Jericho Road - Part 2

Welcome to this edition of PowerPoint with Jack Graham. I'm Jack Graham. 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.

Not 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. 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. The lawyer had a follow up when Jesus said, okay, you go and live in the love of God, in this relationship with God.

He said, well, sir, I have a follow up. Just who is my neighbor? Of course we would identify a neighbor as someone who is near to us, perhaps someone who is dear 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. 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, talk and act differently but we are to love them. And why are we to love people? Because God loves 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. 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. 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. From cover to cover the Bible is clear. We are to care about broken, wounded, dying people. 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.

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. May God give us this kind of compassion. The Scripture says that we're to walk in love. That we're to overcome evil with good.

The Scripture says always aim to show kindness and to do good to one another and to everybody. People are crying out today for compassion, for hope, for healing, for mercy, for unconditional love. People are hurting. Their dreams have been broken. Their lives have been shattered.

Their marriages and families fractured. People all around us are on the side of the road desperate to experience the love of Jesus. And how are they going to experience the love of Jesus if we the body of Christ, the people of God don't show them and give them that same love and compassion. There's no dichotomy between the saving gospel of Christ which is the proclamation of the good news of the death and the burial and the resurrection of Christ. There's no dichotomy between that the saving gospel of Christ and the social amplification and application of that gospel. In other words the saving gospel has social impact. And when we are saved by the grace of God it is our calling and our command of God to love the Lord God with all our hearts, minds, soul and strength and our neighbors as ourselves.

You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and today's message Jericho Road Part 2. 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 Doubt-Filled Days. This evangelism bundle is our thanks for your gift today.

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Now let's get back to today's message, Jericho Road Part 2. The saving gospel has social impact and when we are saved by the grace of God it is our calling and our command of God to love the Lord God with all our hearts, minds, soul and strength and our neighbors as ourselves. People are looking for someone to take time out to help them as a fellow traveler on the journey of life.

How different would our lives be if we prayed daily? Lord give me your heart for people. Help me to feel deeply about hurting broken people rather than judging them. You see the religious types that walk by, they no doubt judged him. The Levite representing the law, you know, was essentially saying you got yourself into this, you get yourself out of this.

You shouldn't have been here. The priest demonstrates that religion cannot save. Religion could do nothing to help this man.

And just because you're a religious type, that doesn't make you a good neighbor. Some of the cruelest, harshest things in history have been done in the name of religion, including the slave trade. So religion cannot save.

It cannot help. Religion judges. The law condemns. But Christ brings compassion and so should we. One wrote Billy Graham a letter and in writing she said she was not religious and never went to church. And then she added, most of our relatives claim to be Christians and yet none of them ever calls us or invites us over or sends us birthday cards or even visited me when I was in the hospital. One of them told my cousin that the reason they don't have anything to do with us is because we aren't Christians. And if that's the way Christians act, then I don't want to have anything to do with them. Billy Graham went on to say, I urged her to look to Christ for only he is perfect and he will never disappoint us but the letter sobered me and I couldn't blame her for feeling the way that she did.

And why should she believe that Christ loves her if those who claim to be his followers don't love her? This Samaritan had compassion. He was broken hearted. And not only did he have eyes to see, not just looking right past the need, but he had a heart to feel. And beyond that he had hands to reach out. Because the script Jesus tells us that he went to the man and he ministered to him and poured on oil and wine, antiseptics and soothing medicines for this man. Then he put him on his ambulance, his donkey. And he took him down to a nearby inn and he ministered to him there and took care of him and paid the bill and said, I'll be back.

I'll be back to check on this man and I'll pick up the tab of anything that is left over. When we see people who have great needs as an inconvenience or an interruption, we're so busy. We have our own agendas. We're moving at breakneck speed and we're running by a thousand needs all around us because we're so caught up in ourselves and we don't want to be tied up or tied down. We don't want to take risks.

Think about it. This man took a risk. This whole thing could have been a set up. The Jericho road was noted for the robbers and the thieves that were all around.

And so maybe they were hiding and waiting for someone to come along and stop long enough for them to take their money. And so this was at personal risk and great sacrifice. He did the best that he could. He did all that he could because you see love, compassion, doesn't look for obstacles but opportunities. Not excuses to get out of the way but reasons to get involved. There is nothing more important than serving Christ in this way.

There's no greater expression of your faith than to find people who need Jesus and need Christian love and support and to minister. C.S. Lewis, he said this, we have the tendency to think but not to act and to feel but not to act. And if we go on thinking and feeling without acting, some day we will be unable to act. It's the psychological principle that impression without expression results in depression.

