We come to this last week as an involvement. God Cares, Do I? is the subject matter. We learned that our faith is not simply a matter of just having it, but its meant to be lived out and expressed in the world around us. I thought it would be appropriate this morning for us to talk on the Good Samaritan, so I want you to turn in your Bibles to Luke 10. The Saturday night crowd caught me off guard. I started to read from Luke 10, and, unrehearsed and unannounced, they all started to take the part of the man who comes to ask Jesus the question; rather spontaneously, they start reading his part. I was taken off guard by that, but I liked that. It was good. So what were going to do this morning is repeat that, not so spontaneously. Youre going to take the part of the man who comes to ask Jesus the question; so when hes speaking, thats you. Ill take the other part. Ill be the narrator here, and Ill do the words of Christ. Bear in mind now, you have a couple of lines; you have a word of dialog right in the middle, and then you have one on the end, so stay on your toes. Lets begin reading where you start with Verse 25 (page 1028 of pew Bibles). Go ahead, anytime you are ready. Congregation: On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. Teacher, he asked, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Pastor Jeff: What is written in the Law? he replied. How do you read it? Congregation: He answered: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, Love your neighbor as yourself. Pastor Jeff: You have answered correctly, Jesus replied. Do this and you will live. Congregation: But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, And who is my neighbor? Pastor Jeff: In reply Jesus said: A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper, Look after him he said, and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have. Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers? Congregation: The expert in the law replied, The one who had mercy on him. Pastor Jeff: Jesus told him, Go and do likewise. So He asks the question, Who is my neighbor? Possibly a descendent of Mr. Rogers? I dont know. Whos my neighbor? Not funny? Okay. (Congregation laughing). I wont do that the next round. But he wants to know, and Jesus is going to give him a response that is beyond his question. Hes going to answer not only who his neighbor is but what the responsibility of a neighbor is. Notice He says-about the traveler-he is a man. He doesnt tell us what country he is from. He doesnt tell us what religion he is. He doesnt tell us his race. I think thats strategic on the part of the Lord. I think Jesus wants this man to be an every man kind-of person. He wants him to represent anybody at any place in any time. He doesnt pinpoint a certain type of a person or from a certain region. He is simply a person. Jesus is trying to convey that your neighbor is anybody with whom you come in contact with. It is your fellow traveler along lifes road. But its not so with who comes to minister to him. The man who comes to minister, the hero of our story, is a very unlikely hero, and He names what he is. He is a Samaritan. That tells us where he is from. That tells us his race, and that tells us his religion. He was half Jewish, half Gentile. He had a kind of high-bread religion which had some Judaism in it. It tells us the geographic area where he is from, so we know a lot about that man. Why did Jesus tell us a lot about the man who comes to help and nothing about the man whom he had to help? The reason is that Jesus is speaking to a Jewish audience, so He is identifying the hero of the story as an unlikely source because the Jews had prejudice against the Samaritan, racial prejudice and religious prejudice. He is trying to establish the fact that our neighbor relationship goes beyond racial, religious, geographical lines. If He had been preaching this parable in the Middle East to the Arabs, then the Good Samaritan probably would have been a Jew. Had He been preaching this today in Iraq to a group of Sunnis, the traveler would probably have been a Shiite. He is trying to establish the fact that our neighbor is off times very different from us, that loving and showing compassion knows no boundaries. So Jesus is very strategic in whom He identifies and whom He chooses not to identify. Now were going to talk about lessons in living the life of a Good Samaritan. Whats involved? If youre going to live this kind of life, if youre going to say, Hey, I have a responsibility to my world, what does it look like when you put shoes on this thing, and you start to live this faith? What does it look like? The first thing you notice in the first few verses is who passes him by. The priest passes by; the Levite passes by. A Levite was of the priestly line. They were priests, and he passed him by. It could have been a number of reasons. It could have been apathy. It could have been the fact that they simply didnt have time. How many times have you passed somebody on the interstate, and their hood is up and smoke is coming out, but you dont have time to stop? You drive by and look, and you say, Oh, thats too bad. If I had time, I would help. But you dont help because you have someplace to go. Youve got things to do, people to see, so you drive by. When we were on our way to Yellowstone years ago, we were