The Jesus Stories • The Story of the Good Samaritan

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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.

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 [email protected], or by

searching for Willow Ridge Church on Facebook, Instagram

and Twitter.