SPEAKER_00: Any of you uh woken up one morning and looked in the mirror and you say, I I don't I don't really like what I see.
SPEAKER_00: I think that happens to all of us, right?
SPEAKER_00: Many of us know that feeling of looking in the mirror on a bad morning.
SPEAKER_00: We don't like it because a mirror, when we think about a mirror, it has a way of telling us the truth, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_00: It shows everything about us, it shows us our wrinkles, our blemishes, shows us the messed up hair, all things that we'd rather not see.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the thing: a mirror doesn't create that problem for us.
SPEAKER_00: A mirror just reveals the problem for us.
SPEAKER_00: Well, the law of God functions much in the very same way.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't create the problem of our sin, it simply reveals our sin to us.
SPEAKER_00: The law reveals how far we fall short of God's righteous standard.
SPEAKER_00: And that's exactly what happens in our passage this morning.
SPEAKER_00: We see a lawyer approaching Jesus, confident in himself.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to know what he must do to inherit eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: And by the end of the conversation, Jesus will hold up a mirror to his soul.
SPEAKER_00: No doubt if you've been in church for a while, you know the story that's before us this morning.
SPEAKER_00: We call it the Good Samaritan.
SPEAKER_00: It's been preached on and taught on countless of times in various church settings.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, this story is so well known, even those outside of the church are familiar with what it means to be a good Samaritan.
SPEAKER_00: It is synonymous for someone who helps people in need.
SPEAKER_00: Nonprofits and mercy organizations even name themselves after the Samaritan that we read about in our passage.
SPEAKER_00: But what's often missed in the story is the question that leads up to it.
SPEAKER_00: And it's a question about inheriting eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: A man wants to know how he can obtain eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: How does he need to live to receive it?
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus really gives him two answers.
SPEAKER_00: He's not only showing him how to obtain it, but he also shows him how he is to live once he does obtain it.
SPEAKER_00: I titled this sermon, How Shall We Live?
SPEAKER_00: Because that's the true question being asked, and that is the question that's being answered in our passage.
SPEAKER_00: So let me break down this passage with three additional questions.
SPEAKER_00: First, answering the question, What is required to live?
SPEAKER_00: Next, we will answer, how do we do what's required to live?
SPEAKER_00: And thirdly, can we do, or can we even do what's required to live?
SPEAKER_00: So let's look at that first question.
SPEAKER_00: What is required to live?
SPEAKER_00: Let me read 25 again, verse 25.
SPEAKER_00: And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
SPEAKER_00: And he said to him, What is written in the law?
SPEAKER_00: How do you read it?
SPEAKER_00: And he answered, You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, and with all of your soul, and with all of your strength, and with all of your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_00: And he said to him, You have answered correctly, do this and you will live.
SPEAKER_00: So last week we read about Jesus turning to the disciples and giving them a benediction.
SPEAKER_00: He was blessing them for what has been revealed to them.
SPEAKER_00: Luke tells us that this was done privately, which means not everyone heard that benediction.
SPEAKER_00: But before that, Jesus was openly rejoicing for God advancing the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: As he saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning, the disciples were rejoicing, he was rejoicing.
SPEAKER_00: And in verse 21 and 22, he is sharing, presumably to all, that God and the Son, that God the Father and God the Son has revealed the kingdom to some, but have kept it from others.
SPEAKER_00: So it wasn't just the twelve disciples who were hearing this, but everyone who was around was hearing this, and apparently there was a lawyer there also listening to this.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this wouldn't have been a legal lawyer like we're used to in our day.
SPEAKER_00: This was someone who studied the laws of God, studied the law of God.
SPEAKER_00: And notice how verse 25 starts with, and behold.
SPEAKER_00: So Luke here appears to connect two events.
SPEAKER_00: What just happened to what is happening in our passage.
SPEAKER_00: It's possible that the Lord's question was prompted by something Jesus said, by something Jesus taught.
SPEAKER_00: And what was he teaching?
SPEAKER_00: Well, he was teaching about divine revelation.
