Sermon Tone Analysis

/Tonight I want to continue discussing the purposes of the church.

A couple of weeks ago I talked about the first purpose of the church being worship, being grounded in what Jesus stated as the greatest commandment, found in /

*Luke 10:27a*/ You shall love the Lord// your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind…/

/            //If you recall, I told you that worship was the primary purpose of the church, that worship must be focused on God and that we must always strive to worship the Lord in spirit and in truth.

Tonight I want to talk to you about the second purpose of the church, which I want to sum up by the word *ministry*/* *which is based on the 2nd greatest commandment Jesus gave us in

*Luke 10:27* /You shall love…your neighbor as yourself./

/            / /The purpose of the church is to be a community of people who love others as we love ourselves.

I want you to explore with me what that means first in general terms, and then in terms of how that works in the local church.

/ 

/            Our culture tends to limit the word “ministry” to the work of a pastor or preacher or evangelist or missionary.

But actually the word “ministry”= serving the needs of others.

Ministry is not just the job of professionals—it is the high calling of each member of the church of Jesus Christ.

/

/            To help us understand this I want to begin by hiring a firefighting team.

/

I need to get 4 volunteers to help me out.

First, I need a fire truck driver.

__________, would you be my driver?

I need somebody to be in charge of the water hose.

____________

     Now I need somebody to carry the ax.

_____________________

     OK one more person I need to be sure everybody has their helmets.

______________ Now remember what I asked you to do, OK? 

/            Next, I want to take a closer look at how ministry works as individual Christians and as the Body of Christ by looking at an important question you have to answer before you can minister the love of Christ.

The question is asked in /

*Luke 10:29* /But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”/

/            /The man who asks this question is looking for a loophole.

He doesn’t want to feel responsible for every Tom Dick or Harry that comes along needing help.

So he asks Jesus /just who do you have in mind when you use this word, “Neighbor”?

/

 

            Jesus answers with the familiar story of the Good Samaritan, in which Jesus connects loving your neighbor with ministry.

This story is a perfect illustration of the principles of what “loving your neighbor ministry” is all about.

Let’s read the story and then let me point out some things.

(*Read Luke 10:30-37*).

*PRAYER*

*            *What is “loving your neighbor” ministry all about?

First *ministry begins with a heart of compassion.*/

/(*v.

33*)

/            /A tramp was looking for a handout one day in a picturesque old English village.

Hungry almost to the point of fainting, he stopped by a pub bearing the classic name, /Inn of St. George and the Dragon.

/

“Please, ma’am, could you spare me a bite to eat?” he asked the lady who answered his knock at the kitchen door.

“A bite to eat?” she growled.

“For a sorry, no-good bum—a foul-smelling beggar?

No!” she snapped as she almost slammed the door on his hand.

He knocked again on the kitchen door.

“Now what do you want?” the woman asked angrily.

“Well, ma’am, might could I have a word with St George this time?”

[i]

            Sometimes people aren’t very good at being compassionate on the needs of others.

But if you are going to love your neighbor, you first have to begin by keeping a heart of compassion.

This poor traveler needed somebody to care about him, to have compassion enough to stop and help.

The Levite and the priest see the poor beaten man, but they don’t really care about him.

Maybe they’re just in a hurry; perhaps they were scared of being robbed themselves.

Either way they have no concern about his needs.

But the Samaritan has compassion on him.

His heart goes out to this poor, helpless man.

This is more than a little unusual.

You assume the man who was robbed was a Jew, one who despised Samaritans.

In this culture there was a deep hatred between Samaritans and Jews.

Jesus uses a Samaritan as the hero of this story for a reason—he would have no reason to care at all about a dying Jew.

Yet this Samaritan’s compassion is stronger than his prejudice, stronger than his fear.

He looks down on the beaten, bloody body and perhaps thinks to himself /if that was me, I would want somebody to help me.

/

*Mt 7:12* /Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets./

/            /Loving his neighbor meant caring about the needs of his neighbor.

Ministry doesn’t begin with what you do—it begins in a heart of compassion.

But it doesn’t end there.

*/Ministry involves doing something./*/

/The Samaritan’s compassion went beyond just a feeling—it translates into action.

This compassionate Samaritan gets busy bandaging wounds, pouring out expensive medicine, taking the time to load the poor man on his own donkey, carrying him to the nearest Holiday Inn, paying for his stay and even offering to pay more if necessary.

The Samaritan uses His own resources to minister to the need of this wounded stranger.

Thirdly, don’t miss an important point Jesus makes by using a Samaritan as the hero of the story.

Jesus is telling us /It doesn’t matter who you are---all of us should be involved in ministry.

/His last question and command sum it all up in *v.

36-37* (*read*.)

*Who did I ask to be in charge of my waterhose?*

Do you see what Jesus calls us to do?

When He commands us to /love your neighbor as you love yourself, /He isn’t just saying /have these warm feelings for others.

/Loving your neighbor involves having compassion for the needs of your neighbor, and then serving your neighbor by using what you have to meet their needs.

/This is what ministry is all about.

/

            Haddon Robinson relates a conversation he had with his young son about the parable of the Good Samaritan.

After his son retold the story, Robinson asks, "Son, what was the spiritual lesson of the story?"

It was obvious I had taken him by surprise, and he thought for a minute and said, "That story teaches that whenever I'm in trouble, you've got to help me."[ii]

The Biblical term for loving your neighbor as you love yourself is /ministry-caring about and then serving the needs of others.

/The Bible sums this ministry up in

*Galatians 5:13* /For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but *through love serve one another.

*/

*Who did I ask to be the driver of the fire truck?*

*     *Now let’s talk about how this loving-your-neighbor ministry applies to the church.

First of all, it means /each of us should be sensitive and compassionate about the needs of each other.

/The Bible calls us the Body of Christ, and tells us in

*1 Co 12:12, 25-26* 12For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also /is/ Christ…..25that there should be no schism in the body, but /that/ the members should have the same care for one another.

26And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with /it;/ or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with /it./

Just as a human body is bound together so closely that one part affects another, so also the Body of Christ is to be so connected that we are sensitive and compassionate to the needs of one another.

/We ought to be developing caring relationships with one another.

/

The word I like to use here is /family.

/Just as a family cares for one another’s needs, so also the church is God’s family which cares for one another’s needs.

*Who did I ask to carry the ax?*

But you cannot stop there, because this parable speaks not only of being sensitive to the needs of other church members, but having compassion on those who are outside God’s family.

The Samaritan was an outsider to God’s chosen people, yet he had compassion on this poor man on the road.

/We who are on the inside must also have compassion on people in need who aren’t Christians.

/

Ministry—loving your neighbor—begins with a heart of compassion.

But it has to go further and translate into action.

Ministry is not just about what you feel—/it’s about what you do.

/

Like faith, love shows up in our works.

How do we show our love for our neighbor?

/By doing what we can to meet their needs.