Love Your Neighbor: The Call of the Jericho Road (Matthew Sermon 114)

Introduction

There are some journeys that we take in life, some roads that we can get on that just change our lives. They are memorable roads. I think about one in particular, the Karakoram highway, I saw with my own eyes in 1987, in the northwest frontier province of Pakistan and on into China. The most spectacular stretch of scenery I’ve ever seen in my life, the Karakoram mountains, the second highest mountain range in the world just like another world, it was. Mountains over 20,000 feet high and the Indus River flowing beside the highway, just cobalt blue and just kind of eerie as though we were on another planet. And just I thought about the beauty of this world and it made me yearn for the new heaven, the new earth, the home of righteousness, and how beautiful it was.

And though I foolishly rode on the top of the van on the luggage rack, I wouldn’t trade it for the world, I really wouldn’t. I’ll never forget that. They would not let you do it here, they’d pull you down, and arrest you or something, but over there they don’t care if you die or not, they really don’t. So you can ride up there, and the scenery was incredible.

But I remember a year before that, another mission trip, I was on a different highway, a different road, a different trip I took it was in the streets of Mombasa, and we were there at the end of the last week of a 10-week mission trip, and we were there, it was in a resort area and we were having a final time together, a time of prayer and Bible study. It was a beautiful area, but some of us took a ride into the poorer area of Mombasa and just to see what the city was like and to pray for the people.

And I remember distinctly that ride as well, very, very unforgettable ride. We were in this air conditioned, expensive minivan and surrounded by poverty that I had never seen. This was my first trip out of the country, summer of ’86. And I just felt like it was somehow a symbol of the way that I could live my life in this world, a sinful way. A way in which I’m enclosed by luxury and comfort and security and air conditioning and all that, and out there is all this poverty and suffering. And I just resolved before the Lord, I didn’t wanna live that kind of life. I didn’t wanna stay in that air conditioned, safe, secure bubble when there’s all these suffering people outside.

I had another ride a number of years later, through Port-au-Prince, along the Cité Soleil and it’s a different highway there. And my guess is, now probably they’re clearing it with rubble; they have to have that highway, so maybe it’s been cleared by now, I don’t know. But I will never forget just the view of, without question, the greatest poverty I’ve ever seen in my life, a tent city there in which half-clothed children come out and stoop down and scoop up muddy water out of puddles and put them in bottles and screw the top on and then run back into the city there, and I wonder what they’re gonna do with that water. And just a vision there of poverty. And again, something calling out to me at least to pray if not to minister more securely. When I heard the news of the earthquake in Haiti, I immediately thought of the Cité Soleil and all of the misery and suffering there is there.

So this morning, we’re going to look down, I think a very dangerous road. And we’re gonna call it the Jericho Road; we’re gonna look down the Jericho Road. It’s a road of self-sacrifice, a road of being searched by the law of God, so that we can find out what’s in our hearts. Tim Keller said of the Jericho Road, “The road to Jericho is steep and dangerous, so dangerous in fact that people have called it the ‘Bloody Way.’ Jerusalem rests at 3,000 feet above sea level, but Jericho, only 17 miles away, is actually 1,000 feet below the level of the Mediterranean Sea. So the road between the towns descends sharply through mountainous territory full of crags and caves allowing thieves to hide and strike and escape with great ease. Traveling the Jericho Road in those days was much like walking through a dark alley in the worst part of a modern city except that it was many miles to the nearest street light.”

So you get the picture of a very dangerous road. But that Jericho Road is not dangerous merely because there are brigands on it who could jump out at you and assault you and take your precious possessions. Jesus meant a different kind of danger. Or I might say a different kind of challenge. It’s dangerous for us to consider because here on the Jericho Road, the Lord Jesus confronts us with our own selfishness. Here on the Jericho Road, the Lord Jesus confronts us and asks, “Will you really love your neighbor as yourself? Will we love our neighbors as ourselves or will we just love ourselves? Will we spend ourselves on behalf of others, or will we pass by in safety wasting the opportunities for good works that God has given us?”

Now, this Jericho Road, I contend, can happen any time, any place. It can happen in your own homes, when your spouse demands more of you at that moment than you feel you wanna give. That’s the Jericho Road. The Jericho Road can happen in your neighborhood when you find out that your neighbor has just been diagnosed with terminal cancer, what will you do? Are you gonna minister or not? Jericho Road can happen as you stand in line at Walmart and there’s a father and a son having a conversation, the son wants to buy something, the father who’s now unemployed can’t afford. And they have that conversation. I don’t know what to do about that situation. I’m just saying I’m feeling confronted at that moment by the needs around us. It can happen at a stop light, when someone stands there with a hand-painted sign and tries to catch your eye and tries to get money from you.

It can happen at church when you see a newcomer standing alone at the end of worship service and you don’t know them, and you feel within yourself a desire not to go talk to somebody you don’t know, but instead you just stay with what’s safe and easy. That’s the Jericho Road. It searches us all the time. It has to do with interactions with other human beings, any human being, any time, any place, who has a need that you might be able to meet. And therefore it’s dangerous for us; it challenges us because if we learn to walk the walk of the priest or the Levite in the parable, it becomes a very easy habit pattern to follow, and you probably know what I’m talking about. You look. You see. You look away. You pass by on the other side of the road. It’s a very easy habit to get into, and all of us have that habit pattern within us, and so Jesus told this story to challenge us.

Everyday we’re surrounded by people with needs and sometimes those needs are overwhelming. And the relentless call of Jesus in the law, this is law for us, the relentless call of Jesus Christ every moment of the day is that we should pour out ourselves, our time, our effort, our resources in benefiting others, caring for others.

So last week, we began to look at this study, this topic. What does it mean to love your neighbor as yourself? And today, we seek even more clarity.

I. The Two Great Commandments

Context: Final Week of Jesus’ Life

So we’re continuing really our series of Matthew, but we’re going sideways over to Luke to try to understand this second greatest commandment. Our context in Matthew is the final week of Jesus’s life. He’s in a bunch of conflicts with his enemies. They’re testing him; they’re searching him.

And this lawyer comes up and asks which is the greatest commandment in the law. As you remember, Jesus gives this very orthodox somewhat predictable answer. “Now Jesus replied, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

If I can just stop and say these things are not for me, as a Christian, just commands. They are in fact promises. I always think of that, someday it’s gonna be true of me in Christ. Amen. Isn’t that glorious to just think about that? I don’t think we can ever think about it too much, but I don’t think we can ever be convicted by it too much either while we’re in this life. So it has to have both that and that aspect of work in us. So we will be both convicted and we will be hopeful as we know that the Lord is by his spirit going to fulfill these things in us.