SPEAKER_00: He was teaching about God's sovereign work.
SPEAKER_00: It couldn't have been that private benediction, so it had to be the public declaration before that.
SPEAKER_00: That how Christ was saying some have been chosen for the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: And the question that the lawyer asked makes sense in that context.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said that some have been chosen to receive the kingdom, so the lawyer wants to test that statement.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, are you saying that there's nothing that we must do to enter in the kingdom?
SPEAKER_00: Are you saying that God chooses who he allows into the kingdom or not, and that he requires nothing of us?
SPEAKER_00: So he asks, What must I do to inherit eternal life?
SPEAKER_00: He's trying to test Christ's statement that was mentioned before.
SPEAKER_00: Now, it isn't a sincere question, but it's a good question.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, it's a question that every one of us should ask.
SPEAKER_00: How do we inherit eternal life?
SPEAKER_00: That should be a question on everybody's mind.
SPEAKER_00: It's simply a question of what must I do to enter the kingdom of God?
SPEAKER_00: Or what must I do to be saved?
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus, knowing that the Lord is trying to be clever, responds with a clever answer.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't answer the question directly, but he asks a question of his own.
SPEAKER_00: He asks, What is written in the law?
SPEAKER_00: How do you read it?
SPEAKER_00: In other words, since you're such an expert in the law, you tell me what it says.
SPEAKER_00: How would you summarize the law?
SPEAKER_00: You're a lawyer, you study the scriptures, you study the law, you tell me.
SPEAKER_00: And the lawyer actually gets it right.
SPEAKER_00: As he says, you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul, and with all your strength, and with all of your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_00: That is the sum of the moral law.
SPEAKER_00: The Ten Commandments, the first four commandments show us how to love God, right?
SPEAKER_00: Have no other gods before him, worship him, not idols, don't take his name in vain, and put one day a week, one day of the week aside to remember him and to worship him.
SPEAKER_00: And the next show us, the next six show us how to love our neighbors.
SPEAKER_00: Honor your father and mother, do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not covet, do not steal, do not bear false witness.
SPEAKER_00: So you can sum up that, those commands.
SPEAKER_00: You can sum up that the way the lawyer did, by loving God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and by loving your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus actually agreed with him.
SPEAKER_00: As he said, you answered correctly.
SPEAKER_00: Now do this, and you will live.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, yeah, you go ahead and do that.
SPEAKER_00: That's how you will obtain eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: Now I know what you're thinking.
SPEAKER_00: I thought we were saved by faith, not by works.
SPEAKER_00: It seems like Jesus is telling him here that there is something that we can do to enter the kingdom of God, that it is possible to earn our way into heaven.
SPEAKER_00: However, Jesus is telling him the opposite of that.
SPEAKER_00: He's just doing it in a clever way.
SPEAKER_00: The lawyer is saying, I know how to get to heaven myself.
SPEAKER_00: I know how to obey the law.
SPEAKER_00: That if I love God with all of my heart and my and my neighbor as myself, I will get there.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is basically saying, You're right.
SPEAKER_00: Now you go and try that.
SPEAKER_00: Go and try to love God with all of your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Go and try to love your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_00: And you're going to see how impossible that really is.
SPEAKER_00: See, Jesus wasn't contradicting justification by faith, he was proving it.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 3.20.
SPEAKER_00: For by the works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
SPEAKER_00: See, the more we try to justify ourselves by obeying the law, the more we see how sinful we are because we can't obey it.
SPEAKER_00: We can obey for a time.
SPEAKER_00: We can obey for an hour, maybe even a day, but soon enough we will see how impossible it is for a sinful man or woman to keep it.
SPEAKER_00: All Jesus was doing here was taking the lawyer back to Adam.
SPEAKER_00: When Adam and Eve in the garden were created, they were created, as Ecclesiastes 7 tells us, upright, meaning they were created without sin, and they had the capability to not sin.
