"Neighbours"

This has been automatically generated, and therefore may contain some unintended inaccuracies.

So if you'd like to open your bibles at loop 10, and we'll be reading this up on the screen, 25 37, page 1041. So I'll just give you a moment. So verse 25, on 1 occasion, an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. Teacher, he asked, what must I do to inherit eternal life? What is written in the law?

He replied, how do you read it? He answered, love the lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind. And love your neighbor as yourself. You have answered correctly Jesus replied, do this, and you will live. But he wanted to justify himself so he asked Jesus and who is my neighbor?

In reply, Jesus said, a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him off his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So to a levite, when he came to the place and saw him pass by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was, and when he saw him, he took pity on him.

He went to him, bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day, he took out 2 denari and gave them to the innkeeper. Look after him, he said, And when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have. Which of these 3 do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?

The expert in the law replied, the 1 who had mercy on him. Jesus told him, go and do likewise. Great. It's good to be back. Really good to be back with you all.

I'm just gonna put this to its proper height, though. There we go. Obviously had unusually told people. Preaching. There we go.

That's better. Great. Good to be back with you. It really is good to be back. It's nice, obviously seeing other churches, but this feels like home, and it is good to be back with you.

I know it's soppy, isn't it? It really is lovely to be back. And thank you for praying for me over the last month, where I've had time for studying and planning. I might say a bit more about what I've been doing over the lunch. But, I wanted to introduce, first of all, the Sherman series that we're gonna be going into.

This is what a lot of what I've been thinking about and studying and thinking about what we're gonna be doing this term. And we're gonna be, launching into a series, which, is called Stories On The Road. Lessons in following Jesus. We're gonna come back to 1 Samuel in the summer after Easter, which, again, looking forward to that, getting back into 1 Samuel, but I thought it'd be good for us to have a series where we think about what does it mean to follow Jesus? What does it mean in day to day life to be a disciple of Jesus, to be 1 of his followers?

And so we're gonna look at passages in a section in Luke's gospel, which the section goes from Luke chapter 9 to 19. And at the beginning of the section, Jesus, it says, set out resolutely for Jerusalem. And at the end of the section chapter 19, he arrives in Jerusalem. And in that section, he focuses a lot in his teaching. It's a lot of teaching and stories, and a lot of it is about what does it mean to be his follower?

What does it mean to be his disciple? And what do we find in this section? Well, it's quite a it's a fascinating section. Some people think that when when Jesus speaks about what it means to follow him, that the bar is quite low, because the gospel is a gospel of grace. Maybe it doesn't really matter what you do.

Maybe it doesn't really matter how you live. Just love other people, be kind, be nice, and that's enough. And yet at 1 point, in this section, Jesus says, and we'll come to this passage. He says, you've gotta count the cost of being 1 of my followers. You've gotta count the costs.

It's not that easy. And therefore, he's saying some may look at it and go, well, you know what? It it's too high a cost. So he doesn't just say I would do whatever you want, but he also doesn't just give a list of rules. He doesn't just say, well, here's a list of rules, do this, do this, do this, and that's what you've gotta do.

In fact, the people that he, that really focused on the rules, the religious rules, the pharisees, teachers of the law, the experts in the law we're gonna come across 1 in our first passage in the series. Jesus speaks very critically of them. At 1 point, he says to them, woe to you because you load down, load people down with burdens. They cannot carry and you yourselves will not lift a finger to help them. So we need to ask, well, what does it mean then to follow this?

If it's not just do what you like, and it's not just here are the rules, what is it? That's what we're gonna look at in this series. And I wanted it to be a sort of practical series, not that any of our sermons are trying to be impractical, but, that it's a bit more focused on the practicalities. What does it mean day by day? To follow Jesus.

Now we can't look at every passage in that section in the build up to Easter. We don't have time for that, so we're gonna pick out some stories that Jesus told in this section. Causing problem, if it is, let me know. Yeah. So I've had to be selective.

