Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Sunday, July 26th • Beau Bradberry
"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." — Luke 10:27
–
Podcast: https://pod.link/willowridgechurch
Website: https://willowridgechurch.org
Instagram: https://instagram.com/willowridgechurch
Facebook: https://facebook.com/willowridgechurch
YouTube: https://youtube.com/@willowridgechurch
Show Notes
July 26th, 2020 •
"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." — Luke 10:27
–
Podcast: https://pod.link/willowridgechurch
Website: https://willowridgechurch.org
Instagram: https://instagram.com/willowridgechurch
Facebook: https://facebook.com/willowridgechurch
YouTube: https://youtube.com/@willowridgechurch
Creators and Guests
What is Willow Ridge Sermons?
Sermon audio from Sunday services at Willow Ridge Church.
Hi, and welcome to the Willow Ridge Church weekly podcast.
This is where you can find audio for our current and past sermons.
We hope that you enjoy this week's installment, and be sure to check back next week to hear
the latest message.
Thanks for listening.
Well, good morning.
If you've got your Bibles with you, go ahead and open up to Luke chapter 10.
As you turn there, I want to say it feels good to be back.
I was gone this past Sunday as Aaron and I prepared to be on the mission trip with our
students, and I just want to share with you, and a lot of our adults, I just want to share
with you kind of a little brief update about it.
It was a phenomenal, phenomenal trip.
I think there were somewhere close to 35 of us that were able to go to Black Mountain Children's
Home to serve them where they are in their facilities.
Aaron and I, by far, had the easiest job.
Our job was to cook, which if you were there or your kids were there, that means you know
that we got to stay away from the ticks and the mosquitoes and the poison ivy that I think
everybody else happened to find during the course of the week that we were there.
But it was just a wonderful, wonderful time.
For all of the parents that are here, thank you so much for letting your kids go.
I can tell you I've been on more student ministry mission trips than I can count, and this group
of students were absolutely phenomenal in how hard they worked and how they worked together
and how they listened to instructions.
And so it was a pleasure to be with them, to get to know a lot of them even more, and to have that time.
As the church, thank you so much for allowing us to do this.
You know, one of the things indirectly that we've had to put on hold is our mission strategy,
because so much of it is involved going overseas into other countries,
and because of the way the world is right now, we have not been able to do that.
And so it kind of hit me midweek while we were there about how important it was that we had the opportunity
to continue to fulfill the great commission and the mission that God's called us to here at Willow Ridge Church
by going there and sharing.
So thank you.
I know many of you were praying for us last week.
Thank you so much.
Our kids stayed safe, mostly accident-free, and we were able to go there and to serve.
And it was absolutely a wonderful, wonderful time.
Well, if you've got your Bibles open, Luke chapter 10, we're going to start reading here in verse 25.
It says,
And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the 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, this is the lawyer, the teacher of the law, answered,
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength,
and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.
And Jesus said to him,
You have answered correctly.
Do this, and you will live.
But he, being the teacher of the law, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus,
And who is my neighbor?
And so Jesus begins to tell his parable.
Jesus replied,
A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and 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 we 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.
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 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?
Jesus asked.
And the lawyer said,
The one who showed him mercy.
And Jesus said,
Go and do likewise.
So today, we're looking at the parable of the Good Samaritan.
The parable of the Good Samaritan is one of the most known parables told by Jesus.
It's told throughout Christianity, throughout Scripture.
We see it here.
But it's also been one of those parables that have been adopted by the non-Christian world
in order to teach morality, and treating others well,
and doing good for your neighbor, for those who aren't like you.
And I want to start us off by understanding something about this parable.
The parable of the Good Samaritan is not about doing.
It's very easy for us to look at this and say,
Okay, now I just need to go out and do for other people.
Now, that's important, and we're going to look at that.
But that's not the heart and the driving motive behind it.
What we're going to understand is that the parable of the Good Samaritan is about care and compassion.
That when we see others, that what comes from us is care, that what comes from us is compassion,
and that rests in the very heart of the individual, and it's actually what motivates what they do.
