Jericho Road

Welcome to this edition of PowerPoint with Jack Graham. A little later in the program we'll tell you how you can get a copy of Dr. Graham's evangelism bundle. But first, here's the message, Jericho Road. Now life is a journey. And the journey of life includes the Jericho Road. And that's the title of the message today, simply the Jericho Road. It's a familiar and touching passage of Scripture filled with the love, mercy, and compassion of our God.

A tender and touching story. But we meet a lawyer who asks Christ two questions. And in both questions, we see how we are to live and love on the road of life. Chapter 10, beginning at verse 25. And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said to him, What is written in the law?

How do you read it? And he answered, You shall 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 your neighbor as yourself. And he said to him, You have responded or answered correctly.

Do this and you will live. But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, And who is my neighbor? Jesus replied, A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now, by chance, a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.

So, likewise, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him.

And the next day, he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back. Which of these do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers? And he said, The one who showed him mercy. And Jesus said to him, You, go and do likewise. The lawyer mentioned in this passage is actually a religious lawyer, one who was trained in the theology of the Old Testament. One who knew the law of God very well. He was a professional religionist, a professional theologian. And so he came to Christ with a question.

Two questions, actually. One to initiate the conversation. But note, before we even begin with the questions that this man asked, that this lawyer came to put Jesus to the test. If you've ever had the experience of being deposed in a lawsuit or even being on trial, sometimes you get the sense, do you not, that the person asking you the questions may not simply be wanting information but putting you to the test, seeking to trap you to get some kind of information from you. Well, in this sense, the religious lawyer was coming to Jesus not for information, not out of the sincerity of his heart, in order to test him, in order to trap him. The person of Christ is always at issue. And Christianity, which is Christ, without Christ there is no Christianity because Christianity is not a dogma. It is not a religious confession. It is not a creed, but rather Christianity is a person, the person of Jesus Christ. Satan is always attacking the identity of Christ, the person of Christ, and hurling accusations and questions at Christ.

True today. There's always that question mark in their minds concerning the identity of Christ. And always trying to uncover some hidden seduction of Jesus the Savior. So this man did not come with sincere questions. God never, never puts aside anyone who comes with a sincere question. If you have doubts, come with your doubts. A man came to Jesus one day and said, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.

If you have a sincere desire to know Christ and who Christ is and what Christ is calling us to do, then you can come to him just as you are and he will show you himself. But here was a trained professional theologian who came with an important question. It was a question that was often discussed among the religious types of that day and really of this day. It is the question, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Now again, he didn't want an answer. He wanted to debate Jesus. He wanted a discussion of this theological truth. And of course the answer to his question, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

The answer is nothing. You cannot do anything to gain eternal life. Because salvation is not rooted in the merit of man, but it is in the mercy of God. Salvation is not a goal to be achieved.

It is a gift to be received. And there is nothing that we can do to gain the favor of God or the grace of God by our good works. And so Jesus responded to this man by saying, okay, what do you think? He knew the man wanted to tell him what he thought anyway. So he said, okay, you tell me.

What do you think? And the man repeated a summarization, a summation of the law. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength and your neighbor as yourself.

And this was a good answer. Because Jesus is pointing out to this man that salvation is experienced in the love of God, not in the life or the good deeds of man. It is a love relationship. Eternal life comes by the grace of God through a personal and deeply intimate relationship with the Lord our God.

It is a personal relationship. Love the Lord your God. Now I find that many people don't have that. They don't love God like this. And like this lawyer, this man who came to Jesus with these questions, they have a self-made religion and he seeks to justify himself. And he even claims in justifying himself that somehow he has done this. But the fact is, any time a person tells me how good they are, I know that they are a long way from the love of God and the grace of God.

Why? Because the Bible says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That there is none righteous, no, not one.