Picking out stories from this section, and the first 1 we're gonna focus on is the parable of the good samaritan. Now, just to say, this section checks 9 to 19. I would love us as a shared family to read it all through. So what I've done is for Lent, which doesn't start for a couple of weeks, for the for the throughout Lent, building up to Easter, I've I've put this section. I've chunked it up into different sections, so that every day, we could day by day read our way through the so that you do get the whole thing, but in the sermons, we're not gonna be able to do a whole lot.

And we'll get that out. I'm hoping we'll get that out on prayer mate or on the prayer diary, or there'll be other ways that we'll get the passages out day by day so that we can work our way through the section, as a church family. So today, first story on the road, what does it mean to follow Jesus? We're thinking about the parable of the good Samaritan. And that is focused on neighbors.

What do we need to do when it comes to the people around us? And this is, of course, a well known story. I would say most people, even in our culture around us, have heard of the good Samaritan, But I want to suggest they probably don't really know what Jesus was getting at in this story. So let me pray for us that we might understand it. Let's pray.

Heavenly father, we thank you that Jesus does call us to follow him. But we pray, please, that you would help us to understand what that means. To see what it looks like in this morning to think about it in terms of our neighbors, those around us, how we're to relate to them. For the please teach us, help us to understand your word. And help us to go from here to put into practice what we read.

Ah, man. Okay. So you're gonna need your bibles open, please. At, Luke chapter 10, if you've shut them, it's page 1041 and the parable of the good samaritan. Now let's just understand the setting of this parable because it does make a difference.

What you've got in verse 25 is an expert in the law standing up to test Jesus. And he asks, teacher. What must I do to inherit eternal life? Now, okay. We know this guy's an expert in the law, and we know that he is testing Jesus.

That is this isn't a genuine question. You're genuine seeking. He's sort of trying to test Jesus. See what Jesus will say. And the question he asks is, what have I got to do to inherit eternal life, which is, what have I got to do to get into heaven?

To be alright, be on this line? What have I gotta do? And there's heaven, there's hell. How do I get in? And Jesus comes back to him with a question when someone's testing you.

It's a good way to respond, respond with a question with a question, and he says, okay. Let's go on your specialist subject. The law. What does the law say that we are to do? And so the man the expert in the law gives his reply, and it's a summary of the law verse 27.

It's the classic summary that would be given. Love the lord your god, with all your heart, and with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. And Jesus just says, go do it. Do this, and you'll live. But the expert in the law can't leave it at that.

Nah. He wants to, it says, first 29. He wants to justify himself. That is. He wants to feel like I'm doing this.

I'm doing those commands. And so he does what lawyers, and I there could be some here, tend to do, which is to pick on a word and say, yeah, but what does it mean? What does it really? What does it clarify what exactly what we mean by that? And he picks on the word neighbor and says, yeah, but what do we mean by neighbor?

Well, like I said, he's doing it to justify himself. He says, let's define neighbor. Let's draw a circle. Let's draw a line and say, well, Here are your neighbors, so that I can feel like, well, yes, I do that. And I think we might do something similar.

You hear Jesus say love your neighbor. Aren't you likely to think? Yeah. But who is that? I want some kind of limit on it.

Tell me who that really is. And I think some might think because I think maybe I do that. I think maybe I do love my neighbor. After all, if I see someone in trouble, I help them. That's what the story's all about, isn't it?

So I do this. I I help people, and I, you know, when comic relief comes up on tag, I I give a bit of money. And so therefore, I'm sure I'm doing this, aren't I? Tell me what the limits are. Tell me who this is.

So that I can feel alright about it. And Jesus tells a story. And remember, it is a story. He's not telling you the account of some real event. It's a story.

He's making points. And he sets the scene in verse 30. He says a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. When he was attacked by robbers, they stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away leaving him half dead. Okay.

Easy story scenario. You've got a guy going on a dangerous road, Jerusalem to Jerico Road was known as being a dangerous road. He goes along the road on his own and is mugged. He's beaten up, has all these, possessions taken from him, even his clothes. And he's beaten up so badly he's left half dead.

Here is someone in need. Clearly. That's the setting. And now let's think through the story, and we're gonna think through the story in terms of different characters in the story. So we're gonna begin with the villains because they're the first people who turn up, aren't they?