Last Week: The Commandments are Intertwined

So last week, I made the case that these two commandments are absolutely intertwined. You can’t pick and choose between them; they are not equal commands. There is a first and greatest command and the second that’s like it, but they are absolutely intertwined. I said that you cannot love your neighbor, if you don’t first love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. If you would love your neighbor more than you love God, you would be making your neighbor an idol and you can’t do that. God must take top priority in your lives

And so it is really not possible to have non-Christian fulfillment of this second great command. It can’t be done. You have to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength in order to love your neighbor in such a way that God is pleased. However, it’s not enough to just love God, is it?

It’s clear that Jesus inserted the second commandment because it is vital for us to understand it, they’re intertwined. And so, in 1 John 4:20 it says, “If anyone says ‘I love God’ and yet hates his brother, he is a liar; for anyone who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.” And there are many other such verses. You cannot pick and choose. We must both love God and our neighbor.

II. What Does it Mean to Love Your Neighbor As Yourself?

Definition Given

Last week, I gave this definition of what it means to love your neighbor: Love is cheerful sacrifice for the benefit of another person and for the glory of God. And so we said last time that love has both an internal heart aspect and an external physical or bodily or active aspect. There is that heart affection, which is essential to the love; we must genuinely from the heart, love. And then there is that sacrificial service that results in beneficial action. And so it must be cheerful, it must come from the heart, out of a connection, a love that we have a movement in the heart. But it must not end there, it must go out into sacrificial service.

And the more sacrifice there is we can say the greater the love is. John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this that he laid down his life for his friends.” So we measure love by sacrifice. The more it pinches at you, the more it costs you something, the more inconvenient it is, the more expensive it is, if you give it cheerfully as an act of worship to God, now that’s what God is talking about; that is love for the neighbor. So there are those two aspects; there is the heart attraction, and then there’s moving out in beneficial sacrificial service.

Christ’s Example

So Christ was our example. I zeroed in on one verse in particular. Mark 1:41, which I cited last week. This is just review. But there “A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, ‘If you are willing, you can make me clean.’ Filled with compassion. Jesus reached out his hand touched the man, ‘I am willing,’ he said, ‘Be clean.’”

So there is a very good picture of the two parts of love I’m talking about. Filled with a movement of compassion, my heart is knit toward you. I am in your situation; your pain has become my pain. Filled with that compassion, Jesus reaches out his hand and heals him. And so this is the sacrificial service of Christ.

“As Yourself”

Now, I want to bring up and ask this one question then. In the words of the command, what does it mean to love your neighbor as yourself? To love your neighbor as yourself. Does this teach the prior need for some kind of comfortable feeling of self-esteem before we can actually do anything for anybody else? Does it give us a command that we ought to be loving ourselves. And then having loved ourselves, we are then to love our neighbor out of the overflow of our self-love? You can kinda tell where I’m heading with this, but I’m going ahead and couching the terms. Is that what it teaches? Or does it in effect, teach you, you already do love yourself, now love your neighbor like you’re loving yourself.

And so, I tell you that you hear a lot of this these days, you can’t love anyone else until you love yourself, this kind of self-esteem. So first, you need to love yourself, then you’ll be fit and ready to love your neighbor as yourself.

In my opinion, I think people suffer and struggle with self-esteem because they’re being disobedient to the commands of God. It’s true of all of us. If you’re struggling with your self-image it’s generally because in your conscience, you have a sense that something’s not right. And so therefore it doesn’t make much sense to say, “I can’t obey these commands of God, until I feel better about myself.” Friends, that is a quick downward spiral.

I don’t think that’s what it’s teaching here; grammatically in the Greek, it asserts that we really do already love ourselves. This is the measure of love. There’s no command here; you cannot find a command to love yourself here. Rather it’s assumed that you already do love yourself. And so, in effect, Jesus is saying that you should seek the highest, the greatest good for your neighbor, the way you seek the greatest good for yourself. In effect, Jesus is basically saying “You shall seek the good of your neighbor, just as you naturally seek your own good. Nourish and cherish your needy neighbor, just as you by nature nourish and cherish yourself.”

Now, a key verse on understanding it this way is Ephesians Chapter 5 which talks about the husband’s responsibility to love his wife. And you know in Ephesians 5:28-29, it says, “In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself; after all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it.” So what Paul is saying is, you do love yourself. You do look after your own needs, husbands. You do care for your physical needs; do the same for your wife. That’s what it’s saying there.

I think that we can take that concept and extend it generally to the second greatest commandment. So every act of kindness and care you show to your own body, and you’ve shown many this week; you don’t even recognize how many different ways you minister to your body. I mean, if you’re uncomfortable, you shift around in your seat. I see some of you doing that from time to time.

If you have an itch, you’ll do what it takes to scratch it. As I’ve talked about before, I get those right between my shoulder blades. You know what I’m talking about? Right in the center, right between, it is almost at my age, physically impossible to reach it. At least not without a trauma of pain on my shoulder, alright. And I found that my shoulder amazingly is willing to sacrifice for that part of skin in the center between my shoulder blades; it’s amazing the things that my shoulder’s willing to do for that little piece of skin that’s having some strange tingling. And so, you reach back there. Well, anyway, I’m not gonna demonstrate but you know what I’m talking about. You do love yourself dear friends.

If you’re cold, you get a sweater, you get a blanket, you put it on, you change the thermostat. If you’re hungry, you go make yourself something to eat. If you’re craving some attention, you go get some attention. If you want some encouragement you fish for it.

And I’m not saying all these are appropriate ways that we love ourselves. I’m just telling you, you love yourself. I would say you relentlessly love yourself. We actually discussed even the cases of suicide. And John Piper in his book from one of the things he writes about that he says even somebody who’s committing suicide is seeking something for him or herself. A release from the pain, that kind of thing. And actually I find it to be an exceptionally selfish mindset without hardly any thought at all about the ramifications of those that are left behind, So I’m saying it’s just a natural law. You’re going to do good to yourself, you’re gonna love yourself, you’re gonna care for yourself. Do the same for your neighbor.

I think that’s what Jesus is saying. Think about your neighbor’s needs just as you think about your own. And so in Philippians 2:4, it says “Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” The non-Christian, the natural state, is to be fanatical about looking after your own interests. The Christian adds to this, the interests of others. It says in Philippians 2:21, “Everyone looks out for his own interests,” this is that kind of Darwinian, dog-eats-dog, “look out for number one” mentality that I think has made this world such a miserable place to live in. Jesus has shown us a better way; he’s shown us a way of self-sacrifice for the benefit of others, denying yourself and your own needs, so that somebody else’s needs can be met.

And so a loving Christian then learns to see others’ needs as if they were his own. He looks at urban poverty and says, “What would it be like if I lived there? What would I need?” He’s looking at unemployed people and saying, “What can I do?” Matthew talked to me this morning about Jobs for Life. Listen, it’s a tremendous ministry and we have as many as 11 or more students that are getting ready for this, we need some. We need some ladies that will be willing to help. But they just… You look at that and you say, “What would it be like if I lived in that situation?” There’s an expansion of vision that happens when you genuinely love. Stepping out of your own comfort zone and your self-satisfaction and taking on the misery of others.