The book of James chapter 2 and verse 10 tells us that if we offend or keep the whole law but fail at one point of the law, we have become accountable for all of the law. Suppose there was a chain of ten links and you were dangling on the end of that chain over a deep chasm. And to fall from that chain would be certain death. How many links of the chain need to be broken for you to fall and to die? Just one.

Just one. And that's what the Scripture is telling us concerning this ten links of the commandments of God. That if we fail at just one point of the law, then we become guilty of the whole. Because we've all sinned and the fact is, either in spirit or in substance, we have broken all of the laws of God.

So what are we to do? To receive eternal life, to repent of our sins, which means to turn from our sins, and to ask God to change our life from the inside out by receiving Jesus as our Lord and our Savior. The book of Ephesians chapter 2 says it is by grace that we are saved through faith and that not of ourselves.

It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. I went to see the movie Amazing Grace and it is a powerful story of William Wilberforce who led the abolitionist movement in Britain and his relationship with John Newton, his pastor and the author of Amazing Grace. And there is a poignant moment near the end of the story that is given in the movie in which Wilberforce is speaking to his now blind pastor John Newton. Newton himself had been a slave trader and he was haunted by his past. He had come to the grace of God and received that amazing grace. But the sounds of the slaves were still in his head.

They haunted him as he called them the ghosts of thousands of slaves that had perished under his watch. And he couldn't forgive himself. He had received the grace of God and the forgiveness of God, but somehow he could not get over the fact that he had played such a terrible part in this terrible slave trade. But ultimately he made peace with God and peace with himself.

And he made a statement that is given so powerfully in the movie. He said, I know this, that I am a great sinner and Jesus is a great savior. And that's what we know and this is how we know that we have eternal life. Lord I have sinned and broken your commandments. I am a great sinner. No longer justifying ourselves or trying to prove ourselves through our good works or our good deeds, but throwing ourselves on the grace and the mercy of God our savior. What a great savior is Jesus our Lord. We have a great and gracious savior. So what must I do to inherit eternal life?

Repent of that sin and receive Jesus into your life by grace through faith. You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and today's message Jericho Road. You have a God given calling to take the gospel to the world. That's why we've put together a special bundle of resources to help you grow in your love of the gospel and share it with others. This evangelism bundle includes three of Pastor Jack Graham's books.

The Hope of Easter, Life Book and God's Promises for Doubtful Days. This evangelism bundle is our thanks for your gift today and thanks to a generous matching grant. Your gift today will be doubled. So call now to request your evangelism bundle. When you give call 1-800-795-4627. That's 1-800-795-4627.

You can also text the word PowerPoint to 59789. And don't forget to visit JackGraham.org where you can shop our e-store, give a gift online, or sign up for Dr. Graham's free daily email devotional. Our website again is JackGraham.org. Now let's get back to today's message, Jericho Road.

The lawyer had a follow up. Just who is my neighbor? If you are to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength and therefore your neighbor as yourself. He wants to know, well then who is my neighbor? Now that is an important ethical social question. Of course we would identify a neighbor as someone who is near to us. Perhaps someone who is dear to us. Someone close to us. Next door or across the fence or down the street. Or it could be someone who shares a cubicle with you at the office. A co-worker.

Someone who is a friend at school. But today we need to take a wider look, a longer look as to what really is a neighbor. Because our neighbors are no longer the persons just nearest us. But due to the power of technology, the whole world is now next door. The whole world is becoming a neighborhood.

And everyone is our neighbor. Now this man wanted to limit his love. He wanted to define with narrow terms his love of God and his love for people.

So he asked, who is my neighbor? He wanted to confine his love to people like himself. And Jesus is about to show this man his shriveled heart. As he is summing up the law, Jesus is saying the net net of all of this is love, love, love. And he uses a very special word for love which means all encompassing love. And he's about to show us that our neighbor is anyone who has a need that we can meet.

And that's the point of this entire passage. That our neighbors are not simply people like us or who love us. But our neighbor is anyone in need and we can somehow meet that need. And therefore we are to love people regardless of where they live or how they behave. They may speak a different language. They may be of a different color or ethnicity. They may look differently.

