Luke 10:33-34 A Certain Samaritan 12/18/2016 ßà
#1. A Certain Lawyer (Luke
10:25-26)
#2, A Certain Man (Luke 10:30,
Romans 15:4, Josh 6:17,26, Eph 2:3)
#3. A Certain Samaritan (Luke
10:33-34, John 8:48, Psalm 147:3, Phil 2:7, Mic
7:18, Zech 4:6, Luke 22:20)
#4. Which of These Was Neighbor Unto Him?
(Luke 10:36-37, 1John 4:8, 19)
Please
open your
Bibles to the Gospel According to Luke 10:25 (2X). The title of the
sermon today is, “A Certain Samaritan”
(2X). This sermon is based on the Parable of the Good Samaritan. This is
a very familiar parable. Today I will try to make you see this story from a
different perspective. As you know, the Lord Jesus Christ told this parable
because of a question from a certain lawyer. Let us read this entire
parable and the events leading up to it, in Luke 10:25-37,
Lu
10:25-26 ¶ And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying,
Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said unto him, What is written in the law? How
readest thou?
Lu 10:27 And he
answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with
all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy
neighbour as thyself.
Lu 10:28 And he said
unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live.
Lu 10:29 But he, willing
to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?
Lu 10:30-32 And Jesus
answering said, A certain man went
down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of
his raiment, and wounded him, and
departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance
there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on
the other side. And
likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.
Lu 10:33-34 But a certain
Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had
compassion on him, And went to
him, and bound up his wounds, pouring
in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and
took care of him.
Lu 10:35-37 And on
the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him,
Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will
repay thee. Which
now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the
thieves? And
he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou
likewise.
#1. A Certain Lawyer (Luke
10:25-26)
You
noticed how this passage begins with “A certain lawyer stood up”.
Lu 10:25 ¶ And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted
him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
What
is meant by a lawyer
in those days? A lawyer was someone who was skilled in the Mosaic Law and in
the Prophets as well. They had studied the Law, and thus they were more jurists
rather than theologians. On the other hand, the Pharisees were more theologians
than jurists. And as you know, the Law does not refer to the 10 Commandments,
but to the entire OT. We have covered this matter in a previous sermon. We also
find in the NT the word “scribes”, whose job it is to copy the OT
scrolls meticulously, letter by letter, and also doctors of the Law. But there
is no clear distinction between those terms. Scribes, and lawyers, and doctors
of the Law were all teachers of the Law, together with the Pharisees. Here is a
lawyer who thought to tempt the Lord Jesus Christ with the words, “Master,
what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” Why was this tempting question?
It was tempting because the Lord Jesus was known to preach a Gospel of grace
alone. In other words, heaven is a free gift. This is what the Bible
teaches: Heaven is a free gift. This gift is truly free in that it does not
depend on anything we do. God gives it to whosoever He wants to give it. Therefore
the lawyer asked Him, “Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
This lawyer asked Jesus this question with the design to test, or to try, or to
tempt Jesus, but not with the desire to be instructed by Jesus. If Jesus would
have anything controversial in His answer, then the lawyer could expose
Jesus for saying that. And if Jesus would not say anything controversial then
the lawyer could expose Jesus for teaching a doctrine that was needless,
since it would give no other means of obtaining salvation than what they had
already received through the law. This was a good question he asked Jesus “What
shall I do to inherit eternal life?” But it lost all its goodness when it
was proposed with an ill design, or with a very mean intent. It is not good
enough to speak of the things of God, or to inquire about the way of salvation,
but we must do it sincerely, not with a wicked intent. If we speak of the way
of eternal life, or of any other spiritual thing just to dispute what God
wrote, then we are taking the name of God in vain, as the lawyer here did. Now
listen how the Lord Jesus answered him in Luk
10:26, “He said unto him: What is
written in the law? How readest
thou? (2X)” Jesus turned him to the Divine Law that this lawyer
was such an expert in, and Jesus invited him to follow that Divine Law. He came
to teach Jesus a thing or two from the law, but instead Jesus instructed him in
the law and Jesus instructed him to know himself, the lawyer, and to know the
wickedness that is in the heart of mankind. Let him practice according to his
knowledge, and he would have no lack of knowing how to inherit eternal life. Likewise,
it will be of great use to us, in our way to heaven, if we would know what is
written in the Law, and what we read there. We must study our Bibles and learn
the Law as Jesus learned it, and then we will walk in the way that Jesus showed
us here. Are we grateful to God for putting a Bible in our hand,
containing the words that God spoke, written down by the Apostles and Prophets
of old? But be careful that we do not come to the Bible with preconceived
notions, and that we do not come to pick and choose those verses that support
our preconceived principles. This is what the Pharisees did, and this is what
brought them their condemnation. Therefore Jesus asked:
He
did not ask: What do you read? But He asked: How do you read?