SPEAKER_00: Theologians speak of this covenant of works, meaning that God made a covenant with Adam and by extension mankind, that if he obeyed, he would live.
SPEAKER_00: And what did he need to do to keep his life?
SPEAKER_00: What did he need to do to obtain?
SPEAKER_00: What did he need to do to live?
SPEAKER_00: He needed to obey.
SPEAKER_00: He needed to obey God's commands.
SPEAKER_00: He needed to obey God's law.
SPEAKER_00: And Romans 2 tells us that the works of the law are written on the hearts of mankind.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, the law, the moral law, has been on man's heart ever since he was created.
SPEAKER_00: So Adam's instructions from God were the same as the ones that Jesus is giving here to the Lord in our passage.
SPEAKER_00: God told Adam, do this and live.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is telling the lawyer, do this and live.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, obey me, obey the law, and you will live.
SPEAKER_00: And as we know, Adam couldn't do it.
SPEAKER_00: Adam failed.
SPEAKER_00: Adam, who was created upright, who had the capability to obey but chose not to, failed to keep the law.
SPEAKER_00: And here comes this lawyer, the smug lawyer, thinking because he's well studied, because he's got a seminary degree or two, that he can do it.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is basically saying, you go and try.
SPEAKER_00: Go and try to obey the law fully, and then come back to me and tell me how that's working out for you.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus wasn't saying go and earn eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: He was saying go and try to earn it, and you will see how impossible it is.
SPEAKER_00: See, the problem with the lawyer is not that he thought too high of the law, it's that he thought too low of it.
SPEAKER_00: He thought that God's standard was actually attainable.
SPEAKER_00: He thought that he could love God with all of his heart.
SPEAKER_00: He can love his neighbor as he should, when really he couldn't.
SPEAKER_00: Again, this can possibly be done for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: It can be done for a while, but that's not God's standard.
SPEAKER_00: God doesn't require a moment of obedience.
SPEAKER_00: God requires complete, full, and ongoing obedience.
SPEAKER_00: And he knew that this lawyer couldn't do this.
SPEAKER_00: But yet, this is what is required.
SPEAKER_00: This is what is required not only for this lawyer in our passage, it's required for all of us.
SPEAKER_00: If we want to inherit eternal life, if we want what this lawyer is asking for, it will not happen unless God receives complete obedience to the law.
SPEAKER_00: And before you say, I can do it, let's take a moment to see what that looks like.
SPEAKER_00: What does loving God with all of my heart and loving my neighbor as myself look like?
SPEAKER_00: As we will see, this lawyer is basically asking the same question.
SPEAKER_00: But it wasn't sincerely.
SPEAKER_00: The lawyer is still trying to play this game with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And that leads to our next point.
SPEAKER_00: Now that we know what's required, obedience to the law, how do we do what's required?
SPEAKER_00: How do we obey the law?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 29.
SPEAKER_00: But he but he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, And who is my neighbor?
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
SPEAKER_00: So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.
SPEAKER_00: But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him he had compassion.
SPEAKER_00: He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine.
SPEAKER_00: Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: Again, the lawyer is still trying to test Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And as Luke says, he's trying to justify himself.
SPEAKER_00: He's trying to say, I do love my neighbor as myself.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, I can do this because I love those who are close to me.
SPEAKER_00: I love those who are near to me.
SPEAKER_00: I love those who are lovable.
SPEAKER_00: The lawyer keeps pointing to his ability to keep the law, so Jesus tells him a story that's about to reveal his heart.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says that a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho.
SPEAKER_00: This would have been a well-known road to the people in their day.
SPEAKER_00: Those who were listening would have understood or known this Jericho road quite well.
SPEAKER_00: It was called by some the way of blood because of all the robberies and violence that happened on that road.
SPEAKER_00: It was a 17-mile road with steep valleys where robbers and thieves would prey on travelers.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus says that a man was traveling from Jerusalem, which tells us that this man was a Jewish man coming out of Jerusalem on his way to Jericho.
SPEAKER_00: And along the way, he's robbed by and beaten by thieves.
