Cleansed and thankful
Hymn # “Now thank we all our God”
Rev you are welcome!
Thank you: Christ is risen,
He is risen indeed. Hallelujah!
Rev we are in Advent, why the Easter greetings!
On the 1st Easter Sunday, Jesus the Savior of the world rose triumphantly from the graves and Ascended into heaven. Because He lives on high, grace and mercy is possible for all today too. Amen.
Amen!
Let us pray
Gracious and everlasting Father, we heartily thank you for your mercy in Jesus Christ, an action and attitude the world needs today than ever. By the power of the Holy Spirit, may you keep us in true faith found in Jesus Christ alone, till eternity? Amen!
Amen!
Mr. Kyei wouldn’t it be great if we could count on one another for Mercy, kindness, consideration, encouragement, even more importantly, from God Himself.
That would be awesome Rev.
In today’s text people came to Jesus in deep distress, actually there are numerous biblical accounts through by which we observe God’s mercy in action. There and then people were afflicted with problems of every kind, including illnesses of many kinds… today and now we are afflicted with socio-politico-economic problems including illnesses such as Ebola, STM, COVID amongst others. For those who have been very sick or have friends and family facing health challenges; we will understand why people came to Jesus desperately seeking relief from their physical ailments.
Kindly read Luke 17:11-19
11 On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. 12 And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers,6 who stood at a distance 13 and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” 14 When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. 15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; 16 and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. 17 Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? 18 Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”
The word of God!
Thanks be to God
Jesus in ministry traveled and preached the coming of God’s kingdom. Significantly He corrected false teachings and false perceptions about Himself. Jesus’ mission intends to make us right with God the Father Himself. Jesus demonstrated God’s power and carried out God’s mercy by healing people.
On His way to Jerusalem with the disciples; Jesus came upon ten people sick with leprosy: a contagious, skin disease which at the time could not be cured, just as Ebola and COVID-19 affected the world in recent time.
These 10 lepers seek Jesus for mercy. Jesus heard their request and responded.
Beyond their bodily sickness of leprosy, Jesus knew there was a deeper problem associated with this disease. Part of the suffering caused by the contagious diseases was isolation other words quarantine. The isolated fear faced the reality of the disease and possibility of spreading it.
Ok Rev. so quarantine did not start with COVID-19.
There is nothing new under the sun: separation by quarantine was the reason for the Old Testament ceremonial laws.
The ceremonial laws define Israel as the chosen and separated people of God with a special mission of preparing the way for the Messiah. Cleanness and uncleanness prepare people consciously or unconsciously to understand Jesus’ accomplishments on the cross on behalf of humanity.
The ceremonial laws were a constant reminder that things in this world had deviated from God’s perfect intention for creation.
When God created, He saw that all things were good and He blessed them and gave man dominion over all creation. Since the fall in Eden’s garden, man lives in a sinful world. Sickness is one outward reminder of the separation between humanity and the Holiness of God’s own nature.
All kinds of sickness even death itself, remind us that salvation is objective and not subjective…. Salvation is going to take place from outside us and not as a result of sinful man’s best effort! Salvation is the merciful and gracious act of the Holy Righteous God.
Salvation is objective and not subjective: I remember that from last week’s theme, strength in weakness where Rev you said our feelings of faith is subjective but the best faith objective which comes from outside us, coming from Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world!.
Bless you Mr. Kyei: The ceremonial laws, with the numerous requirements including cleansing and sacrifices were temporary yet pointed to God’s long everlasting solution, which He pronounced in the same Garden of Eden.. Referencing (Gen 3:15 ff. and Revelation 12:9) God said to satan the original serpent the dragon “the seed of the woman will crash you head and you shall bruise his heal”
Mr. Kyei, friends and cherished listeners: let’s reason it this way; assume having a lovely child running to you wanting a big hug. You will want to lift and hold him or close. Again assume your child is infested with Ebola or COVID and was coughing and sneezing, what will be your feelings. (Honestly, you still love your child even if you don’t want to hug them tightly. Your feelings are as good as mine!)
So, like any loving parent with their children, we want the hug. We enjoy the hug; but oh, we don’t want the discharge associated to the sneeze and all that over us, we don’t want that all over our clothes….
Honestly, the nicer our clothes are at the moment, the less likely that infested child is going to get what I term the front-line hug.
Rev. obviously such a child need a wet wipe washing and care for a tight hug.
Well said; the Ceremonial law and the practices of the temple were like a wet wipe relationship with God and His beloved people, which comes in the form of washing, cleansing and healing. Truly all such acts pointed to the person and work of Jesus as the world’s Savior.
Rev following careful, the ceremonial washing, cleansing and healing pointed to the ultimate cleansing in Jesus Christ.
Excellent: Through Jesus, God the Father put away the wet wipe of temporary washings, cleansing ect…associated with the ceremonial law and sealed it with Jesus’ righteousness and holiness, as a gift of grace to the world… Praise God!
Thanks be to God
Mr. Kyei and friends, Ten quarantined leapers were healed by Jesus but only the foreigner who is a Samaritan discovered God’s misery that day.
