The Good Samaritan

[0:00] This might be the first one. I think we nailed the flow of this.! I even have the microphone on. I got a pair of readers in my pocket.! It's going to be a good Sunday morning. It's going to be real good.

[0:12] I don't know if you guys remember a couple weeks ago,! we had our guest from Virginia Beach, and he was teaching on the Pharisee and the Publican, talking about how usually people up here never come up with any clever ways to name their sermons or their titles.

[0:30] And I was like, ah, man, there's a ton of clever names or things they could have said. And then Dave texted me this morning and said, hey, what's the name of your, what do you teach on this morning?

[0:40] I was like, oh, the Good Samaritan. So that's as clever as it gets, the Good Samaritan. I thought I had something. I had a whole list of things I was going to call it, and maybe that's just the way it's supposed to be.

[0:56] All right, let's pray real quick. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for us being able to gather today and worship in your presence, worship with our church family, freely discuss Scripture, discuss your goodness, join together as a church family, all these things that we get to do as believers, Lord.

[1:15] Thank you for giving us the opportunity to do these things. Pray, help us to remember the gratefulness that we should have in you day in and day out as we get to serve you, Lord. As we know our salvation's secure, you just weigh heavily on our hearts as we go out into the world to serve and to love those around us without reservation, God.

[1:34] We pray, Lord, that we're edified by your word today and that the words come out of my mouth are not mine, but yours. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. So I've been kind of studying all around this for a while.

[1:45] I keep having references coming back in and around the Pharisee and the publican that Scott had preached on and then references coming in out of the Good Samaritan. So a couple weeks ago, I was thinking of what to do next.

[1:58] I was like, you know, why not try a hand at a parable? So we're going to do the Good Samaritan today. I studied through it. It was interesting that a lot of the world's, we'll get more into this, a lot of the world's view of what the Good Samaritan is, just that word itself kind of invokes a thought.

[2:12] The world's view of it is much different than I think Scripture intends. No, that's Timothy.

[2:24] That's not where we need to be. So, as I've said, I'm sure everyone's heard about the parable of the Good Samaritan.

[2:37] Very well known, even in secular society, everybody knows about the Good Samaritan. The idea of being a Good Samaritan, it's ubiquitous, right? It's known by everyone. Everyone knows what that means.

[2:47] They know what a Samaritan is, a Good Samaritan. It could be an insult or a dig, you know, in some cases, oh, you're a Good Samaritan, huh? Or a compliment. Hey, you're a Good Samaritan. Good for you. You're helping these people.

[2:59] We have laws to protect people that are helping others. You're Good Samaritan laws. So if you help somebody on the side of the road, their car is burning, and you pull them out and you sprain their wrist, but save their life, they can't sue you, that sort of thing.

[3:10] It's a little bit silly, but we have those things. Hospitals, organizations are named after it. Samaritan's Purse, good organization by all accounts, but people know what that is.

[3:22] Unbelievers know exactly what that is. It's almost impossible to separate the association of a Samaritan from the idea of good works or helping people.

[3:36] What's it really about, though? There are many different views of this parable. Some good, some okay, some very modern interpretations are interesting, to say the least. I won't go through all of them.

[3:47] If you get bored and you're on a YouTube rabbit hole about jet skis, get off the jet ski rabbit hole and go into what some people are teaching about the Good Samaritan, there's some stuff out there that's a little troubling.

[3:58] I'll attempt to refute some of these unbiblical interpretations as I go along this morning, but we know all of Jesus' parables he taught are about one thing. They're really about one main thing.

[4:09] We're going to get into that. I think it would be easier if we start by stating what this parable is not. It's not a call for social justice. It's not just about doing good things for others that may be different from us.

[4:21] It's not just about being nice to people or showing indiscriminate compassion all the time to everyone. It is not a lesson on income inequality. There was a reason Jesus told this parable.

[4:35] There's a reason leading up to this. It wasn't just randomly out of the blue. Here, there's a guy walking down a road. He got beaten, and here's the thing that happened. There was a lead up to this. There was a whole point to this.

[4:47] We take Scripture out of context. We can do weird things with it, right? And sometimes the world has done that, so we've got to be really careful to see things in context and how they were written originally. So why does the world see this as just a simple lesson in altruism or good works?

[5:03] Why does the world just see this as just a system of good works? Like, oh, it's about helping people and doing good things for others and just being nice to folks. We just really got to love each other.

[5:14] Just bring it back. Bring it back to the Good Samaritan. That begs a question. What's the point of parables? Why did Jesus use them? Let's take a look briefly at Matthew 13, 10 through 16.

[5:31] We're going to take a roundabout path to get to our text today, so bear with me. I'll try to stay organized here. Matthew 13, 10 through 16.

[5:41] I didn't get slides this morning. Sorry, you're going to have to note-take from my words. Matthew 13, 10 through 16.

[5:59] And the disciples came to him and said, Why do you speak to them in parables? Jesus answered them, To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted.

[6:11] For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and we will have an abundance, and he will have an abundance. But whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him.

[6:22] Therefore I speak to them in parables, because while seeing, they do not see, and while hearing, they do not hear, nor do they understand. In their case, the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, You will keep on hearing, but will not understand.

[6:39] You will keep on seeing, but will not perceive. For the heart of this people has become dull, with dull, with their ears scarcely, while their ears, with their ears they scarcely hear, and have closed their eyes.

[6:52] Otherwise they would see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and return, and I would heal them. But blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear.

[7:07] So this is right after Jesus tells the parable of the sower. Remember he's talking about the kinds of soil, and the harvest that's reaped from them. I won't go back into it.

[7:19] And we remember what that parable is about ultimately, right? There's a little spoiler alert for you. We know what that's about. We know where he goes with that. His disciples ask him, why is he teaching in parables?

[7:30] And then he takes verses, verse 10 there, he takes verses 11 through 13, and he uses that to break down and describe to them. It starts out in verse 11 by saying directly that they, the disciples he's talking to, had been granted to know the mysteries of heaven, but the others, Jesus' opponents, have not.

[7:47] He's not referring to the basic understanding of the parable, such as the sower is throwing seed on the ground. They understand what that means, right? They know what he's talking about in regards to that.

[7:59] That's not what's hidden from them. Because they also ask Jesus to explain the meaning of the parable of the weeds in the field in Matthew 10, 36. It's the same thing.

[8:10] They ask him, what does this mean here? What are you talking about? They're not asking about the basic understanding of weeds in the field fighting against the crops trying to grow.

[8:21] They understand that. That's the point. And I'll drive that point home a little more. Once more in Matthew 22, 45, another parable, remember after Jesus tells the parable of the landowner where the evil tenants take over the vineyard, the owner sends, he sends his messengers, they beat them, strip them, kick them out.