SPEAKER_00: They strip him and leave him half dead.
SPEAKER_00: Just then a priest comes along and passes him by.
SPEAKER_00: Now you would think here that a priest would be concerned about a poor Jewish man who is lying half dead in the road.
SPEAKER_00: This was a religious leader in the Jewish community.
SPEAKER_00: He was someone who knew the law of God quite well.
SPEAKER_00: But the priest chooses not to get involved.
SPEAKER_00: Soon after, a Levite comes along and does the same.
SPEAKER_00: A Levite was another person who would have been respected in the Jewish community.
SPEAKER_00: Levites were those who assisted in temple worship.
SPEAKER_00: They were known servants in the temple.
SPEAKER_00: Yet he didn't feel, this Levite didn't feel like serving this man on this day.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, leaving him half dead on the road.
SPEAKER_00: So now we now see instead a Samaritan coming along who was also traveling on the road, and he sees this man, and what does he do?
SPEAKER_00: He has compassion on him.
SPEAKER_00: He has compassion for him.
SPEAKER_00: He goes and he binds up his wounds, pouring oil and wine.
SPEAKER_00: He puts him on his own animal and he takes him to an inn.
SPEAKER_00: The Samaritan apparently had somewhere to be, but he doesn't leave the man unattended.
SPEAKER_00: He he pays two denarii, which would have been two days' worth of wages, to the innkeeper to take care of him, and promises to repay him for whatever he spends when he returns.
SPEAKER_00: In order to understand the magnitude and the shock that this story would have been to those who were listening that day, we need to understand the division and hatred between Jews and Samaritans.
SPEAKER_00: One commentator says that we have nothing like it in our day.
SPEAKER_00: Sure, we see divisions between ethnicities and classes and nations, but even at that, it's possible for us to see two individuals from two rival groups getting along.
SPEAKER_00: It's not impossible in our day, for instance, to see a Palestinian and a Jew, uh Jewish man eating lunch together, or to see maybe someone who's rich and someone who's poor sharing a cup of coffee.
SPEAKER_00: But you would never see a Jew and a Samaritan together, much less helping one another.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus is masterfully showing how far this lawyer fall short in loving his neighbor, as if to say, you think you love your neighbor, like the law requires.
SPEAKER_00: Well, go to your most hated enemy and show him this kind of radical mercy.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is not only revealing this lawyer's heart, but I believe he reveals each and every one of our hearts every time we come across this story.
SPEAKER_00: Every time we read the story of the Good Samaritan, it should remind us of what the law requires for us to love our neighbor as ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: If we're honest, we actually like the question that the lawyer asked: Who is my neighbor?
SPEAKER_00: Because we often want to put limits and boundaries around those who we love.
SPEAKER_00: Like the priest and the Pharisee, we really don't want to be inconvenienced when it's time to show mercy.
SPEAKER_00: So, what does it take to show love like the Samaritan?
SPEAKER_00: What exactly is Jesus pointing out here?
SPEAKER_00: Well, first, it's no mistake that he chose a Samaritan to be the good and loving person in the story.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was confronting the Jewish lawyers' ethnic pride.
SPEAKER_00: The Samaritans were a people group that came from intermarrying with Assyrians.
SPEAKER_00: To the Jews, they were considered half-breed heretics.
SPEAKER_00: There was real racial animosity between the groups.
SPEAKER_00: And in John 4 9, we are told that Jews had no dealings with Samaritans.
SPEAKER_00: So loving like a Samaritan means loving those from other ethnicities.
SPEAKER_00: This passage leaves no room for racial pride in the church or ethnic superiority or even prejudice.
SPEAKER_00: Because if you're a Christian, your old self has died, and your old nature has died or must die, and your new nature must be made alive in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Christ who shows no partiality.
SPEAKER_00: Christ who died for those who are not like him.
SPEAKER_00: What an affront it is to Jesus to show disdain for those who are not like us when he, Jesus, died for us who are not like him.
