Welcome to Waymaker Church! We are so excited to have you join us today! We exist to Encounter, Live for, and Advance the Kingdom of God!

This morning we continue in our series The Parables of Jesus. I pray that this series has been insightful and helpful to you.

It is needed for each of us to gain personal revelation of the kingdom of God. Without personal revelation and encounter we are left with head knowledge. Head knowledge will sound good in a conversation, but it will lack conviction and substance.

Have you ever had a time in your life when you saw someone in need and thought someone needs to do something about this?

• Maybe it was a single mom at the grocery store struggling to pay for groceries, seeing the kid in your child’s class who doesn’t have school supplies, or the person on the street without shelter or protection.

The question I ask is how do we respond when we are confronted with the realities of a fallen world? Do we turn a blind eye? Or maybe look from a distance? Or do we engage?

In today’s parable, Jesus defines the role of the believer in relation to the world around them.

The setting of this parable begins with a lawyer testing Jesus through a question. Note that the lawyers also known as scribes were the official theologians and interpreters of the law in the time of Christ. Their work was to relate the Mosaic Law to life.

The initial question proposed by the lawyer was “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus as the master theologian answers by answering his question with a question. What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?

The lawyers response was correct as he quoted Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18.

You shall love the lord your god with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, and your neighbor as yourself. Jesus tells him he has answered rightly. Go and do it and you will live.

Before we look at who Jesus defines as our neighbor lets pause to understand what it means to love God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind.

To love with all our heart means spiritually we have an undivided heart. With our soul we express love to him voluntarily through our emotions, with our strength in the way we serve him, and with our mind through the maturing of the intellect by gaining knowledge and understanding.

Following Jesus’s response the lawyer asks another question “Who is my neighbor?”. This question is deeper than wanting a simple clarification. They scripture says He wanted to justify himself. Essentially, had he done enough? Jesus knew how impossible this was for fallen man, but the man did not know it. He had the right answer but the wrong interpretation
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Jesus’ reply tells the scribe that he has given a scripturally proper answer, but then goes on to tell him that this kind of love requires more than an emotional feeling; it would also include “practicing what he preached.”

The scribe being an educated man realized that he could not possibly keep that law, nor would he have necessarily wanted to. There would always be people in his life that he could not love. Thus, he tries to limit the law’s command by limiting its parameters.

To clarify the interpretation Jesus shares a parable.
We saw that within the parable are four characters.
1. The man who was robbed and nearly beaten to death.
2. The Priest.
3. The Levite.
4. The Good Samaritan.

The three people who pass by the robbed and beaten man are contrasted by Jesus.

1. The first character Jesus introduces into His story after the beaten man is the priest. He give no explanation of the man accept that He showed no love or compassion for the man by failing to help him. Even to the degree that He made it a point to pass by on the opposite side of the road without looking so as to not get involved in the matter.

Think about it, if there was anyone who would have known God’s law of love, it would have been the priest. By nature of his position, he was to be a person of compassion, desiring to help others. The priest represents the temple ministry, the services of sacrifice, and the law of Moses —the law of the covenant. Although a spiritual leader, there was no feeling of mercy in the heart of the priest. He simply passed by more concerned with his religious service than the man who was in desperate need.

2. The second character Jesus shares in his story is the Levite.
Like the priest, the Levite also ignores the desperate need of the wounded man. He does pause for a moment to at least look at the man, but also shows no mercy or compassion. He simply walks back to the other side of the road and passes him by.

The Levite also served in temple worship along with the priest. Once again, this person as a spiritual leader should have known to show compassion but did not do it.

3. The final character Jesus shares is the good Samaritan.
The intriguing thing about Jesus’ use of this individual in the story is that he would have been the least likely to have shown compassion to the man. Samaritans were considered a low class of people by the Jews since they had intermarried and did not keep all the law. The Jews would have nothing to do with them.

Jesus doesn’t share if the wounded man was Jew or gentile, but only that it made no difference to the Samaritan. He didn’t ask what religion he was nor was he concerned by race. He simply saw a person in need of assistance, and he assisted him.

This man goes above and beyond what is required. He dresses the man’s wounds, disinfects, and attempts to sooth the pain. He puts the man on his own animal, took him to an inn, and took care of him. Then at his own personal expense he pays the innkeeper and tells him to care for the man. If any extra expense were incurred, he would cover them on his return trip.

Jesus final question to the lawyer was which of the three do you think was the neighbor to him who fell among the thieves? The lawyer’s response was him who showed mercy. Jesus tells him to go and do likewise.

If there is one thing, I have learned about the kingdom it is this. God allows you to see certain brokenness struggles and trials so that you can become an answer in their time of need.

When you see needs that no one else seems to see it's time to pay attention. You may not be in a position to meet all the needs you see, but the rhythm we need to learn is this: pause and ask the Lord what do want me to do?

The kingdom of God is sacrificial in nature. God consistently asks us to serve people who can offer us nothing in return.

As I said last week, serving Jesus is more than a prayer to get to heaven. It’s about getting the nature of heaven into you. The Love of God embodied in the life of a believer is evident and observable.

Genuine love for God is always seen in our love demonstrated towards people.

The Moral of the Parable Jesus gives is that any person in need is our neighbor. Loving our neighbor as ourselves is to show practical mercy and help in a time of need.

As believers we are expected to express our faith and love by our works. Without them we are nothing more than a noisy gong or clanging cymbal. My prayer today is that we would walk in the fullness of God’s love!