If you're our guest, my name is Brian. I'm the lead pastor here at Lifeline. Obviously, our service this morning is a little different. We're focusing like we do annually. On our missions Sunday, and I'm super excited to have a dear friend, someone who is a member here, attends here, and we love having the Crosswhite family here.
But Chris Crosswhite with the Rescue Mission, Chris, you can come on up. Chris is the executive director of the Rescue Mission Salt Lake City and does a phenomenal job managing a pretty complex operation that's grown more complex over the years, that's for sure. I know that. But we love having Chris here, and I'm excited for Chris to open God's word with us this morning.
So I'm going to invite you to bow with me in prayer. We're going to commit our time in the word to the Lord, and you give Chris your attention if you would. Lord, thank you. for my brother and friend, for faithful ministry in our community for years. I've seen the fruit of it.
Lord entered into it, and I'm so thankful for what you've done in and through him and his family. I pray that you would bless the rescue mission. that you would use it as you have to rescue men and women in some of the lowest points imaginable. Lord, I pray that you would bless him as he opens your word and use him through the power of your spirit to quicken our hearts, to motivate us to action, to give us eyes to see and ears to hear.
So that's the work of you, Holy Spirit.
So we invite you and we ask you to bless us today in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you, brother. Thank you very much, Brian. The uh we're honored.
Um I'm honored. you know, to have Brian as a friend, as a pastor. You know, honestly, in leadership in the Christian church, In Utah, Brian is is one. Of the people I can call, and have done so on a number of occasions while driving home from work. needing to say, hey, I need somebody to pray for me.
And he's one of the men that I call.
So thank you, Brian. It's an honor to be here. Before I really get into our text for today, I would also. I'd like to thank people without mentioning exactly who they are that are in our congregation. I'd like to thank a gentleman in our congregation who a couple of years ago came to the rescue mission when we had, to my knowledge, our first ever homeless foot washing.
And he humbly on his knees. bowed before a homeless man washed his feet, firstly taking off old tattered shoes, taking off a dirty putrid pair of socks And then humbly washed their feet and put on a new pair of socks and put on new boots and hugged this man. Prayed for them and walked out the door. And that person is in this room. I'd like to thank my predecessor at the rescue mission, who honestly, the rescue mission is here today because God used this man to prevent the rescue mission from going bankrupt.
And really, in a matter of years, created a sure foundation now that 15 years later we are still in operation and have expanded significantly because this one man changed his career and stood up and said, I'm going to do what God wants me to do. And that gentleman is in our service today.
So, thank you so much. for the continued legacy that you are providing. It is an absolute honor to be here today and a little bit nerve-wracking. Right before service, Brian came up to me and said, Are you ready? And I told him I never feel ready.
And he goes, don't screw up.
So here's my effort not to screw up. Our text for today is phenomenally common. You know it. You know it well. But what I would like to share with you is the beauty of the biblical narrative.
I would like to share with you just the beauty of how God not only speaks through the biblical text. But shows us things in the biblical text, but not only what it says. But how it's written. And we may ask: how in the world does the text that we're going to read today? What does it have to do with missions?
And I think it has everything to do with missions in the context of how the Lord worked in Luke, Dr. Luke's life, to write the book of Luke.
So if you will, please open your Bibles. to Luke Chapter 10. We're going to look at the beginning of Luke chapter 10 briefly, and then we're going to look at the last pericope, the last section of Luke chapter 10, and then we're going to land in the middle for what our text is today. If you will, I'm going to go a little bit before Luke chapter 10, you know, because Luke didn't write with chapters and verses, he just wrote. And it, um It shares that Jesus has been all about calling people to him and teaching them and teaching them about the kingdom of God and sharing that foxes have holes and birds have nests, but the Son of God has no place to lay his head.
And then he tells people to follow him. And then, as he is beckoning people to come to him and come to him and come to him. He is teaching them. And then in chapter 10, the beginning of chapter 10, what we have Jesus doing after he has called people to be with him, he says, go out. And he sends the 72 out.