Rev. kindly throw more light on your last statement.
Truly all ten leapers received a ceremonially restored live to re-unite with their families and friends, but only one realized that a great gift was given to him, and greater things awaits him.
Ok
That leper realized that Jesus had healing and forgiveness of sins leading to eternal life, not just a temporal healing!
Friends and cherished listeners; Jesus fulfilled all righteousness, to overcome all sinfulness to make the ceremonial washing unnecessary, because the fullness of grace is in Him and through Him for the world! Hallelujah
Amen!
What a joyous thing, to be cleansed, not just from temporal diseases but forgiveness of sins and guilt!
Jesus restores sinful man to fellowship with God the Father.
Remarkably this one time leper received salvation that day; that is the source of thanksgiving for his life. Friends, No matter your current circumstance, Jesus loves you! For those of us who have been saved. Salvation should be the source of thanksgiving for our lives now and forever! Amen!
Amen!
This week Christendom celebrated a day of thanksgiving. Like the man who returned to Jesus in gratitude. Thanks was offered to God for all the blessings He has bestowed upon us.
Thanks be to God for blessing others through us, though we face our own struggles and weaknesses. Beloved remain faithful because we serve a faithful God who answers prayers.”
Lets take a break
Now thank we all our God
Thanksgiving is the key to Christian life. To be thankful to God who created and redeemed us in Jesus is the core for everything that is in our lives in this world, and everlasting life. Friends to miss Jesus is likened to missing the wet wipe, which God meant for us to have the whole cleansing!
Perhaps you listening today is sick with one or more of the sicknesses God did not intend His children to suffer. There is no medication found for such a sickness and you are dying. In that situation, “saying thank you!” will be a difficult thing, because the pain of your body wears down your joy. The healing won on the cross of Calvary seems so far away and untouchable.
Hope for a miracle, the taste of relief may be awesome and irresistible!
Please listen carefully to Jesus’ clear words. He says, “In this world, you may have trouble, but I, have overcome the world.”
Hallelujah
Jesus subjected Himself to all that is against us; sin, sickness, loneliness, grief and He took them all to the Cross and defeated death itself in His resurrection to give us the promise of life pronounced in Gen 3:15 ff in Himself forever.
Amen!
Mr. Kyei, friends and cherished listeners, God hasn’t forgotten you. In fact, God has done miraculous things on our behalf, miraculous things for our life and salvation.
In Romans 6, the Apostle Paul reminds us that when we are washed in His Name. Meaning Baptism is not a wet wipe for the moment, rather is God Himself connecting believers to Jesus’ work on the cross and His resurrection.
In the waters of Baptism, God puts His Name on us, He calls us His own, He knows us by name, He knows the pain and separation that disease and injury inflicts us. It was for these that Jesus came for us, and for all.
Be assured that Jesus working in the Holy Spirit still have wet wipe blessings in the world. All ten lepers were healed and I’m sure they all have their personal version of how or why.
Sometimes God’s temporal healing happen many different ways. Sometimes healing and recovery come through the talents and medicines of doctors and medical care providers such as COVID front line workers. When this happens, we thank them and God. Sometimes healing happens just because our bodies are created so wonderfully to have its own ways of fighting off illness and get back to health.
Friends, all these weaknesses of struggle and sufferings merely make us yearn for the day when we will be healed completely. In all things we yearn for eternal healing in body, mind, and spirit… Hallelujah!
Amen!
God promises us as Apostle Paul records in (1 Cor. 15:52-54) concerning Jesus’ return in glory, he said “we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body put on immortality” this is what we are to keep in mind today.
There are troubles in this world, but they are overcome in Christ and that reality is true for us right now by faith, even in the midst of sickness, disease, and death.
Through this message, you know that heaven awaits you in Jesus. This truth should begin to change the way you look at life here and now. As believers, we see our blessings and physical well-being clearly in Jesus’ love, on the cross.
We fully receive His blessings through the Word of God, through the sacraments of Holy Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. With our lives secure in Jesus, it makes us willing to cross, the boundaries of safety, and enter into people’s lives that are full of hurts, full of troubles, and full of dangers; not just with a wet wipe of temporary blessing, but with the sure and certain promise of life and salvation in Jesus forever.
The words of God are spirit and life and makes you clean. That is a thanksgiving blessing worth remembering today, one which empowers us to keep moving forward in life knowing that our life is secured forever in Jesus. Look forward with hope to Him, He put the wet wipes of temporal solutions aside and make eternal life and salvation possible, by opening the gates of heaven unto all believers.
Let that be your strength today as you live in the hope in the mist of affliction, trusting in the God who heals body and soul forever. Upon His return He will take us home to leave with Him and the holy angels in ever blessedness where there is no more sickness, nor pain, a place where weaknesses and struggles will be no more.
Faith in Jesus, you are cleansed, be thankful and rejoice in the Lord. Amen!
Amen!
Announcement
Benediction
The Lord bless you and keep you in faith.
The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious onto you and open doors of good will before you.
The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and grant you His everlasting peace which surpasses all human understanding… in the name of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Amen!
Amen!