The Good Samaritan, Part 1

If you have your Bible, I would invite you to turn with me to Luke chapter 10. Luke chapter 10, the parable of the Good Samaritan. Probably the most famous of all the parables ever written, ever read, ever spoken about.

In fact, if you were to travel up and down our country today, you'd see Good Samaritan hospitals, Good Samaritan mercy institutes, Good Samaritan nursing homes. In fact, if you watch the news and somebody happens to help somebody along the side of the road, we call them a Good Samaritan. And the term has become so familiar to us that we have forgotten the truth behind the parable that our Lord told in Luke chapter 10.

We've entitled our series, "The Searchlights for the Soul." That's what the parables are. God is shedding light on the condition of all of our hearts, helping us to understand the true condition of our lives. And so many times, as we read the Bible, we refuse to look at the Word of God in light of where we are as His children. And God, in his parables, shows us the condition of our hearts.

There are three sets of parables that are in the Bible. We've already dealt with the first set of Matthew chapter 13. They were all given on one day, just one day. And Christ gave us the parables of the kingdom age, the time of the mystery, of the church age. That which was concealed in the Old Testament and was now revealed in the New Testament. And Christ would tell his men all what would take place between his rejection and his return.

There were seven parables we covered in Matthew chapter 13, all given on that one day. If you don't have any of those, we'd encourage you to pick those up, purchase them at our tape ministry window and listen to them. We don't make money on those tapes. We're not here - we're not a money-making business here. We just want to make sure that we get the word of the Lord out to people. And those parables help you understand what Jesus is saying that's going to happen between his rejection and his return.

The second set of parables is found in Luke chapter 10 through chapter 19. These happened over a long period of time. The kingdom parables were told on one day. These parables, dealing with practical Christian living, were given over a long period of time, from the transfiguration to the triumphal entry. And these parables deal with the condition of man's heart, what God expects a man to do, how he expects him to live, and again they shed light on the condition of our souls.

And then the third set of parables is in Matthew 19 through Matthew chapter 25. These parables deal with the end times. These parables deal with God's punishment, God's condemnation of the wicked. It's interesting that he would end his ministry talking about the punishment and damnation of the wicked. And these parables have a strong tone to them. In fact, you will note that as you go through the parables, they have an increasing tone of harshness from the kingdom parables to those told in Luke to those told at the end of the book of Matthew. And Christ is increasing his tone when it comes to helping people understand not only the condition of their lives, but the destination of their souls.

And so that's the story of the parables. The parables in Matthew 19 and 25 are given in a short period of time as well, somewhere between four and five different days. And those are the parables we're going to cover. We've already covered the ones in Matthew 13. We're beginning the second section of parables in Luke chapter 10: the parable of the Good Samaritan.

And I'm afraid that so many times when we read the Bible, there are things that are familiar to us. We think, "Oh, yeah, the parable of the Good Samaritan. I don't have to go hear the preacher preach on that. I know about that parable." The problem with that is that the more we say we know something, usually the less we do what is in the Word of God. And so familiarity tends to breed contempt. And so we need to understand exactly what the Word of the Lord says concerning our neighbor and what God has to say specifically, as he relates it to this man who comes to him and asks him a question.

Our outline is the same, it's the same throughout all the parables that we're going to do. We begin with an instruction, very simple outline, it's not very difficult at all. And as we look at the first part, the instruction, we're going to look at three phases: the dialogue, the monologue, and the epilogue. The implications, though, are far-reaching.

Luke chapter 10, verse number 25: "And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and put him to the test, saying, 'Teacher, 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 said, 'You shall 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 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?' Jesus replied and said, 'A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him and went off, leaving him half dead. And by chance a certain priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise, a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, 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 bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them, and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the next day he took out two denarii, and gave them to the innkeeper, and said, "Take care of him, and whatever more you spend when I return, I will repay you." Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robber's hands?' And he said, 'The one who showed mercy toward him.' And Jesus said to him, 'Go and do the same.'"

