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Amen. Good, morning. If
you got your bibles, and I hope you do, I want to invite you to join me
in Luke, chapter ten. I will be in verse
25 here in just a moment. Kind
of a little audible that we're going to call, during our
service to fill you guys in. So, after the last,
song, I want to ask everybody to kind of hold tight here. Again,
this will be at the very end of the service. I, also want to give a heads
up to any of our staff and elders that are in the room. I'm going to ask
that the staff and elders come up front, right down here. and at the
very end of the service, what we have is one of our
missionaries, Darryl and Christina cheek, that have been with
us, for a while now. We've been partnering with them in the Philippines,
and they've been stateside for an extended period of time.
M ready this week to head back to the Philippines
to continue in their ministry. and so as
they are preparing to be sent off this week and head there,
we want to have a time at the very end of the service where
we pray for them. So I'm going to have staff and elders come up and
join me so we can lay hands on them as they
go. And then for you, as the congregation, just
join us in that time of prayer. So we'll have the message,
we'll have our last song in worship, and then, we'll have that brief
moment together at the very end of the service on. From the
floor, right here, where we will pray for them, as
they listen to continue to see what God has, in
store for them.
Well, today's parable is we're journeying through, these
stories of Christ. This parable is
probably, I didn't do any research to come to
this conclusion, but I know how this
story has impacted, not
only the lives of those of us who are followers of
Christ, but in so many ways. You've seen
this parable infiltrate in so many different
ways. Culture and media. And
even when you talk to people of other faiths, this is a
story that they are aware of. And so this morning, we're going
to look at the parable of the good
Samaritan. Now, as we've been doing, we
understand that the word parable means, like, come
alongside. And so what Jesus does when he teaches
these parables, it's not just necessarily story
time with Jesus, and he gathers everybody around to tell
him good stories, because he is a great
storyteller, but it's that something happens and
there's this moment. And Jesus, in
seeking to teach, about the kingdom of
God, uses these parables that
culturally would have come in and
fit and worked, and people would have
understood in a lot of ways, the cultural
impact of what he's talking about. But then oftentimes
people wouldn't even understand because the deep
spiritual meaning of what Christ is teaching
about is beyond their comprehension. It's
beyond their faith, it's beyond what they believe and
understand. And so what we're trying to do, in this
context, as we work through this, is understand
what kind of triggers the parable to happen for
Christ as he teaches, and then also for that
kind of understanding,
the message that Christ has for us of how he
could go and he could share this parable
in a time and in a day and in a culture that
is way different from what you and I live in,
but it still has this kingdom power of
what's there for us to understand. So
let's look in Luke 1025 through 28, we're
going to get the context in which Jesus is going
to share this parable. And so God's word
says, and behold, a
lawyer stood up, to put him
to test, saying, teacher,
what shall I do to inherit
eternal life? And 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.
So here's this interaction that we
have with Jesus and a lawyer,
a man who understood the law, who
comes to Jesus, and let's understand
this man's motivation.
His motivation is to put him to test.
This is not a man with a genuine concern,
with a genuine confession of hearing of all
that Jesus is teaching about. And he wants to be
challenged, he wants to be convicted. This
man comes to Jesus to try to
catch Jesus, to set the
stage for Jesus, to teach heresy.
But this man also comes to Jesus
with qualifications.
This man comes to Jesus in their culture and
in their context, as a lawyer,
not just necessarily understanding the law
of the land at the time, but also
to understand the law of God.
So the question that he
asks, in his culture, they would
have actually looked at him to answer
this question. So, you know, that person
that always thinks they're right and always wants to
prove that they're right and show that they're right,
and they like to ask questions to make other people
feel belittled. This is the
context of which we find that he
interacts with Jesus. Oh, let's
just say this. Let's all agree to this, that I think if you
want to get in an argument with Jesus,
Jesus is going to win. Right? Like,
that's just like, this is what we see. This is who he
is. Jesus is going to win, and Jesus
wins. But Jesus doesn't do
what the man thinks that he would have
done. Jesus receives his
question and actually answers his
question with two questions.