On a missionary journey. And we have the first sections of. of the book or of chapter 10 in Luke, and we have some phenomenal memory verses that we know in this first pericope about Jesus sending out the 72. Jesus says statements like this, Luke 10, 2. The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.
Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers. into the harvest field. And again, one verse down later, it's Luke chapter 10, verse 3. Jesus says to the people he's sending out, right before he sends them out, he says this, I have sending you out like lambs among wolves. And then he tells them, don't take anything with you.
And when you go out, he tells us in Luke chapter 9, excuse me, verse 9: heal the sick wherever they are. Tell them, the kingdom of God is near. And he sends 72 people out to say, the kingdom of God is near. The kingdom of God is near. The kingdom of God is near.
And just prior to that, Jesus had been continuing to preach the kingdom of God. And prior to that, John the Baptist. had been saying Prepare for the kingdom of God. And John the Baptist had been baptizing and creating, just stirring up the community that the kingdom of God is at hand and it's here. Jesus sends out the 72, and we don't know really for sure how long they were gone.
Scripture moves very quickly, they're gone. They're back and when they're back they are elated They are just ecstatic, and Jesus in the text says Jesus is filled with joy. In Luke chapter 10, 21, Jesus is filled with joy of the Holy Spirit. And everybody is rejoicing. And then in Luke.
10, 20, Jesus says, do not rejoice that spirits, evil spirits, submit to you. But rejoice. That your name is written in heaven. That you Are you going to heaven? That's what I want you to rejoice in.
Not all of the miracles that you're performing and the demons obeying you and healing people. Don't rejoice in all of that. Rejoice. That you are going to heaven. And this This rejoicing that you're going to heaven.
Frames Our text. But then preceding that, we have another very, very, very well-known passage. It's the home of Mary. And Martha. And we know it well.
Mary and Martha invite Jesus and the disciples, so we know it's 12 plus 1, 13 plus 2. It's a party for at least 15 people. Plus, anybody else who may have been joining them, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of Jesus, other people. Who knows how many of the 72 were coming with Jesus and the disciples? It emphasizes Jesus and his disciples, plus Mary and Martha.
So we know that they're throwing a party for at least 15 people. And Martha's doing all the work. She's doing and doing and doing and doing and doing. And we really don't know. Did she go out back and slaughter the chickens or a goat or a lamb?
And then skinning it and preparing it from scratch? Did she go to a butcher who did that before? But what we know that the text is very, very clear of is that Martha is busy. She is doing and doing and doing and doing and doing. And she is overwhelmed.
And she's doing the wrong thing, and then she goes to Jesus. And to marry And she asked, Jesus, Jesus, please have Mary help me. And Jesus tells her, no. Mary is choosing to do the better thing. She's sitting at my feet.
She's listening to me. And in this context, Mary is doing the better thing. And the midst of the narrative that Luke is crafting, and just the beauty of the biblical text. is this phenomenally well-known passage. that I'm going to read for you today.
And then we're going to look at the nuances of this passage.
So please, let's look at... Verse 25. On one occasion, an expert in the law stood up. to test Jesus. Teacher, he said.
What must I do to inherit eternal life? What is written in the law? Jesus replied, how do you read it? He answered, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. and with all your mind.
and love your neighbor as yourself. Do this. You have answered correctly. Do this, and you will live, Jesus replied. But he, the lawyer, wanted to justify himself.
So he asked Jesus. Who is my neighbor? In immediate reply, Jesus says, and man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes. They beat him.
They went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the road, the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side.
So too, a Levite, when he came to the place, saw him, passed by. on the other side. But a Samaritan As he traveled, came to where the man was, and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and he 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.
The next day, He took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. Look after him, he said. And when I I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have. Which of these three do you think was the neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers? The expert in The law replied, the one who had mercy on him.
