How to Find a Neighbor

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The man who wants to know thinks that he already has eternal life figured out. Jesus surprises him with an understanding of who truly treated an enemy as a nieghbor.

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Intro Sermon

We live in a very self absorbed society right now. The majority of people we come in contact with have no interest in what our goals or aspirations are. They couldn’t care less. Social Media has parted the waters for this selfish ambition to take root and spread.
Many people act as though they are the center of the universe and expect you to follow suite.
We thrive off of the appreciation of others. Their opinion means more than anything and we will make sure that any blemish is covered up before they see us for who we truly are. We need to be very careful about how focused we are in the exaltation of man. In order to be exalted we may be placed in a situation where we have to step on someone lower to get there. I’m better than that guy. He is terrible.
Of course, we would never step on someone who could trip us up later. We carefully choose someone who is an unworthy future opponent.

Intro Sermon

I have no desire to present myself as one worthy to talk to you this morning. My words betray me at times. I struggle to do the things I say I will do. I want to do so much, but rarely have the time or energy to do much at all.
It is my prayer that the words and ideas I’m about to express as we read the scriptures together give new life to us all in our effort to reach out to those who need us!

How to Find a Neighbor

Jesus said
Matthew 5:43–48 ESV
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
43-4
Words that help us understand the need to overcome hatred of our enemy. The one who has taken advantage of every situation where they could make you look bad or cause you some form of harm.
He offers us with a reason to do it… Be like God… and information about a possible reward for doing it. One would think that these two supplements to the command would help us overcome our struggles with an enemy, but no. Sometimes we hate an enemy so much that we just can’t imagine praying for them, wishing them well, or LOVING them. Yet that is commanded by Jesus.

What is the problem?

We live in a very self absorbed society right now. The majority of people we come in contact with have no interest in what our goals or aspirations are. They couldn’t care less. Social Media has parted the waters for this selfish ambition to take root and spread.
We thrive off of the appreciation of others. Their opinion means more than anything and we will make sure that any blemish is covered up before they see us for who we truly are. We need to be very careful about how focused we are in the exaltation of man. In order to be exalted we may be placed in a situation where we have to step on someone lower to get there. I’m better than that guy. He is terrible. I just need to make everyone else believe that he is that terrible too.
Of course, we would never step on someone who could trip us up later. We carefully choose someone who is unworthy of friendship and whom we have no use for.
This way of life overlooks the purpose of our life and the value that God places on every other soul we come into contact with.
That soul is worth Jesus’ blood.
The truth is that not one of us can read the thoughts or intentions of another. If we could I imagine we would be surprised.

God didn’t say, “Hate your enemies!”

When we look into the old testament and see God commanding Israel to destroy nations and take over the land of Cannon, God gives a very specific reason for commanding that. Israel is the instrument of God’s judgment against those people.
God commanded Israel to no kill in the sense of taking an innocent life. The one who God finds guilty is worthy of such judgment and God inflicts wrath on many of the nations through Israel. However, being a just God, He also inflicts wrath on Israel for their own sinful rebellion. He doesn’t command hating anyone.
In fact, God went through the process of describing how Israelites were to treat strangers and foreigners who were in their territory for the night. They were supposed to be treated like one of them remembering the mistreatment they had in Egypt.
God is compassionate and merciful throughout the OT in many scenarios. We talked on Tuesday night about the Syrians attacking Elisha and being struck with blindness. God has them fed and returns them back home. ()
15-
Leviticus 19:15–18 ESV
“You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor. You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand up against the life of your neighbor: I am the Lord. “You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.
Leviticus 19:33–34 ESV
“When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
With all this in mind we come to understand that all of the Israelites in Jesus day have not been given free reign to pick and choose who their enemies are. They have no enemies as they did in the days when they had opportunity to conquer the land.
Those days are over!
Yet, the Jews of that day have come up with a saying that Jesus tears apart. You have heard it said hate your enemies. I say love them and pray for them.
We struggle with this idea sometimes don’t we?

The Parable

Luke 10:25-28
Luke 10:25–28 ESV
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 answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”
The expert in religious law asks Jesus the most important question. It is a question asked by Nicodemus, the rich young ruler, and countless others because it is a question that makes the most difference in all of our existence.
What must I do to inherit eternal life?
The OT promised it. Jesus talked about it all the time.
John 3:16 ESV
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
John 11:25–26 ESV
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
John 4:14 ESV
but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
God has made it very clear that this Messiah would have the words that will lead to eternal life.
He tested Him. I don’t take that to mean that the expert in the law was necessarily full of evil intent. We don’t have any idea, but what we do know is that he thought He could find some hole in Jesus’ teaching that would take away the relevance of it.
His main goal seems to be to exalt himself. If Jesus’ explanation doesn’t fit his current lifestyle into heaven, this guy doesn’t want any part of it. He thinks he’s good to go and you can tell because after Jesus tells him to do those things he seeks to justify himself
Jesus’ response pulls the answer that the man already knows right out of him by pointing to the law. The problem is that his explanation of the law is so high that none can attain it. We see all 10 commandments summed up in two phrases.
The reputation of those who were experts in the law is to trust in themselves that they are righteous. He thinks he can and is doing all of the law, but now he wants to justify himself. Jesus has just told him that he is guilty of not keeping part of the law. He knows he is hating his enemies so he asks who is his neighbor.
29-
Luke 10:29–37 ESV
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 own 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 three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”

Explanation

So a man, most likely Jewish is beaten within an inch of his life while walking alone on a very desolate road going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. The man was not taken care of by his own brethren who should have considered him his neighbor.

His brethren

Maybe they thought like we do.
I don’t want to get tricked into getting the beating that he got. They could be waiting around the corner.
I’m in a huge hurry and can’t spare a moment or a dollar for that matter.
What can I do at this point without using up what I have?
He probably deserves what he got. Let him die. It is God’s judgment.

The Samaritan

The Samaritan on the other hand went above and beyond any expectation. He sought to bless the man by using up his own resources to save the man’s life.
He uses his own clothes,
His own oil to stop bleeding and as a pain killer. He uses wine to disinfect.
He uses his money to set the man up in an inn.
It is apparent that the man needed significant time to recover because he gave the inn keeper enough money for the man to stay for 2 months.

Lessons from the lawyer

It is obvious that loving your neighbor has nothing to do with justifying your hate for an enemy after he finishes this parable. You can’t bypass the law by calling someone something other than a neighbor. This is so obvious that the man has no other choice but to side with Jesus on the righteousness of a Samaritan, though he won’t say what he is.
Did you see that there was no objection to the story? Everyone there could very easily see these Jews moving on and taking care of number 1. The shock of a Samaritan doing that however doesn’t seem out of the realm of possibility. Why? Because he doesn’t look down on others in order to exalt himself. His religion is impure and he will argue against the truth till his dying breathe, but he doesn’t look down on others with a superiority complex.

Mercy is not to be overlooked by a follower of Christ.

Micah 6:8 ESV
He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Why do we struggle to be merciful when it is one of our sole purposes on this planet? We have to get over ourselves and develop the attitude of... I don’t care what I look like in front of you or anyone else. I will lose everything that gives me respect and admiration in order to save a soul.
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