[8:41] Then it gets to the point, just paraphrasing, I'm moving quickly through it, right? It gets to the point, who does he send next? His son. We're really seeing where parables go now, right? We're seeing the point of this. Big time spoiler alert.

[8:52] What do they do to the son? They kill him, take over the vineyard. And we know what God's response is in return to that. And the son is killed by the hands of the evil vine growers.

[9:05] The chief priests in that, remember how they respond? This is not a Bible test. Don't worry, I'll tell you the answer. But the chief priests and the Pharisees, they recognized he was referring to them. So when he told that parable, the Pharisees are sitting there in the front row.

[9:19] They know who he's talking about. They understand the context of that parable. They know what he's referring to in that regard. They know that he's referring to, oh, he's referring to us.

[9:31] We're the evil tenants that took over the vineyard. And we didn't recognize his son coming in. They knew that. So that's not the understanding we're referring to. It was not just a simple understanding of the parable that is being hidden, right?

[9:45] Much as in the unbelieving world understands the basic concept of the good Samaritan. They get it. Just like I started out, they get the idea of a Samaritan. They get the idea that the man was traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho.

[9:59] They get the whole basic concept of it. They get that, okay, sure, the priest and the Levite, they didn't do the right thing. Okay, you know, whatever. They didn't do the right thing.

[10:09] And the Samaritan did the right thing. Of course. Well, now it's a good Samaritan. They get all that. They get that. But what the disciples have been granted is the knowledge of Christ's identity and the redeeming work in our salvation.

[10:26] That's kind of the big so what of parables, right? This won't make sense to an unbeliever. They won't truly understand this. They don't understand salvation. If they don't have a transformed heart, it is going to be simply about altruism.

[10:37] It is going to be simply about treating your hosts with respect or doing good with the things you've been given or taking care of what's been entrusted to you. It's going to be these simple things like, oh, well, that's clearly what they're talking about because salvation doesn't make any sense to them.

[10:52] Their hearts and their minds aren't joined in that regard. So Jesus continues still in Matthew. I told you we're going to take a serpentine route here getting through this.

[11:03] In verses 12 and 13, still in Matthew chapter 13, Jesus continues and explains, those who have even more will be, those who have more, even more will be given to them and those who do not, do not have what they have will be taken away.

[11:20] Simply put, those who follow Christ and know his grace will gain more understanding of God's kingdom. Right? Think back when you were when you were an unbeliever.

[11:31] They remember when they were saved. Some do, maybe were very little. Some it was kind of a long process. Maybe some it was overnight. I can't describe the mystery of that. But think back when you were a new Christian, you're a new believer.

[11:42] Don't you know more now? Don't you understand more now? Hopefully you do. Hopefully that work of sanctification is continuing in your life. You understand more about God's grace, more about his goodness, more about what he's given you.

[11:55] And hopefully we grow, right? Hopefully there's, you know, if it's my life, it's kind of this, it looks like a Bitcoin chart, probably highs and lows and highs and lows, but it's eventually going up. But you grow and you change because God is working on your heart and you have the Holy Spirit living within you.

[12:12] Those who reject him will lose even what they think they have, even the knowledge that they think they have of him and they think they know of God. We know there's a creator. We know there's something. I know who God is.

[12:24] I just, I don't deal with that stuff. That's not important to me. Even the knowledge they think they have, Jesus is saying here, that will be even taken from them. He continues by saying essentially that those who have rejected him don't truly see and hear and understand what Christ is telling them.

[12:41] An example is when Nicodemus couldn't understand the idea of new birth. Everyone remember this one? It's in John chapter three. He couldn't understand the idea of new birth and being born of water and the spirit.

[12:53] Remember he asked in John three, four, how can a person be born when he is old? It doesn't make sense. He cannot enter his mother's womb a second time and be born, can he?

[13:04] So you see the idea, very idea of being born again, it's almost silly. It's almost kind of comical then like, well, you Christians are nuts. Like you believe in some wacko stuff. You're being born again.

[13:15] What are you thinking? You can't do that. That's impossible. Here's the paraphrase of Matthew Henry's thoughts from an article on Ligonier Ministries. They paraphrased it.

[13:26] Parables make the things of God more plain and easy to those willing to be taught and at the same time more difficult and obscure to those who are willfully ignorant.

[13:39] So it is no surprise that the Good Samaritan is generally seen as just an example of good behavior and a right role model. Although that's in there and there are examples of that in there, the unbelieving world doesn't understand salvation, so this won't be understood.

[13:57] Jesus told this parable for a specific reason. If we back up a few verses, we can see the setup for this. We're going to hang out here for a few minutes on the setup as we slowly move into this.

[14:08] We'll get to the parable eventually near the end because this provides the context for Jesus' response in the parable. So we'll get there. Now back in Luke, we are skipping around.

[14:21] We're going to turn some pages today. Okay, church family. Luke chapter 10. I'm in the NASB, but as I'm doing this on my computer, I routinely switch out between the ESV and NASB, so if you hear a verse that's slightly different from what you're reading and then it's the same another time, it's my fault.

[14:45] You'll know some of your Bibles, NIV and ESV, I think they back up the title to the Good Samaritan above like verse 25. I think the NASB, or at least the older NASB, mine starts like above verse 30.

[14:59] So some people may have already seen the hook there, like you already know. So some translations, I think, capture that better than others. So verse 25 is where I'm starting.

[15:09] And behold, a lawyer stood up and put him to the test, saying, Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And he said to him, what is written in the law?

[15:23] How does it read to you? The lawyer answered, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.

[15:39] And he said to him, Jesus, responding back to him, said, You have answered correctly. Do this, and you will live. But wanting to justify himself, he said to Jesus, And who is my neighbor?

[15:54] Enter the parable of the Good Samaritan. And we made it. But we're not there yet. A lawyer, as some translations put it, or an expert in the law, he's a Pharisee who's an expert in the law.

[16:05] This is who's challenging Jesus with this question. Make no mistake, if you do ever hear of other translations and different views of this, this was not a poor, hapless bystander who accidentally got rolled into a conversation with Jesus.

[16:23] this was a smart, capable, very good lawyer, if you will, or scribe.

[16:33] This guy understood the law. This man understood the law. He understood what was written. He knew what was here. We'll talk about that context a little bit in some of the other examples of this interaction of Matthew and Mark later on.

[16:47] But he was a bystander trying to just understand the mysteries of salvation and not just the poor man or just wanting to know more about God. Maybe there's some of that in there, but there's some clues here in the text.

[17:00] Luke, always meticulous about details. I love Luke. It's one of my favorite gospels just because of how he so organizes his thoughts. It says, the lawyer stood up.

[17:11] This was common in a Jewish synagogue or a teaching setting. They would stand up to be noticed and sit down when they were complete, saying if they sit down, they're finished. They stood up. They would get noticed. They'd say, hey, I have something to say.