As a Christian you look at the lostness of co-workers and you say, “What would it be like for me if I were without hope and without God in this world?” And how joyful would it be if somebody would be a messenger of the Gospel to come to me? A Christian, a loving Christian looks at total strangers in public places, in terms of what needs do you have that I can meet? Can I hold the door for you? Can I let you go first in the check out line? Can I give you the last empty seat on an airplane and wait for the next flight even? Can I stop in the rain and help you change a flat tire? These are just mentalities of Christians. This is what it means, horizontally, to love your neighbor as yourself.

III. Heart Affection Described: 1 Corinthians 13

Basic Concept: Without Love, Sacrifice is Worthless

Now, last time I said there are two great texts to look at these two aspects of love, alright? There’s that heart affection aspect that without that heart affection it isn’t genuinely loving in the sight of God. It’s hypocrisy, really. It’s just an outward show, so there has to be something from the heart and I said, 1 Corinthians 13 describes it better than any other passage in the Bible.

Just by way of review, the basic concept is, you can have tremendous sacrifice, but you can do it without love, and it will be nothing. 1 Corinthians 13:3. “If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames but have not love, I gain nothing.” But I tell you, you look at a verse, like that. And you realize just how relentless Jesus is for us. I don’t know hardly anybody that would really even do it, but it could be that somebody could do it and Jesus would still say, “I have this against you,” isn’t that amazing when you think about it?

He’s standing over all of us and saying “You must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Hence my statement earlier how sweet it is for us as Christians to look at it, not just as commands, but promises. Oh God, do this in me, it’s impossible for me to reach so high in my life.

Was Jesus delighted to give himself, to surrender his body? You know he really was. For the joy that was set before him he did it. Not the thing itself, not the process, that was miserable. But for what he got out of it, he was delighted to die for you and me. That’s a beautiful thing.

Love is a Heart State Described in Detail Here

And so you’ve got to have that internal heart state of delight, that joy, that connection that happens between you and the person, described in this way: “Love is patient, love is kind, doesn’t envy, it doesn’t boast, it’s not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs, it’s not rude, it’s not self-seeking, it does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”

So this is the heart condition that we discussed last time. But we also said it’s not enough to just feel those feelings for somebody. It’s gotta move out. It’s gotta move out. How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. We’ve got these hands that are given to serve, so we move out and we’ve got to act.

IV. Sacrificial Action Described: Luke 10

And I think the best passage for describing that lifestyle, sacrificial love for neighbor, is this parable. It seemed to be in Jesus’ mind. He wants to describe how you love your neighbor as yourself. That’s why he told this story. And so, look at Luke 10, if you’re not already there, just take a minute and look at Luke 10:25-37.

Context: Earlier in Jesus’ Life, Same Question

Now the context here of Luke 10 is earlier in Jesus’ life. It’s the same issue, however. It’s the same question. He’s just dealing with it again, but just earlier. And this time the lawyer that he’s talking to, it says is seeking to justify himself. The Lord comes and asks him the question, which is the greatest commandments and all that? And he says, “Well, what do you think?” And puts it back on Jesus. And he gives a perfect answer. This is a guy who’s gonna do well in a theology exam, both beginning and end he gets the right answers all the time.

The Effort at Self Justification

But Jesus, I think, at that point then says, “You have answered correctly, do this and live.” And then turns and talks to somebody else, kinda leaves him in the lurch at that moment, looking perhaps a little embarrassed. I think we already knew that, didn’t we? So, he seeks, it says, “to justify himself.” You ought to just freeze your eyes right on that. Look on that text as if it were a mirror. I don’t think there’s one of us sinners here that doesn’t seek in some way to justify ourselves when it comes to the second command. Or I could use another word, to excuse ourselves from service. “I don’t need to take care of that person for the following reasons, I already worked this out. I’ve got the theology all worked out. I know why I don’t need to do that because this person is this kind of person and they did this…” And you don’t have to do it.

And so this lawyer sought to justify himself by asking, “Who is my neighbor?” Basically what he’s saying is, “Please tell me that what I have done already is already enough. I’m already in. I’m already there based on what I’ve done. Tell me that. Tell me, I’m already fine. Please don’t even tell me that I’m doing well, keep doing… I don’t even wanna hear that. I wanna hear that I’ve already achieved. I’m already there.”

So he sought to justify himself. What a warning it is. We think we don’t need to love our neighbor if he is what we call undeserving poor. What do we mean by undeserving poor? Well, somebody whose poverty is because of their own sin. Friends, who’s left after a while? I mean, who’s left? We’re gonna look at somebody and say we’re only gonna give to the deserving poor. The ones that really, really deserve our attention. Do you not realize how arrogant that sounds to God?

Did we deserve to be saved by Jesus? He didn’t use that with us, but we excuse. Here’s an able-bodied man who should be out working for himself, and I’m not gonna give him a penny. I’m not saying we ought to give him money, but I’m saying we ought not to turn away from him. I’m saying there ought to be some ministry. We think we don’t need to love our neighbor as ourselves if he’s a stranger or possibly dangerous or will involve us deeper than we want to be involved. Well, that may be the case, but that’s more of a searching of our own hearts. We tend to draw the boundary lines around who we should love so tightly that it excuses most of our unloving relationships. I’ll say more on this at the end.

Two Key Questions the Parable Answers

There are two key questions that this parable answers. What are these two key questions? Number one, is what is the question the lawyer asks, who is my neighbor? So simply put, who should we love? The parable’s told to give us the answer to that question, “Who is my neighbor?” And he tells the parable as an answer to that question.

But secondly, I think it also answers, “How should we love him?” It gives us a display of how we should love our neighbor.

The Parable Related

So you understand the story, there’s this deadly, dangerous Jericho Road, and there are five different people in the tale. First is the victim, and I think it’s key to note that we know absolutely nothing about him. I mean nothing. What do we know about this guy? We know he’s on the Jericho Road and he got attacked; that’s all we know about him. We don’t know if he’s Jewish. We don’t know if he’s Samaritan, might be Roman. We don’t know anything about him. We don’t know if he’s rich, if he’s poor, if he’s old, if he’s young. We don’t know anything about this individual. And I think it’s very striking because again, this is the question that Jesus is seeking to answer.

Who is my neighbor? Answer: This guy. Who is it? Well, what do we know about him? You don’t need to know anything about him except that he has a need. It’s an individual, a human being, in need. So basically, Jesus is saying, “Your neighbor is anyone in need.”

Then you’ve got the robbers. We don’t know many things about them either, except that they’re exceptionally selfish individuals who are willing to break the laws of God and man to take from this individual what they think is best. Basically, their motto would be something like this, “What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is mine if I can take it from you.” And there are some people that live like that.