The villains of the story. The first 1 is a priest, who comes along verse, 31, says a priest happened to be going down the same road. When he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. Okay. Priest, someone in, position of religious authority, a significant position.

He would have a role in the temple, and, would have been highly respected. This guy, this teacher of the law would have really respected the priests, and the priest would have known the law and would have known how he should obey the law, would know that it says love your neighbor and all that kind of thing. But in the story Jesus tells this guy just walks parts. And then you get another coming along. Another villain verse 32.

So to a levite, when he came to the place, saw him and passed by on the other side. All the priests were from the tribe of Levi. This levite, also from the tribe of Levi, seems like he wasn't a priest, so he's not as high, not as significant, but still significant tribe that he's from, and so would be respected, but he comes along, and he also just passes by on the other side. Now sometimes people go into great detail about why these people didn't stop. And that's where I think it's important to see this isn't a real event.

This is just a story. So we can't really psychologize about why didn't they stop? Why did they do this? They're they're not real people. Jesus is telling a story.

So why does he include them? Well, I think Jesus is saying, look, even if you were to draw the circle very tight, even if you were to just say, this is about people like me. If they're your neighbors, then we fail. This priest, it's Levi. These are the people who should be the very best, but Jesus in his story is saying these people didn't do it.

And I think we can see that's true of us too, isn't it? And see, even if we draw the circle very tight and say, what about people like us? We still walk by sometimes, don't we? We still hang back if we see someone who needs help. Maybe the web message comes through your family WhatsApp chat or the church WhatsApp chat saying I need help with this.

And maybe we ignore it. Don't actually pay attention to it. Hope that someone else will respond. And maybe we even pass by people who are in need, and we're on our way to something really good, like church, or the prayer meeting, or gospel community. And yet you're still just leave them to themselves.

I think Jesus is saying, like, even elders, even pastors fail to love people. And furthermore, these examples, Jesus, this is saying he's saying knowledge of god's law and religious status are not enough in themselves to make someone a loving person. In fact, they we very often find, don't we, that those who know the rules best become less loving, become self righteous and hardened to those who don't match up to their standards. So that's the villains in the story. Nagie's this moves on in the story to the hero.

The hero comes along, and we all know that the hero is the samaritan who sees the man on the road half dead has compassion, it says, and that's a significant word. It's a it's a real compact. It's a heartfelt. It's a, you know, moved by pity. Has compassion, takes action, goes to him.

T it takes a risk because the robbers could still have been around. Takes a risk binds up his wounds, pours on oil and wine, which sounds like salad dressing, but isn't would be medicinal in various ways. Takes him to an inn and he's prepared to pay whatever it costs. This is costly. It is sacrificial and is based on compassion.

And it's a Samaritan. Now I think there are 2 questions that I wanna ask about this about this hero. First off, why a Samaritan? Why did Jesus choose a Samaritan to be the guy, who's the hero? To understand that, we need to know a little bit about Samaritans and how Jews and Samaritans related to each other.

You see, people often talk about the good Samaritan. It sounds like people think Samaritans are people who are just always there ready to help. As if they just hang around dangerous roads, on the off chance that someone's gonna get mugged, ready to be your helping hand. And like the Saint John's ambulance of of Jesus' day, just always ready. You kind of whatever event there's always a Samaritan, they're ready to help.

Except that's not who they were. Samaritans lived in an area called Samaria, and they had broken off from god's people, the Israelites. And they were hated by the Jews because they had been unfaithful to god. Melvin Tinker in his book on, parables, says this about for Samaritan. The person Jesus chose to be the hero could not have been more repulsive and offensive.

In fact, it was plainly sickening. You see, they would have said there is no such thing as a good samaritan. Samaritans were reviewed as were viewed as religious and ethnic half breeds. They'd built arrival temple to the temple in Jerusalem. And in 1 2 8 BC, the Jews had come along, taken it by force, burnt it to the ground, along with most of the city.