[17:22] Look at much as I'm standing up here, yapping along. They would do the same. They would stand up, look at me. That was a sign. I have something to say. Here I go. And to make sure this man's disposition was clearly understood, Luke adds, and put him to the test.

[17:41] It clearly says his intent was to put Jesus to the test. So there's not, we're going to kind of quell that. So as you move on through your studies in life, the Bible clearly says he went to put him to the test.

[17:53] This is, he's an expert in the law and no doubt he's offended by the idea of the message of the gospel. Hoping to catch him saying anything counter to the law, he asks, teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

[18:07] Jesus responds perfectly in verse 26 by asking, what is written in the law? How does it read to you? Or in other words of saying, how do you understand what is written here? Do you understand what it's saying here?

[18:17] Respond back to me and tell me, tell me what you're thinking. Do you understand this correctly? As a good teacher, as Christ was the good teacher, the perfect teacher, he knew how to draw an answer out of this man.

[18:27] He knew, he knew how to engage this man. Much can be learned here for us as a side note. Of course, knowing that this is a trap, he has the man answer, Jesus knows this is a trap, right?

[18:42] He has the man answer his own question. He rightly responds in verse 27, the lawyer, using Leviticus 19.18 and Deuteronomy 6.5. Those are the references for this man's response.

[18:54] If you have a study Bible or something, that's probably in the margins there. And he answered, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.

[19:09] In similar narratives, Matthew and Mark do not record the very last interaction of this here. Verse 29 is what I'm referring to. They don't record that, which is what starts the parable off.

[19:22] Here in Luke 10.29, it says, but wanting to justify himself. So there's another key. Luke tells us what's going on here. Wanting to justify himself, he said, and who is my neighbor?

[19:36] Who's that person who I'm supposed to love? Wanting to justify himself. That's key. Remember that, underline that, star it, that kind of sets this off.

[19:47] Or it sets off the tone of his heart, his heart posture, if you will. Isn't the law, he quoted, good enough? Isn't that, isn't that fine as it is? By this time in Jewish history, the Pharisees and religious elite have made, made the keeping of the law such a cumbersome undertaking that most commoners were unable to by this time.

[20:10] It was so burdensome and so difficult. They had been adding in things that were never there to begin with. Legalizing the Sabbath, legalizing tithe, most every part of the law beyond the ability for most common Jews to be able to keep.

[20:23] They had turned God's perfect law, which taught us what sin looks like, into a system of specific works and actions to gain salvation.

[20:34] They attempted to justify these works as the entry price into heaven. But that's backward. We know that's backward. We know that our good works should flow out of our transformed heart.

[20:45] It's not the other way around. Jesus tells one of the Pharisees in a parallel account, kind of switching over here to Matthew, so I'm going in and out. Switch over to Matthew 22, 36 through 40. Teacher, I'll just read it.

[20:57] You don't have to turn there. I'll go quick. Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law? And he said to him, you shall love the Lord your God. This is Jesus now responding. The accounts are slightly different, you see.

[21:09] You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it. You shall love your neighbor upon yourself.

[21:20] And here, catch on this, this is the foot stomper. Upon these two commandments hang the whole law and the prophets. Upon these two commandments hang the whole law and the prophets.

[21:35] Circle that, underline that, circle that thing, that whole paragraph in your Bible if you haven't. Think about that for a second. everything depends on us loving God and loving others.

[21:47] That's the key. That's the foundation. Do we have a transformed heart? If so, do we love God? Are we loving others? So it's no surprise that the same religious elite, they've even attempted to redefine who was their neighbor.

[22:01] Justifying not having to love those who are outside of their definition. You can see my kind of snarky hand movements. To them, it's like, I don't need a, they're over there, they're over there. I don't, I don't need a, I don't need to apply.

[22:14] This doesn't apply to them. Loving my neighbor doesn't apply to them. Clearly, I'm being snarky here, right? Clearly, the text says my neighbor. Well, he's not really my neighbor. I'm kind of good.

[22:25] I think I get a pass on that guy. Oftentimes, this only included those Jews who were in their same social class, shunning even the poor of their own community, their own Jewish community.

[22:35] They were shunning even the poor that weren't, weren't like them or in the same status or position as them. They took this even farther to justify hating those who were considered enemies of God.

[22:48] The unrighteous, tax collectors they despised and hated, Samaritans, there's a plug, they didn't understand that the hating of evil does not justify a hatred or personal malice toward an individual.

[23:02] So we can see now why he asks, before we start into our parable, why he asks, and who is my neighbor? His callous, unbelieving heart is more concerned about justifying his sin than fulfilling the second most important commandment that was given to us.

[23:22] Love your neighbor as yourself. All right, now we will get into our main text. We have made it to the parable. So Jesus is responding to this man's question. We see now this setup, Jesus responded to this man's question.

[23:36] He's saying, well, you know, teacher, he replies to him, we know Jesus. You know, who, how do I gain salvation? What do I do to inherit eternal life? He's standing up to, and it says to test him, he's trying to draw an answer out of him that's counter to the Old Testament scriptures, counter to the law.

[23:52] So Jesus, how do I inherit eternal life? He says, well, what is it? What is it? How does it read to you? What do you think it says there? He answers out of, out of scripture, quotes it appropriately, but he doesn't get it.

[24:03] He doesn't get it, does he? Jesus says, okay, you understand, you got it. He says, well, I mean, I see what it says, but who's my neighbor? Trying to put Jesus to the test.

[24:15] So Jesus responds now in Luke 10, 30 through 37. Jesus replied to his question and said, a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among robbers and they stripped him and beat him and went away leaving him half dead.

[24:44] And by chance, a priest was going down on that road and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise, a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.

[25:00] But a Samaritan who was on a journey came upon him and when he saw him, he felt compassion and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them.

[25:12] And he put him on his own beast and brought him to an inn and took care of him. On the next day, he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, take care of him and whatever more you spend, when I return, I will repay you.

[25:26] Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robber's hands? And he said, the lawyer responding, the one who showed mercy toward him.

[25:39] And Jesus said to him, go and do the same. So not exactly up front, you know, I usually give you the bottom line up front for these.

[25:52] There's kind of the bottom line in the middle. It's not a very good acronym. Bottom line in the middle is a transformed heart displays the love of God. That is what separates us from the unbelieving world.

[26:04] The way we conduct ourselves in our everyday life matters. Are we trying to justify our sin or truly love our neighbors as ourselves? To inherit eternal life, one must repent and believe that Christ died for our sins and as a result, the love of God will flow from us.

[26:19] So keep that in mind as we move through the rest of this here, move to the rest of the parable. So Jesus sets the scene for this event as he describes a man going down from Jerusalem to Jericho.