With what reverence and love for God do we approach this Bible?
Are we teachable? Are we willing to listen to this God of the Bible and let Him
teach us what He really is like? Now we discover that this lawyer understood
the Bible very well, because he understood what the two first and great
commandments of the Law were.
Lu
10:27 And he answering said, Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with
all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.
We
must love God
with all our hearts above all else. We must look on Him as the best of
beings, infinitely perfect, omniscient, knowing the end from the beginning not
because He is omniscient, but because He declares the end from the beginning
and causes things to occur as He has declared them. This is the Almighty
whom the Bible declares is our God, who is eternal, incomprehensible,
invisible, immutable, infinite, all-powerful, perfectly wise, just, good, and
the overflowing fountain of all good. This is the God whom we endeavor
to know from the Bible, because knowing Him is life eternal And therefore we
are under the greatest obligation to know Him, and to glorify Him, and to be
grateful to Him, for to this end we were created. We must prize Him, and
please ourselves in Him, and devote ourselves entirely to Him. Our love for Him
must be sincere, and fervent. It must be a love that is as strong as death, and
it must be an intelligent love, and such a love as we can give a good
account of the grounds and reasons thereof. He must have our whole souls, and
He must be served with all that is within us. We must love nothing
besides Him, but what we love must be for Him and must be in
subordination to Him. In addition, we must love our neighbors as ourselves.
And this actually we shall easily do if we love God better than ourselves. We
must do all the good in the world and no hurt, and we must fix this as a rule
to ourselves. This is what it means to love our neighbors as ourselves.
Lu 10:28 And Jesus
said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live.
Although
he came to tempt Jesus, yet what he said was good, and Jesus commended him for
it. The Lord Jesus Himself attached to these the label of being the two great
commandments of the Law. We find this in Matt 22:37. You realize that
both sides agree to this? So far this is right. But the hardest part still
remains: “This do, and thou shalt live”. You see, when Jesus said, “This
do, and thou shalt live”, he began to be aware that Jesus intended to draw from
him the acknowledgement that he had not done this. And therefore what
was expected of him was to inquire what he could do to get his sins
pardoned. And also what was expected of him was to inquire how he could
gain in strength to do this perfectly. As you know, these are not questions
with which unsaved man tortures himself. Unsaved man does not consider that he
is a sinner from birth, and that he is in rebellion against God and repulsive
to God from the day of his conception. But that is what the Bible teaches. God
says in Psalm 58:3, “The wicked are
estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies”. And therefore, the lawyer comes back to Jesus with the
question, Lu 10:29 “But
he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?”
He was still not willing to admit that he was a sinner and needed to be justified
by God’s grace, but he was wanted to justify himself. When he
acknowledged, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself”, in his mind he
excluded all the Gentiles, for he did not consider them his neighbor. Then
Jesus told him this parable:
#2, A Certain Man (Luke 10:30,
Romans 15:4, Josh 6:17,26, Eph 2:3)
Lu 10:30 And Jesus
answering said, A certain man went
down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves,
which stripped him of his raiment,
and wounded him, and departed, leaving him
half
dead.
Here
is an unidentified man who is a victim of wicked thieves. This was a
Jew, because he lived in Jerusalem, and he had to travel to Jericho. We feel
sorry for the man, and we get angry with the thieves. Why could they not rob
him of all his possessions without beating him up so badly? Whether this was a
true story or whether this was a parable we do not know. All we know is that
the Lord Jesus was telling this parable to illustrate to this certain
lawyer who his neighbor is. His neighbor was not anyone from his own church,
the nation of the Jews, but his neighbor was anyone in the world who had still
the breath of life. And he might even be one of those hated Samaritans. Why
were these Samaritans so hated? Well, they occupied the land that formerly
belonged to their brethren, the nation of Israel, situated North of the nation
of Judah. About 600 years earlier the king of Assyria and his armies
invaded the nation of Israel, thoroughly defeated them, and transplanted all
the Israelites into several parts of his kingdom. Then the king of Assyria took
a mixture of other nations from his kingdom and transplanted them into the area
where the Israelites had lived. This mixed breed were the Samaritans. But
now we have another problem. We can look at this parable and learn
moralizing lessons from it. We can learn whom we have to love, and I believe
that you have heard this many times. But have you heard Rom 15:4? Put a
sticker here in Luke 10, and please turn in your Bibles to the
Epistle to the Romans 15:4 (2X). Why did God write the Bible? God wrote
the Bible so that mankind would have messages from God, indicating how someone
might become saved. This is a very fundamental principle of why God wrote the
Bible. God declared to the people of the world His plan of salvation, and God
made sure that His elect would receive a copy of His Words in their hands. Rom
15:4, “For whatsoever things were written
aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort
of the scriptures might have hope”. These
words were written not just for the Christians of the 1st century
AD, but these words were also written for us. They were written for our
learning. Therefore, we can apply this rule that the Bible was written to bring
us the Gospel of salvation. In other words, we must be able to see the Gospel
on every page of the Bible. But where is the Gospel in the Parable of the Good
Samaritan? Please turn again to the Gospel of Luke10:30 (2X). Can
you see that the word “man” is in italics? It means that this is a word
that the translators put in to make the sentence more readable. Historically it
would not make much sense that thieves would rob a female and beat her up so
that she is left naked and wounded half dead on the side of the road. And yet,
this is implied in the words of the Greek text. Either a male or a female can
be the victim of these thieves and robbers. And then we remember that this
victim does not have a name. God did not give this victim a name because this
victim represents you and me, and everyone else who is a child of God. Let
us, for ease of speech, take this victim to be a male. This man left the safe
haven of Jerusalem and went down to Jericho, which was a city that was cursed
by Joshua, in Josh 6:17,26. Joshua is the same name as Jesus.
