Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church Podcast. Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church Podcast to explain, I mean down to some history, down to some things, what's going on here in Luke chapter 10.
Now I hope that you'll listen and open up your hearts and let's allow God to give us some instruction today if you will. Look at verse 25. And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tempted him, meaning Jesus, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said unto him, What is written in the law? How readest thou? That's what Jesus replied back. Isn't that like Jesus?
Here's a guy that comes that's a lawyer and he asks a question and Jesus basically asks him another question. Well, you're the one that knows it. You've read it. How do you read it?
What do you think it says? Look at verse 27. And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy strength, and with all thy mind and thy neighbor as thyself. He's the one that brought it up. But he brought it up, so the Lord's going to go ahead and take it from there.
I love this. Verse 28. And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right.
This do and thou shalt live. But he willing to justify himself said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbor? And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment and wounded him and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan as he journeyed came where he was, and when he saw him he had compassion on him, and went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine and set him on his own beast and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed he took out two pence and gave them to the host and said unto him, Take care of him and whatsoever thou spendest more when I come again I will repay thee. Verse 36, Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves? Now Jesus pretty much asked the question that there is no way that you could not answer it correctly and get away with it. Verse 37, And he said, He that showed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go and do thou likewise.
Let's pray. Lord I pray that you bless us as we do our best to rightfully divide your word. Thank you for the good music today, the good number of people here. And Lord these, it's not only a good number of people, they're good people.
Lord they're the best people I've ever met. And Lord I pray as we look into your word, I believe that not only are the people in front of me this way, but I hope that I am. Lord once you show us something in your word, that we take it as truth.
So Lord I pray that you'd help us today in Jesus name, Amen. You know of all Jesus parables what's interesting, I don't know of another parable that has really worked its way into American society or literally American consciousness like the parable of the Good Samaritan. I thought this was interesting, do you know that the phrase the Good Samaritan is basically we use that nowadays as a phrase to describe somebody that goes out of his way to help another.
Did you realize that? The unsaved world uses Bible terminology to describe an individual that goes out of his way to help somebody. I mean you just go, somebody didn't have to be at church and they weren't, they a Good Samaritan. I grew up obviously in a travel trailer where my mom and dad traveled obviously most of my life up until I went to college. And you know you have recreational vehicle insurance and you know I spent a lot of time at RV places getting repairs and different things. And I remember that my mom and dad had a sticker on the back of their trailer and who can tell me what it said?
Any of you RVers out there? Their insurance was called, basically an insurance, it's a club that you join as an RVer and it's called what? The Good Sam Club or the Good Samaritan Club.
What that means you have that sticker and you join that club that if you're in trouble as an RVer, whatever the case might be, somebody will come to your aid, they'll send out help just like AAA does or different things. But for RVs it's a little bit different so that was the Good Samaritan Club. We have Brother Dale Trax or others have been involved helping out Brother Franklin Graham and his Samaritan's Purse. I don't care how you look at it, the Good Samaritan is in so much of our society, it's become really of all the parables, it's the one that seems to have attached itself to literally our culture. Now about this Good Samaritan, let me say this that we don't know if there actually was a physical literal individual that did this exact thing. It might have happened and it might have happened exactly the way Jesus said it, he might have just withheld his name but Jesus presents it as a parable, a hypothetical situation. And as we look at that I want us to look in and really realize what it really meant that a Samaritan would help out, I mean literally to think of why he would help out this individual, why a priest and a Levite would pass by.
We all think we know why, we've heard this before but I want to dig a little bit deeper today. Number one, I want you to notice if you will, the lawyer. And it says, it begins in verse 25, and behold a certain lawyer stood up and what?
Tempted him saying. So we know right now what the agenda was for this lawyer. By the way, there are so many people that will act as if they want to know truth but they have a totally different agenda.
