Transcript of a published Bible study by Rev. Roger Spaugh, transcribed from YouTube. An attributed primary source — not Acts 2:38 Life doctrine text.
Summary
Summary prepared by Acts 2:38 Life from the transcript below — the preacher’s words follow in full.
Recap and the Reading of the Parable
- The lesson picks up last time's theme: Jesus stopped to talk with a Samaritan woman at the well whom most Jews would have ignored, and Christians must be willing to show compassion in the same way.
- God's love has been shed abroad in believers' hearts by His Spirit so that they can love as He loved, and that compassion must go out regardless of how other people view the person receiving it.
- God is no respecter of persons — He shows no partiality or preference for one over another — and believers need that same attitude.
- Jesus answers the lawyer's question, "What shall I do to inherit eternal life?", by turning it back to the law: love the Lord with all the heart, soul, strength, and mind, and your neighbor as yourself — "this do, and thou shalt live."
- To the follow-up question, "Who is my neighbor?", Jesus tells of a man robbed and left half dead on the Jerusalem-to-Jericho road, passed by a priest and a Levite, but helped by a Samaritan who bound his wounds, carried him to an inn, and paid for his care.
- Jesus' closing question — which of the three was neighbor to the man who fell among the thieves — draws the answer, "He that shewed mercy," and the command, "Go, and do thou likewise."
Scriptures: Luke 10; Luke 10:25
Matthew's Parallel: A Ministry Under Challenge
- Luke gives no setting for the exchange, and the lawyer was likely not present for the private conversation Jesus had with His disciples earlier in the chapter.
- Matthew describes very similar events in his chapter 22; Jesus' ministry was always being challenged in various ways, particularly by the religious leaders.
- The Pharisees took counsel together on how they might entangle Jesus in His talk and get Him to say something they could use against Him.
- The Sadducees came the same day and, like the Pharisees, could not trip Him up.
- When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had put the Sadducees to silence, they gathered together again, and one of them, a lawyer, asked the tempting question — possibly the same occasion Luke records.
- In both versions the lawyer's intent is exactly the same: he was not there to learn.
Scriptures: Matthew 22; Matthew 25:15; Matthew 22:23; Matthew 22:34
The Lawyer's Motive: Testing Jesus and Hunting for Limits
- "Tempted" here means to test or to try: the lawyer hoped to twist Jesus' words or catch Him saying something against the law so he could call Him a phony.
- Many people still ask religious questions not because they want to know if the Bible is true, but because they are looking for an excuse or an out.
- Jesus saw the motive and answered with a question — "What is written in the law? How readest thou?" — and the lawyer's answer was exactly right; Jesus approved it, and the first attempt to trip Him up failed.
- The second question, "Who is my neighbor?", came from a man willing to justify himself; as a lawyer he looked for limits and bare minimums — what can I get by with?
- Legalists measure obedience by how close to the edge they can stay, like counting Sabbath steps to remain just inside the line, while knowing exactly what they ought to be doing.
- The lawyer was correct in his theology but wrong in his application: he wanted a definition of neighbor narrow enough to keep his lifestyle comfortable and excuse him from reaching out to other people.
- James's charge fits him: be doers of the word and not hearers only, because if you only hear it, you deceive yourself.
"A Certain Man": The Anonymous Traveler and the Downward Road
- Jesus deliberately left the traveler undefined — "a certain man" means any man, some man; nothing is told of his nationality, religion, occupation, or standing.
- Had Jesus named the man a Jew, a Gentile, or a Samaritan, the lawyer could have justified himself and decided whether the man was his concern; with no identity, the cruelty and the compassion in the story are magnified.
- The unnamed man stands as a reminder that the gospel is for whosoever will — we cannot drive by deciding that this person is worth helping and that one is not.
- Literally, the road from Jerusalem down to Jericho ran about eighteen miles with almost a four-thousand-foot descent, through mountainous terrain with caves and turns where robbers could hide and ambush travelers.
- Spiritually, any road that leads away from the city of God is a downward road; the traveler pictures the sinner abused by sin and left half dead, and Jericho pictures the world and a life of sin whose consequences people do not see ahead.
- When someone leaves the church and goes down to the world, the church should be willing to show compassion and restore them, going to where they are — the enemy comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy, and no road of sin ends anywhere but destruction.
The Priest: Religion Without Empathy, Faith Without Works
- The priesthood of Jesus' day had degenerated into cold, intellectual elitism — following the law exactly to the letter in the flesh while missing the spirit of it.
