Good morning. Hey, if you've got kiddos or if
you are kiddo would like to go to Sunday school, now's your
time. I see some running running out
of here. If any adults run out of here, I
won't take it personally either. Hey, on that note, are there any
turkeys in the oven? Like anybody?
Did anybody leave a Turkey in the oven and come to church and
like you gotta run to get it out by a certain time?
I'm seeing no hands. I don't know that I would put my
hand up to that question either. Anybody running out of here to
put a Turkey in the oven? No.
OK, great. Right on.
Good. Hey, it is.
It's good to have you with us. It's good to be together and to
worship together. My name is Grant and I'm one of
the pastors here at the church. We are in a couple of minutes
going to be into Luke chapter 10 and reading a story that is
familiar, I think to many, many people, like both inside the
church and outside the church. We're going to read the parable
Jesus is teaching of the Good Samaritan.
But the interesting thing is that we're actually probably
going to spend more time on the lead up to that parable than the
parable itself. But you can find that in Luke
chapter 10 and it's Luke is about this far through your
Bible. And if you don't have a Bible,
we've got Bibles in the back of the sanctuary toward these doors
over here. And if you don't have one and
would like to take one of those Bibles homes, great, fantastic.
That's our gift to you. I'm not sure what all
translations there are over there.
There's a couple different options.
I'm going to be reading from the New International Version today,
but we're also going to have it up on the screen for you.
Before we do that, before we get into it, let me pray as we
begin. God, thanks for your love,
thanks for your grace, and thanks that you're with us.
Yeah, on a, on a weekend like today, on on a day like today,
on this Sunday, as we gather, we do want to pause and and be
intentional about saying thank you.
And so as we've sung, as we've prayed already, God thanks for
who you are. Thanks for who you've created us
to be and who you call us to be. And thank you that you've left
these teachings to encourage us and challenge us and convict us
in that direction. God, thanks for these are your
words. Thanks that you speak to us.
And so would you do that today? We pray in the strong name of
Jesus, Amen. So I don't know about you, but I
think, and I think I'm right on this, we live in a time when
it's never been easier to access information and consume content.
Like it is easy to find answers to every single question that
you might have. Like there's an answer to every
question. It might not be the right
answer, but there are answers to every single question that
you've got and it's at your fingertips.
So you can pull out your phone and you can Google or ChatGPT.
I guess now whatever answer, there is always something
constantly waiting for you, waiting for me, another podcast
to listen to, another sermon to listen to, another YouTube
video, go watch Google, social media, all of it.
This like weird mix of information and opinion, fact
and fiction, knowledge and experience.
And I think with the rise of AI and AI generated content, and I
don't know if you've dabbled in that world, it's scary, it's
only going to become harder to recognize what is true and good
and helpful from what is false and divisive and harmful.
And I realized that also it's not always that simple as what
is absolutely only false and divisive and what is good and
helpful. Sociologists called this age the
age of consumption, and it's this age where information
technology, where global networks shape both global
culture and economy and like immediate culture and economy,
real world, like your lived experience shaped by these
things. And, and it's increased our
awareness of what is happening around the world in some great
ways. It's given us the ability to
remain connected in real time across oceans, even into space.
It's also given the rise to things like the armchair expert,
to fact checking and to cyber condrea, which is a term better
known as Googling your medical conditions and then worrying
about what Google tells you. You now have.
That's the thing. I highly recommend you don't do
it, but everybody does. That's yeah, creates, I think
this environment though, for us at the end of the day where it's
easy to believe that we have access and possession of both
truth, what is right and morality, what is good.
But here's the thing. More knowledge doesn't
necessarily lead to more life. Right knowledge doesn't always
lead to right action or right living.
In other words, like I can know the right thing about something
and then not do the right thing I know to do.
I can know something but not have it change my life.
And I'll give you a very real world example for me, and it is
painfully ironic that I just picked up a cup of coffee.