[26:31] This is a different Jericho than the one in Joshua chapters five and six. If you're not tracking, it's a different Jericho. It's down in a plain beneath Jerusalem, beneath like elevation wise.

[26:43] He has to descend down a path to get there. Most commentators agree that the man who was beaten and stripped and left for dead was probably a Jewish man as not many Jews would be traveling from Jerusalem on this road.

[26:58] It seems it would be awkward coming that direction. So they generally kind of apply that. The road mentioned, you can get online and kind of search pictures and images.

[27:09] I think it's like a hike now, popular trail that people attempt to follow the same path and they see the same route that they took. Some of the pictures on it are pretty cool to see.

[27:21] At most points of this, in the mountain pass part, it's not much bigger than a trail at many points. Just a narrow, maybe one, two person wide, maybe a little bigger at some points, rocky path.

[27:32] It is a very treacherous path. Anyone who's gone hiking or stuff around the country, you know that some states will rate their hikes on easy, hard, advanced, expert.

[27:43] This is probably more in the difficult to most difficult category. This is a pretty serious, it's a pretty serious grade. It's an elevation change of about 3,500 feet in a very short span of time.

[27:55] So you can see how steep that is. They're weaving switchbacks. There's a lot of steep, dramatic terrain that'll come to play. So Jesus is setting, and remember, this is a story that Jesus is telling.

[28:06] So Jesus is setting that up because the people in that time would know exactly what he's talking about. This is why we have to spend a little more time in this because this is new to me, new to us probably. So people would know what he's referring to in that trail, the area, the dramatic landscape.

[28:22] It would make sense to them. They would catch that right away. Just like someone in this area, if you said, oh yeah, yeah, Highway 64 traffic, you'd be like, oh yeah, of course, yeah, gotcha.

[28:34] You know exactly what that meant. No one would have to explain that to you. You go to Germany and speak to somebody over there, some random person you met, and you say, oh, Highway 64 traffic. Huh?

[28:46] What are you talking about? So it's a varied landscape. There's many outcroppings, and the point of that is because it provides places for robbers to hide.

[28:56] So it was known at the time, this was a violent trail. There was a lot of stuff going on at the time. People would get robbed, beaten. This was common to happen on there.

[29:07] Robbers would hide there, and that's why they did, because there were so many places to hide. It was so remote, they could probably get away. They wouldn't get caught. So the intensity of the situation would communicate well to everybody around hearing Jesus say this.

[29:20] This man was attacked by thieves in this place. It was treacherous. It was a difficult landscape. To them, it would all connect. Like, oh, okay, I get it. Contrary to some otherworldly interpretations of this, questioning the man, maybe he did something to get in this kind of trouble.

[29:37] It's his fault. Something happened. There's a scuffle. I don't know. There's a lot of conjecture out there. We know by the word encounter, as Jesus says, your ESV might say encounter, NASB might say fell among.

[29:51] I've talked about this word before in some other studies I had done, actually using this as a reference. It means to fall among or fall into, like kind of into a trap.

[30:03] Like you fell into a trap or a trap was sprung upon you and nothing that you really could do about it. So it indicates something happening outside of one's control. It's outside of the control that I have or I think I have over the situation.

[30:17] He didn't forget to pay his dinner bill. The owner caught up with him. He didn't cut somebody off on the trail and they got mad and came upon him. This isn't Highway 64. You gotta be careful out there.

[30:30] So to put any worldly conjecture to rest, I'll point out that the attackers are also called robbers. So they intended to rob him. So Jesus is very specific.

[30:41] Of course, he's a perfect teacher. He uses very specific words. So much of this stuff and the point too, I want to take some of this. You can refute knowing what is out there online. You can refute knowing what is bad teaching by simply studying what is truth.

[30:54] You know how the, what is it, Secret Service stops counterfeit money? They stop the counterfeiting of the dollar bill. They don't study the fakes and probably knows this is a common comment.

[31:07] They study the real thing. They know that dollar bill or $100 bill or whatever C note they're using, you know, studying the C note. They study that so intently, they can spot the fake so quickly.

[31:18] That's the point. God's word is perfect. We study that perfectly in context as it is written. It will refute everything on its own. We don't need to be a scholar. They intend to take all his stuff according to Jesus.

[31:33] They intend to take everything, rob him and leave him for dead. They're robbers. They sprung a trap on him. The text says they stripped him and beat him and left him for dead.

[31:47] So unless intervened upon, this man was going to die. This was more than just a mugging, you know, you might read about in the news. They intended to leave him for dead. This was known to be common in that area and especially on that very road which is why Jesus used that example.

[32:03] Again, this would clearly to them. This is like, oh, yeah, yeah, this happened to my buddy Bill. It happened to him a month ago and so and so. He carries a sword now and this is commonplace to them and they would think that way.

[32:19] It was a dangerous journey and people hearing this parable would immediately pick up on it. For us, it would be like a person out hiking in a remote part of the country because this was extremely remote. Once you got outside of the city, miles from any form of civilization or assistance, the person is then viciously beaten by random thieves hiding in the Blue Ridge Mountains and stripped of all their clothes and left.

[32:39] Now, this is 2,000 years ago there was no life flight helicopter service. There were no ambulances. There were no urgent care. We have one literally right behind us.

[32:49] Life has gotten so good, which is good. Thank God, thank God that we do have such a comfortable life. You truly had to rely on the kindness of others for every aspect of care in a situation like this.

[32:59] That's the whole setup. That's why that first couple verses is so important. He's setting up this whole thing. You truly, you needed your neighbor. You needed someone to come alongside and pick you up and literally save your life.

[33:11] This wasn't like, ah, he's good. I hear some sirens. He's probably fine. We have sirens. We had a whole system built around, a whole safety net in our society built around that.

[33:22] Your safety net at that time was your family, was the kindness and love of others. I mentioned previously, I'll hit on a bit more, there are many attempts to shift the focus and intent of this parable by justifying the actions of the two religious elite that pass by.

[33:40] There's a lot, like I said, there's a lot of different stuff out there. I'm not going to nail down each specific one, but generally try to refute some of this. So trying to justify the actions of the two religious elite that walk by.

[33:54] Much like we've seen from the word encounter, to push away any ideas of preconceived intent, the next verse starts out by saying, and by coincidence, meaning that we cannot speculate about any other reason this priest was going down from Jerusalem.

[34:09] He wasn't following the man, he didn't know the man previously, nothing is said there. The words, and by coincidence, mean, and by pure coincidence.

[34:21] What Jesus does tell us is that the priest was going down from Jerusalem. This would communicate in the language back and this would communicate to the community, this would communicate at the time, they'd say, oh, a priest going down from Jerusalem.

[34:32] That would make sense to them. So he was coming from Jerusalem, descending down into Jericho. So down this treacherous path, moving down into Jericho. What is most likely the case, most commentators agree, this means he was probably finished with his temple service, his service period, and returning home for that time.