- Christianity must move beyond mere mental assent to a living faith that acts; it is not enough to enjoy the good things of God in church and then walk past a world in need.
- James's picture is quoted: to say "depart in peace, be warmed and filled" to a brother or sister who is naked and destitute of food, while giving them nothing, profits nothing — even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.
- Faith as a substance is invisible, but true faith is always accompanied by visible action and fruit; our efforts must join our faith to supply the needs of others.
- The priest may have had his excuse — ceremonially clean and bound for temple duty, unwilling to risk defilement by touching blood or a dead body and losing that day's service — but the text indicts him: when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side, keeping as far away as he could.
- We need to be careful we do not have that same attitude toward the world, guarding against the idea that we are too holy or too righteous to help someone else.
- Some twelve thousand priests lived in Jericho and were the most frequent travelers of that road; of all people they should have been most likely to offer assistance, yet their religion remained in word and name only.
Scriptures: James (book-only, as spoken)
The Levite: A Look of Curiosity Instead of Concern
- The Levite's service was an inherited ministerial function — he cared for the temple facility, its ashes and grounds — but family inheritance won't make a real Christian; it takes more than religious duty.
- Unlike the priest, the Levite actually came and looked on the man; his was a look of curiosity, not concern, and after a good look he hurried back across the road and went on.
- Curiosity about others' failures easily becomes gossip — talking about what a backslider did or where they were — while Paul's instruction is that the spiritual restore one overtaken in a fault in a spirit of meekness, considering themselves lest they also be tempted.
- The speaker illustrates rubbernecking curiosity with his own story of being rear-ended on the highway by a driver who was looking at someone else on the roadside.
- The Levite saw the need but failed to supply it; we should never be so busy about the Lord's work that we forget His true purpose — to love like He loved.
The Samaritan: Compassion That Goes Where They Are
- Jesus made the hero a Samaritan — one of a people the Jews despised and avoided, walking around Samaria rather than through it — which surely got right in the craw of the lawyer listening.
- The Samaritan did the same thing the Levite did — he came where the man was and saw him — but something in him would not let him go back to the other side of the road; if we are going to reach others, we have to go to where they are.
- What we see in people in their need must affect our attitude: blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy; the question is whether we look on the downtrodden, the backslider, and the sinner with disgust and judgment, like the priest and the Levite, or with compassion.
- The speaker applies this honestly to himself: Romans chapter 1 describes people who not only do sinful things but take pride in them, yet we must abhor that which is evil without hating or avoiding the people.
- The Samaritan was willing to be inconvenienced: he set the wounded man on his own beast and walked the journey himself, sharing what he had even though helping made the trip harder.
- At the inn he paid the host two pence on the spot and promised to repay whatever more was spent when he came back — a stranger who owed this man nothing did all this of his own volition, at real cost, without complaint or fanfare.
- Every step was the Samaritan's: he stopped, bound up the wounds, poured in the oil and the wine, placed the man on his beast, made the reservation, and paid for it — while the religion of the priest and the Levite left them of no benefit to anyone.
Scriptures: Romans 1
The Question Reversed: You Be the Neighbor
- Jesus did not answer the lawyer's question directly: instead of defining which people count as neighbors, He asked which of the three was neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves.
- The difference is profound — the lawyer was asking, "Who do I have to help?", and Jesus was asking, "Who did help?"; when we take our job to be a neighbor to everyone, everybody gets covered.
- Jesus changed "neighbor" from a noun — a label for a defined group we are obligated to — into a verb, an action we perform, and He was not about to provide a loophole for this legal-minded man to exploit.
- Mark's record repeats the two commandments: love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself — there is no commandment greater than these, and our love toward God and our neighbor is the basis of all the law and the prophets.
- Loving God with everything we have in worship must show itself in loving others: if our relationship with God is right, our relationship with our fellow man will be right too, and we will do unto others as we would have them do unto us.
Scriptures: Mark 12:30
Sent as Jesus Was Sent: The Closing Charge
- The only solution to the sin problem was love in action: Jesus went to the cross, humbled Himself, and shed His blood for people who were powerless to help themselves.
- As the Father sent Jesus because God so loved the world, so Jesus sends us — "even as my Father hath sent me, so send I you" — because God still loves the world.
- Who is my neighbor? It is the world, the sinner, the saint — anyone we come in contact with; our field cannot be narrowed down to our workplace, our neighborhood, and the few people we know.