The next line is I might know my headache is caused by
dehydration, but I still take Advil with coffee instead of
water when it hits. Like I might know what is right
and then still not do it. I might know that eating a whole
pint of ice cream won't lead me to a better sleep, but I still
do it. That that's like, that's like a
meat example. That's not like a general Hey we
all do like that's a me example. You might know that you need to
budget. You might even know how to
budget, but then don't let it actually change the way you pull
out your wallet and spend day-to-day.
You might know that your kids are gonna grow up fast or
grandkids are gonna grow up fast, but still you prioritize
work or TV or screen time and checking out when you are called
to be present. You might know that regular
prayer and reading your Bible is foundational flourishing of
faith and life, but you let business push it aside and don't
get around to doing it. You might know that God has
designed you for rest, and yet you keep working through the
weekends and don't prioritize healthy Sabbath like we know,
but we don't always do. Knowledge alone is never gonna
lead to true life transformation.
I can intellectually assent towards something.
I can work hard at it. I can know the thing and I can
still not have that thing transform how I live.
And that's I think in part why Paul says, listen, I can have
the gift of prophecy. I can fathom all mysteries.
I can have all knowledge. I can have faith that can move
mountains, but if I do not have love, I am nothing.
Today's passage is one of, I think, the most well known
parables of Jesus. And it's known, like I said,
inside the church. It's known outside the church.
It's got language that's permeated and kind of exploded
outside of Christianity. The parable has taken on a life
of its own, meaning of its own. To be a Good Samaritan can
simply mean to just be a good person who generally does the
good right thing to help out other people.
But here's the thing. Just because a parable is known
doesn't mean that it's lived out well.
And I might even argue that this parable, though it might be the
most well known of Jesus's teachings or one of, is probably
the least lived out or one of the least lived out.
And so this is where we're going to start.
On one occasion, the text begins.
On one occasion, an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus.
And if you have a Bible you can highlight that stood up to test
Jesus teacher, he asked, what must I do to inherit eternal
life? What is written in the law?
He replied that's Jesus. How do you read it?
He that is the expert in the law.
Some other translations might say lawyer, he answered.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul,
with all your strength and with all your mind, and love your
neighbor as yourself. You have answered correctly,
Jesus replied. Do this and you will live.
What must I do to inherit
eternal life? Sounds like a great question.
It sounds like an honest conversation question leading to
hopefully honest conversation about how life is intended to be
lived and what might it mean to inherit or gain or live into
eternal life. It's a great question, but
here's the thing. It comes with the wrong
motivation. Here's, like I said, an expert
in the law, which is also a lawyer.
Now listen, like this isn't a chance to beat up on your lawyer
friends, OK? This is an expert in the Jewish
law. It's an as.
He's an expert in understanding, in knowing it and in its
interpretation how you are to think about it.
So that's why many translations just say an expert in the law.
And like I said, he's got a great question, but he has the
wrong motivation. The expert in the law, he's not
asking the question because he genuinely wants to hear Jesus
answer. What must I do to live into your
Kingdom? What must I do to have eternal
life? He's asking a question in order
to test or trap Jesus, he says. It says he rises to test him.
Now, we could spend all of our time on this one line, but we
won't, I promise. What's your posture, though,
when you come to Jesus? I think that's just one question
that each of us needs to ask of ourselves, probably over and
over again. Is that one of humility and
earnest attempt to learn and to sit and to understand, or, or is
it one that rises to test or to prove or to get something from
Him? Do you treat worship as a
bargain? Like if I do this then God will
you do that? Like I, I need you to do for me,
God. Would you if I do?
We ignore Jesus's commands but still expect his blessing in our
lives. Do we demand proof while
withholding our our devotion? How do we engage with who Jesus
is? So an expert in the law, he
rises to test Jesus. What must I do to inherit
eternal life? And Jesus responds with a
question of his own. What is written in the law?
He replied, how do you read it? And I almost think that this is
a moment in Jesus life. He says, hey, listen, OK, expert
in the law, You want to play this game, I'll play your game.