And so we see this parable, and it's brought on by what the ESV says as a lawyer,
what some others say, the teacher of the law.
Not meaning law in terms of the law of the land, but in law in terms of Scripture.
And he asks Jesus two questions.
The first one, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
And so he goes to Jesus and says, Hey, Jesus, teacher, help me understand.
I've got this checklist of things that I want to accomplish and that I want to do.
And one of them is to inherit eternal life.
So help me start this second checklist of things that need to be done so that when my time is up,
I can stand with great confidence in who I am and what I've accomplished and what I have done.
Jesus, tell me, what must I do?
This is where the parable begins with an interaction.
And so Jesus looks at the man, and he makes him answer his own question.
He says, What is written in the law?
And so he answers, You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul,
with all your strength, and with all your mind.
And then he gets the second part right with it.
And your neighbor as yourself.
So the man asks the question.
He then answers the question.
So for me, and I ask this question to my kids all the time, if you know what the answer is going to be,
then why did you ask it, right?
If you knew I was going to tell you no to begin with, then why did you ask me to begin with?
Because the answer is no, right?
So the question that I have is, well then, why in the world did he do this?
Why did the teacher of the law, who knew the answer, ask the question to begin with?
And he gets to the heart of it all because he knew that he couldn't do that which he said he had done.
He knew that within himself was not the ability to love God with all that he had and all that he was.
He knew that within himself he was not able to love his neighbor as himself.
He knew that he could not do these things.
And the irony is he's going to the man who can do it.
And not only who can do it, but who can impart it to us.
Because see, you and I are just like the teacher of the law.
He desperately needed Jesus because he could not fulfill the law.
Just as you and I desperately need Jesus because neither can we.
So then he asks a second question.
And scripture says that he was seeking to justify himself.
Knowing that he could not fulfill this.
He then asked Jesus the question, well then, who is my neighbor?
I know who God is.
I know God is creator.
I know God as Yahweh.
But who is my neighbor?
Is it the people that live near me?
Is it religiously people that I align with?
Is it racially people who are like me?
Is it people who speak the same language?
Is it people who are in my close proximity?
Is it people who are in my peer group?
Is it people who are in my socioeconomic standing?
Jesus, who is my neighbor?
And this is when Jesus begins to tell the parable.
And at the very end, Jesus is going to have him answer his own question again.
Now, it's interesting.
In most of Jesus' parables that we've even talked about in this study so far,
Jesus very rarely speaks to, specifically to, the identity of the people.
Very rarely does he describe them, other than maybe saying a servant or a king or a brother or a father.
But here, Jesus is going to speak specifically to the makeup of the individuals that are involved.
But Jesus is also going to speak to the place in which the parable is set.
You know, most of the time it's in a land off far away or in the kingdom.
This is what happens.
But Jesus speaks specifically to the people who are involved and the setting in which it takes place.
And I think it helps people there that are hearing this understand because they can relate to it.
And so, what I want us to do today as well is to begin to think of the people and the places that help us relate to what this person is talking about.
So, Jesus says that there is a man that is traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho.
Now, the road from Jerusalem to Jericho was about 15 miles long.
It was a very dangerous road.
It was a very steep road.
There were rock slides that would happen.
And so, it was a very dangerous road to travel.
It was a long road to travel.
But it was also a bad road to travel because it was where a lot of robberies were known to take place, where a lot of people were attacked.
So, when Jesus is sitting there and he's setting the groundwork for this parable, he says, you know, the man is traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho, that part of town, that street, that place where you're not supposed to go, where bad things are happening, where you don't stop.
You just kind of roll through the stop signs, right?
The place that your mom would have said when you first got your driver's license, whatever you do, don't go there.
That's the place Jesus begins to describe.
And he tells about a man that as he's on that road, that dangerous road where bad things happen to people all of the time, he's attacked, he's beaten, he's robbed, he's stripped naked, and he's left for dead.