- God is concerned about people, not buildings, programs, or plans, however necessary those may be; our priority must be the same, following the example of Jesus and meeting the needs of others with compassion.
- The lesson closes in prayer that God would make the church willing to go wherever it must to reach that certain man — anybody, whoever it happens to be — with the gospel message, and with the charge to greet the neighbors around us, which means anybody.
Scripture index: Luke 10; Luke 10:25; Matthew 22; Matthew 25:15; Matthew 22:23; Matthew 22:34; James (book-only, as spoken); Romans 1; Mark 12:30.
we're going to look today to the word of the lord last lesson we talked about reaching those that seem unreachable loving those that no one else seemed to love we talked about the woman at the well how that jesus stopped and talked to a samaritan even when jews had no dealings with samaritans yet he went out of his way to reach this person that most jews would have chosen to ignore would have it would went completely away from and as christians we've got to be willing to show compassion don't we amen i know we just
sang that think about his love but his love is shed abroad in our hearts the bible says amen so he has put his spirit in our lives for a reason so that we can love other people love as he loved and so we must be willing to show compassion and really that compassion needs to go out regardless of how other people view that individual that we're showing compassion to the bible says over and over that god is no respecter of persons in other words he has no imp he is not partial to anyone there is
no impartiality there there is impartiality he will not prefer one over the other and we need to have that same kind of an attitude and so the story that we're going to look at today this story of the good samaritan i know we've heard it many times but it's going to emphasize that same idea in it in a different way this idea of reaching out to other people and by redefining really the concept of a neighbor jesus shows us how to love those that others would probably ignore or would not love let's read first off
from luke chapter 10 and i'm just going to read the whole story before we get into it begins at verse 25 luke 10 25 it says and behold a certain lawyer stood up and tempted jesus saying master what shall i do to inherit eternal life and so he turned to the man and he asked him well what is written in the law how do you read it what do you see there and so the lawyer answered well love the lord thy god with all thy heart with all thy soul with all thy strength with all
thy mind and thy neighbor as thyself and jesus said unto them you've answered right that pretty well sums it up you go do that and you shall live but the lawyer willing to justify himself said unto jesus okay well then who is my neighbor i don't think he expected what was going to happen next because rather than give a short answer jesus decided to tell a story and so he answered and he said there was a certain man that went down from jericho to jerusalem he fell among thieves which stripped him of his arraignment wounded
him and departed leaving him half dead and by chance there came down a certain priest that way and when he saw him he passed by on the other side and likewise a levite when he was at that place came by looked on him and passed on the other side but a certain samaritan as he was journeyed came where he was and when he saw him he had compassion on him he went to him he bound up his wounds poured in oil and wine and set him on his own beast and brought him to an inn
and took care of him and on the mar when he departed he took out two pence and gave to the host and said to him take care of him and whatsoever you spend more when i come back i'll repay you then jesus asked the question which now of these three thinketh thou was neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves the lawyer said he that showed mercy on him and jesus said go and do thou likewise luke doesn't give us the setting for our luck lesson text today in fact if you read through that chapter
the first part of the chapter has nothing to do with that it's talking about jesus and his disciples he's talking to them he sent 70 out and they came back rejoicing of the things that would happen and jesus is talking to them in fact verse 23 he's talking to his disciples privately and so i don't know how when luke put it here i don't know that chronologically this story happened immediately it's not likely that the lawyer was present for that private conversation with the disciples and so perhaps it took place matthew describes events very similar
in matthew chapter 22. similar things happening you see jesus ministry was always being challenged in various ways particularly by the religious leaders which is interesting enough but they were always challenging him and matthew 25 15 says then went the pharisees and they took counsel so they got together and thought about this how can we entangle him in his talk let's get him to trip up let's let's ask questions let's do something to confuse him let's do something to to get him to say something that we can convict him on or that we can say is
wrong and so bible says in matthew 22 23 then the same day came some sadducees unto him and when neither of them could group manage to trip jesus up verse 34 says but then the pharisees had heard that he had put the sadducees to silence they were gathered together again and then one of them which was a lawyer asked jesus a question tempting him that may be the same story that luke recalled as the parable the good samaritan we can't be sure the situation or the occasion but we do understand that the lawyer's intent in
both versions and matthew and and luke are exactly the same so let's look into our text and see what we can give the parable of the good samaritan was given to answer the question of an individual that really was more interested in protecting himself in his own religious endeavor in other words it wasn't an honest question the lawyer came to ask the question but it really makes it clear that he wasn't too interested in jesus response but he was tempting or attempting to tempt jesus said and behold that certain lawyer stood up and tempted him