They may speak differently. But we are to love them. And why are we to love people? Because Jesus loves every person. And the Christian who is a true follower of Christ, the love of God is living in us.

We have experienced a supernatural kind of love. The book of Romans chapter 8 tells us this love is poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. This love the apostle John said in his little letter of 1 John is so central to the Christian faith that you can't say that you love God and at the same time not love others. How can your heart be headquarters for hate if you say that the Spirit of the Living Christ is living in you? We have been filled with the love of God.

And therefore we are to give this love and to demonstrate this love to anyone who has a need. Now to illustrate this and Jesus is a master illustrator. He tells a story. It's a familiar story to many of us. But it's the story of the good Samaritan. Now it's always been interesting to me that we call this the story of the good Samaritan. Because actually Jesus never calls this man who was a Samaritan the good Samaritan. He just mentioned that he was a Samaritan. Or that he was a certain Samaritan.

I suppose that when we see someone doing what love demands that all of us would do. Just the right thing we say well he was a good Samaritan. Well he certainly did a good thing. But Jesus tells this story of a Jew who was on the road to Jericho when he was robbed and beaten and left for dead. And he speaks of religious leaders.

A priest and a Levi who see this man on the same road and walk by on the other side. And then this certain Samaritan who would normally have spit on a man like this. Because you see Samaritans and Jews had no dealings with one another. The Jews despised the Samaritans.

They considered them half-breeds. They were racially and religiously so different from the Jewish people. And not only did the Jews despise the Samaritans but the Samaritans returned the favor.

They despised the Jews. And so the fact that Jesus mentioned that this certain Samaritan came by and rendered aid and comfort to this victim. It must have been startling, shocking to the lawyer and everyone who heard it that a Samaritan would actually help a Jew. Wallace Hamilton preacher of yesteryear summarized the way that people live in the three episodes of the men who walk by. The men who we meet here in the parable. The first kind of person and many people live in this way of life would be the thieves. And the philosophy, the attitude of the thieves is this. What is yours is mine and I'll take it.

What's yours is mine, I'll take it. And many people live just that way today. They live to advance their own cause. To feather their own nests.

To line their own pockets. And whatever it takes, whether it means cheating you, climbing over you, manipulating you, whatever. Their goal in life is to get more and more.

And if it means taking what you have, then what's yours is mine and I'll take it. That's one way to live life. And many people unfortunately live that way.

But then these religious leaders, the Levites, the priests, the ones who saw him and passed by on the other side. They live with a different kind of philosophy of life. And it's the attitude which says what is mine is mine and I'll keep it. They don't reach out to other people. They live for self and self alone.

They rarely if ever do anything for anybody else. But then there is the way of life of the Samaritan. Which is to say what is mine is yours and I'll give it.

What's mine is yours and I'll give it. From cover to cover, the Bible is clear. We are to care about broken, wounded, dying people. People who can't help themselves. People whose lives have been beaten down. This includes the poor, this includes the sick, this includes the dying.

This includes anyone who has a need. Now love and compassion, these are the key words of this passage. And the word for love in this scripture is an action word. In other words, love is not passive, it is active. It is not abstract, it is aggressive.

Why? Because in this case and really in every case, love is a verb. Love is something you do. So watch what happens when this certain Samaritan on his way down the Jericho road encounters this man. What kind of love did he give? Well it began because he had eyes to see. Now the religious leaders, they also saw the man. But the Samaritan, he saw him with a different kind of focus. He saw him and he paused to look beyond the surface of the brokenness and the hurt and the woundedness and to see this man's need. He could have thought, well this man is of another race, another religion. I don't have any responsibility here.

I have an appointment down the road. I'm busy and I should just go on. No, he had eyes to see and he saw deeply with an open heart. May God help us to see with the eyes of Christ, people all around us.