[34:51] This would have been, again, this would have been understood by the scribe and the lawyer, the man who Jesus is specifically speaking this parable to, he would understand this. Oh, he's done with his temple service, he's leaving Jerusalem to go back to his home down in Jericho.

[35:05] The first man comes across the wounded man, the priest, as it is written. He comes across the wounded man and the text says he passed by on the other side. He for sure saw this man in desperate need and moved to the other side of the road so as not to even come near him.

[35:24] And by chance, a priest was going down on that road and when he saw him, oh, there's another thing we can refute, he knew he was there.

[35:37] He saw this man there and he moved to the other side of the road. Jesus uses perfect words here, exact words, there's no wiggle room. This is a priest that serves in the temple.

[35:51] Jesus' audience certainly would expect a different action from this man and primarily Jewish audience where he was at in the time teaching this, they would kind of expect a different action. So as I was studying through this and thinking about this, it was kind of interesting to think about and put yourself in their shoes, put yourself in the crowd then thinking back like what would you be thinking of somebody like this?

[36:14] Think of somebody in our society now the most, I don't know, you know, Billy Graham comes to mind. Think of, you know, this is the Billy Graham, not to put any conjecture on him or not, but think of Billy Graham coming upon somebody like this.

[36:28] This is kind of that view of them. This is a priest that serves in the temple. So people are like, oh, priest is coming down the road, serves in the temple. Okay, he saw the man. Okay, man, he's going to do the right thing.

[36:40] Wait, he went to the other side of the road. So this is starting that setup. You can feel the energy and the crowd's going to change a little bit and as if to drive the point home. Jesus continues. So some interpretations have attempted to justify the man's actions by claiming he didn't want to become ritually unclean so as not to require a period of cleansing.

[36:59] Remember how far they had kind of pushed and morphed and stretched the law because the law declares a corpse unclean. So some also by extending that would even consider somebody half dead to be unclean.

[37:10] So he was left for dead. The text says half dead or not quite dead. He still had life in him. He still had the breath of life. He certainly would have died if he didn't get help. But by that stretch, you can see somebody hanging on this would sidestep that a little bit.

[37:25] I don't want to do that. I don't want to get dirty. I don't want to get clean. I got to do a cleansing period. Not going to go through it. This man, the priest, was more concerned with his stretched view of the law and not incurring any burden to himself than to help this otherwise helpless man.

[37:42] He had no compassion, no love in his heart for this suffering stranger. What goes through our minds when we come across someone in need? Here's a little bit of application piece here as we work through this parable. What's going through our minds at this time?

[37:56] Maybe it's a neighbor, an acquaintance, just a random person. Do they just show up at your doorstep needing attention in some way, some kind of help in some way?

[38:06] How do you see them? I struggle with this. I'll be honest, I struggle with this a lot of times. You know, it's 6 p.m. on a Sunday evening. You're like, finally. It's quiet.

[38:20] People, you know. I'm just going to get a break for a little bit. I got to be at work early in the morning. It's a big week. Hey, I can't get my trailer out of the...

[38:33] Old neighbor comes by. I'm going camping this week and I can't get my trailer out of the driveway. Would you come cut some trees down for me? It's Sunday. It's 6. That's our true story.

[38:46] That's not a parable. But in that moment, no, I didn't react with a good heart attitude. We went and helped him. He was a good man. Went and helped him. Did not have the right heart attitude.

[38:57] First thing that went through my mind was, come on, man. You've got to be kidding me. Let me... Just let me be. And oftentimes, isn't that the case? Isn't that the case? Things put before us. The goal is that as the Holy Spirit works in our life, we need to see these people for as they are.

[39:11] God put them in our path. He put them in our lives for a reason. They're there for a reason. How are we going to respond? Do we see this as just a simple act of altruism? Sure, pal. Here you go. Here's a quarter.

[39:22] Or is this something our heart's concerned, deeply concerned for these friends? How are we speaking the love of Christ into their lives? This doesn't mean we're able to always help in a meaningful way.

[39:34] Society is hard. Our society has morphed a lot. This isn't an exposition on how to help you decide whether to give the homeless man ten bucks or not. Good luck. Take discernment.

[39:46] Pray. Trust in God's good hand. I don't... That's on you. But with all the different things, somebody may be on drugs. There may be something else going on.

[39:57] We're not always able to intervene in that action by doing actions in that moment. I would hope that for the church, for Christ's church, it would eventually become possible and appropriate all the time.

[40:08] That would be my thought. That would be my prayer. At least as we continue sanctification and work toward that. Keep that in your mind as we move through this and think about what would you do in that situation? We'd be like, ah, I'm not messing with that.

[40:20] That's ugly. I don't want to deal with that. Regardless of the circumstances, what was our heart posture in the moment? What was this man's heart posture in the moment? This priest coming down from Jerusalem.

[40:32] Do we feel compassion for these people? If it was us in that situation, do we feel compassion for this person? Do our hearts break for the brokenness and sin around us? For God's sakes, turn on the news for a second.

[40:44] It's crushing what you see in the world. Not even the foreign news. You know, take the bombing out of the news. Just the local news for a second. It's just crushing what's going on around us. angry at the person that we come across?

[40:57] Angry at the person in that event? Angry at the man in need and the man in trouble? Do we get mad at him? Is it their fault?

[41:08] Do we blame them? Are they our enemy? The posture of our heart is the issue here. Remember, I mentioned previously the religious elite at this time would justify hating their enemies because they had violated God's law.

[41:22] They considered them enemies of God. There's some conjecture online. I'm addressing some of that conjecture online. They, of, ah, potentially this was an enemy of the priest and he didn't want to, you know, interject, intervene in some way.

[41:36] It wasn't okay to do that. So there's some conjecture in regards to that which I'll address here. Remember, this is a priest. He knows the law. So even though by this point they had twisted and morphed God's law to burdensome and unfillable works, here's a quick example of the law in regards to one's enemies here in Exodus 23, 4, and 5.

[42:01] I had to look this up. This man would know this. Exodus 23, 4, and 5. If you encounter your enemy's ox or his donkey wandering away, you must return it to him.

[42:13] If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying helpless under its load, you shall not leave it helpless for its owner. You must arrange the load with him.

[42:24] Some of you have notes in the bottom depending on who, the D.A. Carson notes that's in there. He uses this as an example. If you see your enemy struggling on the side of the road, his animal is struggling under the weight of the load, you are to go help him pick up his load and help him to continue on his way.

[42:45] This is clear. So it refutes there's another thing you can put in your kit bag. Even if this guy was some sort of enemy, even if there's some other thing going on, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. And we can apply that today to ourselves.

[42:59] Who's that person? Maybe they have opposite yard signs than we do. Maybe they go to that church up the street that's a little different than ours. Maybe they're this or they're that.

