Saved to Love part 2

Well, let's take our Bibles turn with me to Luke, turn with me to Luke, Luke chapter 10. We were here in Luke a couple of weeks ago. We will be in the same verses that we were in. That would be verses 25 to 36. So take your Bible and turn to Luke chapter 10 and just have your place marked there starting at verse 25. I think most of you know that we are continuing in our study through the parables of Jesus. It wasn't that long ago. We were dealing with the kingdom parables in Matthew 13, but we have shifted. And now we are dealing with parables that are all centered around the Christian life.

And we are seeing that within these parables, Jesus is teaching themes. He's teaching lessons. He's teaching examples that pertain to true Christian living. And He is also at times speaking of false Christian living. We don't always see the faults. Tonight we will see the faults. Now, if you have been keeping up with the study, you know that we have covered two parables so far in this portion. What I mean by that is the portion dealing with the Christian life parables. First, we studied the parable of the two sons. It's real simple. That parable teaches us what it means to serve. We are saved to serve.

And then the second parable we study was the parable of the lamp. And that teaches us that we are saved to shine. I know that those messages are out there. If you want to go get them, you can. And you can catch up. I know many of you do that. I hear you share those things with me. Well, tonight we're going to continue with the parable of the Good Samaritan. And I say continue. Many of you know that we started this parable a couple of weeks ago. And that might have stayed in your mind, but you might need some reminding. So I'm going to get to that part here in a minute.

Now, we could easily say that this is one of the most famous of all the parables. And you were probably familiar with this parable. You've at least heard someone quote from it. Maybe you heard a Sunday school lesson from it. Or maybe you have read it throughout the years. Now, not only do scholars tell us that this is the most famous of all of the parables. Some say this parable has the most clear and straightforward teaching compared to the rest. Now, that is up for debate. I think we have seen many of these parables are very complicated. Now, the meaning here is straightforward. And we're going to get to that.

And it is clear some are more difficult and some are easier to see. Now, John MacArthur says that this parable, and I'm quoting, in this parable we have this dramatic tale. It's a dramatic tale, a dramatic story. It's this dramatic tale that is widely used to teach the importance of helping those who are in need. He goes on to say the term "good Samaritan" has become an idiom, an idiom as an expression. That's a phrase. It has become an idiom for those who demonstrate unusual sacrificial kindness towards others.

I think we all know that this parable has become a cultural saying, a cultural expression for those who demonstrate unusual, even sacrificial love and kindness towards others. I ran across an example this week. I saw a news article. And the news article was about a Florida state trooper who was on foot trying to chase down a suspect. And the story went on to say that the suspect was getting the better half of the trooper. The trooper could not subdue this criminal. Well, the article said some good Samaritans, plural, pulled over, got out of their vehicles to help subdue the criminal. Well, what did they demonstrate?

They demonstrated an unusual and even sacrificial kindness towards the officer. And they did that for me too, because when they helped get a criminal off the street, it helps me. But in the news article, the headline there, it talked about good Samaritans. We've seen that before. I'm sure you have. Now, two weeks ago, when we were getting into the parable, I said that there is something we really, really, really need to see. I said that the surface meaning of the parable can be clear and easy to see. I think that is what most scholars are speaking to.

The obvious or the surface meaning of the parable is loving one's neighbor even in a sacrificial and unusual way. So the clear lesson from the parable is doing and living as we see in the parable. And if we only get the clear surface meaning, we will certainly be better Christians. I wouldn't argue with that. I don't think you would either. But two weeks ago, I did say that there is an ultimate purpose and meaning within the parable that can be difficult to see. I even said that there is a very important, even greater lesson that we need to see and we need to get here and we need to hold on to it. Now, I gave you an assignment.

Sometimes I do that. I don't ever check your homework. But sometimes I give you an assignment and I ask you to look for the surface lesson. I gave it to you multiple times. I gave it to you tonight. The surface lesson is easy to see. But I also said in the assignment, look for the greater lesson. Now, I don't know if you looked and I don't know if you found it. But if you didn't, we will get to it. But you'll have to wait till the end of the message. So be looking for this greater lesson.