Meaning this, they didn't just punch him and take his stuff, they punched him, they took his stuff, and then they began to beat him in hopes that he would not survive.
They began to beat him so that he could never identify who the people were that did this to him.
And this is the setting that we find.
This is all we know about the man on the side of the road.
We don't know who he was, we don't know where he's from.
We don't know if he's religious or if he's pagan.
Scripture doesn't tell us whether he's a Jew or a Gentile.
We don't know if he's young or old, rich or poor.
We know nothing about this man other than he's desperate, he's in dire circumstances, and he's off to the side of the road.
But then three men are going to pass by.
Three men on their journey, on that same road, facing the same dangers that he faced, are going to pass by him.
Two that are relatable to a lot of the people who would have been there, to the teacher of the law that they would have been common with.
And one that was taboo.
One that wasn't accepted.
One that wasn't liked.
And so the first two were the priest and the Levite.
And these are the religious leaders.
These are the pastors.
These are the elders.
These are the missionaries.
These are those that worked for the church at the time.
And you would think that as they travel alongside the road, that they would do the right thing.
But they don't.
They don't.
In fact, Jesus says in his words, as they traveled by him, they passed by on the other side of the road.
They didn't even take the time to look at the man and say, you all right, buddy?
They didn't take the time to say, hey, when I get down to the bottom, I'm going to send somebody up.
They didn't even take the time to say, hey, man, don't worry.
There's others behind us.
Someone will get you.
Their solution to the problem is to ignore it like it's not even there.
Their solution to the problem is to distance themselves from someone who's desperate, from someone who is broken.
But there's a Samaritan that comes along.
The Samaritan who's lower than low culturally.
There's a Samaritan that comes by that's a second class citizen.
And he stops.
And this is why it's so important.
Jesus' words were, here's the reason why he stopped.
Because he had compassion on him.
Before he did anything, notice the condition of his heart.
He had compassion on him.
And what Jesus is trying to do here is Jesus is trying to teach us the way that we view broken, hurt, lost people with compassion.
In Matthew 9, 36, Jesus is talking about the lostness of the world.
You know, Jesus looks and sees things different than we can.
And in Matthew 9, it's the part of Scripture where Jesus talks about that the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.
So pray to the Lord of the harvest that he will send workers out to the harvest.
But what that passage of Scripture begins with is Jesus looks out and doesn't see workers.
Jesus looks out and doesn't see obedience.
Jesus looks out and doesn't see godly people.
Jesus looks out and sees sin.
Jesus looks out and he sees brokenness.
Jesus looks out and he sees despair.
And in Matthew 9, 36, Jesus' internal response to it is not anger that you people are doing these things.
It's that he had compassion on them.
And when we look at the broken people of the world, when we look at the people who have been cast aside,
let me ask you, where does your heart go?
Where is the compassion that's there?
So that the Samaritan, having compassion in his heart, puts his compassion into action.
He met the immediate needs of the man.
He bandaged and cared for his wounds.
He brought him with him.
He literally picked him up and placed him on his animal, probably a donkey,
which means the Samaritan would then have to get off of the donkey
and finish walking the rest of the journey on his own feet and not in the care of what he had.
He sacrificed for him.
He financially cared for the man.
Not only did he financially care for him in the medical supplies he had then
and to pay for what he had done at the end,
but he basically left his credit card, right, and said,
hey, whatever this man needs, swipe it, take care of it.
I got this.
The level of investment that's there.
And so Jesus asked the lawyer a question.
Who is the neighbor?
Who is the neighbor?
And the teacher of the law, not being able to say the Samaritan
because of what he would have thought of their race and of their people.
He says, well, the one who showed mercy.
And Jesus says, go and do likewise.
You see, the parable of the good Samaritan is not about doing.
The parable of the good Samaritan is based in and rooted in caring and compassion in who we are.
You see, the truth of the matter is, I have the ability and you have the ability to do anything for anyone.
We can.
We can suck it up.
We can endure it.
We can bear through it.