But then you’ve got the priest, and then you’ve got the Levite; they’re the same guy, so I’m gonna have them be the same guy. Is that okay? The priest and the Levite are the same guy, just times two. So who are they? Well, their motto would be something like this, “What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is yours. Have a good day. Live and let live. I don’t wanna get involved.”

And what’s so striking about both the priest and the Levite is they see the individual lying there by the side of the road. “He saw him and passed by on the other side.” “He saw him and passed by on the other side,” it’s very significant. The good Samaritan, he sees him and ministers. So, this sight is so important. Take them into you with your eyes. Look at him. Look at him. These are individuals that are choosing to be willfully ignorant. I don’t wanna know much more than I already know. I already know more than I wanna know.

And so they pass by. Why did they pass by on the other side, why not like walk right by him? Well, it’s a little uncomfortable. I wanna put as much distance between us and the misery and the suffering as we can. Hence that air conditioned bubble that was in me in Mombasa. There’s this, “I want a gap, a safe space.”

And, you know, it’s amazing how we can actually carve out a lifestyle in which you hardly ever see any suffering people. It’s actually easy to do. And by the way, I think some of the worst, most terrifying sins that there are in life are those sins of omission, the things that you ought to do and don’t do. That’s how these folks did, the priest and Levite, they’re on some holy mission, I guess. I don’t know. They’re going to Jerusalem; they’re gonna do something for God, but they don’t do clearly what God wants them to do.

And so those sins of omission are just scary, aren’t they really. Because it says in Matthew 25, “When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, he will gather all the nations before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.” And he’s going to put the sheep on his right, and the goats on his left. And then after commending the sheep, he says to the goats, “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me. I was sick and in prison, and you did not look after me.”

They didn’t do anything. They just didn’t do what they should have done. “‘Now when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger needing clothes or sick or in prison and not help you?’ ‘Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did not do for me.’”  What would it be like to see a replay of our lives and see all of the possible ministries we could have had if only we’d been more attentive? And therefore, you ought to be pleading for open eyes as a result of this sermon. Just say, “God give me grace, give me eyesight to see opportunities I’ve been missing. I’ve gotten in the habit of passing by. I don’t wanna keep doing that. Give me a new eyesight here.” I’m praying it for myself too.

And then you have the innkeeper. His motto is, “What’s mine is yours if you’ll pay me for it.” So there’s an individual who is willing to help if he gets something beneficial in this life out of it. He’s a mercenary.

And then there’s the good Samaritan basically, “What’s mine is yours if you need it. If you need it, I’ll give it to you.” So Jesus, I think specifically chose a Samaritan because he was trying to offend. I don’t know what it is, is that what he’s doing? I don’t know, maybe the parables are that way, but Jesus is trying to get you to listen. And by choosing the Samaritan, who they would have despised, as the good guy in the story, it just shows Jesus’ nature.

Look what he does. Look what he does. He stops his own life. He invests himself fully. He gives of his time, he even spends the whole night caring for the man. The man’s well-being has become his whole focus. He set aside his own agenda. We don’t know where he was going, or what he was doing, but that’s done now at least for the night. He gives of his money, pays silver coins to the innkeeper for whatever costs there may be, and he promises to come back later to finish his care and see that he’s fully recovered. That’s how he sacrifices, that’s what he does, that’s what it means to love your neighbor as yourself.

The Summary Command

And so at the end of that then Jesus sums it all up. “‘Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?’ The expert in the law replied, ‘The one who had mercy on him.’” Like I said, he’s good at the right answers; he’s a good right answer giver. And so he was like, “Oh, the one who had mercy.” Right you are. “Go and do likewise,” said Jesus. You know these things. You’ll be blessed if you do them. That’s in effect what he’s saying. Go and do likewise. This, I think, is a categorical command from our Savior to us to love our neighbor like this. Go and do likewise.

The Questions Answered

Well, it leaves all kinds of questions still in our hearts, but He does answer the two questions. Remember I said there are two questions. Alright, who is my neighbor? Anyone in need, providentially, anybody who crosses your path, anybody you know about, anybody in need. He’s a human being, he’s in need of something, providentially in my life, I see him.

By the way, do you not see how that self-esteem interpretation just doesn’t fit? Imagine as he’s going along the side of the road there’s the good Samaritan and he sees the man there and he kinda sits down next to him as the man is bleeding there. Says, “I want you to know I really would like to help, but I’ve just really been feeling gloomy about myself recently. I’ve been struggling with my self-esteem. I haven’t really liked myself very much. I don’t feel good in public settings, and I’m just not well put together right now, wish I could help.” He gets up and walks off.

I have a hard time fitting it into the parable. It’s like there’s this need and guess what happens? Out go questions of self-esteem. They’re just out. Here’s a guy with a need. Let’s go for it. Guess what? When you live your life like that, all of a sudden, you realize it’s been years since you’ve worried about how you were about yourself. You’re just happy, productive, fruitful and energetically serving Christ and healthy, really, really healthy and happy. I already said that didn’t I? But anyway, happy and healthy and well put together. You’re not asking, “Can I really do this?” And so I think that kind of answers it, who is my neighbor? Any needy person at all. And what does it mean to love him as myself? Sacrificial acts of service.

Provocative Questions Remaining

But there are still some questions remaining, aren’t there? Is mercy ministry necessary or essential to the Christian life? Like, can I not do this and still go to heaven? Let’s realize the original question is, “What must I do to get eternal life?” in Luke 10; that was the original context. Jesus in effect is saying, “Do this.” Is this teaching works salvation? Well, we know it’s not, but it appears that Jesus sees care for the poor and the needy as of the essence of being a Christian; it’s of the essence of the Christian life. Well, another question may pop in your mind, what is the scope and dimension of my life of loving my neighbor? Like the lawyer, aren’t we ready to ask in different ways who is my neighbor?

Tim Keller, in his book, Mercy Ministry: The Call of the Jericho Road lists ways that modern Christians seek to escape costly ministry to the poor and needy by making excuses and asking these kinds of questions. “Just how far do we have to go?” “You don’t mean that we should pour ourselves out for anyone and everyone do you?” “Doesn’t charity begin at home?” “You don’t mean that every Christian must get deeply involved with hurting and needy people. I’m not really very good at that kind of work. It’s really not my gift.” “I have a busy schedule, and I’m actually extremely active in my church.”

You start to see that the priest and the Levite kind of answer is going on here. “I’ve got things I gotta do for the church.” “Isn’t this sort of thing the government’s job anyway?” Well, we can get into that discussion another time. “I barely have enough money for myself and frankly aren’t many of the poor really just personally irresponsible? Isn’t it the case that if they would just get their act together, that things will be better in their lives?”

