Sermon Tone Analysis

Announcements

Are there any announcements?

Shoe Boxes for Kids

Angel Tree Kids

We have 14 kids this year to buy for, so if you would like to adopt, please see Kathy.

There will be free Bibles to give our kids.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2q46r2xirY

Introduction

Good morning and welcome to FCC, where we worship God in Spirit and in Truth one verse at a time.

Before we start, I have a few announcements to share.

Our dearest sister Franca wanted me to announce that she will be moving to Queen Creek, Arizona that is an hour outside of Phoenix.

She leaves on Tuesday for 3 weeks to visit and will return and sell her house in the spring.

Her son Michael and his wife Amanda are going to build a mother-in-law quarters.

So please keep her in prayer.

She definitely believes that it is God’s will for her during this next season of life.

Thank you for the Pastor appreciation gifts, it was very kind and thoughtful of you all.

Kevin’s Bible Study is being moved to Patti Pointers house from the church.

I will change the address on our website.

If you would like her address today before you leave see me.

We have come as far as Matthew 5:43, so let us open our Bibles there:

Read Matthew 5:43-48

Prayer

Gracious Heavenly Father, we have come to worship you in Spirit and in Truth this morning, and we desire to hear from you.

Please remove everything in our lives and hearts that could stop us from worshipping you whole-heartedly.

Please help us to grasp and apply the truths of our the text we are in this morning.

Lord, we long to know the height, the depth, and the width of your love for us.

Can you reveal it now?

Could you remind us over and over how much you love us and how much you desire to be like Jesus?

Thank you Lord for hearing our cry, please meet us in a special way this morning and set the captives free.

In Jesus Name, We Love You!!! Amen and Amen!

Review

In looking back and yet pressing forward, we can see the Kingdom of Heaven that Jesus taught on unfold.

We are learning what it means to be aa disciple in His Kingdom and that our profession of Christ, should match our lifestyles.

Last week Jesus taught us that the Pharisee’s again misinterpreted the Word of God to justify their sinful behavior.

And not only to justify, but rather benefit them in the system of self-righteous behaviors that the has created.

But God, who is rich in mercy sent his only begotten Son to turn the tables of their hearts and our hearts and help us to realize that it is not about external performance to the letter of the law, but rather inward obedience to the Spirit of the law.

Jesus has given us 5 illustrations of what Kingdom living is over the last several weeks and today, he will give us the 6th, which is really to me is a summary of all them.

Jesus said taught us to go the extra mile when someone asks us and I understand the difficulty of this statement.

To refresh your memory, the Roman guards could ask anyone at any given time to carry their pack or their load for a mile.

A Roman mile was a little shorter than our mile today.

And guess what Jesus says?

Go 2 miles, not 1....

I started here because God is asking us to be compassionate towards those in need, but here it is regards to our enemy.

Because Rome was an enemy to the Jews.

God desire for us is to go the extra mile compassionate with a caring heart, not a grumbling or begrudging spirit.

And I think it is important for us to remember that a lot of time when we are asked to go the extra mile, that it is going to impede on our agendas, or our schedules.

And it is going to take faith to make the extra mile happen especially with regards to our enemy.

Speaking of our enemy, let’s look at our text for today:

No where in Scripture does it teach for us to hate our enemy church, but quite the opposite.

Here we are at our 6th illustration of what it means to live in God’s Kingdom and we see that Jesus goes right for the juggler vein at how the Rabbinic tradition interpreted God’s law .

The Rabbinic scholars of Jesus day taught that they were to love their neighbors and hate their enemies.

And their neighbors were only fellow Jews or Israelites.

They added to God’s law, the hate your enemy part and some scholars believe that they gleaned this from soem of the imprecatory Psalms that talk about destroying your enemy.

This means that they hated the Gentiles, Samaritans, and any foreigner that was not Jewish.

The Pharisee’s elevated hatred toward enemies to a virtue within their culture.

Your not like me, therefore I do not like you!

Abraham Lincoln said, “I don’t like that man, therefore, I must get to know him!”

Sadly, the Essenes that lived at Qumran upheld this in their monastic community.

Qumran is where the Dead Sea scrolls were discovered in caves.

Once again Jesus corrects the error that had been handed down.

He speaks of love as God would have us love.

In Luke 10:25-37, we read about the parable of the Good Samaritan, let’s tur there>

Read Luke 10:25-37

The lawyer was the scholar of the law, who thought he had God’s law figured out and Jesus challenged him with the two great commands of love.

The Parable of the Good Samaritan tells the story of a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho, and while on the way he is robbed of everything he had, including his clothing, and is beaten to within an inch of his life.

That road was treacherously winding and was a favorite hideout of robbers and thieves.

The next character Jesus introduces into His story is a priest.

He spends no time describing the priest and only tells of how he showed no love or compassion for the man by failing to help him and passing on the other side of the road so as not to get involved.

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.

Unfortunately, “love” was not a word for him that required action on the behalf of someone else.

The next person to pass by in the Parable of the Good Samaritan is a Levite, and he does exactly what the priest did: he passes by without showing any compassion.

Again, he would have known the law, but he also failed to show the injured man compassion.

The next person to come by is the Samaritan, the one least likely to have shown compassion for the man.

Samaritans were considered a low class of people by the Jews since they had intermarried with non-Jews and did not keep all the law.

Therefore, Jews would have nothing to do with them.

We do not know if the injured man was a Jew or Gentile, but it made no difference to the Samaritan; he did not consider the man’s race or religion.

The “Good Samaritan” saw only a person in dire need of assistance, and assist him he did, above and beyond the minimum required.

He dresses the man’s wounds with wine (to disinfect) and oil (to sooth the pain).

He puts the man on his animal and takes him to an inn for a time of healing and pays the innkeeper with his own money.

He then goes beyond common decency and tells the innkeeper to take good care of the man, and he would pay for any extra expenses on his return trip.

The Samaritan saw his neighbor as anyone who was in need.

Because the good man was a Samaritan, Jesus is drawing a strong contrast between those who knew the law and those who actually followed the law in their lifestyle and conduct.

Jesus now asks the lawyer if he can apply the lesson to his own life with the question “So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?" (Luke 10:36).

Once again, the lawyer’s answer is telling of his personal hardness of heart.

He cannot bring himself to say the word “Samaritan”; he refers to the “good man” as “he who showed mercy.”

His hate for the Samaritans (his neighbors) was so strong that he couldn’t even refer to them in a proper way.

Jesus then tells the lawyer to “go and do likewise,” meaning that he should start living what the law tells him to do.

By ending the encounter in this manner, Jesus is telling us to follow the Samaritan’s example in our own conduct; i.e., we are to show compassion and love for those we encounter in our everyday activities.

We are to love others (vs.

27) regardless of their race or religion; the criterion is need.

If they need and we have the supply, then we are to give generously and freely, without expectation of return.

This is an impossible obligation for the lawyer, and for us.

We cannot always keep the law because of our human condition; our heart and desires are mostly of self and selfishness.

When left to our own, we do the wrong thing, failing to meet the law.

We can hope that the lawyer saw this and came to the realization that there was nothing he could do to justify himself, that he needed a personal savior to atone for his lack of ability to save himself from his sins.

Thus, the lessons of the Parable of the Good Samaritan are three-fold: (1) we are to set aside our prejudice and show love and compassion for others.

(2) Our neighbor is anyone we encounter; we are all creatures of the creator and we are to love all of mankind as Jesus has taught.

(3) Keeping the law in its entirety with the intent to save ourselves is an impossible task; we need a savior, and this is Jesus.

Rather than hating our enemies as the oral tradition taught, we are to love them.