Now, as we turn our attention to our parable, the parable at hand, we need to remember that this parable is taught in connection with an encounter that Jesus had with a certain Jewish lawyer. Sometimes I will refer to him as a Jewish leader. He was a lawyer, not like we would see today, but he was a lawyer as in an expert in the Old Testament law. That would be the scriptures. But in verses 25 to 29, we can see that this Jewish leader, he approaches Jesus with a question. And it was a very serious question and it was a good question. And out of this question and this encounter, Jesus taught the parable.

So let's get back to the parable and the encounter. Although we dealt with the encounter two weeks ago, we've got to look at it again in a quicker fashion. So let's get back to this encounter, back to this parable. And we covered this more in depth, but let's zoom through it real quickly and we'll get this in our minds. Let's look at the verses starting in verse 25. Starting in verse 25, "And behold, a certain lawyer, he stood up and he put him to the test." This would be Jesus saying, "Teacher," that would be, "Rabbi, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" And he said to him, "What is written in the law?

How does it read to you?" And he answered and he said, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength and all of your mind and your neighbor as yourself." And he said to him, "You have answered correctly. Do this and you will live." But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" Now we see in verse 25 that this religious leader stood up and he asked Jesus the greatest question that one could ever ask. This is a minister's dream encounter.

"How can I go to heaven?" Now I call this the magic question because this is the most important question that one could ever ask. Now with a masterful response, the master then turned and asked the lawyer a question, "What does the scripture say?" I call this the masterful response to this magic question because Jesus called the religious leader to the scriptures. I don't remember who said it, but one commentator that I read said that this shows us that Jesus had a high regard for the scriptures. He did. I think we know that. And we saw that this expert in the Old Testament law responded on the surface correctly. He quoted the scriptures.

He quoted the right scriptures. But below the surface we saw that he was very, very sinful. And that is why I call this the deceptive answer. Verse 25 tells us his intentions. His intentions were to trap Jesus. And then verse 29 tells us his intentions were to justify himself. So this lawyer noticed he had two very sinful motivations going on here. But remember the response from Jesus. Remember his call, his command. Go back to verse 28 and notice his command.

He said to him, "You have answered correctly, do this and you will live." And I call this, and it might surprise some of you, the command to be saved because it was a call to perfection. No person can live out what was laid out here. No person can live out the first and the greatest commandment. Many of you know that that was the scripture that they were talking about. God's perfect law demands that a man love God supremely and his neighbor as himself. And no person can live that perfect standard. So this was a call to be saved. Now right here I want you to think with me. I want you to see what is very important here.

And that is what should have taken place. Notice what should have taken place in verse 28 and 29. What does he say? Jesus. "You have answered correctly, do this and you shall live." But notice the response. Wishing to justify himself. He said, "Well, who is my neighbor?" See this expert in the law, in the scriptures, he should have said, "I can't do that." He should have said, "I can't do that." In humility and submission he should have said, "I can't do that and no one can do that, so what must I do?" Well, if this religious leader had responded that way, what would have happened? What would have Jesus said to him?

What would Jesus have done? I believe that he would have led him to eternal life like he did so many. Well, this young lawyer did not react in humility and submission. He simply reacted in pride and self-preservation. You see? He tried to justify himself by sidestepping the first and the greatest commandment, which is loving God supremely, and then he tried to pivot the conversation into a dumb debate about who his neighbor actually was. You see it? You see what he did? Rather than submitting to Jesus in humility for salvation, he reacted in pride and self-preservation.

He worked to justify himself by ignoring the supreme command, which is to love God supremely, and he tried to change the conversation into a completely meaningless debate about who his neighbor is. And as a response to this seeming standoff, this seeming debate, Jesus told the parable. You see? Now, in the parable, it is easy to see that we have quite a few people and quite a few things going on. I like what the Bible commentator James Montgomery Boyce calls these four people. He calls them four classes of people. He says we've got the victim. He says we've got the victimizers. He says we have the indifferent and we have the concerned.

