Rob's Expository Sermon Preparation | Luke 10:25–37 (2)

Introduction:

· Oxymorons (again): Military Intelligence, Jumbo Shrimp, Country Music, Hockey game…

· Good Samaritan? Half-breeds? Morally-compromised? No respect for the past? No such thing!!

WHY DOES JESUS HOLD UP A SAMARITAN AS THE HEIGHT OF VIRTUE? LET’S LOOK AT WHAT’S AT STAKE, WHAT DOES JESUS CALL US TO DO, AND HOW DO WE DO IT?

I) What’s at stake: How We Experience Eternal Life (vv. 25-29)

A. God Calls us to “Eternal Life” as a Way of Life

i. Eternal Life isn’t just quantity but quality (vs. 25)

1. The question: NOT about how or who to love but about “eternal life”

2. Why? E.L. is the fullness of life under God’s will that lasts forever

ii. Loving God completely, and loving Neighbor as Self are the way to eternal life

1. Jesus shows that obedience is an expression of love (vv. 26-28)

2. Some of us might feel “stalled” in your walk are you loving neighbors?

B. The Limits of Love (vs. 29)

i. “Who is my neighbor?”

1. Wanting to experience this – the TOL asks a raging debate question

2. Pharisees = conservatives (love non-Pharisees) Essenes = purists – heretics//renegades could be “thrown into a ditch.”

ii. The Limits of Our Love

1. We love those like us (but we’re polarized & don’t love those unlike us

2. EXAMPLE: moral (LGBTQ); ideological (Lib/Cons.); Social (vax/unvax)

JESUS DEMOLISHES THE LIMITS THAT WE SET UP.

II) The Art of Neighboring: Loving those We Hate to Love (vv. 30-35)

A. Who Do We Love: Those God Puts in Our Way (Even if we hate them!)

i. “What he says next leaves him speechless”: From theory to practice (vs. 30)

1. The clickbait question: Jesus jumps on this man’s question

2. Why? To force him – AND US-- out of the theories of love…into practice

ii. Jesus changes the equation: “Who would we want help from?” (vv. 30-35)

1. A victim on a rough road, a pastor, worship leader, “happen” (vs. 31)

2. But a despised Samaritan “became” a neighbor (vv. 33-35, 36)

3. EXAMPLE: Police officer in Rowlett, TX helped by an African-American

B. Two principles of Neighbor Love: By Pouring ourselves out for those in need

i. We are to love the neighbors God puts in our path

1. We are to love our neighbor in need:

i. Material needs (see James 2:14)

James 2:14 ESV

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?

ii. Emotional needs (Gal. 6:2)

Galatians 6:2 ESV

Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

iii. Physical Needs -- sickness(Matt. 25:

iv. Social needs – stranger, imprisoned (Matt. 25:35-36)

Matthew 25:35–36 ESV

For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’

2. We are to love our neighbor who is different: (like GNT)

ii. We are to pour out of our resources to love our neighbor

1. The Samaritan empties himself of what he has (time & treasure) to serve

2. EXAMPLE: giving handouts? Volunteering? Best practices…

JESUS ENDS WITH A QUESTION THE MAN COULE BARELY BRING HIMSELF TO ANSWER.

III) The Act of Neighboring: How do we Love our neighbor? (vv. 36-37)

A. Loving our Neighbor Begins with Compassion

i. Who understood the Law? (vs. 36)

1. Jesus’ question: Who grasped the meaning of Law?

2. The painful truth that the TOL couldn’t admit (and a sobering warning!)

ii. Showing Mercy begins with having compassion (vs. 33)

1. The Samaritan has compassion (almost) exclusively a quality of God

2. EXAMPLE: when we drive past prsion; M. Sq. Park; interact w. poor: do we blame? Or see as God does?

B. Learning Compassion is Rooted in God’s Compassion

i. God sends the remedy for us because we can’t keep the Law

1. Circling back: The impossible burden of the law points to Jesus

2. Though we will fail in living this, our shortcomings are covered by Jesus

ii. God shows compassion for us when we are infinitely further apart

1. And this is the point: God’s compassion in Christ changes us!

2. We were dead in sin but Jesus took our place

i. The gap between Jew/Samaritan is small compared to us & God

ii. Yet Jesus had compassion on us: He was beaten and bloodied

iii. He wasn’t left for dead, he want through death

Transition:

Conclusion

Communion, the poor, benevolence, and the early Church