the good samaritan
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luke 10:25-32 “And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.” But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.”
luke 10:32-37 “So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.””
The Lawyer
Luke 10:25 “And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
The lawyer in this storie is not like a lawyer that you would think of today.
This guy was an expert in the mosaic law.
in todays comparison he would be considered a theologen or a siminary professor.
This Lawyer had devoted his life to understanding the scripture. to understanding God’s law.
He’s the guy that if you have a deep spiritual question about the word of God he’s got the answer.
The Bible says that he came to test Jesus, to trap him in his words. to trip him up. so that he can take the law of moses and prove him wrong.
Do you ever notice when you read the gospels theres always a pharasie or a scribe or lawyer. either questioning Jesus or condeming what he’s doing or putting him to the test.
You would think after each time that he stumped them or displayed the power that he had. They would get the picture of who he is and what he has came to do. But they don’t. They so desire to be right through the law that they miss God’s grace and Jesus hurts there pride each time.
So the lawyer thinking he knows something Jesus doesen’t asks him this question.
Teacher what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
If there is anybody that has the answer to that question it’s Jesus!
The lawyer in everything he knows should see that he’s talking to the answer.
He should know that eternal life and the way to it is standing in front of him.
But he dosen’t his pride and the desire to be right and justifed through the law has him blinded.
Even though that’s the responce he wants from Jesus.
He’s waiting on Jesus to tell him.
I am the way the truth and the life and no one comes to the father except through me.
That’s the response the lawyer wants he’s so he can take the law of moses and use it to hit Jesus over the head.
But that’s not what Jesus does.
why? because he knows the condition of the lawyers heart.
Jesus catches the guy off guard and asks him a question in verse 26
Luke 10:26-28 “He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.””
the Lawyer gave a generic answer one that was supposed to be said.
One that was spiritual one that made him look like he knew the way to eternal life.
Jesus response to his answer is one that really hit the lawyer.
Jesus says yea you do that and you will live. pointing out that the man has never loved his neighbor as himself.
Those words were right but his heart was wrong.
Love isn’t an emotional feeling or saying the right words or doing something.
He’s tryiong to bring him to a place that he sees he can never be good enough. he can’t love God perfectly. He can’t love his neigbhor perfectly. It’s only through Jesus this can happen.
He still belives that in and of himself he can do something to obtain eternal life.
Still looking to be right he ask just who is my neighbor .
Lets break this down so I get it right by the law so i can check the box of what i need to do.
Luke10:29 “But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?””
Just who is it that i have to love like I love myself?
The problem is this guy has never loved anyone more than himself. not even the people that he is supposed to love.
If you and I are honest we are the same way we don’t love God more than ourselves and we definatly don’t love our negibhor as our self.
The lesson
Jesus is about to use this story to show him that he’s not a good neighbor and his need for a good neighbor.
Luke 10:30 “Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead.”
Jesus tells this story of a man going from jerusalem to jericho
More than likly this is a Jewish man and as Jesus tells this story .
This man probably lived in Jerico and was on his way back from either the temple or business trip to jerusalem.
The road from jerusalem to jerico was about 17 miles long. and was notorious forpeople being robbed and killed .
It was a bad stretch of road. It was windie and had places that you could be ambused and robbed of all your stuff.
it was one of those places that you don’t go to unless your armed and you got someone with you.
The place was so bad that it had developed a name. It was called the way of blood.
The Bible says he was just walking along and out of nowhere bam he is being robbed.
They stripped him of his cloths and beat him leaving him to die.
They beat him with in a inch of his life.
as luck would have it someone is about to pass by you would think there is about to be some hope for this guy. But the Bible says
Luke 10:31-32 “Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.”
out of all the people in the storie you would think that the priest or the levite would have came to the aid of this guy. here he is laying there struggling to breath dieing.
the bible says that they both passed by on the other side of the road.
Here are two men that are representing God. Men of compassion but have none.
I wanted to see what the road looked like in the story. so I looked it up.
the path is small and narrow both of these men would have had to literally step over the man depending on the position of his body.
The preist and the levite are litterally gods hands and feet for benevolance. they were entrusted with the tithe as it came in and woukld have been the best chance for help for this man
both by natinality and profession they were both obligated to help and did nothing.
They probably had a million reasons why they didn’t help.
It could have been a trap.
Maybe they thoght he was dead and if they touched him would have been unclean because the law comanded they couldn’t touch a dead body.
Whatever there reason they were the most likly to have helped.
But heres where the story changes an unlike person comes to the aid of the man.
The bible introduces a smaratian.
You got to understand the Jews hated the smaratians and the smaritians hated the jews.
there was this rivalry the jews thought they were beter than the smaratians .
The jews say that your supposed to worship one way and the samaritians another. they just could not stand one another.
They were like the hatfield and mocoys always fighting.
It’s so bad that even the deciples had problems with the samaritans.