And notice we have one victim. We have a group of victimizers. We don't know who they were or how many they were. We have two that are indifferent, and then we have one that is concerned. Now, I'm going to borrow his language, and like I do most of the time, when I borrow someone's language, I end up changing all that they give us. So let's read the parable, and then I want us to start looking at the victim, the victimizers, the indifferent, and the concerned.

Verse 30, Jesus replied and said, "A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, and they stripped him, and they beat him, and they went off leaving him half dead. And by chance a certain priest was going down that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise, the Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, he passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan who was on a journey came upon him, and when he saw him, he felt compassion.

And he came to him, and he bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them, and he brought him on his own beast, and he brought him to an inn, and he took care of him. And on the next day, he took out two denarii, and he gave them to the innkeeper, and he said, 'Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will return, and I will repay you.'" And then notice verse 36 and 37, "Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers' hands?" Obviously, he's posing this to the lawyer, this question.

And he said, "The one who showed mercy toward him," and Jesus said to him, "Go and do the same, or go and do likewise." So let's look at the victim, the victimizers, the indifferent, and the concerned. Number one, we have the victim, right there in verse 30. The text says that he was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. Now, there are several things going on here. Jerusalem actually sits up on a mountain, some 2,500 feet above sea level, and Jerusalem is about 800 feet below sea level. So no matter how you approach, you go up to Jerusalem or go down from Jerusalem. It's a geographical issue.

But this route, or this road between Jericho and Jerusalem was about 15 miles, and it was perfect for highwaymen, thieves, and robbers. There were many caves and rock formations there along the route. It was a narrow, rocky, mountainous route, and this road made it a perfect place for thieves to hide and lay in ambush for travelers. And this was a well-traveled road. Jericho was a large city, and Jerusalem was obviously a large city. It was where the temple was, and so there was a lot of travel between the cities.

I don't remember where I read it, but years ago I read where one scholar said, "Many of those religious leaders who worked at the temple even lived in Jericho." So this gave thieves and robbers a perfect setup. Scholars and historians tell us that during this time this route was plagued with thieves and robbers. The noted Jewish historian Josephus mentions this, and as a matter of fact some scholars will tell you that it is even dangerous today, this route. So we see what happened. A particular man was traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho.

He was attacked, and the text says he was stripped naked, he was beaten, he was robbed, and he was left for dead. He was half dead, and he was left for dead. So that's easy for us to see, the victim and the scene and what is going on here. And then notice number two, we have the indifferent. In verses 31 to 32 we have the indifferent. We have two that are indifferent in this situation and indifferent towards the needs of the victim. First the priest, now the priests, those Jewish priests were the descendants of Aaron, and they were involved in working the temple.

They were responsible for the animal sacrifices and the general maintenance of the temple, and they were responsible for things like rites of purification, and that is a fast summary of the things that they were responsible for. But they were the most righteous of all the Jewish men they were supposed to be. They were to be the most godly and the most spiritual in the nation, and that is how they were seen. If I could use modern day language, they were the ministers of the day. Now, what does he do? He comes upon the naked, beaten, half dead man, and he passes on the other side of the road, the text says. Now why did he do this?

When you start reading about why he did this, it's interesting to see some of the speculation. Some speculate that he was afraid to stop because he feared being attacked as well. That's a pretty good speculation. Some speculate that he feared coming in contact with a dead body. As a priest, he could not defile himself by coming in contact with a dead body. Now that was a real fear for the Jews, especially the Jewish leaders. But all of these reasons are speculative. We don't know, but we do know that there were reasons. What we do know is this, he did know the scriptures, which commanded that the Jews show mercy to others.

Passages like Leviticus 19.34 and Exodus 23.4-5 tell us that Jews were expected and commanded to show mercy to strangers. I just mentioned a couple. They were even to save an enemy's donkey if it wandered off and collapsed under a load. And notice this, there is no doubt that the priest knew these passages and there is no doubt that he knew Leviticus 19.18, which said that he was to love his neighbor as himself. So we have the priest. Second, we have the Levite, the second in different individual here. The Levite was similar to the priest.