And realistically, “how far should we go?” You can see anything you wanna see all over the world. You can see the Haiti earthquake, within hours after it’s happened. Or maybe even while it’s happening, I mean, are we really supposed to care for everybody that’s hurting and broken all over the world?

These are real questions that come into our hearts. My question is this, how can we really be transformed as individuals, so that we actually obey these commands as God intends? That’s my question, how can FBC become, without question, a loving church in this community that does the good works God has ordained for us to do? That’s my question. So that we are not excusing ourselves from good works and missing, friends, so many blessings that God has for us to do. Are we not living in the Jericho road right now, every day?

V. Priorities in Love

Gospel Coalition Talk on Mercy Ministry

Now some time ago, I gave a talk at The Gospel Coalition in Chicago on this topic and I want to lay out quickly, some, I think biblical priorities in helping us to sort this out.

Five Priorities

The first priority I laid out is this: Justification before ministry. And by this, I’m talking to you as an individual. Please be sure that you yourselves are justified by faith in Christ, apart from works of the law before you even try to do these things. They came in John 6 and said, “What must we do to work the works of God?” And Jesus said, “This is the work of him who sent me, that you believe in the one that he is sent.”

Let’s start there. I said it early in the sermon. I’ll say it again. Do not try to do mercy ministry if you’re not certain that your sins are forgiven through faith in Jesus Christ. We are not saved by doing mercy ministry, friends. We are saved by someone else’s mercy ministry to us, Jesus. And then we’re saved to do mercy ministries for others, but we’re not justified by our works. So let’s be sure that we have that. Have you trusted in Christ? Are your sins forgiven through faith in His blood? Have you let Jesus wash not just your feet, but your hands and your head and your whole soul in his cleansing grace and mercy? Have you let him do that for you? Then set aside everything else I’m saying and just come to Christ, if you haven’t yet. That’s priority number one: Justification before ministry.

Priority number two is: Ministry to the soul above ministry to the body. It is more important to minister to the soul than it is to minister to the body. Jesus settled this forever when he said, “What would it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?” He said it in John 6, after the feeding of the 5,000. “Do not labor for the food that spoils,” he said to the poor. “Do not labor for the food that spoils but for the food that endures to eternal life.” And so that’s our message in mercy ministry here, in any kind of loving of the poor and needy must be gospel proclamation above all else. Now, it doesn’t mean temporally it has to come first. Sometimes you feed them some soup or do some things, but in that there’s a seeking and a yearning to have that gospel conversation and to share the gospel. So ministry to the soul above ministry to the body; it does not mean we don’t minister to the body, friends. Just setting out priorities. So we want to minister to the soul because it’s eternal.

Thirdly, ministry to the family of believers and to our own families above ministry to outsiders. This is a clear biblical priority. First and foremost, God has arranged most of the people in the world in families to care for their overwhelming ongoing needs of food, clothing, and shelter. It is clearly too much for the church to care for the food, clothing, and shelter needs of everybody in the district. That is something families are supposed to take care of. And so it says in 1 Timothy 5:8, “If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he’s denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” He’s talking there about in context ministry to the widows and be sure that they’re truly widows in need. Be sure that they don’t have a son that can take care of them, and he ought to take care of them.

And then a little side step from that is we need a minister to Christians, first and foremost, above ministry to non-Christians. And you get this again from Galatians 6:10. “Therefore as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family believers.” There’s a priority structure there. So we’re gonna minister to Christians as they have need, especially within our own church and then outward from there. But this doesn’t mean we don’t minister to non-Christians. It’s just a priority structure.

Fourth, ministry to the poor above ministry to the rich. Jesus provokes us with this teaching. Luke 14, “Jesus said to his host, ‘When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and you’ll be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.’” So there’s a clear priority structure there. Find out those that are genuinely needy and minister to them, but this doesn’t mean that we have no ministry to the rich. The rich can be hurting in other ways, significantly hurting, and so we need a minister to them as well.

VI. Applications and Challenges

Alright, so what applications and challenges, do we take from this? Well, I’m already challenged. I know about you. I look at these kinds of things, and I say, “Lord, how can I live a life pleasing to you?” I think basically what I get from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6 is each day has enough trouble of its own. Let’s put it positively, each day has enough ministry opportunities of its own. Let’s do the good works that God has ordained for us to do today. Let’s do them today and let’s find out what they are.

Loving Your Spouse as Yourself

Let’s love our neighbor as ourself within our own family. Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church. Love her, cherish her, take care of her. Wives love your husbands, pray for your husbands, build them up, encourage them. 1 Corinthians 13, “Love is patient, love is kind,” let’s really do that.

Loving Your Children as Yourself

Parents love your children, cherish them, pour yourselves out for them and into them, pray for them, set them a good example, be tender-hearted and compassionate with them. Paul says to the Thessalonians, he says, “We were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children; you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting, and urging you to live lives worthy of the Lord.” That’s how fathers and mothers should be. So do that; love your children.

Loving Your Neighborhood Partner (Neighbor) as Yourself

And let’s love our geographical neighbors right in our own neighborhoods. It’s like I’m not sure we have neighborhoods anymore. It’s amazing, the modern technology has made neighborhood’s almost like a thing of the past. There’s so much seclusion these days, do you see it? It’s really hard. If you don’t think I’m right, then just go knock on someone’s door, ring their doorbell if it even works. And they’ll be surprised to see you. I’m not saying you should do that as a ministry strategy, I’m just telling you some things have broken down. Maybe we ought to start rebuilding our commitment to our physical neighbors, to see who’s around us, and how we can minister to them. Ask God for opportunities to do it; ask God for help. You’re not on your own in all of this.

Loving Your Fellow Church Member as Yourself

And what about fellow church members, how can we love our fellow church members as we love ourselves? Well, I would begin with prayer. I would start with prayer lists and find out how people are hurting. They frequently will tell that on the prayer list, so go find it and say, “Okay this isn’t just a line on a piece of paper, this is so and so who’s saying that such and such is going on in his or her life.” Think about it. Take it to God in prayer as though it were happening to you, and think if this were happening to you, what kind of ministry would mean something to you? How could somebody minister to me.”

Loving Your Urban Neighbor or International Neighbor as Yourself

Love your urban neighbor and your international neighbor as yourself. Different ministries, I already mentioned Jobs For Life. We have a growing ministry in an urban setting that’s getting stronger and stronger. It could be that God may be calling you to minister right here in the community and you don’t know how. There’s this incredible ministry called Durham Cares. I talked with these folks last week, and they basically will listen to you, they interview you, they find out what you are into. There’s this discussion back and forth and then they line you up with some ministries you might be interested in. Said it sounds like e-Harmony.com for ministry. And they said, “Yeah, that’s what it is.” But they try to line you up with some options for ministry.