Jesus told him. Go. And do Likewise. This text is filled with nuances. It is filled with small pieces of detail that would just scream out to first century readers.
of the days. First of all, it would scream, the lawyer. We know a phenomenal amount About the majority of the people in this text, the lawyer is a Jewish leader. He's an expert in the Old Testament law. The lawyer, in fact, may have been a priest and serving at the temple.
And as he serves at the temple, he would be a minister on behalf of the Jewish people before God, serving at the temple. And when he was done serving at the temple, his job is a lawyer. Would have been to help people understand the Old Testament law when they would give him a case study. And explain this is what's going on in my life. The lawyer's job would have been to apply the Old Testament and to teach the person, this is what's going on.
In your life, this is how to apply it to the Bible, to your life. And that was this man's job. He's a leader. He would very likely have been successful. People would have known who he was in the community.
And this man stands. Which in and of itself is a posture of arrogance. And then he says, what must I do? to inherit Eternal life. And if Jesus would have answered a common answer for the day in looking at this religious leader, Jesus would have looked at this religious leader, which would have been anticipated if this leader was asking anybody else.
This question And Jesus should have, if you will. Told the menu. A lawyer? An expert in the law, huh? What do you?
have to do to inherit eternal life? You? You already have it. Your name's written in heaven. You're a lawyer.
You're an expert. This is your job. This is who you are. You have eternal life. And in fact, in the Jewish culture, to be a student of Torah To be a lawyer, to be a religious leader like this means that you are already equated with eternal life.
So the man is asking a hypocritical question. What does he have to do? when he already has it. And the text is clear, he did it to test Jesus. His motivations are completely wrong.
And what Jesus does expertly After the gent is he tells the gentleman to do his job. You. You're a lawyer, you're asking me. And Jesus simply tells him, How do you read it? And the man gives Jesus the right answer.
As we read earlier out of Deuteronomy chapter 6, is the man recites back to Jesus the Shema. which would have been, if you will, the motto Of the entire Jewish nation. Hero Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. This is the first and greatest commandment.
It was something so common in Israel that every child in Israel would have had to have learned this answer. In grade school. before they were the age of eight years old. Every Jewish child would already know the Shema. It would be like us going into an elementary school and say, do you know your ABCs, ABC, D, E, F, G?
And that's the simplicity. of the question this man asked Jesus, everybody would have known the answer. Absolutely everybody.
So when the man gives Jesus The correct answer. Jesus says to him, You have, verse 28, you have answered correctly, Jesus replied. Do this. And you will live. But the man wanted to justify himself.
So Jesus. Words pierce the man's heart, and he immediately knows. That he's not doing this, and he needs to justify himself.
So the lawyer. engages in a legal trick. If you will, He files an appeal in the courts. And he's looking for a way out. From doing which he knows he is already not doing, and he asks the question: who's my neighbor?
Because if he can't identify who his neighbor is, then he can't live the law. Sure, he can love the Lord, or say he's loving the Lord, with all of his heart, mind, soul, and strength. But if he can't identify his neighbor, then. He doesn't have to love his neighbor as himself. And he can love himself more than everybody else.
So the lawyer Pulls a legal maneuver. to try to not identify. The neighbors And then Jesus simply says nothing, but moves into a story. He gives the lawyer A case study. And again, We know much.
about almost everybody in the case study. And he reads and he shares this parable with the lawyer. about the man who fell into the hands of robbers. We know much. About the priest.
Again. There may be some just beautiful poetry and semantics in the text here where Jesus begins his parable by talking about a priest, and he is immediately hitting the lawyer home. This is immediately personal to the lawyer, and the lawyer is in the story in two ways. Because if the lawyer was a priest, And we don't know if he was, but if the lawyer was a priest, Jesus begins his example. By talking to the lawyer.
and reminding him, you're a priest. You shouldn't have walked by. And you failed. On the hierarchy in the Jewish system, if the lawyer wasn't a priest and was just a lawyer, then Jesus goes down and talks about the Levite. The next person in line, and then after talking about the Levite and the Levite walking by.
and doing nothing. Then Jesus gaps the next step down in the hierarchy of the Jewish faith, would have been the lawyer. And either Jesus is confronting the lawyer by recognizing him as a priest. and telling him you failed, or in the textual criticism what he's doing is he's gapping the lawyer, not even talking about the lawyer, and going to the lowest person in the community, the most despised and hated class in the community. A half-Jew, a person who's not allowed to worship at the temple, a person the Jews would say is not going to heaven.