SPEAKER_00: Yet we claim his love in our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Next, to love like the Samaritans means we we show compassion to those in need.
SPEAKER_00: When the Samaritan came across this man who was half dead, it was compassion that moved him to stop and give him aid.
SPEAKER_00: It was seeing that this man was in desperate need that interrupted his plans.
SPEAKER_00: You know what the Samaritan had that many of us probably need to grow into?
SPEAKER_00: He had an eye for someone in need.
SPEAKER_00: We're told in verse 33 that when he saw him, when he saw him, the man on the side of the road, he had compassion on him.
SPEAKER_00: This man had an eye open to the needs that he came across.
SPEAKER_00: I believe one of the most undertaught and overlooked biblical themes in Scripture is the Christian's responsibility to those in need.
SPEAKER_00: There are at least a dozen major New Testament texts that directly address the Christian's duty to the poor.
SPEAKER_00: And many more indirect references.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just give you a few.
SPEAKER_00: In Galatians 2.10, we are told the disciples are told to remember the poor.
SPEAKER_00: In Ephesians 4.28, Christians are called to work so that you can share with those in need.
SPEAKER_00: In 1 Timothy 6, 17 through 19, the rich are called to be generous and ready to share.
SPEAKER_00: In James 1.27, Christians are called to care for orphans and widows.
SPEAKER_00: In James 2, 14 through 17, James is basically saying that faith without helping a brother who is in need is dead.
SPEAKER_00: Many passages in the New Testament will point to one's generosity to the poor to show your Christian faith.
SPEAKER_00: Yet that's usually left off the list when we speak about Christian living.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we'll do devotions, we'll do men's men's studies, and we'll do women's studies, and we'll talk about Christian living, and we'll mention Christian things like praying and reading your Bible and walking and holiness.
SPEAKER_00: And we we speak of all these things, but but rarely do we speak about helping the poor.
SPEAKER_00: The Christian's duty to assist those in need.
SPEAKER_00: In Mark chapter 10, Jesus is confronted with this rich young ruler.
SPEAKER_00: You might know the story.
SPEAKER_00: And he he actually asks the same question that the lawyer does in our passage What must I do to inherit eternal life?
SPEAKER_00: And there Jesus reveals that man's heart, much like he does to the lawyer in our passage.
SPEAKER_00: He points to the law.
SPEAKER_00: And the rich young ruler says that he can keep it.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I've done that.
SPEAKER_00: I've kept the law since my youth.
SPEAKER_00: And do you remember how Jesus tested him to see if he truly keeps the law?
SPEAKER_00: He could have asked, Jesus could have asked many, many questions.
SPEAKER_00: He could have asked, yeah, but have you lusted after a woman in the past year?
SPEAKER_00: If so, you've committed adultery.
SPEAKER_00: Or have you have you had hate in your heart for someone this week?
SPEAKER_00: If so, you've committed murder.
SPEAKER_00: Those are actually valid questions and good questions.
SPEAKER_00: We use them in our evangelism.
SPEAKER_00: But instead, what did Jesus do?
SPEAKER_00: He tested him, he tested his law keeping by telling him, Go and sell what you have and give it to the poor.
SPEAKER_00: He tested his law keeping by his generosity to the poor.
SPEAKER_00: And you might say, well, that wasn't the point of the command.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus wasn't focusing on the poor.
SPEAKER_00: He was focusing on this man's heart and his love for his possessions.
SPEAKER_00: You're right.
SPEAKER_00: But those two things are not mutually exclusive.
SPEAKER_00: The very reason we are often not generous to the poor is because of our heart and our love for our possessions.
SPEAKER_00: The very reason we're not generous to the poor is because we're often afraid of letting go.
SPEAKER_00: We're often afraid of what we might miss if we give away our possessions.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, you don't have to be rich to be like the rich young ruler.
SPEAKER_00: You just have to love your possessions more than you love people.
SPEAKER_00: You know, throughout church history, giving to the poor has always been a Christian virtue.
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you some quotes.