There are opportunities. We’ve seen a tremendous growth to our own international student ministry. English as a Second Language, other things, just being hosts and having people in your home. It’s been beautiful to see some people really get excited about that kind of ministry. Friends, we are called to love our neighbors as ourself, even to the ends of the earth. John Piper summarizes it this way, “Our Lord is aiming to call into being loving, compassionate, merciful men and women whose hearts summon them irresistibly into action when there is suffering within their reach. To that end he demands that they again and again ask themselves this question: Am I desiring and seeking the temporal and eternal good of my neighbor with the same zeal, ingenuity, and perseverance with which I seek my own? Is my own native and insatiable longing for happiness seeking its fulfillment by drinking deeply at the fountain of God’s mercy and then letting it spill over in love into the life of my neighbor?” Close with me in prayer.

These are only preliminary, unedited outlines and may differ from Andy’s final message.

Today we’re going to look down the most dangerous road in the world… the Jericho Road

Tim Keller:  “The road to Jericho is steep and dangerous.  So dangerous, in fact, that people have called it ‘the bloody way.’  Jerusalem rests at 3000 feet above sea level, while Jericho, only seventeen miles away, sits on land 1000 feet below the level of the Mediterranean.  The road between the towns descends sharply through mountainous territory full of crags and caves, allowing thieves to hide, strike, and escape with great ease.  Travelling the Jericho Road in those days was much like walking through a dark alley in the worst part of a modern city, except that it was many miles to the nearest streetlight.”

It’s not dangerous merely because there are brigands on it who will jump out at you and assault you and take your precious possessions

No… it’s primarily dangerous for us because here, on the Jericho Road, the Lord Jesus Christ tests our hearts to the very core… will be love our neighbor as ourselves, or will we just love ourselves?  Will be spend ourselves on behalf of others, or will be pass by in safety while wasting the opportunities God prepares for us for good works?

The Jericho Road can happen in your own homes, when your spouse demands more attention and needs more of you than you feel you can give

The Jericho Road can happen in your neighborhood, when you find out your neighbor has just been diagnosed with terminal cancer

The Jericho Road can happen as you stand in line at Wal-Mart and overhear a conversation between an unemployed man and his son concerning something the son wants to buy, but they can’t afford it

The Jericho Road can happen at a stoplight, when a homeless man tries to catch your eye and hit you up for money

The Jericho Road can happen at church, when you see a newcomer standing alone after the service with no one who wants to talk to him

You see, the Jericho Road has to do with interactions with other human beings… ANY human being who has a need that you can meet

It is dangerous for us… deadly dangerous… because if we learn to walk the walk of the Priest or Levite, shielding our eyes and passing by in selfish isolation, we will find it gets easier and easier to do… and soon, we can hardly imagine EVER ministering sacrificially to another human being!!

Every day we are surrounded by people with needs… sometimes overwhelming needs

The relentless call of Jesus Christ over us every moment of the day is to pour ourselves out in loving service to them, to deny ourselves for them, to spend ourselves for them… to love them as we love ourselves

Last week, we began to study this issue… what does it mean to “Love your neighbor as yourself”???

Today, we seek even more clarity

I. The Two Great Commandments

A. Context:  Final Week of Jesus’ Life

1. A Lawyer questions Jesus

“Which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

2. Christ’s timeless and very orthodox answer

Matthew 22:37-40  Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’  ³⁸ This is the first and greatest commandment.  ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’  ⁴⁰ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

B. Last Week:  Made the case that the Two Commandments are INTERTWINED

1. True Love for Neighbor Depends on First Loving God

a. You cannot truly love your neighbor without loving God more

b. Loving your neighbor more than you love God is IDOLATRY

c. Thus husbands and wives should NOT love each other more than they love God

d. Parents should NOT love their children more than they love God

e. Truly, a healthy love for neighbor must be a SUBSET of loving God… whenever we truly love our neighbor, we are loving God in the very act

2. HOWEVER… True Love for God ALWAYS Results in Love for Neighbor

1 John 4:20 If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.

II. What Does it Mean to Love Your Neighbor As Yourself?

A. Definition Given

Love is cheerful sacrifice for the benefit of another person and for the glory of God

1. Love is an AFFECTION… a heart movement toward a person… it must come “from the heart”… this is included in the word “cheerful”

2. Love is SACRIFICE… a willingness to give something valuable… time, energy, money, yourself—your attention, your gifts, your personality… without sacrifice, there is no love;  the more sacrifice there is, the greater the love

John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

3. Love results in BENEFICIAL ACTION… some action in the world, something is done to help the person

B. Two Aspects are Indispensible

1. Heart Attraction

2. Beneficial (sacrificial) service

C. Christ’s Example

1. Heart moved

Mark 1:40-41  A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”  ⁴¹ Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!”

Matthew 14:14  When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

Matthew 15:32  Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may collapse on the way.”

2. Interruptible

a. One of the biggest challenges in living a life of love is GIVING UP YOUR OWN AGENDA for the day;  how many times have you seen a motorist broken down by the side of the road or an elderly person with some need, or a poor person begging for money… and have shrunk back from helping because of how TIME CONSUMING it is to love your neighbor…

b. It is so astonishing to me how INTERRUPTIBLE Jesus was

Matthew 8:5-7  When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help.  ⁶ “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed and in terrible suffering.”  ⁷ Jesus said to him, “I will go and heal him.”

Mark 5:22-24  Then one of the synagogue rulers, named Jairus, came there. Seeing Jesus, he fell at his feet  ²³ and pleaded earnestly with him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.”  ²⁴ ¶ So Jesus went with him.

Matthew 20:30-34  Two blind men were sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was going by, they shouted, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!”  ³¹ The crowd rebuked them and told them to be quiet, but they shouted all the louder, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!”  ³² Jesus stopped and called them. “What do you want me to do for you?” he asked.  ³³ “Lord,” they answered, “we want our sight.”  ³⁴ Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes. Immediately they received their sight and followed him

D. “As Yourself”…

1. Does this teach the prior need for self esteem, or does it assume you already love yourself?

2. A command to love yourself??

a. Some follow this approach:  “You can’t love anyone else until you love yourself…”

b. So, first, love yourself, and then you will be fit and ready to love your neighbor as yourself

3. However, I think the Scriptures indicate we already love ourselves in the way this command wants us to do for our neighbors

4. Key verse:  Ephesians 5

Ephesians 5:28-29  husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.  ²⁹ After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it

Every act of kindness and care you show to your own body—physical grooming, feeding, drinking, sleeping, scratching an itch, getting an extra blanket because you’re cold—all of this is evidence that you do love yourselves

5. How do we love ourselves?

a. Consistently thinking of our preferences, our goals, our pleasures, our desires, our aspirations

b. Consistently meeting our own physical needs:  food, warmth, relief of pain, sleep, drink, etc.