I don't know what it is. It is that we are so numbed by the narcotics of our times. We watch television and we see all the needs and maybe it's some kind of a psychological protection that we just turn away. We've stopped feeling. We've so often stopped caring. And I've been asking God to stretch my heart. I've been asking God to move me deeply for people that can't do anything for me but just someone that needs the love of Jesus Christ. That's love.

That's grace. It was John Bunyan, the writer of Pilgrim's Progress, who said, you haven't lived today until you've done something for someone who cannot pay you back. He said, well, I don't have time. I've got my own schedule. I have my own problems to deal with. I can't take on the problems of somebody else. Listen to me. If you start living this way and giving this way, God will take care of you and your problems.

He'll meet your needs. And there's something about loving and living in this manner that fills our lives. In fact, you can't live an abundant life if you're living for yourself. You start living for others.

You start finding people and fulfilling the call of Christ upon our lives, then you will find love welling up in your heart. From an email, and she writes that a year ago next week, our 10-week-old son, Sam, was careflied into Medical City, Dallas from Longview where we were visiting my father. We didn't know it at the time, but he had a heart condition that would cause his heart rate to spike at 300 beats per minute. He had one of those episodes in Longview, and that began a long eight days in the hospital.

She continues, by Tuesday of that week, Sam had been moved to ICU and was being constantly monitored. We'd been through two years of fertility treatments and miscarriages before we were blessed with him, and we felt as though this life that we'd prayed for for so long was slipping right through our hands. We would sit by his bed and cry and pray that he would make it through.

That night, the nurse convinced us that it would be okay to take a break and go down to the cafeteria for dinner. We were terrified to even leave him, but agreed. When we returned, there were two men from Prestonwood waiting for us outside his room. We didn't know them, and we had never been to Prestonwood.

I'd actually never heard of the church. But these men took our hands, asked if they could pray with us and let us tell them our story. They offered us food, shelter, or anything we needed.

To say I was shocked was an understatement. I couldn't believe these men were taking time out of their lives to comfort complete strangers. Amidst all the chaos, they brought us a moment of peace. We were forced to stop and talk to God and ask for a miracle, and each day more men came to see us. They listened while I cried, and they hugged us. They prayed with us and asked us if we needed anything, and just when I thought that surely no one else would visit, someone else would stop by.

It was really amazing. I'm writing you to let you know and all the other men that they do an incredible service that does make a huge difference in the lives of people who are at their most vulnerable. And listen to this, I will never, ever forget the love you all showed to us. Our son is now a healthy, happy 14 month old who has just learned to walk.

He is the light of our lives, and one day we will tell him about the special people that helped us when he was so sick. That's the heart of Jesus Christ. That is the love and the compassion of our Savior. And God has given us, each one of us, that special supernatural love, and people are waiting to see Jesus in us, loving, encouraging, blessing, serving, ministering, touching, healing, helping. And that's why Jesus told this story.

Because your neighbor is anyone that you can help who has a need. So just as Jesus told this man years ago, go and do likewise. Go and do what he has called you to do. Look for people with open hearts and open eyes.

Give yourself away. Release living for self and start living for Christ. What does the scriptures tell us? He has shown you, oh man, what to do, what is required of you, but to do justice and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. That's how to live on the Jericho road. That's how to travel on the road of life, on the journey of life with Jesus. And may God help us with that.

You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and today's message, Jericho Road, Part 2. 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? Love is a gift that God has given to each one of us as followers of Christ. Not only does He love you and me, but He's gifted us and enabled us with ability to love one another. And what an important ability that is. As believers in Jesus, we're called to love people no matter their background, their color, their race, their religion.

Why? Because God loves people and He called each one of us to love even as He has loved us. So how do you love people like God loves people? Well, one way is to look for a need and then meet it. Maybe the person you sit next to at work needs some encouragement today or just a simple how are you doing today. And I don't mean a how are you doing today that is just small talk, but I mean really taking time to listen to the person and respond to them and deal with whatever they're going through.

Maybe a server you had at the restaurant this week needed to know how much you valued or appreciated their service. There's so many opportunities to show kindness and love to people, God's love. And I want to encourage you to ask God to open your eyes to see opportunities to show that love and to serve others around you today. Over and over in the scripture, we see how Jesus loved those around Him, how He empathized and felt for those who were hurting or in need.

And you know, that's really how I want to live my life too. As Jesus, I want to go about doing good. Today I want to encourage you to go out of your way to offer encouragement or comfort or strength or help to someone in need, just like Jesus does.

And I know you're busy and I know you've got a lot on your plate, but you never know that someone you help or encourage might just see the love of Jesus and come to know Him in His wonderful salvation. 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. Join us again next time as Dr. Graham brings a message about what it takes for you to fully experience the promises of the Gospel. Join us next time on PowerPoint with Jack Graham. PowerPoint with Jack Graham is sponsored by PowerPoint Ministries.