Their whole intention is to try to somehow catch us or catch God's word in an inconsistency or a non-truth. So this man comes in like this and by the way, as you look at this, that this Greek word for lawyer here is nomikos. What that means is this, is we think okay this guy's a lawyer, he's in the legal system. No, let me tell you the law that he knew in this day was what we call the Pentateuch, the first books of the Bible. This man wasn't just versed in legal matters, the fact that he was a lawyer meant that he had studied and knew well the law and the law in Christ's day was from the first five books of the Bible. So this man wasn't just a lawyer that didn't know anything about the Bible, this was a lawyer who knew the law and the law was the Bible.
Everybody understand that? Now, this man didn't just know it but he was skilled in interpreting the Jewish Torah, is what we call it, or the Pentateuch. Now, he asks a very important question and he comes, remember his agenda was to tempt Jesus, and he comes and he basically says this as he comes to him, what must I do to inherit eternal life?
And by the way of all the law that's really the most important thing. How do I know that I'm going to live forever? How do I know or how would I know I could go to heaven? I don't know if this reason this man was testing Jesus and the reason his agenda was that I don't know if maybe it was pride, I don't know if it was jealousy of the fact that so many people followed Jesus, I don't know if he was just testing him to see does he really know what he's talking about, is this guy for real? You know I hear all these things and I don't know if maybe this is accurate portrayal and by the way in Matthew 22, Luke chapter 20, Matthew chapter 19, Mark chapter 10, Matthew chapter 22, Matthew chapter 16, Mark chapter 8, Luke chapter 11, John chapter 8, Jesus constantly has religious leaders coming to tempt him, coming to test him, coming to see can I snag him, and isn't it amazing Jesus always came out the victor, may I say to you dear friend if you're saved and you know it greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world, you will always come out the victor if you simply depend on Jesus Christ, he's never lost a battle, the lawyer, as he begins to recite what we commonly call what Jesus called the great commandment, Jesus looks at him and he says alright you've asked me what the law says, let me tell you, let me ask you this, you're a lawyer, you've read it, how do you read it, what's your opinion, how do you looking at the law, how do you think you get in eternal life, and he said well if you love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself, and Jesus begins to say hey you've answered correctly, which brings us to our next point, we've seen the lawyer, now let's look at the law, and Jesus, now we have a lawyer and Jesus debating about the law, let me make this real accurate for you, you have one man who knew the law and the other man who wrote it, arguing, you know it's just like when you and I try to argue with God, here we are the creation trying to argue with the creator, he's going to win that every time, here's a man who had studied the law, arguing and debating with the man who created it, Jesus looks at him and he says well you know it, you've read it, what do you think, the guy tells him I think this is what it says, you've got to love the Lord the God with all heart, soul, mind, you've got to love thy neighbor as thyself, and Jesus said well you've answered correctly, but then we find a typical lawyer, I don't mean that in a bad way, I mean if you're in trouble or if you've got somebody that you're after whatever the case may be, you want a good lawyer don't you, you all agree with that, I know we always talk about them until you need one, and then you want a mean one don't you, if you ever need one come talk to me, I know a few, I've got some good recommendations, but only if you need it, now in typical lawyer fashion what does he do, the Bible says in verse 29, but he willing to justify himself said unto Jesus and who is my neighbor, so here's a lawyer debating the law with Jesus who wrote the law, and what he tried to do in a way to justify himself because he just said what the law said was required to get to heaven, and yet he knew he wasn't doing it, so the way he justified it was to see if he could somehow redefine the law, so he says well alright it says that I've got to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, all thy soul, all thy mind, and I've got to love thy neighbor as myself, so who is my neighbor, in other words if I could somehow redefine what neighbor means, then I could somehow justify what I'm doing, because this man realized that I was treating certain individuals one way, and other individuals another way, and the Bible says you know as far as the law says to get to heaven, I've got to love my neighbor as myself, and this guy realized there's a whole bunch of people I haven't loved, and there's a few people that I have loved, so if I could redefine neighbor to fit these that I do love I'll be okay, does everybody get