[43:10] It doesn't matter. So to refute the claims of the injured man being an enemy, even if this helpless man could be justified as the enemy, it doesn't matter.

[43:23] The priest knows the law. He knows what it says. This kind of touches on the main point a little bit though. If you're only concerned with adhering to a written list of technical behaviors, then it is quite easy to mentally evade right thoughts and actions.

[43:41] I'll say that again. If you're only concerned with adhering to a written list of technical behaviors, then it is very easy to mentally evade right thoughts and actions.

[43:53] Another way to put that is if I'm only concerned with technically doing what is right, fulfilling the letter of the law, then finding ways to escape these behaviors is much easier.

[44:04] It's easier to find a way around a technicality, isn't it? Like, ah. I mean, the sign was yellow. Do you really have to follow the speed limit if it's yellow? Is that suggested? Is that just for a corner?

[44:15] But technically, it's on a 65 road. At least that's what goes through my mind. It's much easier to evade those technical things, those ideas, if it's just a hard rule.

[44:27] I'm like, ah. I can work with that a little bit. That mental evasion includes justifying our behavior, moving away from the situation so we don't see it, kind of the out of side, out of mind approach, like, ah, there's a man over there.

[44:43] I'm just going to kind of, I don't want to deal with that. I don't want to look at that. Not going to enter my mind. Somebody else will get that. Remember, this is the middle of nowhere. 2,000 years ago, nobody else is getting that.

[44:57] Or justifying other technicalities. In this case, the man may be being ritually unclean is what some people have brought up as a reason for not reacting in the right way. So, if I'm just following a technical list of behaviors or a technical list of actions, it's very easy to justify wiggling out of that and change how I think about this and how I morph through this.

[45:20] I can wiggle, I can worm, me, man, I can be Weasley. I can worm my way through anything in my sinful heart if I want to and justify that thing that I want to do even though we know it's not the right thing to do.

[45:32] We know in our heart it's wrong. So, we should start to kind of see the point of the parable now although we know where these are going. Jesus is beginning to highlight the different conditions of the heart.

[45:45] And you know I love a good Matthew Henry quote. So, here's another one. No one will ever love God and his neighbor with any measure of pure spiritual love who is not made a partaker of converting grace.

[46:00] No one will ever love God and his neighbor with any measure of pure spiritual love who is not made a partaker of converting grace. This pure spiritual love comes from a heart that responds to the grace that God has given us.

[46:13] It's not a reaction to a specific technical list of behaviors. It's flowing out of us. I won't spend too much time on the Levite.

[46:24] The story is very similar. Levites, if you remember they assisted the temple priests in service. They were kind of the servants or workers in the temple. Much of the same purity concerns would be had by him as well so some of the same conjecture would be there as well.

[46:37] It's the same story and set of circumstances. Jesus is using these two elite figures in Jewish society as an example of how the law does not make for right hearts.

[46:48] The law doesn't make for right hearts. Following that checklist, 10 steps to good life, 10 steps to salvation, it's not going to work. The hearers of the story were not expecting the examples of these two men to be what they were.

[47:04] What would have been even more shocking is who Jesus introduces next. And here's the name. Here's the big moment. The Samaritan. You can feel the tension in the audience at this point.

[47:18] Knowing the context we have through the lens of history, it would have been great to kind of see the anticipation energy in the lawyer, see his face, and see the surrounding crowd. This man was not dumb.

[47:29] Clearly, I'm sure he saw, he could probably see what was coming. He puts a priest on the stand, he puts a Levite on the stand, and then Jesus brings up and a Samaritan.

[47:43] Would have loved to have been there. You ever think about when you get to heaven some of the things you want to know about or see or some of the people you want to talk to? I would have loved to be in the crowds to see and see some of the reactions to some of these things.

[47:59] Right here it says, but, there's a change of, change of, a change of direction in the text, right? But, a Samaritan who was on a journey came upon him, and when he saw him, he felt compassion.

[48:17] Remember, Samaritans were remnants of the conquered northern kingdom of Israel. They had intermarried outside of their bloodlines and practiced a different flavor of Judaism, offering sacrifice on Mount Gerizim.

[48:27] I think I went through this a little bit when we were in Nehemiah a few months back, but I won't go too deep into it. But they had split off. They were originally conquered first before the southern kingdom.

[48:38] Northern kingdom got conquered, put into captivity, dispersed. Some of them came back. They intermarried with people outside of their bloodlines. They were despised by the Jews.

[48:49] They were hated in society. And it's funny, you think about this, think of the context how they hated Samaritans, and it's interesting how the unbelieving world has kind of captured our language and captured scripture because now, what's a Samaritan used for?

[49:02] Somebody who does good works. You can see, it's changed. Not that, you know, we're not faulting Jews, you know, the Jewish originality or Samaritans, but you see how we've shifted scripture and taken it and pulled a word out of it and made it something entirely different.

[49:17] What if every time Samaritans came up, we were talking about salvation and preaching the gospel as opposed to throwing a coin in the bucket or, you know, whatever the good works being. They were despised.

[49:28] They were absolutely hated in society because they were seen as warping of the law. Hopefully someone catches up on this, catches me here. They were seen as warping the law and they had distorted God's law, His holy law and they had ruined and they had intermarried with others.

[49:43] They were making sacrifices on Mount Geriz. I think they still do today. There's very, there's a sect still of Samaritans that still practice this and still make sacrifices on that mountain. It's still present.

[49:55] A very small sect, I believe. The Pharisees' view of Jesus wasn't much better. We'll get back to their warping of the law here in a second. But their view of Jesus wasn't any better.

[50:06] Remember, Jesus was even called a Samaritan by the same religious elite, these Pharisees. In John 8, 48, they call Him a Samaritan. Their hypocrisy is in full display here, though.

[50:18] Did anyone catch that? How they were mad and despised the Samaritans for the warping of the law. After the conquering of the southern kingdom of Judah, brief history lesson, this will come together, and the destruction of the first temple in 586, much of the nation was in captivity.

[50:37] Remember that? Remember, many of them were hauled away in captivity. What was destroyed? Remember, the temple was destroyed, right? They couldn't proceed with the same sacrificial system.

[50:48] They couldn't fulfill the law in the same way they had or anything else they did. They were in captivity for a while. Much of the nation was. They were unable to practice many parts of the law.

[50:59] They began to make modifications to the law to suit their own captivity, to suit their own needs. Much of this is defined, honestly, how modern Judaism is even practiced today.

[51:09] It kind of started then. It started when that southern kingdom, the temple was destroyed in 586. That southern kingdom was conquered, moved off, and they changed the law. They switched it up. And even when they did come back, remember in Nehemiah's time, they came back in Ezra.