And the Samaritans were no better. Just before Jesus is birth, some of them had come into Jerusalem, come to the temple in Jerusalem and scattered human bones around the temple thus desecrating it. Do you see they hate each other? So it's very significant that Jesus introduces us to marital. You see, if all Jesus was saying was your neighbor is people not like you.

If all he's saying is your neighbor is foreigners, he could have picked a whole load of nationalities, but he didn't. He picked the Samaritan. And my second question is, why is he the hero in the story? Have you ever asked yourself that? Why is the Samaritan the hero.

Because the obvious story to tell is for the Samaritan to be half dead on the road, isn't it? If I were telling you a story where I was saying, look, guys, we gotta love the people who live in Chestington. We really have gotta love them. May not like them, but, you know, we gotta love them. Don't worry.

We do like you. Then what I would do is I would say, okay. I imagine you were on your way home, and there was someone from Chestington lying by the road half dead. Because you've gotta look after them. You gotta go and love them.

Help them. So if Jesus was telling a story that which was like that, surely, would you put the samaritan half dead or by the road? But he doesn't. Why is the samaritan? The hero.

This bugged me for years, and I think I've got an answer. See, by putting the Samaritan as the hero, It is a greater shock, isn't it? By putting him as the hero. I mean, imagine that hatred there is between Jews and Samaritans that this this expo and the law is gonna go from here and say, you know, Jesus told a story with a hero. It's a Samaritan.

It's got a greater shock, hasn't it? Because what Jesus is doing here is not just telling this expert in the law what he needs to do. He's trying to expose his heart. And we see the reaction. We see the shock, I think.

In verse 36 and 37. When Jesus says to him, which of these 3 do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell among into the hands of robbers? The expert in the law replies, the 1 who had mercy on it. He does not say the Samaritan. I think that's the point.

He can't bring himself to it. Melvin Tinker says it's like the word sticks in his throat. He can't bring himself to say it. And do you see Jesus has exposed his heart to say? You are 1000000 miles away from fulfilling this command.

Now who would it be for us? Who could Jesus put into the hero role for us, who we would react against? Maybe your background does mean that there are some people maybe a a nation, an ethnic group who you have a prejudice against. Or maybe there's another family or even part of your wider family. People who everyone knows you don't associate with.

Can you imagine Jesus telling the story with them as the hero? Maybe we would even say a Christian was going along the road and was beaten up. And a fundamentalist Muslim terrorist was going along the road, saw him and helped him. And you would think they would never do that. That's the point.

It's the way you react to it. Jesus is saying Your neighbor is not just people like you. It's not just people unlike you. It's people you don't like. And Jesus is saying loving your neighbor means pouring yourself out without limit to anyone, everyone, including those you despise.

And you and I say, that's impossible. I cannot do that. This man used he was trying to justify himself So wanted to know that he fulfilled these laws. And Jesus is saying, you don't come close, and neither do we. So he and we look at this and should think we are in big trouble.

If this is what God requires, we're not getting into heaven, but here's the good news. This isn't how you get into heaven. You don't get in with God by fulfilling these laws. Even as the expert in the law said them, he should have realized He said, you've gotta love the lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. We don't match up.

We all fall horribly short, and that is such an important realization. Later in the section, Jesus does tell a story, a different story, And this 1 tells us how we can be justified. It's the parable of the pharisee and the tax collector. And in it, it's short parable. Jesus says, imagine a pharisee.

And a tax collector. They're both at the temple. They're both praying. And the pharisee says, god, I thank you. I'm not like other people, robbers, evildoers, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.

And that is the heart of someone who wants to justify themselves. Who thinks they're good enough. But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, God have mercy on me a sinner. And Jesus says, I tell you this man, rather than the other, went home justified before god.

Do you see the way to be justified is not through trying to obey the law? But by admitting to God that you don't obey the law. By mourning for your sin, by recognizing the prejudices in your heart, either a lack of love, and to come before God and admit I'm a sinner, and that I need forgiveness. That's the way to be justified before god. Now we don't end there.