it so far, do you know that's what you and I do, we look at God's word and we try to redefine it, God's word will make a statement and we'll say you know yeah I don't really do that, but what does this really mean, I mean that word you know really, I beseech you therefore brother by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, well what does sacrifice really mean, what does living really mean, and be not conformed to this world, but be ye tramp, what does conformed really mean, we're still doing it aren't we, we're just a bunch of lawyers that are arguing the law with a man who created it, and the agenda is always like this guy's was to try to somehow redefine Christ to fit us, doesn't work does it, we see here the law, now this is interesting, the Jews typically took this Greek word for neighbor, and the Jews that word neighbor meant literally one who is near, and by the way that's what you and I often think the word neighbor means, we call well yeah he's my neighbor, you know we talk, have you ever met John so and so, oh yeah he's my neighbor, now what does an individual think, they don't think well he said to me neighbor that means that they live in the same country, no they think that means you live in the same neighborhood, it means that they probably live close to each other, y'all got it, they're my neighbor, you know I don't walk around and say do you know President Barack Obama, he's my neighbor, well that would make it sound like I'm living right next to the White House wouldn't it, well he's not my neighbor because we live in the same country, a person's my neighbor because we live close to each other, and that's how the Jews had always interpreted the law, that a neighbor meant somebody that was close to them, and the way the Jews interpret it was the same people, the same religious community, in other words the people that we like, the people that agree with us, the people that are just like us, we've got to love them like we love ourselves, but Christ's definition of neighbor was different, see how do you know, because the Bible's definition of neighbor is different, while the Jews definition of neighbor meant one who is near, the Bible's definition of neighbor literally means one who is far away, it means the one who is in need, whoever they are, whatever they are, wherever they are, that's our neighbor, well now if we decide that, that just made this lawyer look really really bad, now listen to me, I want you to get this, this lawyer agreed what the Torah or the Pentateuch said, but what he tried to do, he was trying to limit the application of it, I know what God's word says, but I'm going to limit how I apply it, God's word says love thy neighbor as thyself, but if I can redefine neighbor, and if I can limit it and apply it where it fits with me, then I'll feel okay about it, and dear friend I'm here to tell you, you cannot limit the application of God's word, it's God's word, whatever you think about it, however you change it, however you and I twist it, however we try to somehow justify ourselves, it is still God's word, and it still says what it says, and the days going to come when you and I face Christ face to face, he is going to literally make us answer and give account not to how we interpreted his word, but according to what his word really says, the law, number three, I want you to see the location, so we have a lawyer, then we see how they've argued about the law, what does neighbor really mean, and Jesus with all of his wisdom decides alright, I'm going to go through a scenario to help you understand what neighbor really means, so he begins first with a location, and Jesus always has everything under control, everything's there for a reason, notice verse 30, and Jesus answering said a certain man went down from Jerusalem, do you notice he had not yet said Samaritan, he begins the story with just a general individual, he says this certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, why did he pick this location, he literally erode from Jerusalem to Jericho is what Jesus used in this scenario, that means this, he chose this location, because somehow all these people that were sitting here listening, he was going to use literally their awareness, their knowledge of that road from Jerusalem to Jericho, he was going to use that to get to their emotions for them to be able to picture what was really going on here, so that he could make his point, now let me tell you a little bit about Jerusalem is located, and obviously I didn't just come up with this, I'm just going to give you the location so you can understand it, Jerusalem is located along the ridge of coastal mountains that run north and south in Palestine, what we know as Palestine today, so literally it runs north and south right there, that is where Jerusalem is, Jericho on the other hand is located in the plain of the Jordan River, it's got a geological what we call rift zone and it is literally hundreds of miles below sea level, the 17 mile road that connects these two cities literally falls or descends 3300 feet from the beginning point to the end, and it goes