We, love to do that as parents, right? This is what
Jesus does. Jesus says what is written in the
law. But then Jesus
says, how do you read it?
Or how do you understand it?
Tell me what's written in the law. How do you read
it? How do you understand it?
So the man, being a lawyer, being understanding
of the law, he
knows the answer to Jesus
question. And what he does is, we're gonna have these
verses up on the screen. He takes deuteronomy six five.
He takes Leviticus 19, 18. And he
melds them together to be the answer
that he gives Jesus. So I wanna read deuteronomy six five
to you. It says, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and
with all your soul and with all your might. And
Leviticus 1918. You shall not
take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of Ural
people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
I am the Lord.
So he answered Jesus question.
He takes what he understands,
what he's been taught. He
takes the depth of the law. Deuteronomy six,
Leviticus 19. He
meshes them together and he
responds to Jesus. And
so Jesus looks back at him
and he says, you've answered this correctly. Do this
and you will live. Here's Jesus's
response if we want to understand it. Okay. You
know, you
know what you should do?
Fulfill it fully. Do
this.
Here's the point that we're going to get to within the
dynamic of understanding where this. Where this parable
is coming from and what you and I need to understand about the
grace and the mercy and the goodness of God.
When we compare ourselves to the standard of the
law, we lose every time.
We lose every time. And
apart for the goodness
of God. You and I,
in every effort that we could come up with
to attempt to justify ourselves
in the comparison of God's standard will
fail every time.
So how would you respond to that?
What if the lawyer, in that moment
when Jesus said
fulfill it fully, would have said,
but I can't, but I can't.
But he doesn't look at verse 29,
but he
desiring to. And you
can underline these two words in your bible. Desiring
to justify himself,
said to Jesus, and who
is my neighbor? You
see, a lot of emphasis is put on
this question, and it's a great question. And we're going to
look at some of this depth of this question. But I think the
other aspect that oftentimes gets neglected when we look
at this parable as the heart and the motivation
of this lawyer and how he's asking Jesus these
questions. You see, his first motivation was
he came to test. Now his
motivation is he came to justify himself.
And if we know with Jesus within these interactions, like
Jesus knows in the sovereignty of God,
he knows the heart, he knows the mind, he knows
what they're seeking to do. And so
it says, Bible says, but he, desiring
to justify himself, said to Jesus,
and who is my
neighbor? Here's the point of this.
When you and I and I felt this, and then
if I felt this, like I feel there's enough commonality
within us that you felt this as well. When you
and I, when we feel the need to justify
ourselves before Jesus, when we hit that moment where we're
hearing the words of Christ and we're wrestling with what's
there, we're wrestling what's going on, and we feel the need to
say, but here's why. Here's what caused
me. Here's whose fault this was. Can I say just for
a moment, like, let's pause and stop
asking and alluding to the questions and the
statements that seek to justify ourselves and
our own self righteousness and just say, no, no, no, it's about
you. It's about your righteousness. And I repent before
you. And
this feeling that I'm wrestling
with as the work of God
is toying and tugging on my heart
is not so that I can justify
myself, but it's so that I can
repent. But
he, he didn't want
Jesus to justify him. He wanted to
justify himself. And you can't do that.
So Jesus goes in to teach. Look at verse
21. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, sorry.
Romans 321 through 26 talks about the
righteousness of God and what God does to justify us.
But now the righteousness of God has
been manifested apart from the law. Paul writes this, romans
three, although the law and the prophets bear
witness to it, the righteousness of
God through faith in
Jesus Christ for all who believe,
for there is no distinction,
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of
God. And we are justified
by his grace as a gift through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
whom God put forward as a propitiation by his
blood, to be received by faith.