You want to speak this language, I'll speak your language.
He can do it. I shouldn't try to speak the
language of a lawyer or or like an engineer or some of these
other things I got no business doing.
But this is like he's pushing against this expert.
He says, OK, you wanna come with this question and I think Jesus
knows his heart with this motivation.
What do you say is written? What do you see there?
What is written in the law? I'll play your game, the lawyer
answers. Love the Lord your God with all
your heart, soul with all your strength, all your mind, love
your neighbor as yourself. These two lines here the lawyers
response are typical response to this question in Jesus day.
Many experts in the law would sit around discussing and
arguing and debating this very question and leading to this
very answer. The lawyer quotes 2 verses from
Deuteronomy 6 and from Leviticus 19 that were commonly squished
together like this to answer Jesus or the answer the the
question what must I do to inherit eternal life.
They were also put together to actually, at the end of the day,
represent the law and the commandments, all that the
people of Israel had to do and all they had to follow.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul,
with all your strength. That's from Deuteronomy, and do
not seek revenge. Do not bear a grudge against
anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself.
I'm the Lord your God. That's from Leviticus and so the
lawyer, what I want us to see here gives the correct answer,
but I also want us to notice Jesus response because Jesus
doesn't say to this guy, hey great, you answered correctly
like a plus. You get the reward.
Here's eternal life, you win the prize.
You know the right thing to say. This isn't A+ on the exam.
She just doesn't say, hey great, you passed the test.
What he does say is do this and you will live.
Don't just know it, he says, do it.
Allow it to actually transform your life.
In Leviticus 18, which many believe that Jesus is quoting
from here, it simply says this. Keep my decrees and laws for the
person who obeys them will live by them.
Do this and you will live. Jesus knows that knowledge of
the law doesn't necessarily mean living by the law.
To know something is not the same as daily committing to do
the thing that you know to understand is not the same as to
put into action. The expert of the law knows what
is technically correct in the eyes of the law, but Jesus knows
and is pushing against the fact that He probably isn't living it
out in the way that it was intended.
The man hasn't let it shape his heart in his mind, hasn't
changed his life. To know about Jesus is not the
same thing as knowing Jesus. Last week, Justin left us with
this great quote from William Barclay, who says that to listen
Christianity, it's not just about knowing Jesus, but knowing
Jesus. He says it's not just about
knowing Christ, it is about knowing Christ.
And there's a difference. To do that, Barclay says,
requires not earthly wisdom, but heavenly grace for a crowd.
Puts it another way, he just says having the right answers
does not mean that one knows God.
He's a little harsher and to the point.
He says just because you know the right answers does not mean
that you actually know God. Listen, I think this is one
thing that pastors especially have to wrestle with every
single day of our lives. There's a difference between
knowing about something and knowing the person.
There's a difference between knowing about scripture and
allowing scripture to actually transform your heart and your
mind. And there's a reason why, like I
will always have a Bible up here with me when I preach.
And even though we're reading from a screen or highlight, I've
got stuff all over the place. Like for me, this at the end of
the day of saying to to someone this morning, like at the end of
the day, all of the lights could go out.
All of the power could be shut off.
You take away iPad, take away tablets, take away screens,
lights, everything. Like we sit under this, this is
what we have, but knowing about this is not the same as allowing
what is here to transform your heart and your mind and your
life. And so I want to simply ask you
this, like, do you know about Jesus, or do you know Jesus more
than that? Are you known by Jesus?
Do you experience his presence? CS Lewis family famously said
that about the Psalms as a whole, one of the books in the
Bible. He says that in it, in the
Psalms there I find an experience fully God centred,
asking of God no gift more urgently than his presence, the
gift of himself, joyous to the highest degree, he says, an
unmistakably real. But that's the thing that he's
pursuing here, an experience that is wholly God centred, not
me centred and asking God no gift more urgently, nothing
else. Accept his presence.