6. This then is how we should love our neighbors… seeing their needs as if they were our own

Philippians 2:4  Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

The non-Christian is fanatical about looking after his own interests… the Christian adds the interests of others

Philippians 2:21  everyone looks out for his own interests

“Looking Out for Number One”

This Darwinian, survival of the fittest, dog-eat-dog, selfishness is at the root of what makes life here on earth so wretched and sin-cursed

7. So, a loving Christian learns to see other’s needs as if they were his

a. He looks at urban poverty and says “What would it be like if I lived there?  What would I need?”  He is thinking like Christ… stepping out of his own comfort and self-satisfaction to take on the misery of others

b. A Christian looks at the lostness of co-workers and takes on their spiritual emptiness as his own problem

c. He looks at total strangers in public places in terms of “What needs do you have that I can meet?  Can I hold the door for you?  Can I let you go first in the checkout line?  Can I give you the last empty seat on the airplane and wait for the next flight?  Can I stop in the rain and help you change your flat tire?”

d. He is loving his neighbor as himself

E. The Measure:  “As I Have Loved You”

1. Christ gave us a “New Command”… despite the fact that “Love your neighbor as yourself” is found in the Old Testament

Leviticus 19:18  “‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.

2. But yet Christ later will say that He is giving us a new commandment

John 13:34  “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

3. John picks up on this:

1 John 2:7-8  Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard.  ⁸ Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and you

How is this a new commandment?  Jesus Christ’s example is the most perfect fulfillment of this commandment in history… therefore, Christ adding the words “As I have loved you” is what’s new… a whole new MEASURE of love for our neighbors

John 15:12-13  My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.  ¹³ Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

Jesus’ willingness to go to the cross for our sins, to suffer under the wrath of God will forever stand as the measure of Christian love for others

1 John 3:16  This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.

III. Heart Affection Described:  1 Corinthians 13

A. Basic Concept:  Without Love, Sacrifice is Worthless

1 Corinthians 13:3  If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

B. Love is a Heart State Described in Detail Here

1 Corinthians 13:4-8  Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  ⁵ It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  ⁸ ¶ Love never fails.

If our hearts are not characterized like this, we are not really loving our neighbor as God commands

BUT love for neighbor MUST MOVE OUT into tangible acts of service to others

IV. Sacrificial Action Described:  Luke 10

Luke 10:25-37  On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”  ²⁶ “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”  ²⁷ 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.'”  ²⁸ “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

 ²⁹ ¶ But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”  ³⁰ 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.  ³¹ A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side.  ³² So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.  ³³ But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him.  ³⁴ 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.  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.’

A. Context:  Earlier in Jesus’ life… same issue, same question

B. The Effort at Self Justification

1. The Lawyer is seeking to justify himself, rather than to change himself

2. In effect, he wants confirmation that he already has done enough to please God

3. This is such a warning to us… we excuse ourselves from loving our neighbor as ourselves on many bases… all of them will appear spurious on Judgment Day

a. We think we don’t need to love our neighbor if he is “undeserving poor”… an able-bodied man who should be working but instead is begging; or someone whose bad choices have led to addictions

b. We think we don’t need to love our neighbor as ourselves if he is a stranger, or possibly dangerous… or will involve us deeper than we want to be involved

c. We all tend to draw the boundary lines around who we should love so tightly that it excuses most of our unloving relationships

4. More on this at the end

C. Two Key Questions the Parable Answers

1. Who is my neighbor?

2. What does it mean to love him as myself?

D. The Parable Related

1. The deadly dangerous Jericho Road

2. Five people in the tale

a. The victim:  we know nothing about him, and that’s important… we don’t know his nationality, his race, his age, his socioeconomic status, nothing!!  It’s striking, too, because we know more about those who FAIL to help him than about he himself;  Jesus’ point is, “Your neighbor is ANYONE in need”

b. The robbers:  what’s yours is mine if I can take it from you;  selfish people who are willing to break God’s laws and man’s in order to get what they want;   people are to be used and abused to meet selfish needs

c. The priest and Levite:  what’s yours is yours, and what’s mine is mine… PERIOD!!  I don’t want to get involved at all… they stay on the other side of the road, look away, will not allow the man’s sufferings to flow into their minds… WILLFUL IGNORANCE;  notice that they are both “spiritual people” who think they are serving God;  they might even be on some important spiritual mission… but they pass by on the other side

[Dear friends:  the most terrifying sins to me are sins of OMISSION… good works God intended us to do, and we refused to do them out of fear or selfishness

Sheep and Goats:  Goats condemned for what they DIDN’T DO!!

Matthew 25:41-45  Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.  ⁴² For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink,  ⁴³ I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’  ⁴⁴ “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’  ⁴⁵ “He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

What will it be like for us to see a replay of our lives and have the Lord point out all the opportunities to serve others that we missed through our self-centeredness!!

d. The innkeeper:  What’s mine is yours for a price!  This is the merchant, the salesman, who will give anything he has FOR A PRICE;  he’ll get involved if he gets something earthly out of it immediately

e. The Good Samaritan:  what’s mine is yours if you need it.  Jesus specifically chooses a Samaritan because it would have been so jarring;  as if to say, “If it were a Samaritan lying there, you should take care of him”  Notice how far the Samaritan goes in caring for this unknown man

i) Stopping his own life;  investing himself fully;

ii) Giving of his time:  even spending the whole night caring for the man;  this man’s well-being has become his whole focus

iii) Giving of his money: paying silver coins to the innkeeper

iv) Promising to come back later to finish his care and see to his full recovery

E. The Summary Command

Luke 10:36-37  “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”  ³⁷ The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

This is a categorical command from Jesus to do “mercy ministry”… loving needy neighbors as yourself

F. The Questions Answered

1. Q:  Who is my neighbor?  A: Any needy person God brings into your life.

a. The Good Samaritan didn’t know this man at all… he was a total stranger

b. However, he could see that he was a human being, created in the image of God, laying by the side of the road bleeding to death… there was no need for a screening process, for an interview, for any kind of filtering at all…

i) Human being

ii) In need of something

iii) Providentially in my life (I see him, I know of his need)

2. Q:  What does it mean to love him as myself?  A:  Sacrificial acts of service that meet the need presented.

a. The Good Samaritan does whatever is needed to care for this wounded stranger

b. He sacrifices his time:  he interrupts his own schedule and diverts himself from his own plans

c. He sacrifices his compassion:  he allows his heart to be wrapped up in the care of this man;  he hurts because the man is hurt; he attends immediately to the man’s medical needs;  he gives of his own medical supplies

d. He sacrifices possibly his own safety:  the road to Jericho was clearly dangerous, and the robbers might be nearby;  this Good Samaritan puts his own concern for his safety aside to meet this man’s needs

e. He sacrifices his night’s sleep:  he stays up through the night caring for him, nursing him, seeing to his wounds

f. He sacrifices his money:  paying the innkeeper his fee, and promising more as needed;

g. He sacrifices an element of his future:  promising to return and continue this man’s care

3. What does “as myself” mean here?

a. Can you imagine the Good Samaritan saying as he sees the man lying there in his blood, kneeling down next to the groaning man and saying softly to him, “I’ve really been struggling with my self-esteem recently… I don’t really like myself very much;  I don’t think I can do anything for you right now;  let me go get myself together, feel better about myself, then I will be able to love you as I love myself.”

b. I think the Lord is assuming that the Samaritan, if he himself were knocked to the ground and beaten, if he were able would attend to his own wounds, bandage his own head, get himself to an inn to rest and recuperate, and pay for it if he had any funds available;  so therefore he does this for the unknown man lying there

G. Provocative Questions Remaining

1. Is mercy ministry NECESSARY to our very existence as Christians?

a. The original question was “What must I do to inherit eternal life”?

b. Do I have to be the Good Samaritan in order to go to heaven?

c. I appears that Jesus sees care for the poor as of the essence of being a Christian.