The instruction. First of all, the dialogue. There is an expert in the law. He's called a lawyer. Now, when we think of lawyers, we conjure up all kinds of images in our mind, right? And so if you're a lawyer here this evening, I don't want to say anything that's going to offend you, but you know, we don't really like lawyers a whole bunch, you know what I'm saying? Unless, of course, they get us lots of money. And then we really love lawyers. But we don't necessarily know how to take them all the time.

But these lawyers are different than what we experience today. These lawyers were theologians. These guys were experts in the law. These guys knew the law forward and backwards. They could quote it to you. Why? Because they were the ones who pronounced judgment on those who broke the law. This lawyer was that kind of man. He was a legal expert in the Old Testament law.

And so he comes and he asks a question. "Rabbi Jesus, tell me, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" The assumption was that eternal life was something that was earned. That's an assumption that the majority of people have today, right? What must I do to get to heaven? What is it I can do to get right with God? What is it I can do to have favor with God? What is it I can do to make God look down with approval on me so that when push comes to shove and I keel over and die, I'll end up in heaven with God. "Rabbi, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

Jesus' response, verse number 26, says, "You're the expert. You tell me. You're the one who has memorized the law. You tell me what does it say." In fact, these people would go around with little phylacteries around their wrist, with the law of God in them. And they would have them there. There'd be Exodus chapter 13, Deuteronomy chapter 6, Deuteronomy chapter 11. And Christ in essence was saying, "You know what? Look at the phylactery around your wrist. Read to me what it says. And you'll have your answer." What does the Bible say? And that's always the answer about eternal life, right? It's not what we think is going to get us to heaven. It's what the law says, what the Bible says, what the Word of God actually states about how a man gets to heaven.

And so he says, "You tell me, what does the law say?" And of course, he says, "Well, you've got to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and your neighbor as yourself." Jesus said, "You got it. That's the right answer. Do that. Do it perfectly. And you're in. That's all you got to do. You got to love me with everything you got. Your whole heart, your whole mind, your whole soul, your whole strength. Everything that you have, you've got to be focused on me. You've got to love me. You've got to be committed to me. And then, you've got to love your neighbor just like you love yourself. If you do that and you do it perfectly, guess what? You're in. You'll go to heaven."

Problem is, nobody can do that. You can come to me and say, "I love God." And I can say, "Really?" You say, "Yeah, I love God." And I, at first, could not really begin to judge that. I'll just have to take your word for it. And then you can say, "I love my neighbor." Now I can judge that pretty easily by when you walk out of here tonight, how you treat the people around you, how you treat the guy in the parking lot who almost hit your brand new BMW, how you treat your neighbor. I can pretty much judge how you love your neighbor. Because you see, the condition is you love your neighbor as you love yourself. That's the important thing. You got to love everybody just like you love yourself.

Now, you know, and I know, ain't nobody like that, right? Nobody's going to do that because we've got people we don't like. And Christ says, "You do that, you're in." Now you've got one or two things you can do. You can say, "Lord, I can't do that." You can humbly come before God and say, "God, I can't do what I've just said. I wish I could, but I can't do that." And you throw yourself on God and His mercy and say, "Lord, have mercy upon me. I cannot do it. I'm a sinner. I can't accomplish that. I try to love you, but there are things I love instead of you at different times. And I really don't love my neighbor very much because he really rubbed me the wrong way. And therefore, Lord, I can't do that. I need you to help me here. I throw myself on you." That's one way to answer what Jesus said.

Or the other way, simply this, is to justify yourself, to justify your failure. And that's what the expert of the law does. Christ says, "You do that perfectly, you're in." So what does he say? "Rabbi Jesus, who is my neighbor?" Meaning, if my neighbor is my family, no problem. I can do that. If my neighbor is my closest friends, no problem. I can do that. So, what he's trying to do is dilute God's standards.

