Bible Reading

Trader Joe's trains its cashiers to ask one of two questions at checkout.

• “What are you doing the rest of the day?” • “Have you ever tried this product before?”

I want to ask a bigger question. What are you “doing with the rest of your life?”

If the story you are telling yourself does not include showing the love of God to all who do not know him, I am asking you to reconsider how you just answered that question.

Background before reading.

• Luke 10:1–24: Jesus sends the seventy. • Luke 10:25–37: The Good Samaritan. • Luke 10:38–42: Mary sits at Jesus' feet.

Active love for the stranger is bracketed by mission and devotion.

The lawyer is an expert in the Law of Moses.

Luke repeatedly shows religious insiders being corrected by unexpected outsiders:

• The Pharisee and the tax collector • The prodigal's older brother • Zacchaeus

Watch the verb:

• Verse 25: “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” • Verse 37: “Go, and do thou likewise.”

You cannot “do” your way into an inheritance.

That tension will not resolve until the end of the message.

Bible Reading: : Luke 10:25-37.

Sermon Introduction — JUNE 28, 2016

Istanbul

• Coffee shop about 150 feet from the terminal at Atatürk Airport.
• Spent 5-6 hours there. (picture)
• Been there a week earluer (picture)

The attack

• Three men.
• Guns and explosive vests.
• Forty-five dead in under two minutes.

My reaction

• I learned about it while in the air.
• My first response was not grief. It was rage.
• “Rage that surprised me, that scared me a little, because of how fast it came and how far it reached.”

The boy beside me

• His fear was more honest than my rage.
• “The thing you fear is more harmful to those who believe it than it is to you. It might cost you your life. It will certainly cost them eternity.”

The realization

• Most of those killed were Turkish.
• Most were Muslim.

That is when Luke 10 stopped being a children's story and started asking me a question I did not want to answer.

I. THE QUESTION THAT SEEKS A LIMIT (SLIDE)

Luke 10:25–29 “25 And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? 26 He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? 27 And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. 28 And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live. 29 But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?”

Big truth: No list survives this text.

A. THE LAWYER ALREADY KNEW THE COMMAND — VV. 27–28

Love God • Heart • Soul • Strength • Mind

Love your neighbor as yourself.

Jesus answered: “This do, and thou shalt live.”

That should have ended the conversation.

B. “WILLING TO JUSTIFY HIMSELF” — V. 29

He was not asking for information. • He was asking for an exit.

He wanted a limit. • How far does Leviticus 19:18 really reach? • Who actually qualifies as my neighbor?

He wanted to justify himself. • He was looking for a definition narrow enough to make himself righteous.

“Who is my neighbor?” is theological language for “Who is not?”

C. ILLUSTRATION — THE AWKWARD DISTANCE

Hold a door for someone close by. • Automatic. • No thought required.

Hold it for someone farther away. • Now it becomes a decision.

Eventually we decide: • Too far.

Missions question: • How far geographically? • How far culturally? • How far religiously? • How far before you stop holding the door?

D. MY OWN DOOR HAD ALREADY SWUNG SHUT

My question was not asked in a courtyard. • It was asked in rage at 35,000 feet.

It was still the same question: • Not, “Who is my neighbor?” • But, “Who am I excused from?”

E. APPLICATION

Who have I quietly decided is not my neighbor?

Our refusal rarely sounds like hatred. • “I'm being careful.” • “I'm being realistic.” • “You just don't understand those people.”

Name the person or group honestly before God.

There is no list Jesus will let you keep. (SLIDE)

II. THE STORY THAT CROSSES THE LINE (SLIDE)

Luke 10:30–35

Big truth: Mercy, not religious knowledge, is the real test.

A. THE WOUNDED MAN — V. 30

Jerusalem to Jericho • About seventeen miles. • Dangerous road. • Known for robbery and ambush.

The man is: • Beaten • Stripped • Left half dead

B. THE PRIEST PASSES BY — V. 31

His vocation centered on worship.

He may have had religious reasons for avoiding the man. • Ceremonial purity • Fear of touching a corpse • Leviticus 21:1–4

He likely could explain why he walked past.

The problem was not that he lacked theology.

The problem was that his theology never made him stop.

C. THE LEVITE PASSES BY — V. 32

He worked around sacrifices that pictured mercy.

He: • Comes near • Looks • Passes by

Knowing what mercy looks like is not the same as showing it.

D. THE SAMARITAN STOPS — VV. 33–35

He is the unexpected hero. • Jews and Samaritans carried deep ethnic and religious hostility. • See John 4:9 and John 8:48.

He “had compassion.” • He sees. • He stops. • He acts.

His mercy costs him: • Wine • Oil • His animal • His time • His money • A promise to return

He leaves an open-ended commitment: • “Whatsoever thou spendest more, I will repay thee.”

Same road.

Same wounded man.

Different response.

The Samaritan gets off the animal, kneels in the blood, and does something.

E. PERSONAL APPLICATION

I was the priest and the Levite in that airport.

My theology was fine.

My heart had already crossed the road.

The people my rage had categorized were the same kinds of people lying dead at that airport.

F. SECOND WITNESS — 1 JOHN 4:20–21

Read 1 John 4:20–21 “20 If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? 21 And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.”

John does not say: • “He is confused.” • “He needs to mature.”

John says: • “He is a liar.”

The test of whether we know the love of God was never merely seen in our spoken theology.

It is seen in our mercy toward the person we have every excuse to walk past.

The theology of the songs we sing isn't shown in how loud we sing them. It's shown in who we'd stop for. (SLIDE)

III. THE COMMAND THAT FOLLOWS US HOME (SLIDE)

Luke 10:36–37 “36 Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? 37 And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.”