[51:23] They built the walls, they built the temple, they reestablished Jerusalem, and it stood until AD 70. Even then, it wasn't, they had morphed the law so much by that point, they'd even change it into now, it's so strained and so burdensome on the community, they can't even fulfill it.

[51:42] So the hypocrisy, you see that hypocrisy is on full display. That's why, that's kind of the vein that moves through this. modern Judaism has taken a lot from that and morphed into what it is.

[51:56] Honestly, it is nothing as it was originally. Brief sidebar, Jessica, a couple weeks ago, went to a Holocaust survivor brief story, I don't know what you call it, it was at William and Mary, and she was a twin.

[52:12] Her and her twin sister were twins that were experimented on by Goebbels, Mengele, Doctor of Death, they were experimented by me.

[52:22] She was one that survived, very young at the time, three or four years old, and it was part of a Jewish group that put this on at William and Mary, and it was largely a Jewish audience. We were kind of separate from the group.

[52:34] There was a lot of Jewish influence, a lot of Jewish audience there, and crushing and heartbreaking otherwise of how terrible and evil the world is and what has come of humanity. What was so interesting how it pointed out is you can see the vein of Judaism and how it kind of turned and even its influence today is much of the discussion and the conversation of the speakers coming up.

[52:55] A rabbi came up I think at one point, some of the other people of their Jewish community came up to talk, and it was all around doing a good work so God would come be present with you, and if I just do this good work, God will be present, and I know this will be alright because I'm doing this good work, and she even mentioned at one point, this was her good work for God to come bring down with her, and it was so heartbreaking, it was so crushing, that of all this horrible, terrible stuff going on, that the idea of doing that was where salvation was, my heart broke for this community, and the point is not to bash the Pharisees, we're no better, not to bash the Jews, but man, if any community needs your prayer, you should start there, that's one of them to throw on your prayer list, because it was so far away from Christ, that's what, outside of the Holocaust portion, it was so sad, and hopefully we feel that compassion, even for this man here, even for the lawyer in the story, for these people who struggle with these things, even out in our life, think about them as you think through this, this isn't to beat them down, but it's to get them Christ, to get them the word,

[53:59] God's word, so they know Christ, that's the point, so this Samaritan comes upon this man, what are we told about him? He felt compassion, as the NASB says, a more literal rendering of the word could be to be moved in the inward parts, he felt it, there was a stirring in his soul, he felt compassion for this man, his reaction wasn't a mechanical response to a rule now at this point, it was from a heartfelt compassion towards this poor man who was suffering and in need, he felt compassion as a result, acted on it by caring for him, he bandaged his wounds, no doubt using his own materials or clothing in the process, they didn't have first aid kits, having been soldiering for unfortunately way too long, coming up on three decades, you know, they always issue you your first aid kit, you see the soldiers walk around, they got their little pack everywhere with the red cross on it and they got all the stuff in it and you quickly pull out bandages and do your thing, think of the context of this, there's none of that, there is no bandages, there is nothing, there is no, so this man to get cloth to wrap these up, it says he bandaged his wounds, he must have had to use his clothing, his spare clothes, a blanket, a cloth, something that he had with him, he literally took his own stuff to give to this man, he had his own supply of oil and wine for his journey because it says the man was on a journey, so he was moving through the area, there are branches and side trails that move off this if you look at a modern map, you can see the trail does split, so he was moving through on a journey at this time, so he had stuff that he required for his journey, he gave it up for this man, at oil and wine, no doubt his material, clothing, anything else he needed to give the man, the oil would have been used to have been soothing and help alleviate some of the pain maybe of his wounds, especially in that dry arid climate, the wine would have had antiseptic properties and possibly prevented infection as it takes a while to move, again remember no ambulance, no lifelike, it took a while, he had to move him to and in or move him somewhere, the Samaritan did more than just offer some minor passing assistance though,

[56:12] Jesus tells us he took care of the man's practical and immediate needs, not simply giving out of obligation, that kind of love comes from a genuine and caring heart, the Samaritan's compassion drove his action, his compassion drove his action, he then loads the injured man on his own animal, sacrificing his comfort and possibly now having to carry his supplies while the animal carries the injured man, often times they would use their donkey or the animal, they would use them to carry their supplies on, that's where they'd hang all their stuff on them, put the oil, put the wine, put everything else and then they would so they could walk lightly, they would walk the donkey along with all their stuff, make it a little easier walk.

[56:54] Now we just put backpacks on and do the work ourselves, I think maybe we've lost that in some sense in our society but he would now have to swap that out, right, he would have to carry some of that. He then brings the man to an inn and ensures he's cared for.

[57:09] We don't know if this inn was out of the way or an inconvenience or part of his journey or on the way, there's no real evidence to that but it doesn't really matter because you can't apply conjecture to that I don't think because Jesus has already established the Samaritan's sacrificial and loving heart, he's already established this guy is given to help this man out of his own requirements, out of his own potentially needs, he gave to this man.

[57:32] It's important to remember too this is a story told by Jesus, this is not a historical event, this isn't like reading Acts and talking about some of what happened to Paul or what happened to some of the apostles as they moved through, Paul did this, he got on a ship, he was shipwrecked, he went here, he went this, those are historical facts in an event that happened that was written down for us in that case by Luke.

[57:52] This is a story told by Jesus, remember, to answer a question. So some of the speculation, sensationalism around this is really without cause.

[58:05] It brings up a good point though, Jesus could have answered this lawyer's question directly, right? When he says, and who is my neighbor? Jesus could have just answered him simply saying, your neighbor is every man and the whole of human race.

[58:23] There you go, that's it. I guarantee it would have found a way to weasel out of that too because you know I would too. If there was some written rule, I'm like, oh, that's easy. Human race, huh?

[58:35] I can work with that. I can work around that a little bit, especially nowadays with all sorts of secular science and other different things being taught.

[58:45] Boy, that's easy. But knowing the man's prideful heart and inability to relate to those he deems insignificant or out of his social class, they've already redefined who a neighbor was.

[58:58] They'd find a way to get out of this. Christ draws out a self-condemning reply from him by using this story to do that. That's why he uses this story.

[59:09] As if Samaritan's actions weren't enough already, it says he brought him to an inn and paid the innkeeper two denarii. Some historians suggest this could have been enough for as much as three weeks to almost two months of stay at the inn.

[59:22] There's some, MacArthur has some notes on this that there's some archeological evidence that could have been, that was found that a stay at an inn could have been one thirty-second of a denarii.

[59:33] So two denarii, that goes a long way. And others have said that depending on the inn and the location, it could be three weeks, four weeks, more-ish. So that's quite a bit.

[59:44] That's paying someone's hotel bill for a month. And what's more, he promises to pay any more expenses incurred when he returns.

[59:55] So not just paying for the man, but paying ahead for the man. This is a serious commitment to service. Jesus clearly tells us the unexpected one in the story selflessly served and sacrificially loved this injured man beyond what was even called for.