This was to show God's righteousness,
because in his divine forbearance he has passed over
former sins. It was to show his
righteousness at the present time so that he
might be just and
the justifier of the one
who has faith in Christ. You see, this man
wanted to come to Jesus and justify
himself. And maybe that's where you're at. Ah,
maybe that's where you're at in your journey. You're trying to
look at, you're trying to compare, you're trying to balance,
to defend, to put forth the argument, to try to base
this. But God's word says that we
are not, we are incapable of justifying
ourselves, and that God, in his justice is
the justifier. And so justification,
what Paul teaches here is we understand the justification comes
apart from the law. That is, we cannot earn
justification through rule keeping. We cannot earn through our
own good works. The law shows us this
isn't a list to make sure that when we do this, this is what
we earn. The law is there so that when we compare ourselves
to the light of it, that we realize, like, I don't care, like,
how good we all think we are. I don't
care how good you think your spouse
is, your grandma is your sweet
next door neighbor. Is that in
comparison of the law, the law shows
us, in spite of all of the good things that we've
done, what the law shows us is that
we are not good. For all
have sinned. All have sinned and fall short
of the glory of God. But justification of
what Paul teaches us is made possible.
It's made possible, but it's made possible since the
sacrificial death of Christ. This is the
only sufficient work.
So stand there and try to defend yourself,
lawyer. Stand there and try to defend
yourself. You can't.
It's only, only found
in the sufficient work of Christ.
So how do we get that?
So if his work
pays, if his work
covers it, then I
want some of that.
Well, what Paul tells us in romans three
is that it's free,
which means you can't pay for it, that it's
gracious, it's not what you
deserve. And it's
bestowed on those
it's given to, it's imparted to.
It's applied to those
who, by faith, receive
the sacrifice of Christ.
Do we see with the work that is happening here,
it is not through our works, through our means, through our
justification that any of this happens. It's not through our
goodness, our law abiding, our law keeping,
our maintaining. It's not through any of this. It is fully and
completely done in the work of God. And
God does this. And in
this, he demonstrates something.
God's showing the world through salvation
who he is, and he's demonstrating the righteousness of
God in this. God
is saying that in salvation, because you can't
work for it, you can't earn it, you
don't deserve it. I'm, given it. I
paid for it. It's more
than you could expect. It's more that you could
imagine. What God's doing is displaying to the
world who he is. And they see God's goodness, and they see his
holiness in it.
It's not cheap grace.
It's costly grace. It's precious
grace. It's sacrificial grace.
All of this comes from a
man seeking to test and
justify himself. Church. Before
we even get into the parable here, in just a
moment, may we not be people
who, in our own religious
works, are doing so in an
attempt to prove that we have
earned what God has done.
And it's through the grace in the work of God.
And not you, not me,
not your kid, not your spouse,
not your sweet grandma deserved
it, but it was given
by faith in Christ.
So back to this parable, verse
30. In Luke ten,
Jesus replied,
a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho
when 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 pass 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
daenerys 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? And he
said, the one who showed him
mercy. And Jesus
said, go and do
likewise. I read this
quote this week. It's a pretty long quote. I'm going to read it to
you, help draw
my attention into the details of
this. Here's what this quote
says. This parable
begins with a lawyer trying to justify
himself by asking the question, who
is my neighbor? And ends
with Jesus asking the question, which
of these proved to be a neighbor?
Ten sermons could be preached on
ten different issues raised by this
parable. But I want you
to see, but what? I want you to see one
crucial thing. Jesus
tells a story that
changes the question.
Jesus tells a story that changes the
question from what kind of
person is my neighbor?
To what kind of person am I?
He changes the question
from what status of people are
worthy of m my love
to how can I become the kind of
person whose compassion disregards
status? Here's what
I want to say. Who is your neighbor? Everyone.
Everyone. Whether you're
here, there, or everywhere. Whether
you're in your home, whether
you're at work, whether you're at Walmart,
whether you're on vacation. Wherever you go,
whoever you encounter is your
neighbor.
But what about our heart?