The Levites were descendants of Levi, and they were basically assistants to the priests in their work in the temple. They served in various duties surrounding the sacrifices, but they did not actually make the sacrifices. A good way to put it is, we could say that they were associate ministers. They were also the temple police. You'll probably read about the temple police and the gospels. And just like the priests, the Levites were to be the most righteous of all the Jewish men. They were seen as spiritual and godly by the people. Now what does he do? It's obvious, the same as the priest passes by. Now why did he do this?

He could have been afraid that he would be attacked if he stopped or he might have been like the priest possibly was. He might have been worried about becoming unclean. Of course, we do not know why we can speculate here. But what we do know is this, he knew the scriptures as well, which commanded that the Jews show mercy. The Levite would have known these passages that I mentioned and many more. But oh, both of them knew Leviticus 19, 18. That would be the second of the greatest, the second greatest commandment. And that was to love your neighbor as yourself. So we have the indifferent.

The priest and the Levite came upon this half-dead man and they passed by on the other side. They were supposed to be the most godly men in the land. They definitely knew the scriptures which commanded that the Jews show mercy to strangers, those who were in need. So this is easy to see. If anybody knew what needed to be done here from God's standpoint, they knew it. And I think you see that as well. Number three, we have the concern. We read about the concern one in verses 33 to 35. Whereas with the indifferent, we had two, but with the concern we only have one. Now a question, really two, form one.

Who is a Samaritan and what is a Samaritan? What is the significance in this man being a Samaritan? Some of you know this, but we need to think about these things because this question, these questions have a bearing on the application. You see, a Samaritan was an outsider, but more. A Samaritan was hated. All Jews hated Samaritans. The Samaritan was hated basically for two big reasons, for national reasons and for religious reasons. Now here's a quick, very basic survey of the history of things here. After King Solomon died, the nation of Israel was divided.

And because of the judgment of God on the nation, the nation was finally overrun by the Assyrians. Besides the fact that the temple and their homes were destroyed and the nation was destroyed, two things happened. Two things happened. First, the Assyrians took leading Jewish citizens out into exile and they assimilated them into the Assyrian Empire. And then second, non-Jewish peoples were brought into the region. And as a result, intermarriage. As a result, the remaining Jews married those non-Jews who were brought in. Now some of you know that the Southern Kingdom fell much later.

In the Southern Kingdom, when they saw those in the north in Samaria, they were intermarrying with what? Assyrians and other Gentiles. Oh, they hated them. They were half-breed Jews. They were half-Jews, half-Gentiles, and they primarily resided in Samaria, the region. Therefore, they were called Samaritans. And when the Jews returned from exile, the Samaritans tried to help in rebuilding the temple and the nation. Well, that did not go over very well. The Samaritans were rejected in every way. And in response, the Samaritans fought against the Jews and later they ended up building their own temple.

They had their own version of the Old Testament scripture and they had their own perverted view of worship, a perverted view of Judaism. Of course, that's a fast history of what's going on here, this difference between the Jews and the Samaritans. So what is the point? The Samaritans were hated. They were outsiders nationally and religiously. They were rejected as half-breed dogs. They were despised in every way. They were actually worse than a Gentile because they were half-Jew. Now, this is from the Jewish perspective. But notice what happened. The Samaritan comes upon this man. He's naked. He's stripped. He's half-dead.

And he was concerned. Other than that, he showed compassion on the man and he did several things. I want you to see that he felt compassion on the man and this compassion went beyond concern and it went beyond concern to doing certain things. First of all, he risked his life by stopping. He risked his life by just stopping. What if the bandits would have come back? What if the bandits demanded the man's medical needs? The wine and the oil, the oil and the wine, that would have been for medicinal purposes. He put him on his own animal to transport him. He took him to an inn for safety and for additional care.

He arranged for further safety and for care in his absence and then he made a pledge for further expense and care. He gave of his safety by stopping. He gave of his material possessions and monies by using his medical supplies. He gave of his material possessions by using his own animal. He gave of his time by deviating from his plan and even spending the night in the inn. He gave of his monies by securing a room in the inn. He gave of more of his money by leaving funds and even promising to cover further expenses that are incurred. He gave of his reputation and character by promising to return and cover those expenses.