[60:10] This man, the Samaritan, would have been considered a hero even if he would have said, oh hey man, you're in a rough spot. Tell you what, let me load you on my donkey. There's some people there. I got you to society. Good luck pal.

[60:20] You know, here's a dollar. Here's some stuff. I wish you the best. He went so far beyond that. Again, it's not an expedition on how to do this around others. Good luck. You need to use God's discernment, scripture, and pray and work through that.

[60:33] But the point is that this man loved from a compassionate, caring heart that he felt for him. That drove his actions for this poor, injured man. To add, and to the contrary, those in the story who would expect to do the right thing, not the Samaritan, the priest and the Levite completely shunned the injured man.

[60:55] They left him there to die. Just because you have a title or position denoting righteousness doesn't mean you have a heart that seeks after righteousness. That's the point here. The condition of the man's heart.

[61:07] That is the point. Remember parables, we talked around it. What's the point of parables? What do they talk about? Salvation. The condition of your heart.

[61:19] The lawyer knew he couldn't fulfill the task of loving his neighbor as himself. So, attempting to justify himself, he said to Jesus, and who is my neighbor?

[61:32] Considering how corrupt the Pharisees and Jewish elite had become, this is no surprise, which is why verse 25 said, and attempting to justify himself. He was just trying, he was trying to justify his sinful behavior and not seek after God's righteousness.

[61:49] They had turned God's law into a system of works and rules. In verse 36, Jesus draws out the lawyer's response in his sinful heart. Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robber's hands?

[62:03] Much like he does in other parables and earlier in the interaction with this one in verse 25, is he draws the answer out of the man, makes him respond to this in a way that he can only answer.

[62:17] This parable is so well written, he can only answer one way, right? There's only, how do you answer, oh, the priest, oh, the Levite? You can't. There's no way. It's so perfectly, the data is so perfectly organized and written, Jesus' response, of course, is perfect.

[62:33] He gives us the answer in verse 37, the one who showed him mercy is his response. And Jesus responds, go and do likewise.

[62:46] What's Jesus trying to highlight here? The condition of his heart. Remember how this all started in verse 25. Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Even then, it was a test.

[63:01] Even though he knows the technical answer to Jesus' response, he knew that, because remember in Matthew and Mark, it shows the other man responding. He still tries to justify his sinful behavior instead of accepting the truth.

[63:16] Now, lest we get haughty here, or me, as I write these, I think of myself as I write this. I know, I am certain at times, I've tried to justify my sinful behavior. There's no doubt. It's sometimes, hopefully as we go on through life, that gets better, right?

[63:29] We respond to the Holy Spirit's calling, we respond to what God's called us to do in his word, and have a transformed heart, we act differently, and hopefully repent and continue our sanctification.

[63:40] There's no indication that this man did or didn't accept Christ as the Messiah, not just to kind of, we're going to capture some of the other accounts of this. The parable's not written in the other accounts, but some of the first interaction is, so we'll just go through those just briefly as you go out into the world, you have some of this knowledge to carry with you.

[63:56] There's no indication that the man did or did not accept Christ as Messiah or not. Matthew and Mark record the interaction prior to this parable, but neither record the challenge the lawyer gave of, and who is my neighbor, his response to Jesus.

[64:10] In Mark, after Jesus' response to the Pharisees' question, the lawyer responds, this is Mark 12, 32-33, So the scribe said to him, well said, teacher, you have spoken the truth, for there is one God and there is no other but he, and to love him with all the heart, with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself is more than the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.

[64:38] So interestingly enough, in Mark's account, prior to him challenging Jesus here in Luke's account, it seems, it seems he, he at least gets it in a sense, he understands that the sacrifices and offerings, remember, are called to worship today, sacrifice and offerings you did not desire, my burnt offerings you did not desire.

[64:57] It seems this guy gets it, or maybe he just understands the text a little bit, loving one's neighbor being worth more than burnt offerings and sacrifices. He understood that truly loving others was worth more than a ritualistic system of works, which was counter to what was being done at the time.

[65:13] And Jesus responds to him, after seeing, he answered wisely, it says, you are not far from the kingdom of God in the Mark account, because he recognized, at least by Mark's account, that self-sacrificial love of others was worth more than all the works of the law.

[65:29] But again, it's not just the kindness and acts of love. So maybe man still just understood, well, yeah, I do need to be kind, it is the acts of love, and maybe this man was, maybe his heart was, his hard heart was being chipped away by the Lord.

[65:42] Maybe there was something in there, but that's not the point because those acts aren't going to come. That compassion, that true heartfelt compassion is not going to come by itself. It isn't just the kindness and acts of love, but the condition of the heart that they come from that's the point.

[65:59] In his commentaries on this parable, D.A. Carson says, eternal life is defined not simply by acts of kindness, but by properly responding to Jesus.

[66:11] Eternal life is not defined by acts of kindness, but by properly responding to Jesus. I could have just said that at the beginning. I wouldn't have had to talk this whole time. I could have saved you an hour.

[66:24] Sorry. Take that with you as you go out today. It's not just the act of kindness, but it's where those acts of kindness come from. If you don't know that or you don't feel that or you don't understand that, talk to somebody.

[66:38] Talk to me. Talk to one of our deacons. Talk to one of the men and women in the church, please, today. Closing out this interaction in Luke, Jesus tells the lawyer to go and do likewise.

[66:51] One could write an entire sermon just on the go and do part, right? The two actions there, two verbs. You could spend quite a while on that. I didn't. We're coming up on time.

[67:03] After he shows them what it looks like to truly love your neighbor, the man correctly answers, the one who showed compassion to him. Zoom back out, come back in to Luke.

[67:14] Remember the lawyer responds. He knows the answer to this. There's no other answer. There's no wiggle room in this parable. Not the works of the law, but merciful and compassionate behavior towards others come from a transformed heart that is what this man needs to inherit eternal life.

[67:31] Remember where this started. This should be a call for us, church family, to put our faith in Christ into action. Our transformed hearts should display the love of God and keep us separated from the unbelieving world as they're watching how we conduct ourselves.

[67:46] Everything depends on us loving God and loving others. This is the proof of our salvation. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this time we could spend together today.

[67:58] Thank you for this church's hearts to show up. Thank you for the ability to read your word and be in a country that allows us to teach and to preach and to study your word as we can, Lord.

[68:10] Thank you for this time together as a church family. Pray that you just stir up the hearts of this church family, God. Give them the hearts to love those around them in the ways that they can. To love and react to the situations you put in front of them, Lord, throughout this next week before we meet again.

[68:23] You just prepare their hearts and minds to do those things to give that compassion and love and heartfelt service to those around them, Lord, as they move out to the world. We thank you for this time together.

[68:35] We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.