out in the middle of nowhere on this highway. The car broke down. Hundreds of people passed us by, hundreds of people. If it hadnt been for AAA and my cell phone, wed still be there. Nobody stopped. They saw children too. Youd think somebody would go, Oh, they have children. Lets stop. Not one. By the thousands, the cars drove by as we waited. Why is that? Apathy and time. A friend of mine named Harry Conn used to say, The smallest package in the world is a person all wrapped up in themselves. Thats what were trying to get away from here-unwrapping that package and giving ourselves to the world. Whether its something like Angel Tree or whether its through a missions trip that were going on to the Dominican Republic this summer, whatever the means, its about giving ourselves away to serve the Lord. People are busy, so its truly rare to be a Good Samaritan. If youre going to be a Good Samaritan, you are not like the rest of the world. You are definitely swimming upstream. The second thing I want you to notice about a Good Samaritan is that a Good Samaritan is discerning. In Verse 33, he comes to the man and he sees the man has a need and has gone through adversity that is beyond his control. He sees that somebody has attacked this man, its not his fault, and he needs help. You have to use discernment because if youre going to be a Good Samaritan, youre going to help people, people are going to come calling to be helped. When the word gets out, there will be people calling your phone and knocking at your door with their hand out too. People call our church all the time, especially during the holidays, and they want help. We try to help, but we also use discernment. If a person needs to pay their heating bill, because they dont have a job, we want to know, Do you not have a job because something unexpected happened? Was it a layoff due to the economy? Or did you have a bad attitude at your last job and have been too lazy to go out and get a new job? In that case, were not helping you by giving you a check. Our best help to you would be telling you that you need to find a job. If you dont have money for groceries, is it because of an illness that has happened, something bad that has happened? Or do you not have money for groceries because youre buying cigarettes and alcohol and lottery tickets? If its because youre buying cigarettes and alcohol and lottery tickets, were not going to help you buy those things. See, you have to use discernment. This man used discernment. He said, This man is having problems outside of his control, and he needs help. What does Paul say in Galatians? He says, Bear one anothers burdens. That was the word for boulder, something that comes on you that is overwhelming. Later, Paul says in Chapter 6 of Galatians, …but each one should carry his own load. That had to do with daily provisions. Youre responsible for yourself and your family, but when circumstances happen to you that are unexpected, and you need help, thats legitimate. These children that were helping through Angel Tree, its not their fault that a parent is incarcerated. Its not their fault that they cant afford Christmas gifts and food this holiday season. So, we are coming alongside of them as friends, and we are helping them. Thats Biblical. Thats discerning. The next verse, Verse 34 (Page 1028, still on Chapter 10)… See, in Verse 33, he takes pity, but if youre going to be a Good Samaritan, it involves more than pity; it involves action. Not only did he take pity on him, but it says he went to him, bandaged his wounds, poured on oil and wine, put him on his donkey, and took him to the inn and took care of him. If youre going to be a Good Samaritan, it involves action-more than just words, more than just saying, Oh, thats too bad. A lot of people will do that. I mentioned the Michael Jordan Birmingham Baron story to you a couple of weeks ago. My family was on a vacation down south at that time. Jordan was playing for the Birmingham Barons. We were watching the game, and there was about 4-5,000 people there. The manager for the Barons is developmentally disabled. This man would get the bats and the balls, foul balls, and he would catch the balls that would come down from the netting. What he would do was catch them, and everybody would clap. He would get a big smile on his face, and hed run back to the dugout. Somewhere around the sixth inning or so, at the end of the inning, this guy popped one out in the netting. He went to catch it, and he missed it in front of all these people! Everybody was watching it, and he missed it. The crowd went awwww, but the knuckleheads and the other minor league dugout started to use that as an opportunity to make fun of the man. I remember being really ticked off, like, How low do you have to be to make fun of a developmentally disabled man because he missed the ball? How low is that? Everybody felt sorry for the guy, but only one person did something about it. Do you know who it was? Michael. He walked over to the guy, put his arm on his shoulder and talked to him as they walked back to the dugout. He talked to him for a little while, and as soon as he was done talking to him, he muffed up his cap a little bit and ran to the outfield. The guy was grinning from ear to ear. One of the greatest athletes in history had just taken time to come buy, put his arm on