See, when Jesus says do this and you will live, I think what he's
doing is holding up a mirror to this guy.
Like Jesus wants this man asking himself like do I do the thing I
know to be good and true and right?
Like, probably not, At least not all the time.
It's not in the way that maybe I'm intended to, but there's no
humility or conviction in the Lord.
Like Jesus isn't saying, yeah, go away and just do all the
things. Jesus is holding up a mirror to
say no. Actually, at the end of the day,
you can't do all the things. You're gonna run around trying
to do them. You're gonna run around trying
to stack up credit and earn grace, and he wants this lawyer
to step back and actually think and consider and realize and be
humble. But the lawyer doesn't do that.
The lawyer does none of it. The lawyer double s down so, but
he, the expert in the law, the lawyer, this guy, he wanted to
justify himself. That's a dangerous game.
And so he asked Jesus, who is my neighbor?
I think the guy should have quit while he thought he was ahead,
but he wanted to justify himself.
See this lawyer, like he's looking for an out now.
He wants to know who Jesus considers a neighbor.
And it could be that he's just still trying to test Jesus and
catch him. Like maybe he's gonna say
something and slip up and, you know, say something that we can
consider heretical. I think it's deeper.
At the end of the day, only a righteous Jew could be
considered a neighbor by another righteous Jew.
That was the worldview. Neighbor wasn't just who you
lived next door to. It wasn't like whoever was in
proximity to you who was around to be considered a neighbor, you
had to both be righteous law observing Jews.
I think the lawyer knows that he hasn't loved his neighbor.
I think what the lawyer is really asking is this is who do
I have to love and who can I get away with not loving?
He's trying to create these categories.
We can say, great, I can love these people, they're easy to
love and I don't have to love anybody else.
He wants to shrink the pool of who is considered a neighbor to
make it as comfortable for him as possible to do the thing that
he knows to do. If he can shrink that definition
of neighbor as small as he can so it fits within his own
comfort, his own worldview, then maybe he can love his neighbor.
And I think that's something we need to wrestle with.
Because if my neighbor looks like me and sounds like me and
believes what I believe and isn't awkward and doesn't use a
leaf blower on Saturday mornings and doesn't borrow my tools, I
can love that neighbor. That's an easy neighbor to love.
But I think what we're going to see is that that's not how Jesus
calls us to live out this this commandment.
That's not the life that Jesus is challenging us toward.
And so again, I come to these questions as I'm wrestling
through these texts, like what actions am I trying to justify?
What do I try to justify in myself?
What do you try to justify? And how you follow Jesus in
order to make it as easy as possible for you to put
everything and everyone into these categories and boxes where
you can in fact do the thing. What or why have I Haven't I
done the thing I know to be good and right and true?
Do I justify my own understanding?
Do I justify my own actions? Do I justify my own definitions
of people? Like at the end of the day, the
lawyer is looking for a reason to exclude.
He's looking for a reason to not love his neighbor.
He's trying to get away with the least expectation on his life
from Jesus. Don't let your desire to be
right outpace your desire to love others.
Well, we can get caught up in being right and thinking that we
are right and knowing that we are right and executing the
things in the right way and we can miss the whole point.
Don't let your desire to be right outpace your desire to
love others. So Jesus responds with the
parable, says this a man who's going down from Jerusalem to
Jericho, that's a dangerous walk.
When he was attacked by robbers, they stripped him of his
clothes. They beat him and went away
leaving him half dead and then a priest happened to be going down
the same Rd. And when he saw the man, he
passed by on the other side. So to a Levite when he came to
the place and saw him pass by on the other side.
But a Samaritan has he traveled, came where the man was, and when
he saw him he took pity on him. Here the Samaritan went to him
and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine.
Then he put the man on his own donkey and brought him to an inn
and took care of him. The next day he took out two
genera and gave him to the OR gave them to the innkeeper.
Look after him, he said. And when I return, I'll
reimburse you for any extra expenses, any extra expenses you
may have. And then Jesus asked this
question. Which of these three do you
think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of
robbers? Which was the neighbor?