You see, the way unbelieving man tries to justify himself is to dilute the standards of God, bring them down to his level. God has a perfect standard. God has a perfect law. God expects that if you're going to earn your way to heaven, you've got to keep it perfectly. But nobody can do that. So what do you got to do? You got to bring God's law down to you. And if you do that, you try to justify yourself and try to work your way to heaven. But the problem with that is you can't bring God's law down to you. God expects you to reach His standard. He knows you can't do it. And that's what salvation is all about. When man throws himself upon God and his mercy.

So, the lawyer comes to Christ and says, "You know, Lord, if you can define for me who my neighbor is, then maybe, just maybe, I'll inherit eternal life."

So you go from the dialogue to point number two to the monologue. Christ gives a parable, a very simple parable. He says this: "There's a man. This man is in need. This man was on his way from Jerusalem to Jericho. This man was on his way down a windy road." If you've ever been to Israel, you'll know that the road from Jerusalem to Jericho is not very big. It's a very windy road. It's in the hillside, and robbers would love to hide out there, and they would be able to destroy people and rape them and murder them and steal from them because there are crevices in all the rocks. It's a fascinating place.

And during my first trip to Israel, I had the chance to preach at a place called the Good Samaritan Inn. It's right there outside of Jerusalem and had a chance to be able to preach there. And it was a cold, windy day, specifically on Luke chapter 10, the parable of the Good Samaritan. What else are you going to speak on? Good Samaritan Inn, right? Look at the parable of the Good Samaritan, so that's what I did.

And this man was going on this place called the Bloody Way. It was called the Bloody Way because people would be robbed there and beaten and left to die. And Christ says, "I'm going to answer your question because it's a question that's been asked from the very beginning of time, all the way back to Genesis chapter 4, when Cain said, 'Who is my brother? Who is my neighbor?'" And Christ is going to answer the question that everybody asks in a parable called the parable of the Good Samaritan.

So this man was going on this road down from Jerusalem to Jericho. And Jesus begins to heighten the drama as he begins to introduce some characters. This man, this lawyer, would know about this road. He also would know it's called the Bloody Way. He also would understand about what was taking place. We told you that parables are earthly stories with heavenly meanings.

He says, "There were some men. The first one was a priest. He was a religious man. He was a man whose life was consecrated to the things of God. And he would be going down this Jericho road. And he would see this man sitting by the side of the road, beaten, battered, bloodied, and in bad need of care. And yet he would pass by him. He wouldn't even acknowledge the man."

And there are some people who tried to defend him, knowing that he was a priest, and priests were not allowed to touch dead things. And if he goes over and touches this dead body, he would be defiled. And so they try to excuse the man by helping you see that he was a religious man. He couldn't defile himself by touching a dead man. Listen, if he really cared about the guy, he could take his stick and poke the guy and see if he was dead or alive, right? Let's go over and poke the guy. If he nudges, he's alive. If he doesn't, he's dead. But no, there's no excuse for this man. Here is the man who knew the law. He was a priest. He was a man who was to hold other people to the standards of the law. A very religious man. And yet, when he saw the bloody man on the side of the road, he decided to pass on by.

And then there was another man. He was the Levite. He was one who would be a servant of the priest. So his whole lifestyle was one of servanthood. So if the priest doesn't stop and help the man, maybe the Levite would because by nature this guy was a servant because that was his job to serve the priesthood. And now he sees a man. But this man, like the priest, does not stop, but ignores the man on the side of the road. These guys are religious professionals. Yet they did not stop to help the man in need.

Now it's interesting to note that there are many people today who say they are religious. They hold to a form of a religion. And James would speak about those people way back in James chapter 1, verse number 27. Well, he said this, "This is pure and undefiled religion. This is true religion, in the sight of our God and Father, to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world." James would say, "Let me tell you what true religion is about. True religion meets the needs of people who need to have their needs met. That's true religion."

He goes on to say this in James chapter 2, verse number 15: "If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Go in peace and be warmed and filled,' and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so, faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself."

John would say this over in 1 John chapter 3, verse number 16: "We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has the world's goods, and beholds his brother in need, and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and in truth."