We don't end with the hero. We've got 1 last person to look at, and that's the victim. You see, Jesus isn't just saying this to this expert in the law to make him feel guilty and to go well, you just don't do this. Actually, within the parable, we are being taught as well how we can start to love like this. You see, when someone tells a story, particularly where there's a story with a moral to it, you know, a parable and, you know, that kind of thing, you generally want to discover who am I in the story?

You want to put yourself in the shoes of someone. And Jesus is an expert storyteller as we're gonna find out as we're seeing. And he draws him in because he goes, yeah, as you tell the story, you've got this guy half dead by the rope. Who who are you gonna be? Well, am I gonna be the first person?

No. I don't wanna be the priest, you know, because he doesn't help. And I don't wanna be the Levi type. I certainly don't wanna be the Samaritan. Okay.

Who am I in the story? And Jesus then says at the end, we've already read it, but look back again at verse 36. He says, which of these 3 do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of Roberts? Who's Jesus saying to this expert in the law that he is in the story. He's saying, imagine you are the guy on the road.

Imagine you're the victim, half dead, beaten up. Who would be a neighbor to you? Someone who's very like you, but who does nothing to help or someone who is very unlike you. Who you hate, and who should hate you, but who comes and loves you and pours out himself for you, and the answer is obvious, illness. Of course, it's the person who pulls himself out for you.

And if you're a Christian, you have a neighbor like this, who has done this for you. We have someone who did far more than this. For us who saw you and me in our hopeless, helpless state. It's Jesus. Of course, he saw us in our sin and our rebellion.

And he came to us, had compassion on us. And we're told in Romans's 5 verse 8, God demonstrates his own love for us in this while we were still sinners. Christ died for us. He died for us while we were still sinners while we were his enemies. He gave not just money, but his life for you and me so we could be forgiven.

Jesus is the ultimate good samaritan. And we need to let that sink in because that's what's gonna motivate us to love our neighbors. Jesus says put yourself in the road. What would it be like to be loved like that? And we need to realize that we have been.

And then he says go and do likewise. Which, of course, includes loving those like us and those not like us and those we don't like. And this, by the way, is what it is to be a follower of Jesus. What we're gonna see in these stories is Jesus doesn't just say live however you want, and he doesn't just give us rules. But rather he says be someone who is transformed by his love.

And his grace. It has to start there. Knowing we're accepted by God on the basis of Jesus' sacrifice and going out to live in the light of that. So what difference should this make to us this coming week as we relate to those around us? Well, first off, confess your lack of love.

That we don't love people as we should. Don't pretend don't hide it. Bring it to the lord. Second, rejoice in Jesus's love dwell on what he has done for us. That he has been the good Samaritan for us.

And third, love your neighbor. Go and do likewise. Knowing that forgiveness. Go and love those like you, those not like you, and those you don't like, and particularly those you don't like. And maybe that's people in your street.

You know, we've gotta get to know the people around us, haven't we? We've gotta actually gotta get to know the people who live near us or the people in our office or school or university or whatever it may be. We've gotta get to know them. And look for ways to love them practically pouring out love even if they've been nasty to you. Said bad things about you.

And when our temptation is to say, well, that's fine. If you don't like me, that's fine. I'll just leave you on on your own. It's actually to pour out even more love to them because that is supernatural. That is the gospel taking hold in our hearts.

And when we feel guilty about this, that we don't love as we should, we've gotta keep coming back to this parable. And remember, this isn't the way to be justified. We come back to the cross of Jesus and say that is how I'm justified. And we revel in it. We thank God for it.

And then we go out to do likewise for others. So what difference is this gonna make to you this week? I'd love you to talk about this after the service may be over lunch as well. To say to 1 another, what difference is this passage gonna make to you this week? Let me pray for us.

Heavenly father, we thank you for this story. Thank you for Jesus' storytelling that he draws us in, but father it's uncomfortable as well because he exposes our hearts. And our lack of love. So help us to confess that to you. Help us to come to the to Jesus and see his love for us that he is our neighbor, our good samaritan.

And help us then in the light of that to go and do likewise, to love everyone, anyone. And to do so in self sacrificial ways.