He gave more of his time by returning to care for the man. And notice, he gave even much more. Scholars presume that this victim was a Jew. If that was the case, the Samaritan gave more in that they would have been bitter enemies. If that's the case, he stepped across many religious, religious, and social and even national lines to care for him. So this is the story of the good Samaritan. He stopped to help this naked, beaten, half dead man. He was left for dead. So that's a lie. Now in summary, look at the parable. Jesus said a certain man, and listen, this is an expression that Luke used here only when introducing a parable.

So he's introducing a parable, a story. Jesus told the parable an earthly story that is infused with all kinds of spiritual truth and truths. So this man was traveling in a very dangerous place between Jerusalem and Jericho. He was robbed, he was beaten, he was left for dead, half dead. A priest and a Levite come upon him, but they avoided him and they passed him by. But a Samaritan came upon him and he felt compassion for the man. That's a key term. The compassion certainly does mean that he was stirred in his emotions, yes. But this compassion means that he was moved with compassion.

He was moved to do something for the man, so he met all of his needs. He was moved with compassion to care for the man and he did it. After Jesus had presented this story to the lawyer, he offered a counter question to the lawyer's previous question. The lawyer asked in verse 29, "Who is my neighbor?" Well, from the parable, Jesus countered it. And he asked, "Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who was the victim?" Of course, the lawyer answered correctly. He said the Samaritan. Is that what he said? That isn't what he said. He didn't say the word Samaritan. He said the man.

Scholars speculate that he couldn't even say the word Samaritan. But he did give the right answer. And as Jesus said, notice what he said, "You go and do as the Samaritan did, you go and do the same." It's pretty simple and easy to see. Now at this point, I want to step back from the parable. It's a lot. And this is where we're going to move into some application. I want to do three things here. I want to make some observations concerning the Samaritan and the priest in the Levite. And I want to make some comparisons. The observations and the comparisons will kind of all blend together. And then I'm going to offer you some lessons.

Now this really all comes from several things. Some other stuff that I studied and borrowed, some insight of my own that I meditated on, and some things that James Boy said as well. So this is kind of a mixture of several things. But I think it will speak to us. It is spoken to me. But first, first the Samaritan's reaction, notice, it was not hindered by a legalistic use of Scripture. His reaction was not hindered by a legalistic use of Scripture. Here is where we will make observations and comparisons. But notice this. This Samaritan did not allow the very same thing the religious leaders were holding on to, to be his downfall.

That was legalism. That was a legalistic approach and use to the Scripture. The lawyer that was questioning Jesus was a legalist. He was straining at this question of who is my neighbor out of legalism. He missed the point. Legalists always missed the point of the Scripture. They always do. He was straining at a technical question of who is my neighbor when the entire point is loving your neighbor no matter who they are. And that is just what the priest and the Levite did. They did what all of the religious leaders in Jesus' day did. They reacted to the situation through the lens of legalism.

I'm going to read you a little bit of stuff that James Montgomery Boy says here. This will lead us to our application. And I'm quoting. Notice what he says. "Those men prodded themselves on keeping the law exactly. They were fanatics about it." He's talking about the religious leaders. "But they were also mean-minded legalists who used their approach to Scripture to limit it and thus escape the law's true scope and meaning." And notice, I'm still quoting. "If the law had said, 'Help the poor man who is lying beside the road half dead,' they would have done it, perhaps, grudgingly.

But because it only said, 'Love your neighbor as yourself,' they could debate who that elusive neighbor was and leave the poor man unattended." And then Boyce goes on with the question. Was that what the lawyer who asked this question was doing? Yes, no doubt. But it is what we do, too. Particularly those of us who are good Bible scholars. We use our expertise to escape to get off the hook. We exegete the meaning, but we miss the obligation. So I have a few questions here in application. Do we work hard to learn the Scripture? Do we enjoy learning theology and what the Scriptures say? Do we debate the meaning of Scripture?

Do we debate the deep things of the Scripture? Even the parables that we have been studying, all while ignoring the neighbor who is naked and beaten and half-dead? I know I'm going to get off into some theological high weeds here, but follow me. I know people who will debate the atonement. I know people who will debate, "Did Jesus die for the world? Did Jesus die for the elect?" Well, which is it? Yes. Actually, there's one more. He died for Israel. So if I stand here and say, "He died for the world," I'm correct. And if I stand here and say, "He died for the church," the elect, I'm correct.