You and I have the ability in and of ourselves to do anything for anyone.
And when we do that, though, we don't have to change.
But when we begin to care and have compassion, when that rests in who we are, it changes who we are.
And so what we can learn from this is what does this mean?
What do we see in our life as we begin to nurture a heart of care and compassion?
That when we see the brokenness and the lostness of the world, as Jesus did in Matthew 9
and as the good Samaritan did in Luke 10, how can you and I move past the doing and move into the care and compassion
that then fuels everything that we do?
And we can begin to see these things in this passage of Scripture.
So I want to share with you four things that Jesus points to about being a good Samaritan.
Being a good Samaritan means that you and I, that we go to tough places.
We go to tough places.
Jesus gives the most dangerous road known to everyone that is there as the setting of the parable.
And when we deal with situations, when we deal and want to care and have compassion for those who are in need,
oftentimes you and I must find ourself in difficult circumstances in tough places.
You see, what Scripture gives you and I is this.
Our comfort and our compassion do not always go together.
In order to be compassionate, oftentimes we have to find that we're a little uncomfortable.
This guy is in a difficult situation.
He's on the side of the road in a ditch.
Now, I don't know if you've ever had anything stuck in a ditch, but I have.
Do you know how you get something out of a ditch?
You get down in it.
You have to get down into it in order to get it out.
And that's what we begin to see.
Not only in the setting was that he was on the road, but he was willing to put himself into the situation as well.
What tough places is Jesus trying to send you?
For some of us, it could be a tough neighborhood.
For some of us, it could be a tough situation.
But if we're being honest, some of our people on the side of the road, it might just be dealing with a tough personality.
That grates us.
That causes us to be uncomfortable.
But in order to have the care and compassion that Jesus calls us to, we have to put our comfort to the side and be willing to be uncomfortable.
The second thing that we can learn, being a good Samaritan, means you cross cultural barriers.
While Jesus doesn't mention anything about the man that's attacked, I think we need to note that when Jesus draws the difference between the two men who pass by,
and the man who stops and helps, Jesus identifies them through their race.
You see, to be a priest and a Levite, you must have been a Jewish man.
And to be a Samaritan man was to be a second-class citizen, to be lower than the others.
And the Samaritan man and the Jewish man would have been considered completely different.
The priest and the Levite, by their race alone, are intended to be the hero, the savior of the day, and the standard.
They're who the people would have looked up to.
But in their race and in their time, the Samaritan would have been the minority, the second-class citizen.
Never the hero.
Never who the story was told about.
And never who anyone, a good little Jewish boy or girl, would ever been told to emulate them.
But it's what Jesus does.
Now, all three of these men could have held to social reasons to leave the man on the side of the road.
They all could have held to cultural reasons to leave the man on the side of the road.
They all could have held to physical reasons to leave the man on the side of the road.
But for Jesus, any reason they have to not care, any reason they have to not show compassion is unacceptable.
And in order to care and have compassion the way that Jesus did, you and I must be willing to cross our own cultural barriers, both in our life and in our culture.
I want to tell you a story about a family that I believe I've known them my whole life.
It's David and Gwen Cooper.
They're my parents' age.
They fell in love in high school.
High school sweethearts.
A taboo relationship in North Augusta.
For their time in the late 60s and early 70s when they first started dating and got married.
Everyone knew who they were.
Everyone knew that their relationship was different.
David is a white man.
Gwen is a black woman.
I had three children, two daughters.
I went to school with a middle daughter and they had a son that my sister went to school with.
Wonderful, wonderful family.
We grew up going to church with them.
David was one of my Sunday school teachers.
But whenever they walked in the room growing up in the time period that I grew up in, you felt the tension in the room a little bit.
Because in our time, in our culture, in that setting, in that day, that's not the way that was supposed to be.
With everything that's gone on racially within our country, my home newspaper, the North Augusta Star, did a write-up about the Coopers as they were celebrating their anniversary.
And the article got posted online.
And the question was asked to them, how does this work?