Joshua is the Hebrew name, and Jesus is the Greek equivalent of that name.
Therefore, in the spiritual picture that is developing here, the road to
Jericho represents the road to sin. There is where the thieves will strike.
Frankly, when were you and I spiritually robbed and spiritually left for dead?
It was in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve spiritually died when they
ventured into sin. Who were the thieves? Satan and his demons were the
thieves who robbed Adam and Eve from their righteousness by telling them lies,
which they believed. It is true that Adam and Eve did not have to believe
Satan’s lies, but the power of Satan to convince was so much greater than the
power of Adam and Eve to resist. Satan, the fallen angel, was intellectually
far superior to Adam or Eve, who had only human intellect. Just like the man on
the road to Jericho was no match for the band of robbers who beat him almost to
death, so Adam or Eve were no match for the subtlety and cleverness of Satan or
any of his demons. Because of Adam’s sin we all came into this world as dirty
rotten sinners, and haters of God. We all came into the world as enemies of
God, dead in trespasses and sins, and we all were by nature children of the
wrath of God (Eph 2:3). Satan left us on the road to sin, but left us
spiritually totally dead. He left us totally depraved, unable to do anything
good in the eyes of God. In the parable they left the man half dead for the
sake of continuing that story, because the Samaritan was not portrayed as a
miracle worker who could raise people from the dead. Satan also stripped us of
our raiment, so that we would stand spiritually naked in the eyes of God,
totally exposed with all our sins. Now, who are the passers by on this road to
Jericho?
Lu 10:31-32 And by
chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he
passed by on the other side. And
likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.
“By
chance”? There is no chance. God is in control of everything that occurs in
this world. The Greek word actually means, “a concurrence of events”.
What were the events? A certain priest came that way, and later a Levite also
came that way. What were they doing on the road to sin? Was this normal for a
priest? We must remember that all the male descendants of Aaron were appointed
as priests. Their only qualification was that they were descendants of Aaron,
and therefore many priests were unsaved. For example, two wicked sons of Aaron
were Nadab and Abihu. The fire of the Lord killed them. Another example,
two wicked sons of Eli were Phinehas and Hophni. The Lord used the
Philistines to kill them. The priests were serving in the temple, primarily to
offer sacrifices. For this they needed to be sons of Aaron. Aaron was a
descendant of Levi, who was one of the 12 sons of Jacob. And thus the priests
were Levites, but not all Levites were priests. The Levites did not inherit
land, but they lived throughout the tribes of Israel and Judah, teaching people
the Law of Moses. The priest and the Levite saw the man lying on the side of
the road. They did not want to defile themselves by touching a dead
body, and so they walked around him on the other side of the road. Their fear
of being defiled was greater than their compassion for their fellow man. Their
knowledge of the Law of Moses did not teach them any love for their fellow man.
They would rather let this man die than take the chance that he would die while
they were helping him. In the spiritual picture the priest and the Levite
represent the Law of Moses. The Law of Moses looks upon us, but has no
compassion on us, gives us no relief, passes by on the other side as having
neither pity nor power to help us. But then came along:
#3. A Certain Samaritan (Luke
10:33-34, John 8:48, Psalm 147:3, Phil 2:7, Mic
7:18, Zech 4:6, Luke 22:20)
Lu 10:33-34 But a
certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he
had compassion on him, And
went to him, and bound up his wounds,
pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an
inn, and took care of him.
Who
will have compassion on us?
The Law has no compassion on us. Our fellow man has also disappointed us for
having no compassion on us. Could it be that the Samaritan represents the Lord
Jesus Christ? They said of Jesus, in John 8:48, that he was a Samaritan.
They said of Jesus, “He healeth the broken in heart,
and bindeth up their wounds”, Psalm 147:3. They said of Jesus that He
was willing to be our Kinsman so that He could be our Redeemer. They said of
Jesus, “He made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a
servant, and was made in the likeness of men”, in Phil 2:7. They
said of Jesus, “that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of
the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he
delighteth in mercy”, in Mic 7:18.