2. What is the scope and dimension of my life of loving my neighbor?  Like the lawyer, aren’t we ready to ask “Who is my neighbor?” again and again!

Tim Keller, Mercy Ministry:  The Call of the Jericho Road lists ways modern Christians seek to escape costly ministry to the poor and needy by making excuses and asking these kinds of questions:

a. “Just how far do we have to go?”

b. “You don’t mean that we should pour ourselves out for anyone and everyone do you?  Doesn’t charity begin at home?”

c. “You don’t mean that every Christian must get deeply involved with hurting and needy people… I’m not very good at that kind of work;  it’s not my gift!”

d. “I have a busy schedule and I am extremely active in my church.  Isn’t this sort of thing the government’s job, anyway?”

e. “I barely have enough money for myself!”

f. “Aren’t many of the poor simply irresponsible?”

g. And realistically… how far should we go?  CNN and the internet bring situations like the Haiti earthquake immediately to our eyes and our minds… are we really responsible for every disaster and every suffering person all over the world?  Aren’t the needs of the poor around the world so overwhelming no Christian can truly address them?

3. What can really transform an individual Christian from selfishness to a true heart of love for neighbor?  What will make the church powerful enough to heal the deep hurts, fill the deep needs, and transform surrounding society?

4. Are we not living on the Jericho Road right now???

V. Priorities in Love

A. Gospel Coalition Talk on Mercy Ministry

B. Laid Out Five Priorities

1. Justification before Ministry

a. Before you even seek to love your neighbor as yourself, be sure your own sins are forgiven

John 6:28-29   Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”  ²⁹ Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”

b. BUT that doesn’t mean God excuses us from the Second Great Commandment!!

2. Ministry to the Soul above Ministry to the Body

Matthew 16:33 “What would it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?”

a. What good is it to minister to someone’s body which is temporary, but show no concern for his soul?

b. This is the flaw of the “Social Gospel”… and we’re heading there again!!

c. BUT that doesn’t mean the ministry to the body isn’t important… Jesus poured out His life day after day healing the sick and feeding the hungry

3. Ministry to the Family of Believers above Ministry to Outsiders

a. Our top priority in terms of physical provision is our own family

1 Timothy 5:8  If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

b. Our second top priority is the family of believers

Galatians 6:10  Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

c. BUT this doesn’t mean we have no responsibility to the poor and needy lost people of the world

4. Ministry to the Poor above Ministry to the Rich

a. Jesus provokes us with this teaching

Luke 14:12-14   Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid.  ¹³ But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind,  ¹⁴ and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

b. BUT this doesn’t mean that we have no ministry to the rich

VI. Applications and Challenges

A. Loving Your Spouse as Yourself

1. Feeding and caring for the bodily needs of your spouse… fundamental to the command to husbands

Ephesians 5:28-29  husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.  ²⁹ After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church

2. Caring for your spouse’s spiritual needs

a. Pray for your spouse as you pray for yourself

b. Feed your spouse’s soul the word of God

c. Encourage your spouse’s development in Christ as you would desire to be encouraged yourself… when you see your spouse take faith steps, speak words of encouragement

d. Notice your spouse’s needs… put her needs above your own as you get home from work after a long day

B. Loving Your Child as Yourself

1. Never forget that your children are created in the image of God… and that while for a time you are clearly in a position of authority, someday you will stand on equal footing with them before the cross and the Judgment Seat of Christ

2. Parent them the way God parents you… encourage them, comfort them, meet their needs as they are sick in the middle of the night;  make yourself available to them at night when they want to talk right before bed… don’t begrudge the time it takes to shape and mold them for their future

C. Loving Your Neighborhood Partner (Neighbor) as Yourself

1. Be courteous neighbor… manage your homelife in a way so as not to be a burden to your neighbors;

2. Develop the relationship… pray opportunities to meet needs… I know a man in this church who has used his skills and his machinery to bless an elderly widow in his neighborhood… he plowed her driveway during the recent snow storm

3. Be aware of medical issues your neighbor has… try to find ways to be a blessing

4. Be aware of special events and issues in their lives… celebrate with them as appropriate

5. Do not live the present pattern:  your home a fortress in which you enter on the weekend and pull up the drawbridge and watch your flatscreen TV for hours and have no relationship with those immediately around you

6. Seek to build a relationship with them for the gospel… pray for a good opportunity to share the good news of Jesus Christ

D. Loving Your Fellow Church Member as Yourself

1. Pray for the church phone list… one page a day

2. Be aware of the needs in the church

3. Consider your fellow brothers and sisters, their needs, their special circumstances, their challenges, their spiritual gifts and abilities

4. Pray that God will give you opportunities to build up each member of the Body of Christ here… by word, by note, by acts of service…

E. Loving Your Urban Neighbor or International Neighbor as Yourself

1. Pray for the lost in our community

2. Get involved in the urban ministry or the ministry to internationals

3. Seek to lead someone to Christ

4. Pray for a heart to the poor and needy…

5. DURHAM CARES… a great ministry which can match you up with a fruitful ministry right here in Durham… like e-harmony.com for urban ministry

F. Loving a Stranger in the Elevator or at the Gas Station as Yourself

G. Loving Fellow Employee Neighbors as Yourself

H. Loving Lead Story on the News Neighbors as Yourself  (Haiti)

1. Sacrifice meals, change your lifestyle, raise some money for the needs of Haiti

2. When you hear of some disaster, bring it to the Lord in prayer and ask if He wants you to be involved in some way

3. Follow the ministries of your own church: FBC had a ministry in Gulfport after Hurricane Katrina;  and we have had an ongoing avenue of ministry in Haiti

4. For the other tragedies, maybe it’s enough to simply pray for those folks, or for people ministering to them

I. Loving Unreached People Group Neighbors as Yourself

1. “Without hope and without God in the world…”  Do you care???

2. Pray for the gospel to advance to the ends of the earth

3. Ask the Lord to give you an opportunity to minister to unreached people groups, perhaps through FBC missionaries