all the rest of the world and religious world refuses to accept them! When people would SCOWL at them, we need to smile and show love for them!)

Notice what PAUL said about turning from Moses to Jesus.

2Cor 3:12-18 Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech: And not as Moses, [which] put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished: But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which [vail] is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart. Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away. Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord [is], there [is] liberty. But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, [even] as by the Spirit of the Lord.

• When the heart turns to the Lord the veil is removed.
• Gazing upon the Lord causes one to CHANGE into that same image from glory to glory.

More than just forgiveness, we will be changed and the damages upon our character will be removed.

• We will not need a declaration that we are saved, because all people will outwardly see that we are different.
• Have you fallen to Jesus’ feet?
• Can people see a change in you?
• Or do you need someone to explain to others, due to the lack of indication to others, that you really are a Christian and have been forgiven?
• People can come to Jesus and be forgiven when the world and family and friends will not forgive.
• And true believers will do the very same!

The one out of ten came to Jesus and glorified God.

• The others did not do it.
• Read this informative Psalm:

Psal 30:1-2 A Psalm [and] Song [at] the dedication of the house of David. I will extol thee, O LORD; for thou hast lifted me up, and hast not made my foes to rejoice over me. O LORD my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me.

Psal 30:11-12 Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing: thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness; To the end that [my] glory may sing praise to thee, and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever.

• He heals us to the end, or for the purpose, that we might praise him.
• That means only one of ten did what He healed them to do.
• Let us glorify God, for this is our service!
• Most never glorify him for anything.

The Lord told them to forgive no matter how many times one seeks it and then trespasses again and seeks it again.

• And we have compared that to Jesus forgiving when Moses could nor would not.
• But let us leave the scripture today with this last alternative thought:
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