SPEAKER_00: Basil the Great, early church father, says, the bread which you keep belongs to the hungry, the cloak in your closet belongs to the naked, the shoes rotting in your possession belong to the shoeless.
SPEAKER_00: Augustine says, give to the poor, and you give to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: John Calvin says, if you meet a man who needs your aid, you have no reason to refuse to help him.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew Henry says, Charity to the poor is not a burden, but an honor.
SPEAKER_00: Add to that the countless of Puritans who we can quote, Christian hospitals, mercy ministries that give to the poor.
SPEAKER_00: As I said, many of them taking on the name Samaritan.
SPEAKER_00: Giving to the poor is one of the most Christian things you can do.
SPEAKER_00: Yet it's also one of the hardest things we can do.
SPEAKER_00: Again, partly because we hold tightly to our possessions and we're afraid of letting go.
SPEAKER_00: We don't trust in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: But also it's because our love for those in need, if we're honest, is often a little too small.
SPEAKER_00: Or even worse, we have a disdain for those who are in need.
SPEAKER_00: We look down on the poor.
SPEAKER_00: We hold them in contempt.
SPEAKER_00: We say things like, well, it's their own fault that they're poor.
SPEAKER_00: If they would just get a job and not be lazy, or if they would just manage their finances better, they wouldn't be in that situation.
SPEAKER_00: You know, Christians on both sides of the political aisle will say things and lump all the poor into one category.
SPEAKER_00: You'll have Christians on the left who will say, Well, everyone that is poor is just a victim of injustice.
SPEAKER_00: Or some on the right will say, Well, everyone who's poor is just lazy.
SPEAKER_00: Yet the Bible, and I believe natural revelation, will tell us that things are not always that simple.
SPEAKER_00: Don Carson says Christians should avoid simplistic explanations such as, all poor people are victims, or all poor people are poor because of bad choices.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible recognizes that poverty can arise from living in a fallen world.
SPEAKER_00: It can come from personal sin, the sins of others, injustice, or calamity.
SPEAKER_00: But here's what the good Samaritan teaches us: that you don't have to go to a progressive university and study sociology before you can help the poor.
SPEAKER_00: Or neither do you have to get the opinion of your favorite conservative talk show host.
SPEAKER_00: All you have to do is do what the Samaritan did.
SPEAKER_00: See someone in need, have compassion for them, and do what's in your power to help them.
SPEAKER_00: It's really not as hard as we make it out to be.
SPEAKER_00: 1 John chapter 3, verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?
SPEAKER_00: Little children, let not let us not love in word or talk, but indeed in truth.
SPEAKER_00: It cost him something.
SPEAKER_00: First, it cost him his time.
SPEAKER_00: Who knows what he was going to Jericho to do?
SPEAKER_00: He could have been traveling on business or to meet a friend.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe he was traveling for leisure, whatever the case, this this this man, this Samaritan, he had somewhere to be, yet he interrupted his plans to serve.
SPEAKER_00: He interrupted his plans to serve someone.
SPEAKER_00: How many times does our busyness prevent us from showing love to people?
SPEAKER_00: How many times do we fall short of extending generosity because we have somewhere to be?
SPEAKER_00: Or we have someplace to go, or we have something to do.
SPEAKER_00: Next, it was dangerously costly for him to do what he did.
SPEAKER_00: Who knows if those thieves who attacked the poor man would rob him?
SPEAKER_00: He could have easily fallen victim to the same crime himself.
SPEAKER_00: It also costed him getting a little dirty.
SPEAKER_00: He had to get down on the floor and he had to tend to a bloody man in the streets.
SPEAKER_00: He even picked him up and he put him on his own animal.
SPEAKER_00: The priest and the Levi wanted no part of that.
SPEAKER_00: They said, not today.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe, and I've heard a few commentators mention this, maybe they thought that if they they touched the man, that they would be ceremonially unclean.
SPEAKER_00: Which shows that they didn't quite understand the entire purpose of the law.