Just one chapter before Jesus sends 2 of his deciples ahead of him to make reservations for him to stay in a smaratien village and they rejected him.
James and John asked Jesus do you want us to call down fire from heaven and consume them?
Jesus is like no. that’s not what I came to do. I came to give life not take life.
The samaritan in the jews eyes would be the least likly to help in this story and if he did help the jewish man would have been to proud to recieve the help.
Luke 10:33-34 “But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him.”
I want you to notice he did 3 things in this passage and this is how we change the world.
He took notice, he took pitty and he took action.
He Took Notice
the text says that he saw him.
we have to take notice.
We have to see the problem.
We have to open up our eyes to see the people in need.
We have to open our eyes to see the crisis.
After he took notice he took pitty.
Took Pitty
The samaritan saw the jewish man and everything inside him said he wouldn’t care about you. He wouldn’t help you.
But he made a choice to feel.
he made a choice to be human and he chose to look at as what if it was me’
What if I was the one beaten and half dead laying on the road.
I would want someone to help me.
And that’s the key it’s putting your self in someone elses shoes.
It’s asking the difficult questions.
What would life be like for me if I grew up in that home in that town in those conditions.
Church when you take notice and you take pitty you are on your way to becoming like Jesus.
Jesus was a man of compassion and took pitty on people.
When the samaritan asked himself what would it feel like to be beaten and robbed and drowning in my own blood. He took pitty.
Church compassion without action is just sympothy and we see in the next verses he took action
He took Action
Luke10:34-35 “He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’”
The Bible says that he went to him and bound up his wounds. the oil and the wine would have been like peroxide and neosporen. he got him to a stable condition and put him on his animal and brought him to a place of of safty. Giving up his time and resources. putting himself aside for the greater good of someone else.
I know what your thinkin this sermon is intended to make me give a little more or to go out and be better and be a good samaritian.
No thats not what this sermon is about the point of this sermon is Jesus is showing this lawyer that your no good sameritian and nither am I.
The point is that this man was being told that the only way you can go to heaven is to love God perfectly and to love his neigbor as his self.
and his neighbor is everyone that he has hated.
Jesus is trying to bring him to the place to where he asks then who can be saved.
Who can go to heaven. It’s impossible
Jesus wants to bring him to the place that Paul said in
Romans 3:20 “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.”
Jesus wants to bring This man to the place that he sees Jesus as the good samaritian. He wants to bring you and I to the place that we see the same way.
That Jesus is the one that came down from heaven.
He saw you and i had been robbed and beaten by sin and left half dead laying in the street.
It’s Jesus that made the sacrific for us the wine speaks of his blood the oil speaks of the holy spirit.
The wine being the cost of sin.
the oil is the spirit that will come upon us and bring life and energize us and bring our dead parts to life through Jesus christ and the scarifice he made on the cross.
Jesus came to do what you and I could never do and tbhat be good enough to live up to the standerd of the law.
Listen he found you when you were half dead
alive physically but dead spiritually barilly hanging on to life.
He came and bandedged you and took your place so that you and i could be free from sin.
Jesus is the good samariten.
This sermon is not for you to go out and try to be a good neigbhor iit’s for you to see that you need a good neiborgh and jesus is that neighbor.
That why he came to bring life to us.
Once you come to the revelation that your the guy laying in the street.
The only logical thing to do is to find yourself in the story.
In the place that God wants you to serve.
The key is when you read the bible is to find yourself in the story.
Who do I relate to in the story.
Am I david or goliath
Am I peter or John.
When I look at this story it’s complicated.
Because I wish I was the good samaritan but I’m not that’s Jesus.
Sadly and offten times I’m the levite and the priest.
Missing oppertunities that God places in front of me for me to Take Notice, Take Pitty and to take action. But I don’t.
And I know for a fact that I have been and was the man in the the road that satan and sin beat, robbed and stripped of his dignity then left half dead.
Saved only by the grace of God.
But i think the place that God wants us to find ourselves in the story of the in keeper.
That’s the roll that God wants us serving in till he comes back.
when he brings the broken and the beaten That he has bandaged up to a place that they can heal.
Listen Gods not calling us to save the world jesus has already done that.
What he is calling us to is to be the in keeper
.That anyone that Jesus brings to the church we are to spring into action and continue doing what he has already started and thats to help bring healing until he returns.
Jesus is bringing us to fid ourselves in the storie.
When you find yourself in the story God is calling you to responed.
Are you the man that has been beaten in the road and left for dead and in need of a good neighbor?
Are you like the levite and the priest missing the opertunities that God has placed infront of you to be his hands and feet and show his love.
Maybe today for the first time you see yourself as the in keeper and you want to be on the front lines when Jesus brings people to the church and help in the work Jesus has started in there life.
Church we have a great oppertunity here at liberty to help a hurting community when Jesus brings people through these doors.
But it takes you seeing yourself in the the storie and spinging into action..