him, and say, Hey, man, its okay. Youre going to get the next one. Dont listen to those knuckleheads! Youre doing a good job! Its coming alongside a person, putting your arm around them, and speaking encouragement, showing compassion. It is a demonstration. I heard another story about Michael, really quick here, because you know Im a Bulls fan. A lady came up Saturday night, and she said, I was a nurse and we had a young boy dying from cancer. The nurse sent Michael Jordan a letter saying, This boy idolizes you. Could you send him an autographed picture? Unannounced, not only does Michael send a picture, he shows up at the hospital. Nobody knew he was coming. He shows up with a life-size poster of himself signed by all the Chicago Bulls. He has all kinds of gifts for the kid. He sits down for an hour and a half and talks to the kid. He was just loving on the kid. Nobody knew he was coming. No pomp and circumstance, and then he walked out. I went, Thats really cool. It wasnt Michael just saying, Oh, the kid has cancer. Thats too bad. But he knew he could do something about it. He put feet to his faith, and he lived out compassion. Thats important. So, this man does something in Verse 35, The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. Look after him, he said, and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have. Notice that the guy doesnt get all upset. The innkeeper doesnt go, How can I trust you? This guy probably has already established a report. He knows hes credible. He knows hes trustworthy. He knows that if he says hell be back, he will be back. A Good Samaritan is a trustworthy person. If youre going to be a Samaritan, it will cost you. You have to know this going into it. It will cost you of your time; it will cost you of your energies; it will cost you of your resources, including money. Were sending a group to the Dominican Republic. We dont call them and say, Hey, Jack. Were sending 20 people to the Dominican Republic; can you talk to them about coming up with $1,500 for each of us so we can come? Who is covering that money for us to go? We are-all of us are. Were working. Its taking our energy and our time and our resources, so we can go and show compassion. If you dont have that mindset, if you dont go into service with the idea it will cost you, its going to be a rude awakening to you. To have that mindset before you go in prepares you to be a servant with a good heart. I spent many a night in the Homeless Shelter. Each night, your job is from 7-10. You answer the phone, you give out medicine, you check off jobs that are done. At 10 PM, lights go out, doors are locked, and you can retire to the guest room. Theres a television there; theres a bed there. You can go to bed, whatever you want to do. Youre tired because its pretty much non-stop for those three hours. During the night, its not uncommon to be woken up to let somebody in the door who is returning from work. Dont let anybody tell you that the people in the shelter are there because theyre lazy, and they dont want to work. The people that are there are working, and they are trying to get out of their circumstance. So, every time I am there, I get up in the middle of the night to let them in. This particular night, I was sound asleep. At midnight, the doorbell rings. It rings in your room, and I wake up disoriented, Where am I? Oh yeah, Im at the House of Mercy. Somebody wants to get in. So, I walk out of there and said, Hey, how are you doing? You open the door, Dont forget to sign in. Good to see you. Talk to you later. Then I went back to bed. At 1 AM, the doorbell rang again. I got up, and I said, Oh, what time is it? One oclock in the morning. I walk out, Come on in. Dont forget to sign in. I go back to bed. At two oclock in the morning, it rings again. I had just went back to sleep. I get up… Every time I get up, Im a little grumpier. Im a little less disoriented and a little bothered. I go back to bed. Three oclock in the morning, it goes off again. I was like, How am I going to get any sleep? I was not rude to any of the guests, but I wanted to get to bed. My attitude was pretty rotten. I remember walking back thinking about one thing, going to bed. I was not contemplating spiritual thoughts. I was not meditating. I was not praying, and then the Holy Spirit spoke. Has that ever happened to you? Sometimes He can speak at the most inappropriate times (congregation laughing), times when I really dont feel like hearing it. I wanted to get to bed, and Im just grumbling and complaining, Im not going to get any sleep tonight! I wonder who is going to come at five in the morning. Rarrr! Rrrrr! Then a voice says, not audibly-mind you, inside of my spirit says, What are you here for? I thought, Oh, man! That one hurt! My response was something anemic like to serve? Serving has as much to do with attitude as actions. Okay, all right. Thank you. Well talk about this in the morning. But you have to be prepared for it to cost you. This guy was willing to pay that price. Jesus says in Verse 36, Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers? The expert in the law replies, The one who had mercy on him. Notice, he still cant bring himself to say Samaritan. He still cant say the Samaritan is the good guy, so he goes, The one who had mercy on him. Jesus says, Go and do likewise. Now, here is