Because I feel that at the essence of
this, it's not just an
informational piece of who do I need
to serve? But it's are you
willing to serve them? And then
number two, why are you willing to serve them?
Why? Because the why
matters. The why matters.
So what do we know about this man,
this man who's been injured? All we
know is his condition. He's been beaten,
he's been robbed, he's been stripped, he's been left to die.
In fact, the description of him is that most people, as
they journeyed by, would have thought that he were already dead.
That's all we know. What do we know about the
priest and the Levite? There's lots of things that we can
infer, but we're not going to in this
message. But we know this. They're religious
men who both have a
moral and religious obligation.
but they ignore and they pass by on the other
side. There's part in their culture
that would have called them to help. There's part that's in their faith that would
have caused them to help. But they both, for
a long list of reasons that we could draw from,
choose to instead pass by on
the other side of the road, as far away as they can.
But what do we know about the man who helped?
We know about the man who helped. We know his
ethnicity. He's a samaritan. Let me just explain
this to you, right? In the world
that Jesus lived in, in the context that
Jesus would tell this parable, the Samaritan was
never going to be the hero. Never,
never going to be the hero of the
story, but Jesus makes
him the hero.
What did he do? He stopped
and he checked. He stopped to evaluate.
He stopped to look. He stopped to see.
In that moment of him stopping, he decides that
he's going to make a list of financial
sacrifices. He provided medical
care that he bandaged and cleaned his wounds. Like, he
busted out the first aid kit, right? Like, right there. Here's what we're going
to do. He provided physical
sacrifice. He got off of
the animal that he was riding on
and put the man on the animal
so that he could finish the journey down the road to
get the man where he needed to be.
He provided financial care. He took him to
an inn. He provided money, and
for any further care, promised to pay the
debt that the man occurred.
And this is what we see with
this man. We don't
know why the priest and
the Levite passed by.
Perhaps they didn't want to. Perhaps they didn't want
to go through becoming religiously unclean because they
thought the body was dead. Perhaps they thought it was a setup.
Perhaps they found themselves in a predicament where
they felt uncomfortable. Perhaps they found where
they needed to be. We don't know why they
didn't stop, but we do
know why the Samaritan
stopped. Jesus tells us in Luke
1033. Look back there.
When he saw him, what? He
had compassion. When he
saw him,
there was a peace in his heart, in his soul, in
his very being that drew from
him compassion for this man,
of being uncertain of what got him
there, uncertain, what involvement
would require, being willing to
give the sacrifice of what was
needed. He
stopped, and he didn't
stop because he felt obligated
to. He. Hm.
Stopped because he had compassion.
That's the hard word.
If jesus would have said in
Luke 1033
when he saw him, he
felt like, you know, I got to do this.
I don't really want to. Got places I got to get
to. I've only got $20. That's
a long walk. Now I got to get off my animal so that he
can ride my animal there. But, man, you know,
I gotta do some good stuff today.
But it said that there was a peace that
was in him, that when he saw
a man who
potentially was unworthy
of his help, he stopped
anyways.
What stops us? What
stops us from compassion?
I think there's two things that drive
us when we see the
person, figuratively speaking, on the side of the
road, when we see the
person that desperately needs something
that causes us not to. I think there's two
things that cause us to have a lack
of compassion. one, I think, is our
immaturity, our spiritual
immaturity. When we see those people that
need the grace and the love of Christ and the
compassion of the Christian that's there, I
think what can stop us oftentimes is a sense
of spiritual immaturity. And here's what I mean
when I talk about spiritual immaturity, is
we look at the person, we stop seeing the person. We start
seeing the sin, we start seeing the lifestyle, we start seeing the
choices. We figure, well, you know what? They just kind of got themselves in this
predicament. They got them where they are. And it's not really up to me to help
fix this mode. This is what they need to walk through. This is
what they need to do. And so our focus becomes on not the individual
that's made in the image and likeness of God, but it's instead, it's
focused on the sin that's consumed them and has brought them to point where they
are. And in that,
okay, been there, thought that,
done that. I've told this story. Let me tell
it again because I don't want you just feel like this is pointing fingers at you. This is pointing
fingers at me as well. One day, Emma
was, I don't know, she was like third
grade. And I'm taking her to her dance
studio. Some of
you chuckle because you know this story.