And he refers to the Samaritan, the most despised people. Even Jesus' disciples are surprised when Jesus talks to a Samaritan. They're like, what are you doing talking to a Samaritan? And then in this text, Jesus asks them Jesus asks, Who is the man's? Neighbor.
And the lawyer doesn't even utter the Samaritan's name, doesn't even say Samaritan. But literally in the text, he said the one who did. Mercy. Not the Samaritan, but the one who did mercy. And Jesus simply sums up this entire section and says, go and do likewise.
Go and do what this despised man did, and you're not doing. And in this, this is the first time I've ever used one of these. How do we do this? What what What Luke does so beautifully here is he is crafting a come, go, do model that is played out over and over and over again in this text. If you look at the verses.
In the parable, come, a priest came along the road to where the man was, verse 31. Go pass by on the other side 31 do he did nothing and he walked away and then in that parable again What we have is the Levite come a Levite came along the road to the man what where the man was 32 Passed by on the other side, 32, did nothing. 32. Come, as Samaritan came along the road to where the man was, 33. Go.
The Samaritan saw the man, took pity on him, went up to him. Verse 33 and 34, do. He did, he did, and he did, and he continued to do. And then he left. And then he came back.
And we have this beautiful Text. Of Kumdo Do, Kum go do, come go do. Telling Telling the lawyer To go to you. And then, if we go on for there, the entire pericope is framed in a larger come, go, do method. Because the lawyer came to Jesus, verse 25.
And then we have all of the dialogue: the come, go, do, the come, go, do, the come, go, do. And at the very, very end, the last verse, verse 37, Jesus says, go, do.
So the entire section of scripture is addressing what the lawyer should do. He has come to Jesus. What will you go? And two. The lawyer yet needed to justify himself.
And if we look at this in light. of missions. How does this pertain? to missions. And my bid to you is in this case study that Jesus gives.
to the lawyer. is is complete missions. Because In the example with the Samaritan, Is The Samaritan was just in the midst of living life. People were simply walking down the road. And two people made an excuse.
to walk by for whatever their motives was. A common A common feature of the day for the priest and the Levites is that if they had gone up to potentially a dead man, that they would have become ceremonially unclean and not able to do their job.
So it gives them justification to walk by a person so they're not ceremonially unclean. And that is missing the text completely because the text emphasizes that everybody were on their way down from Jerusalem. Going a 17-mile journey to Jericho, leaving a Jewish area, going into a Gentile area, and the priests go up to the temple to serve, and they serve at the temple, so they would have fulfilled their obligation of serving at the temple. They were now leaving the temple area, going down into a Gentile area. They would have already have been unclean by going into a Gentile area.
So the excuse that I will become unclean and can't do my job is irrelevant. Because They had already accomplished their work. and they were already becoming unclean.
So they had no excuse. Into the heart. Of the greater passage, what we have is Jesus calling people to him and then sending the 72 out, telling them what to do. Rejoice that your name is written in the book of life. A lawyer needing to justify himself why he's not living his own law, why he's not living missions.
And Jesus tells him to come to Godu. And then we have Mary and Martha. And I'll bring that in in a moment. Of Mary, excuse me, Martha doing and doing and doing and doing and doing, and Mary at our feet. And what we have here is God telling us to live missions.
If we look at the greatest commandment, and every time in scripture the greatest commandment. Is referred to or asked to what is the greatest commandment, the response is not one commandment. But two.
