In this Bible Story, we learn about Jesus’ stories of thankfulness and humility. Jesus healing lepers, ministering to his disciples, and rebuking the Pharisees. In all these interactions, Jesus shows that he is driven by compassion. This story is inspired by Luke 17:11-19; 18:1-14. Go to BibleinaYear.com and learn the Bible in a Year.
Today's Bible verse is Luke 18:13 from the King James Version.
Episode 203: As Jesus was nearing Galilee again, a group of lepers cried out to him for mercy. Filled with compassion Jesus healed all ten of them. But only one returned to thank him. Later that evening Jesus’ disciples began to ask Him about prayer. In response, He told them of a Judge who feared neither God nor people and a widow who would not give up. Eventually, the Judge gave up and granted the widow's request. Then He reminded both us and the disciples to be persistent in prayer because God is much more compassionate than this judge. The next day He taught the crowds a lesson on what it means to be humble in the sight of God.
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Let us pray and the Publican standing far off would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me, a sinner Louke eighteen thirteen, God of Heaven and Earth, I want to take a moment and thank you for cleansing my life and forgiving me a second chance to enjoy all that you have for me, like you did to those lepers in to Day's story. May my posture and my heart be like the one leper who came back to thank you. May my life serve as a continual thanksgiving to you for all that you've done for me and all that you are going to do for me in the future. I live with gratitude because it is only by your power, Jesus, that I have access to eternal life and life in abundance here on earth. For I will not live with the spirit of judgment on my life like the Pharisees did to the tax collector. Instead, I will be a model of the life of Jesus, who looked at the heart before any outward appearance. Pride will not be afforded the luxury to take up space in my mind and my life, because that space is already occupied by the love and humility of Christ. I stamp this as my truth in Jesus name. Amen, Thanks for making prayer a priority in your life. To hear the Bible, come to life, stay tuned for the Bible in a Year. Brought to you by Bible in a Year dot.
Com Lepers, Judges and Pride, and our last story, we explored the story of the prodigal Son. Jesus used his story to demonstrate the steadfast forgiveness of God. No matter how far gone someone may seem, the Lord is actively waiting to restore and forgive. Now we see Jesus healing lepers, ministering to his disciples, and rebuking the Pharisees. In all these interactions, Jesus shows that he is driven by compassion inspired by the Gospels.
Hello, and welcome to the Bible in a Year. This is Jack Graham. In our last episode, we heard about a loving, forgiving father who accepted his repentant son with open arms, which provides us a picture of God's own nature and his desire to restore us into his family. When we come to him, Jesus was showing the Pharisees and all of us that God rejoices greatly when even one of his children comes back to him, no matter where they've been or what they've done. It's never too late for a new beginning. Today, we'll hear as Jesus continues to show mercy, compassion, and healing to those around him who have great physical and spiritual needs. His unconditional and limitless love for humanity is a stark contrast to the religiosity of his day. As we listen, Jesus also will teach a lesson about prayer and God's willingness to hear our Christ for help and forgiveness when we come to him with a humble heart. So let's listen now to today's gospel reading.