through desert, it goes through rocky country, it goes through mountains, and it is a very easy place, and a very popular place in those days for thieves and bandits and ill people obviously, and folks that were just robbers, that was a great place for them to hide and to steal from people, now everybody that Jesus was talking to that day knew it, it would be like, here's a man and he's walking at 1 o'clock in the morning through south central Los Angeles, and everybody like, oh okay, I got that, I wasn't going to use any word local because I didn't want to get anybody mad, you know what I'm saying, I went all the way to California just to be friendly, wasn't that nice, by the way south central is where all the riots were, you don't understand, it would be like, let's just create a scenario, here's a guy going through one of the roughest parts of town, on his own, by himself, at the wrong time of night, now this is what he says, even if a man on this road between Jerusalem and Jericho, and it was very well known for thievery, even if a man had little value, these people on this road would literally attack an individual just for his clothing alone, because they were poor, I mean a man didn't even have to be rich, he didn't have to be wealthy, he didn't have to be driving a Jag or anything like that, if he was just on a moped they would rob him, they just wanted his shoes, they would just take his clothes, forget the iPad, just give me his socks, for some reason the bible says in this story that they didn't just threaten him and take his clothing, they stripped him of his clothing and then they beat him, the bible says this, it uses the word to describe the beating, it literally uses the word epithema, which means to lay on or inflict, and it uses the word pledge, which means to blow or strike, to lay on a blow, to lay on a strike, in other words these individuals absolutely beat the stuffing out of this guy, and the bible says, and of course Jesus here says that they left him half dead, number four, I want you to see the leaders, the leaders who should have been the leaders, the priest and the Levite, notice verse 31, and by chance there came down a certain priest that way and when he saw him he passed by on the other side, well so much for the preacher, and likewise the Levite when he was at the place came and looked on him and passed by on the other side, now Jesus introduces two people here, a priest and a Levite, now a priest would be returning to Jericho from service at the temple in Jerusalem, so all these people Jesus is speaking to it all makes sense, here's a rough part people get robbed there all the time, and here's the priest who would naturally be traveling, obviously from Jericho back to Jericho from Jerusalem because he would be working at the temple and different things, so all these scenarios begin to make sense to these folks, here's a guy coming through a place where he shouldn't have come through, and he gets beaten and he's laying there on the side of the road half dead, and then here comes the priest coming by, now I love this, Jericho was known as basically a principal residence or where most of the priests lived, now in New Testament times Levites they were literally officials, they were inferior to the priest but they were still a privileged group, now I want you to understand this, while both priests and Levites were from the tribe of Levi, now Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Jacob had sons, Levi was one of his sons, that's where we get our tribes from, and the tribe of Levi were descendants of Levi, those were called the Levites, they were privileged but they weren't necessarily the priests, the priests were not just descendants of Levi but they were also direct descendants of Aaron, the high priest, that's how you became a priest, so they're all out of the same family but the priests were literally direct descendants of Aaron, so you've got a priest comes by and he doesn't stop, he literally goes right by, and not only that, the Bible says that he passed by on the other side of the road, so he comes by and sees this guy laying there on the road, and instead of just walking by the guy and not touching him, he gets as far away from him as he can, thanks a lot, can't wait to see you at church Sunday morning preacher, thanks for the help, in the Bible this Levite comes by, same thing, he kind of avoids him, don't want to see that, yucky, now you say well preacher what is the whole point, do you know in Jesus' story, both the priest and the Levite see a wounded man, and not only do they not stop but they decide to pass on the other side of the road, that means this, they chose not to see this man's need, they were trying to avoid it, now you say why is this important, can you imagine the people that Jesus is speaking to, now think about these terms, here he is giving a story, here's this road, 17 mile road between Jericho and Jerusalem, everybody's like yeah that's a rough part of town, and here's this guy he goes, he gets beaten, everything's robbed from him, he's left half dead, all the people say yeah I can probably see