So when the lawyer says What is the greatest commandment? And Jesus says, Well, how do you read it? The lawyer doesn't respond with the greatest commandment, which is love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. The lawyer gives the greatest commandment and the second greatest commandment, which is the first, love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and the second, love your neighbor as yourself. In text, the scriptural text links these two so closely together.
When they ask the one question, you get the two answers, and that's telling us that if you're not, it's impossible to live the first. If you're not living the second. It's impossible to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength if you're not loving your neighbor. as yourself. It's impossible.
You can't be without doing this. And the text links those things together, and that's what the lawyer needed to justify himself with. He obviously was not loving the Lord with all his heart, mind, soul, and strength because he wasn't loving his neighbor. And if we're saying ourselves, us, do we love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength? Then are we loving our neighbor?
And that's missions. The Samaritan did not help in Jesus' parable. The Samaritan did not help. The man who is beaten up. Because of missions.
He lived it because he lived missions. He was living missional. And if we look at what the Samaritan did. As an example, of living missionally. The Samaritan, firstly, and most importantly, is that he had the correct attitude of heart.
He had compassion on the man. And because he had compassion and the Samaritan was living missional, everything else followed. After that. Number two, the second thing the Samaritan did is he took time to stop. to see how the person is doing.
This American stopped, he got off his donkey, and he went over to the man. First, correct attitude of heart. Second, take time. Third. If a person is in need, Help him with what you can.
The Samaritan, the text tells us, had oil, wine, bandages. Why? The man was traveling along. He was obviously on a journey. He was taking things with him that he thought he would need.
So the Samaritan had oil, wine, and bandages, and he used those to help the man forth. The Samaritan had a willingness to be inconvenienced. The Samaritan allowed the man to ride on his own donkey. And the text emphasizes his own donkey.
So it was the donkey the Samaritan was riding on, he walked, this man rode, and he allowed himself to be inconvenienced and discomforted. as he continued the journey towards Jericho. Fifth, The Samaritan put one person's need above his own agenda. And what I mean agenda there is the Samaritan was obviously on a journey. Because at the end of the text, the Samaritan goes to the inn.
from the inn, stays a day, and then has to go on from there and says he will come back, which means he's going to be traveling back the opposite direction.
So the Samaritan was on a journey in Jesus' parable.
So the Samaritan let go. of his own agenda. to meet the needs of another person and delayed. his own agenda. Sixth.
The Samaritan allowed financial sacrifices. After doing everything he did and using his own wine, olive oil, bandages, he took money out of his pocket and he gave two days' wages to the innkeeper. And then he says, after this, If there are any more expenses that the innkeeper incurs in caring for the man, I'll come back and I will pay for it. This is critical. The Samaritan allowed financial sacrifice.
And then following up, as I just said, the Samaritan said he would come back. And this is where it's critical in the story because, in the Jewish context, If the innkeeper wasn't a good man, If the innkeeper is caring for a man who's half dead and who had to have a ride on a mule to get there and is now a day later still in bed and the Samaritan is saying, you need to keep caring for him, If the innkeeper had incurred costs and expenses in caring for the man and letting him rent a room and give him food and bandages and do things that this man needed, and if this man obviously not having any more money, when it was all over, this man would have to pay the innkeeper. or because if if you will a bondservant To the innkeeper, being a free employee or a slave of the innkeeper until a man who is now making no wages can pay the innkeeper back for what he's owed, basically, guaranteeing. At least for seven years, that this innkeeper now had a free employee slave. If the Samaritan didn't guarantee, if you incur other expenses, I'll come back and I'll pay for it.
ensuring the long-term success of the man who was mocked. It's absolutely beautiful. And then G as an example of how we live missionally. And the only way the Samaritan in Jesus' parable would do this is not if missions was simply a trip that he went on, an activity of writing a check or saying, I'm going to go to this event and it's going to fulfill my missional emphasis or how I am achieving missions. What the Samaritan is doing is living missionally.