saying master what shall i do the word they're tempted literally means to test or to try now we think temptation was something to get us to sin right temptation is usually when we're tempted to do something we know we shouldn't this isn't what that word means here but he was trying to try jesus if you will or test him and see if he could if he could somehow get his words twisted and so he could somehow make jesus out to to be a fake or to be wrong and so there always be those who are
interested and you will see this in life that are not interested in the true things of god but they're always willing to ask questions right questions just to really skirt the real issue skirt who jesus is well if the bible's true why this or if the bible is true why do we believe that or why do you why do you say that they they really don't want to know if the bible is true they're looking for an excuse or an out and that's really what was happening here and so maybe i don't know maybe the
lawyer had heard jesus teaching on the sermon on the mount when he said you heard it said and by them of old time and he would quote a scripture and then he would say but i say unto you and so maybe he thought well you know if we could get him to say something that was a new doctrine or something that went against the law then we can call him out on it and we can say see he's a phony so that was really his intent his intent really wasn't to learn anything from jesus and
so jesus he understood that he could see what was going on and so rather than just answer him and say well here's here's what you need to know he said well how do you read it what do you see what's written in the law how do you understand it sure of his position the lawyer said well it's pretty simple you love the lord with all your heart with all your soul your strength your mind love your neighbor as herself jesus said you're exactly right live do that and you shall live end of discussion right should
have been could have been we're on the same page but the lawyer really wasn't quite there yet he still hadn't which then again shows what his real motives was i'm not sure what he expected because jesus answer really gave him no cause for concern jesus he had quoted the law and the one that said think not that i am come to destroy the law of the prophets i'm not come to destroy it but i am fulfilled and so jesus voiced his approval you are exactly right so attempt one at tripping up jesus failed so he
decided to try another tactic and so he proceeded ask jesus a definition of neighbor okay lord if that's the case who is my neighbor you ever notice that now he's a lawyer so he looks at the law legalists always look for limits and for guidelines what can i get by with what do i have to do what are the bare minimums in in serving god you know when we look at god is this okay if i do this is it okay if i go there is it okay you know i know you've got all these
thou shouts and thou shalt nots in the bible what what can i really get by with what really means that i've told a lie and i've just well you know i just kind of change a story a little bit when does it really mean that i've committed adultery or i just you know had some other what does it really mean and so they look for let's just put it as close as i can so i can live right to this edge and just not go any further the pharisees were so good about it you know
when the bible talked about you couldn't work on the sabbath they determined how many steps that would be if they would go on a journey and if i go this many steps i'm okay as long as i don't go one more and so sat i guess sunday's there's on the sabbath they were always counting their steps just to make sure you know 51 52 53 you can't go you know we better turn around go home or we're you know and take a couple big steps and we're going to fall short just as close as we
can get and so that's kind of this lawyer's attitude well then who is my neighbor now jesus saw his real motives because luke records it this way he was willing to justify himself that's why he's asking the questions what can i get by with when will it be okay and so if i can define it then i can justify that you know hey i take care of those that live around me and i'm all right you know many people know exactly what they need to be doing but like the lawyer they seek to justify continuing
a lifestyle that really skirts the edges and so the lawyer he was correct in his theology but he was really wrong in his application he knew what he needed to do but he he was wrong because he was trying to apply it in limits it made him comfortable that's why james said it this way to us be doers of the word and not hearers only because if you only hear it you deceive yourself yeah he knew the right response but the bottom line is he wanted to define it so that he wouldn't have to really
reach out to other people and so it's that response to the lawyer's question that jesus begins to tell this story and i love this first verse it really jumps out of the first and the last verses of this story jump out to me more than anything jesus answered and said a certain man i don't think that was an accident in fact i was looking at it as closely as i could there in the original language it's significant that jesus chose to speak of him that way a certain man the original language uses the word man
but it is also modified by a pronoun that is indefinite in other words it means any man or some man nothing defined there just somebody some man and it's very specific in fact it's interesting because it says in the king james a certain man when you look in some of the newer translations it just says a man and they leave off that little modifier there that was in the original language jesus was very specific to say a certain or perhaps better a any man any man some kind of a man who was he and and