Big truth: Love that stays at a safe distance is not the love Jesus commands.

A. JESUS REVERSES THE QUESTION — V. 36

The lawyer asks: • “Who qualifies?” • A category. • A limit.

Jesus asks: • “Who became a neighbor?” • An action. • Mercy shown.

The question is no longer, “Who is my neighbor?”

The question becomes, “Will I be one?”

B. “GO, AND DO THOU LIKEWISE” — V. 37

The lawyer still cannot bring himself to say “Samaritan.” • “He that shewed mercy.”

Jesus gives a command. • Not a feeling. • Not an opinion. • Not admiration for the story.

“Go.”

“Do.”

“Likewise.”

The gospel does not merely change how we think about people.

It changes what we do for them.

C. MORE THAN A NAME IN A NOTEBOOK

Missions can become very safe. • Names in a notebook • Pins on a map • Prayer cards • Offerings

Jesus' kind of love gets closer. • Your schedule • Your money • Your table • Your home

The test is not merely, “Would I put their name in my notebook?”

Would I welcome them into my house?

SAMUEL ZWEMER AND THE METRONOME

1887 — Hope College, Michigan • Robert Wilder speaks with a map of India. • A metronome ticks. • Each tick represents another person dying without the gospel.

Samuel Zwemer responds • A college senior. • Walks forward. • Signs a missionary decision card.

“God helping me, I purpose to be a foreign missionary.”

1890 • Sails for Arabia. • Twenty-three years old.

His life • Arabia • Bahrain • Egypt • Decades of ministry to Muslims

His family • Marries Amy Wilkes. • Builds a home in Bahrain. • Raises children there.

1904 • Two daughters die of malaria within the same week. • Katharina, age seven. • Ruth, age four.

They bury them in Bahrain.

Over their graves:

“Worthy is the Lamb to receive riches.”

Zwemer stays. • Continues missionary work. • Trains missionaries. • Writes extensively. • Becomes known as the “Apostle to Islam.”

WHY DID THE SOUND MOVE HIM?

1. Love would not let him walk away. / “…a love that will not let them go on in their ignorance and pitiful need.”
2. He saw souls, not merely a religion. / “One eighth of the population of the globe, 315 million souls, are adherents of this faith.”
3. He believed his life was worth spending on the gospel. / “Sixty years of pioneer effort against prejudice, loneliness, and a deadly climate, hospitals, schools, evangelism, toil, tears, and blood.”

D. ILLUSTRATION — THE SHREWD BUSINESSMAN — LUKE 16:1–9

A dishonest manager knows his time is short.

He uses what he has now for what will matter later.

Jesus does not praise dishonesty. • He praises foresight.

Luke 16:9 “9 And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.” • Use temporary resources with eternity in mind.

Jesus says using our money to make friends for the future is wise.

Zwemer used his whole life that way.

E. MY OWN “GO AND DO”

God did not remove my fear.

He rearranged it with truth.

My risk: • My life.

Their risk: • Eternity.

The rage had nowhere left to stand.

A. EVERYONE HAS A LIST

You do not need an airport to have one.

Your list may contain:

• A Muslim
• A family member
• A political opponent
• An immigrant
• An old friend
• Someone who hurt you

The reasons may be complicated.

The list is still the problem.

B. NOT SOMEWHERE ELSE

The nations are already around us.

Our community includes large Asian and Indian populations.

The mission field is not only across an ocean. • It is across the street. • Across the office. • Across the school. • Across the table.

Today, I am not asking you to run from this.

I am asking you to run to it.

C. THE COMMAND STILL STANDS

Jesus does not ask for warmer feelings.

He gives a command that cannot be obeyed from a safe distance.

“The thing you fear is more harmful to those who believe it than it is to you. It might cost you your life. It will cost them eternity.”

Let us decide what will set the rythym of our lives

Set it around 76 BPM.

Start it.

Wait five seconds.

Say quietly: • “Same sound as 1887.” • “Same tempo.”

What's different is you and your response.

[Turn it off.]

For some: • Just a sound. • Just a prop. • Easy to forget.

For someone else: • There is a name behind that sound now. • You cannot unhear it.

That is the difference between knowing about the love of God and knowing the love of God.

Zwemer heard it and gave his life.

I heard something like it over the Atlantic.

Response

“Take what you love most, and give it to the one you've loved least.” (SLIDE)

ONE WAY TO START THIS WEEK

The Samaritan's love cost him three things:

1. His time
2. His money
3. His resources and hospitality

Choose the person or group you have loved least and give them one of those this week.

• Your time Let the conversation run long.

• Your money Buy the coffee. Meet a need.

• Your home Put them at your actual table.

One name.

One action.

Before the week is over.

THE GOOD NEWS

Before we close, this sermon cannot end without answering the lawyer's first question:

“What shall I do to inherit eternal life?”

“Do” and “inherit” do not belong together. • An inheritance is received. • It is not earned.

The Good Samaritan exposes our inability. • We do not love perfectly. • We do not show mercy perfectly. • We cannot earn eternal life by doing better.

We are not ultimately the Samaritan. • We are the man in the ditch.

God did not pass by on the other side.

John 3:16

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son…”

Romans 5:8

“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

Ephesians 2:8–9

“For by grace are ye saved through faith…not of works…”

Jesus came to where we were. • He did not pass us by. • He gave himself for us. • He died for us. • He rose again. • He gives eternal life as a gift.

Loving your neighbor does not earn salvation. • Salvation is received by faith. • Salvation gives us the power to love people we once avoided.

If you belong to Christ, this is why you can afford to love people who scare you.

You were the man in the ditch.

He did not pass you by.

Go, and do thou likewise. (SLIDE)