In the midst of his daily, everyday life, he had an opportunity to live missionally, and he did. And he did it over and over and over. and over again. If we expand this come go do model. It expands to you and I as well.
In this Forgive me, first time I ever used these. Groups backwards. Thank you, Brian, for teaching me how to go backwards. It includes you and I, because what the text is screaming is: we have come to Jesus. We have read this parable.
We have read the story of the lawyer. We have heard what Jesus says. And Jesus is asking, or the implicit question that we should be asking in our own life is: since we have come to Jesus, since we have come to church, since God is asking us to live missionally, how do we go and do?
Now we never know what the lawyer did. I mean, Jesus ends this entire section of scripture very, very quickly. One day When that lawyer passed away, And he opened his eyes and his first question came back: What must I do to inherit eternal life? That comes all the way back because one day he opened his eyes and he looked at Jesus and knew that he had a conversation with Jesus. And Jesus says, Go and do.
And we don't know if that what that lawyer ever did, but the same question comes back to us. What should we go? I do. How do we live? missionally.
And that's a question for each and every one of us. In wrapping this up, I would like to share something to be careful of, and honestly, this is a warning for me more than anybody else that I personally know. Is taking this back to the context of missions, of the 72 being on a mission field. To this parable of come, go, do, and then right after that, the story of Mary and Martha is we have to be careful. We're supposed to do missions.
But we have to be careful that we don't do the wrong things. And we don't do it in the wrong way, and that's where Mary and Martha come in. Martha was really, really busy. In the text, she was doing and doing and doing and doing. And she was overwhelmed.
And Mary was sitting at her feet. It was sitting at Jesus' feet. And what Jesus says is, hey, do missions. Live missionally. But remember to sit at Jesus' feet.
The only way we truly can be missional is if we are Sitting at Jesus' feet and through his instructions, and how he's working with us, with who we are and what we have, and the context of where we are living, and the road that we are driving down. How do we live missionally in that context while we continue to sit at Jesus' feet? Because missions is so much more than a trip to Africa. It's so much more. than attending a banquet.
But it's how we live our life. You know, this past, in the past two weeks, I've had some scary conversations. I had one pastor call me on the phone, and he is positioning his church, and he's hiring new people. And as he's approaching retirement, the pastor said, His church is really, really focused on him, on how that the church hires the next pastor so the pastor can grow the church. All they want is to hire the next pastor so the pastor can grow the church.
Not so their church can live missionally. But so how the pastor can do it But it's not the pastor's job. Yeah. It is the pastor's job. But but Brian severe of influence is this big.
It may be bigger. But if we take each and every one of us in this room to be living missionally, which is God's command, then our spheres of influences. are huge. are absolutely huge. The American church has been phenomenally successful in missions.
We are the most mission sending country on earth. We have one mission the greatest Christian continent, per capita, the continent with the greatest number of Christians on earth is. Africa. There's more Christians in Africa than there are in the United States. Africa, especially South Africa, in the bottom part of the Africa Peninsula, they are now a missions sending area.
And you want to know who they're sending missions to? Europe. The original mission sending organization, continent, Europe sent missions where? To Africa. Where did mission that Europe send missions to?
South America and the United States. We all sent missionaries to Africa. Africa is now evangelizing Europe. And the United States is going down and down and down. and the number of people who say that they're Christ's followers.
So far as we're engaged in missions, we're losing the battle at home. Because often we're not personally living. National.
So, how can we live missional? How can we? Enter this text and has Jesus say to us, You have come to me, you believe in me, you have come to Jesus, and I'm telling you to go. And to do Because Jesus is telling us to go and do. and live missional.
Father. Thank you for this opportunity. And I pray that each and every one of us Would look to ourselves and ask the question of who you have created us to be. And in being who you have created us to be, how can we build your kingdom to simply be and build? And do what you would have each and every one of us do with what you have entrusted to us.
In Jesus' name, amen.