here's why he wanted to be clear who was this man we don't know what was the nationality what was his religion what was his occupation where was this guy from was he an outcast from society was he rich and famous was he a jew was he a gentile was he a samaritan we don't know and it's it's best that way jesus did not want us to know because see here the lawyer's looking for something to justify himself and if jesus had said a jew went down from jerusalem uh oh now suddenly i'm a jew i
need to take care of him if jesus said a gentile went down from jerusalem the lawyer could say well then i ain't worried about him he's a dog we don't you know a samaritan well the jews have no dealings with he would have justified himself and so jesus made it very clear some man went down what man jesus don't worry about it just a guy went down if we knew any details and here's the thing if we knew anything about him we might be tempted to justify the actions of the players right well i understand
why he didn't stop and help this guy he was this she was that with no identity the cruelty and the compassion of the participants is magnified so this anonymous man stands as a reminder of us to all that gospel is for whosoever will you can't drive by and say well not that person and not that person this one's okay no any man whosoever will whoever it happens to be and so he said this certain man he went down from jerusalem to jericho now in a literal sense he did go down from jerusalem to jericho jericho
was about 18 miles from jerusalem and it was almost 4 000 foot descent through mountainous terrain from one city to the other so it was a downward road and they would have to go down it was fraught with a lot of robbers that were there because of the mountainous terrain there were a lot of caves not a place for them to hide a lot of turns where you wouldn't suspect something and you could get ambushed but i think he was probably saying a little bit more than that because any road that leads away from the
city of god is a road down a road that is fraught with hardship a life of sin is always a downward journey isn't it i think this story is typical of a sinner who finds himself abused by sin and left to die at the side of the road sin is a cruel task master that leaves us poor in destitutes and the bright lights of of a jericho the city of palm trees to go down there and have sin are alluring but people don't see the consequences of head when they when they leave jerusalem or they
leave the church so jericho would be a type of the world and a life of sin perhaps we could learn from something from this church when someone leaves the church and goes down to the world we need to be willing to show compassion and to restore them we need to reach out to them we need to go to where they are and it said he fell among thieves which stripped him of his reign but they wounded him and departed leaving him half dead those who choose a road of sin will never be pretty in the
eyes of others will they particularly those that that aren't living that kind of life you see sin is a tough path and it will leave us in a desperate condition jesus told us the enemy comes to steal and to kill and to destroy and no road of sin ultimately is going to be a comfortable road it may always seem easy at first because it's always easier to go down right than up but the end result is destruction and i think the key to the remainder of this story is the response if you will of these
religious people again i don't think jesus made had any accident when he said certain man the same token i don't think he ate any accident when he said the first person that walked by was a priest pointed to the religious people of his day the priesthood had degenerated in fact jesus rebuked them often in the gospels into a cold and intellectual elitism they were these great lawyers and theologians if you will and they were concerned about making sure that they were following the law as this lawyer was trying to do exactly to the letter but
yet they were living it out in the power of the flesh and they weren't concerned about the spirit of the law or seeing what it was really supposed to do and as long as our vision is marked by a self-centeredness that is only looking on me and making it to heaven and what i want to do and how i want to live we fail to see the needs of others christianity has to free itself from faith that's nothing more than just you know a mental ascent yeah i believe in god to a living faith that
moves into action it's not enough for us to come to church and worship and say i i believe in god and i enjoy the good things of god and i go out and i do what i want to do and i come back next sunday and do it all over again james said if a brother or sister is naked and destitute of food and one of you walk by and you say well have a good day depart in peace be warm to filled and not withstanding don't give him anything he said what does it profit
what good did it do and then he relates it to our faith even so faith if it hath not works is dead being alone it's not enough for you to enjoy the good things of god and then to walk by this world and not give them something there must be some works in order to supply the needs of others faith is visible only when we put our efforts with it right faith as a substance is invisible you can't see it but true faith will always be accompanied by action it has to have some visible evidence
or fruit that comes from us the priest he had time to attend the temple but no time to demonstrate any empathy for this dying man nothing in his religious frame of reference prompted him to aid the suffering i've got a plan i've got to get to church i've got this to do i've got that to do and and don't bother me with this situation over here now we understand he was a jew being a priest and he was you know we we could look at it and say well perhaps he was going to do duties
of the temple and he was ceremonially clean which they had to do and go through a ritual and so he was all ready to go to go to work if you will he had his work clothes on everything was clean and he knew that if he touched blood or a dead body then he'd have to he could be disqualified that day for his priestly services and and he would have to go through all the washings and all the things over again and offer sacrifices and and nobody got time for that so i'm not going to