So the Bible speaks against those who say they are religious people, and yet they are unwilling to meet the need of their brother, to take care of the needs of their neighbor, to reach out and touch people who are in desperate need of care.

So Christ says, "There was a priest, there was a Levite. They were on their way from Jerusalem to Jericho. Or maybe they were going back from Jericho to Jerusalem. They saw this man. Both of them saw him, but did nothing about his condition."

And then he says, "But" - a word of contrast - "but a certain Samaritan, a certain Samaritan." Now you've got to understand, the Samaritans were a despised group of people. They were the half-breeds. Story goes way back to 722 BC where they began to intermarry with the Assyrians. And they, because of those mixed marriages, there came out children that were half-breeds and they were despised by the Jewish nation. They hated the Samaritan. That's why the woman at the well in John 4 said, "Why is it you, a Jew, offer me or ask me, a Samaritan, for a cup of water? Why would you do that? Why? Because Jews don't do that. Jews don't communicate with Samaritans. The Samaritans don't communicate with Jews."

Remember over in John chapter 8? What did the religious leaders say about Jesus Christ? Verse number 48: "The Jews answered and said to him, 'Do we not say rightly that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?'" They equated Samaritans with people who were demon-possessed. The Jews hated the Samaritans.

So Christ says, "There was a certain Samaritan, the guy that everybody hates, nobody likes except fellow Samaritans. And he happened to be going down this road where this man had been beaten and had been left to die." He says, "This man did not ignore the man on the road. This Samaritan was not indifferent to the man on the road. But this man got involved with the man lying on the side of the road."

"This man," he says, "who was on a journey, came upon him, and when he saw him, he felt compassion." There was something in his heart that moved him. There was something there that caused him to feel pain for the man on the road. And you will note that this Samaritan didn't wonder, "Well, I wonder if that's a Jew over there. Well, if it's a Jew, I'm just going to let him lie there. If it's a Samaritan, I'll help him." No, it was irrelevant to the Samaritan what nationality this man was, what race he was, what color he was. It was irrelevant to the Samaritan. Why? Because the man had a need. And because the man on the road had a need, the Samaritan was going to meet the need.

He felt compassion. There was something inside him that was stirred. There was something inside him that was moved. There was something inside him that troubled him. And he went to great lengths. The text says this: "He says that he came upon him, he felt compassion, he came to him, he bandaged him, he poured oil and wine on his wounds. He put him on his own beast, he brought him to an inn, and he took care of him."

Unlike the religious elite of the Jewish nation, this man did something extra. He went as far as he possibly could to help the man who was in need.

You move from the monologue to the epilogue. Christ then asks this question: "Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers' hands? You tell me, which man showed that he was a neighbor?"

And I love how this Jewish legal expert responded. He didn't even say "the Samaritan guy." He wouldn't even mention the Samaritan. He just said, "The one who showed mercy." And Christ would respond and say, "You know what? You need to go and do what he did. We need to be like him."

Unfortunately, we, like the priest and the Levite, so many times think it's somebody else's responsibility to meet the need of those who are hurting. But unfortunately, Christ would address that in a very significant kind of way. For the issue here in this parable is not "Is my neighbor lost?" But the issue in the parable is: "Are we who call ourselves our neighbor's neighbor really saved?" That's the question you need to ask and answer.

You see, Christ answers the question with a question by saying, "You ask, 'who is my neighbor?' Question: who isn't your neighbor?" You see, the person who is your neighbor is anybody who has a need. Anybody in any kind of state who has a need, that person now becomes your neighbor. And how you respond will show us the condition of your heart. How you respond will show us whether or not you have true religion or a false religion. Whether you're a hypocrite or really do love the Lord Jesus Christ with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. That's the important thing.

We are to love our neighbor and thus fulfill the law of God. Loving our neighbor is so important for us to, in a very tangible way, reach out and touch the needs of people around us. Look for your opportunities. Look for that avenue that God has placed before you to touch the need of someone else. And watch how God works in and through your life as you are used by God.

Let's pray together.