that, and then Jesus introduces two characters, a priest and a Levite, and you can see the people thinking I wonder what his story's going to be about this, and he says that this religious man, this great man that's privileged, has all the money and all this, doesn't ever work a day in his life, all this stuff, he comes by and passes through on the other side, and here comes a Levite, another privileged member of society, and he avoids, walks to the other side, and can you see all those people saying oh yeah that's typical, yeah that don't surprise me one bit, because you can see in the New Testament that it was rampant among people, the hypocrisy of the religious leaders, I can see all those people like yeah that sounds typical, these priests they want all this so you got to give this, but buddy you need them, they avoid you, I can see that, isn't it a shame for the world to see us Christians, that way, wouldn't that be a shame, wouldn't it be a shame for people to think, yeah you know those Christians, boy they're there for you when they can get something, or they're there for you when they want you to do something, but all of a sudden you need them, where are they at, wouldn't that be a shame for us to have that reputation, wouldn't it be great, just think, wouldn't it be great Kerwin Baptist Church, folks heard that name in the community like hey, I'm going to tell you something, those people help you, they do care, they might not be able to pay everything for me, because we don't have a lot of money, but you know what they sure bring you some food, or they'll bring you to church if you want to come, wouldn't that be great to be known like that, so all here's this crowd starting to get into it, they see this whole picture, dangerous road, man gets beaten up and the religious people pass on by and don't do anything, yep sounds typical, all of a sudden as we look at these leaders, and by the way let me just say this, there are some people that believe that these religious leaders did this for good motive, now that's warped, but according to the law, a priest could not touch anything that was dead, you had to stay away from something that was dead, it would defile you, and the same thing for a Levite, and some people say well, you know they went by and the guy was half dead, he might not have been moving, they might have thought he was dead, and that's why they moved around, and just in case that there are some people like that here today, let me also read you what the law quotes in Exodus chapter 23, that law teaches that if you come across basically your enemy's ox or his donkey, and they're wandering off, you better make sure you take it back to them, even if it's your enemy, in fact in Exodus chapter 20 it says that if you find a donkey or a livestock animal of somebody that is your enemy, and they have fallen or they're hurt, that you need to take that, fix it, and bring it back to your enemy, that's what the law says, let me tell you what the law says Proverbs 24, it says that don't gloat when your enemy falls, and when your enemy stumbles, don't let your heart rejoice about that, in fact the Bible says that you're supposed to help your enemy when they fall, are we all here today? The law also says Proverbs 25 that if your enemy's hungry that you ought to give him food, if your enemy's thirsty then you need to give him something to drink, in fact the Bible says Leviticus chapter 19, and as he is quoted, and I could give you law after law after law, I'm here to tell you that a lawyer can't sit there and say, well the priest in Levite avoided him because he didn't want to be defiled, dear friend they avoided him because they didn't want to touch him, they didn't want to have to deal with it, and I'm here to say sometimes you and I are guilty of the exact same thing, do you realize that placing religious purity over helping a person who is perhaps still alive, is selfish, I don't care how you justify it, now listen to me, you and I do a lot of things to justify ourselves sometimes, we tell ourselves well they're just probably weird anyway, well yeah if I stopped and helped them then it would be a constant process, well if I did this, well if we did that, well they're probably crooked, they probably don't do this, but you and I do, we justify in our own minds why we don't help people, wow it's getting really quiet in here, is anybody else guilty like I am, you say preacher hey, woo time, let me make this statement, like these religious men, often us religious people, somehow justify within our own minds, passing by people, overlooking people in need and we still have a clear conscience about it, let me make this thing, I did not say that the Bible says you need to just sit back and let people take advantage of you, the Bible says don't do that, you're just enabling people, the Bible here is talking about somebody that was in obvious desperate need, so we have that clear, because you always have people come up, well I need something something paid and I need this and I need that, oh no no no, the Bible talks about this guy was literally almost dead, not lazy. .