SPEAKER_00: The law isn't a strictly set of rules there as a strict set of rules.
SPEAKER_00: It isn't there just to say you need to do this, you need to follow rules, you need to be a rule keeper.
SPEAKER_00: But they were given to us to teach us something.
SPEAKER_00: They were given to us to teach us how we are to love God and how we are to love our neighbor.
SPEAKER_00: The Samaritan in this story was carrying out the principle of the law better than they were.
SPEAKER_00: Again, he was willing to risk danger, and he didn't care about getting a little messy.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the thing, and you know this, if you've helped someone who's in need, it's not always gonna be neat and tidy.
SPEAKER_00: There are gonna be times when we're gonna have to get our hands a little dirty in helping someone.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe even sometimes when we're gonna have to risk some safety.
SPEAKER_00: Because that's where you're gonna find people in need.
SPEAKER_00: You're usually gonna find them in unsafe places.
SPEAKER_00: They're not always gonna be in places as neat and clean and tidy as we're used to being in.
SPEAKER_00: And lastly, as I've alluded to already, it costed the Samaritan some of his own possessions.
SPEAKER_00: He gave of his own oil, gave of his own wine.
SPEAKER_00: He put some of his own money to keep and care for the man at the end.
SPEAKER_00: This was sacrificial love.
SPEAKER_00: This was costly love.
SPEAKER_00: And again, this is how Jesus is showing the Jewish man how to live, how to love his neighbor.
SPEAKER_00: He must love his greatest enemy.
SPEAKER_00: He must put to death any racial prejudice.
SPEAKER_00: He must love those who are in need and care for those who are in need.
SPEAKER_00: He must be willing to be inconvenienced.
SPEAKER_00: He must sacrifice his time.
SPEAKER_00: He must sacrifice his safety, his cleanliness, and even his own possessions.
SPEAKER_00: And all of this must overflow out of the love in his heart that he has for his neighbor.
SPEAKER_00: Not for one day, not for one season, not for one year, but all of the time for the rest of his life.
SPEAKER_00: That is what is required.
SPEAKER_00: You want obedience to the law to be your ticket into heaven?
SPEAKER_00: You want obedience to the law to be your entrance into eternal life?
SPEAKER_00: Go and do that because that is what is required.
SPEAKER_00: Which leads to my last point.
SPEAKER_00: Can we do what's required?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 36.
SPEAKER_00: Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?
SPEAKER_00: He said, The one who showed a mercy.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said to him, You go and do likewise.
SPEAKER_00: After telling the story, Jesus asked the lawyer, Who of the three men were the most neighborly?
SPEAKER_00: Which one of these three in the story showed love to his neighbor?
SPEAKER_00: And the lawyer couldn't help but answer correctly.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Well, it was the one who showed mercy.
SPEAKER_00: When the lawyer asked, Who is my neighbor?
SPEAKER_00: He's basically asking, Who deserves my love?
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus shifted the question.
SPEAKER_00: It's not who deserves my love.
SPEAKER_00: It's what kind of person am I?
SPEAKER_00: How much do I really love people?
SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus finally gets to the heart of the matter.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Go and do likewise.
SPEAKER_00: Go and do what this Samaritan did.
SPEAKER_00: Because this is what it takes to love your neighbor like the law requires.
SPEAKER_00: Now that I've shown you how you must love your neighbor, go and do likewise.
SPEAKER_00: And we're not told how the lawyer responded.
SPEAKER_00: But we know how he should have responded.
SPEAKER_00: He should have said, I can't do it.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a sinner.
SPEAKER_00: How can a mere sinner like me do what the law requires?
SPEAKER_00: If this is what requires to have eternal life, I will never obtain it because I can't keep the law like this, though you're saying that I must.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 8, 7, for the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law.
SPEAKER_00: Indeed, it cannot.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus wanted to show this man the impossibility of getting to God through law-keeping.
SPEAKER_00: The man should have realized how short that he fell from the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: The man should have said then and there, I'm a sinner, condemned by the law of God.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, will you save me?