where it gets tough. Heres where you wish you would not have come to church this morning. Go and do likewise is in whats called the imperative. Thats the command. Jesus speaks these words as a command. When He says go and do likewise, Hes not saying, You know, it would be a good idea when things slow down for you, if you get a chance…try to help someone. You know, after Christmas is done; youre done shopping and all the programs are all through. Or maybe this summer when the kids are out of school, and things slow down, maybe think about doing something good for somebody else. Its a command. Jesus is commanding us to live a life like this guy lives. Whats more, it is in the present tense. In other words, you could read this as go and do likewise and keep doing likewise. Jesus is saying, Not only is this a command, but this is a lifestyle. Its not an event. Its not something you check off your list and go, Be a Good Samaritan. There, done. I bought my Angel Tree gift; there, Im done until next year. Or, I dont have to worry about that until this summer in the Dominican Republic. It is a lifestyle. Its not an event. Its not something you cross off the list. Jesus said, This is what My people who name My name should be doing. We care about sharing the Gospel with people who have not heard or not received, and were going to keep doing that; but its important for the church to be involved also in the practical hands-on need of our community and our world. Im starting to see our church do a little bit more about that. When I speak, I mean not just our church, but churches around the nation. Theyre using some tangible ways-expressions of Christs love to the world. We see that, and we have some going to Louisiana or Mississippi just ministering to people who have lost things in the flood. Thats good stuff. Thats what were commanded to do. Its a lifestyle that were commanded to have. Also, lets back up for the next point. The next point is it is rewarding. Look at Verse 28 (still in Luke 10, page 1028). This is the beginning when he first asked the question, What must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus says, What does the law say? He says, Love you neighbor, love God. Jesus said, You answered correctly. Do this and you will live. This word, live, meant a quality of life: Zao, a quality of life, a high quality of life. Do this, Jesus said, and youre going to feel an inner reward, an inner satisfaction that youve done something good. Have you ever done something for somebody, and it just feels good inside? Maybe theres somebody that cant pay you back or youve helped them, and it brought tears to their eyes because they were so glad that you helped them? That feels good inside. God wired us that way, so it would feel good. Thats what it means. It has nothing to do here with material rewards; this is about an inner reward. Bill Gates worked his whole life for a material reward-to build a company, a big huge company, Microsoft. It is worth billions of dollars, and at some point, that got old. At some point, Bill Gates said, I dont need anymore money. I dont need a bigger company. Im going to start giving it away. So Bill Gates starts to give away his fortune. If you read any articles, like the one in Time, hes having the time of his life. Hes finding out that living for humanity is a whole lot more fun than living for himself, building his own kingdom. Warren Buffett saw what he was doing. Hes the second richest man in the world. He has about $77 billion or something like that. He says, How much money do I need? So he starts to divest of his fortune to the Bill Gates Foundation, which is doing monstrous things around the world. There is not a charity that is a close second to what these guys are doing. They are pouring billions of dollars into the world to combat diseases and other problems in the world. Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are having the time of their lives serving people. Now that is Zao life. What Jesus says here in Verse 28 is true for everybody. This is not just for Christians. This is for any person on the planet who serves his fellow man with a pure motive; he or she will experience Zao. He or she will experience a quality of life. God says its rewarding, its inner fun and satisfaction, and its good. The last point I want to make about being a Good Samaritan is that it is dangerous. I want to spend some time on this last point. You say, What do you mean its dangerous? Well, when you read this passage, if you dont know about salvation, if you dont know the things you know about Jesus and the Cross, the Resurrection and faith, youd be tempted to read this passage and walk away with the conclusion that if Im just a good person, Im going to go to Heaven, right? The man says, What must I do to earn eternal life; hes talking about eternal life, Heaven. What do I have to do to live forever? Jesus talks about obeying certain commands, but He says, Do this and you will live. Then when He talks about the Good Samaritan, one could draw the conclusion that if Im just a Good Samaritan, when I see needs and I respond-Im a good person, Im going to rack up enough points to make it. The problem is that Heaven isnt on the point system. God doesnt grade on a curve. If my going to the homeless shelter is worth ten points, what happens when I went to the