bother i don't know whatever his excuse and here's what it says and this really indicts him and when he saw him he passed by on the other side he walked way around i'm not going to get too close i'm not going to get anywhere near i don't know if he saw him down the road and said i said somebody's hurting over there and he walked as far away from him as he could going on the other side i'm not getting anywhere near this we need to be careful that we don't have that kind of attitude
toward the world i'm going as far around that as i can because i don't want anything to do with it we must guard against the attitude that we're too holy or too righteous to help someone else it's interesting there were 12 000 priests that live in jericho they were the most frequent travelers of this busy road they lived there because they liked their summer home you know right there on jericho this nice city and they probably only went to jerusalem when there was time to do their duties there at the temple they of all people
should have been the most likely to offer assistance but the religion was in word and name only and had no ability to translate itself enough to help someone else and then he goes on and likewise a levite was at the place and came and looked unpassed by on the other side as with the priesthood the service of a levi it was an inherited ministerial function it was a little bit different a levi was not a priest he couldn't go in and offer sacrifices he couldn't go in and do those kind of things he didn't pour
out the waters he didn't take it his job was just to take care of the facility you know they did they did the sacrifices somebody's got to get rid of the ashes hey levites get over here and clean this mess up the janitors if you will the ones that took care of the building that worked on the mowed the lawn that's that was their job just to take care of everything so they're not ministers if you will in the in the fact they weren't like a priest they were just coming to church and doing their
thing to be a part of what was keeping the whole thing going family inheritance won't protect us into a real christian you became a levite because you were born from the tribe of levi but you know it takes more than that to get beyond just religious duty when it came to the moment of practical need he was unwilling to come involved i've got stuff to do i got to get to church i got to get the lawn mowed i got to make sure that this is done got to make sure that's ready i'm greeting today
got to do that i'm going to i got to do this whatever it is nothing lent itself to the needy the suffering and the displaced all he was concerned about is i've got work to do and i got to get to where the temple is i find it interesting it says and likewise when the levi when he was at the place he came and looked on him unlike the priest who saw him and and went to the other side of the street this guy sees him and actually goes and looks wow he's in bad shape
look at that guy he's hurting i got stuff to do he wanted to have a look not a look of concern but look at curiosity don't you love it when you're driving down the road and there's an accident ahead and everybody's hitting their brakes to see what's going on over there curiosity's killed a lot more than just a cat i got rear-ended on 55 when i looked up in my and i could see it was going to happen and the guy gets out and he said i was looking at this guy over here that was
on this yeah i know if we are more interested in talking to others about the failure of a backslider we failed in our duty of a brother and sister you know what they did you know what i saw them doing you know where they were the other night we might not be doing this let me text that to you we failed to be clear that's called gossip it might not be over a fence anymore but same thing here's what the bible says here's what paul said brethren if someone's overtaken in a fault if you're spiritual
your job is to restore such a one in a spirit of meekness and consider yourself lest you also be tempted don't go and look so you got a good story for your best friend tell them about the sin you found this person in rather he chose to then hurry back across the road after he had a good look and go on he saw the need but he failed to supply it he didn't want to neglect his duties of the temple but he neglected neglected to fulfill a requirement of loving and caring for someone else we
should never be so busy about the lord's work that we forget his true purpose amen his true purpose is not that we have a good service although he is a part of that it's that we love like he loved and then jesus brings in this third person the certain samaritan the certain samaritan the samaritan was the most unlikely person to stop and serve a jewish traveler maybe it wasn't a jew so he pointed out last lesson there was tremendous animosity between the two races the jews couldn't stand the samaritans the samaritans did not like the
jews there was very little social exchange the jews would walk all the way around samaria just to avoid them i don't even know what the samaria was north of jerusalem i'm not sure why this particular samaritan was on this road between jericho and jerusalem which is on the south end don't even know why he was down in that part of the country but jesus chose a samaritan to display the love and the mercy and the help i'm sure immediately that just got right in the craw of that lawyer you know he's a jew he's a
pharisee he knows the law and jesus is talking about some samaritan somebody that this lawyer would have despised and he makes a hero out of this person it says as he journeyed he did the same thing the levi did he came where he was he went and he looked he went and saw the man but something in him wouldn't let him go back to the other side of the road and say well i'm busy i've got things to do no he came and he looked upon him he came to where he was if we are