And if I stand here and say, "He died for Israel," I'm correct. Now, I know that there needs to be some further explanation, but what I'm showing you is this. I know people who will argue and debate and philosophize all day long about who Jesus died for when actually when they walk out the door, there's some poor, blind, half-dead naked man out there who needs Jesus. And they walk out with their high and mighty pontification about who Jesus died for, and they miss the whole point. Now, I don't know who Jesus died for. I know what the Scriptures say, but I know this.

There are people out there everywhere who are naked and beaten and half-dead, and they need Jesus. And my approach is this. I'm going to look at them and believe that Jesus died for them, and I'm going to witness and share the love of Christ with them, and if they come to faith in Christ, I'm going to say, "Well, they're that part of the elect." But what I'm trying to show you is this. That is one way we can see where we are just like the legalists. We debate the meaning of these things, and we walk right over the dead man or half-dead man. That's just one example. And so my question is this. Do we work hard to learn the Scripture? We should.

Oh, we should. Do we learn theology? Yes, we should. Do we even debate the meaning of these things? We should, yes. But if we're not careful, we can do these things in a legalistic way and become high and mighty and miss the whole point that there are people who are half-dead and need our care. Second, the Samaritan's reaction was not hindered by his differences with the man. This is where understanding who and what the Samaritan is helps us here. Of course, there were people. There were a completely separate people from the Jews. The Samaritans, we have to understand that. They had their own religion.

They had a perverted view, a version of Judaism. They even had their own temple. They had their own Scriptures. We could get into that. They had their own religion, which was a Samaritan version of Judaism. So in many ways, there were great differences between the Samaritans and the Jews, and these things went back generations. So the Samaritan did not allow any religious or national or racial or social differences to keep him from helping the man. And notice something here. Notice that Jesus uses the hated and the outcast to make the point.

It was the hated Samaritan who acted in love as a good neighbor should while the respected priest in Levite showed no mercy in love. The fact that Jesus used the Samaritan to make his point, listen, it was a blast in the face to this lawyer who was seeking to justify himself. So an application, a question. Do we let differences keep us from loving our neighbor? Do we? You know, we get numb to our differences. I remember when I went to India years ago, they are a strict caste system. Very strict. You don't move within caste. I remember that we were there staying with a particular minister, and he was not of the high caste.

Now, I can't look at them and tell who's high and who's not, but, oh, they can. He's very rigid. And as we would stay with his pastor and go in and out of his apartment, his neighbors would come to him and they would accuse him of being high caste. He'd say, "No, I'm not. I'm like you." He was kind of mid-cast. But he couldn't understand why Americans, because all Americans are rich and wealthy compared to them, why Americans would be staying with him if he wasn't high caste. See, they could see the differences. Of course, we did some ministry with the lowest of low, the Dalits. They were easy to see.

And, oh, that was breaking a lot of rules, because in that culture, you didn't go to the Dalits. They were considered the untouchables. But, see, those Christians didn't see the differences. It didn't matter about high caste or low caste. As a matter of fact, we went and did some Bible studies in a high caste apartment complex, and, oh, I felt like I was in America. It shows us that we're more high caste than we know. See, we can get numb to our differences. Racial, religious, you know, we can live in our bubble. And what I'm showing you is this.

We need to open our eyes and have God to open up our eyes if we are letting differences keep us from loving our neighbor. And then third, I want us to see that Samaritan's reaction was not hindered by this big inconvenience. Now, I'm not going to go back over all of the scripture and all of the things that the Samaritan gave in sacrifice, but look at the three things that he sacrificed. And these things, most people, they treasure the most. First is security. Second is money. Third is time. See, the Samaritan, for this Samaritan to risk his security was a terrible inconvenience. It could have been a deadly inconvenience.