SPEAKER_00: Will you do for me what I cannot do for myself?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus brought the law to point this man to himself and to show this man his inability.
SPEAKER_00: And that anyone who wants to enter eternal life, all who want to come to God must come to him through faith and trust in Jesus Christ alone.
SPEAKER_00: As Jesus says in John 14, 7, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
SPEAKER_00: No one comes to the Father but through me.
SPEAKER_00: Galatians 3.23 tells us, now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed.
SPEAKER_00: So then the law was our guardian until Christ came in order that we might be justified by faith.
SPEAKER_00: Again, no one will be justified by the works of the law because no one can keep it, because no one can do it.
SPEAKER_00: And there is the ultimate answer to the lawyer's initial question, the answer that he needed to the question, how must I inherit eternal life?
SPEAKER_00: Was you need to place your faith in Jesus Christ alone.
SPEAKER_00: Because see, here's the thing: it's not as if God's standard has been lowered.
SPEAKER_00: He still requires the kind of love that the Samaritan showed.
SPEAKER_00: And though we can't give it, there's one who can.
SPEAKER_00: And though we can't offer it, guess who did?
SPEAKER_00: Guess who showed an even greater love to his neighbor than the Samaritan did?
SPEAKER_00: It was Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The Samaritan might have risked his safety and he may have given up his possessions to a dying man.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus gave his life to countless of dead men.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus gave his life for us unbelievers who weren't just dying, but who were dead in our sins and our trespasses.
SPEAKER_00: The lawyer should have realized that he is not the Samaritan in the story.
SPEAKER_00: He is the man who is there lying helpless on the side of the road.
SPEAKER_00: And what he needs in this very moment is for someone like the Samaritan, someone who is greater than the Samaritan to come and rescue him.
SPEAKER_00: I said earlier that there were really two answers that Jesus gave the lawyer, though the lawyer didn't know it.
SPEAKER_00: The lawyer's fundamental question was how am I supposed to live to inherit eternal life?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus not only showed him how to inherit eternal life, but he also showed him how to live.
SPEAKER_00: First, he showed him the impossibility of law-keeping, and that eternal life would never come through being able to keep the law because you can't do it.
SPEAKER_00: It would only come through faith in him.
SPEAKER_00: But he also showed him the way to live.
SPEAKER_00: Good works do not earn eternal life, but those who inherit eternal life will pursue good works.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus didn't include all of these painstaking details in the story.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't go to great lengths to show mercy and love of the Samaritan for us to sit back this morning and say, Oh, I can never love like that, so I'm not even going to try.
SPEAKER_00: The meaning of the Good Samaritan is not just you can't do it, but Christ can.
SPEAKER_00: But it's also, now that you're in Christ, simply follow the way of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Don't just aim to love like the Samaritan.
SPEAKER_00: Aim for an even higher love.
SPEAKER_00: Aim for an even greater example.
SPEAKER_00: Love like Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus who was even less impartial.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus whose heart is even more for the poor.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus who gives even more sacrificially.
SPEAKER_00: The law says, do this and live.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel says, do this because you now live.
SPEAKER_00: Grace supplies the strength that we need to obey.
SPEAKER_00: We don't obey to attain grace, but we do obey because we've received it.
SPEAKER_00: The question ultimately comes down to this: how shall we live?
SPEAKER_00: And the answer is we live by repenting of our sins and by placing our faith in Jesus Christ alone.
SPEAKER_00: That's how we are resurrected.
SPEAKER_00: That's how we obtain eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: But we also live today in the new life that we have been given.
SPEAKER_00: We can go and do likewise because the one who lives in us enables us to do so.
SPEAKER_00: The one who is greater than the Samaritan has given us new life to go and live.
SPEAKER_00: As you were dead, as you were there without hope.
SPEAKER_00: And he went and paid for it.
SPEAKER_00: Not with two denarii, but with his life.
SPEAKER_00: And now we live in him and through him and for him.
SPEAKER_00: For the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: Let us pray.