going to reach others and here's with a lesson from that we have to go to where they are amen if we aren't willing to go it's unlikely they're going to be willing to come i'm sure the samaritan had plans i'm sure he had duties i'm sure he had things to do i'm sure he had time concerns but if we're going to help people in their distress and needs we've got to go where they are we must submit to their immediate need and share what we have and if we're reluctant it's going to be a little
benefit see it's going to take time to love and to pray and to have mercy on people we're talking about others this year this is our theme and this is what we're looking for the only way we're ever going to impact others is to go to where others are and unlike the levite when he saw him the levite looked upon him so he saw him and he goes to the other side of the street when the samaritans saw him the bible says he had compassion on him it affected his attitude what we see in people
in their need must affect our attitude blessed the bible says are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy that word is the same word translated compassion or mercy or graciousness blessed are those that show compassion what is your response when you see the downtrodden what is your response when you see the backslider what is our response when we look at sinners do we look with disgust and judgment as the priest or the levite or do we look with compassion i had to put an ouch in my note right there even though i wrote the sentence
i'll just be real real honest with us this morning this month just really gets to me because there's a group of people that do exactly what romans chapter 1 talks about to not only do these things but they take pride in the things that they do talking about sinful things and so we've designated here in this country a whole month for pride pride for sinful things and to me that just the bible tells you to abhor that which is evil the problem is i got to be careful that i don't a poor the people right
i can import what they're doing if i don't agree and i see the bible teaches against it but i can't hate them and i can't avoid do i look with disgust and judgment or do you look with compassion and say you know what there's something better for your life that gets us right where we are don't no wonder i said ouch you might be saying it too right now and so he takes this man and he set him on his own beast he was willing to be inconvenienced he was willing on this 18 mile journey
and i don't know whether this man was going uphill or downhill bible doesn't say which way the samaritan was going but either way it was going to make it a lot tougher journey when he's got someone else on his donkey or camel or whatever he happened to have and he's having to walk alongside the journey just got a whole lot more difficult when you stop to help others the journey may get more difficult but are you willing to share what you have and are you willing to be inconvenienced a little bit to do what needs
to be done to help someone else the lord has his way and works in our life and what with what we own and what we're willing to share we will be willing to help those who are less fortunate we will be willing to give of ourselves of course the bible tells us he took him to an end he had him put in there had the innkeeper take care of him he said i'm going to go on my journey the next day he said and i'll pay you here now and when i come back if if
he's run up anymore bill i'll pay you that too when i get back took out two pins and he paid him a stranger who wrote nothing to this man did all of this he saw the opportunity to do good and he did so with his own volition it was not expected it was not required to disregard his personal discomfort to pay out of his own finances for a stranger was a sacrifice wasn't a small matter it cost him something but there's no hint there of complaining or heaping praise upon himself he wasn't going around saying
do you see what i just did i took care of this guy now he simply did it without any fanfare or seeking anything because he knew it was the right thing to do christians we are called upon to demonstrate compassion and like the samaritan we may sometimes be despised or hated or ridiculed socially but we still have an obligation to get involved it was a samaritan who stopped it was a samaritan who bound up the wounds it was a samaritan who poured in the oil and the wine it was a samaritan who placed him on
the donkey the samaritan who allowed the stranger to ride while he walked it was a samaritan who made a reservation at the end the samaritan that paid for it the religious service of the priests and the levites had nothing to do with the union wounded man they were too busy with their religion that they were of no benefit to anyone else if we fail to place our christianity in some way place where we can reach others and to save lost souls and to reach out to other people we're deceiving ourselves jesus then looked at them
and he asked this question and this is the other verse besides the certain man that went down he looked at this man and he said now which of these three thank you was a neighbor unto him that fell among thieves i find that question interesting in a couple different aspects first off he did not answer the lawyer's question directly the lawyer said who is my neighbor define for me who's a neighbor that i have to reach out to tell me i'm looking at this crowd you point out the ones you that's your neighbor that's your
neighbor you can ignore that one but that one's okay that's what he was wanting jesus didn't say okay now now here's the story who were the neighbors he said who was the neighbor unto him that fell among thieves he kind of reverses the question if you will the neighbor said who is my neighbor and jesus said well who was a neighbor the difference really is profound the pharisee was looking for an out he was wanting jesus to define a group that he was obligated to instead jesus simply said who's being a neighbor here the lawyer
is looking who do i have to reach down and help and jesus is saying who did help see the difference there jesus was saying instead of simply saying here's your neighbor he said you be the neighbor it doesn't matter who's around you you're the one that has to be the neighbor so when you're defining a neighbor by who's around me that i have to you're doing it all wrong when you look at yourself and say i have to be a neighbor then suddenly everybody gets covered right because they're all that certain man he was not