They actually have a law. It continues.
And we're gonna get to this, replied the one who had mercy on
him. Jesus told him, go and do
likewise. See in response to the question,
Who is my neighbor? Jesus tells a story.
So I think he knows, I think just knows full well this guy's
trying to get away with his least as possible.
He wants to know who exactly he has to go into love.
And I'm gonna blow up that worldview and show him what
loving your neighbor actually looks like.
And so he tells the story and the story challenges the lawyers
understanding of who qualified as neighbor.
That's one. And it reveals the lavish
generosity that is meant for life inside the Kingdom of God.
That's too. So we've got three people who
pass by this half dead guy on the road.
The 1st 2 are Jews, law observant Jews.
We've got a priest and a Levite. Those are people and professions
who worked in the temple and they're confronted by a choice
between duty and duty. OK, They're presented with a
choice between duty to the law, what is required of them by the
law, and duty to this half dead man.
Between what is right according to the law and between what
would save potentially this man's life.
Because if they touch him according to the Law, if they
touch him, they themselves become unclean and cannot do
their job at the temple as priest and Levite, and so they
pass by on the other side. They choose duty to the Law and
instead it's the Samaritan who turns and chooses to help this
half dead man. And that should shock and
challenge the lawyer and and it should challenge us too,
Samaritans. And we've talked about this for
a few weeks, but just to catch everybody up, we're considered
by Jews to be ceremonially unclean.
You don't don't associate with them.
Alright. So therefore they were socially
outcast and they were religiously heretical.
Wrong Religiously, the very opposite of the priest and the
Levite. And yet it's the Samaritan, this
one who is ceremonially unclean, socially outcast, religiously
heretical, who Jesus chooses to make the hero of the story.
In the end, Jesus asked, which of these three do you think was
the neighbor? Which of these three and that
the lawyer goes the one who had mercy on him.
Jesus says go and do likewise. See, this guy, this this lawyer
couldn't even bring himself to say the Samaritan.
That's how deep this divide had run.
He's like the kid who like obstinately says fine, but like,
you know, they're not going to do the thing they've just agreed
to do or sorry when you know it's, it's not sincere, He says.
The one who had mercy on him, I guess fine.
And here's Jesus who just simply says go and do likewise.
Go and be like that guy. Go and live your life like this
Samaritan. Go and live your life like the
one who is socially outcast and considered to be logically
wrong, heretical, but who chooses to love this person and
crosses the street and actually tends to his wounds and takes
care of him. Does the thing, See, here's what
I see in this. The lawyer asks this question,
who is my neighbor? That's like a limiting question.
That's a question that is looking for category.
Jesus takes that question, who is my neighbor?
And asks who was the neighbor? That's a different question.
Life inside the Kingdom asks who was, who is who is acting?
How can I be the neighbor not who do I need to love again?
Like which one of you is close enough to consider?
Like my how many doors down does that go on my street?
Like can we just get some categories here?
Now it just says go and be the neighbor.
Go and do the thing. Life inside the Kingdom of God,
I hate to say it, friends, does not revolve around you.
Doesn't. And that's a hard lesson for us
to learn. And it's one that I need to
learn over and over and over again.
Like it's just hard. But it doesn't.
Asking who is my neighbor still at the end of the day puts me in
the driver's seat. I'm in control.
I can control who I consider to be my neighbor and who I don't.
Who I want to love and I don't want to love and who I want to
serve and I don't want to serve and how I am toward people.
Like everything can still revolve around me and my life
and my control and my comfort when I ask who is my neighbor?
But who was the neighbor? Especially when it's paired with
Jesus. Go and do.
That releases control. I gotta surrender it.
I'm no longer in control. I'm no longer the one defining
who is neighbor and who is not. I'm no longer the one picking
and choosing who I go and love. I don't get to determine who I
extend grace and mercy toward and and who I exclude.