Have mercy on Us, Jesus heard from the distance. The faint moans were coming from the shadows below some rocks near Galilee. Jesus, our Master, please have mercy on us, the voices cried out again. Jesus and his disciples stopped to inspect the source of the pa moans. Then creeping out of the shadows were ten lepers. Their faces were mangled from years of rotting. Their eyes were yellow and nearly lifeless. The disciples leaped back in fear, but Jesus stepped forward. The ten lepers all fell to their knees and begged Jesus to heal them. Jesus touched each and every one of them gently. He was moved with compassion. Go your way, show yourselves to the priests, for you are healed. As the ten lepers arose, the dark sores on their bodies began to heal. Their limbs regained color and feeling. Even their voices were filled with more life than before. The lepers leapt with joy and skipped their way back into the city. Their laps echoed as they held each other arm to arm. Jesus smiled, then turned back to continue walking with his disciples. After about a mile, Jesus heard a voice shouting from behind him. It was one of the healed lepers. He had used his new found energy to run back to Jesus and fall at his feet. He thanked Jesus and praised him for the work he had done in his life. Thank you, the man said, with tears. Jesus laughed from his belly and embraced the man. Then he looked around. There were no signs of the others. Were there not ten of you? Where are the other nine? Jesus asked, Is there no one else who will thank God except this man? Jesus shrugged, saddened by the lack of gratitude. Later that evening, Jesus was beside the fire with his disciples. The cool breeze was a welcomed relief after a hot day of traveling. The men ate together and told stories. Sometimes they would speak of God's will, other times they would make jokes and laugh. Eventually, the disciples were asking Jesus about prayer. They wanted to know if God always listened to them, if he always bent his ear to hear their cries. A few of them confessed that they would often lose heart when they prayed to God. They would pray for a few weeks, but eventually stop when things wouldn't change. Jesus propped himself up closer to the fire. Looking deeply into the flickering flame, He pondered for a moment, and then began to tell another parable. There was once a judge who did not fear God. He was a grumpy man and unhappy in his city. Was a widow who had been wronged every day, she went into his courtroom yelling, give me justice. But every time the judge refused, the widow would come in every day asking for justice. She would ask so often that the judge eventually said to himself, I will do anything to get this woman to leave me alone. So he granted her justice. Jesus leaned over to his disciples and said, even the unrighteous judge was worn down over time. Will not God, who loves you, bend his ear to bring you justice. Cry to him day and night. He will give justice to those who cry out for it. The next day, Jesus and his disciples were walking in the city streets of Galilee. The city was busy and many tax collectors were set up on the cross streets to collect what was owed to Rome. Pharisees and other Jews scoffed and spied the men collecting taxes in the courtyard. They looked at them with complete disdain. They saw them as rats and betrayers of Israel because they worked for the Romans. Jesus watched from a distance as the Pharisees stuck their noses high in the air. Moved by the spirit, Jesus rose up and elevated his voice. Two men went to the temple to pray.
He yelled.
Jesus had a voice that drew attention. Everyone stopped to listen. Two men entered the temple. One of them was a pharisee, the other was a tax collector. The pharisee prayed standing. He held his arms high in the air and yelled, O God, I thank you that I am not like other men. I thank you that I am not like these thieves, adulterers, liars and tax collectors. I fast every week, I tithe all I earn, and I know your law inside and out. Jesus walked over to the desk of the tax collectors. He looked at them with compassion and gave a gentle smile. Still projecting his voice, he said the other man. The tax collector was on his knees and face. He could barely look to heaven. Knowing his heart was wicked. He beat his chest and whispered to God, have mercy on me. I am a sinner. Jesus pointed to the pharisees and gave them a long, glaring stare. Know this. The tax collector went home justified. Not the pharisee, he who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted. With those words, the Pharisees left to conspire against him.