about to provide a loophole for this legal-minded person to exploit the lawyer job your job is to be a neighbor to everyone not to look for those that you can call a neighbor get out and do it and really he changed this idea also of a neighbor from a noun really to a verb and now label something right group of people that we have to help define my neighbor well that's the person next door find my neighbor well that's this person well define my neighbor that's somebody that you're related to define my neighbor that's somebody
that you're good friends with define my no that's a label that we want to put on something instead jesus turned it to an action who was the neighbor who was willing to do the work of the neighbor who was willing to get involved action right so when we look at this story you could say well the samaritan was a neighbor well yeah that's true but really to answer the lawyer's question it was for you go and do likewise you have a responsibility it doesn't matter who the person is that you want to you're not going
to define who you should go to you go everywhere and you help everyone you see there is no true compassion there is no mercy there is no grace without action mark 12 30 repeats what the lawyer said it said thou shalt love the lord thy god with all your heart with your soul with your mind with your strength that's the first commandment and then the second commandment is like this thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself there again not defining neighbor as a group but defining the fact that everyone i see i need to love
them as myself there is none other commandment jesus said greater than these our love toward god and our love toward our neighbor is the basis upon all the law and the prophets the whole bible is written if we these contain the whole the principle woven in them has to be important for us today we like the first part love god with everything you have we come to church and we give it our all we're going to do it here in in a little bit in our morning worship time we're going to sing we're going to
do everything they'll be shouting dancing no telling what they'll be the power of god moves in touches lives and that's good we need to love god with everything we have give him all we can in worship but then he turned around said you also need to love others as yourself you need to go out and be a neighbor if we love each other and ourselves we will at no time do anything to others that we won't want done to ourselves that golden rule right do unto others as you want them to do unto you if
our worship is right if our relationship with god is right then our relationship with our fellow man should also be right before we secure in our relationship with god it will reflect in our love toward others when our only servant god is the lawyer did define it for me and i'll stay within the guidelines you're not going to worry about other people fall in love with god and then be the neighbor to those around you the only solution to the sin problem was love and action right the only way we are here today is because
jesus went to the cross because he loved us enough to share shed his blood our lord demonstrated that when he gave up everything he humbled himself became obedient to the cross shed his blood that we might be saved we were powerless to help himself and our only hope was his intervention because he was willing to reach out to a sinful man and that love jesus demonstrated for us we must demonstrate to those around us jesus said it this way even as my father hath sent me so sinned i you if he was sent because god
so loved the world then we are sent because god still loves the world who's my neighbor it's the world who's my neighbor it's the sinner who's my neighbor it's the saint who's my neighbor it's anyone that we come in contact with and the moral of the lesson was go and do thou likewise now that parable is not just a nice story it is a specific illustration on how to show compassion upon how to show it and what circumstances require it but it also illustrates there is a command to do so we must reach others i
think jesus intentionally included the mention of two religious but unloving people his re representation of the religious business hits home and it will challenge us to re-evaluate our priorities god is concerned about people his heart doesn't go out to buildings programs plans and i know all that stuff's necessary and we want to be a part of those kind of things but it goes out to people and our priority must be the same we must follow the example of jesus as he ministered and meet the needs of others with compassion let's stand this morning if you
ever really think about who my neighbor is and who i'm responsible to i know we've been talking a lot as we talked about others about reaching our field this story makes it real clear our field is anyone you come in contact with we want to define that don't we well my field that's where i work and what's my neighborhood and a couple people i know here and there and i hang around with it's bigger than that it's everywhere you go church we represent jesus christ we're ambassadors for him let's be the neighbor that god wants
us to be why don't you just ask them to help us we can't do it without him lord we're so thankful god for this example that you gave us we're so thankful god that you lived it out jesus when you came to this world and gave yourself for people that hated you for people that were sinners people that needed you and yet you were willing to come to them let us be willing no matter where we are to go and reach that certain man that anybody that some man whoever it happens to be to give
this gospel message and to be what you want us to be in jesus name amen we'll greet those neighbors around you that means anybody right amen
Scripture references as spoken: Luke 10; Luke 10:25; Matthew 22; Matthew 25:15; Matthew 22:23; Matthew 22:34; James (book-only, as spoken); Romans 1; Mark 12:30.