How many opportunities do we pass a day? People who need Christ, who need his love, who need his grace, who need our mercy and our help. You see it begins with see. How different would it be in your life if you got up every morning and said, Lord today give me eyes to see opportunities around me to be about your love and your grace in people's lives. Eyes to see. I mean really see as God sees people.

Not just looking on the surface but looking deep within. But not only did he have eyes to see but this love is demonstrated because he had a heart to feel. The scripture says that when he saw this man he had compassion upon him. I love the word compassion. It's a very strong word. It's a powerful word. You see the word passion in the word compassion. And it means to feel deeply, to feel strongly about something. It can also mean to suffer with, to be deeply stirred and moved. It is a favorite word of biblical authors to describe Jesus as he had compassion towards people.

Particularly sinful people. It's also descriptive of our God even in the Old Testament. Many times we have the idea that the God of the Old Testament is a God of law and a God of judgment. But through and through the scripture tells us that our God is a God of great love, mercy and compassion. And so when this Samaritan sees this man he begins to feel very deeply. He hurts with him.

He feels for him. May God give us this kind of compassion. You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and today's message, Jericho Road. 3.2 billion people in our world still have no access to the good news of Jesus. And we must do whatever it takes to reach the lost with the hope of Christ. That's why we're excited to tell you about a matching grant that will double whatever you give today to help reach more people through PowerPoint. Your support will help broadcast the gospel into some of the most spiritually dark corners of the earth. We'll say thanks for your gift by sending you three of Pastor Graham's books to help you share the gospel right where you are.

This evangelism bundle includes the Hope of Easter, Life Book and God's Promises for Doubt-Filled Days. So call now to have your gift doubled by the match and request your evangelism bundle. Call 1-800-795-4627. That's 1-800-795-4627. You can also text the word PowerPoint to 59789. That's PowerPoint to 59789. And don't forget to visit JackGraham.org where you can shop our e-store, give a gift online or sign up for Dr. Graham's free daily email devotional.

Our website again is JackGraham.org. Pastor, what is your PowerPoint for today? God often uses unlikely people, events and circumstances to provide for us. Even when we think there's no way out or no hope, He always, and I do mean always, provides.

But the question I want to ask you today is do you honestly believe that God will meet your every need? Many people know the story of the Good Samaritan, how God strategically placed a Samaritan along the Jericho Road to meet the needs of the Jewish man who was robbed and left for dead. The key thing that I want you to remember about this story is that the one who helped the man was a Samaritan, a known enemy of the Jews. Now imagine if you will that you're a Jewish man in the story and you're laying on the ground severely beaten and scared half to death. Now imagine seeing this Samaritan, a sworn enemy, heading your way.

Well, you probably think you're about to get another beating. And that's probably what this Jewish man in the story thought. Instead, the Samaritan man showed compassion and love for his Jewish enemy.

He took him in, cared for his wounds and provided a safe place for him. You know, I'm always amazed at the creativity of God, how He meets our needs through the most unlikely people and in the most unlikely of circumstances. Even when you think things couldn't get any worse, God always has a plan in mind to deliver you, to help you, to strengthen you, to get you through your difficulty. Matthew 6 26 says, look at the birds in the air. They don't sow or reap nor gather into barns and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Well, of course believers are more valuable than birds and God is there to take care of you every step of the way, even in the most unlikely of ways, in the most unlikely of circumstances.

That's why no matter what you're going through today, you can trust in God and fall into His arms of peace, safety, provision and rest. And that is today's PowerPoint. Remember, when you give a gift to PowerPoint, your gift will be doubled by a matching grant. Call 1-800-795-4627.

That's 1-800-795-4627. You can also text the word PowerPoint to 59789. On the next PowerPoint, Dr. Graham brings a message about how to see your life through God's eyes and show His love to others. That's next time on PowerPoint with Jack Graham. PowerPoint with Jack Graham is sponsored by PowerPoint Ministries.