You came from a time when they both started school, schools were segregated.
You came from a time where there was the white part of North Augusta, there was the black part of North Augusta.
You came from a time when everyone wanted your relationship to fail and they just knew that it would.
So what have you learned in your time of marriage that you can help impart on us almost 50 years that they've been together?
And David said this.
He said, people hate each other because they fear each other.
They fear each other because they don't know each other.
The reason they don't know each other is because they've never communicated.
And I thought how much power in the truth, not only in the dynamic of a relationship,
but in the dealing with the matters of race and culture.
What we don't know, we're afraid of.
What we're afraid of, we stay away from.
And if we're never willing to cross the barriers to even have a basic level of conversation,
how can we ever understand each other and build relationship with each other?
A powerful picture of love enduring found in their marriage.
Think about what Jesus did.
You know, for you and I to love the way that Jesus loved, to care the way that Jesus cared,
to show compassion the way that Jesus showed compassion,
we have to step, be willing to step beyond the cultural barriers that are set before us.
And there's been no greater cultural barrier stepped across than the moment Jesus stepped out of heaven onto the earth.
That Jesus stepped out of a culture that was free of sin.
That Jesus stepped out of a culture that had eliminated hurt and pain and suffering.
And he stepped into a world that had embraced it.
He had stepped into a world that desired it.
And as Jesus models that for us, what are you and I willing to do to become?
Being a good Samaritan means that whether your cultural barrier is race, is education, is socioeconomic,
is language, is whatever you define it as.
In order to love the way that Jesus loved, we've got to be willing to step across,
to befriend, to speak, to understand, to communicate.
Next being a good Samaritan means you're vulnerable.
You're vulnerable.
Look what the good Samaritan does.
He's vulnerable with his resources.
He gives his oil and his wine in order to care for and to bandage.
He gives his time, that he took the time away from where he had to go.
Like, going on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho was not just a Sunday cruise that you would go on.
You had to take that road with purpose for a reason.
And he left behind his reason to care.
He provided his money.
He paid for it all.
For everything.
Past expenses.
Current expenses.
Future expenses.
He even put his own health on the line.
You see, one of the tricks that the robbers would use on this road is they would lay in the ditch
and they would pretend that they had been attacked.
So that when others stopped to help them,
then they would be rushed and they would be beaten and they would be robbed.
So when the good Samaritan stops,
when the good Samaritan makes himself vulnerable,
he's now taking his eyes off the road and he's focused in on him.
He's opened himself up to it all.
He's put his own life on the line.
But it's worth it.
But it's worth it.
And for us, in order to care, in order to have compassion,
we have to make ourselves vulnerable as well.
When broken people are brought to us by God,
before they need our advice, our wisdom, or our wonderful life lessons,
they need to know who we are and that we care.
That's what they need.
That's what I need.
That's what I long for.
I'm not a project.
I'm a person.
And would you be willing to join me in that moment?
And the last thing,
being a good Samaritan means you love mercy.
Jesus asks him,
which one's the neighbor?
He's not willing to say the Samaritan.
But the truth is there.
He says,
the one that showed him mercy.
Not charity.
Mercy.
What does that mean?
Mercy is not getting what you deserve.
That guy could have put himself in that situation.
That guy could have been hanging out with all the wrong people.
That guy might have just gotten beaten up because he did it to someone else
and they saw him on the road.
There's a laundry list of reasons of why that man got where he was.
He should have been traveling smarter.
He should have been traveling with somebody.
All the things that we can begin to build on and go,
man,
why would you do this to yourself?
This is what you deserve.
But what he's given is mercy.
And when we think about that,
in order to be a good Samaritan,
you and I must realize that at one point in the time,
we were the man in the ditch.
In order to be the good Samaritan,
you and I have to understand that at some point in time,
somebody came and picked us out of the ditch.
The one who became the most vulnerable for us.
The one who gave up all of his resources,
of all that he had.
The one who was nailed and beaten and stripped naked
and left on a cross to die.