Nothing revolves around me when we're wrestling out who is, Who
does? How am I to become the neighbor
that at the end of the day, is something that demands of me,
and what it demands of me is lavish generosity.
So here's the second thing that I want us to see from this
parable. The Samaritan doesn't just do
the bare minimum. The Samaritan doesn't just go
and like, OK, this like, dude, like I you're are you awake?
Like I'll feel for a pulse and then like, OK, you're still
breathing. Great.
I'm gonna go on my way isn't just like roll them over into
like recovery position if you're ever in lifeguarding, like you
know what that's looking like. Like no he.
He is generous over and abundantly generous.
He redirects his entire journey, a journey that I want to
remember or remind you of, like from Jerusalem.
And Jericho was a dangerous one. He stops himself.
This dude could have been a plant by robbers, but Roberts,
like, well, if we attack this guy, then we're gonna get more
guys. They're gonna come and they're
gonna stop, and we're gonna get them too.
Like, that's life on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho.
And so he stops. He sacrifices his own safety.
He redirects his entire journey around helping this individual.
He pays out two days wage worth of money for his care and
promises more when he returns if more expenses have been
incurred. He is overly generous with this
guy. Here's the Samaritan.
He's like I said, he doesn't do the least.
He does what is over the top, what is lavishly generous from
one person to another. And there's got there's no
labels on it, there's no social status attached to it, there's
no religion, there's no expectations.
There's just one human being helping another human being in
need. Friends, I gotta tell you.
Like generosity is the currency of the Kingdom of God.
How do we know that the Kingdom is living out amongst us and in
our lives? And I had to say, how much are
we learning to be and to live and to act generously toward
others? Generosity is the currency of
the Kingdom of God. Everything revolves around it.
And it should look like generosity to those who at least
expect it. Like we're not called just to be
generous toward people who believe what we believe and who
look like we look and who share my political beliefs.
Like it's like, that's easy. That's an easy call.
The Christian is one who goes and does likewise.
The Christian is one who goes and who shows lavish generosity
to the stranger, to the last person who would expect it.
Christians should be the most generous people in the world.
Why? Because God has been generous
toward you and toward me. When.
When you're the one broke in and lying on the side of the road.
When you're the one in the pit of your own desperation and
despair. When you're wrestling out your
own sin and the heavy weight of guilt and shame that rattles
around inside the human being. When I'm the one lying on the
side of the road, Jesus is the one who comes and doesn't just
check your pulse and kick you on your way, but who wraps you up
and who puts you on a donkey, and who rides you to the end,
and who takes care of your wounds, and who bandages and
men's you, and who pays for your life with a cost.
Jesus is the one who pays for your healing, and Jesus is the
one who ensures your wholeness and your life and you are
flourishing. And it's with this lavish
generosity. And so Christian knew me.
We are called to live with that same lavish generosity because
Christ first loved and was generous with us.
Let me pray got on this Thanksgiving Day.
It's not lost on us that we have so much to be thankful for.
So yeah, we do wanna pause and give you thanks for who you are
and for how you are toward us. Thanks that you are one who is
generous, thinks that you're the one who men's our wounds and
binds up our brokenness. Thanks for that.
You're 1 Jesus through your death and resurrection, who
conquered sin and death, and that because of those moments
and because of that reality, we can live knowing that sin and
death are defeated. Look out for the little pieces
of death that still rattle around in our hearts and in our
minds and in our souls. God, would you chase it away
with the light of your life and Kingdom.
Push out and against the darkness and God, would we
become people who push against the darkness in our world?
Not in some like arrogant kind of, well, you know what's best
kind of way, but because we're generous, because we crossed the
street and because we go to the broken God, would you turn us
into this neighbor? Would you make us people who are
generous with those who would last expect others to be
generous with? To God, on this day like
Thanksgiving weekend, we thank you for the cross.
We thank you for the gift of life that we have can enter
into. We think that death doesn't have
the last word. And we thank you that you're
with us. In Jesus name we pray OHS.