What about his wife and children? If he had been attacked and killed, who would have taken care of his wife and children? We don't know if he had a wife or children, but you see what I'm aiming at? For this Samaritan to give his money was a terrible inconvenience. Could he have had a few bills at home to pay? If he's like us, he did. Could this money have cut into his hobby money? Could this money have cut into his savings or even caused his family some financial strain for this Samaritan to give his time? That was a big convenience.

He gave a couple of days or so, if you look at the parable, could this have made him miss some business contacts? Could this have intruded into some family time, even some personal me time? I know I'm using my imagination there. And the question for us is this. Do we, will we allow inconveniences to hinder our love for others? Or do we gladly inconvenience ourselves for the sake of others? Do we take risks for others? Do we give up our money for others? And do we give up our time? Three words, security, money, and time.

If you buy a plane ticket to go around the world on a mission trip, someone will look at you and your family, and they'll say, "That's kind of dangerous." If you mention getting on an airplane and spending, you know, more than $1,000 to go on a mission trip, somebody will say, "That will cost you a lot of money." If you talk about taking a trip somewhere like that, someone will say, "Do you have enough vacation time?" Now, I'm talking about an airplane here, but what about someone who is in our own neighborhood? Security, money, time. Now, before I close and give what I see is the greater lesson here, I want to offer us a warning.

Right now, we do not need to ask who our neighbor is. We do not need to ask who our neighbor is. We do not even need to start looking for our neighbor. That might surprise you. We start by looking at ourselves. We ask God to help us see who and what we are. Is it that what Jesus was doing with the lawyer? Wasn't he shining the light onto who and what he was? Yes. And we need to see that we all have a little bit of Levite in us. We may even have a whole lot of Levite in us. We need to see that we are probably a little priestly and probably at times a lot priestly. And we need God to help us see why we do and can avoid our neighbors.

Yes, we all see the naked. We all see the bleeding and the half dead around us, and we walk past them, so we need God to help us see why we avoid them. We need to see who and what we are. Now I close by speaking to the good and the obvious and the surface meaning, and then I'll speak to the greater lesson that I see here. First, the obvious surface meaning of the parable is this. Love your neighbor. It's there. You would have had to be asleep if you didn't catch it. Jesus said, "Go and do likewise. Love your neighbor, even though it may take a risk and a little inconvenience and even cost you some money.

You have to look over differences and such and such." He says, "Love your neighbor." Quoting John MacArthur again, he says, "This parable is this dramatic tale that is widely used to teach the importance of helping those in need." That's easy. And if you do that, you'll be a better Christian. But this greater lesson from the parable, this greater lesson is this, loving God. That's why we had to get to the encounter. The first and greatest commandment. That is where it all starts. And that is why we must study the encounter with the lawyer and Jesus as well as the parable. It's all connected.

And look, the only way we can love our neighbor as ourselves is if we love God as we should. Living the greater lesson, loving God, enables us to live the obvious lesson. Now, I want to close with an illustration. Anybody have a mirror in their home? Yeah? That blessed, cursed mirror. You know, a mirror reflects back to us who and truly we are, right? That mirror shows us our gray hair or the hair that has fallen out. I got a little spot back here. You didn't have to laugh. When I go to the barbershop and I sit in the chair, I'll ask the lady that cuts my hair.

I'll say, "How's my spot look back there?" She'll say, "It's the same." Well, the other lady will lean over and say, "It's getting worse." The mirror reflects back to who we are. It shows us our gray hair. It shows us our crow's feet. It shows us our wrinkles and our sunspots and our double chin. My girls will ask me, "Daddy, you ever going to shave?" And my wife will say, "No, it covers up his double chin." The mirror tells us physically who we are. Although I feel 25, the mirror tells me every day that I'm 40. Well, yeah, some of you are laughing. I'm not quite 40.

Well, how we interact with our neighbor, how we interact with our neighbor is a reflection of our love for God. How we love or don't love our neighbor is a reflection of our love for God. The spiritual mirror tells us spiritually who we are. Although we may talk of loving God, the mirror of how we love or don't love our neighbor is a reflection of our love for God. So here's how I want to close. Let's work on how we love God. And if we work on how we love God, we will naturally love our neighbor. It will just happen. It will just happen. And you'll say, "I don't know where all that came from, came from God."