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Turn to Luke 10:25
Our main idea this week is “I believe God calls all Christians to show compassion to people in need.”
Our memory verse comes from
Psalm 82:3-4.
This is an interesting choice of Scripture.
The Psalmist is lamenting to God that the gods, the elohim or spiritual beings are not doing a good job of helping humanity, they’re messing things up and so he cries out to God to intervene – God ...
Throughout Scripture, we see that God has a “soft spot” if you will for the weak, fatherless, widow and the poor.
Yet, like the Psalmist, we cry out to God, “God, do something!”
And He replies, “I am doing something, or rather I want to something – through you.”
“Yes, I’ll defend; I’ll uphold; I’ll rescue; I’ll deliver - through you.”
I wonder how many of my prayers involve asking God to do something I don’t want to do, rather than something I can’t do.
Q - How does God show compassion and mercy?
Through us.
So, let’s talk about compassion before we get to Luke 10.
Some things we should know about compassion:
1) Godly compassion (mercy) is having pity upon others and helping them through difficulties.
Like love, godly compassion is a verb.
Doesn’t mean we solve or alleviate all their problems - it means to help someone through – to walk with them. 2 Cor. 1.
Ever notice that more times than not we don’t need people to solve our problems, we just need someone to care and give us a little push?
2) Compassion (mercy) is an eternal attribute of God.
Compassion is not only something that God gives - compassion is an attribute.
Mercy and compassion is His nature.
There is never a moment when God is either more or less compassionate.
He’s not like the gods who sometimes are merciful and sometimes not.
A.W. Tozer says this:
“Mercy is an attribute of God, an infinite and inexhaustible energy within the divine nature which disposes God to be actively compassionate.
“We should banish from our minds forever the common but erroneous notion that justice and judgment characterize the God of Israel, while mercy and grace belong to the Lord of the Church.
Wherever and whenever God appears to men, He acts like Himself.
Whether in the Garden of Eden or the Garden of Gethsemane, God is merciful as well as just.
He has always dealt in mercy with mankind and will always deal in justice when mercy is despised.
“If we could remember that the divine mercy is not a temporary mood but an attribute of God’s eternal being, we would no longer fear that it will someday cease to be.
Nothing that has occurred or will occur in heaven or earth or hell can change the tender mercies of our God.
Forever His mercy stands, a boundless, overwhelming immensity of divine pity and compassion.”
~ A.W. Tozer.
3) Compassion (mercy) should be an external characteristic of the Christian because of the internal presence of the Holy Spirit.
If we are to be imitators of God, if we are to walk as Jesus walked …
In other words, as God is, so I should be.
If God is ….
Turn to Luke 10:25.
We call this the Parable of the Good Samaritan, which appears in the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke).
Synoptic - to look like or appear similar.
This parable is a powerful story that is still referred to today, even in our pagan culture.
We still call people Good Samaritans; we have the “Good Samaritan Law,” hospitals etc.
Before we read this parable, there are some things we need to know about parables.
1) Jesus often used parables to explain Biblical truths or Kingdom principles.
Jesus was a master storyteller and here’s why – it rarely does any good to tell people what to do and not do.
Stories, however, for those who have ears to listen, cause us to step back and evaluate ….
2) Every parable contains two parts: a non-fictional and a fictional part.
Do not confuse them.
Parables express truths, but the parable itself may not be true.
For example, this story about the good Samaritan may or may not have actually happened.
Don’t interpret too literal.
3) Parables typically have one main point – don’t miss it.
It is imperative to pay attention to the surrounding text, the historical context, the characters, to whom Jesus is speaking and why is Jesus telling the story.
4) Parables reveal who God is, or what the Kingdom is like and/or how we should live.
Make sense?
If you stay within those boundaries, you’ll be fine.
Q - What is he asking?
This guy is asking what all of us have asked at one point or another - and maybe some of us are still asking - are there any loopholes in God’s law (as if God would leave one).
He’s looking for an excuse for his lack of right behavior.
He’s looking to see what is the least amount of “work” he can do and still be right with God.
He wanted to justifiably minimize Godly duty.
Do we not ask this?
Like asking a child to clean their room, and the child asks, “Define clean.”
They don’t want a definition of clean - they just want to know what they can get away with.
“How messy can I keep it and you’ll be satisfied?”
Here’s the thing - when we ask questions like this reveal our hearts and motives.
These are self-centered questions and have nothing to do with relationship or love.
So Jesus, being a master at conveying truth, tells a story.
Let this be a lesson to all of us - asking questions or telling stories are often better methods of leading someone to the answer rather than telling them the answer.
Before we read the parable, we need to know the characters - if we don’t know the historical context, it won’t make a lot of sense.
1) The man - all we know about the man is that he was heading from Jerusalem to Jericho, which means, 99% certain he was Jewish man.
2) Both the priest and the Levite were spiritual leaders to Israel, and representatives of God.
All people have an obligation to show compassion - but these two guys, being priests had a divine obligation.
You’ll see how the affects the story in a moment.
3) The Samaritan - Samaritans (half-breeds, half Jewish, half Gentile) were fiercely hated by the Jews.
These two groups did not get along.
To show you this tension, turn back to chapter 9:51.
When reading a parable, get the surrounding text as well ….
See how bad it was!
Samaritans where like, “Get out, we don’t want your kind here!”
James and John were like, “Really.
Smells like BBQ time!” Jesus was like, “No, that’s not how we do things.”
That event was only days or a week or so before Jesus told this parable.
It was still fresh in their minds.
Back to the parable.
This is where context is important.
Both the priest and Levite were spiritual leaders to the Jewish people – pastors and deacons.
According to the Mosaic Law, if they touched a dead person, they would become ceremonially unclean for 7 days, and they would have to go through a purification process.
It was a hassle to be ceremonially unclean.
So, you tell me, what’s going on here?
What are these two guys thinking?
Let’s continue:
Now earlier, we defined compassion as having pity upon others and helping them through difficulties.
The word Jesus uses here a much stronger word and literally means to be deeply moved in the bowels.
This has nothing to do with eating certain foods, but this is to have what we would say a gut-wrenching feeling.
It means to be affected so deeply in one’s inner being or heart that a person is moved toward action.
The Samaritan was so deeply moved by the man’s condition and need for help, he did something about it.
What’s the situation here?
A Samaritan, hated and ostracized by Jews, looking at a Jew laying on the ground, naked and mostly dead.
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