And so, this Samaritan is indeed representing the Lord Jesus Christ. What does
He do? He pours in oil and wine. Most likely that was olive oil, representing
the Holy Spirit (Zech 4:6). The wine represents the wrath of God, or the
blood of Christ shed to satisfy the wrath of God (Luke 22:20). It is a
plain fact of Scripture that our sins need to be atoned by the suffering and
death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Without His suffering on the cross specifically
for our sins we cannot be saved. And then Christ put us on His own beast. It is
not stated if this was a donkey, or a mule, or a horse. It does not matter.
Whatever this beast was, we were riding upon it and Christ walked beside us as
a humble servant. He takes care of us until we are in a safe environment. It is
the environment of an inn, a place of refuge, a peaceful place like the church
where we can recover from the worldly beatings. To the church the Lord Jesus
said:
Lu 10:35 And on the
morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and
whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.
Two
pence, the equivalent of two days wages. Not a whole lot of money by today’s
standards. But the church does not need a whole lot of money. The salary of a
pastor must be modest. The facilities do not need to be luxurious. The church
is to be run mostly by volunteers. If we truly love the brethren, and if we
love to serve our Lord Jesus Christ, and if we want to have a place where we
are appreciated and where our work is accepted with gratitude, then we do not
need a lot of money to get the church going. That is what we do here. And our
work is not in vain, for the Lord Jesus says, “when
I come again, I will repay thee”. That is
a promise. The Lord Jesus says to us, “Be thou faithful unto death, and I
will give thee a crown of life” (Rev 2:10). He takes care of us, and
He takes care that we feed new babes in Christ, and He will take care that we
suffer persecution, because it is through persecutions that we grow spiritually
and grow in numbers. He magnifies the riches of His love, and then He rewards
us for our good works, which He has prepared for us to walk therein. What can
we then answer to Jesus’ last question?
#4. Which of These Was Neighbor Unto Him?
(Luke 10:36-37, 1John 4:8, 19)
Lu 10:36-37 Which now
of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the
thieves? And
he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do
thou likewise.
Of
course, the Samaritan was more of a neighbor to him who fell among the thieves.
The Lord Jesus Christ was more of a neighbor to anyone of us, when we needed
His help the most. He as our Kinsman Redeemer did more than any other human
being has done for us. As our substitute before the judgment throne of God He
paid for our sins the equivalent of what we would have to pay. We would have to
pay for our sins an eternity in Hell. Christ had to pay the equivalent of an
eternity in Hell, or else God’s righteousness would not be satisfied. But thanks
be to God that He accepted Christ’s payment for our sins as payment in full.
And because Christ rose from the grave, we have proof that His payment counted
as payment in full.
Listen
to how the lawyer answered Jesus. He did not say, “the Samaritan”. His hatred
of Samaritans was still so great that he did not want to utter their name. That
is why he said, “He that shewed mercy on him”. It shows that salvation has not yet entered his soul.
God says in 1John 4:8, “He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God
is love”. Then said Jesus, “Go, and do thou likewise”. What does
that mean? Sometimes the opportunity lends itself. As you know, Saturday is my
busiest day of the week. Late Friday evening I got a call from the wife of a
dear friend of mine, and she mentioned that he was dying of cancer. I mentioned
that I will stop by on Monday. She said that he may not make it till Monday.
Thus I took time off on Saturday to visit them. This could not wait till
Monday. And for this reason my sermon today is cut a little short, because I
did not have time to prepare a full length sermon like I usually do. But in
reality, how often in our lifetime do we find someone beaten half dead on the
side of the road? Probably never. Then how can we be obedient to the
command, “Go, and do thou likewise”? How can we obey this command every
day? Obviously, if we only take the historical interpretation we cannot do
this every day. But in the spiritual application we can. We would need to
follow in the footsteps of the Lord Jesus in showing mercy unto those who are
in need of mercy. How do we do this? We must bring the Gospel to many who have
never heard the message of salvation. Many have never heard of Hell, and of the
grace of God. Many have never heard the words of God as they are found in the
Bible. Many do not know that salvation cannot be bought with doing some kind of
work. They are dead and going on the way to Hell. In fact, spiritually they are
worse off than the man laying half dead on the side of the road. And so,
Christ’s command “Go, and do thou likewise” must not be understood as
bringing salvation to those who are obedient to it, even as we do it every day
in the spiritual sense. No! But because we have received the faith to believe
Christ’s words, we are eager to do those things that are pleasing in His sight.
We love Him, because He first loved us (1John 4:19). That is why we keep
our eyes open for opportunities to witness, because He loves it.
AMEN. Let
us turn to the Lord in prayer.