And we get off the interstate,
and there's a man standing there
holding a sign,
homeless needs some money.
And Emma looks at me, young
Emma, and says, are we going to help that man
and me in my sin,
in my immaturity? Seeking to
justify myself for not
helping. I said, sweetie,
no, we're not. You know,
you don't know what he's going to do with that money.
We talk through the life lessons of all
the things that were there. The light turned
green, I turned left, we kept
driving. And my daughter, who's
never been shy on correcting
me, looks
at me when I get done
standing there as this lawyer, in all of my
justification, and says to me,
yeah, but, you don't know that he's going to spend it on that either.
You're correct. My
immaturity of my assumptions,
which leads me into the second one. Not only
our spiritual immaturity, but our own self righteousness.
I'm, better than them. I'm better
than them. Look at these people and who they
are and what they've done. And
in this moment of Jesus telling this parable,
in understanding the danger and what would
happen consistently on this road, I'm sure there's
a group of people in that moment who are seeking to
justify themselves in that
moment. And Jesus says,
but there is a man who stopped because
he had compassion. So here's what I want
to ask you. Do you have
compassion? Do you have
compassion? Do you have the
compassion of Christ in
you? Do you seek and desire to see
people, not the way that the world sees them, maybe not the way that you see
them, but to see them in the way that God sees them,
made in the image of their creator,
fallen into. Whatever has they
fallen into, but with a
heart and a compassion to help.
Do you have compassion? I think there's
a second question, though. There's
a second question that I want to ask, and, it's
this question. Why should we
have compassion? Why
should we have compassion?
We have our reasons. We have what
we've learned. We've had life experience.
We've had all of these things. We've picked ourselves
up. We've moved ourselves beyond this.
Why should we have
compassion for those who
we deem are not
worthy of our compassion?
And I think when we look at this,
when we see this parable,
that you and I can begin to understand
that we should be like the
samaritan who showed compassion.
But why should we be like the
Samaritan? Because here's the
reason, spiritually
speaking, until
Christ saved you, do
you know who you were in the story?
The man on the side of the road, left to
die. Do you know what got you
there? Your sin.
Do you know what the Bible says that you couldn't do and that I
couldn't do? We couldn't save ourselves.
And do you know what passed us by
as we laid there in our own death, dying on the
side of the road? Do you know what passed us by?
Unwilling and incapable of helping us.
What passed us by was religion. Do these
rules become a better you? Reach for enlightenment,
create your own path, determine your own
understanding, do more good than bad?
All of them passed us by,
incapable of saving us. But do you know
who found us? There was an unlikely
man traveling down a road.
There was an unlikely man that no one thought would be
the hero of a story. There was an unlikely man
born of a virgin that was headed down the road,
and he wasn't happy. One ethnicity and
half the other ethnicity. This man traveling down the
road, fully God, fully man. And he stopped on the
side of the road, and he reached down. Whatever
mess that you created for you and that I
created for me, whatever mess that he looked at
us, the Bible tells us that Jesus Christ looked
at you and because of the compassion that he had for
you, not because of what you did or what you deserve, but
out of his compassion and his goodness and his
love and his mercy for you, that he looked at you
on the side of the road, and he picked you up. And he
picked me up from the mess and the death that we
found ourselves in. And he picked us up, and he
carried us, and then he carried us, and
he saved us because we couldn't do it for
ourselves. And like the Samaritan did for the
man, he cleaned us, and he
didn't put on temporary bandages, but he washed
us with the blood of the lamb, and he cleaned us, and he made
us new, and he made us whole again.
And then he took all of that debt that it took,
that we had, the reason why we found ourselves there. He
took and he paid that debt. And then not only did he pay the
past debt and the present debt, but he looked and said, you know what?