door at two oclock in the morning with a bad attitude? Did I lose half of my ten points? Did I lose all ten of my points? Did I go negative ten points? You and I dont know, do we, if its a point system. If its about our goodness, merits, and our works counting for us in Gods log, when do you and I know weve done enough good? How much does the bad we do or the things we dont do negate the good things weve done? You and I would never be able to rest, would we, because wed never know? Not only what the standard is, but wed never know what our grade is. We wouldnt know where we were at. We wouldnt know if we had to work harder or if wed done enough. God does not grade on a curve, and God does not hand out merit points for good works. You receive Heaven not on the basis of what you do, but on the basis of what Christ has done. Notice the word of the question he asked. The question is What must I do to inherit eternal life? Thats the wrong question to ask. Inheriting eternal life is not about something you do. Eternal life is something you receive. You receive what He has done for you. You receive-by faith-His grace, His provision. There is something really interesting in the text. This is one of the reasons why you need pastors. I dont say that in any kind of arrogance or any kind of a condescending way. Its just that those of us who have been educated in how to read the Word of God, especially in the original languages, can see some things that are important; just like the word love has several meanings in the Greek, theres Philia, theres brotherly love, theres agape love, unconditional love, eros, passionate love, and youve got to know what the word is to know which word is being used. You have to know in the Greek that there are several words for live. I want you to focus with me right now. Theres the word weve already talked about which is Zao, which has to do with the quality of living. If you read the times in which it is used, its referring to a quality of life. That could be a low quality of life or a high quality of life. It is living out a quality of life. That is Zao. Then theres Psuche. Thats just life. Thats soul. Thats from the word breath. It simply means youre alive. It doesnt refer to a quality of life as much as it does to life itself. Youre a living being occupying space on this planet, taking in oxygen. You have a soul. Then there is another kind of life, the highers kind of life. Just like agape love is the highest kind of love, its a God kind of love; there is a word called Zoe which is the highest form of life. It is a God-kind of life. It is life as God knows it and as God experiences it. So when Jesus says, I have come that you might have life, what word does He use? Zoe, not Zao. Ive come that you might have eternal life; in John 3:16, what word is used? Zoe. Ive come that you might have a God-kind of life, a life that only God can give-a life that only emanates from Him. So, look at this passage, Verse 25. He says, Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Guess which word he uses for life here? Zoe, God-kind of life. What can I do to go to Heaven? How can I have eternal life? Thats his question. Jesus answers his question about good works; what you can do with good works. If you live a life with good works, youre going to have a good life. Jesus says in Verse 28, Do this, and you will live… What word does He use for live? Zao, quality of life. Jesus doesnt say, Do this and you will have eternal life. He asked about eternal life, but because eternal life does not come from things we do, Jesus does not tell him how to inherit eternal life. Jesus tells him how to be a good person, how to be a good neighbor, how to fulfill the Law of God, Do these things, and you will live: Zao. The only way to receive eternal life is to receive Jesus. Because youll never be good enough. Youll never score enough points. Only He lived a perfect, sinless life, and offered that life up for you as a gift, as an exchange. Your sinfulness for His righteousness. You receive that by faith as a gift. Christianity is not spelled D-O. Its spelled D-O-N-E. Its not what you do; its what Christ has done. Therefore, being a Good Samaritan is a dangerous thing. No matter how good Michael Jordan is… No matter how many good words Bill Gates and Warren Buffett do, no matter how many billions they give away, theyre goodness will not merit eternal life. You could hear this message, sell everything you have, give it to the poor, go live in Calcutta and feed orphans and take care of Lepers until the day you die, like Mother Teresa, and that will not merit Heaven for you. You will never be good enough for Heaven. The quality or the entrance exam for Heaven is 100 percent. It means to live a sinless, flawless life, and only Christ did that. Christ offers that life up to you as a gift that you will receive. So, its dangerous, but God has called us to live that life-not trusting in ourselves or our goodness, but trusting in His goodness, His righteousness. Live the life… Put shoes on your faith. Walk it out. The stuff weve learned, its not just so we can amass knowledge, but its so we can be the light of Christ. We can be the life of God in the world, doing things in Christs name to give Him the glory. Ill stop preaching right there. I hope that makes sense to you. If it didnt, come and see me.