Into the scripture, Jesus and the disciples are passing between Samaria and Galilee on their way to Jerusalem, and as they enter a village, they are met by ten lepers men who stood at a distance to ask Jesus to heal them. These men, as all lepers in those days, were shunned and cut out of society, kept away so they could not infect others. It was a terrible existence, both physically and emotionally, so these ten came to ask for healing, for restoration, that their skin could be cleansed, so that once again they could join their families and friends, that they could get their lives back. Their cries had surely fallen on deaf ears before, but Jesus was not like everyone else. He heard their pleas for mercy and turned to them, telling them to go and present themselves to the priests. And as they turned, just as Jesus told them to do, each man was cleansed, the scales of leprosy shedding to reveal a healthy skin. So they ran off surely eager to reap the benefits of this miracle. But we're told that one man, when he saw what Jesus had done, turned back and he said, Jesus, thank you for healing me. Of all the ten men, only one expressed gratitude for the blessing. And this didn't go unnoticed by the Lord, because he asked the man, where are the others? Were? There are not ten men healed. It was a rhetorical question intended to point out that only this Samaritan man, once again, the least likely suspect in the eyes of any self respecting Jewish person at that time. But only this man had the right heart attitude towards God, one filled with gratitude, His praise and humility opened the door for an even greater healing. For in Luke seventeen and verse nineteen, this is what Jesus said to the man, rise and go your way. Your faith has made you whole. You see, while all ten lepers received healing that day physical healing, only this grateful man, who returned to worship the Lord, experience true spiritual restoration. We then heard as Jesus taught his disciples about prayer and how they are to be persistent in prayer, trusting God to hear them and answer, and not to give up, not to lose heart. He told them of a judge, a very hard and difficult man, who didn't listen to the Christ of those in need, nor did he fear God. And yet this judge, when pestered for justice by a widow, eventually gave in. Then he told them that if this unjust man, who was not righteous, would help this widow, how much more would God help them. The point was not that God only hears our prayers if we pray hard enough or long enough, or that our prayers fall on deaf ears. Sometimes quite the opposite. Jesus was making the point that God, who is perfectly good and is perfectly just, will always give justice and hear the cries of those who seek him. The challenge for us, of course, is that we don't often understand God's timing. But knowing that God loves us and is perfectly good, that his goodness and mercy follows us all the days of our lives, we know that when we pray, he hears us and cares for us, and in his own time and in his own way, he will answer us. But Jesus had more to say to the disciples about prayer, because they needed to understand the proper posture of prayer, the principles of prayer. He told them about two men, and once more, the characters were cast in counterintuitive roles, a tax collector and a pharisee, each going to the temple to pray. To all who heard this, they would have expected the model to be the righteous man, the pharisee, who kept all the rules. The good man, so called collector, was a traitor and a cheat. He would never be a good example of prayer or anything else. Imagine the shock to the audience as Jesus told this story. The pharisee stood proudly and spoke loudly, telling God everything about himself that made him better than sinners, like the tax collector, reminding God why he had every right to be blessed. Like the older brother in the story of the prodigal son, this man felt justified by his own good deeds. But the tax collector, like the prodigal son who came home and fell on the grace of his father, this man humbled himself before the Lord. He said, Lord, be merciful to me, A sinner, and he asked God for his forgiveness. What then does Jesus conclude that the one who owned up to his son, the man who humbled himself and asked for forgiveness, he was the one who went to his house right with God. When we humble ourselves before God, he always hears us. And if you want to know God, if you want to know Jesus as your Lord and savior, begin with that simple prayer, the prayer of this man who said, Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner. And then look to the savior, the Lord Jesus, who died for our sins and rose again so that we could have eternal life. Dear God, we thank you for your word and what it teaches us about your desire to love us and restore us and heal us both physically and spiritually. May we always return with gratitude, day after day, with thanksgiving in our hearts for all that you have done for us. And may we always look to you in humility, asking for your forgiveness when we sin, and receiving your love and grace and healing. For we pray in Jesus' name because your love never fails. Amen. Thank you for listening to Today's Bible in a Year podcast. I'm Jack Graham of Dallas, Texas. You can download the Prey dot com app and make prayer and Bible study the priority of your life. And if you enjoyed this podcast, tell someone about it, pass it on, let others know, because it is our desire to get God's word to as many people as possible, as fast as possible. And if you want to know more about what it means to be a Christ's follower, what it means to be a disciple of Jesus, then go to Jack Graham dot org Jack Graham dot org and we have many resources that are available for you there. I also want to invite you to something very special. To join me and my wife's deb on a trip to Israel in twenty twenty four. We leave on April the first for a ten day journey, a trip that you will never forget, the trip of a lifetime. We also have a trip to Alaska, a Bible study cruise to Alaska that goes in July. We would love to have you for one of those or both. Go to Jack Graham dot org or Prestonwood dot org for information God bless you.
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