I'm paying the future debt as well. And so everything
that you've done then, everything that you're doing now, and everything that you
will do, I pay it. And I pay it in full.
And he didn't do it because we were
good. He didn't do it because we were
righteous. He didn't do it
because we were loving. He did it because
he is good. He did it because he is righteous. And
he did it because he is loving.
Why should we do this?
Why?
Because the compassion, that
he showed us,
he's calling us to show to
others.
Do they deserve it? No.
And neither did I. And
show the compassion that Jesus
showed. Give them the care
that Jesus gave you. Share with them the life
that Jesus shares with you.
And in that is the
compassion that we're called to in Christ.
I'm gonna close with this passage of scripture.
Paul writes in ephesians, chapter two,
starting in verse four, you
just think about God.
But God being
rich in mercy
because of the great love with
which he loved us,
even when we were dead
in our trespasses and sins,
made us alive together.
With Christ, by
grace, you have been saved
and raised us up with him
and seated us with him in the
heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
so that in the coming ages, he might show the
immeasurable riches of his grace and
kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
For by grace you have been saved through
faith. And this is not your own
doing. It is the gift of God,
not a result of works, so that
no. 1 may boast, for we
are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus for good works
which God prepared beforehand, that
we should walk in them. Would you
pray with me,
God? I come to you, Lord.
We're thanking you.
M thanking you of the
gift of salvation,
Lord. None of us deserve it.
We're incapable
of earning it.
M. We're incapable
saving ourselves.
Lord, when we compare ourselves
to your standard,
when we compare ourselves
to the perfection of your word,
Lord, we come up short,
not by inches,
not by feet,
but in an infinite distance.
We can't understand.
We can't pull ourselves out of the pit.
We can't grab ahold and pull ourselves
into the lifeboat.
We can't reach out
and fight for it.
So, God, you come
in, Christ, making a
way for those of
us dead in our trespasses and
sins to come to
salvation, to come to faith,
not by who we are, but by
who you are. M that
you reached out and you grabbed
us and you brought us in,
Lord, and we respond to you by faith,
faith that saves,
faith that you've given.
And God, I pray
that, Lord, like statistics
tell us your word, tells us
that even though that there are people
who acknowledge Christ
with their word or
that the condition of their hearts still
seeks to justify themselves
and God, I pray that this morning,
whether they're eight or they're 80,
that, Lord, through the drawing of your holy spirit,
or that they'll respond to you this
morning in the free
gift
of salvation
through Christ,
Lord, give us hearts
of compassion,
Lord, help us see people
the way that you see them.
Help us see people the way that
you saw us,
Lord, have us respond to them
in the way that you would call us to
respond. M Lord, may we. May we
not look at how we can throw
pennies at
poverty for the sake of self
righteousness.
But, God, could we wake up every morning? Could
we seek every day in communion and
conversation with the living God, this is
God. Lead me and guide me today
to love and to share the way that you would have me
to,
to love people, to share the gospel,
to give words of encouragement,
Jesus, in the way that you would lead me to, Lord, may we
may. We desire to be led in such a
way as the Holy. The Holy Spirit leads
us, Lord, that we would be willing to sacrifice the
things that we claim to be our own own
for the good of others.
Lord, may it come from a
heart
surrendered to Christ.
May it come from a heart
of response to the spirit of
God leading God.
I thank you that
you save us
and that you call us,
you invite us, you
empower us to be on
your mission with you
in Jerusalem,
Judea,
Samaria, to the ends of the
earth. God, I
pray that there's anyone
here today,
whether this is their first or
this is their thousandth time hearing the gospel.
What if they haven't responded? I
pray that today would be the day that by
faith and respond to
you. It's in Jesus name we pray.
Amen.
thanks again for listening, and be sure to check back next
week for another episode. In the meantime, you
can visit us uh@willowridgechurch.org, or by
searching for Willow Ridge Church on Facebook, Instagram
and Twitter.