The Tragedy of Temporary Faith; Luke 17:11-19

Delivered during the Sunday Morning Worship Service, 9/8/2024. In our text for this message, Luke will share a "living parable" about an encounter Jesus had with ten lepers. After healing them in a miraculous fashion that required a degree of faith, only one of the ten returned to Jesus to thank Him, and profess Him publicly as Savior and Lord. We will carefully analyze the type of faith that compelled "the one" to return, as opposed to the kind of faith that allowed "the nine" to simply go their way-- having received all they wanted from Jesus. Ultimately we will realize that Luke is relating an epic illustration of the frustrating and tragic work of the Kingdom on a much larger scale. For only a fraction ("the one") of those exposed to the Gospel will actually respond with love, devotion, surrender, and saving faith in Jesus. The rest ("the nine") will quickly return to their old ways-- thereby revealing the tragedy of temporary faith.