The one who gave all of his time,
his whole 33 years,
his life willing to fulfill the law that we couldn't fulfill.
The one who gave all that he had,
the riches and the wealth of heaven,
left to come here to live his life for the struggle.
The one who gave it all,
came and pulled you and me out of the ditch.
Not what we deserved.
We deserved to be left there.
But he came and he got in it with us
and he got dirty with us
and he got bloody with us
and he reached down and he picked us up
and he cleaned our wounds
and he made us new again.
And he paid for our debt, our past.
He paid for our debt present
and he paid for our debt future.
And just as the good Samaritan says,
one day I'll return,
Jesus says, so one day I will as well.
You see, you and I deserve to be left there.
We had made a bunch of decisions
that were foolish and sinful
that caused us to be there.
But Jesus came and rescued us.
And now we, the church,
those who were there,
have been given the challenge
to go show the care and compassion of Christ.
The question is,
are you willing to give
what you've received?
Are you willing to give
that which you did not deserve,
but mercy was given to us anyways?
Let's pray.
Lord, I thank you so much for who you are.
For all that you've done for us.
Lord, this is such a tangible piece
in this passage of Scripture
of who you're calling us to be.
Lord, I pray that our
our standing and our motivation
cannot be found in what we do,
but is found in who we are.
Redeemed men and women
bought by the blood of Christ.
Lord, as we seek to be a people
that embrace care and compassion,
Lord, may we be willing
to go to the tough places
to deal with the tough people
all for the sake
and the glory of the gospel.
Lord, may our hearts overflow
with care and compassion.
Lord, may we as a people
be willing to not only cross
cultural, racial,
socioeconomic barriers,
but Lord,
Lord, as the church,
may we be willing
and bold enough
that when we see them,
we speak against them,
we fight against them,
we tear them down ourselves.
Lord, may we as the church
be willing to be vulnerable,
that we're not a group of people
that have it all figured out,
that we're not a group of people
who do it right all the time,
but that we're vulnerable,
willing to share our story,
our circumstance,
willing to love each other
through sacrifice
in a way that brings glory
and honor to you.
Lord, may we love mercy.
May we love it.
Lord, as it's good
and it is sweet to us,
may we be willing
to share that goodness
and sweetness with others.
Every head bowed
and every eye closed,
I want to ask you this question.
Matthew 9.
Jesus looks out in the world,
sees evil,
sees death,
he sees destruction.
He, being the only one
never to commit a sin,
sees the offense
before his heavenly Father.
And his response
could have been
righteous anger.
His response
could have been wrath.
But his response
was compassion.
His response
was to hurt
with those who hurt.
His response
was to mourn.
Now, I want to ask you this.
When you look out
into the world,
whether it's through TV,
through social media,
through conversations
at work,
through relationships
in your home,
in your neighborhood,
here at church,
and you see that same
brokenness,
lostness,
hurt,
pain,
suffering,
is your heart
filled with compassion?
And if it's not,
and if it's not,
today,
would you join me
in repentance?
Repentance of the sin
that still remains
even though Jesus
has paid for it.
Lord,
I come to you.
We're broken
for my own sin,
for my own failures,
for my own pride,
for my own anger.
Lord,
I know that
you've forgiven me.
I know you will
always forgive me,
but I need to be broken
so that I can
continue to be made
new in your likeness.
Lord,
develop in me
a heart
of compassion
and care
because that's
what glorifies you.
Lord,
may I see different,
may I feel different,
may I think different,
may I respond different
in a way that emulates
and glorifies Christ.
Jesus,
thank you
for taking the broken
and making us whole again.
Thank you
that you gave your life
so that we may have it.
Lord,
we love you.
We praise you.
In this your name we pray.
Amen.
Thanks again for listening
to the Willow Ridge Church
weekly podcast.
We hope that you enjoyed
listening to this week's message.
If you'd like to learn more
about who we are
or explore additional resources,
visit us online
at www.willowridgechurch.com
or by searching
for Willow Ridge Church
on Facebook and Instagram.